Review: Ducktails

A friend of mine told me a while ago about his theory (he called it curse) why bands are losing it when they change to UK indie label Domino. He didn't have an example but it did make sense back then, don't ask me why. Well, Ducktails are on Domino now and maybe that could be his piece of evidence. So, I went to their show last week to see if my friend is right or not.

I first saw Ducktails a couple of years ago in this small gallery venue in Schöneberg called White Rabbit (oh, I miss that place). Back then Ducktails were only Matthew Mondanile. He had released a handful of tapes and his self-titled album on Not Not Fun had just been released. His psychedelic surf guitar sound was the soundtrack of my summer 2009 and when he joined Real Estate everything was perfect. With an unbelievable ease, he produced one sugar coated popsong after another with Ducktails or Real Estate. I don't know why, but I ended up losing interest in his solo projects even though Landscapes and III: Arcade Dynamics were solid records.

A month ago, Matt released his newest record The Flower Lane and this time with a proper band. So, their Euro tour came right on time to promote this record and to convince me again. Haus Ungarn (ex-hbc) was not seated like usually, so I guess they expected a dancy crowd and from the beginning on everyone at least shook their head.

Their new sound was kinda different than I had expected. Very 80s like with loads of keyboards, even though there was a second guitar player in the band. It reminded me strangely enough of American Psycho. I instantly saw hundreds of pages elaborating Ducktails' career or maybe it was just my inner Patrick Bateman who urged to kill most of the audience.

Fortunately his trademark guitar sound with all the delays and reverb hadn't vanished, but, to be honest, even though the songs were very dangling and catchy, I forgot them immediately. Maybe because of the bands performance. Is being bored the new cool? They looked so pale while playing the songs, it was unbelievable. Only Matt showed some excitment from time to time. An hour went by and I felt well entertained and when they played their hit Kill The Vibe as encore I was kinda pleased.

One week later I'm still not sure what to think about The Flower Lane and my friend's Domino theory. And after seeing their new video to Letter To Intent, I'm pretty sure I have to play this record more often in the summer because I'm really sick of these grey days.

Review: Lubomyr Melnyk

Sometimes you have to trust your friends. Two weeks ago I was told by a friend that this unbelievable pianist is playing in Berlin soonish and I defintely should go see him. My friend could not go and needed a report. First of all, I'm not a big fan of piano music. I know there was a big excitement about musicans like Peter Broderick, Dustin O'Halloran or Nils Frahm and this whole mordern classical genre, but to be honest this is completely not my cup of tea.

So I took another friend, who also had no idea what to expect, to see Lubomy Melnyk at Haus Ungarn (ex-hbc) last Friday. Freezing cold outside and pretty crowded inside. Waiting in the queue to get our tickets we checked our Wikipedia knowledge. Lubomyr Melnyk is a Canadian composer and pianist of Ukrainian origins who has pioneered Continuous Music in the late 70s. What? Okay, we'll see.

Shortly after seating ourselves Mr Melnyk appeared on stage and introduced his first piece and started playing. So, now here is the difficult part: how to describe this? I have no idea what happened and no words to make sure you would understand what we heard. It felt like waves of sounds running into cirlces. More drones than melodies. Very soothing and calming. Almost meditative. Sometimes it sounded like there was another piano played on stage. Spooky, but very beautiful.

Quick review: Cave + Camera

.HBC's website may state that the club is currently closed, but I was there last night, confirming that the venue has reopened and not much has changed.

When I went to .HBC in the past, gigs always started early. Therefore, we arrived at Alexanderplatz at 9 pm, not wanting to miss Camera, a band I have been disappointed and mesmerised by on previous occasions. By now I am just so intrigued by this trio. However, not only were we an hour early to the original start time of the concert, Camera also came onstage with a half hour delay, after missing their percussionist. When everyone was already assuming that they were not going to perform, a befriended drummer stood in and played one song with the band. Of course one song is not a set, but at least this group's songs are very long and very good. They gave a sterling performance, albeit a distinctly too short one. All the audience's pleas for more were in vain - the band could not play more without their original band member. Overall, another odd experience with Berlin's most promising local group.

Cave delivered exactly what I had expected. Some of their songs are absolute pearls of instrumental psychedelic wave music, others are just so-so, a little bit on the funky side, and would be well-placed as background film music. And this is what it feels like live, too. Some songs just gripped me so hard, moved people to dance freely in the half-filled cinema room. And others just made you watch on, nice songs but nothing that leads to you to yearn for more. When the already oxygen lacking room started to really fill with cigarette smoke, after about six to seven songs, I had to make my exit. I was actually starting to feel nauseous and was getting coughing fits, which is unusual for me in my career as a die-hard punk venue attendee. 

A good night, though a little odd and lengthy. We got home and wondered what that was all about but were glad to have seen Cave play. I just hate to miss out on a good band, even if the evening unfolds differently than originally envisioned.

Quick review: Sir Simon Battle

A little while ago, I went to see Sir Simon Battle at hbc. The ex-Tomte man and Kreuzberg local had been highly praised in Zitty but my motivation to see this gig stemmed from having a friend play as part of his group. I admit I was positively surprised. On the outset, it doesn't look like his singer-songwriter music should be my cup of tea but live, it was delivered beautifully and I thought the earnest and humorous speeches between songs made for a relaxed and fun atmosphere. A nice spontaneous night out with a soda, a piano and some friends.