Most hated phrases

1. I take it as a compliment.
2. Da ziehts. [untranslatable]
3. I really like you...as a friend.
4. Das sagt einem der Hausverstand. [This is simply common sense]
5. This is a 'See you' not a 'Good bye'.

Northward ho!

Long time no post. Busy at the moment. Tomorrow Sweden and Finland. God, so looking forward.

Heja Sverige, moi Suomi!!!

Arcade Fire reloaded

'No cars go' in Vienna

Impromptu 'Wake up' in Porchester Hall

Still goosebumps.

...and if the snows buries my, my neighborhood

Severeal years ago i was in Vienna with my then best friend, C. Of course i was in love with her, more than with anyone before. Of course i confessed her my love, and of course she felt just friendship towards me. She leaned her head against my shoulder and i was...sad. Days later i needed a jacket and took the one i wore that very night. While putting on the garment, i was suddenly overwhelmed by something i wasn't sure what it was in the beginning, my heart started beating, my skin was covered with goosebumps. The jacket had taken on her odor.

Saturday i was in Vienna, once more. I saw Arcade Fire. Today i jumped into my car, and they suddenly played one of their songs on the radio. Heart started beating. Goosebumps all over. The air had taken on the odor of Arcade Fire.

I have probably seen the best concert of my live this weekend. I don't want to give here any interpretations of their lyics, or discuss this 'collective'-band-concept. I would fail. What i can do, is interpreting people's faces at the concert, the joy they expressed, the passion they shared. Music can change so much, not that i didn't know that before, but i has been a long time since a single event gave me such a big impetus.

Of course it was snowing that very night, almost all over Austria.

Public Enemy No. 1 (in Linz)

This blog is definitely much too much into music involving rock-and-roll-guitars. But hey, I'm running this site from Linz, which is not only known for it's quality-steel and fresh air, but also for the large number of the hip-hop crews residing here.

Therefore it was once characterised in German magazine 'Der Spiegel' as being [quote] 'Austria's ghetto-city, the thoughest one Austria has'. Linz, so the author of the article continued, that's basically drugs, chemical industry and violence. Me personally, i never leave the flat without my Uzi and a pocket fully of hand grenades.

So, what was I up to? Ah, yes, a shamefully on this page underrepresentated genre: hip-hop. More exactly: Public Enemy. Luckily these guys have nothing to to with the gangsta-cliché, but a lot with attitude, protest and the highest quality of modern music. So, as some sort of compensation, and more importantly, because the song is really really worth it, i present you Public Enemy with 'Harder than you think'. Enjoy!



mp3: Public Enemy - Harder than you think

Old friends, glory old days

Thx to all you lovely people for a great night! Was nice seeing you again, hope that we can rejoin soon.

Hugs,
Bernie

Bloc Party go rave

Bloc Party go back to the 90ies and recorded this bewildering song: Flux.



I love the video. Nice trash : ) It's so good to see that Bloc Party take another route than all those young British rockers. Keep going off track!

These boys are: Tocotronic

Tuesday this week a friend and me went to see Tocotronic down in Posthof, Linz. Earlier this year i declared their new album 'Kapitulation' as probably 2007ths best release so far. It still is, leaving announced sensations as Radioheads 'In Rainbows' far behind. (By the way: Anyone ever heard someone talking about the new Radiohead album? And by saying so I don't mean this oh so revolutionary way of distribution. See?)

Anyway, the concert was enlightening. Last time I saw Tocotronic in Linz was 5 years ago, same venue. How different two gigs of one and the same band can be. 2002: The concert hall packed with people. 2007: Hum, let's say it was half full. Ok, 2/3rd full. Which is still embarassing for Linzer indie-lovers. 2002: A lame concert, with a support act playing Tocotronic against the wall. 2007: Tocotronic at it's peak.

First of all to mention: Accepting Rick McPhail as a 4th band member gave the sound of Tocotronic a major boost. Highly complex walls of sound bursting out over the crowd are a result of this, producing memories of late 80ies/early 90ies shoegazers My Bloody Valentine or Ride. Additionally i am of the opinion that McPhails guitar gave the songs more precision. Some might say this kind of took away Tocotronics 'rebellious' attitude. I say they were never more rebellious than now.

Second, Tocotronic are proponents of something i call 'Neue Ernsthaftigkeit' ('new graveness'?). And I don't speak ironically. End to 'Spaßkultur', end to Sportfreunde Stiller! Example? Listen to the song 'Explosion': 'Everything is yours/a world made of paper/everything explodes/no will triumphates'.

