In the midst of a intoxicated late-night stupor, flipping channels aimlessly (usually just prior to breaking out the Mario Kart 64), we’d pass WHA, our local PBS affiliate. There we were presented with a static title card: “Instructional Programming Begins at 1am”. These were little bumpers between the end of the final scheduled program for the night and the beginning of whatever ancient educational stuff they were about to play. Teachers, set your VCRs…

In the background of this announcement was a song. It wasn’t at all what you’d expect to find a station playing during its sign off music– it was actually quite good. It had a driving beat, was sort of “jammy” in the minimalist sense. Everything sort of just chilled with the rhythm and drone. We’d watch let it hang out with us for what seemed like gargantuan chunks of time. Five or maybe even ten minutes would pass while I speculated about the song’s identity. “What the fuck is this?! It’s gotta be Can.” I knew a little about Krautrock. But finding it broadcast over a late night PBS affiliate was just odd.

Though I later ended up working at that very station, I never had the opportunity to ask what the music was. I wondered who’d chosen this song. Did they like it? Or was it picked merely because it was low-key, didn’t have any words, and most importantly–was really fucking long?

Well, I figured it out. I haven’t been around Wisco to hear the instructional title card music in over two years, but when I cued up Neu!’s second album today and played the first track, Fur Immer– it was nothing short of a a minor epiphany.

The total running time is 11:13, easily long enough to smooth over most gaps in late-night television programming. And though it’s been years, I still expect the opening credits for “Studying Art”, “Destinos” or “Food Sci 104″ to break through at any given moment. And then I’d play some Mario Kart.