Line #36 Music/KaizersOrchestra


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/KaizersOrchestra_6225.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:From left to right: Janove Ottesen, Terje Winterstø Røthing, Helge Risa (and [[IconicItem The Mask]]), Music/GeirZahl, Rune Solheim, and Øyvind Storesund]]
3
4	->"''You wake up... you grab the morning paper... and although it seems like any ordinary day... it isn't. For one extraordinary reason: One band; two oil barrels; three chords; four dreams, five lies, six ties, seven deadly sins, and eight ways to stay alive...! They know who you are... they know where you live... they're the Kaizers Orchestra!''"
5	-->-- Concert introduction, circa 2008
6
7	Kaizers Orchestra is a Norwegian [[AlternativeRock alternative rock]] / DarkCabaret band who have attained significant international popularity owing to their unique and energetic live act, notably featuring oil barrels and crowbars being used as instruments of percussion, a mysterious gas-masked man playing an antique pump organ, and a charismatic LargeHam lead vocalist. And what's more, they insist on singing in their native Norwegian dialect, making their international renown all the more impressive.
8
9	Their extensive catalog of quirky GenreRoulette songs prevalently features cryptic, surrealistic "storytelling" lyrics in the vein of Music/TomWaits, that are often part of an interconnected, cross-album MythArc. Their lyrical subject matter includes UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, TheMafia, parapsychology, (and its often resultant) [[SanitySlippage insanity]], and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking cocktail drinks]]. Most songs are composed by frontman and multi-instrumentalist Janove Ottesen, with a lesser share of compositions credited (or co-credited to) to second guitarist Music/GeirZahl.
10
11	After over a decade of playing together as a group (though many of the members go further back than even that), having reached the pinnacle of success in Norway eight times over, as well as achieving unforeseen international success that goes far beyond the European continent, they held their final concert in the fall of 2013. It has been specifically cited that this is not a "break-up", but whether or not the band will ever get together again is not known at this point, though a rest period of a good number of years is to be expected regardless of the outcome.
12
13	----
14	!!Band members:
15
16	* Janove Ottesen: Vocals, percussion
17	* Music/GeirZahl: Lead guitar, vocals, percussion
18	* Terje Winterstø Røthing: Rhythm guitar, percussion
19	* Helge Risa: Organ, percussion
20	* Øyvind Storesund: Bass
21	* Rune Solheim: Drums, percussion
22	----
23	!!Discography:
24	* ''Kaizers Orchestra EP''/''Gull EP'' (''Yellow EP'')
25	* ''Ompa til du dør'' (''Oompah 'Till You Die'') (2001)
26	* ''Evig pint'' (''Eternally Tourmented'') (2003)
27	* ''Maestro'' (2005)
28	* ''Live at Vega'' (2005)
29	* ''Maskineri'' (''Machinery'') (2008)
30	* ''250 prosent'' (''250 percent'') [live] (2008)
31	* ''Våre demoner'' (''Our Demons'') (2009)
32	* ''Violeta Violeta Volume I'' (''Violeta Violeta Volume I'') (2011)
33	* ''Live i Oslo Spektrum'' (''Live at Oslo Spektrum'') (2011)
34	* ''Violeta Violeta Volume II'' (''Violeta Violeta Volume II'') (2011)
35	* ''Violeta Violeta Volume III'' (''Violeta Violeta Volume III'') (2012)
36	* ''En Aften i Operaen'' (''An Evening at the Opera'') (2013) [live]
37
38	----
39
40	!!Tropes Associated with Kaizers Orchestra:
41
42	* AerithAndBob: Dominique, Violeta, Marcello and... Kenneth. (Bear in mind that "Kenneth" is still a relatively unusual given name in Norway.)
43	* AlbumTitleDrop:
44	** Sometimes it even gets dropped as a song title!
45	** The title of ''Ompa til du dør'' is featured both in the lyrics for the title song and the last chorus of "Resistansen".
46	* AllDrummersAreAnimals: Quite literally: Rune's [[StageNames Stage Name]] is "Mink".
47	* AlternativeRock: Though they seem to dislike being labeled as such, adhering to the old adage "alternative to what?".
