One true religion. All we need is one worldwide vision.

July 16, 2015 2:28 AM

Slovenian band Laibach, known for their ambiguous martial pop reworkings of Europe's The Final Countdown, Queen's One Vision, and Edwin Starr's War, to name but three (along with the many original tracks you hear over the course of their live set), are due to be the the first foreign band to play North Korea.

Despite their long history of provoking totalitarian regimes by parodying authoritarian symbols and tropes (combining cheesy pop with a doom-laden sound and fascist imagery to form their unique style of bombastic camp), in North Korea they will apparently be uncontroversial, even playlisting North Korea pop favourite Moranbong Band's We Will Go To Mount Paektu.

posted by iivix (43 comments total)

So, Laibach is to 2015 what Wham! was to 1985.

This reality grows stranger all the time.
posted by hippybear at 2:39 AM on July 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

Their version of The Rolling Stones "Sympathy For the Devil" is....really quite something.
posted by metaxa at 2:54 AM on July 16, 2015 [9 favorites]

There's a beautiful symmetry to this, somehow. They're obviously taking the piss, but they're Laibach, so they're always taking the piss and never once admitting that they are. Which is probably the perfect posture for a band that's going to play North Korea.

(On the other hand, fuck playing in, dealing with the governments of, or otherwise legitimizing countries with ongoing horrible human rights abuses on the level of North Korea, though. Art or not, that's got to leave a bad taste in your mouth.)
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:54 AM on July 16, 2015 [6 favorites]

Laibach confirmed, once again, for class-leading, industrial-strength, professional-grade trolls.
posted by Sticherbeast at 3:21 AM on July 16, 2015 [26 favorites]

Sticherbeast: "industrial-strength"

I see what you did there.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:25 AM on July 16, 2015 [6 favorites]

Saw this yesterday and nearly wet myself laughing. I was fortunate enough to see them play about 10 years ago, and they were just as commanding as they were in the 80s. North Korea will love them.

Also, their cover of Across The Universe is absolutely beautiful. Possibly surpasses the original, definitely one of their best covers.
posted by Aya Hirano on the Astral Plane at 3:33 AM on July 16, 2015 [5 favorites]

Yeah, the article I saw about this described Laibach as "controversial". It's not just North Korea; NOBODY has any sense of humor.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 4:19 AM on July 16, 2015

This was my first exposure to Laibach (warning: auto-playing Flash video). Seems oddly appropriate now.
posted by JohnFromGR at 4:21 AM on July 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

I like the fact that in order to get North Korea's OK, it had to convince NK that it was anti-totalitarian and anti-authoritarian.
posted by Bugbread at 4:32 AM on July 16, 2015 [6 favorites]

The best bit is that it's going to be filmed. The first ever Western (for certain values of 'Western', of course) band to perform in North Korea, performing a concert to coincide with Liberation Day. It's the most gloriously batshit crazy thing the whole NSK collective have done since IRWIN's magnificent Black Square on Red Square.

From what I've read - mostly in interviews with other artists who happen to mention Laibach's personnel. In an old back issue of The Wire, the Dirty Three's Warren Ellis mentioned hanging out with Milan Fras and recalled that Fras was angry about the treatment of Roma people in Europe, which (along with the fantastic Predictions of Fire has always given me the impression that the members of Laibach are much more progressive than their personas might imply.

But who cares? Laibach. Mental Pyongyang antics. You never know, they might just bring down a nation...
posted by prismatic7 at 4:35 AM on July 16, 2015 [3 favorites]

Ah, Laibach. Wouldn't call myself a fan, because I'm always going to be queasy about that stuff no matter how much I know it's a Subgenius-level metaprank, but our culture needs jesters like them. I don't like having my liberal pisser pulled by smart, talented people who clearly go drinking with Loki, but it does me good.

Plus, the music can be really, really something.

North Korea? Yes. Of course they would. Of course it would be them.

