photos of the last everton show

...and of the entire tour. shot by gogo, who as always did an awesome job.

they can be found here.
included are: a picture of x-chris (RIKA's drummer) w/ some old people, a picture of me looking exactly like andrew w.k., lots of hair flying around and a picture of me and stefan agreeing with each other. on stage. euphorically.

go see those.

there is nothing to add here.
do yourself a favor and buy this record.

seems to imply that i'm allergic to love

this probably is the best record to give as an example how clean production and playing skills don't always have to be the best decision for a record.
but i guess that is something one either accepts or not.

this record is seriously lo-fi. it's not just not blown up, it's not just roughly produced, the hiss behind the instruments often is louder than some of the instruments. the playing is subpar. i could probably play this record tighter. and that's just how this has to be.

these are songs about breaking up, breaking down and literally breaking bones. isolation, depression, deterioration. and what seperates this record along with all ERIC'S TRIP records following "love tara" from most other releases classified with the meaningsless moniker of "lo-fi" is its utmost intimacy. loose, tumbling and silent with a few exceptions, this is music for between the sheets with your ear to the radiator, the heartbeat of another person or an old ticking alarm clock as a surrogate for the heartbeat of another person.
tiny little songs, only a couple of open chords and none too extravagant, what sets these apart is just what most people will hate about this record. the sloppiness, the hiss, the lack of care for post-production etc.
and even in the louder more obviously urgent songs, the thin almost tinny guitar tone (fat as the bass might be) prevents this record from bursting the atmosphere. further clarifying are the incredibly vocals of rick white and julie doiron (who had recently broken up when this record was recorded) and the obvious strategy of filling holes with tiny sounds. "allergic to love" does this to intense effect with little squeals and sighs that sound as if they were recorded directly from the bedroom during a sad conversation about what has gone wrong and why it can't be reversed.
this is very inward music full of repressed pain. music that simply could not have this effect with tighter playing or a production of higher quality.
quite some people could learn something from this.

ERIC'S TRIP - LOVE TARA
(sub pop records, 1993)

(i will probably keep doing this. it's fun and it helps me clarify what set aparts some of the records i adore from the crap most of you listen to. or at least it'll turn some heads to some great albums they might not have listened to otherwise.)

everton 2004-2009.

'tis true.

no hard feelings, no fuck you's. this is just the right decision and that's what we all agreed upon.
visit the everton website for the final statement. i for one think, raffi put it in very good words.
you can also go check out gogo's blog for his statement. i felt flattered by it.
RIKA is not affected by this, except that i have more time for them now.
below is a list of all shows we played since i honestly believe statistics to be a good way to sum things up.
(if i missed something, feel free to contact me and help fill in the blanks).

27.10.09, GBR - exeter, depot x w/ rika and one other band.
26.10.09, GBR - brighton, the hobgoblin w/ rika and one other band.
24.10.09, GER - monheim, sojus7 w/ rika, bail.
21.10.09, simmering, centro once w/ rika.
17.07.09, stadt haag, böllerbauer w/ pariah, never been famous, my exit.
16.07.09, vienna, tüwi w/ determination, nothing to lose.
15.04.09, vienna, tüwi w/ kenzari's middle kata, wika, picture eyes, rvltd!
28.02.09, wr. neustadt, triebwerk w/ mitote, the gassies.
09.01.09, vienna, shelter w/ scenario fever.
27.12.08, griechenberg, pete's scheune, silfestival w/ killed by 9v batteries, nine inch negl, destroy munich (acoustic), slon, sweet sweet moon, masallah & maria de la barrera.
03.11.08, vienna, arena dreiraum w/ polite sleeper, werner kitzmüller trio.
21.10.08, vienna, shelter w/ union town, show your teeth.
23.09.08, vienna, tüwi w/ trip fontaine.
05.09.08, vienna, donauinselfest (sj bühne).
29.07.08, floki's house, garsten bei steyr w/ kids return <3.
13.06.08, vienna, flex.
17.05.08, GER - ansbach, 13eins w/ a bunch of weird jesus freaks.
16.05.08, GER - schweinfurt, stattbahnhof w/ pttrns.
15.05.08, GER - gießen, ak44 w/ rika.
12.05.08, GER - berlin, lokal w/ vom segeln.
10.05.08, GER - chemnitz, reitbahnstraße 84 w/ rika.
09.05.08, vienna, tüwi w/ rika, sommerregen.
24.11.07, krems, jazzkeller w/ rika, francis int'l airport.
14.11.07, vienna, arena dreiraum w/ holmes, paper bird.
25.10.07, vienna, fluc w/ tchi.
12.10.07, st. pölten, egon w/ i am the horseman
06.10.07, hollabrunn, alter schlachthof w/ rika, landscape izuma.
17.09.07, vienna, arena dreiraum w/ meneguar.
15.09.07, niederwaldkirchen, juz w/ black heart rebellion, men killing men.
27.05.07, st. pölten, seedose w/ gschu.
26.05.07, braunau, habibi w/ rika.
25.05.07, GER - munich, kafe kult w/ rivulets.
19.05.07, niedernsill bei zell/see, samerstall w/ nightsleeping kills, monks funky neighbours and one other band.
04.05.07, vienna, quelle w/ dimitrij.
14.04.07, vienna, tüwi w/ sundiver.
30.03.07, asperhofen, fifty.
10.03.07, hollabrunn, alter schlachthof w/ dimitrij, vortex rex.
23.02.07, neusiedl/see, bergwerk.
22.02.07, vienna, b72.
17.01.07, vienna, venster99, w/ goro, loser superhero.
10.12.06, vienna, arena dreiraum, w/ geoff farina.
04.12.06, vienna, arena beisl.
29.11.06, vienna, einbaumöbel, w/ daniel benjamin.
22.09.06, wr. neustadt, triebwerk, w/ mike park.
16.09.06, strass/strassertale, rockability, w/ elfish, litter basket, charlotte.
15.09.06, weiz, kulturraum, w/ vortex rex, lonely drifter karen.
09.09.06, SLO - ljubljana, orto bar, w/ lilac, surviving the sunset.
23.07.06, vienna, flex, w/ eight legs.
17.05.06, bruck/leitha, pfadfinderheim, w/ ghost mice, acoustic.
22.04.06, retz, altes kino, w/ the vellocet effect, litter basket, revolted.
21.04.06, wr. neustadt, triebwerk, w/ tagtraum.
18.04.06, vienna, arena dreiraum, w/ landmine spring.
24.03.06, krems, avalon exil, w/ francis int'l airport, the gogets.
10.02.06, vienna, ekh, w/ thema eleven.
28.01.06, hollabrunn, alter schlachthof w/ a weird karaoke machine.
30.12.05, griechenberg, pete's hütte, silfestival 2005, acoustic.
22.04.05, kleinstetteldorf, kellergasse [only show w/ the first line-up].

