CoS tOur DIarY
30 december 2001by Melissa:
i've just been swamped with info after a three day
talk & painting session about 9/11, economic takeover,
fear of the us military & facing the big bad fear within us.
it was a interesting group of people who really are trying
to build up awareness of what is really going on.
i am finally getting a computer on jan. 7 -
wow.
i feel like i am growing up.
i wish you a happy & thoughtful new years.21 december 2001
by Alex:
sorry not to have been in contact,
the office party in tomorrow night,
a shame you cannot be here.have a lovely christmas and new year!
2 december 2001
by Melissa:
[about Le Tigre interview]
oh what a great interview,
it's so cold here, like upstate n.y. --
we are working on the new record & i can't wait to bring it out.30 november 2001
by Kiki:
we are moving all our stuff over this weekend,
and will also take the opportunity to place our
name (chicks on speed records) on the door
and mailbox.
but since kitty yo aren't really moving out till
mid of the month, it might be better to send stuff to
torstrasse until then...29 november 2001
by Chix:
the chicks on speed/kreidler sessions is out now!
compiled in april 2001, at the kreidler studios,
in the alte post, düsseldorf.the release includes 3 original songs:
"polar love",
"sliding down your rib cage",
"frequent flyer lounge song",
and one cover version of nick cave and kylie minogue,
"where the wild roses grow".all those who like cds will receive a special "the making of"
quicktime film, edited by juliane solmsdorf and sound edits by betty
nguyen.the whole production is very much a direct influence of the alte post and the way the kreidler boys carry out their day-to-day life and music making. we were carried away into this creative process for the week. enjoying dinners together, downstairs in the rooms occupied by the infamous hobby pops (the decoration leftover traces were still to be seen from the last legendary party they had celebrated, with decorations harking back to the days of old england and the knights of the round table), walking the somewhat desolate streets of düsseldorf, filming the hidden wonders around almost every corner in the alte post. sometimes we would stumble on huge rooms, big enough to fit 2 football fields in, just empty and dusty, they were probably used for storing and shipping the parcels and sometimes we would make horror films in the corridors in between vocal takes.
the cover artwork was made detlef thomas.
we would like to thank the boys for working together with us,
it was a great experience and we hope you all enjoy this release.28 november 2001
by Kiki:
we are in the studio right now with
tobi and thies and have been incredibly stressed
about the direction we are heading for...
as you can imagine: the second album pressure is on!plus we have parted from our management and we are
finally opening our cos records office berlin next week.
the address is: rosenthalerstr. 3, 10119 berlin (in mitte).20 november 2001
by Alex:
we'll be in the studio now for
4 weeks. so excited about going in!!!!17 november 2001
[cos performance at ocean club, volksbühne, berlin]
alex and melissa and liese (a special guest we met the day before as kiki was sick the day of the gig, we picked her up at the opening at von rot in torstrasse, she said "i'm an actress and i can do it", giving us her number). she was great, jumped on stage from the audience and screamed around during 'we don't play guitars', she is at the back of the stage with the blue tube dress.
mel holding down the boob monster with help from bettina (behind).
melissa goes into the crowd during the technical difficulties, alex had to run back stage and get the tech people to turn on the power. alex eventually caught up with mel who was in the middle of the audience with the boob monster almost carrying her away.
if you didn't realize, the boob monster was filled with helium! a member of the audience holds onto it so it doesn't fly away.
14 november 2001
by Alex:
[a pic at 'national enquirer]
this is what melissa's sister johanna did with our usa tour t-shirt.
its part of her new collection! her label is called shawn!
nice hey!
13 november 2001
[by request of Chix:]
Generation Next by Paul Snowden
1 november 2001
by Alex:
29 october 2001
by Alex:
[about Ocean Club, Berlin, 17 November, 2001]
we will be doing a 10-minute performance.
wait and see,very new things.
a hint:
"hand in my pocket".
