Frank The Baptist (live) *record release show* ( + Alice Gift) \\ Urban Spree, Berlin

Frank the Baptist, a genre-crossing rock/post-punk band, emerged from the southern California dark alternative scene in the late-nineties, an unpredictable and refreshing voice that was soon embraced by the goth scene. Founder Frank Vollmann, originally hailing from New Jersey, brought a vitality and immediacy to his music, indicative of the energetic punk and early alternative that molded his youth. 2003 saw the release of the band's first full-length album, "Different Degrees of Empty", cementing their notion that the dark music world should be a place of kicker boots, cranked amps, and skewed top hats as much as a refuge for poet shirts and ethereal echoes. By 2006 the group was based in Berlin, Germany and international concerts had become commonplace. Several albums and multiple European tours later, Frank the Baptist stands as a band the counterculture can count on. They don't belong to a fad. They didn't ride a single wave of fashion. They don't mind which way the future turns. Theirs is an easy confidence that comes from making something we'll always need: a timeless beat, an eternal vocal, rising above the mess of bands that live and die away below, in the maelstrom.
In 2024, the 20th anniversary remastered version of "Different Degrees of Empty" (with bonus tracks) was released as double-LP on vinyl via aufnahme + wiedergabe - with new artwork by Disturbanity Graphics!
Tonight at Urban Spree Frank The Baptist will play "Different Degrees Of Empty" for the first time in its entirely to celebrate the vinyl release.

 

Emancipated from his notorious wave-duo Velvet Condom, the Berlin based Franco-German singer-songwriter Alice Gift distills his confessions into Chanson-Noir and Noise-Pop. Alice Gift is the alter ego of musician and composer Nicolas Isner whose repertoire features movies like ‚B-Movie - Lust & Sound in West Berlin’, as well as recently the Netflix Series ‘Elite‘. The art world also paid tribute to Alice Gift when Berlin artist Gregor Hildebrandt named two of his works as part of his recent Berlin exhibition at the Mies van der Rohe Haus, after Alice Gift's song 'Samt und Stein'. In 2021, he was able to successfully launch and promote his debut album "Alles ist Gift" (mixed by ‘Me And My Drummer’ producer Joe Joaquin) whose single “Trance Park” received heavy rotation on Berlin's BBC-like Radio station ‚Radio Eins‘. Back from a successful first tour of Japan, Alice Gift has already shared the stage with Actors, Clan of Xymox, She Past Away, Film School, Light Asylum, Twin Tribes, …
The artist returns with his new record 'Nothing Against Uplifting, But ...' (out on the Parisian Label ‘Icy Cold Records’), and is also working on a new album with the support of 'The Notwist' producer Tad Klimp. Alice Gift is a 90s indie kid who, with his distinctive voice and some electronic side jumps, manages a happy balancing act between indie and dark, alternative and chanson.