39 Clocks

The first public appearance pairing Christian Henjes (then 'Zero Jack') and Juergen Gleue (then 'Genius Nr.17') was in 1976, at the Dada Nova (a space later occupied by Otto Müehl's AAO commune) in midtown Hannover, Germany. Known for pranksterism and the destruction of the clubs in which they would perform, friction would follow the band everywhere. In 1979 they were thrown out of a show in Kassel at the Documenta (their sounds had disturbed Joseph Beuys). They created an outrage (they wrote a tune with the title 'Art Minus Idiots') at the Filmtage Hannover with their avant garde Super 8 movies under the guise of director Zachius Lipschitz. Rumour claims that at a Hannnover show at the Cafe Glocksee, they played the vacuum cleaner and a circular saw instead of guitars. Inspired, then (clearly), by protest in the broadest and most romantic sense (they wrote a tune with the title 'Radical Student Mob In Satin Boots') theirs was a sound attuned to classic American punk/Nuggets. This collection was put together with the non-completest in mind (originals of some of these records are as rare as Italian underwear), intending to display the general 39 Clocks vibe, but also some of their more curious wrinkles. And as Diedrich Diedrichsen wrote the first review of the band, we at DeStijl are very pleased with his liner notes.