Dyan Valdés and I at the marvelous Destroyer concert last night at Lido Berlin. What a night!








Dyan Valdés and I at the marvelous Destroyer concert last night at Lido Berlin. What a night!
I had a great time at the Gorillaz concert at Parkbühne Wuhlheide this weekend. A massive thank you goes to Brit Bee and Nathan Ihara for facilitating these magical moments. Scroll through for a peek. 轢 轢 轢
Wonderful print review of Keep It Wild from Westzeit. Read the translation below and watch the video for the song here.
“Keep It Wild” is an EP, but also a ‘Best of Album’. Not a ‘best of’ album, mind you, but a selection of songs from a record that should have been released in 2009. Nathaniel Fregoso, frontman of The Blood Arm, had so much on his plate with his band that the half-finished album disappeared into producer David Newton‘s drawer. In the lockdown of 2020, Berlin-based Fregoso rediscovered the songs and decided to compile some of them into an EP. In view of the original time of its creation, the result logically exudes the charm of the noughties: the title track sounds like a rough version of Franz Ferdinand, “Belarus” has the pop appeal of the Kaiser Chiefs, while “Out Of Key” is more in the The Strokes notch. Also included, at least on the promo: A beautiful cover of “Cuando calienta el sol”, originally published in 1961.
Happy Friday the 13th! The Keep It Wild EP is now available on all streaming services via RIP Ben Lee Records. It was directed by Ray Mann in Berlin last summer and I absolutely love it. Take a look.
Special thanks to everyone who made this EP possible, first and foremost David Newton, Joel Isaac Black, Jessica Espeleta and David Alexander. Without these fine musicians I’d be pissing in the wind.
Viktoria Cichon did an incredible job with the artwork and Bernd Diekjobst made sure to capture my good side for the press photos. Thank you.
Bite it Promotion are crushing the PR side, State 51 have done a fantastic job with distribution and I‘ve even managed a few sales via Bandcamp, so thanks to them too.
Of course, I can’t do anything without the love and support of my wife Ali Bell who has seen releases come and go like sunsets and still loves me whether they are successful or not – I appreciate that.
I’ll have more news for you next week, but please enjoy the EP and video, and leave feedback in the comments. Have a great weekend.
My daughter and I had a nice visit to Hamburger Bahnhof today. Scroll through for some excellent charcoal drawings by Bussaraporn Thongchai. It’s always exciting for me to see art and I’m glad I can share that passion with my daughter.
I saw a fantastic concert last night – Sparks at Metropol Berlin. What an inspiring band! If you have an opportunity to check them out, don’t miss it! Scroll through for a few photos from the gig.
A huge thank you goes to Dyan Valdés for taking me to the show and snapping this pic.
What’s your favorite Sparks song? Mine’s “Mickey Mouse” from Angst in My Pants.
Here you have Ali Bell and I in the dark of the after partáy. Photo by Bob Hardy of Franz Ferdinand. Congrats goes to the band on their greatest-hits-album Hits to the Head. The two new singles are fantastic – as are the rest of the songs.
This photo was taken after the last Franz Ferdinand show in Berlin. My band Mexican Radio opened. I’m so appreciative of their continued support for The Blood Arm and our various musical projects over the years. They are a great band – so go buy that album!
Happy New Year! Let’s keeping it swinging in 2022.
Photo by Alison Bell.
Next Friday, I’m DJing at Das Gift: indie, punk and rock & roll from 10:30pm until very very late. I’ll also be spinning my favorite local artists: Dyan Valdés, Shy Bits, Laura Lee & the Jettes and Ghost Pony. Won’t you come down and say hi?
Link to the FB event is here.
Thank you Shameless Limitless.
Photo by Bernd Diekjobst.
Thanks, everyone, for all the kind birthday wishes. I’m forty-two now, so I need to stay extra warm, just like Paul Simon and Mick Jagger.
Special thanks goes to my wife Ali Bell, my two beautiful children and my buddies Dyan Valdés, Nathan Ihara, Zebastian Carlisle, Bernd Diekjobst and Elisa Bischoff for making the day so special. I feel very lucky to be surrounded by such wonderful friends and family.
Scroll through for a few highlights.