You say Liebach, I say Laibach...

[David Dasinger]

A few years ago I did an interview with one of the members of Laibach
for a local cable access show. I had to ask the obvious question:
"So, are you guys nazis?"
He explained that their concept arose out of a program by the Yugoslav
government that funded arts that would glorify Slovene culture.
They are part of a larger group, NSK (New Slovene Art) that includes
dance, theater, archetecture, and philosphy.
I think the idea was "you want patriotic music? how 'bout this-"
and they come out with the uniforms, banners (sans swastikas),
even Leni Reifenstahl (sic?) films. It was also a reaction to what
they viewed as fascist elements in the world of pop music at large.
They refuse to make overt political statements, ie;"nazi's are
bad, ethnic cleansing sucks", but I don't think they are fond of
totalitarianism.
He also politely referred to our (U.S) hypocrisy of condemming 
the violence in what was left of his country while sending arms
into the region.
(those durn foreigners just don't 'preciate all we do for 'em)
The NSK at that time had just formed an entity that is essentially
a state without borders, issuing passports, even opening an embassy
in Russia. (they wouldn't let them establish one here)

In between the interview and the time they took the stage, he dropped
the "groupthink" persona and was just a regular guy having a beer
and talking about music and where to get a decent bite to eat.
DD


Vaska wrote:
> 
> First, a correction.  Leibach, with all its 10+ years of darkly
> ambivalent
> play with Nazi insignia and other things punkish, is neither Polish
> not
> Croatian: came out of that once-upon-a-time Yugoslavia, and has its
> home in
> Ljubljana, Slovenia.