Phillip Buerstatte: Feed the Gods [PT2]

After exhausting all online resources, I found myself unable to determine why Ivan de Prume left White Zombie in 1992, just as they were starting to blow up. In a 2022 interview with Metal Injection, he basically states that Rob Zombie did something "unexcusable" to him and that he felt "stabbed in the back." He does not get into specifics [or was he being cryptically specific?]

The recruitment and dismissal of Ivan's replacement, Phillip "Philo" Buerstatte, has also remained somewhat of a mystery, although Rob Zombie stated in 2013 that he was fired for doing drugs and doing "really bad stuff to the band." This is completely glossed over and ignored in the above referenced interview.

Phillip was only in White Zombie from 1992-1994, but he was riding their ascent to popularity during the most crucial period, before abruptly being replaced by John Tempesta. We don't hear much from him again until a 2009 reunion with his pre-Zombie band, "Last Crack," which seemed to be a pretty temporary reunion. He again seems to disappear from heavy music press until 2012, when a seemingly crazy man decides to impersonate Phillip in order to write a fraudulent $75,000 check, so he can pay for a stay in rehab. Within a year, Phillip turns up dead, and no cause of death or details are ever given.

Given all of this mystery, vagueness, and wierdness, I went ahead and obtained the official investigative report through a FOIA request, in hopes to shed some light on things. Here are my findings:

FOIA DOCUMENTS

After requesting information regarding the death investigation of Phillip Buerstatte, I recieved heavily redacted documents from the Madison Police Department. Even Phillip's name itself was redacted, which doesn't make any sense because how do I verify this report pertains to him at all!? I messaged the records department regarding this and here is what they said:

The name of the subject you requested has been redacted from the report due to the sensitive nature of the report. The redacted version of the report you received is correct. If you are next of kin and can prove this with a death certificate or have a domiciliary letter, a less redacted report may be released based on documents provided.

Since this report is allegedly "correct," they are obviously verifying that it pertains to Phillip Buerstatte's death. But rediculously, the reader is expected to assume his name appears in places where names or entire sentences are blacked out! Was this guy a has-been mostly forgotten rockstar or some sort of secret agent?

1 of 3 reasons given for redactions in this report is:

Highly personal and private information concerning a sensitive investigation, the disclosure of which would likely have a substantial adverse affect on important public interests because it: Would deter persons from reporting allegations and cooperating in investigations and prosecutions.

If this was a simple suicide or accidental overdose, what "allegations" are redacted here and by whom? Allegations presume some sort of crime. Prosecutions also presume a crime was commited. If an investigation leads to no crimes being commited, when does it become "sensitive" and at what point is that tag dismissed?

Although the excessive redactions make it impossible to determine such basic information as "cause of death," I have attempted to extract whatever scraps of information of note I could discern below.

NOTE: If you see [R1] or [R2] or something similar next to a person, it means the name or person was redacted and I am using my best judgement to assume who they are based upon context and other factors. If I can't figure out exactly who or what is being referenced, I'll just put [redacted].

Zed [R2] stated he is the son of Phillip Buerstatte [R1] He stated the last time he saw his father was in 2009 and that he has spoken with him briefly on the phone since then...I [Detective Riezler] told Zed [R2] that the grandmother [Phillip's]...did not tell me that Phillip [R2] had a son.

My guess is that Zed was probably between 23 to 33 years old when his father passed away. It seems quite plausible that Phillip may have left White Zombie around the same time his son was born. Could this have had something to do with his departure from the band?

It is confirmed elsewhere in the report that it was at the band Last Crack's 20 year anniversary reunion show in 2009 that father and son last met face to face. Safe to say they probably were not that close in the years leading up to Buerstatte's death.

The fact Phillip's grandmother did not mention to detectives that he had a son is odd, but can have several explanations. For now, I'd say it's mostly just another indication that the family was not close for many years, if ever.

The mother of Phillip Buerstatte [R1] stated that Michael Ewing was a good friend of Phillip [R1] and may be able to provide some information in reference to his death.

He [Ewing] was very upset about Phillip's [R1] death and stated they had known each other since they were teenagers. He stated he was trying to organize a benefit for Phillip [R1], coming up soon.

He stated that Phillip [R1] went to Meriter Hospital the Wednesday before he died and used a false name. Ewing stated he was with Phillip [R1] and told Phillip [R1] that he did not want to have anything to do with it. Phillip told him he had a warrant and that was why he was using a false name...Ewing stated that Phillip was released from jail on 1.15.2013.

I asked Ewing if he had ever been at [Phillip's house] and he said 3 times. He said he had never been in the house and he had only gone there to help Phillip[R1]. He stated one time, he took Phillip [R1] grocery shopping, and there were two times that he was there to help him when he was [redacted].

I asked him about his relationship with Phillip's [R1] son. Ewing stated he has only met Zed [R2] twice...He stated the last time he had seen Zed [R2] with his father was in September 2009, when they had a 20-year reunion of the band [Last Crack].

Michael Ewing sounds like a decent person who was genuinely concerned about his old friend's well being. You get the sense that Phillip perhaps wasn't always in such a bad way as he seems in the days leading up to his death. I get the impression of someone who has declined severely relatively recently.

Ewing confirms that his friend did some jail time [according to Phillip's roomate he was on parole for a OWI (Operating While Intoxicated) when he died]. This trip to the hospital is one of several stories in the report supporting the idea that Phillip had some sort of health issue, likely a serious one. Was a drunk driving accident the cause of both his incarceration and his recently dabilitating physical state?

Ewing's story about Phillip using a false name when he checked into Meriter Hospital strangely mirrors the story of Loren Breckenridge, who used Phillip's name when he fraudulantly checked into various rehab facilties the previous year. I'm not saying there is a connection between the 2 incidences, but worth noting.

The fact that Phillip may have had a warrant out for his arrest, only having been released from prison 4 months previous, says something about the type of life he was leading. He seemed to be on the edge.

I met with Michelle Wowk on the seventh floor of the City-County Building at the Dane County Jail...I received information that Wowk was Phillip's [R1] girlfriend and they had been involved prior to his death.

She said she had taken him to UW Hospital two or three days before he died and they did not provide him with any type of care.

Wowk told me she was the only one with Phillip [R1] when they went to UW...She state[d] Phillip [R1] was admitted under his name...and then he was out the door within three hours. She stated the only thing they prescribed [redacted]. She stated Phillip [R1] could hardly walk and told her he [redacted]. I asked her if Michael Ewing had ever taken Phillip [R1] to a hospital and she stated she did not know anything about that.

She stated Phillip [R1] did not have $5. She stated neither one of them had done any drugs...Wowk stated she lived in the house with Phillip [R1] for seven months...She stated the other individuals lived in the house and crashed and did not pay any money and turned out to be "dead beats."

Wowk described Phillip [R1] as taking care of her and the other occupants as her "friends". She stated the day that she was arrested they were supposed to receive money to leave the house at [redacted] from the bank who had just taken over the foreclosure. She described it as "Keys for Cash." She stated they were being paid $5000 to leave the house. She stated this arrangement was made by [redacted] and Curran when she was in the hospital with [redacted].

Wowk stated she has gone to Michael Ewing's house one time. She stated Phillip [R1] was trying to teach Ewing's son to play the drums and she knew that they were really good friends. Wowk stated she did not know anything about Ewing taking Phillip [R1] to the hospital.

Wowk was adamant that she was not involved in the death of Phillip [R1]...She knew he had severe health issues and feels that it is the hospital's fault for his death, due to the fact that they would not treat him. Wowk stated she did not go to Phillip's [R1] Funeral because she knew everyone would blame her for his death. - Detective Rietzler

This interview with Wowk appears to have been conducted from Dane County Jail, where she was presumably being held.

