heartfirst records

2010-07-13T23:32:00.005+02:00

More Vinyl Abuse - sick stuff!

My friend Jess introduced me to this atrocity. She found it on a photo website. What are people thinking? Stop the madness!!!
If artistes do not stop doing this I will make my next records with covers made by recycled Rembrandts, da Vincis and Picassos. Grrrrrrr!

2010-07-09T19:48:00.005+02:00

STATEMENT BY KARL WALTERBACH FROM 1982

After posting an old interview on this blog before, I today pulled out the "Underground Hits I" compilation and scanned a part of the label bosses' statement for you. So here is more wisdom (you could also say history lesson) by Karl Walterbach, the man behind AGR (Aggressive Rockproduktionen Label). As he did many times he is complaining about hardcore punk being underrated and he is also slagging the arty German bands. Recently I am surprised that there is interest again in arty German wave bands like the ones on the ZICKZACK label. That stuff Walterbach loved to slag the most. Again it is in German and besides working knowledge of the German language you will need Adobe Reader to see it -- enjoy!

Read the PDF

2010-06-23T17:11:00.002+02:00

DELICIOUS BEER FROM JAPAN

This time let us talk about Japanese beer. Out of the corporate beers in Japan YEBISU is my favourite. The golden can is the most common but it is almost always the most expensive in a normal convenience store. The punks might laugh at you for investing more in beer and tell you you come across like a snob. I don't care. Recently I found out that the white can is even better than the silver one but it is also much harder to find. Here you can find the beers peacefully side by side in a great liquor store in Fukuoka, just down the road from the local Onsen I like to visit.

2010-06-23T17:05:00.004+02:00

ANIMAL KINGDOM

This is the cat at Generation Records in New York. Damn, I really wanted to buy that THE RUTS 7"!!!

2010-02-10T00:13:00.005+01:00

YOU GOTTA HAVE TO QUIT DOING THAT, YOU KNOW

This is what happens when you have too much "Stimmung vom Fass", as seen below on the cover artwork.

You gotta love that crack in the wall from the head. NICE!

2010-02-08T23:09:00.008+01:00

CARNIVAL TIME!!! PAAARTY!

One of my problems is that I am buying too many records. When I was little I had very little pocket money, just like most people, so I could only buy like one LP per month. Now, after 20 years in the music business I am famous and rich, so I can afford to buy whatever I want. So besides buying great punk rock vinyl for myself I also buy dance stuff to play at parties because some people will not learn, they are stupid enough to let me ruin their events by having me as a DJ.

Lately I started buying certain records just so that I can put their covers on this blog. How stupid is that? For example I came across the gem above which gives you a good idea of German drinking culture and our idea of "fun". I doubt the music is half as good as the cover. So a little voice inside my head said to me: "You don't have to buy this thing. You already have too much stuff at home, you could just take a picture of the cover and post it."
The littel voice said it again when I found this one:

I like this one even better because you can clearly see that what is happening there is a nuclear explosion creating some serious Bombenstimmung. The people in the picture are having a ball, yound and old alike. Remember the saying: "One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day."? I guess it's not true after all. You might get a red face like the guy with the hammer and some others, though. Anyway, I did not invest the 50 Cents those records were each and since then I am kicking myself for not doing so. Also my friends told me what a fool I was. They even showed interest in actually listening to the tunes on these records. Aaargh!

2010-02-08T22:51:00.008+01:00

HOW MUCH RADNESS CAN YOU TAKE?

I was referred to this blog which is absolutely priceless.
www.lifelounge.com. Check it out now. Then check it out every day! Some of the greatest pictures I have seen in a long time all compiled in one place.

2010-01-31T22:29:00.006+01:00

RUHM UND EHRE DER ROTEN ARMEE!

Today, while in Berlin I paid tribute to the liberators of the city. Since there was a lot of snow it added to the somewhat "Russian" atmosphere. By the way, they should serve Vodka there. Too bad the maintenance of that memorial is now in the hands of the German government.

And while we are on the subject, I recently found this on Youtube:

The footage from Madison Square Garden in that video is from a gathering of the German American Bund, an interesting organisation that I was not aware of until recently. Find our more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_American_Bund.

2010-01-28T20:30:00.010+01:00

INTERVIEW WITH KARL WALTERBACH

I scanned this little interview for you. It is from the Berlin Magazine Tip from 1982 and unfortunately all German, oh well. It is with Karl Walterbach, the man behind AGR (Aggressive Rockproduktionen Label, Noise Label and the KZ36-Samplers). It gives you some insight into the German punk rock scene of the early 1980s. Besides working knowledge of the German language you will need Adobe Reader to see it -- enjoy!

