Just Stuff

Shhhhh

2012-02-14T22:58:00.014+01:00

Shhhhh, I'm not supposed to blog anymore, but so many new good goodies today:
1. Garbage, preview of "I hate love". Sounds great.
2. The good natured: free download of new "Raindrops" here + video.
3. Sweet hearts also free download of new EP (Surprise me is very sweet, Dear sweetheart too)
4. Noisetrade 25 love songs free download (incl. Brooke Waggoner, who's at work on new cd!)
5. New World Cafe session of Kathleen Edwards (Voyageur a bit of a miss for me, but a couple of gorgeous tracks in it).
I have to say, there's somberness in the air for the most part, even my pet sparrows at home seem to have communication problems.. (ok, that was yesterday, but). I feed them breadcrumbs on my windowsill, they poo all over the place, not unlike other relationships I've had. At least sparrows are cute.

Have to get the hang of not blogging, will get better.

..

2012-02-08T19:51:00.008+01:00

Borrowing this for last. What a stupendous video, again. Such a relief, rare rays of light like this.

.

2011-12-31T16:06:00.017+01:00

Ahem.

Crumbs

2011-11-11T23:54:00.052+01:00

Am I really doing this?. Because I've always hated Christmas stuff around when it's not even December but, well, whatever.. again, why are they releasing this so soon?
"Home for the Holidays" - Tim Wheeler & Emmy the Great

Melody sounds most familiar (in fact, combine the gorgeous L'anamour -version Françoise Hardy- and Abba's great One of us to a faster beat = mighty close to the verses) but all is forgiven because it's pretty, unpretentious just for the season cheesy kinda thing -and cheesy is good, good cheesy that is. Bad cheesy is terrible. But this is good cheesy-. And these two's talent for music is proven (Tim as for instance in Ash's fantastic Free all angels, Emmy as f.i. in collaborations with Lightspeed Champion), and foremost: hearing it is like Christmas: same warm fuzzy feeling. So different from what stems from the world and in particular my beautiful country these days, I'm making this exception. Also no need to blog until after Christmas!. But then, it makes one have to blog in January not to be so outdated (nah, can always delete, yay!).
Music these days is in general pretty incredibly boring to me, a lot of work just to find one or two songs worth it. Crumbs. That so even though some of my favourites have released albums lately...sadly boring albums (with luck one song, two can be salvaged). So practically Camera Obscura is kinda my last hope (according to their facebook they were already working on new cd in june... C'mon Tracyanne!! a last push!!!). Well, Jakob Dylan released a really great bitterest song months ago (he's so ahead he's already left his respective boring period behind). And Amy sounded so good on that bit of Like Smoke- sad. Very. Well, also hopes on La casa azul's latest out on the 28th, label mate of Camera Obscura's for a while, but not sure non Spanish listeners can get it the same way. Actually this blogs quite shares his philosophy, as explained in the video, specially at the end. It's stupid to write about music etc with the things that are going on, but then not totally.
So, uh, don't know what else to say. Well, this is pretty too.
As always, post will probably be heavily edited, no reason in particular.
PS I know some will snort at some of my crumbs (one christmas song and one Coldplay and Rihanna song? oh, jeezz). Well, I like both and other, considered more "serious" crumbs I've been listening to I haven't blogged about. Though they'd look much cooler, I'm well aware.
On a positive note, there's still more than a month left of 2011. Maybe time enough for me to get my cool back!!

Christmas notes: for christmas letters , love the typography of the warm december here. For christmas ornaments the super Fishinkblog has pretty ideas including recycled jumpers (funn, involves shrinking them, which some of us are accidental experts at). Like in music blogs, some posts I love, some not. Definitely dazzled by incredible artists featured in it, like Jon Klassen -WOW- or Jared Andrew Schorr, no lack of inspiration there. Some pretty stuff in Laura Veirs' happy Tumble bee too, like Prairie Lullabye.
Or for those who for some reason are still feeling un-christmassy like me this is also December and mighty catchy (and still good natured, ahem).
And of all the goodies artists have given away this Christmas, I'll choose Tina Dico's -she released the very crisply produced True North a month ago-: an old unreleased song, quiet and simple but full of flavour and meaning, Don't belong here. Too few available downloads though, they were gone faster than fast.
And Goldfrapp's little greeting, too many swear words for me, but singing's fantastic.

Princess of China

2011-10-19T11:13:00.025+02:00

Everybody listened to it already?. Coldplay + Rihanna?!??! Leaked to the internet yesterday apparently:
Coldplay - Princess Of China (feat. Rihanna) by DJ ERM
Unexpected. But kinda good. Made me think of a comment Nerina Pallot made on her twitter about R.'s songs theme the other day (lol), an exception indeed for the girl with possibly the worst taste in clothes (ugg) and the most thigh exposure (double ugg). But voice too.
Anyway, halfway between a fun freestyle version of Ruben Darío's Sonatina and a catchy eurovision tune: Chris Martin, douze points!
This post may disappear in a few days. Some parts have already have .. must be amanaemonesia.
PS To get into the Halloween mood, this Spike Jonze thing is pretty.

Paint

2011-09-20T22:57:00.026+02:00

Lots of it!. Watch in full screen if you can, quality's pretty good.
Quite the experiment for Lisa Hannigan.
Premiered yesterday but I was in no mood for blogging.
If you haven't already, you can read about this video and Lisa on NPR.
Not really sure what the song's about, but you definitely get the feeling of release!!!
It reminded me of this great children's book:

PS Making of the video Knots here. Surprisingly simple.

St vincent - Cruel

2011-08-25T19:10:00.009+02:00

Just watched this. Wow

Her article for the Huffington Post here.
"Casually cruel", brilliant term!

Alice Gold, The Pierces and Delta Maid at Bush Hall

2011-06-19T00:24:00.045+02:00

Back from London now. First, a pic of Alice Gold and her setlist.

Alice's album is out at the beginning of July and can be preordered here, first copies will be signed.
Nothing new to add to what's already been said about her lately, it's clear that she's got the extra ingredient and that if she doesn't make it big it won't be for lack of ability. Got presence onstage too, reminded me of The Duke Spirit's Liela.
A bit too much going on in the album though, at points too psychedelic for me, at points too poppy but she told me she hopes when one listens to it from beginning to end it will make sense as a whole.
And she's getting a lot of positive attention: I discovered her when checking out the Pierces' supporting acts, listened to her music, and she became the main reason to go to the show, but little after that I was listening to one of Jo Whiley's Radio2 shows (first I've ever listened to, she was playing one of Ane Brun's new songs that I'd already listened to on Spotify but was curious) and she went and played Alice too, so her music is really getting out there, congrats to her.
And lucky her she's not only most talented, she's also got one of the coolest bass players (Saul) with her onstage!. She did not introduce her band, guess she forgot -Well, it was great, the drummer added beautiful backing vocals (see it here), he and the guitar player were previously in a band, Fields, that broke up. Music is so rough, well, life is so rough.
Beautiful minidocumentary on her first album here.
The Pierces setlist:

The Pierces pics:(click to enlargen, don't know what's the deal with blogger today but in these small views pictures are pale and have very bad definition...)

