Change Is Good: The New glamglare Site Is Here
Once, in the mid-90s, our favorite bar in Munich closed its doors for an extensive renovation. It reopened as a much sleeker place, and the music changed to trip-hop and drum & bass. “We had to get the 80s out of this place,” the owner declared.
This week, we got the teens out of glamglare. Musically, we are already fiercely in the here and now, but the old classic blog roll and the traditional three-column layout had to go. Both were not particularly mobile-friendly and felt quaint. If you are interested in the technical details, we migrated the site from Wordpress.com to Ghost, an open-source content management system. There is nothing wrong with WordPress, but it is running on PHP, while Ghost is built with JavaScript, which I’m much more familiar with.
There is much more work to do, but right out of the gate, the site works better on small screens. It also allows us to keep our content in one place instead of delegating the newsletter to Substack. This means you can now subscribe to our Song Pick of the Day features as they happen. With that, the Monday Song Pick of the Day summary becomes obsolete. But don’t worry: the Thursday newsletter edition will still give you a complete view of all the music on glamglare.
We are also introducing a new playlist. Our long-standing glamglarepick playlist is reserved for new songs, typically not older than a couple of weeks. It is essential to highlight that artists continue to create great music every week to counter the trend of warming up the well-tried classics again and again.
On the other hand, we often discover and fall in love with music that is months, years, or even decades old. Our new playlist, glamglarefaves, will allow us to talk about and present music with fewer restrictions. It will be around 20 songs or 60 to 90 minutes long, and we will swap a few songs every week. Sometimes, we will have a theme for the new songs, and sometimes, it will be just new and older music we like. Think of it as the song rotation of a radio station.
This is an experiment, so we are ready to adjust the concept. Please let us know what works for you and what does not.
ICYMI: Song Pick of the Day
glamglare favorites
For the inaugural playlist, we borrowed the title of the new Yndling album, Mood Booster, as a theme. While you need to wait for the album until tomorrow, you can have your mood boosted right now by following our playlist below:
Elke’s Notes
1 - John Mayer - Vultures
We start this playlist maybe surprisingly mellow. But did you ever listen to the lyrics? And if you’re, like me, a fan of genius guitar play and gorgeous vocals, you might agree with this choice.
2 - Tears for Fears - Head over Heels
While I might like the darker tracks of Tears for Fears more, this song gets me still as much now as it did back then. The big synth sound, the feeling of being head over heels in live and Roland’s gorgeous vocals, of course.
3 - Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Admittedly, I only became a fan in more recent years, but nobody grew up in the 70s/80s without a heavy dose of The Boss, and this song brims with youthful joy for life!
4 - Rainhard Fendrich - Wie beim ersten Mal
Something in my native language, not quite, because this is Austrian German. The song contains a fictional interview about whether he’s still nervous to perform live and in the song, he is. Fast forward, I’d love to ask him if that’s still the case. In essence, though, the beautiful song is about overcoming your fears, getting out there, and giving your all.
5 - Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension.
I love The Strokes, but Julian Casablancas is the man! It was a hard decision between his Daft Punk collab “Instant Crush” (oh, the video!), but the first track of his first solo album won.
6 - Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again
Have you ever been to a Depeche Mode concert? I no longer can count them on one hand, but one thing I will forever and always remember: the energy in the concert hall! And hardly any other song of these synth-pop pioneers transports their everlasting genius!
7 - Little Luna - fool
My favorite song of the year, since January 23, 2024 already. Enough said. Hm… not quite. Check out the super fun video!
8 - Katie J Pearson - Miracle
Have you ever watched the video? Do it! It brings the song home. And when does Katie finally come to New York?
9 - Tragic Sasha - Die Trying
The title says it all, doesn’t it? Another 2024 top favorite! Do we really need to compete who takes the crown? Also, if you like this little taste, check out her album!
10 - Falco - Amadeus
Oliver and I are both huge, huge fans of this Austrian pop/rap pioneer. The late Hansi Hölzl aka Falco is maybe best understood by not only listening to his super hits, many reaching international fame (“The Komissar” anyone”?), but also his rather fascinating albums. “Amadeus,” if you understand some German, is a brilliant hommage to the Austrian Wunderkind composer.
11 - Brothertiger - This Must Be The Place
I always loved Talking Heads’ track but Brothertiger transforms the song into something way more 80s than it was back then in November 1983.
12 - Pet Shop Boys - New York City Boy
Isn’t basically every Pet Shop Boys song a mood booster? Many are, but some not so much. But this one has “New York” in it and always gets us going.
13 - Queen - Don’t Stop Me Now
If you remember the Queen album Jazz when it just came out, then you might have the one or the other musical experience that we’ve had. Too many awesome songs to choose from Queen, and also too many mood booster songs, but who wants to get stopped when having a good time? See? Don’t stop me now!
14 - Foreigner - Jukebox Hero
This song always made me want to create a painting of the scenery. I have a drawing—actually, several. It’s time for the real thing! Still love the energy!
15 - U2 - Where the Streets Have No Name
This band was truly “alternative” in the 80s albeit cracy famous and back then so inspiring and…. good! Just watch the video to see the collective hype that’s unescapably infectious. Another clear mood booster!
Oliver’s Notes
For me a mood-boosting song needs to have energy. Something that makes you walk faster and lets you feel ready for the next challenge. The epic 1997 track “Narayan” by the Prodigy does that when the beat drops in after a long intro. “Ronaldinho” just exudes good vibes. If you need an extra boost, watch the video. “megapunk” is an empowering call to arms whenever you need it. Back in the 90s, Depeche Mode’s “World In My Eyes” was my ultimate Saturday night pick song. Closing out is Yndling’s “Mood Booster,” the title track of her album.
Out Tomorrow: Yndling - Mood Booster
We haven’t had a preview of Yndling’s debut album, but we love the singles released so far. And she was so kind to talk with us about the record. Read it here and pre-save the album on Spotify.
Nine Photos from a Visit to the Whitney Biennial
The world-famous exhibit is about to close in less than two weeks, and we were determined to visit it before it’s gone. Truth be told, we were less excited about the pieces we saw than we thought we would be but find here our nine favorite pieces/artists.
As New Yorkers, we gravitated to Tourmaline’s video installation (photo #9), an hommage, and celebration of Black trans activist and performance artist Marsha P. Johnson (1945–1992), whose namesake state park we very much love to frequent. Meet us there!
