ORCHID at Zentralcafé: This is our last dance.

ORCHID poster by eve massacre

I have made you a poster for the last ORCHID at Zentralcafé.

Being driven out, driven underground, out of the eyes of the casual visitor, has a bitter taste for a queer night that has celebrated loud and fabulous visibility of all kinds of queers in the very heart of this city for 10 years now.

I am heartbroken to have to give up this room that is so much more than just a venue. It is a challenging, living and breathing social safe space for citizen culture. A space in which you can experiment, a place in which people have each other’s backs, help each other out to make ideas become real.

To push a collective that focusses on giving weird and critical, noisy and silly, wild and feminist, hard-rocking and tender-hearted, urban and marginalised pop culture a platform, like Musikverein im K4 does – ORCHID thanks you! -, well: To push this kind of culture out of the heart of K4 / Künstlerhaus two floors down under ground *is* nothing less but a cultural-political decision. It is a decision against our visibility and against low barrier access to our kind of culture.

In this it is an act of marginalization that is not to be excused by technical pragmatism. It is a decision that I find especially hard to forgive in times when the conservative current and the noisy far right scum have grown louder once more and would love to make us disappear from public space, if not from the face of this planet.

Nevertheless: We will party on, we will be seen and heard! Let’s make our goodbye to the Zentralcafé the loud and fabulous night this special place deserves! Glitter on, babes: This is our last dance.
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ORCHID poster by eve massacre

It’s The Beats with Busdriver, Bikini Kill 1996 show, instagram goes video

Just a quick one while I’m still listening through tunes to play out tonight, here, flyer by yours truly:
 

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I like BUSDRIVER for being mighty entertaining yet complex, for not sticking to hiphop only but breaking down walls to other genres, for thinking outside the box, for being fan/critic as well as musician, for collaborating/networking a lot in the old school sense – he’s one of those artists with whom it’s ‘more than just the music’. More than just the sounds. Track titles like “Werner Herzog”, “Unemployed Black Astronaut” or “No Blacks, No Asians, No Jews” are rare in today’s hiphop world and as for some of his lyrics, I’d also might buy them if the were sold as books.
 
 
Also I’m really looking forward to djing with Nahuel tonight, as we share a similar nerd-meets-pop-‘ridicule is nothing to be scared of‘ approach to playing out music and because I rarely meet him outside of twitter since he lives in Vienna.
 
 
Also: You! Hope despite the crazygood weather you’ll find your post-lake/beergarden/bbq way to us and dance/chat/dance/drink/dance/smile/dance/etc.
 
 
P.S.: My short Instagram video guide: Take vid, fiddle with filters, maybe show IRL friendz, then fordogssake plz delete it. I fully agree with Matthew Ingram’s ‘Why I will never click on your Instagram video, no matter how much you want me to’. Spare us the digital noise, facebook.
 
 
P.S.P.S.: One for the grrls – no matter if female or male or whatever:
 

Kuedo at sub:city

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If you know me a bit better you know that if I fall in love I tend to fall in love with music instead of falling in love with people. Last night I did so with KUEDO’s set at sub:city (at K4).

If you’ve not yet gotten hold of KUEDO’s ‘Severant’ album – do so. It was described more than once as Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack meeting future bass music and that might indeed be the easiest way of describing it. Cold beautiful synths combined with warm deep subs and the whirling funky beats of footwork – trust me, this works even better in the club cause there you can really feel the bass. This is only one facet of what he played last night though. There was (post)dubstep, hiphop, synthpop, rave step, even discoid  moments – lots of different styles and moods but all melt into one big purring ball of music. Pardon my enthusiasm but this was totally my thing.