Better than anticipated. All's been said too, not any challenging or very special but by all means some really good songs. Highlights live: "Sticks and stones" and set ending "Boring" (which I didn't like much on the cd but that absolutely rocked live, really fun too). They sold out the first date at Bush Hall , so they added this extra one, which also sold out soon after I bought tickets. Incredibly mixed audience, almost like a perfect population sampling: all ages, all types, no one could feel out of place!
Objection: they didn't play "Piece of you", which is probably my favourite by them.
Delta Maid pic:

Funny it looks like a painting.
Uploaded some snippets of each of their sets on my youtube, but it was too loud for my old camera so the sound's far from good.
More soon. Lovely weather in London btw..

(Southbank centre, 14/06)
Way too lengthy posts also way over edited but.. air conditioning only in the computer room so....today 27/06 11.30 and its already over 30 degrees out, will go way higher. Yersterday night it only was under 29 from 1.30 am. So you can hardly open your house and it only gets hotter and hotter. Ahhhhhh and it's only the beginning. Thank god for swimming poolz- and no, I can't blog from there ;)
Wow, about that just found a graphic example in the kitchen cupboard:

Forgot I'd bought these, "fondant" wobbly dome tea cakes!
PS And if you really want to read a good post on Alice Gold, ignore mine and read this The independent bit. Among other things, gives the name of the album one of those images you don't forget .
This post has been being written for about 2 weeks now, so chronologically -or otherwise I'm afraid- it may not make much sense.

London as of June'11

2011-06-19T00:23:00.090+02:00

Might as well post about bits and ends in case it's useful to anybody and as always to keep track for myself...
-Keep in mind I opted for skipping the main tourist attractions-
Post in progress too.
1. First reccomendation:
The London street photography exhibit at the Museum of London: if pics were generally small and too plainly displayed and only a few of them caught my attention (went to Henry Lartigue's exhibit in Madrid's Caixaforum a few months ago, same period aprox and some of it same category, THAT was way more impressive), what I really enjoyed was the documentary showing in the first room, made for the exhibit. Thumbs up. Photographers like Matt Stuart, Polly Braden or Wolf Suschitzky talk about it, things like how the preception of street photography has changed and how inhibited one feels these days to shoot a pic, about the challenges of using cameras with limitations, how they often stick with them because their struggle to overcome these limitations actually makes them way better photographers, how they are driven by passion and curiosity to explore and capture ...
And of course before or after do visit the museum of London itself, I had been there once before and was looking forward to returning.

2. The candy department at Selfridge's huge store in Oxford Street (stifling street though, so many people it was nightmarish. To be avoided as much as possible). May be silly but felt kinda overwhelmed, so many things, so many colours, simply gorgeous (much better that the Harrods' one and more price friendly). And yes, that is the hugest gummy bear ever!- how mature of me..wheighed a ton. Wouldn't eat it though..looks dangerous.
I also enjoyed the silly things on the ground floor (like the ice invaders ice molds or the finger food plate ring, the Fred stuff ,not to buy it but to see it, curious - bought robot key covers on sale though, fun). And of course the music part HMV in the basement. Not great selection (there's way more stuff in the Piccadilly one, which conveniently opens until real late) but big offers. As I was leaving up the escalators with my new cds they started playing Robyn's Dancing on my own (the serendipity of it!- I know what I mean)...weeeent back down and bought part 1 and part 2 for 3 pounds each, not bad.
I also visit at least one supermarket when a tourist, great way to know more about where you are. Since here I knew them well from last summer, I had to go to a number of them to get the different cookies needed :).
3rd. Ok, let's get serious now: obviously the Tate Modern...cafeteria. Seriously, amazing views. If one's allowed to love one's own pics, I love this one:

It's on the top floor, I was just snooping (on most mornings I was alone, so I set my own very quick pace). The building is very worth it , specially the inside, the large empty spaces(the collection, I skipped most of it I'm afraid, went for the Matisses, didn't really like the ones there). I prefered to sit on the ground floor's floor for a bit, watch the building.
4. South bank walk and bridges, a must.
Worth to check out the huge "Urban fox" on top of a building in Southbank centre, more magic at night. About the meaning, here. Truth is it really was an odd mix of cute and threatening, quite an achievement.

That day I crossed different bridges 5 times (never walked so much as in London I think, I was exahusted). The night ones were fun, because since there had unfortunately been a fire Waterloo bridge was closed to the traffic and quite empty:

Also there was a full moon that seeemed to look right through the London Eye. A number of improbable things going on. And the following day even a rare eclypse..
And how flattering are pictures of one's back, huh?. So very, highly recommend them ;)
5th Will keep this one way shorter than planned for the moment. The Station Sessions Festival, free concerts at St Pancras station, is currently on. Check out the lineup here. Would have loved to go to the fantastic Nerina Pallot's one (but was boarding my plane at the very moment). Wow!, just seen sensational Alice Gold is on on the 18th July: don't miss it if you have the chance!!.
6: If you happen to be walking by Piccadilly's Royal Academy of Arts (yep, that street that's full of bulldozers, traffic jams, etc, half of it being digged up, unfortunately where I was staying...), enter the courtyard to see Jeff Koons's Coloring Book (temporarily). If you happen to pass by more than once, go to see it in different lights, it changes a lot. When I took the pic it was cloudy (obviously).

The reflection has absorbed half the building/or vicerversa. Clever Koons, I only saw it fully when I looked at the picture. Usual picture would go something like this, quite different:

There's the Summer exhibition going on now at the Academy (hence the sculpture) but I skipped it (great idea, but what the brochure showed, not for me). I did take the John Madejski fine rooms tour but unless you've seen many other things before and have time, I do not recommend it, few paintings (can I say minor works though from huge fantastic painters, long tour, slow pace). I mean, had little time and lots to see (that said by someone who spent half a morning inside a TK Maxx, shame on me - well, I had to buy gifts... and try on fancy stuff the wrong size. Same shops as TJ Maxx in the US).
Next number: Free range talent. Didn't go to this one, no events scheduled for the little time I was in London. A bit far too, but looked like an interesting enough art and design show. No pic for that so instead this one of a painting in an Albemarle Rd gallery, not my taste but really well painted and most original. Like sometimes someone complains that you let go of their hand when the truth is.. Really eerie picture, the girl's face of joy as she jumps to the void, the very opposite in the boy's as he tries in vain to stop her. Afraid the reflection in the window disguises that, reason why I explain, also makes it look a bit like the boy is in a real balcony.. It's called Tana!, by Enrico Robusti (again, far too grim for me).
Wait!, she's not falling but running, escaping..how misleading. Well, well done sir, first impression was completely amiss, I've just realized. Oh, so poetic ...I saw what I wanted to see, which was the completely opposite image of something I'd watched recently. It may still be, but in a much more twisted way, which is so fitting.

