Angelas Park – Generation Monoton

Talk about a newcomer! Angelas Park from Sachsen-Anhalt was formed just three years ago in 2006, and their career has definitely started with a bang: amidst touring all over Germany with Virginia jetzt! and EL*KE, the band has won both the YOU-festival’s MySpace band award and the respected Udo-Lindenberg-Stiftung’s Panikpreis and also released an EP, Essen für die Seele. For 2009 they’re already planning some great things, like inevitable first album and of course winning the Bundesvision Song Contest. Angelas Park’s cheerily anarchistic poprock is sure to win many a heart to their favor.

Generation Monoton doesn’t unfortunately have a music video, but thanks to Raab’s show, you can check out the energetic band perform the song live here. I’m afraid the self-released EP doesn’t seem to be available anymore, but you can purchase the download-only single Generation Monoton on Musicload.de and iTunes. The band’s MySpace has a total of six full-length tracks, including Generation Monoton for you to check out. You can also download two free tracks on the official site’s Ohrwürmer section.

Rage – Gib dich nie auf

By contrast to the many young bands in the contest, by far the most long-running and well-known band outside Germany taking part in the Bundesvision is Rage, representing Nordrhein-Westfalen. Their debut was released a mighty 24 years ago under the name Avenger, and the current studio album Carved in Stone is their eighteenth studio album. Rage was there when the heavy metal scene in Germany was just emerging, and they’re still here, blasting their thrash-influenced power metal with no less ferocity than over twenty years ago. It seems to be a sort of a tradition to have at least one metal band of some sort at BuViSoCo (they also often finish with pretty high points), and this year Rage is here to fill the slot.

Gib dich nie auf is Rage’s entry piece and also the title of their latest EP. They don’t have a music video, but as always, you can see the band perform Gib dich nie auf live on Raab’s TV show here. You can also find the track on both the band’s MySpace as well as a free download (and either in English or German!) in the media section of their site. There’s also a whole load of other completely free songs for you to download, if the MySpace samples aren’t enough. The EP is exclusively available on Nuclear Blast’s webshop, and they also have the latest album and a bundle of both.

Ruben Cossani – Bis auf letzte Nacht

Although the band Ruben Cossani was formed in 2006, the forces behind it are hardcore professionals. Michael van Dyke, the frontman of the band, is a successful solo artist, producer and composer and has been working with music since the 80s, and it shows: Ruben Cossani’s debut album Tägliche Landschaft was released in February 2008 to wild critical acclaim. The band calls itself a retro-pop band, and that means they’re all about bringing the classic sounds of sixties’ pop bands back to life. The next album is already in the works and supposedly out early this year, but before that, we’ll see whether or not their interesting retro style has what it takes to win a contest full of modern German music.

In keeping with their retro principles, Ruben Cossani’s Bis auf letzte Nacht’s music video is an entertainingly archaic-looking piece, viewable here. You can also hear it on Cossani’s MySpace, or check out the player on their official site (right-hand bottom corner) where you’ll get to hear every song from the debut album. Bis auf letzte Nacht was only released as a digital download, available for example at Musicload.de, but Tägliche Landschaft can be found at least on Amazon.de.

Fotos – Du fehlst mir

Now, Niedersachsen’s representative Fotos (founded in 2005) is embracing the possibilities of the internet and Web 2.0 in a refreshingly different sort of way. Of course, they have a strong MySpace presence, but who doesn’t these days? For example, their official site is actually a photo blog, and most updates on whatever the band’s been doing are posted on their Twitter page, and the band even has a Facebook profile where updates and live dates are posted as well. Unfortunately, despite their firm grasp of internet’s different applications, they don’t practice what I would’ve liked the most – giving away at least some of their very british-sounding indie rock for free.

Fotos is coming to Bundesvision with a song from their second album, Nach dem Goldrausch, released in 2008. Du fehlst mir’s music video can be viewed here, or about a half of it can be heard on the band’s MySpace. The song was released as a digital download –only single, available for example at Musicload.de. You can also buy the full-length from Amazon.de.

