City Light Thief
| City Light Thief | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Grevenbroich |
| Genre (s) | Punk rock (initially), post hardcore , post punk |
| founding | 2003 as whisk ?! 2009 as City Light Thief |
| Website | www.city-light-thief.de |
| Current occupation | |
| Benjamin "Benni" Mirtschin | |
Guitar , vocals |
Tobias Schmidt |
guitar |
Roman arbor |
Bass , vocals |
Tobias "Bringo" Brings |
Keyboard , guitar |
Mario Wolf (since 2012) |
| Robert Matyjaszczyk | |
City Light Thief (Eng. " Stadtlichtdieb ") is a German post-hardcore / post-punk band from Grevenbroich , which was founded in 2003 under the name Whisk ?! , has already won several national competitions and prizes.
history
Whisk ?! - first EPs and Rock am Ring
In 2003 the band was originally founded as a punk band under the name “Whisk ?!” in Grevenbroich by Benjamin Mirtschin, Tobias Schmidt and Roman Laube . After the approximately 17-minute 4-track debut EP Quiet Now was released in limited edition by Headlightmusic after three years, Tobias Brings and Robert Matyjaszczyk joined them in spring 2007 after multiple line-up changes. The now complete band made new contacts this year and played more concerts again, whereupon they recorded their next record in Another-Level Studio Kaarst in July 2008 with Goodbye, Good Will at Öttemusic, the indie label of the Düsseldorf singer Christian Ötte EP published in an edition of 500 hand-numbered card sleeves. The songs contained on it were broadcast in the same year in a one-hour special show on the Rhein Kreis Neuss News 89.4 radio station, after which they shared the stage across Germany with bands such as Planlos , Ashes of Pompeii and Vanilla Sky .
The highlight of the five-year history of the band was soon the appearance at the Rock am Ring Festival 2008, as a result of which the band changed their name shortly afterwards in order to reorient themselves from now on.
City Light Thief - Laviin
After the name was changed to "City Light Thief" at the beginning of 2009, the band began to write new songs to differentiate themselves from the previous creative phase. The upcoming demo recordings were followed by the first video shoot for the song Domino Sparrow under the direction of the video crew Caraax, with the subsequent recording of two more songs at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences.
At the beginning of the following year, the first full-length studio album was recorded with Laviin and released the following year on Midsummer Records as CD and blue vinyl with the free acoustic EP Bedroom Sessions limited to 50 copies , as well as the music video to Punkt. Out? The End! for which the band received the German Web Video Award in the same year . Immediately after the album was released, producer Bastian Hartmann named his independent studio after it. The current version of the title song of the EP Golden Roots, which was previously recorded at the Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences , was found on Laviin . The B-side Wandervögel, however, was not set to music again for reasons of compatibility with the album. In addition, they were not allowed to use the old EP recordings commercially.
The Music of Chance - the crowdfunding project
At the beginning of 2012, the band withdrew to a house in Niederehe for a week to record four more songs for the planned EP. Based on the content of the novel of the same name by Paul Austers , this should be called The Music of Chance . However, since the band still lacked an amount of € 1000 for production in the planned 10 "vinyl format, they started a crowdfunding project in which the fans of the band could pre-order the EP in eight different packages (from Boni such as an additional book with markings of the text passages used, to the band's own concert up to a dinner with them), in order to enable the band to finance. The required amount was reached after 48 hours and in the end even doubled in.
The scheduled release on May 11, 2012 was followed not only by various festival appearances - including at the Hurricane Festival - but also two previous concerts in Helsinki and Tampere, Finland, in early April, as well as a Germany tour as support for the American post-hardcore band Polar Bear Club .
After the dissolution of his band Thoughts Paint the Sky , in which he was represented for three years as guitarist and singer, Mario Wolf took over the position of keyboardist at City Light Thief at the end of 2012 .
For the three-year anniversary of the release of the EP, they published the songs every two days from May 11, 2015, backed by footage from the film of the same name for the novel from 1993, in chronological order on the video platform YouTube .
