überlin

It’s finally here! We’re very proud and über-excited to announce that our first book, What I Know About Germans: 101 Observations, is out to buy today.

What I Know About Germans is based on our insanely popular blog post of the same name, which generated over 40,000 Facebook Likes, 600 blog comments, coverage by the likes of Bild and Financial Times Deutschland – and enough traffic to crash our servers on more than one occasion! A lovingly compiled collection of an Australian writer’s hilarious observations about her adopted beloved countrymen, What I Know About Germans has been brought to life as a beautiful book, available in both print and eBook versions.

Want to see what we’re so excited about? Take a peek inside…

What I Know About Germans: 101 Observations has been a year in the making, and is the result of a lot of hard work from a small but dedicated team. We’re indebted to author Liv Hambrett in particular for allowing us to publish her post in the first place, for writing new and improved observations for the book, and for being the unofficial WIKAG cheerleader while we pull it all together. I’d also like to thank Josh Bauman, whose awesome illustrations really bring Liv’s words to life, Eric for producing our impressive What I Know About Germans web page, Sharmaine, Evi and the epubli team for their help and support – and of course Zoë for beautifying everything with her boundless design talent! Group hug ????

Anyway, enough of my gabbing. To find out more about the book, and to pick up a copy, visit the What I Know About Germans: 101 Observations page now!

[EDIT: this competition is now closed. Click here to see if we’re running any open competitions] 

Yippee ki-yay melonfarmers! Our blog familitary is regrouping on Friday to lay down a carpet-bombing of hip hop and RN’B classics from the golden era of the 90s and 00s. Back at Fluxbau, Blog Party 3.0 will feature banging sets from Lucy vs. the Globe, Nordic by Nature, Ponydanceclyde and Demons Galore, as well as your friendly überlin selecta! We have 5 x 2 guestlist spots to give away – scroll down for your chance to win. But before that, I should warn you that  lately I’ve been listening to lots of UK garage, grime, two step… woteva you call it.

Let me kick you off with this classic UKG video…

…which for some reason, doesn’t feature this leg end:

HOW TO WIN 2 X GUESTLIST SPOTS FOR BLOG PARTY 3.0:

Leave us a comment below. Now would be a good time to request your ultimate garage anthem!

You have until 6pm on Thursday 28th November. Good luck!

The Boring Bit (yawn, RULES):

1. You must be at least 18 years old to enter.
2. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON!
3. We will keep a record of each comment in a database and then a random number generator picks the winner.
4. Remember to include your full (real) name or we won’t be able to put you on the guestlist!
5. We will announced the winners via our Facebook page on Friday 29th November.

Full event details here.

By Mike T West.

As 2013 draws to a close and the darker months approach, metal bands retreat from the blinding lights of summer package tours and cloak themselves in wintery pitch blackness. This Sunday the younger generation creeps into Neukölln for an evening of metal and fringes.

Joining metalcore legends Bring Me The Horizon on their latest European trek are pre-pubescent pit merchants Pierce the Veil.

Photo by Alie Krohn 
www.aliekrohnphoto.com

Consisting of bros (in the genetic sense) Vic and Mike Fuentes, plus Tony Perry and Jaime Preciado, these Californian lads have released three albums since their inception in 2007. Third LP Collide With The Sky was released last summer, became ridiculously massive everywhere ever and featured überlin’s Beard Of The Year™ Jason letlive. Butler on the face-melting jam “Tangled in the Great Escape”:

There are still tickets available for BMTH+PTV on the Internet and in those neat ticket vendors you see dotted around Berlin. The show is 8pm this Sunday 1st December at Huxleys Neue Welt, Hasenheide 107-113, 10967 Berlin.

Fucking tourists. Look at them – standing there in the bike lane, with a beer in each hand and a gormless grin on their face, oblivious to the bitter Berliners bearing down on them, piston legs powered by resentment and… is that… envy? They may be morons, but they seem so happy, like little children caught up in the wonderment of what is, for them, the biggest urban playground Europe has to offer.

Well, why should they have all the fun? After three years in the city, we figured we deserve a break from reality as much as any easyjetsetter. So we packed our tour guides into our “fanny packs” and set out to the city’s most obvious attractions, in order to pick up 25 tourist tricks to rediscovering Berlin.

1) Beer for breakfast. 

2) Bratwurst for lunch.

3) Döner for dinner.