call it what you want. chiptune, nintendocore, gameboy music blah blah blah.
but as long as you rely on aesthetics, sound gimmicks and nostalgia alone and refuse to write actual music or at least interesting noise...

well, just leave me THE FUCK alone.
it's 2009. gameboy music club started in fucking 2002. and they were already late.
please... just stop trying to capture our attention if all you have for yourself is "HEY REMEMBER NINTENDO/SEGA/COMMODORE64/AMIGA COMPUTERS"????

/rant.





("it's 4am and you're still awake writing about gameboy music??? forget hipsters and fucking go to sleep!")

and she's just a sled

maybe this all isn't really there and i'm just interpreting this into it.

but i feel so much hate, disgust and in the fat buzz of the guitars, produced clean and cold. driven to madness by the tightest rhythm section the genre has ever seen. also this genre rarely ever saw guitars this fat-sounding. heavy and loud: yes. fat and powerful: unprecedented.
lyrics are reduced to a few sparse words, creating loose fragmental sparks of emotional and existential despair.
most of the music i love rides the dynamic between powerful/extroverted and fragile/introspective. but most records switch between these. this record manages to be both these things at the exact same time.

now there are these people who see this record as just another dream pop/shoegaze record. fair enough.
i for one proclaim: this isn't even just another record.
this is such a goddamn masterpiece.

STARFLYER 59 - SILVER
(tooth and nail records, 1993. reissued 2005)

(and yes, they're christians. which just makes a lot of the existential tremor even more convincing. also, the new posts i wrote about last time will follow. patience is a virtue most readers of this blog probably learned over time)

summer's officially over

well, not weather-like but feelingwise. everyone's lined up for university classes, everyone's back in (or at least slowly heading back to) vienna and the fall season of a lot of great shows has started.
THE BIG BANG THEORY and HOUSE M.D. both started very strong into this season and i'm so looking forward to the following ones. and maybe even watching new episodes at 5am w/ friends. or maybe not, watching them alone after waking up early also worked very very well. we'll see.
either way, blah blah aside. gogo recommended two new shows to me and i thought i'd share those w/ the two or three people who look at this here thing that i don't actually you know talk to every day.


show one would be COMMUNITY. new show by the makers of arrested development. features joel mchale as a lwayer who lost his degree (that he never actually legally had in the beginning) and is now enrolling into community college to try and get one. very character-driven, features chevy chase as an aging voice actor, a guy with asperger's (portraited very sympathetically but still funny) and john oliver... well, playing john oliver more or less.
here's the trailer:


show two is BORED TO DEATH. features jason schwartzmann and zach galifianakis, who - as might have been noted - i have a huge mancrush on. to quote wikipedia on that one "The series follows the misadventures of a fictional Jonathan Ames as he pursues his quixotic dream of emulating his heroes from classic private detective novels."
the first episode features zach galifianakis breaking out into tears and a reference to the raid of entebbe, so yhea... i like it. a lot.
reviews have been very mixed so far. most have been positive or sympathetic at least while some criticize schwartzman's performance and some have trashed the show completely.
let's give it some time to grow, shall we.
trailer here:


following in the next couple of days: some show reviews, a new post on fresh hc and a few other things. i hope.