madhatter’s coffee.

The Arkwrights. Excellent Indie-Britpop. Smart. Straight. No needless pomp. Not Arcade Fire.

The Arkwrights do straight rock. Something between Franz Ferdinand and Dirty Pretty Things. Complicated riffs are an unsolved riddle for the guitarist but the melodies are simple and always near to an earhook. Not too near. Not too common. Tight and fast. A supercharged mini-cooper.

They won’t last for decades I know. But it’s britpop that is still unhyped. Maybe a feature would destroy that fragile simplicity.

The texts. Huh. Who cares for content, anyways?

Listen at their myspace-page or in a better quality on the Mercedes Benz Mixed Tape 16.

technorati tags:arkwrights, indie, review

Yesterday I went to a concert of Nouvelle Vague. And I found out that I can predict future. Better than Stephen’s precogs. Without lying in some luminous liquid equipped with drugs. My drugs were music and I predict that this wasn’t the last time that I went to a concert with Nouvelle Vague on stage.

I must confess I still can’t decide which one of the two singers is myfavorite. Melanie with her raspy voice who never seems to take herselfserious. Standing in stage, beginning each song casting a bamby-eyed look to the audience and on the point when every avarage musician starts to get excessivly pathetic she just smiles her ironic smile and turns away.

But if you ever wanted to see Tom Waits after sex reversal on stage you gotta see Phoebe. She does not only claim to listen to Tom Waits records since the age of eight, she also sound like the smoking, drinkig, coughing, swearing, female version of the great Tom.

The strange thing is, that those two voices are wrapped into the soothing sounds of Oliver Libaux and Marc Collin. Post-punk 80’s sound covered in a mixture of Jamaikan ska, Brasilian samba and Haitian voodo. But what is the strangest thing of all, is: You can get a whole hall grooving on this shit.

Which is quite a difficult task if your on stage in Stuttgart. Germany must be chastisement to most bands. A hall, an audience of approximately 500 and all they do is teet their feet on the floor. And they were giving a really cool show. Such a good show that even this audience in the end could not stop to demand encore.

Unfortunately it may take some time till they start a second tour. Next stops are Catania, Milan and Rome. For those who missed this time: go on concert.

Usually I don’t do provocative headlines sounding like the snot sniffing reply of a five year old. But it had to be.

I’m not gonna bash Arcade Fire because the music is the most dreadful I have ever heard since Queen. No. But, can anyone, Rene or Nico or Andreas tell my, what in Gods name is so magically in these songs that the only thing you produce is stammering?

My mother listened to Bruce Springsteen, guys. I mean, he is really god. But his songs are glamurous and sweet like my old grandma’s pillbox. Their charisma compares to the aura of a saint and they groove as much as a warm applepie. With cream.

No. Arcade Fire is milk and honey. Warm. And against illness. Rock sounds another way.

For those who still don’t believe it – listen.

Additional Pulp: And song titles like ‘Anicrist Television Blues’ are blatant enough to give me the heebie-jeebies – but they don’t add no fucking zest.

technorati tags:aracade, fire

OK. I found my alter ego. I am doubled by Brent Sienna. And I hail to his great Steevness. The iPhone has come upon us. A revelation.
When I followed the big Masters Keynote on Engaget and MacRumors I simply freaked out. I overdid it in such a way, that every single person in the room quit and left me alone. But hey. The iPhone is simply kool. No, it ain’t just kool. It’s the thing I’ve been waiting for years. I didn’t know, that I am a Switcher, but nonetheless: if it hadn’t been Apple introducing this THING, I would have hailed anyone. Now I am hailing Steeve.
He said one simple sentence during his keynote.

It’s the internet in your pocket for the first time ever.

And it is. David Pogue says. It must be. Say what you want. I confess to geekdom. And I’m going to save my money till iPhone-Day. Which is in approximately nine months. A lot of time. An awful lot of money. It’s worth it.

I took a creative pause for over a week to find new topics – frankly just because nothing happens to me: all friends are doing vacation and I am sitting at home waiting for work to begin. What a marvelous perspective.
Well, now I got a new topic to talk shit about; things I always wanted to comment on but never did. Because they even could be called ancient so everybody already read tons of repeating information and thus my very personal view would only be one more piece of useless bullshit.
However, because this is madhatter’s blog and I am going to be as excentric as my fictional role model, I will talk shit which you and me would both define completely unneccessary – another cup of coffee? Some biscuits?
The Rainbow Orchid is a Webcomic dealing with the typical Indiana Jones-Adventure Style including the “It belongs in a museum”-part. The main story winds around a young guy called ‘Julíus Chancer’ who astonishingly resembles to ‘Tintin’. The “It belongs to a museum”-part comes into action when Julius starts to search for the – guess what? – Rainbow Orchid, ignoring his lamenting mentor and teacher Sir Alfred Catesby-Grey. But I am not going to retell the whole story.
As Julius resembles to Hergé’s Tintin, the whole comic is held in the ‘ligne-claire’-style. Garen Ewing, the creator, even states that it was a concious decision to use the ligne-claire. Nevertheless, Rainbow orchid in some strips lacks the dynamic of Hergé’s original. Some of the scenes look rather static though the action implies a very dynamic movements. Maybe the curly lines Hergé used to indicate fast movements would enhance the style – but heck knows, I am no instance.
But it is worth to cast a look at it. The project officially runs since 1998 but the homepage wasn’t created befir 2003. And if he does an update, it is always a pleasure to look at, although it is only one panel. Which leads back to the start – don’t worry lads, I’m trying to stay up-to-date. And if I don’t there is always some lad reminding me to do so.