“Shines when the sunshines shifts”

“Got a curse we cannot lift
shines when the sunshine shifts”
TV On The Radio

Tonight the wonderful DES ARK will play at the K4! Afterwards Tobi, Peter and me will dj at SOPHISTICATED BOOM BOOM, from ten till late. Should be fun.
The ladies of DES ARK have already arrived yesterday and seem to have had a long party last night at the Stereo but they are really up for another one tonight. Quirin and Melinda just took them from my place to RADIO Z where you can listen to an interview and unplugged songs right now!

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Two nights ago ENON were playing at the K4 and it was excellent. Loved the show. It also was nice to meet them again. Sonja and John and me stayed up far too long in my kitchen talking and I had far too much alcohol. The day after was wrecked. Well, I wouldn’t even have expected them to remember the shows back then, cause it’s already been six years since Enon last were here but they remembered details from back then I had almost forgotten. One of my most favourite shows was seven years ago when we put them on with LES SAVY FAV and – what I had almost forgotten but of which Matt, their drummer, reminded me: COUNT DRACULA, an indiepunk band from Munich in which Klaus Götzfried played. He sadly died a few years later. He was a totally warmhearted and open person who also put up shows in Munich, if I remember it correctly under the moniker of ‘La Ultima Ola’ which by now has become the scene around Red Can Records. It was a wonderful time for the DIY scene back then, it felt like having a huge family spread out over many different cities. I also remember a great weekend with him when my old band played with Count Dracula and Holly May at the Kapu in Linz (back when Anatol of VALINA put up shows there). Which comes to my mind now because yesterday he invited me to DJ at the CROSSING EUROPE film festival in LINZ on the 25th of April, and 31 KNOTS will play there too. That’s really nice, not just because it sounds like an interesting event but also cause I’ll see my Linz friends again. But back to what I actually wanted to write about: On that weekend when ENON and LES SAVY FAV and COUNT DRACULA were supposed to play there the city council suddenly shut down the whole K4. Whole drama package style: with patrols with sharp dogs walking round the building and all. The reason for those totally out-of-proportion measures were: Berlusconi, a right-wing-edging-on-fascist poltician from Italy visited a CSU party congress in Nuremberg and there were lots of protests going on. People still had the fresh memories of the shocking things that happened at the G8 protests in Genua in summer 2001. The political history of the K4 as KOMM made the city council fear that demonstrators might barricade themselves there so they simply declared it a state of emergency and closed it. We first thought about finding another venue in Nuremberg but nothing really worked thanks to the politicians’ hysteria and so our friends Sven and Heike who had that place called Hüttenschänke in that village near Regensburg helped out and we moved the show there. And it was a really really good show.
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Before them SONJA EISMANN was reading from her pop-feminist anthology ‘Hot Topic’ and I enjoyed the texts she picked. It was a big surprise to us and her that the reading had 95% male guests. It was well-filled but really: hardly any woman was there. Not even the Ladyfest Nuremberg gals. Weird. Someone asked me if I think that’s a good or a bad thing. I’m not sure. I guess it’s both: It’s sad that feminism is such an f-word to women when it’s undeniable that there still is a lot of structural, physical, unconscious and many more ways of discrimination against women going on. You just have to take a look at wages, at the tops of hierarchic job structures, etc. It’s cool though that there were so many men showing up as I’ve always felt that the interest in feminism has to come from their side too. That’s why I would feel much more comfortable with more Queerfests (queer not only in a ‘gay’ sense but in the simple gendersmashing sense that welcomes everybody whose interested in overcoming any gender-based form of discrimation) than with pure Ladyfests but I think the time for that drawing more than a handful of people in a town like Nuremberg has yet to come. For some straights it’s too gay, for some gay people it’s too straight, for most it only has a vague akward feel of something too weird to be interesting. So let’s happily go on celebrating Ladyfest, for example the LADYFEST MUNICH which you definitely should pay a visit if you’re close enough. (www.ladyfestmuenchen.org)

Last week the ROTE SONNE, a club in Munich did a benefit night for LADYFEST MUNICHon which I djed too and which was big fun. BEISSPONY played first and they are getting better and better, a wonderful band. Then there were RIOT NOT DIET djing, and later ELECTRIC INDIGO – smooooth as fuck. The one act that sounded hippest but sadly turned out a bit boring was CHICA AND THE FOLDER. A bit too muzak for my taste. I was a bit excited before I was on because a 1-hour-set invites to plan what you’re doing and so for the first time I had thought about a playlist before and mostly stuck to it. It worked fine, people enjoyed it and me too but it feels a bit weird if you’re not picking the tracks spontaneously, even if it sounds the same. They had those CDJs and I love them. I don’t use half of what they can do but even for basic usage they are so sensitive too handle that it doubles the fun of djing. There was a nice soundguy but of course I was too eager on saying hello and chatting with Kerstin and Tobi and having a cigarette and a drink when I arrived so I didn’t do a soundcheck but the mic was fine, the level and eq thing easy to handle, and I heard myself good so the live songs went fine too.
It was a great night, thanks again for the invitation! Good music, friends, people who dance, a wonderful club, and the whole thing being a benefit for a Ladyfest – what more can you ask for? Tobi has taken the picture above and put up some pictures of the night on www.eartrumpet.net

One week before that XBXRX and LATAH MOVEMENT played at the K4. The latter didn’t play exactly tight but had such a high diffentent-ideas-and-catchiness-per-song-rate that I totally enjoyed what they did. XBXRX was my show of the year so far. Noisy spazzy yet well-structured music like theirs is rare, and they delivered it with an outstanding burst of hyperactive energy, wild dancing and the perfect dose of humor. It was hilarious when at one point they did a parody of the rock band rite of introducing the single band members. They introduced themselves as Richie Sambora, Phil Collins and the likes and then announced “the next song is by Foreigner. It’s called ‘Hot Blooded'” but then played a few seconds of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ before switching into one of their hi-adrenaline-tracks. As encore they played Nirvana’s ‘Territorial Pissings’ in ace-dirty-punk version. Sadly hardly anybody stayed for Vice’s DJ set but the few who remained got to hear a real fun cut up upsped set. Later I put some stuff on and just when we wanted to close the bar a bunch of people that had been at some hardcore show in the Z-Bau turned up and so we stayed for two more hours of party and dancing.

Some EVE MASSACRE news: Looks like I’ll be playing 17/18/19 of April in Hamburg, Berlin and Leipzig with SKIRT and ME SUCEEDS but I don’t know yet where on which of those dates. I’ll keep you updated.
Also in April there’s gonna be a tape version of  ‘Sexualize This’ released on Tsukiko Records who also release tapes of Crystal Castles, The Death Set, Oneida and more. Oh, and pleeeeease don’t miss the DEATH SET and MOCHIPET show on the 4th of February in Nürnberg! No matter what kind of music you’re in! Tobi and me will dj too on that night.

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