Last Summer Days

So I'm back from holidays in Italy, tomorrow my working routine starts again. Probably I'm going to post pictures of my fine summer here, probably not...

Interesting days will yet not end, as Ars Electronica Festival is going to take place in my lovely city. This year's motto is - for me, as a graduated law student - of considerable interest: The Limits of Intellectual Property. The Festival-Homepage says:

'Under the banner of “A NEW CULTURAL ECONOMY – The Limits of Intellectual Property” the 2008 Ars Electronica Festival aims to co-author the preamble to a new knowledge-based society. What’s at stake: the interplay of freedom of information and copyright protection, big profit-making opportunities and the vision of an open knowledge-based society. And this is also a matter of practical, workable regulations governing this new reality, rules whose formulation ought not to be left up to lawyers and MBAs alone.

Check out the site!

Kroch revisited

For my Austrian + Hungarian readers:

Bombääää!!!!

Rossija rocks

A proof for the hipness of this blog: Radio FM4 has been airing Lykke Li's 'Little bit' since a bit more than a week, titeling her as the new big thing from Sweden. Ahem. First mentioned on this blog in this story. Watch out for the date.

So much to self-praise. Now to socialism in actual practice. A friend of mine, who is at the moment living in beautiful Soviet Union Russia, sent me this nice little video.



I wouldn't be surprised, if this shiny little song became popular among hipsters and indie-ists in, say, three or four months.

/tovarishch uljanov

Some lovely music

Here's some stuff I currently like listening to:

Cut Copy - Hearts on Fire
M83 - Graveyard Girl
Kettcard - Graceland
Ladytron - Ghost

so looking forward to tomorrow. end: loneliness.

Not nerdy, but definitely not hip.

Those dancing days

A long period without posting finally has come to an end. Seems as if this blog has its downs from time to time. Only too human, isn't it?

I caught two nice tunes on the radio today and I cannot hold me back posting them here. The first is a rather new one, done by a Swedish (what else?) band with the indeed nice name 'Those dancing days'. Watch the video (watch out for those indie-boys - hilarious!), listen to the sound-file and enjoy.

Run Run


Those dancing days - Those dancing days

The second song is a classic. I spotted it today in the morning on Radio FM4 in the nicest company possible. So happy.

France Gall - Le coeur qui jazze

A+
b.

Austria vs. Germany

We are slowly recovering from Monday's defeat in European Championships against Germany. No time for complaining, our national team lost against the stronger team, no discussions.

However, we took retaliation on another field - yet a more intellectual one: Austrian writer Josef Winkler will be awarded the Georg-Büchner-Award, the most important litterary prize for literature of German tongue.

Nice, nice.

My new hood

Happy.

Scarlett sings

Uhoh, long time no post...due to moving stuff from my old flat to the new one (yes, it's great!) i haven't had the time to post. Anyway, here is an update.

Scarlett Johanson, our short-time favourite indie-actress*, recently switched profession and startes a carreer as singer. The outcome is a bit weird, yet very charming. Here is the video. Sorry, there's no possibility to download at the moment, Mediamax is doing some kind of an update.



* for the period of Lost in Translation, what else?

Stress

Everybody's darling Justice freshly released the video to their song 'Stress'. They could also have titled it 'Hate'. The video is - to my eyes - so disgusting, that I'm not willing to post it on this site. Basically it is about a youth gang from one of these infamous Parisian suburbs ('banlieus') which riots through the streets of the French capital. It is kept in cool colours which makes the uncommented violence shown there even more unbearable.

I was shocked when I watched it for the very first time on Friday, but even more shocked, when I discovered the feelings it evoked in me: hatred, aggression, but also helplessnes. The most disgusting feelings I know, basically.

When my good friend Eranium and me watched it yesterday night, both of us dicovered another side of the video: As the members of the gang are mostly black or of Arab origin, it also transports a sentiment of latent racism.

