Rewind the video : Tool

Today, we'll be rewinding our video tapes (so to speak) to watch Tool. They too will perform at Pukkelpop (see earlier post), and this is their first song I ever heard and which I instantly liked... : prison sex



What I like so much about the video, is how it reminds me of Tim Burton's Nightmare before Christmas, but groomier...

Pukkelpop festival

This year I'll be going to Pukkelpop festival in Hasselt again (it has been about 10 years...), as they scheduled it a weekend earlier so it won't interfere with my work...

These guys will be there too :

The Besnard Lakes : And you lied to me

Buy their record here

Lazy Monday : Echo dek

Primal Scream released a dub re-interpretation of their own Vanishing Point, which I grew to prefer above the original album.

If you ever need things to get quiet and chilly, put on this album (Echo dek), which you can purchase here...

Enjoy these songs :

Vanishing dub (mp3)

Last train (mp3)

links expired !

Album of the week : Kill uncle - Morrissey

I'm driving your girlfriend home
and she's saying how she never chose you
"turn left", she says so I turn left
and she says
"So how did I end up
so deeply involved in the very existence
I planned on avoiding?"
and I can't answer

I'm driving your girlfriend home
and she's laughing to stop herself crying
"drive on", she says so I drive on
and she says
"So how did I end up attached to this person
when his sense of humour gets gradually worser?"
and I can't tell her

I'm parking outside her home
and we're shaking hands
goodnight, so politely

I know little lyrics that describe so accurately the painful hurt of people drifting apart whilst using so little words and so trivial details, as "Driving your girlfriend home" on this week's album.
Morrissey, former singer of The Smiths, was quite unknown to me at the time, when I first heard Sing your life, a song taken from Kill uncle. I really loved the moody swing to it, how it sounded rustic and familiar and yet in touch with the spirit of those days...
I guess the album must have been about the tenth CD I ever bought (now I have hundreds of them, and hundreds of LP's, tapes and singles -both vinyl and CD), so there must have been weeks when I listened to almost nothing else but this soothing, lamentful, peculiarly warm voice, singing lyrics which seemed divine in its simplicity.
Listening to it today, I still feel that touch of how Morrissey paints you a picture so familiar and so right-on-the-spot you can actually feel as if it's your life sung...

Enjoy these songs :

Our Frank

Driving your girlfriend home

Buy the record here

Next week's album of the week : Memories of the future - KODE9 + THE SPACEAPE

Big in Belgium : Novastar

Joost Zwegers' band Novastar has brought us two nice albums with several nice tracks, that show his craftmanship as a songwriter. His epynomous debut and his second album (Another lonely soul) have both been critically acclaimed, and with reason...

Have a taste of Novastar and buy his records here :

When the lights go down on the broken hearted - Novastar

Songs of Lazy Monday...

Since I had trouble posting the links to the songs I intended on my Lazy Monday - Jazzanova post, here's a new attempt :

Ian Pooley's What's your number (Jazzanova renumber)

4Hero's We who are not as others (Jazzanova mix)

Calexico's Black Heart (Jazzanovas White Sould Dub)

As said, buy their records here

Lazy Monday : Jazzanova

Silence is a rhythm too has a Friday special (Funky Friday), which has inspired me to the Monday theme that I'll be starting today. Since Monday, following a busy weekend, is my day to get some extra rest (I don't have to work untill the evening ...usually, that is), I gather that day to be a day to sit back and relax a bit before getting really started.

On Lazy Monday, I'll be posting some relaxing music, and today it's all about Jazzanova, whose two remix best-of albums, ALWAYS get me in that mood...
Jazzanova have some pretty good albums of their own, but I'd prefer these remixes any time... They succeed in turning good songs into really great tunes, adding their own footmark.

Buy their records here

Blue King Brown

This could well be the next big thing : Blue King Brown, an Australian band, with their debut single : Water

Watch the video :



Buy their debut here

Sand - OP8

Lee Hazlewood's Sand is famous in the Nancy Sinatra version. Einstürzende Neubauten (the band of -amongst others- Bad Seed Blixa Bargeld) covered it, and here it is in a cover by a Convertino/Burns/Gelb sideproject (OP8), with vocal assistance of Lisa Germano.
What they've done to this song, is really beyond belief. They make it turn and twist around the legs (listen to that violin), they make it whisper and moan, they make it sound like a hot summer evening, they make you expect someone jumping out of the box any moment now...

Enjoy it :

Sand - OP8 (mp3)


Track taken from Slush by OP8 (buy here)

Album of the week : Van Lear Rose - Loretta Lynn

Loretta Lynn turns out to be a country & western star. I would probably have never heard of her (I'm not really into C&W, "Nashville style") if it hadn't been for her collaboration with Jack White (yep, the one and only...). He has produced this album, co-written it, and even sings and plays guitar on it. He has helped to make this record one of those rock-injected country albums that lift the artist to a higher level.
The opening track (Van Lear Rose) sets an example for the rest of the album, with a nice storyline and a musical expedition to where a wailing guitar and a lingering voice meet. I especially like the up-tempo songs on the record, and I really dig the stories Loretta tells us. The album ends with Story of my life, an autobiographical song that makes the circle round.

Enjoy these songs :

Van Lear Rose (mp3)
High on a mountain top (mp3)
Mrs. Leroy Brown (mp3)

Buy the album here

Next week's album of the week : Kill uncle - MORRISSEY

Read (1)

I've just finished reading Kathy Lette's "How to kill your husband (and other handy household hints)" and I have really enjoyed this book, a lot !

Kathy Lette succeeds in stumbling from one wisecrack to another (throughout the book, however, you read less and less of those, and the plot begins to gain importance), but also she has written here a cleverly constructed, witty book with enough turns in the plot to make a Formula 1-track look like a highway through the desert...

The titles of the chapters already give away what you can expect : "If he wants breakfast in bed, tell him to sleep in the kitchen", "The reason I don't tell you when I'm having an orgasm is because you're never there", "You are going to enjoy this marriage even if I have to divorce you to do so", "Where there's a will, I wanna be in it",...

Of course the author doesn't paint a pretty picture of love, marriage, passion, work, friendship even,... but hey, it would never have been that kind of book if she did ! You don't feel like you've really learned a lot when the book's finished (well, I didn't anyway...), but you'll certainly have a smile upon your face, will have laughed out loud a couple of times and gniffled many more times, and you'll feel all the more relaxed (and possibly happier, as I'm quite sure you'll feel things aren't going that bad in your own life after all...). Sometimes that's all you need from a book, and this book sure turns out a very good investment...

Some ten years ago, a friend suggested me to read "Foetal attraction", which I didn't like very much and never quite finished. But now I can tell I've read a Kathy Lette novel all the way through and liked it too... Perhaps I should give her other books (including "Foetal attraction") another shot ?

What's this ?

This song, originally on Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, has been covered by Spearhead's Michael Franti, Puertorican Belgian Gabriel Rios and native singer Flip Kowlier, for a benefit of a radio station...

What's this ? - Michael Franti, Gabriel Rios and Flip Kowlier (mp3 - link expired)