I have almost frozen to death because I couldn’t get out of the bath tub before I finally had finished Paul Auster’s ‘Brooklyn Follies’. What a wonderful novel. So full of stories each of which is rich enough to grow into a novel of its own, with more subsubsubnovels. I love books that make you feel as if literature is but catching mere bits from an endless flow of possible stories in endless possibilities of style and structure. I like how Auster doesn’t get lost in details, he sticks to the core and gives you just as much decoration as to breathe life into his language and plot.

The cream on top of my shitty week-end: My flu has stolen my sense of smell. This sucks because to me one of the few enjoyable things about having a cold is all the menthol oils that are supposed to help you get through. I love the smell of Tiger Balm – aaah, menthol mixed with something spicy, maybe cinnamon? -  but today I just feel the burn of it on my skin but there’s zero scent. Two days spent dozing and watching the ‘Misfits’ series and drinking camomille tea and dozing and reading and taking painkillers at 3am to get some sleep in spite of the pain in the limbs and getting up to switch from bed to sofa at 8am cause not feeling tiredenough to sleep anymore and drinking peppermint tea and coughing and sneezing till the lungs ache (more than after club nights before the smoking ban) and rewatching ‘Skins’ and dozing and getting all dizzy because of the fever whenever getting up to cook more tea or when sneezing. Thrilling weekend activities, I tell ya. Sorry, interweb people, but there’s no one else around to moan at. And I still don’t really feel better so I recommend skipping the read if I post again in the next couple of days cause it might only be more actionfilled stories about my flu sufferings being so much crueler than everyone else’s.

Oh, and the Kristof Schreuf show was really good. The songs – (please let’s not compare his new album with mash ups) – and his stories. He reminded me a bit of Columbo (one of the coolest tv detectives of the 70s in case you kids don’t know him): Whenever you thought he would start the next song he paused and came up with another ‘there’s just this one more thing I have to tell you..’. I loved his voice, too, especially in the more quiet songs. He’s got this velvety voice with a bit of raspiness here and there – very nice and intense. And he came across as one of those wonderful and rare idealists whose charisma can fill a room and is so soothing and encouraging.  Idealism not in a ‘I-got-the-solution’ way. It was more the kind of idealism that shimmers through little stories, told with a mix of wittiness and naivity, and is neverever afraid of ridicule. Ach, that’s my favourite kind of (anti)-’heroes’. Very Dr. Who if I think of it. Basically also very WorldInferno FS. In my feverish little brain. Which the poor me better is off to soothe with more steaming hot tea now before I start blabbering nonsense.

P.S.: Lokale Leidenschaften has put a clip of a bit of the show online: Schreuf ‘s cover of Einstürzende Neubauten’s ‘Prolog’:

P.S.P.S.: Hier gibt’s auch eine ordentliche Konzertbesprechung vom Motorhorst. Und hier noch eine von einem Konzert anderswo, die das ‘Phänomen’ Kristof Schreuf teilweise wirklich gut auf den Punkt bringt.

INK & DAGGER’s drummer disappeared yesterday morning. When yesterday I got the booker’s desperate message ‘I thought things like this only happened in the 90s. We don’t know yet if the show can happen’ my first reaction was a laugh.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m disappointed about their show here not happening and it sucks for the work/time I put in organising the show, and I feel sorry for the band and booker cause it means a huge loss of money of which both sides don’t have plenty. No worries bout the drummer though – it doesn’t seem something bad happened to him but he just packed all his stuff and left Monday morning after their last UK show – without not even as much as a note where he went and why left for his bandmates. So they have to cancel the rest of the tour.

Still I had to smile at first cause it brought back the memories of a time when touring was so much more chaotic. Today everything is so tidily planned, even with small bands. You got mobile phones and GPS and wi-fi and bands are so much more reasonable…. we wonder how things even worked out before. Memories of driving through cities like Barcelona with just a sloppy ‘drive to city centre, ask people/punx for venue, everyone knows it’ as route description to a venue – aaah, it still seems a miracle that things like this worked out. Of course it’s good that these days tours give bookers/promoters/bands less of a headache but there’s also a bit of the excitement and suspense and adventure gone missing. The funniest and most chaotic tour anecdotes all seem to be from a long time ago. Of course it’s nice if things run smoothly all the time but…but…

So, I hope both band & missing drummer are fine and will have an extra coffee on them right now.

