Rumor Patrol

THE RUMOR. The ghostly woman singing on Tokio Hotel’s “Geisterfahrer” (German version of “Phantomrider”) is Heather Grey Chase, girlfriend of frontman Bill Kaulitz.

FALSE. The woman singing on “Geisterfahrer” is not Chase, it’s actually German model Jana Pallaske. Pallaske is also the lead singer of her own German rock band, Spitting Off Tall Buildings.

Still not convinced? Kaulitz set the record straight in an interview last week; “…the girl, who sings with me in “Geisterfahrer” is not my girlfriend.” †

HG Billy-Boy’s Humanoid

Today is Tuesday and Pop-Cultured’s heads are rolling; two weeks ago we blogged that our favorite German rockers, Tokio Hotel, officially named their new album, Humanoid. Now the story is lead singer, Bill Kaulitz, named the album after his girl, Heather Grey Chase. The confusing they’rereallydating *fangirl squee* drama continues!

On Monday, the blogmistress of HG’s official fansite, The Heather Chase Files, reposted the article that exploded the story: Bill’s humanoid is HG, leaving us confused once again. Does that mean Bleather’s back together? Were they ever apart?

And if we weren’t confused enough, TH’s Official American Fansite, Tokio Hotel America’s, changed their tagline from, “Because life is too short to not be their fan…” to “Because life is too short to not be their fan humanoid.” This means even the official American fansite is acknowledges that Bill named Humanoid after a person!!

Holla at us YOUR thoughts on Humanoid!

 

This has been Pop-Cultured.

“Humanoid” a Freudian Blunder?

Tokio Hotel’s new album, Humanoid, has been called a title-blunder by fans and critics alike; but musicologists say Nien. It is no mistake. It is a complex parapraxis, revealing deep, unconscious and undeniable attachments between Bill Kaulitz of Tokio Hotel and his on-and-off girlfriend Heather Grey Chase.

Often albums are named for events, people or introspective revelations. Titles then become symbols or metaphors for that particular artist, in this case Kaulitz. Zeit Online manager/producer, David Jost, stated; “Kaulitz picked the title Humanoid because it is the same in both German and English and means ‘humanlike.’” It looks like Kaulitz took his inspiration from science-fiction, but professionals disagree, “We believe that Humanoid was actually named for someone close to Kaulitz and not a titling blunder but a parapraxis.”

Humanoid by definition is an adjective denoting human form and human characteristics. It can also imply virtual reality. For the last year, Bill Kaulitz has been rumored to be dating runway model, Heather Grey Chase. The rumor was started online and catapulted Chase into a new type of virtual celebrity. Because both Kaulitz and Chase never speak about their relationship and few photos surface, the exact relationship between the two is unknown and Tokio Hotel fans believe Chase to be a fantasy girlfriend. She is the ideal mental object. Quoting an earlier personal article on Chase, “It seems almost too perfect that everyone’s fantasy boyfriend [Kaulitz] found his perfect fantasy girlfriend.” It seems Kaulitz does have a humanoid in his life, Chase, and has named his new album after her.

There are two schools of academic thought as for why Kaulitz named Humanoid after Chase. The first explanation, Expressivism, considers Kaulitz’s choice as an emotional slip of the mind; an act based on unconscious desires – a parapraxis. The second explanation, Formalism, considers that his choice was on purpose, for aesthetics, knowing full well that fans have heard of Chase and would associate her as his humanoid.

There are other details that back up this hypothesis. First, it has long been said that Chase’s band, Pigeon, collaborated on Humanoid, contributing backing guitar and violin. Kaulitz confirmed there will be violins on the new album, but never actually stated who those musicians would be. Next, the syllabic similarity in the names Humanoid and Heather Grey are also notable. They both roll off the tongue to the same beat. Leading to further belief that Chase is obviously the humanoid from which Kaulitz drew his muse. Finally, the release date for the album; October 2, 2009, one year to the day when the viral feeds began reporting Kaulitz and Chase were a couple. §

References

Freud, Sigmund. (1901b). The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. SE, 6.

