On April 1st, we published our annual April Fools’ article, in which we claimed that Rammstein, Nine Inch Nails, and Ministry had come together to form a new supergroup called Steel Harmony. We announced that their debut single, “Metal Lullabies,” was now available. The article quickly gained traction, and as of today, it has received over 81,000 visits. More than 61,000 people clicked on the video link, which led them directly to “Never Gonna Give You Up” by English singer Rick Astley.

In short, thousands upon thousands of people were (intentionally) rickrolled. We use the term “intentionally” because many readers checked out the article knowing it was a joke of course.

We’re sorry

However, we received a single email from a fan of all three bands who was extremely disappointed that the news was an April Fools’ prank. This individual sent us a very, very angry email. We sincerely apologize, Scott, for the distress we caused.

For the sake of transparency, we’ve included the anonymized email below, with spelling and grammar errors corrected: “As a fan of Ministry, Nails, and Rammstein, your article about the groups’ merger, which linked to the Rick Astley video, was the most ridiculous prank idea-if that’s what you’d call it. If this is your standard of musical value to the world, you should hire karaoke DJs to write your articles. While you’re engaging in such nonsense, why not write and post an exposé arguing that Miley Cyrus had her song ‘Jolene’ stolen from her by Dolly Parton? At least now everyone knows that you’re nothing more than a colossal jerk, and like Biden, nobody should take anything you say seriously.”

Once again, we apologize.

What is Rickrolling exactly?

Rickrolling, or a Rickroll, is an internet meme that involves the surprise appearance of the music video for the 1987 song “Never Gonna Give You Up” by English singer Rick Astley. This video has amassed over 1 billion views on YouTube. The meme functions as a bait-and-switch tactic, typically employing a disguised hyperlink redirecting users to the music video. When individuals click on an apparently unrelated link, they are taken to the video instead of the expected content, and in doing so, they are “Rickrolled.”

The phenomenon of Rickrolling began to gain mainstream attention in 2008. A SurveyUSA poll from April 2008 estimated that at least 18 million US adults had been rickrolled that year alone. Since then, the number of ‘victims’ has only continued to grow, reaching hundreds of millions.

About Rammstein

Rammstein formed in Berlin, Germany, in 1994. Guitarist Richard Kruspe, who had fled East Germany for West Berlin in 1989 and later returned to form a project with bassist Oliver Riedel and drummer Christoph Schneider, recruited singer Till Lindemann after hearing him sing. The four-piece won a Berlin battle-of-the-bands contest in 1994, with the prize of a week of professional studio time; guitarist Paul Landers and keyboardist Christian “Flake” Lorenz completed the six-member lineup shortly after. The band’s name derives from “Rammstein-Flugschau,” a reference to the 1988 Ramstein air show disaster, with an extra letter “m” added to the spelling.

The band signed to Motor Music after the 1994 contest and released its debut album, “Herzeleid,” in September 1995. “Sehnsucht” followed in August 1997 and debuted at number one in Germany. From “Mutter” (April 2001) onward, Rammstein has recorded for Universal Music. Subsequent studio albums include “Reise, Reise” (2004), “Rosenrot” (2005), “Liebe ist für alle da” (2009), an untitled seventh album (May 2019) that reached number one in 14 countries, and “Zeit” (April 2022). The band’s lineup – Lindemann, Kruspe, Landers, Riedel, Schneider and Lorenz – has remained unchanged since 1994.

Richard Kruspe has fronted the side project Emigrate since 2007, and Till Lindemann has recorded as Lindemann, with Peter Tägtgren, since 2015. Rammstein won the Revolver Golden God Award for Best Live Band in 2011, its first US award, and has received two Grammy nominations for Best Metal Performance, for “Du hast” (1999) and “Mein Teil” (2006). Rammstein, Nine Inch Nails and Ministry are unrelated acts referenced together in this story.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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The French post-punk act April Fools returns with an all new video “Waterline” taken from the “Frustration” EP. The release follows their last double EP (“Better Life”/”Frustration”) which was released on the 1st of april 2021.

The two bass band (no guitar!) resides in Toulouse and was formed at the end of the 2000s. Strongly influenced by post punk, new wave and cold wave the band supported The Chameleons and Peter Hook in the past.

Here’s the video for “Waterline”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange. Cover art by Halvor Bodin)
Barely a week before April 1^st Apoptygma Berzerk and Pitch Black Drive Productions  announced the digital release of ‘Faceless Fear – A collection of B-Sides & Rarities’, and today we can all get it on lots of platforms!

The name was indeed in touch with the current state of the world – coincidence or not?! I managed to get some background from the henchman of Stephan Groth, the x-member still pushing various buttons: Per Aksel Lundgreen.

Side-Line: This release, or rather the title, seems very current – something you decided recently due to the corona crisis, or had it been named earlier?

