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

This little song was originally written for Manticess as a contender for the recent Song Fu challenge ‘write a song with a number as a song title’. We ditched the song, however, and went on to produce “1998”. One of my aims with the 52 project is to improve (or at least to maintain) my playing skills. I figured that most of my faster songs sound better when I force myself to play them faster than I’d imagined them in the first place. The original demo of this particular song here was 20 seconds too long. Maybe it feels a bit hurried now, but hey, another aim is to not bore the listener with seemingly infinite tracks!

Someone who heard the song instantly remarked that the lyrics are clearly about absinthe. Now I have never tasted that green drink and didn’t think of it while writing the song. But hey, now it’s a song about absinthe. And yes, I promise that there will be more impressive lyrics and more elaborate song structures in this series. But you’ve got to allow for a little la-na-na song every now and then.

#2 Seven Green Fairies

Seven green fairies call me on the phone
Seven green fairies won’t leave me alone
Seven green fairies call me every day
Seven green fairies won’t go away
Singing la na na na ooho
Me and my seven green fairies

Seven green fairies are with me in my sleep
Seven green fairies seven days a week
Seven green fairies are with me when I drink
Making me say stupid things
Singing la na na na ooho
Me and my seven green fairies

Seven green fairies are messing with my hair
Seven green fairies pretend they’re not there
Seven green fairies with seven different names
Yet to me they’re all the same
Singing la na na na ooho
Me and my seven green fairies

(words and music by Johannes Schult)

This is the theme song/instrumental introduction/stadium gig opener I always wanted to have. I stumbled across the word ‘bonkers’ in a dictionary years ago and immediately filed it under ‘perfect title for future theme song/intro/opener’. I kept this recording short, but the song can be extended with multiple solo spots if I ever get the chance to perform it live.

#1 Bonkers

• Kurt Vonnegut: Cat’s Cradle
• John Green: An Abundance of Katherines
• John Green: Looking for Alaska
• Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games
• Dodie Smith: I Capture the Castle
• Roger Williams: The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect
• Trevor G. Bond & Christine M. Fox: Applying the Rasch Model: Fundamental Measurement in the Human Sciences
• Scott Westerfeld: Uglies
• Sven Plöger: Gute Aussichten für morgen
• Henry David Thoreau: Walden
• Mike Oldfield: Changeling
• Raymond Chandler: The Lady in the Lake
• Scott Westerfeld: Pretties
• Suzanne Collins: Catching Fire
• Jane Austen & Seth Grahame-Smith: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
• Scott Westerfeld: Specials
• Eckart von Hirschhausen: Die Leber wächst mit ihren Aufgaben
• Edward R. Tufte: The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching out Corrupts within
• Ayn Rand: Three Plays
• Oscar Wilde: Lady Windermere’s Fan
• Henryk M. Broder: Hurra, wir kapitulieren!
• John Green: Paper Towns
• Vince Ebert: Denken Sie selbst! Sonst tun es andere für Sie
• Dave Eggers: Weit gegangen
• Elisabeth Kabatek: Laugenweckle zum Frühstück

Habe ich dieses Jahr wirklich nichts von Terry Pratchett gelesen? Das schreit nach einem Vorsatz für 2010! Erst einmal werde ich aber wohl die fünf, sechs Bücher fertiglesen, die sich hier angefangen türmen (Gibt es intelligentes Leben?, The Greatest Show on Earth, Kritik der reinen Toleranz, Nothing for Ungood, Eine Geschichte von Liebe und Finsternis, American Gods usw.). Literarische Höhepunkte für mich waren 2009 eindeutig die beiden Hunger Games-Bücher sowie Paper Towns. Meine Lieblingsalben kamen von Richard Shindell und den Ninja Dolls.

Despite the upcoming soccer mania, there are several promising concerts announced for 2010. I just saw that The Hooters will be playing in my hometown (Waiblingen) on Friday, May 7th. Great news!

