This summer being the none-summer that it is, we were a bit weary about the prospect of having to camp for a few days. It had been cold and raining for weeks. So we went well-equipped, not just with raincoats and wellies but finally also with last-minute pavillion to keep us dry. That came extremely handy in the times when it did rain. But to be honest, the rain was nowhere as bad as we had feared.

Musically Haldern held quite a few well-known attractive bands for us this year and possibly the largest variety of completely unknown or just vaguely known bands we had so far.

Thursday

Thursday night in Haldern being what it is, meant the usual less-than-convenient facts: loads of enthusiastic people already being present and the only music being in the beautiful but small Spiegelzelt – apparently re-named to Spiegeltent this year. So we had to start with a fair amount of queueing to begin with. To make things extra-unpleasant for the first-time Halderners it was raining at the time, but eventually we did manage to get into the tent, seeing the great gig of The Avett Brothers on the screen outside while waiting and making it inside in time for Anna Calvi who played a lovely gig.

Of course we couldn’t leave after just one gig, particularly after waiting in the rain for an hour. So we stayed on despite not knowing the upcoming band, called the Brandt Brauer Frick ensemble. It took ages for the stage to be set up for them. Probably because of all the ‘classical’ instruments – including a cello, a grand piano and a harp – which had to be set up for ten musicians. And then the music sounded like techno (not that I knew what real techno sounds like…). A surprise and a very pleasant one. A very cool gig and band discovery to start things off with!

And that was Thursday night already. More a chill-in phase than a huge amount of music. But with all the traveling and setting up we did before, it was time to enjoy some drinks in our pavillion.

Friday

After a really rainy morning, we went to pick up more people from the station, enjoyed some drinks in town and finally went to the main festival grounds. After being to the huge Hurricane festival two months ago, Haldern’s Reitplatz felt so sanely small and pleasant in comparison.

The first band we saw, Golden Kanine stressed the ever-increasing popularity of string and brass instruments in popular music. They were a pleasant enough start, though the trousers of the saxophonist kept freaking me out.

Next on were The Antlers, who also played a nice and somewhat unexciting gig. They also brought the first red keyboard on stage for this year. Somehow keyboards started being red rather than black two or three years ago.

Heading for the Spiegelzelt once more – somewhat easier now that the main stage was open and attracted the majority of the crowd – we saw the second half of the gig by Wild Beasts which was another pleasant surprise.

But things became even better afterwards. I had heard Socalled’s music before. Pretending to be Hip-hop (which I would not like) but being much cleverer and more fun that that. And the gig was just great. From the music to the magic tricks to the greedy Smurf shirt and the exotic music for pop music stages. Much recommended.

So far so good. Next on was Miss Li with a well performed show and the biggest saxophone on earth in her band – a concoction which just felt like a record company executives wet dream which can sing.

Next on were the wonderful Okkervil River. I keep enjoying their albums a lot. And consequently I enjoyed their gig. However, I kept thinking that they seemed somewhat bored and unengaged. Unlike at Haldern 2008 where I thought they were the best band playing the festival, they just didn’t engage me that much this time around.

The next band were The Wombats whose music I’ve always found enjoyable, perhaps even a bit more than is adequate for my age. Their gig was fun, but they also didn’t seem as engaging and fun as they did at Hurricane two months ago were they were great. Perhaps I should wonder whether bands just seem better the first time around or whether they play greater gigs in the afternoon when it’s still bright outside…

The headliner for the evening went by the Name of Tom Isfort & John Grant, a singer with a complete orchestra. Again this meant what felt like an eternal period to set up the stage and get the mikes right and then the music was rather disappointing. Not a good way to finish of such a great festival day!

But luckily there was still the Spiegelzelt! We managed to get in there half way through the show put on by three artists of the Erased Tapes label. We had missed the first one but managed to see the second half of Nils Frahm and Anne Müllers piano and cello gig which was a great and consoling way to end the evening before heading back to the tent on surprisingly well-lit paths. The campgrounds were lit by what looked like giant gas lights this year. Cool:

Saturday

Saturday morning started off cloudy but there even was short period of sunshine. Which we luckily used to head for a swim in Haldern’s famous lake, meaning we missed out on the first few bands but were there in time for the James Blake gig which I really wanted to see after listening to the album a gazillion times and reading that he does these fantastic gigs. The music was still great, but I failed to see what’s particularly remarkable about the show they put on.

The following band were the rather curious LaBrassBanda, speaking Bavarian accents and playing brass music as the name suggests. Entertaining, but in the slightly creepy way you’d expect from people wearing T-Shirts about ‘butts’.

The next highlight was on its way with Wir Sind Helden. It’s been ages since I last saw them play live and – to be honest – I don’t find their newer albums quite as appealing. But their gig did not disappoint at all. A great performance, plenty of great old songs for grumpy old people like myself, a good spirit and even extra nice stage-decoration with lamps hanging above the band.

