Lazy Monday : Holiday song

Well, it's THAT time of the year again, so here we go...

I found this nice song in my mailbox. The Specimen seem to enjoy the sleigh bells and the prospect of possible snow : Wish it would snow (mp3)

You can buy their EP Do U Damage here

Pardon my French

That is the title of an album that I bought in 1997, by the band fuck. The sleeve shows a drawing with numerous people and animals, and my kids instantly liked it.

Although the band have not played any live gigs since 2004, their website remains updated...

Enjoy these tracks :

• Fuck motel (mp3) from Pardon my French
• Wrongy wrong (mp3) from their debut Pretty... slow
• Oshun (mp3) from Cupid's cactus
• Motherfuckeroos (mp3) from their last album These are not my bongos

You can buy their records here

Rewind the video : Music for life

Belgian radio station Studio Brussel will be hosting the second edition of Music for life, an action to support the Flemish Red Cross and its water campaign in Namibia. Three DJ's will be living in a glass house, eating nothing and drinking only water, for 6 days. Dutch and Swiss collegues will do something similar in The Hague (The Netherlands) and Genève (Switzerland).
You can support the action by buying a song on the radio, or by buying this song from Fixkes and Axelle Red : Over 't water



You can buy the song here

Leonard Cohen

He's definitely one of the great musicians of our time. His unique voice and his outstanding musical performances, his life-span career with numerous great songs, all put him in the line of great pop music icons.

Leonard Cohen is one of the greatest, surely...

Enjoy these songs :

• Bird on the wire (mp3)
• Hey, that's no way to say goodbye (mp3)
• Who by fire (mp3)

You can buy his albums here

Lazy Monday : Lee Perry

Although I have never been that much into reggae, I like its coolness now and again, and I'm pretty sure that some really great stuff has been recorded which I have no clue of its existence...
Every now and again, I stumble across something that I really, really like. Lee 'Scratch' Perry must be among the greatest reggae and dub artists cause whenever I hear his tunes, I'm totally won for him...

Enjoy these songs from Apeology :

• Zion blood (mp3)
• Evil tongue (mp3)
• Roast fish and cornbread (mp3)

Watch the video for I am the upsetter :

You can buy Apeology here

Some songs to enjoy...

Here are a handfull of songs I really like and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do :

• Flux (12" version) - Bloc Party (mp3)
• Nightless night - Husky Rescue (mp3)
• Foundations - Kate Nash (mp3)
• When under ether - PJ Harvey (mp3)

Buy the Bloc Party single here

Buy Ghost is not real (Husky Rescue) here

Buy Made of bricks (Kate Nash) here

Buy White chalk (PJ Harvey) here

The effect of passing windows, reading : Marjan Debaene

A giant poster saying Wolfish times hanging on a window near my daughter's school, has catched my eye several times. Curious as I got, I ended up googling the title of the promoted CD and ended up at the website of Marjan Debaene, a Belgian female singer-songwriter who has released her debut album more than ten years ago.

Containing songs she wrote between 2001 and 2005, her third album was released in the fall of last year. She got some airplay with the first single (Charlie Chaplin) on national radio (but not the station I usually listen to) and has opened for Luka Bloom and neeka. She played gigs in the UK and in Bosnia-Herzegovina (being the first Belgian pop or rock artist to play there since the war), but all of that would have passed by me if it hadn't been for that poster !

Enjoy these tracks :

• Charlie Chaplin (mp3)
• Do you want me (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Album of the week : Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung

This Belgian band's epynomous debut album proved you can play modern, rocking music without guitars. A clarinet, a violin, a cello and an accordion are all it takes for them to play something that reaches from klezmer to classic rock (they managed to squeeze some Led Zeppelin into Doorloop at live performances). Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung would change their name into DAAU for the following albums and their music would grow into something a bit more conventional (although you should definitely check out their Radiohead cover Of R*D*H*D (2 + 2 = 5) to understand how unconventional their music remains...).

Their debut album was released in 1995 and it definitely was something new. But even today, the album still stands firm as a house. The "warning on the sleeve is not without cause : "magisches theater - eintrit nicht für jedermann - nur für verrückte - eintrit kostet den verstand" (magical theater - admittance not for anyone - just for the mad - admittance will cost you your mind). The music (there is no singing on this album) still succeeds in capturing your attention to release it only after hours past the last note. At times you hear something which is vaguely reminiscent of something you know, what can't quite catch... (in Doorloop, you probably cán pin it down to Ravel's Bolero). This album does what most excellent debuts do : although it has been followed by probably better records, it remains the one that gets played more often.