48	* AnachronicOrder: Hooboy. Always present, but the ''Violeta'' trilogy really takes it up to eleven. Songs set early in the chronology are as likely to be found on the first album as they are the second or third.
49	* AnimatedMusicVideo: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw1oQsGkZhQ Mann mot mann]]" (NSFW).
50	* ArcWords: If you don't know about the mafia-based backstory (and sometimes, even if you do), just about any proper noun can become one.
51	* AudienceParticipation: At one special event for a hundred fans, they invited one fan to play drums on "Knekker deg til sist".
52	* AudienceParticipationSong:
53	** Go to most Kaizers concerts (at least domestically) and you figure out pretty quickly that the band could probably do without their vocalist half of the time. The band tends to leave most refrains and call-and-response parts to the audience, at least on songs that are relatively well-known: Some songs will have the audience singing along on the entire song, prompted or no.
54	** The all-time greatest occurrence of this was at their special anniversary concert in Oslo Spektrum in 2011. The crowd kept singing the chorus of "Die Polizei", the very last song of the set, for damn near ten minutes after the band walked off the stage.
55	* AWildRapperAppears: "En for orgelet, en for meg", of which there are no less than four variations, each with the bridge performed by a different internationally known rap artist (though "rap artist" may not be the best descriptor for the little girl performing on the album version).
56	* BedlamHouse: The story of Maestro is centered around one of these.
57	* BigScrewedUpFamily: The relatives of one Violeta. And in another sense of the word, the mafia family of ''Ompa til du dør''/''Evig pint''.
58	* BlacksheepHit: They refrained from including "Prosessen", an up-tempo, relatively straight pop song, from their first album specifically to avoid this. Ironically, when it was eventually released as a single from ''Våre demoner'', it was not much of a hit, even by the band's standards.
59	* CarefulWithThatAxe:
60	** The ''Ompa til du dør'' demo, for some reason, has Janove constantly belting out lyrics in a pained, desperate fashion that makes him seem positively restrained on the album. Chalk it up to EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, I guess?
61	** "Dieter Meyers Inst." also gradually becomes this, as Janove's voice becomes more and more unhinged as the song goes on.
62	* TheCastShowOff: Janove is a multi-instrumentalist (though it's rarely put to use during concerts), was a promising soccer player (which he isn't afraid to show off if challenged), and he can TAP DANCE.
63	* CloudCuckoolander: Helge's character is a somewhat [[IncrediblyLamePun Omen-ous]] example of this, as described in this page's Funny tab. Øyvind too shows signs of this in both live DVD documentaries (especially ''Veien til Spektrum'', in which he imitates the sound of a newly opened bottle of wine being poured, which he does to convince himself it is actually a fresh bottle), but the extent to which he plays it up for entertainment is indecisive at best.
64	* ConceptAlbum: Their entire studio discography, but crowning honors go to the ''Violeta Violeta'' trilogy.
65	* ConceptVideo: Many of their music videos qualify, however, "Hjerteknuser" might be the one most true to the trope definition, as it depicts characters and events detailed in the lyrical universe of ''Violeta Violeta'', rather than abstract renditions of characters played by the band themselves.
66	* ContinuityNod: "D-dagen" makes a lyrical reference to the character of Dominique, four years after the release of ''Ompa til du dør''.
67	* ControlFreak: Janove's tendencies towards this are well documented in the ''Kontroll på kontinentet'' autobiography and a slew of interviews, but appears to have been assuaged to some degree in recent years.
68	* ChronologicalAlbumTitle: The ''Violeta Violeta'' trilogy is comprised of volumes 1, 2, and 3.
69	* CoverVersion:
70	** Not really their bag, but exceptions do exist. They recorded a cover of Norwegian rocker Joachim "Jokke" Nielsen's "Action" for a tribute album (but ultimately released on a bonus disc for ''Maestro''); a version of "Røvervise" from the Norwegian play ''Folk og røvere i Kardemomme by'' for a tribute album to the song's composer, Thorbjørn Egner; and a version of "Whiskey Rabbi" as a favor to long-time support act Music/GeoffBerner.
71	** More subtly, they are known to slip in some rather anachronistic lyrical or musical references to songs by artists such as Music/MichaelJackson, Music/ChristinaAguilera, and Music/ThePolice.
