a kingdom for a thought

Last Summer Days

2008-09-02T18:06:00.003Z

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

2008-08-12T14:25:00.002+01:00

For my Austrian + Hungarian readers:

Bombääää!!!!

Rossija rocks

2008-08-06T19:30:00.004+01:00

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

2008-07-20T18:48:00.002+01:00

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.

2008-07-12T20:51:00.000+01:00

Those dancing days

2008-07-06T18:07:00.005+01:00

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

2008-06-18T06:47:00.003+01:00

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

2008-06-01T12:21:00.002+01:00

Happy.

Scarlett sings

2008-05-22T19:21:00.003Z

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

2008-05-12T16:47:00.003Z

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!

2008-05-10T15:10:00.002Z

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

2008-04-27T19:20:00.002Z

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

Phosphorescent!

2008-04-13T16:21:00.002Z

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

2008-04-12T18:51:00.002Z

'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...

2008-04-06T16:22:00.002Z

...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

2008-03-27T18:17:00.002Z

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

2008-03-24T18:28:00.005Z

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 : )

2008-03-23T14:15:00.001Z

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

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

Spring has officially sprung

2008-03-20T06:59:00.000Z

The sun crossed the equator today.

Congratulations.

Final Fantasy vs Wiener Stadtwerke

2008-03-19T19:55:00.002Z

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!

2008-03-10T18:27:00.003Z

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

2008-03-07T12:31:00.004Z

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]

2008-03-02T15:36:00.001Z

(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?

2008-02-29T13:02:00.003Z

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]

2008-02-25T17:49:00.006Z

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

2008-02-20T18:06:00.006Z

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

2008-02-18T19:46:00.002Z

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!

2008-02-13T23:23:00.005Z

'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

2008-02-12T18:24:00.000Z

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...

2008-02-11T22:08:00.000Z

...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..

2008-02-05T16:51:00.000Z

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

2008-02-03T19:42:00.000Z

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!

Most hated phrases

2007-12-15T03:47:00.000Z

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!

2007-12-03T22:46:00.000Z

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

Heja Sverige, moi Suomi!!!

Arcade Fire reloaded

2007-11-14T19:24:00.000Z

'No cars go' in Vienna

Impromptu 'Wake up' in Porchester Hall

Still goosebumps.

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

2007-11-12T19:05:00.000Z

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)

2007-11-06T15:03:00.000Z

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

2007-11-04T20:14:00.000Z

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

2007-11-03T17:51:00.000Z

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

2007-11-02T19:45:00.000Z

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

2007-10-28T19:02:00.001Z

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

2007-10-21T10:35:00.000Z

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!

2007-10-15T17:42:00.000Z

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

2007-10-12T16:23:00.000Z

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

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

Family matters

2007-10-07T18:55:00.000Z

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.

2007-10-06T11:07:00.000Z

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.

2007-10-02T17:06:00.000Z

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

2007-09-20T16:41:00.000Z

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

2007-09-12T18:30:00.000Z

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!

2007-09-06T16:32:00.001Z

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

2007-09-02T13:32:00.000Z

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

2007-08-26T16:59:00.000Z

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

2007-08-24T16:19:00.000Z

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

Control

2007-08-20T17:52:00.000Z

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!

2007-08-17T18:27:00.000Z

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

2007-08-13T19:19:00.000Z

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!

2007-08-06T12:55:00.000Z

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

2007-08-01T17:12:00.000Z

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?

Lil' z. feat. E! You Erschwendner

There they go...

2007-07-30T19:20:00.000Z

...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

2007-07-27T16:33:00.000Z

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

2007-07-21T13:58:00.000Z

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.

Le chateau de ma mère

2007-07-18T18:55:00.000Z

heja, homestory!

'The old Terrace'

A corner to relax

Our cherry tree in bloom

We had two cats, never a dog, but now ducks
(the 3rd one deceased because of greed).

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

Anouncement: Weird-band-name-series is to start soon!

Victoire!

2007-07-15T20:12:00.000Z

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the boys made it to the round of the last four. i'm slightly proud : )

What makes a fucked up and hung over Sunday afternoon pleasant after all?
- cooking
- booze
- the following three songs aired - in a row - on the radio:

Bush - Glycerine
Of Montreal - The past is a grotesque animal
Bob Dylan - Tambourine Man

20 minutes of 'Weltschmerz'.

Allons enfants de la patrie

2007-07-14T16:17:00.000Z

le jour de gloire...: L'équipe autrichienne de foot va rencontrer celle des Etats Unis aujourdhui dans le quart de final du Coupe de Monde U-20.