I have seen this band play live on the tour that followed the release (which is why I know of the Led Zeppelin piece...) and they were really awesome. Check out their tour dates (they'll play some Swedish shows in february 2008...) !

Enjoy these tracks :

• V² - Drieslagstelsel (mp3)
• Doorloop (+ traditional) (mp3)

You can buy their debut album and their other albums here

The band offers you 4 of their songs for free on their website (here, under downloads) : Catfish blues, Voodoo sim, Mary go round and Gin & tonic.

Next week's album of the week : Kurr - Amiina

When the 80s weren't that cool : Tiffany

I suppose I had fallen in love with the good-looking, somewhat naughty and definitely identifiable Tiffany when I heard and saw her singing I think we're alone now (mp3) back in 1987.
"Children behave !
That's what they say when we're together"
Yes, I really felt like I wasn't being taken serious by my parents, and yes, I could really feel it physically, the butterflies of teenage love...
The overall excitement of the two lovers was a feeling I could so relate to and she was looking so vivid, so pretty (in a non-perfect and thus even more attractive way) and so young, that being 15, there was little resistance on my part.
Even now, watching the video, I can still remember the feeling she gave me, and hey, it's been 20 years !

And guess what ! Totally unnoticed on this side of the ocean, she is still having a career, and has released a new album (Just me) earlier this year... Get all the information on her impressive (well, in a way...) career at Wikipedia.

Buy her latest album here
Buy the album that originally featured "I think we're alone now" here

Discover these artists !

Norwegian artist Grande is about to release his debut album Uppers, downers, screamers & howlers. Heavy guitars with a softening voice in Rhythms of sin and a touch of eighties in We did it all make it worthwile to give him a listen. You can listen to more songs on his website or check his MySpace.

Enjoy :

• Rhythms of sin (mp3)
• We did it all (mp3)

Montreal-based Plajia have just released their debut Beautiful explosion and will be playing a show tomorrow at Bar St Laurent 2 in Montreal. It might be a good idea to go and see them ! They too have a MySpace you can visit...

Enjoy :

• Dummy (mp3)
• Beautiful explosion (mp3)
• Beating the charms (mp3)

You can buy the debut album from Grande here

You can buy the debut album from Plajia here

Lazy Monday : Banco de Gaia

I don't remember why I ever bought the Banco de Gaia album Maya. It must have been in those days when I had just discovered techno and related genres harboured some great songs too...
It's not an album I play a lot, and I hardly ever listen to it as a whole, but at times, it really appeals to me...
Just the kind of thing for a Lazy Monday !

Enjoy these tracks :

• Mafich arabi (mp3) from Maya
• Down from the mountain (mp3) from You are here
• How much reality can you take ? (mp3) from Igizeh
• Glove puppet (Dreadzone remix) (mp3) from 10 years remixed

Enjoy this video for Last train to Lhasa :

You can buy the albums of Banco de Gaia here

Album of the week : Post pop parade - Chris Price

If you like your records to sound like the ones you remember from the eighties, this album is a sure bet ! Chris Price has made a poppy record, however without losing sight of today's music scene.

Admittedly, the first associations when hearing the complete record, were Kraftwerk and Erasure, but listen to the raps in Heat Up and mistake it for Fat Lip in Chemical Brothers' recent single The Salmon Dance. If the songs don't sound very eighties (e.g. Taken) they definitely sound quite nineties (And She Was) with their bleeps which could well have been The Orb-inspired...

Overall, this album may not have the quality (nor the ambition) of a today's Achtung Baby or Kid A, but if you like something to go well with the dishes you're doing or ironing your shirt, this is definitely the right album (to all you sarcasts : this IS meant as a compliment...). It's also very suitable for Friday or Saturday evenings, before going out : it'll get you in the mood for sure ! It combines the best of early hiphop (Grandmaster Flash, Afrika Bambaata,...) with a Pet Shop Boys nose for pop.

Funny how Chris Price calls it post-pop...

Enjoy these tracks :

• Heat Up (mp3)
• Radioactive (mp3)

You can buy the album here.

Or even better : Chris Price has informed me that blog readers can buy at for about a dollar less : send 12 USD and your address to sales@chris-price.com or mail them at info@chris-price.com for full information. This offer includes free worldwide shipping.

Next week's album of the week : Die anarchistische abendunterhaltung - Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung

Album of the week : The fat of the land - The Prodigy

Try singing The Prodigy's Smack my bitch up at a feminist convention, and you'll understand the impact of words on people fighting for a cause...

