von_geisterhand (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
von_geisterhand) wrote2005-05-03 11:27 pm
von_geisterhand) wrote2005-05-03 11:27 pm
Rock History: The Verones
The Verones were effectively founded in 1997 by Mark Stephano von Langenscheidt-Kasuppke . He conceived them as a one-man-band playing songs in the style of Rage against the Machine. At this point in time, Kasuppke still intended to call the band On a Friday, seeing that it was Saturday. The band played exactly one set consisting of three songs (“Bombtrack”, “Me and Godzilla gonna rock your town”, “Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough”) before being violently ejected from the premises of the public house. The next morning, “On a Friday” split due to the creative differences between the members.
It would take 3 months for Kasuppke to resurface. Having recruited new members Konga Kalahari (drums), Angharad Davies (guitar) and Dörte Störtebecker (bass), he had reformed the band, renamed it Chick-Magnet and decided from now on to, in his own words, “play the noisiest, greasiest, dirtiest, sleaziest Gonzo-Rock imaginable”. Kasuppke himself had taken vocal and accordion-duties. The first concerts of the group at small venues in and around Verona were well-received and the bar-owners started to hire the band more frequently due to the positive effect they had on beer-sales. It can also be assumed that it was during this time that the musical groundwork was laid for Kasuppke’s later hit “Rainbow”. The chart-stormer does well reflect the pure energy, tonal inventiveness and absolute disregard for timing that characterised Chick-Magnet. However, first the band recorded their self-titled debut. Produced by Kasuppke and recorded straight to tape, copies of this record are much desired collector’s items nowadays and seemed to promise a great career. However, things changed when Kalahari and Davies announced their plans to get married and have children. Although all members of the band were fully intent on keeping the band going even with the new connections, fortune struck with the arrival of a Russian producer who approached the couple and promised them a career as a Lesbian Pop Duo. The fact that Davies had the worst singing voice imaginable and that Kalahari’s sex had never been sufficiently determined he did not see as a problem. Leaving discussion about the artistic merit of “Two tarts” to its own chapter, this move meant the end of Chick Magnet as the world knew it.
Deeply shocked by the betrayal he felt had been committed on him, Kasuppke played all concerts of the following year in a clown’s costume, “to hide the tears”, as he would later say in interviews. He and Störtebecker would play gigs on and off under the name for another two years, but on the whole Kasuppke felt that there was no solid future for him in rock. While Störtebecker went on to form the garage-pop band Cocksucker , Kasuppke went travelling to find himself.
This period is a very hazy one for rock history. It is generally assumed that it was in fact Kasuppke who released three albums of whalesong (“Ummabirra” (1998), “Gassayaama” (1998), “Unplugged” (1999)) on the Indian Agnasya-label, but he has constantly denied the rumours. The same is true about his suspected collaboration with the Japanese noise-artist/performance artist Yoko Hiroshima , who also claimed to have a child from Kasuppke.
As a matter of fact, it is equally unclear whether the man who burst onto the music scene in 2000 with the groundbreaking album of electronica “Mine my head” was actually the same man that once caused a riot in The Fur and Firkin. Now calling himself Van Veritas he was now committed to “express the width and the depth of the ocean” through music. The album, which sold more than 500.000 times, reflects this through gently undulating and shifting soundscapes under which Veritas mixed recordings of mariners telling of their experiences at sea. The suspicion that Veritas is in fact the same man as Kasuppke is based on the single “Scorpion Fog” (OMA 1723446, 2000) which features a bonus track of a storm mixed together with what is generally believed to be “Me and Godzilla” by On a Friday. Veritas does remain silent on the issue to the day, but it is perhaps noteworthy that, even during his “Collected Works”-tour, he never played the song live. And although the mainstream audiences might have felt dubious about the avantgarde-music, it was the live-shows that won them over. The liveshows to “Mine my Head”, featuring backprojections, pyros and a giant watertank centred around a golden throne on which Veritas sat with his laptop, creating the music. He himself was, however, dissatisfied with several aspects of his live-sound, in particular with the lack of bass in it. So, during the tour to promote his following album “The eighth day”, he was joined by no less than 12 bass-players on stage, most of whom were female and dressed in bikinis. The success of this album and the tour even overshadowed that of Veritas’ first one, even though critics do still agree that the actual musical genius is of a far more commercial degree on “Day” than it is on “Head”. Unfazed by all this, Veritas did in fact decide that for his third album he wanted to go back to his roots, which he claimed lay with the gypsies of Eastern Europe. Travelling there with his new wife, Bassplayer Nr. 3 , this period marks another one of uncertainness in rock-history. Keeping to the facts, the two of them did resurface a year later, dressed in traditional Armenian dress and wearing masks symbolising ancient gypsy deities, but their music bore little resemblance to the intense and calming scapes of “Mine my head”, tending more into an ethno-rock direction. For this reason it is believed by many that the people who keep on touring to this day under the name of Van Veritas are in fact an Armenian session musician and Bassplayer 4.
