While I am typing these word I watch the quarter final of Champions League between Manchester City and Bayern Munich. I have to admit that I don't like any of those teams and I am steady watching the game. Our players, who are highly praised here in Germany, are showing what they can do today. Just playing along and not having the opportunities in the first half to keep the game open. No matter how it ends, I'm more on City's side than Bayern's. Anyway this is a new release by Duncan Gray and another great electronic release by him. Warm synths and an easy flow that can make you an easy start into a new day.
I knew this Canadian duo by name and sorted them under another indie-band among many others. A friend of mine recommended Japandroids them to me as something I should listen to. So I started to investigate about them and I listened to their new album. He introduced them as a band with new wave roots and I've got a band that was close to stadium rock. A few songs have the spirit of independent music but many of them are mainstream. Their songs aren't too bad and worth to listen but I miss the scares other bands burned into my musical heart. I think they are worth to got a chance to appear on this blog and I would like to know what you think about them.
While typing these words I follow with one eye the CL-game between Bayern Munich and Arsenal London. Maybe you know that I am not a supporter of Bayern but I have to say that I am impressed how they could change a game in 15 minutes to their advance. Sorry for Arsenal.
Last week I told that me and Kerstin made the decision to go separate ways. Now I asked myself what to do with your new life? Should I creep away in my flat and live a life of sorrow or should I go out looking for another woman? I am not really sure what I thought I should at this time but I remember that I started to contact my older mates and friends more and more. I also started playing football again. The last thing I wanted to start was a new relationship again. But sometimes the life plays a trick to you and you cannot fulfil your intentions. This trick came to me with Christiane which I met in my local pub at the end of last year. I knew her for a long time because she has been in a relationship with my brother's class mate. The more we talked about nearly everything we recognized that we thought about most of the themes the same way. It was also great that we had the same kind of strange humor, liked the same movies and what was important - the same music. That's what I didn't knew from my former wife - she was in that fucking Cologne stuff not paying any listen to The Smiths or something like that. And at last thus we have become a couple. To find out whether we also can spend longer time together we booked a vacation to Southern Italy. And at least it worked. We had a real fine time in this small club spending a pretty nice time together. I remember one evening when we watched the UEFA Champions League final together. It might sound strange for a German but I supported Manchester United this evening. The reason is that I don't like that snooty team filled up with so called stars. So Mario Basler made a pretty goal and it looked like they are going to win another time. I ordered me another beer to stand the last five minutes as Teddy Sheringham tied in the injury time. And Ole Gunnar Solksjaer made it perfect to minutes later. We both were happy about this result and had a wonderful evening. But there was one more thing that impressed me more this year. We are able to watch a solar eclipse in our hometown. Presumably I will never get this experience again when the moon pushes before the sun and it becomes pitch-dark on midday. Totally silence on our market place and so a good feeling to have. It was also the year I quit my job because I got in trouble with my bosses. But this will be a story maybe told next time.
Here are some records I used to play this year ...
Blumfeld - Old Nobody: German Indie Pop at it's best
Blur - 13: Very good record including Tender
Terry Callier - Lifetime: A brilliant album by a legend
The Beta Band - The 3 Eps: Underrated at this time
Built To Spill - Keep it Like a Secret: Arty high school rock
Tom Waits - Mule Variations: He's back with a superb late work
Michael Franks - Barefoot on the Beach: It's jazz and a little funk but fine songs
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication: More direct than before and listen to the bass
Diana Krall - When I Look in Your Eyes: A lot of great ballads and versions on it
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish: Fantastic record made for dancefloor
Fun Lovin' Criminals - Mimosa: They were cool as hell at this time
... and some songs you will surely remember:
The movies we went in this was:
The Matrix: Bewildering story but style-pedagogic camera settings
Notting Hill: The romance of the year
American Beauty: Kevin Spacey at his best
The Green Mile: Just a wonderful movie
The Blair Witch Project: You don't need millions of dollars to make a great movie
Arlington Road: Are your neighbors terrorists?
Fight Club: Bored men try to get their fulfillment in boxing matches
Sleepy Hollow: Excellent pictures and a mystery story makes a fantastic movie
And some remarkable things that happened in 1999:
The Euro is established - no way back // Bill Clinton is acquitted in impeachment proceedings in the US Senate // Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Öcalan is charged with treason in Ankara, Turkey // Former Warsaw Pact members Hungary, Poland and Czech Republic join NATO // A fire in the Mont Blanc Tunnel kills 39 people, closing the tunnel for nearly 3 years // For the first time the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above the 10.000 mark // The Kosovo War drags on // Manchester United defeat Bayern Munich 2:1 in the injury time of the UEFA Champions League Final in Barcelona (thank you Mr. Solskjaer) // Napster debuts on Internet and millions starting downloading tracks .
