the animal five is not really a full album, rather an ep, with six songs on it. not bad to have such a short record, after all this meant i could listen to it even more often! to start your very first release with a song line like "you keep on begging for more" is a very posh thing to do. may i be reminded of oasis' debut phrase "tonight i'm a rock'n'roll star". but naming it spareparts instead of rock'n'roll star gives the whole thing an ironic twist (given that my assumption on an oasis-animal five connection is there at all, which obviously isn't very likely). how humble to ask for "only spareparts". this first song has what defines the animal five for me: melodies, a crazy singer, and the energy to really play with the guitars.
this one, sharks, was released as a single. i really like it, but the cream of the crop is the next one, sonic sea. you can listen to it on the animal five's myspace page. i can't really explain why, but it just moves me. is it because of the viking-esque male choir? or how the singer martin von inghardt squeezes so many lyrics in so little notes. or the fact that i interpret it as a song about music? what do you think? look for the answer here
i am waiting for the day when i'll hear pixiedust included in a dj set. it should get every indie kid on the dancefloor, when lyrically it's already hinting at next day's hangover. i've praised i love myself for hating you as "song title 2006" before, and now it officially gets the award. and i couldn't conclude this review any better than with the song title of the last track: live fast die old. listen to it, it's over, listen to it again, it never gets old.
btw: i was told the animal five got their name because the rolling stones mentioned them as one of their favourite bands, back then in the 60s or so. and well, the stones are not in this years' list, so guess which band i think is better..
'oooh, cocorosie...' seems to be the normal reaction from everyone who has heard their music. cocorosie wrap you in their music, they put you in a dreamy state and make you feel dizzy and stoned without drugs. when i listened to them, i wondered how someone could come up with music as fragile as this and yet be so strong and humourous. i wondered why there had been a time in my life when i disliked female voices and it's own sensuous touch. cocorosie's songs are like carefully constructed swings that look instable, but when you ride them you can reach heights you never reached before. their fragileness and the open-hearted lyrics actually prevent vulnerability. the vulnerability i would have expected from girls making music like this. to the songs: by your side is a perfect example of what i like about cocorosie. you've got this sporadic, yet unignorable beat, a beautiful melody and lots of extra sounds. squeaks, clangs, chirps with a voice like glass. yet the lyrics are far away from being naive schoolgirls' dreams, are rather extremely ironic:
"i'll be the best girl you'd ever meet and for a diamond ring i'll do these kinds of things i'll scrub your floor never be a bore i'd tuck you in i do not snore i'd wear your black eyes bake you apple pies i won't ask whys and i try not to cry i'll always be by your side even when you're down and out i'll always be by your side even when you're down and out and its nearly midnight and all i want with my life is to be a housewife"
not convinced yet? how about these lyrics from jesus loves me:
"jesus loves me but not my wife not my nigger friends or their nigger lives but jesus loves me dat for sure 'cause the bible tell me so"
(nevermind the video, i don't think it is an official one)
unbelievable that this record was released in 1981. it sounds so fresh. hiphop beats, a female rapper, sing-along melodies. this is a good mood record, a well-made one. a friend and i honestly thought about forming a pop-group when we listened to this record. if we made music, it should sounds like this, we decided. the record hits you already with the intro of the first song, wordy rappinghood, a rant about communication. 'ramta tamtam ramtamtam...' ignore the video, the audience's clapping and the host's stupid words (!) and enjoy how the singer emphasises the lyrics:
genius of love conveys the impression of being really badly produced. the whole songs sounds low-fi and not well mixed. yet it is very inventive, there is so much going on in this song.
wordy rappinghood and genius of love may be the two catchiest songs, but the rest of the album is similar. tom tom club is the kind of stuff that you need before you go out or when you party at home. sounds like i had a lot of parties this year. ;)
i got into jens lekman because pocketful of money was on a mixtape i got. I didn't instantly recognise this song's beauty, but one day at work it totally hit me. I had to press play again and lekman's gorgeous voice filled the shop with warmth. Then the girl who had made the mixtape for me and i discussed him. So here come the (very random) facts: jens lekman, living in göteborg, sweden, 25 years of age, loves music and travelling, gives away his music for free on his website, keeps a blog about music that outshines this one here. jens lekman and i had a short flirt this summer, but recently i put his record on again, and i think it is one of those that you don't listen to regularly, but will come back to every once in a while for a very long time. Read more here where i wrote about him before.
07 professor pez - we found the beach, where is the ocean (2005)
the from-zero-to-hundred- in-eight-months record
professor pez is a special case, and a hard one indeed. i did not at all like we found the beach, where is the ocean when i got it back in february/march. i had lots of trouble with the singer's voice, something that thankfully has been confirmed by another extensive listener. sometimes i still do not feel that comfortable with it. yet i gave the record a few spins and the chance to find its way into my musical memory. i realised this when suddenly i woke up with imperial airwaves playing in my mind or when the perfect test became my earworm for a whole week. there even was a song i instantly liked: steady amputations was so damn catchy it did get hold of my right at the very first time i heard it. what i love about professor pez is the lightness with which they create great melodies, the playfulness of their songs and arrangements, and the fact that they are an adorably bunch of young people – creative, intelligent, not at all made-up musicians playing the games of the record industry. these guys deserve not stardom, but praise for the fact that they love to make music. And hell, my wish for 2007 would be the chance to see them live on stage – either in bergen, where they come from, or because of a german release of their material.