Read the PDF

2010-01-17T22:59:00.010+01:00

RANDOM STUFF FOUND IN MY ADDRESS BOOK

From the early 1980s I collected all sorts of newspaper clippings with various junk and put them in a box. It is never wrong to cut out interesting (well) stuff that one can use as layout material for a zine, a release or as cover artwork for mix tapes. One day when I retire I promise to start making mix tapes again. I think. Besides the box I kept several other things I collected while I was travelling in my phone book. This phone book has been with me since around 1985 and it is still not full of addresses and phone numbers, so if you want to know where some members of your favourite old bands lived, I might have the addresses, which are probably the addresses or phone numbers of their parents in many cases. Now, over 20 years later there is a thing such as the internet and these things can come out of the box or the address book. Anyway, today I started scanning some of those things for ya.

Maybe this is hard to understand if you don't know German and the term "Taschenbillard" oh well. This was a print ad for the Berlin Billiards Association and it so good it almost got me off of kicker which is my favourite bar sport for many years.

This was the label of the Norwegian 1.5 liter Sprite bottle of some years back. Since motocross and rock go so well together I guess, they ran a little campaign. In the corner the label has GLUECIFER which supposedly were Norways "feteste liveband" of the time (remember TURBONEGRO) posing which had Arne ex-ANGST on guitar. They also had the decency to call themselves the "Kings of Rock". Yeah right. But if you know another ex-member of a HeartFirst band who has made it on the label of a Coca Cola Corporation drink, please let me know.

This Flyer is from around 1988 and has been sitting in my address book since then. As far as I remember this was an extra flyer which was included in a SEPTIC DEATH 7". Don't order the NEUROOT/FRATRICIDE Split LP or the SEPTIC DEATH - "Strings..." 10" - I tried it and it didn't work. The FRATRICIDE 7" on HeartFirst is gone, too.

This was recycled from MRR fanzine who recycled it from the SF Chronicle. When did you last think about the New Romantics, their postive message and their beautiful outfits???

There are many ridiculous graphics and slogans relating to Straight Edge but this is one of my all-time favourites. This xeroxed version came to me as the back side of a letter sent to me by the infamous Herr Bodonski. A man who is today mainly remembered for putting out the first HAMMERHEAD 7" and who later turned into a full-time right winger, but of course this is from the time when he was still right on. Apart from being great art done by someone, at age 15 I guess who has never done anything mind expanding, I wonder: Why does the rabbit not answer the question straight and instead tells such a outrageous lie??? Of course you can have LOADS of fun drinking but unfortunately yes, alcohol can harm your body, too. Just like crossing the street can. Also look at the last "Well Wabbit" rule. It should read: "I will not let stupid X'd up rabbits keep me from things I want to do."

2010-01-13T22:16:00.010+01:00

SMOKING CAN DAMAGE YOUR VISION

The fine people at LM cigarettes are currently running this ad campaign in Germany with city light posters, billboards and some point of sales stuff. It is much appreciated that the iPod toting creative scene realizes that it cannot make fine looking ads from downloaded tunes, or use the zombi-like CD format and still look cool. So they want to use vinyl and a good old fashioned turntable in their visuals.

And I can understand that is is a challenge for the art department to make this look good when you desperately want to have the pack of cigarettes in that bottom right corner. So hey -- let's just mirror this picture, ok?
But would it not be great if they had someone who knew how a record player looks and works.

Maybe the device in the campaign is a special turntable I have never heard of that is made to play records backwards so that you can listen to the satanic messages more easily. Or is it for left handed people who own vinyl records which are cut backwards??? Hey wait -- I got it wrong, too.

Anyway, this is way better. I saw a similarly wrong design for one of those over-30 parties in Bremen some weeks ago. It was a local phenomenon -- I thought. But instead it seems to become a trend now.

2010-01-13T00:07:00.003+01:00

CHURCH OF SARAH PALIN PT. I

I know it's nothing special to laugh about Sarah Palin but the first 30 seconds of this CBS clip blew me away. Sorry about the commercial in the beginning. Obviously she is not much into reading. That's why she is on TV now for FOX "NEWS". She will come up with many new train wrecks as she speaks her mind. The whole interview with Steve Schmidt gives a good insight into American politics. Oh my....

