Berlin, EU

Back home. I wish holidays lasted longer. Or at least I had more each year. Berlin has greeted me with warm sticky weather and the feeling that a great summer is coming up. I hope so.

Our gig for next Saturday has been postponed, so I won't have the chance to take my two new beauties out to play. Pity, as they're HOT.


Anyway, this is it.

Love & a warm Saturday afternoon,

Stone

Seattle, WA

Finally arrived in the grunge craddle, the Mecca for everyone who was an adolescent in 1992. We entered Seattle today from the water, and man, was it an amazing sight. Drving through the city and the car stereo blasting "Would?" by Alice In Chains is something I was looking forward for some time, and so here we are now, eintertain us.

The skyline of this city is simply put, unfuckingbelievable. And water everywhere you look, has a little bit of Sydney in it. Today's the start of a city music festival, and the ambient is great, a whole lot of freaky people running around by the Space Needle and a lot of music going on every few steps. Including a bunch of Bavarian Fussplattler with their lederhosen, feathers and all that stuff... travel that far and find them here. Hmm.



Nice town, I just hope I don't come across more guitar shops...

Olympia, WA

Hola from Olympia, WA, indie-rock and college city par excellence in the Pacific Northwest. The trip is nearing the end, but I still got time to surrender to my GAS attacks, and today, before leaving Portland, this beauty came home with me:



Nice, huh? Another Les Paul, I know, but she's hot! As I said in the last post, I'm sick, I know.

Love from up here,

Stone

Portland, OR

Hi from beautiful Portland, Oregon. It's been a while since last post, but I've been, well, away. Travelling a little bit around the West Coast. San Francisco was amazing, so was Yosemite and the whole Oregon Coast. Today in Portland and next week in Seattle, my personal pilgrimage city, craddle of grunge and of several of my favourite bands.

The topic is fucking true: people over here are really fat. So much indeed that I feel like a bloody skinny guy. Cool :o)

OK. gotta leave now, as I'm in an Apple shop and people keep loooking over my shoulder when I wrote the word fuck once. Oops, there it is again...

Love and nice sights,

Stone

PS: Oh, and by the way, it happened again:

Her name is Bernarda and she's a precious Gibson Firebird V I got from Real Guitars in the beautiful San Francisco. I'm fucking sick, I know.

Farewell, Irene

Yesterday I sold Irene, my Fender Jaguar '62 Japan Reissue in Olympic White. A truly great guitar. It was quite hard parting with her, as she was my first good guitar, bought in Madrid in May 1997 from a guy at a guitar store who had to sell her in order to pay his rent. Sad but true, and so I got my hands on her. I later used it to record almost all of Acid Jokes.

It's always hard to sell a guitar, especially such a beauty, but I wasn't playing her at all lately and was really far from my "sound" (if I ever had such thing), which is more a humbucker-style bad motherfucker. And after all, I have to make some room for the one(s) coming up, you never know with me and my GAS (I got my eyes set on a few nice birds right now.)

So farewell, Irene. May your new owner make some nice surf rock with you!

Stone

Foort Cobain Tribute 2007

Another year, another Easter, another edition of the Kurt Cobain & Nirvana Tribute.
Just another? No, this time we thought we'd refrain from repeating the usual Nirvana songs and preferred to pay tribute to the real genius of the band: Mr Dave Grohl. After all, if it weren't for him, Nirvana would have never made it past being a half-amateur punk band with good songs and attitude. It was only Grohl's taking over the drums which made them into a fucking great rock band after all.


And so we said, you know what, fuck it all, let's play just Foo Fighters songs this evening. And so we did. All My Life, My Hero, Everlong and Monkey Wrench were the chosen ones, and man... did they have fun out there. I guess no-one was expecting this shit. God, it was a great feeling to see the faces looking at each other and mumbling "what the fuck!?". I love those moments.


We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun. And we had a blast. Summary of the evening? We are Frogcircus. Fuck you, this is what we do.

