i like.

Gaslight Anthem

Kings of Leon for the Alternative Rock crowd.

The Whitest Boy Alive

Their new album is on their way and a tour through the UK and Europe is on its way.

So far the live confirmations are:

London – Scala – 16.04.09

Manchester – Ruby Lounge – 18.04.09

Get tickets here.

LOTUSFLOW3R

This saved my life.

Prince is back. Online. And ready to take the world with his new website:

http://www.lotusflow3r.com/

It will be the only online space where prince will be available. As you may have noticed, none of his material is allowed to be on youtube or any other popular online community. Cause he now has his own.

Check out his new songs that will be released on 3 different albums over the next 12 months.

And here a great article on “A Night with Prince” – the only official report on Prince’s life ever as far as I can tell.

welcome to 2009… music

And here (a bit late) the predictions for 2009’s top music by the BBC:

1. Little Boots
New synth-pop queen aims for the stars

–> I got to work with her last November and she is truly amazing on stage and a lovely girl.

2. White Lies
London rockers with dark, deathly anthems

–> The hype, the hype, the hype! Good guys but need to watch out for the hype…

3. Florence and the Machine
A striking, fearless and quirky new singer-songwriter

–> Interesting!

4. Empire of the Sun
Australian fantasy pop heroes on a spiritual mission

–> new to me…

5. La Roux
London synth duo aim to revive the sound of 1984

–> Her name has been flying around for a while! I like.

6. Lady GaGa –> Her song is all over the radio. I think it will be a one hit/one album thing

7. VV Brown –> New to me

8. Kid Cudi –> Once again, all over the radio in the UK..

9. Passion Pit –> Passion Fruit would be more like it. Electronic fun.

10. Dan Black –> A Justin Timberlake. But Cool

welcome to 2009… movies

2009 and I have realized a great passion of mine. Movies. They take my mind off of things and at the moment there are some great productions to look out for. And some, not so great…

Great movies:

Kite Runner – I only just got it on DVD and it was one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time.

Lars and the real girl - Already a bit old but incredibly touching and very funny.

Che: Part 1 - the best part of this movies is the educational aspect. It is like a great documentary on Che and the Cuban Revolution to be seen on the big screen.

On my list to go see:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – for the philosophical aspect

Rachel is getting married – for the life dramas

Frost/Nixon – for the history

Milk - for the history pt. II/revolution

Marley & Me - for the relaxed (romantic) comedy and Owen Wilson

What you should not watch:

Bride Wars – I anticipated a funny movie to take my mind of of things. It turns out that my friends and I came out of the movie, devasted by it and it’s representation of marriage, women and friendship..

The Spirit - horrible try to do another sin city comic/movie…

Germany’s new superband

Tokio Hotel won a VMA as Best Newcomer. And they seem to be well on their way to be noticed as one of the few German bands to make it internationally, following the likes of Nena, Kraftwerk, Rammstein and the Scorpions.
What is it about Tokio Hotel? Because they are a mix of EMO and POP with horrible haircuts. All very strange!

http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/tokio_hotel/artist.jhtml

Top 10 bands of all time

NME reports:

Oasis‘ Noel Gallagher has revealed what he believes are the 10 best bands of all time.

“This means the Top 10 bands of all time. No solo artists allowed. No female artists allowed. No collectives allowed (Public Enemy etc.).

“This is the 1,000th time we’ve been here with this. It never gets any less interesting for me. For the record, THE DEFINITIVE Top 10 is this..”

And here it is:

1: The Beatles
2: The Rolling Stones
3: The Who
4: Sex Pistols
5: The Kinks
6: The La’s
7: Pink Floyd
8: The Bee Gees
9: The Specials
10: (Peter Green’s) Fleetwood Mac

_________________________________

I think no. 8 is an interesting choice. I will never forget sharing a limo with Barry Gibb’s wife from FLL to MIA airport, almost missing our flight back to Germany because we thought it was waaaay cooler to go in the limo than the family car. I love the BeeGees. And the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Who.
Seems like Oasis and myself might actually have something in common.

As for myself, I wouldn’t want to make a choice yet, on the greatest bands of all time – simply, because I feel I need to listen to so many more artists named in music history.
I think the new Kings of Leon tracks sound absolutely f***ing amazing. And I just stumbled across these guys

Who would be in your top 10?

new music 0807

I love.