Vacilando
After another studio stay in an expanded formation, they released their third studio album on May 31, 2013 with Vacilando . The band commented on the name of the album in a blog entry as follows:
“ Among other things,“ Vacilando ”is a word for someone who is traveling for the sake of traveling, who doesn't want to know exactly where his destination is and who doesn't care whether he gets there or not. Someone who makes things happen. "
They further developed the style they had pursued up to now by adding more details and hidden facets to the total of 11 pieces. Now with 6 members, they increasingly used choral singing, which allowed hymnic properties to flow in, and symbolized the disorientation mentioned in the context of the more complex song structures, which ensured that the entire work "sounds enormously interwoven and multi-layered". Again, like in the song Punkt, Aus? End! of the debut album Laviin , in the last song of the album a spoken dialogue - this time in English - as well as background music with an accordion that is not typical of the genre, is used. Before the release, the entire work was available as a stream for several weeks free to listen to on the website of the VISIONS magazine.
The sold-out release party held in the Cologne underground , at which the new album was presented live after the opening by the London-based Gunning For Tamar, whose singer Joe had already recorded the monologue for the track Cloudburst ~ Torrent , was followed by a small tour at the end of the year through pubs and clubs, in which they appeared, among other things, as the opening act for Adolar .
At the same time as the album release they also published a music video for Panica , which was shot together with dancers from TSV Raunheim and the production company Iconographic in an old Wiesbaden dairy. Furthermore you can find a performance of the songs Of Armisitce and Cloudburst ~ Torrent on Youtube , which they recorded for the prettyleive sessions.
Vacilando was finally produced and released as CD, gatefold vinyl, MP3 download and as a red tape , limited to only 50 pieces.
After City Light Thief went on tour in Germany with Heisskalt , among others , they held a concert at the end of the year on December 19 in the hall of the St. Josef youth club , where the Grevenbroich punk rock band Planlos last gave their farewell concerts.
New EP 2015
On June 20, 2015, the band announced that they had recorded a new EP, which should contain four new songs, with Niko Vetter, guitarist of the Mönchengladbach band This April Scenery . The songs were recorded live and should be released at the end of the same year, after they appeared as support in September of the same year as part of the reunion concerts of the Cologne post-hardcore band Days in Grief .
style
Whisk ?!
The music consisted primarily of a mixture of punk and metal with progressive influence. Although the texts had atmospherically dark features, they were never intended to produce pessimistic effects.
City Light Thief
The name change also brought about a change of genre. The band freed themselves almost entirely from standardized punk influences in order to take a more progressive path. In addition to clearly defined guitars and concise melodies, there are above all more opaque song structures, which nevertheless reveal a well-developed concept, whereby a clear classification of the band into a genre is not possible. Vocal polyphony is explicitly used , and from Vacilando even four-part choir passages, using exotic instruments typical of the genre, such as the tambourine . This is particularly evident in the video recordings made for getaddicted.com, in which the flat share partners Tobias Brings and Schmidt together with singer Benni performed the songs Pioneers , Driftwood and Golden Roots in the bathroom, hall and kitchen of the apartment using, among other things, a ukulele , a carillon and a melodica .
“ Too complex for punk, too pop for post-core, too tough for indie. "
While the debut album was musically compressed to 10 songs with a running time of almost 36 minutes, the EP only spreads 4 songs over approx. 20 minutes. The result of these, on average, longer pieces are more unusual instrumental passages, more playful music, as well as an inherent coherence of the pieces, which can also be distinguished musically as a concept EP .
The singing moves technically between clean and guttural singing (screaming, shouting). The lyrics of the debut album and Vacilando s increasingly describe "the feeling of homelessness and disorientation, questioning one's own actions and personality." The EP The Music of Chance is entirely based on the story of Paul Auster's novel.
Both on Laviin and on Vacilando there was a point in the pieces . and Cloudburst ~ Torrent , which each represent the end of the album, fall back on an inner monologue in which the content of the previous texts is finally reflected on.
All texts, with the exception of the point. Out? The End! From the beginning of the monologue, are written in English .
Contests and awards
Ringrocker Band Contest 2008
In the course of the annually organized band contest of the Rock am Ring Community ringrocker.de, the band emerged as the winner of the final round in 2008 and thus won an appearance at the Rock am Ring Festival in the same year. Even before this, however, guitarist Roman had an accident while transporting the band's backline when he drove his car into a tree, which is why he had to spend the night in a hospital.