The single, following Breathe and Firestarter, raised high expectations for this album, back in 1997. For me, those expectations were not entirely met. True, the three songs I already cited, are good Prodigy material, and there are some more songs that remain quite good. But most of the songs contain at least one good idea, but sadly the idea's not been worked out thoroughly, which leaves me a bit unsatisfied. Although, I will not deny that I have enjoyed and still enjoy most of the album. The L7 cover Fuel my fire is probably the weekest song, and Narayan isn't exactly among the best The Prodigy have ever done, but hey, you can skip songs on your CD player, can't you...

Following the release of this album, their tour led them to Brussels (Vorst Nationaal), where I saw their concert. Unfortunately, that concert was a bigger disappointment : they seemed like a good CD-player : loud and good sound quality, but the songs differed far too little from the studio versions...

Still, enjoy these tracks :

• Serial thrilla (mp3)
• Smack my bitch up (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Next week's album of the week : Post pop parade - Chris Price

Rewind the video : Andreas Dorau

Eighties pop to the extreme : that would be the only good way to describe how this song sounds. Andreas Dorau's Fred vom Jupiter (mp3), a German song which you don't have to understand to enjoy, is as eighties as it could be. In fact, this could as well have been posted in my 80's theme...

This video breathes amateurism, which is exactly which makes it so irresistable ! I wonder whose children have painted the background and made the rocket for Fred...

Lazy Monday : Amsterdam Assholes

Amsterdam Assholes is the live project of DJ Sandrien, a co-operation with Wouter Hisschemoller.

Enjoy these tracks :

• Boormachine
• Da ga mooi nie door da feest

Buy the record here

A lot of Sigur Ros music

I do so adore Sigur Ros !
Listen to all of these tracks :

• untitled #8 (a.k.a. popplagid) (mp3)
• starálfur (mp3)
• olsen olsen (mp3)
• leit af lífi (mp3)
• von (mp3)
• fjöll í austri fagurblá (mp3)
• fönklagid (live) (mp3)
• untitled #1 (a.k.a. vaka) (live) (mp3)

This is the video for Hoppipolla :

You can buy their records here

Cem Karaça

Music blogs have set me on the trail of numerous artists I had never even heard of, and I consider myself someone who knows quite a bit what's around in music though...
One of the discoveries I made through such a blog, was the Turkish artist Cem Karaça. He fled Turkey about a year before the 1980 military coup and it wasn't until 1987 that he could return under strict conditions about not doing any political actions. He had lived in Germany as an exile and he died in Istanbul in 2004. In the video to the song I like best of this artist, he looks a bit like a Zappa-esque bohemian, and his gesticulating is really intruiging...



Enjoy these tracks :

• Namus belasi - Cem Karaça (mp3)
• Suya giden alli gelin - Cem Karaça & Apaslar (mp3) : it starts a bit like California über alles by Dead Kennedys

You can buy Cem Karaça music here

I'm (not) from Barcelona

I am not, and neither is Emanuel Lundgren (he's from Sweden !). But he and his friends have brought some of the purest pop music of the last years, and I still can't help smiling every time I listen to We're from Barcelona, their big hit...
Enjoy these tracks :

• We're from Barcelona (mp3)
• Treehouse (mp3)

Buy their record here

Rewind the video : Aphex Twin

It takes more than 4 minutes in this 10 minute video before the music even starts, and we get to be served a whole lot of explicit language before it does (and I really, really mean a lot of explicit language !) Then some guy with Michael Jackson-like dance moves gets out of an extremely long car and the song itself sounds like a nice melodic tune that has been crushed by a train. Every time your ears get comfortable with it, some weird cut-up or breakbeat makes them alert again. And as on the sleeve of the vynil edition of the single (which I happen to have in my possession), Richard D James, aka Aphex Twin, does something funny/strange with the heads and bodies...

And the weirdest part yet has to come... The video ends as if the movie has ended, with all the credits rolling over your screen. Enjoy it !

You can buy Aphex Twin music here

Lazy Monday : Pompelmoessap

Pompelmoessap is Dutch for "grapefruit juice", so when I stumbled upon this song I was a little intrigued by the band name. I found out that Pompelmoessap is a Swiss minimal techno act that seem to have released only one EP so far, Winters are getting shorter.


Enjoy this track : Untapped terrain (mp3)


Buy the EP here

Album of the week : Puta's fever - Mano Negra

I remember that the first song of the 1990 edition of the Rock Torhout festival that I could properly listen to after having entered the festival site, was a cover (didn't know that then, however) of Bobby Fuller's I fought the law. The band that opened the festival was having a massive radio hit with King kong five, and their mix of all kinds of languages and all kinds of music genres blew me off my feet.

