If you’re a big Rammstein fan, you probably know that the band’s name was inspired by a tragic airshow accident that occured at the Ramstein airbase. It happened 20 years ago on this day, August 28th, 1988, in what was West Germany at the time. The Italian Air Force’s show team Frecce Tricolori was performing a maneuver known as the “pierced heart” when 3 planes suddenly collided in mid-air and plunged into the crowd below. Sadly, 70 people were killed including the 3 pilots, and an additional 346 spectators were seriously injured.

Let’s take a moment to remember this event and the people who died on that day. Then, get our your Herzeleid CD and listen to the song “Rammstein” which was created in memory of this disaster. Music always sounds better when you know what emotions inspired it.

New Atrocity video and stadium appearance
We’re getting a double dose of news from Atrocity today. First of all, they recently filmed a new music video for the song “The Sun Always Shines On TV” from their current album Werk 80 II. The song is a metal interpretation of the Norwegian synthpop band a-ha’s 1985 single. Personally, I don’t think either the song or the video are that great so I’m not going to post it here, but you can still watch it on Youtube if you want.

Second, Atrocity will appear at the Gottlieb Daimler Stadium on May 17th for the VfB Stuttgart vs. Arminia Bielefeld final soccer match. The game is sold out which means they will be playing in front of 56,000 people, quite an experience I can imagine.

Wumpscut’s Schädling out in America today
Just a quick reminder to all Wumpscut fans in the USA and Canada: Schädling was just released here today on Metropolis Records. We have been keeping up pretty well with the news about this latest release from Rudy Ratzinger, so check out my post with the tracklisting and other details or Valtteri’s review of the Schädlingsbox if you haven’t been there already.

4lyn is heading to China
Yesterday, 4lyn announced on their website that they will be travelling to the Chongqing region of China to participate in a the German Cultural Weeks during May. They also plan to return to Chongqing, which is one of the most populated areas in China, for next year’s events. These cultural programs are being planned by the Goethe Institut to promote cultural exchange between the countries.

Piscide is now available on iTunes
The German electro-industrial band Piscide just released their second album Elekktroshokk a few weeks ago on March 14th, but it was only available as a physical CD. Now you can find Piscide’s music on iTunes if you prefer to download MP3s instead.

Last friday I picked up a large parcel from my local post office. Guess what it contained?

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Yep, the limited box edition of the electro-industrial legend :Wumpscut:’s record for 2008. It was one of those “well, why the hell not”, spur-of-the-moment impulse buys, the first :W: box I’ve bought. What wonders could await inside?

Find out just what, a review of the album and more behind the link!
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Documentary about Einstürzende Neubauten planned
The Berlin-based film maker Uli Schueppel is planning a documentary about Einstürzende Neubauten’s first concert which took place on December 21st, 1989 in what was then East Berlin. This should be really interesting to see when it’s completed, but for now Uli is in search of anyone who attended that concert and who can provide some additional information for his documentary. Anyone who can help should contact him at info@schueppel-films.de.

Diary Of Dreams has a clothing collection
I don’t know how old this news is, but it caught me by surprise as I was browsing Infrarot.de. Apparently Diary Of Dreams has launched a clothing line in association with the gothic clothing company Aderlass. They have several different styles of jackets, trench coats, pants and skirts available. You can see them all on Infrarot.de here, but I have to warn you, they are pretty expensive. The prices range from €89.90 to €239.90.

Lacrimosa begins work on new album
Lacrimosa, the Swiss gothic metal band headed up by Tilo Wolff, has begun working on their next album. This will be the band’s 10th studio album since they formed in 1990, and their first major release since their 2007 live album Lichtjahre. If you’re in Europe, be sure to catch one of their upcoming concerts or the Blackfield Festival in Gelsenkirchen where they will be headlining.

Dependent Records announced it would be shutting down operations back in August 2007 after owner Stefan Herwig said MP3 file sharing was eating away his business. Now he is acting as the tour manager for Seabound’s upcoming U.S. tour and has posted an open invitation for anyone across the country to sit down with him and have a debate about file sharing during the off-hours of the tour. If you are interested in voicing your opinion in person to Stefan and perhaps having a bit of an argument, send him an email at stefan@dependent.de and let him know.

Personally, I think this is just the wrong discussion to be having. Arguing for or against file sharing is pointless. Illegal music downloading is not going to go away, so you have to adapt to it. You can’t fight it. It’s like a new rule in the game called the music industry. You can’t play a new game by the old rules, so record labels and bands have to change how they play the game in order to remain successful. Stefan really should be asking people what changes should be made so that downloading is no longer considered a problem. That would be worth talking about.

News via the Side-Line blog

Every year since 2004, the European Commission has given several of the most internationally successful European musicians the European Border Breakers Award at the MIDEM music conference in Cannes, France. The ceremony for this year’s awards was conducted earlier today with a total of 10 recipients, each from a different country in the EU. The winner from Germany this year is a musician named Cascada.