72	** Perhaps inevitably, they had to cover the man without whom they might very well not have existed: they performed "Goin' Out West" at a Norwegian all-star celebration show for the sixtieth birthday of reciprocal fan Music/TomWaits.
73	* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Evig pint'' (Norwegian for [[IntentionallyAwkwardTitle Eternally Tormented]]) was a deliberate attempt to avoid the accusations that they were purely a gimmicky-party band. So with ''Evig pint'' the guitar was pushed into the foreground, less attention was put to the weird percussion and the lyrics got way darker. The funny thing though, is that ''Ompa'' was a pretty dark album too. Most of the critics seem to forget that.
74	* DeadpanSnarker: Invoked constantly when representatives of the group reply to fan mail. Since said feature was removed from their website some time ago, this has naturally worked its way into their Facebook messages.
75	* DownerEnding: In case the song title itself wasn't enough to clue you in, "Drøm hardt (Requiem part I)" is about a man's last night before his execution.
76	* DrFeelgood: "Dr. Mowinckel".
77	* DrivenToSuicide: "Min kvite russer". Also "Den romantiske tragedien" ([[MindScrew maybe]]).
78	* EarnYourHappyEnding: Violeta, so damn much.
79	* EpicInstrumentalOpener: The first few minutes of "Medisin & psykiatri", from ''Våre demoner'', qualifies as this.
80	** Done again in "Svarte katter & flosshatter" from ''Violeta Violeta Volume I''.
81	* EpicRocking: "Kontroll på kontinentet" and a slight handful of other songs become this when performed live.
82	** ''Very'' early on in their career, they would often turn some live songs into near-ten minute jam sessions, but these tendencies disappeared rather quickly. They do not consider themselves a good "jam" band.
83	** Seven of the ten songs on ''Violeta Violeta Volume III'' are over six minutes long, necessitating a double album for the vinyl release.
84	* EverythingIsAnInstrument: Oil barrels and crowbars, and for a time, trash can lids. Oh, and there's the inclusion of a distinctive red trash can in Rune's drum kit. Which is not to to mention the wide variety of quirky implements used for studio cuts.
85	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: "Romantisk salme i F-dur" is exactly that: a romantic psalm in F major.
86	* FadingIntoTheNextSong: "Container" → "Naade", "Apokalyps meg" → "Den andre er meg", and "Auksjon (i Dieter Meyers hall" → "På ditt skift".
87	* FakingTheDead: The mafia boss protagonist of "Kontroll på kontinentet" stages an elaborate fake funeral for himself to ascertain the identity of a family member who has betrayed him.
88	* FanService: Janove seems to lose his shirt at a lot of live shows...
89	* FlamingDevil: The devil in the "Begravelsespolka" music video has some definite camp moments.
90	* {{Foreshadowing}}: ''Violeta Violeta Volume I'' utilizes snippets of ''Volume III'' songs as transitions.
91	* GrandFinale:
92	** ''Violeta Violeta Volume III'' serves as this for both their recorded legacy (for now), and the trilogy as a whole. ''Sekskløver'' is the song version of this, using musical elements from three songs from the trilogy: ''Forloveren'' from Volume III, ''Drøm videre, Violeta'' from Volume II, and ''Sju bøtter tårer er nok, Beatrice'' from Volume I.
93	** A 2006 tour named the "Grand Finale Tour" served as the final tour before their first big sabbatical; namely, a (almost) complete break from playing live until February of 2008.
94	** Their final concert for the foreseeable future was held on September 14, 2013. The final show of a two-week stay at a hockey arena near Janove and Geir's hometown, it was the longest set and longest overall concert they ever held.
95	* GratuitousEnglish: Pops up from time to time in their lyrics.
96	** Arguably [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in "Die Polizei", which features English lyrics, albeit spoken in a distinct German accent; this is an explicit reference to dialogue from ''Film/TheBigLebowski''.
97	* ICannotSelfTerminate: Implied with the character Dominique after [[FailureToSaveMurder he fails to keep Tony Fusciante from]] [[BoomHeadshot shooting himself in the head playing]] RussianRoulette.