Allez les rouges!

A l'inverse de leurs grands frères, on, comme autrichien/ne, ne doit pas avoir honte d'eux. Au contraire, cette équipe semble d'etre très prometteuse (beau détail: 6 ou 7 des ces jeunes hommes ont des parents non-autrichiens - rappelez le slogan "black, blanc, beurs"!). Et ce soir, quelques amis et moi vont voir ce match avec biere et tous les autres ingrédients pour une soirée bien venue. Je m'en rejouis!

Hier je passerais une nuit très très agréable au 'Gran Café zum Rothen Krebsen' - peut-etre le bar le meilleure à Linz. Mais la nuit était aussi un peu, hum, déconcertant? Je pense que je dois quitter Linz pour un weekend...

Sinon, rien de nouveau, Linz est très calme au moment, encore il fait beau avec températures circulantes 30 degrés. Demain lac!

Enfin, je vous presente quelques chansons de Interpol et Editors, les princes des ténèbres, qui ont tous édites leurs nouveux albums: 'Our love to admire' et 'An end has a start'. Je les aime beaucoup, sinon je pense que leurs albums derniers étaient mieux. Un petit peu trop 'major' ils sont, néanmoins, l'atmosphère, qu'ils diffusent, m'attache, spécialment 'The Lighthouse' - la dernière chanson de 'Our love...'. Voilà:

Interpol - The Lighthouse
Editors - The weight of the world
Editors - Smokers outside the hospital door

J'ai obtenu des tickets pour Arcade Fire à Vienne!!! ahhhhhh!

Citoyen Danton
'Révolution, toujours! '

Surrender!

2007-07-09T18:16:00.000Z

These boys are Tocotronic. Their meanwhile 8th album 'Kapitulation', released on Friday last week, is so far the best record i've heard in the year 2007. The album-title should be self-explaining, even to non-german speakers. 'Kapitulation' is, to speak with a host of austrian radio FM4, a 'gigantic monolith, brutal and radical'. Nothing to add. 12 songs of total abandonment - abandonment of dedication, of love, of resistance - constitute a manifest of imperfection: A manifest that becomes intenser with every song, finally culminating in the cathartic 'Explosion'.

Tocotronic have delivered their masterpiece: A record, which is, especially in Germany, totally against the so called 'zeitgeist' (remember the '06 football party?), an anti-thesis to both, the neoliberal everything-goes-attitude and the fierce Anti-G-8-platitude. A courageous endeavour. A great record. Not because it is in german, but although it is in german.

Tocotronic - Explosion

Call to order!

2007-07-03T20:41:00.000Z

This blog's main concern is music. Terribly neglected during the last time, i know, i know.

So....let's get it on:

Manu Chao woke up from winter sleep and saw that the world was pretty fucked up, which made him - surprise, surpriese - write a song: Sing, o godess, the wrath of Manu, son of, ah, whoever...The times haven't changed since Homer (the Greek, jerk), no? Anyway, here it is, and yes, i like it. The rock and roll-guitar gives its best!

Manu Chao - Rainin in paradize

Voxtrot from Austin/Texas have been blogosphere's darlings since a couple of time now. Nice rock and roll, with alleged references to either the Stone Roses or Belle and Sebastian. But form your own opinion.

Voxtrot - Kid gloves

You saw the Coen Brother's "O Brother..." years and years ago and still can't get "Man of constant sorrow" out of your head? Here's a song that might replace it:

Skeewiff - Delta Dawn

Italo-Disco is said to see a revival nowadays, here's one of the results. I still can't decide wether to like this somehow cheesy piece or not, my position on this changes minimum twice per hour. Btw, Sally Shapiro is not from Rimini. She is - believe it or not - from Sweden. Stockholm is in Italy.

Sally Shapiro - I'll be by your side (rude 66 808 remix)

Finally, two more pieces I recently heard on FM4, no idea who the artists are, still, i like the songs.

Maps - I will find you

Midlake - Roscoe

In the next couple of days i will post a short review on the new Tocotronic-record, longly awaited it has been released today. If everything goes right and the album is as the first two outtakes i was able to find, 'Kapitulation' will definitely be a candidate for my album of the year.

See ya folks!

