Competition: Xenia Rubinos

Xenia Rubinos is finally making it to Berlin, playing at Monarch this coming Wednesday. Truly for fans of tUnE-yArDs and other spazzy rhythmic vocal live sampled music. A treat, just trust me. You don't want to miss this.

We are super excited to be giving away a ticket for a lucky winner and their chosen friend. Just send us an email to win at thecraze dot de by Wednesday morning, 11 am, and tell us a song you love that is about New York, New York.

Competition: Dead Skeletons

Gig of the year alert anyone?! Dead Skeletons easily won my "Gig of the year" award for 2012 and you should read my review and feel you cannot miss this for the world. The Craze team is making this their team party and we would love to welcome one of you and your mate to join us to this epic event.

To win a ticket for you and a friend, send us what you deem the most creepy song or video to win at thecraze dot de by 8 pm Tuesday, 3 December 2013. Make sure you label your email in a way that we see which competition you are entering.

See you on Wednesday, yeah yeah!

Competition: The Bell Game

Next week is going to be another busy week and we have a few competitions lined up. Watch out for our preview and competitions this weekend.

This first one is a sticky-sweet treat for you. Wikipedia calls The Belle Game "orchestral dark pop" and though this genre is news to me, it pretty much hits the nail on the head. You know what you are getting.

In order to win a ticket for you and one for your friend, the band have set the following task for you: They would like to know your opinion about their latest music video:

Let us know your opinions by email to win at thecraze dot de by 11 am Monday, 2 December 2013. The winner is drawn by pot luck out of a hat or similar and not chosen by the content of the entry. Make sure to clearly mark The Belle Game in the subject of your mail.

Camera competition results: a video extravaganza

The Camera competition has by far been our most fun competition to date. We received so many fantastic entries. Here is a selection (!) to sweeten your day the way ours were while the competition ran.

We received the same video for two separate entries, which have showed me a side of Beach House of which I was not really aware.

Here are a couple of entries that both feel very summery and made me want to get on a plane this instance.

The right tone for this autumn weather:

But the winner was this number that made us smile so hard and the song is amazing. A clear winner indeed:

This was just a selection. Like I said, we had plenty of submissions and a great time watching them. Finally, if I had been able to enter, this is the video I would have chosen. I love everything about this:

Review: Crystal Stilts + Vex Ruffin

A Gretchen virgin, I was very impressed with the surroundings I encountered. Vaulted brick ceilings, old ornamented warehouse pillars, cloth panes for coziness. It can't have been easy to decorate this place to become a trendy club and the designers did well. It is still a difficult set-up sound-wise though, but more about that later.

Vex Ruffin, the first group, is a bit of a hit-or-miss kinda thing. The electro-clash beat-heavy music is great throughout; they are obviously good composers. The vocals are distorted and low-key and as such not original - this has been done too much lately. Overall, it was a nice, dancable act, with less hip hop elements than I was expecting but some lovely tunes. But they played way too long and we were not the only ones remarking on this. Not all songs were hits and over an hour is just too long for the opening band in my eyes.

Crystal Stilts, on the other hand, kept it to a tight 45 minutes. They convey a better energy on a small stage - compared to my last CS experience at Festsaal - and they seemed really happy to be playing, even smiled once or twice. If you know Crystal Stilts and know how introvert they are as performers, then you appreciate this especially. Musically, they were great and the new material very promising; the sound left some depth to be desired though. Not that the dedicated audience at the front would have noticed. The gig was far from sold out but these guys just went crazy wild despite the missing rapport from the band with the crowd. Fun times.

I was a little worried this gig might disappoint the way it did last time. But I needn't have worried. A cosy evening with the Stilts.

The Craze presents: FIFTH FLOOR III - BERLIN

Pssst. The established secret location warehouse party event is finally coming to Berlin. Not only that but it is being co-presented by The Craze. Pre-sale tickets are now on sale. All information can be found on the event page.

100 ticket holders will be the only ones to know the location of this gig with its fabulous line-up:

The Blue Angel Lounge

The Third Sound

ASCETIC

Two Step Horror

The Sun And The Wolf

Brace/Choir

Visuals by Astral Projection Artwork

We are super excited, are you?