98	* IconicItem: The gas mask. How it came to be in the band's possession (or is it the ''the other way around''?), as explained by Helge:
99	-->"The mask... it came to me... and I just took it. And... we were friends."
100	* IncrediblyLamePun: Read a Norwegian newspaper. Any Norwegian newspaper. You will get a kipper if an article on the band has anything but something along the lines of "the Kaizer's new clothes", or "control over the [arbitrary performance venue]."
101	* InsistentTerminology: Their final concert (for now) is just that... their final concert (for now). They'll be back. Just you wait 'n see.
102	* LaResistance: "Resistansen" of ''Ompa til du dør''.
103	* LargeHam: Janove is known to slip into this, especially live.
104	-->"The devil made that guitar for him. ...But the LAAAAAWD made him that suit!"
105	* LetsDuet: ''Maskineri'' has two of them: "Den andre er meg" with Terje's wife Ragnhild, and "Du og meg Lou, og din fru" with Swedish artist Stefan Sundström.
106	* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: ...Well, at least they tried. This is what the special embossed-cover version of ''Violeta Violeta Volume I'' was intended to be. Originally, the point was for everyone who attended a show during their 2010 Studio Tour to get one in exchange for sending a special mail-in card to a certain address. Turns out they had some to spare after sending them, and sold these at the merch stand at concerts.
107	** To a lesser extent, the ''Våre demoner'' album. It was printed in a one-run edition, and was to be retracted from stores after the passing of one week. Similar to the above example, it wasn't, and is still sold at merch stands in 2012 (though they have claimed this will truly be the last time they will be available for sale).
108	* ListSong: A bridge in "Din kjole lukter bensin, mor" lists, in bullet points, the process of Violeta and Beatrice's hypothetical reconciliation. What's more, the final stanza incorporates both last points by way of a pun.
109	* LostLoveMontage: "Hjerteknuser" from ''Violeta Violeta Volume I'' and "Fanden hakk i hel" from ''Våre demoner'' both have elements of this.
110	* LoudnessWar: Their CD album mixes are often accused of this, which makes the scarcity of vinyl copies all the worse...
111	* LyricalDissonance: ''And how.'' "Tokyo Ice til Clementine" is perhaps their most shining example of this trope, as the song is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECK_laXW6gk overly cheerful and bouncy]]...[[http://kaizers.konzertjunkie.com/lyrics.php?lang=en&which=tokyo but the matter surely ain't]].
112	* {{Medley}}: During the 250 Prosent tour, concerts began with abridged versions of "Medisin & psykiatri", "Fra sjåfør til passasjer" and "På ditt skift" performed as if it were one whole song.
113	* MinimalisticCoverArt: The ''Kaizers Orchestra EP'' (better known as the ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Gul EP]]'') has a plain yellow cover, adorned only by a barcode.
114	* MotorMouth: "Bak et halleluja" might as well be marketed as a professional elocution lesson at times. Also, when performing the band introductions during live performances of "Kontroll på kontinentet", Janove is prone to segue into this.
115	* MrFanservice: [[http://www.drmowinckel.com/images/gallery/1551.jpg Fallback in case their musical career failed.]]
116	* MultipleEndings: ''Maskineri'' comes in three varieties: the CD version, which closes with "Ond sirkel"; the digital version, which adds "Du og meg Lou, og din fru" after the former; and the vinyl version, which moves "Ond sirkel" to the first side and makes "Romantisk salme i F-dur" (available only on this format) the album closer.
117	* MusicAtSportingEvents: Surprisingly invoked when the group became the sponsors for the Norwegian soccer team Bryne.
118	* TheMusical: ''{{Theatre/Sonny}}'' has shades of this, featuring Kaizers Orchestra songs re-recorded for the occasion. The play itself is based on the interconnected lyrical universe of the band's first three albums.
119	* MythArc: The lyrics form an interconnected story arc that follows a Mafia familiy throughout and after WWI and II.
120	* [[NeverLearnedToRead Never Learned to Read Sheet Music]]: They've admitted as much.
121	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Every'' album they make is presented as this, most notably ''Maskineri''.
122	* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Ompa + gas masks + a pump organ + oil barrels + LargeHam = these guys.