I know, most of my recommendations are art, but.. Also, I have to point out that all this I found out about browsing the internet, brochures, etc. No one to help out in the UK.. No need these days, internet is the bomb. I'm amazed at how easy it is now to get all this info from your very chair. I even got my Bush Hall tickets delivered weeks in advance. You have to love technology sometimes.
Next number and last art thing. But the only one I was sure to visit: Tate Britain. Why? Ah, Ophelia, 'course. Will elaborate. Do the Tate to Tate boat.
Should write about the Victoria & Albert Museum, the William Blake Richmond painting 'Mrs Luke Ionides' now moved to The cult of beauty exhibition without museum workers knowing about it (was I really the first one to ask where it was and be directed to an empty space???). Someone kindly slipped me inside the exhibit and delivered me in front of it as I'd gone to the museum mainly to see it, escorted me all the time though. Glorious print in background. Dress fabric: amazing.
Food: here's a few pubs I went to, not extraordinary yet quite ok:
* The Salisbury in Covent Garden: very handy location, a place with personality, cosy. I tried my first mashed peas there (as a side dish) and they were quite good .
* The Field (29 Clarges Street). This time we were a large party yet the food was quite decent. Had this:

And loved the Yorkshire pudding.
* The king's head, only place to eat at 15.30..Food just ok but the place had a lot of flavour (ha ha), upstairs very nice. So I'd recommend it for a beer.
Next one I went to (but couldn't eat, too late), was recommended to me and it looked really nice: Chor Bizarre (indian food). Alice Gold had just blogged that this other one was the best curry place but too far away. The rest was mainly sandwiches for me, was not a foodie trip and anyway some sandwiches are really good. And English food is full of dishes with onion (which I hate) and strange meat pies etc that I wouldn't eat (I recognize I am a bit of a fussy eater), so not very encouraged. I'll have the cookies and the desserts though, thank you. And the curry and the sandwiches (specially the prawn ones). Aaand the Yorkshire pudding.
London is full of things to see and do. Curious that when you're on the road heading to the city from the airport one of the first ads you see are two rather huge screens both sides of a bridge that read "Head to Portsmouth" or something like that. Kinda disloyal, these Porstmouthians.. people have not even arrived in London yet!!. Well, londoners turned out to be really nice in general. Last summer I was surprised by how nice people were in Somerset, Cornwall, and a few more places, didn't recall brits to be that way and figured it was the countryside. But it has been the same in London. As bothersome as so many tourists have to be in one single city (some city people were understandably complaining in a newspaper one of the days) they still were incredibly nice to us. Like this serious looking man in a suit we asked for directions to a restaurant, he didn't know so went and looked it up on his phone, showed us a map and then even showed us a pic of the restaurant's facade!
Tags:"london june 2011 blog"

More tunes

2011-06-10T11:26:00.040+02:00

Like this one, quite older, by The Pierces

These two know how to use a spade!, last blow should be it, & his fault alone it is too.
Those are the creepier, "Secret" Pierces, pre Berryman producing, pre The Mamas and the Papas varnish (at its most accomplished in songs like You'll be mine), pre becoming quite quite popular. In fact one's surprised to find out this is their 4th record -if I'm correct.
It's funny how some unlikely words keep repeating themselves in songs, for instance Domino: ask Sondre Lerche, he's just written such an irregular song with it, most moments are a ten, others... not. Still the number of views of its charmingly unpretentious official video months after being posted is just ridiculous and sad. Guess sometimes internet not only does not make you feel less isolated but makes it poignantly clear that the insignificant number of people on your "team" is even smaller than you had estimated.. Kinda.
Sondre is also posting a video a day for a time to launch his latest album and has done this most hyperstripped down version. He was one of the first performers on XPN I missed when I left Philly and I was very bummed about it. He's irregular but regularly fantastic.
Talking about most irregular things, saw "I heart Huckabees":

Genious brilliance at times, such a drag at others (unfortunately one of the worst moments is the one with a Spanish old woman on it. A wink to Almodovar, no doubt, but more of a black eye as she's so shrill-fake silly). But yeah, some amazing moments. Plus Jon Brion on board can't hurt. And as I said, just like in song lyrics you come across the same words again and again (eyes, ocean, blue, sun, moon... domino, hggg) and same themes, it's much more so in movies. So one that's not about love or sex or war or mystery or the very popular option of 4X1, a movie simply about being human is great. Well, it's also about serendipity (in fact that's how the title was translated in Spain), you seldom know what's serendipity, what's not and still at times you have to act upon it. Sometimes it's so poetic and pretty to think some things are not sheer serendipity...one's tempted!. But more often than not they are (which on the other hand is sometimes quite liberating). Ultimately it's the facts that prove it.
I mean, is this post serendipitous? or not?

Tunes

2011-05-19T16:15:00.012+02:00

Like hers:

And as I reverted to draft yet another post and started writing a fresh one with a plan -an impossible to draft totally undeletable one that would break the curse (17 posts this year, only 3 still standing!)- I listened to this song for the first time. Yep yep, no complications no frustrations simply a surprisingly pretty song Gainsbourg style. Should do. Video's fun too, her dying of boredom in a room, doing silly things, rings a bell. And if I'm not going to Paris or Berlin -sadly!- at least there's a short trip somewhere soon. Travelling's good, I want to run run run away

I love this cover!

2011-04-23T12:07:00.017+02:00

It just works really well, everything. She's covering Je fume parce que tu bois next Tuesday? (Mardi prochain?) -I think. And quite the smile, cet Adrien.
Everybody on holidays? Ha, I was back Wednesday, just as everybody was leaving, like that feeling.
Have to paintbrushsabotage a pic and will post it.
...
Hours later:

Beautiful Asturias coast.
And return in the rain..

And my previous impression proved totally false: after going out there this morning I believe I can safely report that nobody has left Madrid for Easter, and that its whole population has agreed on going out shopping this morning too..
Well, since in a few days this blog will be 4 yrs old, might as well have a few posts from this era for its bthdy!.
PS Never bother with the je bois cover, was pretty terrible.

To watch and help (or Alela & Housing Works)

2011-04-13T13:35:00.012+02:00

If you watch this video:

1. You've just helped a good cause as all views generate revenue for charity Housing works. Don't know the details (tried to find out but couldn't, and come to think of it they should say, else it might just be a VEVO marketing campaign more than anything and I should delete this post, ohh that's why I don't blog anymore, too complicated!)
2. You might like this song. I certainly do (this particular one), big change for Alela Diane, very upbeat and fresh. Just came across it on Spotify - and how cool is Spotify? very, use it all the time.
Anyway, and either way, the world still needs a lot of help these days...
PS (day after) Why don't I just shut up, just read that Spotify has announced today (serendipity, a constant in my life) that it will very severely restrict access to music to non paying listeners (10 hours a month??). On the other hand seems it's finally going to be available in the US soon..for those there..

