FIDLAR, Berlin, February 2013

Let's remember a fantastic evening a few weeks ago. FIDLAR rocked Berlin's Bii Nuu, preceded by Shields from Newcastle and Vimes from Cologne. You can read my interview with them on NBHAP, they were the funniest and nicest band I have had a chance to talk to in awhile. Plus, it was talking to Californians, which is just like wrapping myself up in a warm blanket of familiarity. The fellas put on a great set, which was recorded by Arte and available to watch. So pour yourself a cheap beer and live vicariously through the internet. 

Mmoths and Brussels, unrelated

Just to quickly direct you to the last few things I wrote

Interview Ireland's own Mmoths...

The new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album Push the Sky Away

and

Now to Brussels for PIAS [NITES] a weekend of music, art, beer and chocolate in that order...

Toro y Moi show and a new Rover interview

Rest is for the wicked, here is an interview from French chanteur Timothee Regnier aka Rover. 

Please read my write up of the excellent Toro y Moi show at the Comet Club, small but mighty!

FIDLAR

Well, it's all over the internet now, with reviews in PASTE and PITCHFORK and what not, but here is mine, courtesy of NBHAP. Just so you know, I was listening to this band in August, check out earlier review here. They are playing Berlin February 13th at Bii Nuu.

Coming up soon on NBHAP, an interview I did with Rover, a tragically talented musician who is as good as he is gregarious. Be sure to check back for the link. Tomorrow I'm off to see Spleen United at Berghain Kantine, turned down an opportunity to see Conor Oberst, I guess I want to dance with some Danish guys more than anything....

new music!

Sometimes we are lucky enough to find musicians who expand our definition of what music is and what it can be. One such person in my life is Jeffrey Roden, LA-based composer who recently performed at the Stone in New York City.  Read the New York Times review here. Also, for those interested in expanding musical horizons, please check out Tobias Fischer's website Tokafi, for many great reviews, concert links and interviews. 

Yo La Tengo - Fade and Toro y Moi - Anything in Return

Well, thanks again to the lovely people at NBHAP, I have two reviews just published on the site.

I had the honor of reviewing Yo La Tengo's new album, Fade, here is what I have to say about that!  I have loved this band for awhile and seen them over ten times in various places, from San Francisco's Fillmore to Lollapalooza 2007 in Chicago.  They are constantly innovative yet manage to retain a style that won't alienate longtime fans. 

Also, here are my thoughts on the new Toro y Moi, Anything in Return. He is playing Berlin soon, let's hope the live show matches up to the sultry sounds of his last two albums. 

interview with Montevideo

Brussels best kept secret. Read it on this awesome music blog. 

seeing other blogs & Kotti-Shop show

What's new readers, I am excited to announce the interview I did was published, on none other than venerable online music magazine nothingbuthopeandpassion. Hope to be writing more for them soon, but in the meantime, check out what the band members in Waldo & Marsha had to say on my recent trip to Denmark.
In other news, the following show in Berlin much recommended, tomorrow night, the Kotti Shop,  Neues Kreuzberger Zentrum - Adalbertstr. 4 - Berlin

Double-End-the-Cold-Concert with Kotti-Shop crew: The flaming llama duo: LEISEYLENTO  -- basar musical - poetic & bizarre -- & The howling four: HERR TEUFELSDRÖCKH UND DAS TASCHENMESSER

-- Schizofolknik Rock --

Mitwoch 19. Dezember 2012 Doors open 20:00 Concert starts: 21:00 3 EUROS TO GET IN....you have no excuse

Århus

all photos ©2012 Kika Francisca Jonsson

Morten, Mathias and Mads of Waldo & Marsha

Lower

Iceage

see: Kika Jonsson, cultural contributions of

For future reference, art related things will be here, until I can get the www.kikajonsson.com website going, and breadwench chronicles remains music related. So glad we cleared that up.

Till then, here's a small preview of Lower, one of the two bands I hope to see in Aarhus this weekend at Raum Eins. It's all hypothetical when you need to make four train connections on a Friday night.

your name in postcard

brief hiatus while I do this thing here

things in progress

Open Studio at Laden Atelier, Mareschstr. 15, Neukolln, Berlin

What? Yes, it's happening, an evening featuring art by 

Ivo Gretener

Kika Jonsson

Ella Littwitz

Roman Moriceau

Julia Prezewowsky

used universe

 On Saturday, December 8th, 2012, from 6-10 pm.

Come and see some art, have a drink, and maybe your mind will be blown.

Brief hiatus from the musical jabberings until then, enjoy this track though.

