Please don’t sing that song, that we all can sing along

Some memories of the Paul McCartney concert yesterday at Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna. It’s his Out-There-Tour and it sure was a blast, of some kind. But I don’t need to see the biggest Beatles-Cover-Band featuring Paul McCartney. I don’t have the urgent want to sing “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da” or “Hey Jude” in a drunken beer-mood. I want the real thing. I want to see a brilliant musician at work. Not an entertainer, celebrating his Greatest Hits over and over again. There should be more to it. And – I guess you can ask every real Beatles fan – there is.

Sticky.

The LOVECAT merchandise is growing bigger and bigger! Mr. LOVECAT himself now released this lovely stickers, featuring one of my illustrations. I think they’re fab and I hope they will be found all over Vienna soon – so watch out!

Music & Words.

Last monday my boyfriend and I had the great chance to see Patti Smith at the Burgtheater in Vienna. First of all – this is a top location for a Rock concert and I love the special mood that arises from old and dignified walls when they open their doors for something a little different from time to time.

Some years ago (I must have been 16 back then…) I had the pleasure to see R.E.M. at the Vienna Staatsoper – it was beyond words and still my favourite concert. Back then I saw Patti Smith for the first time, not quite sure who she was. She supported R.E.M. on only two or three songs but she left a lasting impression on me. And I decided to learn more about here.

Sadely I acutally never really did, apart from listening to her now and then… there were other things for me at that time, my head and heart was all stuck in to Beatles, R.E.M., Green Day, Tocotronic or Bob Dylan – what is, when I look back now, a quite strange mixture of taste in music. But it fitted me fine back then and it always stayed with me and made me a quite wide ranged adult music lover. One that seems now ready for digging his head into her songs and work.

So – 12 years later my boyfriend, who is just reading Patti Smith’s new book “Just Kids”, took me out to see this grande dame of Punk and Rock again. And we had a great evening of music and energy and deep thankfullness that someone like Patti Smith is out there, still living her fascinating way of life. She had a quite awfull cold and drank tea all the time. Sometimes she had to start songs again because of her bad voice and now and then her voice broke a little more than usual… But it didn’t make it a bad concert – on the contrary it seemed to benefit it: Patti Smith’s whole performance is, for me, about imperfections and rawness and the fact that she was not on top of her form just made her more tangible and true.

I think Patti Smith is one of the strongest and at the same time most vulnerable women I ever saw: She takes the whole room over and shouts with her wonderfull voice for freedom and love. But she also stands there, suddenly seeming a little bit smaller and thinner than she is, crying for her dead friends and lovers. And all this makes her so special to me and to so many people. She was such a important voice of her generation and I hope she also is for ours. We couldn’t do better…

Just everything.

It seems 2011 is a very good year for new bands! I must admit, I fell in love again… Friends of mine kind of  hi-jacked me to Everything Everything’s concert at Flex (Vienna). As far as I could remember, I had heard some of their songs on my friends car radio – but I had no special feeling to go with that memory.

So the usual ceremony took place before the gig: Checking myscpace, checking the band’s homepage, watching youtube and a good but not yet fully formed image about the music.

Long story short: We’ve been there, we’ve seen them and THEY ARE FAB! The music is amazing and fresh and they are good gig players. They made an effort and wore matching brown overalls which brought a dark and futuristic feeling to the whole set. The guitarist, bassplayer and drumer also had matching haircuts and the singer freshly dyed bright blond hair in contrast to the rest of the groups brown hair. So it felt really deliberate and it just gave their music the final touch.

We had a great time and the four guys took the time to sell and sign their cd’s and there’s no doubt – of course I got my cd and I got it signed! Afterwards I noticed that I missed one out in the hurry and commotion, but I think I’ll make up for that real soon hopefully…

OK, let’s Go.

Sometimes I need a little bit longer, than the rest of the world, to discover great bands. This got recently proofed again when I stumbled over a music video (“End Love”) by OK Go. I loved it! – And now, some weeks later I’m all over this funky band, feeding my iPod with music. I particularly like their music videos – they are fresh and really fun. So – for everybody out there who also sometimes needs a little big longer to find what they’re searching for, here they are:

Young the Giant.

During my daily blog reading I found some new sounds for my, today a little bit tired, heart: altruisminthemorning.com features the video to Young the Giants song “Apartment” on her blog and I totally fell in love! Also the music video is extremly beautiful made (apperantly altruisminthemorning’s brother filmed it, as part of the collective In The Open). Last year I fell head over heals for Mumford & Sons and I think this is kind of a musical sequel for me – but it’s really something more to and music that really comes to me. Here are three of the In The Open musicvideos featuring Young Giant, just watch and enjoy:

 

 

Baby’s in black.