Sous les pieds, le vide

2007-07-01T10:49:00.000Z

or, in other words, back to reality, back to normality (question: what is real? what normal?). not that i didn't know that this day would come, still, you are surprised when it suddenly arrives. which doesn't make it easier. so goodbye to all of you who made the last 10 months so totally out of everything which is considered being 'normal'.

what will happen in the forthcoming summer? well, not much, compared to what was during the last 10 months. as i already have plans for autumn (Sophie: hint!), i won't take any days off from work, except two days for lovely Frequency-Festival in Salzburg. Very looking forward to that, especially as a friend from Paris is going to show up there as well. and Interpol, my sentimental favourites from NYC, of course. what else, what else. a weekend in Budapest, where Steff is going to work as a slave, ahm, intern i mean, is definitely on the schedule, back to West Balkan, yeah! Greg is still in München, i might drop by there as well.

Linz will be rather empty during the next two months, let's see and hope that there will still be some moments which are worth to be talked about on this blog. anyway, i ask my readers to remain patient, from september on life should come back to the city and the blog.

Cheers to you all, especially to those who left!

P.S.: went shopping yesterday. yummie.

Prey.

The end is the beginning is the end....

2007-06-30T15:58:00.000Z

I'll miss you.

Werd' ich zum Augenblicke sagen:

2007-06-25T17:13:00.001Z

Verweile doch, Du bist so schön!

Party, party

2007-06-22T13:02:00.000Z

It's almost weekend (still sitting in the office), and two days of hard partying lie ahead. Dominik, with whom i'm friends since 17 years, is coming to Linz tonight. And as we haven't seen each other since July 8th last year, i'm rather sure that the reunion will end in us two being slightly...happy. Actually, we are going to be three happy ones, as mon petit francais Gregory is coming from München in order to join in the collective...dancing. So good to see old friends again.

Finally, Saturday i will pre-celebrate my birthday together with Jürgen and Steff down in LUI. Pictures are to be relased, of course after censorship, on Sunday. Hope that people come numerous and in party mood, anyway, i'm looking forward to singing and drinking and dancing with some folks i call friends. Alors, see you there!

Dimanche gueule de bois, oui, oui.

Kapitulation!

2007-06-20T18:40:00.000Z

There aren't many german (speaking) bands i really like, for whatever reason that may be (especially as i very much like german literature). Anyway, Tocotronic is one of this handful of artists. Their new album will be released soon, and i'm very looking forward to holding it in my hands. Here is the clip to their new song 'Kapitulation'. When listening to it for the very first time i didn't like it too much. However the song grew the more i listened to it, so that it finally became one of my most favourite songs in 2007 (as Interpol's 'Heinrich Maneuver' did).

Giving up has never been more beautiful.

Alle die, die Liebe suchen, sie müssen kapitulieren. Wie wahr, wie wahr...

Hang the DJ, pt. II

2007-06-17T13:15:00.000Z

As already anounced, here's a little story about the DJing-issue. Since a couple of years now i treat the parties down in KHG with sounds. Sometimes better, sometimes worse: The best experience was probably when people were jumping so much that the wooden platform they were dancing on collapsed. The worst was definitely when i emptied the dancefloor within half an hour. In between there were a lot of smaller incidents i will never forget. Like, long ago, after having ended my session on the decks i was talking to that girl i then had a slight crush on. During our conversation she suddenly stated that "the music really had gotten better since one half hour ago". Well, that was exactly when i quit my session.

When i started this special hobby my prime motivation was a really pure one: to make people convert to "good" music. Which was, of course, my taste of music. I was young and strict and the idea of playing, say, Bon Jovi instead of New Order didn't even come to my mind and corresponding wishes (for Bon Jovi, of course) were answered with a killing glance. How the times are changing. Nowadays i check the applicant's body measures first. Just kidding. But anyway, vain spinning of records against the general public's opinion is, in the long run, a foolish endeavour. This doesn't mean that i play Bon Jovi now - the correspondent wish for is still being answered with a killing glance - but i arranged mayself. Less indie, more mainstream.

Finally here are some advices for future Pushers of the Play-Button:
1.) The girl rubbing, ahm, the upper part of her body against your back is NOT in love with you. She doesn't even want to kiss you. She is simply drunk and tries to make you play that song you rejected playing for her boyfriend 5 minutes ago.
2.) Your audience may be a really sophistcated bunch of people, but after a certain level of consumation they drop their ideals. You better do the same. Play YMCA.
3.) Do not drop ALL of your ideals: Do not play Bon Jovi. Even if the girl you had a slight crush on a couple of years ago demands "It's my life" persistingly.
4.) People usually do not remember what you were playing in the beginning of your set, unless they are still sober. Do not hesitate to play a song a second time if you think that in this very moment it fits perfectly into your set. Nobody will notice it.
5.) Don't think that your audience consists of musical cave wo/men. Some of them have taste and style. Consider their hints ingenuously!
6.) Play fuckin' loud.

