Mary Ocher has been pushing the boundaries of pop and avant-garde music for almost two decades, transcending the lines between high and low cultures. A punk poet, sound artist, director and visual artist, Ocher counts artists such as Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Animal Collective, Sean Lennon, and Nan Goldin among her admirers. Focusing on topics as grave as war, authoritarianism and nationalism, her upcoming album joins a series of apocalyptic and politically charged concept albums.
Throughout her career, Ocher has collaborated with a diverse array of artists including post-rock giants Mogwai, electronic moguls Red Axes, psych/rocknroll guru King Khan, avant-garde legends Die Tödliche Doris, Julia Kent and Felix Kubin and many more, showcasing her versatility and passionate commitment to the preservation of underground music. Since moving to Berlin in 2007, she has become an icon of the city’s underground music scene while cultivating a loyal following across the world.
Her upcoming album Your Guide To Revolution could have been profoundly heavy, but instead it’s an ode to hope. In fact, it offers certain avant pop anthems and summer grooves, along more adventurous pieces.
Ahead of the album’s official release on July 19th, we invited Ocher to join us for a very special edition of our Vinyl Lives column where she highlights some of her favorite German record stores as well as stores in a handful of other countries!
I’ll start with a confession: I don’t visit record stores to buy records. Sometimes I feel like an
imposter, sneaking in and looking around, with the sole purpose of selling them records.
We have an excellent distributor right now, I love the team, I love finally being able to decide when
and how to release music, but independent stores don’t often order records from them, so in a
regular year when there’s no pandemic or other disasters, I usually tour a lot, and part of what I do is
visit record stores to sell them records directly (you can find a strip about that from my comic book
MOOP!). This means, of course, that by now, there are hundreds of record stores on four continents that I stocked personally. I’ll mention some faves here, as well as a few from my hometown of 17 years
(and counting): Berlin.
Excellent record stores in Germany and beyond:
- Optimal in Munich: Optimal is phenomenal, they have an enormous diverse record collection, but
also incredible books on music, but not limited to. Last time when I played in Munich the promoters attempted to do a little livestream from the store, the owner with the unforgettable name o Christos is a very serious gentleman who is suspicious unless he knows you and I feel very fortunate to have passed the test and now each time I’m there they are extremely kind (and I am always excited to be surrounded by so much great music and literature so I generally act like a goof when I’m there).
- A-Music in Cologne – A Music is a distro as well as a record store, they carry fantastic obscure
titles, and I believe we met the first time formally at the Belgian Meakusma festival (which is held
in the small part of Belgium where the formal language is German). - Zardoz in Hamburg – Named after the silly sci-fi film with Sean Connery, it is a shrine dedicated to
subculture in general, like Optimal they also carry books and other media, and are very suspicious
of strangers. On a good day you meet a friendly clerk. - Bongo Joe in Geneva is perhaps my favorite record store. It is also a label and a music venue.
And I was absolutely thrilled to have been invited to play there earlier this year. They stock everything from electronica to non-European music (lots of African and South American
contemporaries, and re-issues) and it is guaranteed to be very well curated.
- Peekaboo Recs in Lisbon has a similar vibe and an adequately great selection, but it’s much newer
and smaller and located on a 2nd floor of a mall, which makes it a little challenging to find (many
Portuguese record stores are oddly located inside of malls, similarly to some in Greece, Turkey and
some spots in East Asia). - Dangerhouse in Lyon is all about Garage and Punk, and perhaps my association with King Khan is
what created the bond there, the owner is extremely kind and it is an extremely fun, colorful spot to
hang. - Hardware Store in Bern is run by Reverend Beatman, the legendary one man band and owner of
Voodoo Rhythm label which celebrated 30 years recently, they have an incredible selection of
everything 50s-60s, garage and beyond, but their opening hours are extremely unpredictable and
limited. Located in a storage space off of one of the main streets in central historical Bern.