Love & evil horns,

Stone

Go vegan with The Sheeps From Hell (Chemnitz)

Subway To Peter in Chemnitz is one of the most bizarre clubs we've ever had the pleasure to play. There's not any proper stage at all, but they put all the efforts into making your time there as great as possible. And they manage it via the deli-fucking-cious food they always serve before the gigs. Vegan food, as it seems. As I said, delicious and incredibly tasty, but it's funny to notice how vegetarias/vegans always try to make their vegetarian/vegan food look like meat, smell like meat and taste like meat, but no meat please. Seems to be a subconscious contradiction there (they're all just yearning for a big fucking steak, but they're too ashamed to accept it probably.)



Anyway, another day of playing Tetris with the equipment in order to get it all inside the car, another day with a long boring drive to do, another day of screaming my balls off in front of the audience, and another day of having fun playing old and new songs with these guys, which is always the best part of it all. I have the best bandmates in the world.
We played an old/new song we hadn't done for years: Dolly, an ode to my favourite cloned sheep from Scotland, which we have never released but could make it in the next record (somewhere in the future...) A nice punky little tune with one of the most bizarre solos in music history, take my word.



After the gig, we stayed there a bit (although our favourite drummer had to run another one of his half-marathons the next morning, which didn't refrain him from smoking as usual) and watched some boxing going on TV, some old German legend I'd never heard of was making his comeback. Funny to see how little we have changed since the Romans time and their "bread and circus" attitude.
And to top it all, we had a beer with Johnny Cash, the man himself...



Take care...
Stone

Our youngest fan / Man of the day

Today, this picture arrived in our mailbox:



This is Ruben Lauris from Wilhelmshaven in Germany, son from two seemingly dedicated fans. It seems that, for now, he's the youngest frogfan around. It's great to see that even the pants-shitting, milk-drinking toddlers love our music. Ruben, we'll be drinking a pint of milk in your honor tonight!

Thanks for not smoking in front of the children (Sage Club)

So here we were again, the infamous Sage Club in Berlin, a place that last surrendered to the frogtunes in summer. This time it's in the middle of a somewhat bizarre winter, but winter anyway, and fucking freezing if you ask me. The pool's closed and outside the girls are wearing sausage-looking anoraks instead of lovely tops that don't leave much space for imagination. But inside it's hot as hell, as usual here, so the anoraks are stored in the wardrobe and the song "Peaches" keeps coming to my head every three steps.

Anyway, after a way too early meeting at the HQ we went down to the club to do rather messy soundcheck, hoping we'd get a better stage sound in the evening. The only good thing about such an early soundcheck is that you get some spare time to go back home, relax a bit, have a bite and watch some cool DVDs before you go back to the club to play at 23.00h. OK, that's at least what Timo and I did. Some others preferred to stay and taste the grilled specialities the Sage Club offers. And of course, between steak and beer, beer and steak, beer and beer, a few funny ciggies to relax. I can still smell your scent...

At eleven o'clock the place was filled, the band was ready and the show was about to begin. It's the first time we actually start with such punctuality, I was totally amazed that we'd managed it for once. Fucking hot onstage, fucking loud and damned good-looking girls everywhere you looked. A rock'n'roller's paradise really.



Of course, no froggy gig goes down without technical incidents, and this time it was no exception. Middle through the second song, my guitar simply disfuckingappears! And no, this time it wasn't my radio unit running out of batteries. So there I was, looking totally puzzled, and still playing but no sound coming out of my amp at all. Great, I thought, the gremlins have tracked us down again. It was some shitty pedalboard plug that kept coming out of the socket, I found out after the song. But hey, just keep on smiling, we're pros, aren't we? :o)

The gig went down pretty well considering the (at least for me) awful monitor sound onstage, where I couldn't hear my voice at all, but apparently everything was really fine outside and the girls kept smiling, dancing and jumping around in their tiny clothes and the guys in the audience (and onstage) kept smiling with a silly grin and the vampire teeth ready.

We played a brand new song for the very first time, "Ink", a fast and dirty little number that we're looking forward to record as soon as possible. The same old story in this band: the new album is recorded and not yet released, and we already have new songs waiting and ready to record. It happened with the first demos, it happened with Acid Jokes, it happened with the Zeitgeist EP, then later with Allergic, and it seems now it's going to be the same with Frogcircus. Well, at least you can't say we're running out of songs, right?