I’m also looking forward to produce some of my own music next year. Manticess are going to release a single and I’m currently trying to decide whether or not to promise to put out solo music on a regular basis, probably weekly. I’d welcome the challenge, but I’m also thinking of writing more often. I’ve started two novels, one back in Belgium, and one this November (for NaNoWriMo). I like both outsets, but only the latter seems to be suited for a prediodical release format on this very homepage. I mean, I wouldn’t start publishing parts until I’m almost through, but it might be an alternative to the song-a-week-madness outlined above.

In different news, look what my mom made me for Christmas (with a little help from Carissa’s patterns):

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

Check out the third round of Masters of Song Fu #5 over at QuickStopEntertainment.com! Manticess contributed a song called “After I Have Gone”. Other artists made songs with different titles. Go check it all out! Also: vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! (Read: you have five votes – use them wisely!)

On Wednesday evening I came up with the little melody that opens “After I Have Gone”. I wrote some lyrics on Thursday, but accidently left the paper with them at work. So when it came to record a demo for Susanne, I had to improvise a bit, because I couldn’t remember all the words. (More than 90% turned out to be ‘correct’, though.) She recorded vocals and some flutes on Friday in a bit of a hurry, because she was going to be away over the weekend. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use the flutes as they were the wrong key. They would have added quite some Christmas sparkle! Something like a string quartet had been on our mind for some time now. So I used the opportunity to arrange two violins, one viola, one cello, plus a flute. Digital copies of the original instruments had to suffice. A big thank you goes out to fellow song fuer Caleb Hines, who used his arsenal of virtual instruments and provided us with a wonderful orchestra track. I spent several hours mixing the five tracks (voice, guitar, stereo strings, keyboard bells), which is somewhat ridiculous. Still, I really enjoyed what I heard and I’m extremely content with the result.

The lyrics of the song were inspired by Richard Shindell‘s beautiful ballad “Before You Go”, which is basically God’s last words to his son before sending him to earth. I took up the narrative from Jesus’ point of view, both after he left the Heavens and after he fulfilled his mission. I’m still unhappy with the line “my memory has gone”. I had wanted to describe the way becoming human transforms his memories from heaven. But I also wanted everything to rhyme, so sacrifices were made. Also, the time constraint is at times a blessing, because it teaches you to not get lost in details.

In other news, Manticess will be playing a little gig with JODA this Friday at the university of Konstanz, IBZ II (K5 beneath the Mensa) around 19.30! Be there! We’ll be giving away free cds!

• Was macht er in Detroit? (Die Nackte Kanone 2 1/2)
• Wie war das im Mittelteil? (Ein Fisch namens Wanda)
• Ich kann nicht nach Alderaan; ich muss nach Hause. (Star Wars)
• Negativ. Wir haben ein Reaktorleck. (Star Wars)
• Keine Belohnung ist das hier wert. (Star Wars)
• Whatever. (D.E.B.S.)
• A good, solid 7.5. (Beautiful Girls)
• Setz dich. Nimm dir einen Keks. Fühl dich wie zu Hause… (Das Leben des Brian)
• Das nächste Mal schreibst du einen Aktenvermerk. (Jagd auf Roter Oktober)
• Das ist nicht Snowflake! (Ace Ventura)
• Hello, my life sucks. (She’s the Man)
• Oh boy. (She’s the Man)
• Man kann davon leben… (Crocodile Dundee)
• Na dann ist ja gut. (Ronja Räubertochter)
• Das ist mein Tanzbereich und das ist dein Tanzbereich. (Dirty Dancing)

Geschafft, aber glücklich nach einigen Stunden Tanzerei brauche ich heute zum Glück keinen langen Eintrag mehr schreiben. Ich will nur kurz auf diesen enorm lesenswerten Text vom Mann mit dem Saxophon verweisen. Da kann ich jedes Wort unterstreichen.

Wer altmodischen Progressive Rock mit schönen Melodien mag, dürfte Gefallen an “The Old Road” von Martin Orford (Vampster-Review) finden.