the perfect test video. the ninjas are a norwegian bunch of people who call themselves new age ninjas:
the love-at-first-sight-and-not -even-the-slightest-doubt-before record
a record fof the category „i would never have discovered on my one". It was a present by a smart friend, the kind of friends that make a note somewhere in their mind when you say things like „i think erlend oye has one the greatest voices ever." and then they give you his latest record, a project called the whitest boy alive. A record that sounds like a unity. cosy, but danceable at the same time, with oye's voice very present in the foreground. I obviously share my favour with lots of other people: myspace is full of whitest boy alive fans, music press adores him. And this is very much a berlin thing. erlend oye, who put the musical world in awe with his band kings of convience and their records quiet is the new loud (2001) and riot on an empty street (2004), moved from bergen, norway to berlin in to become a dj at the club wmf. From there he made it into all sorts of music and arts magazines all over the world and onto the wall of the loo of my current favourite astro bar:
pencil: „... ?? ... be quiet" blue writing: „quiet is the new loud" black writing: „riot on an empty street"
ok, not that funny, but quite striking after three beers.
this live recording of burning gives a good impression of the sound and the people's love:
i have no idea which los lobos record to put here. basically because i don't really know any los lobos record. the ride is quite good. it's from 2004 and it has a lovely version of bobby womack's across 110th street on it. someday from just another band from east l.a. is a killer track. i found it on the love song for bobby long soundtrack last year. what i like about los lobos is not a certain track or a certain album, but mainly the fact that i like their music at all. two years ago i would probably have neglected these mexican vibed sounds with partially spanish vocals. i didnt expect this, but i fell for them, instantly. i'm gonna listen to los lobos more frequently, more systematically. come back here to read more next year!
because i listened to death cab for cutie's plans already in 2005 and because i listened to it extensively when i was unhappily in love (so it has this bad taste to it now) i'd rather want the postal service's give up in this list. the music is similar, but more electronical, more dreamy, less guitar. give up is not as good as death cab for cutie's plans, though. On plans i love every single song, am able to recall every single melody. give up is not that catchy. But i have ben gibbard's voice stroking my ear drums with lyrics just as sensitive and poetic as those on plans:
'tells your new friends i am a visitor here I am not permanent'
(the district sleeps alone tonight)
'they will see us waving from such great heights "come down now" they'll say but everything looks perfect from far away "come down now" but we'll stay' (such great heights)
'i want so badly to believe that there is truth and love is real and I want life in every word to the extent that it's absurd' (clark gable)
that's how you feel when you feel lonely, that how i feel when i yearn for something i don't know what it is. these songs, the district sleeps alone tonight, such great heights and clark gable are just randomly picked examples, the whole record is soo good.
just like plans, give up was there to lull me into sleep without making me cry, and to make me get out of bed the very next morning (when i put it on again) without making me skip forward to whichever song was my current fave.
This record was given to me by one of the dearest friends i gained this year, to let me know what kind of music he was into. Bingo – me, too. great way to become really good friends.
why not start my top ten with a number 11? i made a list of records and ended up with st.elsewhere being the left-over. but hell, this record deserves a place in the hit list. let us start with the facts: crazy, the first single, was the summer song 2006. and righteously so, not only because it is damn catchy and puts everybody in a great mood, but also because it was the first song ever that reached the top of the charts in the uk without any distribution of physical copies of the track. in other words: it got number one only by downloads. make a note in your history books, people!
but what is even more important: gnarls barkley easily keep the standard of crazy throughout the whole record. the intro song go-go gadget gospel is a hymn that sets the pace for the rest of the songs. gone daddy gone, i had to learn, is a violent femmes cover, one that is in fact quite close to the original version.
smiley faces is my favourite, just a thought the breakbeat ballade and transformer the song with the funny gimmicks. all in all, st. elsewhere is a record that lines up in a row with those of gorillaz or dj shadow. it combines hiphop with breakbeat with pop with soul with dance. we need more music like this. we need more summer songs like these - next year!
smiley faces, video version with a touch of the likes of spinal tap or a mighty wind:
music magazines are full of them, people talk about them in music forums and on christmas parties and i had already planned this one when i started the tba blog in september: my top ten records of 2006. it's not a list of albums released this year – it's a list of records i listened to extensively this year, the oldest one of them released in 1971. records that are part of my year 2006, that i won't ever be able to listen to again without recalling certain things that happened this year – the year, that for me personally was the best i've had so far. i'm trying to explain personal things a bit, aswell. if that's not objective, forgive me, but rankings never are and maybe this makes reading the blog a bit more entertaining.
In the past months I listened to alot of 60s and 70s funk/soul/blues with female vocalists and got struck a few times by the lyrics, songs about their husband leaving them for the babysitter or the secretary (?), songs about obviously violent alcoholic men they love (??) but the song that popped up in my playlist just a few moments ago hits the can :
Donna McGhee - "Mr. Blindman"
"Mr. Blindman, you're a blind man, come and talk to me".
Wouldnt it be better to walk over to him ?! I mean, if he is blind ...
However, this also brings me to one of the best/worst musicvideos I know : Lionel Richie- "Hello". Enjoy, especially the crazy end.
Gosh, I need to make a house/brokenbeat-mashup of that track. I got it on vinyl, luckily.
