Still need a summer soundtrack?

Dear all,

first of all we would like to thank all the people at Down by the River for a beautiful day with lots of nice people, friends and lovely music everywhere. We had a really amazing day! Our favorite Bands were My Two Toms, Stranded Horse and of course Jeffrey Lewis & the Junkyard!

Now were much more looking forward to our own Festival, only 33 days to go! Wohoooo!

For today we are sooo in love with the Italian Duo Young Wrists and recommend you this as the perfect soundtrack for the last weeks of summer. You can download their new EP here for free.

And you just have to listen to the song July 1986 if you're into jingly-jangly lo-fi nostalgia. We are!

July 1986 by Indie Pop Days

Down by the River Festival 2011

Dear music lovers,

Down by the River Festival is top of our list this weekend. We will be there on Saturday with our wellies, rain capes and polka-doted brolly. You see we are well prepared - Even if it rains!

Down by the River is located where? - yes, of course this festival is located very very close to the Spree. In the past years the organisers had chosen bar 25 for the All-dayer. As bar 25 had to close - unfortunately investors have other plans with this piece of land - Down by the River has found a new home at the Kater. It's opposite bar 25 on the river bank in Kreuzberg.

Wow!There are a lot of bands playing for a one day festival! They have two stages on that site but it's a limited capacity for both so you'll have to be there 30 minutes before to see your favourite band!

The Line-Up is too long to tell you about all the bands. So we just recommend you these few bands:

Stranded Horse play minimalistic songs à la Nick Drake on the kora, a traditional harp from West Africa. Or the Spongies - this band seems to be a "Surprise"-band as the festival website doesn't give any information about this Berlin band. But they already played a support for Grass Widow in Berlin some weeks ago. And we had fun!

Anti-Folk musician and comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis already played Down by the River in 2009. With his mixture of complex lyrics in "Sprechgesang" combined sometimes with noisy -raw punk attitudes we think the organisers have chosen a great headliner for this years festival!

So now it's up to you. Pack your stuff and join this lovely festival! You will find us there even if it rains...! But now we'll send lots of prayers to the weather gods!

Let's Dance And Make Up today!

Hi all!

Are you at the Melt!Festival this weekend? It is sold out, so some of you are definitely going to be there, we assume. Well, we are staying in Berlin, weatherforecast doesn't look so good either, so why bother. Ah, right, Pulp are going to play... Well, then!

In case you are in town, too, why don't you come to our party at King Kong Klub this Saturday. If you want, it's no problem to play Pulp for us, either. Of course, it's not live, but we are nice, too!

Furthermore we have some great visuals for you, in case you get tired because of too much dancing. So come along and say hi!

Laters!
The DJ-Team Let's Kiss And Make Up

Thanks for stopping by!

Dear reader and fleamarket-visitor,

we would like to thank all of you for coming out and finding us at the Mauerpark fleamarket. Who could have asked for more? The sun was shining perfectly, everyone was kind and we were super happy about the fact that everybody seemed to be very interested in our posters. We agree, they are very beautiful! Not only did we sell a bunch of posters but also a couple of tickets, so that went well!

We hope you had a great day, too and enjoyed our tunes and stuff! Here are some pictures of this beautiful event. These pictures were taken by Matthias Heiderich, all rights are reserved. In case you want to use them, please ask.

Guide to experience a great weekend in a couple of steps

Phew, there is a lot going on these days. It's all about fashion and clothes and stuff at the moment, since there's this tiny little Berlin Fashion Week going on.

But there is more to experience than the runwayshows and high-class invitation-only-superduper whatever-events, let me tell you! For example there's the Moderummel at Rummelsburger Bucht. The magic is going to happen from Friday afternoon 3 p.m. until the last guest has left the beach! You can experience fashion, there is also going to be a runwayshow and a fashionmarket with young designers presenting their ideas of fashion. Chances are high to find a nice piece of fine cloth-art, but save some money for the bar and, of course, the rest of the weekend.

There are a whole bunch of opportunities on how to spend your Saturday. Let's say, you've had enough of the troubles and need a quiet, peaceful day. Well, in case the weather is friendly, why don't you make a trip to the Wannsee or hop on your bike for a ride through Brandenburg. Go by S-Bahn as far out of the city as you can and then find out on your own, where the street leads you to. A card as a safety-backup is a good idea and nothing to be ashamed of! In case you are more the type of person who never gets enough of the excitement, Berlin always has to offer, go and check out Berlin Wedding Dress #6 but make sure not to get an consuming-overkill since there is this very dear fleamarket with some pretty nice and cool persons waiting for you to step by (already told you about). Saturday night? Well, do I have to remind you that the open-air cinema-season has started?

Sunday is going to be a very nice day! After a walk at the Mauerpark fleamarket in Prenzlauer Berg and a couple of hours in the sun, join us at the Volksbühne for the Abschlusskonzert with Esben & the Witch, Deerhoof and Tu Fawning.Better hurry up and buy a ticket before it's sold out.

