Amazon do a good thing

Let's start 2016 with a warm, amusing story.

Pegida, the German Nazis have released a pop song, and it's doing fairly well in terms of downloads.

That might not sound too amusing - and it isn't - but there is an upside.

Amazon, noting that they're raking in money off sales on this tatty piece of shit, came up with a fuck you Nazis plan. They're giving the money to help refugees.

Yep, they might struggle with paying their taxes, but at least Amazon have come up with a way to ensure that far-right propaganda helps fund the very people the nazis demonise.

Eurovision 2016: First homophobic artist selected

For some reason, every round of Eurovision seems to come with some far-right tosspot or another being selected to go and do a song. This time round, it's Germany who have put forward a homophobic anti-semite to sing for them.

Xavier Naidoo, an R&B singer of mixed Indian, African and German heritage, was named by the ARD public broadcaster as Germany’s entry for the 2016 Eurovision contest in Stockholm.
But the choice was criticised by politicians and activists who said his lyrics suggest homosexuals are paedophiles and contain anti-Semitic slurs.

Xavier appeared at a Far Right rally for Germans who believe that somehow Germany is shaped like the Hitler vision of Germany, and that the Weimar German constitution remains in force. (If they really believed this, they'd be trying to pay for bread with pianos.)

Oddly, not everyone has suggested that it's a terrible idea:

“I am sure Xavier will be a worthy representative at the Eurovision,” Nicole, a German singer who won the contest in 1982, said.

“I like his music a lot and I find it great that an established artist has the courage to compete on the international stage.”

Nicole's Eurovision winner was, obviously, a Little Peace. Which turns out to have meant a little piece of Poland.

Pete Doherty: Too drunk to filch

You'll recall the record shop break-in in Germany which featured Pete Doherty? He's not going to face prosecution, as the German authorities have accepted Doherty's claim that he was too drunk to remember what happened.

In fact, the Germans have decided that he was too drunk to be criminally responsible for what he was doing. Is that an actual defence in Germany? How do people get pulled up for being drunk and disorderly, then? Wouldn't it encourage people who are a bit drunk to get really drunk to cover themselves in case they do something stupid on the way home?

Still: another bloody lucky break for Doherty. He lives to do something incredibly stupid another day.

Venuewatch: Incident at the Zwischerfall

Bochum's legendary Zwischerfall has been destroyed in a fire.

The club opened in 1985 and provided a home for the German Dark Wave movement, alongside offering a space for punk, new wave and gothic bands of all stripes to play. It also found space for fetish and BDSM events.

Those of you who believe in some sort of strict, unforgiving Old Testament God might draw a conclusion from the events hosted there, and the apparent cause of the fire being a thunderbolt sent from the heavens. On the other hand, the club itself appears to have survived the resulting fire fairly intact - unlike the rest of the building - but is so badly waterdamaged that closure was inevitable. The owners say that it's unlikely they'll be able to reopen any time soon.

Here's a hint of what the club looked like - this is Inferia playing Bloody Mary on the Zwischerfall stage:

Love Parade: After the deaths, the blame

It's way, way too soon to know for sure exactly what went so horrifically wrong at The Love Parade in Duisburg yesterday, but there seems to be an obvious consensus gathering around there only being one way in and out:

The founder of the Love Parade, who goes by the name of Dr Motte (Dr Moth), criticised the decision to have one entrace to the parade area.

"The organisers showed not the slightest responsibility for people. One single entrance through a tunnel lends itself to disaster. I am very sad," he said.

Currently, the sound is of people trying to pass the blame:

Duisburg Mayor Adolf Sauerland defended security measures for the festival and vowed to hold a full inquiry.

"In the run-up to the event, we worked out a solid security plan with the organisers and everyone involved," he said.

You'd have to wonder exactly how solid the security plan was given the outcome.

No, Mr Doherty... do Jimmy Cagney instead

Proving that - expensive education aside - he's not really that bright, Pete Doherty has been happily singing the Nazi anthem during a German gig.

Apparently, singing the Nazi anthem wasn't meant to be offensive:

In a statement released to Sky News Online, his spokeswoman said the Babyshambles singer "wanted to celebrate his appearance in Munich by assimilating and integrating with the crowd, something he tries do wherever he goes.

She added: "He was unaware of the controversy surrounding the German National anthem and he deeply apologises if he has caused any offence."

The statement went on to say: "Peter himself is from Jewish descent and has fought against racism and fascism with numerous organisations including Love Music Hate Racism.

"This is a subject he feels very strongly about."