Some rain followed, thanks to plastic clothing it didn’t hurt. Queueing for the Spiegelzelt we saw Hauschka on the screen. That seemed like a pretty cool gig as well and included table tennis balls in a piano. A shame we couldn’t see it directly. Instead, we saw Warpaint who were on afterwards. Well worth seeing, it’s good to have strong girl bands.

And the next highlight was following! Namely this decade’s favourite hippie band, Fleet Foxes playing on the main stage. A good way to chill out, one could have almost gone to bed after that.

Just that the day wasn’t quite over yet. Heading for the Spiegelzelt once more, I saw Suuns who played solidly loud music for a change. And I had my yearly Haldern meeting with Jan at that occasion.

The final band on the main stage were Explosions in the Sky. Solid loud music with plenty of guitars, but somehow I found I can’t really match the quality of Mogwai, say and perhaps something either more lively or less noisy would have been more appropriate for the moment. Still, an impressive closing ‘act’ after which we were off to the tent.

Sunday

And that was that, another Haldern was over and we awoke in the morning with rain coming down on our tent, trying to decided whether we need to get out of there quickly or whether it will become drier. We left soon-ish, managing to pack everything up and even fit seven people plus all the equipment into two small cars. To finish off the indulgence we treated ourselves to a big brunch in a café in nearby Hamminkeln. Despite being a somewhat un-festival-like thing, we learned last year that it’s a great way to recover from the weekend and gain strength for the way back home. It’s also local enough for the people working there to sympathise – after all, their kids were at the festival as well.

The trip home was uneventful. However, a bad aftertaste is left by my iPod not waking with me in the morning and having remained dead since. Without the web browser and Angry Birds in my pocket I’m feeling a bit naked.

After the exciting Saturday, the festival’s final day was to be more relaxing. It wasn’t all that relaxing though as the day naturally included packing up the tent and everything else, running around to get stuff back into the car, cleaning up and starting to be a bit weary of being all dirty and sandy and with a generous lack of sleep. That said, after all the chores were done, we were in for a relaxing festival day with a few gigs and generous hanging around.

• Pale
• Pretty Girls Make Graves
• dEUS
• Two Gallants
• The Cardigans
• Apocalyptica
• Wir Sind Helden

Pale (12:50, Germany)

I accidentally ran into this gig while walking by. Pale are on the Grand Hotel van Cleef label, which has a cool name and generally seems to be considered a cool German record label. Unfortunately I tend to find the label’s bands (like Tomte or Kettcar) to be a bit on the boring side, and Pale didn’t seem to be out of place in that scheme…

Pretty Girls Make Graves (13:30, USA)

I went to see Pretty Girls Make Graves first on the ‘third’ stage which was in a tent. While it was hot already at the time, luckily the tent wasn’t as hot as I feared it would be on the inside. The band was really good live. From the songs I heard off records, I had the impression they were a bit slow and boring, but not so live!

In fact, I’d say that their singer deserves a rating of around 80% on the female bandleader awsomeness scale (aka the Karen O scale).

dEUS (14:00, Belgium)

I haven’t been a big dEUS fan in the past, but I happened to pass their stage while they were playing…

As it was quite hot by then, water way being sprayed on the crowd during the gig. It looked like the refreshment made people more enthusiastic than the music. Not necessarily because the music was bad, but rather because it was so refreshing.

Two Gallants (16:00, USA)

I saw a Two Gallants album at the record store the other day and thought I’d check them out at the festival. Unfortunately a trip of carrying stuff back to the car took longer than expected and we only saw the last song they played. So I still have no good idea about the band, but I got a really bad photo instead. Hm.

The Cardigans (16:30, Sweden)

After some more refreshments and ice cream, The Cardigans started playing. I didn’t even know they still existed. Not really my music but easy to enjoy when sitting in the sun .

While hanging out for a while after this we heard and saw the band ‘Live’ play from a distance. Their gig was eternal and quite lame.

Apocalyptica (19:15, Finland)

When being at Hurricane the first time in 1998 Apocalyptica were playing as well. While it may be a bit freaky to emulate metal music on Celli, it sounds surprisingly good. Still not exactly my type of music but quite entertaining.

Wir Sind Helden (19:45, Germany)

As the final highlight Wir Sind Helden were playing. And, again, they’re just great and played a great show for us, with a little too much talking perhaps (but who’d complain when Judith does that?).

After Wir Sind Helden, Gnarls Barkley were playing. I thought it’d be nice to see what all that hype is about. But many other people must have thought the same and as the gig was in the comparatively small tent, it was fully packed and there was no way to get in. So I skipped that. And, to close the festival, Muse were booked. I’m not there biggest fan, but there are some pieces I like and I thought I’d stay for that. And then we saw dark clouds coming up, which had me running for the car as I figured that having a pretty much perfect festival without Muse would be better than getting seriously wet. Read more about the drama around this tomorrow…

In Hannover the big venue meant the ‘AWD Hall’, which not only is a strange anglicism but at the same time an advert for the dubious financial services company currently running it and the football stadium next door. This wonderful bit of capitalism leaves us with a meaningless name which is bound to change to another meaningless names within a few years. Fantastic.