Love and ink,

Stone

Phrase of the day:
Stone: Hey, when did you arrive?
Juancho: Oh, not long, just a beer ago.

Proben und neue Lieder

Letzte Woche haben wir nach der Weihnachtspause endlich wieder mit dem Proben angefangen. Immerhin haben wir einen Gig am 15. Februar im Berliner Sage Club... Die letzte Platte ist noch nicht raus, da sind wir schon wieder dabei, neue Lieder (sog. Songs auf Neudeutsch) zu schreiben. Typisch Frogcircus, was kann ich dazu sagen (Seufz.)

Es handelt sich dabei um eine eher ruhige Nummer, die "Don't Lose Your Head" heisst, und eine eher schnelle, dreckige Sau Namens "Ink." Texte sind hierfür noch nicht fertig, aber nehmen langsam aber sicher Form an. Unser neuer Mann an der 2. Gitarre, Juancho, lernt fleissig die Songs und geniesst die Frog'n Roll Way Of Life :oP

Es wird ein gutes Jahr, ich weiss...

Der Stonerl

PS: Oh, ja, und ein neuer Amp ist bei mir daheim... oops, it happened again!

J.W.D. / Das allerletzte Frogcircus-Konzert :o(

Tja, Leute, Kameraden, Freunde.

Ihr habt richtig gelesen. Das Konzert im Spandauer J.W.D. am 15. Dezember war leider auch das definitiv allerletzte Konzert der Band. Wir haben uns direkt im Anschluß an diesen Gig in aller Freundschaft getrennt. Mehr dazu später.

Erstmal noch zu den erfreulicheren Dingen. Dieses letzte Frogcircuskonzert reiht sich nahtlos in eine lange Reihe wunderbarer Gigs ein. Viele Freunde, gutes Bier, der immer noch allersauberste Rock'nRoll-Club der ganzen Welt und viele gute Frogsongs.



Noch Fragen? :o)

Als große Ehre empfanden wir auch die Anwesenheit unseres großartigen Produzenten Jürgen Block. Die Aufregung war dementsprechend groß, aber die Freude über seine lobenden Worte im Anschluß dafür noch größer.

Bei diesem letzten Gig ist uns allen aber auch klar geworden das es so nicht weitergehen kann. Unüberbrückbare Differenzen, zu unterschiedliche musikalische Vorstellungen (ein Pophead, ein Soul-Heini, ein Country&Western-Cowboy und ein Punk), und nicht zu letzt auch unsere viel zu unterschiedlichen kulturellen Wurzeln (tut mir leid, ich als waschechter Preuße komme mit Tobi's süddeutschem Laissez-faire-Lebensstil nun mal einfach nicht zurecht...) ließen sich einfach nicht mehr miteinander vereinbaren.



Die Tatsache das Stone vier Stunden nach unserer Trennung das Land verlassen hat macht diese Tatsache nur noch entgültiger.Tja, das wars dann wohl...



.....ach so, ich hab natürlich nur gemeint das es das allerletzte Konzert für das Jahr 2006 war!!!

Ihr Nasen :o)

Und Stone kommt natürlich im neuen Jahr zurück.
Auf uns wartet schließlich eine ganze Welt die erobert werden will.
Wir sind mächtig gespannt auf 2007. Neue Platte, neue Gigs, neues Glück.

Also, Herzschrittmacher rekalibrieren, Blutdruckmedikamente und Taschentücher wieder wegstecken!

Wir sehen uns im Sage am 15. Februar!


Und einen guten Rutsch!!!

Happy Chrimble...

Alright, we've just played the last gig of the year in Spandau ("otro éxito", as someone would say) and before we embark in a little recess for the Xmas time, just a quick note to thank you all for suppoting us this year that's coming to the end.

It's been a very cool year for us, lots of gigs (some very special, like those in Gran Canaria), meeting really cool people, almost playing the Monsters Of Rock (haha!) and a lovely record done. To all involved, a big THANKYOU from all of us.

And before we stop writing more shit here, just remind you that the record is finally mastered and will be online pretty soon, more to come...

Happy Xmas and a froggy new year 2007!!!