Pandora Radio, a website I like as such, has opened a blog to give non-musicians insight in the history, techniques and process of making music, first podcast being about vocal harmony. Might be quite interesting for everyone loving music but having not much of an idea what it takes. The advertisement-like voice of the narrator sucks abit, but the topic makes that up.
i made my debut as a dj last night, when the real dj had to go to the loo. i played three songs. one was a tune by dogdy, the second i dont remember, the third one was cigarettes and alcohol by oasis. i jsimply put the records on the player and faded in when the other one was over. i didnt get the chance to use the headphones because i didnt know how they worked. i counted the people that were in the bar afterwards - there were 21 people listening, bar staff not included. nobody danced, but nobody danced anyway. i think it was mighty sucessful. it was great.
looza is looking for a nice compilation of disco punk, or what we think is called disco punk: electronically remixed, danceable, fashionable rock music. basically guitar sounds mixed with electronic bleeps to get the whole crowd moving.
last weekend i went to cologne to visit some friends of mine. here's everything music-related that happened to me:
on friday night my friend and i found out that we had missed jimi tenor - who had performed at the stadtgarten cologne on the very same day. i was not sad or so, i had had the opportunity to see him live in berlin, as well. but i like him.
roaming through the streets at night we found a music store selling this:
for whoever might be interested in sounding like eric clapton...
rather nice was to find out there is this bar in cologne:
and to find out you can buy an elvis for your decoration:
well, i also went to a gorgeous party called superconnected in a very nice place, rose club.
my friends also turned me into moloko this weekend, by showing my a video collection and an amazing live dvd.
Recently stumbled over two guys from Berlin called "Robosonic" who are doing minimal electro-tech-stuff as well as playing mash-up-nights all over the world. Their myspace-page offers two sets for download and I urge you to grab those. Mash-up at its best, all from 80s, hiphop, house/tech-stuff over to metal, it's a wild ride.
a friend of mine is crazy about pj harvey, in the sense of being highly addicted. he has all her cds, some posters, buttons and t-shirts and a 6 dvd collection of music videos, live performances and tv interviews of her.
but i found something in a shop he definitely doesn't have yet: a wacky tribute cd called little fish (no, it is too old to try to make some extra money by a big fish reference). a tribute to polly jean harvey it says in a very cheapish font on a very cheapish version of some portrait of a lady by pablo picasso. (pj - the jumbled artist?). the whole thing is released by doppelganger records - how many more hints do we need to know about how this is gonna sound like?
but let me give you the track list: 01 back burnerdress 02 n. tittydown by the water 03 army of half witsc'mon billy 04 stretches of the famoussend his love to me 05 johnny bic yuri g 06 p.w. (h)ellrid of me 07 mission statementwater 08 dork50ft queenie 09 lucysheila na gig 10 veedry
i haven't been listening to it yet, neither did i open the package and have a look at the booklet. but i am already wondering what there is to expect from a band called dork and what kind of polly doppelganger someone called lucy might me.
well, my friend's coming round on tuesday night and we'll give this record a spin. it had cost one euro, i'm sure it'll be worth every penny. i'll keep you updated!
i got into george michael in 1996, when he released his "comeback" album older. let me just write a brief history of his musical life to let you understand who george michael actually is: george michael started his career as one part of the 80's boy band duo wham, which actually weren't that much "boy band" at all. the guys were friends from school, not a casted ensemble, even back then george michael wrote all songs, instead of having a producer doing this for them. they even had two girls, shirley and pepsi , as background singers and dancers, and they were friends and regular members of the band. george michael wrote careless whisper all by himself, being only 18 years old, and it's not a kitsch-ladden love song, but an attempt to express failure in a relationship, with one amazing sax solo in it. then he grew up and went solo, becoming one of the most mega-selling artists of the early nineties with his album faith. its sucessor listen without prejudice seems like a renunciation to the music business, and after this record, george michael had to deal with personal struggles. older is like him rising from the ashes of his old past, a grown-up, mature george michael with songs that were both loved by the audience and the critics. although i made myself familiar with his complete bio and discography later, songs from older, songs like jesus to a child, star people or spinning the wheel still are the cream of the crop for me.
older is one of the ten records i would take with me, if i had to go and spend the rest of my life on a deserted island (you know these kind of mind-games..). so naturally i would have wanted to see him perform live at one time or another. then he stated he would not tour anymore. then he announced his greatest hits tour. i bought my ticket on the very first day they were sold. i waited for months.
i didn't go. i skipped one of my favourit artists for going abroad to see a friend and go to a concert that consisted of a movie and three songs sung by one band i've only recently started to admire and have already seen live this year.
maybe i just don't like these grand mega shows and rather chose a cosy concert instead. what's the point in seeing george michael when, at no time during the concert, i get the chance to smile at him to make him see how much i enjoy his show? i do not at all regret missing his show. but i thought i'd let you know i am thinking about it nevertheless.
yesterday i went to see a friends' friends' band...nobody in our group really knew what they sounded like and what was to be expected. well, nobody would have expected this.
the mentioned band was called maria's radio, apparently a group of friends from school from a surburban area of berlin. this sounds cliche-ish, but they were in fact very good. one singer wore a chapeau clappe and long hair, looking like he just jumped out of one of the latest replay commercials, the other one wore a furry coat, appearing to be a bit more rebellious. the bass player was a cute, very small girl and the second guitar player the afforementioned friends' friend. (i didn't see the drummer). their music had a kind of psychedelic sixties appeal, they even had long blues-ish guitar parts. definitely a band with the potential to release a record!
it's sad the bad things have to be the highlight of this blog, but i just have to write about the band that preceded maria's radio: robotron were suggested as support act by the guitarist of maria's radio, so i was told, and wondering about what had gotten into him was just one of the many things we wondered about last night. robotron had two people on stage, a guitar player in normal jeans and t-shirt, with the usual indie kid hair-do and, most importantly, a sane behaviour. his counterpart on vocals was the exact opposite. this guy wore a brown mechanic's overall, a green scarf and bicycle helmet, and extremly big sunglasses. nothing wrong with that, people in recent tv reports about the latest band from nyc look exactly the same. neither did the fact that he took off the helmet to reveal a mullet with shaved parts in it shock me, not at all the fact that under his overall he wore a dirty old singlet with robotron written on it, plus fishnet stockings with an extremely short glittering mini skirt. i actually do respect that, having the guts to perform like this, in a small bar in front of very few people who were all square in the "we-are-fucking-cool"-way of thinking. the thing that bothered me, and seemingly everybody else, was that their music was just so bad! every song consisted of guitar sounds, which, would they have been played with a "band", would actually have shown talent. but here we had those guitar sounds alone, without any consistency or change in rhythm, very sporadically accompanied by one or two hits on an electronical drum device (the singer, apparently, had no sense of rhythm). he started his performance with screaming loudly: "aaaaaah". and it was not like he tried to make this fit the melody or rhythm of the music, he simply, monotonously screamed. lyrics, when there were any, were impossible to understand. but i do recall they did a cover version of the kinks'you really got me. a clever idea it was, actually, to offer figs to make the audience come closer to the stage, but how stupid it was to throw it at them later. the whole show lasted about 45 minutes and i can't tell how many song they played, because each and every single on of them really sounded exactly the same.