My personal "worst of" what people asked me to play (no specific order):
- "Something of Bon Jovi"
- "Böhse Onkelz"
- "Can't you play more commerce?!?!?"
- "The Austrian National Anthem"
- "More Hip-Hop" (at that point i had played hip-hop/reggae for almost one hour)

Mono

2007-06-15T23:17:00.000Z

Due to sheer laziness i haven't been posting throughout this week, even though a couple of events took place which are worth to be mentioned.

First of all, I forgot a song. By saying that, i really mean it. I literally forgot it, although i listened to this song 20, 30 or even more times a day a couple of years ago. And then, on Tuesday, i went to this concert, whereof i expected nothing, not bearing in mind that the artists were the performers of this song. I wasn't even aware of this fact until they played the first chords of their last song, which was, well, guess... The result: goose bumps. old memories. help. have to get away from here.

here's the song. nothing special, even worse: in german, but still, it reflects my mood, back then and now.

Heinz - Mono

Thursday i pretended to be a DJ, again down in KHG. As this deserves a story on it's own, i'll restrict myself to post a pic of the two Wannabe-DJs, thinking they look cool in their shirts.

Yepp, and tonight i met Freddie Mercury. He is currently taking a break from his break on Mars, and therefore made a short stop in LUI to perform a couple of his Greatest Hits I + II. To prove i am a not (completely) insane, here is the evidence:

Radio blabla.

Guantanamera

2007-06-10T21:13:00.000Z

Guajira Guantanamera...

* Mein Knast-Tagebuch = My prison diaries

Without you i'm nothing

2007-06-10T13:12:00.000Z

Placebo were doing Linz yesterday, which is quite extraordinary as the named city usually hosts bands as Genesis and Bon Jovi. The last time a major band from the "alternative" (NO discussions on what is alternative, please) corner played here was Blur around 3 or 4 years ago. So much for that.
And yes, Placebo did a nice concert, even in a good, rather relaxed mood, playing almost all their big hits (i only missed Pure Morning, which is some kind of my all time favourtite among their songs). The crowd was a really mixed one, obviously the band brings together the most different people, which isn't the worst thing, i would say. So there were Mr. I-am-a-lawyer-in-a-really-good-legal-office, his I-am-in-another-cool-legal-office girl friend and the indie-doctors, as i spotted my all-time favourite girl-in-black-bartender, who is responsible for a couple of terrible black-outs...
Surprisingly the Linzer audience proved itself to be better than i initially expected, being nice even to the support band. Above all, they skipped the pushing and slamdancing, which makes life for old men and wearers of glasses like me a lot more comfortable.

The aftershowparty was also good :)

Rock and Roll!
Molko feat. the Tiramisu-Rocker

Beautiful Life

2007-06-04T19:52:00.000Z

This weekend a couple of nice friends and me went to Budapest, it was my 5th time and i thought that i had seen most of the city. That's also why i always prefered Prague or Vienna to Budapest. Well, i gues i have to rethink that point of view. At least when it comes to Prague ;) So many thanks to Peter who showed us the city from a side i formerly didn't know and who made a great guide! But what would be a trip to a cool city without cool girls? Right. Nothing. So, Irina, Malin, Sophie - it was a pleasure spending a couple of relaxed (ahm, well...and sleepless:) nights and days with you. If you wouldn't leave so early, i'd say we should repeat this soon again. But, but,...i don't wanna even think you leaving so early.

Yes, and if any of you dear readers plans to go to Budapest in near future - don't miss this club: West Balkan. Definitely one of the spots for lovers of cool nightlife you should have seen in central Europe. At least i was bloody beeindruckt.

Magic Numbers

2007-05-31T16:50:00.000Z

I have a weird passion for figures.

Pic taken in my car

I have a weird passion for things that are far away but seem yet so close.
Pic taken on my flat's balcony.

I have a weird passion for cooking.
Pic taken somewhere in my flat.

I have a weird passion for the chaos.
Pic taken in the building of the Committee of the Regions, Bruxelles

I have a weird passion for ghosts.Pic taken somewhen in a dark night.

I have a weird passion for people.
Pic taken from the room in my former residence.

