2016 - A YEAR OF GOODBYES
Bowie, Emerson, Lake, Prince, Cohen - 2016 will be remembered as the year in which pop culture lost some of its greats. He wasn't a thoughtful look back at Zimperlich
, the Boanlkramer, as the Grim Reaper is called in Bavaria. In the past year he has made deep cuts into the heroic pantheon of Generation Rock. And the reactions were corresponding. For example, on the morning of January 11, 2016, "Unbelievable." - "Sad!" - "A shock!" - "I just don't believe it - that's not possible!" In the relevant forums and chat channels of the net, sheer horror and deep sorrow were articulated. The night before, 69-year-old David Robert Jones, better known under his stage name David Bowie, had died in New York City from cancer.
DAVID BOWIE - Dead and alive
★" was published on 8 January 2016. The daring dark-coloured jazz/rock/electronic construct was celebrated worldwide. Two days later his creator died, the fire of the inimitable sparkling solitaire was extinguished. But the music of David Bowie lives on. Now, on January 8th, the man with many faces would have turned seventy. This anniversary is a bright, positive signal for us. Five of his studio albums, also celebrating their anniversary in 2017, remind us of the Englishman's legendary versatility and creative curiosity.
PAIN OF SALVATION - In the Face of Death
The probability that he would survive the disease was less than fifty percent. But Daniel Gildenlöw fought his way back to life and thus ensured the continued existence of his band, which he founded in 1984 and which has been known as Pain Of Salvation since 1991. Now she presents her second album after the serious incision. While Gildenlöw is returning to the basics of life, Pain Of Salvation have rediscovered their fundamental strengths.
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE - Lift-off in Hashbury
Today they are almost forgotten - Jefferson Airplane were the first of the big acid rock bands from San Francisco to get a record contract. With hits like "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit" Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, Marty Balin and Co. not only wrote rock history, they also became the musical flagship of the hippie movement. Fifty years ago Jefferson Airplane's counterculture channel "Surrealistic Pillow" appeared.
LET GIRLS ROCK! - Rock guitarists in the course of time
Women drive car races, women fly into space, women play football. However, wood felling is still less common today. There are several experienced "women" who swing the axe - preferably in front of a 30,000-watt amplifier wall. Since the sixties, women have broken into the phalanx of testosterone-impregnated electric guitarists on the whole front. Stylistically as well as virtuosically. In the following, we present the development of the role of female string virtuosos in rock music and portray twenty of their most dazzling representatives.
BLACKFIELD - Fairly best friends
They are a strange couple: the extroverted, glamorous, perhaps also a bit self-involved Israeli and the workaholic, introverted multi-talent from Great Britain. But although - or perhaps because - Aviv Geffen and Steven Wilson have little in common, they form an exciting duo that is already presenting "V", one of the best albums of 2017.
CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX have freed themselves from their existential crisis
Crippled Black Phoenix deal with the current socio-political situation. Their thoughts also revolve around internal topics. Behind the band from Bristol are legal disputes with their former members Karl Demata and Christian Heilmann. She survived the ordeal. Crippled head Justin Greaves has meanwhile passed through a personal misery: he has fought his depressions and put them in their place. The 45-year-old said that he had emerged stronger from it. In any case he turns against negative elements like populists and other dividers with the new record "Bronze".
She survived the Sixties, the Stones and the Heroin: MARIANNE FAITHFULL is now seventy years old
On 29 December Marianne Faithfull turned seventy. For the former junkie, who became an elegant dark icon with albums like "Broken English", "Strange Weather" or "Before The Poison", no reason to celebrate. In the sixties, the "mother of all rock chicks" was the first woman next to Nico to celebrate just as wildly as the rock stars with whom she was associated. We visited her in her adopted home Paris for a coffee in the Hotel Costes at the Rue Saint Honoré.