23 october 2001
by Alex:
so new york/iceland diary, i wish i could actually do this for you in real time.
we played electroclash, 12th october at webster hall in new york with adult. every time i see them play i realize how much i connect to what they are doing and it takes me back to the days when i used to go and see nick cave and the bad seeds play live in melbourne, you know that sort of intensity! it excites me. then there was "the wikid and wonderful" peaches who gave it her all and more. the hot pants are looking fresh again, even in different colours, and what can i say about that fake blood, instead of the crowd sucking it out of her she definitely exchanges juices with all present and spits it back in their face! yum!
then it was our turn to take the stage, the boob monster was waiting in the wings, half blown up. we decided to do this, so it doesn't get too boring for everyone whilst we blow her/him up for 7 minutes live on stage. it was a short set as they had to close the hall early, but much fun, especially singing sounds to house music whilst suspended in the hanging hoola hoops that were on each side of the stage and swinging out over the audience.
and was lovely to meet the members of the tom tom club and magic bowie, wow, i'm a fan!
then it was no sleep that night, hung out a bit at the merch stand with theresa and then went practically straight to american airlines propeller plane and flew to halifax, where we played with peaches again. :) swapped playing times and started our set with hers. then to sleep for 2 hours and up again and off to the airport to return to new york, leaving our peach behind for her to adventure on alone. returning to new york one really noticed the depressive mood that hung in the air, it wasn't going to go away that quickly. well, something is definitely missing in that great city now. that night christian and i went walking over the brooklyn bridge and saw the smoke still rising from what they term "ground zero", the work lights were still on and we decided that we would take a trip there the next day. we went there with dave the hacker, who somehow knew how to get close to the site of the disaster, he told the police man that we needed to buy some cigars and we went through the police line. we were a bit nervous to go so close but went on, i don't really want to say what we saw and i'm not sure we should have gone there... it wasn't just a picture on tv.
after 4 more days in new york melissa and i jumped on a plane and headed back to frankfurt where we met up with kiki and natalia our tour manager, kiki had left earlier to berlin. mel and i had to wait 7 hours at the airport, sleeping on what ever looked like a bed. got on iceland air packed full and fell out of the plane on arrival. for days i searched for my brother who said he'd meet me there, but no sign of him. slept the next day missing out on any signs that i was in another country. then tim called and we were off to the blue lagoon, a man made mineral pool situated next to a power plant. the water is like milk and there are saunas, caves and endless canals to swim around in. out of nowhere came waiters in swim suits with cloth bow ties, swimming with blue-coloured drinks, it was like a david lynch film gone wrong. then the jazz band appeared and people flocked to one side of this strange paradise, it was like ibiza, i suppose? we lay on the artificial beach and enjoyed the hot water relaxing our white bodies and trying to look sexy in a nordic kind of way. driving back i waited for a dinosaur to cross the road, the hills looked different and there weren't any trees, and lava covered every inch of the way back to town, it was like nowhere i've seen before, except maybe new zealand, but brown instead of green.
the airwaves festival was a mixture of very us-rock influenced style bands and estranged icelandic bands like sigúr ros. we played on the last night to a crowd who were dying for an electronic injection. we became nurses for the night, in our white suits, smeared with fluoro war paint and a set made just for those viking devils that they are!
[some pics - without Chix, sorry]
now we're back in berlin.
9 october 2001
[on eX-Girl, a Japanese girl trio playing punk-funk etc., who look on their album cover like some Nippon alter egos of CoS...]
by Kiki:
yes, we know them, actually saw them in london last year...
got a kikipoo bandana (their japanese label).
i think alex and melissa don't like them that much.
i like omisushiro.by Alex:
yes, i know them well,
saw them live in uk last year!fun and amazing live!
thought for a while that i don't like them,
due to being so perfect,
but now i do.
[on Holger Hiller, with whom CoS have now been playing and collaborating with]
yes, he was with palais schaumburg in the 80's.
8 october 2001
by CoS:
we wrote this for die zeit article SCHNITT,
the deadline was yesterday."HOW TO SPEND IT?... DON'T!"
by chicKs on speed (with a capital k)
yes, the gig's on, no the gig's been cancelled, but you have to leave for new york in 2 days, but the wars started and people need culture, especially at a time like this. the equipment going through ex-ray machines looks like bombs, and people in strange military outfits, with disinterested expressions, or overtly important ones, fondle the sherman filter bank or sampler for a short moment, then let us go through. it was like in israel, when each piece of our equipment set off the alarm and everyone was rushed outside the building till the coast was clear and soon after everything seemed temporarily normal again. in israel we met pil and galia at the habamah theatre, they expressed their social stance to their society in the way they dressed, it was very fashionable, but not fashion you can buy! ... they live it, we don't! (but now they escaped to london)
On the way to the airport the taxi driver passed the motionless body of a girl in the middle of the road, driving slowly, of course so that he could get a good look, she was wearing wool tights, and the neck brace that the paramedics were putting on her, reminding us of the fragile bodies that we walk around in, are these clothes protection or decoration?
high fashion, the status symbol of a woman is not her boyfriend but her handbag. why were the women jumping out of the twin towers building with their hand bags in their hands, is it so hard for us to leave behind our personal possessions? and why were these pictures available to see on the new york times website, just 3 days after the disaster? versace: the only way he could bring himself to do his new collection was by auctioning a limited edition of 50 handbags off with the proceeds going to the families of the victims of the twin towers disaster.