Frogcircus, once more at the Knaack

Well, I must admit I came in when the gig has already begun...that´s not usual in me, but…you know..circumstances :) Anyway at first sight I met Marco, another big Frogcircus fan, and someone who knows the lyrics better than Stone…which on the other hand is not so difficult ;). I went quickly for a beer and it was easy to convince Marco to do the same and to stand with me in the first row (sort of, as we were really the first row but standing 2 meters from the stage).

The first thing I thought was: “Wow…it sounds fucking great!!” I mean…Frogcircus is one of my favourites bands, the very fav with Marillion, and I have seen maaaaaany gigs of both, but it doesn´t stop me from being excited and feeling like discovering something new again. Last Wednesday I was there with a stupid smile again, enjoying the music and thinking: “It´s incredible how time goes by…and they get better every time…”

Well, there are mistakes always (or almost always!), but since I saw the band the very first time (20.07.02 funnily also at the Knaack), they really have improved a lot…I had that nostalgic moment listening to Watch More TV and Time…and remembering that in that gig of July, 2002 the bassist was still Wolf, the drummer Tyronne…and Jorge was there too…that piece of Frogcircus who is in Gran Canaria and we missed soooo much…(we love you Jorge!!!). That means I´ve seen the very first steps of everybody, but Stone, in the band!!!



Amazing…and I still go to see them ;). Well talking about the gig…It kicked ass as usual, but even more in these two last gigs, as we have a new “brand” guitarrist, Juancho, who helps to make the band sound more compact and louder (it´s never loud enough you know…). Now seriously…there is no point in being louder if you play bad music…(although many people just do that to hide they are not good enough…), but it’s always a pleasure for the ears (even the eyes!!!) to listen to Frog plugged as well as acoustic. It was also a pleasure to listen to Berlin, one of the songs of the new album, which promises to be a hit (and you will think: the band or the song? I say: both!! :D). Rockin´ n ´froggin time flies…and it was time for Toxic. This is one of my favorite moments from Frogcircus…not only because the cover of Britney Spears is fucking great, but because Stone always says they’re going to play a Metallica, Sepultura or whatever hard rock band cover…and people just get crazy although it’s a BS song…Conclusion: I can´t help laughing and laughing when I see that people think that IT IS a Sepultura cover indeed :D.



Some more songs and the gig is gone :(. But there is always another gig coming :)…and what would a concert be without funny anecdotes…like Tobi´s flying sticks (talking about flying…that was worthy of a Monthy Python sketch), Timo feeling like he was floating during the gig, Stone tearing his trousers by lifting his leg onto the speaker (well that was worthy of a MP sketch too), and Juancho…forgetting completely how to begin a song…it’s not really important, but funny indeed :D. There is always an explanation for those facts: Tobi: wet hands, Timo: some beers, Stone: trousers not suitable to do “star rock poses”, Juancho: well…actually that was the other members who decided to play something different from the setlist ;)

That may show you something of a Frogcircus gig…but the smartest thing is to go by yourself and have lots of fun there…One gets addicted to it…don’t you wanna try it??? This is starting to be too long, but I MUST say thank you to the band, who make it possible to enjoy their music not only at home but live…in the way music has to be rocked and rolled …at least for me…and Frogcircus makes me haaaaapppppy by singing, jumping, dancing and having fun at their gigs…You really rock and make me fly :D

P.S. And thanks to Ricardo & Serena for makin’ it real too…

Diana

The return of the Lemonheads

Sunday night I went to see one of my all-time favourite bands, The Lemonheads at the FritzClub, where we had played in June.

I love the simplicity of their songs, and yet the vibrant good mood or reflective not-so-good mood they can express with a few chords. They were on tour again after almost 10 years promoting the comeback album (which is great, if anyone wants to buy/download/steal it).

A great concert, and though Evan Dando seems to be in a better shape than he used to be in his smack days, he looks quite old and weary, sometimes very fragile. But still has that great voice.

Love and good songs,

Stone

PS: Oh, and by the way, here's a picture of a pea soup that looked more like a frog soup. And no, those two frogs aren't Tobi and Timo.

