No Copy

Wishing to be a bass

As far as I'm concerned, sensuality on stage has a name from now on: Aristazabal Hawkes. A sight for sore eyes: the way she plays her bass on stage with the band Guillemots...  I had never thought I'd be wishing to be an instrument.

Apart from that, the concert the band gave last Sunday night at Cactus was also excellent. The sound engineer could have done a slightly better job, but I'm not complaining. Thanks to Loes from Cactus for 'making' me the winner of one of the free tickets!

If you don't know the band yet, perhaps you should get to know them. The music they bring on their debut album 'Through The Windowpane' seems like a collection of tunes and styles coming from all modern musical history. The result is an upbeat and glorious kind of pop with a stress on keyboards yet filled with a somewhat bizarre instrumentarium that lead to references to freejazz and psychedelica. Now you hear Björk, then Scissor Sisters, then Arcade Fire... At least, I do.

Anyway: check out their MySpace, or have a look at their performance on 'Tonight with Jonathan Ross' (and don't forget to keep an eye out for the lovely appearance on bass):

This video, to finish off with, is also worth having a look at (as well as... oh well, you get the picture):

No pussy on No copy

[photo]

Nick Cave is back with a new band: Grinderman. Dark, gloomy and energetic as in the old days (at least judging from the first single No Pussy blues, which you can listen to on MySpace or the video of which you can watch here on 3voor12) but nevertheless different altogether.

According to the official bio, the band (Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos) are "foul-mouthed, noisy, hairy, and damn well old enough to know better. [...] Born of babbling lyrics hatched from Bosch eggshells in the Hyde-bound apocalyptic margins of the Cave brain, the Grinderman sound is an instinctual yawlp that also resurrects the demons of each musician’s past: the trashcan proselytising of Birthday Party -era Nick; Sclavunos' late 70s New York no-wave noise wisdom; Martyn Casey’s ominous Triffids bass reverb; plus Ellis' avant-garde soundtrack work and his teenage love of Black Sabbath."

Heavy stuff. But looking forward for more; the debut album is to be released early March...

[hat tip to Stef]

It's Belgium, Jim, but not as we know it (2)

"If all goes well, we’ll be able to feed a live Praga Khan concert to 2,000 citizens of Second Life. That would be awesome!"

  [picture]

Just quoting Miel aka MicroMiel aka Coolzûr here, who has been working on the SL launch of Microsoft Vista for the last couple of weeks. Miel is  Belgian, and so is Praga Khan, the band whose concert at the Belgian Atomium will be watched by some 2,000 SL people tomorrow (30 Jan) at 11 pm CET.

Miel seems to be confident that they're doing it right, and I think so too. He says: "I’ve had a lot of discussions with people in Second Life about brands and marketing, but I do know that everyone is really ‘pro’, because at least we didn’t just buy our way in. We come in with something that has never been done before, on an unseen scale. And we don’t take from the community, we give. That’s the best place to be for a brand."

So check it out. And even if you are not into SL, but still would like to see the concert, you should check out http://www.experiencethewow.be/streaming and learn how.

I smell winter

Finally. I smell winter. Not only a great song by The Housemartins, but also reality early this morning:

I know a big bunch of small people who will be thrilled to hear the school bell ring today. I think I'll join them...

Five things you didn't know about me.

Yep: for a long time I thought I might be able to escape it, but the '5 things meme' has reached Koekelare. Thank you Neville - I'll remember... ;-)

I could tell you I can't really imagine going through life without music, but that would hardly be much of a surprise, would it? But - just for the fun of it - I tried to link the five things you (probably) didn't know about me to a song/clip I have always liked. Here goes:

1] As a child (and later on too, of course - at least until the network decided to stop the show in 1987) I always watched Toppop, a music show on Dutch television presented by Ad Visser. The only time I can actually remember looking away, feeling uncomfortable, was when Nina Hagen made her Toppop debut with Unbeschreiblich Weiblich in 1978. Don't laugh: I was, after all, only seven. And let's face it: until then, I had thought all women were warm, soft and gentle and certainly nothing like this...