2 months ago kodwo eshun did an interview with us for vogue uk, concerning bands who make fashion, the questions were excellent! we have never been interviewed with such in depth thought provoking questions. we just received the article a week ago and all we saw was one quote on how we like to drink strawberry milkshakes. our webmaster responded to vogue's harsh editing tactics in this way: "Media are like thieving magpies crazy after the latest glamorous, glittering thing with an attention span of five seconds (Warhol's fifteen minutes is old-fashionably long already ;), and nothing is worse than being passé, last season's fashion, has-been. It's amazing how they have created an art form out of superficiality, rapidly passing images and impressions, where nothing else matters than your digitally manipulated face and being über-cool. They are not interested in any sort of deeper insight, and the talk about such awfully boring things as historical backgrounds or connections or alternative points of view is totally out of the question. Anyway, who the fuck reads books any more?" (by erkki rautio, otherwise known as pHinn)
friday afternoon... munich, marienplatz ha, and m, bought 3 matching suits, friday evening train to vienna, saturday night show at flex, sunday, interview still looking fresh, monday back to munich and back to where we got those suits, smiling all the way home with our cash back in our wallets. such perfect consumerism, isn't it tempting, it's so cheap it should be illegal.
what is so evil about luxury goods? why are they so expensive that not everybody can afford them? keep things elitist... "fashion is for fashion people"
a thought before the lights turn off at night: when the wage of the production of goods is based on the worker being able to afford what they are producing, naturally everyone will make more expensive goods, the whole world will be filled with great things that everyone can afford.
30 october 2001
by Alex:
i know things are hard, but things are also hard for mel, kiki and i.
we the world!i feel annoyed, things are not to be understood anymore!
27 september 2001
by Alex:
toulouse has been postponed till next week
due to the explosion there.we will now be working with holger hiller,
which we're all looking forward to.
a glass-fronted container with a sound studio inside.
due to the postponement we get to play the same stage as
miss kittin and peaches! wikid!
we have some new cos army wear too, tested this out in rotterdam
last week and the people seemed to love and hate it!which is understandable.
the article in vogue is shit! shame kodwo asked us some
really thought out questions... why do magazines always do this?
he is a great writer but has obviously been censored by the main
editor. just a very catchy tale... boring but with some nice bits
about peaches.
26 september 2001
by Kiki:
we have just bought the vogue [UK, with some CoS stuff included] in rotterdam, it's the october issue.
unfortunately the article is very shallow,
it mentions us right after fischerspooner!
just one or two sentences...15 september 2001
by Melissa:
i am still in shock.
13 september 2001
by Alex (from San Francisco, USA):
they just closed san francisco airport due to a bomb threat.
things seem to be getting worse.air france web site is down and i cannot
reach anyone by phone.i don't know when i can fly back?
11 september 2001
by Alex (from San Francisco, USA):
isn't it awful with the terrorist attack,
so surreal![the official version] [the unofficial version]
9 september 2001
by Melissa:
[Mel's birthday:]
am still not in my new apt. which was getting me down,
but I'm making a brunch & s.m.s.ed everyone so it will be a real
sundayish thing.
am reading neoist manifestos - yes, by stewart home
... due to western society being so fragmented
... thoughts seem to break before they are fully formed...
then it goes on to the pressure of radical innovations
half-baked ideas is the result. then on to the burden of history
today, the urge to smash the venerable museums has reached a point
from which it threatens to become more burdensome than any previous
history.
well, do you think our present is the future in our minds?
we live in the post-earth phase, the planet is dying, humans
are getting smaller again, the immune systems are collapsing,
the here & now is becoming blurred, maybe if we achieve breaking down
linear time it will be more fun.
we could all feel more alive, the toltecs call it moving to the
axis, that's when you decode this physicalness we are trapped in.5 september 2001
by Alex:
ooops, i have wet nail polish and i'm typing,
did i tell you i'm in san fran and tonight i get to meet
the genius mike patton, he'll be there with his band fantomas.
