once more with feeling

Do you still buy CDs?
In the modern world full of Spotify, Torrents and Bandcamp, this question has become quite pressing to the music industry. I still remember buying my first CDs as a teenager – Emilia, Tic Tac Toe, Bravo Hits 13, Spice Girls, Mariah Carey. But as soon as I discovered Napster, I quickly went from buying to downloading, limiting the act of purchase to special occasions such as concerts. Many years later, this hasn’t really changed – Soundcloud, Bandcamp and Spotify have become my best friends and looking through my CD rack, the newest ones in there are all by smaller (and mainly Austrian) bands which I still want to support through paying for their music because they really do need this support.
Being aware of the problem all those apps and websites have posed to the sales statistics (and let’s be honest, it is a problem when you regard the money an average musician can actually get from streams on Spotify), arists and labels have come up with very creative ways to sell their music. They combine it with USB sticks, with clothes, they make super-special and ultra-limited editions and packages, they try to get the Vinyl-hipsters on their side and turn the boring round silver CD into a very exciting and fun thing. And well – it works. Because it’s that feeling of being special that will always attract us to buying things.
You might remember my enthusiasm about diver’s EP, which was actually sewed together by a friend of the band. And today, I found out about another great idea from an Austrian band: the PapiersackerlEP large. The band is called VIECH (which is a colloquial expression for critter). VIECH are Paul and Andreas from Graz, making Austrian-folk-electro-pop-rock with raspy voices, accordion and in Lederhosen. Their lyrics seem sometimes on the verge of sarcasm and irony, while at other times random every-day situations are put in weird contexts and expressed with even weirder linguistic comparisons. In their songs you can find cavity in the incisor, heart thrombosis and big ring-tailed pigs.

Their latest release, the Papiersackerl EP large (the paper bag EP, following the small and medium edition) is a collection of 7 songs, 5 acoustic versions, 4 remixes, a B-side and a 16 pages booklet, all covered by handmade packagings from different artists – aka the paper bags. You can find an overview about all designs and layouts here. It’s a pretty amazing idea and all I can say is kudos to all the artists who contributed turning something simple as a CD into a real work of art.
VIECH will be playing in Graz on February 2nd, and hopefully soon in Vienna too. You can find the whole stream of the EP below – but this time I really, really want to encourage you to order the CD.

Graz. The second biggest city in Austria. The city of Schloss Eggenberg, of the Mur, of the Schloßberg, of Styria, of Magna, of the springfestival, of the Elevate and the Diagonale, the city of Opus and SK Sturm.

I never really cared about Graz – but that’s not a big deal since I never really cared about any Austrian city except for Vienna. Which is why after a failed afternoon with an exboy there and a 6am walk through the inner city after a crazy night at springten, Graz and me had our first real acquaintance just recently. And what can I say – it’s a lovely little city full of surprises in every corner. Too small for me to live in, but just about right for a weekend to escape from the dull routine of Vienna.

Graz can also offer some pretty amazing music. Many of you probably heard of The Incredible Staggers and maybe also of the second project of their guitarist, The Sado-Maso Guitar Club. But do you already know the German singing VIECH? And have you met Philipp?

Philipp Szalay started to learn the guitar just to become one of the cool kids – and he did. He published his debut EP in 2010 and is working on his first longplayer. Philipp’s music is full of melancholia, full of passion and dreams, full of the contradiction of darkness and light. On stage, Philipp is joined by a couple of very talented musicians, and together they will take your breath, make your heart beat faster and leave you with a goose flesh.
On Christmas eve, I got Philipp’s newsletter with a nice little present inside: links to some live footage, filmed at the concert in Vienna that I’ve been to. So I want to pass two of those videos on, and recommend you to try and catch Philipp live, grab his EP and maybe even one of his selfmade tote bags, which are the absolutely cutest ones I’ve ever seen.

You can steal my faith and steal my pride
but you already know all the demons in my mind.

You say that I should be sorry
but I don’t care anymore.
I’m sorry if I didn’t care enough
for you my dear.