P.S.: I enjoyed last Saturday night quite a lot, the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH and LOVE ACADEMY show (and meeting the guys from the bands!) and Quirin + Philipp’s chaos djing afterwards! Lots of nice people, lots of good chatting, and a bit of tipsiness going on, too. Oh, although – cue obligatory moan for more guests – of course there could have been more people showing up. I’ll stay greedy about this, Nürnberg.

I have finally watched the 5th season of Dexter and enjoyed it lots. Got me thinking though, at least for a moment, if it was cool to enjoy something with a vigilant law message so much. Especially as it’s basically about a man teaching a woman how to take revenge for a rape cause on her own she would fail. I find it a bit surprising as the series has its strong independent women but Dexter’s lovers somehow always get the cliche treatment if it comes to personality (& looks) shaping. At least she doesn’t get crazy at the end like the protagonist of ‘Ms. 45′. And this series is of course made to entertain on an easy level and not to spark discussion like, let’s say, ‘Extremities’.

The Birthmark and Lisa Freieck show was great. If you haven’t yet listened to it, I really recommend their album ‘Shaking Hands’, it’s online here.
It was good to have such a thouroughly friendly band (according to certain others ‘the nicest band ever! really: ever!’) as first overnight guests at massacre mansion in 2011 cause somehow it sets the tone for the year.

For the first time in my life I have some vague resolutions for the new year. Okay, not really because of the new year and some of them I’ve already started realising in 2010. One of them is setting up more shows for unknown but awesome bands again, even if no one else or only one more person in my concert group is backing me in this. Somehow the interest in those smaller bands has shrunk in my companions and last year I often was too lazy and it seemed too much work/time/responsibility for me as one person. Will change. There are too many great ones out there and it’s so good to do those shows based on mutual trust.

Tonight is the first example: Two bands I came across last year browsing through german DIY music spheres and whom I instantly liked. THE BLUESCREEN OF DEATH are a boy/girl electropunk band, noisy and screamy and wild, to capture the sound think of early Crystal Castles or think of Kap Bambino, but less commercial of course and of course doing their own thing – no copycats. The other band, LOVE ACADEMY, are one of the few bands to pass my personal “german lyrics suck in 90% of all bands” test which is a tough one and puts them in a league with Dackelblut, up-to-’Flamingo’ Turbostaat and Trend. The latter also being musically close to them: fast punk with a touch of wave, or even NDW, played very tight and with cool hooklines.

I find it sad that there’s not really much of a scene for this kind of shows in Nürnberg at the moment as there’s far more excitement and fun going on than in having either the same local bands play every two months (which Nürnbergians seem to enjoy but bores the shit out of me), or sticking to one’s own scene – yes, I’m talking to you ‘political’ DIY scene! You have gotten – at least partly – as conservative and lame as back in the 80s/90s. And the kids seem to listen to strictly the same kind of music again. Except if it comes to parties – then dubstep is okay, too.  Oh my. No fun, my babe, no fun. Those hc/punk kids should be the ones to put up this show tonight, not me. I should be the one who goes there and gets drunk and stands in the corner smiling wisely and feeling a bit old. :)
I won’t even start criticising the hipster (indie) club kids cause I’m well aware that they still need to have a band mentioned in intro/spex/ipod-advertisement/melt festival line up before they go their show. Where’s your curiosity gone?! Is it all about safe investments instead of letting yourselves be surprised?

Resolution #2 is going a bit slower which might sound contradictory to #1 but I hope with a little more focussing I can make it happen. I want to – no, I need to take more time off again for making music and writing. It’s soothing. It’s existential. I feel incomplete without it. So this has to happen or I’ll implode mentally.

