Repost from August 2006. One of the most powerful Punk records of the late 70s and if this would have come out in L.A., you’d all know it. Songs freshly ripped and complete now. If you like this, you should check out the crazy Manisch Depressiv 7″, featuring the TNT singer.
Often referred to as “Züri brännt” 7″, TNT’s selftitled debut from 1979 still smokes! The title “Züi brännt” (“Zurich’s burning”) is a blatant CLASH ripoff, but not so the music. Hard-hitting, aggressive and full of power these guys and the gal blast through 3 pieces of what soon was the soundtrack of the infamous “Youth Riots” of Zurich from 1980-1981. When in May 80 the city officials refused to invest more money into alternative culture projects while raising the budget for most notably the opera house significantly, a spontaneous riot broke out in the aftermaths of a rally. The clashes went on through the night, a hard rain of rubber bullets and bricks, resulting in damage worth of millions and a dead copper (who died of a heart attack). That was the set-off for an uncountable amount of followup rallies, often turning into massive rioting, plundering and pillaging of a frequency and with dimensions that seem unimaginable today. I remember very well how I ran into a riot after visiting a record shop. Since I lived in a small dump in the swiss alps, I regularly travelled to Zurich to go to record shops and buy a record now and then. Innocent as I still was, I stepped out of the shop, noticed the rest of teargas in the air and thought to myself: “Oh, this must be the air pollution of the big city!”
“Züri brännt” was one of the slogans of the long hot summer of 1980 before the depressing fall and winter saw the ghastly dominance of pure self-destruction through uncounted needles. Heroin turned the whole thing into a Junkie-Totentanz which remained visible throughout parts of the city with all its brutality and tragedy until the late 90s, when finally drug-substitution programs effectivly dried out the needle-park and its followups (“needle park” was how the biggest open drug scene of Europe was called. It was located in a park just behind Zurich main station. It was an apocalyptic sight – I have maybe never seen such a shocking scene). “Züri brännt” was also the title of an incredibly powerful and strong propaganda / documentary movie made by some of the movement. It’s available on DVD and it’s a must see!
Before I’ll leave you alone with TNT, here’s an english translation of the hit song, to give you more of the vibes:
Zurich’s burning
Friday evening again
still haven’t seen anything
the grey people everywhere
that hurts so much
a city where nobody wants
a city where everybody must
that’s no life
that’s no good
Ref: Zurich’s burning
the old wanker of a city
Zurich’s burning
of boredom
Zurich’s burning
the old wanker of a city
Zurich’s burning
of annoyance.
Züri brännt.mp3
131.mp3
Subwayscene.mp3
28 Comments
this is the best and most interesting punk blog i’ve ever seen! i’ve never heard of tnt before (thought they were spanish) or of the riots but i need to get the dvd now. “junkie-totentanz” and ” a hard rain of rubber bullets and bricks” gave me goosebumps. very very good writing!
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Flattered thanks!
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I love both tracks! But I never thought I would EVER say that I thought a song was too short as in the case with: Zuri brännt. First time I’m hearing this.
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too bad theres one track misssing! fucking AWESOME!!!!!
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I don’t know why, but the mp3′s do not download for TNT…
Saaaad ! ‘Cause I know only one song by them called “Razzia” and it’s great.
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I’m taking the files down after a while. In the past, I put them up again for a blog-donation, so everybody has something from it.
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Hey Erich!
Would great if you upload all TNT 7”, pleaaaase
Cheers mate.
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Coud you at least give me the name of the tracks, as i have them but no track listed.
Thanx.
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FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFucking AWESOME!! I always liked “Subway Scene” most. Maybe the best ever Euro Punk 7″!
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All TNT records are great! They are better than Avengers, Bags and X! Period. Also, even more better is GLUEAMS. Early swiss punk is so great!
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Hallo Erich,
danke dass du die endlich reposted hast! Eine der besten deutschsprachigen Bands auf der besten punk-blogsite! Mach weiter so und mehr, mehr, mehr für alte (wie mich) und neue Begeisterte!!!!!!!!!!!
Olaf
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Keine Ursache, Olaf! Ich nehm nur meine soziale Verantwortung als Besitzer einer Vinylmine wahr.