Gentlemen Cowboys: Band of Horses at Admiralspalast, November 7, 2012

"Thinking it over by the snack machine/I thought about you in a candy bar"

Band of Horses have nice jackets

Well, it is the day after OBAMA!!!!!!!! wins again, and some smart people living on European time would have gone to bed early and just woken up at 4 am to watch the returns come in, but not...this....chick.  So, in the company of Barbara G. and Chris L., with approximately an hour and half sleep in 48 hours, we headed to Admiralspalast, my first venture into a Berlin venue that comes close to the elegant grandeur of my favorite Victorian ballrooms of San Francisco (Warfield, Great American Music Hall and the Regency Ballroom come to mind) it's a space with a large open floor and not one but two balcony levels.  Once again, acoustics were questionable, I don't know if it was just tonight but the mix sounded really poor and scratchy.

Count the references to Americana

The show openers were Goldheart Assembly, a (fairly standard) indie pop rock band from London (out on Fierce Panda) distinguished by the fact that none of us could understand them. If I said it once, I said it a thousand times: up and coming bands, say your names like 10 times, clearly and slowly. Banners help too. 

Anyway, after no delay, one fifth of BoH appeared on stage, all in skinny jeans, baseball shirt and trucker hats, before a screen image of the evergreen forest canopy, giving way to star-spangled sky.  These are not men, these are guys, good ol' American guys.  I guess I don't know what I miss until I see it.  They began with a slow, yearning ballad, one their many odes to what we love, we lose and we lust for. But I don't know which exact song so sorry.  

Throughout the show, behind the band appeared images from all around the US, I spotted Mono Lake and other places I'm certain were California and other gratuitous nature money shots in the Southwest.( You want to know what makes you homesick? THAT makes you homesick.) It was sort like an American road trip, but sitting down. They covered an Allman Brothers song, and I cannot confirm or deny it was the same one they did in their set in Phoenix but it was rocking.  They also had a few riffs that I swear are the opening to The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" but I was pretty sleep deprived at this point so no promises.

You know, in honor of Thanksgiving, here we give thanks that the Northwest has given us so much.  I want to you to imagine this band is the soundtrack to cresting some high mountain in the Cascade Range and realizing he/she is still gone.  That sort of sweeping, majestic sound mixed with heartbreak. (Before one song, "It's about to get real sad up in here." Oh, believe me, we know.)  Highlights of the evening was when they busted out the lap steel to accompany their reflective ballads. 

The election=addressed. Y'all? Yeah, he said "Thanks y'all for coming out." (Lead singer Ben Bridwell is from South Carolina.)  Gems enjoyed included, but not limited to, "The Great Salt Lake," "Weed Party," and the "Funeral" and a smattering of songs off the new album.  Enjoy these Seattle founded rockers at their set at Amoeba, my favorite record store in San Francisco.

FIDLAR: When guitars are given to idiots, idiots can rock

And you though punk was dead...check out these So Cal skatepunkers, who sing about all kinds of important stuff, like getting drunk, high, skateboarding and being broke. I know I know, it sound cliched, but this quartet of early 20 somethings have made it work. For fans of the Germs, and of course Minor Threat, mixed with a bit Steve Cabellero's band, The Faction. Just off a successful tour with the Hives, they are heading to France and the UK this December and download the decent free EP here.  Who knew singing about getting fucked up could be so much fun?  Lastly, it's gone now but they had an awesome hostage spoof video, 2 guys in masks with a "victim" holding a newspaper, kneeling in front of them, while they shouted "We want beer!"  Awesome for being tasteless, I mean.

Alexis Taylor IS Christine McVie: Hot Chip at Columbiahalle, November 1, 2012

"A church is not for praying/it's for celebrating the light that bleeds through the pain"

November 1, Dia de los Muertos, and one of my favorite Scottish people has organized an unwieldy group of seven to attend Hot Chip, on tour to support their latest album Motion Sickness. Now, last time I saw this band was when they opened for Animal Collective at the Fillmore San Francisco in 2005 (name=dropped).  Now during that show (supporting Coming on Strong) I remember...I remember... dancing? There's been a lot of head trauma since then but I did buy the album and absorbed them, they were a nice complement to Animal Collective. 
I am happy to say the ultimate British geeks have grown, expanding their minimalist pop for more synth heavy, danceable tracks that owe everything, and I mean everything to New Order. They played most of the new album, highlight was a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Everywhere" (of the 1986 album Tango in the Night, oh the 80s) , and I love it when men sound like women, that probably indicates some latent issue in myself I know. [Please follow that last link even if you can't watch it, check out the top comment, internet gold.]  Highlights included a great version of "Motion Sickness" and "How Do You Do?" where the header lyric comes from.  So if you want something to dance to that has actually substantial lyrics, the soundtrack that will speak to all you ugly sweater wearing computer geeks who secretly press roses between the pages of classic literature while watching it rain, then check them out.

