VG+

Heavy music for nerdy people, that's how someone once described the music of Mint Mind. "For" or "from"? Both, of course. After the first "VG+" songs, you get a feeling of what the world of Mint Mind looks like: instruments and amplifiers from several decades loosely piled and organized. In front of, next to and between are synthesizers and effects, some as big as microwave ovens. On the crooked record shelf are handfuls of comics, albums by New Order, Devo, the B52s, almost the entire SST catalog, as well as Krautrock classics by Can and Faust. "VG+", Mint Mind's third album, has become a great, cross-generational indie rock album. Mint Mind are sitting in the Upper Room Studio, a separate area of Rick McPhail's small industrial loft in Hamburg-Altona. This is where the new Mint Mind album VG+ was created. Rick, who grew up in Maine, USA, looks to his fellow musicians. They are a little younger than him. Christian Klindworth (Fluppe) is 40, Friedel Viegener is 22. Rick grins and