Kathleen Edwards' 4th -with helper-

2011-01-20T13:31:00.040+01:00

Kathleen has been in the studio for some time now, getting her 4th release ready. And being as fantastic as she is, she's been keeping us in the loop by occasionally posting bits and ends on her facebook. In case you missed it, today's bit is priceless: new music!!.. so fresh, love it. Goes by the title of "Little T workin' the piano", and has the so very Kathleen intro "just another night of fucking around on the piano, with a helper" (her cat). Unfortunately video can't be embedded so click on this link to watch it (post edit: not anymore, once there go to videos and select it).
I'm jealous, not only do I not have a musical pet, neither do I get to funk around on my piano at night. Booo, I don't like having neighbors.
Just can't wait for her new songs.
PS (day after) Turns out she has a few more new songs out there, had not heard about them :(
In case you missed them too found:
* "Mint" and "Change the sheets" on youtube, recorded comme il faut by building55 (thnx!).
* "Empty threat", "Chameleon", "Soft place to land", Pink champagne... downloadable here from someone who taped then shared the audio for some shows (thnx 2, I'm so thankful for this kind of kind bloggers). Quite a few new covers as well.
Band: Jim Bryson always, Cripps and Tough alternate, seems. For more posts on K.E. in this blog see archives (June'08 and March'09)
PS (weeks after) Also, diffferent topic: Daytrotter just released their Best of Daytrotter 2010 list, more than worth checking out (picked from all sessions, all downloadable for free). Not the best songs but "the songs that moved us greatly". And I'd add a sentence here but I don't know how to say it in English..
One last musing if I'm allowed...'cos this is the perfect post to bring Sarah Hallman up, another brilliant Canadian. You can listen to her songs here (first you'll have to pause the usually terrible radio), specially recommend "Forget you", kinda like a mouthful of Twizzlers and strawberry chewing gum, like blowing bubbles with chagrin..

A-ha's farewell to Madrid

2010-10-15T12:01:00.027+02:00

Couldn't make up my mind about whether to go to yesterday's gig or not (happens to me, get sort of jammed, same amount of pros and cons), so decided to enter a draw I came across on the net, leave it to fortune...and scored 2 tickets at the very last minute!!!. Really glad I went. More pics:

To cut a long story short, pros:
- Lighting, show production, gorgeous
- Music
- Magne's humor, specially his bit translating Morten's words to Spanish- hilarious. Morten's smile, wow (btw, he looked impossibly, spookily young on the screens, like in his 20s).

And cons:
-Venue, venue, venue: bad sound, lugubrious atmosphere...a real sabotage
-Setlist, basically the singles off each record... not fair.
-Rythm, the energy of the first set of songs suddenly sinks and never quite reaches the same level again.
-Morten's moves, weird. Specially when getting ready for the note holding in Summer moved on, looked like some kind of transformer about to unplug his torso...quality, not quantity.
-Last, but certainly not least their fan snubbing after the concert. Only Pal approached the people waiting, he spent like 1 minute behind the fence, slurring a few signatures, his sunglasses on, not looking up once. The other two got into their heavily tinted glasses Mercedes without a word. Honestly, how hard can it be to say a general hi to all the people waiting at the other side of a fence?.

Only other time I've won tickets to a concert was about a decade ago. It included airfare, hotel, limo picking us up at the airport -wohoo!- and Michael Douglas on the plane (that not included in the prize but it was at that time when he was courting Z Jones... He waited with everybody at the boarding room for quite a bit and acted very normal, seemed nice, curiously only a little girl approached him -enough, gossipy me). Concert was Madness at the Wembley Arena, around Christmas, which was rather cool because London looked lovely. Had little time and had already been to London a few times, visited Lord Leighton's house (highly recommend it, beautiful), etc . Walked around the city and the shops...fantastic. They don't do contests like that anymore...or I don't win them!

Tags: A-ha farewell tour, A-ha Madrid, A-ha vistalegre

Concierto Homenaje a Carlos Berlanga en Joy

2010-10-01T16:57:00.015+02:00

-Post in Spanish, the rest of this blog's posts are in English-

Bueno, post en español que ya tocaba..

Poco que añadir a lo mucho que ya se ha dicho de anoche. Que fue una pena, una pena porque pudo ser muy especial. Pero irónicamente le faltó de lo que allí sobraba: ritmo y música. Una organización absurda, dosificando una canción cada cuarto de hora, empezando por temas lentos, después los más animados, luego los de en medio...el público andaba descolocado (razones técnicas? no lo veo. Y por qué tantos grupos se quedaron fuera?).

Lo mejor, eso si, las actuaciones: todos se lo tomaron en serio y se dieron de verdad. Bebe se plantó con un desafiante "A quién le importa" escenificado a lo Rocío Jurado, manos en cadera, mucho sentimiento y mucha raza. A más de uno debían de pitarle los oídos después de lo que se ha cuestionado su participación en el disco...(la verdad, de la versión del disco no digo lo mismo).

Alaska no defraudó y suyo fue el mejor remake de la noche, hizo pleno eligiendo su tema, y junto al resto de Fangoria cantó un "En el volcán" al que dio mucho brío y mucho de todo. Evidentemente esa noche su actuación era la más esperada a efectos de disección y la verdad es que dejó poco margen de comentario.

Las Nancys Rubias, divertidos, no sonaron nada mal.

Me perdí a Anni B Sweet, que ya había tocado cuando nos dejaron entrar (organización, eso no se hace!!).

Y de lo demás alguno soso soso, alguno más a la altura que otro, y algunos que me perdí porque ya al final echa una cuentas y estarse 40 minutos más para oír otras dos canciones y entre semana... al día siguiente el despertador no perdona.

No iba a ir al concierto porque aunque me apetecía mucho y que sea gratis es un lujo, eso de no saber si vas a ir para nada..no apetece. De hecho después de más de media hora en una cola larguísima seguíamos todos con la incógnita. Pero bueno, al final creo que entramos todos, y eso que la cola de vips y prensa era casi igual de larga que la nuestra. Foto de la cola, flecha donde estaba la entrada, para hacerse una idea...

He subido un par de videos a mi canal de youtube, pero el concierto se grabó entero con cámaras profesionales y seguro que está disponible pronto en el myspace de Vodafone secret shows, que lo de internet los de Vodafone lo llevan super (ya han subido un montón de fotos).

Yo solo vi una vez a Carlos Berlanga, hace muchos años. Un día me lo crucé por la calle, y cuando me quedé con cara de "ese es..", él en vez mirar para otro lado me sonrió. Anoche quedó claro que mucha gente le admira, de los antiguos y de los nuevos.

September babies and A-ha... and ink and BR and whatnot -like customizable music vids-

2010-09-10T00:19:00.063+02:00

Congrats are in order for new mums Nerina Pallot and Emiliana Torrini, as both of them gave birth to boys this week!.

If that wasn't work enough, Emiliana's releasing a cd next month and Nerina has a cd recording in progress...a hell of a lot of energy they're gonna need...

Actually both of them have written songs for Kylie Minogue, hmm.

Have never had the chance to see Nerina live unfortunately but have been following her live broadcast "I don't want to go out" sessions which she does so generously for her fans (last one on the 23rd Aug!- she had to interrupt it because of.. stomach ache, ahem -she had not "gone public" with her pregnancy -must have been damn hard to go without telling). I did meet Emiliana briefly some time ago and she's such a lovely, lovely person, she even lent a hand with an old lost cause of mine.

So glad for them, had no idea they were even pregnant!.

