Competition: Tragedy + PISS + Mülltüte at SO36

Presale tickets for this show are already running short so if you're planning on seeing Tragedy, PISS and Mülltüte at SO36 on June 18th you've got two options: Hurry up and buy a ticket or take part in our competition and win 2x2 spots on the guest list!

All you have to do to win is send us an e-mail to win@thecraze.de until next Tuesday, June 17th at 6pm and make up one (in the best case scenario funny or creative) sentence that contains the words Tragedy, Piss and Mülltüte. 

Preview addition I: Lower + UV Glaze

A quick treat for you: This Thursday, Monarch is turning into a punk den with Danish quartet Lower gracing Berlin with its presence. These guys are punk, but you know, accessible. Think late 70s, early 80s punk à la Joy Division. Intense stuff. They are signed to prestigious indie label Matador, which has proven good taste and taken a chance on punk and HC music for a while now. UV Glaze supporting and these regulars seldomly disappoint. An all-round promising night at Monarch and the perfect opportunity to avoid the football madness. See you there!

Review: Batalj + Brutal Blues

After seeing Batalj perform a very good show together wih Zeus and Retox at West Germany last summer, I was pretty excited to see them again at the same location. Surprisingly, West Germany was not packed at all tonight, which did not bother me all that much. It allowed me to stand close to the stage without having to battle my way into the middle of a sweaty crowd. 

Batalj was up first. They have a new keyboarder who shared the vocal duties with their guitarist. Her vocals match those of the singer-guitarist well - a nice addition to the band. For lack of a better comparison, I can like their sound to that of The Locust, but with a lot of reverb on the vocals, which adds a Black Metal eerie darkness. It actually reminded my of some very good Black Metal demos, which have that kind of chanting over the top vocals, and this produced a big smile on my face (check out the "Wrath of the Tyrants" by Emperor and you know what I mean). I do not know the band personally, but the former keyboarder was apparently dancing in the first row motivating her fellows by passing around a monster Jaeger bottle. I think they are doing a pretty good job managing not to end into total sound chaos by keeping some balance of the individual instruments. Plus the drumming still gives everything a basic structure and makes it really enjoyable for the experienced and willing listener. Usually I like such acts short, but this time I was really sad they played a short set. Batatj had me drawn in and I wanted more.

Brutal Blues rather follow the traditional metal grindcore path and turned out to be a very worthy follow-up for Batalj. Fast attackers, their concept of just guitar and drums and dual vocals worked out well - a bass guitar was not necessary here - just guitar was fine. At times, it was a bit muddy mixed under the very prominent drums. But the guy is definitely a fast drummer knowing how to blast beats with highest precision, which produced the next big smile on my face with very good memories of some old English grind heroes. You could tell these two guys are not new to thrashing out grindcore; I was impressed at how relaxed but ultra fast they played. It was all over soon because of some physical exhaustion on the drummer's part I presume. After one of the first songs a somewhat displeased listener yelled something and was immediately answered by the drummer saying "It's grindcore, we play short songs". 

If you are into short, fast, and loud grind core, there was not much to complain about. The answer to whether you liked the show or not is a question written all over the walls at Monarch: "Are you Metal?" Yes, I am!

Review: Wolf Eyes + Bill Kouligas

Last years Wolf Eyes show at Festsaal Kreuzberg was so good that I just wanted to see them again at Urban Spree this Monday. Not much changed concerning the band, there is no new record and I didn't hear of any plans to release one in the near future, but the show itself still felt different. Probably even better than the last one.

When we arrived at Urban Spree, Bill Kouligas was already playing a DJ set outside of the venue. I really liked the concept of having somebody play music outside before everyone was about to squeeze themselves into a dark, hot and sticky room for over an hour. Kouligas played a really cool set, mostly consisting of older dub tunes. I really liked it and the music was perfectly for hanging out outside.

At some point however it just got a little cold, so we decided to go inside where Wolf Eyes also were about to start playing. The room was just dimly lit and completely filled with fog, which created a nice creepy atmosphere that was a perfect fit for the upcoming music. Wolf Eyes started to play and I immediately liked it. Their set was mostly built on minimalistic and monotonous beats with the additions of noisy layers and heavily distorted and processed guitar. The gnarly and nagging vocals did their part to complete Wolf Eyes' harsh industrial sound. While their show last year mainly had consisted of songs from their last record, I had the feeling that improvised parts and more free structures played a huge part in this night's set. The sound was great, a point where Urban Spree never seems to disappoint. There also was an uncomfortable  light show with strobe lights flashing and moving around, that somehow suited the music but was a bit hard to look at most of the time. Wolf Eyes stage presence was definitely more engaging, probably due to the fact that Urban Spree's stage is lower and the whole setting is much more intimate than it used to be in the rather large Festsaal. The combination of the dreary, dark music with their Mad Max like dystopic appearance was really intense and impressive.

All in all this simply was a great show. It definitely wasn't unchallenging but I knew before that it wasn't going to be since Wolf Eyes is a band that challenges the listening habits of their audience. They're a band that transcend limits of genres and anticipation. Their sound is offensive but in the end I definitely prefer a band that's offensive and arduous to one that's just boring and complaisant.