Today their lead singer Manu Chao has a relatively succesfull solo career, but I still prefer their breakthrough album Puta's fever.

It has witty lyrics in French (Pas assez de toi, La rançon du succès) as well as Spanish and even Arabic sung songs. It has punch, a sort of gypsy punk attitude, but also downtempo songs that touch your heart.

Enjoy these songs :

• Rock 'n roll band (mp3)
• King kong five (mp3)
• Sidi h' bibi (mp3)
• El sur (mp3)

You can buy the album here

Next week's album of the week : The fat of the land - Prodigy

Somebody's watching me

Antwerp based band Capsule have released a very well-sleeved debut album, Haunted house, in 2006. It has a very goth-like look, but actually the music rather bluesy and jazzy. On the album they cover Screamin' Jay Hawkins' I put a spell on you, as well as a rather surprising Rockwell cover : Somebody's watching me (mp3).

You can buy the album here

This is the video to the original Rockwell song :

rockwell - somebody's watching me
Uploaded by chilavert

Explosions in the sky

It's hard to imagine that a band that plays instrumental post-rock would ever score hit singles. Explosions In The Sky probably never will, but anyone with ears should take a good listen to them. They sound absolutely fabulous, and a friend of mine who has seen them live earlier this year, claims they are phenomenal.

Enjoy this song : Yasmin the light (mp3)

You can buy their albums here

New Grace Potter video

Grace Potter & The Nocturnals (read this and this post) have released a second single from their album This is somewhere.
You can watch the video for Ain't no time here :


Grace Potter and the Nocturnals "Ain't No Time" from John Furnari on Vimeo.

RMX : Bring it on - Goose

This is a Belgian band that invariably got picked to be the band with the best live show on all the major Belgian festivals they've played the last two years : Goose !

Enjoy the remix for their latest single :

Bring it on (Tronik Youth edit) (mp3)
Bring it on (album version) (mp3)

Watch the video :



Buy their debut album Bring it on here

Album of the week : This is somewhere - Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

Think Bonnie Raitt ! Think Heather Nova (on Oyster or Siren) !

Yes, now you've reached the place where you could meet and hear Grace Potter...

On her latest album This is somewhere, she and her band bring you songs which we could so easily call americana. Personally, I prefer the uptempo songs (like Mr Columbus, Ah Mary and Mastermind), but you've got to give it to them : they bring us some brilliant slows, on which I'd dance with a beautiful woman any time of day ! Apologies (tears almost have to well in your own eyes listening to this) and Falling or flying (never heard anyone sound like Heather Nova this much, not being Heather Nova herself...) have musicians taking you along on their trip and a voice heavy with cigarette smoke and heartache.

I regret to say I don't think Grace Potter will ever become big here in Belgium (haven't heard of her on the radio yet, so if it weren't for the internet, I would have remained in oblivion about her too...) : this is just not the kind of music many over here listen to, but hey... they're so wrong !

Think Bonnie Raitt and think Heather Nova, and think even better : that's where you'll find Grace Potter ! And keep listening to her album, over and over again...

Enjoy this song : Ah mary (mp3)

Listen to all songs on the album on her website, under Media.

Buy the album here

Newt week's album of the week : Puta's fever by Mano Negra

New Radiohead album

Radiohead will be "self-releasing" their new album, which happens a lot earlier than expected...
In rainbows can be ordered as a download, or in a special discbox (containing the CD, an extra CD, 2 12" heavyweight vinyl records, artwork and lyrics booklets). And... you choose how much you value that, cause there's no fixed price !
It all sounds pretty revolutionary to me !

You can pre-order here

Lazy Monday : Daniël Lohues

It must be over a year now since I got acquainted with Daniel Lohues, a Dutch singer-songwriter who sings in his own language, which is a Dutch dialect ( Drenthes ), over the fantastic internet radio of Kink FM, a radio station that got no spot on the FM band in The Netherlands and which can only be heard on the internet and through cable.

I really love this simple song, which comes as a love story at first, but which really tells the tale of nostalgia and of how you change from being a young lad starting to discover the world to a grown-up who's been around...

Enjoy it yourself : Annelie (mp3)

You can listen to fragments of each song on the album Allennig here

You can buy the album Allennig here

Manic Street Preachers

Although the Manic Street Preachers keep releasing new albums, I love their earlier work a lot more.