4) Speak only three words of German: “SPRECHEN. SIE. ENGLISCH?”

5) Rent the biggest bike imaginable…

6) …preferably, one powered by beer.

7) Or go solo and rent a Segway! 

After all, no one wants to be seen with you on that thing.

8) Take the U-Bahn. 

One hour and three transfers later, you’ll have successfully made it across Unter den Linden. 

9) Get busted by BVG inspectors.

See how far you get with the line, “but I’m just a tourist…”

10) Get your photo taken with fake American soldiers…

11) ..or THE PREDATOR?!!!

12) Spend all day in the Sony Center. 

There’s restaurants, a cinema AND DUNKIN’ DONUTS – why would you ever leave?

13) Try to pay with a card. 

14) After resorting to withdrawing cash, treat your Euros like Monopoly money.

15) Start by tipping generously. 

Dead giveaway.

16) Drink a “beer” that looks like looks nuclear waste.  

17) Glühwein: Christmas in a cup.  

18) Queue.

For Burgermeister. For Berghain. For the bloody Reichstag.

19) Get knocked back from Berghain. Never understand why. 

20) Be disappointed by the Berlin Wall. 

21) Marvel at street art as if it was the Sistine Chapel.

Like no one ever drew on a wall where you come from… 

22) Act like a tit and treat the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe like a jungle gym. 

23) Follow the crowd. It’s going to Mauerpark.

24) Take this selfie.

25) And finally… PHOTOAUTOMAT!

[EDIT: this competition is now closed. Click here to see if we’re running any open competitions] 

How’s that for a lineup? Techno godfather Dave Clarke, leader of the new school Objekt and a very special guest from Berghain residents Ostgut Ton.

We can’t think of a better set of DJs to celebrate the classic !K7 mix series X-MIX at this awesome “audio/visual nightlife experience” at Stattbad Wedding this Friday. And we’ve heard that Pussycrew’s live video installation based on the original X-MIX archives is NEXT LEVEL.

Scroll down to find out how you can win two guestlist spots to the hottest event on the Berlin clubbing calendar!

But first, here’s a little remind of how far we’ve come: Dave Clarke’s “Electro Boogie” X-MIX from 1996 (accompanied by Lawnmower Man-calibre computer graphics) and a collection of Objekt’s feverishly fresh recent mixes.

HOW TO WIN 2 X GUESTLIST SPOTS FOR X-MIX 1993-2013 AT STATTBAD ON FRIDAY 22ND NOVEMBER:

Just leave us a comment below. Say something, anything. But be nice.

You have until 6pm on Thursday 21st November. Good luck!

The Boring Bit (yawn, RULES):

1. You must be at least 18 years old to enter.
2. ONE ENTRY PER PERSON!
3. We will keep a record of each comment in a database and then a random number generator picks the winner.
4. Remember to include your full (real) name or we won’t be able to put you on the guestlist!
5. We will announced the winners via our Facebook page on Friday 22nd November.

Full event details here.

I’m going to be on the radio! Berlin Community Radio is the only radio station we actually listen to live, as it features a number of awesome shows from people we love: our mayyyyyyyyte Lucy vs the Globe, French Ana’s excellent edit of upcoming concerts LIVESICK and Post Flashback, which I’ll be guesting on next week.

Host Adrian describes Post Flashback as playing “music that we may have forgotten about to spark a rush of nostalgia”. If you want to get genre specific (you nerd), that means post punk, post-hardcore, indie, shoegaze and more… but the descriptive that’s been inspiring my playlist is “sad dad music”. Zum Bespiel:

If you want to hear the tracks that make me and Mike from White Trash indie punk rock night Demons Galore cry into our pints, tune into Berlin Community Radio on Monday 18th November at 5pm – click “Going” on this Facebook event so you don’t forget. Oh, and you can tell me what you want to hear by adding tracks to this Spotify playlist – I’M TAKING REQUESTS!

Post Flashback on Berlin Community Radio – with guests überlin and Demons Galore
Monday 18th November, 5pm – 7pm
Full details here.

“Nächste Station… Filthy-Syringe-Platz.”

Redfern Jon Barrett reimagines the Berlin subway map, with hilarious consequences. Click to see the full thing!

A manic giant with a PhD in queer literature, Redfern writes about polyamory, witchcraft, and science fiction. His weird novel Forget Yourself is available on Amazon. Read more at redjon.com.