Recording, performance and fanbase...yes they coined the phrase...
Since the beginning, KMFDM has been one of the hardest working industrial bands in the business. They have released at least one album or EP every year since 1986 and toured extensively for nearly every release. Even during their brief hiatus (1999–2002), Konietzko and other band members engaged in a number of side-projects (see below).
The early albums were recorded in Hamburg, Germany. In 1988, KMFDM began working with the famous (yet now defunct) industrial label Wax Trax! Records and relocated to Chicago the following year. After reforming in 2002, KMFDM worked with the Metropolis and Sanctuary record labels. In 2004, Konietzko started his own record label, aptly titled KMFDM Records.
Previously confined to touring the United States and only portions of Europe and Japan, KMFDM embarked on a 2004 world tour in which they performed in Australia, Russia, Canada, and much of Europe in addition to the US.
KMFDM has had a longstanding commitment to their fans, striving to present themselves as personable and approachable entertainers. Konietzko and most KMFDM members both past and present often converse with fans via e-mail and chat rooms. The band tours seemingly non-stop, pausing briefly to record an album. At most concert venues, KMFDM typically mingles with the fans before and after the show to sign autographs, take photos, and answer questions. Konietzko and the band's representatives are constantly testing new ways for fans to interact directly with the band. In 2002, KMFDM launched the HORDE, an exclusive fan club where members had the opportunity to attend a private meet-and-greet with the band before every show, as well as gaining access to members-only music and footage online. In 2004, they experimented with "FanKam", a project in which a member of the audience was selected to record that night's show, as well as some back-stage antics, with a handheld digital video camera. The project was highly successful and the resulting footage was incorporated into the 20th Anniversary World Tour DVD the following year.
During the summer of 2006, Metropolis Records announced that it would reissue KMFDM's entire album back-catalogue, initially released on the now-defunct Wax Trax! label. All pre-Metropolis KMFDM releases have been out of print since the late 1990s. The first three albums, What Do You Know, Deutschland?, Don't Blow Your Top, and UAIOE, were the first reissued albums available on September 12, 2006. The second batch, comprised of KMFDM's three early '90s albums NAIVE, MONEY, and ANGST, were released on November 21, 2006. NAIVE, originally released in 1990 and recalled as a result of an uncleared sample of Carl Orff's O Fortuna, has been reissued with the original track for Liebeslied, but without the sample. It also features remixes which initially appeared on 1994's NAIVE: Hell To Go album.
[edit] Etymology
KMFDM is an initialism for the nonsensical and grammatically incorrect German phrase "Kein Mehrheit Für Die Mitleid", which literally translates as "no majority for pity" but is typically given the loose translation of "no pity for the majority" or "no mercy for the masses". The most common account of the origin of the name involves Konietzko cutting headlines from German newspapers and shuffling around the words to produce the now infamous expression.[2] The name was shortened to "KMFDM" in 1985 in order to simplify the long phrase, with one popular account having Raymond Watts originating the acronym to avoid the difficulties he had in pronouncing the German.
Confusion often arises regarding the correct German expansion of the acronym, primarily stemming from the aforementioned language issues. In German, nouns possess genders that require proper declension of any preceding articles or adjectives. In the true phrase, the articles preceding the nouns "Mehrheit" and "Mitleid" are inflected for the wrong gender. However, swapping the two nouns yields the grammatically correct "Kein Mitleid Für Die Mehrheit", which additionally translates directly as "no pity for the majority". Adding to the confusion is the fact that this "correct" phrase appears within the lyrics to the song "Megalomaniac", which Konietzko revealed was done in order to confuse people who were always telling the band their name was wrong.[3]
When the band first toured the US in 1989–1990, band members and their associates began using alternate English meanings for their name to tease journalists who could not understand German. The most prominent and most widely repeated was "Kill Mother Fucking Depeche Mode", which is attributed to Shawn Joyce. After the release of Angst, TVT/Wax Trax! Records launched a promotion (without consent of the band) in which fans were encouraged to come up with at least 1,001 different meanings for KMFDM. College radio DJs Kinslow and Smith of WKGC Florida won the contest with an entry of more than 1,200 potential meanings.[4]
The lyrics to the song "Moron" feature a slight variant of the traditional translation: "no pity for the masses". Likewise, the song "Light" reveals another possible alternate meaning: "Keiner macht für dich mehr", which translates as "no more power for you".
1 comment:
Thanks for the shirt. And the history.
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