Susie Asado

Collectors of Moments

josepha — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:59:13 +0000

We have become collectors of moments. A former butchery turned venue called Malacarne. Very fitting for a grilled Susie. A Susie Asado. A room, almost psychedelic, a heart on the floor. A room probably once used for something meat, something terrible. But in Verona it is our stage. And when suddenly the room is filled with kind faces, big eyes and mischievous smiles we sing to and into the rooms warm and precise acoustics. Oh “in fair Verona, where we lay our scene” it was raining and we didn’t get to see you, but we came to the heart of you, I am sure of that. After Verona we drove to Switzerland, to Bern. “Ciao Italy” we said. We played at a studio space called “Werkstatt 14″ with a local band called Chevre Chaud. Which means “Hot goat” and so we continue with the meat, with the hot and the grilled. So much fun to listen to music before our show. And our show another unplugged one with sweet acoustics. The next morning Valentin, the upright bass player from Chevre Chaud takes us on a bike ride around the city. It is sunny and beautiful, Everything is blooming and it feels so romantic to ride on bikes and zoom by the bustling city. All packed up we drive back to Germany. After sound check at Galao we go to a play ground near by and play ball. A little girl called Vanessa shows up and soon we are playing ball with a group of kids. Sweaty and all body again after our long drive we return to the venue. Our show in Stuttgart felt like a kind of home coming. Friends come to the show and we feel like we have crossed a border. Suddenly we are very close to home. And last night we get even closer. Jena, another home show. A cozy living room packed with sweet people. After the show we go sit on the roof of the house and contemplate a strange righ rise that supposedly looks like a Zeiss lens from above and an antenna. Oh antenna. And now after a good sleep I am sitting back in the living room where we preformed all cleaned. Noel has already started packing up the car and we are about to go have breakfast with our hosts from the “Wohnzimmer Sessions”. Later we drive to Leipzig and tomorrow we drive back home. Home. What a sweet adventure we have had. Onward Aeropuerto.

Rainbow Bear Nanny Bot

josepha — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 06:54:22 +0000

We arrived in Perugia with an empty gas tank. Gasoline stations are closed on Saturdays. Noel jumped out of the car, asked a nice looking man for directions to a gas station that was open and the man mumbled some words in italian and then gestured us to follow his car. We took all kinds of windy roads seemingly out of town and eventually ended up at an open gas station. Then he drove us all the way to the hostel we couldn’t find because our GPS didn’t recognize the address. The man’s name is Philippo and we marveled at this welcoming friendliness. We went to the hostel washed our clothes and headed back out to the old city of Perugia. You need a lot of imagination to drive a car through the narrow these narrow streets. I imagined my car pulling in its belly, its ass and being skinny for that moment of passing a seemingly impossible passage. At one point I wanted to give up, there was no way the car would go through. I wanted to crawl into the seat of the car, disappear inside the upholstery. But Noel started jumping around the car finding possible angles and guided me through tight spots. It took a long while, but eventually we even figured out how to park the car. Yes, driving and parking can be quite adventurous. We set up at the venue Loop and then wandered the streets of Perugia. Noel found a little shop called Dinamica where one can build a robot out of all kinds of garbage and found objects. Check it out here: www.dinamicadinamica.wordpress.com A man named Fabrizio showed me where the glue was and I got to work. My hands dove into the pile of cables, bottle caps and toy parts and quickly a little nanny bot came to life. I completely lost track of time, it was already 11:30 p.m. and realized we were already supposed to be on stage. My nanny bot found a home on a shelf with all kinds of other lovely robots and we hurried back to the venue. Oh Perugia. What a lovely inviting place you are with your futuristic mini metro and your mediaeval buildings and kind audience. In the morning we took another long walk through the city and then drove a very pot-hole ridden street to Faenza. Here we played at the awesome Clandestino run by the inspired and crazy hard working Morena. Imagine a feisty Italian lady catering a wedding, setting up the stage, plugging cables, decorating with flowers, cooking, talking with guests running circles around the place all at the same time. Look at the photograph of the stage all set up:

We had a wonderful night and sweet conversation after the show. Now it is the next morning. The stools are upside down on the bar. Clandestino is one of the few venues that looks good in the day time. The big plastic bubbles filled with cacti and sparkling chandeliers. I am sitting on the stage on the stool where my amp was propped up last night. Morena is already bustling around the place and everything is being cleaned and straightened out. We are about to pack up the car again and drive to Verona. The city of Romeo and Julia.

