Johannes Schult

One of Sweden’s finest punk rock bands, Ninja Dolls, visited Konstanz on Thursday night. They played a tight, quick set featuring three songs off their new “D.I.Y.”-EP along with most of the songs from “1 2 3 Go!” (which was one of my favourite albums 2009). Malin’s voice showed a little strain towards the end of the set, but overall she proved to be an excellent lead singer who handled the old material with ease. As an encore we got a nice cover version of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene”. Other highlights were the acoustic version of “Valentine” and, well, pretty much every other song. I only missed “Run and Hide”. Still, it was an enjoyable show, albeit a rather short one. (Just observing, not complaining here – admission was free, after all.)

1. We Gave It All Away
2. Miss Young and Naive
3. You’re a Monster
4. All Mixed Up
5. Old Mariann
6. Don’t Wanna Go Home
7. Valentine (Is Just a Reason to Get Drunk)
8. Who Am I Fooling?
9. Harry’s Got to Go
10. Who’s Pretending
11. The Last Song About You (for This Time)
12. Jolene

This is yet another song fu contribution. The challenge was to write a song that contains a recipe in some way. The music was clearly inspired by Eläkeläiset. The lyrics for the chorus came somewhat natural; the rest is a collection of ingredients, some of them intentionally sung in German. Finally, I could use some live drums. I had recorded them five years ago for a song I never released online.

“Schnitzel Soup and Vodka” is my last entry for song fu for the time being. The contest consumes quite some time and to be honest, I’m not very pleased with my latest efforts. Sure, “Kingdom of Rain” had possibly the best story line I’d come up with in ages. And the present polka was surely fun. But I’ve had enough exposure to present my case. Don’t get me wrong, I love song fu and the other contestants are great people. I’m happy to be part of it and perhaps I’ll do shadow entries in the future. We’ll see and hear.

For now, please check out the link below. There are plenty of interesting contributions; for starters I recommend Mike Lombardo, because he’s a talented musician and his tune is very entertaining. There’s more, but I’m signing off now, saving my “Best of Song Fu”-list for another post.

Download and vote over at FRED

Here is a secret that I’m going to share with you
The perfect meal to eat before you’re getting drunk
This recipe comes straight from the heart of Mother Russia
It keeps any hangover away
You need some schnitzel soup and 17 potatoes
The soup is easy – just get a lot of meat
Then put it in a pot and add a little water
Boil it for a while until it’s through
When it’s
Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – early in the night
Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – early in the night

If you like it sweet you add some apfelstrudel
And if you’re hungry you should add chunk of cheese
And when the soup is boiling you add a few more items
Paprika, tomatoes, sauerkraut and beans
You have to eat a lot for the soup to be effective
Five full plates at least
When it’s
Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – early in the night
Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – drinking all day and night

Vodka!
Vodka, vodka – early in the evening
Vodka, vodka – early in the night
Vodka, vodka – early in the morning
Vodka, vodka – drinking all day and night

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

Zum Glück hatte ich meine Karte vorab online bestellt und so einen Platz in der zweiten Reihe (von vorne ebenso wie von hinten) Mitte bekommen. Das Konzert fand im Plattenladen The Record Collector statt, wo etwa 45 Klappstühle sowie weiter hinten noch ein paar Stehplätze. Zuerst galt es das Vorprogramm zu überstehen. Erin Hill zupfte auf faszinierende Weise auf ihrer Harfe herum und sang mal schön, mal opernhaft. Einer der keltischen Folksongs klang sogar ziemlich gut. Ansonsten gab es anfangs reichlich Cover-Songs, ehe sie in der zweiten Hälfte “psychedelic scifi erin hill songs” spielte. Ich war froh über meinen Mountain Dew-Konsum, weil die Mucke viel zu abgefahren für mich klang. Als versöhnlichen Schluss gab es noch den Eröffnungssong der Fernsehserie Dollhouse (“What You Don’t Know”), den Hill zusammen mit Komponist Eric Bazilian vortrug.

