Wiggy Giggy Giggy Wiggy, Wiggy Giggy, Giggy

Yesterday, I was out and about without a coat, sunglasses on, strolling around Mitte longing for this type of weather to be more consistent. Do I have any regular readers? Doubt it, but if you are, then you’ve been starved of my ramblings for almost 2 months now. Well, the past 8 weeks have been life changing. I’m still trying to come to terms with what’s happened, and will probably write something when I feel the time is right. But, if you know me, or follow me on a popular photo sharing application, then you’ll know already.

Anyhow, life goes on.

Music has been one thing keeping me going.
There’s been a lot of new stuff that I’ve discovered lately, both new and old. Feels like it’s been a strong start to the year, despite not really knowing about many new releases. Here are some new albums that I’m enjoying:

• Shame – Songs of Praise
• Nils Frahm – All Melody
• Daniel Avery – Slow Fade EP
• Hookworms – Microshift
• The Lovely Eggs – This Is Eggland
• Go-Kart Mozart – Mozart’s Mini-Mart
• Field Music – Open Here

There’s more! MGMT‘s latest, Little Dark Age isn’t that bad. Clean, by Soccer Mommy, is definitely worth your time, and Franz Ferdinand returned with Always Ascending – an album I wasn’t bothered about I’m honest, but after hearing a few tracks on the radio, I gave the album a go. Pretty decent.

Every once in a while, I’ll give a new album a listen, and later find out the band or artist in question, has in fact been releasing music for 3 decades and I’m too late to the party. Either Marc Riley or Gideon Coe, maybe both, have been playing some tracks from the new Go-Kart Mozart record on 6Music. One of them was also talking about a documentary called Lawrence Of Belgravia a few weeks back, but whilst I was busy playing Zelda, half listening to the radio, I didn’t really pick up on what it was about. Turns out the guy behind Go-Kart Mozart has an extensive back catalog and is in fact the focal point of that documentary, Lawrence Of Belgravia.

Lawrence, whose surname has never been verified, was the former frontman in Felt – who released about 10 albums in the 1980s alone; and Denim, who released 3 records between 1992–1997, before forming Go-Kart Mozart. I had no idea where to start listening as there are so many, when you know nothing where do you begin? Denim – Back In Denim [1992], is excellent, and Felt – Crumbling the Antiseptic Beauty [1982], is also a very good listen. I’ll be sure to listen to a few more over the coming weeks.
Oh, and if anyone knows where I can watch the documentary, get in touch. Seems quite hard to come by.

There are a lot of gigs coming up in Berlin that I’d like to go to, but with a 2-week trip to Japan just 10 days away, I can’t really justify buying tickets right now. Baxter Dury, Yo La Tengo, No Age and Noel Gallagher are all here in the coming months.

I’ve managed to get to 2 gigs so far this year.

Wild Beasts – Saturday 17th February 2018 @ Eventim Apollo, London
I was back in London a few weeks ago, and ended up meeting my good friend James Keable for a late afternoon pint. Turns out it was his birthday, Wild Beasts were playing their last ever gig, and he had a spare ticket. No brainer really. I’d only ever seen Wild Beasts at festivals before, quite a few times in fact, so it was good to finally see them at their own show. Just a shame it was the last one. A career spanning set, with material off all 5 albums. Very enjoyable.

Liam Gallagher – Monday 5th March 2018 @ Columbiahalle, Berlin
This was the third time I’d seen LG in under 12 months. It was everything you’d expect it to be. His last performance in Berlin – at some weird Radioeins event, no one really cared he was on the bill. This time around was the complete opposite. The place was full of British people. The only German I heard all evening was from the venue staff. Strong coat game. More Oasis tunes. Attitude. Flying beer. I know it’s not everyones cup of tea, but I’ll never tire of him, and after the 8 weeks I’ve had, I needed a concert like this.

As I mentioned, I’m off to Japan at the end of next week. I might write a post about parts of the trip. We’ll see.