The Middle

josepha — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 09:30:47 +0000

7 shows behind us. 7 shows ahead. We are sitting in 909 Café in Castigliano de Lago and having a sleepy breakfast. I haven’t made much time to write. I’ve been wrapped up in traffic, driving through mountains, through tunnels, flirting with truckers, listening to audio books, watching clouds from the car and rest-stops, oh places we’ve never been and lots of lovely people. A highlight of the last few days was the show in Besançon. We played at a former public bath house turned community center in a beautiful room for the people of the neighborhood. An early show where a little girl danced to our songs and I had the feeling that everyone was there from young to old. The above photograph of the show is from François Roussell, you can see the room, our audience. Our host, Christophe runs a music series at Les Bains Douches, which sounds like bathtubs and showers. Christophe is musician as well, and so pulled all stops to keep us fed and comfortable and our sound perfect. After the show we had dinner with Christophe on the sidewalk while neighbors walked by calling out “bon appetite”. So we felt right at home and welcomed in this friendly open place. The next day we drove across the alps down to Italy. We listened to the biography of Lotte Lenya and Kurt Weil. We took turns driving and crying. By the time we arrived in Italy we were drenched in sweat and tears. The letters of the two were so moving and funny and the many twists and turns of their lives inspiring and heart breaking. Oh. And now Italy. ITALY! We’ve already eaten a good amount of Pizza, marveled at palm trees, olive trees, an old fortress and roman remnants. We stayed at a beautiful apartment in Padova with two cats called “Cat One and Cat Two”. Yesterday before our show at 909 Café we walked down to the lake. Took narrow dark paths that run between beautiful old houses. It was creepy and beautiful and when we made it down to the shore of the lake we couldn’t believe the blossom sweet warm wind, the water dance and the moon. Now everything is packed up again. We are becoming quite professional at packing and unpacking. The Beatles “Abbey Road” is playing on over the PA. We are secretaries with our laptops chop chop. We will take another trip to the lake and then drive to Perugia la la la

The Beef

josepha — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:17:40 +0000

Noel is driving. It is warm outside. Very warm. We just stopped at a rest stop and sat on a flower clad lawn. We are both sneezing a lot from the pollen. It feels wrong to wish for less blooming trees in Besançon. But that’s where we are heading and it would be amazing if we could have spring there without the sneezing. Not without the blooming. Anyways, I guess we need to struggle a little for all this beauty. Last night we played at a meticulously hand-built venue called O’Brother in Grenoble. A kind of fantasy interior of a cozy venue out of wood and found objects. Almost like a movie set. A movie set built for the scene where the protagonist goes to see a show. Where the evening turns into a late night listening to favorite songs and dancing dancing dancing. Right at the beginning of the set a giant painting that was looming from the ceiling fell onto my head and the evening turned out to be all glorious from then on. The painting falling on my head felt like a kind of blessing. The moment right before the painting fell, some of Noel’s cymbals tumbled off the cymbal stand. I don’t think the two events were related, but there was magic in the room, ghosts or something else moving shit around. Yes,spooky. We played a wild Susie set, where we let the songs fall apart a little and sing through the cracks. After our show we danced with our spunky audience to Georges Brassens and Edith Piaf and lots of awesome songs. At some point Vincent, the promoter came up to us and said “let’s make a beef”. We had no idea what he was talking about. “Beef, let’s make a beef”. When we still didn’t know what he was talking about he said “Beef is boeuf, is what you call jam, let’s make a jam”. Oh, “no no no, we don’t jam.” But it was already too late, suddenly we were back on stage with Vincent and another friend on Guitar. Vincent started rapping and suddenly we were in the middle of a song coming about. I wish I would have understood the words Vincent was rapping. It all sounded very cool and like proper rapping. O’ Brother, really is a fitting name for this venue. We had no idea what we were in for. And so our adventure continues. On the GPS it reads 59 minutes to Besançon. Here we go.