123	** Add a dash of Music/TomWaits in for good measure...
124	* NonAppearingTitle: "Rullett", "Katastrofen", "Hevnervals", "Moment", "Kaizers 115. drøm", "Romantisk salme i F-dur", and "Christiania". The latter was given an outro refrain of "Bevar Christiania" ("Preserve Christiania") during live performances, however; fittingly, one such performance was recorded for the ''Viva La Vega'' DVD recorded in Copenhagen, Denmark.[[note]]For those not in the know, "Freetown Christiania" is a self-proclaimed autonomous neighborhood of Copenhagen.[[/note]]
125	** And aside from these, there are a bunch of songs whose titles aren't sung in ExactWords.
126	* NumericalThemeNaming: A conspicuous amount of songs on the ''Violeta Violeta'' albums have these: "Sju bøtter tårer er nok, Beatrice", "Sekskløver", "Femtakt filosofi", "En for orgelet, en for meg", and "Tusen dråper regn".
127	* ObligatoryBondageSong: "Kaizers 115. drøm" [[MindScrew maybe]]
128	* OdeToIntoxication: "Min kvite russer", in which the RealLife drink White Russian (a favorite of Janove's) plays a significant role.
129	** The chorus of the B-side "Markveien" becomes a TearJerker example of this.
130	* PenalColony: "Gruvene på 16", a common subject in early material, is a colony to which Marcello Conradas, an unwitting sailor, is sent to mine precious stones for the slavedriver Henry.
131	* PerformanceVideo: "Blitzregn baby", "9 mm", and "Prosessen"; the latter two actually consist of concert footage recorded by fans.
132	* PowerBallad: "Med en gong eg når bånn", "Min kvite russer", and "Jævel av en tango" have all been referred to, in-concert, as power ballads.
133	* PublicDomainSoundtrack: Sometimes during performances, Helge will incorporate melodies from psalms and hymns.
134	* PunctuatedForEmphasis: The climax of "Dieter Meyers Inst." builds up to this.
135	* TheQuietOne / TheStoic: Helge, wearer of the iconic Gas Mask, has one hell of a poker face even without the mask on. And when he speaks, you listen.
136	* RearrangeTheSong: Often invoked with songs that are performed live long before they are ever released; most radically, "Di grind" was originally presented as a slower number, with a prominent guitar riff rather than a piano part acting as the primary "hook".
137	* RecordProducer: Janove has co-produced all of their studio albums. His most common collaborator has been Jørgen "Duperman" Træen.
138	* {{Revenge}}: An all-too-common theme throughout their work; the most famous example is the song "Ompa til du dør", which tells of a man who takes revenge on his wife's murderer by forcing him to "dance ompa" until he dies from exhaustion. A Less subtle example is "Hevnervals", whose title literally means "avenger's waltz".
139	* RockMeAsmodeus: "Begravelsespolka".
140	* {{Rockumentary}}: The "Tour Tull" (Tour Nonsense) documentary featured on the ''Viva La Vega'' DVD, infamous for its less-than-serious subtitles, is an example of this.
141	* RockstarSong: "Prosessen" is definitely this, being a thinly veiled depiction of Kaizers Orchestra's rise to fame. And it was written before they had even achieved much of any kind of success...
142	* RooftopConcert: Kaizers Orchestra played an unnanounced concert the rooftop of Universal Germany headquarters in Berlin in 2005.
143	* RussianRoulette: A recurring theme in their work.
144	* SanitySlippageSong: There are quite a few. Actually, ''Maestro'' is pretty much a Sanity Slippage Album.
145	* ScrewTheWarWerePartying: "Mr. Kaizer, hans Constanze og meg".
146	* SelfBackingVocalist: Janove often performs his own backup vocals along with those of the other bandmates.
147	* SequelSong: Inevitable what with their lyrical approach and all, but averted with "Drøm hardt (Requiem part I)". There is still no "Requiem part II".
148	* ShellShockedVeteran: The character in the song "Bris".
149	* ShirtlessScene: More like Shirtless Concert.
150	* SingleStanzaSong: "Faen i båten".
