[Above: One of Einstürzende Neubauten's homemade instruments.]
It's great that a band from the early 80s that didn't play post-punk is enjoying a revival. What isn't so great is that industrial innovators Einstürzende Neubauten might be the first act we've noted citing a weak dollar as a motivation to not come to America. In an interview with the San Francisco Weekly last week, frontman Blixa Bargeld revealed that
Neubauten may never tour the U.S. again, due in part to the collapsing dollar and the ridiculously high cost and Customs hassles of transporting unwieldy industrial noisemakers.
Bargeld did go on to note that we can expect performance collaborations with Alva Noto in the future at Recombinant Media Labs, but we're waiting for some optimist who knows what the economy is to promise us we can see Einstürzende Neubauten in the flesh before our grandkids solve global warming and learn how to control the housing market. Or maybe we'll live underwater at that point in giant eco-domes and our currency will be seashells? C'mon Einstürzende Neubauten, don't you want to play in an underwater eco-dome? Can we just pay you in seashells now? They'll be valuable someday.