Hendrix, Brian. 2000. “The Visceral in Music.” Popular Musicology Online.

“The New Album from Tokio Hotel is called ‘Humanoid.’” 20/07/09. Zeit Online.

Billy’s Future

Today is Tuesday and Pop-Cultured is on-again; obsessively blogging love-pigeons, Bill Kaulitz and Heather Chase’s, off-again romance. The low-down? Billy’s Future doesn’t include trophy girlfriend. (BTW GUYS: This means she is available for that lunch-date and “tennis match” if you get what we’re sayin’.)

“You may have noticed Bill changed his hairstyle.” One TH-lover let slip, “Well, it’s because of her…” That’s right; Bill ditched the lion’s mane do for dreads to piss-off Heather. And as it turns out this is not the only thing Bill did in effort to ditch her.

“He kicked her and her mooching friends out of his apartment!” One fight after another, Bill finally kicked Heather (and friends) out of the apartment. “Bill even demanded that she give back the dog he gave her for Valentine’s Day.” And as the ultimate Bill went into the fashion designing business, without any help from Miss Supermodel!

His fashion line, Billy Future, will launch in Fall 2009, right around the time of TH’s new album. Rumors say the album will be My Hotel, Reset, or Wayward. Our money is on Wayward; Pigeon talked about working on an album called Wayward in January and then it was announced that they were definitely doing violin stuff with TH.

But the more important thing: Do you think Billy-boy is better off with or without Heather?

This has been Pop-Cultured.

The Pigeons Have Landed –

– And Shit on Tokio Hotel’s Latest Release Date

American underground indie-rockers, Heather Grey Chase and Erik Monk, landed in Hamburg, Germany yesterday evening. The Pigeons, carrying violin and guitar cases, were rushed to a black SUV. The duo is collaborating with Tokio Hotel.

Pigeon and Tokio Hotel have been linked since September 2008, when it surfaced that Bill Kaulitz (Tokio Hotel) and Heather Grey Chase (Pigeon), were dating. Kaulitz, a sex symbol for millions of teens world-wide, shot down these rumors stating he was not dating anyone, though never specifically commenting about Chase. Chase, recluse daughter of freelance record producer Carl Chase, stated only that the two were “good friends.”

In January 2009 it was rumored that Pigeon would collaborate with Tokio Hotel on their next bi-lingual album, original release date March 2009. Monk was lending a bow with violins, while Chase was helping with back-up guitar and vocals. An hour after Pigeon landed, Tokio Hotel’s American record label, Cherrytree Records announced that the release date, changed twice more now, will not be before August 2009.

Who’s Fiddlin’ with Tokio Hotel?

In a recent interview for Tokio Hotel’s April album guitarist Tom Kaulitz hinted at the band’s new direction. “We include something with violins, you guys will be surprised.” Could Pigeon still be influencing Tokio Hotel despite the end to their rumored collaboration?

Pigeon, the emo-rock sextet, led by Heather Grey Chase and Erik Monk, have been Tokio Hotel’s groupie band since both group’s lead singers’ (Chase and Kaulitz) inexplicable relationship began in September 2008. Despite Pigeon’s total obscurity, they claimed to have been collaborating with Tokio Hotel on an album supposed to be dropped by January 2009. Then Pigeon culled down to a duet and Tokio Hotel announced a four month delay in their album’s release. Pigeon allegedly refused to continue work with Tokio Hotel and then it was revealed that Pigeon had spilt for good due to a lawsuit.

Meanwhile Tokio Hotel has been promoting a new direction in their rock music. They are working with top notch song writers like the Matrix, who previously worked with David Bowie – an idol of Kaulitz’s. Tokio Hotel is going for a “dark” rock style (Korn meets Placebo meets Pink Floyd) but their new signature sound echoes another violin-loving band — Pigeon. Violins being one of Pigeon’s claims to fame. Violin and rock fusion, via metal, pop, Indie, and grunge; spiked with fashion runway couture and sex. Did Pigeon have a hand in Tokio Hotel’s new sound? Could Erik Monk still be playing on Tokio Hotel’s new album? Or is it all just a fiddling coincidence?