Thursday, July 30, 2009

BLAST FROM THE PAST: The first gig I ever went to



For some reason I kept this ticket and just found it again in a drawer. I just got a new scanner so this is the first thing I scanned. I guess I kept this piece of paper because obviously one day 26 years later there would be a thing such as the internet and there eventually would be blogs so that you could comment on it. Go!

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Sunday, July 26, 2009

BURIAL in Munich August 6th


The famous HeartFirst band BURIAL will play in Munich at the Kafe Kult on August 6th. Also playing are LOVE POTION from Copenhagen. A band that likes little boys. At this gig you might get hit by a mike stand. Or worse, a nuclear explosion. Who knows? Anyway, who would want to miss their burial.


BURIAL also played this year's FLUFF FEST. I am looking forward to the reports. There they were advertised as being from "Düsseldorf". Hm. In fact they are from Hagen and the surrounding farms, only one member is currently living in Düsseldorf. Hagen, a town which has spawned more and more important bands than Düsseldorf, as you all know of course.

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SOLID DECLINE (Berlin) - Czechoslovakia Tour 2009


The famous HeartFirst band SOLID DECLINE will go on a little tour in August. After that there will serious changes in SD land. Watch out.
The dates are:

August 13th Vegalite-Brno
August 14th Setkani Svobodnych Dusi Fest-Rosnov
August 15th La Putika-Hradec Kralove
August 16th Motoraj-Praha

Please don't ask me what "setkani svobodnych dusi" means.

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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

BLAST FROM THE PAST: The crowd at the 1987 DRI gig in West Berlin


Because of popular demand I am posting two pictures of the crowd at the DRI show in Berlin at the Quartier Latin in 1987. If you are of the over 40 and from Berlin you might recognize some faces. You will have to click on the pictures to see what is going on in the background! If you send me names of two or more people in each picture you might win something, or not.



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DAY OF GERMAN UNITY: SNIFFING GLUE, THE NAILS in Nürnberg, Germany on 3 October


Should you be in Nürnberg in early October for a Reichsparteitag or something else, you can check out this gig which I highly recommend. SNIFFING GLUE are one of the best bands going in Germany at the moment and THE NAILS are an up and coming new band from Berlin featuring members from South America, Ruhrpott, Göttingen and King Iffland on drums. I don't think any of the band members are nerds.




P.S. Don't you wish that free fonts all had ümlauts?
P.P.S. Of course you might be in Seattle that day to see STRAIN, UNBROKEN and UNDERTOW at the Corazon.

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BLAST FROM THE PAST: HERESY


Here are some more live pix from the 1980s. I can never remember which year those pictures were taken. In this case I found a website which lists the old live performances of CHUMBAWAMBA. So now I know I took those pictures on 9th October 1987 at Alte TU-Mensa in Berlin. This gig was HERESY, CHUMBAWAMBA, BLYTH POWER and POISON GIRLS playing and it was a benefit gig for political prisoners, or rather a benefit tour.

John of HERESY at the ALTE TU-MENSA in Berlin in 1987

I really admire CHUMBAWAMBA. They never were good at any of the styles they played, yet they put on a decent agit prop theatre show back in the day. They were on the "Fuck EMI" compilation LP, twice -- Danbert Nobacon and CHUMBAWAMBA. More info can be found here http://www.discogs.com/Various-Fuck-EMI/release/367682, then some years later turned around to sign to.... you guessed it: EMI. That's chutzpah! [edit: I had to look the English spelling up]. The most un-punk major of them all. Doesn't this bring a SEX PISTOLS song to your head? This in turn earned them their own compilation. More info is here http://www.discogs.com/Various-Bare-Faced-Hypocrisy-Sells-Records-The-Anti-Chumbawumba-EP/release/1560958.
Anyway, I remember that gig well, because Vi Subversa of POISON GIRLS seemed to be getting a groupie half her age and I was rather rurprised when John of HERESY pulled out a marker pen to get X'd up. I always found that a kinda childish thing to do. But if you look at the picture above, the man had a squatter tattoo and Xs on this hands. You don't get much of that anymore these days! So more power to the drug free brick layers of the 1980s.

John of HERESY at the ALTE TU-MENSA in Berlin in 1987

Another photo of John in action on that day. Here is a pic of my man Kalv the bass player of HERESY at the same gig:

Kalv of HERESY at the ALTE TU-MENSA in Berlin in 1987
This picture ended up on the back cover of their "Face Up To It" LP and on the front cover of the Japanese version of that LP called "Voice Your Opinion" on the Dogma label. I guess they liked it because of the great looking flying dreadlocks which you cannot see on this version of the photo which is a crappy scan off the negative, reproduced extra shitty for the web. The Japanese version looks like this:

Japanese version of HERESY LP on Dogma

This picture was stolen from the Dogma label discography page which my friend Chris from VELTED REGNUB distro did. Check it out here http://www.veltedregnub.com/dogmarecords. Today Kalv plays in a very good UK band called GERIATRIC UNIT and as with all good UK hardcore punk bands noone cares about them, especially in the UK.

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THANK YOU!


A big thank you to those who have left feedback online or by sending e-mails. After some research I found out that I know everyone personally who left messages here even those who used fake names. This means that the blog is successful at reaching out to the network of dorks. I read all the posts -- sooner or later -- but please don't expect an answer! I hope the blog continues to be rather useless to the download generation. I believe that MP3 blogs have their place, but it's a different thing altogether, so I have no intention of adding links to those, so please don't ask.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

PUNK IS ALIVE AND WELL IN JAPAN Pt. 2


My friend Prof. Dr. hc. Martin found this billboard at the train station in Kurume (Kyushu, Japan). Thank you very much for submitting this! Besides the design I like the mix of "dermatological & mental" at this clinic and the fact there is no admission. How do the doctors and nurses at this place look like? Like punks? And yes, I think that Sid Vicious had a skin problem and was kinda mental.

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Monday, July 13, 2009

BLAST FROM THE PAST: DRI


I decided to post some old pictures I took in here for you to enjoy. This one is DRI playing at the Quartier Latin in West-Berlin in 1987. You got to love how the set list is almost as long as the guitar player. It was a great show, people went wild and we took as many pictures of the crowd as we did of the band. DRI were never the most exciting band to take photos of. We did an interview with the drummer for our fanzine afterwards.

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PUNK IS ALIVE AND WELL IN JAPAN


As I was walking around Yokohama earlier this year I came past this great graffiti under a railway bridge. This has got to be one of the punkest pieces of art I have seen in a long time. What is going on in this picture? If you happen to know the master who created this AWESOME STENCIL ART, please definitely get in touch with me, I have an opening for cover artwork designer at the HeartFirst HQ.



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BLOGGING'S ALRIGHT IF YOU LIKE FEAR


My first post better be something decent. Check this out, it almost wants me to buy a TV set again (and get in a time machine back to the USA in 1981). Also this show probably has more punk celebrities in the audience than anything else on TV before and after. PLAY LOUD!!!



via videosift.com

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