The real mastermind had instead actually gone back to his roots and formed the band which would soon be completely ignored by press and audience alike, The Verones . Taking its cue both from early American punk and early 20th century argentinian tango, The Verones defeated musical conventions with their innovative use of battered accordion, upright electric bass and heavily distorted drum computer, at this time still operated by Franz Verone , who would leave the band after the first album to form Tegel Motorway Clash , taking BP3, now known as Timmy Verone with him. She was replaced on bass by Leonie Verone , a woman whose musical genius was only bettered by her beauty. Sadly, she was also an auto-cannibal and did disappear in distasteful circumstances that need not be reiterated here. But it was only symptomatic of the whole period, in which the band received considerably more fame due to their scandalous behaviour off than on stage. In any case, The Verones were disbanded within a year, leaving behind only one album, “Mainlining Muzak” , which is considered either genius by fans or an act of aural terrorism by anybody with better hearing. Kasuppke/Veritas , himself, of course, then turned his attention to orchestral pop and went on to become the popstar that he is known as all across Asia nowadays.
His fame did not stretch to actual Verona, however, and so it is guesswork at best, why he decided to reform The Verones there. Now looking visibly younger, no longer sporting his trademark beard, calling himself King Verone and having grown up musically, The New Verones were playing lounge Tango Ethno. Bassduties had been taken by Vera Verone and on metal percussion Joey Verone was trying to emulate the earlier heavy sound acoustically. Their live shows were sweaty affairs and more than one gig had to be cancelled when an audience member got overwhelmed by the music and tried to touch up Vera. Noteworthy in this context and recorded on the bootleg “Live at the Jazz Club” is the freestyle session where Joey took over vocal duties while King and Vera provided the beat on the heads of a group of overexcited drunkards. But the heavy touring took its toll. The first signs were still positive. Having bonded during many hours on and off stage, King and Vera got closer to each other emotionally and, for want of a better expression, madly fell in love. And although this fact would not be made public until their wedding, its signs became obvious by an intense drive on King’s part to make the band’s music more romance-friendly. In practical terms this meant that the band started to play more and more accordion and bass-heavy ballads and chansons, while the percussion was increasingly softened and soon left out completely. Joey reacted the only way he knew, by turning to drink. Later, he would become dry, with the help of God, as he would claim, before rejecting God and turning to Satanism, recording one album “Drumming to raise G’llBHaell” , which he produced himself, but which was only released posthumously. While The Verones became another pop-act to rival Sonny and Cher with increasingly spectacular live-shows, Joey went travelling to find his roots and become a better drummer. He returned six months later with a large assortment of bizarre instruments, an even larger assortment of bizarre stories, visibly healthier and, quite likely one of the best drummers in the business. By this time, the craze for romantic pop had passed and even the Verone-marriage had entered a difficult patch. The emotional stress that this set free was channelled into the music so that the next album and tour of the new three-piece-Verones would be considered the best that was ever recorded under this name. King’s lyrics dealt with a wide range of subjects, from the plight of south-indonesian monkey-indians to his personal feelings towards Vera. This meshed well with Vera, as she would later claim, “doing all the things to her bass that she would like to do to King”. This meant an eclectic combination of both bowing and strong percussive stringwork. But the peace would not last long: As good a drummer as he had become, Joey was still a lousy fighter and so when during a concert at the Verona Collosseum, a local character only known as The Animal jumped onstage and started a fight, it was not long before Joey became the first drummer to be beaten to death with his own drum-kit. The fact that this was also done in perfect time with the music may have contributed to King’s decision to drop charges and force The Animal to make up for the damage by taking over Joey’s part in the band.
