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Holly Mae And The Painted Room at Madame Claude

Bazz — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Holly Mae And The Painted Room’s recent albums I Am Dark Sided (20119 and Turn Of Phrase (2010) can more than hold their own in comparison to any of your other folk-influenced favourites of the past few years, excellent stuff. Heart wrenching lyrics backed by beautiful passages of hushed, brushed drums, barely plucked banjos and mandolins, violin, piano and trumpets all playing their part for the star of the record, Holly Mae’s voice, stunning stuff.

Tonight playing alongside The Great Park this should be a cosy spring evening down in the Madame Claude basement, a not a bad way to start your weekend.

Here’s a couple of songs from Turn Of Phrase:

And this is the video for We Are The Wild from I Am Dark Sided, directed by band members and sisters, Kathy and Sara Kwon:

Holly Mae & the Painted Room is a Berlin-based, California-bred acoustic Art Folk band and is comprised of Holly Mae Haddock, Kathy Kwon, Sara Kwon, and Molly McDonnell. The group’s lyrically-oriented music and pre-polished sound plumb the personal and ring in harmonic resonance with the universal. Holly Mae draws inspiration from myths and
tragedies, children’s stories, outsider art, and science. Primary influences include Joni Mitchell, Neko Case, Joanna Newsom, Sufjan Stevens, Bob Dylan, Daniel Johnston, and Bonnie Prince Billy.

Holly Mae was raised on an organic farm on the California central coast. Her childhood was steeped in folk music and she started writing songs as a teen. She began playing out in the 1990s in the acoustic side of the riot grrrl scene, where she opened for Sleater-Kinney at the Goleta Women’s Festival, under the name La Sullen Teen in 1996.
After college, Holly Mae assembled an acoustic folk band, The Interludes, in 2005, and eventually formed Holly Mae and the Painted Room in 2007 in Detroit, Michigan. She performed at the Ypsilanti Songwriting Festival in 2008 and 2009, where she was honored as a Resident Local Songwriter two years in a row. Moving to Berlin in January 2010m Holly formed the current incarnation of Holly Mae and the Painted Room.

Veronica Falls at Berghain Kantine

Bazz — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:00:00 +0000

AA Bondy at Maschinenhaus

Bazz — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:15:00 +0000

I saw AA Bondy open up for Bill Callahan a couple of years ago in Lido on a steaming hot night and only caught the last three songs but it was enough, I was hooked. Bondy’s particular type of americana/folk rock seems to evolve with each new record and Believers, his third album in four years, has elevated him above this tag to something else; what that something else is I couldn’t say, nor could Bondy for that matter:

I just don’t look at music that way. It all runs together, as far as I’m concerned.

Believers is a stark yet warm listening experience; it’s hopeful and rich, the floaty feel of the guitars give it space to breathe and somehow simultaneously invoke big, black, starry night skies and warm, sunny days, free as a bird by the sea. With no more than a basic guitar, bass and drums set up, this album is one of 2011′s treasures and, judging from recent live footage, he’s taking the live reproduction of these songs very seriously indeed, so we’re in for a treat tonight I expect.

This show has been moved from Comet Club to the criminally underused Maschinenhaus in the Kulturbrauerei, one of my favourite venues in town and perfect for hearing one of my favourite records of recent times get an airing.

Click here to hear Surfer King and Rte. 28/Believers from Believers(2011) and The Mercy Wheel from When The Devil’s Loose(2009).

Here’s recent live versions of The Twist and Surfer King from Believers; narrow screens aside, they sound good enough:

Nada Surf at Huxley’s

Bazz — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Nada Surf return to Berlin to take their place on one of our bigger stages at Huxley’s. The indie rock trio of the past two decades, you get the feeling people kept thinking they’d go away or become less awesome than they are. Well, they got even better and recent offering The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy shouldn’t be as good as it is but hey, it turns out it is a tough job but at least we have someone left that can do it…Nada Surf.

“Did you ever, as a kid, want to crawl into the speakers?” asks Nada Surf singer-guitarist Matthew Caws. “I did — here was OK, but there was much better.” And that’s pretty much what Nada Surf is all about — Caws, bassist Daniel Lorca, and drummer Ira Elliot are in love with the way rock music can transport you to a new and wonderful place in a beguiling rush of beats, chords, hooks and words. And they do it 10 times over on their brilliant sixth album

Listen to Jules And Jim from new album The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy. You know I’d put up videos for Nada Surf classics like Popular but the c%$%s at G$$a say otherwise, well, f$$k them.