Anyway, probably due to the very young and quite old also attending the event, it already started at eight. And by that I mean started. Not doors at eight, but the support band starting to play. We came in a few minutes late, directly from the station, and were surprised to see the hall completely packed (with around 6000 people, I’ve heard). By not knowing our way round, we initially ended up at the side of the hall where there were rows of seats and where all the parents of the kids down in front were sitting. Very odd. But a very nice view from above to see the heads of thousands of people in the light coming from the stage.

The support band were Madsen who I saw in summer. I thought their tunes were all right back then but was completely shocked by the singer sounding like a little kid or smurf. Ever since hearing that I found it really hard to listen to their album as I started discovering the smurfiness on there as well. Luckily the mixing was much more pleasant in this gig. While I could still make out the smurfy sound at times, those occasions were very rare and the music was fun.

While they were playing, we managed to locate some other friends in the crowd through the magic of SMS sending. As I don’t have a mobile phone myself, I had to coordinate this beforehand – making sure all the relevant people had the right numbers and so on… and things worked out nicely. Shortly before Madsen finished, I went down to meet the others who were right in the middle of the crowd, reasonably close to the stage. And after some extra waiting, Wir sind Helden came on.

As the band had to cancel the two preceding gigs because several of them were ill – a topic that they commented on quite liberally, with Judith mentioning that the day before the nurses in the hospital would probably be surprised by the sounds coming from her throat just one day later – they didn’t seem to be extremely energetic but on the other hand they didn’t seem too tired either. While they couldn’t recreate the more personal atmosphere of the smaller club in that large hall, they still brought a number of nice extras along for the gig.

Those ranged from ongoing jokes about Hannover and apologies about making them, to some brass players who joined in for some songs, to a Cure cover song, to some nice school-level playing with recorders and a triangle or some acoustic playing with a guitar, violin and percussion – all those accompanied by some stylish 1970s style wallpaper pattern projected behind them.

Apart from these extras, they played all the energetic songs we love and all the other songs we know – or don’t know so well. In fact, great parts of the audience did know all of the songs. Line by line. Which was quite amazing when the audience started singing before Judith did – and just carried on all the way through.

Alltogether a lot of fun and enjoying the band. A lot of adoring Judith… who also the girls had to admit did a brilliant job. They also thought the bassist Mark was quite hot in his new, shaved, look. I guess everybody was happy then.

For other Wir sind Helden related entries, including more lyrics and translations thereof, have a look at the Wir sind Helden overview page.

[Buy at amazon .com, .uk, .de]

When Caro came across this site she mentioned that she had done many more translations herself which she’d share with people who are interested. Later on other people joined in and contributed translations for some of the newer songs or alternate translations for old songs. So here they are – a pretty complete collection of translations for the lyrics of Wir sind Helden’s songs. Thanks a lot to everybody who contributed!

If you want to contribute your own translations use the comment field at the bottom of the page, if you are looking for original German Wir Sind Helden lyrics, take them from the horse’s mouth and look at the lyrics section of their web site.

Die Reklamation

Translations by Caro unless otherwise noted.

1. Ist das so – translations by Caro and Christine
2. Rüssel an Schwanz
3. Guten Tag – translations by Caro and Sven
4. Denkmal – translations by Caro and Sven
5. Du erkennst mich nicht wieder
6. Die Zeit heilt alle Wunder - translations by Caro and Christine (sing-along version)
7. Monster
8. Heldenzeit
9. Aurélie
10. Müssen nur wollen – translations by Caro and Sven
11. Außer dir
12. Die Nacht

Von hier an blind

Translations by Caro unless otherwise noted

1. Wenn es passiert
2. Echolot
3. Von hier an blind
4. Zuhälter
5. Ein Elefant für dich – translations by Caro and Katja (sing-along version)
6. Darf ich das behalten?
7. Wütend genug
8. Geht auseinander
9. Zieh dir was an
10. Gekommen um zu bleiben – translations by Caro and Sven
11. Nur ein Wort
12. Ich werde mein Leben lang üben…
13. Bist du nicht müde

Soundso

1. (Ode) An Die Arbeit (translation by yokken)
2. Die Konkurrenz (translation by Niwatori)
3. Soundso translations by Niwatori, yokken and Christine
4. Für nichts garantieren (translation by yokken)
5. Kaputt (translation by Steven)
6. Labyrinth (translation by Steven)
7. The Geek (Shall Inherit) (translation by Niwatori)
8. Endlich ein Grund zur Panik (translation by Steven)
9. Der Krieg kommt schneller zurück, als Du denkst - translations by Christine and Steven
10. Hände hoch (translation by Matt)
11. Stiller (translation by Christine)
12. Lass uns verschwinden (translation by Gina)