there are known knowns and there are known unknowns: Dead Coast, Seance, Berlin

I am delayed in meeting personal deadlines, this is fact. The next few posts are going to be like that movie Memento: the most recent stuff will be recalled first, extending back into time, and I may not be so fresh in the recall, but I take excellent notes. [So the Nordic by Nature showcase at Prince Charles and the Le Cox Sportifs show at Altes Finanzmant reviews coming soon]

pre show

You know it's Wednesday, and a particularly epic (read:tired) one, that involved many stops searching for the perfect Halloween costume components.  Therefore, the invite-only show I agreed to is sounding more like a chore than a fun thing around 7 pm. Tar Art Rat aka Used Universe aka Paul and I decide to just walk in the direction of the venue, and if we feel like it, we will stay.  The setting is Seance, a Kreuzberg corner space that hosts up-and-comers or those that have arrived and want a private, little invite only show.  This evening it's decorated with some Op-Art, check out the large red, blue and white patterned back wall. 
As I'm leafing through a Tahiti girls pin up calendar, I see the band arrive.  I called them as Pacific Northwesterners as soon as they were in the door.  It's not just that being away from the West Coast has given me a finer appreciation for it, it is that there is something distinct about all of us who have grown or grown up in a maritime climate, I don't know maybe the fog and the effect of walking in the tall trees travels with you. (Clearly Southern Californians aren't included in this allusion.) 
We were treated to a super-special pre-show (they played later at SO36) of the neo-folk stylings of the deadcoast, here on the Revival Tour.  

the deadcoast

While the Pacific Northwest has supplied us with a steady stream of bearded, acoustically guitarred, and heartbroken bearded men synchronizing harmonies and ripping off the Fleet Foxes since at least 2008, this band is something different. The band surprises with some aurally rendered heartbreak, starting with (Hemingway ref) "Singapore Sling" ("Your heart/ in a Singapore sling") and reminiscing about that time "I reached for Janie Jones/ and you reached for Iron Lung."  The lead singer has a distinct voice, plaintive without being whiny.  He kept a nice  banter up with crowd, which maybe not everyone understood but they politely chuckled (note: I realized this is what's missing with European sets, musicians rarely talk to the audience. Then again, Northern Europeans don't really talk that much at all, if they don't have to.)  Treating us to two songs about the Pacific ocean ( one about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch), the deadcoast is the soundtrack to your rainy redwood walk, not so much yearning as wistful.  It is their solid musicianship (a fucking viola! when was the last time you saw a band with a viola) backed by crafted songwriting that sets deadcoast apart.  The band is frontman Jay Malinowski on guitar and piano, and three gentlemen on violin, viola and cello (who also performed as The End Tree, a more dissonant trio of just the strings, reminded me of Do Make Say Think, but shorter songs and with vocals.)  

Highlights include the cellist: "It's in C right?... oh wait..it's in D."  They have an EP coming out in November, will post more links as I get them.
Now, add this to the list of what has Vancouver given us, besides an amazing standard of living and really really good weed.

Finnish Wave Night

Big Wave Riders and Burning Hearts, playing Wednesday, October 17th at Prince Charles

Q: Where can I go to hear some music that will surely lift me out of the black mood the proximity of winter brings?

A: a fantastic Finnish showcase!

Sponsored by a slew of media forms whose opinion you should respect, Finnish Wave Night promises to gently plant a seed of happiness in you, bringing hope for the closing of the year.  Follow the links and rsvp to get yourself on the guest list.
Big Wave Riders play danceable pop that owes a lot to sad bastard British pop of late 80s, with a steady beat and synthesizers, overlaid with guitar riffs that remind me of Japan. (apologies for being unable to find a complete track by these art rockers, fuck you GEMA!) However however however, lest you think these are just retro throwbacks, their songs are suffused with an airy, dreamy dimension. Let's see how they hold up live. (Side note: they have a song called California awwww)

With a more sombre but equally exciting sound is Burning Hearts.  Think beautiful lyrics delivered with the breathless delivery that only a delicate female singer can provide.  Solid electronically modified folk pop, sure to be enjoyable.

