Everything That Goes Down in Vegas Stays in Vegas

There's a fb page for those attending the May 21 show in Vegas who want to hook up with like-minded Rammstein fans. This is an awesome example of community at work. If you're going to Vegas check it out, and I'd love to hear of any more of these that pop up. If you find similar pages for other shows please do let me know!

Premature Rammdulation

Can someone in Montreal please go down to the Bell Center and see if there's a chap camped out and waiting there for Rammstein's May 7 show, who answers to the handle SchwarzesGlas? If you do this please get back to me with a photo (assuming he's okay with this), because this kind of devotion is exceptional and needs publicising.

Extra Tickets For Sale

RNC has some Rammstein tickets that are excess to requirement and is on-selling them at face value. She's good people. If you're going to buy tickets from anyone but an official ticketing office this is the person to buy from. The tickets are for May 5 and 21.

Win tickets for Rammstein in Mexico

You and a friend could win tickets to attend the May 26 show in Mexico, by entering here. You'll need to answer some questions and fill out contact details. If both of you enter you double your chances. Good luck!

Schneider Signing at Musikmesse 2011 - II

I've already posted about Schneider's scheduled appearance at Musikmesse 2011, for Sonor.

On April 9 Schneider will once again be at Musikmesse, from 2 PM. The stand is that of Sonor (designated 3.0 / E 53), so if you're in Frankfurt go along and say hello.

Now I'm posting about his other appearance at Musikmesse 2011, for Sabian.

The following five internationally renowned artists are on board and ready to interact with their eager fans on the SABIAN Booth, Hall 3.0 B75, Saturday, April 9, 12—1PM. Don’t miss out!.

Mike Portnoy...
Jojo Mayer...
Christoph Schneider...
Mark Schulman...
Dom Famularo...

The elipses indicate where I have removed biographical material about each artist.

Silenzium on Sonne

The Russian string band has added a cover of Sonne to their repertoire (joining Mein Herz Brennt, and covers of other artists):



I love that they did it. I'm still trying to work out if I like how they did it. They don't seem to have incorporated the vocal parts into the melody, which thins it, I think. It may grow on me...

Flake's Echo Acceptance

A translation of Flake's acceptance speech from the Echo Awards has been posted to Herzeleid by erikire. Thanks, dude:

"This is what happens when they let the public to decide. / / Thanks to Vattenfall*, because without it, everything would be darker"

*Vattenfall = Electricity & Gas Supplier in Germany & Europe

Update 20110326: I also have a version from a German (erikire is from Mexico), Felix:

That happens if the public decides. And we wanna say thank you to Vattenfall. Otherwise it would be dark in here.

Thanks Felix!

Rammstein Won the Echo

Oh yeah, baybee. Did you vote? If so it worked. ITDW should now get more airtime in Germany, which rocks.



Thanks for the video link, Eva.

Sell-Out

According to Ticketmaster the Rosemont (Chicago) show has sold out. Thanks for bebauz on Herzeleid for the heads up.

WTF?!

I just read this and had one of those moments of blank stupidity. My only response is 'WTF?' so I may go and have another coffee.

HD Festival Footage Coming to TV

This isn't just Rammstein. It's comprehensive festival footage from last year, and it's coming courtesy of French channel, M6:

...The content, all produced in True HD, includes performances by Muse, Kings of Leon, Florence and the Machine, Fat Boy Slim, David Guetta, Arcade Fire, Europe, Rammstein, Alice Cooper, 10cc, Jimmy Somerville, Mika, Jason Derulo, Dizzee Rascal, Roxy Music and Madness. ...

...The ‘Best of the Festivals’ series will air across the M6 Music Club, W9, M6 Music Hits and Metropole channels. M6 has also optioned Series 2 of ‘Best of the Festivals’ portfolio which Blink TV will produce this (northern) summer and deliver in September. Series 2 will include a new animated graphics package which is easily tailored to local languages.

With other deals already done with Channel 4 and Sky TV in the UK, MTV’s HD network Palladia and HD Net in the US, LapTV and Globosat in Latin America and XYZ in Australia, Blink TV’s festival programming has struck a chord with broadcasters looking to reach key youth demographics...

Naturally, there is no mention of NZ.

Extra Mexico Date Added

Rammstein's next tour leg has had such high demand in Mexico (surprise, surprise) that another date has been added (the 27th). That won't satisfy Mexico, but it still rocks.

Schneider Signing at Musikmesse 2011

On April 9 Schneider will once again be at Musikmesse, from 2 PM. The stand is that of Sonor (designated 3.0 / E 53), so if you're in Frankfurt go along and say hello.

