One crappy cellphone picture of Francis International Airport, May 14th, WUK, Vienna

My favourite thing about Cache sounding completely different from In the Woods is how these very different sounds are combined in concert situations. It has made seeing Francis International Airport live even more exciting. Also, I apologize for this picture only being semi-terrible. It probably won’t happen again.

One crappy cellphone picture of Neodisco, fluc, Vienna, April 30 2013

Neodisco concerts are a great place to feel old for those of us born when the Berlin wall was still a thing. It doesn’t matter much because Neodisco are really good in making you remember the carelessness of when you actually believed you would finish your degree in Mindeststudienzeit.

My absolutely favourite thing about the gig was that they changed the 20 fat Viennese tourists to mere naked ones in “Stubenberg am See”. That’s very considerate. Not really necessary but eh, if they wanna be polite.

Don't Starve / Aiko Aiko / Love Is A Doing Word

Don’t starve - Aiko Aiko

To be honest, I do not like this song a lot. Reduced electronic music with a fragile voice is not really my cup of tea but

a) maybe it is yours

b) Aiko Aiko are playing at the fluc tonight

c) the EP is called “Love Is A Doing Word” and that is one of the most beautiful EP titles I have ever heard.

Pirate Jenny (Threepenny Opera) - Sir Tralala (live, Alberner Hafen, Danube, September 7th 2009)

I love the Threepenny Opera. When I was a kid, The Threepenny Opera (we had the version with Milva, Ute Lemper and Mario Adorf) was my favourite record and Seeräuber Jenny was my favourite song on it. I really like Sir Tralalas rendition but he cannot compete with the years (I was an obsessive kid) I spent listening to this on the family stereo, drawing in the living room.

cutcalls / over at the stars /

Cutcalls - Over at the Stars

Over at the Stars have a new EP out (since December but sometimes we’re slow) and “Cutcalls” is, in my opinion the best song. The hollow bass sounds are a nice contrast to the singers voice and just when you think it’d might get boring, there’s a bit of synthie to perk you up again.

You can listen to the whole EP (it has both poppier and more experimental tracks than Cutcalls) on Bandcamp and see them on March 22 at the Café Publik in St. Pölten.

Sweet Sweet Moon - Woppy (Live at Circolo Hemingway)

Aaaah, all these unreleased Siluh artists songs that we cannot share with you yet, it is killing me! So for lack of a better option here’s another live version of the song that would be the highlight of everybody’s spring euphoria playlist if it were already properly released. That’s because it manages to make a line like I wanna stay with you forever sound like something you’d want to sincerely shout from the top of your lungs and forget all about the countless times this sentiment has been abused in lesser works of music.

5/8erl in Ehr’n - Schneid die Melone an (live Spittelberg, Vienna, July 25th 2009)

Storytime! I was recently in Alexandria, visiting family and my cousin took us to a secret underground place where The Egyptian Youth hangs out and drinks small bottles of bad brandy for 2 €. And upon learning where we’re from, one of my cousin’s friends said that he recently saw and enjoyed a band from Austria. After a lot of trying to remember their name and us trying to Germanize whatever he was saying, we figured out that he was talking about 5/8erl in Ehr’n. You can insert some cliché sentence about the international language of music here.

Am 6. März 2013 feiert CLARA LUZIA den Release ihre neuen Albums We Are Fish, und zwar im superen WUK. Dieses stellt uns freundlicherweise 2x2 Tickets für das Konzert zur Verfügung.

Um zu gewinnen, müsst ihr weder Sternzeichen Fisch sein noch Wanda heißen. Es reicht, wenn ihr uns einfach bis spätestens Donnerstag, 21. Februar 2013 ein nettes Mail an walzerkoenige(at)gmail.com sendet! Findet Nemo GIFs erhöhen natürlich eure Chancen.

http://www.wuk.at/event/id/16251
http://www.facebook.com/events/131693113662705/

One crappy cellphone picture per band, The Beth Edges, Kino Siska, Ljublijana, February 8th 2013

The Beth Edges are a band that remind you of that originality is not quality and while they might not be terribly original, they’re not terribly unoriginal and their execution is flawless. These kids know what they’re doing. They’re effortlessly switching from the acoustic keys-and-brass ballad to the Brit inspired mid 00s indie rock songs they’re known for so who cares if one of their songs begins like the Babyshambles “Delivery”.

I’m sorry. Apparently I can’t write a positive review without sounding like a dick. I enjoyed the show is what I meant to say.

A pair of blue eyes - Sweet Sweet Moon (live in St. Pölten, November 18th 2011)

Ich empfehle, dieses Video mindestens zweimal anzusehen. Einmal für den Schafepullover und einmal für das Lied, das sich mit aufrechten Schultern in die Reihe großartiger Lieder über blaue Augen einreihen kann.

Two crappy cellphone pictures of Francis International Airport, Café Publik, St. Pölten, December 21st 2012

In the Box inside the architecturally phenomenal St. Pölten Festspielhaus, Francis International Airport premiered a lot of new songs to a larger audience. Judging from them, the new album, that we can expect in May, will have a much harder feel than its predecessors and if this were an NME article, I’d call it “From the woods to the factory”. The songs have some very new wave-y, almost industrial qualities. During some I was reminded of New Order and Kraftwerk if they had started out as a folk band. There are steely drums and scratchy noises and I promised someone to say something about the bass but I don’t know how to speak about basses but uh, I liked it?

The new Francis International Album is definitely, definitely something to look forward to in 2013.

I steh ibahaupt ned mea auf di - Ernst Molden (Chelsea, April 13th 2008)

An acoustic, folky, Viennese version of a synth-heavy Udo Lindenberg classic? Why yes, yes it is! Compare it to the original here, especially for the wonderful 1988 special effects in the second half.

Problembär Records is five and celebrates this on everybody’s new favourite going-out-day, Tuesday, at the rhiz in Vienna. With concerts by Kidcat Lo-fi, Parkwächter Harlekin, Fred Schreiber, D. Cooper and Der Nino aus Wien and Die Sendung ohne Namen. More info here.

For this event, label boss Stefan Redelsteiner even got fit under the guidance of future trainer of the Albanian nation chess team.

One crappy cellphone picture per band, A Life, A Song, A Cigarette, WUK, Vienna, November 29th

Due to thesises/work/stupid real life obligations, we couldn’t stay for the whole set so we cannot tell you if they played all the announced 25 songs. What we did see, though, was not as folky as the record (which was good because I, personally, am quite sick of indie folk at the moment) and surprisingly energetic. You could almost call it rösk’n’röll. (You don’t need to get that reference.)

What we also saw was a slideshow of childhood photos of the band members by way of intro, which gave a very nice and personal touch to the concert.

One crappy cellphone picture per band, Tanz Baby! with Bilderbuch, MQ Wien, November 8th 2012

Tanz Baby! use soap bubbles and sparklers and confetti cannons and if you think that this is crossing the line to kitsch, you are free to keep thinking that this line exists. Bilderbuch statt Heimorgel work well with Tanz Baby!s* since the band is no stranger to theatralics themselves.

If you are in Vienna you can catch them later this month (on the 14th) when they are playing Bock auf Kultur with Johann Sebastian Bass.

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* How do you genitivize this correctly?