Gute Laune, Ungerecht Verteilt

I love hardcore and punk. Those are my two favorite genres and the vast majority of records I won can be classified as one or the other. Or both, depending on your definition. However, if we played the “Which record would you pick to listen to if you were stranded on a deserted island?“-game, I‘d probably pick the first album by German indie band Kettcar. I love the band‘s entire catalogue, but the first LP is still my favorite. A couple of months ago my wife told me that Kettcar were going to release a new record and go on tour to promote the album. One of the tour stops was only half an hour from where we live and since our son is now at an age where he loves spending a night or two at his grandma‘s, we bought tickets right away. Dinner and a concert will forever be our favorite kind of date night. 

Gute Laune, Ungerecht Verteilt (Good Mood, Spread Unjustly) was released online before the actual tour, but I didn‘t want to listen to the new songs before I got the vinyl. The concert itself was a lot of fun. They played a bunch of new songs, which went over pretty well because apparently I was the only one in the audience who hadn‘t listened to the new songs before, and all their greatest hits. 

The album is good, but I have to say it‘s not their best material and so far I haven‘t heard a real hit. I‘ve had this experience with other records by this band, so I‘m not too fussed. Even if the record doesn‘t click, I always have their back catalogue. I really like the artwork though. 

Limited Tour Edition on Yellow and Green on Grand Hotel Van Cleef

Top Of The Pops 2017

My blog hasn't seen much action the last few weeks. The reason behind that is that I recently joined the club of hardcore dads and the little man has taken up most of the time, as any first-time parents will probably testify to. Anyway, we have found sort of a rhythm and the days leave some more free time again. I still have some records lying around that I picked up in the last few weeks and I'll make sure to catch up with the backlog in the nearby future.

But for now, it's that time of the year again. I can't believe another has gone by already. It feels like I just typed the year's end post for 2016. Crazy. 2017 has been a year with more ups and downs than the years before. I've seen close friends and family experience serious illnesses, death has been around my circle of friends way too much, and there have been some personal issues that close friends and also I had to deal with. Then again, 2017 saw many new friends, some friends and I started a band project, my wife and I went to a bunch of awesome shows, we got to hang out with friends from all over Germany and the world, and a very important friendship was rekindled. Plus, my wife gave birth to our first kid, so all in all 2017 has been a good year I'd say. Let's see what 2018 has to offer.

As I said before, I still have some records lying around that I haven't posted about, so the post count should be a little higher than it is, but it still would have been lower than in the years before. I took it slow in late spring/summer, kind of like last year, but I didn't finish as strongly as in past years. Oh, well.
One projection I can make for 2018 is that the first half of the year is going to see few pick ups and posts on here because I'm going to be a stay-at-home dad for half a year, which means I get to spend some real quality time with my son, but it also means that money will be tighter and buying records on a regular basis won't be in the cards.

2017 has seen some great releases in my opinion. I have noticed a tendency to buy more releases by old bands I already know and like. However, staying up-to-date with newer bands feels more and more like work. That's probably the old man in m talking. I often tell him to shut up, but it's getting harder. Luckily, I have friends who are a fair bit younger than myself and they keep me somewhat in the loop. Still, looking back on the records I bought this year and seeing which bands made my Top 10 this year, there is definitely an imbalance. Anyway, here are my Top 10 for 2017. No particular order.


Record Of The Year

Spirits - Unrest


7" Of The Year

Abuse Of Power - When Then Becomes Now


Demo Of The Year

Split between Open Your Eyes and Stand Point. They're also the only two demo tapes I picked up this year if I remember correctly. Maybe I should include tapes into my blog activities to keep track of that... Both tapes are okay, but there have definitely been years that were way better as far as demo tapes go. I know that you can listen to demos online, but that's not really caught on with me.


Honorable Mention

Free - Ex Tenebris

I still haven't picked up a copy because I missed out on the pre-order and the 7" sells for like 8+€ in  regular distros, so I couldn't bring myself to order a copy yet. 

Bridge 9 - The First 10 Years Box

Beautifully done with lots of details from what I have seen at first glance. I got my copy only this week and haven't really had any chance to sit down and spend some time with it. 

Ich vs. Wir

After missing out initially on the last release by my favourite indie band from Germany, I made sure I got in the game with this one right away. I ordered the deluxe pre-order edition months ago and was anxiously waiting for it to arrive. And the LP doesn't disappoint. The last LP had to grow on me a little bit, but this one hit home right away. With every record Kettcar has become more pop and less indie, but the lyrics are as good and politically minded as back when some of the members still were in one of German's finest punk bands ever ...But Alive. Great record that has already received a lot of play these last few days.

Zwischen den Runden

Happy belated new year, everyone! Holidays mean travel time and seeing family and friends, so things have been a little slow at the beginning of 2017.

Before travelling, I finally found some time to check out this new local record store that I had found about a few weeks ago. The city I live close to is pretty small, so a brick and mortar record store opening there is pretty exciting. I didn't have any high hopes to find anything good there, because punk and hardcore are such small niches in the broad spectrum of music, but I was pleasantly surprised when I went through the shelves in the store. The selection of indie, punk and hardcore records was definitely better than I had expected.  As far as hardcore is concerned the records were mainly represses of classics, but that's not half bad. Maybe it's something to build on. I bought two records, which were two more than I had anticipated. The first pick up is the latest record of my favourite German indie band. It was already released four years ago, but I never managed to grab a copy. It's just as well though, because now I snagged the deluxe edition. LP, bonus 7", lots of extra goodies, all of which come in a beautiful box. Sadly, this LP isn't as good as the previous ones. Or maybe I just have to give it some more time and it'll grow on me.