Here’s Popular live…cos it’s just too good not to:

Cloud Control at Comet

Bazz — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Hailing from the beautiful Blue Mountains near Sydney, Cloud Control released one of 2011′s best albums in Bliss Release. An instantly likeable record that made me wish it had been released when I was 16 and the summer days were stretched out before me. It’s simply packed with harmonic, 60s influenced, psych-pop and all-round indie guitar goodness with sublime vocals splattered all over; second song There’s Nothing In The Water We Can’t Fight alone took me about 6 listens before I allowed the needle to roll on.

Here it is:

They recently won the Australian Music Prize, which, given the amount of great bands always on the go down there, is quite an achievement. They’ve played support to Arcade Fire, been to SXSW and appeared at Australia’s biggest festival, Big Day Out, aswell as Germany’s very own Hurricane and Southside Festivals. So it’s fair to say that we’re dealing with future indie big-hitters here, which is why it is a bit surprising to see them arriving for their second show in Berlin, but at Comet? Hopefully it will be their last at a small venue and we can look forward to seeing them let their sound spread out in a larger hall next time. That said, I’ll see you there anyway.

Here’s This Is What I Said and a live version of Death Cloud:

…plus support act Main Fear Love…

DEMO #2 by Main Fear Love

DEMO #1 by Main Fear Love

The War On Drugs at Magnet

Bazz — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:00:00 +0000

The War On Drugs played one of my Top Ten shows of last year in September at NBI(review here) and despite this show being switched from the much larger Lido down the street, I think Magnet will suit them better…and I never thought I’d say that about Magnet.

Slave Ambient also made it into a lot of Top Tens for 2011, no surprises there, it’s a cracker of a record. I’m going to quote myself from my preview of their last show here because it’s time for a cup of tea:

With a sound that makes you simply want to pack your bags, grab your sweetheart and hit the road in your beat-up old car, destination unknown, The War On Drugs drop by NBI to give those of us who haven’t done that in quite some time the chance to feel what it feels like.

If Kurt Vile’s Smoke Ring For My Halo has been doing the rounds on your turntable all summer long then The War On Drugs new album Slave Ambient is for you. In fact you would be forgiven for mistaking one of these bands for the other, their vocal styles cut of the same americana drawl, the band chuggin’ along in the background like a runaway train.
It’s Springsteen and My Bloody Valentine spaceyness combined into one beautiful sprawling sound

This is Baby Missiles live and is, on its own, the reason you should come to see these guys, and below we have Brothers and Comin’ Through:

Giveaway: The War On Drugs at Magnet Club

Bazz — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:58:14 +0000

Back so soon to visit us here in Brrrlin’s eyeball-freezing wintertime, The War On Drugs will surely warm up your Sunday evening just nicely.

Having breezed into town last September (review here) and wowed the crowd from the opening bars of Baby Missiles right through crowd participation (in the shape of Peter from The Sun & The Wolf who more than held his own on guitar during Brothers) to the raucous ending of Arms Like Boulders, lead guitarist and singer Adam Granduciel & Co are back to play Magnet this time round.

Switched over from Lido it could also be the last chance you get to witness this band in such a setting; they’re more on their way up, they’re already there, supports slots to The National last December in New York say it all really. It’s nice to see a band worthy of success actually attain it, gives us hope right?

The wonderful man that is Puschen has given us two tickets to giveaway and all you have to do is to have read this article the whole way through to find the answer. I know it’s a drag but sometimes you have to suffer for your art…or something like that.What is the name of The War On Drugs lead guitarist and singer?

To win, all you have to do is email winwinwin@blitzgigs.de with your full name and the answer to the following simple question.

What is the name of The War On Drugs lead guitarist and singer?

Get your entries in before Friday Feb. 17th at 12noon. Good luck.

More info on the gig can be found here, courtesy of me also, what can I say, I’m fan: http://www.blitzgigs.de/2012/02/19/

Aidan Baker, Andrea Belfi, Erik Skovdin and A-Sun Amissa at West Germany

Bazz — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:00:00 +0000

Aidan Baker is back from his tour of Japan with Nadja to begin another tour, this time with A-Sun Amissa, in support of his latest record The Spectrum Of Distraction, which is a good description of what it’s like to look at his discography.

Listen to it here…did I mention that it has 97 tracks? Well, if you thought his discography was long, check out the tracklisting for this baby:

To launch the Aidan Baker / A-Sun Amissa EU tour, Baker will be joined by fellow (ex-pat) Berliners Andrea Belfi & Erik Skodvin for an impromptu, improvisational trio.

Aidan Baker is a musician and writer currently based here in Berlin. Classically trained in flute, he is self-taught on guitar, drums, and various other instruments.

As a solo artist, Baker explores the deconstructive sonic possibilities of the electric guitar as a primary sound source, creating music that ranges from experimental to post-rock to contemporary classical.

Baker has released numerous recordings on record labels around the world and has published three books of poetry. In addition to his solo work, he also performs in Nadja, Whisper Room, and ARC.