Her comment about taking Phillip to the hospital 3 days before he died mirrors Ewing comments about also taking Phillip to the hospital days before his death. Ewing refers to the hospital as Meriter while Wowk refers to it as UW [I looked it up, and these are references to the same hospital] Neither claims the other was present at the time. Ewing claimed Phillip used a different name, Wowk says he used his own. Did they both take Phillip to the hospital seperately, just days before he died? Something smells fishy here, but I tend to trust Ewing's story more than Wowk's.

Wowk said the hospital didn't provide him with any type of care, but then states he was prescribed something, which is redacted. According to Wowk, Phillip could hardly walk. This is somewhat corroborated by Ewing, who stated he stopped by Phillips house a few times to help him shop, presumably because he was physically impaired.

The picture Wowk seems to paint of the living arrangement with Phillip sounds like a bunch of junkies squatting in a house, freeloading what they can from Phillip - who's resources have been drained. Wowk states above that she lived with Phillip for 7 months before he died. According to Michael Ewing, Phillip was released from prison in January of 2013. Phillip died in May of 2013, which would have been about 4 months after he got out of prison. How did Wowk live with Phillip for 7 months when he was in prison just 3 months prior to his death? Again, I would take Ewing's word before Wowk's, which seems less reliable. Guy Curran said about Wowk "she only comes around every once in a while," and that the last time he saw her was 2 days previous. Doesn't sound like she "lived there" at all, according to Curran. But he could also be saying this to cover something up which might incriminate himself or others.

The crime of driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol is sometimes referred to as Operating While Intoxicated or Operating While Impaired (OWI). But in other cases, it is called Driving Under the Influence or DUI. - Forbes.com

If Phillip had gone to teach Ewing's son drums recently, that tells me his physical debilitation was probably a recent occurance. How could he go to a friend's house and teach drums if he could barely walk? This, in combination with Curran's apparent statement that Phillip was on parole for an OWI conviction further suggests to me that he was recently involved in a car accident, which left him in the physically debilitated state he was in around the time he died.

Wowk's comment that this "keys for cash" arrangement was made while she was in the hospital with, I presume Phillip, suggests to me that he may have spent more time at the hospital than can be gleaned from this heavily redacted report.

Wowk's statement that she was not involved with Phillip's death suggests to me that a possible homicide was still on the table as of the date of the interview, which was 8.21.2013. Otherwise, why would she have volunteered that information?This was 1 month after Detective Dorothy Reitzler claims she recieved the medical examiner's report, which includes the redacted cause of death. Whatever the Medical Examiner's report revealed, it doesn't sound like it was totally conclusive in ruling out homicide. This case was closed just 6 days later.

Wowk's statement that she believes the hospital is responsible for Phillip's death, and that people at the funeral might have blamed HER for his death indicates to me a guilty conscience on her part. I suspect she knows more about his death than this report may indicate. Are the redactions covering for her?

According to the investigative report, a man named Guy Curran was the one who called 911 to report Phillip had died.

Curran advised that he resides at [redacted address] and pays rent for one room which is located in the upstairs portion of the house...Curran advised that on 05/18/13 at approximately 2 or 3pm, he last spoke with Phillip [R1] at [redacted].

He proceeds to give details which are heavily redacted, but clearly point towards some sort of medical issues Phillip seemed to be having recently.

Curran continued to explain that approximately two to three days prior to 05/19/13, he was aware that Phillip [R1] went to a hospital in the City of Madison for [redacted]. Curran believed that Phillip [R1] had [redacted medical condition] and that was what he was seeking medical attention for. He does not seem to mention Ewing or Wowk in reference to these trips.

He goes on to describe a heavily redacted story about an incident apparently requiring paramedics to take Phillip to the hospital. He also states that he believed Phillip was on parole for a OWI [Operating While Intoxicated] conviction. Was this incident involving a paramedic related to a car accident he was involved with while driving under the influence?

She [Wowk] stated that the night when Phillip [R1] died, she had actually been upstairs, in the bedroom, asleep, when he was downstairs, [redacted]. She stated she limped downstairs earlier in the evening and Phillip [R1] asked her to get him some Kool-Aid. She stated she made him some Kool-Aid and kissed him goodnight and went back upstairs.

Why was Wowk limping, was she also injured in some way?

This is a house where almost everyone had warrants out for their arrest, the place is filthy, there are needles and prescription bottles sitting out in the open - I don't think this tender Kool-Aid moment followed by a kiss goodnight was quite the whole story or quite the whole truth. It sounds like she's covering something up to me.

Wowk said she was awakened by Guy Curran going into [roomate #1?] and [roomate #2?] room and yelling that they had a problem... She stated they had warrants and they left the house prior to the police arriving and that is why Curran telephoned the police, because Curran did not have warrants. Wowk stated "they had to literally carry me out of the house"...She was dropped off at [a friend's?] house because she had a warrant.

It seems the 2 "deadbeat" roommates that lived with Phil had warrants out for their arrest as well, so they took off in a panic when Phillip was found dead by Curran. At least, that's what is being said here by Ms Wowk. She had to be "carried out" because of her condition, whatever that was.

Although Guy Curran apparently had no warrants out for his arrest, I'm sure he was no saint. I mean who would even live in a house like this with 4 individuals who all happen to have warrants out for their arrest? What crimes did they all commit? Were they all involved with the same one?

Guy Curran states he got home on 5.19.13 just after 3am to find his roomate Philip Buerstatte unresponsive. The front door was unlocked and it sounds like Phllip was on the living room couch. He first called his name a few times, then kicked the couch in hopes of waking him up. He then checked for a pulse, and apparently didn't detect one because that was when he says he called 911.

Unless it was redacted, Curran does not mention his roomates all fleeing the scene.

Curran stated that he followed the instructions of the dispatcher...Curran stated that he was not advised by dispatch to start any resuscitation efforts...Curran then stayed on scene until he was contacted by Officer Rentmeester and Officer Boulden, who had arrived at prior to my arrival.

Take note that Curran says he was advised not to start any resuscitation efforts. Now take a look at this quote from Investigator Thomas Parr:

Officer Weberpal indicated that the roommate [Guy Curran] came home and found Phillip [R1]. He checked on the VICTIM, who was [redacted]. When calling 911 they indicated that he should get [Phillip] on the living room floor and attempt life-saving procedures.

So now we have Curran stating he was advised NOT to start any resuscitation efforts, and we have Investigator Parr stating 911 dispatch told Curran he SHOULD attempt life-saving procedures. Perhaps the unredacted sections would clear this up, but as it stands now, there appears to be a conflicting narrative as to how the body was handled initially, during those crucial minutes where a life might be saved.

I find Inv Parr's use of the word "victim" here to be interesting. If an old man dies in his rocking chair, is he a "victim?" If Phillip overdosed on drugs or commited suicide, or simply "died in his sleep," would that make him a "victim" in the strict legal sense of the word? I don't wanna make a big deal out of this detail, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

On [Sunday] 05/19/13 at approximately 3:19am, I [Officer Weberpal] was dispatched to [redacted address] in reference to a death investigation. Call notes indicated that the call was received to dispatch at 3:13am by an individual [Guy Curran] who resides at this address.

