Dreh den Swag auf!

A phenomenon that I apparently missed - last summer, Germany and Austria were swept away by the rapping, ah, talents of a certain "Money Boy." His revolutionary Denglish-packed DIY rap "Dreh den Swag auf" (Turn the swag up) was so amazingly terrible that over 6.6 million people felt the need to watch it.

In any case, certain glorious phrases like "schaue kurz in den Spiegel, sag whaddup" (glance in the mirror, say what up) have passed into mainstream German pop culture, and probably every inhabitant of Germany under the age of 30 now knows the English word "swag."

What interests me more, is this far superior indie version of the song. Much like Hayley Williams of Paramore, Ethan Luck of Resilient K, and Jordan Pundik of New Found Glory went and made a semi-legit and fairly decent pop-punk song out of Autotune the News and Antoine Dodson's infamous "Bed Intruder," German indie rockers Untertagen went and made a totally sick music video for their reimagined rock version of "Dreh den Swag auf." Like Ke$ha meets hipsters meets Deutschland. Love it.



Update: as of April 26, we saw these guys in concert! Awesome show at the Waschhaus in Potsdam, bought their CD afterwards, took a photo with them and snagged the setlist.

Tokyo nostalgia!

New photo from the December 15 Tokio Hotel showcase, courtesy of Universal Japan. I'm the US flag on the right!


Almost two months to the day! Such beautiful memories. <33

Klee "Wie weit"

What song is simultaneously stimulating, relaxing, and focusing enough to help you cram for (and totally own) an Arabic final? That's right, this one. Prepare to have the paths of your mind wayyyy unwound.



If you're feeling the vibe, you can buy the track at Mediamarkt!
xx DJ Nena

Update: Got to see the band perform a few songs up close and live for a TV recording session on May 25! They were doing a show for ZDF neoMusic and I answered an audience casting call. Weird experience! TV audiences are highly coached and the show itself was just goofy, but the band's performance was amazing. Suzie has an incredibly beautiful voice.



Saw the band outside after the recording and thanked Suzie for the great performance. She was so sweet and grasped my hand before scuttling off to the band taxi. Cool experience! The show should air on June 19.

Interview with Herrenmagazin

Got to see awesome German indie band Herrenmagazin in concert on January 27, and was lucky enough to be able to do an interview with them for Frequency Magazine before the show. I'll post the link to the full article as soon as it's through the redaction!



For photos from the concert, check out my album here.

The band's music is available on German and US iTunes - grab yourself some of it! They are fantastic.

Edit: Article over on Frequency here.

February Tokio Hotel Giveaway

It's February, the month of love! TH fans, leave a comment explaining why you love Tokio Hotel. 10 copies of Bill's Saturn catalog up for grabs! Contest open worldwide, ends February 14. Please use a valid email address - winners will be contacted via email, and will have 3 days to respond with a shipping address. Cheers!



Update - winners drawn! There were so many beautiful statements of love. I wish I had more catalogs! Sending out my last two however, so we have twelve winners instead of ten. Congrats to ladylovelace, Sam Nolte, eightiesgirl, Jamille, fluffisgoodyay, Sturmischen, THLiebhaberin, CatherineAnn, Dacia, DanielleWrae, Liabird, and shannonlovesth! Check your emails. :)