überlin

I know it’s not Music Montag, but we couldn’t wait to post this one! Comedy hip hop star Big Stu, having already released rap tributes to Kottbusser Tor, Hühnerhaus and the Turkish Market on Maybachufer, now turns his pen and his, um, lips/hips towards Berlin’s supermarkets. Big Stu’s Big Guide to the Supermarkets of Berlin is both informative – explaining where to pick up fresh veg and whose beer tastes like piss – and entertaining, including nuff footage of the Irishman dancing and crotch-grabbing in the aisles of Penny et al. All over the top of Prince’s dirt-funk classic “Erotic City”!  Enjoy ????

Big Stu’s Big Guide to Berlin’s Supermarkets from Big Stu on Vimeo.

We’ve been meaning to feature CRIME on Music Montag for about a year now. Not that the Sissters/Scream Club side project has been up to much since we took an exclusive behind the scenes look at their (NSFW) video for “This Party Blows”, but the little music they have produced is still blowing up our speakers! Mika Risiko and Sarah Adorable blend post-witch house goth-electro aesthetics with a cruel synth-punk sneer… which might sound like bollocks, but just have a listen to “This Party Blows” and “Other Kid’s Lives” below, and you might get what I mean!

Today we’re going to see Depeche Mode live for the very first time! But, for those not lucky enough to have tickets for the Olympia Stadion concert, there’s another show in town: Electronic Beats’ Depeche Mode Fan Exhibition, open to the public now. Until June 20th, the epic exhibition space in the former Warenhaus Jandorf is showcasing donations from the band, including Martin Gore’s shiny guitars and even shinier vests, alongside every kind of memorabilia imaginable.

Fans have donated drawings of their (sometimes unrecognisable) heroes, fanzines, flyers from Mode-themed parties back in the 90s, and oddities like the Playmobil-based Depeche Mode in a Box. Visit the Depeche Mode Fan Exhibition website for more details – including a link to Electronic Beats’ virtual fan exhibition – and if you want to check out another extensive collection devoted to some music legends, check out Berlin’s Ramones Museum.

Even with Berlin’s underwhelming culinary reputation, we expected our first meal at one of the city’s five star hotels to be one of the best we’ve ever had. And sure enough, a couple of times during our dinner at Hotel Concorde’s Brasserie Le Faubourg I wanted to cry – not when our picks from the Schnapps trolley hit my throat, but as I experienced the pure pleasure of tasting something perfect, and perfectly new. After arriving at the beautiful west Berlin hotel, just off Kurfürstendamm, we eschewed the enticing “collection culinaire” and seasonal Spargel selection in favour of creating our own menu, with my choices fuelled by a craving for decent fish!

My curiosity led me to the lobster latte macchiato, a rich bisque presented as (mmmm) a glass of coffee, and the surprisingly delicious ray wings with parsley root risotto, radish and lemon fumée. But it was Zoë who picked the dish of the evening – narrowing down the impressive dessert selection to a deconstructed carrot cake, served with yoghurt ice cream and mascarpone, which was one of the best sweet things either of us have ever tasted. As one would expect from a five star establishment, dinner at Hotel Concorde’s French-inspired brasserie is best reserved for a special occasion, but, to be blunt, we’ve eaten far less enjoyable meals that cost much more money. At the risk of being overly sentimental, allow me to choke back the tears as I exclaim that the meal we ate at Brasserie Le Faubourg is the best we’ve ever eaten in Berlin.

If you’re a fan of metal and/or mental nights out, I have a special date for you to carve into your arm. On Friday 21st June, I will be joining Mike T West from Feeling Gloomy Berlin spinning Satan’s greatest hits in Neukölln k-hole Loophole, at the after party for Wasted Rita’s solo exhibition at idrawalot gallery next door.

Entitled “Human Beings – God’s only mistake”, the Portuguese artist’s Berlin exhibition is inspired by “too many hours spent in a religious college, an adolescence distorted by Black Flag and a massive willpower to take over the world.” Our suitably nihilistic soundtrack of metal, hardcore, punk, thrash, grind, emocetera. kicks off at 11:30pm and ends when our bangovers kick in.

Scroll down for full deets, and to hear a little bit of the horrors that await you. If you have song requests, add them to this collaborative Spotify playlist, and I may even play them, come witching hour. The whole thing I think is sick!

METAL MELTDOWN m/ Wasted Rita After Party
Loophole: Boddinstrasse 60, Neukölln, 12053 Berlin
Friday 21st June, 11:30pm – ?
FREE!
Facebook event 

Natalye Childress of Berlin Beat introduces us to some hot new music.

You may know Freddy Knop better by his on-stage name, pOnk (heads up: that’s Knop backward). The Berlin-born and based music producer has been dabbling in various genres of music for years, and, in addition to work as a solo artist, he also plays bass and sings in post-rock band mOck – all that in addition to finishing up a PhD in musicology.

Recently Knop made the switch to going by his name alone, but his music is still primarily the same: glitchy experimental beats made from field recordings and found sounds. Knop’s most recent EP, “Polyphonies,” came out last month on Circle Into Square Records. The name alone is telling enough, as the EP’s seven tracks play around with textures, beats, and melody, as well as the introduction of more vocals on the part of Knop himself.

Check out the video for “Raum” below, a song that offers a fitting respite from this week’s less-than-ideal weather situation.

Eat the World have hit upon a neat idea: cultural walking tours with frequent stops at local food outlets, so visitors can discover an area through its cuisine. We love to eat – which anyone who’s seen our Food and Drink section or ever-expanding waistlines will know – and we love Kreuzberg, so we thought we’d join a group of tourists as they ate their way through our neighbourhood.

The Eat the World Kreuzberg Tour started in our beloved Graefekiez, although luckily – and shamefully – we had never eaten in any of the places we visited before. As we walked from the Sudanese Imbiss Nil, which we’re now regulars at, to a lovely bio bakery – via an unremarkable Indian restaurant – we learned all about what apparently gets called “the Tuscany of Berlin”. We were told that much of our neighbourhood is under landmark protection, including the beautiful Admiralbrücke, which, according to our guide, is why (cringe) all the rich people live here!

Crossing the Landwehrkanal, we passed the grand sculpture on Admiralstrasse, with punk figures making for a suitable entranceway to SO36, and sampled the freshest, tastiest börek we’ve ever had at Leylak on Kottbusser Strasse. We then stopped for great dürum and a decent slice of pizza, before walking to Oranienplatz and checking out the site of the former Luisenstadt Canal. We’d never heard of this waterway before, which used to run north-south between the River Spree and the Landwehrkanal, but we were more excited about getting to Küchenkaiser around the corner, where delicious cake has been baked since 1866!

Overall, we had a very pleasant few hours with our nice, knowledgable Eat the World guide. The Kreuzberg tour showcased the range of food on offer in this colourful neighbourhood, although not necessarily the best it has to offer. As we live locally, we’re probably spoiled for choice, and a little picky, but we were happy to try out some new places (especially Nil and Leylak!) while learning a lot more about our immediate area. Not necessarily for the most demanding of foodies, the Eat the World Kreuzberg tour is a good introduction to Berlin’s most (in)famous ‘hood, as well as a tasty way to spend a day!