“Send Your Love” – back. with reviews. oi.

“Send your love back to me
from wherever you are
straight to the hole in my heart” (Van Hunt)

I have been quiet, I know. I have renovated two more rooms of my flat, and was offline for a while. I’ve seen many shows over the last weeks, had nice people staying at my home and watched lots of films.

I hadn’t been a big movie fan for a while and now I feel like making up for that. For example, I enjoyed and thoroughly recommend SILENTIUM, an Austrian film. Wonderful dry dark humor. Murder, the Salzburg Festival, Wagner, Schlingensief, sex slave trade, and a wonderful tragicomic Josef Hader as private investigator. LAND OF THE DEAD, the latest Romero classic – not really creepy but really enjoyable, and the way he works social criticism in made me smile. THE FALL BBC4 documentary. Wow. The Araki addict in me of course loved TOTALLY FUCKED UP and MYSTERIOUS SKIN. Everybody should go and watch all ARAKI movies they can lay hands or eyes on! Now! I also watched FIREFLY, a TV serie by BUFFY maker, Joss Whedon, which actually isn’t half as bad as its production having been stopped suggests. It’s a decent Sci-Fi Western. Oh, and I’m in love with the 2005 episodes of DR. WHO. Don’t know how I could miss out on that so long. I am also still enjoying LOST though I believe it works best if not being watched on TV but on a large dose of at least 5 episodes in a row and never ever watch the german version. The translation is awful.

As for shows, I liked ART OF FIGHTING, although I only saw half of their show and was a bit sceptic about the pregnant bass player. THE SHOW IS THE RAINBOW who played with SOME GIRLS were fun in a ‘trashy version of LES SAVY FAV’ way. Quirky postpunkpunk. Weird videoscreening and a singer who was dancing anywhere but the stage. I also really enjoyed SOME GIRLS this time, especially the last song they played, “Deathface”, with its angry heaviness. A songs that relies on the hypnotic effect of a noisy repetitive riff and screamed out anger squeezed into one word: “ape”. Even if much longer and less fast than the rest of their songs it sums up this band really good. What makes them special is that they strip hardcore from empathy, they erase the eagerness for identification from the listener. Especially live they don’t exactly make you feel welcome, they don’t entertain. They make me feel more like a by-stander at an accident than like a guest at a show. I like it.

Last Sunday, when SHOKEI and THE YELLOW PRESS played here, was a great day. I finished redecoration that afternoon. My right hand and arm hurt so much from all the painting and sandpapering that I hardly managed to screw my bookshelves back onto the wall but it was a really good feeling to have my flat in shiny new colours and floor and having got rid of so many useless things and to have done something with my own hands. Then, in the afternoon Kerstin and Tobi came for a visit from Munich and brought yummy lemon cake and we had time to chat along for a couple of hours before we went to the show. It always feels good to have them back here at least for a little while. A beaming Seppo took care of the bands and had organised a mixtape trade that also made me happy – I love mixtapes! And I got a really good one in exchange for mine.
SHOKEI played first, and it seems like the more they tour the tighter and more relaxed they play their tricky kind of posthardcore. THE YELLOW PRESS show was great and sweaty and intense (though I have to admit: it didn’t come close to the ultimate THE YELLOW PRESS show last year at TRAINSPOTTING festival where band/audience/energy/moment melted together into perfect cheerfulness. It was one of those punk show moments you can’t repeat.) I love all the energy that comes from their interaction with people and Steven and Jason sharing one microphone that stands in the audience but hey, it only works if you still sing into the microphone. I love their alternating vocals so it was a bit sad that they sometimes weren’t audible at that show. After them THE JOOL played some records. I had so much fun that night, talked too much, drank too much, smoked too much and when we got back to my flat I was so tired I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the cushion. Then a relaxed breakfast with Jason, Franz and Tim was a great start for another nice day. Oh my, I really am a happy person at the moment. Yuck. “Stupidly happy”.

On Wednesday the next bands invaded the Zentralcafe: GOGOGO AIRHEART and MISS T & THE JAPANESE TOURISTS. The latter played first, very goth, very ‘show’ which made me smile cause we hardly ever have bands like that play here. It was fun with what people compared it, bands as different as SEX GANG CHILDREN, BLONDIE, PENETRATORS and YEAH YEAH YEAHS. It was great to meet Cid again, who organised the MISS T tour, and of course dear Mr. Paul Drake, and the sweethearts that GOGOGO AIRHEART are. GGG AH played a really stunning show, merging indierock, postpunk and dub into an unstoppable cute monster of a set. I love it how they make one song flow into another and how unplanned and free their music sounds without getting lost in ‘jam sessions’. Then again I talked too much, drank too much, back at my last I even shared my precious Scotch whisky and enjoyed that I finally had a band staying at my place that appreciates the true gems in my record collection: We were listening to some ELO, JOHN COUGAR MELLENCAMP, WIPERS, DOORS, CAPTAIN SENSIBLE, oh, and HAYZI FANTAYZEE cause a friend of mine had compared MISS T with them. I had such a bad headache after that night. Never mind ANDREW WK, GOGOGO AIRHEART party harder. Took me half the day to recover and tonight I have to be back in shape cause I’ll spin some records with Tobi L, Casioheart, Discober and Stefan Wagner at one of our lovely SOPHISTICATED BOOM BOOM parties, and our friend Martina happens to celebrate her birthday there, w00t! To check out our playlists and fotos of the last party, go to www.sophisticatedboomboom.de

Have a wonderful week-end and listen to one of these tunes:
TIGA: Far From Home (Speed Of Sexor rmx)
ISLANDS: Rough Gem
DAT POLITICS: What’s DAT
THURSTON MOORE: Psychic Hearts
THE COCO SOUND: Rinse And Spin
PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES: 3 Away
VAN HUNT: Hole In My Heart
PRINCE: Black Sweat
SISTER SLEDGE: The Greatest Dancer