Drab and gloomy winter weekends usually call for a good book and a cup of tea. The last January weekend in Vienna calls for more: an exquisite and wide-ranging bunch of rock bands plus Austria’s biggest alternative radio station equals the city’s biggest birthday party.
On the 22nd of January Austria’s most important alternative radio station FM4 invites all devotees of pop, experimental rock and electronic music to the FM4-Geburtstagsfest at Vienna’s Arena.
It’s the vagrant minstrels that revolt against the petrified behaviour patterns of the canting and dazzling music industry and FM4 is exactly that radio station that brings them all on air. Vienna proved once more it worships that kind of attitude as it showed up in flocks of around 3000 followers of a music that is all away from mainstream to witness artists such as Crystal Fighters, Hercules & Love Affair, Chikinki, The Go-Team and many more.
Sex sells and so do decent radio stations: For 17 years now Radio FM4 shows that there’s more than dull Radio Ga-Ga and wishy washy sing-along blown through the radio frequencies all over the world and enjoys great reputation and popularity by that.
It still remains the one alternative radio station that reaches far beyond national borders. Kudos to FM4 at that point though I worry FM4 risks sneakingly getting a high gloss brand instead of following the raison d’être of being the free and independent radio as it was meant to be.
+info:
www.fm4.orf.at
F: Crystal Fighters-Christian Stipkovits
Hercules & Love Affaire/ Chinkinki – Florian Wieser
T: Rainer-Georg Voggenberger
Rocket Magazine Viena