And i have a weird passion for rock and roll.
Pic taken at the concert of local heroes Schachverein.

Rise and fall

2007-05-26T09:06:00.000Z

It has been quite long since i have written here for the last time. I force myself to do so now, but what shall i tell you? The last couple of days brought a series of defeats - Liverpool lost it's CL-final (that's still the easiest to swallow), my friends lost the elections for the student union, and finally there are a couple of other things that are simply too important to make them public on this page.

Ha, at least the weather is awsome and Linz-Fest will turn steel-city in a funny place for the next two days. And our guest from England, ahm, Sweden, or, eh, probably rather outer space means double fun. A pitty that you already have to leave so soon again.

And i found this picture on my camera yesterday morning - Paula, isn't this the same as on woo???

Here's the tune for the weekend:

Embrace - Ashes

Mil besos.

Hi Freaks

2007-05-17T13:33:00.000Z

Steff and me changed profession.

Turn on the bright lights

2007-05-12T14:14:00.000Z

Interpol is probably my most favoured band of the new millenium (sounds stupid, no?). Alone for "Slow Hands" they will forever have a place in my musical heart ("nobody cares somehow / when the loving you have wasted / comes raining from a hapless cloud" - hach....). So the new album will be released in July, the album cover has already been made public: The change of style is, ahm, obvious. The sound, anyway, is said to be the same. Here's the first song from the album.

Interpol - The Heinrich Maneuver

And as i am in a really good mood, here are some more fine tunes i currently listen to a lot:

Rosie Thomas - The one i love (REM cover)

Dinosaur Jr. - We are not alone

Malajube - Etienne d'aout

Band of Horses - Funeral

Gonna watch icehockey now. Here's a fancy drinking game.

Heja Sverige!

La réalité*

2007-05-07T17:11:00.000Z

"Je serai le président de tous les francais."*

"Je serai le président de tous les francais."

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

* reality

** "I will be president of all french people".

Note of the author: This post's porpose is neither be meant to support nor to condemn Mr. Sarkozy's election to being president of France. I was rather inspired by the idea to play with slogans and pictures. What i do is to congratulate the french people for showing their support of a strong democracy by an amazingly high turnout of voters.

Amadou et Mariam - La réalité

Sunday

2007-05-06T15:47:00.000Z

/ café / literature / music / life / lunch / flatmates / wine / choclate / Vito: siesta / Bernie: muy fragil / vinyl / rain / your hand in mine / ballad of the broken seas / feuilleton / ice hockey \

Are you hoping for a miracle?

2007-05-06T02:10:00.000Z

I just came from seeing UK-band Bloc Party in Vienna and i still am awestruck by the power and passion i saw there. In the beginning reluctant to even go there (i was close to selling the ticket) due to still being exhausted from the Italy- and Mensafest-thing, i am now lucky not having done so. From the first chord on i was in the concert. It has been a long time that i saw so much passion and power in a that steamy and sweaty atmosphere. Basically, that's all about what rock and roll is meant to be. I was intervied by Fm4-radio after the Maximo Park gig just a couple of weeks ago, me saying that them were so delightfully above this new Brit-hype. well, i haven't seen Bloc Party at this point. Forget Maximo Park, the only band who will "survive" the hype is Bloc Party. not only because of their performance on stage, are they the only band which delivers something more than the "i-am-so-happy-and-in-love-but-i-don-t-know-what-to-do"-stuff of Mr. Kaiser Chiefs and Mr. The View and, yes, Mr. Maximo Park (see also: Bret Easton Allis).
Back in Linz i decided to celebrate this evening with a couple of friends, which led me eventually to a bar called XXXX, where they were playing music so different from what i saw just a couple of hours before. Surprisingly a Swedish girl named XXXX proved that she could sing Ace of Base songs and a couple of other, ahm, embarassing songs by heart. Barely enough she was even dancing to that crap. Ahem.

So, here are some pics:

and yes, i am still hoping for a miracle.

Va', pensiero!

2007-05-04T17:41:00.000Z

So i finally survived a trip to Italy and the Refi-Mensafest. Here are some impressions:

our house

Siena

Adrien Sarte

Life's beautiful, no?

here's the tune of the day: Liam Lynch - Still wasted from the party last night

Hang the DJ

2007-04-27T12:08:00.000Z

Yesterday night i wanted to produce evidence, that one can make Linzer students dance by playing other music than tekkno-schlager-pop-mix. i failed.