(Now, if they put on a free festival in Libya, I'd be truly impressed)
posted by Devonian at 4:57 AM on July 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

(And, having just played a few of the Laibach Youtube tracks, the number of times you can go "There! There would be the ideal spot for a Neil Tennant guest vocal!" is not small...)
posted by Devonian at 5:18 AM on July 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

i am now wishing, WISHING, that they could take the Leningrad Cowboys along as a support act.
posted by cstross at 5:35 AM on July 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

The Jesus Christ Superstar cover would be appropriate.
posted by benzenedream at 5:50 AM on July 16, 2015 [3 favorites]

I suppose it's tough to argue about the precise depth to which their tongues are in their cheeks, but props for bravery to these people. I'd be worried about satirizing my way straight into a work camp, personally.

Also, this picture from the BBC story may be among the best things I've seen in a while.
posted by ColdOfTheIsleOfMan at 5:57 AM on July 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

They have explicite, personal experience of living in a megalomaniacal dictatorship - if any band could do justice to this it would be them.
God speed.
posted by From Bklyn at 6:06 AM on July 16, 2015 [1 favorite]

Concerns over Laibach's sincerity remind me of an anecdote about George Romero. Somebody once asked him of Dawn of the Dead was supposed to have been quietly satirical of consumerism. He responded, no, it's not quiet satire at all. It's screamingly obvious.
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:07 AM on July 16, 2015 [13 favorites]

Anyone who doesn't understand that everything about Laibach is satire needs to sharpen their critical listening/reading/viewing skills. This apparently includes a number of important people in North Korea - Important people who will be eventually executed with an anti-aircraft cannon once this sinks in.
posted by snottydick at 6:37 AM on July 16, 2015

So I'm guessing the subtext is completely lost on the North Korean regime, and they're playing there because Kim Jong-un totally and unironically loves their stuff, much the way conservatives used to watch Colbert and not get that it was supposed to be satire.
posted by Naberius at 6:38 AM on July 16, 2015

"We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter".
posted by Slothrup at 6:47 AM on July 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

There is a brilliant opportunity here for them to cancel at the last moment and issue a horrified statement saying that of course they had to cancel once they determined that Kim Jong Un was being genuinely, and not ironically, totalitarian.

Unfortunately it would probably get whatever official of the DPRK arts and culture ministry who booked them shot, and that person's entire family sent to a work camp, which is kind of a heavy price for Laibach to deal with for a joke at the Kim regime's expense. But I do hope they don't actually go through with it, whether or not they flip the bird to the regime.
posted by Nerd of the North at 7:24 AM on July 16, 2015

Their version of The Rolling Stones "Sympathy For the Devil" is....really quite something. yt

Yo, if you haven't, scroll back up and click that link. Their version of the song and the accompanying video are quite something.


Also, their cover of Across The Universe is absolutely beautiful. Possibly surpasses the original, definitely one of their best covers.

The entirety of their album-length cover of Let It Be (less the title track!) is really remarkable. Here's Laibach doing "Get Back".
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:28 AM on July 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'd be worried about satirizing my way straight into a work camp, personally.

Exactly. It would not seem to be a good idea, if you are in the business of cultural commentary and criticism, to put yourself within the reach of a merciless, humorless dictatorship which fears commentary and brutally punishes criticism.

If there's one thing Laibach don't seem to lack it's self-awareness; I am hopeful they have the accompanying judgment not to go through with this.
posted by Nerd of the North at 7:32 AM on July 16, 2015

NATO is also good (though maybe not as glorious as Let It Be).
posted by Foosnark at 7:32 AM on July 16, 2015

"Neubaten really went downhill after they added keyboards"
--North Korea
posted by lumpenprole at 7:42 AM on July 16, 2015 [8 favorites]

NATO is my favorite Juno Reactor album, anyway.
posted by Kyol at 7:43 AM on July 16, 2015

> much the way conservatives used to watch Colbert and not get that it was supposed to be satire.