Jimmy Trash And The Gunpowder Temple Of Heaven at Antje Oklesund

Bazz — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Poster: Leo “Correo” Zylberberg

Brought to you by Cranky Booking and www.blitzgigs.de, Jimmy Trash And The Gunpowder Temple Of Heaven headline tonight at Antje Oklesund’s regular Friday night, Hören & Gesehen werden. Jimmy and his band, hands down the best named band in town( Oska Wald, Johnny Friseur, Konrad Wilde, Omri Gondor and Mohair Sam) have the following, humble mission each time they bring their psych-swamp to bear on an unsuspecting audience:

We have the goal of completely enveloping the audience with a sense of lust, regret and physical danger. We take our cues from sensual Louisiana swamp sounds, psychedelic freak out culture, voodoo ceremony, and violent performance art.

So, as you can imagine, there’ll be lots of blood, guts and balls out rock n’ roll anitcs, a scared audience crouched in fear and obeying the orders of the dark lord at the head of the Gunpowder Temple, in short, everything you ever wanted from a rock n’ roll gig on a Friday night in Berlin but thought you didn’t deserve.

Here’s their new video, Pseudo-Lucian Dreams:

Here’s Sick and Six Is The Magic Number:

To kick things off we have Crystal Shipsss, a side project of Jacob Faurholt from Aarhus, Denmark. Faurholt has released three albums under his own name aswell as EP under the name Why Write? – produced by legendary producer Kramer, who has produced albums by none other than Low and Galaxie 500. His Crystal Shipsss debut, Yay, will be released officially later this year but that doesn’t mean you should miss out on this chance to catch him play some of this excellent lo-fi psych-pop live, accompanied by Soren of Man Meets Bear.

This one’s called Smile:

Delta Love will be second up tonight and if their recent, if too few, performances are anything to go by, this tuneful garage duo are a band you’ll be hearing a lot more about in the near future. Opening up for Sic Alps last autumn at West Germany, these young men did a splendid job of warming up the audience and won many new fans in the process with their wobbly off kilter guitar sound, a unique band indeed.

Here they are live at Stattbad Wedding:

…and a song of theirs titled Tell Me:

DJ Andrewpants provides the in-between and after hours music.

Wild Flag at Lido

Bazz — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:26:04 +0000

Wild Flag are some kind of present day Breeders, an awesome band comprised of awesome players from different awesome bands like Sleater Kinney and Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks.Oh dear, it’s late and here comes the laziness courtesy of Merge Records website:

Wild Flag is a Portland, Oregon- and Washington, DC-based quartet consisting of Carrie Brownstein, Rebecca Cole, Mary Timony, and Janet Weiss. The members of Wild Flag have played in numerous and notable bands including Sleater-Kinney, Helium, Quasi, The Minders, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, and others.

The four musicians who make up Wild Flag have known one another for well over a decade. Brownstein and Weiss were in Sleater-Kinney and toured with Timony’s band Helium on numerous occasions. Brownstein and Timony played in a side project called The Spells. Rebecca Cole’s Portland-based band The Minders was a frequent opener for Sleater-Kinney. Weiss and Cole play together in the 1960′s garage-rock cover band The Shadow Mortons. If someone drew a visual representation illustrating the ways in which all indie bands are interconnected, Brownstein, Cole, Timony, and Weiss would be in the same tiny sphere, so playing together felt almost inevitable. After collaborating on a score for a documentary, the ease with which they worked together proved infectious and promising. Future practices were scheduled, songs were written, Wild Flag was formed.

Yet even after the members of Wild Flag became intentional about playing together-and Mary was flying from DC to practice in Portland-the band was hesitant about naming this endeavor. Yes, they knew how to be in bands, but not in this band. Wild Flag wanted to figure out dynamics, hear how the songs breathed in a live context, build cohesion and unity, and emerge as a singular force prior to putting those sounds onto tape. Wild Flag always intended to grow organically, never wanting to take for granted that an audience existed based on previous endeavors. So, instead of recording an album and then playing shows, they went on various tours, playing tiny club shows in the US and building up a fervent audience of their own.

Here’s Romance from their debut album:

Blitzgigs.de - Berlin's #1 live music, concert & nightlife listing. » Bazz

Holly Mae And The Painted Room at Madame Claude

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Veronica Falls at Berghain Kantine

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AA Bondy at Maschinenhaus

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Nada Surf at Huxley’s

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Cloud Control at Comet

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The War On Drugs at Magnet

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Giveaway: The War On Drugs at Magnet Club

Aidan Baker, Andrea Belfi, Erik Skovdin and A-Sun Amissa at West Germany

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Jimmy Trash And The Gunpowder Temple Of Heaven at Antje Oklesund

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Wild Flag at Lido

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