Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Music Video: Mono & Nikitaman - Digge Digge

This year, at Thanksgiving, my step-sister will be bringing her new husband over from Belgium.  As she is familiar with my interest in non-English music, and as her new husband also fancies himself a music aficionado, my step-sister has challenged the both of us to a DJ competition after Thanksgiving dinner.  Needless to say, I accepted that challenge, and look forward to blowing away my new brother-in-law with my non-stop international beats.  My wife, being even more compulsively competitive than I am, has suggested that we also pull out a secret weapon at this competition.  She wants us to learn and then perform Mono & Nikitaman's song Digge Digge live for the assembled family.  How could I say no?  Austrian/Dutch dancehall act Mono & Nikitaman have been setting dance floors on fire across Europe for years now, and we plan to do the same here in the U.S..

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Live Show: LaBrassBanda

One of the pitfalls of tracking popular music in the non-English speaking world is that, unless I travel overseas, I am unlikely to see many of my favorite bands perform live.  One of the advantages of living in Washington, DC is that, if any of my favorite bands do visit the United States, DC is usually one of the places they play. 

Last night I had the rare treat of being able to see LaBrassBanda perform live at Strathmore, in Bethesda, MD.  It was a typical sultry summer evening, and this was a free outdoor performance with the audience casually lounging on the grass mere feet from the band, but all of this helped to contribute to a very festive and relaxed evening with the band.  The crowd was an interesting mix of older Strathmore "regulars" who show up for all of the venue's free concerts, families with young children like my own, employees and friends of the German Embassy that hosted the concert, and 20-something year-old Germans who were obviously already familiar with LaBrassBanda and were there to dance the night away.

Those of you who have seen Labrassbanda's performances on YouTube, or on their recently released video "Live im Circus Krone München" will have a pretty fair idea of what the show was like.  For over an hour and a half, the increasingly energetic crowd was treated to lots of raucous horns, a spectacularly tight rhythm section, and the kind of high-speed Bavarian German rap vocals that leaves your head spinning and you gasping for breath.  The older people in the audience enjoyed the virtuoso musicianship, while the kids and the young adults enjoyed the opportunity to work up a healthy sweat by dancing like maniacs.

As lead singer Stefan Dettl told us at the beginning of the show, this was LaBrassBanda's first ever performance in the United States.  I am incredibly happy that I could be there to welcome them.  If their reception on the other two stops on their brief U.S. tour is as warm as it was at Strathmore, I hope that they will return for many more performances.

BTW:  If you want to see more of LaBrassBanda playing live (in addition to seeing my earlier post on them from a few weeks ago), check out their songs:  Des konst glam, Aussenriess, or I Like da Butty Man.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Music Video: Casino Royale - CRX (lo rifletto)

I wasn't sure whether to put this song in among my "Blast From the Past" selections, or here with the more contemporary selections.  After all, CRX (lo rifletto) was originally published back in 1997.  However, this track from Italian group Casino Royale stands pretty much apart from time - as does the band, which continues to tour regularly.  Casino Royale first came to my attention back in the early 1990s as a pretty decent ska act.  As with many of the better ska acts out there, though, they metamorphosed into something completely new and different.  While their old stuff was good, I think the change to a hybrid of trip-hop, dub, and electronica was for the better.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Bundesvision 2011 Bands Announced!

For those of you who didn't get enough of my Bundesvision 2010 preview, in which my predictions were largely shown to be hideously flawed, the band lineup for Bundesvision 2011 has just been announced.  While the individual songs have yet to be announced, the entrants by state are:

Baden-Württemberg:  Glasperlenspiel
Bavaria:  Andreas Bourani
Berlin:  Tim Bendzko
Brandenburg:  Doreen
Bremen:  Flo Mega
Hamburg:  Thees Uhlmann
Hesse:  Juli
Lower Saxony:  Bosse feat. Anna Loos
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern:  Jennifer Rostock
North Rhine-Westphalia:  Frida Gold
Rhineland-Palatinate:  Jupiter Jones
Saarland:  Pierre Ferdinand et les Charmeurs
Saxony:  Flimmerfrühstück
Saxony-Anhalt:  Kraftklub
Schleswig-Holstein:  Muttersöhnchen
Thüringen:  Alin Coen Band

Bundesvision 2011 will be held on September 29th.  As with the Eurovision Song Contest, Bundesvision is always hosted by the home state of the previous year's winner.  Since last year's Bundesvision was won by Unheilig (whose entry, Unter deiner Flagge, I described as, ". . . all atmospheric build up with no climax - no emotional release - no point."), this year's will be held at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia.

Once they announce the songs, I'll start the process of reviewing each entry.  Stay tuned for more. . .

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Music Video: Mobylettes - Immer Schlimmer

Music of decades past is always a good source of inspiration.  Indeed, regular readers of this blog will note that modern artists from around the world sup heartily at the trough of retro sounds; see also Ruben Cossani, Movits!, Caravan Palace, and others.  Today's artists, German band Mobylettes, take the smooth female vocal stylings of the 1960s, mix it with elements of doo wop, and bring them up to date with a wink and a nod.  They sometimes sound like a German version of Pizzicato Five.  With Immer Schlimmer, Mobylettes certainly share some of Pizzicato Five's sense of irony, although with a somewhat darker edge at times.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Music Video: TVXQ - Rising Sun

As I discovered when I first traveled to South Korea and Japan a few years ago, the popular music industry in East Asia is vast.  And yet, despite this vastness, surprisingly little East Asian popular music makes it to the United States.  South Korean band TVXQ is something of an exception.  With their high-energy mix of hip-hop, R&B, funk, and a few other disparate elements, TVXQ has developed the world's largest official fan club, and is even making some headway on the American West Coast.  While their music, like the song Rising Sun, is not quite my cup of tea, I can see why their appeal is spreading.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Music Video: Mexican Institute of Sound - Yo Digo Baila

Back when I was attending college, and working for the "Special Events" department, it always seemed to me that the school was constantly putting on bands that appealed to an older crowd but that had limited appeal to the actual student body.  Now that I am officially part of the older crowd, invitations to see bands at my old college are looking better and better.  This week, for example, they're hosting Mexico's Mexican Institute of Sound.  This exciting mix of traditional Mexican music, electronica, and dance music, as demonstrated in their track Yo Digo Baila, appeals to me on multiple levels.  I really wish I could go to the show!  In addition to being a great show to see, I probably wouldn't have to share the audience with too many students.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Blast from the Past: t.A.T.u. - Nas ne dogonyat

What seems like a lifetime ago, my wife was at the gym when she first heard this catchy little dance number being played repeatedly over the sound system.  After a little research, she discovered that it was Russian group t.A.T.u., and the English version of their massive hit song Nas ne dogonyat.  Fast forward a decade, and my young daughter finds this song buried among our old CDs.  Now it's her favorite song to sing on the way to school, even though she still struggles a little with the Russian lyrics.