For the past year and a half, Dirk Darmstaedter has been stockpiling a stunning new collection of 10 songs, grabbing time to write in hotel rooms while on tour across Europe, in the offices of Tapete Records (the label he co-founded) or at his house in the countryside near his native Hamburg.
The result is APPEARANCES, Dirk’s 16th release, this one under the guise of alter ego Me and Cassity.(Recent Dirk releases include acoustic covers collections and a smashing album of gutsy old-school rock and roll with co-conspirator Bernd Begemann.)
APPEARANCES sounds as fresh as a first record by an emerging artist, full of energy and urgency.(Come on, just try not to give “Time To Put The Hammer Down” repeat spins.)Yet it’s tempered by maturity, experience, and, as with any of Dirk’s records, that singularly literate sensibility that has built Dirk’s reputation around the world as, to quote The New York Times, “one of Germany’s underground pop heroes.”
“I had recorded an acoustic album previously, so the agenda for the new album was a BAND record,” Dirk says.“Fuller, louder, towering, climactic.”
That is certainly the case with APPEARANCES.

To add to the challenge of arranging and performing, Dirk insisted on recording everything live in the studio, right onto analog tape, the way, say, the Wrecking Crew might have thrown it down at Western Recorders in 1966 or the American Studio band would have done it in Memphis in 1969.With a crack lineup featuring drummer Lars Plogschties, bassist Ben Schadow, keyboardist Nikko Weidemann, the Me and Cassity group stormed through a five-day session at Le Chatelet studios right in Hamburg’s Altona neighborhood, creating this ten-song collection.
“Very old-school I suppose,” Dirk says.“But this is how I learned to make records back in the day with my band The Jeremy Days, learning from folks like Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley (Elvis Costello, David Bowie, Morrissey) and Fred Maher (Material, Lou Reed).”
Talking about the new album, Dirk is likely to cite such touchstones as Todd Rundgren, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Nick Drake, and Bob Dylan:It’s a wide panorama, and the moods of APPEARANCES range from sweet to passionate, pastoral to gritty, vulnerable to tough.
Dirk spent much of his formative years in Teaneck, New Jersey, and there might even be a hint of The Boss here, in the hard lyricism of “Lovers Of Solitude” and “One Step Ahead Of Me”
With the basics finished in record time, Dirk hiked up to Gothenburg, Sweden, to lay down vocals with Therese Johannson and Kristofer Aström, bringing additional voices to the project, notably on “Fred Astaire.”“We all went drinking afterwards,” Dirk says of the spirit of that session.“I know all the good bars in Gothenburg now.”Back in Hamburg, Dirk teamed up with Anne de Wolff (Neko Case, Calexico) to add strings, and with Martin Wenk (Wilco, Arcade Fire, Nada Surf) to add horns and vibes.“Such brilliant musicians, those two,” Dirk says.“I could really indulge in Spector/Bacharach-ish splendor. It was just the right touch to give Appearances the final sparkle.”
Sparkle and hum.Truth and grit.Appearances can be deceiving, but not this album.
“It‘s a BAND album, so it‘s a ME AND CASSITY album,” Dirk says.
“ME AND CASSITY is just me when I‘m a band.Have a listen and let me know what you think.”