This article originally appeared on Noisey Australia.The origins of Plattenbau sound like the beginnings of a joke told by some drunk uncle. Holed up in a bleak East Berlin winter, Welshmen Lewis Lloyd and Swede Hans Tobias started a recording project that took inspiration from ex-communist architecture, post-punk, and cheap pilsener.With the addition of American Brandon Walsh on drums in 2014, the three ex-pats took their noise punk to the clubs and cabarets of Berlin. Now based in the ex-Stasi headquarters, the trio is set to release their debut LP and play a string of European and US dates. Listen to the track “Mirage” from the band's forthcoming album.Noisey: What is “Mirage” about?
Hans Tobias: It’s a surf lick dreaming about the Middle East.
Lewis Lloyd: The lyrics come out of the current collective consciousness shift towards non-linear culture and history. Kind of like ghost-modern exotica. It might be full of hermetic meaning, or not, or both at the same time—kind of intriguing and confusing, like modern life.How did Plattenbau come to be?
Hans: I escaped a butthole of a town in Sweden to try my luck in the promised land of Berlin in 2011.
Lewis: Hans and I met by chance through friends of friends in the park one day. He thought I was some video nerd and I thought he was some indie-goth wiener, but we made a date all the same to meet up and jam in the old East German Funkhaus. We jammed a bit and were both like, “Actually, this sounds pretty cool.”
Hans: We also have sort of the same taste for bad tasting jokes.
Brandon Walsh: I arrived in Berlin in summer of 2014 and found these guys through the magic of the Internet. By then they had moved to a practice room in the basement of the ex-Stasi HQ.Are you able to explain the Pfand bottle recycling system to non-Germans?
Lewis: It may be difficult for non-German minds to understand. You could see it as a form of currency with large bottle-shaped 8, 15 and 25 cent coins and the bank is your local supermarket. Be careful though, it’s a market mostly run by dangerous gangs of pensioners.
March 11 - Boston at O'Briens
March 12- Baltimore at the Crown
March 13 - Lexington
March 15-20 - Austin at SXSW
March 21 - New Orleans at Circle Bar
March 23 - Cincinnati at MOTR
March 24 - Lansing at Mac's Bar
March 25 - Detroit at Marble Bar
March 26 - Fort Wayne at Skeletunes
March 28 - Cleveland at Mahall's
March 29 - Morgantown at 123 Pleasant
March 30 - Charlottesville at Henley's Auctions
March 31- Richmond at Strange Matter
April 1 - Harrisonburg at MACROCK
April 3 - Washington DC at Comet Ping Pong
April 5 - Philadelphia at Kung Fu Necktie
April 6 - Manhattan at Cake Shop
April 7 - Brooklyn at Shea Stadium
April 9 - Boston MA
Advertisement
Hans Tobias: It’s a surf lick dreaming about the Middle East.
Lewis Lloyd: The lyrics come out of the current collective consciousness shift towards non-linear culture and history. Kind of like ghost-modern exotica. It might be full of hermetic meaning, or not, or both at the same time—kind of intriguing and confusing, like modern life.How did Plattenbau come to be?
Hans: I escaped a butthole of a town in Sweden to try my luck in the promised land of Berlin in 2011.
Lewis: Hans and I met by chance through friends of friends in the park one day. He thought I was some video nerd and I thought he was some indie-goth wiener, but we made a date all the same to meet up and jam in the old East German Funkhaus. We jammed a bit and were both like, “Actually, this sounds pretty cool.”
Hans: We also have sort of the same taste for bad tasting jokes.
Brandon Walsh: I arrived in Berlin in summer of 2014 and found these guys through the magic of the Internet. By then they had moved to a practice room in the basement of the ex-Stasi HQ.Are you able to explain the Pfand bottle recycling system to non-Germans?
Lewis: It may be difficult for non-German minds to understand. You could see it as a form of currency with large bottle-shaped 8, 15 and 25 cent coins and the bank is your local supermarket. Be careful though, it’s a market mostly run by dangerous gangs of pensioners.
Catch Plattenbau on Tour
March 11 - Boston at O'Briens
March 12- Baltimore at the Crown
March 13 - Lexington
March 15-20 - Austin at SXSW
March 21 - New Orleans at Circle Bar
March 23 - Cincinnati at MOTR
March 24 - Lansing at Mac's Bar
March 25 - Detroit at Marble Bar
March 26 - Fort Wayne at Skeletunes
March 28 - Cleveland at Mahall's
March 29 - Morgantown at 123 Pleasant
March 30 - Charlottesville at Henley's Auctions
March 31- Richmond at Strange Matter
April 1 - Harrisonburg at MACROCK
April 3 - Washington DC at Comet Ping Pong
April 5 - Philadelphia at Kung Fu Necktie
April 6 - Manhattan at Cake Shop
April 7 - Brooklyn at Shea Stadium
April 9 - Boston MA