ITDW on MySpace

Rammstein has posted the video for ITDW on its MySpace page, which is not a problem since the indexing has been reversed. This works well with the Echo Award nomination, which I hope you have all voted on.

LILT is Two

The site was founded March 16 2009, and today my hit counter has gone haywire. I guess that's kind of fitting. Happy birthday, LILT.

Die Antwoord: 'Rammstein Blew My Fucking Brains Open'

Die Antwoord are a South African unit that played BDO alongside Rammstein this southern summer, and they're pretty awesome and very funky. An interview was recently posted in which they remark Rammstein. The Germans impress:

Do you feel like the place you want to make most of your music is South Africa?
Yolandi: Yeah we do all our stuff there.
Ninja: We’re not that big, the way we see things. We’re kind of just sticking our little heads out of the ground; we’ve emerged from nowhere.
Yolandi: We’re not as big as Rammstein.
Ninja: Rammstein are fucking cool. I saw them last night. I haven’t liked anything for so long until I saw them.
Yolandi: The fire!
Ninja: I was so sad this morning that it was yesterday and that it was finished.

Are you looking in the future to add flames and foam to your concert experience?
Ninja: Maybe at some point to add flames, but there’s a lot of different things I want to do now. Rammstein blew my fucking brains open for what you can do for concerts, but our concerts are still kind of raw and hardcore, but it’d be super cool to explode the sensory experience like that. They’re fucking amazing. I’m a huge fan all of a sudden. I always liked them from that one movie [Pussy]; that was the first time I thought they were pretty cool. After I saw them live I was like, “Jesus Christ, this is the coolest thing ever.”

Vote For Rammstein

Go here. Sign up and sign in. Then click on the Rammstein video thumbnail, then on the big purple button that says 'Jetzt für dieses Video abstimmen' (vote for this video now). Let's put ITDW all over German TV, by ensuring that it wins the Best National Video award.

Echo Nomination

Rammstein has been nominated for an Echo Award for Ich Tu' Dir Weh. One has to wonder what the BPjM will think if ITDW gets plastered all over the place for winning an Echo Award.

Crazy Gigs

NME has a post up on its blog about crazy gigs from a range of people, and Luke Lewis (Editor, NME.COM) named a 2005 Rammstein show has the craziest he's been to:

Rammstein, Berlin Velodrome, 2005. Most people have heard about the sex toys, flamethrower-guitars and rubber dinghies that make up a Rammstein live show, but you really have to see them in Germany – where health and safety laws are suicidally lax – to get the full eyebrow-singeing effect. I’ve never seen so much fire in my life. At one point singer Till Lindemann shot a fireball from a crossbow: it flew over the heads of 20,000 Germans, hit the back wall, and came flying back at him. To this day I have no idea how he did it.

Of course, we know (wires, baby), but let's leave him wondering.

Silvijo Video

Silvijo, who provided LILT with its avatar photo (top, left, in case you missed it), has put together a photo montage video:



Think about what this guy could do if he got to photograph the band under controlled conditions...

LILTday Looming

March 16 (NZT) is LILT's birthday. It will be two years old. Two years and I'm almost out of adaptable songs. I've completed almost 50, with five in the pipe, and I reckon there are two, maybe three left from their current catalogue. If I really wrestle some verbage into submission I may get a grand total of 60 LILTs. That upcoming 'Best of' thing had better have some new material, or I shall have to resort to...something.

LILT: Mehr 1.0

As always, there are issues, but I'm pleased with the first draft:

I need so many
And such a lot
And all for me
All for me

Everything
That one desires
I'll have
again ten times

I'm never sated
I'm never sated
It is better
To have more

More, more...

What I do have
Is never enough
I need a deal
I need a great deal

I've nought to give up
Why would I give?
Sure, I am rich, not rich enough.
My modesty? It's not so bad.
I'll have it all please,
All there is to have.

I'm never sated
I'm never sated
It is better
To have more

More, more, more...
Much more.

I'm never content
There's no nonesuch
There's no enough
Never too much

All the others, they hit their limit.
Give me theirs also
They do not need it!

I'm never content
There's no nonesuch
There's no enough
Never too much

All the others, they hit their limit.
Give me theirs also
They do not need it!

I'm never content
There's no nonesuch
There's no enough
Never too much

All the others, they hit their limit.
Give me theirs also
They do not need it!

I'm never content
There's no nonesuch
There's no enough
Never too much

All the others, they hit their limit.

I need much more!
More
More
Much more
Then more

For those wondering, I've stripped out Till's meaning and put in nonesuch in a self-referential way, nonesuch meaning the ideal, or the model man, i.e. the singer is saying he's not perfect. I wanted to keep the rhyme with the final 'too much' and retaining the meaning of the second line made that impossible. I could have taken too much out and used something else, but I like too much.

