Newsletter

A collection of 150 posts

Newsletter

Home for the Holidays

We are back from our weeklong trip to Germany. It is wonderful and exciting to see family and friends in person, but we are also happy to have returned to the place that has been our home for over two decades. Enjoy some photos of a festive Munich at the

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Winter Wonderland

We arrived yesterday in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, after a long flight via Reykjavík to Munich. We had to take the bus from the airport due to train track maintenance. It is winter here, cold and snowy – perfect for a Christmas break. Even though neither Elke’s dad nor my mother lives

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A Christmas Treat

During the holiday season, lists of the year’s best albums used to pop up everywhere. This has become a bit muted lately. I don’t know if this has to do with the fact that musical tastes are generally more spread out or if there is a bland consensus

Newsletter

Thank you for the Music (2024 Version)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the US, and a very happy start into the holiday season, which I believe is pretty global by now. I already used the newsletter title “Thank you for the music” last year, but it is even more fitting today. We will see an ABBA tribute

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Of Grey and Blue Skies

We are under a draught warning here in New York City, so we cannot enjoy the endless row of gorgeous fall days as much as we should. When it finally started raining this week, we were happy to see water drops on the windows and the wet terrace floor reflecting

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Go See a Show

The renowned music industry blogger Bob Lefsetz wrote a piece “Let The Clubs Close” about the futility of saving small live music clubs. In his opinion, nobody wants to see new, undeveloped acts live anyway on small stages, so why bother? People discover music online and then go to see

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And the Beat Goes On

In the U.S., we are still processing Tuesday’s election results, so it is extremely difficult to go back to talking about music and the good sides of life. But especially in times like these, it is essential to keep a larger perspective and to not let yourself be

Newsletter

Light and Darkness

Happy Halloween! It is a sunny and warm day here in NYC, so it should be fun for everybody who celebrates. We follow it only mildly, mainly by enjoying the decorations around us, which are not so numerous in the city, putting a few spooky items into our place, and

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A Star Spangled Day

Yesterday, Elke was finally sworn in as a U.S. citizen after living for more than 23 years in the country. What took her so long? Well, these things are never easy, and the path became only fully clear when Germany modernized its citizenship laws at the end of June

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Legend for a Moment

When Elke and I talk about old music favorites, the Neue Deutsche Welle (NDW) always comes up. This was an exciting moment in German music when local bands with German lyrics adopted new wave and post-punk from Britain. Before that, the 60s and 70s-style Schlager Musik (Hit Music) ruled the

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The Great Escape

It is October, and we are closing in on the first SXSW Music announcement. From 2013 to 2019, this was a major cause for excitement for us: the moment when our days at the festival began taking shape. In 2020, the pandemic ended our SXSW streak. But while I would

Newsletter

What Are They Thinking?

We are fans of the FX TV show “The Bear” since we – somewhat accidentally – stumbled over the first episode. Since then, the show has racked up 23 Emmy Awards and many raving reviews. It is nice to find something early and be on the mainstream for a while. However, season

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The Future of Music Began Ten Years Ago

The new FKA twigs single “Eusexua” is excellent and I’m happy about that. twigs, like Grimes, is an artist I have been following from the beginning of her career and feel a personal connection to, despite both having grown into global stardom. 10 to 15 years ago, music discovery

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Kissed by the Moon

Was the music scene better in New York City twenty years ago? This is a question we can ask ourselves directly because when we immigrated to the United States in April 2001, we lived on the Lower East Side, and “indie sleaze” was happening right there in our neighborhood. In

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Dance to the Machines

I have previously mentioned the Ableton Podcast Doing Music and cannot recommend it highly enough. Roughly every week, producer (and Ableton employee) Craig Schuftan interviews musicians about music, and it is fascinating to get a glimpse into how these creative minds work. The last installment was a bit different: it

Newsletter

Finches for Fall

Happy fall! As much as we enjoyed the summer in our new neighborhood, like every year, we are super excited about the arrival of fall here at glamglare. The light becomes more vivid, the sunsets brighter, and the heat less numbing. We also switch from a more relaxed let-things-roll attitude

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First Love Never Dies

British pop singer Kim Wilde may no longer be a household name, but if you lived in Europe in the 1980s, you probably knew her from her frequent appearances in the charts. I still remember seeing Kim Wilde for the first time in one of these cheesy TV shows where

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Albums vs. Playlists

Albums vs Playlists

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115 Billion Streams

If Spotify CEO Daniel Ek were a musician, he would need 115 billion streams to earn the money he made by selling stock of his company. No actual musician has ever come close to that number. Before this makes your blood boil, it is worth noting that this money comes

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Come and Rock Me Amadeus

Currently, Elke is working again at a children’s summer camp on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Every week has its own immersive topic, and last week was about Mozart. That gave us the idea to watch again the 1984 movie “Amadeus” about the life and work of the

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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

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Song Pick of the Day

New Music from Chanpan, Holly Blair, Luna Li, Julia-Sophie, Glasser, Arliston, and French Mustard

Why Do You Like Music?

About stories, a great new album, seven seconds of sound, and early morning bliss.

Song Pick of the Day

New music by Julian Taylor, Lea Thomas, Urban Heat, Izzy S.O, W.H. Lung, Little Monarch, and Alas De Liona

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Here’s Hoping

A remarkable new podcast, Hype Machine's anniversary, music from Italy, and nine photos from The Greeting Committee's NYC show.