He did neither bank on only playing what you could expect from his VEX’D or KUEDO releases. Nor did he rely on the weighty safety of outworn simple structured heavy dubstep that still tends to please the ‘my-balls-are-as-big-as-the-bass-in-dis’-part of the crowd. There of course were some heavy parts, too, but none of the simpleboringwobblestep ones. Instead he built a complex set with emphasis and a good feel for aesthetics. Complex, yes – but at no moment it felt overconstructed. He wasn’t fixated on moving along on a beatmatch line but instead played with thrilling combinations and with letting the right bits drop at the right moment.
There are sets that are all about a journey from point A to point B on a rather straight line, creating tension and peaks like on a cruise from one sight to another. And there are sets in which this kind of linearity doesn’t matter at all but that appear more multidimensional and tickle the dancefloor’s g-points as if anything could happen at any time. This might end up in overstimulation and can get a bit much after a while. KUEDO’s set leant more towards the latter of both but managed to keep things in a smooth hovering flow.

There were some real facemelter moments. For me those were some of the footworky percussive bits over beautiful deep sub lines, and also one ace heavy rave breakdown and build-up. There were also some pop and fun moments I loved. Maybe it was just my kind of humour but I had to laugh when he mixed from the ever so (nu-)romantic ‘Moments in Love’ (Art Of Noise, Caspa remix(?)) into some rude rap spitting something about ‘pussy juice, nigga’.

I have given it some thought but still stand to my words of last night: It was the best bass music set I’ve heard so far. It somehow stood for all that still keeps bass music the most exciting and alive corner of electronic music of these days. Thank you, Mr. Teasdale!

P.S.:
I also would like to thank SUB:CITY once more: I love you for having brought us yet another night that was almost like a statement against the brostepification of the dubstep scene and showed that it’s a place for more people than just straight male tough guys. Love your choice of bookings, love what you guys play, love the handmade posters and decoration (especially the grumpy moon!) – I think all this combined brings across that it’s about something like social clubbing.
There again were pleasantly many women on the dancefloor last night where at other dubstep nights there are about as many as in the pit of most oldschool hardcore/punk shows.
Still there were some idiots in the crowd which really sucks cause it only takes a few dickheaded hoolz to spoil the mood for many others. I thought we had the era of fights at the door behind us. It’s tiring. Still I think that it was a great night for almost everyone!

“Don’t want to miss this” – new track up, hate the haters, kv and k4 musings and my personal dia de los muertes

“Sometimes I can’t remember why I want to live.
Then I think of all the freaks and I don’t want to miss this.”
Team Dresch



eve massacre – “blind fag (hate the xtian rights mix)” mp3

Congrats to your new president, dear US friends, but WTF is wrong with some of you voting hate to become engraved into your constitution? I’m no friend of any kind of marriage and I don’t want a child nor adopt one but still I find it not only sad but also scary to see you voted against civil rights for queer people. These things are not just about the act of marriage but about the rights that come with it. Just one simple example: if someone who lives in a gay relationship that has lasted 50 years has an accident and ends up in hospital in many states that see themselves as a ‘great civilised western society’ her or his partner has no right to talk to the doctors and visit them in intensive care areas. To you this might be a theoretical threat to your weird idea of culture but for others it means the real life infringement of what should be basic human rights.
Those pro-prop-8-etc. votings make me feel all cold inside and inspired that mix above that I’d like to dedicate to the lovely ladies of Team Dresch.

Actually this week I didn’t have to look overseas to get bad news. For example Germany’s government seems to be thinking about a ban on chocolate cigarettes. That almost tops the mirrorball ban in Nuremberg’s bars. What’s next? A ban on chocolate Santas cause those could turn kids into cannibals?

This week also held anoter bad surprise: A local d.i.y. punk venue with a pretty long tradition, the Kunstverein, and a techno club called Zoom that’s located in the same complex of buildings (the ‘Z-Bau‘) won’t get their contracts of tenancy extended. I haven’t been at the Kunstverein for a while because they don’t host the kind of bands I enjoy these days but more old school stuff but a few years ago even I put up two shows there, Soophie Nun Squad with Ghost Mice, and Fugazi. It’s a bit of a shock. I had heard that the city has taken over the Z-Bau but I can’t imagine that they already have new plans for it. To me it sounds more as if they just want to get rid of those people first and then waste years planning on what do next with the building while it rots in emptiness.