Did you already have plans or better ideas than ours? Let us know!
However, have a great weekend. We'll meet at the fleamarket, don't we?

Fleamarkets are fun, everybody knows that!

Especially when there are so many nice things to find like at the Mauerpark on Sundays. This time a visit is going to be even more worthy to consider, because some of us will be selling awesome stuff. There are going to be a couple of nice dresses, some rare vinyl to buy and as a special treat we have our new INDIE POP DAYS bags for you to purchase.

That's all? Nope.
We also have a special offer for everyone who buys a ticket at our fleamarket-stand. Come visit us and get your INDIE POP DAYS Festival weekend-ticket for just 30 Euro each!

Well, that sounds great, but how would i recognize you, one might think. And we have the solution to that, too. In case you can't see us right away, just follow the sound of our portable record-player!

 

Usually we are not a jukebox, but if you want to recommend one of your favorite tunes on vinyl, why don't you bring it and we can listen to it together. Or suggest them in the comments so we can figure out if we already own the record and there won't be any need for you to carry it all the way there!

 

The fleamarket starts at around 10 a.m. and lasts until 6 p.m. We are very much looking forward to meeting you there and hope you find some nice things among our stuff and/or at the rest of the market! But even if you don't do the live-karaoke is worth a visit and a tune. 

So let's all hope for nice weather and meet at the Mauerparkmarkt!

Some good news, some not-so-good news

Hi everyone,

today we need to announce something that made us sort of unhappy but it has to get out.
Unfortunately Je Suis Animal can't come to this year's Indie Pop Days. We know they were really looking forward to playing at our beloved festival but due to personal problems they just can't make it. We will think of you, members of Je Suis Animal. Maybe another time!
Until then there are still their albums we can listen to.

So that was the sad part of the story. The happy part is that we found another band we are very happy to announce: they call themselves Sundae and make adorable Indiepop/Shoegaze en Español! Even if not everyone of us aces at Spanish we still like to listen to their tunes and are happy to welcome Sundae to Indie Pop Days!

You might want to find out for yourself if you like Sundae, too. Even though we are pretty sure about it, you can download a couple of songs at Sundae's homepage!
We are curious what you think, so feel free, as always, to leave a comment!

Hope to hear from you!
Have a nice weekend.

Tickets

Finally the pre-sale is starting. There is a chance to buy a weekend-ticket on our blog. You can pre-order a ticket combining Saturday and Sunday exclusively from us for 32€. Orders are possible via Paypal. Please leave your full name, we'll write down your name on the "prepaid list" once you've ordered a ticket. This also means you have to bring your ID or passport to Wasserturm so we can be sure we're handing out tickets to the right person.

If you're not sure yet if you can go to both days you can buy tickets at the door on Saturday and Sunday for the particular day. Friday evening you can get tickets at the Wasserturm only.

Weekend-Ticket (SAT & SUN)

Concert-Alert: Papercuts and Our Blanket Skies tomorrow!

Hi to our adorable readers,

this weekend includes an opportunity for all of you! And by saying 'an' we mean two.
We are pretty glad to tell you that Papercuts are going to play their european tour's final show in Berlin. The concert has been booked by Puschen, who always know really great and interesting bands so who would want to miss that? Right. Nobody.

Let's get to the practical facts. The concert is going to happen

1. tomorrow, Saturday evening
2. at the Comet Club in Kreuzberg
3. and it's going to be really cool.

Papercuts

You might want to be on time (9 pm), because the second opportunity is also quite a treat! Our blanket skies is going to perform a couple of songs and as we all know he will be playing at our Indie Pop Days Festival, too.

It is going to be super duper, that's what we are betting on. And if you miss Our Blanket Skies, well, don't be too sad, because he will be playing again. It's just that every show is unique, but one can't always make it on time, eh?

We hope to see you at the concert.
Nonetheless, whatever you do, have a marvellous weekend with lots of stuff you like!

Last but definitely not least: Young Wrists, Television Keeps Us Apart & Woodpigeon

Hi fellow followers,

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.

Young Wrists / July 1986 from Enrico Boccioletti on Vimeo.

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.

Television keeps us apart

Whew! So much is new

Hi Fans,

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!

With a little help..

Aloha Surfsoda, taz. die tageszeitung, Zitty and ByteFM we're able to organise our festival.
The team behind Indie Pop Days is very happy to have those four as supporters for this year. A lot would not be possible without them.

We have Aloha Surfsoda helping us, a supertasty lemonade with a tropical flavour that will be sold at Wasserturm Kreuzberg.
Then there is the famous independent newspaper taz. die tageszeitung who's supporting us and moreover the always up-to-date and hugely comprehensive Berlin magazine Zitty.
Last not but least ByteFM, Germany's most innovative and diverse web radio is one of our partners, too.

A big thank you to all of them!