Watch CBS News Videos Online

2010-01-12T23:43:00.006+01:00

VINYL ABUSE - IN THE USA

On a recent trip to New York I found several cases of vinyl abuse. I don't know what urges people to turn records into clocks to hang on the wall, ashtrays and fruit bowls.
These victims were found on the Brooklyn flea market. New York does not seem to have a big flea market culture but they sure like to mess around with those records.

Since I am a big fan of 7" vinyl the next example was even worse to see. This was in the museum store of the Brooklyn museum. This exhibit must have taken a long time to complete as you had to piece the singles together around the mirror. This leaves little space for the actual mirrow and makes it pretty useless. Like the mirror is just a cheap excuse to mess around with the dead records.

2010-01-12T22:49:00.009+01:00

YEAR 2009 TRIP REPORT - VENICE.
HOW MUCH ART CAN YOU TAKE?

I spend all my money on travelling and buying records. One of my top destinations in the summer of 2009 was Venice. No, not the one in L.A. with Muscle Tendencies and Suicidal Beach, but the real thing in Italy. The trip I made together with my friends Jack and Jackie who are rich Americans. Jack is a famous professor in the field of gender studies, and he owns a fancy boat which took us around.

This was very helpful since as you might know you cannot go around Venice by car. Partly because of all the streets being made of water, but mainly because you would inevitably run over lots of tourists even if you drive very carefully. They are everywhere. One of the highlights of the trip was the Biennale. For some reasons several of the pavilions there full of animals this year. The German one had a speaking kitchen cat. The environment did not really look like a kitchen but apparently there is such thing as a kitchen cat. But most of them cannot speak.

You can check out this link http://www.deutscher-pavillon.org/ and get a great description in very British English of what it was all about.

But also the Hungarians had little furry creatures in the house.

Instead of animals the Scandinavian pavilion had a great house with a pool which turned out to be a crime scene. The victim of the crime could be found in the pool.

As I am not into too complex art which I cannot understand my favourite part of the Biennale was the Finnish pavilion. The Finns do not consider themselves to be a part of the rest of Scandinavia, so they had their own thing going. It was a Finnish Fire & Rescue Museum which they had transplanted to Venice. Besides two gazillion little things and photos that had to do with firemen around the world (all compiled by just one guy), they had great exhibits of nuclear war emergency action paintings from the former Soviet Union. Educational paintings of nuclear bombs exploding over Russian cities, then firemen moving in to put out the fire and save the citizens from their bunkers. These paintings looked like nuclear war wasn't all that bad at all. Yet a little more grim that the old US "duck & cover" routines. I will not post pictures here as I intend to steal some of that stuff for label artwork in the future.

Other good exhibits included this record player which was the only installation in that room. As far as I remember this was not a country specific thing.

I also really loved the sign below. When you have your pavillions full of stuffed animals, record players with red vinyl LPs and other weird looking stuff, I guess it is necessary to stress such things. Also the word "touch" is quite hard to spell it seems.

2010-01-12T22:19:00.004+01:00

TURNTABLE MISUSE - EXHIBIT I

I will start two new sections on the blog. One will be about the inappropriate use of vinyl turntables and the other one will be about cruelty done to vinyl records. See the other post about the atrocities witnessed in Brooklyn. As I travel around I constantly find out about weird ideas that people have and what they do to their turntables and vinyl records.

Here you can see a perfectly fine Technics SL-1200 deck of a pair (as usual missing the singles adapter) that is being used as a storage place for CDs. Which seem to be home made by the way. The cover has been removed, too. Now that's not right on! Also I can assure you that no vinyl was present, so there was no excuse. I saw this atrocity at the Registratur Club in Munich in the late summer of 2009. The place got closed down shortly afterwards. So this should be a warning to you. Don't do this to your wheels of steel!

2009-11-22T23:43:00.001+01:00

DELICIOUS SNACK FROM JAPAN PT. II

What about this? It is green tea flavoured KitKat. Might be enough for some to end their boycott of Nestle food products.

2009-11-22T22:44:00.007+01:00

BURIAL in Hamburg with SEX VID November 28

The famous HeartFirst band BURIAL will play in Hamburg at Lobusch together with SEX VID from beautiful Olympia, Washington. This gig should bring together an interesting mix of folks. A friend of mine from Australia comes to Europe to tour with SEX VID. That's dedication. Unfortunately SEX VID will only play in the North of Germany, but who can blame them? I really like this flyer design, it makes me feel like it's 1982 all over again and I am young.