Two hours of sleep later, i'm still feeling rather good which is possibly due to yesterday's lack of alcohol - drunk dj-ing usually ends in a diasaster. Tomorrow i'll depart for Italy - so looking forward. i already see myself sitting under an olive tree reading Dante's Divina Commedia and sipping some Chianti. Possibly i just will get wasted.

Anyway here's one of the greatest pieces of music ever written. Rock and what? Forget it.

Antonio Vivaldi - Le Quattro Stagioni - La primavera I (Allegro)

P.S.: for the last two songs i played yesterday i had a security guard standing behind me. not to protect me. he just wanted to make sure that i quit playing.
P.P.S.: i lost my mojo.

Badass of the week

2007-04-17T18:22:00.000Z

The Killer-Rabbit of Linz (lepus interfector lentiensis)

Austrian state television published the following news: On Monday, a 74 year old woman was attacked by a rabbit in the garden of her house in my beautiful city, Linz. As she couldn't fight him off, her 78 year old husband came to help. As he was helpless as well, the police was finally called. When arriving, the policemen saw the ongoing fight between man and animal. They as well entered the fight. But the fierce beast neither surrendered nor it retreat. So the rabbit was finally shot dead.

An informer sent me some pictures which were taken during the battle, of course i don't want to withhold them from public:

Heavily armed and armoured special police units approach the creature...

...and engage in battle.

They are surprised by the furor of the furry monster.

The officer in command orders his men to fall back. Drastic measures are required to defeat this foul thing.

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

Thus the killer-rabbit was finally destroyed.

What happens when you lose everything?

2007-04-14T11:43:00.001Z

You just start again. how true, how impossible.

Maxïmo Park - Apply some pressure

what a show...

Get out of the office and into the spring-time

2007-04-09T14:38:00.000Z

The last couple of days brought quite cosy temperatures to Austria. Nature's exploding and so do my eyeballs. Hello allergy my old friend, you have come to talk with me again? Due to this inconvenience my weekend life has been reduced to sneezing (new record! nine times in a row!! after such an attack you don't need any drugs no more - your body is shaking automatically), rubbing my eyes and being miserable.

hence, saturday's going out in my hometown wasn't that pleasant as you can imagine. moreover, the bar where i wanted to hang out was closed.

The place looks crappy? Certainly. Still, it's original. The 80 year old owner of the bar tells you - given he's in a good mood - about his adventures in southern France in the 60ies, when in a bad mood, he doesn't even notice you. Additionally resident DJ Sonic (the legend says he owns more than 6.000 records and has a special room in his flat for them) showed me some of the greatest music ever.

here are two songs i just caught on the radio, i like them somehow:
Squarepusher - Love will tear us apart
Gui Boratto - Beautiful life

italy in 2 and a half weeks - yeeha!

Signs of the times

2007-04-04T17:23:00.000Z

or: this is the end. The record dealer i trust dies a slow death. Since weeks he has been selling out his store. And by saying store i mean it: you can buy everything from the italian flag, which used to hang in it, to the racks. This week's special offer: every record at half price. So today i also went there and made myself guilty of robbing dead people (there's a really beautiful german word for this deed: Leichenfledderei). After having made my way through the remnants of what used to be one of the best arranged record dealers in my area and leaving Robbie Williams behind and finding a couple of records which have been so far neglected by the greedy sell-out-crowd, i came to ask the vendor on what will happen with the shop and it's owner. well, he will open a store for cellphones. yeah. that was the answer i wanted to hear. me (rather disillusioned - i already imagined him as, minimum, the guy who helps a young promising band to make it's breakthrough. seems as if i was hopelessly romantic...) expressing my disappointment on this, she only answered that one had to follow the signs of the times. yeah, sure, of course. brave new world.

good news on the other hand: lovely Seewiesenfest will take place again, bringing a fine mix of austrian and mainly north-american indie-bands onto the stage, among them "someone still loves you boris yeltsin". nice name, nice music.

Someone still loves you Boris Yeltsin - House Fire

terrible name, nice music: Maserati (i don't like sports cars. just think of the people driving them.) those guys may also be no musical revolutionaries*, still, they do good post rock.

Maserati - 12/16

so that there's also some other music than the usual rockist pabulum:
Timbuktu feat. Simone Moreno - Vem pra bahia

hasta luego,
burns

*question: what was the last really "revolutionary" stuff? happy hardcore? euro-dance-trash?? the strokes??? ahem.

Una festa nel LUI...

2007-04-01T15:12:00.000Z

...una bella compagnia

Doris, leaving Linz but still happy

Steff and me dressed up.