robotron and maria's radio were like different poles last night and it actually is a shame that the second band was very good, but the first one will be subject of a story i can tell for the rest of my life.
i am currently reading lost in music by giles smith - a british guy who grew up in the 70s and played in some bands but never really became successful. it's an autobiographical story about his various encounters with pop music.
a very funny episode, roughly translated from my mind:
when i was about 14 or 15, in the mid-seventies, my older brother asked me to play in the band he was currently in because they had dropped their keyboarder. after a while we thought about letting our third brother join as well, but realised this would be too weird - we might become a band that only consists of brothers, like the jackson 5. my mom fooled around one morning at the breakfast table, saying we should name our band 'the smiths'. our response was a short laugh, followed by "we don't think there will ever be a band that could be successful with a name like the smiths..."
Laurent Garnier is DJing in my hometown this saturday and I would love to go there, but ... The club where this is going to happen is not very big and they anticipate alot of possible visitors, which leads to the crazy situation that there is currently a kind of lottery for the sheer possibility to buy tickets. You need to write them an email and then get an answer if you are allowed to come by on saturday and buy a ticket. Which is way too much hassle for me, also this means that the club will be packed with people and the evening will not be too pleasant.
However, this is kinda disappointing for me because I would really love to see him. For years now I did stay away from evenings with "famous" DJs or "famous" musicians DJing in clubs because I had a few rather boring nights which is especially bad if you pay alot of money. The problem is basically that they are mostly not better or different from most other DJs, sometimes they are even worse. There are only a few people left that I would really pay alot of money to see DJing, those include DJ Koze, DJ Shadow, RJD2, Bad Boy Bill and a few other. Laurent Garnier is on that list too, but it seems I will just pass on that opportunity.
i think it's been mentioned quite a few times on here that midlake is my current favourite band, and that i can't get enough of their album the trial of van occupanther (released this june). i catched the record right back then after reading a review and have been waiting ever since to hear those great songs performed live - waiting for yesterday, when they performed at the mudd club berlin.
midlake had two support bands with them. the first one was a singer/songwriter called robert gomez, who had a five-piece band with him. physically, they looked a lot like what i expected from midlake on stage: drums, keyboard, bass, guitar - and a violin. their music though wasn't really moving me.
the second support act was fionn regan, one guy with an acoustic guitar and a little help from the drums, and this worked out perfectly. his songs were extremly catchy and the lyrics very smart. one could compare fionn regan with jose gonzales, only with a more beautiful voice and humour and entertainment added.
even before midlake started their gig, they impressed me with all the instruments they brought on stage. five guys on four keyboard stands (with 6 keyboards) and a selection of at least 7 guitars guaranteed the right sound, but had one disadvantage: the atmosphere suffered from that. while it was wonderful to hear the songs and see midlake do their best to make them as atmospheric and eccentric as they are on the album, the pauses between songs, when they plugged out and plugged in guitars, always brought me back into reality. but of course i'm not gonna blame them for stopping songs once in a while (singer tim smith said this probably was the show with the most technical difficulties ever).
they played all my favourite songs. started with they cannot let it expand, threw in young bride really early, played a fabulous balloon maker and then drifted into songs from their first album bamnan and slivercork, which i think most of the audience (including me) were not that familiar with. everybody except the drummer switched places and the show became more calm then, but kicked back in with the trial of van occupanther songs, which are more energetic than the ones from bamnan and slivercork. it was a collection of my favourite pieces saved for the last minutes of the gig: roscoe, bandits and head home.
chasing after deer, a very laid back acoustic encore closed the set and now i turn back to the record again, one of the most beautiful records i've discovered this year. the live experience added a different perspective to it, and i can't wait for a new record with a tour that brings out all the best of midlake.
Gregory Sylvester Coleman was the Drummer of the "The Winstons", a funk band which did the Song "Amen Brother", which is the source of the "Amen Break", the Standard-Break for Drum and Bass, all sorts of electronic -Core music, early Hiphop and so on.
Although I am personally fed up with this break for nearly a decade now and even did an "Amen"-Diss in one of my older tracks, it definately is a very important piece of audio in the world of music.
Watch this video if you want to know more about it.