2009-11-20T21:46:00.009+01:00

THE SKATE CLASSIC VINYL FIND

Yeah, sometimes it pays to get up early. Recently I found these goodies at the flea market for a rather fair price. But before you get overly envious, the ex-owner stored those in an extremely humid environment in basement in Brasil so the records are not exactly mint anymore, with the exception of the NO MERCY which is the best of the three anyway. So I spent my weekend re-discovering the greatness of some old Venice skate bands. Too bad the guy did not also have a mouldy copy of the first BEOWÜLF LP for me to complete the package. That record has got to have some of the worst lyrics ever. It is also a runner up for best non-SUICIDAL TENDENCIES band from that era. Out of the three bands NO MERCY, EXCEL and BEOWÜLF the "Widespread Bloodshed" LP is my favourite. At the time they were Mike Muir's best band and way better than the SUICIDAL TENDENCIES stuff and if I remember correctly the guys were recruited to the ST team as the band headed for more (rock) stardom.

I remember when an old friend of mine in Berlin had the "Welcome to Venice" compilation and taped it for me. This must've been around 1986 and we were eagerly waiting for new SUICIDAL songs after their stellar first LP. On the "Welcome to Venice" compilation they are one of the weaker bands and it was the first time for me to hear the other three (EXCEL, NO MERCY, BEOWÜLF). Back then EXCEL was my favourite. Almost ten years later when I was touring in Europe with the Vancouver band STRAIN and we spoke of the musical greatness of NO MERCY and luckily a few days later we stayed at a friend's place who had the LP so we taped it and then repeatedly listened to it in the van. Absolutely great music for driving long distances! So fucking evil -- E-V-I-L!

The EXCEL "Split Image" LP you can see above included the well mouldy flyer for EXCEL merchandise -- as all Suicidal Records releases had flyers for merchandise like skateboards or shirts. Back in the day I sent them some hard earned cash for two shirts which I never received. So Dan of EXCEL, if you read this (yeah right!), you owe me 20+ bucks -- with interest.... or two shirts. We spoke about it at your gig at the ECSTACY in Berlin on your first tour. There is much debate about which of the first two EXCEL LPs is better. Somehow I still prefer the slightly rawer debut which sounds somehow unfinished musically.

2009-10-21T23:00:00.003+02:00

THE EDUCATIONAL VINYL FIND

Recently I found this gem on the flea market. None of that punk nonsense -- even though it says ENT on it -- but something educational "Medical English for German Doctors". Not only does it have hilarious English dialogues between a doctor and a deaf old lady but it comes with a useful vocabulary card. Now I know what "conductive deafness" or "laryngospasm" is. I wish you none of those!

2009-09-30T22:25:00.005+02:00

BURIAL WITH NEW RECORD AND NEW FANS

The famous Heartfirst band BURIAL went on tour with their Danish friends LOVE POTION. They also have many more fans in Denmark as you can see here:

These dorks who look like straight out of a Hot Topic ad are not LOVE POTION but another Danish band by the name of A SHELTERING SKY. Now -- if that band name does not sound "emo" I don't know what does. If you really need to know how they sound like you'll have to do a MySpace search.

BURIAL have a new 12" out on DERANGED RECORDS outta Canada called "Speed At Night". Buy this record so that the label can afford to still live in the Vancouver area which is currently getting ruined by preparations for the winter olympics.

2009-09-30T22:15:00.003+02:00

DELICIOUS SNACK FROM JAPAN

I think there is not enough input on food on this blog. But I am working on changing that! Here is a cool wasabi cracker snack. Thanks to my friend Jun for bringing me more of this even though it was out of season!

2009-09-30T22:06:00.001+02:00

I've got nothing to say

I am really sorry for not posting here in such a long time. After posting so much 1980s shit here I promised myself I would focus on recent stuff and not post anything backward looking in August. This lead to no posts in August. And while I was at it I posted nothing in September, too.

2009-07-30T01:27:00.004+02:00

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!

2009-07-26T14:42:00.005+02:00

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.

2009-07-26T14:36:00.002+02:00

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.

2009-07-22T22:58:00.012+02:00

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.

2009-07-22T22:32:00.008+02:00

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.

2009-07-22T21:24:00.022+02:00

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.

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.

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:

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:

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.

2009-07-22T21:16:00.007+02:00

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.

2009-07-16T01:20:00.009+02:00

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.

2009-07-13T23:24:00.010+02:00

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.

2009-07-13T23:05:00.008+02:00

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.

2009-07-13T22:39:00.008+02:00

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