The show is being put on by a few great blogs: notingbuthopeandpassion, nordic by nature, ponydanceclyde, a wonderfully named blog focusing on helsinki nightlife  and the official travel website of Finland.

sometimes the best is at the beginning

Helmut.Is and Beirut, Columbiahalle, September 19, 2012

O fuck me it’s Wednesday.

I bought tickets to see Beirut back in May, and after obsessively listening to the latest album Riptide (see an earlier post that is laced with lots of hyperbole) it seemed perfectly reasonable to buy tickets to show five months in advance. However, let's just say prior to the show I was not feeling it, what with it being mid-week and all, and plus I believe Columbiahalle may be one of the worst venues in Berlin.  Saying the acoustics are better inside my oven may be an insult to my oven.  A sold out show at Columbiahalle is like a boat evacuation of a war torn land: everybody wants on and there is only so much space. However, yours truly is a brave little cadet and shoves all the workaday things aside to maybe go hear something transcendental that will make stepped on toes and arguing in German worth it.

Beirut

And...I will cover the headliner first because the pleasant surprise was the opener, Helmut.is.  So Beirut came and readily admitted they were ragged after lots of touring.  The wear and tear was definitely evident, while the playing was excellent (the lead is definitely a virtuoso, and they have three horn players AND an upright bass) the band seemed to lack energy and enthusiasm.  They treated us to many gems off the latest album, including "Santa Fe," "A Candle's Fire," and the wrist-slitter "Goshen."  The highlight was "East Harlem."  What this band needs to be appreciated for is how they incorporate Eastern European influences without descending into camp.  Beirut knows how to make horns sound plaintive and needy, the soundtrack to nostalgia.  Put this on when far from home, and when Zach Condon tells you there's "a thousand miles between us," you have permission to yearn.

And the special guest and pleasantly surprising opener was Helmut.is.  No, he's not from Iceland, he's from Berlin.  Taking the stage before the sweaty, antsy throng that is the Beirut crowd, with the requisite combed over bangs and facial hair, Helmut.is is the modern one man band. Sitting before a buffet of effects pedals, he starts by strumming a chord, then looping it back, snapping his fingers, and repeating that track, building up a song piece by piece.  Normally wary of tons of effects which can mask crap musicianship, I am here to tell you this is the real thing.  Let's call it the layer theory of song building.  Highly recommended the seven minute jam "sepi," which tells you to "stay put/to regain control."  Put this EP on when the sky is gray and close, and you can't decide if getting up is at all possible. The album will decide for you.

Helmut.is

all liquids must be 2 oz or less

Berlin Festival, September 8, 2012

Oh, when did twentysomethings get so pushy?

Second day of the festival, fourth straight day of shows and bands, and I enjoyed some displays in the Art Village section. These pictures were taken inside the emotion maker, which was a refreshing space to slip into while gearing up for more standing.

Edo and Paul getting emotional

touching the membrane

I walked out on The Crocodiles set, it was nothing original. 

Laing 

On to Laing, a girl group that distinguished itself by being the ONLY band to address the crowd in German. Seriously, the only band!  3 beautiful women in front of a drummer singing about how they are “So Verliebt” ("so in loooove") .  They have coordinated outfits and dance moves, and even blew some closed minds with some air cello.  While I appreciated the feel good German pop and robot dance moves, the were essentially singing over a pre-recorded track which in my mind detracts a little (no wait A LOT) from the whole point of a live show. Either way, Marisa the dancer was additional eye candy while Atina, Johana and Nicola sang about getting up in the morning, falling in and out of love, and other sundry topics over drumbeats laid down by their Schlagzeuger (see you now know how to say drummer in German) Ketan Bhatti.  Standard stuff, but done with great style.

I Heart Sharks

ohmygodwewerethat close! not really

An indie rock band that quotes itself as being from the U.K. and Germany, this three piece came out in matching blue shirts and black slacks, and what can I say I love a band in uniform.  The heartbreakingly pretty frontman is Pierre Bee, and singing in a distinctly British way that echoes back to all your UK favorites like The Wedding Present. I was reminded of early Arctic Monkeys, these guys owe a lot a Brit Pop.  They played “Monogamy,” “Summer,” “Suburbia,” and, wittily introduced a track this way “This song is called Lies. It’s about lying.” (Oh, that German tendency for over-clarification). Why are these young and beautiful boys so heartbroken?  Check out their album Summer, and you’ll get over the break up, she’ll call soon, I promise.