Resolution #3 is being more honest again. I miss my rants. I miss getting steam off and focussing on reasons why I find something bad/boring/sexist/whatever at the same time. I’ve never been the ‘everybody’s darling’ type but last year I’ve calmed down a bit. Makes me feel uncomfortable. Actually everyone is so — friendly and tolerant. Especially in the promoter/dj/etc scene. As if distinction and criticism were so dangerous and necessarily about hate. Ranting also is not backchatting. That’s what had gotten me a bit tired and less outspoken in the first place: Whenever I criticised a detail people were so quickly judging that I hated the whole thing and as if I hadn’t mentioned any reasons and arguments but they spread the word that eve hated or dissed xy. That’s never my point. Criticism can spark discussions. Rants can be so much more productive than keeping your mouth shut and make a polite compliment for stuff that makes you go all fizzy and sick inside for a reason. If we all do the same things and like everything everyone else does and no questioning is allowed for friendlinesses sake – it’s so boring and assimilating and definitely no good ground for a lively (sub)(socio)cultural scene. So don’t be surprised to see me more vexatious/honest/controversial again in 2011. If I haven’t unlearned it.
I love all y’all anyways. Except for you. And you’s a bit dubious, too.

Now I’m off to get the bands some catering and hope a few of you will turn up at the show. Or at the party after. Or both. Have a wonderful week-end.

PS.: Listen to more James Blake and Retox. It’s good for you. The latter is a new band with Justin Pearson playing with his The Locust/Holy Molar/Head Wound City band mate Gabe Serbian again, adding Michael Crain (The Festival Of Dead Deer). Sharp. Tight. “Anger is an energy” music. So good. They have a free EP to download on their website: www.retoxrules.com

Cat hidden from fireworks under bed – check. Headphones plugged in to build invisible wall between me & ‘the others’ celebrating the last day of public boozing on public transport – check. Music packed (both – songs to make the hair on the back of you neck stand up & songs to hopefully make you dance like a happy loony) – check. I’m j…ust one quick shower away from a classic fondue dinner with fwends.

Time to wish all y’all a happy new year! No matter if you party hard or party not at all – hope you are happy and safe and we will meet again.

Hugz & kixxous to all of you!

Sometimes booking bands can be a bit like a Beckett play. Sometimes I think that’s directly proportional to
factor a) how close to Berlin/London the booking person on the other end of the interwebwire lives
and
factor b) how high he/she rates on a hipster scala.
This specimen hits a ‘very’ on both a) and b).

Mid-December:

me: We’d love to put up a show with band xy but we only can do it on the 19th of January.

hipberlinbooker (a few days later): Hello, I can offer you the 16th.

me: Sorry, but we can’t do it on the 16th. Like I’ve said the 19th would be the only date left possible cause you’re already a bit late with booking a January tour.

hipberlinbooker: I’ll get back to you in a moment.

me (a couple of days later): So  – would the 19th be possible?

hipberlinbooker (a week later): Hello, the 16th would be free for Nuremberg! :)

me (giving it one more try, whispering Beckett’s “i can’t go on. i go on.” as a mantra in my mind): I’ve already written you three times that the 16th isn’t possible. Only the 19th would still work. So I take it that we can forget about this show?

hipberlinbooker (one more week later): No, what about the 16th? If you don’t mind that they play in Munich on the 15th you could have them on the 16th.

I give up.

i’m not in the mood for a proper analysis. these are just some simple impressions while watching it.

22 min. in:
first impression: so inception is about men doing things with men. american classic: man hero only in it for the family. doing it for the kids. women pop up as hostile (grandmother rejecting to talk to him on the phone) or things from the past covered in feelings of guilt (wife).

24min. in:
woohoo. been moaning to quickly. young female genius architect enters the scene. curious if she will be more than scenery.

30 min. in:
cool. she starts bending the blocks and streets into escher world. of course that’s forbidden cause it brings chaos into the neatly-structured bureaucratic dream world. meh.

49min. in:
roles are such: female is for the creative (dream architecture) and emotional (listening to leo’s problems) bits. male is for the decision-making and technical bits of what seems to become an ocean’s eleven coup in a dream world. and by now we know it’s for a good cause even if it’s illegal. no one wants monopolisation of energy blabla. how tame this movie is.

59min. in:
does it count  -  bechdel-test-wise  -  as ‘two women talking to each other’ if one of both is dead and just exists in a dream?

60min. in:
oh, i see, it doesn’t count anyway, as all they do is talking about ‘him’ and his problems.

1h09 min. in:
it wouldn’t be a male action movie if they can’t die but just wake up. so imagine extra facts and feed it to the audience. oh, and what could be worth than dying? going down into some christian limbo thingy.

