Time to wrap this baby up

I haven't posting much lately, mostly because I started writing reviews, blog texts and interviews for a couple of music magazines. So, there's really no need for this outlet anymore. It was fun while it lasted, thanks for all those who came by, read my ramblings and gave comments online or in real life. See y'all on Rumba and Noise.fi!

Music from Texas to y'all

Recently I got to visit Texas and while I was there it occurred to me how many great musicians hail from Texas. It's not just country & western, folks - nooooo. Here's a little something.

Traveler

Haven't posted much lately cause I've been travelling. Conveniently enough, I've had this old Screaming Trees song playing in my head.

How Low Can You Go?

I just realised there's something in common with the pieces of music I've recently been listening to - the word "low". So, here's a song called Low, something from an album named Low and a song from the band Low.

On a sidenote:
- David Bowie's album Low is probably one of the most fucked up albums I've ever heard. I also love the way he plays those imaginary keyboards on the video clip. It's probably one of those jokes that never gets old and I'd totally do that too if I was to perform that song.
- The members of the band Low are Mormons. They've also shot their video in a very windy and snowy location. The two aforementioned facts have probably nothing to do with each other.
- The REM song sounds really grungy.
- All three songs have cool lyrics.


Creepy Alien Low:



Cheeky Low:



Cynical & tired Low:

Hi Slovakia!

According to the Blogger statistics, most of my readers are from...drum roll...Slovakia! Why, you may ask. Heck, I may ask that myself as well. Unfortunately I have no idea and since I don't know any people from the great country of Slovakia, there's nobody to consult. Anyways, I'm now considering of relocating to Slovakia since I seem to be more popular there than in my home country. It must be a nice place. Funnily enough, when I started this blog most of my readers were from the US which - of course - makes me wonder if they've relocated already! Maybe Slovakia's the world's best kept secret?

Anyways, there was something I was going to write about before I got sidetracked. Oh yes, the new Mark Lanegan song. Apparently Mr Lanegan has written a new song for some video game (or PC game or whatever - I don't know shit about any developments in that area since Pacman) and yes, you guessed it, it's a killer. It's got a haunting and somehow westernish kind of feel to it and really makes me wish I had a cowboy hat and a horse to ride to the sunset. And a desert and perhaps some Morricone in the background as well. Anyways, here's the song.



See what I mean with the westernish feel? If you liked the song you can download it for free here. I'm SO looking forward to the new album Lanegan's recording at the moment with Alain Johannes (if you don't know who he is, have a peek here).

And here's some Morricone too. I'll use any opportunity I get to post some Morricone.

Ladies play the blues

If you still think blues is played and loved only by middle-aged men it's time to dust up your beliefs. This year we've already witnessed breakthroughs from two very talented young ladies who may have very different takes on their music but also a very bluesy sound. And it's only March, so who knows what's gonna pop up in the months to come?

Let's begin from the minimalistic end. Mirel Wagner is a 24-year-old singer-songwriter who sites Mississippi John Hurt as one of her influences, believe it or not - I mean, how many girls of her age even know who Mississippi John Hurt is, let alone like him? Mirel has an amazing way of creating a dark atmosphere and she's clearly an old soul.



Compared to Wagner Anna Calvi's style is very decorative and she sites classical music and opera as her major influences. The end result is very blues-oriented though (at least to me) and most often she's compared to Nick Cave and PJ Harvey - which must be quite nice, I assume.



Both Wagner and Calvi do a great job in using old blues and taking it to a new level. And I love the fact they're both so young and female. Lightnin' Hopkins was right when he said that blues comes in many ways:

Borderline cheesy

Well, maybe not even borderline. These two songs are a bit cheesy but I like them anyway. Mainly because I have a soft spot for deep male voices and a bit of melodrama. Plus for some reason the vocalists Jeff Martin of The Tea Party and J-P Leppäluoto of Charon sound kinda similar in these two songs.

Just sayin', again

If you listen to the beginnings of these three songs by Type O Negative, Siouxsie & The Banshees and Lykke Li, you might notice something. 30 seconds of each is enough, I promise.







And while you're at it, you might also want to check out the previous case of just sayin': [link].

EDIT: Oops. I've just been informed by Youtube that the video Green Fingers I've uploaded isn't available in the following countries because it contains material from UMG:

Afghanistan, Aland Islands, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antarctica, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bouvet Island, Brazil, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Congo - Democratic Republic of, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, French Southern Territories, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Holy See (Vatican City State), Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Micronesia - Federated States of, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, North Korea, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Pitcairn, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, United States Minor Outlying Islands, United States Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The kind folks at Youtube have also given me this following advice:
"No action is required on your part. Your video is still available everywhere not listed above."

So yay, if you're in Mars I believe you should see the video just fine!

For the rest of you out there: buy the original Siouxsie album A Kiss In The Dreamhouse. It's a great album and definitely worth it. Plus it's probably the only way to hear the original track with the cool intro. Unless you're in Mars, of course.

Following rivers

Today I listened to Lykke Li's new album and liked the song I Follow Rivers so much that I decided to check if there was a music video to it. There was.

Right from the start everything on the video felt strangely familiar, like I had seen those scenes before. At 4:50 it hit me - I'd once seen a dream just like it! The only difference was that I woke up before the man turned around, so I never got to see his face. That's probably why I still remember the dream.

So, kinda weird, me thinks.

Crazy geniuses vs. clay animation

As the title suggests.

Flirting with country

For a looooong time I couldn't stand any kind of country music (except Johnny Cash of course - the man's beyond all genre definitions).