Lots of videos I didn't know about and the best thing is that they have a youtube link to every single entry in the list. Have fun spending some time watching those.
due to the fact that the university i study at is currently having a lot of fun sending me from secretary to secretary and telling me all sorts of crazy stuff about whether i can take a certain test or not, i have absolutely no time writing anything here. and i am just not capable of thinking about anything than party propaganda, mass media of the 15th century and illocutinary speech acts.
i am very sorry, but there will be nothing going on in this blog for at least two weeks, unless my dear looza writes something (don't feel obliged, i know you are busy, too).
depending on the degree of madness in my brain after these two weeks time i'll go on posting about nice music later or will probably just rant about ringtones being soo much better than real music. let's hope this won't happen..
hopefully, posts about the reception of music as part of a cultural heritage and about klaus renft, one of former gdr's most frequently forbidden musicians, who died very recently, will follow..
jens lekman is a solo artist from gothenburg, sweden. being only 25 years old, he has already released a nice amount of albums and compilations. the good thing about him is that he is seeing the whole music business in a very relaxed way: 'If you like my music , please buy my records or download them legally' he writes on his webpage, but he also offers links for free downloads.
this page, however, is worth looking at once in a while, because he keeps on adding thoughts about his music and his life on the road. it's almost like a blog of it's on.
the song that got me into him about two months ago is pocketful of money, to be found on the 2005 compilation oh you're so silent, jens. starting with finger-snapping and a piano, gently accompanied by bass, this song slowly turns into a hymn with brass and vocals in two voices. it's one of these songs that catch you right when you're listening to it for the first time, and then creates this certain feeling of desire and yearning every time you hear it.
the fastest way for you to listen to it now would be to follow this link.
here are the lyrics:
i got my pockets full of money i'm gonna spend it all tonight i got my pockets full of money i'm gonna spend it all tonight
i hold my salary i'm gonna set it to flames on some girl i just met recently i barely know her name
oh take me some place decent where we meet up with true friends where the people are pleasant where the music never ends where the music never ends
i can say that you are pretty that would make me a liar but you turn my legs to spaghetti and set my heart on fire
you set my heart on fire you set my heart on fire you set my heart on fire
Who still got tapes anyway ? Well, actually I finally dug out my bag of old tapes while moving and plan to digitalize all the old crap that is still worth listening (like old techno-mixtapes from as far back as 92/93 ... big up to DJ Ten (who sold his tapes for 10 bucks back then ... total ripoff.))
Better grab those mixes while they are up there, there will be a total exchange of mixes there soon (because I can use only 200mb).
I am currently working on some bigger text about sampling. And todays rockmusic compared to old rockmusic. And some rant about indyrock. And whatever falls into my mind when I finally have time again.
every music lover likes getting them as much as creating some to give away. they are supposed to be mix of favourite artists and songs and some recently dicovered stuff, a broad overview of what you like.
i wanna show you what i listen to on a lazy day, as today was the german national holiday and that meant staying at home. i was 'hedgehogging' today, meaning i didn't go out and didn't talk to anyone on the phone. i rather listened to great music and thought of loved ones today - instead of communicating with them.
this is my mixtape:
01 dj shadow - gdmfsob (unklesounds edit) 02 the ramones - i wanna live 03 the innocence mission - when mac was swimming 04 ian brown - lovebug (acoustic version) 05 midlake - balloon maker 06 unkle - lonely souls (unklesounds edit) 07 flunk - morning star 08 noel gallagher - teotihuacan 09 karen dalton - something's on your mind 10 professor pez - stealin' sneakers (demo) 11 sgt. petter - honky tonk rose 12 madonna vs. ian brown - fear of music 13 blue oyster cult - (don't fear) the reaper 14 the cardigans - lovefool (dance mix)
i shouldn't actually post it here, because mixtapes are there to be given away, and i don't wanna spoil the anticipation. but you receiving this one, you know who you are and i hope you're looking forward to listening to no. 12 ;-)
today, october the first, is international music day. it was introduced in 1975, by lord yehudi menuhin, then president of the international music council. it's purpose is to arise awareness for the promotion of all sorts of musical art among the society.
what's this? well, bon jovi maybe took this idea a bit too far by producing a collection of goods for babies called rockstar collection. have a look at prams, furniture and jewellery for kids, designed by jon bon jovi and tico torres, here or here.
nevertheless, the promotion of music is exactly what this blog is trying to achieve ;-)
one of my all-times favourite artists is ian brown. ian brown started his career in the 80's as the singer of the groundbreaking mancunian band the stone roses. he started a solo career when the roses split in 1995 and has released four records since, plus one best of cd.
his last regular release solarized is the record this post is going to be about.
let's have a look at the songs one by one:
01 longsight M13
the opener is a love song to ian's home. Longsight, with the ward code (a ward is an electoral district used in local politics, mainly in england) M13, is the district were he grew up. this is were he met the stones roses' guitarist john squire and where they recorded their first, self-titled record. the lyrics praise longsight in this particular part:
let the stars shine on until the break of dawn let the stars shine on and let her move, move like a queen of Longsight M13
in various interviews, ian brown stated this song is about an inspiring place. he does so with very beautiful words:
got so many dreams i think my head might explode
02 time is my everything
let the video play while you go on reading. it was shot by ian's wife fabiola quiroz-brown.
as ian brown is father of three sons, this song seems like an anthem for his kids, in which he claims that they are of the upmost importance for him:
time is my everything for you I'd do anything under the sun
child, don't you fear anything for even the greatest men, shall have to stand in line i know you're gonna see it in the fullness of time
03 destiny or circumstance
it was when you smiled and from the corner of your eye i could see the sunrise shone on for miles
i've seen it all i've never seen anything so beautiful as you you're so gracile
this looks like a classical lyric about love, written for someone very special. but ian brown also knows very much how i felt when i saw him performing live:
is it your destiny or circumstance leads you to the lord of the dance? i admire your style love your smile cross the street see you using all your guile so our eyes our eyes would meet soul arise love your smile soul arise love your smile
at least this part was written especially for me ;-)
04 upside down
this track is somewhat of an interlude. it is fairly short and does not have a classical structure with verses and a chorus. it is a very dark track that expresses ian's take on political issues. a desert rose cascading waterfalls the sands of time will blow my mind the real wealth to hold is with your health you were beside me all around i know the world is upside down
note the hints on the stone roses, which occur in quite a few of ian brown's songs. here, he talkes about a desert rose and names waterfall, one of the most popular and beautiful tracks of the stone roses.