Terrible sidenote: As the jackets the ghetto kids look so cool, I'm pretty sure, that they'll be soon available for purchase all over Europe.

Disgusting².

Es wird scho wida!

Found that tag lately on a pedestrian bridge over one of the most crowded roads in Linz. It is written in Austrian dialect and says: 'It will get better'. The sentence expresses a very Austrian style of thinking, which I, in a weird way, appreciate.

L'Europe, comme elle marche

Jean-Pierre explains the European Union.
(Picture taken in Brussels, Committee of the Regions, 17.02.2004)

Phosphorescent!

Everybody has to listen to Phosphorescent. No excuses.



What a shame that I missed that greatgreat music last year...would have definitely been among my Top 5 back then. Anyway, in 2008 it is consequently my favourite so far.

BUT. As it is spring and the weather here in L-City is so splendid, and the beer gardens are open and the ladies look more amazing than ever before, it is time for some, let's say, happy-go-lucky music. Hence I don't post a song by Phosphorescent, but by another band from Brooklyn, New York City, capital of the world. You shouldn't miss them either. This is MGMT. Disco, here I come ; )

MGMT - Electric Feel

The new trend in Austria: Krocha

'Krocha' (austrian dialect-word, english equvivalent: to crush; from: in die Disco krochen - to crush into a disco) has established itself as a new part of youth culture. Mainly unpolitical, party-centric people speak their own language, listen to their own music, dress in their own way. Doesn't make it a lot different from, say, Grunge back in the early nineties. During the last 2 months 'Krocha' made it into the the pages of every serious newspaper (ehhh, there aren't many in Austria...) and into state television news.



I would like to be part of a youth culture.
Tocotronic, 1995.

Love will...

...tear us apart, someone sang once wisely. Same it does with hearts, same it does with souls.


There are hundred-thousands of love songs (remember Nick Hornby's 'High Fidelity'!), and thousands of them may be great ones, but this one might be one of the five greatest:

M. Ward - Pale blue eyes (Velvet Underground cover)

The soul is torn apart, the heart is torn apart.

New hot stuff

The Helio Sequence - Keep your eyes ahead
White Williams - New Violence
Duffy - Mercy
Sons and Daughters - Darling
Dusty Rhodes and the River Band - Dear Honey

Urkburk.

A dark desire

Just came back from Budapest, spent a weekend there to see some nice people. As (almost) always I went there by train, used the time on it to read a bit. Well, this time it wasn't only a bit, I rather rushed through one I bought myself a couple of weeks ago. The title is 'Zephyr', and it matches the content perfectly: Zephyros was a wind god in Greek mythology, to be exactly: the god that brought the West wind. He also was a rather jealous guy, but read more here.

Main character is Gilles, a scriptwriter who wants to tell the story of a drama, he read about in the newspaper: le drame de Marie Trintignant et Bertrand Cantat, a story of total love and alike jealousy. Together with his big love Cathy he, Gilles, goes to the South of France to seek inspiration. There, he writes and drinks. Reality and fiction are more and more melting. Is he a murderer as well?

The story is incredibly fast, events rush by, from one perspective to another, one cut in the story follows the other. The storyline changes so fast that sometimes you cannot distinguish wether Gilles is talking about the Cantat-Trintignant case or his own 'reality'. A tempo perfect for a train ride.

Not the best book I read so far this year, yet perfect for the occasion. Additionally, some of the sentences the author, Albert Ostermaier, formed are of a beauty and a trueness you seldom find.

Side note - did some research on the above mentioned drama. I do not believe in coincidences any more: The girl Cantat left behind for Trintingant is from Hungary.

Peter goes Web 2.0 : )

My good friend Peter now runs a blog as well. Nice!

Check it out: http://bucspe.blogspot.com/

Spring has officially sprung

The sun crossed the equator today.

Congratulations.

Final Fantasy vs Wiener Stadtwerke

My friends of dcntrl lately published a story on plagiarism, what reminded me that I've wanted to do the same since a couple of weeks. So here we go.