Other songs from EPs, Singles

• Alphamännchen
• Keine Angst mehr
• Ich freu mich für Dich
• Meine beste Freundin
• Kompass
• Halt dich an deiner Liebe fest (Rio Reiser cover)

Judith’s acoustic Kamikazefliege album

1. Ich will alles (translated by Adam)
2. Ich muß früh raus
3. Hirnwichserei
4. Popstar
5. Afroamerikanerküsse
6. Außer Dir
7. Aurélie
8. Friede, Freude, Lagerfeuer
9. Kamikazefliege (translated by Adam)

If you’re interested, check whether Wir Sind Helden CDs are already available in your country at a reasonable price. [Buy at amazon .com, .uk, .de]

While having mainly positive reviews will obviously make sense – at least in the short and I’d even say medium term – for people who are mainly trying to sell the stuff, it renders those review instances much less helpful. But even people like myself who don’t have any benefit from albums being sold (heh, perhaps I should start one of those ‘associate’ things – but I just assume that it’s not worth the effort) will prefer recommending things – just because we enjoy them.

And even when indulging in rating schemes like iTunes’ or IMDB’s, I find it terribly difficult to make up my mind which rating to give a particular item and remain consistent among all the ratings I gave over time. IMDB’s rating system has a scale from one to ten which is just too complex. I always tend to think of anything below five as quite bad, so I very rarely used those.

iTunes only gives you five different ratings, but I’m definitely too lazy to fill those in for all my songs, so I ended up giving four or five stars to songs I really like – making a nice smart playlist called ★★★★ which won’t disappoint when I can’t make up my mind what to listen to. Even the distinction between four and five stars seems to heavily depend on my current mood in this. Then, I mark with three stars songs which I quite like and with one or two stars songs which I enjoy or which I just want to be able to see easily in iTunes’ list. Most songs just don’t have any rating at all. A simple number rating is a nice help but not really up to the full job. Of course there’s the theoretic possibility of automatically assinging ratings to songs depending on how often and in which contexts you listen to them, but I assume that their results will be far from perfect as well…

Ahem… Where was I? I guess all I wanted to say is that people prefer to write about the stuff they like. And that any number based rating scales will be very hard to interpret – if only because people interpret the various ratings differently and the scales aren’t used too well – with the majority of votes seeming to be in the upper half or even third of the scale. In addition many of the albums I don’t like probably won’t make it to my home because I’ll listen to some of their songs in the record store and just leave them there (if only we had a good record store here in Göttingen…), so there can’t be any bad reviews for those.

So for a change, I write about a few albums which I wouldn’t recommend. Of course it’d be easy to come up with numerous albums which I wouldn’t recommend just by going through amazon’s best sellers. So that’s not the point. They are rather albums which one might have hoped (but not necessarily expected) to be nice but which weren’t. As I’ve liked a few of those bands a lot, this is a more or less painful experience. Obviously these are also very personal opinions and people appreciating other (or as I’d say ‘the wrong’) aspects of the bands’ music may reach a different conclusion.

Idlewild

I’ve really liked Idlewild a lot and counted them as one of the great Scottish bands. While they’ve always had a slight poppy touch, their music had lovely rough aspects as well. In fact, mostly rough aspects when listening to their 1998 EP Captain, say which included the wonderfully short Last Night I missed all the Fireworks and the shouty Captain along with rather crappy cover art.

It was soon followed by the good Hope is Important with songs like Everybody Says You’re so Fragile, When I Argue I See Shapes and, I’m a Message. And in 2000 we got 100 Broken Windows. While sounding a bit quieter and controlled than the previous ones, it has songs like Roseability, Little Discourage and Actually It’s Darkness, which remains my favourite Idlewild song to date.

From then on things went downhill. Just looking at the cover art of their 2002 album The Remote Part strongly suggests that they got new people doing their graphics. While the whole blurred and rough letters style stayed around in a weak way, the whole cover art is much more average and ‘consumer-friendly’ than that of the older albums. Their ‘logo’ has been changed to some ‘artistic’ font and there’s a distinct lack of capital letters outside the album’s copyright information. Oh, and while partially still being recognisably Idlewild music, the songs are rather dull as well. Somehow the album must have sold quite well, though, as people started knowing Idlewild afterwards.