This may have been a good decision from a humane angle (as was leaving the disposal of the corpse to the perpetrator), but it did little to satisfy the fans that had grown to enjoy the Minimal Prog-sound that characterised the band at the time. And so, The Verones fully returned to their roots, only playing small clubs and market squares in and around Verona, effectively becoming “music mercenaries”. And, as it seems today, it is indeed in this field that the band has found happiness. Although no longer making recordings, it seems that playing live has made all members of the band relaxed and at ease with life. So much in fact that even a briefly suggested connection to a recent teenage double suicide could do nothing to tarnish their reputation.
It would take 3 months for Kasuppke to resurface. Having recruited new members Konga Kalahari (drums), Angharad Davies (guitar) and Dörte Störtebecker (bass), he had reformed the band, renamed it Chick-Magnet and decided from now on to, in his own words, “play the noisiest, greasiest, dirtiest, sleaziest Gonzo-Rock imaginable”. Kasuppke himself had taken vocal and accordion-duties. The first concerts of the group at small venues in and around Verona were well-received and the bar-owners started to hire the band more frequently due to the positive effect they had on beer-sales. It can also be assumed that it was during this time that the musical groundwork was laid for Kasuppke’s later hit “Rainbow”. The chart-stormer does well reflect the pure energy, tonal inventiveness and absolute disregard for timing that characterised Chick-Magnet. However, first the band recorded their self-titled debut. Produced by Kasuppke and recorded straight to tape, copies of this record are much desired collector’s items nowadays and seemed to promise a great career. However, things changed when Kalahari and Davies announced their plans to get married and have children. Although all members of the band were fully intent on keeping the band going even with the new connections, fortune struck with the arrival of a Russian producer who approached the couple and promised them a career as a Lesbian Pop Duo. The fact that Davies had the worst singing voice imaginable and that Kalahari’s sex had never been sufficiently determined he did not see as a problem. Leaving discussion about the artistic merit of “Two tarts” to its own chapter, this move meant the end of Chick Magnet as the world knew it.
Deeply shocked by the betrayal he felt had been committed on him, Kasuppke played all concerts of the following year in a clown’s costume, “to hide the tears”, as he would later say in interviews. He and Störtebecker would play gigs on and off under the name for another two years, but on the whole Kasuppke felt that there was no solid future for him in rock. While Störtebecker went on to form the garage-pop band Cocksucker , Kasuppke went travelling to find himself.
This period is a very hazy one for rock history. It is generally assumed that it was in fact Kasuppke who released three albums of whalesong (“Ummabirra” (1998), “Gassayaama” (1998), “Unplugged” (1999)) on the Indian Agnasya-label, but he has constantly denied the rumours. The same is true about his suspected collaboration with the Japanese noise-artist/performance artist Yoko Hiroshima , who also claimed to have a child from Kasuppke.
As a matter of fact, it is equally unclear whether the man who burst onto the music scene in 2000 with the groundbreaking album of electronica “Mine my head” was actually the same man that once caused a riot in The Fur and Firkin. Now calling himself Van Veritas he was now committed to “express the width and the depth of the ocean” through music. The album, which sold more than 500.000 times, reflects this through gently undulating and shifting soundscapes under which Veritas mixed recordings of mariners telling of their experiences at sea. The suspicion that Veritas is in fact the same man as Kasuppke is based on the single “Scorpion Fog” (OMA 1723446, 2000) which features a bonus track of a storm mixed together with what is generally believed to be “Me and Godzilla” by On a Friday. Veritas does remain silent on the issue to the day, but it is perhaps noteworthy that, even during his “Collected Works”-tour, he never played the song live. And although the mainstream audiences might have felt dubious about the avantgarde-music, it was the live-shows that won them over. The liveshows to “Mine my Head”, featuring backprojections, pyros and a giant watertank centred around a golden throne on which Veritas sat with his laptop, creating the music. He himself was, however, dissatisfied with several aspects of his live-sound, in particular with the lack of bass in it. So, during the tour to promote his following album “The eighth day”, he was joined by no less than 12 bass-players on stage, most of whom were female and dressed in bikinis. The success of this album and the tour even overshadowed that of Veritas’ first one, even though critics do still agree that the actual musical genius is of a far more commercial degree on “Day” than it is on “Head”. Unfazed by all this, Veritas did in fact decide that for his third album he wanted to go back to his roots, which he claimed lay with the gypsies of Eastern Europe. Travelling there with his new wife, Bassplayer Nr. 3 , this period marks another one of uncertainness in rock-history. Keeping to the facts, the two of them did resurface a year later, dressed in traditional Armenian dress and wearing masks symbolising ancient gypsy deities, but their music bore little resemblance to the intense and calming scapes of “Mine my head”, tending more into an ethno-rock direction. For this reason it is believed by many that the people who keep on touring to this day under the name of Van Veritas are in fact an Armenian session musician and Bassplayer 4.
