Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Day 52 Song 52 - Like A Magnet

It's hard to talk about a song when it relates to the person you're with at the moment. If you are really curious, then ask me about it sometime in person :-)

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Day 51 Song 51 - Your Eyes Very Good

There's a lovely guy called Michael Henk who lives in Neukoelln. He has an amazing 2 room apartment which is just filled to the brim with fancy equipment. He's the kind of guy who can solder his own anything. He got a whole lot of eqs from the old Hansa Studio (David Bowie anyone?) and soldered them together to make a mega-mixdesk which nobody can deny. He's also a multi-instrumentalist - plays bass guitar, normal guitar, e-guitar, keys and sings real sexy too.
We got very high on champagne one night and made this little diamond:

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Day 50 Song 50 - Into the Sunset

If you're an avid Schneider TM fan then you will agree with me that he is an excellent harmonica player. I wrote this song while I was going out with him (there's a bit of ancient history for you!) and he went for a tour around the U.S. I knew that he could have called me if he'd made more of an effort, but "he was touring and he didn't have time.." and you know how girlfriends get when you don't call them except when you're drunk like twice..

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Greatest Music Video Ever

Sorry!

My mac is back in the shop again..! Due to too much crashing and banging me and the mac doctors (imagine in guertel strasse - highly recommended!) decided to get me a new harddrive and update to 10.5.6. So if you are regularly reading me (Martin Busse in particular :-)) then I hope you'll accept my apologies and tune in tomorrow to hear three (3!) new musical updates.
Good night!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Day 49 Song 49 - Omnichordd Lullaby

Do you know what an Omnichord is? If you are inspired by music but can't really play an instrument (like me, no jokes) then I seriously recommend you buy one of these on ebay. They are around 50€ but well worth it. Just touch a key, any key, and you are in Heaven playing a sonnet to an Angel. Really! Did you ever see/hear a musician called Cortney Tidwell? She played in the Schokoladen in Berlin-Mitte one night and her song with the Omnichord and the Drumkit just blew me right away. So I borrowed one for a few months and made a small series of songs with it. This is one! And a little video of my boy Jay Romeo reading a book, with the bizarre bilingual parental units mumbling in the background. Enjoy!



Day 48 Song 48 - Tourmaline

When I was eleven my mother decided to take my brother and I on a trip to Alice Springs, the red centre of Australia. On the Saturday before we departed I went to the barber and said "Give me a haircut like his" and pointed at my brother, who was sporting a small crew cut. After pleading with me and calling my parents, the barber, who was an Italian who'd known me from birth, agreed to do it. I just didn't want the burden of conditioner and combing agony all the way through the red dust. My mother, who likes her drink, brought a girlfriend, who likes her drink, and her son, who although just turned eighteen, also liked his drink. Need I say more. The trip was a ramshackle affair involving many 3 day stops in towns so that everyone could get over their hangovers. My mother needed to drink to get over her fear of driving long distances (she didn't drink and drive - she was always very careful about that) which had come about through a horrible car accident we'd had when I was six and my brother was three. It makes sense when you think about it from a therapist's point of view, although on paper here it seems bizarre.
Anyway, among other things (getting molested by the eighteen year old among them) I played cards and waited around at the campsite while my mother spent 3 days in the Todd River drinking with the Aborigines. This was frowned upon in Alice Springs as they have (I don't know how it is now, but back then it was pretty serious) a strict segregation tradition of whites and blacks. So she got thrown in the slammer (a story I once relayed in a Vice interview about my first brush with the police). I was pretty traumatised when she finally re-appeared after going missing for 3 days, as she was covered in cuts and bruises and looking really shook up.
Growing up in Australia, the reality of the desert is never far away from your consciousness. "Wake in Fright" is an example of this, and "Tourmaline" by Randolph Stow, a story of a bankrupt ghost town is another.
The girlfriend who liked her drink ended up being incarcerated in Dubai a few years later after being found drinking alcohol, and her son committed suicide. So all in all the trip to Alice Springs remains as a tragic, beautiful, wild, freaky, fucked-up memory for me, remaining pure only in the fact that my brother and I were so young, and everyone else so damaged.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Day 47 Song 47 - Jeannie in the Rushes

London London London! What a Lovely town! Max Cole - if you're out there, this is for you!
Max and I met on the fateful Red Bull Music Academy Capetown in 2004 or some such ancient time. We got drunk a LOT and drank a LOT of Red Bull. We also swam in the pool, the ocean and DJed and danced for 2 weeks straight. If you're considering entering the Red Bull thing, then DO IT, it's maybe kind of drinks propoganda and not much academy really, but it's AWESOME.
Anyway, one time in London Max and I recorded this song on his brand new M-box.
Big arps.



Day 46 Song 46 - S-Bahn

Have you ever been to Berlin? If so then you know what an S-Bahn is. If not, an S-Bahn is the city train. It's great. I could wax endlessly about the beauties of the Berlin public transport system, but I don't have time. Just believe me - It's Ace!







Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Technical Difficulties

I must apologise, faithful reader, but my computer is totally fucked and won't allow me to upload any songs at the moment. I'm taking it to the shop today to get everything taken off and put back on again in the hope that it fixes the problem. Hopefully I'll be back blogging by Friday night. So till then rummage through my archives and leave me sympathetic comments. Thank you!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Day 45 Song 45 - Defiant & Proud

Day 44 Song 44 - The More You Give

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Day 43 Song 43 - Gypsy (Say Say)

If you are familiar with the latest releases of Brian Cares, colourful and talented resident Bar 25 DJ (Berlin, Berlin) then you will be more than aware of this song. It's called "Gypsy" but I call it "Say Say". We made it together a couple of years ago when we spent a couple of weeks joined at the hip (metaphorically speaking) and enjoyed many hours sharing musical inspiration together in various kneippe between Treptow and Grell Strasse. When I asked him to say some words about DJing tekno he said "It's easy! Just like playing Lego!" God love you Bri.

Day 42 Song 42 - Inxs

This is the notorious Inxs cover song.
I still love it!
I hope you do too.
Today's post is dedicated to my regular, yet hidden, listener Herr Dirk Holzberger. Gute besserung wunsch ich Dir, und komm gut nach hause!

Day 41 Song 41 - Great Skate Date

The weather is getting hotter! I hope you're digging out your sunscreen and unpacking your fan :-)
And now my damn mac is going down...
Sorry for the sporadic posts - after 3 days of struggling I am facing the fact that I have to take my computer to the doctor...
BTW if you want to stream my music, just go here to my soundcloud site, and press "play" on the first song on the page!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Day 40 Song 40 - Sarah Ellen

I don't know exactly who this song is for. It's seems to me a sort of cathartic projection of my own neuroses about belonging and division. "I have my cell phone" reminds me of Meredith Monk's Gotham City where the lady squeals "I have my money, I have my phone - "hello? hello?" - and i still have my allergies!" ;-)
Does it seem bitchy? Yeh, well I suppose it is that.. ;-)

Day 39 Song 39 - I'm a Bitch

We all thought this song was written by Alanis Morisette, but actually it's by a lady called Meredith Brooks! I really love this song, and couldn't help but cover it one dark night in San Francisco.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Day 38 Song 38 - The Gulf of Shit Part ii

So I've been working on the Gulf Oil song... just in case any of you trainspotters are interested in the creative process, i thought i'd post the developments...

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Day 37 Song 37 - Save the Best till Last

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Day 36 Song 36 - The Gulf of Shit

This is the chorus to my new song "Blow that oil away". I found these lyrics in a comment on a discussion forum about the BP oil disaster and put them to guitar. I'll finish it on Sunday I promise!
n.b. make that next Sunday - it's getting to be a big project!

Friday, June 4, 2010

Day 35 Song 35 - and all my life

Hello children of the zodiac! Have listened to the Portishead album Third inside and out and have concluded that it's very good, but I still prefer Jenny Wilson. Ok ok, I'm not an amateur - I loved their Dummy debut in 1995 with the best of them but I really think Jenny Wilson and her producer are fucking awesome. To be honest, I don't know whether they're geniuses... but in music I often find I don't personally need genius. I will expand on this tomorrow, so don't fall asleep yet - there's a new song to be heard!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Day 34 Song 34 - Afro

A bizarre song to say the least - I wrote it about 4 years ago around the time of promo for Soft Rock. It was an exciting time, yet very busy, and summer was in full roar. I started to imagine what it would be like to be a single mother... and was experimenting with a recording of my old boyfriend Hans Narva made on Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island), where we played that I was my Dad, and he was calling me up to ask for my daughter's hand in marriage.
By the way, I changed the music players since this one is less graphic intensive, I thought maybe it will be quicker to load..?

Day 33 Song 33 - Errare Machinale Est

Hey hey hey! Sorry I've been out for a couple of days - to be honest I was so busy that I completely forgot I had a blog!! Some friends of mine have been in town - shouts to Joni and Norbert and congratulations on your wedding :-) - and I've been doing sound for a theater piece for a friend of mine, Beatrice Jugert. If anyone has time on Saturday night (5th June) our piece starts at 8pm at HBC in the theater room, and it will probably be very magical :-)) It's also been kind of stressful carting the baby around everywhere, but to be fair he has behaved himself splendidly, and laid uncomplaining on the floor of the theater every day :-)
This song was originally made by Jori Hulkkonen, and I added the vocal arrangements to it. I love Jori - actually I borrowed his "Fancy Robots" name idea for my previous track! Thanks for the feedback mh, martin and the new guy. Much appreciated!!!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Day 32 Song 32 - Fancy Robots

Buy the Christmas EP on CD!!! Worldwide delivery!!!

Just click on the "Christmas EP" link there and it will take you to the bandcamp link where you can order the CD!

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Justine Electra's album "Soft Rock"

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