The boys at work! Play it loud!

"If you blindfolded Dana McKelvey and led her into a retail store, a restaurant, a doctor’s office, or a bank, she could tell fairly quickly whether the music playing in the background was Muzak. You may think that you would be able to tell, too, but unless your job is creating Muzak programs, as McKelvey’s is, you probably wouldn’t. The syrupy orchestral “elevator music” that most people associate with the company scarcely exists anymore. Muzak sells about a hundred prepackaged programs and several hundred customized ones, and only one—“Environmental”—truly fits the stereotype. It consists of “contemporary instrumental versions of popular songs,” and it is no longer terribly popular anywhere, except in Japan."

Excellent story about Muzak in the New Yorker

"Capitol Records have air-brushed cigarettes from an original picture featured on the cover of a Beatles four-CD box set, in a bid to fit in with morehealth-conscious times. The Capitol Albums, Vol. 2 - which marks the first appearance on CD of the U.S. versions of Rubber Soul, the Help! soundtrack, The Early Beatles and Beatles VI - will see the Fab Four's former tobacco habit and two of Ringo Starr's fingers magically erased. Previous Beatles reissues have also had their artwork changed - when I Want to Hold Your Hand was re-released in 1984 by EMI records, Sir Paul McCartney's cigarette was removed from the original cover. A U.S. poster company also digitally removed the same Beatle's cigarette from its poster of the 1969 album Abbey Road three years ago."

Blame Canada!

"The penultimate and last Top Gear before John moved to the late night spot with his new fangled John Peel Show.

Both approx 25 minutes each of them mind, so no complaining."

John Peel Tape and File Project

Wonderful! Hype of the year!

14. Mai live in Berlin (Spiegelzelt am Postbahnhof) 3.-5. Juni Rock am Ring und Rock im Park

Check out the Homepage

"Crazy by Gnarls Barkley has made pop history as the UK's first number one song based on download sales alone. Until this month, download sales could only count towards a chart position if the song could also be bought in shops.

But under new rules, downloads can be counted as long as physical copies go on sale the following week.

The song, used in ads for Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show, has been downloaded more than 31,000 times on all internet sites, a spokesman for HMV said."

More at the BBC

"Formed in 1964 by five American GI's stationed in Germany, the Monks started off as a very traditional rock'n'roll outfit. Initially called the Torquays, the band played the standard beat music of the day. The musicians (Gary Burger, lead guitar/vocals; Larry Clark, organ/vocals; Dave Day, rhythm guitar/vocals; Roger Johnston, drums/vocals and Eddie Shaw, bass/vocals) covered Chuck Berry tunes, surf music and various songs by British Invasion artists.

Fortunately, the band was comprised of highly imaginative musicians. They soon tired of the expected format and began experimenting with their sound, focusing almost solely on rhythm."

From a biography at furious.com

The Monks - Official Site

Rare video from the 60s on gofish.com !

Book: Black Monk Time: Coming of the Anti-Beatle (Paperback) by Thomas Edward Shaw

Legendär nicht nur ihr Debut-Album "Black Monk Time" mit dem schwarzen Cover (zwei Jahre vor dem "White Album" der Beatles!). Die Jungs galten als "Anti-Beatles" und waren mit ihrer rotzigen Attitüde, den Tonsuren, dem Chaos auf der Bühne und der komischen Mischung aus Garage, Surf und sonstwas an der Erfindung von Punk nicht unbeteiligt. Die Typen sind guter Stoff für einen coolen Film über diese Zeit... (Idee: Könnte nicht eine real existierende prominente Band sich Tonsuren schneiden und die Monks spielen? Vielleicht sollte das mal jemand dem Mike Patton vorschlagen...)

Während Herr Wahrhol und Konsorten dererlei Freakzeugs in Manhattan betrieben, tourten die Monks durch Deutschland, wo sie mit ihrem Sound relativ isoliert vor sich hinmuckelten. Vergleichbares produzierten zu dieser Zeit sonst nur die Sonics und andere Bands aus der Ami-Provinz. Viel von diesem Zeug ist bei Crypt Records, dem besten Label der Welt, erschienen, wo man auch die Vinyl-Version von "Black Monk Time" bekommen kann. Auf deren Website gibt es unter "CRypt Radio" übrigens diverse Perlen als MP3-Downloads.

Pretty cool band of wimps from Indiana recommended by Fräulein Klein

Don't miss Pianographique!

"From the dead boring outer ring of London's suburbs comes Hard-Fi. They merge disco, punk and dub until they sound like the late seventies post-punk scene having a fist fight with itself. With their lyrical themes about money not equaling or even being necessary for success, it's no surprise that the D.I.Y. masterpiece "Cash Machine" was made for $500 and has put them on the map as one of the UK's most exciting young exports. You need Hard-Fi in your life. Theyre laddish, loud and Christ they sound good." - NME

Nice one..

Also check out the archives at Slashmusic.

