Song Of The Month - June '14

June is over, Alt-J released a single with a Miley Cyrus-Sample, Lana Del Rey released a new album, the FIFA World Cup started - but I don’t care. Now there’s only one thing, only one thing on my mind.

Felt Tip’s song “Simple Things”. I probably wouldn’t have discovered it on my own, but thanks to some almost-hipster-guy this cool little gem became a part of my life.
When I first googled the band's name, all I got were pictures of felt tips. Pretty soon I realized that this were not the band members and so I added some more catchwords to my research. And then I found what I was looking for.

The intro/outro are pretty much the same – James Tyler sings with a slightly melancholic voice and there is a guitar softly playing in the background. Then – bam – the guitar wakes up, percussion and bass join the party, the rhythm accelerates and the song gets even cooler. Or hotter. I can’t decide.

Every now and then everything slows a little bit down, but only to create a tension and once again you find yourself jerking to the music. Or twerking. Or however you move to a song.

The videos all have a gloomy atmosphere. In “Simple Things” the singer reminds me of a zombie-vampire, but a stylish and cool one.

All en masse (ouh, j'écris en francais) this song doesn’t get boring, it does even compete with Glass Animals’ “Exxus” on my personal “most-played-in-a-row-song” –list. And I really want to hear this song live, in real life, not just on YouTube.

Glass Animals on a roof terrace two weeks ago in Berlin and this is a long title but that's your problem

Once upon a time, one of my favourite bands played a gig on a roof. It was a sweat-inducing show. Only because the sun shone relentlessly, of course. Everybody else was cool.

Glass Animals are one of those bands I always wanted to see live, but there were always some unexpected obstructions preventing it to happen. Until now. Or then. It’s been two weeks already.

We have this radio station called FluxFM here in Berlin that sometimes organises concerts on the roof terrace of its quarter. When they announced Glass Animals as one of their acts, it was clear to me: I will go there, even if I have to climb up the wall. Fortunately I didn't have to climb. My arms are pretty weak.

So it was a nice summer evening, cool people with sunglasses were chilling and we had a nice view of the city. Oh, and wonderful music as well.

The first song was “Gooey”, probably Glass Animals' best known. Then they played “Pools”, a catchy, tropical song but not as cool as “Walla Walla”. I just realised that “Walla” reminds me of “Walla, isch schör, Digga!” – something that some people say here in Berlin. Back to the song - that percussion! You just have to move and release your inner belly dancer.

The show took 40 minutes and Glass Animals also played some of their old stuff, like “Psylla”. I hope to see/hear them perform “Exxus” one day. I fucking love this song. And the video, though it’s a little special.

Maybe it comes unexpected, but I really enjoyed the show. And in a dark club with some colourful lights and a lot of smoke (from a smoke machine) the atmosphere of the songs would be even more emphasised.

The guys themselves seem to be pretty nice. I even got them to draw something into my idea book. So in case they read this: Thanks for the pictures & keep on making music for at least 20 years! Otherwise…

During the show Dave Bayley (I used to confuse it with “Baileys”) made compliments to the audience, like: “You all look very cool with your sunglasses. We've never played in front of such a cool crowd before.” And no, it wasn’t irony. He also recommended to us to get some ice cream. But I didn't.

Finally, I have some pictures for you. If you want to see some more hipsteresque ones, go to the German article. Enjoy the view!

the band without the drummer

the drummer (Joe) without the band

talking 'bout ice

multitasking Drew: synthesizer, guitar & backing vocals

Ed Singer is not the singer (haha), but multitasking, too

cool shirt (and more multitasking)

that's it
♥