Dann hieß es: Bühne frei für Eric, Cliff und Dave! Das Trio stieg mit einem neuen, recht rohen Rocksong ein, der bereits deutlich machte, wohin die musikalische Reise gehen würde. Die Musiker waren zum Greifen nah und ich habe erstmals bei einem Gig einen (1) Ohrstöpsel verwendet, weil das Schlagzeug auf der (von mir aus) rechten Seite einfach zu laut war. Trotz Bestuhlung und gemütlicher Atmosphäre rockten die drei Musiker durch Erics erstes Soloalbum “The Optimist” (wie angekündigt). Das im Laufe von fünf Jahren entstandene Werk wirkte so wesentlich homogener und lebhafter. Eric sah man zwar noch die Reste einer Erkältung an, doch musikalisch war alles bestens. Meine Lieblingslieder der CD waren auch live meine Favoriten (“Hopelessly, Relentlessly”, “Until You Dare”, “U.G.L.Y.”, “Be My Woman”). Zwischendurch gab es neben zahlreichen Anektdoten auch noch spontan die Ursprungsversion von “U.G.L.Y.” und von den Beatles “Do You Want to Know a Secret”. Da Eric und Dave erst wenige Tage vorher mit Proben begonnen und beschlossen hatten, einen Bassisten ins Boot zu holen, war die Show geprägt von Lockerheit. Besonders bei “The Optimist” war das Textchaos herrlich mitanzusehen. Am Ende kam auch noch das berüchtigte “One of Us”-Demo zum Zug. Im Anschluss hatte ich noch das Vergnügen, mich mit amerikanischen Fans, die ich sonst nur von Twitter und E-Mails kannte, über das dortige Fandasein zu unterhalten. Auch amüsant: Eric meinte, John Lilley habe ihm gesagt, er hätte auf Twitter gesehen, dass ich aus Deutschland zum Konzert angereist käme. Tja, ich muss sagen, es war schon ein tolles Erlebnis, mal etwas anderes als “Johnny B”, “All You Zombies” und “Noch ein Lied?” zu hören, zumal die Trio-Besetzung und die intime Atmosphäre dem Ganzen das Sahnehäubchen aufsetzten.

(Bild von meiner Kamera kommt noch; Bild aus der letzten Reihe bei Twitpic)

1. New Song
2. Driving in England
3. Until You Dare
4. Gemini Yo-Yo
5. Bye Bye Baby
6. U.G.L.Y.
7. U.G.L.Y. (original version)
8. When I Was the Man
9. Kid From Outer Space
10. Do You Want to Know a Secret
11. Be My Woman
12. Fiddlesticks
13. Hopelessly, Relentlessly
14. Mind Going Down
15. The Optimist
16. One of Us

For the lack of other news, here’s a song by Jonathan Coulton. I chose the ASL video by Stephen Torrence to go with it, because his face expressions are awesome. The choice was a difficult one, because there’s other nice ones like Christmas lights, Muppets and plenty of live versions.

Also, check out the two new Ninja Dolls songs – good, friendly punk rock.

Pain of Salvation played in Pratteln at the Z7 yesterday. I must confess that I’m not a big fan of the band’s more recent work. Still, “The Perfect Element Part 1” remains one of my all-time top 10 albums. A total of four song off that album were on the setlist, so I was indeed thrilled. Additional highlights were the raw “Fandango” with its weird measures and a haunting rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” (rather differently arranged than on the DVD recording). The audience was very introverted. The musicians on stage were very extroverted. Daniel Gildenlöw, Johan Hallgren and the new bass player did not compromise but gave 100%. Despite the scarce response from the roughly 300 people present, the concert became a success. The sheer mastery of Gildenlöw as a singer and as a guitarist was mind-bending. Even the heavy noise of certain songs was ripe with contextual emotion. It was pretty hard to decide whether to go along and mosh or to just stand back and be in awe of the action on stage.

In total the band played 110 minutes and given the rarity of superb progressive metal in combination with a passionate live show I enjoyed every single one of them.

1. Used
2. Diffidentia
3. Linoleum
4. Ashes
5. Undertow
6. Falling
7. The Perfect Element
8. Fandango
9. Handful of Nothing
10. Inside
11. If You Wait
12. Nightmist
13. Hallelujah
14. Conditioned
15. Disco Queen

Sunshine and morning mist

Originally uploaded by neilmademedoit

Many years ago I discovered the music of Anvil Chorus. The band had been active in the early 80s. There were no proper releases except for one single (“Blondes in Black” b/w “Once Again”). But if one looked hard, one could get copies of old demos and live tapes. Those n-th generation copies sounded aweful, but the music itself not only stood the test of time, but even had a timeless quality only few metal bands can offer. The band reunited from time to time, but an album release seemed as unlikely as a show in Europe.

