WATCH AND SHARE “GRAND HOTEL COSMOPOLIS” HERE
GRAND HOTEL COSMOPOLIS OUT NOW VIA COAX RECORDS (CANADA) / COAX EUROPA (WORLDWIDE)
CANADIAN TOUR DATES CONTINUE FEBRUARY 14
Photo Credit : Mischa Scherrer // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
Today, Geoff Berner is sharing the new video for the title track from his latest LP, “Grand Hotel Cosmopolis”. Directed by Magdalena Hutter and shot on location in Augsburg, Germany at the real Grandhotel Cosmopolis itself, the video also features performance footage from two packed, glorious nights at the Hotel.
“Magdalena and I intend this video to be a giant ad for the real Grandhotel Cosmopolis, the artist-designed combination home for migrants and traveller’s hostel,” says Berner. “So we shot it all on location at and around the Grandhotel to give people a sense of what a fun, beautiful, inspiring place it really is. Who knows? Maybe someone will see this video and really go ‘start a Grand Hotel Cosmopolis of your own’ like I put in the lyrics of the song."
The Grandhotel Cosmopolis is a lovely, artist-decorated building, run by migrants'-rights activists. It is both a free place for folks to stay when they've recently arrived in Germany, and a non-profit hotel, open to the general travelling public, and a place where folks can get paid work. “The Grandhotel is a model for how people can get together and make their town more welcoming to immigrants and refugees,” says Berner.
WATCH AND SHARE “GRAND HOTEL COSMOPOLIS” HERE
Grand Hotel Cosmopolis is out now on Coax Records in Canada and worldwide via Coax Europa (an imprint for Coax on artist run record label GiveUsYourGOLD in Berlin), a new label set up as a european bridgehead for Coax artists.
Since Whiskey Rabbi was released in 2005, Berner has been making klezmer music fused with the energy and rudeness of punk. The Globe and Mail called him “the avenging angel of klezmer,” and with songs like “Dalloy Polizei (Fuck the Police)”, Berner’s work is overtly political and controversial.
The new album and its title song are inspired by the Grandhotel Cosmopolis, located in Augsburg, Germany. The ‘Hotel’ was started ten years ago, when a group of activists took over an abandoned high school. Their vision was to turn it into an artsy, inexpensive hostel for travellers of all kinds, as well as safe and free housing for refugees and asylum seekers.
Half of the space in the Hotel is taken up by families of displaced people from Syria, Somalia, Myanmar, and many other places. These people stay for free or on a pay-what-you-can basis. They earn money and their first German work experience by helping run the hotel.
The word “cosmopolitan” is a slur that anti-Semites have historically thrown at Jews. Stalin and his henchmen preferred the term “rootless cosmopolitan” for Jews during the Soviet pogroms. The basic idea was that Jews, being town people – as Jews were historically forbidden to own land – were disconnected from the soil, and therefore decadent and corrupt.
WATCH AND SHARE “WHAT KIND OF BEAR AM I?” HERE
For Berner, the idea of a party at the Grandhotel Cosmopolis, an oasis of welcome and relative safety for people on the run – in Germany of all places – is a perfect way to talk about Jewish solidarity with oppressed migrants, and about how good things are still possible.
That’s the goal of Grandhotel Cosmopolis – to use the Jewish leftist cultural tradition to inspire people to defend the human values of decency and the right of every human being to a life of safety and freedom, while having a fun time doing it. You’re welcome to come stay awhile.
To support the actual Grandhotel Cosmopolis, go to https://grandhotel-cosmopolis.org/de/
TOUR DATES
Feb 14 - Toronto, ON - TRANZAC %
Feb 15 - Wakefield, QC - The Black Sheep %
Feb 16 - Montreal, QC - Casa Del Popolo %
Feb 20 - Hamilton, ON - This Ain’t Hollywood, (With Bird City AND Richard Garvey) %
Feb 21 - Peterborough, ON - The Garnet %
Feb 22 - Guelph, ON - The ANAF %
Feb 28 - Vancouver, BC - WISE Hall, East Van Goes Ecosocialist Benefit Show %
Mar 4 - Victoria, BC - Intrepid Theatre, BC Ecosocialist South Island Launch Party %
Mar 7 - Chilliwack, BC - Tractorgrease Cafe %
Mar 14 - Fuerth, DE - Jewish Culture Festival
Mar 15 - Basel, CH - Capri Bar
Mar 16 - Zurich, CH - El Lokal
Mar 17 - Lasnes, BE - Le Rideau Rouge
Mar 18 - Gent, BE - Muzikantenhuis
Mar 19 - Brussels, BE - UPJB (Union des Progressistes Juifs de Belgique)
Mar 20 - Liège, BE - Casa Nicaragua
Mar 21 - Nandrin, BE - Deux Ours
Mar 22 - Emmeloord, NL - Salon Vive La Fete
Mar 24 - Amsterdam, NL - De Nieuwe Anita
Apr 16 - Lethbridge, AB - The Slice +
Apr 17 - Calgary, AB - The Ironwood +
Apr 18 - Edmonton, AB - The Aviary +
+ with Mäkkelä
% with Bird City