The New Wine. jaundko also spread the love  here.

The Whitest Boy Alive. you gotta love erlend.

MGMT. they have all been right along the way.. sometimes you can believe the hype.

Younghearts. great british fun.

Boy Crisis. go nyc.

Minus the Bear. an old new discovery.

Kids in Glass Houses. still going very strong.

Vampire Weekend. another hype going around. i like it.

and the girls can be very proud of:

Lykke Li – go Scandinavia!

Martha Wainwright’s latest

Joan as Police Woman

have a listen.

thank you to Liebes and MCK.

o2 wireless festival 2008

I just got back from a long weekend in LDN, as some posh Londoners like to call their home. The o2 Wireless Festival was on for four days in Hyde Park. The spirit of the people was great and being able to walk home after a great day out at a festival was quite frankly the best of all!
This year the headliners were: Jay-Z, Morrissey, Fatboy Slim and Counting Crows.

Jay-Z played a similar set to his Glastonbury show, without the fabulous Wanderwall intro though. To be fair, I am possibly the whitest girl alive and Jay-Z was never on my preferred list of music. But he played a great set that even I could ‚bounce’ to (this sounds so wrong coming from me).

Day two saw Hyde Park filled with Morrissey fans and The Smith fanatics that still live in their beloved memories. Morrissey’s appearance is cocky as usual, but the people love it. Wandering around in a playboy shirt with his 20-something band sitting far in the back to have him take over most of the stage. He then holds a short monologue demonstrating his vegan/vegetarian lifestyle. It was something along the lines of: you eat death when eating meat. It was time for me to go.
Good show, Mr. Morrissey, I’ll give you that. But your overly slimy dramatic-ness just isn’t my thing.

Day three was the fun day of glow sticks, neon wayfarers and colourful clothes. Most of the saturday line-up where dance/indie/nuwave bands with Fatboy Slim finishing the night. I sadly was a bit late and only saw a few gigs here and there including the brilliant performance of Berlin’s own Booka Shade. Check ’em out.

http://www.bookashade.com/

The last day I spent on my way back to the pool. No Counting Crows for me.
All in all, a great weekend at an amazing city centre festival!

Have a listen to the following bands I loved at o2 wireless 2008:
Red Light Company – although I wasn’t very impressed with their haircuts at first, they are definitely pulling it off on stage!
Pete & The Pirates – English Indie Rock
Hot Chip – geeky darlings always worth watching live
Roisin Murphy – fashionable as ever with a great live performance
The Fashion – America is coming back with some great sounds
Beck – he is back and the only one that is allowed to wear Wayfarers in my eyes.
The National – I missed it but my friend said it was brilliant!
Robyn – better than expected. she blew me away.
Sam Sparro – rockin his Prince’ness.
Booka Shade – see above.

The Long-Distance Relationship Guide

This started out as an e-mail. Then it turned into a diary like entry. But because I have no diary it will be memorised in my blog.

SATURDAY evening.

I managed to meet some friends during the day, catch up, talk about life and all its happenings. I got home just in time to watch the European cup match Spain-Sweden. Sadly I am not interested who will win or what is going on. I am saving my energy for Germany’s game. Facebook and Myspace have been checked, important messages replied to. But no news have arrived that would solve my current unknown future. Where will I be in two weeks time? I have an idea but no set future.
So I wander around. No, I do not want to eat anything. Tempting though. I look at my new novel; I am too lazy to continue reading. It is certainly too early start watching my daily episode of 24. I go upstairs. Turn on football. I don’t watch it. I then turn on iTunes. I have 14 hours of new music. I start listening to MGMT. Will I really like it? I’m not a fan of track one and two. But I love track three and four. I’m getting into it. I then grab a book I once bought for fun at Urban Outfitters:

“The Long-Distance Relationships Guide”

A fun read for a lazy saturday evening. And an interesting guide to every day situations it turns out. Let me show you the guide:

“How to Clean Up in Under an Hour”