Initially when I read this, it sounded like Officer Weberpal was the first one dispatched to the scene. But as we saw in the last section, 2 officers had already arrived when Weberpal got there. Narrative reports from those 2 officers are not to be found here. In my experience reading these types of reports, EVERY aspect of what officers do is chronicled in some manner. The actions they take, the time stamps, and what they observe. Observations made by the first individuals upon the scene are particularly crucial, because they give us the most raw, unaltered version of the death scene. Why have the observations made by the first officers upon the scene been ommitted completely here? Not redacted, OMITTED.

Call notes indicated that the caller came home and observed his roommate deceased in the living room...While standing in the living room, I noticed the living conditions in this residence were very poor. I observed garbage located on the floor and it appeared as though the living room portion of the residence had not been cleaned or kept up for a long time.

Officer Weberpal makes similar observations when he goes upstairs to Phillip's room. Besides food and garbage, syringes and prescription drugs were found. Based upon Officer Parr's observations, the bottles seem to be prescriptions written out for someone besides Phillip. Weberpal "did not locate any heroin but...did locate two plastic baggies on a nightstand at the end of the bed that had the corners ripped out of them." A cell phone was found in the living room and upstairs in Phillip's bedroom.

It sounds like the junkies took their "junk" before fleeing the scene. But I'd expect them to take their paraphernalia as well. Why leave needles and bloodied tissues behind, but absolutely no trace of heroin? Given the redactions, I suppose it's possible Phillip could have been administering something else into his veigns to do with his medical condition. It's also possible his girlfriend was shooting drugs but he was not.

Also present in the residence at this time were Officer Rentmeester, Officer Boulden, and the caller...While I was making my initial observations on the scene, Madison Fire was leaving the scene and provided me with a printout from their medical device that they had connected to the victim.

Again, it sounds like quite a bit occured already from the time the 911 call was made till Officer Weberpal arrived. We have virtually nothing describing what occured during those 5-10 minutes, other than these vague references to a medical device printout. Couldn't they have just included reports from the first 2 responding officers and redacted the hell out of them like the rest of this?

POST MORTEM

Zed [R2] stated that he had talked with his grandmother, [redacted], when his father died. The grandmother [R3] did not tell him the specifics of the funeral or what was happening with his father's body. Zed [R2] was very upset, stating that his grandmother [R3] had his father's body cremated prior to his arrival so he was unable to view his father's remains.

Michael Ewing told him the grandmother had taken all of his father's belongings, including his documents in reference to all of the record recordings Phillip had created and any possible proceeds that he would still be earning from these gold records. Supposedly, the grandmother also took two "stage jackets" that Phillip [R1] would wear when he performed.

It doesn't really sound like Phillip had a will or any sort of legal arrangements figured out regarding his belongings/estate prior to his death, so dear old Grandma just went in and seized everything. I don't quite understand how she would then start getting royalties from Phillip's sources though, unless she was named by him somewhere not mentioned here. I would think his son would be "next-of-kin" when it comes to royalty payments, but he seems quite out of the loop here. Did Phillip simply not care where his prized belongings/royalties went after he died, or was he just too medicated to think past his next fix?

Phillip's mother [R4] advised she last spoke with her son in January or February of this year and he told her he was going back to school.

Ewing stated Phillip was released from prison on 1.15.13, which sounds like the approximate time-frame he last spoke with his mother, according to her. It makes sense that he might be thinking about going back to school at this time, or at least pretending to entertain the idea, if we assume he wanted to get his life back on track, having just gotten out of jail. But it seems he quickly changed course by getting in trouble with the law, prompting a warrant for his arrest to be ordered.

Phillip's mother [R4] advised that she had her daughter go into the house at [redacted address] to collect her son's belongings. She did not mention anything about her son having any other family members, except for the sister.

I thought the grandmother hauled off with everything?

Phillip's mother [R4] Basically wanted to know if anyone was going to be following up on this death investigation. I told her at this point, there was nothing of a suspicious nature and that I was going to have the cell phones downloaded to see if they provided any information.

Although it doesn't sound like Phillip's mother was very close to him at the time he died, she seems genuinely uncertain as to how he died as of 6.3.13, the day she was interviewed. It sounds like investigators had mostly ruled out foul play already, leaving suicide or accidental overdose as their likely assumptions concerning how he died.

Ewing admitted he does not have a good relationship with Phillip's [R1] mother; however, he did give her $300 to rent a car when she came into town for his funeral. He denied taking any of Phillip's [R1] items and believes the gold records and guitar and other items that are missing of [redacted] were taken by an individual whom he identified as [redacted]

I asked her [Wowk] what happened to Phillip's [R1] guitar and gold records. She stated the guitar Phillip had left at a friend's house and that person went [missing?] and the landlord cleaned up the apartment and that is how he lost his guitar.

She stated Phillip [R1] told her that he gave one of the gold records to somebody for money and all he had to do was give that person the money back and he would get his gold record back. Supposedly there was another guy that is holding on to the other record but she does not know who that is. Wowk stated Phillip [R1] had a lot of friends and she does not know where any of that stuff is. She stated some music award Phillip received is gone now and she does not know what happened to that.

[Phillip Beurstatte (Philo) of Last Crack, White Zombie pictured with son Zed from Last Crack 2009 Reunion in Madison - MaximumInk.com]

FED THE GODS

In the original Star Trek series from the 60s, there's a particular cliche that fans have joked about. It's usually something like this: Kirk, Spock, Bones McCoy, and Ensign Smith land on an unexplored planet, which happens to have breathable air. If the shit hits the fan, we know in advance who's gonna get incinerated by the green martian gook, and it's not gonna be one of the main characters!

Perhaps the "original cast of characters" in White Zombie were all too important to sacrifice, so "Ensign Buerstatte" was brought in to take one for the team. Or more specifically, Rob Zombie's career.

[Loren Breckenridge III allegedly attempted to write a fraudulent check for $75,000 under the assumed identity of Phillip Buerstatte, in order to pay for a stay in rehab]

In August of 2012, the above man's face was loaded up into all the major heavy music press, bringing with it the name "Phillip Buerstatte," who most people had either forgotten or never even heard of. This story even turned up in major news publications, such as the Marin Independent Journal.

9 months later, on Thursday May 23rd 2013, 4 days after Phillip Buerstatte died, Loren Breckenridge was sentenced to prison. Heavy music press was again filled with Breckenridge, Buerstatte, and White Zombie, and the story enjoyed another 15 minutes or so of fame.

On 5.24.13, Metal Injection, the same organization who brought the original White Zombie members back together for an interview in 2022, said this:

Loren Breckenridge...was arrested in Sausalito, California last year after attempting to pay with a fake check for a four-week stay in a rehab facility. Breckenridge claimed to be the former White Zombie drummer, and since Buerstatte had not been seen in quite a while, authorities had a problem confirming if he was lying or not.

But, with the announcement of Buerstatte's body being found, authorities had enough evidence that Breckenridge was lying as reported by The Marin Independent Journal.

The above article contains a link to the Marin Independent Journal, which takes you to an error page. I tracked down what I believe to be the original article and it DOES NOT report what the last part of that Metal Injection article states.

Further, authorities did NOT have a problem confirming if Breckenridge was "lying or not" about who he was because they used his fingerprints to confirm his identity back in August of 2012, a good 9 months before the above article was written!

Sausalito police went to Novato and arrested Breckenridge on suspicion of passing fictitious checks, identity theft and fraudulent use of account information. Breckenridge was booked into the Marin County Jail, where a fingerprint examination of his true identity was determined. - Marin Independent Journal

If the Marin Independent Journal reported in 2012 that fingerprints were used to determine Breckenridge's identity, why would they report 9 months later that Buerstatte's corpse was required to determine Breckinridge's identity? The answer is they wouldn't and they didn't. These are lies, and they think White Zombie fans are too stupid or don't care enough to see it. Unfortunately, they seem to be correct.