 

Oh dear, what can I do?
Baby’s in black and I’m feeling blue,
Tell me, oh what can I do?

She thinks of him and so she dresses in black,
And though he’ll never come back, she’s dressed in black.

I think of her, but she thinks only of him,
And though it’s only a whim, she thinks of him.

Oh how long will it take,
Till she sees the mi stake she has made?

Dear what can I do?
Baby’s in black and I’m feeling blue,
Tell me, oh what can I do?

 

One of my favourite presents this year for christmas was this graphic novel by Arne Bellstorf: “Baby’s in black”. I read it in one go and was totally amazed: The story of Astrid Kirchherr and former Beatles bass player Stuart Sutcliffe ist told beautifully and Bellstorf graphic style is just great. It fits perfect in this wild years of Hamburg’s Reeperbahn early glorys and plays beautifully with the colour, that it is all about – and, it also interprets Astrid Kirchherrs beautiful photographs (which I always was especially in love with) in a fresh and very becoming way.

 

Frequency – More about day one.

Although we had some problems finding our way through the festival crowd, we arrived right on time for my personal main act: Mumford & Sons.

I got introduced to their music by my beloved friend Elisabeth on a short trip to Munich earlier this year – she had filed them in her Youtube playlist under “Happy Peppi” and I fell in love instantly.

Nevertheless – they were there and I was happy as a puppy. They played “Little Lion Man”, “Thisle & Weeds”, “Roll Away Your Stone”, some more songs from their LP and a new one during which Marcus Mumford played the drums! Sadly they only had about 45 min to play – I, and I think also the rest of the crowed could have listened to them longer.

They started their show with a lovely “Servus” and left with “Dankeschön” and everybody seemed totally touched by them. Everywhere you heard people talking about how great they were – I think that’s quite rare at feativals.

By the way: This was their first concert in Austria – can’t wait to see them soon again!!

The next thing to do of course was to go incognito in the festival crowd so I invested in awesome red sunglasses that make me extremely cool, yet a bit shortsighted…

Next act for us on the Race Stage: Gogol Bordello, a New York City Gipsy-Punk band that rocked the festival crowd extremly! They seem to consist of pure energy and the members of this quite big band are in constant movement. We really loved them – we just couldn’t decide if the lead singer looked more like Frank Zappa or Vincent Gallo…

Then Sebastian decided to watch Skunk Anansi but that isn’t really my cup of tea so I went with Nadja & Adam to see La Roux…

I know some of her music videos and I’m always fascinated by her androgynous style and the cool smooth pictures that go so well eith her music. But live… well… every song sounded the same for me and her strange story about how the day almost ended to be a nightmare because she forgot all her hair products wasn’t really helping.

But – we knew the evening held more for us and we waited unpationately for Muse!

I heard a lot about their live shows and I also have seen some great live acts – but I have never, NEVER ever seen something like that!

They had amazing visuals, a great light show, they had a laser show, smoke coming out everywhere and giant eyeball balloons that floated above the crowed. I can’t really describe it in detail – buy a ticket and see for yourself!

Very happy and very tired we fell asleep yesterday and I can’t wait to see what’s coming up for us today!

Later more…

Frequency – Day one.

First of all – a short note to myself: If you plan to have three marvellous festival days, plan to get up early to have enough time to get ready for your trip then I can only give you one advise: DON’T GET LOST IN BERMUDA DREIECK THE DAY BEFORE!

For all of those who think I got shipwrecked yesterday: No. I just had a great evening in one of the pubs located in the area in Viennas first district called Bermuda Dreieck. And even though I didn’t drown in stormy waters, I had a death-near experience this morning.

But, my beloved partner in crime took care of everything, including his hungover, grumpy and sick girlfriend and magically got us to the train. So – here we are! Me, still promising to NEVER EVER drink alcohol again, he smiling and reading a comic novel and two beloved friends already waiting in St. Pölten for us.

First stop is my parent’s and next stop are the awesome Mumford & Sons!

Later more…

Clickclickdecker.

Entsprechend meiner momentan großen Affinität zur deutschsprachigen Rockgesängen und hier insbesonders der als Hamburger Schule geschimpften Sippe eine Neuentdeckung gemacht:

FM4 rules und hat wiedermal schöne neue Musikerkenntnisse ins Haus gebracht: “Wer hat mir auf die Schuhe gekotzt” von Clickclickdecker hat überzeugt. Video zu besagtem Schmuckstück überzeugt ebenso. Ausserdem gibt’s ne Menge Media zum downloaden auf Clicks Seite – alles diese angenehme Spur anders!

Elektronisches Gemurkse, Gitarrengequetsche, deutscher Gesang und absolut akzeptable Texte! Eine funktionierende Mischung aus Rocko Schamoni, Tomte und Console – und noch dazu wieder frisch aus Hamburg…