watch the video and hear how ian's voice has changed over the years. this song was recorded in 1989
05 solarized
first of all, the lyrics:
her heart gets broken it's something she can't hide she's cut like a diamond from a mine as deep as time the words that she's spoken have energised my mind a sheer elevation so like eagles high we'll glide
hot love it smoulders it's something she can't hide a manifestation of a force as old as time now morning has broken and solarized my eyes her sheer dispensation says like eagles high we'll glide
solarized in the sunrise rise with the sunrise soul rise in the sunrise solarized in the sunrise rise with the sunrise soul rise in the sunrise the light that she lives for in the dark she'll always find
not much i can add to this. the last line is like a promise for eternity and words like she's cut like a diamond from a mine as deep as time can only be outdone by what he sings in the next song:
06 the sweet fantastic
you I have found i hope you'll always be around and though nothing lasts forever say you'll always be my pleasure
you I have found i hope you'll always be around and if everything lasts forever say you'll always be my pleasure
the two verses build up a great connection. not only should the loved one always be there although nothing lasts forever, but also if everything lasts forever. this line warms my heart every time i hear it. what's even better than saying: I always want you to be with me? - saying if you're always gonna be there there is nothing greater i could think of.
07 keep what ya got
this track was written by noel gallagher of oasis. it was originally called teotihuacan and included on the soundtrack of the x-files movie, released in 1998. listen to a 30 seconds stream here to compare it with keep what ya got.
when the song was re-recorded, noel stated that he thought 'this song must be sung by ian' everytime he heard it. as an reference to my topic, this is noel showing ian his admiration.
08 home is where the heart is
home is where the heart is i’m so glad you’re here to stay and should you find yourself ever drifting away i made a space my heart where you can stay i saved a place in my heart where you may wanna lay
looks like a perfect combination of the aforementioned topics: it could be about a very special person, but also about a very special place.
09 one way ticket to paradise
this contains one of my favourite images about how life can be:
threw a dice came up with seven now i'm on my way to heaven
i got a one way ticket to paradise
10 kiss ya lips (no i.d.)
this is ian's take on a political issue, a hot topic in the uk: the introduction of i.d. cards to stop terrorism and plane hi-jacking. again, very political lyrics, packed into an absolutely dancable cheerful song.
11 happy ever after
the instrumental outro of the album
bonus track: lovebug
this needs no comments, one of the most inventive lyrics about love i've heard so far:
Someone call the doctor, there's a fever going round, write me a perscription for the cure that can't be found.
Doctor can't prescribe the medicine to pull you through, it just dont exist cos its the lovebug catching you, this ailment dont need healing, it wont leave you feeling blue, its the feeling so contageous,its the lovebug catching you.
Someone call the doctor, there's a fever going round, write me a prescription for the cure that can't be found, this ailment dont need healing, it wont leave you feeling blue, its the feeling so contageous, lovebug catching you.
It's the friend next to your shoulder who will stab you in the back, pay no heed to enemies who come to you on the attack, No known antidote nor expert treatment to assist, here's a bug your system is unable to resist, it takes mass participation to make every bit correct, lovebug circulation, yes a medical success, lovebug antidote immunisation for the best, here's a bug thats gonna put your system to the test.
'the hoff' has released a new single entitled jump in my car. it features a girl group called the hoffettes (haha!)
is the single a smasher, a late summer song so to speak? er...probably not, but the video is quite sarcastic. i didn't know david hasselhoff would make fun of himself like that.
i admit it, i wouldn't say no to a ride in the k.i.t.t. mobile, but the very last scene of the video is a big no-no!
My favourate ABBA-Song is "My Mama said" on the "Waterloo"-Album.
This song is much more funk than disco, its very laid back and starts rather minimal but gets more complicated later with small solos and some nice chord-inversions and -progressions. Great breakbeat drums, funky guitar, some hammond licks and yet again: an incredible bassline. Thats actually the part that brought me closer to ABBA lately, most of their basslines are amazing.
Couldn't find a video- or audiostream, but maybe I didn't look hard enough. Will put more time into that .
sometimes it's very hard to pick a favourite song of a band you really like. there just seem to be too many that mean so much.
i was played abba tunes when i was still a little baby and they've been kind of like the first group i ever was fan of. back then i only knew about their greatest hits, but recently i started to explore their back catalogue.
apart from all their gold tracks there is one song that strikes me as highly interesting. it is one that sounds higly un-abba-esque, but in fact isn't. it's just that instead of a catchy melody, this one has a catchy bass-line in the chorus. it's called two for the price of one and can be found on abba's last record the visitors.
as it wasn't released as single or anything i didn't really expect to find a stream of it to put here, but surprisingly i found something even better: this is a video of a life performance of the song from a tv show called Dick Cavett meets ABBA. it looks a bit weird because the sounds doesn't match the audio at all, but it's still obvious that it is two for the price of one that was performed. and visuals is not what counts so much in this case. the lyrics are different from the album versions and the vocals of the abba girls are missing, too. nevertheless, it serves the intended purpose. just start the video, close your eyes or browse to another page while listening to this track, and then wait for the bass-line in the chorus.
there is so much more to abba than just dancing queen...
according to very official sources (www.bjork.com) the sugarcubes are reuniting!
though a new release would certainly whirl up some dust, i believe it's better to feel their magic for just a single night: one the 17th of november 2006 the sugarcubes are performing in, you guessed it, reykjavik.
flight might be a bit to expensive for me, so let's hope for worldwide tv coverage and a live internet broadcast!
