About wine-making, A Perfect Circle and turning lemons into lemonade

As the title suggests, this is going to be a very incohesive blog post. I'm afraid my mind is still in Christmas mode. Sorry about that.

Anyways, gonna start with A Perfect Circle. After several years of being inactive APC finally broke down the silence this autumn by playing the entirety of each of their three albums at concerts, one album per night. There have also been rumours of the band writing new material but with these guys you can never be sure of anything. I definitely wouldn't mind if Maynard James Keenan took some time off from his wine-making activities and Billy Howerdel concentrated on APC as well, instead of his other band Ashes Divide, because even after a long break APC still sounds amazing. Take a look here:



Speaking of wine-making, since it seems to be the main reason as to why there hasn't been a new APC or Tool record for a while. Here's a brief interview where Keenan talks about his vineyard and why he got interested in wine in the first place. It's kinda interesting although I wish the interviewer would let Keenan do most of the talking.



Finally, about the documentary Keenan mentions during the interview. It's called Blood Into Wine, it's directed by Ryan Page and Christopher Pomerenk, and yes, it's all about Keenan and his wine-making efforts in Arizona. Here's the trailer:



Funny thing about Page & Pomerenk is that they seem to have a very special relationship with Sundance Film Festival. Apparently Sundance keeps rejecting their documentaries (including Blood Into Wine) and it has come down to a point where Page & Pomerenk have decided to cast puppets for their next production because they think "the puppets will take the inevitable Sundance rejection better than real life actors" [read the whole press release here].

Now that's the way to deal with rejection and turning it into good publicity! Reminds me of an old saying about making lemonade if life gives you lemons. Which is about the same thing as getting wine out of desert soil or turning painful life experiences into beautiful music, if you come to think of it.

Best of 2010 - kind of, or not

Once again it's that time of the year when every music mag and blog out there seems to be listing their favourite albums, singles, videos and what-nots of the year. I fell for it recently myself too, a couple of posts ago when I called Alain Johannes' "Spark" one of the best albums in 2010. But it is kinda silly to compare records to one another only because they were released in the same year, isn't it? Besides those lists always ignore the fact people discover old music all the time, too, and it's just as important as finding new artists.

So, instead of making a traditional top 10, I decided to make a different list. It consists of artists who've been around but which I discovered or fell in love with in 2010. To spice it up I decided to add another criteria: they all had to have strange video material available online. So here's my top 5 of the wackiest videos by artists/bands I've discovered in 2010.

Alex Harvey
I kept bumping into his name constantly this year (his songs have been covered by Nick Cave, Gemma Ray and Recoil, for instance), finally decided to check out his albums and haven't stopped smirking since. Here the crazy Scotsman doing his thing on stage back in the 70's. In this footage Alex uses beer as hair gel, stuffs stockings into his cheeks and enjoyes the goofed-up faces of the Norwegian audience.



Captain Beefheart
Another case of finally checking out someone I'd constantly heard being referenced to. After listening to Beefheart fairly intensely for about 9 months now I'm convinced he was a mad genius and it truly was heart-breaking and slightly eerie as well to hear about Don Van Vliet's passing - only a few weeks after I'd written a blog text about him and his legacy. Here's one of Captain Beefheart's last musical efforts, a video that was apparently banned from MTV for "being too weird".



Charlotte Gainsbourg
It's hardly surprising that the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg is kinda eccentric, yet very chic. I can't remember why I started listening to her albums but once I did, I got stuck. Charlotte rocks, here with Beck and a group of people engaged in the weirdest activities.



Creature With The Atom Brain
Top quality psychedelia band, hailing from Belgium. This video always makes me slightly nauseous but I love the track. It's trippy and hypnotic.



Archie Bronson Outfit
I have no idea how to decribe this band because their sound is such an eclectic mix of various styles and influences. Not sure what this video is about either. To be a disco dancer or a deep sea diver, that is the question, apparently.

Going retro in 2010 - how to do it right

It started a couple of years ago with Amy Winehouse and continues today with the likes of Eliza Doolittle or Duffy. In addition to these ladies, there seem to be hundreds of others like them out there - playing music inspired by the sounds of the 50's and 60's. Quite often it's obvious though that the retro vibe doesn't necessarily come from the hearts of the performers but rather from the minds of producers or record labels on a quest of finding the next retro queen.