Their current album, Warnings Promises, has yet another style of cover art and logo. While I quite like looking at it, it completly leaves the graphical styles they had before. This one goes even more down the cheesy road than The Remote Part did and I am tempted to say that almost none of the old Idlewild can be recognised on this album. Which is sad, as I really liked the old sound. To close the circle, listen to the track El Capitain an compare it to the rough title song of their first EP…

P.S. The more detailed review at Pitchforkmedia seems to share my opinion. And, amusingly, their back-history of reviews does as well. [Buy at amazon .com, .uk, .de]

Tocotronic

An then there is Tocotronic. A German band that started in the mid 1990s and which I really got into back then. They were among the bands who made listening to music with German lyrics tolerable and perhaps even fashionable again. I just had a tape with 90 minutes out of their first three albums (Nach der verlorenen Zeit; Wir kommen, um uns zu beschweren; Es ist egal, aber) for ages. And only recently I stocked up on the complete records. Fantastic stuff: strange language, a bit of depression, low-fi. I’d say everybody should have it. But as they sing in German and their lyrics are rather central, so you may have to learn German at first. They have also toured the U.S. at some stage and there are a few ridiculously translated English versions of songs. Some of them are on their great 10th anniversary compilation album, which is a good place to start.

After those early days they released K.O.O.K. which was still fine and had a fun CD K.O.O.K Variationen coming after it with electronic remixes of Tocotronic songs. Their 2002 album Tocotronic was when I started being really disappointed. Most of the charm of their first albums seemed to be gone. Only the strange lyrics remained. But all of the sudden those trickily assembled texts started feeling complicated and trying to be intellectual rather than just existing naturally as they used to. To be fair, the album has a few moments… but the only song I’d recommend is Hi Freaks.

And early this year their new album Pure Vernunft darf niemals siegen – ‘Pure reason must never win’ was released. With the first single Aber Hier Leben, Nein Danke being up for download around christmas. It wasn’t remarkable but tolerable. Much better than the rest of the album which makes Tocotronic sound like they turned into dullards like Blumfeld. Music with too much (social scientist) brain and too little music.

P.S. I put in iTMS links in many places above for your convenience to listen at songs. I had forgotten that there is a much better way to legally get at Tocotronic music online. Their label, the wonderful L’age D’Or who are the label for many other great bands like Die Sterne or The Robocop Kraus, Superpunk, Von Spar &c, have an online music store as well. At 96 cents per track (at least for Tocotronic) they beat iTunes on the price and with a lack of DRM as well as higher bit rates, their advantages outweigh the extra effort of using a web browser. Apparently they’re also selling Ogg encoded files for whoever can tell the difference. [Buy at amazon .com, .uk, .de]

Little Barrie

On the first sight, Little Barrie’s first album We are Little Barrie is quite sweet. Nice and simple cover art which looks both old-fashioned and modern to my eyes and a brilliant opening song, Free Salute which I had on heavy rotation for a whole week or so. Quite addictive.

Intermezzo: If you haven’t heard about the band before, just stop reading on and listen to that song and tell me which country they are from.

Just as the cover, their music sounds both modern but also 1960s style. Quite amazing. Kings of Leon for the 1960s I’d say. But it seems a bit more artificial, un-authentic if you wish, than the Kings of Leon and more boring. So while the music isn’t terribly bad, I can’t help feeling that they’re just trying too hard. A shame. And a good album to use online stores on.

P.S. When first hearing them, I thought their sound was clearly American. But they’re from England. What did you think? [Buy at amazon .com, .uk, .de]

Turbonegro

This one is a bit of a joke, I guess. I had the impression that a lot was written about Turbonegro and their Turbojugend fan clubs, which really seem to exist even for the most minor of places. From what I had read about it, I already guessed that their music isn’t exactly my cup of tea, expecting it to be a bit too far on the ‘heavy’ side. So I decided to listen to their new album Party Animals just to know what all the fuss is about.

My impression is that it sounds much too friendly for proper metal, despite songs having charming names like All My Friends Are Dead or City of Satan. And it sounds exactly like the stuff there was in the 1980s or even AC/DC. Hmm, perhaps I shouldn’t be saying that as I don’t know too much about the whole metal scene, the closest I came to it being my neighbour as a teenager having Iron Maiden as the first band he was a big fan of and another friend in England who introduced me to exciting bands like Dimmu Borgir.

And compared to proper Norwegian Black Metal, Turbonegro just sound very tame and lame. Music for kids, I guess. Music that comes in dangerous looking sleeves and that is played be people who look like clowns. Hmm, I better shut up now before the local Turbojugend comes around my flat to disagree… [Buy at amazon .com, .uk, .de]

The Coral

I first stumbled across The Coral on a compilation CD a friend sent me. It included Dreaming of You of their self-titled first CD which I considered good enough to warrant further investigation into their slightly old-fashioned music that lives somewhere between the 1960s and pop. In 2003 followed Magic and Medicine with a lot of old-fashioned goodness and including the nice and Simon and Garfunkel-esque Liezah.

Last year we had Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker with yet more pleasing and different old fashioned songs, ranging from the slightly psychedelic Song of the Corn to the more energetic Auntie’s Operation to the strange Lovers’ Paradise which keeps reminding me of Annie Lennox’ Keep Young and Beatiful. What’s strange about these records is that despite being a bit odd, not being particularly rock’n’roll and very few favourite songs coming from them, I like them and think they’re really nice to listen to.