- Flying Out in Auckland is connected to the best record label from New Zealand, Flying Nun
Records. It is home to weirdo folk and experimental pop, and Matthew Crawley, who is the first
person to ever book me in New Zealand a long time ago, works there.
Other honorable mentions: - Dig! In Moscow, the best underground spot for records in town – which posts embarrassed/sad
posts on social media ever since the war began. - Kernkrach in Munster – which stocks lots of obscure EBM, industrial, synth pop and the like.
- Zoltan Records Istanbul – a tiny spot on the Asian side of the city, with excellent collectibles, like
the original pressing of The Velvet Underground & Nico, tends to be closed more than open, even
during formal opening hours.
- An Ideal for Living, Stockholm – a tiny spot that’s completely filled up with mostly 2nd hand
items: most of which are music, but there is also furniture (!) and decorative items. The owners are a
husband and wife who travel the world scouting for items of interest. - Sort Kaffe & Vinyl, Copenhagen – This is a tiny spot that I cherish mainly because I stumbled
upon a Francis Bebey record there, and discovered him incredible work. - Vary, Leipzig – a cafe and a record store that specializes in electronic and club music.
They also seem to be putting on shows in different locations, or at least be connected to lots of
underground promoters in town. Leipzig is very rich in subculture, which is very admirable. - Tower Recs – I only know of a couple that are still left, but I’ll put it here for nostalgic purposes.
The one is Dublin is quite corporate and dull, but I recently found out that one in Tokyo stocks up
my new album and that gave me an enormous ego boost. I used to shop there for CDs when I was in
school and various friends from around the world used to work in the early 2000s. - Other Music, NYC – RIP
The store closed down a few years back, but it was an absolute delight, full of incredible
adventurous music. It is dearly missed and I wish there were more places like these 🙁
Berlin:
Berlin is blessed with 40+ rec stores, which range from semi-secret/private locations that stock only
very particular kinds of techno / house, to stores that look like someone’s living room with private
collection of beat-up 2nd hand records (it’s astonishing how many of these are still around despite the
rising rents!). And all 40+ of them were informed when nearly 1000 of my records were stolen last
spring from our storage… never to be found by the police, or anyone else.
Some of my faves are:
OYE – Has two locations, its owner is an extremely kind and enthusiastic fella who grew up in
Berlin, in the same street where he opened the original location (in Prenzlauer Berg) – which is still
where the first shop is located, they also often put up posters of shows and keep flyers, there’s a true
community spirit which lacks in nearly all other stores. They stock electronic music, but also much
much more.
Pop Records – a real institution for outsider art and collectibles, they also host little art openings and
live shows, there’s quite a bit of 2nd hand stuff, but also new interesting releases. They’re pals with
some NDW and Berlin underground art characters, who created astonishing German electronica in
the 80s/90s and are still active today.
Lefter Recs – despite the extremely limited opening hours, this new Kreuzberg institution is well
worth a visit. They pride themselves in having one of the biggest collections of Turkish music
outside of Turkey, and Erbatus the owner is a wonderful conversation partner.
And one warning: Spacehall Records – which is quite large and long-standing, they have a big
electronic section, post-punk and industrial, but also try to be a bit of a crowd-pleaser with
commercial releases and memorabilia for tourists.
It stocked up quite a few of my records in the past and sold them all, then stocked some more, but
the owner pulled a very nasty trick on me last autumn when Approaching Singularity came out (my
first record in 7 years) – he took a long look at the 4 records and comic book I brought along, asked
how much, and then disappeared without telling me, nor the staff where he was off to. The staff
were extremely apologetic, tried calling him, look for him, but no dice. After 40 minutes, I was done
waiting, and returned a few days later, just to find out from an employee that he “wasn’t
interested!!”. Some record store owners are just dicks with little respect to musician’s work and
time, and when you’re a woman, there’s often also a tinge of sexism involved.
Usually when they realize you have 7 records out and you’ve worked with lots of people they admire
(all older men), they treat you differently, but every now and then, you still get a douchebag, and it’s
important not to let these experiences bring you down