In case someone is unfamiliar with the music of either, follow the link for a free download of a song of each from their official websites:

*Nerina: Heidi

*Emiliana: "Birds". Square at top right, bottom (join mailing list)

And this one's not had any babies but she's delivered some most impressive songs:

*Audra Mae's The river free download-

Other recent deliveries out there included PING, the supposedly ultrafantastic ultimate virtual music Itunes community that turned out to be quite the joke. There I was on its second day snooping around all excited thinking it's bye bye lastfm (nothing personal, it was great at the beginning, not anymore) when I came across the impressive amount of choice of... some 20 artists to follow!!. I couldn't believe it, but yeah, big powers can sc**w just as big -as per this article. Well, we still have Spotify.

On the other side of the spectrum, others are saying goodbye. A-ha are on their farewell tour and yes, I love these guys so I'm sad. Grew up listening to their songs, bought most of their records (I even have this LP my father brought me from a trip to Norway ages ago, with water splash embossed on it, a big treasure at the time, with songs like the wonderful "October") and their music along with many others' surely helped shape my synapses big time. Seems their last song will be "Butterfly, Butterfly (The last hurrah)", and an impressive most adequate song it is too (despite lines like "molecular cries" or" chrisalys dreams waiting on the fifth instar", even the butterfly itself,they always had these "quirky" lines here and there!...they pull it off somehow). A no less emotional video goes with it (I can see wrinkles! almost unheard of in these days video clips, brave, big kiss guys). "25. Very best of A-ha" is released these days.

The other day, serendipitously, I ended up watching an old video mix tape of mine. Guess who, among many others, was in it (actual pics of tv screen lol):

Ah! Post not over yet, this is one of those that start as two lines and end up a manuscript!. Was looking at the list of my recommended blogs and as expected some have sadly disappeared or stopped updating, but left them there just in case, and added a new one that looks promising, bookmarked on a video of a glass of water that's so restrained and good. Was googling for Brooke Waggoner after she popped up on KGRL (another one that sadly seems to be on its way to goodbye, so listen to it while you still can). May I say I have this food colour and egg dye (red yellow blue and green), never used it for food but to pour a few drops on water glasses now and then (don't drink it, yuk), does exactly that, amazing colours.

Post finished 14th Sept (hopefully).

PS One last thing (!). Since I'm writing, it's impossible not to mention that Blonde Redhead just released their new record "Penny Sparkle" , you can already listen to it in full on Spotify- And if you sign up on their website you'll get a free download off it, "Not getting there". Some people already trying to find out about the song's lyrics...not getting there haha (me neither).

Optimistic work, seems, with uplifting song titles like "My plants are dead", "Love or prison", "Everything is wrong" or the said "Not getting there". A beautiful track called "Spain" too, seems to fit. Despite being the optimistic self everybody knows me to be (thinking people can change, that some people are good despite continuous hard evidence against it, that in the end I'll get the hang of life and so on...the usual), I kinda love it.

PS2 This post is starting to be seriously annoying. Every time I'm done, another thing comes my way. OK, last: customizable music videos: never seen any before. You write your name, the recipient's, misc data like favourite food, etc., you upload a couple of pics (Capitol records states that no info will be sold or shared), hit play and there you are. Not exactly my nr 1 song but I was curious and it's a cute result, and an idea with big possibilities. The end?

15th...I keep adding...a propos of the opening theme (and the until now closing one too), found the loveliest also customizable thing on youtube, click here on the "New baby" one. Bound to make any parent smile.

Daisy Chapman at the Bristol Harbour Festival - BBC showcase

2010-08-03T11:08:00.031+02:00

Really lucky that the first day of my UK holiday was to be spent in Bristol, by serendipity on precisely its Harbour Festival weekend, just in time for Daisy Chapman's 3 song taster at Millennium square. I had previously found out about it, didn't miss it.

The first song I ever listened to from her, the cover of "Our mutual friend" on her youtube, is such an impressive performance, flawless, dazzling:

To me one of the best voices out there. Those voice loops, she makes it look so easy, which it can't be. The small number of views is hard to understand, specially since this version is much better than the one on her album (and that a big chunk of those views is mine!). I can't say I connect with most of her songs though, but some like The green eyed are ace. Unfortunately she didn't play either that day. Sunday she was doing a longer gig but I had already moved to greener pastures... scarily narrow these English roads & crazy drivers btw!. But sad to have missed it.

Uploaded "Madame Geneva" and mini interview to my youtube channel.

Back from England now. Would like to post more pics of the Festival etc but have had major issues with computers & external hds (crashed, learned a lesson about keeping back up copies updated -DO!- and using outlook -DON'T!-), struggling with the new one at the moment, I'll get there.

Post finished on the 20th August-

PS It is always hard to write the next post after a post like the previous one. It feels weird to retake the regular posting, to go back to usual. But it's life, doesn't mean these things are forgotten. The NY Times recently published an article on Motherlode here, reflecting on the blog his wife has started to write after the accident. Coping with goodbyes, we all have to learn to. All kinds of goodbyes in life, some natural, some tragic like this one, some brutally unkind. We all take it our different ways, best we can, we have to.

Goodbye Dan

2010-07-28T14:58:00.000+02:00

It’s been a week since I read the saddest news about Daniel Cho. He was in Europe touring with Regina Spektor as her cellist when a fatal accident happened, early this month. So hard to believe.
Dan was an incredibly talented musician, over the years he got to work with many of the best, both in studio sessions and live performances. His music and his playing can be heard on his myspace and countless youtube videos (like this one).
But music aside the Dan I had the chance to know a bit was one of those good people you come across in life on lucky days, so kind, easy to talk to. Responsible, calm, optimistic, considerate. His strongest love of his family, his baby daughter not yet two..
I last heard from him in January, when he wrote to let me know he’d done a session with Regina some months ago somewhere I used to work and he’d been told I had moved elsewhere. I was bummed to have missed them by only a few months but figured I’d have the chance to see him play again sometime, maybe chat a bit afterwards. Wasn’t to be.
My deepest condolences to his family and friends.
Daniel Cho memorial page.
He liked this photo.

Siiii!!!!!

2010-07-12T10:46:00.009+02:00

Ganamos!!!!...Guess sometimes the good guys win after all.

Far from Madrid, in the middle of nowhere at the moment, and still one could hear people celebrating!.

PS Last football post ever here!. Well, actually it's way more than football, Spain's in quite the shaken state at the moment, and these things have an impressive impact.

Najwa Nimri @ Be open Festival + Miquel Barceló @ Caixaforum: Humanimals

2010-06-12T22:00:00.004+02:00

Najwa Nimri onstage^ (with her signature golden mike)
.. and "backstage"

Great set with many drops of improvisation and new takes on her songs, specially her itunes exclusive "Te brillan los ojos". Najwa's latest cd "El último primate" is a brave bet in every way, just miles beyond the usual.
I recorded a bit but sound was too loud for my camera.
Other acts in the festival included Anni B Sweet.

Fiat B Open festival, Madrid 10/04/10

Then the parallelism Najwa/ Miquel Barceló. A few weeks after the show I visited Miquel 's exhibit at Caixaforum, illustrated by this distant (said) self portrait as ... a primate, one of his most recent known works.