Third, bassist Jan Müller was loaded like a howitzer.

Vienna²

A nice week is over, i spent more than half of it in Vienna. And Vienna was, as always heaps fun, especially as i was there for two nice events: One the promotion of sister Karin to a Doctor of the Law!

The other the birthday of my yearlong friend Dominik (sorry, no pics for that event. All censored).

Fia? Sweden hash it?? Any explanation???

Weirs band names, pt. II

A place to bury strangers

Come from: Brooklyn, NYC.

Named themselves: The name of the band is linked to both the Gospel of Matthew and the writings of British occultist Aleister Crowley.

Sound: A mix of The Jesus and Mary Chain, My bloody Valentine, Joy Division. Kneel down and pray!

Latest album: self titled

They are: This year's biggest surprise. Some say: You haven't heard anything like this before. Pitchfork media says: hott! I say: Hott AND spicy!

Web: www.aplacetoburystrangers.com

A place to bury strangers - Missing you

Party, party!

Had two days off last week so that my weekend lasted 4 days long! Yay, and i had party for three days in a row. But old man i am, i'm rather exhausted now. Even went to Mensafest, which turned out to be a good choice, surprisingly.













Oh how much i love LUI ; )

I am so happy to be not neurotic.

Indie hairstyle

Here's a nice site on indie-kids and their hairstyle. Pretty funny.

http://www.catbirdseat.org/catbirdseat/indiehair.html

Family matters

Nice sunday. My family and me went to have lunch at an Italian restaurant run by Jean-Pierre from Sarlat, my favourite French cook. Had salmon and scampi, yummie.




Afterwards beer and newspaper in Café Stern in downtown Linz.

I have a formidable song for the day, heard on FM4 this morning while driving home, only moderately speeding. It is a cover-version of one of my all time favourite songs by The Charlatans, done by Mark Ronson feat. some kind of an English Chansonier/Singer-Songwriter and former member of highly influential old-schoolers Take That. Please don't stone me to death. Here is

Mark Ronson feat. Robert Williams - The Only One I Know

Oh you're so silent B.

Obviously I haven't been posting too much during the last two or three weeks. Reason: There is simply nothing going on. Additionally i hardly ever have my camera with me. And stories without pictures are boring (according to advanced media theories). So, here is the obligatory picture:
It shows Steff in Vienna, where him, his girlfriend Evi and me met for having a pleasant night going out. And no, we were NOT wasted. Just tired.

So nothing else to report, but wait, probably there is: I got tickets for 'Control', Anton Corbijn's Joy Division-movie, presented at the Vienna Film Festival 'Viennale' for the first time in Austria. Weeee!!! And finally I am going to Sweden in December. Yesyesyes!

Here are the tunes of the week:

Gravenhurst - Trust
Air Traffic - No more running away

Yes. Finally.

Hello everyone.
Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days;
We've called it In Rainbows.
Love from us all.
Jonny

Radiohead goes new ways in distributing the record (find here), and no, i not find it cool. But anyway, decision taken, i will follow. Hey, it's Radiohead.

I can already imagine J. Greenwood packing the stuff into boxes. Selway seals the packets. Yorke writes the adresses onto them (bonus! -> free autograph). C. Greenwood buys the stamps. O'Brien brings them to the post office. And Ma' Greenwood is responsible for ordering, complaints and making coffee.

Bla bla bla

Sorry, no news so far. At least none which were of anyone's business. No days off work during summer (ok, 1.5). Tired. I want those shoes:


Today everybody listen to Okkervil River, no excuses.

Okkervil River - For real

Big trip in December! So looking forward!!!

There they go, pt II

Joe Zawinul (1932 - 2007)

Joe Zawinul - Mercy, mercy, mercy

Thomas Hansen (1976 - 2007)

St. Thomas - Heroes making dinner

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'To live is the best way to die' said the girl from California i met yesterday night at Café Roter Krebs. How right she is.

A tragedy and a shame that i rediscovered St. Thomas not before the dinner party at my place earlier this year.

No Rain!

It has been raining for almost 24 hours now. Without any pause. The first austrian cities are starting to sink. Bah. I want sun. Now. I demand a nice and proper autumn, moderate temperatures and decent sunshine. Everyone supporting this 'Sun now!' petition sign this post with a 'Yeah!'.



However, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. There will always be The Beatles. There will always be Belle & Sebastian. Here is 'Here comes the sun'. Done by Belle & Sebastian.

Belle & Sebastian - Here comes the sun

Alles wird gut.

Lazy sunday, pt. II

I never knew that sober sunday afternoons are even more boring than hung over ones. But ok, on Friday and Saturday i spent a great time out partying and talking and watching movies...can there be any better?

So, what to do on a boring, not even sunny Sunday après-midi? Exactly - it's music, what else. I just learned that José Gonzáles is to release an new album later this year, the first two outtakes sound really promising.

José González - Down the line [linx not working at the moment, gonna fix that]
José González - Killing for love [linx not working at the moment, gonna fix that]

Moreover, THE big surprise of 2006, Zach Condon - the whiz kid behind 'Beirut', is going to release a successor to his monolithic 'Gulag Orkestar'. There are rumours that 'The Flying Club Cup' will be even bigger. We will know more in two weeks, here are some teasers.

Beirut - In the mausoleum
Beirut - The penalty

Finally, i found this cute cover-version of Primal Screams' classic 'Higher than the Sun', performed by this years Mercury-nominees Bat for Lashes, Fionn Regan and Maps (the latter ones being my favourites, but that's a different story worth).



Yes, and we have a new club in the city! And it is not Remembar-style!!! Named after Stanislaw Lem's sci-fi classic 'Solaris', it seems to be quite promising. Hope that i can upload some pictures sooner or later. Check out its webpage.

Maps - To the sky

Lazying on a sunny sunday afternoon

Incredibly boring sunday. Slept until afternoon. No reason to get up earlier. Spent almost all the day surfing internet, looking for new music. Yesterday out all night. Same on Friday. Confused. Anyway. Here's the music.

Pelle Carlberg - Clever girls like clever boys much more than clever boys like clever girls Pretty song of a pretty swedish Swede. Song title is very clever, yet not always correct.

The New Pornographers - My rights versus yours New Pornographers new albums is out now. Quite nice, nothing more.

The Pains of being pure at Heart - The Pains of being pure at Heart Woooo, shoegazing!!! The track 'The pains of being pure at heart' can be found on 'The pains of being pure at heart' debut-EP, surprisingly titled 'The pain of being pure at heart'. Any further questions?

Great lake swimmers - Your rocky spine Some other indie stuff.

Caribou - Melody Day A-W-S-O-M-E!!!

Have fun with the tracks, cheers,
Bernie

Et Dieu créa la femme

I'm speechless. Simple, brutal, blows you away. Rock and roll in its sheerest beauty.

Control

uh-oh, Ian Curtis is becoming a movie theme (title: Control; rather unknown Sam Riley as Curtis, Oscar-nominated Samantha Morton as his wife Deborah and german beauty Alexandra Maria Lara as lover Annik Honoré)...i'm scared, really scared. Let's hope the best.

Ich hab mit Tocotronic Bier getrunken!

So finally i have a couple (well, two) days off from work, and what do i do? Relax? No way! Sonja invited me over to her birthday-party which was really cool and nice. So good to see some old fellow friends! Of course we sat until the early morning, that clearly indicates the quality of the evening.

As soon as i came to powers again i went to Frequency Festival to meet two friends from France. The first day was blessed with bright sunshine, the nice people from Vienna i got to know and, above all, two amazing shows of '...Trail of Dead' and 'Tocotronic'. Both didn't play very, say, 'festival-like', but that was indeed what made the concerts so good. Trail of Dead played main stage, but only a handfull of people were there, still, they did so great! During the show suddenly the bassist of Tocotronic appeared among the people, what made the girls freak out a bit ; )
But as Frequency is close to Salzburg there was no way that the weather could stay that beautiful: Since thursday it was raining quite heavily, which robbed the festival of its relaxed mood. Nonetheless, the Interpol show was a highlight, an amazing one in fact!

Tour d'empire

The last two weekends led me into the beautiful east respectively two cities which were once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Zagreb and Budapest. While the first is ok, but in the end not so likely to become one of my favourites, the latter has meanwhile become one of the cities i like best in Europe (except for Vienna...uh, dammit, do i feel some kind of patriotism here?!?!). Still, i discovered that i like this central European kind of cities quite a lot. Probably the smell of Habsburg, who knows?