Gig with Gem (NL) at the White Trash

On November 15, presented by Trinity Concerts, we'll be playing alongside Gem from the Netherlands at Berlin's one and only White Trash, one of the hottest locations in the whole town (just 10 €). Starting at 21:00 h, so get your Wednesday night rocking shoes on!

It happened again...

After years of assuring myself that I didn't need (and even didn't want) a Telecaster (not even yet another guitar, to be honest), last Saturday I succumbed to the Word. Guilty was the black one I tried while recording the album (check the previous post from Day 12 in the studio). Since that day, I badly needed to satisfy another GAS attack.

GAS, for those who hadn't heard it before, stands for Guitar Acquisition Syndrome, (the G alternatively also for Gear). It's a very common disease among musicians, but especially among guitar players. It's that urgent and compulsive need to get some new guitar, amp or effect (whether you really need it or not doesn't really matter, it's a bloody disease!), and makes you lose sleep, sweat and fever until you got it.


So, well, a friend of mine told me Friday night he had seen a cool '52 American Vintage Reissue for a good price and Saturday morning I was at the shop with my rather underused Strat for a trade-in and a deal was struck within 10 minutes, after which I was the proud owner of a Telecaster called Margarita. The paths of the Guitar Lord are always good for a surprise...

Love & Teles,

Stone

PS: Oh, yeah, I had a good time in Gran Canaria too. After all, who wouldn't with so many cool people around?

Hotel Gran Canaria

Hieß so nicht der Eagles Song??!

Ich weiß, ich weiß, ich bin wie immer zu spät dran.Aber Schwaben sind halt langsam.

Ich habe zu El Bajos Geschichte eigentlich nichts hinzuzufügen. Nur ein paar Stichworte.

- Es war ein wunderschöner Urlaub.
- Es war Neuland, im Urlaub auf seine eigenen Konzerte zu gehen. Das ist wunderbar.
- Es war toll, mit Bandmitgliedern, Management, Plattenfirma, Freunden, Verwandten und auch neuen Gesichtern mal mehr Zeit zu verbringen, als im sonstigen Alltag. Wie in einem großen Jugendcamp. Es hat in meinen Augen den gesamten Froschzirkus mit Artisten, Statisten und Publikum noch enger zusammengerückt.
- Die Hochzeit und das ganze drumherum war für mich -und ich benutze selten solche Worte- überwältigend. Zudem perfekt organisiert. Ein riesiges Dankeschön hierbei nochmals an Ellen und Stone plus Familien. Sicher im Namen aller Freunde und Gäste. Das sind Erinnerungen, die haften bleiben!
- Gran Canaria hat mich sicher bald wieder.
- Ein xtra Dankeschön von mir an Jorge und Miguelo (Irgendwer muss das halt übersetzen).
- Ich freu mich mächtig auf unsere neue Platte.

Der TrommelTobi

Gran Can

...phuuu, wieder zu Hause...nach ein paar wunderschönen, spannenden und ziemlich anstrengenden Tagen zurück in Berlin.
Wir hatten uns lange darauf gefreut und haben uns trotzdem kaum getraut auf mehr zu hoffen als ein paar Zufallsgäste und artig geklatschten Höflichkeitsbeifall. Aber Pustekuchen. Unsere Gran-Canaria-Mini-Tour entpuppte sich als ein überaus großartiges Erlebniss.
Zuerst beehrten wir das Paraninfo. Nachdem unsere Gitarren und Drumsticks den Flug schadlos überstanden hatten brauchten wir nunmehr nur noch so unbedeutende Dinge wie Amps und diverse Trommeln zur Zusammenstellung eines Schlagzeugs. Die Zusammenarbeit mit den von uns endorsten Verstärkerfirmen hatte leider nicht zufriedenstellend geklappt, so das wir uns vor Ort doch noch selbst darum kümmern mussten... (Tja Mr.Marshall, ich habe gehört das Mesa/Boogie auch prima Bassamps baut ;o) ...was dank der Hilfe lokaler Musiker und einiger Ex-Frösche allerdings auch nur ein klitzekleines Problem war.
Nachdem wir alles beisammen hatten erledigten wir in gewohnter Windeseile die Klangkontrolle um uns anschließend in einer Bar um die Ecke mit ein paar Freunden und ein paar aufmunternden Getränken (ich rede natürlich vom großartigen spanischen Kaffee, wovon denn sonst???) etwas Mut zuzureden. Schließlich war es schon eine ganze Weile her das der Name Frogcircus die Canarischen Inseln in ihren Grundfesten erschütterte...
Fast schon unerwartet wurde es aber vor vollem Haus ein großartiger Gig. Statt artig geklatschtem Höflichkeitsapplaus wurde es eine super Party. Die Stimmung erreichte ihren Höhepunkt als mit Jorge ein "Ur-Frog" die Bühne betrat und den letzten Teil des Gig's mit uns spielte.

