By now, my third autumn with Dangerous Minds, I think I’ve written enough posts about gag Christmas items that the well of anything to say about them—a mighty shallow well to begin with—is beginning to run dry. But I have to share this one, as it’s from those long-lived, acutely teutonic purveyors of experimental industrial clamor Einstürzende Neubauten. That band, since the dawn of the ‘80s, has taken the simple principle that literally anything that makes a sound can be validly harnessed as a musical tool, and ran with it to absurd lengths and sublime effect—notoriously and representatively, they once made an instrument out of a purloined shopping cart and some power drills. The sweater (actually a long sleeved t-shirt, though other garment styles are selectable) is available from Viralstyle, and the design is pretty witty as these things go: it features the band’s familiar Toltec cave-painting human symbol amongst pine trees and snowmen, and a large version of their distinctive variation on Reichsadler heraldry.
 

 

 
Here’s a clip of the band in performance, from the 1986 film Halber Mensch (“half-man”), created and released by the band to accompany the LP of the same title. Can’t imagine why stuff like this resonated with me, growing up in the rust belt…
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
3D-printed visualizations of Einstürzende Neubauten, Nick Drake and Portishead albums
Einstürzende Neubauten attacks its audience with Molotov cocktails, 1983
Einstürzende Neubauten’s Blixa Bargeld, kitchen magician!