Showing some attitude

nice party, long night, and Steff: your wodka-soda may be delicious but is also a killer.

200 Sachen - Una festa sui prati

Nothing to talk about...

2007-03-31T16:06:00.000Z

...but anyway, i try to keep posting stories. just come from buying a new camera, so probably there will be a bit more foto-stories on this page. let's see. tomorrow you should see a couple of pictures i hopefully will take tonight at Doris birthday-/goodby-party. i'm rather sure that the party will be good fun, though a bit sad as Doris is leaving Linz for a job in Vienna. i fear this won't be the last farewell to someone leaving Linz this year :/

below you find the links to some songs i currently listen to a lot. i think i don't have to make any special remarks on Joy Division, The Jaguar club was mentioned a couple of days ago. AI Phoenix are a really nice band from Norway - surprisingly those weird people from upnorth can produce some good music as well ;) the last song is by frenchman Da Silva (i know, i know, the name doesn't sound french at all...), a song i once heard down in LUI (!) which - due to its sheer beauty - didn't get out of my head since that very day. enjoy.

Joy Division - Atmosphere
The Jaguar Club - The Sirens
AI Phoenix - Call me in, Piccard
Da Silva - L'indécision

Heroes making dinner

2007-03-25T17:51:00.000Z

[currently i'm wiping out the remnants of the Tiramisu i made on Friday - 100 grams sugar and 1/2 kilo of pure fat (well, mascarpone, but in the end that doesn't pose any difference). mjam. so, time for blogging:]

another weekend over, though a really pleasant one. in the beginning i wasn't too sure if it would become so good, especially as the dinner party i hosted in my flat was, hmmm, a kind of an experiment - having people from three different circles of friends may work sometimes, more often it doesn't. luckily us 13 people seemed to enjoy the other - unknown - people's presence. at least that's what i was told ;) thx Sophie, Vegard, Karin, Manuel, Andreas, Vito, Doris, Doris, Olivia, Dani, Alex, Scharli!

to something different now: 2007 has so far been aw-some, at least musically speaking. i mention the new albums of Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, Cold War Kids, The Good the Bad & the Queen! and yet more are to come - Modest Mouse and Wilco's new records are to be released soon and said to be amazing. Radiohead also will release a new album in summer...hach. marvellous. here's a new band from Brooklyn/New York City - The Jaguar Club (http://amiestreet.com/thejaguarclub). they might not be the innovative band that changes the course of time, ahm, i mean rock and roll, but still they do good music. people who like Joy Division and New Order and their heirs like Interpol will propably fall in love with them. at least i did.

p.s.: it's amazing how much time you can waste with facebook :/

Indie - a boy's issue?

2007-03-22T20:41:00.000Z

during the last couple of days a serious debate emerged on the web-platform of "my" radio-station FM4. the debate uprose as a (german) study was made public saying that radio itself was a "female medium": the listenership of basically all radio stations is a female one - by far more women listen to the radio than men do. this study is said to be also valid for austria - with one exception: Radio FM4, the only nationwide broadcasting station in central europe (at least as far as i know) which airs nothing but "alternative" music, a station that defines itself as modern, progressive, and more or less feminist. FM4 is the only station that has a significantly larger male than female listenership. Martin Blumenau, host and "mastermind" of FM4, wrote ensuing an essay, trying to find out the reasons for this said "anomaly" (http://fm4.orf.at/blumenau/217568/main). ending his thoughts he raised the question, if music consumption/listening-habits were a question of education/rudiments - girls still being raised to become consensus-orientated and compliant, to take the way of the least resistance and boys tending to be rebellious.

in an answer to this essay listener "salx" offered a different, yet similar answer (http://fm4.orf.at/blumenau/217576/main): core-thesis of it was that men "define" themselves via rebellion, while women "defemalize" themselves by doing so. on the other hand, women/girls are from their early childhood on being seen as being not the norm, while men/boys state the norm. as a consequence, men define themselves via their autonomy of dependencies, their ability to dominate, while women, as the non-norm, never have the possibility to dominate. therefore, they seek free space for themselves within this sphere of domination. on the other hand, youth culture is per definitionem a game with autonomy and counterweight. it is hence the ultimate boy's corner, so "salx". and as in kindergarten, boys don't tolerate no female intruders in their realm, and if, only to the prize of defemalization. and as mainstream music/radiostations do not state youth culture, but have their place in the male sphere of domination, they pose the perfect free space.

so far the theories.