Web video award 2011
At the awards ceremony for the first web video award in 2011 , the band was successful under the heading "c / o-Pop" for their music video . Out? The End! and thus won a special prize in the " Free Music " category . They personally accepted the award at the official award ceremony on February 20, 2012 in the Astra Theater in Essen .
The corresponding video was produced in just one take with a budget of less than € 100 and with the help of over 30 volunteers without a single cut in Comude Studio Cologne and played live . The inspiration for this came, as stated several times in the video itself, from the music video for David De La Hoz by the band The Chariot .
Trivia
- At the beginning of 2013, their own interpretation of Thees Uhlmann's play Die Toten in the back seat was published on Soundcloud as a thank you to the fans for the past year.
- For the release of the Music of Chance , a barbecue party was organized with the band in a private garden in August 2012 for a small contribution towards expenses, during which they played the EP in full, among other things.
- City Light Thief are sponsored by the HOME IS WHERE YOUR HEART IS fashion label
Discography
City Light Thief
Albums
- 2010: Laviin (Midsummer Records)
- 2013: Vacilando (Midsummer Records)
- 2018: Nothing Is Simple (Midsummer Records)
EPs
- 2012: The Music of Chance ( Rookie Records / Midsummer Records)
- 2010: Bedroom Sessions (limited to 50 copies, included with the first vinyl discs)
- 2015: Shame
Singles
- 2017: Death Trip (7 "Vinyl)
Demos
- 2009: Golden Roots (in FH Düsseldorf)
- 2009: Demos 2009
Music videos
- 2013: Panica
- 2012: The Wailing Wall
- 2011: period . Out? The End!
- 2009: Domino Sparrow
Live videos
- 2013: Of Armistice (prettylivesessions.)
- 2013: Cloudburst ~ Torrent (prettylivesessions.)
- 2011: Circa Now (diefictioncompany)
- 2011: Golden Roots (diefictioncompany)
Whisk ?!
EPs
- 2008: Goodbye, Good Will (Öttemusic)
- 2006: Quiet Now (Headlight Music)
Web links
- Official website
- City Light Thief on Facebook
- City Light Thief at Bandcamp
- City Light Thief at SoundCloud
Individual evidence
- ↑ Whisk ?! Biography: Dooload
- ^ "Quiet Now" EP on Musik-Sammler.de
- ↑ City Light Thief on Öttemusic
- ↑ Whisk ?! - Blog entry from September 6th 2007: "I would love to be on the radio"
- ↑ Whisk ?! - Blog entry from April 16, 2008: "Finally"
- ↑ Entry in the Ringrocker forum
- ↑ Homepage of the video crew Caraax
- ↑ Fire is always worth striving for - Interview with City Light Thief 2011 on getAddicted.org ( memento of the original from December 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b City Light Thief - Interview about the album Laviin on Burn Your Ears.de
- ↑ Crowdfunding page on Music of Chance
- ^ Post the band on Facebook
- ↑ Blog
- ↑ Review ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Alternativmusik.de
- ↑ Vacilando review on Partyausfall.de
- ↑ Vacilando review on Schallhafen.bplaced.net
- ↑ Announcement on Visions.de
- ↑ City Light Thief blog entry
- ↑ Facebook announcement
- ↑ Schallhafen Interview "Home is a shitty word"
- ↑ Announcement of advance sales for the Christmas concert with Heisskalt in the blog
- ↑ Shows & Music 2015 in the band's blog
- ↑ Days In Grief announce support acts for reunion shows
- ↑ Review of the album "Laviin" on In-Your-Face.de ( Memento from January 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Review of the EP “The Music Of Chance” on Sprengies-World.de ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ City Light Thief unplugged on getAddicted.org ( memento of the original from January 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Artempire
- ↑ Productive in the ass of the world - Interview with City Light Thief 2012 on getAddicted.org ( Memento of the original from March 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Band biography on Whisk-Rock.de
- ↑ Benjamin Mirtschin (City Light Thief) in the “Shorts” interview
- ↑ Video of the award ceremony on Youtube.com
- ↑ Music video for "Punkt. Out? End! ”On Youtube.com
- ↑ Home is where your heart is artist
