this is not an ordinary Thursday, it's the last day of presale for the Indie Pop Days Festival this weekend which ALREADY STARTS TOMORROW (waah). So if you wanna make sure to get in, please make use of this opportunity before midnight since we won't accept any incoming payments after that time.
You can get tickets for Saturday and Sunday combined. In case you can only make it to one of these festival-days the only option is buying tickets at the box office, just like on Friday.
Make sure to be there on time if you don't have a ticket already because the Wasserturm Kreuzberg isn't the largest place in the world, as you might remember from last year.
The festival is not far away, one can almost hear the first chords but still it's not too late for some good news! We happily received the message that Soda Fountain Rag can make it to our festival and will play a set.
Say Hi to Soda Fountain Rag!
Soda Fountain Rag's music is a great kind of lo-fi indie-pop, sugarsweet with supersmart, catchy one-liners, written and produced by Ragnhild Hogstad Jordahl. She's on her own in the studio but not alone on tour, that would probably not be so much fun, which is why she is being accompanied live by Anders Kaasen (guitar) and Stian Nyheim (bass). If you haven't already, give it a listen!
Here's a clip from Soda Fountain Rag's gig at last year's London Popfest.
What to do with all this time on our hands? Well, that isn't exactly our problem these days. There are still one or two or three or eleven or even more things to do, before we are well prepared to welcome all of you who are going to join us for three days of puppy poppy perfect indie-music.
But some of you might want to have a little something to hold on to for the time being.
No problem at all!
You are probably already looking forward to Television Keeps Us Apart's gig, so do we. It's something special since they play their first show ever in Germany at our festival! In case you would like to rearrange your top-five-list of TKUA-songs, this is the opportunity. These nice people offer their latest EP for free download, which isn't a bad thing to do, right?
Compared to that our Soundcloud Mixtape is like a first date. Please just listen, don't touch! Sort of a weird comparison, but this friday is making us feel silly, so what the flip.
the time has come to announce that we are through with booking. We are happy about the confirmations we received and really look forward to the festival with every single band that is going to play. Hopefully (we are 99% sure) you like them, too. Tell us, what do you think about the last four bands we proudly announce today?
Let's start this last round with Young Wrists, a lo-fi-duo from Italy. Alberto and Letizia make nice 80ies synthie- lo-fi-pop and on their second album wasted youth they actually also sing about this century, or to be more precise, about one specific event that took place in June 1986.
What event might that have been? We are still wondering. Maybe there is a chance to find out more about this when we meet in person, because Young Wrists are going to play at the Indie Pop Days Festival as well, which is benissimo!
Young Wrists
If you wanted to visit the next band you'd have to move much more north, so it's a good thing they are also playing in Berlin, way more comfy! It's a pleasure for us to host Television keeps us apart from Stockholm, Sweden. Check out their website and download the fabulous album 'A Slight Change Of Light' for free.
what's going on outside?
Suddenly everyone is happy happy yeah yeah sweaty sweaty. We became quite fond of this state of mind and recommend enjoying the weather as long as it lasts.
Further things we started enjoying a lot lately:
- eating asparagus with tiny new potatoes and lemonsauce
- putting strawberries in a glas of sparkling wine
- biking around with our favorite tunes in ear
- hanging around with friends outside wherever we are.
Yay, summer, we like you!
But let's get to the topic. Even though we love hanging around and want to be in the warm sunlight all the time, we don't forget our duties and continue working on the booking list for our highlight (hopefully yours, too) of this fantastic summer, the marvellous Indie Pop Days Berlin! To be honest, that is a fun duty so we like doing what we do anyway.
We are glad to announce that Nils Folke Valdemar happily agreed to play at our festival. For those of you who don't know his music containing songs "of goliaths, of fear, of birds, of the night, of youth, of you, of himself" check out his homepage where you can download a couple of his albums.
He releases his records on his own and wants you to listen to them in first line, not pay for them to make him rich. We think that's a nice attitude. And we like his personal lyrics, his charming melodies and how he plays the guitar. So that's going to be another show you really shouldn't miss!
Do you know WeePOP! records? You probably do, like us. WeePOP! records is this nice label where 'Allo Darlin' in 2007, at that time named 'The Darlings', released their first EP "The Photo". WeePOP! records usually release EPs and mini-albums in a limited number of copies. It makes us glad to have another band from the WeePOP! records at this year's festival. We are talking about Amida, their awesome mixture of great styles and suggest you listen to their songs on your own if you aren't already familiar with their albums, because we are not in the mood for genre- or namedropping. All we can say is it's fun listening to Amida and we already started practicing our funky dancemoves for their show to impress you with great choreographies. So we are definitely going to be at the dancefloor during Amidas set and hope to meet you there!