That’s why I was looking forward to hearing their next and current record, The Invisible Invasion. And I found it quite disappointing. The ‘magic’ that the other records had and that made me want to listen to them despite not being obviously exciting is gone. I can’t find it at least. It’s not that the music is horrible but the songs are unremarkable and I consider it unlikely that I’ll ever come home and feel like I have to listen to this record. [Buy at amazon .com, .uk, .de]

Wir sind Helden

I hate to say this. Particularly as my previous Wir sind Helden entries found a lot of interest. But I am not particularly impressed by Wir sind Helden’s new album Von Hier an Blind. Sure the first two singles Gekommen um zu bleiben and Nur ein Wort are all right. And even their lyrics continue to be interesting. And their front-woman hot. But musically I don’t find the album quite boring.

I have to admit that I wasn’t too much of a fan of the music on their first album. Not the stuff I’d usually listen to. Too much 1980s in there. But together with their power and their lyrics it was easily good enough. The new one seems to be more pop and less action with too much focus given on the singing. [Buy at amazon .com, .uk, .de]

The Raveonettes

I had a mixed start with The Raveonettes. They didn’t show up for a gig but their first EP Whip it On was just fantastic. Things went downhill from there on. Not only do they keep sending me stupid spam messages, the unsubscribe link in which doesn’t work, more significantly their first full album Chain Gang Of Love failed to match Whip it On quality wise – but it has still a few decent songs and at least it’s done in b-flat minor.

Their new album Pretty in Black looks like it’s a kitsched-up version of what there was before. Gone is the cool black-and-white styling. And in comes – pink! Quite a change. B-flat minor also seems to have been replaced with more cheerful stuff and – once again – I find the album a bit on the dull side. All the fantastic power they exhibited on Whip it On seems to have vanished. [Buy at amazon .com, .uk, .de]

Those have proven quite popular and requests have been coming for more translations since. So here comes another set of lyrics in both German and English, for Wir Sind Helden’s new song Gekommen um zu bleiben. You can potentially buy and listen to thirty seconds of the song on the iTunes Music Store

While being reasonably catchy, I don’t find the song too impressive musically. It seems a bit overdone in many places putting in unnecessarily playful elements for the sake of their catchy effect only. This may apply to the lyrics as well in a slightly weaker fashion. They also seem to be trying to do a bit too much and ending up slightly overdone because of this.

Ihr sagt: ‘The höher they come, the blöder they fall.’
So verdammt emporgekommen und immer noch standing tall.
Ihr sagt: ‘Was so abgeht must doch bitte come down.’
Ich sag den Untergang ab, ohne runterzuschaun.
Wir gehen nicht, aber wenn wir gehen, dann gehen wir in Scheiben.
Entschuldigung, ich sagte: Wir sind gekommen um zu bleiben.

Gekommen um zu bleiben. Wir gehen nicht mehr weg.
Gekommen um zu bleiben. Wie ein perfekter Fleck.
Gekommen um zu bleiben. Wir gehen nicht mehr weg.
Ist dieser Fleck erst in der Hose, ist er nicht mehr rauszureiben.
Entschuldigung, ich glaub wir sind gekommen… um zu bleiben.

Wir singen: ‘Dankeschön und Auf Wiedersehen’.
Reicht uns wehende Fahnen damit unterzugehen.
Lebet hoch! – Mut kommt vor dem Fall.
Wo Geschwindigkeit ist, wünscht sich der Mensch auch den Knall.
Ihr fesselt uns ans Pferd und bittet uns es anzutreiben.
Entschuldigung, ich sagte: wir sind gekommen um zu bleiben.

Gekommen um zu bleiben…

Dann sagt ihr: ‘Schau! The end is near now bitte face your final curtain.’
Aber wir sind schlau, wir bleiben hier für die Gesichter, die empörten.
Diese Geister singen schief und sind nicht einfach auszutreiben.

Enschuldigung ich sagte: Wir sind gekommen um zu bleiben.
Wir gehen nicht aber wenn wir gehen dann gehn wir in Scheiben.
Enschuldigung ich sagte: Wir sind gekommen um zu bleiben.

Gekommen um zu bleiben…

Wir Sind Helden, Gekommen um zu bleiben

Trying to translate those lyrics into English was tricky in a few places, so I’ll to outline those first. At the beginning of the song there’s strange mixing of English idioms and German words. Just look at the original text to guess the original expressions. When translating, I translated everything into English only. Towards the end the line Lebet hoch! – Mut kommt vor dem Fall is a bit curious. While it splits up into two sentences, it also includes the saying Hochmut kommt vor dem Fall which is Pride comes before a fall and I sort of tried to reflect that.

Enjoy:

You say: ‘The higher they come, the more stupid they fall.’
Having made it so damn far up – yet still standing tall.
You say: ‘Whatever rocks this much should rather come down’.
I cancel the decline without looking down.
We don’t leave; but if we leave, we’ll leave in slices.
Excuse me, I said: We came here to stay.