Was this actually a thing? The only time I ever saw anything near this was the White House Correspondents event...
posted by MysticMCJ at 8:31 AM on July 16, 2015

In my most joyful dreams, they give the North Korean anthem the Volk treatment right in their faces. But they're probably too attached to remaining alive to do that.
posted by vanar sena at 9:02 AM on July 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

The Norwegian gadfly who organized this HISTORIC OCCASION said something along the lines of "North Korea is the Amy Winehouse of global politics." (check my memory in the original BBC piece) This promises to be an excellent event.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 9:37 AM on July 16, 2015

Life is Life - my personal favorite.
posted by mister_oxenfree at 9:53 AM on July 16, 2015 [3 favorites]

What about their Rammstein cover?
posted by bitter-girl.com at 10:11 AM on July 16, 2015

Their recent stuff is hit or miss, to me, but I really enjoyed the song and video for "The Whistleblowers"... it's sure appropriate for this gig.
posted by demonic winged headgear at 10:18 AM on July 16, 2015

The Jesus Christ Superstar yt cover would be appropriate.

I'm not going to link to it, but there's a version up at Youtube where it's been cut to footage from Mad Mel Gibson's Jesus movie. Harrowing.

Otherwise, go Laibach! This is my kind of apocalypse.
posted by philip-random at 10:35 AM on July 16, 2015

Some folks in the "industrial music press" (such as it is) have been shocked and horrified by this, complaining that it goes against a band that has "always prided itself on protesting against totalitarian regimes" and inferring that "probably the money offered was big enough to convince the band to take this rather dubious move."

I'm pretty sure Bernard van Isacker from Side-Line is maybe having some trouble understanding geopolitics and/or Laibach's...you know...whole deal. Because I'm pretty sure there are much easier ways to sell out than going to North Korea.
posted by infinitywaltz at 10:46 AM on July 16, 2015 [2 favorites]

I saw them in Seattle in May, having never heard them before, and was really impressed.
posted by vibrotronica at 12:20 PM on July 16, 2015

I'm not going to link to it, but there's a version up at Youtube where it's been cut to footage from Mad Mel Gibson's Jesus movie.

If nobody links this it isn't going to be easy to find. Searching on youtube does not return this at the top nor does it return on the search page with a distinctive description. The Mel Gibson Jesus movie is very hard to watch but it might be more bearable for a couple minutes w/ Laibach soundtrack. He is an actor you know. That is not really his blood.
posted by bukvich at 12:26 PM on July 16, 2015

bukvich - for you

abandon all hope, ye who enter here
posted by philip-random at 3:29 PM on July 16, 2015

Thank you p-r. I got to 2:05.

218 000 views on that. Wow.
posted by bukvich at 4:57 PM on July 16, 2015

"We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter"

Which means what, I am compelled to wonder. "We are enthusiastic amateur fascists, trying as hard as we can but hampered by our limited skills"?

That seems like the wrong message to be sending.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:08 PM on July 16, 2015 [3 favorites]

Bugbread: "I like the fact that in order to get North Korea's OK, it had to convince NK that it was anti-totalitarian and anti-authoritarian."

I'm sure they perfectly live up to North Korea's ideals of anti-totalitarianism and anti-authoritarianism.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 7:18 PM on July 16, 2015

What about their Rammstein cover?

Yes.

The soprano and gravel thing is a cliché, but they do it well.
posted by sukeban at 10:32 PM on July 16, 2015

"We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter"

Which means what, I am compelled to wonder. "We are enthusiastic amateur fascists, trying as hard as we can but hampered by our limited skills"?

That seems like the wrong message to be sending.

Nah, it's like peeling an onion. Satire, meta-satire, meta-meta-satire...
posted by bricoleur at 8:52 AM on July 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Nobody but Laibach could do this.
I've seen them three times, and they have always been a delight, regardless of which direction they go in at that particular time, e.g., Kapital, featuring extensive cuts from Godard's Alphaville, or LAIBACHKUNSTDERFUGE—their take on Bach.
posted by bouvin at 11:41 AM on July 17, 2015