Portraits

Michelle Penn is considered an inside tip among friends of quieter rock music, and for a good reason: since 1994, she has been elating her fans with the songs she writes. It is difficult to classify Penn, not least due to the enormous development that she has undergone in the last 12 years. Since her childhood, guitars and rock music have exerted an irresistible attraction upon her: that her brother wouldn't let her play with his guitar did not deter her but strengthened her resolve to become a rock musician. “When my brother would leave, I would take his guitar and, you know, chop out whatever he was playing that day, which was usually like Bob Seger or Aerosmith.” Her most important influences come from this phase. » read more

Michelle Cross
A new star in the form of Michelle Cross, who has already found thousands of enthusiastic listeners, has been rising in recent years in the international songwriter heavens. The American, raised in Japan, manages to combine perfect, subtle, soft sounds with emotionally powerful singing, not just telling a little story with every one of the songs she has written, but representing it vocally. » read more

Alan Smithee

Alan Smithee - wait a minute - isn't that he the director of that corny Hollywood movie? Exactly! He has over 50 movies in a multitude of genres to his name, which sounds like a legendary career. But careful, every one of them is incredibly bad! Alan Smithee is, in fact, a pseudonym which has been used for years by directors for whom their own films were too embarrassing to put their names in the credits. » read more

Bombshell Rocks

Anyone who describes his own style as "high energy punk rock" raises expectations which are hard to fulfill. Still hardly any band fulfills this promise better than Bombshell Rocks from Sweden, which counts as one of the initiators of the street punk revival at the beginning of the 90s. A fast tempo, melodic guitars and catchy, multipart vocals are the recipe for success for this band which has been active for over 10 years. » read more

Kettcar

Too old, too uncool – that was the reaction of managers at German major labels to the Hamburg band Kettcar as they were searching for a recording company long before the current boom in German-language bands. No one wanted the group; nobody would finance their album although a substantial number of fans were waiting impatiently for a record from their favorite band. » read more

D-Sailors

D-Sailors stand for down-to-earth melodic punk in German-speaking countries and promise first-rate entertainment for every music lover who can be satisfied with three chords. Fast, melodic punk rock songs with catchy riffs and strong vocals, sometimes in several parts in Scandinavian-Californian style are their strengths and passion which, even in times of Emo and the rediscovery of rock 'n' roll don't seem moth-eaten. » read more

Tokio Hotel

Tokio Hotel are the absolute rage of the moment. Totally way-out band, crazy and, above all completely real. They've known each other since school and cast themselves - neither RTL 2 nor Dieter Bohlen had anything to do with it. It was fate that brought these four Magdeburgers together. Nevertheless, Tokio Hotel has been incredibly successful: their albums are breaking all sales records and at their concerts, the girls collapse en masse. » read more

Adam Green

"He’s the contemporary answer to Bob Dylan," wrote the Rolling Stone. Spex called him "The favorite singer of all intelligent young people". He is the great grandson of Franz Kafka’s one-time eternal fiancée Felice Bauer and especially in Germany a superstar of the indie music: Adam Green. The 24-year-old cultivates the image of the drowsy genius with unkempt hair and half-open mouth. » read more

Bloodhound Gang

Philadelphia is a shelter for lunatics. Famous natives of the city include, for example, the serial killer Ted Bundy and the off-beat basketball star Wilt Chamberlain, who claims to have slept with more than 20,000 women. And of course the Bloodhound Gang. In comparison, it may well be that the five boys don’t measure up in terms of madness, but they do their best. Founded in 1993 as a Depeche Mode cover band, the Bloodhound Gang attempted to transplant the synthetic machismo of the 80s onto the just emerging crossover sound of hip hop and rock. » read more

Farin Urlaub
In Alfred Hitchcock's film "Psycho", the shower is a pretty dangerous place. A figure in women's clothing stabs the young secretary Marion fourteen times through the shower curtain - and she's instantly dead as a doornail. Nevertheless, Farin Urlaub (a punning name rendered approximately as "Take-a Vacation" in English) is not at all afraid of his shower. » read more

The Jessica Fletchers

Murder is the hobby of the real Jessica Fletcher in the US television series "Murder, She Wrote", which was popular in the late 80s and early 90s. Mrs. Fletcher is an elderly lady who writes detective novels and solves a few murders between books; luckily, she is always at the right place at the right time. The five young Norwegians from The Jessica Fletchers are quite the opposite. » read more