I picked out this record by Jim O'Rourkeas the one that I connect with this year. Jim O'Rourke is an American musician, composer and director influenced with jazz and classical music. He collaborated at this time with Sonic Youth playing bass. Why I love this record? Because them compositions, arrangements and songs on it. This was one of the less records I listened from the first to the last song in a row. Never a dull moment on it. Even if he plays long and quiet songs. You think nothing will happen and suddenly some pearls begin to creep into your ears. And also the cover version of Burt Bacharach's Something's Big is worth to listen. Eureka is simply a masterpiece and very underrated.
On the first year at grammar school I had no difficulties, so that the expenditure was low for the learning accordingly. Therefore I had much more time to spend with my mates on playing dart, billiard and cards. This was presumably one of the most lighthearted years in my life, because I had to waste no thoughts of an occupation or had to take over responsibility for others. It was also the year in I have stopped to play football in an association, because many things were more important (of course girls and lads), than to train regularly with the team.
This can maybe be a reason, why I have started to discover love songs for myself at this time. I also tried to understand the lyrics better than before - and action trick new worlds have disclosed for me. One of my favorite track in this style was performed by 10cc and still a song that stands the test of time.
In 1975 me and my mate used to hang around in a club that was frequented by a lot of American soldiers not far from were stationed. So I used to listen to a lot of American rock, soul and also ballads. One ballad that impressed me lot came from Janis Ian, an American singer/songwriter. where she she describes how it feels not to correspond as a teenager to the norm.
To those of us who knew the pain Of valentines that never came And those whose names were never called When choosing sides for basketball It was long ago and far away The world was younger than today And dreams were all they gave for free To ugly duckling girls like me We all play the game and when we dare To cheat ourselves at solitaire Inventing lovers on the phone Repenting other lives unknown That call and say, come dance with me And murmur vague obscenities At ugly girls like me At seventeen
1975 was also the year Roxy Music released 'Love is the drug' which contains a lot from soul and disco. I don't know if was it cool or not to wear an eye patch this time but years later a British one hit wonder did the same (but I don't remember his name).
Phillisound disappeared and therefor disco raised with Donna Summer, Silver Convention, Bee Gees, KC & the Sunshine Band, Earth Wind and Fire and Van McCoy.
Remarkable records that was published this year:
Bob Dylan - Blood on the tracks I'm no big fan of him but on this record were some of his greatest songs with partly his best lyrics
ACDC - High Voltage Hard rock giant rises in Australia
Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow One of the best guitar based records ever (also his collaboration with Rod Stewart a couple of years earlier)
Curtis Mayfield - There Is No Place Like America Today One of my beloved soul records ever
The Tubes - The Tubes Punks before punk started
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here Nothing to say - one of the best selling records
Man - Maximum Darkness Welsh band added with John Cippolina on guitar. Powerful rock with great improvisation.
Good year for German football. Borussia Mönchengladbach won the UEFA-cup as the first German team ever against Twente Enschede and Bayern Munich defended their title with the land masters. 'Thrila in Manila' - Muhammad Ali won against Joe Frazier by technical knock out. Arthur Ash won the Wimbledon Championship as the first black player. Motörhead was founded (thank god for). Vietnam war ends by capitulation of the south and the civil war starts in Lebanon. Fascist dictator Francisco Franko died and Spain replaced monarchy. Lynette Fromme attacks American President Gerald Ford (she was a leading member of the Charles Manson Family, who was arrestet for the Tate/La Bianca murders in 1969). First woman who became leader of the Conservative Party: Margaret Thatcher. Great movies came out: Jaws, Barry Lyndon, One flew over the cocos nest.
Now what is my favorite record from this year. It is hard to decide because there a two records that means a lot to me. The first one taught me into Reggae and Dub - the other one turned me into soul music. It was in 1975 when Burning Spear released Markus Garvey. The album is named after the Jamaican National Hero and Rastafari movement propet Markus Garvey. A dub version of it was released four month later as Garvey's Ghost. This is what roots reggae means and I play this record time by time to relax (or how the kids say nowadays: to chill).
But I decided to David Bowie for his record 'Young Americans'. For the record, which showed off his 1970s "obsession" with soul music, he let go of the influences he had drawn from in the past, replacing them with sounds from "local dance halls", which, at the time, were blaring with "lush strings, sliding hi-hat whispers, and swanky R&B rhythms of Philadelphia Soul". Because of the strong influence of black music on the album, Bowie used the term 'plastic soul' (originally coined by an unknown black musician in the 1960s) to describe the sound of Young Americans. Although Bowie was an English musician bringing up touchy American issues, the album was still very successful in the US; the album itself reached the top ten in that country, with the song 'Fame' hitting the #1 spot the same year the album was released.
It is sure
now
that in the Champions League final will play two German teams. Nowadays Bayern München is probably the best team in Europe - but my heart is still beating for the underdogs. So I would like to see Dortmund win in Wembley.
Here's a song from Ed Kuepper, born in Germany and grew up in Australia. He was a member of the Saints, a punk band with a small hit with 'I'm stranded'. Later on he joined to the Laughing Clowns an released a few records on his own name. I like him for playing his guitar in his very own style.
Enjoy and finish your working week without problems
