Susie Asado (berlin, germany)
Susie Asado is a poem by Gertrude Stein. This Susie Asado is Josepha Conrad. She is not a poem although she likes to write them. She also likes Gertrude Stein. So much is apparent. You might know her from Crazy for Jane. You might know her from the park. You might have seen her in the movie Berlin Song. Josepha writes songs and she will sing them for you. Happily. Her songs are about geographic challenges about borders and border patrol about falling in love with border patrol and with countries and that is more than one country. She likes places such as Mexico although she has never been. She likes the word. She likes Olympia. For the O and the grandeur of it. She likes Berlin. She lives there. Her hometowns are Frankfurt am Main and Chicago and she also suffers from Chief Niwot's Curse having laid her eyes on the Flatirons of the Rocky Mountains. Yes, she is superstitious. And she drinks a lot of tea. "Sweet sweet sweet sweet sweet tea. Susie Asado." Her debut Album "Hello Antenna", which is about all the above mentioned, will be released by lolila (www.lolila.de) in March of 2008. Yeah! myspace.com/susieasado

SIbsi (berlin, germany)
Sibsi & the Silhouettes is the musical brainchild of Sebastian Hoffmann who started off writing songs under the name of Sibsi in late 2005. Inspired by the do-whatever-you-can attitude of NYC's Antifolk community, his songs are simple yet poetic, tuneless yet catchy - but mostly, broken. Writing about his relationship with cigarettes, Kreuzberg, travelling and boys, Sibsi is joined by an always-changing backing choir or band, the Silhouettes, who also joined him on his latest record "Party is War", released in December 2006. Besides this, Sibsi has released a self-titled record, a field recording/duet experiment ("The Brooklyn Diaries"), a sped up tape EP ("The Dying Mouse") and still considers himself a member of the bands The Affectionate Goodbyes, the French-German Connection, SorryPop, the Special Needs, Los Los and the Folk-Tang Clan. Sibsi (& the Silhouettes) already performed in New York City, Berlin, Stuttgart, Leipzig and Hamburg, sharing bills with some of his favorite artists such as Le Horror Me, Phoebe Kreutz, Chris Maher, Fancie, Mumrik, André Herman Düne, Andrew Philipp Tipton, Toby Goodshank and Secret Salamander. His favorite chord is A Minor and he his proud that he already recorded with underground heroes such as The Festival, Jane Kidder, Falk, Crazy For Jane, G. Lucas Crane, Preston Spurlock, The Sparrows and Ben Lupus. Also check out the compilation series Berlin Songs.
myspace.com/ sibsi

The Hail Seizures (olympia)
"What do the hail seizures do when they run out of money, the drummer flips over his handlebars and has to wear a sling for two weeks, and we're all slightly hungover on Absinthe? Well, go to Greece of course! Kidnapped our new Czech friend Jan, gave our bicycles to Carbusters, and trained an epic journey from Prague, sleeping at a train station in Budapest, through Hungary, into Macedonia, Serbia, and to Thessolaniki, Greece. Played music accompanying a juggling performance on the waterfront, headed to Athens to meet up with our old friend Alex. Played on the streets for a few days, felt historic, saw the ancientness, the acropolis, drank ouzo, ate feta and olives, then ferried to Paros, Greece yesterday. Played at an art gallery last night for a bunch of expatriots which was very silly and fun. Other then that, we're swimming in the Aegean Sea, sweating lots, getting greek tans, drinking nescafe, building makeshift fishing reals, sleeping in an ancient whitewashed one room church shrine beside the sea, drinking local wine and mead out of plastic bottles, and planning the plot of our soon coming feature film starring Jan as a falcon prophet. See you all soon!"
-hail seizures tour diary

June Madrona (olympia) review of battleground- "Opening track ‘Battle Ground’ is an exploration of the history of consequence and responsibility seen through the microcosm of the family unit – it’s plaintive delivery and funereal pace bely a quiet celebration of the cosy simplicity of the homestead, faults and all. As Cowman moves, in the final verse, toward the ironies of American history it becomes evident that this is a talent to reckon with – every single line is mesmeric but none more so than it’s closing mantra ‘We’re connected’. It’s stunning." -Rock Louder -UK Nov, 2007
bicyclerecords.com