You'd have to be a bit thick to imagine that singing the Fuhrer's anthm is going to "assimilate and integrate" you with a nation quite keen to forget that era.

Doherty was hauled off stage and off-air (oh, yes, this was being broadcast, too). Going "it's alright, I had a Jewish ancestor" hardly seems to make it alright.

Who knows the lyrics of Deustchland Uber Alles without knowing the history of the song? No, Doherty isn't a racist. But he's not as clever as we're lead to believe.

Major labels lose bid to outlaw CD ripping in Germany

Back in 2003, Germany introduced a law which - quite sensibly - enshrined the principle that if you buy a CD, you can do with it such things as are necessary to enable you to enjoy your property. Making a copy to play in the car, putting the files onto your computer. That sort of thing.

As if determined to waste money on court cases designed to prove their dunerheaded greed, the RIAA labels have been trying to have the law struck out.

The attempt has been thrown out on a technical point - the music industry should have raised its objections in 2004, under German law. I don't think anyone is going be surprised it's taken the labels half a decade to work out how they're going to respond to a new development.

To be fair, their contention was that the law was repeated in a 2008 bill, which they claimed made it 'new' legislation. From an industry which thinks sticking a couple of video tracks on the end of an album makes something a new album, that's not surprising.

And are they taking their defeat well?

Stefan Michalk, managing director of the association of the German music-industry (BVMI), commented: "The interpretation of the German Federal Constitutional Court is controversial, also among experts of German constitutional law. Before filing the claim we were aware of the risks, but we had to take our chance because the fact of whether private copying is legal or not is of such a big importance for the record business. For us it is still very questionable that the court refused our claim for formal reasons."

Michalk doesn't appear to explain why the record labels are pouring money into trying to have a court rule that their product should be less useful than it already is. At a time when hardly anyone wants to buy CDs, they're pushing a court to criminalise their few remaining customers for doing something that has no real impact on their business at all.

Record labels: People are not going to buy two copies of the same CD just to use them in two different places. If you tell them that copying their own CD for their own personal use is a crime, they might well conclude that you might as well be hung for a lamb, and go straight to the not buying anything stage. Thank the German courts for saving what remains of your business from your own stupid impulses, and move on.

S&M Rammstein put on the rack

The German government has told shops to shove the new Rammstein album under the counter and not where children's eyes can see it. Not as a musical judgement, either. It's just the sexual violence that makes them queasy:

Officials were offended by the track "Ich tue Dir Weh" ("I Want to Hurt You"), which includes such lines as "Bites, kicks, heavy blows, nails, pincers, blunt saws - Tell me what you want," as well as artwork showing guitarist Richard Kruspe with a masked, naked woman on his knees.

Charming.

There's also worries about a public health message, too:

The German Federal Office for the Examination of Media Harmful to Young People in Bonn also criticized the single "Pussy," stating that it incites listeners to engage in unprotected sexual intercourse despite the risk of AIDS. But the song was not officially part of the ruling.

The video for "Pussy" has also caused some commotion as it shows what appear to be members of the band participating in sex scenes, although sources close to the band insist that the band members were doubled.

That's a lovely case of missing the point - "it's okay, the childish sexism isn't actually the band, it's just people who look like them." Apart from furthering the impression that the sort of band who make stuff like this don't actually have sex in real life, what difference does that make?

Let's just look at that public body name again:

The German Federal Office for the Examination of Media Harmful to Young People

I know that's a translation of the title, but... doesn't it kind of imply that the material it's examining has been prejudged as harmful before they get to it?

Gordon in the morning: Sind sie allein in Berlin?

Last night's MTV awards in Berlin had an element of looking backwards, but most people were only casting backwards twenty years.

Not Gordon, though. Germany, you say?:

Ze vinners are...

Ah, reporting Germany like you're writing a Victor comic strip. Classy. Are The Sun ever going to get over the Second World War?

Deutschland Liebe Copyright

The new German coalition government has issued a 124 document, part of which explains the nation's plans for copyright. Like most governments, they're planning to make copyright "tighter":

Among them is the promise to mount a strong defence of copyright. The government says it wants to "achieve a high level of protection and an effective assertion of the copyright-law."

There's an almost theological flaw here - the belief that copyright law is primarily about protecting ownership of things, rather than designed to encourage creativity. If you work from that misconception, the copyright law you're going to create has to be bad for the general health of the nation.

