Everyone here knows how great German music is, but if you are anything like Valtteri and I, it’s probably not the only thing you listen to. You might have a great love of all kinds of diverse musical styles, or you might be interested in foreign music for its cultural qualities. That’s how we feel, so a few weeks ago we decided to start a new project that focuses on a different region of Europe: the Nordic countries.

There is so much great music coming out of Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland, that we just had to find a way to share it with you. So, with the help of a few friends, we are really happy to launch our new blog NordicBoom.com. Go check it out! There are already several articles that were written during the time we were building the blog and there will definitely be many more to come.

Thanks to Valtteri, Paul, and Nadja for giving NordicBoom some life!

Hi everybody,

I’m very sorry about the lack of posts this past week. I have been hit with several unexpected computer problems at the beginning of last week. Then, just one day after I got everything working again, my internet connection stopped working and it took a few more days to solve this new problem. I am glad to say that it looks like everything is working properly now, but I’m still crossing my fingers for the next few days…

The news will continue tomorrow!

-Greg

Just a little bit of news today…
May 25th marks the first birthday of GERMANIACdotcom! Technically, the site plans began before that, but the first news post was made on this day just one year ago, so this is the day we are remembering. And of course, it wouldn’t be a birthday without a proper party, so I am taking the weekend off for some celebration. We’ll be back with some more news tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone for your attention and all your support over the past year. I’m really glad to see the site doing well and being read by so many readers. Let’s make this next year even better!

De/Vision holds a remix contest for their 20th anniversary

One of the most famous synthpop acts from Germany, De/Vision has certainly performed their fair share of music for their fans over the past 2 decades. Now, to celebrate the their 20th anniversary, they are reversing the roles by holding a remix contest. Anyone with a little bit of musical talent is invited to create a remix for their song “Life Is Suffering” which is from their current album Noob. De/Vision is holding the contest in cooperation with DigitalMusician.net and they are offering several prizes including music equipment like a Roland synthesizer, a digital recorder, an effects pedal, and 5 pro memberships to DigitalMusician.net. Visit this site to sign up for the contest and get access to the original song files. All entires must be made by May 31st. Good luck!

New Oomph! album this summer

On GermanMetal.com, Joki reports that Oomph! are ready to release a new album this summer. No official release date or tracklisting has been announced yet, but it shouldn’t be too long until we hear something more. The band will also play some festivals during the summer, followed by a full length tour in November and December.

Guitarist change for 4Lyn

It was announced about a week ago that 4Lyn’s guitarist and songwriter René would be leaving the band. Sometimes when a band member leaves, it’s a sign of trouble. That’s not the case here, thankfully. René’s departure was friendly and the band respects his decision to move on. The new fourth member of the band will be Dennis, who has a big job ahead of him. 4Lyn has dozens of concerts scheduled across Germany during the next few months in support of their current album Hello. You can check the dates and the band’s music on their MySpace page.

Visit the “GERMANIACdotcom Labs” page

You may have noticed the new link in the side menu inviting you to visit the “GERMANIACdotcom Labs” page. If not, go check it out. That’s where we will keep you up to date with the progress of all our projects that are currently in development and post any new ideas we think might be a good addition to the site. Naturally, you are also invited to post your opinion in a comment there or offer a new idea that might benefit the site. As you may be aware, our current big project is the forthcoming Germaniac Shop which should be opening in a few weeks.

I’ve just created a Last.fm group for Germaniac.com. If you aren’t familiar with Last.fm, it’s a site and application that tracks what you play on your media player such as Winamp, and then creates weekly, monthly, yearly and overall charts of your listening habits. It can then recommend you similar artists you might like, and also point you in the direction of other people with tastes similar to yours. Last.fm also has some swell community tools, such as groups and forums for them. Now Germaniac.com also has its very own group for all you germaniacs!

So, come and join! You’ll be able to chat with your fellow germaniacs, see what sorts of music they listen to, recommend your own favourites to people, find new bands to listen to… All the good stuff. I hope we’ll be able to have some great fun with this! I go by the nick ruumisauto, by the way, and Greg is flammenstrahl.

If you don’t have a Last.fm account, you can sign up and download the application here. Don’t worry, the program isn’t very large and it doesn’t take much resources to keep it running.

Hi everyone, I’m just letting you know there won’t be any news posted today or tomorrow. I am headed down to Washington DC for the weekend to attend the German embassy’s open house, where Arndt Peltner from Radio Goethe will be DJing.

If you’re in the area, come join us from 10 to 3 this Saturday and take in some German culture. Full details are listed here.

