VACATION FILL-IN

"Karshtemiz!" Furk Zhenk here (from Europe), saying greetings to friends of Chris Butler who on holiday and so i am filling in while gone is. sorry for English not so good, but i will do the best. I am 1/2 of Kilopop! with my sister Trynka - rock band (from Europe) that you don't know much in USA, but we are actually long time band (in Europe).

here is some info:

"Future Fossil Records is proud to present Kilopop!...Europe's second best pop band and our first foreign-licensing release. Although virtually unknown in the USA, Furk and Trynka Zhenk have been consistent chart-toppers in the EU for over three decades, as well as furious experimenters who've stretched pop's parameters in every conceivable direction. As Furk says: "Why shouldn't the definition of 'pop' include a Shaggs song (Who Are Parents?) or a Raymond Scott tune (Coming Back Down to Earth)? We aren't too concerned with what pop is, but rather what pop could and should be."

Is America ready for Kilopop!? We think so...enjoy!
- Chris Butler"

and also:

KILOPOP! INFO

“I first met Furk and Trynka Zhenk in the ‘60’s when I was an AFS student in Biôt, France. I was having a terrible time with the language and culture (so were they...their Finish, Maltese and Romanian backgrounds didn’t prepare them for the impatient French). We kept in touch, and we each started playing in bands and writing songs at about the same time. They did very well, but I was on a college track so music took a back seat to my studies. I did continue to slip them the occasional tune now and then, which to my surprise they recorded. I was the only person I knew who ‘worked his way through school’ on song royalties, although I was never credited on their records since the European Song Guild was boycotting American writers as a protest against the war in Vietnam.

The early ‘70’s were a time of rethinking and re-positioning for the band. Furk and Trynka sought a reconciliation with their father, Steg Zhenk (the peripatetic Senior Sales Administrator for Finland’s Bonk Business and someone who had no qualms about mixing business with pleasure...hence his offspring by two different mothers) while breaking-up and reforming almost monthly. Although their recording output was sparse, I kept their spirit alive: I can honestly say that without Kilopop!, there would have been no Waitresses...since I based my group’s sound, lyrical slant and presentation 100% on them. They noticed, and this time it was me inspiring them, for in the mid ‘80’s they roared back with a vengeance, and stayed creatively active right up until the present.

Our friendship has certainly had it’s ups and downs over the years, and although I can now look back and laugh at most of the questionable business pranks pulled by Ester van der Sylk, their manager, I am glad that we’ve remained friends and that we are all working together to bring “Un Petit Goûter” to American listeners. Once again, the myopia of the major labels (all of whom passed on this project) is ‘corrected’ by the ‘far-sightedness’ of a scruffy independent. I hope you enjoy these lost classics from a truly authentic (and deserving) band.

—Chris Butler

...and others agree:

"It's not that Kilopop have been tragically overlooked in the rock history books. It's not that this group curiously mirrored every major pop trend of the past 35 years without causing a blip on the cultural radar. It's not that these recordings testify how years before the uproar about Frankenfood, Kilopop was attempting to fill peoples' ears with Frankentunes. No, it's not these things at all."

--Irwin Chusid
WFMU radio personality
Author, Songs in the Key of Z
..........................
"Kilopop! me rend à la lune! La nouvelle collection sera l'accomplissement définitif de l'histoire de la musique populaire Européen du XXième siècle; je l'attend sans sommeil, sans mangeant, même sans soufflant."

Pierre François de la Briosche,
"De La Musique Souterrain"
Vol. 110, Avril 2001

see?...we are cool, so buy us here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kilopop

our fabulous history: http://www.futurefossilmusic.com/kilopop.htm










me and T joined at the ears are!