Updated June 21, 2008
Blixa Bargeld - Photo by Thomas RabschIf you appreciate Blixa Bargeld in all of his artistic incarnations, this page is for you. Blixa Bargeld, best known as guitarist for Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (he left the band in 2003), is a bright star in the galaxy of performance artists, an entirely different animal to the magnificent beast that every Bad Seeds fan idolized. A German native, Blixa (real name Christian Emmerich) is a prodigious, multi-genre, interpretive artist, including the spoken word. A short list of accomplishments: singer, guitarist, poet, lyricist, composer, writer, and lecturer.
Einstürzende Neubauten was formed in West Berlin in 1980. The band’s name refers to post World War II building efforts in Germany, which produced poorly constructed, aesthetically unattractive structures which define the urban architecture of postwar Germany. Literally, Einstürzende means ‘collapsing buildings’. Neubauten refers to buildings constructed in post-war German cities (after 1945). Hence, ‘collapsing new buildings’ is the closest English translation of EN.
Understanding the band’s name is one thing. EN’s genre is more difficult to categorize. I’d say Experimental-Alt.Industrial-Avante Garde, although I’m sure that Blixa would laugh if he read my clumsy attempts to put his art in a neat little slot. Fair is fair. Watch this amusing early interview where Blixa warns his bandmate “don’t under-nourish” EN’s artistic purpose to a Japanese talk show host clearly smitten with the wild-haired Blixa!
Einstürzende Neubauten - Interview / Live 1980s Japanese subtitles
tx to LoveRemoval
In 1982 Berlin, Blixa’s uniquely charismatic performance in EN enthralled a certain Aussie ex-pat named Nick Cave. The rest, as they say, is history. My considered opinion is that Cave took Blixa as his musical paramour, a term I’m using as a way to describe the depth and intimacy of their collaborative relationship. The excitement that Blixa generated was exactly what Nick needed at the time, both artistically and personally.
“Finally, the camera found the third man. He was the most beautiful man in the world. He stood there in a black leotard and black rubber pants, black rubber boots. Around his neck hung a thoroughly fucked guitar. His skin cleared to his bones, his scull was a utter disaster, scabbed and hacked, and his eyes bulged out of their orbits like a blind man’s. And yet, the eyes stared at us as if to herald some divine visitation. Here stood a man on the trashold of greatness; here stood a Napoleon victorious amongst his spoils, a conquering Caesar parading his troops, a Christ akimbo on Calvary. Blixa Bargeld… For sixty seconds, this man stood as if paralyzed, hexed by his own madness. Then he opened his mouth and let out a scream that sounded like someone was pulling a thistle out of his soul.” — Nick Cave, “Thistles in my Soul,” an essay on seeing Blixa and Einstürzende Neubauten for the first time. Read full text of “Thistles”.
Nick Cave on Blixa Bargeld):
This video shows early EN footage w/Nick Cave voiceover (text follows):
(Cave) “We were in Amsterdam, The Birthday Party, we were on tour there and I was in a hotel room and I very clearly remember putting on the TV and seeing this band that I’d never heard of before. And it was an incredibly mournful, haunting piece of music that they were making, and eventually [the camera] came on to Blixa. I’d never seen anybody look so destroyed, so ill. And he opened his mouth and let this cry come from his throat. It was a sound I’d never heard come from an adult human being before. It was something that comes out of strangled cats or dying children. It was one of those defining moments for me of things that you see that just change they way you are.” (’EN: 20 ans de nostalgie’, 2000, French documentary)
Blixa Trivia:
Enjoy the following eclectic selections.
~ Morgan
————————-
Added 07-21-08
50 Seconds behind Stella Maris - Blixa Bargeld in the studio
Einstürzende Neubauten - Stella Maris (live 2000): Blixa Bargeld and Meret Becker perform their gorgeous duet at EN’s 20th anniversary concert.
Einstürzende Neubauten - Der Tod Ist Ein Dandy (Live 1990 at Rockpalast)
Interesting difference to what Blixa was doing with The Bad Seeds that year.
Einstürzende Neubauten - Ich Bin’s (Live 1990 at Rockpalast)
Einstürzende Neubauten - Ein Stuhl in der Hölle (Live 1990)
Einstürzende Neubauten - Grundstueck: GS 1, 2
(Live 2004, Palast der Republik DVD)
(Thx to Malin242 and so many other EN fans at YouTube!)
Added 11-25-07
Alles Wieder Offen:
Einsturzende Neubauten – Interview by Matt Fink (Under the Radar, November 2007)
Blixa Bargeld - All (is) open again – “Blixa Bargeld discusses Einsturzende Neubauten’s new project which is being released without any kind of record label involvement.” [At re-public]
Blixa Bargeld: Gentleman and Scholar–”Blixa Bargeld of Einstürzende Neubauten discusses the group’s latest album Alles Wieder Offen, the music industry, and much more in this three-part interview.” [By Chris Rolls (MP3.com), conducted November 12, 2007] (Note: I had trouble getting this interview to load. ~MW)
Interview with Blixa Bargeld [In electric sheep magazine: a deviant view of the cinema, with Virginie Sélavy, 2-03-07)]
Excerpt:
VS: Many commentators have focused on the destructiveness of you performances and what has been seen as the nihilism of the band…
BB:Well, playing children destroy many things and you wouldn’t say they’re nihilistic. There is a passage by Walter Benjamin that I’ve quoted again and again in interviews right from the time when Neubauten started because there were always so many questions about destructiveness and negativity. So the best I can say to that is to quote it again: ‘The destructive character’s only watchword is: Make room… The destructive character is young and cheerful. For destroying rejuvenates, because it clears out of the way the traces of our own age.’ At the moment Goth music is very popular in Germany but I don’t think that Neubauten has ever belonged to that type of music. There’s too much life in what we do.