151	* SpokenWordInMusic: The outro of "Auksjon (i Dieter Meyers hall)" has Janove repeatedly uttering the words "[[GratuitousEnglish Come to daddy, daddy is cool.]]"
152	** "Satan i halsen"... wait, what do you mean it's not Music/LeonardCohen?
153	* StageNames: All the members have stage names: Janove is "The Jackal", Geir is "Hellraizer", Terje is "Killmaster", Rune is "Mink", Øyvind is "Thunder", and Helge is "Omen". Past member Jon Sjøen was [[IHaveManyNames interchangeably]] referred to as "Lion King" and "Rasmus", among others. Additionally, Janove was initially called "Rat". The origin of these names are uncertain, however, the band have remarked that Rune is so named due to his excessive amount of body hair.
154	* StealthPun: ''Violeta Violeta'' is often typeset (on the official site, even) with a seemingly anachronistic comma between two two instances of "Violeta." It's well-known that Violeta's parents "named her twice" on account of her beauty. But, come ''Volume III'', and [[spoiler:the reveal of Violeta's stillborn twin]]...
155	* StepUpToTheMicrophone: Terje was given a half a verse of "D-Dagen", which he performs in the raucous vocal style he uses when acting as lead singer for Skambankt, his other band.
156	** In a hilarious instance, all the band members switched instruments for a performance of "Bøn fra helvete"; Helge performed lead vocals. In recent times, he has also performed the spoken word verses of "Svarte katter & flosshatter" (by yelling into a megaphone, no less) during live performances.
157	** A borderline case is Geir. He used to perform lead vocals on a number of songs early on in their career, but this has since been phased out somewhat. Geir performing lead vocals, both live and on record, has become a rare occurrence over time; when he does so, however, at least the trope is executed in the most literal manner possible. He has returned to lead vocal duties on two songs on ''Violeta Violeta Volume II'', however.
158	* SurrealMusicVideo: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGiC7GIng9g Knekker deg til sist]]". Let's see here, we have inexplicable clones of the band members whose facial expressions range from "happy on crack" to a complete lack of emotion, Janove (''or is it a clone?'') pretending to be a dead body in order to check out a woman's cleavage, and Helge channeling [[Film/TheRing Samara Morgan]]. Yep.
159	* StudioChatter: Snippets of dialogue in studio recordings have been heard occasionally, the most famous example being "Bris", which ends with a fit of laughter from the band due to Helge ending his organ part in the completely wrong key. Another is "Under månen", a bonus track from the ''Våre demoner'' album: at the end of the song, Janove says to the others that they need to "work on the solo", as his improvisational instrumental break eventually ended up out of key and out of sync with the others.
160	* Music/TheBeatles: One consistently name-dropped source of inspiration. They may even be more of an influence than previously thought, as the distinctive oil barrel section in "Bastard" was directly inspired by Music/RingoStarr's drumming on "Drive My Car".
161	* TheDevil: Alluded to in numerous songs, but finally makes an appearance in the flesh in "Begravelsespolka".
162	* TitleOnlyChorus: "Apokalyps meg".
163	* TrainSong: "Damplokomotiv", an obscure demo song.
164	* TropeCodifier: Gypsy Punk, when it had been an UnbuiltTrope, that's why they were considered a novelty act.
165	** TropeNamer and Co-Codifier are American band Music/GogolBordello.
166	* UncommonTime: "Femtakt filosofi" - Its title literally means "Philosophy in 5/4".
167	* UnpluggedVersion: Happens every once in a blue moon whenever only a few of the members embark on a promotional tour. Most notably, to promote ''Violeta Violeta Volume I'', Janove performed songs, both new and old, on the piano, with only Øyvind on bass as his accompaniment; this duo came to be known as "The Jackal & Thunder Combo".
168	* VisualGag: Their final concert (for now) was punctuated by the appearance of a large broad singing opera music... "it ain't over 'til the fat lady sings."
169	* VocalTagTeam: Janove/Geir on "Kalifornia", Janove/Terje on "D-Dagen".
170	* WarIsHell: "170"
171	* WordSaladLyrics: '''''Maskineri'''''. But the ''Violeta'' trilogy isn't far behind.

Context Music / KaizersOrchestra