once more with feeling

It probably still would make me fall asleep.

Mum – I ♥ you.

Schlaf, Kindlein, schlaf.

Heute wieder mal auf Deutsch. Muss auch mal sein. Denn von Bilderbuch schwärmen, das geht so nunmal am Besten.

Bilderbuch habe ich durch einen Freund (welcher übrigens in dieser wunderbaren Band spielt) letzten Herbst entdeckt, der mir ganz fasziniert von seinem Freund Maurice erzählte, der auf der Bühne mit seinen großen Augen, seiner Mimik und Gestik eine unglaubliche Performance liefert. Seit diesem Tag zähle ich mich gerne zu den Bilderbuch-Fangirls, war im letzten halben Jahr bei 3-4 Konzerten (mein Gedächtnis, achje..) und die CD “Nelken & Schillinge” zählt zu den Top 2 in meinem Auto (nach We Have Band, die kann immer noch niemand toppen).

Ein recht passender Vergleich, den ich mal gelesen habe: Bilderbuch sind die österreichischen Arctic Monkeys. Und die haben zum Tanzen ja mal gesagt “I bet you look good on the dancefloor” – also, schwingt die Hüften zu “Kopf ab“!

Da gibt es einen Platz,

da zwischen Bäumen, zwischen tanzenden Tannen.

Du und ich, da in der Mitte gefangen.

Nicht einsam. Gemeinsam. Allein.

Broken Social Scene is a lot. It’s loud, it’s quiet, it’s fast, it’s slow, it’s funny, it’s heartbreaking, it’s fascinating. BSS is a lot of different sounds, and a lot of different people. Over the years, band members came and left, including the wonderful Leslie Feist and Emily Haines for example.

At their show in Vienna last week, up to 9 people showed up on the small stage of Flex at the same time. It was one of the most amazing concerts I’ve seen in a long time, from the moment the massive guitar-sound from the intro “World Sick” captivated me until the incredible and 3 times repeated main part of the instrumental song “Meet me in the Basement” at the end of the show.

My favorite BSS member is of course the cutie Kevin Drew – who also is in my list of possible future husbands. Him and the Woody-Allen-double Brendan Canning are perfect entertainers (“What’s today?” – “Tuesday!” – “Tuesday? What happened to yesterday?”) and quickly cracked the crowd at the full Flex up. Accompanied by the wonderful Charles Spearin with his Canadian lumberjack look (he even wore a jeans shirt with white press buttons), the lovely Lisa Lobsinger with her angel’s voice, appearing barefoot on stage, the saxophonist/ transverse flute player and the other members whose name I couldn’t find out, plus one of the roadies helping out for some songs, it was the perfect combination of different instruments and styles.

What more can I say than Kevin’s last words to the crowd: “Go, kiss a stranger, and don’t feel guilty about it!”

So it’s day 8 – this means, that a week passed already since I started this. It’s been hell of a crazy week, with lots of happiness, sadness, AWESOMENESS, broken hearts and lost friends, new found and re-found friends, work, beer, doctors, of course the football WM and lots of concerts. Broken Social Scene on Tuesday, Luke Leighfied on Wednesday, Diver on Thursday, Bilderbuch and Tanz Baby on Friday and Guadalajara, The New Vitamin, Amy McDonald (I was forced to, I swear..) and HIM (also forced to, but it was quite cool actually..) on Saturday.

Well, now it’s a new week, and a new song: we used to sing this one all the time between about age 13 and 16. It was and still is “our song” of my best friends & me, and it will always remind me of summer days, the lake back home, paddleboats, hiding our smoking, and FUN.

Grease – We go together

This event brought some major changes of my life with it. It was a sad and a happy day, I was laughing and full of joy, and at the same time crying. This day meant to say goodbye to beloved people, to say goodbye to something I never wanted to say goodbye to.

It was the day of my graduation. I remember it as it was yesterday. We all were still quite drunk, due to the massive party the night before. I couldn’t think clearly, I didn’t realize that this was really it. At least not before I went for dinner afterwards with my family, celebrating. That’s when I realized I had to grow up now, go to work, take responsibility for myself. That’s when it started to be a sad, confusing day. How can someone really want to grow up?

Well, some years already passed since that day. And guess what – I’m satisfied with the way my life turned out to be. Because I DID NOT GROW UP. And I’m not sure if I ever will.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJllP6z8jDw

Gaudeamus igitur, iuvenes dum sumus.

