Austria AUSTRIA 2015 - The Makemakes - I Am Yours

[RainyWoods]

No Soap&Skin but it was to be expected. I think we'd have sooner seen pigs fly


This seems a really eclectic bunch. Just by going on the songs sigi shared with us, two artists have instantly grabbed my attention. The only thing here that made me go "wow" was the Johann Sebastian Bass one. It was really cool and something different. I've no idea how a song like that would fair at the contest, probably not too well actually. I'm really curious to hear what the song they're entering sounds like. The other one to catch my eye/ear is Renato Unterberg. Cool voice, looks like he'd have an awesome energy on stage. Really wild. His style harks back to the days when all the best rock bands were going like The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Rolling Stones etc.

Both of these artists I think would be strongly disliked by a large chunk of the ESC community... but I like them. I hope Austria continues to pave the way for all things different

 

[Mlyn]

Oh Rainy, I would have thought you fancied the line-up a bit more, but at least you like Johann Sebastian Bass.... they are really fabulous... I think they could enter with Heart of Stone, the song is still fresh

Soap&Skin will never enter Eurovision. She doesn't sing to get judged.

I am starting to wonder if the ORF scouts have searched beyond the Vienna sub-scene or not.

 

[RainyWoods]

Oh Rainy, I would have thought you fancied the line-up a bit more, but at least you like Johann Sebastian Bass.... they are really fabulous... I think they could enter with Heart of Stone, the song is still fresh

Soap&Skin will never enter Eurovision. She doesn't sing to get judged.

I am starting to wonder if the ORF scouts have searched beyond the Vienna sub-scene or not.

"doesn't sing to get judged" this is literally the biggest problem with Eurovision and why it fails to attract a "deeper" kind of artist. As a musician, when you've eventually found peace within yourself, the last thing you'd want to do is put your music up for scrutiny. Of course scoring is a massive, iconic part of Eurovision so we can't ever change it. It is after all a competition. It's just many artist's will never fancy it.

The reason why i'm not overly excited for this selection is that most of these artists appear to merely sit on the fringes of alternative music. It's a good variety and I can't disregard anything until i've heard the songs. It does look promising. A few too many singer songwriter types here but seemingly of the wishy washy kind. None of the woman here have caught my eye which is shame, but it's always great to find myself interested in male Eurovision artists because it seldom happens for some reason, even though outside of Eurovision half my musical diet is men.


Johann Sebastian Bass is indeed brilliant judging from that one song. I liked it a lot. I will have to listen to others

 

[anselm]

[MENTION=9441]RainyWoods[/MENTION] Clara Blume might be your cup of tea:

(I remember she also had a proper music video out last year which apparently got deleted for some reason)

I wonder if we (the studio audience) will get to know the 6 qualifiers tonight I guess we will.

 

[RainyWoods]

[MENTION=9441]RainyWoods[/MENTION] Clara Blume might be your cup of tea:

(I remember she also had a proper music video out last year which apparently got deleted for some reason)

I wonder if we (the studio audience) will get to know the 6 qualifiers tonight I guess we will.

She seems quite ok. I'd file her under promising. The problem is i'm such a snob when it comes to neoclassical balladryxsnooty I either fall for songs like this or get bored stiff by them. If the song is raw, slightly demented and with dissonance, sung with sincerity, then i'm pretty much in. Clara's "Hold On" gets interesting towards the end where she lets rip. The whole thing seems a bit standard though. I love balladeers like Anja Plaschg (Soap&Skin), Perfume Genius, Polly Scattergood, John Cale, Antony and the Johnsons, Marianne Faithfull, Judee Sill... When these guys do their piano pieces, it's an otherworldly experience. The music and voice become a singular thing.

I'll keep my eye on Clara though. Many artists surprise when they offer something up for Eurovision. I wouldn't have thought there'd been a "Suus" in Rona for instance, going by her earlier material.

 

[Mlyn]

Overall, the line up is really very alternative. Some pop wouldnt have hurt at all. On the other side, Austria is not good at pop.

 

[Mlyn]

[MENTION=4386]anselm[/MENTION], do you think you can keep us updated on the qualifiers, or will the information be sealed until it airs?

 

[RainyWoods]

I've just read this is another talent show style selection...... oh.

They'll have the assistance of national and international songwriters? Judging by what i've heard and seen, the artist's all pretty much seem capable of providing their own songs. I make the assumption that tonight is basically going to be glorified karaoke if they haven't written their songs yet? Oh well, i'm still very hopeful that Austria will produce something great, i'm just not keen on formats like this.

 

[anselm]

[MENTION=13474]Mlyn[/MENTION] I'll try!
[MENTION=9441]RainyWoods[/MENTION] Nope, they'll all sing their own stuff apart from that Celina girl who will cover an Aretha Franklin song. I'm a bit sceptical about the songwriters too but they will just work together with the artists instead of providing them with finished material like in usual talent shows.

 

[ParadiseES]

I can't believe someone used as artistic name "Johann Sebastian BASS". I just can't stand such piece of originality.

 

[Sammy]

Truly? Tandem in the Austrian Preselection????

Or is there another Tandem?
Can't be true....

 

[QwaarJet]

I can't believe someone used as artistic name "Johann Sebastian BASS". I just can't stand such piece of originality.

Came in here to post this.

 

[theCONWEL]

Not crazy about any of the videos I've seen of the participants so far. Only Clara Blume seems any good to me. Johann Sebastian Bass seem absolutely horrendous...

Still excited to see what Austria are going to send, as it does seem as though we're going to get a quality entry from them in Vienna.

 

[nofuxCZ]

Omg Austria
I know only Johann Sebastian Bass and The MakeMakes, but based just on only these two names I can already say it's gonna be a fantastic NF
The line-up is so NSC-ish. I love it

 

[sigi]

Truly? Tandem in the Austrian Preselection????

Or is there another Tandem?
Can't be true....

neej

 

[RainyWoods]

Renato Unterberg is the best thing ever! He's wild. I've been watching his videos and i've utterly fallen for him already. He truly is an alternative offering. A lot of the other artists here seem to sit on the fringes of alternative, still being very accessible. Renato's stuff is warped and trippy. He's crazy, sultry, freaky gorgeous, charismatic. I never thought Eurovision would see an artist like this. It's hard to even categorise some of this music. I'm well impressed and need to see if there's a record I can buy. "The Two Sisters" is a beautiful song. Something psychedelic like this would be crazy at the contest.

He's too good! Please can I have him Austria? It will cheer me up as I don't have Valentina this year and I lost Tamara in the Macedonian selection. I'm very sad, very un-appy. I want Renato.

 

[Sean]

Listening through some of the candidates, I think this might be the NF to watch this year.

 

[anselm]

So I'm back from the 7 hour (sic!) NF marathon! It was aaaawesome! Very exhausting but totally worth it. The NF is very diverse and Eesti Laul-like. I'll write a proper review tonight or tomorrow.

I know the 6 qualifiers now but they kept telling the audience not to share the results. I will respect that and keep my mouth shut (sorry, I won't tell you in private either). Although it will probably leak anyway.

 

[RainyWoods]

If Renato isn't a qualifier the Sammarinese army are being sent to invade Austria.

 

[nofuxCZ]

I soooo want to know the qualifiers, but then again it might not be that exciting to watch the NF shows later