Here we are with the second installation of the Bundesvision Song Contest 2009 series, presenting the next four bands that are competing for the win…

Chapeau Claque - Pandora (Kiss Miss Tragedy)

Chapeau Claque is the band representing Thüringen in the 2009 Bundesvision Song Contest and is a little-known pop band created by the singer of Zweiekkenkreis, Maria Antonia Schmidt, and is essentially a solo project with the only one “real” member of the band. Various musical elements were contributed by Northern Lite, from the 1st Decade indie record label that they share. To return the favor, she was a guest vocalist on Northern Lite’s single “Enemy”. Since Chapeau Claque’s founding in 2006, the band has released 2 albums: the 2007 debut Hand Aufs Herz, and the followup Fabelweiss released just a few months ago in October of 2008.

The band’s entry in the contest is the first track from Fabelweiss, “Pandora (Kiss Miss Tragedy)”. It will be released as a single this week on Friday, February 13th, just before the contest which is on the 16th. The single will have 2 versions of the song, plus an unreleased bonus track called “Fluss Amur”. The song itself is pretty generic soft pop-rock with some electronic elements sprinkled in. The vocals seem to be the highlight. There’s a pretty interesting music video for the song that you can watch on Youtube. The Chapeau Claque Myspace page also has additional songs to listen to.

Olli Schulz - Mach den Bibo!

The indie rock band Olli Schulz is representing the city-state of Hamburg in this year’s Bundesvision contest with their song “Mach den Bibo!” They started several years ago on the terrific indie label Grand Hotel van Cleef, but have since experienced some bigger success and moved up to Columbia. In total, they have released 3 albums and 7 singles and EPs, including “Mach den Bibo!” which will be appearing in stores this Friday the 13th. You can listen to the song in the video on the front page of Olli Schulz’s website, you just have to skip ahead past the intro/talking. There are other songs available on the band’s Myspace page. Naturally, you can pre-order the “Mach den Bibo!” single on Amazon.de.

Peter Fox - Schwarz zu Blau

Peter Fox is a musician from Berlin and is perhaps best known as one of the singers of the famous German reggae band Seeed. However, the song he currently has competing in the Bundesvision Song Contest is his own solo work and is in more of a hip-hop or rap style, a genre that has become increasingly popular in Germany in recent years. Due to his past success, Peter Fox is quite well known and should do pretty well in the contest.

His song “Schwarz zu Blau” is meant to be somewhat of a representation of Berlin’s nightlife. The music video for the song kind of goes along with this theme, but the most impressive thing about it is all of the animations that have been added in to look like moving graffiti on the walls and sidewalks and so forth. It’s definitely worth it to watch it, even if you’re not a big fan of rap. If you are, then you should definitely stop by his Myspace page and listen to some of his other songs, especially “Alles Neu” which possibly the coolest rap song ever. A “Schwarz zu Blau” 2-track single is available on Amazon.de

Flowin Immo et les Freaqz - Urlaub am Attersee

Flowin Immo et les Freaqz is described as a rap group, which may be somewhat true, but that description is simply too simplistic to capture their true sound. I would say they are more like electrofunk… like some kind of a combination of old school Afrika Bambaataa and modern day electroclash. It’s definitely an interesting entry for Bremen.

Unfortunately, their website is pretty much useless (and very strange), and they seem to be pretty unknown to most people, so we’ll have to leave it at that. But you can watch the music video for “Urlaub am Attersee” and find the single on Amazon.de here if you’re into it.

The 19-year-old pop rocker LaFee has already achieved what many musicians twice her age are still just dreaming of: at the age of sixteen, she released her debut album which just happened to immediately blast its way right into the position #1 on the official sales charts in both Germany and Austria. She’s definitely been working on a tight schedule, as her fourth full-length Ring frei saw the light of day hot on the heels of the new year on January 2nd. She has also somehow squeezed in two live DVDs and a documentation, and of course a load of singles and music videos. Talk about prolific. However, LaFee has been accused of being just another case of EMI’s thoroughly planned-out products, even though the musician herself contributes a lot to both the compositions and the lyrics. I think I’ll have to side with the critics on this one, as the pop-polish and mainstream appeal is quite apparent, especially in LaFee’s earlier output. The newest album, however, seems considerably more interesting with a notably more distinctive, heavier and darker style. In any case, it’s not like it’s illegal to enjoy well-crafted pop music, so more information follows.