The real mastermind had instead actually gone back to his roots and formed the band which would soon be completely ignored by press and audience alike, The Verones . Taking its cue both from early American punk and early 20th century argentinian tango, The Verones defeated musical conventions with their innovative use of battered accordion, upright electric bass and heavily distorted drum computer, at this time still operated by Franz Verone , who would leave the band after the first album to form Tegel Motorway Clash , taking BP3, now known as Timmy Verone with him. She was replaced on bass by Leonie Verone , a woman whose musical genius was only bettered by her beauty. Sadly, she was also an auto-cannibal and did disappear in distasteful circumstances that need not be reiterated here. But it was only symptomatic of the whole period, in which the band received considerably more fame due to their scandalous behaviour off than on stage. In any case, The Verones were disbanded within a year, leaving behind only one album, “Mainlining Muzak” , which is considered either genius by fans or an act of aural terrorism by anybody with better hearing. Kasuppke/Veritas , himself, of course, then turned his attention to orchestral pop and went on to become the popstar that he is known as all across Asia nowadays.
His fame did not stretch to actual Verona, however, and so it is guesswork at best, why he decided to reform The Verones there. Now looking visibly younger, no longer sporting his trademark beard, calling himself King Verone and having grown up musically, The New Verones were playing lounge Tango Ethno. Bassduties had been taken by Vera Verone and on metal percussion Joey Verone was trying to emulate the earlier heavy sound acoustically. Their live shows were sweaty affairs and more than one gig had to be cancelled when an audience member got overwhelmed by the music and tried to touch up Vera. Noteworthy in this context and recorded on the bootleg “Live at the Jazz Club” is the freestyle session where Joey took over vocal duties while King and Vera provided the beat on the heads of a group of overexcited drunkards. But the heavy touring took its toll. The first signs were still positive. Having bonded during many hours on and off stage, King and Vera got closer to each other emotionally and, for want of a better expression, madly fell in love. And although this fact would not be made public until their wedding, its signs became obvious by an intense drive on King’s part to make the band’s music more romance-friendly. In practical terms this meant that the band started to play more and more accordion and bass-heavy ballads and chansons, while the percussion was increasingly softened and soon left out completely. Joey reacted the only way he knew, by turning to drink. Later, he would become dry, with the help of God, as he would claim, before rejecting God and turning to Satanism, recording one album “Drumming to raise G’llBHaell” , which he produced himself, but which was only released posthumously. While The Verones became another pop-act to rival Sonny and Cher with increasingly spectacular live-shows, Joey went travelling to find his roots and become a better drummer. He returned six months later with a large assortment of bizarre instruments, an even larger assortment of bizarre stories, visibly healthier and, quite likely one of the best drummers in the business. By this time, the craze for romantic pop had passed and even the Verone-marriage had entered a difficult patch. The emotional stress that this set free was channelled into the music so that the next album and tour of the new three-piece-Verones would be considered the best that was ever recorded under this name. King’s lyrics dealt with a wide range of subjects, from the plight of south-indonesian monkey-indians to his personal feelings towards Vera. This meshed well with Vera, as she would later claim, “doing all the things to her bass that she would like to do to King”. This meant an eclectic combination of both bowing and strong percussive stringwork. But the peace would not last long: As good a drummer as he had become, Joey was still a lousy fighter and so when during a concert at the Verona Collosseum, a local character only known as The Animal jumped onstage and started a fight, it was not long before Joey became the first drummer to be beaten to death with his own drum-kit. The fact that this was also done in perfect time with the music may have contributed to King’s decision to drop charges and force The Animal to make up for the damage by taking over Joey’s part in the band.
This may have been a good decision from a humane angle (as was leaving the disposal of the corpse to the perpetrator), but it did little to satisfy the fans that had grown to enjoy the Minimal Prog-sound that characterised the band at the time. And so, The Verones fully returned to their roots, only playing small clubs and market squares in and around Verona, effectively becoming “music mercenaries”. And, as it seems today, it is indeed in this field that the band has found happiness. Although no longer making recordings, it seems that playing live has made all members of the band relaxed and at ease with life. So much in fact that even a briefly suggested connection to a recent teenage double suicide could do nothing to tarnish their reputation.