Music

Danke, felipe de la muerte, für's Vorbeibringen des gesamten Hair-Soundtrack! Der ist wirklich nett.

Manche Songs machen wirklich süchtig:

So, ausnahmsweise mal ein Blogeintrag auf deutsch, nachdem das Thema sowieso nur fuer deutschsprachige Leute interessant ist, auserdem funktioniert ranten auf deutsch fuer mich immer noch besser als auf englisch.

Also, gestern Tocotronic-Konzert im Posthof. Der grosse Saal, falls den wer kennt, war gerammelt voll, sogar die Sitzplaetze oben waren voll besetzt. Die Vorband, "Le Grande Illusion" ("le grande" französisch ausgesprochen, "illusion" englisch %-) ), war nicht uninteressant, wenn auch "Band" in "Bandbegleitung" als Neutrum-Wort zu betrachten ist. hrhr Gespielt haben die grad mal 30 Minuten, war aber trotzdem ganz nett.

So, nun jetzt zu Tocotronic: angefangen hat das ganze ja mit einem langsamen Song vom neuesten Album. Und dann noch so ein langsamer Song. Und noch einer... Hoert das denn nie auf? Das schlimmste: im Publikum war die Hoelle los, zu den langsamen Sachen!! Kinderchen, Tocotronic ist kein Punkrock! Ueberhaupt: beim letzten Konzert von Tocotronic, das ich gesehen hab, waren wesentlich mehr erwachsene (zumindest erwachsen wirkende) Leute, und obwohl auch einiges los war, war's wesentlich weniger anstrengend. Was mich aber wirklich gestoert hat, waren diese grosse Menge an offensichtlich hirnlosen Mitgroehl-und-Pogo-Typen. Verdammte Kiddies. Tocotronic ist keine Musik zum mitgroehlen. Ohne wohltemperierte Stimme sollte man besser nicht zu den guten Tocotronic-Klassikern wie "Jackpot" (naja, für einen echten Klassiker ist es noch zu jung, aber trotzdem grenzgenial) oder "Freiburg" mitgroehlen und die anderen Leute anrempeln.

Was uebrigens auch ein Novum war, war eine richtige Absperrung zwischen Publikum und Buehne, und eine richtig harte Security. Die haben zwar Wasser in Bechern ans Publikum verteilt, als dann es aber mal einer geschafft hat (eh einer von dem primitiven Typen), auf die Buehne zu klettern (uebrigens zu "Ich muss reden, auch wenn ich schweigen muss"), hat er uebrigens von einem total wuetenden Dirk von Lowtzow ein paar verpasst gekriegt ("die Ruhe in Person" Dirk ist richtig ausgerastet, unglaublich, aber Recht so), und dann von einem Security-Typen rausgeschleppt worden, unter Applaus vom Publikum uebrigens.

So, wieder zurueck zur Musik: wie schon erwaehnt, bestand die erste Haelfte des Konzerts aus langsamen Sachen aus den letzten zwei Alben, erst dann kamen aeltere Songs, aber auch kaum schnellere Sachen. Die besseren Lieder wurden allerdings erst in der Zugabe gespielt, meiner Meinung nach uebrigens die einzigen Lieder, die Pogo et al rechtfertigen. Schliesslich endete das Konzert in einem Meer von Verzerrer-Noise, auch ganz nett anzuhoeren, wenn auch offenbar zu obskur fuer die meisten der Leute um mich herum, zumindest schienen das deren eher entgeisterte Gesichter auszudruecken.

Fuer's naechste Mal Tocotronic (Oktober 2007? fruehestens) wuensche ich mir auf jeden Fall weniger Kiddies (kaum erfuellbar), weniger hirnlose Deppen (dito), und ein besseres Album. Aber wahrscheinlich macht Alter langweilig, und die bereits genannten Zielgruppen (sind "hirnlose Deppen" und "Kiddies" wirklich die anvisierten target groups?) checken das nicht, weil sie die Toco-Sachen von Mitte der 90er hoeren, die in ihrem CD-Regal neben NOFX und WIZO eingeordnet sind, weil die Freunde, von denen sie das empfohlen bekommen haben, das als "Punk" klassifiziert haben.

Ach, ich koennte mich stundenlang darueber auslassen, aber nur soviel: Tocotronic-Songs sind in Liedform gegossene proto-autobiografische Texte und obskure Lyrik. Nur das kann man als Band schlecht transportieren, entweder weil es zu einem Einbruch an CD-Verkaeufen und Konzertbesuchen fuehren wuerde, oder weil es bei den meisten sowie nicht ankaeme.

Was ich eigentlich sagen wollte: das Konzert war ganz OK, koennte aber noch einen Hauch besser gewesen sein. Fuer die Perfektion waren zuviele neue Songs in der Setlist.

As I wrote in december, Tocotronic is doing a concert in Posthof in Linz on March 26th, and that is... today. The concert is sold out, but fortunately, I was able to get a ticket: I bought it about a month ago, and at that time, about 2/3 of all tickets were already sold, so I guess I was lucky.

The last time I've been to a Tocotronic concert was in 2002, that was the last time they played in Linz, so I'm already quite eager to seem them again. And since their last album wasn't really that great, I hope that they will play more of the old songs.

Anyway, stay tuned, a report on the concert itself will follow later.