To explain this, I've collected some of their older songs for you :

• Motorcycle emptiness (mp3) : their first hit single over here, and the one which won them my ear for quite a long time... It must have been the combination of the raw (motorcycle) and the sad (emptiness)...
• La tristesse durera (mp3) : French lines sung by an English speaking band (even if they are Welsh...), it keeps sounding quite funny in a way, but still... a very good song !
• If you tolerate this your children will be next (mp3) : an anti-fascist song with a title that has multiple meanings really...
• Suicide is painless (mp3) : the theme from M.A.S.H. covered by the Manics... how cool is that !
• A design for life (mp3) : just a simple example as to how to succeed in striking the right chord...

Enjoy these tracks, which can all be found on Forever delayed which you can purchase here

Sweet Coffee

Sweet Coffee are a Belgian band with a laidback sound, and they offer you their new single on their website : Downtown (mp3) Enjoy it !

They'll be presenting their new album Naked City tonight at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels.

Buy Sweet Coffee stuff here

Pinback

Pinback have just released a new album : Autumn of the seraphs. It has an absolutely ugly front cover, but the songs are -once again- quite good !

I really enjoyed their debut back in 1999, which remains their best in my opinion.

Enjoy these songs :

• from their debut This is a Pinback CD : Lyon (mp3)
• from Some voices EP : Manchuria (mp3)
• from Autumn of the seraphs : From nothing to nowhere (mp3)

Buy their albums here

Album of the week : Human race ignition - Tekton Motor Corporation

In 1994, when I visited the Pukkelpop festival for the first time, I saw a Slovenian band that did something no one else ever did (not to my knowledge anyway) : they performed with two heavy trucks among their instruments. Unfortunately, as they had to play indoors in the "Dance tent", Tekton Motor Corporation couldn't do it there, but they did when playing in open air.

Something else they did which was unique and which was the reason I was curious enough to go and see this unknown band, they sampled Formula 1 race cars.

I really enjoyed the concert : it was good dance music ! So I bought their album, Human race ignition, and have enjoyed it occasionally since...

The sounds of the F1 race cars were recorded at McLaren testing sessions in France, Michael Andretti and Mark Blundell being the drivers.

The album has three songs on it, but each song consists of 4 to 5 parts, which can be distinguished quite well. You can listen to Tek I (mp3), which consists of : Cognitive Magnitude, Ignition, Dreams and The Horizon. Each song has race car sounds in it, along with guitars and a lot of techno sounds. This may not be the best dance music there is, but the race car sounds give it that extra spice to make it stand out anyway...

The band only released two albums (Human race ignition with the tracks Tek I, Tek II and Tek III ; Champions with the tracks Tek IV and Tek V !), and they made it to the first Mind The Gap compilation of the music magazine Gonzo Circus.

You can buy the album here (although there seem to be different versions of the same album...). My version of the album was released by Dreamtime Recording (KT 8 11CD).

Next week's album of the week : "This is somewhere" by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

When the 80s weren't that cool : Fiction Factory

Starting today, here's a new thematical series : When the 80s weren't that cool (which was : IN the 80s...)
Our first nostalgic trip brings us to Fiction Factory, a Scottish band which could righteously be called a one hit wonder, as Feels like heaven (mp3) was their only succesfull single, reaching no. 6 in the UK charts and even no. 1 in Switzerland. They released 2 more singles and no less than 2 albums, never to be heard of again...
What I liked in them (I was 12 at that time), was the high voice of singer Kevin Patterson, the poppy melody and the video which seemed to have a candle glow spread all over it...

Fiction Factory - Feels Like Heaven
Uploaded by hakim93200

Buy the single here

Massive Attack

A group's name can hold such high promises that one is almost sure to be disappointed when hearing the music. Massive Attack however has always succeeded in disobeying this observation : they have brought some of the most powerful music I have ever heard. Although I have never really loved their first hit single (Unfinished sympathy), I was blown away by Angel (mp3), Risingson (mp3) and Karmacoma (mp3). I especially have always loved Angel for the way in which the build up in the beginning adds layer to layer, while the songs ends peeling off each of these layers.

Enjoy the songs yourself, and buy music by Massive Attack here.

Rewind the video : This Mortal Coil

You and your sister - This Mortal Coil

How many times have I listened to this song, which I bought as a vinyl single when studying at the university ? The frail voice of the singer and the shaky sound on the vinyl spread their magic all over me.
This is not even an official video to the song, but I love this song so much that I definitely wanted to post it on this series anyway...
Enjoy !

Today's favourites

Two songs stand out currently for me when listening to the radio (and it seems I can hear them almost any time I turn on the radio...)