Suddenly it sounded huge and fat, incredible. You're really a great musician, mate. When you entered the stage the whole thing was getting right. Probably you have to move to Berlin, there's no other way, isn't it? :o)
Einigen Damen stieg der Rock'n Roll ein wenig zu Kopf und wir wurden mal wieder mit duftenden Unterhöschen und riesigen (wirklich riesigen :-o ) BH's bombardiert. Sehr nett...
Alles in allem ein gelungener Abend, nach dem wir uns nun um so mehr auf den nächsten Tag im La Calle freuten.
Nach einem sehr entspanntem Tag am Meer trafen wir uns also in diesem wirklich coolen, kleinen Club um zusammen mit Ritchie Kotzen den Abend zu gestalten. Der Laden füllte sich in Windeseile und war schließlich gepackt bis unters Dach. Dank der sprichwörtlichen Leidenschaft der Spanier rockten wir das Haus zusammen mit den Fans in Grund und Boden.
Nichts gegen die Coolness der Deutschen, aber in Sachen Rock'n Roll und Party haben die Spanier eindeutig die Nase vorn. Ein liebenswertes Völkchen allesamt.
Dem nur mit einer akustischen Gitarre angetretenen Ritchie Kotzen war offensichtlich etwas mulmig zumute nach unserem Inferno die Bühne betreten zu müssen und seine ruhigen, stimmungsvollen, wunderbaren Songs zu singen. Kein Grund zur Sorge, das Publikum feierte einfach weiter und Ritchie freute sich wie ein Schneekönig das er sogar noch eine Zugabe spielen musste. Ein wirklich netter Kerl.
Nachdem nun die Pflicht getan war hatten wir noch ein paar Tage Zeit um die Canarische Sonne und den Ozean zu genießen. Der eine oder andere von uns hatte auch noch so ein, zwei Sachen zu erledigen :o)

After all we would thank all spanish friends and fans.

(as we were walking on the beach: "...hey guy's, you are Frogcircus, aren't you? We saw you yesterday! It was so fucking great..." :o)

We'll be back soon! That's for sure.
See you there.

Love&Bass

Newspaper bits & gig report

Here are two articles on the Spanish papers Canarias7 and La Provincia from our last two gigs in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the first time in almost six years that we played back home as a full band. Canarias7 even ran the two-page article you can see below, cool guys.

It was a really rewarding experience, getting to see so many old faces and friends after such a long time, but especially so many young ones who came to see us and kept on buying the CDs after the gigs. Playing with Richie Kotzen was a very cool thing too, he's such a cool guy and amazing guitar player as well. We're looking for a second guitarist, so maybe he wants to audition for the job :o)

Of course, we used the chance and, being in Gran Canaria, we couldn't miss going to the beach everyday, enjoying the sun, eating marvelous food and tasty rum and even doing other things along all the rest, ehem... It was great to hang out all together with friends and family away from Berlin and relax a bit. Now back in Berlin and back to business, the record is being mixed and it's sounding great, can't wait for you to hear it.

Oh yeah, and by the way, today is John Lennon's birthday, so indulge yourself and listen to Strawberry Fields...

Las Palmas gigs, Frogs with Richie Kotzen!

Just a short note to remind you that we'll be playing in Spain again on September 28 & 29 (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria). The 28 gig will be at university club Paraninfo, and the 29 at La Calle with Mr. Richie Kotzen himself, who is currently on tour in Spain! Check out his site, the guy's a hell of a guitar player. It's quite an honour for us to play with him, let's see who gets louder :o)