1h17 min in:
boohooo – hero now is hated now by the rest of his crew for knowingly bringing them into danger so he has time on his own to pour his heart out to female protagonist. seems to be her main purpose in there by now.

1h29min in:
yay, they realised the movie needs a few joke:
a) the unavoidable funny ‘mine is bigger than yours’ weapon scene.
b) more misogyny:
one man: ‘we need a distraction’
the other: ‘i know a lovely lady i’ve used before’.
c) and one more: tricking the female protangonist into a kiss. oh, she’s such a naive little thing. *hahaha*
oh my. all three presented rather un-funny. and absolutely useless for the story. résumé: this film surely has a humour deficit and a male cliche overdose.

1h36 min in:
next scene with the woman who – let’s not forget that – was introduced to us as a genius architect, shows of course her as the one of the bunch who gets confused by all the dream levels and has to ask who’s subsconscious they’re about to enter. all in all this film sinks deeper into bland action movie standards. instead of using all the cool options the world of dreams gives you it doesn’t go further than using a few time / story twists and a few gravity gimmicks for classic action scenes.

2h05 min in:
oh my, leo’s dead wife didn’t even come up with her idea on her own. he planted it in her head. how dumb of her. how dominant of him.

end:
oh my. disappointed. those guys in whose dreams we glimpsed have the tamest lamest subconscious minds ever. it is an entertaining movie but doesn’t make much of it’s opportunities. well-structured dreams are a bit boring. also it’s the most a-sexual and humourless movie i’ve seen in a while. maybe cronenberg would have done this better.

All you lonely hearted, family-less lovelies, grinches, christmas ignorers and you, too, you post-family-christmas-clubbers: Tomorrow Stefan Wagner and me will dj for you at the Zentralcafé (Künstlerhaus / K4, Nürnberg). Entry is free. We start at 11. We will play electro / guitar / pop and the inbetweens.

Tonight you can hear a two hour eve massacre mix at RADIO Z Nachtclub. At midnight. German midnight. UTC+1.
Local terrestrials in Nürnberg can listen on those old school radio machines on 95.8 mHz.
Extraterrestrials anywhere can listen to the livestream here: http://radio-z.net/Radio-Z.m3u
And on this livestream you can hear the show again tomorrow at noon. Yowsa!

EDIT: Nowsa! <3 radio z but to hell with the people put the wrong mixes on. It wasn’t mine that was aired. Grrrrrrrr!

It will be a mix of tracks I enjoyed a lot in 2010, songs from bands whose live shows were great and touched me in 2010 and a few songs from artists I’m happy to help putting up shows for in 2011. I started the mix trying to compile some kind of year’s end / best list thing but found there was far too much good music in 2010 to squeeze into a 2 hr mix so it’s just a tiny glimpse into what was ’2010 in music’ to me. To me it was a very cool year for pop  –   from disco pop over chillwave sweetness to twee indie (regular indie rock got shockingly boring and please stop all those springsteen-alike-revivalries – uarrrghs)  -  and it was a very good year for bass music, from post funk ‘wonky’ whatever to cool post dubstep house influenced artists. James Blake’s album will be next year’s album of the year. It also was a good year for queer music, or even better: more and more openly queer artists are having a wider audience, to name but a few: Teengirl Fantasy, Des Ark, Abe Vigoda, Men, aMinus, Xiu Xiu, Salem, Owen Pallett, Hunx & His Punx… And I hope the whole witch house thing doesn’t die a quick hipster death but grows into something bigger. The potential is there. Experimental music was lively too, and from the few glimpses on it that I get, it seems to have become more diverse again. I’m thankful that there’s more than drones and postkrautfreestyle boredom again. The only thing I have found to become very rare: Angry fast twisted guitar music, edgy and ballsy/titsy, and with something to say and doing so in witty AND heartfelt ways. If you think I missed out on bands who make this kind of music please tell me! I miss my portion of grindviolencechaosheartcore! Please, youth, take back emo and screamo from those manga-crossover-metal-pop-disasters if you can’t find new ways of doing it. I want a screamochaoscore revival done only be all female and queer guys bands. That would be the coolest thing ever.

Tracklist to the mix will be posted tonight after the show.