Welcome 2011 + favourite Boo Hoo performances of 2010

Welcoming a new year is a good opportunity to wish all of you all the best for 2011 and to thank you for your support in 2010. How undoubtedly great looking into the future might be, taking a look in the past surely guarantees some major fun too!
So gather around the screen folks, because here are some of my favourite Boo Hoo moments in 2010 and their stories! Enjoy, your Bernhard Boo Hoo

Madonna's Greatest Hits/Juicy (Notorious BIG cover), 03/07/2010, Goodbye Blue Monday, New York

With a slightly melancholy feeling on my birthday, thousands of miles away from home I sang myself a birthday song in a Brooklyn backyard festival at Goodbye Blue Monday. I combined it with "Juicy" by Notorious BIG, probably my favourite song ever. After singing that one I didn't feel that melancholy anymore, because so many friends were around + I had to face the challenge of finding a BBQ for that steak I brought with me in mistaken hope of aBBQ that was not going to take place. I love New York!

Madonna's Greatest Hits, 09/07/2010, Pop In, Paris
Heavily excited about to perform at "Pop-In" in Paris France we found ourselves blessed with a crowded place and an audience, that was listening, laughing and giving as an amazingly lovely time. Our birthday song "Madonna's Greatest Hits" seemed to really make this birthday a very special one for the boy we sang it for. Friend Pollyanna and Oliver from our other Paris show at Oliver Peel session showed up, and we walked home in a warm french late summer rain.

All Summer Long (Phoebe Kreutz Cover), 09/10/2010, La Tournerie, Valence
Last night was Fun: Amelie and I played the Phoebe Kreutz Hit "All Summer Long" at "La Tournerie" in Valence. Before the show we had a white wine tasting, and after the show we got invited for Gin Tonics.
Tomorrow is gonna be Fun too: There couldn't be a better occasion to play a summer song than in the sunny south of France. After falling asleep at 3 in the morning, we had to get up at 5, because our lovely host was going to dj at a far away wedding...3 hours later, we went swimming in the Mediteranian Sea.

Afghan Hounds, 03/05/2010, Mr. Patrick's, New York

One of my dearest memories of 2010 sure was a show I played at Rick Patrick's house up in Harlem. Not only because the other performers of that night were just about the most talented and bright one's I have had the chance to see during my time in Brooklyn (Dan Costello & Rachel Devlin, Scott Loving, Debe Dalton). It also was because of the very unique magic that whole evening held. The freezing cold saturday in march was full of riding crowded subway trains all over Manhattan, lovely talks on sidewalks, donuts, 99 cent lattes, and definitely the most unique crowd I've ever played for. Mr. Patrick's mostly well situated neighbours were dedicated listeners, incredibly nice people and in some cases the typical New York excentric I've always imagined only to be TV fiction. After the show we rode the trains back to Brooklyn and had really greasy and very satisfying fried chicken in the middle of a magic winter night!

About Boo Hoo

Boo Hoo is a musical group, currently based in Frankfurt/Germany.
Boo Hoo is playing distinctive Folk songs about beautiful, haunting subjects, that sparkle and are fun!
Boo Hoo is songwriter Bernhard Karakoulakis and illustrator Amelie Persson, both on vocals and on instruments.
Boo Hoo has put out two Albums. "Hypermarché" in 2008 and "Afghan Hounds" in 2010.
Boo Hoo has toured Europe, lived in New York for some time and played with and supported wonderful artists like:

The Kills, Creaky Boards, Phoebe Kreutz, The Thermals Darwin Deez, Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, Dan Costello, Brian Speaker, Julian Gerhard, Danny Malone, The Burning Hell, Ching Chong Song, Th WoWz, Forest City Lovers, Roman Fischer, Woog Riots, Tymon Dogg, Shotgun Jimmy, Le Page & many more.

For more information about Boo Hoo read the press release here:
Presse-Info (deutsch), Oktober 2010
Press Release (english), october 2010

Presse-Info Oktober (2010)

Bernhard Karakoulakis steckt hinter dem Musikprojekt „Boo Hoo“. Als der Frankfurter mit griechischen Wurzeln 2006 begann in seinem Schlafzimmer eigene Songs aufzunehmen, begleitet von Gitarre, elektronischen Sounds und Spielzeuginstrumenten, ahnte er kaum, dass er vier Jahre später ein gefeiertes Mitglied der alternativen New Yorker Musikszene sein würde.

Für die Aufnahmen von „Afghan Hounds“, dem zweiten Album des 26-jährigen Songschreibers, ist Karakoulakis im Frühjahr 2010 für zwei Monate nach New York gegangen, um in der „Brooklyn Tea Party“ – dem Herzstück der Antifolk-Szene – zu wohnen und zu arbeiten. Die „Tea Party“ im Brooklyner Stadtteil Bushwick ist ein umgebautes Industrieloft: gleichzeitig Musiker-WG, Tonstudio und Veranstaltungsort für Konzerte.

Ebenso wie als Musiker, ist Karakoulakis als Freund in den Big Apple gekommen: Er folgte einfach der Einladung der mit ihm befreundeten Musiker aus Brooklyn, deren Konzerte in Frankfurt er seit mehreren Jahren organisierte und die regelmäßig seine Gäste waren. Mit dem Gewinn aus seinem rund 2000 Mal verkauften Debütalbum „Hypermarché“ und zahlreichen Auftritten in New York finanzierte er Flug und Aufenthalt in den Vereinigten Staaten.