PART 1

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Phillip Buerstatte: Feed the Gods [PT1]

[White Zombie: (L-R) Jay Yuenger, Rob Zombie, Sean Yseult, Ivan de Prume (bottom)]

QUIT THE BAND!

Some of you might remember a "Funky Death Metal" band from the 90s called White Zombie. Although they formed in the 80s, it was the above pictured album released on Geffen records which brought them more than a few moments of fame, mostly via MTV's popular animated show "Beavis and Butthead." Of course the singer, Rob Zombie, went on to persue a successful solo career just before getting into film making.

I was a pretty big fan of "L.S.D. Music Vol 1" when it was released in 1992, and attended their show when they came to town. Although my memory is generally composed of a montage of bodies, mostrous riffs and dreadlocks flying everywhere, the drummer Ivan de Prume's distinct characteristics were noticably absent. This bothered me because the band's rhythmic groove was a big part of what stood out to me, and I was afraid they wouldn't deliver. But after a few songs, I was probably second guessing whether this was actually a new guy or just Ivan de Prume with a haircut. Turns out it was a new drummer by the name of Phil Buerstatte, and he was quite good.

[Phil "Philo" Buerstatte, pictured on the far right]

On March 17, 1992, White Zombie released “La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol.1"...The band supported "La Sexorcisto" with a two-and-a-half-year-long tour...During the tour, Ivan de Prume left the band to pursue a successful career as a producer/engineer as well as drummer/percussionist and opened his own studio, Burningsound. He was replaced by Phil Buerstatte - wiki

Drummer Ivan de Prume apparently quit the band just as WZ got signed to a major label, Geffen Records. This would seem a strange time to leave, after 6 or so years of "paying dues" in the underground. All that blood, sweat, and tears to finally arrive at the place so many young musicians dream to be, yet never find. There it was, and de Prume just walks away from it in the middle of a tour, as if he has better options? Clearly, he DID have options and attended the Musician's Institute, where he completed their Drums and Percussion program. He also built his first professional recording studio in Los Angeles, Burningsound and began recording, producing and engineering projects. But does this really explain specifically why he left the group?

[Ivan de Prume (top) J Yuenger (L) Sean Yseult (R)]

The above screenshot was taken from an interview conducted by Metal Injection in 2022 or so. As far as I know, it is the first time de Prume speaks about why he left White Zombie.

[De Prume] I feel like...I just...was so pissed off at him [Rob Zombie] that I just shut myself out. And that was on tour. So when I closed myself off from him, I closed myself off from the whole band...Looking back, I regret some of my behavior. But at the same time, we are human beings and the things that Rob did is just unexcusable...to me. Like...I don't wanna SAY IT.

[Yseult] I will second that!

[All laugh nervously]

[de Prume] You know I just felt like I was stabbed in the back...and we had a phone call and I just wanted to talk to him about the situation and he said, "look, if you don't like it, quit the band!" and I'm like, "oh? That what you want?" and he said "Fuck you, quit!" and he hung up. And I was like "holy shit" and I looked at Jay. And I said, "looks like it's done." [laughs] and that's it! After so many years!

[Yseult] So shocking. So shocking, I still don't understand what the fuck happened!

Although we clearly didn't get the whole story here, I found the tangeably nervous reaction from Yeunger and Yseult intriguing. While Yseult does not hesitate to agree with every [somewhat vague] word de Prume says about Rob Zombie, everyone seems almost...afraid to say what he did exactly. J Yeunger looks very concerned while de Prume is telling the story, and immediately starts trying to lessen the impact by saying things like, "well I see this kind of stuff happen to bands ALL the time!"

Apparently J Yeunger now lives in Spain and had a child not too long ago. He looks decidedly babyfaced and conservative in the interview, and has what looks like some sort of middle-eastern language written on his shirt.

One person commented on this video, "I knew Jay's father. He was a very accomplished journalist for the Chicago Tribune."

Another person commented, "I used to work for Testament. White Zombie was our support act...We had a few days off. When the tour resumed, Ivan was gone and Phil was in...it was a bit strange."

Although the above interview was celebrating "L.S.D. Music Vol 1," it is odd that absolutely no mention of de Prume's replacement, Phil Buerstatte, is given. He toured the album 2 years with the band!

While the long awaited "juicy gossip" behind de Prume's exit from WZ was clearly the most engrossing part of this video, the thought occured to me, especially given the somewhat contrived, heavily edited aspects of this "spontaneously unscripted interview," that some form of damage control may have been THE motivating factor here. Was this really about "throwing a bone" to inquiring minds, in lieu of getting into the potentially MORE CONTROVERSIAL exit of Buerstatte from the band? Was the latter the real "elephant in the room" this interviewer mentions, and not Mr Zombie himself? I'm just not sure I buy how "authentic" all of this was. It strikes me as a bit too calculated and timely after all of these years. The performances are convincing though, I will admit.

Rob Zombie's behavior so early in WZ's career seems to reveal the power and importance he felt he had, in comparison to other members of the band. And although many people disliked Rob's solo material [including myself], he is the one who kept putting out records on Geffen, and getting bigger and bigger in the industry - while the other members seemed to disappear from the spotlight. What deal did he make that the other band members did not?

THE NEW DRUMMER

["Last Crack," featuring Phil Buerstatt on the upper left - previous to joining White Zombie]

While the original core members of White Zombie appeared in hind-sight to have had bigger career objectives [and opportunities] than their "struggling street artist" image may have initially let on, Phil Buerstatt's background is not as clear. His fairly brief stint in WZ seemed to end as abruptly and with just as few questions asked as when it started.

[Mick Shrimpton: before and after..."Alas, Shrimpton also falls victim to the drummer curse. Shrimpton tragically exploded on stage while performing at Kobe Hall!" - greenandblackmusic.com]

...the reason he left the band was due to his severe drug problem...which I know only got worse once he left and then I heard he was in prison...Phil was a very troubled guy during his time with us and I never really knew what happened to him after he left the band. The few stories I heard were not good...He was a nice guy — I really liked him — but he had a lot of problems and did some really bad stuff to the band, so… [laughs] But it's unfortunate that he never got his life together." - Rob Zombie

Apparently Phillip wasn't the only one who did "really bad stuff to the band," Ivan de Prume has stated similar things about Rob Zombie's treatment of the band, and himself in particular, as mentioned earlier.

Reminds me of the film Spinal Tap, where drummers in the band end up dying in "bizarre gardening accidents" or they simply blow up spontaneously on stage. Does the film contain a sinister truth, veiled beneath the satire? Does this sort of thing happen "all the time," as J Yeunger confidentally pontificates in the above interview?

By the time White Zombie entered the studio in late 1994 to begin recording their fourth album, Zombie and Yseult had ended their relationship, and Buerstatte was dismissed from the band, due to artistic differences - wiki

"Artistic differences" is usually code for "I'd rather not get into it." The thought that Buerstatte and Yseult may have had an affair comes to mind, especially considering the synchronistic timing of Rob's relationship separation from Yseult and Buerstatte's dismissal. Perhaps it was drugs, perhaps it was an affair, perhaps we'll never really know.

Other than Buerstatte's work with the bands Last Crack and WZ, we don't really know much about him. Oddly, an IMDb entry lists him as an "actor, known for [the music video] White Zombie: Thunder Kiss '65 (1992)." Other than the band members themselves, that video doesn't have any men in it that are not masked. Could he be this guy?

[Still image from WZ's "Thunderkiss '65" video.]