This year finally saw the release of the first CD by Anvil Chorus, “The Killing Sun”. I wrote a review in German over at Vampster.com. I thin it sounds rather tame, but songs like “Phase to Phase” and “Once Again” still sparkle. The lead guitars are amazing and the music, well, still timeless. And as if that weren’t enough, the band is scheduled to play in Germany at the Headbangers Open Air 2010!

PS: The picture above has nothing to do with Anvil Chorus. I took it on my way to university and thought, why not share it with the world.

Heute Abend spielen Roxette in Stuttgart und ich bin nicht da. Doof. Immerhin spare ich mir eine Menge Fahrt- und Eintrittsgeld. Nach dem tollen Konzert von Sänger Per Gessle im April war ich einfach nicht in der Stimmung, jetzt weniger Stücke mit mehr Orchester zu hören. Zum Glück ist inzwischen das Live-Album “Gessle over Europe” erschienen, so dass ich hin und wieder ein bisschen in Erinnerungen schwelgen kann. Und Mr. Gessle ist ja ungebrochen aktiv in Sachen Twitter-Updates und YouTube-Heimvideos.

Wer professionell produzierten, aber ansonsten uninspirierten Melodic Metal hören will, kann sich gerne mit “Japanese Hospitality” von Warmen (Vampster-Review) beschäftigen. Auf der Japan-Version gibt es hier übrigends eine wenig originelle Cover-Version des Roxette-Hits “Fading Like A Flower (Every Time You Leave)”.

As I wrote earlier, I attended the Jonathan Coulton-concert in Dublin on 6th November. He brought along Paul and Storm as opening band. I had grown a bit tired of their podcast rambling. But their performance in Dublin reminded me of their awesomeness. More than that: it convinced me that they’re actually incredibly talented entertainers. Add to this their amazing singing voices and you get 50 minutes of pure musical humour. Although they relied mostly on their battle-tested material – it was their first gig in Ireland, after all – everything sounded fresh, including the three (!) Song Fu entries they played.

Much to my liking they started with their Theme Song, before launching into their signature song Opening Band. They had won over the audience by the time the first panties were thrown half-way through the song. Still, Paul kept being intimidated by the audience. Unlike most of their gigs, this was a standing audience and whenever possible everybody sang along loudly. Each song was a highlight, so just look at the setlist below to figure out which songs to check out in case you’re not familiar with the duo.

The true fascination comes from the combination of flawless vocals and witty (if not dirty) lyrics. This combination also showed in between songs, when Paul and Storm have their own way to communicate with the audience and each other. In short, they were genuinely enjoying themselves (despite jet-lag and work-permit trouble) and you just had to smile at their stories and antics.

1. Paul and Storm – Theme Song
2. Opening Band
3. Mother’s Day Song
4. Nugget Man
5. Frogger! The Frogger Musical
6. Nun Fight
7. Live
8. If James Taylor Were on Fire
9. If Bob Dylan Were Hiding at the Bottom of a Well
10. The Captain’s Wife’s Lament

Jonathan Coulton returned to Europe. Last Saturday he played a fantastic concert at the Academy 2 in Dublin, Ireland. I had a splendid time along with 200 Irish people. The audience sang along like there was no tomorrow. We even got an unplanned encore. There just wasn’t a weak moment in the whole show. I wish I could indulge in all the little details and communicate better the awesomeness of JoCo. But I really don’t know where to begin and where to end and how to describe the simple fact that I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Here’s the setlist:

1. Betty and Me
2. Ikea
3. Shop Vac
4. Code Monkey
5. Better
6. Tom Cruise Crazy
7. Blue Sunny Day
8. Big Bad World One
9. Birdhouse in your Soul
10. Creepy Doll
11. Mr. Fancy Pants
12. I’m Your Moon
13. The Future Soon
14. Skullcrusher Mountain
15. Still Alive
16. Re: Your Brains
17. I Feel Fantastic
18. First of May
19. Sweet Caroline
20. A Talk with George

Das finde ich nicht gut. Was heute außerdem noch in meinem Leben passierte: Käsebrötchen zum Frühstück, Umzugsfahrt durch vier Bundesländer, An Erminig-Konzert in Saarbrücken.