Low

Last year, I saw them at Pukkelpop festival : Alan Sparhawk, Mimi Parker (his wife) and Matt Livingston. Together they are the wonderful, magnificent and very underestimated Low.
Some months ago, I saw the documentary You may need a murderer, about this band. Filmed by David Kleijwegt, it shows how this Mormon band, around husband and wife Sparhawk and Parker, struggles to find a balance between their beliefs and their need to make exactly the songs they are making, how Alan Sparhawk has struggled (and still does) with his demons and how the couple struggles to maintain a balance between making music and touring on one hand, and their family life (with children) on the other hand.
The song after which the documentary was named, Murderer, is one of the most intruiging songs of last year, and in the documentary Alan explains how their closest friends and relatives were shocked by the lyrics, considering it even blasphemous.
They way they play the song and the way the words are sung, intensifies the feeling that crawls through every line of it.

This is a video for the song, with images from the documentary No end in sight :


These are the lyrics :

One more thing before I go
One more thing I'll ask you Lord
You may need a murderer
Someone to do your dirty work

Don't act so innocent
I've seen you pound your fist into the earth
And I've read your book
It seems that you could use another fool
Well I'm cruel
And I look right through

You must have more important things to do
So if you need a murderer
Someone to do your dirty work

Enjoy these three songs from the album Drums and guns :

• Murderer (mp3)
• Hatchet (mp3)
• Take your time (mp3)

You can buy the album here

You can watch the documentary here

Bonde Do Role

It sounds like a house anthem ! But the Portugese just gives that extra touch to make it stand out !
Bonde De Role have created one of the most perfect party hits for me : Divine Gosa. And their album With lasers has even more to offer ! I saw this group live last year at Pukkelpop festival, and they were just amazing... I didn't understand a word, but hell, they knew how to throw a party. And what a singer !
Enjoy these tracks :

• Divine gosa (mp3)
• Solta o frango (mp3)
• James Bonde (mp3)

You can buy the album here

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

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

Preparing for Pukkelpop Festival (2)

Today, we'll feature the dubstep stars of Various. This UK based band will play some festivals this summer (currently 4 : Roskilde, Lethargy Festival, Pukkelpop and Lowlands), and I wouldn't wanna miss them, since I totally dig their album "The world is gone".

Enjoy these tracks :

Hater - Various (mp3)
The world is gone - Various (mp3)


Buy their record here

Preparing for Pukkelpop Festival (1)

From today, we'll start preparing for Pukkelpop festival, which host many, many bands (some still to be announced) on 16th, 17th and 18th of August. First up : Belgian band Starfucker, who won "Labodelux", a talent contest, which earned them the right to open on one of the stages of the festival. It turned out to be the "Skate stage", where they'll perform their neo-punkdisco. You can listen to "Boys will be boys" on their website.
Bedouin Soundclash from Toronto mix reggae, rock, punk, soul and ska and they won't have released their second album, Street Gospel, when they play their show in the "Club" (it's available worldwide on 21st of August). On their website you can have a taste of what they sound like, with "Walls fall down".
Another Belgian band is Rye Jehu, who sound like Blink-182 have hired Dick Dale. If you click on the radio on their website, you can listen to 4 songs. Here's the video to 3 calls for alcohol :


Bloggers all over the world have grown to learn Voxtrot, who have become a huge internet hit. Listen to Kid gloves (mp3).

Starfucker's first single can be heard on their website and is not yet for sale.
Buy Bedouin Soundclash records here
Buy the Rye Jehu EP here
Buy Voxtrot records here

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