Vienna's public service company 'Stadtwerke' commissioned advertising agency Publicis to create a really cool and nice TV-spot. The outcome is, in fact, very good, not to say: gorgeous. But have look on your own.



But now compare with that one:



Something SOUNDS similar, no? Publicis never commented on the case, Viennese Stadtwerke finally agreed (better: had to agree?) to support a mini-festival tour of Final Fantasy and some other bands. I love justice.

Final Fantasy - This is the dream of Win and Regine

I love useless knowledge!

Nothing can go faster than light, people are told when phantasizing about Star Trek. Yet yesterday I learned that in a veryveryveryveryvery.... early phase the universe itself expanded faster than light.

That is SO cool.



David Bowie - Space Oddity
The Strike Boys feat. c. dunbar - Outer space
Tahiti 80 - A love from outer space

Only littler later another big success - i discovered this cute little song:

The Mae Shi - Run to your grave

Live long and prosper!

Sweden vs. France II

In the story below I posted two songs, one done by a French girl, the other by a Suèdoise. Well, recently I was listening to FM4 and I caught these two GREAT songs. By coincidence, one is from French band The Teenagers, second from late Swedish Monica Zetterlund. The Teenagers I knew before for, ahm, dirty little video. Somehow I lost them out of sight, but now they reappeard on my radar, in a way, with that nice little song.

Saying little - The Teenager's song is yet NOTHING against the grandezza of Zetterlund's 'I New York'. Listen and thank the Big Rock and Roller upstairs for inventing music.



The Teenagers - Feeling Better
Monica Zetterlund - I New York

[Sorry, I'm too uninspired for a title today]

(Pop)Music is, as a matter of fact, dominated by men. This is also valid for the oh-so-sophisticated indie/alternative-scene. Indeed, espacially the latter mentioned seems to be a male issue, as already discussed here. Also here, on this site, shame on me, music produced and/or interpreted by women (I intentionally don't say 'girls') is largely underrepresentated. I promise, i try my best to give this a change.

Alors, here are two songs I fancy a lot at the moment. First one is done by French SoKo, second one by Swedish Lykke Li. Thumbs up!!!



Soko - I'll kill her



Lykke Li - Little bit

How cliché can you go?

Brits are said not to like Germans very much, mostly due to events that took place on battlefields - from Verdun over Dunkerque to Wembley Stadium. Nevertheless, they are also said to have a soft spot for German middle class limousins. At least, that is what French car manufacturer Citroën had in mind, when it commissioned the TV commercial for its new C5 for the British market.

The outcome serves every cliché people all over the world and especially the Brits have towards Germany and Germans - from saber-duells to motorways. But the spot also bows before the German's art of engineering and attributes all these special German characteristics - to a French car (!).



The vulture you see at around 00:30 seconds is definitely NOT todays Germanys heraldic animal...

And the Oscar goes to...[update]

surprisingly to Austria for 'The counterfeiters' by Stefan Ruzowitzky as best foreign language film. I promise you - almost no Austrian has seen it when it was in the movies. I didn't go, because critics were bad. Haha, never trust the newspapers, not even the so-called 'serious' ones. Nah, winning an Oscar doesn't make a movie automatically good. Remember 'Titanic'? Anyway, today I allow myself to be a little proud for my homecountry.



[update] As I just learned a veritable indie-song was chosen best song by the Academy. This is good and this is fair and this is right. It's a pretty pretty song, performed by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. I post it below in the version of The Frames, whose singer Hansard is and whom i was lucky enough to see live in my city last year. I love Irglova for the words she found in her acceptance speech:

'Fair play to those who dare to dream; and don't give up.'

The Frames - Falling slowly

FM4 DJ Day

2008 is one of these fancy lap years. Now Radio FM4 says about itself that it has no budget for the additional day, neither it has hosts for it nor any plan at all. The solution? The FM4 DJ Day. From 0 to 24 o'clock selected DJs of all genres will present their art to the public.