It’s scary to see how quick these things happen. It reminded me of how they got rid of the lively local concert scene at the Kluepfel and that the Hemdendienst still hasn’t found a new home. To say it loudly for the first time: I’m definitely scared that the city will try to kick our shows and parties out of the K4 too. They haven’t said so, on the contrary, they even arranged a meeting to let us talk about our future needs with one of the architects who re-plan the K4 but let’s face it: that means nothing. There’s a bunch of bureaucrats and politicians ruling this thing, so you should always remember that they know how to talk warm words. Warm words take the weapons out of your hands and tie you down cause you have no facts to get out to the public to back up your fears.

I can give you one example that will already heavily affect our bookings for 2009. In April or May 2008 we heard that the new administration of the K4 (KuKuQ) had already booked a large number of dates in 2009 at the Festsaal. We know that they do lots of ‘quiet’ events like theatre and knew that could affect our soundcheck times and thereby possibilities for shows not only in the Festsaal but also downstairs in the Zentralcafé. That’s why we worriedly wrote to the new administration and also tried to make clear how our booking works and that we don’t have the possibility to book half a year ahead. A rather hot dispute about the future handling of booking dates at the Zentralcafé and Festsaal of the K4 followed. Back then we already made it clear that we need to be very quick sometimes. If you get a call that you can do a last minute show for The Kills if you are able to confirm it within a day you don’t want to have to say no. The administration acted as if we were a bunch of hysteric kittens and calmed us down. They said we shouldn’t worry and that they knew all this and just need a little time to figure out a system that can deal with different booking needs for different folks. Back then they promised we would get dates confirmed as free or blocked within a few days. All in all they had a whole year to work on this. The result? Nada. Right now dealing with dates at the K4 is plain chaotic. I had a date that got confirmed back in September and two days ago I suddenly hear from the K4 administration that another show is booked on it. For some dates I had to wait five weeks or longer to be confirmed and they only got confirmed after I asked back a couple of times. It looks like it’s just a matter of time until their ‘system’ collapses. Just to think that a whole bunch of paid-for civil servants have been working on this for months makes me cringe. Actually it’s no big surprise, like I said: we already feared back in May that it would turn out like this. Still it sucks if you are all fired up and ready to go for next year’s shows and suddenly you have to wait weeks until you even can do the first step with a booking and have to spend hours asking back the same things again and again.

What’s even more stupid is that all that and lots of other minor issues stressed me up so big time that last week I kind of imploded, no, you could actually call it exploded (a more honest word would be ‘breakdown’) at one of our Musikverein meetings. I hate it when it comes to that. Sometimes I wonder if I will ever learn to break before my nerves go bumping into the nearest wall. I guess it’s the downside of being passionate about what you’re doing.

In two weeks all the free/independent groups of the K4 will meet to share our experiences with the new administration. I’m already curious about what stories all the others have to tell.

* _ *

I’d also like to call this day out as my personal dia de los muertes. From time to time people still drop condolations in my blog posting about Julian‘s suicide. It feels a bit strange because sometimes those are people who have known him better than me and I feel like they should have a nicer virtual memorial place. But it also feels good cause it keeps him alive in my thoughts.

The 4th of November was the day of the death of a closer friend of mine, Tine Plesch. Standing at the back of the room when Jersey were playing at the Zentralcafé it hit me once more how much I miss her. It would have been exactly the kind of show at which she would have stood at the bar sipping red wine, chatting, smoking her menthol cigs… somehow with her I still feel like she could walk into the room again any day. If I think of her I instantly get the way and tone in which she talked appear in my mind, and I recall her laughter as if it just rang in my ear a second ago. Yes, I miss her.
Sometimes when I think of her there also pops up a playful mental checklist of my postfeminist conscience. When did I last support and encourage another female? When did I last take a girl not serious? How many women have we booked at the Musikverein lately? Why have I still not checked out the Missy zine? It feels good that she still inspires the feminist in me cause I have yet to meet someone else who has the same fun and clever way of dealing with feminism without turning it into a mere ‘pop’ thing.
Well, I’ve just opened a bottle of wine and here’s to you, Queen of Crime!