Music Category

Hype bands are always quite a difficult thing to deal with. I mean, what do you make of a band that just formed and instantly gets voted as the band of the week, by one of the biggest German daily newspapers? When a band is selling out venues without even having released a full album (or an EP). Kytes from Munich are the band in question in this case and On the Run is the name of their debut EP. The first time I took notice of the band, IRead More

I guess it is hard to write about music and bands when you have a really close connection to them, but then again, music is always subjective and very personal. So fuck it, right? Back in 2007 I moved to Liverpool to study. I spent three years there at John Moores University (rather a poli than a cunt, they say). And throughout those years, there were two bands that I closely connect to this time. One were the Wombats, local heroes who were just blowing up during my time there.Read More

Two years ago I stumbled across a bandcamp link that took me to the debut EP by Sleep Kit. I had never heard the name, I’d never heard a song. Sometimes you remember every detail when you hear a song for the first time. The exact date, where you were, who were with. Sometimes it’s not the first time that sticks, it’s that one special moment. And sometimes, it’s not even a singular moment but the sheer addition of moments a particular song or album was with you. If I’mRead More

Where the fuck is Gütersloh? And what the fuck is German punk? And why are there people in Germany who are angry? Aren’t Germans supposed to be the happiest people on the planet? Economically safe, politically more than stable (thanks Angela), spearheading Europe and so on and so forth. Well thankfully punk never gave a flying fuck about safety and satisfaction. It’s times like these when someone has to point out what’s going bloody wrong. And there is a lot of it, if you listen to how pissed off FreiburgRead More

In 1999 there was a silent outcry from alternative rock music fans when due to consolidations within Warner Brothers Records (and the rest of the major labels) a lot of bands that had been signed in a post-Nirvana alterna-gold rush got dropped from Elektra. „Fuck you Elektra“ was a phrase that could often be read. Looking back on what followed I would like to turn this around and thank Elektra very much. Not only did signing these bands away from indies in the first place give them recording opportunities theyRead More

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

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

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

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