i'm really looking forward to this.
oh, and some really bad bad news... today we heard
that tobi will no longer be our producer!
oh dear, we are a band without a voice, but i am exaggerating!25 august 2001
by Melissa:
i like those pHinnMilk collages also.
i sent stewart home
(the author of the assault on culture)
a package of cos stuff & just received
loads of goodies -- books on plagiarism, pamphlets,
etc... wow, i just want to stay home & read --
but we have all this graphic stuff to do.i started reading one of the books he sent --
wow, pretty hardcore raunch, i haven't read his novels,
i guess its similiar to blowjob, his new novel, this friend
says its difficult to read it on airplanes cause of how everyone checks out what the others are reading.we still have summer here,
i thought last week it was over & was bracing for fall to settle in.hope you are well.
3 august 2001
by Alex:
[about the renewed pHinnMilk Records site]
i especially like the second page with the hippy writing!
this is great,
i don't like to recognise all the collaged images... better when it is more deconstructed and munched up and pHinnified.we'll play a "rock show" as peaches would say,
tomorrow night, i´m just dying my hair and its hurting!i go to san francisco on saturday, really looking forward to seeing kristin and miguel, we're going to make a little ad for the dats. jeas, they're lovli!
1 august 2001
by Melissa:
i just got back from the border camp -
i think I told you about it last year -
www.contrast.org/borders/camp
this year it is taking place in frankfurt
at the airport - i did'nt have time to get
involved with the demos & storming the stock market
(that happened today) or messing with the observation cameras -
that's going on tomorrow.the camp is much more normal this year because
one is not constantly observed (at least not so closely)
by police & skinheads like it was the last 2 years in the east.
but then again i was just there in the beginning & now
they are starting more hard core actions & the authorities
might try to disperse the camp, although everyone (incl. the
german government) is pretty pissed
off with the way demonstrators were treated in genova.
i wish i could get alex & kiki to come & do some subversive
actions, maybe you would like to come next year?also two weeks ago I met stewart home in berlin,
he has a new book out. i got him to sign a bootleg copy
of the assault on culture, the book that showed me a tradition
to work from.18 july 2001
by Kiki:
i was in the cinema yesterday - a japanese
splatter movie called gonin, pretty nasty...
we are very busy at the moment, preparing for our
live act saturday (love parade).
new everything - visuals, stage, songs, etc.
everything is o.k. otherwise - italy was great, so nice
and hot! 32 c!
i want to go back!16 july 2001
by Alex:
the great sellout sale is now on in the
chix shop and lasts until
22nd july!that means just 7 days to go!
30% OFF 30 SELECTED HANDMADE ITEMS!
get cosified now!
22 june 2001
by Kiki:
so here's about our mini baden-würtemberg
tour - yes, this is the place to eat käsespätzle
and drink nice wine from baden... like grauburgunder! and we did...
so we were meant to do a liveact in ludwigshafen (not
to confuse with ludwigsburg or bremerhafen); it's this weird
town right next to the biggest chemistry plant in the world:
basf. i guess those fumes fried their brains.
in the afternoon the promoter tells us that there in no way
they can supply all this equipment we need. - too expensive.
we then ended up doing a strange trashy half dj half live set
from the dj booth - with one retro mike - which was actually really
fun.
by the end of the set a guy came up and asked us if we could
do something else but make noise!!!the next day we played in this really great club called M1 in
stuttgart; really nice people and a great crowd!!!! we want to come back.19 june 2001
by Alex:
about birmingham disfunctional superhuman, our new band: sand and cos
my thoughts on ds at fierce;
it was a dark night when we played with sand, we approached the stage in two paddle boats, with glasses of wine in our hands, it was like death in venice. we were dressed in our urban camoflage scarves, (that we had made that day with jules) and white suits, as we made our way on stage, with the help of neil the mad motor guitarist, there was silence, we all took our positions. we were disfunctional superhumans together and we played that way! everybody had their instrument or pose or thing to say, it was a clashing of all things that do not make sense, untill we reached the point of "society ruined my sex life", then it was all clear.
glamour girl took on a new meaning when sand pretended to play like a big band, and "mutant disco" had to be played twice for its full meaning to be realised by the auidence and us! we just went through the motions of what we thought had to happen and now afterwards i realise we have to do it again.just for your info: sand are on satellite records,
add n to (x)'s old label, and rowan the drummer is from goldfrapp. :)14 june 2001
by Alex:
stuttgart sux!
too many ravers!31 may 2001
by Alex:
these are the newest chix pics from
"disfunctional superhuman", the cos and sand project
in birmingham as part of the fierce festival.these pics are from 29.5., the opening of the araki
exhibition at the ikon gallery. we played on the
building site to a mass of people below.outfits made in 30 minutes before the show
with juliane solmsdorf.we are now working on urban camouflage.