Still, even the German government know when a idea is a bad one:

However, the prospect of removing Internet access for repeat infringers appears to be out of the question. "We want to promote the possibilities of an internal regulation with the participation of the right-owners and the Internet-providers," says the document. "We will not take initiatives for legal possibilities to block Internet access in cases of copyright infringements."

You'd have to be insane to propose doing so. Or French.

Music industry begs prosecutors to put present, future on trial

"German music rights holders" have approached the prosecutors in Germany in a bid to have senior YouTube and Google executives put on criminal trial. Because of some unlicensed bits and pieces on YouTube, not because they all grouped together and stole the music industry's shoes while they were swimming.

Criminal prosecutions.

The current investigation started as the result of a formal complaint by Hamburg-based lawyer Jens Schippmann, who represents 25 German musicians, producers and music publishers. Schippmann sued Google in civil court earlier this year, alleging that videos of his clients have been viewed more that 125 million times without any compensation. Schippmann now alleges that Google didn’t respond to requests to take down more that 8,000 videos and that his clients were denied access to the company’s Content ID Program. He also claimed that users would utilize YouTube as a kind of “covert file-sharing platform,” tagging his clients videos with keywords like “album quality” to encourage downloading.

Oh, lord. YouTube as covert file-sharing? Does Schippmann really not understand what he's talking about, or is he simply pretending to be an idiot to try and impress confused prosecutors? Even record labels use YouTube to host content, and they're hardly the sort to promote a covert file-sharing platform.

Guten abend: YouTube pulls German videos

There is some soothing balm for the PRS in the news that Google and GEMA have failed to reach a royalty agreement: GEMA's demands are 50% higher than PRS are looking for, which does at least mean that the PRS is no longer the organisation with the slimmest grasp on what online music is really worth.

As in the UK, music videos are now being switched off all across YouTube.de.

Nein, nein, nein: Germany says no to three strikes

Unlike their French neighbours, the German Ministry of Justice has rejected calls for a three strikes rule to throw filesharers off the internet:

Dr. Heinz Stroh, managing director of the German Federal Association of Music Publishers (DMV) in Bonn says that he was unable to understand the concerns voiced by the ministry of justice, seeing as it was sufficient for users to be in default of payment for their Internet connections to be cancelled.

Stefan Michalk, managing director of the German Federal Music Association (BMI) in Berlin, adds that the combination of warnings and sanctions provided a very good means of combating Internet piracy.

Although it's not really been tried anywhere, and so nobody really knows if it'll work, or if it'll be expensive; or, indeed, if you can really get away with cutting off people from their communications network in the 21st century. But in the music industry's heads it's a good means of combating internet piracy.

Gun shot

Sony records have killed the GUN records imprint, created by BMG and Bogdan Kopec and Wolfgang Funk back in 1992. The acts signed to the label will either shift to Sony sub labels Four Music or Columbia Germany.

Bookmarks: Some stuff to read on the internet

Apart from swallowing whole Gallagher's claims that The Smell Of White Lightning has got a Krautrock influence, Yahoo's primer's guide to Krautrock is pretty good:

Bands were also anxious to direct their amps and fuzz boxes against the political establishment, which in 1968 still contained many Nazi-era officials, said Guru Guru's Neumeier.

"There was a thick layer of dust everywhere left by Uncle Adolf, and we wanted to really blow it away," he said.

Anglo-American domination of the record industry was a further obstacle to German acts, which needed time to find their own voice in the Cold War aftermath of the Nazis' defeat.

"After the war, we had no self-confidence to put down roots on our own turf, musically or otherwise," said Holger Czukay, bassist for Cologne-based Can. "It only really began in 1968."

Embed and breakfast man: Amon Duul II

Something slightly Proggy and a lot Teutonic this weekend - that'll teach you for complaining about Britpop. Inspired by Rob Hughes' replaying of a 1973 Peel Session this week on 6Music, we're dipping into the back catalogue of Amon Duul II. Without Amon Duul II, it's probable there wouldn't have been Krautrock as we know it.

Founded in 1969 out of a schism in a commune-based improv band, Amon Duul II were the more successful of the two factions. They achieved chart success in the UK - along with the Peel Session - but a move to Atlantic Records irked the purists and marked a change in the music; striving for accessibility, and sales, resulted in an erosion of early support without much in the way of new fans to replace them. Oh, yeah, and punk. Punk definitely didn't help them. They called it a day in 1981, although the surviving members reunited to perform at drummer Peter Leopold's funeral in 2006.