Luckily there are also artists like Imelda May who'd be living and breathing those old tunes, sounds and looks whether it was fashionable or not. 

Besides being credible, Imelda happens to be an exceptionally talented and skillful singer, capable of bringing true emotion and soul to world-weary blues songs as well as to groovy rockabilly songs. Lately, her talent's been spotted by Jeff Beck as well, who've recruited Imelda to sing on his album "Emotions & Commotions". This has forced me to consider buying my first ever Jeff Beck record! Yikes!

Trent Reznor on the pains and pleasures of creativity

If you're even remotely interested in Trent Reznor's work you need to watch this recent in-depth interview on Tavis Smiley Show. Reznor was there to promote "Social Network" (you know, the movie about Facebook, directed by David Fincher) cause he's composed the original film score for it. What's far more interesting though is what he says about creativity in general, feeling insecure and afraid, the process of fitting into someone else's vision vs. working as the head of a project and how he perceives various film awards as opposed to music awards. Definitely one of the most interesting interviews I've seen or read for a long time!

In 1967, Hendrix had 10 fans in Stockholm

You can count them too if you like.

Lightnin' x 2

This may sound like a cliche but sometimes I find myself in a place where I can only listen to blues. It's not a genre I'd know much about yet but there's something about it I think is more comforting than drinking hot chocolate under a warm blanket.

Lately I've been indulging myself with a dose of Louisiana blues - love the way it's so laid-back, slow and dark. Especially two Lightnin's, namely Lightnin' Slim and Lightnin' Hopkins, have a sound that's simply captivating. You'll know things aren't that bad when you hear Slim sing: "If it wasn't for bad luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all..."

Silence the charts

Remember how Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The name Of" suddenly became the Christmas number one in the UK last year, clearing the top spot from X Factor winners and such? Well, this year a similar endeavor is in the making, this time in order to get John Cage's famous 4'33" (4 minutes and 33 seconds of an orchestra staying practically silent) to reach number one. I think it's a wicked idea, especially because last year's campaign got critiqued for the suitability of a RATM song for such purposes.

John Cage

However, the decision to pick this particular "song" has created a few problems, too. On the CATM campaign blog [here] the person behind the campaign and its Facebook page [here] tells about The Royal British Legion planning on recording a piece of silence as well.

And to make things even more confusing, apparently it isn't the original John Cage piece people are encouraged to buy but a retake, recorded by a number of British artists, such as Suggs of Madness, Orbital, Pendulum and UNKLE [says BBC].

The retake was probably made to be able to donate all the campaign profit to various charities (including British Tinnitus Association *cough*) but since the CATM campaign wasn't originally meant to become this huge, nobody seems to be taking charge of the sudden media frenzy and it's all becoming a bit of a mess. With three pieces of silence out there to buy (the original by Cage, the retake of Suggs & co. plus the The Royal British Legion one),  I think there's a real danger of the whole thing going down the drain.

Oh well. I hope it succeeds anyway. I wonder what John Cage would think of it though?

CATM campaign website: http://www.catm.co.uk/

Alain Johannes - a man and a cigarbox guitar

Multi-talent is a term often thrown around ungroundedly. But it's the only word that can be used to describe Alain Johannes. In addition to being able to play the guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, keyboard, flute, clarinet, saxophone, fiddle and several other instruments, Alain Johannes is also a gifted singer, songwriter, recording engineer and producer. You may not know him by his name but if you've listened to Queens Of The Stone Age, Chris Cornell, Them Crooked Vultures, Spinnerette, Desert Sessions or Mark Lanegan records, you probably know some of his work.

Photo by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times

I was lucky enough to see Alain Johannes play as an opener for Gogol Bordello and DeVotchKa a couple of days ago - a somewhat odd slot for him, if you ask me, but of course nobody does and of course I was happy to see him even only for 30 minutes or so.

On stage Alain seemed exactly as one might expect - perhaps slightly unaccustomed to being alone in the limelight but obviously a very skillful and talented musician, equipped only with his cigarbox guitar (as in the photo). The set consisted mostly of songs from his first solo album "Spark", released this autumn.

So why did such a talented musician wait till his forties before going solo? I'm guessing Alain just never had any reason to work alone before. He found his perfect match both in life and in music in Natasha Shneider, his life partner for over 20 years, who unfortunately passed away due to cancer in 2008. The story about the two meeting, living and working together, completing each other every step of the way is pretty exceptional. In addition to having a band together (Eleven, with the drummer Jack Irons) they often worked together on many of the aforementioned collaborations.