Of course Peter was there as well and as always we had a fantastic time. And Peter - my greatest respect to you: I know hardly anyone who knows his/her city so good as you do!!! Very nice indeed was also to meet my fellow friend Joaquin again, which took place down in Zagreb. It is so nice to see that the promise 'To see each other again' seems really to be working. Oh, how i like this idea of Erasmus, how great it is.

What else, what else? Yeah, Sziget festival of course, a rather muddy yet magnifique festival. Went there with Verena and Simone, two friends from Linz. Those girls really know how to survive (and camp) in a nasty neighborhood:

But Peter and me do also:

Tomorrow birthday party, nice, nice, wednesday maybe Frequency-Festival, let's see...
Greetz from L-City,
Bernie

Congratulations!

My sister Karin had her very last university exam today. Not only that she did amazingly good, no, from now on she is also a Doctor of the Law. Yoyoyo! i'm so incredibly proud!!!!

Gangstatown Linz

Weeee, i live in a city of the third world!!!!!

http://wikitravel.org/en/Linz sayz: 'While Linz does indeed have a sizable "Altstadt" (old town) it may be disappointing to those tourists familiar with the charm of Graz or Salzburg. The old city has not been cared for by the local government and shows severe signs of decay. Linz is primarily a student and industrial town and while not particularly beautiful, is more representative of a "real" Austrian city vs. the almost fairy tale like quality of Salzburg.'

Linz, old town?

Linz, old town?

Lil' z. feat. E! You Erschwendner

There they go...

...all within days. Imagine they movie they will now do together. A monument.

Of Montreal - The past is a grotesque animal

Is it only my weird mind or does Bergman look on this very picture like another, errr, revolutionary?

Weird band names, part I

As already announced, i will do a little series on weird band names. However i will only feature bands and artists to whom i feel somehow attracted. So here we go. Today:

'The Strange Death of Liberal England'

Come from: Portsmouth, England.

Named themselves: after a book written by George Dangerfield (WHAT a name!) dealing with the decline of British liberals before WW I.

Sound: luckily not like the 110th edition of Franz Ferdinand & Co. Rather like a European Version of Arcade Fire. Or Mogwai. Both not too bad.

Latest album: 'Forward March' (ironically subtitled with 'Traditional marching songs to learn and play')

They are: incredibly young yet good looking.

Specials: Don't talk to their audience. The hold up sheets with slogans written on them instead. Oh, how 'indie', no?

Web: http://www.myspace.com/tsdole

The Strange Death of Liberal England - Summer Gave Us Sweets But Autumn Wrought Division

Next to come: 'Portugal. The man.'

Rainin in paradize

No, Linz is not paradise, but at least it was raining a bit last night and the night before. I was slightly happy about that as temperatures here kept rising up to 35°, in the east of Austria up to 40. Nothing special for, say, Andalusia, but here...not good, especially when you sit in an unclimatized office.

So, now to the good part of this weekend - on Thursday hundreds of artists took over the streets of Linz and there they will stay until this night and they transformed Linz into the city i always wanted it to be. A pity that from tomorrow on the citie's face will reshape again. But for this evening i will enjoy Linz with singers and a capella-bands in every small backyard (and there are many of those backyards - really beautiful ones in renaissance style with flowers all over. never saw them. and i've been living here for nine years now.); jugglers and fire-spitters on the squares and manymany people peacefully enjoying the artistry.










Some friends of mine are also taking part in this colourful fair -they formed an a capella band a couple of years ago and they are absolutely marvellous, especially as one of them is a great entertainer, even when not singing. So yesterday they were in one of those backyards i mentioned above and i had a really awesome time. The evening reached its heyday when an old lady came out of her flat, listened to the guys for some time, left, came back - with a bottle of champagne for the boys. And as they dedicated a song to her, she even offered them a second one.
A beautiful detail: The tiny old lady seemed to grow with every second the guys were singing for her. Nice, nice. Sometimes this city surprises me.

Lateron i incidentally met the guys with whom i was running a bar in the university area for a year during my student-days. Horray we said and remembered those glorious old days, which included drinking some beers of course. And i was told how many of our former guests would marry these days (6 couples! 6!!!). Scary, indeed. On the other hand, it's big fancy split-up-time in my extended circle of friends.

Demain Air à Vienne avec une amie. Je m'en rejouis beaucoup.

Greetz from Linz
Bernie

P.S.: From now on i will refuse to guess a girl's age upon being questioned for. No, no, no. You can only lose.