Hosts of this special event, only taking place every four years, will be incredibly cool DJs Beware and Functionist. Check out their sites:

http://www.myspace.com/bewarebewarebeware (pay special attention to the Blur/M.I.A.-remix - scroll down to the bottom in the player window)
http://www.myspace.com/functionist

People outside Austria can listen via webstream:
offical live stream:
http://fm4.orf.at/static/stream/index.html
(un)official live stream:
http://fm4.amd.co.at/

Don't miss it!

malade

Back from Copenhagen, caught a little cold up there. Thus probably less activity on the blog.

Promise to get well soon and put up some more fancy music.

Cheer so long.

Happy being-single-awareness-day!

'What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?' (Nick Hornby, High Fidelity, 1995)


Here's a choice of songs for dedicated to all the lonely people, the lost souls and the broken hearted.

A Camp - The bluest eyes in Texas

Explosions in the Sky - Your hand in mine

Erasure - Oh, l'amour

Soko - I'll kill her

The Secret Machines - Sad and lonely

Joy Division - Atmosphere

Lost souls forever!

Fuck forever

A certain Peter D. wrote one of the best rock-songs of 2006. Recently, a couple of Viennese singers released an album full with cover-versions of songs like 'Fuck for ever'. The special thing about it: They sing in Viennese dialect. Thus the mentioned song becomes 'G'fickt für immer'. The outcome is, at least for me, astonishing.



[note: the sound-quality of the songs is of course better on the record. but the rawness of the lyrics is way better transported in the above video]

Der Mensch war gut...

...damals hinterm Mond.

For no obvious reason I'm a bit, hum, let's say not too happy. Had a great weekend with nice people so that can't be the cause. The flat-issue we gonne solve, somehow. So? Whatever.

Here's a nice song that reflects my mood at this very moment, 11th of Feb 2008, 11.29 o'clock.

Element of Crime - Damals hinterm Mond

Thursday Copenhagen, so good.

---------------------------------------

Nun, da sich der Vorhang der Nacht von der Bühne hebt, kann das Spiel beginnen...
das uns vom Drama des Lebens berichtet.

California girls move away from here..

As I am mental as anything, I sometimes suffer under Hallucinations about California girls moving away from here. But back in my head I know that the truth about cats and dogs is that they die.

Weird? Listen to the following tunes. There are some great new ones and a classic. Once more, it proves that the best music at the moment comes from a vast and cold country upnorth. I'm talking about Canada, of course.

Pony Up - The truth about cats and dogs (is that they die)
The Raveonettes - Hallucinations
Magnetic Fields - California girls
The Jolly Goods - Girl move away from here
Mental as anything - Live it up
Tegan & Sara - Back in your head

Post scriptum:

Pay attention to 'California girls' lyrics. Evil I say! Perfect antithesis to Beach Boys glorification of these chicks.
The 'Jolly Goods' are from a place in the middle of nowhere in Germany. I heard a interview of them on the radio. They were as stoned as their sound is cool.
'Mental as anything' are a typical one-hit-wonder-band from the 80ies. 'Live it up' has recently been covered by wonderful 'Architecture in Helsinki', yet couldn't find that version.
The 'Pony Up' are another offspring from Montral and will spread the glory of those realms upnorth further around the world. Not far away, twins Tegan & Sara grew up in cold Calgary. I spotted them for the first time back in 2003 when they released their first album which was, back then, even broadcast on (late) indie-music-TV-station Viva2. 5 years later FM4 brings them as the next big thing. Let the hype-games begin.
Finally, Danish 'Raveonettes' produced my favourite album of 2007. Nothing to add.

Resurrection

Ok, ok, long time no post. Let's say I was busy. Or lazy. Or whatever. Anyway, I try to revive this blog. Has been quite promising in the past, no?

Let's start this resuscitation with something funny. The video below made me (and E., Näsan, Norbert and Junior) laugh for a whole weekend. Enjoy!



Hilarious!