never say never!

I'm wanna start one of these conspiracy theories that never die - because they are about people not being dead:

Keith Moon, animal, world-class drumming monster, former The Who member (1964-1978), infamous for his rampant, never beaten hollow drum beating, died at the age of 32, looking a lot older because of drugs and booze and all. Or so we think. The truth is, he's given up drumming, moved to Canada and now writes acoustic songs (no drumming!) for his new girlfriend Feist. You don't believe that? Why then is her song called My Moon, My Man?

100ths post!

Margot vs. Leslie

What do these to Ladies have in common? The first one was the first Lady in a small country that shaped my Mom's view of live, the second one is the number-one artist from a great country that, hm, my Mom probably does not know much about.

The first one was how my Mom memorised the second one. I went to the record store with her because I really wanted to give her The Reminder as a present. My Mom asked which record I was looking for and I said "From a singer called Feist". To my very surprise she told me she had heard of that woman already, "isn't she the one from Canada?". "Yes, she is, how did you know?" "Well", my mother said, "I only remembered because Feist is Margot Honeckers maiden name.

Sandmännchen all over the world

In his song It Was A Strange Time In My Life, Jens Lekman uses a popular melody to make 17 seem even younger than just not 18 yet. It is the Sandmännchen title melody from the all-too-familiar children's good-night tv show. There is one thing about products of art for kids: They stay in the heart and arouse feelings much more than most things people get to know later, because they are among the first things that shape a person's taste, and they connect to a time when whatever happened seemed to be okay. That is way the Sandmännchen song caught very positive reactions last Saturday night. And I curiously did my research to find out to whomever we owe this little sweet melody.

The Sandmännchen idea was created sometime around 1959 by a West-german radio moderator who already presented an evening show for kids based on good night tales. With the idea of the figure behind, a TV show was to be created. However, when TV people from the former GDR heard about this, they wanted to be faster. The Eastern Sandmännchen was created and aired before the Western one, and according to its composer, the title song was written within three hours, after the lyrics were give through the telephone. Wolfgang Richter was the name of the guy who did the song. In the end, what had started so sudden turned out to be a major success. Today, there are Sandmännchen shows in a lot of European countries such as Great Britain, France, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Hungary, Norway and of course Sweden. And while the idea of telling bed stories to kids is universal, the song itself isn't. Every language has a different recording of the song, and you can listen to some of them, including the one Jens Lekman must have heard every evening, on the official Sandmännchen webpage.

Jens Lekman @ Lido, Berlin

Saturday night and Jens Lekman is in town! How could I dare not going, especially when I got the ticket as a present (thank you!). As expected, Jens got the masses making a pilgrimage to the Lido, the metro to the venue was packed with people speaking in scandinavian tongues. The growing population of Scandinavians in Berlin is no secret, and neither is Jens' fondness of the city. He has been very charmingly building up a song by describing in detail how to get to Berlin when you are coming from Sweden or Denmark (Easyjet takes 45 min, but Saefflebussen costs 5 euro less, and "knowing Berlin I was sure I could make use of that 5 euro somehow". I enjoyed this story very much, as I am familiar with the pleasures of seeing the baltic sea from the sky and 20 hours on the road all through Denmark and over the bridge to Sweden). The crowd, very likely comprising of Scandinavian-enthusiasts like me, screamed with laughter. Jens definitely is one of an entertainer who knows how to grab the audience by the balls. His show was not that long at a first glance, but three encores really did the deal. In fact, he sang until there was "no more song to sing" (I am sure he has got 10 new songs in his mind at any time) and he said he felt like dancing. No dancing for us there, though, as the after show party was not at the Lido, but in a different venue far away. After hanging around at the venue for at least another hour and a quick drop-in at the döner round the corner we decided to go to the party. It took us 45 mins to get there, changing train twice and freezing, just to be turned down at the door: We were told our tickets are not valid for the after show party and it was 6 Euro entry. I had just spend 6 Euro on a Jens Lekman record and the stupid temptation to speak to the gorgeous drummer about my attempts at banging the drums. I guess I made a little fool out of myself with little-girlish talk, but at least I bought the record. Anyway, no fucking Karrera Klub after show party for us, back to the concert: The record I bought, Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo, was the last regular song they played and it had this little showdown built in when all the members of the band put down their instruments and danced up and down the stage. There was still music playing then... No hard feelings here, the band was great and I eat my hat if this talented bunch of girls (plus one boy) was not playing life. However, girls (exxageration for dramatic puposes: it was only just one girl) in front of me were sobbing quite noisily when Jens played Pocketfull Of Money, alone with his acoustic guitar. I had no reason to cry last night, I enjoyed it very much.

What the world not needs:

Shitty techno remixes!

What could be more exciting than the b-side of a single you just bought? Hopefully it is not an album track, and not a reheated track from years ago. Recently I've seen a lot of remixes of the a-side on the other side of the record. But what could be worse than these oomsta-oomsta-techno remixes which all got the same beat and stretch the voice to make it mickey-mouse-like? This is soo boring. That's fucking with a DJ who pays good money for a song. Is it too much to expect a "decent" b-side? What has worked so well with covers recently is that a lot of people now recognise that what makes a good cover version is a distinction from the original and some imagination in the interpretation of the song. Unfortunately this does not seem to matter for remixes. I actually don't wanna say names, but It's just happened with the vinyl single of Simian Mobile Disco's I Believe. I love this song. I'd love to dance to it in a club. I'd be really excited if I heard a thrilling remix. But I am turned off by uninspired boom boom boom.