Because samples of the whole new album are nowhere to be found for some reason, the best way to get an idea of LaFee’s current style would not be to check out LaFee’s official MySpace, as it hasn’t been updated since last year and only has older tracks there. On the other hand, the (fansite?) LaFee-Holland MySpace hosts two complete songs from Ring frei and some older songs as well. You can also catch the music video for Ring frei.

Ring frei is available on at least Amazon.de and Alphamusic for 13,99 €. The title song was also released as a single last November in two versions, a basic one and a fan edition with a lot of video material. Both versions come with a poster. Amazon.de has both versions, and so does Alphamusic.

Tracklisting behind the jump.

(more…)

What I really like about Christmas music-wise is that a lot of bands suddenly get all generous and allow people to download stuff for free. So does Silbermond, who are giving away the title track off from their upcoming album Nichts passiert. Nichts passiert, which will be released sometime early next year, is the band’s third album, and expectations are high: the latest album Laut gedacht was a smash hit in 2006, grabbing the number one position of the official sales charts in Germany and Austria, as well as the third place in Switzerland. It seems Silbermond’s energetic pop-rock goes rather well down in their home country, as the album has sold over 800 000 copies, granting it quadruple platinum status. The band has definitely come far from their humble beginnings in the TEN SING music project of Germany’s YMCA, where the band members met each other in 1998.

You’ll be able to download the free song Nichts passiert starting tomorrow until 28th this month on Silbermond’s website in the audio section. Silbermond’s MySpace also has three full-length live tracks and their latest single song Das Ende vom Kreis for you to listen. Amazon.de has both of Silbermond’s albums for sale, the debut Verschwende deine Zeit for 16,95 € and Laut gedacht for 12,45 €.

Curse feat. Silbermond

In addition to preparing for the release of their own album next year, Silbermond recently collaborated with the German rapper Curse. The song Bis zum Schluss featuring Silbermond can be found on the critically lauded album Freiheit which was released three months ago on 26th September, or as a single. You can check out the video for Bis zum Schluss here, or listen to half the song on Curse’s MySpace, where you can also catch some other tracks if you’d like to get to know the rapper better. Bis zum Schluss is available at least on Amazon.de for for 3,95 € or 5,95 € for the premium edition.

Thanks to Jutta for reminding me about Silbermond!

Also, for my part, it’s happy holidays to every single one of you! Just a couple more left, we’ll make it…

Monkeeman is an up and coming pop-rock (or powerpop, as they prefer to call it) band from Berlin. Their first two albums were received enthusiastically, even getting mentioned in the international media, and now they are back with their third album Life In The Backseat which was just released on August 15th. Band leader Ralf Luebke says the album was inspired by his early years growing up and deals with suburban life, frustration, greed and anger, giving the album a slight punk attitude as well.

You can listen to 2 songs from Life In The Backseat on Monkeeman’s MySpace page, “Lonely Guy” and “In It For The Money”, the latter of which I’d say is the best one. AlphaMusic.de also has brief samples from every song. If you like it, you can also buy it there for a very reasonable 10.99 Euros.

Monkeeman - Life In The Backseat tracklisting
01. In it for the money
02. Lonely guy
03. Socialism
04. Backstreet
05. Staring at a TV screen
06. Under the moon
07. I know a girl
08. Things wont get any better
09. Town of the lost
10. Holes in the snow
11. City lights

“Still Love You” is the second track off Die Happy’s new album VI, and it’s also the band’s second single for that album. The single, which is released today, contains 4 songs including a 2 different versions of “Still Love You”, the non-album song “Kill Me” and a live version of “Standing Strong”. There are also 2 music videos, one for “Still Love You” and the other for the band’s previous single “Peaches”.

You can either listen to samples of the 4 songs or buy the single for 5.99 Euros from AlphaMusic.de, one of our favorite German music sites.

Die Happy - Still Love You maxi single tracklist
01. Still Love You (New album version)
02. Kill Me
03. Standing Strong (Live and unplugged)
04. Still Love You
05. Still Love You (Video)
06. Peaches (Video)

Tokio Hotel is already a controversial band among many Germaniacs simply because of their sheer popularity, boy band branding scheme, and perhaps even their bizarre fashion styles. But that doesn’t discount the fact that they are indeed a German band, so they are worth mentioning here… if for nothing else than to help make our coverage a little more well-rounded.

