Rammstein’s “Liebe ist für alle da” on German index

The new Rammstein album, whose title translates “Love is for Everyone”, is going to be removed from store shelves in Germany following a corresponding request by the government to protect our dear little children. I strongly agree with this decision and support it for two reasons: A) Not only children, but really everybody interested in some goold old mind blowing metal should be spared this latest product of a once great band. B) Considering the latest announcements of our new Bundesregierung, putting the idea of love for everyone in peoples’ heads would surely be a big time mistake. Times will be hard enough, don’t make them even harder by showing them what the world could be like.

By the way, officially the ban is due to advertised sadomasochism. So I am wondering, if I am going to have sex, do I have to check with the government first regarding the positions I am allowed to do it in? What lingerie are women allowed to wear? Do I have to clarify any possible toys I am going to use? There really should be a hotline for that.

Youtube II

Because I had them already recorded, I uploaded two more videos on Youtube.

Vironnimo on Youtube

Today I started an experiment and uploaded a live performance of “At the World’s End” to Youtube. If you enjoy it, let me know, there might be more to come

Encore!

You know how it is, once you started something, it is sometimes hard to stop. So today, with a lot of help from my daily morning depressions, I wrote and recorded another very personal song in less than two hours. I am afraid it is something for my german listeners only because it really is all about the words.

Vironnimo – Teil von dir

Music as a therapy?

As an adolescent, music to me was a way of dealing with emotions, particularly – or, to be true, quite exclusively – a way of letting go of all the anger, frustration and overall crap that bottles up inside when you are 16. However, over the years these feelings died away, as they usually do when you are growing up. That did not dampen my passion for music, though. I  developed a different understanding of it, found new aspects, new challenges and, most importantly, I experienced a great boost of creativity because of it. I then made it a policy to never write about personal stuff. I had found healthier ways to deal with personal problems and wanted to keep them out of my music. Music became something like a resort for me, that I could just lose myself in, that was always enjoyable and gave me a break from anything outside of it. I know how music has helped a lot of people through hard times by giving them a chance to express themselves, or by giving them the feeling that someone else understands them. I just chose that this was not for me.

Today I had to break with all that. I have a couple of songs that just need some finishing touches and took this afternoon to apply them to a song or maybe two. But the last couple of month have quite frankly been a personal hell to me that I have yet to come out of. When I sat down today and started working on those songs, I quickly felt like I was bullshitting myself with what I did. So I took a song I wrote a little while ago, changed the lyrics a bit and recorded it. It just came so naturally and the whole thing didn’t take me much over two hours. So here it is, a very personal song, the first one I made in many years. I hope you will be able to enjoy it, I am not quite there yet.

Vironnimo – At The World’s End

Kicked when down

Today was a bad day for me (should have gotten used to that over the last couple of months, but somehow have not). So, in the evening, I wanted to do something special to lighten things up. And what better way to relax than to get a massage? I like massages. People (women, that is) being nice and gentle to you while you’re just lying around dreaming away… Great stuff, really. I went to one of those new thai massage parlors in town to check it out and chose the full package: One hour full body massage.

As far as mistakes go, that was a rather big one. To be fair, though, I really felt a huge blow of relief when she was finally done manhandling me.

Still Alive

Hi Folks,

just wanted to say I’ve been a little “busy” over the last couple of weeks and haven’t been able to post here. New stuff, including new songs are definitely on their way, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you are a bass player, check out Dave Matthews Band – So Much to Say. Great line, fun to play!

Burnley 1 – Manchester United 0

Fuck.

MP3 vs WAV

Do you know those people who have somehow in their minds become experts about things they know nothing about? Like judging how a movie has been directed, managing a world class football team, running enterprises… I am sure you know what I mean. I, for one, have recently come across too many people knowing that an MP3 of a quality of 128 kbps sounds just unbelievably poor compared to a proper CD. Those guys then usually plug their iPhones in some weird combination of stand and stereo system and go on hallucinating about something they call “sound”. After talking to one of those people yesterday (good friend of mine, but unfortunately an idiot in this particular area, well, what can you do) I decided to put that to a test in my home studio. It is not particularly well equipped but it should surely not conceal those obvious differences.

I would like to say it did not take me long to come to a decision, but in fact due to technical difficulties it did. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to the next guy telling me about poor quality when he has the misfortune of being my guest at this time, because I will put him to a test, too. When running two files simultaneously, switching between MP3 and Wave, I bet that most will not even hear the switch.

Think I’m deaf? Try for yourself. And don’t just hear, test a phase shift as well. With an up to date LAME encoder, there will be not much left to hear after that. It is not a matter of oppinion, it really is a technical fact.

I would lie, though, if I said that I wasn’t surprised at that, too.

Start of the new season, baby!

This weekend has been a wonderful one for men around the world as the English Premiere League took off again. I have been away the whole day so I could not yet see the first game of my team, Manchester United, but of course I had it recorded and am now psyched to see it.

Unfortunately, the new season sees some old “traditions” still alive and well. Which traditions? For example the tradition, that every media, especially every single little page on the internet that is somehow loosely connected to sports in general (or not, does not matter actually) blurts out the results of the current matchday. Why? I mean, do they think, they are providing a service? Hell no they aren’t, they are ruining my excitement about the game I recorded. Every time I am not able to see a game live, I have to be ridiculously careful not to accidentally get to know the result before I am able to see the recording. They have spoiler warnings on Harry Potter and junk like that, but it has become some task to avoid football result spoilers nowadays.

Doesn’t anyone think of the children anymore?