Is this our great achievement?

Despite being a little bit late in on the act,there's a bit of smug feeling going on here at WYM HQ.After an absence of nearly 3 years,Aleksander With (arguably Norway's best Idol winner) has returned with this pretty fab new single What's the Story? I know he'd been written off by some,destined to be another wasted talent like Kjartan Salvesen or Jonatan Cerrada maybe.But I knew he'd be back :) An album is soon to follow apparantly...

My time will come in 2010,when we'll meet again

I seem to be inundated with recommendations to German emo videos whenever I sign into youtube.You know,the sort with cliché black and white pictures of hearts and tears and sad people in eyeliner,combined with naff phrases like "I hate myself for what I did to you",finished off with an even naffer song which seems unfitting for the whole video.I don't know why I'm being recommended these- I've only ever watched one once,and that wasn't by choice.Anyway,it's probably a good thing,because I rediscovered a really good band in the "related videos" section.

I first found out about Echt before I moved to Germany,downloaded a few of their songs and thought nothing more of them.They seem to be pretty much the only band from Schleswig-Holstein who've had any degree of success.With the exception of Fettes Brot I suppose,who just about come under SH.But Echt are far better,because they come from Flensburg,which gives them an automatic cool status :) In unrelated facts- my (ex)-friend from Flensburg went to school with them,so I found out a while ago*.He didn't like their music though,said it's corny.Now I've actually bothered to read some of their lyrics,I see what he meant.But I still think they're rather good,in terms of musical sound :)

Echt's biggest song is Du trägst keine Liebe in Dir (You carry no love inside you),which I think is a cover- not sure who the original was by though.This is one of the songs I downloaded ages ago- it sounds a bit British indie to me,but from the 90s,when British indie was actually good.

Then there's Mein kleines Universum (My little universe),an album track from what I assume was their debut in the late 90s.I like it.Unsurprisingly,it's about having your own space,being in your own world where you don't need anyone or anything else.



But my favourite is 2010.It's cool and catchy and it mentions Neumünster.The video is a bit bizarre.I don't know when my time will come,but I'd prefer it didn't involve naked Germans,car trashing and breaking into my old school.Nice to hear the lovely northern accent again though...

ECHT - 2010 from Kim Frank on Vimeo.

* I still win though- I went to school with Lisa Andreas,remember her?

Observations

I'm off to Scotland with Keira for a few days as of Monday.We're staying in a super posh apartment (well,the one in the pictures is anyway) in Edinburgh complete with big telly and DVD player.Seeing as the weather up there isn't exactly tropical at the minute,I feel this could come in rather useful.So I unearthed my Chelsi and General Europop DVDs to take with me.I haven't seen any of the videos on them for over a year now,so thought I'd have a quick look.Seems I still find them as brilliant as ever,and I noticed that...


- Getting the FZ contestants to sing Kruto Ty Popal Na TV and all the variants at the beginning of every show just seems a bit...weird

- Chelsi should be bigger than Take That

- 2.58 onwards: why?



- Dima's ESC performance of Believe is truly awful.Not because of him but because of...everything.I thought maybe I was overreacting last year,but no,it's seriously bad

- No song written at any point in world history,and no song that is yet to be written will ever be as good as this

Tune into me

Guest DJ for Sounds of Europe maybe?



See 2.03- he'd fit right in,we're always murdering Dima Koldun songs in the studio :) Though we've never left the microphone on whilst doing it,unlike silly Dima.

I'm loving this song Nastroysa Na Menya,what with this and Chelsi's Tochka Vozrata- maybe the dry spell in Russian pop is over...

I wonder if we could get the management of our radio station to get us some glitzy headphones? Old ones with half the sponge hanging out just aren't as glamorous.