Tanzplagen live at the 40 Watt, Athens, November 11, 1981 (shown is Michael Stipe and Neil McArthur)
FromMarcus Grey's " IT CRAWLED FROM THE SOUTH"
TANZPLAGEN
"Later in 1981,determined to pursue his art-noise interests parallel to his more conventional activities with REM,MIcheal hooked up with Lee Self;Neil McArthur and David Pierce in Tanzplagen.The Oh-Ok connection was strenghthened when Lynda Stipe and Linda Hopper contributed backing vocals at a 40 watt
club appearance that was taped to provide a rough-and ready three track demo,it includes the Self compositions "Living By the Neck*" and "Peter Pan*",and the Stipe-Self song "meeting".
In addition to further occasional appearances in town,and one short local tour Tanzplagen even got as far as recording tracks for a single,intended for release on David Healys ill-fated Dasht Hopes label.The studio chosen was BOMBAY,in SMYRNA, where back in Febuary REM had made its first recordings.
Neil McArthur had left by the time of the session, and so Lee Self,the groups real leader,doubled on bass while Lynda Stipe supplied vocals.However it is Micheals contribution to the two songs recorded-"Meeting" and Self's "Treason"- that Producer JOE PERRY remembers: Micheal would sing and bang on a Farfisa organ creating a large explosion.It was a different time.Experimental stuff!"
Tanzplagen folded soon after Dasht Hopes, and Lee Self moved to Germany where he now fronts Montanablue.In 1991 he released a CD of all the above mentioned material on Stange Way(s) under the title TANPLAGEN,its contents described as "The Lost Single and Live at the 40 Watt club,Athens Georgia
1981.
-from Marcus Greys "it crawled from the south" page 221
*I wrote the song "living by the neck" but had no title for it-elvis came up with the title only meaning "living by the guitar neck"
*Peter Pan was improvised by the members of oh-ok plusTplagen because we had sold out the club and had 100 people on the street and after repeating several songs from our 45minute set I just let them take over-i REALLY hate that crappy improv ! We also intentionally booked all our in town shows on full moon nights- this truly made a drastic but wonderful differance in the astmosphere and audiences behavior.
TANZPLAGEN FANS; THe IFPI is currently investigating the childish "murmurs.com" site for illegal file sharing- it seems thier members were giving each other permission to copy and distribute TANZPLAGEN material.....I cannot find the words to describe my astonishment- When I enquired about this I was treated like dirt: insulted in the most base and rude fashion. Ive not had an experience like that since I was in grade school...as far as I could tell the site had NOTHING to offer but trashy inaccurate gossip and misinformation- STICK WITH MYSPACE and REMHQ unless infighting and slagging fellow "murmur" members off (thats ALL i saw going on) is your cup o tea....FYI W.L.Self
Influences
The Cure, TELEVISION,Richard Hell,Tom Verlaine, Silent Rite, Velvet Underground, Joy Division,Neil Young,Crazy Horse
