You keep what you kill

 I readily admit to being blown away by this fantastic new song by Lorde. It's the perfect summer tune, I'm dancing naked through the Tiergarten each day to celebrate it! :-) https://youtu.be/wvsP_lzh2-8 Enjoy.

I'm going to use the word thing a lot in this post. For the intellectuals, you can substitute it by entity in your great minds, if that makes you feel better. Or just shove a book up your arse. This is probably the best thing, ahh, music video ever made: https://youtu.be/cNi11qFO_k0 Straight and to the point. And while we're at it, this is another great song from the same album. (Unfortunately, the rest of the album isn't quite as good, so a bit medium-rare ... . Too artsy-fartsy.) https://youtu.be/b6Iv0R5Hi20 Speaking of music in general. Some good things have happened despite our little pandemic. Run the Jewelz have published a fantastic new album, IV. One of the best US rap things in the last 25 years. Public Enemy also hit us with a new album thing, What you gonna do when the grid goes down? Much better than their last two albums, they must be over 100 years old by now, but Chuck D still rules and hits the nail on the head. Including an updated version of "Fight th...

So, we went to see Stormzy the other day at Columbiahalle. I was really looking forward to this concert and it took me a while to make up my mind and come to a verdict. At the end of the day, I must say, that the performance was good, but all the rest was really embarassing and, to be frank, a rip-off. Let's start with the positive: Stormzy in good form, the parts that he did himself are really good. I like the music, his style, his voice. Girlfriend also liked the fact that he took of his shirt. :-D But the negative: The sound was absolute shit. Seriously, I don't get it, I've been in this business myself for many years. How on earth can you fuck up the sound when it's just one mic and DJ in the first place? Embarassing. Then there were lots of people smoking in the venue and security did nothing about it. Very Berlin unfortunately. Also, wayyyyyyyyy toooooooo muuuuuuuch playback, my friends. Either get a band or a proper DJ set, but this was, except for rare ins...

Wer hätte das gedacht, dass ich die alten Säcke noch mal sehe? Dear me! What a great show, sooooo emotional. I nearly cried when they played Sluttering. It's always funny to see that these days all this sell-out bullshit is a complete non-issue, fortunately. Blake Schwarzenbach still has his voice, most wonderful, showers of emotion running down my spine (and it's not a gay club *lol*). I only wish that bands would stop playing at the "Astra", this is one of the most disgusting venues, also in a very disgusting area. Hopefully to be gentrified away soon. :-)

I recently discovered that I've not made near enough 'positive' lists in the last couple of years. So time to take up this nice tradition again. Plus I'm spending too much time on the move and thus have far too much time to think about shit. ☺ So, let's start with a difficult easy one. A top twenty list of whole albums that are fucking amazing great wonderful fantastic, even today. And it must be the whole album, not just 2-3 songs on it. And they must have stood the test of time, that means be at least a few years old to make sure it's not just a short time love affair. Exceptions apply. And I'm always right and you're always wrong. What else. So these are albums I've been listening to a gazillion times and am still not tired of them. Some of them I had to buy twice because the vinyl was simply wrecked / thinned out after having been played a million times. Chronological order. Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables Eric B. &...

Easter happened quite early this year. And we'd made the decision to go visit the good old British Empire for one last time, before they depart from this world and move to their own fantasy reality. :-D So, off to London on Friday, and of course it was raining. More or less all the time. But who cares? Because we had umbrellas and we're made of steel, not sugar. :-D We spent Friday and much Sunday perusing records and bookstores, travelling all over London, as requested by the Reisebegleitung. Lovely breakfast at one of my Soho favourites, Cafe L'Eto. Very nice hot chocolate at the Dark Sugars Chocolate House in Brick Lane, great coffee at Climpson's Coffee Bar at Spitalfields Market and an Monmouth Coffee in Monmouth St and of course the lovel Department of Coffee and Social Affairs. The culinary main event was a visit to Ottolenghi at Spitalfields for a very extensive and super delicious Sunday breakfeast. Wonderful.   The main event was of course Saturday eve...

Wir waren am Freitag mal den Kasper gucken. Ich hatte ehrlich gesagt recht niedrige Erwartungen an das Konzert, wurde aber positiv überrascht. Erst mal haben wir das Timing richtig gut hinbekommen und mussten ausnahmsweise mal nicht vor der nervigen Max-Schmeling-Halle anstehen. )Wird die jetzt eigentlich in Manuel-Charr-Halle umbenannt und Bushido spielt das Eröffnungskonzert?) Wir mussten nur noch 4-5 Songs Umbaupausenmusik ertragen und konnten geschickt den Supportact umgehen. Ich habe Fatoni schon ein paar Mal gesehen und muss leider sagen, dass ich ihn langweilig finde. Nett, aber langweilig, nicht mein Ding. In der Umbaupause lief noch "Ein Affe und ein Pferd" von K.I.Z. und es haben fast mehr Leute mitgesungen als nachher bei Casper. Zurück zum Thema - Casper hat sich eine sehr aufwändige Produktion gegönnt, ich hoffe, es lohnt sich auch finanziell für ihn. Sehr cool, das ganze Ding mit Liveband zu spielen, das hatte schon richtig Druck. Well done! Auch ansonsten, r...