If you’re not already familiar with Tokio Hotel, this is the 4 piece pop-rock band that has been making headlines all across Germany and Europe, and has even performed a few successful concerts here in the United States already. Now their current album Scream is ready to be released in the USA as well. It will be on the shelves on Tuesday, May the 6th.

Not to be confused with their debut album Schrei (which means “Scream”), this new album has songs selected from Tokio Hotel’s first 2 albums which were both sung in German, and simply translates them into English to make them appeal to a wider audience. This decision is certainly not without debate, however. There’s actually an online petition with thousands of signatures from their fans asking Tokio Hotel to stop singing in English. And while that might be a nice way to preserve some cultural value in the music, it’s not likely to happen. Their label (Universal) is no doubt more interested in reaping the rewards of their new star band, especially in an environment where it is becoming harder and harder to profit from them.

So what does that leave us with? A bunch of teenagers from Germany trying as hard as possible to Americanize themselves so they can sing in front of thousands of screaming girls. Not quite my cup of tea. Hmmm… You can hear them here if you must.

Tokio Hotel - Scream (US edition) tracklisting
01. Scream
02. Ready, Set, Go!
03. Monsoon
04. Love is Dead
05. Don’t Jump
06. Live Every Second (U.S. Exclusive)
07. On the Edge
08. Sacred
09. Break Away
10. Rescue Me
11. Final Day
12. Forgotten Children
13. By Your Side
14. 1000 Oceans (Bonus Song)
15. Durch den Monsun (Bonus Song - German Version from “Schrei” Studio CD)

Originally founded in 1993, Die Happy is a pop-rock band from Ulm that has come to be popular across Germany. Adding to the success of their own music, the band’s singer Marta Jandová is well known for her guest performances with the likes of In Extremo, Apocalyptica, and even on Oomph’s song “Träumst Du” which won the 2007 Bundesvision song contest. Most recently, Die Happy has been working on material for a new album.

They just released that album yesterday, April the 18th. It’s called VI and, you guessed it, it’s their 6th album. Well, not exactly. See, that’s the weird thing about this… VI is actually Die Happy’s 9th album, but I guess they don’t care enough about their first 3 self-released albums to even include them as part of their discography. It’s a real shame that they are completely disregarding all that hard work from their past that got them to where they are today. But anyway, yeah, it’s called VI and it’s in stores now.

Listen to the whole album
On a more positive note, you can listen to all 13 songs from the standard version of VI on Die Happy’s MySpace page. If you want to buy the album, you might also consider the limited edition digipack option that comes with a bonus DVD of live and unplugged videos.

Where to buy it
If you’re fortunate enough to be in Europe, you can take advantage of the huge end-of-winter sale that EMP.de is currently having. VI isn’t discounted because it’s new, but be sure to shop around for lots of other awesome releases including some older Die Happy albums that are really cheap right now. For anyone in North America, it looks like the best solution is to order it from Amazon.de.

Die Happy - “Peaches” music video
Here’s the music video for VI’s first single “Peaches” which was released a few weeks ago on March 28th.

Die Happy - VI tracklisting
01. Around The World
02. Still Love You
03. Don’t You
04. Peaches
05. Easy Come Easy Go
06. Sweet Sensation
07. You’ll Never Know
08. Hysteria
09. New York - Tokyo
10. Wannabe
11. Genuine Venus
12. Coming Home
13. The End
14. Frozen Tears (hidden bonus track)

Bonus DVD (on limited edition only)
01. Intro
02. Hello
03. Violent Dreams
04. Breathing
05. Perfect
06. Everyday’s A Weekend
07. Supersonic Speed
08. Slow Day
09. Wanna Be Your Girl
10. The Ordinary Song
11. Still Standing Strong
12. On My Way

There’s still some time before any major releases in March, so I’m actually going to tell you about a few of the other interesting February releases that I missed…

Down Below - Sand In Meiner Hand MCD and Sinfony 23 re-release
Down Below is a relatively new gothic pop-rock band that started out in 2003. After gaining some popularity with their first 2 albums, they entered the 2008 Bundesvision Song Contest with their new single “Sand In Meiner Hand”. It was the band’s first German-language song, everything else they have done so far has been in English. When the contest was held on February 14th, Down Below only came in 3rd place (Subway To Sally won), but nevertheless the new single was released the next day on the 15th. Their latest album, 2007’s Sinfony 23, was also re-released on the same day with “Sand In Meiner Hand” and a few extra remixes added as bonus tracks. You can find the new single either on DownBelow.de or the band’s MySpace page, along with several other songs from Sinfony 23.