That die dummen schweden party on thursday turned out to be just so fine. thanx to the animal five, who are one of the most outstanding live bands i've ever seen. as they were preparing the stage i anticipated what was yet to come, thinking: 'what a funny looking bunch of guys they are!' and it got even better. the singer martin von inghardt, a very charismatic man, entered the stage just to jump right back into the audience and get the crowd going. throughout the - sadly very short - set he would be the perfect impersonator of a joker, the lonely bachelor on the couch, the stage diver and the impassionate performer. we witnessed him asserting silence among the crowd just to scream even louder. we enjoyed his oversized smiles and his dedication to the band and songs. he even wandered off stage to give me a long hug - unexpected, but yeah, enjoyable.
luckily i purchased their self-titled ep just before the gig, and it has been on constant replay for three days now. not only are their songs highly electrified, they also got perfect song titles like sonic sea, which fits perfectly into this blog as it is a song about - music!
who was the poor fellow who had to leave his workplace during every single song to fix the monitors and microphone stands on stage? the sound technician, honoured with a song called i love myself for hating you. ;-)
their six songs long set left me extraordinarily happy and wanting more. so, instead of coffee, i'd rather listen to the animal five every morning.
the animal five got no record deal outside sweden!help them and buy the record here or here so they can perform in your town and get the change to get the cd released in other countries, as well!
you can tell by the increasing amount of young people with chaotic hairstyles in the street that popkomm is happening this week. popkomm is europe's biggest musical fair and is always a good opportunity to go to amazing parties. over the last few years popkomm gave me the opportunity to see people like goldie or the stereo mc's perform live.
you can tell by my current chaotic hairstyle that i've been lying in bed all week, feeling sick, and therefor missed most of the popkomm events.
nevertheless i went and saw peter, björn & john last thursday. it was a really nice evening, the guys did their best to entertain the crowd. the continued playing even when the lights went off and sweat dropping from the artist is usually a very good indication of dedication to music.
tonight i am going to take my tired body and mashed brain to a party called die dumme schweden. this is something i've been looking forward to going to for a long time. it's a nice party with five swedish bands (at least two of them i already know i'm going to like) and a dj-set by a musician who has been ever-so inspiring when it comes to good underground music and older stuff.
but more on that later. i hope i won't have an aspirine hangover!
over the last two weeks i spent some days working at a different shop than where i usually am. my colleague there is quite into modern r'n'b music - which i have been neglecting ever since. i had to listen to a justin timberlake record three times in a row without realising this was mr even-hardrock-computer-nerds-love-his-music. i found out when i found the cd lying around some days later and thought: 'okay, maybe this is better than what i had to listen to last time!' apparently, it was the same stuff.
my colleague also had a joy denalane record which i confused with mary j. blige. it is quite a shame i didn't know who was singing, because i thought if there is one r'n'b artist i might like, it's mary. but seeing it the other way round there is hope yet, because it was only ms denalane i had to bare.
highly likely, r'n'b will remain a mystery to me, forever.
note: thanx to looza for updating while my pc was blinde. tune in soon again for other concert reviews and a little story about me visiting an official popkomm party.
I am soon moving to a new flat and apart from the usual stress and problems this involves there are rather specific problems related to music.
Some that fall into my mind :
- I hope I can listen to my music loudly in the new flat. I don't plan to reach "clublevel", but once I lived in a flat where the granny below came ringing the door as soon as I put some music on. Which made me wonder, aren't old people supposed to be generally hearing impaired ?
- I have to pack all my technical stuff properly. Lost a turntable once because it got smashed in the process of moving. Also have to make sure no cables disappear.
- 900 vinyl records are frigging heavy and a pain to pack up.
- yet again there will be a long process of adjusting in the new flat, finding the right place for the speakers, putting everything within reach (my amp doesnt have a remote) and the CDs and Records as close to the PC/Turntable as possible or soon my room will become the mess I tend to cause when I can't reach something or put it back without having to move my legs. I am a lazy dude.
Today is the Anniversary of the 9-11 attacks, but because this is a music-related blog this ofcourse has something to do with music.
On 9-11-2001 I saw Radiohead in Berlin for the first (and so far only) time live.
I didn't listen to Radiohead in their early and big days, "Creep" was and is a song that does not appeal to me and even "OK Computer" did not spark my interest.
But when "Kid A" was released I was totally stunned. A mix of rock, jazz and electronica I had never heard before. This and "Amnesiac" are still on my Top10 list of records "for the island" and I made all my music-producing-friends at that time listen to both records and most of them were amazed as I was, although none of them listened to any (Indy-)Rock aswell.
I haven't yet listened to "Hail to the Thief" or "Eraser" because I read it's more like the old "Radiohead"-Records. Maybe one day when I am really open for them I will give it a shot.
So, on the morning of 9-11 we prepared to catch a train when an hour before we had to go to the station someone called me up and told me to switch the TV on which I did and so I learned about the attacks that had taken place. We went to Berlin anyway and the concert was very strange ... the crowd was very quiet, there was not much applause and Thom Yorke started to talk about his feelings after a few songs and it was all a very strange mood. In a way this was the most sad and the most intense concert I ever visited in my whole life.
The next day there was a lot of Fuzz in the Berlin' Newspapers because as it turned out all public events had been cancelled except for some Ice-Skating-Event and the Radiohead-Gig and so the papers started accusing Radiohead for partying after such horrible events, which was as far from the truth as I can imagine.
Also, out of sheer luck two weeks later I found an FTP-Site somewhere on the net which had a bootleg of this exact concert, but somehow I never listened to it more than once because I would like to keep the memory of this evening as the feeling I had without having a sharp reproduction of the music.
Hello people, welcome me, I am the new co-author of this blog. I won't reveal yet who I am, maybe tba will wrote more about this later.