I rarely go to concerts these days. To many smokers around. The smoke itself is bad enough, just makes me feel sick. But the real problem is the aggression inside me. I have to stay away from these people because I have good reasons to assume that rather sooner than later I won't be able to control myself and BEAT THEM TO A BLOODY PULP. I admit that I often have these images in my head and I'm going through the scenes in slomo, that's when I usually leave the building before it becomes reality. While it would be a) justified, b) fun, and c) make the world a better place if I beat the living daylights out of a motherfucking smoker, it would also d) land me in jail. Which I would very much like to avoid. But if anybode invented a virus that killed all smokers, I'd be happy to help spread it. Fuck you. So, that is one of the reasons I don't go to too many concerts these days. The second reason is security or rather the amateurish security a lot of the bigger locations ...

Im Mai ... kommt der Winterweizen. Was auch sonst? Seriously, we were dead tired, having just stepped off a 14 hour flight from Singapore in the morning but this didn't stop us from finding our way to the Bi Nuu club in Kreuzberg to see the lovely John K. Samson & Co. It was well worth it, since we did not only get songs from Christine Fellows and John K. Samson, but also a lot of classics from the Weakerthans. So like a secret bonus level in this video game they call "real life". :-) What can I say? I've been a big fan of The Weakerthans since 1997. I still remember the day Marcus sent me the "Fallow" CD ... mindblowing ... an instant love affair. And then "Left and Leaving" which accompanied me through an difficult interesting time in my life ... . Even after hearing all those songs a gazillion times and then some and after seeing them live each night for three while on tour in 1999, I still wasn't tired of listening to their music. Jo...

Viiiiiieeeeeeeel besser dagegen war das Konzert des Jahres 2017, da leg ich mich schon mal fest. Kreator. Columbiahalle. Im Februar. Geil. Geil. Geil. Was für ein Brett.

Vor ein paar Wochen, mea culpa, Antilopen Gang Konzert im Huxleys. War nett, hab aber so ein bisschen das Gefühl, dass die Bühnen langsam zu groß werden für die Jungs. Auf jeden Fall sehr nice, große Teile des Konzert mit Band zu spielen. Aber irgendwie sprang der Funke nicht mehr so über wie noch in den etwas kleineren Locations. Was auch ekelhaft war, wofür die Band aber nix kann: das Raucherpack. Diese widerlichen "Menschen". Ich habe zunehmend Massenvernichtungsphantasien, wenn ich an Raucher denke. Bei dem Konzert haben wir schließlich nur noch aus dem Vorraum raus zugeschaut und -hört, weil ich drinnen keine Luft mehr bekommen habe. Ein weiterer Grund, Konzerte künftig mehr und mehr zu meiden. Schade eigentlich. Aber sollen sie doch alle verrecken.

Du warst die Brücke zwischen Ost und West. Du hast uns Westlern gezeigt, wie die Ostler sind. Du warst der erste Ostler, den ich im Fernsehen sah und tatsächlich sind alle Ostler so wie du. Bis auf die Nazis. Für die du nichts kannst. Du hast Hits wie "Spreewaldgurke" und "Zuppel - Zappel" geschrieben, du warst der Großmeister der Ost-Unterhaltung. Ich wollte immer so eine Frisur haben als wies du sie hattest, aber Bullensperma und so. R.I.P. Achim Mentzel. You will be missed.

Ich war in der Schule und habe nichts gelernt ... . Gute Zusammenfassung für 2015, finde ich. Gute Nacht!

C-Club last Tuesday was much better than Umbaupause No More. Small. Loud. Extremely loud. Bad Religion in good form, didn't see any respirators or rollators. Only old songs, thank you for that. Straight and to the point. Me liked.

Went to see Faith No More at the Zitadelle last Saturday. Shared a totally cramped UBahn with lots of Barca fans (and some Arsenal supporters, wtf?). Nice. Sweat. Beer. Male cuddling and jiffing going on. Rrrrrrrrrr. Arrived at Zitadelle to find that the Umbaupause was still going on ... and on ... and on and on and on for another hour. Extremely unprofessional and annoying. Especially because I knew that they have to stop at 10pm. So they started at 8:55pm. Great. No value for money here. Contrary to expectations, the sound was fantastic. Good job. Great musicians. Good show. But I had forgotten why never  go to festivals of any kind - I don't like the atmosphere. Or rather the lack of it. Felt like listening to music on very expensive headphones at the dentist. Well, a smoking and beer-drinking-stinking dentist, but still. The stage deco didn't really help, all in white with flowers everywhere, bit like a scientology funeral. Not that I've ever been to one.

Ich war ein bisschen enttäuscht, dass der Song nicht auf der Setlist stand. Das war aber auch das einzige, was ich am letzten Dienstag abend auszusetzen hatte. Endlich wieder Kreator live. Da froie ich mich seit Wochen drauf. Ich hatte einige Bedenken wegen der Location, das Huxleys ist nicht gerade für seinen guten Sound berühmt. Aber das war zum Glück unbegründet, der Sound war der Hammer, druckvoll, brutal, wunderbar. Es geht doch, man muss halt nur das richtige Equipment ranschaffen und Leute, die was davon verstehen ... . Besonders traurig wenn man das mit dem Rise Against Konzert im fucking Velodrom vor ein paar Wochen vergleicht. Das war ordentlich viel teurer und richtig Scheiße wegen des Kacksounds. Anyway, no use crying over spilt milk. Kreator haben gerockt, geiles Intro, Hammerset, relativ straight durchgeprügelt, mit fast allen Hits von ganz früher bis heute. Ich bin verliebt und lösche alle anderen Songs auf meiner Festplatte. :-) Geil war auch das Publikum. Eine Menge ...