Back to black (mp3) by Amy Winehouse is the kind of song which makes you realize Amy's got a voice that can really convey a message. She's the kind of girl you'd be afraid to be falling for. To me, she's like the dark side of Lily Allen, and in looks she resembles Janice (from Friends) : somehow I expect here to burst into one of the Janicy laughs any minute... Nevertheless, the song is awesome !

Hard-Fi's Suburban knights (mp3) on the other hand is a sticky song : it attaches itself to the back of your head, and your ears seem to be picking it up all the time. Just like that other great song (Cash machine) by the same band, it's exactly what's pop music is supposed to be : catchy as a cold !

Buy Amy Winehouse music here
Buy Hard-Fi music here

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

This is somewhere, the third album by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, has been released recently. I have only heard this track (Ah Mary - mp3) so far, but I sure like what I hear. The singer's voice stands out and reminds me of Melissa Etheridge. The music tells tales of wide open plains.
The past years they have been almost non-stop touring, opening for the likes of Josh Ritter, Black Crowes, Toots,... They performed live on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, which this video is proof of... Watch, listen and enjoy !


Their future shows include these :

Baltimore, MA : 11th and 12th Sept
Telluride, CO : 14th Sept (2 shows !)
Austin, TXC : 16th Sept
Chicago, IL : 22nd Sept
East Burke, VT : 29th Sept

More info on their upcoming shows here
You can buy the album here

Activity level

... I know it's been low lately, but that'll soon change again, as soon as I get some things straightened out...

Hold on, I'm coming !

Song of the day : 25/8

Krewcial is a Belgian, local hiphop star, who has released two albums so far and who had a radio show on Studio Brussel some years ago...

Here's his track, 25/8 (mp3), from the album "25/8".

At his website, you can listen to some songs he made with Tom Kestens (from Lalalover) and Sandrine, which his record company doesn't seem to know what to do (here)

Buy his records here

Due to some problems I have had with the server hosting my files, I haven't been able to post much in the last week.

Rewind the video : Beirut - Postcards from Italy

This clip has been compiled of Super 8-images from family archives, which the owners have sold on eBay, by director Alma Ha'rel. Beautiful !!!

The Saltshakers

Sometimes you can tell a lot about a band just by its name (and, I have to admit, sometimes you can be really, really mistaken by a band's name...) The Saltshakers make exactly the kind of music I'd expect them to : powerpop with lots of rock 'n roll, reminescent views of swamp rock, with a voice which seems to have been created to shout one-two-three before kicking off another great song...

Enjoy these tracks (mp3's) :

• Believe
• NOLA
• Whiskeytown
• Amplified
• Don't make a sound

Buy their album and EP here

Kosovo

This is not about the disputed region in the former Yougoslavia, but about a band from Austin, Texas. Three musicians formed this band in the early days of 2006. Their debut, Pascal EP, will be released this year, while they continue working on their first full-length album. They claim their music makes you wonder where man ends and machine begins, but I just think they are very good at what they do : making music for those with ears...

Enjoy these two songs :

Milk of magnesia (mp3) : reminds me of Herbert, with a grain of David Byrne

A terraformed existence (mp3) : sounds like The Orb meets Daft Punk

Their EP will be self-released, so keep checking their MySpace if you'd like to buy it...

Pukkelpop starts Thursday

Pukkelpop festival starts the day after tomorrow, and these are the bands I definitely want to see :

Thursday :

Iggy and the Stooges (video : I wanna be your dog)

Kaiser Chiefs
Low

Friday :

Arcade Fire
Dinosaur Jr (mp3 : Almost ready)
Sophia (mp3 : Every day)
Skream (mp3 : Lose control )
Various

Saturday :

Sonic Youth (they'll play the entire album Daydream nation live ; video : Silver rocket)

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
Kings Of Leon
The Shins (mp3 : Phantom limb)
Spoon (mp3 : I turn my camera on (John McEntire remix) )
Voxtrot (mp3 : Kid gloves)
Woven Hand

Of course, there will be more bands to see for me, but these are the ones I do not want to miss. Unfortunately, there is one overlap : Sonic Youth and ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead are on stage (different stages, of course) at exactly the same time. Hard choice to make there !
Expect a review of the festival here soon...