LILT: Waidmanns Heil 1.1

Yeah, already. If you're new to this site, I tend to find fault only after I post a piece:

I feel I've been in heat for days
So I'll track down some female game
And I'll camp in the hide till dawn
So I can take my time to aim

On the land under the sky
Decay is standing by
The living quarry must die
Must die

A yearling hind gets to its feet
It's been sunning in the high reeds
It's leaving clear spore through the trees
I see rump flash and I feel heat

The tail whips past like it should crack
My shotgun swings 'round from on my back
Waidmanns, -manns, -manns, -manns Heil
I brush the velvet from the horn
And set my sights upon its form
Waidmanns, -manns, -manns, -manns Heil
On the land under the sky
Decay is standing by
The living quarry must die
Waidmanns, -manns, manns, manns Heil
Must die
Waidmanns, -manns, manns, manns Heil

It bears the muzzle energy
Misted blood drifts past its knee
On the land under the sky
Decay is standing by
The living quarry must die
Waidmanns, -manns, -manns, -manns Heil
Must die
Waidmanns, -manns, manns, manns Heil
On the land under the sky
Decay is standing by
Waidmanns, -manns, manns, manns Heil
On the land and on the sea

Waidmanns, -manns, manns, manns Heil

The 'and on the sea' bit just bugs me. 'Under the sky' works much better, both verbally and visually.

[original lyrics & translation]

LILT: Waidmanns Heil 1.0

It's been a while since I wrote English lyrics for a Rammstein song, so I may be a little shaky. Bear with me, and please treat the end words of the first two lines as loooong (covering two of Till's syllables). I really can't see any other way to deal with these two lines, without writing seriously bad English, which I prefer not to do:

I feel I've been in heat for days
So I'll track down some female game
And I'll camp in the hide till dawn
So I can take my time to aim

On the land and on the sea
Decay is standing by
The living quarry must die
Must die

A yearling hind gets to its feet
It's been sunning in the high reeds
It's leaving clear spore through the trees
I see rump flash and I feel heat

The tail whips past like it should crack
My shotgun swings 'round from on my back
Waidmanns, -manns, -manns, -manns Heil
I brush the velvet from the horn
And set my sights upon its form
Waidmanns, -manns, -manns, -manns Heil
On the land and on the sea
Decay is standing by
The living quarry must die
Waidmanns, -manns, manns, manns Heil
Must die
Waidmanns, -manns, manns, manns Heil

It bears the muzzle energy
Misted blood drifts past its knee
On the land and on the sea
Decay is standing by
The living quarry must die
Waidmanns, -manns, -manns, -manns Heil
Must die
Waidmanns, -manns, manns, manns Heil
On the land and on the sea
Decay is standing by
Waidmanns, -manns, manns, manns Heil
On the land and on the sea

Waidmanns, -manns, manns, manns Heil

[original lyrics & translation]

Mexico in May

Three Mexican dates have been tacked onto the US leg:

5/26 – Mexico City // Sports Palace // on sale: 3/09
5/29 – Guadalajara // Arena VFG // on sale: 3/09
5/31 – Monterrey // Auditorio Banamex // on sale: 3/09

Awesome! They'd be mad not to really. Mexican fans are awesome.

Throat Full of Glass Video - Nasty Version (Again)

Since YouTube took down the video Combichrist have put it up on Vimeo, so here it is, again:

COMBICHIRST "Throat Full Of Glass" (Explicit Version) from Combichrist on Vimeo.

Combichrist: Throat Full of Glass Video - Nasty Version

The fully racked up version of the video is up on Vampire Freaks, for your viewing pleasure. I have to say that despite having more 'detail' than the sanitised version the impact and vibe is not changed in any substantial way.


COMBICHRIST "Throat Full Of Glass" (Explicit Version)


Update 20110304: Apparently some people objected to the video and YouTube took it down. Not entirely surprising, but still irritating. I'll see if Combichrist have found alternative hosting for it and repost.

Bang Bang on the Drums

Bang Bang Blog (I think this is the blog of the Bang Bang Breakfast radio show) has an interview with Schneider. The acoustics are bloody horrendous, but the interview isn't bad:

Rammstein Interview on Tuks FM 1072 with Michael Bower. by RobForbesDJ

Sorry for the delay on this. I found it a couple of weeks ago and the tab sat open in my browser being neglected, until now.

Bloody Disgusting Top Live Bands

A Top Five Live Bands list is up on Bloody Disgusting, and Rammstein is number two. I don't think they are. I think they're number one, but I'm sharing the link anyway.