Added 9-4-07
“Shimmer on Three”- From Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds “No More Shall We Part” recording sessions, Abbey Road Studios, Autumn 2000. This clips shows the band, behind the scenes, while a frustrated Jim Sclavunos tries to get the tambourine to ’shimmer on three.’
Blixa Bargeld Interview Part I (poor sound/audio quality)
Blixa Bargeld Interview Part II (poor sound/audio quality)
Added 9-1-07
Blixa Bargeld - Hornbach Commercial (a German Do-It-Yourself Store).
Blixa Bargeld + Mick Harvey (Cute fan video: ‘Blixa + Mick = Mixa’)
Dandy- Excerpt from the Film “Dandy” by Peter Sempel
NIHIL(excerpt of the feature film) by Uli M Schueppel, featuring Blixa
Ein Gleiches- Blixa Bargeld sings an ode to Goethe.
“The only thing I don’t hear is the guitar” - Blixa clip, from No More Shall We Part recording sessions, Abbey Road Studios, autumn 2000
“Where the Wild Roses Grow” - Nick Cave and Blixa Bargeld (LIVE RockPalast, Germany)
————-
Einstürzende Neubauten: “Stella Maris” (with Meret Becker)
Einstürzende Neubauten: “Sabrina”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TssuSYrxVI
Einstürzende Neubauten: “The Garden”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBP57yI-jmY
Einstürzende Neubauten: “Blume”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV3R5vdxnMk
Einstürzende Neubauten: “Headcleaner”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd-SpXJ3ops
Einstürzende Neubauten:”Die Interimsliebenden” (1993)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nufIYi_WYF0
Einstürzende Neubauten: “Feurio” (Rockpalast - 1990)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQhVvIE8i98
Einsturzende Neubauten - Interview Live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8OSBMy-940
Die Sonne (1996) Blixa Bargeld and Gudrun Gut
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmnOdZEdXys
(Video by Angela Conway)
Blixa sites:
Thanks for all the lovely Blixa/EN info and videos. Nick Cave and his music are “my heart”…I’ve wondered if I’ve been obsessed at times…hmmm.
But I must say that Blixa and EN are also beyond amazing, and it is EN who has given me the two absolute best live shows I’ve ever seen, the first here in Philadelphia and the other in New York.
Thanks again for all the loveliness.
By: Erica Freeman on October 3, 2007
at 10:27 pm
Hi Erica,
You are most welcome. It’s wonderful to hear from another obsessed Nick Cave fan. I think, possibly, that we are Legion.
How lucky that you’ve seen EN live! WOW!
I adore Blixa. He’s a real artist, very self-confident. I don’t see in Blixa the angst and insecurity that so often plague those who are moved to create art outside of the mainstream. He doesn’t appear to seek the approval of others, nor does he require their validation of his work.
Quite unique.
Morgan
By: Morgan Wolf on October 4, 2007
at 4:42 pm
oh now i see that u reply here in these pages…again thank you ..blixa is realy adorable..well its such a shame when i used to dig nick,s words i havnt recognized blixa ..well i was obssessed with the words,,maybe i can forgive myself..and then i let myself sink in the whole music(coz u know sometimes i miss the words becoz of my english) and after that i recognized him..and again i felt oh damn im drawning into some charismatic sense that is not just from nick cave .so who was the man…sure it was him blixa…and one another question..can you call yourself a FAN?? i dont think so.. im looking at your topics about religion horror..writings poems..history..and everything..and we know who has the best combination of these..with all the respects for the fans..spcailly nick cave’s fan .but i dont think even his fan can understand what is he doing…but now im pretty sure that i know…atleast NOWWWW i know after these years..so i just cant call myself a FAN…for me he is the light of a dark road….hes the guide for some of my questions(coz hes still struggling with these questions with himself) iused to call myself spiritual..but now i have a rope from above..maybe im going down from stairs again..haha..maybe im too obssessed to callmy self a FAN…THAT WAS ALL……
.
. PS: i love ur blog which contains cinema..now i have to go to sleep but its in my FAVs so i will read them tomorrow
By: Jill on May 3, 2008
at 8:12 pm
Dear Jill,
I scarcely know how to respond to such wonderful praise. It is gratifying to meet another person who has felt a spiritual connection with Nick Cave.
Jill, you expressed some powerful sentiments (ideas heavy with emotion) about Nick Cave’s music: he is your “light on a dark road” and “a rope from above.” Yes. I understand perfectly.
Someone else wrote to me to talk about this - and said he thought that Nick had “grasped the relentlessly and illogical trauma of being an old soul” — a profound observation that floored me.
(Tim, if you’re reading this, I’m still composing a response to your fantastic letter!)
So, Jill, you want to know if there’s another level that we reach that transcends ‘FAN’ status? That is a tough one. Yes, I do. But it has no name. I don’t like the obvious ones (obsessed, addicted to) although I frequently use them. It’s language that limits the description of deep emotional bonds that manifest between artist and patron.
If we speak in metaphysical terms, we can agree that like attracts like, and therefore, those drawn to Nick Cave’s art are more likely to benefit from what he teaches and be profoundly inspired by it. His songs gives solace and sustenance to those who require it. He wears no priest’s collar, but is equally dedicated to his flock.
In the end we create with the gifts we have learned to nurture and give voice to. Nick Cave’s exquisite artistry and brutal honesty have taught me to be a better writer and a better person.
Thank you, once again, for a marvelous comment.
Morgan
By: Morgan Wolf on May 4, 2008
at 1:19 am
Morgan's Musings offers uncensored observations on a wide variety of topics in culture and society. *Mature Content*
Ohne Musik wäre das Leben ein Irrtum. (Without music, life would be a mistake.)
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