See you Sunday!

New demo from Down Below

Down Below has been hard at work on material for their next album and they’ve got a lot done so far. To give fans the first preview of their new album, the band has decided to upload a demo of their new song “Frei” on their fansite DownBelow-Fans.de on May 2nd. The only catch is you have to register for the site, but that’s not hard to do.

Free web album from Rozencrantz

I first wrote about Rozencrantz’s debut album Salvation in October, and I thought it was really great. Well it seems they created some music for an indie horror movie called Infekt and released it as a free web album some time after that, and I never noticed it until now. Go check it out on the Download page of their website. You can choose from either an MP3 of WAV file download, and you can get the artwork for it too.

More release dates added

I recently finished adding some more items to the 2008 release dates page, 17 in total. May is getting pretty filled up, and I will be working on June’s releases pretty soon.

Lots of you have contacted me asking where to find certain CDs. Others have asked why Germaniac doesn’t have a shop to go along with the blog. So far, I have simply been helping those of you find whatever it is you’re looking for because a shop hasn’t really been a top priority, but the emails just keep coming. Now I’m beginning to wonder just how big the demand for an exclusively German music shop based in North America really is, and I’m asking you for the answer.

Should Germaniac.com open an online shop? If so, what should we have? Would you buy from us? And perhaps more importantly, what features would make you more likely to buy from us than from some other site?

The whole reason for this last question is because it’s very difficult and expensive to import loads of CDs from Europe and then try to offer all kinds of benefits like the lowest price in the world plus free shipping and other features like that. I would love to do all of that for you, but honestly I’m not made of gold so it’s just not possible with anything that has to be imported. Anyone who has bought music from overseas knows that it’s not exactly cheap. I want to help you get the music you want to hear and own, but I don’t want to go bankrupt doing it either. So…

What’s the best way to make this work? Do you have any ideas? Please share your opinions and answers to the questions in a comment. By doing so, you will help us create the best possible shop for everyone. Thanks!

KMFDM is re-releasing even more old music
Last month, we heard about KMFDM’s new set of releases called 24/7 where the are re-releasing one old single from the band’s back catalogue on a 7″ vinyl every month for the next 24 months. Now they are bombarding collectors with yet another group of re-releases called the Extra series. Extra is a trilogy of compilations that will contain all the rare non-album tracks KMFDM has recorded over the years. Volume 1 of the series will be a 2CD release with over 2 hours of music, although the exact tracklisting and release date have not been revealed yet.

Also, the “Don’t Blow Your Top” single from 24/7 has already sold out in the first few days of April. “More and Faster” is next and will appear in the KMFDM Store on May 1st.

ASP’s Horror Vacui book
Horror Vacui was the name of ASP’s best-of compilation that was released in February, and now there’s a Horror Vacui book to match. Inside, you will find 224 pages filled with the lyrics of ASP’s songs from 1999 to 2007 by singer and songwriter Alexander Spreng, along with short stories about their origins and inspirations. Available since March 14th, you can find the Horror Vacui book in ASP’s webshop or on Infrarot.de for the price of €19.80.

44 new items added to the release dates list
I was busy last night updating the release dates list. In total, I’ve added 44 new releases to the list, most of which are in April and May. We will definitely have a lot to talk about in the coming months!

Newsbites is a new format we’re trying for smaller topics that don’t really need a full article by itself. Let us know what you think about this by leaving a comment.

April 5th was a very big day for Germaniac.com. It was the first day ever in which more than 1000 people visited the site! The exact number for that Saturday: 1008. Sure, maybe that’s not much compared to some of the bigger sites, but I think it’s a pretty remarkable achievement for a blog that started out as little more than a random “what if” idea. I feel very honored that this blog has grown as quickly as it has and that so many people now come here for their German music news. I want to say thank you to everybody who has found Germaniac.com, especially those of you who have become regular readers. You are the reason Valtteri and I continue writing every day. After all, there would be no point to write anything if nobody read it.

Our next challenge is to have more than 1000 people read this blog every single day. This one will be a little bit harder, but I know we can do it if we work together because we have come so far already. Please help us achieve this new goal by showing your support for Germaniac.com. The very best thing you can do is to simply tell other people. You can add a link to your website or forum signature, you could post a link on your Myspace page or add us to your top friends, you could tell your friends in person, or you could get creative and do something that we haven’t even thought of yet. Feel free to send us an email and let us know how you’re telling others about Germaniac. We would love to hear from you!

Once again, a big thank you to everybody for reading the blog and for your support!