In a way, Natasha helped Alain on "Spark" as well. In his recent interviews Alain's told about how he felt Natasha's presence so strongly while writing and recording the album that it was like she was there, guiding him. This "gentle ghost" of Natasha was the only one who's help he agreed to have on the album, which is written, played, recorded and produced solely by Alain himself.

The most staggering thing about "Spark" is how balanced and hopeful it sounds. Obviously, the album is dedicated to Natasha and it deals with the tremendous loss of a very close person. The end result however is not a dark requiem but a beautiful collage of intertwining moods and musical textures, a perfect mixture of light and shade. A highly recommendable and inspiring effort, and definitely one of the best albums of 2010. And next year Alain's set to collaborate with Mark Lanegan on his upcoming solo album. Somehow I've got a feeling it might turn out pretty fine as well.

Alain in a cigarbox battle:

Oh well, Duffy

Duffy's new single "Well, Well, Well" could be the catchiest song of 2010. It's fun and has that infuriating quality of vaguely reminding you of some other hit song - although you can't quite tell which one.

Compared to her previous efforts, on "Well, Well, Well" Duffy's adopted a somewhat different style of singing which admittedly suits the song. However, listening to her repeat it practically throughout her new album proved to be an exhausting experience. Whereas on "Rockferry" (2007) Duffy sounded fresh and natural and a bit like young Petula Clark, on the new "Endlessly" she seems to have lost most of her depth and ends up sounding more like Millie Small. Even her dance moves seem to bear resemblance to Millie's back in the 60's. Sure it's entertaining for a while but then it does get plain boring.

But hey, as the song suggests, maybe she's not guilty of the things I've said she's done. Given Duffy's 60's girl band inspired look blaming an evil producer for it would be just as fitting.

An evening with the multi-instrumental, multi-national and multi-talented

Whoa, great shows yesterday by Gogol Bordello and DeVotchKa (and Alain Johannes too, but more about him later)! Truly inspiring to see how both bands manage to mix so many influences from around the world and do it in completely different ways. Whereas DeVotchKa's approach is subtle, dreamy and indie-ish, Gogol Bordello's gypsy punk kicks your butt and slaps you in the face. Both work like a charm, especially live.

Usually I try my hardest not to mix music with politics but during the shows last night it was hard to avoid certain trains of thoughts. This year the whole Europe's been discussing, arguing and debating the rights of Romani people to leave their home countries and try their luck somewhere else. A group of them actually set up a camp only a few miles from last night's venue but it was recently taken down by the city - which also gave the people money to go back home. So what's my point? I don't know. I guess some ways of expressing the gypsy way of life are just more acceptable than others.

Wanna wipe the floor with Nick Cave's face?

Well, now it's possible, in a way. The new Grinderman merchandise, available on grinderman.com, includes tea towels with the faces of Mr. Cave and his partners in crime printed on them. So whether you loved or hated the new Grinderman record now there's a brilliant opportunity out there to express your feelings by buying one and using it the way you find most appropriate.

Personally, I think tea towels are the most useful piece of merchandise I've seen in a long time and perfect for such a whimsical band. Actually, I wouldn't mind getting one for Christmas. Could use one in my kitchenette.

Hit and miss from David Lynch

In addition to being a filmmaker, David Lynch is also a musician and has recently released two new singles. The first one of them, "Good Day Today", is something I'd call a miss. It seems like a quite generic and monotonic electro track although I guess it could work well as a soundtrack for meditation. And knowing Lynch's enthusiasm for TM maybe that's what he was after.

The second single however is definitely a hit. It's just as twisted, haunting, slinky and cool as one could ever wish for. So here's "I know". I love it.

Shoegazing + reggae = the new PJ Harvey song

I wonder what went on inside of Polly Jean Harvey's head when she wrote this song. The first 45 seconds of the song have an eerie, My Bloody Valentine kind of sound - but then, totally out of the blue, a reggae sample kicks in. And somehow the two components manage to blend seamlessly. How's that even possible?

"Written On The Forehead" is from PJ Harvey's upcoming album, due to release on February 2011.

Written On The Forehead by pjharvey