Following the little owl

josepha — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:11:35 +0000

Waking up in Dijon. I dreamt I followed little triangles on the pavement that lead to an owl. I kept following the little triangles, there is an owl on the triangle, but I never found the owl. Just the triangles. Such an owl exists in Dijon. Or so I am told. We followed the little triangles yesterday, We didn’t find the owl. Just like in my dream, I think. Have I reached the point where my dreams are matching up with my reality. Oh, little owl, I am sorry we have to leave your city so soon and can’t find you or learn more about your story. We have an early sound check in Grenoble. Noel just said, “after all we are not on vacation”. How do you explain that to a little owl? Well I’m not really sure what a vacation feels like, but I do know what this tour so far feels like: a very sweet adventure. We have had two house shows in a row. Two homes that couldn’t have been more different. At the home of a grand lady in Tournai we performed salon style to family, friends and neighbors. A home filled with strange and marvelous objects carefully arranged and placed and the warmest people imaginable. Many of the objects seemed alive, as if having stepped right out of a fairy tale: a crocodile, a kind of bison head, a frog prince, a fish in a fish bowl. Our second house show was part of the Home Sweet Home Festival in Nancy organized by a motivated group of young people called “off kultur”, changing their scene and the way their community listens to music. The apartment we played at was by a canal that reminded us very much of the Landwehrkanal in Kreuzberg. Before the show we went to it’s bank and lay in the fresh spring, yes spring grass. Little daisies and dandelions. Luminous sun. We take off our shoes, we are wearing t-shirts. Hey, it’s spring. We drove straight into it. The last three days we have also done some sight-seeing. Walked the streets of Tournai with our host Catherine and her family and the streets of Nancy with the festival organizers Johann and Edith. We saw gargoyle fantasy creatures looming from gothic walls, art deco houses (In my mind I have moved into all of them), grand art nouveau entrances, boxes of chocolates, strange fluorescent green drinks, a parking lot flee marked, a man carrying a plaster figure of a cook onto the sidewalk in the morning, and crooked mediaeval houses leaning into the street of Dijon. Oh Dijon. I promise I will return and visit the little owl. Perhaps it’s not even little. Now we are in the car. Noel is driving. It seems to be summer outside. Fluffy clouds and traffic signs. Our next stop is Grenoble.

Instructions for making a circle and breaking a circle

josepha — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 17:00:42 +0000

Precisely 40 years after your birth return to the city you were born under a stolen name
Ponder the skyline and how it has changed
Take a ride through the city with your friends
Go see a house about to be torn down
Go see a recently built sky scraper
Visit someone you barely know
Eat a local dish
Go see an exhibit
Receive instructions
Draw a self-portrait out of water
Wait for the phone to ring
Enter a house by a river and visit each floor of that house
Count stairs and stair cases
Walk across a river
Hold your breath as long as you can
Go to a local venue and bring an instrument of your choice
Hook up that instrument to cables wires and D.I. boxes
Stretch and breathe
Eat some more local food
Wait for people to arrive
Sing some songs
Listen to your friends sing some songs
Have conversation about stormy weather
Drink tea
Stay as long as your eyes will stay open
Go to a place you can sleep and close your eyes
Wake up and pack up
Drive to another country

