Kraftwerk were forced to cancel their show in Melbourne for the Global Gathering Festival on the [Saturday] 22nd of November 2008, when Fritz Hilpert suffered from a heart attack and had to be hospitalized. Ralf Huetter, as well as another performer of the show walked up on stage 20 minutes after they were due to start, to announce the news.

The MC in the beginning is announcing how Fritz Hilpert has suffered a minor heart attack and has been rushed to hospital... so kraftwerk will not be performing but the [not so] good news is that the Gorillaz [sounds system] will be performing on the main stage instead. [from YouTube]

The video of the announcement is below. Hopefully he is okay, and it looks like Kraftwerk ended up performing the next day.

In other sad news (for Kraftwerk at least), they lost a German copyright court case...

they were suing German rap producer Moses Pelham.

Pelham had used a two second sample of Kraftwerk's track 'Metal On Metal' and Kraftwerk weren't happy about it...

...The new ruling states that a sample can be used, but it must not be the melody of a song, and it must be a completely new composition, baring no resemblance to the original. [Undercover]

All Kraftwerk dates and that video below...

Continue reading "Kraftwerk's Fritz has heart attack before Australian show, Kraftwerk lose copyright case (sampling legal?)"

Sound seepage is a common problem at Coachella and Glen Hansard found himself in the thick of it when he started the Swell Season's outdoor stage set solo with just an acoustic guitar. Rock from the mainstage and beats from the tents gave him pause.
"How to be louder than the Raconteurs? You turn it up," he said midsong, and indeed the PA was boosted a good 20-30% louder. Thrilled when Jack White and company finished, he half joked " now all we've got to worry about is Aphex Twin."

Not only did Hansard, who won the best song Oscar this year with his partner Marketa Irglova, handle it all in stride, he turned the Swell Season set into a Coachella celebration. He recruited the National's drummer Bryan Devendorf and played covers of other acts' songs: in honor of meeting Kim Deal, she was here with the Breeders, Hansard and Irglova dueted on the Pixies "Cactus," and with the full band did an impressive version of Kraftwerk's "Model." [VARIETY]

The Swell Season are currently on tour and will play Radio City Music Hall in NYC on May 19th. It was also just announced that they're playing the Baltimore Virgin Festival in August. Right before Coachella they played Jimmy Kimmel. Videos from that and Coachella (and the latest tour dates) below.....

Continue reading "the SWELL SEASON - covered KRAFTWERK & the PIXIES @ Coachella, played Kimmel -- videos & tour dates "

Portishead came after Kraftwerk.

Coachella, April 25-27 in Indio, CA

The entire three-day festival lineup with set times can be found HERE.

the great Klaus Dinger has died, aged 61. The German drummer was best known as half of Neu! alongside Michael Rother.

Dinger was a provocative and inspirational figure in the German music scene of the 1970s. He first surfaced, briefly, as drummer in a very early line-up of Kraftwerk, before he and Rother (another fleeting Kraftwerk member) broke off to form Neu!

Neu! went on to record three extraordinary albums that epitomised the motorik strain of Krautrock, thanks to Dinger's pattering, insistent drums. He also began to contribute wild and vivid vocals, so that tracks like "Hero" and "After Eight" from Neu! 75 were an acknowledged influence on an impressionable John Lydon. [UNCUT]

What is motorik? Wikipedia knows. Videos below...

Continue reading "Klaus Dinger, RIP (Kraftwerk, Neu!, motorik king)"

Continue reading "Kraftwerk - 2008 Tour Dates (Coachella)"

The indie-rock kids of Coachella are in store for a classic-rock moment this April: Roger Waters of Pink Floyd will re-create the band’s trippy 1973 masterpiece “Dark Side of the Moon” on the festival’s main stage, which also will feature the Raconteurs, the Verve, Jack Johnson, Kraftwerk and a reunion of Portishead.

The ninth edition of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival will take over the Empire Polo Field outside the dusty town of Indio from April 25 through 27. The 125-act lineup was announced Monday afternoon at a press conference in Mexico City with Death Cab for Cutie, My Morning Jacket, Love and Rockets, and Justice among the names on the bill along with M.I.A., the Breeders, Rilo Kiley, Sasha & Digweed, Café Tacuba and Fatboy Slim. Tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday. [LA Times]

Entire lineup and poster below....

Continue reading "Coachella 2008 lineup announced (Roger Waters, Kraftwerk)"