Krautrock lives!

If you are familiar with Stereolab, Trans Am and Tortoise then you need to know that they were all influenced heavily by Can, Faust, Tangerine Dream, Amon Düül and Neu! the founders and originators of “Krautrock“. The heirs apparent to the throne of, dare I say, neo-krautrock are The Notwist, Console, Kreidler, To Rococo Rot and MIA. Also mentioned previously is Kante. Honorable mention goes to the new album from the Beatsteaks although they are more or less punk rock. The only thing bad I can say about the Beatsteaks is that their CD won’t play in my CD drive because they suck the man’s dick and decided to have utilize CD Copy Protection. What a buncha Tugjobs.

VOTE!

Today is the day. If you haven’t already, please go and vote. A few of my German friends have asked me if I want to have an “Election Party”. Um..No. I’ve read on a few sites others express something how this can end up feeling like christmas morning or a best friend’s funeral. If it ends up like a funeral I won’t feel like partying.

I’ve had quite a few people in the past couple weeks ask me how it can be this close. How can so many Americans possibly want to reelect this guy? I don’t know, I say. In the back of my mind I think it is because so many people don’t see what is going on. They are just trying to get by and don’t see what has happened. In speaking with a few other Americans here I’ve expressed that the way things are now in America is like standing on one side of a wide valley and on the other side you see your house or village and some chumps are in there setting it on fire. The rest of your friends and family are asleep in there or just not paying attention as the flames grow. And there is nothing you can do about it.

We’ll see.

Put this up your nose!

Over this past weekend I recorded April May June in our practice space. I set up the mics, stands, cables and ProTools rig. I checked levels as soon as the others got there and we were rolling in about an hour. I haven’t recorded a band in over 4 years and I was surprised that it went so smoothly. Not having paying customers and rock star egos to deal with made it less stressful as well.

Because I’m currently limited to 8 inputs until I can somehow get digital ADAT/lightpipe (8 more) into the 002r, we played to click and recorded 5 tracks of drums (kick, snare, hihat and stereo overheads) and 3 scratch tracks: vox, acoustic guitar, and electric guitar or bass. After we got a good drum take we would go back and overdub the acoustic guitar and electric guitars.

It was a lot of hard work but I enjoyed it immensely. That is what I went to school for and it is still what I want to do when I grow up. This week I have to lay down bass, my guitar and other little bits of salt and pepper.

C’mon Cards!

Get your heads out of your asses. You’re down 0-3. So what. You can do it. Lord knows it has happened to the Red Sox often enough. What’s one more year added onto a supposed 80+ year curse? That curse is BS. They lose cuz they suck. Do it, do it.

Updated Thursday Oct 28th, 8:00: nevermind….grumble, grumble…

I just got back from seeing Kante at Vamos here in Lüneburg. Kante is one of my favorite German bands. The members are all very talented, the tracks are produced well and the lyrics are understandable and thought provoking. Tonight’s show was the first on their national tour. I could tell they were still a little soft and still needed to get their “tour feet” wet. The best song was of course “Die Summe der einzelnen Teile”. It rocked. They also had a few songs with some Spiritualized/Velvet Underground -like noisy freak outs. Not the best concert because I didn’t get rocked like I wanted, but still good.

Often when I meet a new German acquaintance I am often asked what I don’t like about Germany. Now there are things that bother me but the problem is that I can almost never remember what they are when asked. It is kind of like how you might keep a mental list of CDs you want to buy and then the next time you are in a music store you can’t remember what it was you wanted to buy. But there are 2 things I can remember right now so I’ll let you all know what they are.

1. Bureaucracy: Germany has it down to a science, an art form even. Every piece of paper has to be stamped, signed in triplicate, photocopied and filed away. Any foreigner that has ever tried to get a driver’s license here knows what I’m talking about. If all stamps and ink pads in Germany were to disappear over night the country would flip the fuck out. Absolute standstill.

2. Street signs or the lack thereof: They do exist but they always seem to be sporadic especially when you are lost or in a hurry to get somewhere. They also have problems deciding on what to name a street. A road could be a kilometer long and have 5 different names. Forget Mapquest. That will just confuse you even more. Just swallow your pride and ask at the gas station. You’ll get there quicker.

I’m sure there are other things that really bother me about Germany but they are not so bad that I constantly bitch about them. All in all I can’t complain. I got a job and roof over my head and food to eat. I’m lucky.

Oh I almost forgot, the weather sucks. Often.

Hmm, thousands are dying in Iraq for bullshit reasons, the Anti-Christ is close to being re-elected and Britney Spears is taking time off to ‘chill’.

Sounds about normal to me.

This past Friday I had a private drum lesson with Angelo Kelly. It cost 50€ but it was for a good cause. It went to support some sort of Childrens Music Program (anything for the children). He is a really good drummer and I learned a couple interesting things pertaining to jazz drumming technique. It’s all about the French style of holding the sticks.

On Saturday the Rhythmus-Total percussion festival was where it was at. It was very interesting but I don’t want to hear another drum for a long time.

Guardian Unlimited | Operation Clark County

Not American? Still wish you could somehow influence the coming presidential election? Got a way with words? Then write a letter to an undecided American voter about how important you feel the outcome will be for you and the rest of the world.

Don’t write to me though. I already voted.

Update: Some American expats in Germany aren’t too happy about this.