Came here to stay. We won’t ever leave.
Came here to stay. Like a perfect stain.
Came here to stay. We won’t ever leave.
Once that stain is in your pants, it can’t be rubbed away.
Excuse me, I think we came here… to stay.

We sing: ‘Thanks and See you’.
Hand us waving flags to decline with.
Live boldly! – Pride comes before a fall.
Wherever there is speed, the human wants a blast as well.
You chain us to the horse and ask us to drive it.
Excuse me, I said: We came here to stay.

Came here to stay…

Then you say: ‘Look! The end is near, now please face your final curtain.’
But we are smart, we stay here for the faces, the disgusted ones.
These spirits sing off-key and they’re not easy to drive out.
Excuse me, I said: We came here to stay.
We don’t leave; but if we leave, we’ll leave in slices.
Excuse me, I said: We came here to stay.

Came here to stay…

For other Wir sind Helden related entries, including more lyrics and translations thereof, have a look at the Wir sind Helden overview page.

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Wir haben eine SMS Kurznachricht für Sie.
Die Nachricht lautet:
Mission 1 erfüllt! Plakate 8, Verhaftungen 0.
Mission 2 folgt. Hol den Vorschlaghammer.

Komm mal ans Fenster komm her zu mir.
Siehst du da drüben gleich da hinterm Wellblechzaun,
Da drüben auf dem Platz vor Aldi haben sie
unser Abbild in Stein gehaun.

Komm auf die Straße komm her zu mir.
Überall Blumen und Girlanden halb zerknüllt.
Sieht so aus als hätten die unser Denkmal heute Nacht
schon ohne uns enthüllt.

Hol den Vorschlaghammer!
Sie haben uns ein Denkmal gebaut
und jeder Vollidiot weiß,
dass das die Liebe versaut.
Ich werd die schlechtesten Sprayer
dieser Stadt engagieren.
Die sollen Nachts noch die Trümmer
mit Parolen beschmieren.

Komm auf die Beine komm her zu mir.
Es wird bald hell und wir haben nicht ewig Zeit.
Wenn uns jetzt hier wer erwischt sind wir für immer vereint
in Beton und Seligkeit.

Hol den Vorschlaghammer…

Siehst du die Inschrift da unten bei den Schuhen?
Da steht in goldener Schrift wir sollen in Ewigkeit ruhen.

Hol den Vorschlaghammer…

Wir sind Helden, Denkmal

My translation of the lyrics follows. Please note that I don’t claim this to be a perfect and lyrical translation. But it’ll give you an idea of what they’re singing about. The first verse is the bit in a computer voice that’s spoken right at the beginning of the song.

We received a text message for you.
The message reads:
Mission 1 completed! Posters (Bills) 8, Arrests 0.
Mission 2 will follow. Fetch/Get the sledgehammer.

Come over to the window. Come over to me.
Can you see that over there, right behind the corrugated iron fence,
over there on the square in front of Aldi,
they sculpted our image into stone.

Come onto the road. Come over to me.
Flowers and garlands everywhere, half-crumpled.
Looks like they unveiled our monument this night
without us.

Get the sledgehammer!
They built us a monument
and every (complete) idiot knows,
that it wrecks the love.
I’ll hire the worst
(graffiti) sprayers in town.
They shall, right at night,
smudge the rubble with slogans.

Get up (onto your legs) come over to me.
It will be light soon and we don’t have a lot of (eternal) time.
If they catch us here now we’ll be united forever
in concrete and beatitude.

Get the sledgehammer…

Can you see the inscription down there next to the shoes?
It says in golden letters we should rest in eternity.

Get the sledgehammer…

Enjoy.

For other Wir sind Helden related entries, including more lyrics and translations thereof, have a look at the Wir sind Helden overview page.

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Support bands were Eaten by Sheiks from G;ouml;ttingen, who were quite old and boring, and Raketenjungs from Hamburg, who were quite good. I bought a copy of their four track CD ( the first CD in ages that I had to enter into CDDB myself) and may or may not write about them at another time.

While I consider Wir sind Helden to be a bit too poppy and NDW-like in their sound – one fundamental truth was apparent once more: Pop music is better live. They played a good show that rocked much more than their CD does. We decided to have collective crush on the singer now. Apparently she writes the clever songs, sings and looks good – did I mention she looks good?

At the end of the encore, they played New Model Army's 51st state. I think playing a cover version at that point is a good idea if you don't have a huge back-catalogue to choose from. This way everybody will know the song, the band can pay tribute to some other band and even communicate a message. A fun observation may be that both 51st State and their own song Guten Tag contain bits about cleaning teeth.

Meine Stimme gegen Dein Mobiltelephon,
Meine Fäuste gegen Eure Nagelpflegelotion,
Meine Zähne gegen die von Dr. Best und sei'm Sohn,
Meine Seele gegen Eure sanfte Epilation.