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Ahhh! Super Scharf!! I do have to admit that the other Peter has got a point and I thought I never would say this, the song is too short but Züri brännt could been longer. I do remember that the “needle park” was discussed up here in the North in the 80´s. It was amazing that the, in our opinion (based of what we read and heard) most organized and cleanest country in the whole Europe could be so (I use the word in the broadest meaning) liberal. Little did we know about the world.
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Wunderschön! Megathanks for the repost! I was eager to hear this since I read the text up here… And I love Manisch Depressiv too. Btw this reminds me IOU something… (the CCCP translation) More news soon (höffentlich)
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Subway Scene is a killer track, in fact this single has so much raw attack, its awesome, Seventies punk singles are on constant play here, i thought i had em all when a gem like this comes from outa nowhere, how about some reposts of stuff not active anymore. keep the buzzsaw classics coming
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Killer record that I probably never would have given a chance, based on the cover and such. Makes me think of Blondie for some strange reason…minus the glossy major label production and cardboard stock. Thanks for turning me onto this.
Now I gotta go and try to find all their stuff.
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Hi,
I do miss those good old swiss rips you post once in a while. MD, TNT… I’m a big fan of Sara Schär, who sings as well as Penelope Houston… Any chance of hearing their second 7″ ? “(Remember/Fight”) and their 3rd (“razzia”) ? I also recently got hold of an old comp called “Dialläkt rock”. A band from Luzern called “Crazy” is on it, and they really sound good. Keep this up !
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Hi Ronnie – es hängt immer von der Stimmung ab, was ich poste. CRAZY 12″ war schon lange geplant, aber ich glaube, es gibt da eine CD Wiederveröffentlichung, oder nicht? Nächstes vielleicht ein paar Demos, KOSILI, MISCAST usw.
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Hi Admin,
Shit, I’ll try to write in German then:
Genau, aber es ist sehr schwär to get the crazy
CD if you do not live in die Schweiz ! I was never able to order it from Mital U, it’s too complicated. So I think it’s worth to post it, if you have it. I’d also love to hear Sozz 1st single and Sperma last one ‘Love Love”, also Debils LP… Shit, Schweitzertüsch punk sounded so good: I recently got hold of Expo’s LP, and even that sounds pretty interesting (by today’s standards). But i must say that, as an old Geneva punk, I always hated brainless bands like Diskolokosst, Yodler Killers and Technykolor – they had an ugly nazi skinhead following and their concerts are bad, bad memories… Grüezivoll !
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Ronnie – could tell us more about bands from the french part of Switzerland? I hd some posted, please feel free using the comments section there!
Nice coincidence – I just posted the first SOZZ 7″. Enjoy!
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MANISCH DEPRESSIV was the DIY project of the LEADGUITARIST of TNT (and his girlfriend).
The leadsinger of TNT went on to sing in THE KICK
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THE YODLER KILLERS, TECHNYCOLOR and DISCOLOKOSST were politacally 100% correct…
They were definitely NO nazi skinhead bands !!!
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As a “young” geneva punk that know some people of those bands I can say that they are not nazi bands, anyway YK and TECHNYCOLOR aren’t good to my ears: DISCOLOKOSST rules !
…and a brand new DISCOLOKOSST LP from old unissued live materials from the Palladium is out !
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Hi Admin – du erwaehnst KOSILI in einem der Kommentare, hast du dieses Tape?? Ich war in der Band, habe das Tape aber laengst verloren..
Habe diesen Blog erst heute gefunden, ist ja wahnsinning, dass es so etwas gibt… all die Musik, die ich unterdessen verloren geglaubt hatte!
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Hi Mario – ich habe eine “1. Generation”-Kopie des KOSILI Tapes. Ich kann es Dir gerne überspielen oder auch auf dem Blog posten, wenn Dir das recht ist.
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Das waer super – wenn auch moeglicherweise ein bisschen peinlich
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There’s a reissue out on Base records from Japan featuring the singles plus two unreleased tracks (one studio and one live)
Just found it yesterday at a local record shop here in Berne.
http://www.recordshopbase.com/mobile/item.cgi?ses=157wl7fcajibmelg2cx6b2a2&cat=1obscure&n=41719&format=CD
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can’t thank you enough for this! ever since I download these songs from your blog a while ago I can’t get them out of my head. actualy TNT opened my ears & eyes for more swiss & german punk from the old days. so many great bands! thanks for doing so much for music and music lovers with your blog!!
ebru // turkey
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