Darren Hanlon is sort of an expert for beautiful things. He has been working as a solo artist since 1999, before that he was a member of the Simpletons, and contributed backing guitar and keyboards for the Lucksmiths, the Dearhunters, and Mick Thomas. Hanlon also founded his own music label called flippin yeah industries when his former label Candle Records shut down.
He is not only known for adorable music videos (you can watch them all on myspace/youtube and it's worth it!) where he mostly works together with director Natalie van den Dungen, he is also popular for getting along nicely with any kind of audience . Hanlon always seeks the dialogue with the public and is not afraid to tell personal stuff in a witty way, so that's another thing to look forward to regarding Indie Pop Days Berlin!
Are there any questions? Until now we introduced almost every band we invited to play at our festival and still there are more great gigs to announce. For today this should do. We are out!
Have a really great afternoon and enjoy whatever you do!
We hope you have a nice week so far and enjoy this strange weather. Regarding the weather: we, the festival creators and bloggers, are all based in Berlin. So how is the weather at your place and where are you making your living at the moment? Seems a silly question but we would like to know, especially if there is a vibrating twee-scene at your place. And we are sure you would like to know more about the bands that are going to be our entertaining guests. The confirmations are getting more and more, in fact we are almost done with the booking. But there is still enough time for surprises and changes. For now we can say the following:
You might know 'Der elegante Rest' if you are in to bands like Ja, Panik because Der elegante Rest were the opening act for them a while ago. It's like a group of mods who got the blues, one might think while listening to their almost orchestral songs. They just got it. Thoughtful lyrics (in german though), nice rhythm skills and this shy kind of wit we all are so keen on. Der elegante Rest was founded in Leipzig five years ago. Enough time to gain some experience on stage and in the studio. We are happy to welcome them and look forward to their performance!
Our Blanket Skies have this song written by Matthias F. Brasch, whose project it is, wrote on his own and it's about to thank people for their help. It has the fitting title 'I thank you' and we would like to say thank you, too. Because not only do Our Blanket Skies play music that reminds us of the famous musician Beirut from time to time, the lack of drums, kind and melancholic arrangements but also happy ukulele- or as Matthias F. Brasch would call it ukulilli- sounds are a pretty nice way to put it. Our Blanket Skies, especially Matthias, have also been part of the team that brought the second edition of the Berlin Melodica Festival to us this year, which happened in the Görlitzer Park and gave everyone a great time! This to say we are glad to meet you again in August at our very own little festival, Our Blanket Skies!
Well, that should be it for today. We are considering going to Ty Segalls show at West Germany in Kreuzberg tonight. But we are not sure because Andrew Jacksoon Jihad is also going to play music tonight. For Free! That's a tough one. What would our readers do?
as spring rolls on and May greets us with the insight that transition still does exist the festival is taking shape bit by bit, actually great bit by even greater bit. Those familiar with Berlin trivia might know that the 1st of May is a day of celebration and rejoicing. We did no less and cheered our new line-up confirmations.
The Berlin-friendly David Tattersall, Franic Rozycki and Jonny Helm are the cream of the crop of everything labelled Modern Folk/Singer-Songwriter/ETC. Trust us, they are awesome. The Wave Pictures got the whole package: the wit, the unique and amiable singing voice, the heartbreaking melodies, brilliant lyrics and last but not least guitar solos that leave you feel entertained instead of embarrassed. It might not come as a surprise that with this talent they've already released several albums but would you have guessed a total of 13 plus EPs, singles and miscellaneous stuff? This is insane! You basically HAVE to come to Indie Pop Days to hear songs from the band's latest album "Beer in the Breakers" (released this Monday) and a round-up of their secret hits. This is one of them:
Next on our list is the charming duo Clay Hips, also known as Andrew and Kenji (Ex-The Fairways!).
They sure know how to handle a bit of Simon & Garfunkel smoothness without falling into the cheese pot. So it was to be expected that many mourned their disappearance from the world of pop when they moved to different parts of the globe. But! now the boys are back to sing you those bittersweet songs even Lazy Line Painter Jane would hop on the bus for. Keep an eye out, you might see her in the crowd.
