Room For Free X Mas Show

Room will play one last show this year, a free Christmas show (that means we are a little less loud than normally) at BoA, Bar on A, 11th Street and Avenue A in Manhattan on Thursday, December 14th. Opening will be the amazing one man show Donkey Tail Spin. Come bring Santa and Santine, Nuts and Nectarine, Carols and Carolines and open ears for a bunch of new songs by Room, who also celebrates the first anniversary of its existence as a live band (see archives, December 2005).

Travel Europe in the Heads of Morex Optimo!

Morex Optimo put up a nice series of thoughts and pictures of their European Tour with Room. Altough they limited the pictures down to mostly Morex members, you still get an impression of what diverse things we got to see and places we got to play in Switzerland and Germany. There are more pics of the tour out there, somewhere online, i forgot where. Kerry or Bernd, maybe you remember and can post the link? Thanks for the nice work, Morex Optimo! Oh, and one more new rumor: Kristofer and Heather, together with Pierre from Melomane will be flying to Paris, France, for a one-song-performance of the Who's "My generation" for some art project by Swiss artist Christoph Draeger. They also plan to record some more and head back to Europe next year, with a possible residency in Berlin. Our advice: Check out Hamburg and its "Alte Schule" while there!

Big Band Botanica Boast Brilliance

If you are as good as the musicians in Botanica, it's not about styles and different categories of music. There some good in all of the genres. The art is to master it all and then pluck the finest parts, a bit of punk here, a little gypsy there, chanson now, political manifesto then: the full mix is Botanica. In the posh setting of Joe's Pub the man in white, Paul Wallfisch, and his gang were aided by a most competent string duo, extending the Botanica soundscope in an orchestral way. It is not really rock music anymore, but an adventurous trip through haunting harmonies and daring melodies.

Overlord Let Us Eat Cake

Attention you Julian Cope fans and neo-psychedelic freaks, here come overlord with their new CD "Ticker Symbols". This might not be the music that saves the world, as one track suggests, but it sure is a fine bunch of great pop tunes with lyrics that show George Pasles as gifted and sensitive poet. The CD release party was on Saturday at the Cake shop - very appropriate, since the Cover of the CD depicts a lonely man atop of a wedding cake. They cut an exact replica of it and offered the pieces to the rather big crowd. It just doesn't wash down well with beer. Go to overlord's MySpace page to listen to four tracks and order a copy of Ticker Symbols.

It Has To Be John Watts!

Oh, yes, he's back - the man has proven his longevity ages ago, anyway. Just have a look at his discography and you'll learn about his productivity. But this newest coup stuns even us old Watts fans. You'll remember, John was in NYC in spring to promote his brand new double CD and book "Real Life Is Good Enough" (see sidebar below). He played a show at Detour and we enjoyed a few interesting days in the city. He calls me up a few weeks later with a new project: He wanted to travel through Europe and film the people he meets, hear their stories and then write a song about them. Would I be able to arrange a meeting between him and my brother in Zurich? They met and hit it off on May 14th, incidentally my bro's birthday. Well, a short six months later John is on tour already again, played Helsinki in Zurich and presented Adrian with his song - Brothers. Something to be proud of. The CD is a masterpiece, Johns voice and acoustic guitar in the foreground, a great and decent band (with Johns long time collaborator Ian Porter on bass) and gems of songs. We might even go as far as to declare this album one of John's best. 10 stars for the album, 10 points for the person who can decipher Johns greeting on the cover...

John Watts and Brother A. in Zurich

You Tube, We Room

This video is from our show at The Creek and the Cave in Long Island City, where we met Anthony Navarro of NYC Highlights, a cool New York video production company.Anthony specializes in shooting live bands, and the first one is a freebie - so if you are a band and want a live video, check him out on NYC Highlights and drop Anthony a line about your next show. The Creek and the Cave is a really nice club/bar/restaurant that is more than worth the trip to LIC. Full Tank introduced their sixth great Tank Girl, artist and trombone virtuoso Eveline Fehlmann, debuted Simone's Song and were good company. Room was mofo loud, but hey, you try stopping the French once they get going!

Punk Rock Halloween As Never Before Seen

Sham 69: United the Kids for Halloween

It really can't get any more punk rock than this year's Halloween party at Rockstar Bar in Williamsburg was! The charming pub on Kent Ave. and South 5th Street hosted about 20 bands with big names, among them Roxy Music, Slaughter and the Dogs, Sham 69, Rudimentary Peni, Black Flag, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, Velvet Underground, AC/DC and ZZ Top. Cover charge was one dollar, and the musicians had to pay that, too, ha! I of course took advantage of the occasion and generously paid the entrance fee for at least five girls, all in great Halloween costumes. On the tiny stage were a couple of amps, somewhere stood a lonely PA. All the bands used the same backline, played three songs and then had about two minutes to clear the stage for the next great act in Rock'n'Roll. Boy, was I glad this Ziggy was not David Bowie, this Jimmy Pursey was female, this Lou Reed had no attitude: These bands were better and certainly fresher than the originals. The audience thanked the bands with wild pogoing, the kind of which the world hasn't seen since '77. Among the highlights: The utterly convincing HeadQuarters as Ziggy and the Spiders and the one true punk queen of Williamsburg, Alana Amram, who not only organized the party, but who also played in an all female Sham 69 and had the whole packed room shouting "If the Kids Are United..." And, for an exuberant night, we were.

Ziggy and the Spiders in the HeadQuarters at Rockstar Bar

Long Island City Calling - The Cave

We are invited to play The Cave in Longs Island City with our favourite Girl Punks Full Tank. The Tanksters have been practicing tirelessly and as their latest in-store show at Rocks in Your Head proved, they are getting close to the beats of Ur punx like Kleenex or Liliput and at times there is - oha - a whiff of the Fall.

Room in the meantime has been spreading ideas and sounds and even written a few new songs, including one about 42 midgets fighting an african lion (the lion won) and our anthem Room, the Song (Pt. 1). Even Jean-Cosme made it back from Miami in time for the show, so you get to see all five corners of the Room.

We know it's LIC, but it's really easy to get there. Really. And it's only three bucks to get in. And you get a beautiful view of Manhattan at Night when you're outside smoking.