Just the facts that are interesting for this blog :
29 years old, spend alot of time listing to music, in the past I had punk/techno/d&b/hiphop-phases, I still listen to alot of musical styles but now my true love belongs to funk/jazz/soul/disco from the 70s, the other thing is house/tech-music that I love to go clubbing to but listen rarely at home (my speakers just dont pack it).
I am doing music for about 15 years myself now, never on a really professional level, but somehow I have to keep doing it to stay sane. Check www.loozabeats.de for some of the music aswell as my myspace-page.
I started DJing a while ago, yet again not really professional, it's just something that I have fun doing, some mixsets are avaiable at www.xstreamist.com/litm.
And I am collecting rare and obscure records from eastern europe, an obsession you can take a look at www.eastern-crates.com.
Gonna make my first contribution to this blog later tonight.
you'll hardly find recommendations for yet-to-become famous musicians on this blog, because i usually start to like a band after their biggest hit has been out of the 'charts' again for half a year. but this time i'm the early bird who catches the worm.
on myspace i got a request by a singer from malmö who calls herself steso songs. i listened to one song, added her to my friends and found myself still clicking on the same four songs two hours later. try the same.
Today i am celebrating the birthday of my favourite singer, the spectabulous, phantasmagorical, unique and one and only
Nina Persson.
Born on the 6th of september 1974 in swedish jönköping, she joined the band her friends Peter Svensson and Magnus Sveningsson created in 1992. They would soon become successful in sweden with their first album Emmerdale and gain world wide success with the followers Life and First Band On The Moon. i am talking about The Cardigans. i gave my heart to this band in about 1996 and will store them in my heart forever. They are in large parts responsible for my general taste and interest in music and are a constant influence for getting to know other good bands.
Nina Persson is the woman with the most incredible voice ever. one single word from her mouth, spoken or sung, can calm me down, no matter how upset i am.
if you are not familiar with her and the band i suggest you go out and get ALL their records immediately, plus Nina's solo release A Camp and join me in admiring her.
had a very interesting conversation with two friends of mine today. we talked about all kinds of music. how guitars should be recorded in the bathtub or an inca monumental (safe bet for good sound i was told). metal festivals in germany and norway was also a topic and the fact that popular metal bands, as crazy as they may appear on stage, are professional businessmen. (you want names?)
metal is one of the few musical styles i dont listen to at all. good recommendations, anyone?
saw a decent documentary about 60's soul and funk record companies like motown or stax. it basically described the different scenes in cities like philadelphia, chicago and memphis. it was great that the artists were presented just the way they were and could talk freely about whatever came to their mind. but the musical parts were way to short and the artist's names were not mentioned. as i am not too familiar with the scene, i'm gonna have a hard time now searching for the songs i liked.
one not-so-nonrelevant reason why i moved from boredom to berlin was the idea to be able to see all my favourite artists live. and last night i ticked off another name on my list: roni size. overhearing people i heard it has been ten years since he last came to berlin, so everybody seemed to be quite excited. i went to the venue about half past eleven because the entrance fee would be cheaper up until midnight. however, ten to 12 there was no queue in front of the club, people just walked straight in. my friends were not in sight yet so i decided to wait for them. i just walked up and down the street and when i returned to the club 5 mins later the queue was very long. sort of looked like it was planned that way so people had to pay more.
when i entered the club it was still empty, but the music was awesome. the dj was playing fantastic drum'n'bass and the mc really screamed and shouted.
club was slowly getting full and at 2 o'clock sharp roni size began his dj-set. i was very excited, getting in the mode and danced a little while.
interlude: dancing to drum'n'bass music when i dance to drum'n'bass music, i have two different ways of moving. one is jumping around heavily, tossing my legs. the other one is swaying the hips and upper part of the body. good drum'n'bass makes me switch between those two, very good drum'n'bass makes me do both at the same time.
unfortunately i must say that last night i only jumped around. i wasn't satisfied with roni size because he didn't play any of his great hits (which i of course longed to dance to) - except from throwing in parts of brown paper bag once. instead he put on the bassline of the white stripes' seven nation army twice, which made me think he'd been running through his progamme and was starting from the beginning again. sometimes there were long experimental parts and it was impossible to dance, it was merely disturbing sounds.
at the entrance i got a free cd of the dj and mc who performed before roni size appeared, mtc yaw and mc soultrain, which i am listening to right now. i like this stuff much more. last night, mc soultrain seemed like a modern shaman, singing himself and the audience in trance. that's what i realised last night. so even if roni size didnt live up to my expectations i know i should start going to d'n'b parties again. and definitely see goldie and bukem again.
last night i went to see germany's very first successful hip hop group, die fantastischen vier. the event was promoted by a mobil network company called o2. i knew from previous o2 events that this would be a well-organised concert with the possibility to get guaranteed entrance, nice lanyards to keep as memorabilia, plus the whole thing was free.
die fantastischen vier released their first record, jetzt geht's ab in 1991 and their latest, viel, in 2004. that's why i expected the venue to be quite packed. fortunately the concert was at an outside area, which gave the whole thing a nice festival atmosphere and left enough room for people to stroll around.
i don't own any of the records so i am familiar with their 'hits' only. i ended up knowing about half of the songs they played.
when the concert started i immediately realised, once more, that german lyrics can be quite awkward:
was geht, was geht ich sag's dir ganz konkret
(i'm not going to translate this... ;-) )
as the concert progressed i enjoyed it more and more and even ended up dancing and screaming. so yeah, i had a time.
in a few days, you'll surely be able to watch a recording of the concert on the o2 webpage, until then check their videos on youtube.com if you like. i recommend sie ist weg, tag am meer and mfg.
tonight will be roni size doing a dj-set, so check back here tomorrow on this!
