Lyrics: Johannes Grenzfurthner, Frank Apunkt Schneider
Music: Klaus Tschabitzer
Klaus Tschabitzer, Dieter Preisl, Norbert Trummer, Johannes Grenzfurthner: voc
Intro: Birge Tetzner; prod.: Rupert Schellenberger
Prod. & Mix: Klaus Tschabitzer at his studio in Vienna 2003
“Garz” does not refer to the East-German small town of the same name where around 30% of the population voted for the neo-nazi party NPD in September 2006. It was published on “Kve:r – Quer. Sampler Literatur und Pop” for which the Graz-based label Pumpkin Records rounded up writers and bands to do something together. How come? In 2003 Graz was the “European Capital of Culture”. The idea behind this is to generate some team spirit at “Fort Europe” on its way of shrivelling into well-groomed non-importance. Europe must have called up some advertising agency, we believe. Advertising agency might have said: “Ok what’s your core competence, Mister Europe!?” – “It’s this accumulating-cultural-capital-and-waiting-for-some-tourism-to-happen kind of thing, Agency”. And so they came up with the idea of having an annual “European Capital of Culture” which means the EU supplies you with bucketsful of money stolen from the third world by means of something they call global economy to fund projects simulating a thriving cultural life. Literaturhaus Graz said: “Hey let’s maybe do a little crossover between this and that.” We, the precarious artists have been trained to look like we are doing something meaningful when coins are inserted. So we were pleased to be forced to do so by the great one man band Der Schwimmer who picked us as a partner in this very Austrian project. To make everything sound the most meaningful we chose to do a “collage” (an aesthetics which is believed to be pretty meaningful) of lines from various monochrom works. Out came what we would put forward as a national anthem for the “digital boheme”. Because we know (and they know that we know): “Wir sind einer von euch” (“We are one of you”). And we know that they know: When the going gets tough the duff gets going.
P.S.: We’re kind of sorry that “Garz” is not about the East-German small town of the same name where around 30% of the population voted for the neo-nazi party NPD in September 2006 (as you might have heard). Instead, it’s about being an Austrian artist in August 2003 – which anyway is a lot like being East-German small town Garz in September 2006.
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