To complete today's good news let us tell you you'll get the chance to witness members of a dying breed: Marsh Marigold's Kristallin! a stunning pop band born and raised and living in Germany.
Breaking hearts and beer bottles since 1998 Kristallin know how to entertain and enchant. The band is doing an excellent job showing love for their idols' ramshackle and frisky kind of pop (The Wedding Present, Primal Scream and all that) and blending in their very own charm. We recommend checking out their brilliantly written biography!
Give them bands a listen and try to come up with reasons not to attend Indie Pop Days. Can you think of any? We told you so.
We hope you had some nice leisure-time during Easter holiday and enjoyed tasty, addictable chocolate in silly shapes + great company. We did, in case you are curious! And we are going to repeat the latter at our very own festival in August. Want proof? Look who is going to join us!
Let's start with a kind and awesome band from Scotland. We are talking about Wake The President, a fantastic twee/cs86-band, very inspired by the old stories only a town like Glasgow knows (wanna look at some nice pictures? there!). Erik and Bjorn Sandberg, the founding members, aren't just witty storytellers with a sense for melody and that soft spot in your heart, they are also the heart and the brain of Say Dirty Records. Last year they released their album 'You can't change that boy' and we look forward to seeing them on our stage performing for you.
Watch this video:
Do you like what you hear/see? Are you familiar with these songs?
There is another band who positively "rsvp'ed" to our invitation and we are more than happy to have them around. White Wishes' members are originally from St. Petersburg, but live in Berlin for now. Their melancholic popsongs make us want to hug someone and then: dance! So that is going to be a quiet, shy, extraordinarily great blast to have them around for our festival.
What do you think? At which time of the day would you like to see White Wishes? On a, hopefully, sunny afternoon or in the cozy light of the dawning night? Let us know!
Anything missing? Well, there are still a lot of bands coming up, don't worry. Last but not least for today we proudly announce that The Electric Pop Group are joining us for the Indie Pop Days. The Band is touring around Europe at the moment, as you can see on their facebook-page, and it is great they can make it to Berlin for this specific indie-pop-weekend. The Electric Pop Group is a Gothenburg-based band, signed by Matinée Recordings since last year.
Do you think you could like it, when you look at this lose collection of pictures?
We also found a live-video with crappy sound but well, what can you do!
What do you hear, what do you say?
We say, let's go outside, grab a bite and have a drink in the evening sun!
Work will still be there tomorrow.
Thank you for reading and we hope to see you around soon!
♥
at first we would like to thank you for your suggestions and ideas. They really inspired us and we heard about a couple of bands we already knew though, some of them we even had in mind for the festival, too, and some of them not but, considered requesting them. So that went well!
We are happy about this fact because it proved to us that a couple of people share our taste in music. That is comforting for us doing a festival, that would be a liiittle expensive, if we were the only ones who are interested in the bands that are going to play.
Speaking of bands that are going to play. There is another reason why we are excited to quite an extend.
It is no longer just rumor that Aberdeen are going to play at our very dear festival! We think it is a huge honor since the band split up twice already (1995, when Sarah Records shut down, and then again 2005, after the member's interest for other projects grew), to host this formidable band! Aberdeen announced a reunion-show at The San Francisco Pop Fest on 05/26/2011. There are no more shows planned for now. Except one gig in Berlin at the INDIE POP DAYS FESTIVAL! yay!!
We think this is a good reason to attend the festival as a guest, even if it is only for seeing one of the three bands from the US that were signed to Sarah Records. Check here if you already have rsvp'ed on facebook in case you are attending! And check back on this blog again soon, since we have a lot more pretty good news!
the time has come: we received the first confirmations and are very happy to welcome the following bands: - Sorry Gilberto: listen to their music or read about the band's album Oh Memory. What we like about Sorry Gilberto is, how the lyrics silently but insistently enrole a sometimes clear, sometimes blurry picture. - Je suis Animal: you might know their single 'hotel electrique' if you are around sometimes during our dj-sets. It is a song we really like to play! Check here if you do. We are glad they can make it! - White Wishes are also joining our beautiful festival. It is this kind of music that makes us dance. We are looking forward to do so and hope you will all join us!
But what about you? We would love to read what you think about the bands, did you know them before? Do you like the music? Are there any other bands you think could possibly play at Indie Pop Days? Don't be shy, let us know! Just leave a comment below this post.
