All posts by Carlo

by Matthias Saying goodbye to one of your favourite bands at some strange festival sponsored by a telecommunications company and where they played as a support act (!) for Good Charlotte (!!) just didn’t feel right. But it happened in the summer of 2007. And then there was darkness. …until late 2010. Self-ironic as they are, boysetsfire returned to another telecommunications festival thingy and shortly afterwards announced to be back as a band full-time. And, as they say, the rest is history: a new (pretty great) album („While a NationRead More

How the music industry needs to learn from their youngest audience.  First of all, I’m not really old yet. But in terms of rock and pop music hall of fame, I’ve reached the pinnacle. The year I should say farewell via overdose (which I can’t do because I don’t do drugs), gun to your head (quite difficult this one as well, as German laws on guns are very strict) or alcohol (ok, I do drink, but I never take any medication with it). I don’t see it happening, whichRead More

When you start working in the music industry you naturally end up making friends who work at labels, managements, booking agencies or whatever it is you can do with music to make a living. Over the course of the last few years I’ve met plenty of people. Some are total morons, some like to brag, some you meet just briefly and some become trusted allies and friends. It must have been around this time a year ago, that one of those good friends of mine mentioned Cosby for the firstRead More

Freiburg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany with a population of about 220,000[…]A famous old German university town, and archiepiscopal seat, Freiburg was incorporated in the early twelfth century and developed into a major commercial, intellectual, and ecclesiastical center of the upper Rhine region. The city is known for its medieval minster and Renaissance university, as well as for its high standard of living and advanced environmental practices. The city is situated in the heart of the major Baden wine-growing region and serves as the primary tourist entry point toRead More

Last week I was talking about the new video from Farben/Schwarz for their song Vollkontrast and my love for northern German punk. This week I will continue doing so in this review for Eins the debut EP by Farben/Schwarz. When I was a teenager, I spent hours after school in front of our family computer in the basement. At times I was playing video games, sometimes I’d chat to friends via instant messenger services but most of the time I’d listened to music. Back then I got excited easily. IRead More

Sometimes you have to find out via Facebook that some friends from another city have started a label, or have their hands on something like that. I always envy bands coming from the north of Germany. It must be something in the water up north that injects anger and melancholia. I’ve talked about my love for Captain Planet, Turbostaat or Vierkanttretlager on this blog before but I’ll keep going on until the whole realizes how good they really are. While there is plenty of good punk coming from the SouthRead More

How do we start here? Neufundland are a young band from Cologne, Germany and play a catchy yet layed back mixture of pop and indie with German lyrics. But while pop tends to be nothing more than a distraction from the shit that’s going on around us, vocalists Fabian and Fabian are taking a stance. I haven’t come across great lines such as Joseph Stalin is buying uniforms at Primark and references to Masters of the Universe (…by the spending power of Greyskull), political refugees and Kettcar in one song.Read More

I spent last Thursday sitting in a dancing school in cologne. Eight hours in a room with 1970s-chique lights, wooden floor, one wall entirely covered by mirror glass and a little stage with speakers. It was the setting of a sales conference where several labels gave forecasts of what they’ll release next. Some of it was interesting, some of it wasn’t. It’s strange how a setting like that can influence your own perception of music. I’m quite sure that I had heard Unites by Luh before and I’m pretty certainRead More

I can’t really remember when I first heard a Beach House song. I don’t know if it was a song from their first, second or third record. When I think about it long enough I might remember the day, the time or the details and whereabouts. But right now I don’t want to know. Beach House have always been this kind of dream-like band. Existing whenever I felt like I needed to daze off. It’s in their sound. To be honest, I think their ‚hits‘ are just called ‚hits‘ becauseRead More

It’s been a long time since that song with handclaps and piano graced our radio stations. Boy came out of nowhere and drove everyone (starting from my sister, to my mom and even my grandma would have tapped her feet to that song if she would have been alive then) a little crazy. Once the two adorable girls had taken over Germany, entering the top 10 with their debut gold album Mutual Friends they took the next step and conquered the world. From their debut in 2011 they were constantlyRead More