His exhibit covers a wide period of time, but it seems that as of late he, as Najwa, is somehow -stamp an "edited" here, there was my usual hence and forth about, this time, the old human/animal thing, concept, metaphor, solitude, cruelty, strength, deception, civilization...ending up with the made up humanimal thing ...I'll spare everyone-.
Curiously, in her "Como un animal" video Najwa holds a gorilla just like the one Miquel painted.

Tomorrow's the last day to visit Barceló's exhibit -I believe-, and tomorrow his huge sculpture of an "equilibrist" elephant, placed in front of the Caixaforum building, will be removed from its present location. Though it looked perfect there.

And talking about art in Spanish, I saw a great movie recently (finally!!): "El secreto de sus ojos" ("The secret in their eyes"). Some animals in it too.

Theoretical Girl @ Sala Siroco, Madrid

2010-06-12T21:30:00.006+02:00

Setlist:
I was surprised she didn't play any song from the new album she's recording, in fact she opted for repeating part of the setlist for the encore (she let the audience choose).

Unfortunately the sound in the venue wasn't half as good as would have been desired, and her opting for the company of a canned itunes band instead of an acoustic set, took away quite a bit too (for me, not a fan of that). But her talent, beautiful voice and possibilities were there.
Amy sporting a very rock'n'roll simbol with her hand:

Hope she doesn't mind my posting this bit of sheet music of her song "Good timing" that I was happily surprised to find on the floor near the stage (I'll clear up that I don't usually pick up stuff from the floor... but I'm powerfully attracted to music staff lines). It sounds really pretty on the piano (such a nice melody, the lyrics not my thing though ;), and I hope she doesn't mind sharing (though I'd understand that she would, then I'd just remove it). And I won't go on again about how underrated by music industry itself sheet music is and how many people are interested in it but actually...yep, it'd be great if artists would share these. And I mean the real thing, not some bad lame adaptation as it's most often the case. Even as promo, in the same fashion as free tracks...Just an idea.

Audience:

Theoretical Girl @ Sala Siroco, Madrid7th May
Tags:Theoretical Girl Sala Siroco, Theoretical Girl setlist

Angela Von Neumann

2010-06-12T21:20:00.003+02:00

This is just a small portion of the impressive detail she achived in her work. Some time ago I googled her and was surprised to find so little: even though some of her works hang on the walls in museums, one single painting's image was available online (and not one that -to me- did her any justice).
I researched her again more recently. Sadly one of the few additions was the news of her death this January. This is my little tribute to this great painter and kind person. "Flor azul"(65 x 54 cm) was painted by her sometime before the 90's.

Ane Brun at the Moby Dick Club, Madrid

2010-03-07T14:30:00.021+01:00

Here's the setlist:

Only change is she didn't play Gillian.

Supporting act was Linnea Olsson (who was later the only one onstage with Ane, playing cello), who did a nice sampler of 3 songs, one of them instrumental. I've uploaded a bit of that one, "The ocean", on youtube here.

A few more pics:

Also uploaded a few vids on youtube of the two new covers she did ("Alfonsina y el mar" -in Spanish, her favourite song- and "It's alright baby's coming back", this last one for Amnesty International, they asked her for a cover of an 80's or 90's song) and also the beautiful "The fall" sounding more beautiful than ever before. They're all in my youtube profile. As usual the best clip is the one that got less hits. Story of my life and by extension of this blog!.

Videos say it all, great concert. And when it ended she stood by the merch table with Linnea. I asked Ane about her next album, she said most probably it wouldn't be out until at least next year, as she's been busy -and now, with the Peter Gabriel thing, even more. She has fully finished two songs so far, and she didn't know if it would be in the same line as the previous one or not- or she prefered to keep it a secret!. It's a big contrast, her songs, with how open and friendly she is.

The edition of the Changing of seasons cd (only one on sale that night) had a French version of the Koop island blues with an almost unrecognizable Ane. Most chic song, had not heard it before ("et mon coeur se souvient des formes de ton corps", different better lyrics than the English version)

I do not want to say again I'll hardly blog anymore because you never know (like the last time I did a week or so into my non-blogger status a very cool NY marketing agency offered to send me their music news and also interview chances to new acts, etc. , -which had not happened the whole time I'd been blogging!) so decided to go on for a bit more. I've only done maybe 2 or 3 small posts on the people they manage because most of it is not something that fits well here -some are very cool though-. They're really lovely people, thanks for keeping me in the loop on some stuff).

So I'd say nothing, which is easier in case I change my mind, but I believe some people (very very few) come back to this blog now and then for fresh posts so I should. BIG thanks to them, whoever they are. May post when I go to a specially good concert or so. Have to focus on the grown up life now, ugg!! ...changing of seasons :)

I'd rather sneak this in Ane's post than on the last one, less self-important, lol.

Tags: Ane Brun setlist, Ane Brun Madrid, Moby Dick club, Linnea Olsson Madrid

A spring-like release

2010-02-24T09:57:00.000+01:00

May I do another post on Spanish music (sung in English, though ) without people skipping it?. Give it a try, Spain also has a lot to offer as far a music goes, and not all is flamenco - in fact most of it isn't.
Proof of it is Marlango, they are just about to release their new album "Life in the treehouse" and the first single makes it look very promising, very spring-like feeling to it so the release is most timely. Some very arty images in their video too :

In this other video they talk about this new cd, basically saying it's a more happy record (happiness type B they say, as they're never "the life of the party") that also aims for the kind of simplicity that's achieved through very hard work.
Marlango's singer, Leonor Watling, is also one of the best Spanish actresses around.
Also trying to push down all this blog's seasonal posts... looks kinda shabby still showing Christmas and Valentine's stuff..

L'illustration

2010-02-23T23:40:00.009+01:00

Pic: make up session demonstration, 1932

Different post this time, L'Illustration was a French magazine famous in its time for its most advanced design and photographs as well as its quality articles, which covered the widest variety of topics, more info here. It was specially popular and important during the different wars of that period because of the extensive coverage it provided. Since I've some copies, all dated in the 1930's, I figured I'd post about it.

And surprisingly there are quite a few on sale at ebay, not expensive at all.

Now some pics, may add more in the future. Some of them are frivolous, others most tragic (hope it is not regarded as disrespectful to have posted them together, nothing further from my intention). All of them are to me pretty impressive, specially considering the cameras back then. They all belong to different issues dated 1932 (some of the photographs were taken in previous years though).

There are some impressively beautiful front pages like the one below, L' Atlantique and its story now forgotten, -a ship returning to port with no passengers, only its crew aboard when there's a fire, believed to have started in a first class cabin at a little before 3.30 am. No, it's not a movie!. The story here-

A few ads (hey, some women were not that doomed with domesticity!) :

Music, hippos...

Years after my grandparents died I lived in their house for a few months.
It was a small flat full of half empty cabinets. What was still there by then was what was considered completely expendable... I couldn't have agreed less.
The other day, greyest yet in this grey winter, was a good time to unpack them. To open some of them for the first time. To see how past is present, present is past...

