The Happiest Girl Alive

Last month I saw The Whitest Boy Alive at Astra, which had its grand opening that night and is my new fave venue in Berlin. In fact, besides Cupcake and Monster Ronson's, it's the ONLY reason for a Mitte-Fuzzi to venture into Friedrichshain.

The Norwegian band The New Wine opened up for Whitest Boy. Erlend Oye's musical legacy was noticeable (but luckily not overbearing) in their sound. I was actually thinking their music kinda sounded like the love child of The Whitest Boy Alive, Cut Copy and Phoenix (minus any homoerotic undertones that might have possibly been evoked by that analogy).

The Whitest Boy Alive were as amazing as ever. Throughout the entire gig, Astra was filled with this incredibly warm, glowing and happy energy bouncing to the band's pop disco beat. I even feel like all my blurry, slow-flash pictures of the crowd accurately embody what it actually felt like to be there.

Highlights included (but were not limited to):
- Erlende jumping into the crowd with the cow bell,
- the keyboardist wailing on his keyboard like it was a guitar,
- and all the covers of my old school faves from back in the day (in addition to the usual suspect Robin S., The Prodigy's "Out of Space" and Daft Punk's "Around the World" also made my techno/house heart go pitter patter).

This was without a doubt my feel-good gig of the year. And it's seriously no surprise I left Astra the happiest girl alive.

Snaps

Yay, I got my Metronomy Holiday Snaps Competition prize pack in the mail yesterday!



No beach bag, but I'm happy. And prepared to go on a crazy fun holiday. If only I had actually booked one this summer! *sigh* But I think I might give away half the prize to my friend David, who would have OWNED this competition, if only he hadn't gone on vacation until AFter the submission deadline.




Next year, David. Fo shizz!

Melt! 2008 Festival Fashion Report

Yay! Summer is back from taking its own vacation! Though I'm partial to mild weather, it would've have been nice to have had it this hot the other week at Melt!. But instead, it was cold and rainy the first two days of the festival (it wasn't until the third day that we got to feel the warm glow of some sunrays). I was fascinated though, by how all the hipsters translated their urban street style into functional festival wear.

There was tons of eye candy, but for my Melt! festival fashion report, I shall focus on wellingtons!

I remember when I bought my turquoise pair of wellies at Urban Outfitters; it felt so revolutionary!

But since then, fashion wellies have exploded onto the scene. I seriously couldn't stop taking pictures! The most common motif seemed to be polka dots, followed by florals. And props to the guy who even spraypainted his own (apparently there's a gap in the men's fashion wellington market).

Anyway. Here's a few of my favorites followed by a slideshow of all the cool ones I was quick enough to capture.

The Black Ghosts: TGIM! in London and SXSW 2008 Recap

I know. I'm such a procrastinator. I have a ton of backlogged photos from various gigs that I wanna share. But hey. I'm only human. And luckily Urban Outfitters just gave me the right kick in the tush to at least upload my photos of the Black Ghosts set from the IHEARTCOMIX SXSW day party:

So London, please do take advantage. You won't ever find a better way to start your week! In fact, forget TGIF. Thank God it's Monday!

Anyway. Here's some of my photos from the SXSW set. And if your dance moves are stale these days, take note of my favorites of the night: James doing "The Hammer" and Josh doing the "Nosepicker". Couldn't have busted a move better myself. In fact. If Santogold ever needs to replace her backup dancers, she'll know who to call.

Oh Snap! Metronomy Holiday Photo Contest!

Omigod, not only is Metronomy's new song "Holiday" the best vacation-theme earworm since Franz Ferdinand's "Better on Holiday", Wham's "Club Tropicana" and Righeira's "Vamos a la Playa (which was all aaages ago)...



...but they're coupling the single release (out on July 7th) with a super fun holiday snaps competition!

here's my entry:

me picking a wedgie at europapark (ca. '83)...

all good now:

Enter your own photo by leaving a comment on their myspace blog post!

Death by Red Bull & Vodka (Rakes DJ Set, 6/13/08)

Last Friday was the best Death By Pop since Coffin Joe's DJ set. Special guest DJ of the night was Jamie of The Rakes, who (despite a few technical difficulties) expertly entertained our dancing feet alongside DBP-resident xh. Copious amounts of Vodka Red Bulls (which I hadn't consumed since my early 90's "techno days") led to my unfortunate demise by dawn. But the road to ruin was fun. In fact, I should've arranged the photos in order of drunkenness. Although I'm sure it's not too hard to tell where my BAC started taking off!