Here are some more artists performing at the festival :

Jesus - Brand New (mp3)
Pretend we're dead - Cansei de Ser Sexy (mp3)
Rainbowarriors - CocoRosie (mp3)
Smokers outside the hospital doors - Editors (mp3)
Kvraagetaan - Fixkes (mp3)
Collarbone - Fujiya and Miyagi (mp3)
Heavyweight champion of the world - Reverend and The Makers (mp3)

You can buy the music of these artists here

Eugene Francis Jr

Welsh is a language that seems to consist mainly of consonants. Luckily for us, Eugene Francis Jnr and The Juniors sing in English. "Poor Me" is their first single, released at the end of July. It has a nice, Gulliver-like video :


This band reminds me of those sunny Sunday mornings, when the curtains haven't yet been drawn away, but the sun shines right through them anyway. You can smell the coffee being made, the croissants in the oven and you feel like getting up not to lose one second of what is going to become a great day, full of possibilities. If you turn on the radio on such days, this is just the kind of music you'd expect them to be airing...
You can listen to the song on their MySpace. In addition, I have for you the B-side to the single :

Kites - Eugene Francis Jnr and the Juniors (mp3)

You can buy the single on iTunes US or UK

Preparing for Pukkelpop festival (4)

The Cribs can't get out off my head. Their Men's needs is just that kind of song.

They'll be performing at Pukkelpop too...

Enjoy these songs :

• Baby don't sweat (mp3)
• Another number (mp3)
• Men's needs (CSS remix) (mp3)

You can buy their music here

RMX : Fire in Cairo - The Cure

Some of the best remixes I know start off with a song that is quite familier, tear it off and use the bricks that lay scattered around to build a new song...

You should definitely listen to this remix, by Digitalism, of The Cure's Fire in Cairo, as played by Dr. Lektroluv at his live set at Extrema Outdoor, in Eindhoven (The Netherlands) on July 15th, 2006.

Fire in Cairo (Digitalism remix) - The Cure (mp3)

You can buy the Dr. Lektroluv album here

You can buy the album featuring the original version (Three imaginary boys by The Cure) here

Shiny happy people

This is quite a bizarre cover of the R.E.M. song, by Irish band The Fatima Mansions :

Shiny happy people - The Fatima Mansions (mp3)

Buy the album (Valhalla Avenue) here

Upcoming concerts

Here's a list of concerts to look forward to :

At Warandepark, Brussels (free concerts):

• 29th Aug : Ignatz
• 30th Aug : The Go Find and PSAPP

At Ancienne Belgique, Brussels (buy tickets here) :

• 14th Sept : Gorki plays "Gorky"
• 20th Sept : David Sylvian (sold out)
• 28th Sept : The Tragically Hip
• 3rd Oct : Caetano Veloso
• 5th Oct : Tied + Tickled Trio
• 9th Oct : The Cinematic Orchestra
• 17th Oct : Chuck Prophet
• 20th Oct : Nick Lowe
• 28th Oct : Tinariwen
• 12th Nov : The National
• 3rd Dec : Rodrigo Y Gabriela

At Vorst Nationaal, Brussels (buy tickets here) :

• 18th Aug : Norah Jones with special guest : M. Ward
• 19th Oct : Crowded House
• 26th Oct : Arno
• 23th Nov : Interpol
• 22th Dec : Gabriel Rios

At Vooruit, Gent (buy tickets here) :

• 7th Oct : I'm From Barcelona
• 30th Oct : Think Of One : Marrakesh Emballage Ensemble IV
• 18th Dec : Ozark Henry

At Petrol, Antwerpen (buy tickets here):

• 11th Aug : Magnapop and The Van Jets

At Cactus, Brugge (buy tickets here) :

• 28th Oct : Maceo Parker

Album of the week : Because of the times - Kings Of Leon

Kings Of Leon have blown me away with their single On Call, which made me curious to hear more from them. Their album Because of the times proves them to be a band that can really, really rock... Somehow, in a strange way, they reminded me of The Black Crowes : the melodious rock, the way even more down-tempo songs carry that energy,...

Opener Knocked up already enters with a hook that goes straight for your mind, to never leave it again, as does On call. But I also like the wide open view of songs like Trunk and Arizona. You can actually feel and see the roads ahead, amidst of the lonely desert (at least, that's how I picture Arizona...).

Enjoy these tracks :

• Knocked up (mp3)
• On call (mp3)
• Trunk (mp3)

You can buy the album here.

Next week's album of the week : Signs by Badmarsh&Shri

Amiina

You can listen to the entire album Kurr by Islandic all female band Amiina at the (still highly recommended) Luisterpaal site.
Here's the band's MySpace-page.

Order the album here

Troubles

Hi, I've been delayed in my posting due to various (unforseen) circumstances : we have moved our children's bedroom, our bedroom and the "work room" in our house, there have been some computer problems and I have had to stay in hospital for a few days...
We'll be back soon however posting as usual, but there are still some things left to be worked out here at home, but I guess in August I'll be back in full swing...