I thought country was all about yodeling, girls with pigtails and squeeky voices, line dancing in barns etc. And yeah, sure that exists too I guess. At least it did in Dolly Parton's tv show I sometimes watched as a kid. Yeehaa.

But there is way more to country music.

A brilliant example of taking influences from country music and incorporating them to contemporary indie sound is Mumford & Sons, four young lads from the UK. Seriously, these guys don't look like they'd be playing the banjo but they are and they sound very promising for a band that was formed only 3 years ago. Their sound is unique and the vocalist Marcus Mumford is clearly singing from his heart.

I will be keeping an eye on these guys, definitely.

Devil's in the details

I'm such a sucker for cover songs. There's just something intriguing about the way some bands or artists manage to make someone else's song their own. I think it's fairly rare, too. In my opinion merely playing through Louie Louie doesn't mean you're really covering it but then again, some bands have managed to breathe new life even into such a classic song. Like Black Flag, for instance [listen to their version on Youtube].

It's not necessary to change the song completely to make it your own, though. Now here's is something I find fascinating. On the latest Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan record Hawk there is a Townes Van Zandt cover called No Place To Fall. It's sung by Isobel and a young folksinger called Willy Mason, apparently because Lanegan didn't want to sing it at first. He seems to have changed his mind later on because lately he's been singing it live with Isobel.

A change of heart is not the fascinating part I was referring to, though. The interesting bit is how different those two versions, Lanegan's and Mason's, sound. Here they are, both acoustic and performed live with Isobel but still a million miles apart. Devil's in the details: the way you see the song and how you address the audience. And if you listen to the original version, it's totally different again.





And the original version:

Fembot-ish

But not in an Austin Powers movie kind of way! It's just that I've recently stumbled upon tracks with beautiful, monotonic female vocals. Hence the fembots.

This collection of songs was also inpired by Broadcast's Trish Keenan who passed away few weeks ago, at the age of 42. Such a tragic loss.

Embrace it, own it, go for it

I've always thought being able to get carried away was a good thing. In this cynical, we've-already-seen-everything kind of world it's one of those rare things that still seem innocent and genuine. Having a passion for something, whether it's music or art or sports is valuable. I don't think it's money that makes the world go round.

Having said that I must admit I'm one of those people who's constantly on the edge with their passion. Sometimes things go overboard and the passion is close to becoming an obsession. I've been involved in projects where I've lost myself and ended up doing way more than I was first going to, forgetting everything else I had going on in my life.

And that's when things get complicated. Where should I draw the line? Am I able to do it? And what should I do if I don't manage to control the situation?

In the context of music or music business getting lost in your passion sometimes seems more like a rule than an exception. Artists spend years in the studio perfecting their albums. Fans become stalkers. Photographers become paparazzis, journalists forget their ethics.

And then there are those cases when it's hard to say whether one's being obsessed or just enthusiastic. If a fan spends loads of money to travel and see a gig or a match, is it a sign of being committed or just crazy? Or how about queuing hours to get an autograph or tickets? As is the case with everything, there seem to be double standards as well. Young girls camping outside a venue to ensure a first row spot at a gig are usually considered silly but if grown men are spending insane amounts of money to see the game of the year it's supposed to be different somehow.

To hell with that, I say. As long as you're not hurting anyone (including yourself) I suggest you forget all those social restrictions and just go for it. To have a passion towards something is a gift. Chances are that the person making fun of it is just envious for not having the same drive.

We Fell To Earth and curious confessions

Only a few days ago I wrote about The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster that mixes rock, punk, rockabilly and goth in their sound. Now I've stumbled upon a band that combines krautrock, shoegazing, psychedelic rock and electro just as wildly and successfully.

We Fell To Earth released their debut album already about a year ago but I didn't discover them until last spring. And for some peculiar reason it took me almost a year to realise just what I had encountered.

Yeah, I know. Sometimes I'm so slow it's embarrassing. But hey, better late than never, right? Right?

Anyways, We Fell To Earth consists of two persons: Richard File who used to play in UNKLE and Wendy Rae Fowler who used to be connected to the extended family of musicians playing in QOTSA, Desert Sessions, Eagles Of Death Metal and whatnot. The two camps have met before already and collaborated a couple of times (on previous UNKLE records, for instance) but We Fell To Earth shouldn't be treated as an extension to those collaborations. It's a band with a distict sound and voice of its own - a voice that's eerie, atmospheric and outlandish. At times creepy as well.

For someone who used to love trance music back in the 90's (yeah, I did go to raves and danced til dawn, sometimes even with glowsticks in my hands, if you must know) but later fell in love with 70's psychedelic and krautrock it's a match made in heaven.

Dave Grohl - godlike and genius or an idiot?

Godlike and genius, if you ask NME. Grohl will pick up the honour in NME's award ceremony later this spring but seems to have somewhat mixed feelings about it since he considers himself rather an idiot most of the time:



Although I agree Grohl's an excellent musician I have a sneaking suspicion that NME was going to give the award to Lemmy Kilmister but some teen-aged trainee of theirs e-mailed Grohl's management by mistake. After all, both seem to share the same taste when it comes to facial hair which could be a bit misleading. See what I mean?

Photo by Wes Orshonski

I'm happy for Dave anyway and since he seems to be a cheeky monkey I'm sure he'll use every opportunity he gets to make fun of it.

Luckily Grohl's got loads of more interesting things coming to his way in 2011 than the NME Award. For instance, he will appear in the new Muppets movie which I find way more wicked than the NME Award. Naturally, Grohl will be filling in for Animal, who's forced to undergo anger management counseling.

But most importantly, there will be a new Foo Fighters record. Not much has been reported of it yet but as they say, good things come to those who wait.

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!