Per Aksel: It’s actually been planned for a long time. Before x-mas I put forward three suggestions for compilation albums to Stephan; the first called ‘Faceless Fear (B-Sides & Rarities)’. We also are more or less finished with the tracklisting for Vol 2: ‘Black Pawn (B-Sides & Rarities)’ and Vol 3: ‘Lidelsens Mening (B-Sides & Rarities)’

S-L: So the ‘Nein Danke EP’ has been postponed then?!

PA: Nope, we just squeezed ‘Faceless Fear’ in between other releases. We’re worked long and hard to FINALLY finish the ‘Nein Danke EP’, and also the remastering and cover for the ‘Rocket Science’ LP release. After that we considered the three compilations, and what better title to start off with than ‘Faceless Fear’ in these corona times when most of the world is in a quarantined standstill? At the same time it’s good to present something exciting for the Apop fans these days, trying to be a relief from news and social media packed with fear and sad stories about dead music colleagues.

Get the collection on Bandcamp, iTunes or Amazon, and it’s a also available on Spotify, TIDAL, Deezer, Simfy, Slacker, 7-Digital and other platforms.

Jan Ronald Stange

Sometimes – when I’m not cooking, biking, listening to music or attending concerts, I write stuff for Side-Line.com. Mostly about Norwegian bands, but it’s been some Swedish, English, American, Danish, German and others too… 😉

www.facebook.com/jrstange

Earlier this year, in January to be precise, we posted this article “When an April Fools prank becomes reality: ‘STUMM433’ (feat. Laibach, Depeche Mode, …)” describing how Mute would release a box set featuring 50 Mute artists giving their interpretation of John Cage’s silent track “4’33”.

Today, The Normal aka Daniel Miller, has shared his tribute to John Cage’s “4’33””. It will be the first ‘music’ released by The Normal on Mute since the debut 7”. On Mute that is indeed because “Live at West Runton Pavilion”, The Normal’s second release, done with another Mute Records act Robert Rental, was released on Marat Records in Germany as Daniel Miller Robert Rental Live, with a black and white picture sleeve.

But back to 2019. Miller recorded his piece at a site in North London that will be familiar to fans of the label as the site of its foundation: 16 Decoy Avenue. Listen to The Normal’s take on “4’33”” right below.

Daniel Miller: “John Cage’s 4’33” has been present in my musical life for as long as I can remember as an important and inspiring composition. When the idea of every Mute artist doing their own interpretation of the piece came up during a conversation with Simon Fisher Turner, I immediately thought this was the perfect way to mark the label’s MUTE 4.0 (1978 > TOMORROW) series.”

Ironically, last year we had the idea to create an April Fools prank with a fake compilation with a lot of famous musicians covering John Cage 4’33 silent track. We decided not to do it, not sure if most of you would grab the irony.

Which Mute artists are featured in the boxset?

The boxset will feature over 50 Mute artists including A Certain Ratio, A.C. Marias, ADULT., The Afghan Whigs, Alexander Balanescu, Barry Adamson, Ben Frost, Bruce Gilbert, Cabaret Voltaire, Carter Tutti Void, Chris Carter, Chris Liebing, Cold Specks, Daniel Blumberg, Danny Briottet, Depeche Mode, Duet Emmo, Echoboy, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure, Fad Gadget, Goldfrapp, He Said, Irmin Schmidt, Josh T. Pearson, K Á R Y Y N, Komputer, Laibach, Land Observations, Lee Ranaldo, Liars, Looper, Lost Under Heaven, Maps, Mark Stewart / Sonskrif / The New Banalist Orchestra, Michael Gira, Mick Harvey, Miranda Sex Garden, Moby, Modey Lemon, Mountaineers, New Order, Nitzer Ebb, NON / Boyd Rice, Nonpareils, The Normal, onDeadWaves, Phew, Pink Grease, Pole, Polly Scattergood, Richard Hawley, ShadowParty, Silicon Teens, Simon Fisher Turner and Edmund de Waal, The Warlocks, Wire, Yann Tiersen and Gareth Jones.

The designers behind the visuals

Contributing designers include Simone Grant who worked with Miller on a lot of the early Mute artwork (The Normal, Fad Gadget and Depeche Mode); Steve Claydon, a member of Add N To (X) who designed for Goldfrapp; Slim Smith, who worked with Mute through the 1980s and 1990s; Malcolm Garrett, who designed the “House of Illustrious” box set for Vince Clarke and Martyn Ware; Tom Hingston, who has worked with Erasure and created the majority of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Grinderman artwork since the early 2000s; and Anton Corbjin, who has worked closely with Mute on many campaigns since the early 1980s, including those of Depeche Mode, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Fad Gadget.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Last year we had the idea to create an April Fools prank with a fake compilation with a lot of famous musicians covering John Cage 4’33 silent track. We decided not to do it, not sure if most of you would grab the irony. You can imagine our surprise when Mute announced a box set this morning featuring 50 Mute artists giving their interpretation of… yes, 4’33.

