It's as safe as a big city can get.

head for charlontenberg. great area of berlin.

Cool. I hear Freidrichstein as well.

It's Friedrichshain. "Fried like fried chicken and rich like yo' daddy," is what I overhead on receptionist say on the phone to a confused backpacker who kept asking her to repeat the name.

• one not on

not sure i have any hints or anything, sure you'll work it all out yourself, a fucking amazing city, um, try the gay sex

Yeah, i girl i know up there is having heaps of fun at a backpackers in the 'gay district'.

Oh, i cant wait, and neither can my crotch.

or bass recorder.

Hamburg>Berlin

as is Munich.

can i come with you?

Friedrichshain is amazing, as is Kreuzberg. I love Prenzlauer Berg too, although it's going through some gentrification from what I saw/heard. Lots of great stores too. Mitte is somewhat overrated I think. I really didn't like the area around Kurfustendamm/Zoo Station etc - it's tacky and touristy.

The people are on the whole pretty friendly, although of course it pays to at least say hello in Deutsch. A lot of younger people speak English, and as for older people if they grew up on the West a fair bit of the time there's a good chance they can too.

Music scene there is obviously really good, although the promotion is quite underground - there's no street press per se. The music stores have heaps of flyers and info, and the people are lovely (I recommend Dense in Prenzlauer Berg and Staalplaat in I think Mitte, but there's loads I didn't get to visit). I was mainly going to experimental gigs, and that scene was healthy. There's a lot of surf rock bands too! The whole 'electroclash'/whatever movement is still around, but the bands/nights did feel like they were pining for the 'glory days'. As with anywhere, musicians are lovely, sometimes the scene-y people on the periphal/artists who didn't quite do as well as their friends can be bitchy.

The public transport system is amazing, and really reliable.

Definitely safe, I never felt uncomfortable walking around at night. Well in terms of safety, I did feel fucking cold though.

Cheap to live in too, which is the reason a lot of people go there. Unemployment rate is fucking high, but there's always odd jobs about. Lots of cash in hand.

think of more later!

Awesome man!

Ill pick your brain when you come over.

Sounds like im in for a good year.

AND GERMAN SURF ROCK!

i am staying in friedrichshain and have worked out that i can absolutely slaughtered on just a few euros.

check out this link for places to eat, drink, and sleep cheap.

I went to Berlin for a couple of days. I didn't really enjoy it. Maybe if I stayed longer.

Thats great pagey....Cheers

i know it's not real cool but i reckon you should do a wee walking tour, i did a 'free tour' (cost me five euros in tips), and got shown some cool stuff and learnt a bit about the different monuments and whatnot

Im going there for very professional reasons.

And, I have another film soundtrack to do.

Yay.

excuse me, but you didn't answer my question.
in fact you have left many things unanswered in the last couple of days.

the picture? read my birthday post.

I'll be in Berlin in feb. Probably before that actually. I dont know. Gah.

Ten more days, mofos!

Keep it up with cheap tips/venues/places I can DJ.

especially you, Anonymeye.

Great night on Saturday, three quality sets. And to make things better, I met an Irishman and a Norwegian who both kept buying me drinks.

Seriously, Im having so much trouble finding a new flat. If any messandnoise homies are still in Berlin, can you give me a heads up if you hear of any room openings?

Love,

Jimmy

going to be spending the first week of september in berlin, and this thread rules!

thanks jimmytrash.

TONIGHT - Dienstag

At Luzia, Oranienstr (34 maybe???)

START 21.00

MAMA ROSIN (voodoo Rhythm Cajun dudes!)
+
my band

Should be a mad party. Come berlin peeps.

isn't that a bit of a weird/hipster place to be playing?? or am i confusing it with with somewhere else?

This wednesday for anyone here, im playing with Karl Blau from K Records at Bang Bang club.......

A must for any people in Berlin......the best Berlin bands and CHARLIE MEGIRA in one night, plus my birthday.....

hopefully the cops don't shut you down this time.

i miss berlin.

Do you have record shopping recommendations in Berlin? I'll be there soon and I've heard that there are amazing records to be had.

Here's a guide to record stores in Berlin I'd made for a friend a while back. Although without knowing your taste, the list could be redundant. Its not complete, cause there's a lot of stores in Berlin. Its divided into suburbs (Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg, Mitte, and Schöneberg), and I doubt the spelling of streets are correct.

Friedrichshain:

‘Power Park Records’ - 11 Niederbarnimstr - Really good store lots of kraut, new wave, alternative, ndw, experimental and industrial, punk. The store also sells at the Mauer Park flea markets.Probably the best store in Berlin, for variety and prices.

‘Dense Records’ - 81a Petersburger str. Mostly new cd/s LPs, but has a great selection of 2nd hand 80s experimental/industrial/ no wave - eg Swans, Whitehouse, SPK, Current 93 –plus a big gabber/break core section with lots of bloody fist records.

‘Yellow Dog Records’ – 38 wuhlichstr. Punk hardcore store/label. Like the Berlin equivalent of paint it black, they’ve released Pisschrist records.

Second hand clothing store on either Wuhlischstr or Kopernickus str (it’s the same street). Person who owned a now defunct record stores, sells remaining stock here. Normally a couple of crates worth. What’s there is really good and cheap eg – 1st Venom P Stinger LP 3 euro, Essendon Airport LP 4 euro. Owner of the records is at the store on Saturdays, you can ask if he has anything in storage and he might bring it within 3 months.

‘Ghost Town’ 10 Gabriel-Max-str. Good selection of punk/garage and reggae LP’s new and 2nd hand. Has rare 80’s Scandinavian punk records every so often.

‘O- Ton’ - 10 Krossener Straße, near boxy – large jazz section – ok alternative section, rare stuff is kept behind the counter.