1. Put on some entertainment. Choose some dance musicthat you can sing along to or a book on tape to keep your mind occupied.
2. Tackle the clutter. Make the rounds of your place holding two bags: one for trash, the other for everything else. Pick a starting point and make your way around the place clockwise, not letting yourself get distracted at any point.
3. Dust. Using an electromagnetic dust cloth (like Swiffer), work your way around again clockwise, dusting every surface you come across from top to bottom.
4. Vacuum. Make sure you get into the corners and along the floorboards. Don’t worry about going beneath and behind furniture – this is only a surface cleaning.
5. Dispose of clutter. Remember the bagof „everything else“ from Step 2? Unless there is something in it you’ll need that weekend/day, throw the whole thing in a closet, to be sorted and organized later.
6. Bathroom/kitchen surface cleaning. Again, focus on the superficial and obvious.
a. Clean the bathroom after a hot bath or shower: the steam will have loosened the dirt.
b. Definitely use a toilet cleaner.
c. Spritz and wipe off surfaces with lemony disinfectant.
d. Empty the sink of dishes.
7. Disguise funky odors: Light strong-smelling candles or incense. Dab perfume or cologne on a light bulb – the heat produced when the light is on will release the perfume.
8. Dim lights for good measure.

The music has now switched to Yeasayer. I’ve listened to it before. I like it even more now. For the mellow ones listen to Joan As Police Woman and Martha Wainwright.

References:
Tiger, C. (2005) The Long-Distance Relationship Guide. Philadelphia: Quirk Books.
MGMT – www.myspace.com/mgmt
Yeasayer – www.myspace.com/yeasayer
Joan As Police Woman – www.joanaspolicewoman.com
Martha Wainwright – www.marthawainwright.com

Tracklisting was provided by 2151.

news of the world

I am back. I was planning to write a lot more…but what can I say.

Today has been eventful. CNN Breaking News reports Yves Saint Laurent has died. I was surprised that I didn’t find a  bulletin by one of my  ‘pseudo’ myspace friends reporting the death of one of the most influential designers of all time. To be honest- I really wouldn’t know. Yes, I love fashion, but I have always tried to ignore the catwalks because I prefer to travel the world than spend a ridiculous amount of money on designer wear. But I have to admit, that fashion can be very exciting. Sadly, the only YSL fashion I really know is the one he hasn’t created. YSL Rive Gauche always has incredible outfits, but they were created after his designing times…

Oh no, hold on, I do remember one thing YSL has created: the suite for women. If only I had incredibly long legs like Nadja Auermann, I would without a doubt, wear YSL suits. All day. I like my masculine style. At times, anyway.

Alright. Moving on. I read an article of a journalism meeting in Copenhagen where they contemplated who will rule the future of written media: the journalists (online + print) or maybe the consumer & the blogger, the average person next door… They didn’t find a conclusion.. I think the journalists will always have their say.

Done and done.

Then I read about Bronfman stating that he believes in 5 music sales platforms within the next 5 years. One of them he is very keen on: mobile sales. Me personally, I would never buy a track over my phone. I like to transfer my favourite mp3s to my mobile (USB or bluetooth) and have them as my ringtone. I wouldn’t pay a penny to do otherwise. And now that I am looking for a new phone, I want a small phone with 3 attributes: UMTS (3G), at least a 3.2 megapixel camera and preferably Bluetooth. It should be able to play mp3s but doesn’t have to have over 1 GB space, because I will never ever use it all. It is a phone after all.

But then I think about a 12-year old friend, who uses almost every aspect of his mobile and mobile downloads. Am I already getting old with 21? Really?

In Asia, especially Japan and South Korea mobile downloads are one of the main platforms selling music. Digital media is huge over there. But will it ever be over here? Costs for mobile internet and transfers are still fairly high. with faster mobile internet connections 3G or UMTS in Germany it might be possible. But it seems to take a while to catch up. My friend Oliver did a presentation on mobile downloads over a year ago, reporting on the success in Asia. Another friend said media on mobile phones won’t be as successful. They will merely be used as navigation systems, and use handy softwares; not entertainment.

I haven’t used either and I would rather plan to use it as a navigation system- in fact, the phone I’ve been keeping an eye on has an integrated navigation system. It certainly sounds interesting! I wouldn’t mind. The amount of times I have sent myself a picture of maps so I wouldn’t get completely lost is certainly higher than ever wanting to buy a track via my mobile….And I am sure it won’t change in future.

I have more to say, more in my head but I will save it for later. Come back soon for more.