Tags: L'illustration, 1932

Melody at her best - Abbey Road

2010-02-23T22:22:00.005+01:00

A while ago I was happily surprised when the Spanish National TV used one of Melody Gardot's songs as soundtrack to one of their most "important" spots (it was going ad free), one of the first ads to run this first of January. Fumbling on youtube I came across this impressive cover:

Love it. I don't think it will be on youtube for long, as the thing has already started retiring previous uploads of it because of the tiresome annoying copyright bummer.
Apparently there's this TV program from the UK called Live from Abbey Road, that is now on the US's Sundance Channel too, info here . There's a ton of clips there but I can't seem to open any from my country. Hopefully one day it will get here too-.
A lot of great most assorted artists have been on it (from Brian Wilson to Alanis Morissette, Richard Ashcroft, Kate Nash (listened to her new "I just love you more" yet, everybody?) or La Roux). And I quote " it offers a truly unique look inside the creative process of some of the industry's most fascinating artists (...) discussing their work and performing". There's some Beatles covers, and some new takes on their own material.
The Spanish tv ad featuring Melody's take of "Somewhere over the rainbow":

Nerina Pallot NOW!! -Useless tomorrow

2010-01-18T22:03:00.006+01:00

Note April'09: Actually not, redoing this post since her "I don't want to go out" sessions are going on pretty often. In fact there was one every Monday for a while. Keep an eye on her website for future sessions as she's currently busy on tour.
Great and so generous of her, in these webcasts there's room for live performances of her songs and also some chatting where she answers questions. She answered one of mine a while ago (asked her about the "Shania you impress me" line in Cigarette, yes it was Shania and not another name and it was S. Twain she refers to, since it's a song about guilty pleasures she said -indeed!- bit of everything aaand she'd smoke a bit back then, kinda non smoking smoker - so) And the song rocks.
Nerina Pallot, 'I Don't Want To Go Out' Sessions. Just click

Is it really over? oh bummer

2010-01-05T13:17:00.010+01:00

So I guess this Christmas is finally over...well, I'll miss coming across some of the music stuff that only happens this time of year..like this:

I agree with Stereogum, nr 1 of best late night tv performances of 2009, and Casablanca's + The Root's taking over the song...that's rock and roll! (even with the shiny wedding band and the baby on the way!)
And didn't this website take the words from my mouth in this other list with "We know you're as sick as we are of parsing critics' picks, so here's at least one countdown where you won't find Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, or Dirty Projectors in the Top 10" . Indeed, all "cool" "hip" lists had at least 2 of those. Not impressed, even saw the DP live, to me apart from the virtuosity of the female choruses..boring. And the singer... sooo full of himself. Whatever. I've now found two lists that I feel like exploring, one Butterfly Boucher pointed at this morning, here at KGRL (had already listened to a few of those, agree for the most part) and one via Sondre Lerche (he did include the DP and co but...). Still none of these include Camera Obscura's release and that is a major flaw!!
My most listened to these Christmas was old stuff though (but new for me) like one of the best covers I've ever listened to, Shelby Lynne's "I don't want to hear it anymore".
PS Post activated a few months late...ahem, just remembered it was there drafted. Reasons why I didn't back then... anyone's guess. Course by now vid link doesn't work, 'cos youtube needs some competence, basically. Well, it did make me laugh back then.

Sade's comeback

2010-01-02T12:53:00.008+01:00

After a slight delay in the program, Sade's first track released from her new album is now available to listen: "Soldier of love"

Her new cd out in February.
No big changes, seems, but she's always been one of my favourites. Ages ago I came across her when she was with a friend walking a dog in a park in Madrid (she lived here for a while), at a time when I was listening to Love Deluxe constantly, still said nothing to her. Figured it was the best way to thank her for her songs ... but somehow it was weird. Also saw her playing live, fantastic, wish I can do that again soon!.
And is Wikipedia right? Is she almost 51? Gosh, who'd have said..

Happy new year - And some music for the occasion

2009-12-30T23:01:00.016+01:00

If one word can describe these last days of the year over here that is WATER, it's been unexplainably raining non stop for weeks.....glooooomy. Aaaand even some snow. Who'd have thought.

Even so some musicians have weathered this curse and gone out on the streets of Madrid to play the last carols of the year. An example: Dawn Landes' (&Co) very inspired version of Rocking around.., not bad at all:

If the video works funny you can watch it here (there's also other artists)

A little late for a post on carols... but...ahem. Many new additions to the folder this year have been free downloads ..duh , my mind doesn't work tonight. Will finish the post tomorrow.

31/12/09: Guess what...it's raining! Since I woke up, not stopped for a minute. Not good.

Will keep it short, things to do. So, people like Sweet Soubrette and Jem gave away a free Christmas new track on Christmas day (timing's everything, they say), or on a different day (as Camera Obscura "the Blizzard") and others a non Christmas one like Sondre Lerche his cover of Animal Collective's "Bluish" or Sia the previously only for twitterers (me not one of them yet) "You've changed". Of all those, I believe the best is Sondre's (how this guy projects warmth and good somehow). You should find all the links for downloading in their webs/myspace...or let me know. I'm feeling lazy.

Aaaand this morning it was Anna Ternheim who wished everyone a Happy NY giving away a live version of "You mean nothing to me", here. Breathtaking. But not appropiate for happy, she must have a Swedish sense of humour! -best save it for another day.

Big rainy thanks to all of them for their generosity. Will try to remember more.

(Pic: Christmas Tree at the Plaza de España, Madrid)

On second thought, Jem's is probably a better choice for tonight. Oh, and it's still raining!!!.

Champagne in the fridge everybody?

Christmas 2: Norah Jones 2009 Youtube Christmas carol

2009-12-23T12:46:00.008+01:00

Attempt nr 2 at Christmas post, was just sent this funny Norah Jones' carol link:

Reasons to post about it:
1. No Bird and the bee carol this year, which is like Christmas sans the tree...
2. Last Christmas posted The bird and the bee's cover of this very song. And reflected on French hens. This one's sans hens...but keeps the tradition. I also posted about Charlie's biting patterns somewhere!
3. It's made me laugh. NO hens, birds or bees but polite cats and smoking orangutans!. Could next year's version possibly beat that? Nope

Happy Christmas!

2009-12-22T13:55:00.004+01:00

Mandatory post- kinda late this year. Butterfly Boucher & her lovely chorus have made it easier by uploading this pretty Christmas song:

We still have cinnamon and chocolate, indeed.
And 2009 is almost over. Effing unbelievable.
May add to this post, had all these things to write about (2009 hasn't been just another year for me) but..