Confirmed: Friday June 09 - Seeed (Berlin/Germany) Sunday June 11 - Pete Philly & Perquisite (NL) Tuesday June 13 - Marcelo D2 (BRA) Thursday June 15 - Calypso At Dirty Jim’s (TRI) Friday June 16 - Tiken Jah Fakoly (Cote d´Ivoire) Saturday June 17 - Blasted Mechanism (POR) Sunday June 18 - Señor Coconut y su Orquestra (GER/JAP) Friday June 23 - William White (CH) Friday June 30 - MIA (Berlin/Germany) Saturday July 01 - Patrice & Shashamani Band (GER/Sierra Leone) Wednesday July 05 - Sa?an Supa Crew (F) Saturday July 08 - 17 Hippies (GER)

In talks: Morcheeba (UK), Gotan Project (Arg), Orishas (Cuba), Nightmares on Wax (UK), Kaiser Chiefs (UK), Arctic Monkeys (UK), Manu Chao (F), Jovanotti (I), Sportfreunde Stiller/Tip Top (GER), Element Of Crime (GER), Ohrbooten (GER), Culcha Candela (GER)

more...

Lots of stuff on youtube.com

"According to first-time director Don Sikorski's documentary Rap Sheet: Hip-Hop and the Cops, "law enforcement has been compiling secret dossiers on hundreds of hip-hop artists and execs for years." In the movie, Sikorski details what is described as a "nationwide task force" - aka "the hip-hop cops" - involving local police forces, the DEA, and the FBI that, among other things, compiles surveillance videos (obtained by Sikorski from the NYPD) on its subjects. While Variety reports that some of Sikorski's film is built on information acquired through use of the Freedom of Information Act, it also makes it sound like the movie relies heavily on the words of artist such as Kanye West, Busta Rhymes, and Snoop Dogg, sources unlikely to be granted much credence by some audiences.

The movie doesn't yet have distribution, so all discussion of it at the moment is moot - hopefully a company with some balls will pick it up, put together a smart advertising campaign based on its controversial content, and get it into theaters, so we can decide for ourselves how plausible Sikorski's case is."

(Cinematical)

This one goes out to Nikolai 2! Made my day! German Schlager at it's very best! I loved "Dschingis Khan" when I was eight years old.

Google Idol - no talent, no shame! Not even Sonnenlicht!

Via Metafilter

Too bad the show in Berlin tonight was sold out right away! I've been listening to Mr. Johnson a lot recently.

I joined the club. Find out about my bad taste in music....

Man, come to Berlin and play us some songs. Just listened to a recording from L. A. That album "When I said I Wanted to be Your dog" is awesome! Frau Kuttner likes it too. You will be big in Germany soon! Think about touring with the mighty Home of the Lame..

Live at the "Wild at Heart" in Kreuzberg.

It's not easy getting some attention as a band...

Great show at the Bassy Club last night, kids! Get a taste of THE hot new duo from Berlin!

Video 1 (4 min 22 s)

Video 2 (5 min 9s)

"Lost Alma" is Henrik Stahlhut from Copenhagen. I saw him play with a friend at the really hard to find Bassy Club last night and they have two more shows coming up, tonight and tomorrow (see below). Reminds me a lot of Home of the Lame. The debut-cd will come out in a short time and you can download the five songs from the demo "You can't stop the silence" at Lost Alma online.

Here is a little cellphone-video. The sound isn't that bad!

LOST ALMA live in Berlin:

Tue. 14.03 Berlin, at Focus Pocus, The Hotel Bar

Wen. 15.03 Berlin, at Cafe Rosa

The Hottest Band In the World! Today is Kiss-day! Hotter than hell links at PCL Linkdump to rock and roll all nite.

"Dynasty" (1978) was my first album and I'm still a Sgt. or something in the Kiss-Army!

Here is a nice little video-biography:

Here is an excerpt from that horrible movie "Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park": KISS vs. the Evil Space Snow-Monkeys fight sequence! Pretty amusing! Stolen from Fudgeland

Cool: Mini Kiss!

All about the Gene Simmons Rock School

Hi Everybody!

After a long break Sister Chain & Brother John are back on stage. This Monday The 13th of March at the Bassy for Lady Gaby's open to the public birthday party with other bands and events and djs and rats and stuff.

So join us and get your experimental metal kicks:

Bassy (is in Hackescher Markt - donnow exactly where but if we can find it so can you) monday 13th, 22:00, 4 euros only

...at the ColumbiaHalle, Columbiadamm 13-21, Berlin.

Officially confirmed by Placebo Online

The tickets are strictly on a first come first serve basis at the venue, when the doors open from 7pm. Support comes from Slut.

"Twelve soundtrack files rom Russ Meyer's parallel universe. A 4,6 hours long trip of outrageous dialogues and groovy music. Joint rips per movie. Mostly in mono, resulting in a two file squeeze for everyone's dl pleasure: Visit lellebelle, the blog for "out-of-print vinyl"

Schwabing Affairs - Delicate Tunes from Swinging Munich Movies of the 1960's & 70's. Schwabing is a district of the German city Munich. Once upon a time the place to be for hip young people and filmmakers alike. And this album is the showcase of grooves 'n' tunes from the movies made right there.

Via del.icio.us

8 pm. Location: Columbiahalle, Columbiadamm 13-21, 10965 Berlin (Tempelhof)