Today, the latest Tocotronic album, "Pure Vernunft darf niemals siegen", was published, and I immediately bought it. After listening to it once, it is definitely better than the white, self-titled album, but still, the unique style of the older albums is completely missing. To me, the lyrics are just too abstract, but the other aspects of the songs are pretty good, actually.

I just found wonderful Pearl Jam bootleg mp3s here. They've got lots of wonderful stuff, mostly songs that are cover versions. Pretty cool, although the download is quite slow for me.

Tocotronic, one of the greatest German bands ever, is going to release a new album on January 17th, 2005, named "Pure Vernunft wird niemals siegen". So, that's the next big thing to look forward to (after Christmas and 21C3...). They also go on tour, and will play e.g. in Linz on March, 26th.

Update: what I just found out is that the Tocotronic website now contains technical notes about the used technologies. What I find cool is that they use XHTML 1.0 Strict (and it validates!), that they provide an RSS feed, that it's design barrier-free and that they ensured that the page also works on alternative web browsers. The people of rockITbaby do the technical part. Many thanks to them!

A few days ago my mother gave me the new [[Mark Knopfler]] CD - "Shangri-La" - to make a few (legal) copies. So I just ripped the CD to iTunes and started listening to it. And it sounded good, very good, it's quite calm and relaxed music. After some listening, one song, "Postcards From Paraguay" caught on to me more and more, as it has some South-American touch, and just sounds catchy. I can only recommend it, the CD could probably be a gift to your parents, for Christmas.

I just listened to the classic [[Popcorn (song)|Popcorn]] track by Hot Butter (in case you don't know it, download it from your favorite warez and mp3z P2P network or from here), and IMHO, it's still the best song ever produced in the area of electronic music. What makes it so special is that is not totally perfect -- beside the cracks you hear in the mp3 file I have because it was recorded from vinyl, the synthesizer's sounds are not perfect, they seem to oscillate a bit irregularly. But that might be just an imagination from myself. Nevertheless, no other electronic music track could please me as much as this one. The only other track that came close was "we are the robots" by [[Kraftwerk]], but that's already from the late 70s (IIRC), and Popcorn is from the late 60s. Oh, and the synthesizer music from "A Clockwork Orange" comes close to it, too, but that's not music I would want to listen to during work on a daily basis (and the score is from about the same time as Popcorn). So, anything to recommend that is still available somewhere (where "somewhere" is preferably Amazon)?

On Friday, I was at a concert of Machine Head, a kick-ass heavy metal band. I have to admit, I never saw them before, nor did I listen to any tracks of them, but live, they really rock! It was really fantastic, and while heavy metal is not quite the music I regularly listen to, I really enjoyed the concert. Oh, and Paula caught a plectrum from one of the Machine Head guitar players (photos will follow).

Recently, Jule posted her music taste theory. The basic assertion is that your early music taste affects your future music tastes: while it may change over the time, you won't stop listening to the music that you listened to in your youth.

Well, I check the theory with me, and I can only agree: while my general music taste got slower and more emotional during the last few years, I still sometimes listen to the music that I used to listen to 5, 10 years ago (even though some of the things from 10 years ago are pure crap, it's still fun listening to it).

Ever wondered where Slipknot took their samples from? Well, the "here comes the pain" in the song "(sic)" from their second self-titled album is from Carlito's way, a movie with Al Pacino.

While I am not really a huge fun of all that metal music, I admire Slipknot for their well-crafted samples, distorted electronic sounds and the DJ's interest for hardcore jungle.

Punk has lost one of its greatest musicians: Johnny Ramone died at 55. With him, the world of music lost another part of the prototypical punk band.

To me, the Ramones represent not only simply catchy and straightforward tunes, melodies and lyrics, they also represent an attitude of their own, since they really were the very first ones who made music like them, dressed like them and behaved like them. Of course, you can compare the Ramones only with themselves. They are unique. What I also like some much about them is that they represent some kind of bridge between 60s/70s rock'n'roll, rockabilly and beat music and the punk music of the 80s. Even today, many people more or less associated with punk and alternative rock music, are regularly referring to the Ramones, like Die Ärzte or Pearl Jam, who even once played the song "The KKK took my baby away" live together with Johnny Ramone, and Eddie Vedder introduced Johnny with the words "Ladies and gentleman, a legend: Johnny Ramone". Oh, yes, he really is a legend.

Last friday I bought the "Lost dogs" album by Pearl Jam, a collection of 30 previously unreleased tracks on 2 CDs. On the first CD, the second track, there's this song, "Sad". It's definitely one of the best Pearl Jam songs ever done.



When I first listened to this song last friday, I instantly knew that I heard this song before, somewhere. After some thinking, I could even remember that I saw some video of it, when Pearl Jam were playing this song, I even have the picture of Mike McCready playing the song's intro in front of me. So, the first thing that I did was looking at the Pearl Jam Touring Band 2000 DVD (a really fine music DVD, btw!). But... nada! There was no song named "Sad" on it. Then I had a look at the Pearl Jam Mp3 files that I have in iTunes (I swear, I own all CDs to the Mp3 files!), which are quite a lot already (over 180 songs), but there is no other track named "Sad" somewhere.



So, the big question that bugs me since friday is: where do I know the song "Sad" by Pearl Jam from? Where could I have seen a live performance of it? I really hate deja vu experiences, especially when they could be real ones (i.e. that I've never seen any video and never heard it before in reality, but that this is only my imagination).

The pictures that I took at Aerodrome 04 are finally available here.