Die Apokalyptischen Reiter - Tobsucht-Reitermania over Wacken & Party.San
Die Apokalyptischen Reiter released a live album on the 1st of February. As the full name suggests, Tobsucht sports footage from the band’s performances at the Wacken Open Air festival and the Party.San festival and is available in 3 versions. There is an audio version with 2 CDs containing 90 minutes of live music, there is a DVD version with 180 minutes of concert footage, and there is a combined version with both of the CDs and the DVD plus a special booklet and packaging. Die Apokalyptischen Reiter have 2 songs from this live album on their MySpace page. Check it out if you’re into some crazy thrash metal.

Technically, I should have posted this yesterday, but I got a bit carried away with other things. In any event, there are 3 new releases that just came out yesterday (Friday, January 25th) that I think are worth mentioning…

1 - Sara Noxx and Project Pitchfork - Earth Song
First of all, Project Pitchfork has teamed up with the singer Sara Noxx for a special single called Earth Song. Both acts are already well known in the German electronic scene, so the two of them working together should only make fans more excited. Sounds good so far. As you may have guessed from the title, “Earth Song” is a message about the environment and states the musicians’ position about what is (or what is not) being done to help it. A strong message behind the song, another plus. From the looks of things, Earth Song should be really great. But unfortunately, I think they have over-promised and under-delivered with this one. Of course this is my own personal opinion, but I just don’t think the music cuts it. For a song that is so meaningful, it should really leave an impact. That just doesn’t happen though. The music is boring, it didn’t even get me to move my head or tap my foot, and you can’t hear the lyrics which are supposed to have such significance. I’m sorry to say it, but I am terribly disappointed.

Head over to Sara Noxx’s MySpace page to have a 2-minute listen. Maybe you can convince me that it’s better than I think.

Sara Noxx and Project Pitchfork - Earth Song single tracklisting
1. Earth Song - Radio Edit
2. Earth Song - Original Version
3. Earth Song - Joachim Witt’s London Mix
4. Earth Song - Tanzwut’s Teufel Remix
5. Earth Song - Cat Rapes Dog’s All Hail Ishtar Mix
6. Earth Song - Subway to Sally’s Ready to Kill Mix

2 - 4lyn - Hello
It is now a few months after 4lyn’s single “Hello (For You I’m Dying)” introduced us to some of the music, and now their new full length album Hello has been released. This album is nothing like the band’s previous hardcore metal-influenced music. Instead, Hello is pretty much your typical modern day “alternative” rock aimed at teenage boys who wear their pants too tight. They have gone totally soft and I don’t like it at all. But who am I to judge? I’m not part of their audience. If you are, you would probably like listening to their new music.

4lyn - Hello tracklisting
01. The grind
02. Shadow valley
03. Hello (for you I’m dying)
04. World’s gone crazy
05. Too munch of everything
06. Nostalgia
07. Lovemaker/Soulshaker
08. The jumpoff
09. This heart
10. Cowboys

3 - Hämatom - Wut
I saved the best for last. Hämatom is a relatively new metal band hailing from the heart of Germany. After releasing their debut album Nein! in 2005, they are back for a second round. Their new album Wut is packed to the brim with thrashingly heavy guitar riffs and intensely pounding drums, all backed by good old German lyrics. It’s nothing revolutionary, but if you are a true fan of German metal, you have to hear this album. Go to Hämatom’s MySpace page and appease your inner headbanger with the 6 full length songs they have available, all from their new album Wut. You can also listen to some more MP3 samples from all the songs (and buy it for a pretty good price) on AlphaMusic.de.

Hämatom - Wut tracklist
01. Los Gehts
02. Leck Mich!
03. Fremd
04. Das Schwarze Schaf
05. Schmerz
06. Ihr Kotzt Mich An
07. Mit Dem Kopf Durch Die Wand
08. Freier Fall
09. Bow
10. Homo Sapiens
11. Solange Ich Noch Kann
12. Vorspiel
13. Sechs
14. Willkommen Im Nichts