By the way: as I got a bit older, I also got over my Nina Hagen phobia...

2] The first album I ever bought was Too Tough To Die by The Ramones. The opening track of the album is Mama's Boy. Confession number 2: during my first summer camp my parents had to come and get me. I was too homesick to stay (hey, I was six, okay :-) ).Yep, I guess I was a bit of a mama's boy too:

3] Confession number 3: I am afraid of heights. Not the heights you reach when you're standing on an average ladder, but serious heights. They make my knees go weak, make my hand palms sweat and make my head spin. I guess that's more or less the definition of acrophobia... Anyway, the first song that made me feel equally dizzy and realize there was other, more disturbing stuff out there than the average mainstream pop/rock/punk was Death Valley 69 by Sonic Youth (originally released on Bad Moon Rising from 1985). It gave me the creeps but boy, did I like it... I am not such a big Sonic Youth fan today (and yes, I have more or less shifted back towards the mainstream when it comes to music), but Death Valley 69 is forever engraved in my ears (could that be the cause of my tinnitus? - call that a free extra confession). Perhaps it will now be in yours too:

4] As the opening dance for our wedding, I had suggested I Want You by Elvis Costello to my wife... well fiancee at the time. A great song. But when she found out what the song was really about, her enthusiasm quickly diminished. We eventually chose the Carole King classic You've Got A Friend, but in a version by the fabulous Housemartins. Confession number 4: I would not choose it again; it is, let's face it, kind of tacky. But the things you do when you are young... Anyway: here's The Housemartins 'live' on Top of the Pops with Me and The Farmer (I didn't find their version of You've Got A Friend on YouTube) from their 1987 album The People Who Grinned Themselves To Death (watch out for Norman Fatboy Slim Cook on bass):

5] Call it a new year's resolution that is doomed to fail (moreover so since I do not believe in new year's resolutions, remember?), but as from today I no longer smoke. Am I going to miss it? You bet. But I have noticed a few times already I can do without a smoke for several days in a row. And since smoking bans are emerging in more places than ever, I guess I might as well pack it in. Besides: which parent doesn't want to set the right example for his kids? And then a final confession: I hate being drunk and I hate drunk people. I can't even really remember the time I was drunk for the last time (must be somewhere in my student days). Mind you: I do like a nice beer from time to time, and I enjoy a good glass of wine, or the odd single malt every now and then. But as soon as I feel I'm reaching my limits, I switch to something non-alcholic. I guess this really is the end of my rock 'n roll years. No more cigarettes and alcohol:

I suppose it's my turn now to tag five other people. But you know what: if you feel like picking up the meme, go for it. I am curious about a few secrets from so many people I have no idea who to choose first. I know: I'm a bit of a killjoy. Well, let's say that could have been the sixth thing you maybe didn't know about me. I just didn't find the right song to match it. :-)

Later!

Since I have been elected man of the year 2006, I guess I can rest on my laurels for a while now. That's why I'll be taking some time off - at least where this blog is concerned - and (more or less putting Tom Murphy's advice to my and my family's benefit) focus my attention on the really important things in life for the last ten days of the year. And you know what: I suggest you all do the same.  :-)

In the meantime: enjoy the YouTube revelation of the year as far as I'm concerned: Olga Janssens a.k.a. Ronita Yori a.k.a. The Singing Toilet Lady. She is 69 years old and finally got picked up this year by national radio. She has already written six novels and numerous songs, and is currently hoping her hobbies will lead to a breakthrough. Rumour has it that in the meantime her internet presence has led to a record company wanting to sign her...

Time magazine is right: "In 2006, the World Wide Web became a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter." See you in 2007 - hope you have a great Christmas and a wonderful new year!

Heaven = Bettie

It took me a long time to fully understand what Jean-Paul Sartre meant by L'enfer c'est les autres, and I'm still not sure if  Hell is other people is not just that. In any case, when I heard Hell = Other People by Bettie Serveert for the first time (which is not that long ago) I so agreed with singer Carol Van Dyk: "to hell with other people". Well, at least for the time the song lasted...