Dear Baltic Sea

josepha — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 09:26:50 +0000

Fehmarn. I did not know what to expect. An island close to Denmark. An island. I guess I expected island things and an ocean. Palm trees? We set up in the beautiful back room of “Cafe Liebevoll” and marveled at the acoustics. The room theater style and so we decided to put Kevin out of his sound-man job and and play unplugged. Once the audience was there we were so grateful for their listening and attentiveness. Awesome to get to play in this way, where you can hear everything and everything sounds beautiful and warm. After the show we made some friends and were very temped to learn all about Fehmarn night life, but the shy band that we are, we went back to the hostel and enjoyed a trip through time. The hostel in it’s perfect 60s set up where even the bed sheets seem to be from the 60s. In the morning we woke up to families screaming packing up from their easter break. But my grumpy morning mood didn’t last because we drove to the ocean. Katharinenhof, and walked along the stony rough beach and let the sun warm our hearts. Ocean. Oh. Ocean. We couldn’t see Denmark, but we had the feeling we might be able to swim across. I found very cool amber like stones and marveled at the fallen trees that lay across the beach. If every touring day could be like this. If it could always include a trip to the ocean. Dear Baltic Sea, it was lovely to visit, but we couldn’t stay. We drove back to Lübeck to play a short afternoon show in a beautiful bike shop that was taped by Wolkenkuckucksheim for their online tv. A wonderful band from Kiel called Herr Bösel played after us. They rocked the little bike shop and sent us off back on the autobahn singing along to their awesome tunes. We would have driven straight to Italy, tour-fever was in our bones. But the road took as back to Berlin to unpack and lay low for a few days. Next Thursday our adventure continues . . .

Begin

josepha — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 10:04:12 +0000

Begin. Good omens all around. No traffic driving to Lübeck. Grand clouds moving in the sky and the closer we got to Lübeck an afternoon sun blazed through them. By the time we arrived, we were showered in light. We went down to a Water and said hello to the ducks: good sign (water and ducks). Of course they are still pedaling ice to keep the water water, but the sun is warm and soon their winter job will come to an end. We find parking right away when we arrive in front of the venue. A few hours later Kaya, the sound guy, tells us they are ticketing outside and just in time we move the car to the other side where there is no neighborhood parking. Clearly a good sign. The parking gods are on our side. At Tonfink we get greeted by our lovely host Caro. There is a giant Monstera Deliciosa plant at the end of the room that climbs up the wall with its impressive jungle arms and giant feather leaves. Hey, once you start looking for something it appears everywhere. I have declared the Monstera plant a Susie plant. Just like Susie she’s from South America and she has the potential to grow giant. Ahhhhh. More signs: we have a back stage room. Yes. And in the backstage room there is a table cloth on a table and on the table cloth are lots of little dogs. Poodles, terriers, pugs, dachshund. And we have a surprise guest from Berlin, our friend Alex who brought a group of lovely ladies. When the show is about to start Caro comes out with a life sized pug money collector, introduces us and encourages the audience to feed the pug money after the show. Caro clearly is a lady in want of a dog, so we are in good company. The audience is lovely, warm and mischievous. I like a mischievous audience. Our accommodation is cozy, another good sign. A giant red flamenco fan at the head of my bed and another Monstera Deliciosa plant at the side of my bed. Oh. Now it’s morning. Little snow flakes and an the yet unexplored city of Lübeck outside. We will venture out and explore. Just as a side note. Not everything always has to be perfect and filled with good signs. The best stories are often when things go wrong. But it is very lovely when things go right or start right and when there are Monstera plants, little dogs, ducks and waters.

What we’ve been up to . . .

