Stereo Total - History by Brezel Göring

1.The Beginning 1993-94 In the winter 1992/93 Françoise Cactus and Brezel Göring met while shopping in a bakery in Adalbertstraße, Berlin. Françoise played in the French girl-garage-punk-R'n'R-Band Lolitas (they released 5 albums in Germany and France and toured all over Europe and America) and Brezel had the experimental-noise-copyright-ignoring-tapeloop-soundeffects project called Sigmund Freud Experience (they did 3 vinyl-records, 100 copies each).
In 1993 they started playing together. Their first recording was a 10 minute cooking-recipe, in which all ingredients had a sexual connotation. The recording is sadly lost. In 1994 Stereo Total started recording in Hamburg at the Alien Sound Studio of Peter Stein. They started to do concerts in Berlin and Germany. The line-up at this time was Françoise Cactus (vocals and drums), Lesley Campell (distortion guitar) from Scotland and Brezel Göring (vocals, guitar, organ, synthesizer). The logo of the band was two tits (shown on the backside of the first record "OH AH"). This sign was painted on a mix-tape Françoise made for Brezel which was named STEREO TOTAL. At this time it was impossible to find a label with this unusual mix of musical influences and languages: the band played French Chanson, Disco, Rockabilly, Garage in a very minimal, simplified, essential way with self built guitars and cheap electronics: the lyrics where French or German.
2. The first 45-Ep 1995 In 1995 they released their first 4-track-EP: "Allô j'écoute", which came out on the small label Desert Records. (It is sad, but this was their only release). The songs were recorded in New Orleans by Alex Chilton - a friend of Françoise, who produced one album of her former band Lolitas. He also played the drums on one track. The Palestinian Iznogood came in the band and played bass-balls-bass.
3.OH AH 1996 January 1996 Stereo Total released their first album "OH AH" on the label Peace 95 on CD, the vinyl was on Little Teddy records. It featured recordings from 94 to 95 made at Alien Sound and a lot of 4-track home-recording. The song "Dactylo Rock" (which featured a typewriter-solo) was released as a single with a video. The single had remixes from A CERTAIN FRANK, which has Pyrolator and Frank Fenstermacher from the legendary early 80ties children-electronics-band der Plan, which had a huge influence on Stereo Total), Alec Empire, Chrislo Haas (who was playing in Liaisons Dangereuses and DAF), Le Hammond Inferno, Poptarts and Sons of 68. Stereo Total started to do a long tour through Germany, Switzerland and Austria. After this tour the band split up, and there were again only Françoise and Brezel, going on touring and recording new material.
4.Monokini 1997 "Monokini" came out in 1997. The press-info sounded like this: 40% Chanson, 20% R'n'R, 10% Punkrock, 3% DAF-Sequencer, 4% Jacques Dutronc-Rhythmique, 7% Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg, 1,5% Cosmonaute, 10% really old synthesizers, 10% 8-bit Amiga-sampling, 10% transistor amplifier, 1% really expensive and advanced instruments. Françoise was singing in French, German, Italian and Japanese language. The record was released on the new label Bungalow and at the same time released in Japan by the label Appareil Photo. For the song "Schön von hinten" they made a video and remix-single which featured remixes by Momus & Laila France and Andreas Dorau & DJ IT& Michel. Françoise and Brezel did a one week Tour (6 concerts) in New York, where they played in the Other-Music-recordstore and on a French disco night in the world trade center. The tour was organized by the Vampyros Lesbos-DJ Franco. In Germany they formed a new live-band with Angie Reed on Bass-guitar and San Reimo on portable Keyboard and made a long tour on which they invited the Finnish bands Aavikko and Opel Bastards, and a tour through Skandinavia. In a theater in Berlin, the Volksbühne, Stereo Total showed the Jean-Luc Godard-Movie "Weekend" and played live their own soundtrack to the movie.
5.Jukebox Alarm 1988 In 1998 the record "Jukebox Alarm" came out. It was mixed and produced by Kurt Dahlke aka Pyrolator in Düsseldorf. For this record Stereo Total used a lot of home recording equipment and a big 16-bit-sampler, to cut up their 4-track and studio recordings. The result was a continuation of their garage-"trash"-sound with new weapons. The record was released in Europe by Bungalow and in Japan by Appareil Photo. Stereo Total toured in Japan for the first time, and in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In the USA the label Bobsled made a compilation of the first two Stereo Total-records, and they did a one month tour there.
6.My Melody 1999 –2000 "My Melody", the 4th Stereo Total record, was put out in 1999. It was released in Europe (Bungalow) and America (Bobsled). Stereo Total started touring for really long, in the US and all over Europe (France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, England, Belgium....). After this the band split up. There were again only Françoise Cactus and Brezel Göring. Brezel started to build more instruments, making it easier for two people to play on stage. In 2000 Françoise issued a book - her third novel called "Zitterparties", after "Autobigophonie" and "Abenteuer einer Provinzblume". She did a reading-tour, on which Brezel accompanied her musically. Stereo Total also made another 4-weeks-tour in the US. In the Volksbühne Stereo Total made a special evening about the French movie director Jacques Tati. They showed parts of his movies, played on top, in the full stage decoration of the movie "Mon Oncle". Françoise sang two songs on the record of the glamorous Khan.
7. Musique Automatique 2001 – 2003 Françoise and Brezel started recording again with the help of their producer Cem Oral, a half turkish, half finish technic-genius from the band Air Liquide, who focused the widespread ideas for the new record and gave the band a new sound - away from the home recording practice of the older records. The record came out in Europe at Bungalow/labels, in Japan at Avex and in America by Bobsled and was re-released after the split from Bobsled records on Kill Rockstars. After the release Stereo Total - still a duo, like in the early days - began a 5 month tour, which started in the US, Canada, Mexico and went on all over Europe (France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, England, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Tcheque Republik, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland) to Russia. They continued in 2002, a part of the tour they played as a support act for the American band The Strokes. In Summer 2002 Stereo Total played Festivals all over Europe and were invited to play at the Gay Pride in Iceland. They made two singles and two videos for "Musique Automatique": "Liebe zu dritt" was made by Cabine, who also did the design of the album cover, and "Wir tanzen im 4 Eck", which was made by Randy Kolbe. The singles featured remixes by Felix Kubin, Christopher Just, Jammin Unit, Candy Hank and Bis. In October Stereo Total were playing at the exhibition of Wolfgang Müller, member of the band Die Tödliche Doris, who released the song "Wir tanzen im 4-Eck" in 1982. The exhibition was about a invisible record by Tödliche Doris. It consisted of two records, released in 83, and when you play them at the same time, you will hear the third one. Françoise Cactus and Brezel Göring stood on two different stages. Each of them played the songs of one record live, and the audience in the middle heard the invisible record in total stereo. The "Weekend"-film and concert was shown again in France.

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