I wondered if IMDb's entry for Buerstatte was innacurate, especially since it doesn't even mention him being in WZ - which he wasn't at the time the above mentioned video was shot. But then I came across an interview with Rob Zombie from MTV Headbanger's Ball, where he states that Buerstatte appeared in the video for "Black Sunshine" as an audience member. Could this be him?

After leaving WZ and a Last Crack reunion or 2, Buerstatte seems to vanish from the spotlight until 2012.

FEED THE GODS

White Zombie had recorded several songs for movie soundtracks and various artists compilation albums, including "Feed the Gods" for the soundtrack to Airheads, "I Am Hell" for the Beavis and Butt-Head Experience compilation album and a cover version of Black Sabbath's "Children of the Grave", which appears on the tribute album Nativity in Black; each of these songs received airplay on active rock radio stations, while a music video "Feed the Gods" was released. - wiki

While Phillip Buerstatte was only in the band for a couple years, he seemed to jump on the WZ rocket just as it launched to MTV stardom. This was a "new gear" for the band, and by all accounts it was an unstoppable machine, which none of the members seemed interested in slowing down for ANYTHING. I think Yeunger even says in the earlier referenced video he woulda cut off his legs if they told him to!

Although the extended "L.S.D. Music Vol 1" tour seemed to delay any full length album goals the band may have initially entertained, they did manage to record at least 3 songs with Buerstatte, all seemingly produced for very specific mainstream productions: A Hollywood film, a Geffen sponsored Beavis and Butthead album, and a Black Sabbath compilation released just a few years before Ozzy's high profile return to the band.

When de Prume left WZ, the rhythm section went from an organic, funky thrash Metal thing to a dehumanized wall of industrial noise. This trend continued on through Rob Zombie's solo career, and I just never really cared for any of it. Therefore, I don't even recall ever listening to "I am Hell" or "Feed the Gods" until just recently.

To comment upon the lyrics for a moment, Rob's words tend to have a stream-of-consciousness flow to them - where rhythmic points are usually more important than cohesive storytelling points. They are more word collages than stories. That being said, I think "Feed the Gods" is about exactly that: Feeding the Gods. But the question is, what do "gods" eat? A human sacrifice, preferably...at least, if we're talking pagan gods here. Someone suggested the song was about the band itself, which makes sense. Does this mean the band must "feed the gods" at some point?

"I am Hell" is pretty tough to decifer, so I won't try. But I know what it isn't: it's not about Jesus!

"Children of the Grave" is a Black Sabbath cover, and the only thing WZ adds is a few extra YEAH!'s and a sample, which seems to be referencing the 1969 Manson murders. I don't know what the connection is supposed to be between the song's original lyrics and the Manson-murder-inspired samples, but obviously, again, it ain't about Jesus!

THE STRANGE CASE OF LOREN BRECKENRIDGE

[Loren Breckenridge III, impersonated Buerstatte in order to write bad checks to pay for rehab?]

Sausalito police have arrested a man claiming to be the former drummer for the disbanded heavy metal band White Zombie after he allegedly defrauded the Alta Mira Recovery Center for approximately $75,000. The same man also allegedly defrauded a similar rehabilitation center in Novato.

The man, identified as Loren Breckenridge, 46, claimed to be Phillip Buerstatte, the former drummer for White Zombie, and had arranged to stay at the Alta Mira drug and alcohol rehab center for a month, but left treatment two weeks into his stay, police said.

Police were still trying to determine whether "Phillip Buerstatte" could actually be a stage name used by Breckenridge, or if Breckenridge was impersonating the musician. - Marin Independent Journal 08.31.12

This strange story seemed to do little else but temporarily raise Phillip Buerstatte's name and connection to White Zombie out of obscurity and into the news headlines. The timing was interesting, as this story began circulating through the online Heavy music news bulletin Blabbermouth less than a year before Buerstatte's mysterious death on May 19th, 2013.

According to Blabbermouth, Buerstatte "suffered through years of drug addiction, treatment and prison time" before he "died in his sleep in his Madison, Wisconsin home." Notice that Blabbermouth suggests Buerstatte's unhealthy lifestyle lead to his death, without actually saying it. Rob Zombie sort of does the same thing in an earlier quote where he states "it's unfortunate that he never got his life together." It sounds as if Rob assumed Buerstatte's unhealthy lifestyle lead to his death, but how could he know that when the cause of death was never revealed to the public? If a piano falls on the head of an unsuspecting drug addict, was it his unhealthy lifestyle or the piano that killed him?

Given the extreme wierdness of the above story and it's close approximation in time to Buerstatte's death, I wondered if there was a connection. So after combing through all the news stories available online, I decided to attempt a Freedom of Information Act request in order to get more detail. We will take a look at that in part 2.

PART 2

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The Craft Work of Kraftwerk [PT II]

In part 1 we looked at various quotes from members of the group Kraftwerk as well as friends/associates. We considered whether they are/were not just an "influential music group," but some sort of international cultural engineering vehicle. We observed that founders Ralf Hütter [RH] and Florian Schneider [FS] seemed to be the "gatekeepers" representing a publicly invisible think-tank, which I am calling "The Organization," behind Kraftwerk. Given the seemingly inpenetrable wall of secrecy surrounding The Organization, we can only hope to reach conclusions indirectly, by analyzing the group's music, image, statements to the press over the years, and other circumstantial evidence.

While some may find this exercise boring, pointless, or even offensive, nobody can deny the eccentric/secretive nature of the group's founders. Secrets naturally invite curiosity, even obsession. We are not robots, who simply follow the protocol or whatever narrative is fed to us. We are inquisitive, and want to know about our environment and where information comes from and who is producing it. We are self aware. We are HUMAN.

YOU ARE THE ROBOTS

[The Jackson 5 performs "the Robot" dance with Cher on Soul Train, circa 1973]

Michael Jackson came on the phone around 1985/6 during the Electric Cafe period. He wanted to have permission to use the original Man Machine multi track….Ralf and Florian refused... - Karl Bartos [KB]

David Bowie and Michael Jackson are just a couple of major pop icons who were famously "denied" a music collaboration with Kraftwerk. But were these just urban myths sensationalized by the press, designed to make the larger "robotic agenda" seem more organic and less intentionally manufactured? In a sense, these collaborations happened anyway, by way of influence.

[It is widely known that David Bowie fueled the popularity of Kraftwerk prior to and during his Berlin years 1976-77…He played the Radio-Activity album as a prelude to his own performances in a 1976 tour and even considered hiring Kraftwerk as his support group. - Pertti Grönholm]

Since Bowie could not obtain Kraftwerk as his back-up band, he went with British synthesizer legend Brian Eno, of Roxy Music fame. Together, they wrote 3 albums, dubbed Bowie's "Berlin trilogy," of which the song "Heroes" would probably be the most recognizable. The album "Heroes" contains a song called "V-2 Schneider" in homage to Florian Schneider, if the Kraftwerk influence was not obvious enough already.