All you need is laugh

2007-03-08T15:55:00.000Z

Do you know Fernand Joseph Desire Constandin? No? But you definitely know Don Camillo. Not Terence Hill, but this one:

See? The guy is also - and better - known as "Fernandel".

Well, Fernandel once bumped into a certain Philippe Halsman in New York. It was a short meeting, but the outcome was hilarious - and a masterpiece of photography: a photographic interview. Here is an extract of this interview.

"Does the average Frenchman still pinch pretty girls in a crowd?"

"What measures are being taken by the french government to raise the birth rate?"

"We hope that you have tasted our california champagne?"

"What would you rather give up - women or garlic?"

The interview is available as a book. Find further informations here: http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/books/photography/all/facts/01364.htm

Hello, Mr. Tea Pot!

2007-03-02T20:40:00.000Z

Finally, i recovered from the disease which struck me down until wednesday. Now i know why i usually never drink tea: Tea bears the smell of sickness in it. brrrr. I'm happy to be back on coffee - the better drug, definitely.

Yesterday i saw a pretty nice concert, irish band the Frames played local venue Posthof and did very, very well, far better than i initially expected. If only singer Glen Hansard hadn't stopped his subtle attempts to communicate with the audience after the first couple of songs. But well, that's always kind of difficult here in steel-city.

Last week i saw my first icehockey match ever - i mean in "reality", not on TV. Local Black Wings were playing evil Salzburg Red Bull's and giving the guest team a hard stand (3:3 after 60 min played) till the last siren called for a penalty shoot out - which was lost (of course, i tend to say...).
me, showing my disrespect for the guest team's logo

My body is a cage.

Smells like sport spirit

2007-02-20T16:35:00.000Z

München, Olympic Stadium 2007

The cheering crowd

1st competition: the 1/4 mile

And off they go!

2nd competition: football. as you can see, the match was led rough and therefore David "the Axe" Blake was soon sent off the field, obviously to his disapproval.

The crowd were of the same opinion...

....but the ref was merciless.

Final competition: Pole Dance.

Hum.

Respect.

The state I am in

2007-02-13T18:27:00.000Z

I was thinking of a couple of different bands to do this nice survey below, Radiohead among them, but finally too obvious; Franz Ferdinand as well, but way too easy, so the choice fell on this beautiful band:

*Describe yourself using one band and song titles from that band:* *Belle and Sebastian*

Are you male or female:	White collar boy
Describe yourself:	The boy done wrong again
How do some people feel about you:	Funny little frog
How do you feel about yourself:	Stay loose
Describe your ex girlfriend/boyfriend:	The wrong girl
Describe your current girlfriend/boyfriend:	If she wants me
Describe where you want to be:	Ease your feet in the sea
Describe what you want to be:	Asleep on a sunbeam
Describe how you live:	The loneliness of a middle distance runner
Describe how you love:	The rollercoaster ride
Share a few words of wisdom:	Is it wicked not to care?
Take this survey

Bizarre is the new normal?

2007-02-12T19:23:00.000Z

According to an American guy's sick mind the following bands (and many other) make you turn into an homosexual:

Interpol
Strokes
Depeche Mode
Velvet Underground
Arcade Fire

and: Frank Sinatra

Pics from the trip to the tribal area of southern Austria are to come somwhen later this week.

Listen to gay music.

Steff, i saw you

2007-02-10T08:33:00.000Z

naked, twice

no further comments needed. going to Innsbruck now.

time, because it is so fleeting,

2007-02-05T19:27:00.000Z

time, because it is beyond recall...

this year already seems to run away. one month over and it passed like one single week. my 27th birthday is to be celebrated in exactly six months. what have i done during the past six??? what did i do last weekend? events are melting in the course of fleeting time. argh, end to this useless thinking!

so, last weekend: relaxing, exhausting, creative, stupid, lazy, hard working, wasted, sober, dreamy, realistic, lonely, in cool company, bit of everything. never thought that i could prepare an italian-style five course dinner; never thought that i could get so wasted by drinking 4 beers; never thought that Alex and Eva and me would end up at three o'clock in the morning, sitting at university, sipping wine, discussing politics, talking nonsense, remembering the sins of our youth; never thought that we could move Mani's heavy funiture into his new flat within only one hour; never thought that the sun would shine so brightly over Linz for the next two months.

me, posing, chez LUI

Steff, posing, chez LUI

Alex, posing, chez LUI

Alex, listening, chez LUI

Listen to Bloc Party!

bernie