Reading about Ian Broudie‘s contribution as producer to my last Ohrwurm: The Coral Dreaming Of You, has given me another, The Lightning Seeds – Pure.
I remember buying the single on 7″ from a newsagent that was selling off old Jukebox records and driving my parents mad by playing the song on repeat.
For me, it’s a great song to banish the cold in Berlin and focus on the sun in the sky and imagine it’s a beautiful spring day.
The Lightning Seeds – Pure
The Coral – Dreaming of you has been an Ohrwurm for at least a week now and last night I heard it at Rock n Roll Bingo at White Trash Fast Food.
The song, released in 2002, was taken from the band’s debut album and was produced by Ian Broudie of The Lightning Seeds fame.
The Coral – Dreaming Of You
The refrain from Die Toten Hosen – “Tage wie diese” has been my Ohrwurm for days, though I found out on the weekend that I had completely the wrong lyrics in mind.
This was one of the songs that was played at Schmankerl-Hüttn and has stuck with me after it closed.
The video mixes live footage and studio shots of the band, with a few shots from Berlin thrown in for good measure – for instance, The Berlin Holi Open Air features a fair bit.
The name of the band ‘Die Toten Hosen’ literally translated is the ‘The Dead Trousers’ – a German term used to describe a person or an event as ‘boring’, it can also mean ‘nothing going on’ and is therefore used as a slang term for ‘impotent’.
Tote Hose is just one of many German terms that has been explained on Twitter with #dailydeutsch – a hashtag created by the folks over at überlin to help people learn German.
Die Toten Hosen – “Tage wie diese”
Today’s Ohrwurm is David Hasselhoff – Looking For Freedom, which seems appropriate on a day when the people of Berlin are again protesting at the wall.
David Hasselhoff singing on top of the Berlin Wall, with the Brandenburg Gate as a backdrop, on New Year’s Eve 1989 came at a time when people were celebrating the fall of the wall.
In fact, according to this BBC article, the Hoff is disappointed that his role in uniting the people of East and West Germany is not more widely acknowledged.
My friend Gilly and I recently discussed the Hoff’s contribution to Berlin and the possibility of a street being named after him. Hasselhoffstrasse anyone? Or maybe the Hackesche Höfe could become the Hassel Höfe?
Today, Berliners will gather at the East Side Gallery to protest against the removal of a section of the wall to build a block of luxury flats. The East Side Gallery is a 1.3km stretch of the wall on Mühlerstrasse near the Spree covered in murals by international artists, as an “international memorial for freedom”.
It seems perverse that such a symbol could be torn down, especially in a city that has so many empty and abandoned buildings.
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan’s famous speech in Berlin on 12 June 1987, the message to Berlin’s mayor Klaus Wowereit is:
Mr Wowereit, DON’T tear down this wall!
A petition has been started to halt the destruction of the wall and currently has over 53,000 signatures. If you’d like the East Side Gallery to remain unchanged you can sign here.
David Hasselhoff – Looking For Freedom (Live in Berlin)
The song starts at 0:55 if you want to skip the introduction from the Hoff.
There was a time in the UK when it seemed you couldn’t open a newspaper or switch on the TV without seeing a story about Pete Doherty. And I never really got the hype.
Sure, The Libertines produced a few good tracks but his erratic behaviour and often shambolic performances meant it was always likely that the band would implode.
That’s why I was surprised at how much I liked Wolfman feat. Pete Doherty – For Lovers. There is something about Doherty’s voice that conveys the desparation of running away to start a new life together.
Wolfman feat. Pete Doherty – For Lovers
I first heard The Vaccines – Teenage Icon on one of the Berlin videos I was considering when I put together the posts for my Video Week. The refrain ‘I’m no teenage icon, I’m no Frankie Avalon’ has been stuck in my head ever since.
The Vaccines – Teenage Icon
I don’t know much about the German music scene but I’ve heard the name Cro, so when the video for Einmal um die Welt (Once Around The World, for English speakers) popped up as a YouTube suggestion I decided to give it a click.
And I’m glad I did. The catchy blend of Rap and Pop (which Cro calls Raop) mean that the song has infected my brain even though I don’t understand half of the lyrics.
The song is perfectly complemented by a very sweet video featuring a boy and a girl seemingly out on a first date, with the boy wearing Cro’s trademark Panda mask. And I’m obviously not the only person who likes it – the video has over 6.6 million views.
You can find lots more Cro music on the ChimperatorTV YouTube channel and get heaps of Cro info on his website, Facebook page and Twitter account.
Cro – Einmal um die Welt
I’ve had First Aid Kit – Hard Believer bouncing around in my head since I saw the band walking around the DDR Museum in Berlin yesterday afternoon.
Sisters Johanna and Klara Soderberg are from Stockholm, though you wouldn’t know they’re Swedish to hear them sing or talk. It’s almost as if they are channelling the country greats they pay tribute to on Emmylou (Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, June Carter and Johnny Cash).
The Soderberg sisters are extremely talented and accomplished songwriters and their harmonies are beautifully blended, a skill no doubt honed over the years they have performed together.
First Aid Kit will be playing live tonight at the Apostel-Paulus-Kirche in Schöneberg.
First Aid Kit – Hard Believer
My latest Ohrwurm is Foals – My Number.
Foals made a big impression in the UK in 2008 with their debut album Antidotes but it left me cold. Their latest single, the catchy and upbeat My Number has caught my attention though.
My Number is taken from Foals’ third studio album, Holy Fire, which will be released on 11 February 2013.
Foals – My Number
The 1975 apparently caused quite a stir in 2012 but I’m only just hearing about them. And unfortunately for me, I discovered them just a couple of days too late because they played at Lido in Berlin on Wednesday – gutted.
Formed at school in Manchester, The 1975 have been busy recording their debut album and will soon embark on a UK headline tour.
Sex is taken from the EP of the same name released in November of last year.
The 1975 – Sex
The first song I heard by the band was Chocolate, which hasn’t been released yet.
The 1975 – Chocolate
If you want to see more from The 1975 (and something tells me everyone will be seeing a lot more of them in 2013) check out their website and Facebook page. You can also see their gig from Lido in Berlin here.