WhoMadeWho

 Now, I was initially skeptical of WhoMadeWho, one tends to be wary of bands that appropriate another band's album titles.  The festival guide in the front the newly launched Greatest Berlin magazine mentioned they were from Denmark. (As an critical editorial aside, the guide was one of the worst written things in the whole magazine, literally WhoMadeWho was described as "They are from Denmark, which is were Lego comes from, and we used to play with Lego."  WHO WROTE THAT SHIT?)

so classy they have to be in black and white

Again, we have another band in uniform, except these men are dapper gents in grey tweed suits, period hats, well trimmed beards, and a drummer with a bow tie. You have to be so rock n roll to pull that off.  With musical chops to match the fashionable attire, guitarist Jeppe Kjellberg executed a brilliant slide with a champagne glass while bassist Tomas Hoffding walked on the monitors and danced out into the crowd for a bit.  Enjoy a Spleen United remix of "Every Minute Alone."  Let's call it progressive electro disco rock, if Aphex Twin cut an album with Captain Beefheart in the Safe as Milk era.  Most notable are the strong bass lines and musical skill, which could be found lacking in other bands at the festival (in  other bands in Berlin, in a lot of new music in general...I could go on.)

Franz Ferdinand

I won't waste my energy reviewing this band since they all probably drive Bentleys now but enjoy this photo.

Soundtrack of Our Lives

Okay, my notes get kinda hazy at this point, I would say this is what a band looks like when fat Jesus in a tunic and scarf and Frank Zappa's bastard son form a band. Looking like a band of outlaws from the Wild West, the guitarist even had a sherrif's badge.  This band of misfits from Sweden follows all kinds of hazy, pseudo-new age philosophies which I can't be bothered to read, I'll confess my mind wandered a lot even as the front man wandered out on stage. Sounds like pretty run-of-mill post-prog rock.  

In conclusion

Do we buy the club ticket next year? Do we just buy a music week ticket? Or do we say "no more corporate!" and only stick to small, local festivals or the ones that showcase real up and coming talent? So many decisions to be made...and whole year to do it.  Thanks to all the people who said "Excuse me" before they shoved us.

Edo, Paul, Barbara & Kika

Nordic by Nature

Scandinavian Showcase at Fritzclub in Postbahnhof, Berlin, September 6, 2012

So it's the second night of Berlin Music Week, and a short walk from Ostbahnhof finds us in Fritzclub, a posh(er) club with a rock and concrete block landscape outdoor area under red umbrellas provided by this philanthropic tobacco corporation telling me not to "be a maybe", and the brilliant touch of not one but two stages, so waiting around for soundcheck is a thing of the past.  

Sandra Kolstad: Norwegian electro pop that is the aural equivalent of ear sparklers

Sandra Kolstad and Swedish noise musician
Francis Peter Eldh (I think...) 

I caught the last three songs of this Norwegian gem, think of Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeah's, except blonde and busting out some solid danceable electro.  With an explosive stage presence and the musicianship (of classically trained pianist) to back it up, Kolstad is hard to pin down, tracks that are slow and introspective to start can explode into disco themed pop that begs to be danced to.

LCMDF

telling it like it is

Then it's off to the next room, a larger space that for some reason reminds me of a high school gym, except like so many Berlin shows people are too cool to get right up to the stage, but I like my fellow American who soaked it up close (dude it the striped shirt, I knew him from the Danish Invasion night, where he asked Schultz and Forever "Where are you guys from?" Earnestness masks our true ignorance, folks).  

he's a fan

The initials stand for Le Corps Mince De Francoise, and this is like if Salt and Pepa grew up in Finland with a lot more synthesizers.  The bass is so loud you can feel it your ribcage, and it's thumping pop with a rap that is surprisingly not annoying.  Made up of two sisters,  Mia and Emma Kemppainen, LCMDF busted out electro-pop with some polished catchy hooks. And who knew Finns could rap...

Spleen United

Okay, and the last of the groups to round out my budding love affair with all things Scandinavian, here comes Spleen United.  Yeah, I was expecting maybe metal band (!) because of the name, but instead enjoyed some (post-industrial, does that exist?) electro rock that won me over when they sampled the Flaming Lips "Do You Realize???".  Another brother-led (what's with the musical families?) this band from Aarhus, Denmark is made up of Bjarke (Vocals/Guitar) and Gaute Niemann (Bass/ Synth), Kasper Nørlund (Synth/Backing vocals), Rune Wehner (Synth) and Janus Nevel Ringsted (Drums).  (Yeah I copied that part because who the fuck knows where those weird letters are.)  If industrial techno had a post-apocalyptic aftermath, you know when everything is covered in ash and life is changed forever due to fallout, it would sound like Spleen United.