The Maschinenmensch (literally 'machine-human' in German) is a fictional robot featured in Thea von Harbou's novel Metropolis and Fritz Lang's [1927] film adaption of the novel...Maschinenmensch was one of the first fictional robots ever depicted in cinema, and as a result popularized the concept worldwide. - wiki

You, the journalists, you will be amazed. One day, the robots will be the ones who will answer your questions, they will have an electronic brain and memories with all the possible questions. To get the answers, you will only have to press a button. - RH

The Robots were entirely appropriate to Computer World - thematically, at any rate - because, after all, home computers are nothing more than electronic servants, carrying out our orders and commands at the touch of a button, and this is happening in every office, in every household and in every child’s bedroom, day and night. - Wolfgang Flur [WF]

…What was significant for us [about the first Star Wars film], to my mind, was the 2 robots. C-3PO was clearly recognizable as the male version of the machine woman from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis…Even before Star Wars…The press too referred to us as human machines, robots, androids, or mannequins. These comparisons were by no means intended positively…a critic complained: “Kraftwerk has dehumanized its musicians into robots.”…A German journalist, exhausted from listening to Trans-Europe Express declared: “After 2 sides of Kraftwerk, I feel more like a robot myself.”…Star Wars and particularly C-3PO and R2-D2 changed that negative view. - KB

The image of the robot is very important to us, it’s very stimulating to people’s imaginations. We always found that many people are robots without knowing it…So, we have opened the curtains and said, “look, everyone can be robotic, controlled.” In Paris, the people go on the Metro, they move, they go to their offices, 8am in the morning - it’s like remote control. It’s strange…but at the same time it’s funny, full of humor….I think that the things speak for themselves. That’s one reason why I don’t like to explain so much what we do. - FS

I find that the robots are funny - let’s say between funny and…it’s like horror movies, it can be funny and it can be horrific or magical. It depends upon your point of view. - FS

It's always fascinating to look back and observe certain individuals accurately predicting what will occur in the near future. But in the case of RH and FS, do we give them too much credit concerning such predictions? What I mean to say, is that perhaps they were not merely geniuses who could see into the future. Perhaps they were privy to information via the Organization directly related to what they were doing. I'm talking about an actual PLAN to help dehumanize the culture through a mechanical type of music. To DELIBERATELY make their audience more robotic. Controlled. It is quite easy to "predict the future" when you are in possession of the playbook being implemented by the powers that be! And it is very easy to see the purpose of all this: to gain a greater level of control over the population.

Consider FS's quotation above noting the robotic nature of everyday people in their daily commute to work. Now think of New York city rush hour traffic. Los Angeles commuters...What we have here is modern urban work culture, which is robotic in nature. Now put your hands together and in your best Mr Burns impression, ask the question: How do we turn everyday leisure into the same controlled robotic dance? How do we turn people's socializing and even their sleep into a controlled robotic operation?

We humans are completely unimportant, interchangeable. That’s what we want to demonstrate with our dummies. We say what’s interesting about us through our music. We don’t consider ourselves rockstars just because we sell alot of records. We’re scientists. We experiment with our machines every day. We research and then we deliver the results - music. - RH, BRAVO teen magazine

We are told Michael Jackson invented "the robot," a dance routine which emulates a non-human machine trying to move like a human. It's quite an odd concept when you think about it! Why would you want to deliberately try and move like a machine incapable of the exact fluid motions of humans? From this perspective, MJ would seem like the ultimate "show room dummy" or trained animal. An embodiment of the glorification of self-dehumanization. Now think about what this does to an audience. Mesmerized, they feel compelled to learn and emulate these same movements. To behave more like...robots? You must imagine yourself inside the mind of an extremely evil power mongering individual to comprehend the larger implications here. You want to control people on a MASS scale. This is how you do it!

Talented as MJ was, are we again giving too much credit to someone for "inventing" something that was perhaps being done under instruction of an invisible organization? It may sound like an absurd suggestion, but consider how easy it is for people to accept that MJ was robbed of his childhood by his father and other shady industry types so that they could capitalize upon his raw talent. It's easy for people to visualize that, but for some reason it's much harder for people to grasp that a larger intellectual agenda may also have been driving MJ's exploitation, and his deliberate influence upon American culture and beyond.

THE GERMAN INVASION

One such episode occurred in 1982 with a certain Afrika Bambaataa, who released an album called Planet Rock…put together a hip-hop rap album on which they mixed parts of “Numbers” and “Trans Europe Express” for a single release…They didn’t even ask…this is the nastiest kind of theft! - WF

Up to the end of the 19th century, it was general practice in Western music to repeat rhythms in regularly accented patterns known as pulse groups…Exactly like in our modern pop music, the schematic repetition of these beats made listeners feel safe. We might describe it these days as “a groove.” We might compare it to the constitutions on which today’s societies are founded, which we tend to forget in daily life when everything is working well. But if they are overruled, or suspended anarchy breaks out. - KB

During the session, our polyglot Ralf remembered his basic Russian and pointed out to us that the word Robot - robots - originally has a slavic root, meaning work. Then he had the idea of having the robot add a line of Russian to our sound collage: Ya tvoi slugs, ya tvoi rabotnik” - I am your servant, I am your worker.” Ralf and Florian then brought a number of Russian visual artists into play…I think it was the very next day that we ended up poring over a book about the work of El Lissitzky, which Ralf had opened up on our mixing desk.

“Kraftwerk Members…are surprised at their success in the disco scene!” - Billboard full page ad, Oct 22 1977

…we decided to produce a few mixes in the Kling Klang Studio to test for danceability…we made regular trips to the Morocco disco in Cologne…we listened to our music under dance-floor conditions with a full house. - KB

Our ideas really come from our experience…everyday life. We are playing the machines, the machines play us, it is really the exchange and the friendship we have with the musical machines… RH

...as well as Mora’s Lover’s club, there were a few other night-clubs we would look into…This was where we carried out our “sociocultural studies” and felt close to the music of the day and the audience’s reactions. - KB

…In America, there was always a large part of the audience which was dancing, the black audience, hispanic, Hispano-American…Electronic music is really a world language, it is the music of a global village. RH

As we read these quotations, an image starts to appear in the mind. Not of a music group, but a social/cultural engineering team. Scientists, clearly using their extentive education in various areas of expertise and applying it to their musical movements and marketing. But to what end exactly? This never seems to be clearly stated by the group. Maybe that's because it is completely obvious and in your face already! "We are the Robots." The Man-Machine. Die Mensch-Maschine. Do they really need to spell it out any clearer? To do so outside of the music would spoil the mesmerizing spell.

Ralf Hutter articulates Kraftwerk's success within America's Black/Hispanic dance clubs as a positive thing, if somewhat vaguely. Who would have thought that a soft spoken, conservative, highly educated, classically trained white German musician would be most responsible for creating popular dance music dominated by American Blacks and Latinos? A type of music [hip-hop] that would more or less fuse itself with American black culture, and at times be used as a vehicle upon which to express black pride and specific distinction from white culture, whatever that is?

I don't think it's a coincidence that Kraftwerk's output slowed down substantially after their 1981 "Computer World" album and Afrika Bambaataa's sampling of their music the following year. The birth of Hip-Hop and all sorts of electronic pop dance music seemed to coincide with the "decline" of Kraftwerk. But I'm not so sure this is the most accurate description, popular as it tends to be. Perhaps what some viewed as a "decline" was actually the accomplishment of a monumantal goal: The perminent establishment of "robot-culture" through music! Once this goal was reached, the group had less purpose - hense their apparent lack of output since the 80s. After the immense success of "Computer World," the goal of the group seemed to be "now, just keep it going. Put out an album every so often, tour, re-issue the old catalog, and just drive home the same messaging. Keep the machine moving forward, like a cyclist training for the Tour De France..."

Apparently, Afrika Bambaataa settled with Kraftwerk in a legal ruling where the former must pay royalties to the latter for use of their music on the classic "Planet Rock" single. While most news articles on this topic tend to depict Kraftwerk as some assholes from Germany who won't let someone sample their music for free, no one ever considered the idea that Afrika Bambaataa may have had permission all along. There could have been a "secret" agreement that they would use the music, and Kraftwerk would get a cut, in order to introduce "Robot-Pop" to a wider American audience somewhat covertly. Meanwhile, the public would be told it was all done without permission and court hearings would be held to ensure the willful collaboration was not detected. Even the musicians themselves could be hidden from the truth, so that only those who "needed to know" would be aware of it.