From the artist that started Mute, The Normal, to the label’s newest signing, K Á R Y Y N, “STUMM433” will feature over 50 Mute artists – including Depeche Mode, Yann Tiersen, Liars, Silicon Teens, Irmin Schmidt – presenting their own interpretation of one piece of music: John Cage’s 4’33”.

Fortunately you’ll get a visual to accompany each ‘performance’ of 4’33”. The box set launches with a video from Laibach which you can see below.

Net profits from the release of STUMM433 will be split between the British Tinnitus Association and Music Minds Matter. These charities were chosen to honor Inspiral Carpets’ founding member Craig Gill who suffered from anxiety and depression as a result of his tinnitus in the years up to his untimely death. The box set will be released in May 2019.

Artists featured include: A Certain Ratio, A.C. Marias, ADULT., The Afghan Whigs, Alexander Balanescu, Barry Adamson, Ben Frost, Bruce Gilbert, Cabaret Voltaire, Carter Tutti Void, Chris Carter, Chris Liebing, Cold Specks, Daniel Blumberg, Depeche Mode, Duet Emmo, Echoboy, Einstürzende Neubauten, Erasure, Fad Gadget (tribute), Goldfrapp, He Said, Irmin Schmidt, Josh T. Pearson, K Á R Y Y N, Komputer, Laibach, Land Observations, Lee Ranaldo, Liars, Looper, Lost Under Heaven, Maps, Mark Stewart, Michael Gira, Mick Harvey, Miranda Sex Garden, Moby, Modey Lemon, Mountaineers, New Order, Nitzer Ebb, NON, Nonpareils, The Normal, onDeadWaves, Phew, Pink Grease, Pole, Polly Scattergood, Renegade Soundwave, Richard Hawley, ShadowParty, Silicon Teens, Simon Fisher Turner, The Warlocks, Wire, Yann Tiersen.

Side-Line also covered Laibach’s ‘Click Interview’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Funny times for Caustic, an American industrial band based out of Madison, WI. Both remaining members, Matt Fanale and Eric Gottesman, are caught up in some well provoked bogus EBM drama which unfolded on the Caustic bandpage in the past few hours.

All started with a Facebook update by founding member Fanale which read like a real joke: “Today I fired Eric Gottesman from Caustic for making a stupid pun. He then did it again so I double fired him, which I forgot meant he was back in Caustic. He then fired me, so Eric is now in charge of Caustic. Nobody donate to the next Kickstarter to have me punched in the nads.” Yes, it does sound like a joke, and probably is one.

Another update followed: “Okay, since I’m fired from Caustic Eric Gottesman is being a douche and making me give up my Caustic page at midnight. He’ll be posting after that. And this is real. And it’s stupid. I’ll be posting on my Undustrial page until I can figure out how to get Caustic back. Sorry for whatever bullshit he posts. It’s out of my hands.”

On the Undustrial page he posted the following: “My people are trying to talk to Eric’s people to get this resolved quickly. Knowing Eric he’s going to be a dick about this as long as he can. Here’s hoping for the best.”

And this is what Gottesman posted a few hours ago: “Arright crapmonkeys, this is Eric Gottesman. You know, from Caustic. As the new sole proprietor of Caustic, I’m gonna be making some changes around here (…)”

Clickbait for sure. But let them have some fun, it’s already difficult for small bands to get some attention these days.

Caustic was created in 2002 by DJ Matt Fanale (AKA Eurotic), who is the sole consistent member. The band’s live lineup varies quite a bit, largely depending on the location of the show. One of those live members is Eric Gottesman.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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In the past few days Alfa Matrix has been inundated by people worried about a message put on the Metroland Facebook page which read: “After 3 albums praised by many, several smashing singles and videos, supporting and remixing bands like OMD and Marsheaux, both Passengers decided to move on, each travelling into a different direction. Metroland is calling it quits. But before the final curtain, we want to please our numerous fans with an international farewell tour.”

Not many seemed to have realised that it was an April Fool’s Joke and as the band says “also a test to see who still reads us (on Facebook)”. As it happens, Facebook always works better when announcing bad news. Case proven again by the Metroland duo. It also means that no farewell tour is scheduled.

Instead of splitting up, Metroland had a meeting over the weekend in Ypres with their label to discuss the plans for a new conceptual album that they have been working on for some time and lots more. They posted a picture to prove it.

The band’s latest output is the CD/download album “Things Will Never Sound The Same Again” (CD is available here) together with 2 download singles for “Under The Roof”.

Side-Line also covered Metroland’s ‘Click Interview’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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