Let's start near the very beginning - this is an untitled jam from 1969:



More about the band
Official site - aptly for a prog band, the site is completely over-engineered and slow to navigate
Wikpedia entry
Amon Duul II on Last.FM

Buy
Phallus Dei - debut album, and yes, it translates as God's cock.
Vive Le Trance
DVD of Phallus Dei live - not the greatest quality, but essential for aficionados

More video action across the weekend
Phallus Dei
Between The Eyes live on Beat Club
Surrounded By Stars live in 1975

Max Mosley won't be taking Lemmy's calls for a while

It's not entirely news that Lemmy has got a bunch of Nazi stuff, or, indeed, for him to be photographed dressed up in Nazi outfits.

Unfortunately, he's been using a photo of himself tricked out like a Nazi to promote a gig in Germany this weekend. Which - in a country which is quite sensitive about these things - is actually illegal.

The Guardian has dug out some thoughts Lemmy has shared about his love of the former Master Race:

"I don't only collect Nazi stuff, I collect objects from all the Axis countries."

Ah. That's alright then.

"Also from countries who aren't even mentioned anymore as former parts of the Axis. Like Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Hungary."

We're sure the Latvian people will be delighted that you're ensuring their part in the Second World War gets the full attention it deserves, Lemmy.

"From the beginning of time, the bad guys always had the best uniforms. Napoleon, the Confederates, the Nazis. They all had killer uniforms. I mean, the SS uniform is fucking brilliant! They were the rock stars of that time. What you're gonna do? They just look good."

The echo of Bryan Ferry's "not that I'm a Nazi but, ooh, did you see their building work" is, we're almost certain, unintentional.

There's not a great deal thought going on anywhere here, to be honest:

"It's not a nationalistic kind of thing. Don't tell me I'm a Nazi 'cause I have uniforms. In 1967 I had my first black girlfriend and a lot more ever since then. I just don't understand racism, I never thought it was an option."

Some of your best dates were black, were they, Lemmy? It's interesting to see him treat racism as if it might be a choice - like deciding to try country music or sample a sushi bar. "I might have a go at racism today, then."

German prosecutors are investigating if Lemmy should be prosecuted, but it's unlikely he will be: it'd be like prosecuting a cat for looking a bit like Hitler.

[Thanks to James M for the link]

Germany feels the cold wind of rejection

If Terry Wogan's toy-chuck wasn't over-reactive enough for you, Germany is treating its less-than-stellar performance in Eurovision as a national crisis:

"Why doesn't anyone like us?" asked Bild am Sonntag newspaper after Germany had yet another horrendous showing in the annual contest watched by more than 100 million viewers.

"Are we too stupid to win or is it simply we're not liked?" the Sunday newspaper said. "The fact is Germany's top recording artists have failed spectacularly in this contest. Do our singers simply have no chance abroad?"

Since being too stupid has never been a handicap in winning Eurovision, the Germans can at least take comfort in still being more popular than the United Kingdom.

Girlschool cancel US and German dates

More tight visa rulings: this time, it's Girlschool who have had to pull their US dates due to visas not coming through:

"We are absolutely devastated that we had to cancel these shows due to the incompetence of the powers that be. The people that we had trusted to do their jobs and the bureaucracy of the American embassy really sucks.

"We have spent four days at the embassy this week where we were told that our visas had all been approved and that they would try and hurry them up so we would get our passports returned to us before we were due to leave for Germany on the night of August 30th. We then spent two days on the phone begging for our passports to be returned to us but were told that it takes three-five working days.

"Well, as you can imagine, we couldn't believe it after we had been told that they would courier them back to us [as soon as possible]. We have had to cancel all the shows and are extremely disappointed that we have let our fans down.

"To any bands that are applying for a U.S. visa, make sure that you apply at least six months before you go; that way you can be sure of getting your passports back in time.

"Once again we would like to apologize to the German and American fans — and the concert promoters. Hopefully we will see them soon if we ever get our passports back."

Well done, America: now managing to make bands cancel European dates as well as ones in the US.

Let's hope MTV have an understudy

Rather a brave choice for MTV, picking Snoopy Dog Dog to host this year's MTV Europe awards. Not because Dogg is "edgy" in the way he likes to believe, but with the recent spate of refused work visas he's suffered, it's possible he might not be able to set foot in Munich to do the show.

Still, he's keen, we'll give him that:

"Presenters in the past have been great, but this year I'm takin' it to a whole new level.

"I've called up the homeys from east to west and guarantee it's gonna be off tha chain, ya dig."

We love it when Snoop talks like he's street, even though these days the only thing he ever does actually on the street is take advantage of the kerbside check-in offered to platinum frequent fliers.