ORIGINS AND PHILOSOPHY

The Essen Song Days were organized by a team led by the eccentric Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser, a music journalist who later founded the krautrock labels Ohr and Kosmische Kuriere before suffering a mental breakdown and retreating from the scene. He was inspired by the Monterey Pop Festival of the previous year but wanted to mix pop and politics more overtly at Essen, invoking the New Left, quoting Herbert Marcuse in the booklet for the festival, and stating that "songs don't make a revolution but songs accompany revolutions." - 70s Krautrock in Germany

It put a lot of new ideas out to a much wider audience, firstly through attracting some 40,000 people to watch, listen and participate in events held across the city, and shortly afterwards, when the documentary Zwischen Pop and Politics was broadcast on German television.

The underground scene in Germany in 1968 really arose through the influence of flower power from San Francisco, the musical HAIR, and also somewhat through the politicized ’68 movement throughout Europe. - Konrad Mallison

One day, I got a surprising opportunity to see the Steve Reich Ensemble…The music put me into a kind of hypnosis…The music’s psychological effect is based on taking familiar-sounding musical material and subjecting it to constant repetition…this sound…leads to a new experience of time. If you engage with it, it develops a musical undertow that puts the listener into a trance like state. KB

They [Ralf and Florian] not only had a perfect knowledge of rock but also jazz. - Marc Zermati, French label Skydog

I'm not prepared to get into the early origins of Krautrock in any sort of detail, but it is important to touch upon it briefly and to observe the primitive mechanics that was theoretically behind it.

As I stated in part I, the birth of Krautrock seemed to evolve out of German exposure to 60s psychedelic rock. The Monterey Pop festival in America was the famous concert where Jimi Hendrix, endeavoring to top The Who, lit his guitar on fire. It is known that a CIA presence was there, and had copious amounts of LSD distributed to attendees. In retrospect, some view the Monterey Pop Festival as a contrived event who's purpose was to test LSD's military application, by dosing large numbers of people and taking note of the responses. Large scale mind control. From this perspective, we might view the "eccentric" Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser and his motives behind The Essen Song Days a bit differently. It seems plain to me that this was just another international deep state operation designed to import the psychedelic mind control experiments to German Youth and to help shape the post war culture there. This seems to have spawned the "artistic" German culture from which Kraftwerk originally arose.

…there had just been a lot of noise, and their performance had sounded like stukka air raids - they obviously enjoyed imitating the sounds of war. It certainly wasn’t music and I was horrified…As I later learned, this was experimental music… - WF

Maybe the idea was to try to achieve a concept, it worked better later, of course. But today we don’t consider the first albums as important works… FS

The first 2 Kraftwerk albums utilized more traditional musical equipment, but experimented with a variety of rhythms, sounds, and beats. It wasn't "standard music" and would be regarded as unlistenable to some, because on a certain level, it really WASN'T music, but an actual experiment in sonic extremes. Various performances were carried out along side art shows in the German underground to an audience which seemed to be searching for a culture of their own in a post-war country that would probably prefer to delete the past 40 years and start from scratch. Or...were audiences being HERDED into a new culture, which was being cultivated for them?

Time-wise, the leap from Kraftwerk I to Autobahn was about 4 years. Sonically, it was a leap from traditional instruments to entirely electronic based ones. Everything in between was literally an experiment in how audiences would react to various forms of sound stimulation, and in many cases, mixed with visuals [This is more or less what early Pink Floyd was doing in England during their Syd Barrett era at places like the UFO Club. Germany had a similarly short lived club called the Zodiac]. Autobahn was the last of a 3-album record deal with Philips, and was clearly and deliberately crafted into something far more digestible and accessable, if still very experimental compared to most pop music of the day.

In technical terms, I would describe Autobahn as having far cleaner and distinct SOUND SEPARATION, in the same sense we might refer to COLOR SEPARATION in photo graphics terminology. With electric sounds, one could achieve a far greater level of sound separation, thus allowing for greater sonic control of the frequencies themselves. This took another great leap forward in the digital age, at which time Kraftwerk more or less abandoned the habit of releasing albums and proceeded to spend all of their time converting their catalog into a digital format, in order to continue their sonic experiments almost exclusively via live performances.

At the time of Autobahn, we adopted the “German” image at Florian’s suggestion...They [the Americans] thought we were singing “fun fun fun on the autobahn” , a homage to “fun fun fun,” the surfing anthem by The Beach Boys. WF

As Hutter and Schneider saw it, The Beach Boys represented an almost scientific pop perfection. Their music had succeeded in crystalizing certain essential features of American culture and lifestyle. Schneider noted that “When we reached California and Hollywood, we were able to say: yes, it’s exactly like that, like the songs of The Beach Boys.” This was the goal of Kraftwerk as well: to create a Genuine German sound…to re-define and popularize post-war Germany and its cultural past. - Littlejohn, 2009.

Ralf and Florian discussed the poster for the American [Autobahn] tour. They wanted it to pick up on the look of Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis, I remember - the city of the future, transport, electricity, and the movie’s main theme, the coexistence of man and machine. The Autobahn tour poster…already featured Ralf and Florian’s term “man-machine.” - KB

[Fritz Lang’s utopian cinematic versions of Machine Land is] “Where the scientists and artists are working hand in hand…We are the children of Werner Von Braun and Fritz Lang. We start from the 20s and just to the 70s and 80s. We’re not concerned with history lessons, we are concerned with today. I think that’s one of the basic faults of society, to look backwards and all this fool stuff…if you are driving a fast car and you look too much in the back mirror you might crash in front. We’d rather watch what we’re doing right now, what we could do today or tomorrow.” - RH, Christmas issue of NME [1977?]

We just came up with this concept: Let’s do a song like driving on the autobahn. Ralf specifically asked me to write some lyrics. - Emil Schult

I can’t say whether that 1964 track - part of the American pop canon - was the blueprint for the “Autobahn” lyrics, but wouldn’t it make sense if Emil had associated his “fahr'n fahr'n fahr'n” with “fun fun fun”? Both songs are about driving cars, after all. - KB

Later I found out the track we’d listened to was “You Doo Right” from the Can album “Monster Movie.” Just recently, so many decades later, I listened to it again and I was surprised by how much it reminds me of “Autobahn.” - KB

Their music is very smooth, very slack, a kind of long bewitchment… - Herve Picart, France’s “Best” magazine

It’s beyond me how they’re album broke into the US charts but here it is defying all trends and previous expectations. - Todd Telcos, Melody Maker

Most Americans, myself included, are probably too young or were not even alive in 1974 when Krautrock's first "hit" arrived on mainstream radio, Autobahn. The first time I heard it, it reminded me of music from primitive 80s home video games, such as those found on Commodore 64 and Atari. That is because these video game systems utilized the same synthesizers Kraftwerk was using in their music, a good 5-10 years earlier.

Reactions from American audiences during the Autobahn tour were mixed, according to what I have read. In some cases, they were not so well recieved and shows were not always so full. Although there were obviously plenty of Americans who appreciated what Kraftwerk was doing, it was regarded as experimental even to the prog-rock crowd, who's ears were attuned to music which was either rock, blues, jazz, or classical based in sound. Electricly filtered noises and computer generated sound was a much further stretch, and one would be justified in wondering if Autobahn wasn't FORCED onto American radio, in order to condition American audiences to such sounds. A soft sort of "force feeding" of Krautrock.