You may be forgiven if you didn’t have any idea who that is until today (I didn’t know, either) because we usually focus on the less mainstream artists here, but I thought this award was worth mentioning today. So for those of you who don’t know, Cascada is a “eurodance” group led by singer Natalie Horler. They have had a number of hits in the past few years, with their 2005 single “Everytime We Touch” hitting #1 on several charts around the world including the US Dance charts. their most recent hit was “What Hurts The Most” from 2007, which also hit #1.

If you’re curious, you can hear some of Cascada’s music on their MySpace page.

Instead of my usual German music news post, I thought a brief chat about the music industry in general would be more gratifying tonight. As I’m sure you know, record labels have been falling apart ever since the internet made MP3 file sharing easy. But that’s not their only problem. If anything, file sharing was just the jumpstart the world needed to start thinking more closely about the music industry as a whole. The biggest topic in the news lately involves the terrible relationships between labels and their musicians. Bands around the world seem to be looking for any opportunity to leave their label behind. It’s easy to see why after reading this enlightening article.

A clip from “The life and crimes of the music biz” by Simon Napier-Bell from Guardian.co.uk.

A contract with a major record company was always a 90 per cent guarantee of failure. In the boardroom the talk was never of music, only of units sold. Artists were never the product; the product was discs - 10 cents’ worth of vinyl selling for $10 - 10,000 per cent profit - the highest mark-up in all of retail marketing. Artists were simply an ingredient, without even the basic rights of employees.

Imagine the outcry if people working in a factory were told that the cost of the products they were making would be deducted from their wages, which anyway would only be paid if the company managed to sell the products. Or that they would have to work for the company for a minimum of 10 years and, at the company’s discretion, could be transferred to any other company at any time.

Any suggestions? I have one, but it’s not going to be easy to swallow. Continue reading to see what it is.
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You may have noticed that it has been nearly five years since Wolfsheim’s most recent album, Casting Shadows, released in 2003. During that time, Wolfsheim’s founder Markus Reinhardt has been trying to move the band ahead with new work, but the band’s singer Peter Heppner has since announced his ambitions for an extensive solo career. In late 2005, he signed a multi-album contract with Warner Music for his own music. Upon hearing this, Markus considered it a breach of contract and a disregard for the basic interests of Wolfsheim because Peter’s new plans did not allow the production of a new Wolfsheim album until 2010. He filed a lawsuit against Peter at the Regional Court of Hamburg to have him excluded from the Wolfsheim partnership so that the band could continue without him. The court tried to negotiate a more peaceful arrangement, but it was just not possible. Their final decision for the lawsuit will be announced sometime this Spring.

It is always very unfortunate when such talented musicians who worked so well together in the past suddenly cannot resolve their differences without a court battle. Every musician’s career develops and changes over time, and all good things must come to an end eventually. Sometimes, you just have to quit what you’re doing and move on to a different project, but Peter Heppner seems not to understand this. His desire to stay with Wolfsheim during all of this was just unreasonable, he cannot expect his bandmate Markus to wait several more years before he makes some time for Wolfsheim again. Peter should have just accepted that his time with Wolfsheim was over and left peacefully when he signed such a major deal for his solo work. Markus may not have been happy about it, but at least Peter would have been more polite and considerate of someone he has worked closely with for so many years. That’s the way I see it.

There is a full press release (PDF file) that was released yesterday on Wolfsheim’s website that explains the entire situation in detail. I’ll keep you updated about the final court decision and the future of both bands in the coming months.

I know, you probably read the title of this post and wondered why on Earth I’m writing about how to mail a CD. How hard can it be? Who could possibly mess up the simple act of sending a piece of mail? Let me be the first person to tell you that a suprisingly high number of people, even some CD retailers, don’t have a clue about properly protecting a fragile CD and its case as it travels through the mail. This post is the result of years of frustration with people who just don’t do it right. I have both heard about and experienced countless horror stories of boxes arriving heavily damaged, jewel cases turning into shards of plastic, and packages torn open with missing contents never to be found again. Let me give you some examples.

3 horror stories
Yesterday, I noted that the German music retailer EMP.de no longer mails items to the United States. Why not? They carelessly packed numerous customers’ orders which resulted in lots of people complaining to them about damaged goods, and the problem was exacerbated by the fact that many Americans make large “mass orders” of CDs from Germany due to the high shipping costs per order. I remember several years ago, one of my orders from them arrived in a box that was way too big for what I bought. The CDs were flying around loose inside the box with no protection, causing lots of damage. They also failed to tape the box properly which allowed a seam in the box to open up, big enough for a CD to fit through. Fortunately, nothing actually fell out of that box.

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Well here’s some interesting German music news: It looks like the German rockers from Pesticide will be getting their music featured in a new porno called Punkd Ur Ass. The film’s director, Matt Zane, is the frontman of the band Society 1 and likes to film rock-themed pornography in his spare time (apparently in the backstage areas of his band’s shows, too). Previous flicks in the series have had guest appearances from well known musicians like Jonathan Davis, Fred Durst, and Mark McGrath, while Punkd Ur Ass will guest star Dave Navarro from bands like Jane’s Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. That’s one way to promote their music, I can’t blame them for not thinking outside the box.

If you’re interested, you can watch the trailer for Punkd Ur Ass. Be sure to check out Pesticide’s music on their MySpace page, too.