Preview: the month ahead (June)

Bonjour sun worshippers. It's the start of the month and that means time for our first monthly preview. Enjoy and meet you around town.

• Mon Jun 2nd: Wolf Eyes + Bill Kouligas at Urban Spree: We pre- and reviewed Wolf Eyes before when they played at Festsaal Kreuzberg last year and they’re well worth mentioning again. If you’re into industrial drone harsh ambient noise music, Wolf Eyes will probably ring a bell for you anyways. Add Bill Kouligas, known for his solo project Family Battle Snake (read a review here) and his label PAN, to the bill as supporting DJ and this makes for a nice start in the new month.

• Mon Jun 2nd: Merchandise at Berghain: Very en vogue at the moment, Merchandise do a danceable wave thing and remind me of poppier New Order meets The Smith, but then again, what do I know. 
• Tue Jun 3rd: Shonen Knife at Roter Salon: Japanese punk band that rocks hard. 
• Thu Jun 5th: Condominium + V at bei Ruth: Bizarre Hardcore Punk on Sub Pop meets Dark Wave from Berlin. Sounds like a neat combination. V used to play in Batalj, if you haven’t seen her solo project yet, this is a good opportunity of doing so.
• Fri Jun 6th: Tara Jane O'Neil + Yohuna + Lugene Verna at West Germany: Tara Jane O'Neil is very slow, very intense music that is a pleasure to listen to when you really want to get back down to earth. This lady has got me through some difficult times with her guitar and mellow voice. A treat.
• Sun Jun 8th: Daniel Bachman at Monarch: Daniel Bachman is an acoustic guitar player who mainly draws from folk and country influences. He's amazing to watch live and we're excited to see him again. Read a review about a former show of him here.
• Tue Jun 10th: Pink Mountaintops at Privatclub: Yes, they are a bit hippie-ish but that's also what we like them for. And they rock hard. This show is going to be rather special in such a small space. Pink Mountaintops are going places, you know. Looking forward.

• Tue Jun 10th: Quicksand at SO36: Another reunion from a band that many of us know from our early punk/hardcore days. Quicksand, featuring Walter Schreifels of Gorilla Biscuits, Rival Schools, had their peak time between 1990 and 1995. They released two records that are still fun to listen to nowadays. Like always, I have no idea if this is going to be either brillant and nostalgic or a total letdown. 
• Fri Jun 13th: Jeffrey Lewis & The Jrams at Kantine: C* & Gary have their tickets and are super extra excited. The man sticks out from the mass that is singer-songwriter music. 
• Fri Jun 13th: Las Kellies + DJ Marcelle at bei Ruth: This is a promising night at bei Ruth. Las Kellies play minimalistic post punk influenced dancy music, think of a mix between ESG, Delta 5 and the Slits. Afterwards DJ Marcelle, by now bei Ruth’s resident DJane, will play. She’s amazing live! So if you’re in a dancy mood, head over to Neukölln on this Friday the 13th

• Wed Jun 18th: Chain & The Gang at Privatclub: Ian Svenonius, one of our all time darlings, returns to Berlin with his gang, playing 60s/70s influenced garage punk that’ll make your booties shake.
• Wed Jun 18th: Tragedy + Mülltüte + Piss at SO36: Tragedy, Portland based crust-punk/d-beat veterans don’t tour Europe that often. If they do so, their shows are usually packed and loaded and this one won’t be an exception. Tragedy continued what they started with His Hero Is Gone. Their members are or were also involved in other notable projects like Union of Uranus and From Ashes Rise. Musically, Tragedy play thick sounding dark in-your-face hardcore punk with political and critical lyrics. Support will be locals Mülltüte and Piss.
• Sat Jun 28th: Ratttengold at SO36: Ratttengold is sort of a ‘best of’ project of Jens Rachut, who’s going to present songs from his former and recent bands Oma Hans, Dackelblut, Angeschissen, Blumen am Arsch der Hölle and Kommando Sonne-nmilch. All of these bands played music in the vein of Wipers influenced Deutschpunk without being dull or blunt. Instead they always had a humorous and ambitious approach. Definitely worth a visit if you’re interested in finding out where all these newish ‘Deutschpunk’ bands got their influences from.

Review: Dum Dum Girls at Lido

As a young girl – we are talking 5 years old to around 13 – I was obsessed with Madonna, on so many levels. In some regards, I still am today. She brought me up to value womanhood over cuteness, to show nudity and see it for the great creation that it is, to not care all that much about what other people think about you. I might be given a bit too much credit to Madonna here and not enough to my parents, but you know, I am trying to make a point.

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The point in question is that young people need idols and that in Pop’n’Rock female idols are still far and between. For me personally, Dee Dee Dum Dum is one to fulfil that role with bravo. She is talented, confident, sexy. And she goes on stage, night after night, with a see-through top, only nipples covered, and wears it in a way that every woman wants to be *that* woman. It’s wonderful to watch.

Imagery aside, the new Dum Dum Girls album is the best yet and a brave step into a darker sound for Dee Dee. You hear Pretenders and you hear Bangles but you also hear more melancholy and a heartfelt sound. Truth be told, I am absolutely addicted to “Too True”. It’s the album I put on as I leave work and the one I listen to when I get ready for a night out. It was the album of our California desert holiday, a record the whole family could agree on.