(Es war im Ausverkauf, im Angebot, die Sonderaktion:
'Tausche blödes altes Leben gegen neue Version'.
Ich hatt' es kaum zu Hause ausprobiert, da wußte ich schon:
An dem Produkt ist was kaputt – das ist die Reklamation.

Ich tausch nicht mehr, ich will mein Leben zurück.
Ich tausch nicht mehr, ich will mein Leben zurück.
Ich tausch nicht mehr, ich will mein Leben zurück.
Guten Tag, ich will mein Leben zurück.
Guten Tag, guten Tag, ich will mein Leben zurück.
Guten Tag, guten Tag, ich will mein Leben zurück.
Guten Tag, ich gebe zu, ich war am Anfang entzückt,
Aber euer Leben zwickt und drückt nur dann nicht wenn man sich bückt
Guten Tag.)

Meine Stimme gegen die der ganzen Talkshownation,
Meine Fäuste für ein müdes Hallelujah und Bohnen,
Meine Zähne gegen eure zahme Revolution,
Visionen gegen die totale Television.

Es war im Ausverkauf, im Angebot, die Sonderaktion...

Mobiltelephon – von Dr. Best und sein Sohn – Sonderaktion
Das ist die Reklamation – der ganzen Talkshownation
Revolution – Visionen gegen die totale Television

Es war im Ausverkauf, im Angebot, die Sonderaktion...

Wir sind Helden, Guten Tag

OK, I'll quickly translate this for those who don't read German as the lyrics are quite good:

My voice against your mobile phone,
My fists against your nail lotion,
My teeth against those of Dr. Best and his son,
My soul against your gentle epilation.

(It was on sale, on offer a special deal:
'Trade in boring old life for new version'.
I just tried it out at home when I realised:
The product is broken – this is the complaint.

I won't trade anymore, I want my life back.
I won't trade anymore, I want my life back.
I won't trade anymore, I want my life back.
Hello, I want my life back.
Hello, hello, I want my life back.
Hello, hello, I want my life back.
Hello, I admit, I was charmed at first,
But your life only doesn't tweak and press if you bend over.
Hello.)

My voice against that of the whole talk show nation,
My fists for a tired Hallelujah and beans.
My teeth against your tame revolution,
Visions against the total tele-vision.

It was on sale, on offer a special deal...

Mobile phone – of Dr. Best and his son – special deal
This is the complaint – of the whole talk show nation
Revolution – visions against the total tele-vision.

It was on sale, on offer a special deal...

Again, due to my questionable skills this doesn't work quite as smoothly in English as it does in German. In particular I translated Guten Tag as Hello while literally it should be Good Day – because I think it fits the usage better. Reklamation which translated as complaint is the kind of thing you do when you buy something that's broken and you return it. I think there's a more specific word for it in English but I couldn't think of it. There's a remix version of the song for download. Their album is titled Die Reklamation, by the way.

Photos

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Wir sind Helden are a new-ish German band. I think I first heard one of their songs in winter but they only released their debut album recently. And have been hyped a lot since. Quite appealing with a pop attitude, yet catchy and clever lyrics. Being a bit 'against the system', but in a cheerful and positive way. That, inevitably leads to all interviews – of which there are plenty – to quickly reach the selling-out question.

I don't like their music too much, though. They do seem to have one of those silly keyboards held like a guitar and sound a bit too much like the dreadful 1980s Neue deutsche Welle style. They are better, but still sound like it, which I dislike. Yesterday I saw an interview of Wir sind Helden's singer at Fast Forward. Mostly the two girls paid compliments to one another, assuring themselves that they are great. While this may even be true objectively, it hardly makes a good interview.

More notably, they played a couple of songs and I can't get one of the more popular ones out of my head...

Muß ich immer alles müssen, was ich kann?
Eine Hand trägt die Welt und die andre bietet Getränke an.
Ich kann mit allen zehn Füßen in zwanzig Türen
und mit dem elften in der Nase noch Ballette aufführen.
Aber wenn ich könnte wie ich wollte, würd' ich gar nichts wollen,
ich weiß aber, daß alle etwas wollen sollen.

Wir können alles schaffen,
genau wie die tollen
dressierten Affen.
(: Wir müssen nur wollen :4x)

Muß ich immer alles müssen, was ich kann?
Eine Hand in den Sternen,
die andre im Hintern des Vordermann.
Das ist das Land der begrenzten Unmöglichkeiten;
Wir können Pferde ohne Beine rückwärts reiten;
Wir können alles, was zu eng ist, mit dem Schlagbohrer weiten.
Wir können glücklich sein und trotzdem Konzerne leiten.

Wir können alles schaffen,
genau wie die tollen
dressierten Affen.
(: Wir müssen nur wollen :)

Wir sind Helden, Müssen nur wollen

For other Wir sind Helden related entries, including more lyrics and translations thereof, have a look at the Wir sind Helden overview page.

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