josepha — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 22:06:45 +0000

Back home. Snow outside. I’m cozy on the sofa drinking apple tea. Spring hasn’t arrived in Berlin. Not yet. But Susie things have started rolling and so I wanted to report a bit. Report: we have been recording. Working on a new album. There isn’t much to say yet, but I will give you a couple of details. There will be a spy story. A song about a con artist. A song sung by a plant. And a song about clouds. Something like that. I will keep you posted on the developments. Toby Goodshank made a little video when we were in the studio. You can check it out here: http://vimeo.com/60170448# Then last weekend Noel and I did a mini-tour trying to summon spring. Well we drove home yesterday in the snow, but we had a wonderful time. We started off in Lauenau which is near Hannover. An old Kesselhaus with a high ceiling and different levels. When we arrive we meet Camillo whose painter parents have renovated the old building to serve as a studio and as a space for concerts and locals to come together. Soon we meet a whole family and our sound man Robert. Everything smells like paint and inspiration. Right before we go on, Camillo introduces us ceremoniously and calls his father on the cellphone who is at the art fair in Karlsruhe. Camillo holds the phone to the microphone and the father, Tommi, welcomes everyone and informs us that he has sold 2 paintings. Everyone cheers. Then we get to play for that lovely warm audience. It’s fun to look around during the show. Lots of kind and unfamiliar faces. After the show we get to go upstairs and see the paintings of Eva-Susann Karsthof. Collages of many layers and images that surprise and almost seem to move. Lots of horses, fragments of horses, limbs. We spend the night in an old brewery called Felsenkeller, in what seems to be a suite. We even have a living room to sprawl out in. Everything is unusually luxurious, except for the rain. The next day we drive to Halle. We arrive there hungry and on a big square Noel picks our two “alternative looking” people and asks for a cafe recommendation. They send us to the NT Cafe, which we happily find. Vitrines by the large windows with old tea pots and tea cups. A proper Susie Asado place for tea. And an impressive hot chocolate menu. Oh. If we lived in Halle, this is where we would go and we do return the next day for breakfast and the waitress notices that we weren’t at our “usual spot”. Noel reads all the newspapers and I ponder the various tea cups and debate what to order from the hot chocolate menu. Oh. In Halle we play at a very old Gasthaus called Goldene Rose. So old that there is even a record of Mozart visiting there. We play in a beautiful cozy room that is lovely and dark and candles flickering. Sweet people who all seem to be happy Hallenser. Noel and I note that this clearly is a good place to live. It is all so fitting it being international women’s day. That is the “golden rose” makes me think of “a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose” makes me think of precious and interesting vaginas. Vaginas are a good thing to think about on international women’s day. I hope that’s what all of you think of too when you think of roses. The next day the audience at Courage im Volksbad in Magdeburg are still celebrating international women’s day and that makes me very hopeful. This is clearly something for more than just a day. We get lucky with another very well organized show, lovely light and sound by Mikro and a seamless time plan by Jacqueline and Anja. Even a backstage. We play two sets like fancy musicians and have some sweet conversations after the show. To top it all of we get to spend the night at a magical hostel called Ringel Hostel. My room has a lady sofa and a big round mirror that I can say good night to in my pajamas. The next day after a nurturing breakfast we drove home through the snow listening to the biography of Lotte Lenya and Kurt Weil. We only got to the second disc and are saving the rest for the April tour. Yes, April tour. Lots of adventures to come. To be continued in April . . .

Last night oh

josepha — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 00:01:42 +0000

After a wonderful show with Phoebe Kreuz and Matt Colbourn at Cafe Trauma we drove through fairy tale Marburg fog to a spooky hostel. When we reached the hostel, the fog was below us. The stars astronomy book perfect above us. It was hard to fall asleep that night. Always hard after shows to fall asleep. A kind of rush in the bones and a mind of speedy thoughts. The last days of tour have been a blur of packing and unpacking and singing songs and sweet moments. But nothing prepared us for a last night in Darmstadt. We set up for the evening on the Zucker store front stage and even though André wanted to assure us that we will meet with an attentive audience, he also stopped himself with “well you never know what it will be like, or who will come”. I’ve become careful too in predicting evenings. And even though a place with the name of Zucker (sugar) is a good start and we are excited to play unplugged, we try not to think ahead. So when a wonderful crowd poured into the space right around 8 p.m., I started to get nervous. And when we finally got up on stage and started with the first song, my heart jumped at all the lovely people facing us. What a perfect crowd Darmstadt. Thank you for making our last night so special. Sending us home with so much kind feedback and smiling faces. Sometimes looking out into a crowd can be so intimidating, but tonight was just lovely to see all of you. Oh. I am in my pajamas now sitting on a bed made up with Monchichi covers. There is a wonderful comic book collection right next to me and a map of Australia and Polynesia on the wall. I would love to stay up and explore the library, but I will sleep in my Monchichi bed and rest for the long drive home tomorrow. Good night Mathildenhöhe. Good night five-finger-tower. Good night Zucker and the lovely people of Darmstadt.