Although Ralf and Florian were often dismissive of the influence the Beach Boys [and probably their Krautrock peers, CAN] had upon Autobahn, I think it is quite clear that The Organization systematically took the music of Beach Boys apart, and rebuilt it within a German context, in order to tap into its' "mesmerizing" pop quality. In short, it is the sound of German culture being rebuilt by sonic architects.

[German News headlines]
German Pop Autobahn Conquers America
The New Conquerors of America

WF features the above news headlines from papers he kept from his time with Kraftwerk. Notice the language of the headlines above is similar in feel to the phrase "British invasion," in the sense that the music of a foreign country takes the audience of another "by storm." Of course they don't literally mean that Kraftwerk was "conquering America." How could music do that? But at the same time, there is a certain sinister truth to the headlines, if we think in terms of propaganda. This trend continues upon the group's signing with British based label EMI.

THE FINAL SOLUTION

…It is nonetheless still the radio that Joseph Goebbels commissioned for mass production. Hitler’s propaganda minister knew that communication between radio and listeners was key, but it wouldn’t happen with political messages alone. People were much easier to reach through emotive songs…By coincidence or intention, quite a few things with Kraftwerk seemed loaded with historical symbolism. - KB

…”Wenn’s um unsere Zukunft geht” (when it comes to our future) sounds like a 1970s advertising slogan for the nuclear power lobby…the line “In the air for you and me” could refer both to nuclear radioactivity and radio airplay. Years later the ambivalent lyrics became an anti-nuclear credo and the Third Reich Volksempfanger radio on the album cover was replaced by a radioactive pictogram. Back in 1975, however, the album’s main emphasis…was on communication. In my view, the other half of the concept…was intended to be absolutely neutral. How else could we have been photographed for the album promotion at a nuclear power station, decked out in white coats and protective shoe covers? - KB

It is fascinating how well educated, self aware, and well read some of the members of Kraftwerk are/were. Karl Bartos, for example, is very good at articulating something potentially sinister about The Organization's motives, but puts it in a perspective where it feels like it is comfortably on the other side of the room. But in reality, he seems to be describing what was going on within the brain of The Organization, and how the Craft Work would be applied to the public. Not only is the radio pictured upon the cover of the album "Radio-Activity" a genuine Nazi radio [with the swastika logo removed], but he's telling you what is being depicted by it, from the perspective of Hitler's propaganda minister! The music itself coming from this "radio" [your turntable speakers] would deliver propaganda through emotive songs. Bartos is even willing to consider that this was being done intentionally, which is quite a surprising admission from a member of the "classic" Kraftwerk line-up.

The most important aspect of mixing pop music is to work out a song’s “storyboard,” the narrative thread and dramatic structure running through the composition… - KB

Similar to how a movie script will be put to primitive story board images before attempting to film it, Kraftwerk clearly had a combination emotional/frequency "script" drawn out before attempting to record songs like "Radioactivity." In fact, this was something I detected before reading Karl Bartos' book, where he acknowledges this approach to songwriting. That's not to say there wasn't plenty of improvisation and genuine mastery of musical melody going on. But with a song like "Radioactivity," we can very clearly hear the shift from "scary" to "awe" to "catharsis," to "relief," and finally "safety." As if frequencies corresponding to specific human emotions have been charted out in order to provoke specific responses in listeners, to nearly hypnotic affect. But unlike classical music, which can be similarly dramatic, electronic sounds allow for a greater level of sound seperation and, therefore, a greater level of frequency control, and therefore a greater level of LISTENER EMOTIONAL RESPONSE.

After the moon landing, Wernher Von Braun [NASA] was an American National hero, the shining star of the rocket industry… “One of those rare engineers with charisma” wrote the New York Times…He never had to answer to his Nazi past, distancing himself from the crimes of National Socialism and denying any personal culpability…Depending on how one views it, the story of that dynamic German physicist plays a role in our song [Spacelab]. “In a way we feel related to Warner Von Braun; German scientific research is related to our music. We make acoustic rockets.” Ralf explained to Interview magazine rather bluntly. - KB

We are the children of Werner Von Braun and Fritz Lang... - RH, Christmas issue of NME [1977?]

Werner Von Braun was a rocket scientist for the German Nazi party. After WWII, he was brought over to America, probably under the Project Paperclip program, in order to continue his work with the newly formed NASA. His engineering skills would lead to the launching of Apollo 11 and alleged moon landings. This is all very interesting, but Von Braun was a Nazi! For members of Kraftwerk to so fearlessly cite him as an inspiration seems a bit bold, if they did not want to be percieved as having nefarious fascistic political motives. Something they would get accused of upon release of Man Machine.

Many people later misunderstood the cover shot, finding it too fascist. They were unable to understand that it was pure irony to us…Huge red posters were stuck up all over Paris showing the cover of our new album…and anyone who didn’t know us might actually have found them quite fascist…Everything in the room in which our presentation took place was decorated red, matching the Russian style album cover… - WF

While we were touring the UK, New Musical Express printed the interview in its 6 September issue, with the new headline: Kraftwerk: The Final Solution to the Music Problem?..The magazine also illustrated the interview with a photo montage, featuring the group shot of Kraftwerk copied into a historical photo of the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg..Was this the British sense of humor we’d heard so much about?

The German SOUNDS called the album [Man Machine] R2-D2’s favorite record. - KB

The perception of Man Machine as having a fascist/soviet communist sort of intent is not without merit. The key is, we are supposed to appreciate the irony and humor of it all, which I did upon first seeing the album cover and the accompanying video for "the Robots". But humor is a very interesting thing, which can sometimes deliver information which would otherwise be deemed "taboo." Because the fascistic imagery is delivered with humor and irony, we assume it is not to be taken seriously, and that only dumb people would. But supposing you are the author of the music, and you know full well how "dumb" people will percieve it. Is THAT your actual target audience?

TOUR DE FRANCE

After the successful "Computer World" tour, Kraftwerk came to a screeching halt. Whether it was Ralf getting into a bicycle accident, the band becoming overly perfectionistic about the new recordings, or they just got too caught up in converting their catalog into a digital format - something clearly changed productivity-wise. The single "Tour De France" was released in 1983 as a teaser for their new album, which never came out. It wasn't until 1986 that the somewhat underwelming "Electric Cafe" album was released.

It would be a good 17 years until Kraftwerk released the confusingly titled "Tour De France Soundtracks" album in 2003, which appears to be their last release of original music.

The bicycle is already a musical instrument on its own. The noise of the bicycle chain and pedal and gear mechanism, for example, the breathing of the cyclist, we have incorporated all of this in the Kraftwerk sound… RH

There is no doubt that RH became obsessed with bicycle riding. And although he got the rest of the group on board for a time, he was ultimately alone in his obsession. I have my theories regarding this, mainly that it was something he could talk about and refer to in interviews which humanized him to their audience, who were never sure what to make of the group's stand off-ish, cryptic interview answers. On a larger symbolic level, it represented their "Man Machine" concept, in combination with the idea of motion - which I think was all Kraftwerk had towards the end. A vessel in motion, which had already brought "Robot Pop" to the mainstream , and now had a life of it's own.

I remember I had an appointment with Ralf and Florian…I still remember the image of them, sitting there all dressed in black, with their precise haircuts, their made-to-measure suits. It was like an expressionists’ picture, a very stylized one, the dummies could have been there and it would have been the same. I tell you, the girl I was with was frightened. - Paul Alessanrini

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