‘Bis Aufs Messer’ – 107 Marchlewski str – mainly stocks new releases similar to missing link, most second hand records are expensive.

‘Wax Art’ – Gärtnerstr near boxy, next door and co owned by artliner (bar). The bar is better than the record shop.

Kreuzberg:

‘Groove Records’ – 36 Pücklerstr.- large selection og oz/N.Z records from 80s. Lots of flying nun, augogo, greasy pop stuff. It’s worth digging through the cheap crates under shelves of LPs – ask if you can look in the store room – lots of records – multiple copies of early rough trade releases eg Raincoats, Liliput etc but the store owner can be a wanker.

‘Piatto Forte’ – Schlesische str - Just the other side of the oberbaum bridge – pretty average selection.

‘Space Honda’ - Zossenerstr. – lots of records, but anything good is really expensive.

‘Wowsville’ – 80 Skalitzer Str – Good selection of 70’s, 80’s, 90’s punk /garage / kbd shit – new and lots of second hand – good store! Store is divided into two, best 2nd hand LPs in front, all 45s in the back half.

'Heisse-scheiben' – 44 Ohlauer Str near the canal/little creek also close to the big Turkish food markets Tuesday and Fridays. Ok 2nd hand section out the back, punk / alternative isn’t very good, but look through the new arrivals section (if you can find it)

‘Core-Tex’ – 3 Oranienstr – predominately stocks new punk/ hardcore etc – any good second hand records don’t make it to the shelves.

Pop Culture Warehouse – on Heinrichplatz - upstairs from film/bookstore – lots of good records 2nd hand records from free jazz to hardcore – but everything is really expensive

Indian Soundroom – Körtestr - stores opens at really weird/ inconsistent hours – really need to dig to find stuff – doubt there’s a big turnover of stock. There’s a couple of small record stores around the corner to the right on Gneisenaustr – one’s an anarchist punk store – the other brings predominately his whole shop to the boxy flea markets on Sundays.

Kreuzberg / Neukölln:

‘Comeback Records’ – 9 Hasenheide str - Lots of second hand records – ok alternative/punk selection. Stores has the largest stock of 2nd 45’s in Berlin. The back part of the store isn’t worth the time to look.

Prenzlauer Berg:

‘De Capo Records’ - Kastanienallee 96 – lots of old 50/60/70’s stuff –jazz, psyche power metal – kind of expensive – lots of loose characters hang out here, so it’s worth the visit

Prenzlauer Berg / Mitte:

Can’t remember name record store on kollwitzstr in Prenzlauer Berg – easiet is to walk from Mitte – mostly second hand, ok price’s – ask owner to look at records upstairs if you're after 80s/90's Australian stuff – his former partner used to travel to Australia for record buying trips in the early 90s– has all black eye/ red eye/ aberrant etc all really cheap around 5-8 euros – and no cunt cares about this stuff over there.

Mitte:

‘Record Store Berlin’ - Brunnerstr – it’s ok.

‘Music Unter the Gleisen’ - 128 Friedrichstr. – need to go to the basement for 2nd hand lps, Lots of records buts its really time consuming for whats there.

Schöneberg:

‘Rock Steady Records’ - Motzstr – Don’t bother

Also try the flea markets. The largest is the Mauer Park markets in Prenzlauer Berg, there's normally up to 10 regular sellers plus some private sellers, (people selling records and other junk). As with record fairs, the regular traders hit the private sellers like flies to shit, it get pretty funny,they start running and phoning their mates as soon as they see some poor fuck whose turned up to hock his collection, so you've got to be there early to find a bargain.

The other good flea market is at Boxhagner Platz in F/Shain.

Seems as if lots of individuals buy and resell records for their living. E.g. If you're after somewhat hard to find punk and hardcore records, there's a couple of people who sell from their homes, sometimes at gigs. They have a monopoly on that market as they've been doing this shit for years, have worked out deals with lots of the record store owners, so nothing really turns up in the racks of stores, and they scour the flea markets really hard. Plus the ebay flippers, they take their record hunting seriously.

Also about 45 minutes out of Berlin is Potsdam, this old touristy sort of place, there's a great record store that not many people know about. Can't remember the name or street, but Potsdam ain't that big.

As is the case with Berlin, a lot of those places have shut down. Scratch off Music Store Berlin, Wowsville and Dense, unfortunately.

I helped Wowsville pack up just yesterday, in fact, and my store has bought the rest of the Dense collection, but I hate my boss so im not gonna give the address cuz I dont care if we go broke.

That dude was cool! He let us hang out with you at one in the morning! Although he did seem like a smarmy cunt.

Thanks yokota, I'll chase up some of those recommendations (sounds amazing)! I'll only be there for four days so I'll see what I make it to. I've heard that Berlin can be amazing for a lot of '80s antipodean stuff (Flying Nun, Abberant, Waterfront) as well as Rough Trade Germany and general '80s avant/post-punk/no-wave type stuff as well, but I'm also hoping the city will be a goldmine for old FMP/ESP/BYG-Actuel records, and ethno stuff (heaps of the Central American records I seem to be buying are from ebay sellers in Germany.

Trashfest fotos......

coming over in april yo, gunna be sic

3 MONTHS OF SNOW, FUCK.

Everyone is suicidal here.

At one point, there was no visible sun for 3 weeks, a Berlin history record.

jimmytrash said 2 hours ago:
3 MONTHS OF SNOW, FUCK.
Everyone is suicidal here.
At one point, there was no visible sun for 3 weeks, a Berlin history record.

I would still rather live in Berlin with 3months of snow than in Melbourne. Not that Melbourne is bad.

I reckon i might live in Melbourne 6 months/year from October to March then April - September in Berlin, and do that forever.