16 may 2001
by Alex:
i always receive fan mail and try my best to write back to everyone, but
sometimes i don't. maybe some of these mails could go
into the chat room?
what would you think?
i also have a huge mailing list of people, maybe you have some more?
i am sending a newsletter soon and would like to include your addresses:did you see the new products in the shop?
11 may 2001
by Alex:
i'm in australia chillin' after the big us tour,
gosh, was it a heap of fun. the team was great, natalia as tour manager,
killer as sound engineer, juliane on the vj decks. 6 gals on the road
creating havoc wherever we went!i will be heading back to berlin by 22nd may, then it's all go on the
cos front again... mel is in hamburg at the moment and kiki
in berlin.i'm reading this book at the moment called
"we owe you nothing!", interviews from punk planet.very good, people such as kathleen hannah are in it and thurston more
and jello biafra.
you should get this!hope you are well!
10 may 2001
by Melissa:
we are all in different places right now.
my sister's boyfriend in portland bought chicksonspeed.net
& he said he would have liked to do a site.24 april 2001
by Alex:
usa is amazin'!!!!!
i want to move to la!
1 april 2001
by Alex:
i'm so busy packing; we leave for paris on tuesday and then usa here we come on 8th!
really excited!23 march 2001
by Alex:
nantes is cool!
coil will play!20 march 2001
by Melissa:
we are working on a project at "fondation cartier" at the moment
and a show in new york called design 21 - that will open in may.i'm still in rainy paris,
tomorrow fenn o'berg is playing here at the centre de pompidou,
am looking forward to that very much.15 march 2001
by Melissa:
we are working on our trades - the finnish really
understand the idea of "don't work! trade".
so i'm working on a dress for a girl.
alex has a trade for her boots,
we think they are leningrad cowboy pointy things.
we have to get to work.
it was so great up there, we are already planning the next trip
for august.i feel more comfortable in the co. of freaks, I must admit i feel at home in co. like that.
11 march 2001
by Alex:
[CoS in finland 7-11 march, 2001]
i will never forget it! i am so glad we could all come, we have to make this an annual occasion!
we did the moon tv and gave them some videos. [club telex live report] [helsinki images]
8 march 2001
by Alex:
[tampere, finland]
mel and i had a really great time at the sauna!
an amazing finn experience...
especially the bit where she said take some
drinks in with you!!!!!i couldn't believe it!
beer, vodka... the works!it's great here!
5 march 2001
by Alex:
juliane the forth chick is preparing the video material for the live acts in the usa!
3 march 2001
by Alex:
2 march 2001
by Alex:
27 february 2001
by Alex:
we did the cheesy ericsson dance awards. very much playback. he he he!
clothes by castelbajac.
22 february 2001
by Alex:
we are now in Paris, please see these pics that juliane solmsdorf took.... nice hey.
the shop bought us all this designer wear to destroy, this is it!17 february 2001
by Alex:
wow!
full-on!sylvesterboy will be supporting us in ny! supa!
"it's true... he is the sylvesterboy!"21 january 2001
by Melissa:
i've been cutting some old material of
our barter booth - 'tausch börse' which was
a lot of fun because someone else was cutting
& i could fool around making little commentaries
which pop up - things like - 'dont slave your life away' -
(it's called 'don't work, trade!' (or sell-out))
so this is going overnight to vienna for a exhibition
called shopping -
i found a nice pamphlet 'manifest gegen die arbeit'
(gruppe KRISIS ), their web address is www.magnet.at/krisis
but i don't know if it's translated.
anyway, it's very nice material.
then i'm also playing the role of valerie solanas in
a play of a friend, based on a book called pig tails -
that lady was not so crazy after all.
actually so smart that the world drove her crazy.
am up in hamburg & it's cold.
am mostly alone but that will change soon -one of our short films is called 'don't work...'
it 7.56 short & trashy.
very sadly I was working with very limited material
& kiki is not in it... i eventually have to re-edit
when we have more material.
must explore pHinn's site again.
he is rapidly expanding... wow...
2000
CoS past gigs archive
