Germany’s most dangerous punk band: Hammerhead

When I heard about punkrock in the beginning of the 1980s as a small child the guys with mohawks and leather jeackets looked threatening to me. Dangerous people you shouldn’t deal with, that’s what my parents used to say jokingly. Still when I started listening to the music and went to my first few shows it turned out that those things were highly exaggerated. It was different from normal concerts and scenes, I guess, but it wasn’t as dangerous as I expected it to be. Still there used to be an exciting atmosphere before shows. A feeling that you didn’t know what to expect from the concert. Anything could happen. From funny things to fights. This changed over the years as shows became more streamlined and predictable. Not that nothing happened afterwards, but the feeling before a show changed. Maybe it’s because things really calmed down, but maybe it’s also because I had gotten used to going to a lot of shows and by doing so I experienced a lot of things. There were no surprises left, it seemed.

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New noise from Berlin: Château Laut

This was a very unexpected christmas present as I got this one from a friend who is a member of this band. I remember I listened to their music some time ago when she gave me the link to their Myspace site, but I can’t quite recall if I liked the music back then. What’s most irritating to me is the way they designed their logo. It reminds me of those bands who are nowadays labelled “Krautrock” and to me always had the feeling of drugs, strange psychedelic arrangements, endless songs … well, not my cup of tea, really.

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Black Friday ’29, All For Nothing, Kingdom, Hardflip @ Underground, Cologne

I didn’t have the opportunity to go to a show in quite some time now so I was very glad when a friend of mine informed me that German hardcore frontrunners Black Friday ’29 were playing a show at the Underground. What better way to celebtrate the current economic crisis with a reference to what happened 80 years ago. A very nice coincidence, by the way.

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A Day At The Recordstore (VIII)

Because I was supposed to work on new years day I knew I was about to save some money. Which is nice on the one hand, because I get to spend it on something else. On the other hand that meant getting up in the middle of the night at 5:00 in the morning without getting any sleep because of the fireworks and the celebrations which were going own in the streets. Anyway, I took the chance to visit the record store yesterday.

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Land Of The Rising Fastball

I don’t really know how I got into baseball anyway. Back in the 1990s there was a german sports channel on cable television which was showing the World Series between the Twins and the Braves and I was casually watching this as it happened to be the only sports broadcast on TV. But it never fascinated me to the extent that I tried to follow results or even pick up a bat or a glove myself.

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JDrama: The season wrap up (fall ‘08)

Ryusei no Kizuna
Seems to be this season’s big shot with the likes of Ninomiya Kazunari, Nishikido Ryo and Toda Erika playing the lead roles of three syblings whose parents were murdered when the kids were out watching shooting stars one night. Soon after the incident the swear to kill the person who did this to them. For that purpose they hide from the police that they still meet today. The statue of limitations is running out and so they have little time to find the murderer.
This is a serious story with a very light way of telling it. A lot of comic relief, especially in the form of the character played by Nakashima Mika, who also sings the title song. The cast is wonderful with lots of familiar faces. And the in-series short movies about the swindling are a huge laugh. All in all highly enjoyable, although it’s nothing special. (7/10)

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