[photo via]

Last night, I had a similar feeling. Bettie Serveert played at CactusatMaZ in Bruges, and there were moments there was just me, the band and the music. Was it the venue? Was it the fact that it was a relatively small crowd? Was it because Carol Van Dyk looked really lovely in her black blouse, black skirt, black stockings and high black boots? Was it because her voice (beautiful but not in a classical way) put some spell over me? Or was it because it's just a band at its musical peak? No idea. It probably was a combination of all different elements coming together. That combination that occurs every now and then and that makes a concert so much better than listening to a CD. Some call it magic. And if it wasn't that I don't believe in magic, I'd probably agree...

Bettie Serveert have existed for 15 years now. They have evolved from an angry young man/woman atmosphere to a more mature look on life, which is also reflected in the new music. But despite this evolution, their early work does not sound outdated at all. They got their breakthrough during the grunge era with the still brilliant Palomine (exquisitely performed during the third encore last night!) and got their spot in the scene where The Breeders, Pavement and Throwing Muses can be found as well.

Despite their being a Dutch band, Carol Van Dyk sings with a perfect American accent (she lived in Canada for while) and they do ring a few bells in the States too. I guess you can even say they scored a few hit songs with Tom Boy and The Kid's Allright (both played in brilliant acoustic versions last night). And not so long ago they planted the catchy Smack (missing on the playlist this time) in a lot of people's minds, probably making them whistling or humming the tune for the rest of the day...

I saw them perform live for the first time in the early 90s, opening for Buffalo Tom at Vooruit in Ghent. Today, they still serve somewhat emotional guitar pop/rock, often wild and loud, sometimes with a light electronic touch, but a lot quieter now. The new album Bare Stripped Naked was sort of a birthday present to the public, supported by a series of semi-acoustic performances. This tour also brought them to Bruges last night and is supported by a limited edition of the new album, containing a DVD featuring a live performance at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels and some other nice extras.

Also nice is the fact that the band members remain, even after all these years, a very accessible bunch. Signing CDs, having a drink at the bar after the concert, ready for a chat with the audience. So: not only a great band, but lovely people to boot. Carol Van Dyk admitted she also felt there was something in the air. Magic? No, of course not. But then again: who knows...

Note: if you ask me, this is a band that deserves a lot more attention than they sometimes get nowadays. If you don't know them yet or not that well, go check out their website, which features video clips, live performances as well as a continuous loop of excerpts from the new album. Or have a listen over at MySpace. And it you ever have the chance of seeing them perform live, especially during this tour, don't hesitate...

The treasures of YouTube (2)

Very funny: British actor David Armand (The Hollow Men) brings his own mime version of Torn, the (only so far) world hit by Natalie Imbruglia during the Secret Policeman's Ball of Amnesty International. Guess who's joining in?

By the way: the more you watch it, the funnier it gets... And no: I had never thought I'd ever use the words Natalie Imbruglia and funny in one and the same sentence.

[hat tip to Pascal - via]

A fine day

Today, exactly one week before next week's local elections, thousands of people in four major Belgian cities are attending the 0110 concerts for tolerance. The sight of so many people not only enjoying the music, but also (implicitly) voicing their disgust of intolerance and racism has already given me goose pimples.

Let's hope their message and dEUS leadsinger Tom Barman's efforts in organising these concerts will lead - for the first time in too many years - to extreme right parties losing ground at elections.

It's a fine day to turn 35...

The treasures of YouTube

Not so long ago I stumbled on this post by media-ocean: his "trashy tribute" to 25 years of MTV. What a great trip down memory lane! And also: another excellent proof of the collective memory YouTube is becoming.

So, by way of tribute to YouTube on my behalf, here's one little treasure I dug up: REM with So. Central Rain (the song which got me interested in the band in the first place) on David Letterman's Late Night show (a show which I probably would never have seen if it weren't for the web). The hair (yes, Michael Stipe did have quite a lof of it in those days), the clothes (I get the impression Peter Buck is still wearing those nowadays), Mike Mills' baby face and Bill Berry still with the band... Oh happy days :-D !