überlin

There’s nothing like a Music Montag end of year playlist to make you realise just how diverse the Berlin music scene is! Bookended by classic Zoë favourites that drive home the dominance of the city’s clubbing industry, elsewhere this year’s Best of Berlin runs the gammut of genres. There’s electro pop, indie, weirdo synth explorations, progressive metal, a healthy chunk of Bowie covers… even a hilarious advertising jingle and a track from a rock opera for kids! Hope you enjoy this pick-and-mix of the most interesting music (mostly) produced in Berlin this year. Boom.

Want to walk your ears down memory lane? Check out the Music Montag: Best of Berlin 2013 and the best of 2012.

Olive wanted to pop by to wish you all a Merry Christmas, and to thank everyone who supported us through a year of big changes, and occasionally tough, yet rewarding, times. She rightly pointed out that überlin would be nothing without our community, and thought we should remind our coworkers, readers, followers and friends: we love you all.

A special “paws up” to Free Your Stuff Berlin for donating a kostenlos Christmas tree (we promise to stop trolling you so hard!) and to Shinola, the Detroit product designers who made the luxurious dog bed that Olive is modelling so beautifully here. To all our überliners, Frohe Weihnachten and Guten Rutsch!

“Nina relajada” by inthesitymad, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

We’ve said it before: Nina Hagen is the queen. So we’re going to give her the spotlight on this Christmas edition of Music Montag, for a couple of naughty and nice renditions of Weihnachten-themed songs.

First up, enjoy her doing what she does best, getting sacrilegious (ish) over the top of some bonkers acid techno. Then, watch the post-punk icon get visibly outside of her comfort zone, and still nailing it, singing a traditional hymn with an orchestra for French TV. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Naughty: “X- Christmas”

Nice: “Stille Nacht” (Silent Night)

Kennst du Cards Against Humanity? It’s the “party game for horrible people”, where players attempt to one-up each other, by providing shocking and disgusting answers to seemingly innocuous questions. Naturally, we love it.

The only problem is that you can’t buy it in Germany. The makers tell us that this is a distribution challenge, but we also wonder whether is has something to do with not knowing the Deutsch market. If you don’t understand Germans, you might not realise that their minds are as filthy as the Americans and Brits, or know where they draw the line between “wrong ;)” and “WRONG!!!!”

Thankfully, Cards Against Humanity have made it possible to produce your own game. On their website, they provide the standard set of black and white cards for printing at home, and blank sets so you can make your own. A couple of fans have even produced German translations – check them out here and here.

Introducing Cards Against Humanity: The Berlin Edition. We’ve created a set of cards that reflect all that is weird and wonderful (but mostly weird) about living in Berlin, so you can test your friends’ local knowledge as well as their intestinal fortitude! Just download it here, get horrible and enjoy yourselves!

Have you got anything to add? Let us know what black cards you’d like to see, and maybe we’ll make an expanded pack. Leave your filthy comments below ????

We’ve slept on Erlend Øye‘s new album since it was released, but now seems the right time to celebrate Legao. Oddly released just after the end of summer, Øye’s second solo release is totally sun-baked, despite being recorded in Reykjavík with an Icelandic reggae group (which, apparently, is a thing).

So pour some honey in your Ingwertee, and bask in the humid, holiday romance vibes of “Garota”, filmed in Seoul. And for bonus open-air Øye, check out The Whitest Boy Alive’s white boy dancing in D E N A’s “Cash, Diamond Rings, Swimming Pools”, which is also guaranteed to cure those winter blues.

Find out the secrets of Zoë’s success! For this week’s Ask überlin we help out a reader who’s looking for photography work here in Berlin. Listen in to learn about the humble beginnings of Zoë Noble Photography, how to set yourself apart from all the iPhone snappers out there, and which Berlin photo blogs and instagram profiles we go to for inspiration.

Oh, and if you’re a figurative artist and/or a fan of Käthe Kollwitz, then we need your help! A reader who’s moving to Berlin in the new year is planning a study of the local art icon, so if you are able to help, or know someone who can, then we’d love to hear from you. Drop us a comment on this blog post, or our SoundCloud, or send an email to the address listed below. Thanks a lot, art nerds!

Got a question for us? Stick it in an email to ask@uberlin.co and we’ll answer you on an upcoming episode of Ask überlin!

“j mascis 3” by Allison Harger, under Creative Commons (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Of all the indie icons currently spending at least part of their time in Berlin, J Mascis has to be our personal favourite. As the creative nucleus of 90s alt rockers Dinosaur Jr, he was responsible for slacker anthems such as “Feel the Pain”, accompanied by this hilarious Spike Jonze video:

But more, much more than this, Mascis has spent the years between Dinosaur Jr records by expanding his repertoire – recording doom metal with Upsidedown Cross, stoner with Witch, and chilled out and heartfelt solo material. Like this year’s Tied to a Star, which yielded another LOL-tastic video, which you can watch over on Funny or Die’s YouTube channel.

Join us in celebrating Mascis’ return to Berlin, by picking up tickets to next week’s show at Lido. Welcome back, Space Angel!