Post iucundam iuventutem, post molestam senectutem,

nos habebit humus!

lovely party-people

In order to write this post, I just went through my pictures from my year abroad in Italy. From November 2006 to June 2007 I lived in Viareggio, with an apartment just some meters away from the beach. It was a wonderful time there – I found awesome friends, had lots of party, ate incredible amounts of pizza and pasta and drank way too much coffee and wine, I went shopping every week, learned how to deal with rich kids, adapted to the Italian lifestyle, and spent lots of time watching the ocean.

I had this jogging route on the seaside promenade, and I only had internet at my university and I couldn’t download any music, I had the same music on my Mp3-player for the whole time there. One band I remember having been on it were The Killers. I never got sick of their music, and listening to it now after all those years again, I totally remember why I loved them so much. My favorite song at this time was “Read my mind” – which by the way has an awesome video too, having been shot in Japan with this cute green caterpillar.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc8hbSM1zVo

Oh well I don’t mind, if you don’t mind
‘Cause I don’t shine if you don’t shine
Before you jump
Tell me what you find when you read my mind

lucca

viareggio

my girls

Every single one of my favorite songs reminds me of someone, somewhen, somewhere. I always connect songs to situations, people, stories – to my life. This is why hearing a particular song for the first time after several years still can make me cry, why I cannot listen to certain songs anymore even though I loved them, and why sometimes I have to smile and my heart starts beating faster when I hear a special song in public places (and why I then get strange looks from everybody around..).

This song reminds me of the man – well, actually “boy” probably fits better here – with whom I had this feeling of “love” for the first time. More important even, it was the first time I experienced what heartache means. I cannot listen to this song without thinking of him, and even though our story was not long and there were men following I now consider having been more important in my life, I will never forget him, and wherever he might be, I hope he’s doing fine.

The Smashing Pumpkins – Stand inside your love

And for the first time
I’m telling you how much I need and bleed for
Your every move and waking sound
In my time
I’ll wrap my wire around your heart and your mind
You’re mine forever now.

Yesterday, I drove to the 23rd district. And yes, this is something special – because what would someone do in the 23rd district?

I can only come up with two answers: either you have a boyfriend there, or you want to go to a concert there. For me, it was the latter.

So I went to this summer party of the Gab Musicfactory, which basically is a building with lots and lots of rehearsal rooms. They offered free beer, wine, non-alcoholic drinks and food – combined with music, what’s there better to do on a thursday evening?

Apart from a choir singing songs like “The Lion sleeps tonight”, a band singing in dialect and a wanna-be-Brasilian drum group, the band Diver had one of their until now just few live appearances.

What can I say – I loved them. Wolf, who is “leadsinger” for about half of the songs, is also the drummer of Deckchair Orange. Yesterday, I saw him playing guitar and some piano – but most important, his voice is wonderful and his lyrics are honest, sad and intense. Some of the songs reminded me of the Kings of Convenience (as I learned later, that’s because Ole wrote them – or was it Eps? I’m getting confused here..), and quite often, I recognized an earlier Conor Oberst in Wolf.

The last song, “Summer”, with the three guys singing at once was so stunning, I think my heart stopped beating and I stopped breathing for the whole 4 minutes.

So everybody, go listen to them here or even here – but if you get the chance to, go see them live. You won’t regret, I promise.

This has turned out to be

much more complicated than the theory

of relativity and how can you say

I lost my way

Yesterday was crazy. It’s all been about stress at work plus a huge mess with a beloved person plus delayed flights plus finally seeing the sweetest musician in the world. But more on that in another post – after too little sleep and a pretty busy day so far, I just want to go home and sleep forever.. well, after I post the next song. Honestly, I didn’t know this band until some weeks ago, when my friend told me about them. And now, I just can’t get enough.

Angus & Julia Stone – Silver Coin

I had a dream that you were gone.
Woke up and you were gone.
All the love has gone away
’cause I didn’t have the heart or strength to say:
I’ll miss you when you’re gone.

Well.. just listen to the song, and you will understand why I picked this one…

Röyksopp – Happy Up Here

You know I really like it
I know I’ll always be here
You know it makes my heart beat
You know I’m happy up here

Whatever you do, whatever you say
Nothing can push the feeling away
It’s here in my heart and it’s here in my head
I feel like I’m part of a book I’ve read