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.

How Saturday Showed Me Love

The past year or so I've been complaining about The Whitest Boy Alive not showing their hometown of Berlin enough love. So imagine my supreme surprise when Saturday, taking a detour on my way home from buying miso paste at the Asian supermarket at Alexanderplatz and walking down Weinmeisterstrasse towards the U-Bahn stop, I glanced down Max-Beer-Strasse only to notice a huge crowd gathered in front of some shop, prompting me to take off my headphones only to hear an unmistakeable beat. I had "celebrity spotted" the guitarist in the neighborhood before, so I knew it could only be you-know-who.

As I approached, I only saw speakers but no band, so I almost thought it was just a random DJ set. But then I got up close and realized The Whitest Boy Alive were actually playing in the store window of ic! berlin! I only caught the last song and an encore, but that was enough to turn my shopping trip from mundane to magical! Unfortunately, I had neither my phone nor my camera with me, so I couldn't capture any of the cuteness to share (like how the keyboardist and the drummer accidentally banged their heads on the store window while taking a bow or how the grafittied window shutters slowly dropped down on them like a curtain fall).

So instead I'll just share a little video from this year's Melt! that I never got around to posting before. By the way, the entire gig they played at the festival was so amazing, it was worth the two near-death-experiences I suffered in order to witness it. I guess they do know how to show me love.

Comfort Tune: Lucky Charm

This week (or rather month) has been a bit Friday the 13th meets April Fools. Among many other things, late last Monday night, caught in a non-confontational state of mind and mesmerized by midi-like music and color-coded lyrics, I let my phone get stolen at Monster Ronson's Karaoke by a lipsick les, a dyke and a cross-dressing Satan.

So now I'm trying not to wallow in too much self-pity but instead turn things around in a St. Patrick's Day kind of way. And what better way to start than with a fresh pot o' gold (aka tonight's 25 million-Euro lottery jackpot)! My rainbow (aka theme song) for tonight and the rest of the month is by my old childhood sweathearts and ABC-predecessors The Boys (whose record "Messages from the Boys", by the way, is the first I ever owned!):



God, how I love this video! The moves, the hair, the clothes, the Boardwalk scenes! Takes me back to all my middle school dances and family trips to Venice Beach.

Absence Makes the Heart Go Wander

Sorry to anyone who's been checking this blog in the past months only to be disappointed by the discontinuation of posts. Summer just passed me right by, and I've been so busy I didn't even have a chance to leave a proper "away" message. So now I will try to make it up with a "be right back" message.

Over the last few months, I was busy planning and launching an online vintage shop called Immaculate Heart Vintage with my friend Meg. You can check out my selection of vintage home goods for sale on Dawanda here. Until the shop is completely up and running smoothly, I won't have much time to post stuff here. But I am also in the process of slightly rethinking this blog and will do my best to do at least a few posts a month.

And in the meantime, you can keep yourself occupied with "Off the Record." It's an English-speaking radio show on Berlin's indie/rock/alternative station hosted by my friends Liz and Vince (both of Death by Pop fame). You can listen to it weeknights starting at 10pm online here (just click where it says "Jetzt hören/Radio-Player öffnen").

So Happy Listening and Bis Bald!

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!

SXSW 2008 Recap: Cut Copy @ IHEARTCOMIX/Mad Decent Party

I've got Aussie's on the brain this week. Most notably The Presets and Cut Copy (Bumblebeez get honorable mention). Saw The Presets at SXSW and Berlin Festival last year and Cut Copy two times at SXSW this year. And I had no regrets seeing either of them twice. In fact, Cut Copy's last set at the IHEARTCOMIX vs. Mad Decent Blowout Party gave me goosebumps. EsPECially when the enTIRE crowd started jumping in synch and i could feel the CEMENT floor moving up and down like a trampoline beneath me!

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.