Der New Yorker Musiker-Community war es eine Selbstverständlichkeit auf dem abwechslungsreichen Album des talentierten Jungmusikers „Boo Hoo“ mitzuwirken. So finden sich auf „Afghan Hounds“ zahlreiche bekannte Namen aus der Szene, die als Background-Sänger auftauchen, oder Trompete, Synthesizer, Xylophon, Akkordeon und singende Säge spielen. Unter den Künstlerin befinden sich u.a. die ehemalige Sesamstraßen-Puppenspielerin und Songwriterin Phoebe Kreutz, „Creaky Boards“-Sänger Andrew Hoepfner (der auch Bassist bei „Saturday Looks Good to Me“ und bei Darwin Deez ist) und die Opernsängerin und Burgtheater-Schauspielerin Julie LaMendola.

Das Resultat ist ein poppiges Album, das besonders durch seine faszinierenden Geschichten und vielseitigen Sounds brilliert und nicht langweilig wird. Bei jedem Hören von „Afghan Hounds“ lassen sich weitere Details entdecken, wie beim „Woody Allen Song“ mit seinem schaurig-schönen Albtraumszenario, die subtile Melancholie in „Cheese on Bread“, die sich zwischen der Beschreibung von türkisfarbenen Frankfurter Straßenbahnen und in die Ferne ziehenden Vögeln als Abschiedsschmerz einer erloschenen Liebe entpuppt, oder dem fröhlichen, trompetenunterlegten Song „Autumn, Winter, Spring“, welcher tragikomisch die wahre Geschichte von Karakoulakis` Großvater erzählt, der sich selbst in einem Paket verschickte, um der Kriegsgefangenschaft zu entgehen.

Im 2008 erschienenen Album „Hypermarché“ deutete schon der Titelsong auf die verheißungsvolle bunte Plastik-Konsumwelt hin, die Karakoulakis in „Lady Di“ mit einer Hommage an Disneyland abrundete. „Afghan Hounds“ geht einen Schritt weiter: Mit diesem Album liegen neun Erzählungen vor, die genauso von Gremlins, Madonna-Hits und Pacman-Highscores handeln, wie von legendären Stromausfällen, oder Leben auf einsamen Planeten, ähnlich eines Kleinen Prinzen von St. Exupéry.

Karakoulakis, der mit dem neuen Liedmaterial bereits durch Griechenland, Italien, Frankreich und Spanien getourt ist, gibt an, dass die Filme des Regisseurs Wes Anderson ihn sehr inspirieren. Wie passend, dass eines seiner New Yorker Konzerte unweit von der Villa in Harlem stattfand, wo Anderson die „Royal Tenenbaums“ drehte. Eine melancholische Familiengeschichte mit Raum für viele Charaktere, skurrile Details und einer wohltuenden Prise New York. Das trifft auch für „Afghan Hounds“ zu. „Boo Hoo“ sollte man im Auge behalten.

Press Release (October 2010)

Bernhard Karakoulakis is the man behind the musical project „Boo Hoo“. When the german with greek roots startet recording songs in his bedroom in 2006 nobody would have expected him to become an acclaimed member of the independant music scene in New York 2010.

In order to produce his second album „Afghan Hounds“ the 26 year old Karakoulakis went to New York for two months in early 2010. He worked and lived in the middle of the Antifolk Scene, at „Brooklyn Tea Party“. A remodeled Bushwick industrial-loft to live, record and perform in.

Karakoulakis was welcomed to the Big Apple not only as another musician but also as a friend:
He was following the invitations of Brooklyn and Manhattan musicians, whose shows he had hosted in Frankfurt for several years. The money for the trip was taken from the sales of Boo Hoo's debut album „Hypermarché“, which sold 2000 times since it was released 2008.

For the New York Antifolk Community it was an affair of honour, as well as a matter of course to play and sing on Boo Hoo's songs. So some of the names among the credits of Afghan Hounds are quite well known for their involvement in other musical projects. For example Andrew Hoepfner, leader of the band „Creaky Boards“ and bassist for Darwin Deez and „Saturday Looks Good to Me“, Julie LaMendola, a Vienna Burgtheater opera singer and member of „The Wowz“ and „Ching Chong Song“, or Phoebe Kreutz, a former Sesame Street puppeteer and as a songwriter current Queen of New York's Antifolk scene.

The collaboration with these and many more artists resulted in a pop album, the perfect medium for Karakoulakis' fascinating stories. You can hear trumpets, singing saws, xylophones, accordions and enchanting choir parts. Everytime „Afghan Hounds“ gets another play there will more tiny details and twists be discovered. Like in the „Woody Allen Song“ that describes a beautiful nightmarish setting of a planecrash with Woody Allen, or the subtle melancholic „Cheese on Bread“ that narrates a story of migratory birds and a lost love. Or like in „Autumn, Winter, Spring“, a trumpet based song, that tells the true story of Karakoulakis' grandfather, who secretly shipped himself in a box to escape XYZ and get into american war captivity 65 years ago.

Already the title track of his first album „Hypermarché“ revealed Karakoulakis' fascination for a colorful world of plastic, that peaked on the track „Lady Di“, paying homage to Disneyland. „Afghan Hounds“ moves one step beyond the plastic world and creates a unique parallel universe: Nine stories about Gremlins, Madonna's Greatest Hits, a Pacman highscore and deserted planets similar to the ones in St. Exupéry's „Little Prince“.

Karakoulakis, who already toured with his songs in Greece, Italy, France and Spain, once mentioned the influence of Wes Anderson'smovies. That one of Boo Hoo's New York shows took place just around the corner of the original film location from Anderson's „The Royal Tenenbaums“ can be seen as a symbolic coincidence. The movie is a melancholic but winking story about family with complex characters, peppered with details and a proper dose of New York. Just like „Afghan Hounds“. Boo Hoo is definitely an artist to keep an eye and an ear on!