Anyway, to help you through the waiting hours, here's a few songs from bands performing at Pukkelpop festival :

• It could be - Absynthe Minded (mp3)
• Be my husband - Dez Mona (with Mauro Pawlowski as gast guitarist, live at the AB, Brussels) (mp3)
• Jesus built my hot rod - Prima Donkey (Ministry cover)

They're all Belgian too !

Enjoy...

Buy their records here

Au Revoir Simone

Rain poured out of the sky tonight, but I still took my bike to see a concert at Boomtown Festival, which is part of the famous city festival Gentse Feesten in my hometown.

Three beautiful young women, surrounded by synthesizers and other electronic instruments, appeared on stage. They looked somewhat frail and you would get the impression they were just three students doing well at university, spending whatever's left of their time just singing and making music. Still I thought they had a certain sparkle, that made them stand out and that would make my radar bleep whenever they enter the room.

Au Revoir Simone , a Brooklyn based female trio, had to open this night of the festival for The Frames. I had heard some of their songs (of their new album, The Bird of Music) on the internet and I really liked the new 80's sound of their pop songs, with their voices floating on top of it, so my expectations were rather high.

They opened their set with a beautiful Sad Song, while it had stopped raining... Unfortunately, the sound with the second song was not very well balanced, so their voices were hard to hear amidst all the music their appliances produced, but sound quality improved throughout their show (which lasted about 50 minutes). They celebrated the repair of their drum machine with champagne, telling us how Belgium and Belgian geniuses had saved their tour. One of the best songs of the night was a song I think was Dark Halls (I'm not familiar enough with their material to recognize every song, but I'm quite sure of this one after relistening to it at home).

They ended their show (while rain had once more started falling out of the sky in amounts you would sooner expect at waterfalls) with two songs that had a slower tempo, one of them being The Way to There, in which you could once again enjoy the harmony of their three lovely, almost angelic voices.

Soaking wet after having showered in open air like this, I nevertheless went home feeling great, having heard a good performance by a band I hadn't heard of one month ago...

You can listen to some of their songs on their MySpace and here's a song that they offer on their website (from their debut album Verses of Comfort, Assurance and Salvation) :

Through the backyards (mp3)

Buy their records here

Life on Mars

Jasper Steverlinck, singer of re-united Arid, and the two brothers Steven and Stijn Kolacny, who "run" the girls' choir Scala, have covered this David Bowie song :


Life on Mars (mp3)


The sober arrangement and the beautiful voice really do justice to the fine song that Bowie wrote, and it's become one of those songs you never forget once you've heard them...


Buy the record here

Rewind the video : The Kids

This Belgian punk band still rocks !

Album of the week : Damaged - Lambchop

Kurt Wagner has been making some of the most astonishingly beautiful music that I've heard over the years. This is the kind of music you may wake me up for any time, and this is the kind of music I'd love to hear being performed in a church or monastery (as Tindersticks did years ago in a small town in my country...)

Lambchop is as alt.country as you can get, and I definitely love it.

On Damaged the band brings us music that touches you to the very bone. Listen to the three songs below, and you'll catch my point... :

Paperback bible (mp3)

Beers before the barbican (mp3)

The decline of country and western civilization (mp3)

In addition, here's a live version of "Up with people" (mp3)

You can buy the record here

Next week's album of the week : Because of the times - Kings Of Leon

Lazy Monday : CocoRosie

My kids have a playhouse with animals that can be put on or off a button which produces the sound of the animal. I can't find the exact name of the toy nor a picture of it. I'll try to post a picture one of these days, and if someone recognizes it, post a comment please...
It's square with a house (barn) on it, and it has nine animals : (top to bottom, left to right) chicken, cat, bird, horse, dog, male goat (sorry, don't know the english word for it...), pig, cow and duck. It has been produced by Chicco.
I was surprised to hear exactly that sound of a cat on a CocoRosie song, from their album Noah's Ark.
Chicco have produced a toy with animal sounds called Noah's Ark, but as I don't see a cat on it, I don't think CocoRosie used THAT toy...

Bear hides and buffalo (mp3)

Buy the album here

Preparing for Pukkelpop Festival (3)

One of the bands that I definitely want to see at the festival, is Sophia. Ever since their debut, Fixed water, I have really enjoyed this band of Robin Proper-Sheppard, former lead singer of The God Machine.

Oh my love (mp3) (from People are like seasons)

When you're sad (mp3) (from Fixed water)

Ship in the sand (live) (mp3) (from De Nachten)

You can buy Sophia records here