Midnight Monsoon

We’re in the midst of a glorious few weeks for German music releases. Silbermond released a new album, Himmel auf, on March 22. There is not a bad song on it. Absolutely beautiful. Some of them tend to sound rather alike—it’s a more introspective, mellow album as a whole than some of the band’s earlier records—but who cares. They have clearly been honing their songwriting powers in the studio; track after track transports you into a cathartic, heart-bursting heaven of melodic pop rock, from the soulful title track to the breathtaking ballad “Ja.”

Here’s an amazing, stripped-down live rendition of “Ja”:

The album unfortunately is not available at the moment on US iTunes, so I went ahead and ordered it from Amazon.de – and since I was going to import it anyway, I figured I might as well grab the deluxe version. Possibly the best value I have ever gotten with an album purchase. This thing is a work of art. Beautifully crafted box containing a postcard set and two books. One is a hardcover book with photos, lyrics, the CD itself and a live DVD from the 2010 “Nichts Passiert” tour in Münster, which I was lucky enough to see in Kamenz. The second is a spiral-bound book with more gorgeous photos, the guitar chords to the songs on Himmel auf, the audio CD from the live concert DVD, and a special DVD with a video of guitar demonstrations from Thomas, a making-of video, and piano notes to five songs as a PDF file. I was totally blown away by the quality that went into the design of this box set, and would definitely recommend buying it if you’re into Silbermond.

In other awesome news, Die Toten Hosen released the EP Tage wie diese, also on March 22, which contained the first single off their upcoming album Ballast der Republik, which drops on May 4, ALONG with a full album of cover songs in celebration of their 30th anniversary as a band, titled Die Geister, die wir riefen. I don’t know what kind of frenzied productivity got into all my favorite bands in the past year or so, but I’m liking it! (American punk legends Green Day, who have always reminded me of Die Toten Hosen, recently announced they will be releasing a trilogy of albums between September and January. Does this relate to German music? No. Is it fantastic? Yes.)

The intensely rad music vid for DTH “Tage wie diese”:

To round out the ranks of legendary German bands releasing new material, Die Ärzte just came out with their latest, entitled Auch. The album is available on iTunes for $11 in an enhanced LP form, with accompanying music videos for all the songs. Good stuff! I can’t stop laughing at the lyrics to “Ist das noch Punkrock?,” which parody a tough punk guy’s fears over his emotional softening after he falls in love. Also hysterical—each music video starts with a short comic vignette based around three streetwalkers on Berlin’s Oranienburger Straße, which is right by my former study abroad center. Too funny.

We’ll definitely be playing a selection of this new material, along with lots of other great stuff, on the show this Sunday, Apr. 12! Tune in at 11 PM Pacific time, on the dial at KWCW 90.5 FM Walla Walla, or open http://208.76.152.76:8000/listen.pls to listen online through our livestream. Bis dann!

LG