Corinne Bailey Rae's new video "I'd Do It All Again"

2009-12-18T12:00:00.014+01:00

“I’d Do It All Again,” the first single from Corinne Bailey Rae’s forthcoming album, The Sea, goes to radio this week, the full album to be released in January. The video for this song was made available yesterday:
Corinne Bailey Rae "I'd Do It All Again"

Corinne Bailey Rae MySpace Music Videos
I'm just going to quote after the info I received: "The video is directed by acclaimed film director Jamie Thraves, the man responsible for such iconic videos as Radiohead's 'Just' and Coldplay's 'The Scientist'. Talking about the video Thraves exclusively told MySpace "Corinne and I met just as I was formulating the idea. She told me she was fan of my work, said she thought it was very real looking, cinematic and quite dark and that's what she wanted for her video, nothing too sunny she said. I looked at her other videos and realised just how sunny they were and why she wanted to do something different for this song but on the day we filmed it was such a lovely sunny day - I told Corinne the sun just seems to follow her around, but it's okay because in sad moments the sun can underline sadness just as easily as rain.""

Seems the unanimous review for this new album is a rawer sound and a deep pain that dyes pretty much all the songs (as is only natural after recent events in her life).
I'm not too dazzled by this first single, though it's really nice to listen to and I'm very much looking forward to listening to the other tracks on the album.
She will tour extensively in 2010, backed by many of the musicians who played on the new album.

So, would you do it all again?
Tags: Corinne Bailey Rae The Sea, Corinne Bailey Rae I'd Do It All Again, Corinne Bailey Rae new video

Hello

2009-12-03T13:29:00.007+01:00

Camera Obscura and The starlets at the Sala Heineken, Madrid

2009-11-26T12:40:00.000+01:00

The stage...

(Sala Heineken, Madrid)

Lee reaching for every beat...

One of the five highly demanded setlist copies (lucky mee):

Taped some bits of the concert:

*"Pen and notebook"

* Tracyanne talks about playing in Madrid again:

The sound in the other stuff I recorded was too loud for my picky camera. Or else I'd have also uploaded "If looks could kill", probably the top moment of the night.

The concert was great and as I'd read everywhere, despite their technical difficulty they make the songs sound even better live -Tracyanne had some sound problems for the first songs, though-. And unlike I'd also read, I saw plenty of talking to the public, feelings, smiles and so on. Too serious? No way, they can't all be Robbie Williams (and thank God for that - no harm intended to him, he seriously rocks in a few songs).

The night setlist included half the new record, all the best songs off it, then songs from all their other albums. The most surprising choice was "Pen and notebook", from their first, which was a gift to their vintage fans (not to forget that their first label was Spanish and that they toured Spain extensively during those years, so they have a soft spot for these whereabouts and some people around here have been following them for a looong time). As the song progressed some hush sounds came from a part of the audience and the crowd fell totally silent (that lapsus aside, they had been really well behaved up till then, but that song was the quietest so...). Tracyanne seemed to pour a lot of emotions on this one, to me the saddest Camera Obscura song by far.

And I don't know why I went and wrote this mini bio too (anyway, info on them is very scattered on the web):

If it seems it took a bit for Camera Obscura to find their identity (with their first two records having some maybe too marked influences) that is by now a solved issue. They began their musical career at the same time as Belle and Sebastian, their paths intertwining often, which is natural being in the same city, and Stuart Murdoch producing their first album and also having a hand in the second one (and doesn't "Let me go home" sound just like a Belle and Sebastian song). During those times the singing and composing would be shared/alternated between Tracyanne and guitar Kenny McKeeve as well as John Henderson?, sometimes producing fantastic tracks like "Hands up baby" (written by Kenny). More on that in this article I've discovered by looking for info on John's role, no easy task!. From their third album to date Tracyanne seems to have taken over both roles, which has maybe made them lose some elements but has also resulted in making their sound much more unique (if Kenny still has a remarkable role in the chorus) . The third album would be key in that, as at that moment other influences were thrown into the mix, their album being recorded in Sweden and being greatly in tune with the increasingly important music movement that's been going on up there for a while. And so among the contributors to this album we find well known names there like Victoria Bergsman (The Concretes, Taken by Trees) and Brita Persson. Their tunes get very close to pop perfection in tracks like Lloyd..., If looks.. and so the group consolidates their fan base and widens it considerably.

My Maudlin career, their latest, is just the cherry on top, the best crafted of all, the most poignant in its lyrics... and I just can't wait to listen to what comes next. It seems it won't happen for a while though, as I was able to talk to them for a bit after this show (they are the nicest people) and they said they're too immersed in touring right now (they have a few dates in the US shortly, and then they'll start 2010 touring again..). Well, this group has an amazing number of B sides, exclusive bonus tracks, covers... maybe that could be released first.

Also asked Kenny if they ever play "Roman holiday" live (for some reason, probably its serenity, I listen to this song a lot lately), he said merrily that they do sometimes, when they can remember the lyrics, "which is not often". Well, they've played 67 different songs at least (the lyrics for 66 of them are posted here) so...

To know more about the first three records of the band, you can go to their former (and Spanish) label Elefant Records website, they have bothered to put up a fantastic amount of stuff, including streamings of many full tracks (B-sides, rare stuff ...), info as well as lyrics, video, etc. Thanks to them for generously sharing all that.

I could also talk about the long line in front of the merch table when the concert ended, how loyal their fans are and how they cherish this group: how the guys behind me -one of them seriously gorgeous- whispered to each other "mírala qué guapa es" (kinda translates into " look at her, so beautiful") with such tenderness as soon as Tracyanne appeared onstage... or other stuff, but some things I'll keep to myself. Plus, this post would never end, and I've other things to do in life.

Anybody gets to the end of this post, they get a prize!

Since this post is already too long I've done a different one for supporting act the Starlets, here.

This was posted Nov 9th but I'm pushing it up so my blog looks a bit more musical (that's what it's supposed to be but then I start posting silly stuff... ;)

Tags: Camera Obscura, Camera Obscura Madrid, Camera Obscura sala Heineken, Camera Obscura setlist

Sam Roberts - pump yourself up for the day

2009-11-26T11:08:00.006+01:00

Just found this piece of pure rock energy, "Love at the end of the world"

Smokin' performance. Met these guys a while ago, had not listened to anything but "Them kids" and immediately fell in love with this other song and their fantastic live act. Plus Sam speaks perfect Spanish and keyboard guy does pretty well too!!. Told me they have been to Spain (even supported Amaral, which is one of the most popular groups here), and they should come back :) Really cool guys.
Check also Sam's duet with Misstress Barbara -Canadian too- for another energy serving: "I'm running", which you can listen to in her myspace and which I also love.
Feel like this music now.
Oh, and finally got Spotify! -Spotify guy at FICOD invited me-. So discovered a lot of new music these last days, specially b-sides and new albums.

Some facts you should know about your ipod -and you probably haven't heard about

2009-11-25T12:37:00.024+01:00

Just found out "the hard way" about some issues (I have an ipod touch 32Gb, the following apply to at least this model):
1. If it breaks and guarantee time is over (1 year) they won't fix it. You'll have to purchase a new one, full price. Yep. Unbelievable, right?
With my usual terrible timing mine started giving problems (bad connection to cans) 1 year and 1 week after buying it. However at Apple phone service they were really nice, said they didn't think it was fair not to be covered for only one week and will cover it after all (said it even before I'd have to go into full combat mode). Yep, pretty amazing since I called some weeks after that. Kudos to Apple.
2. When it breaks and it's guarantee covered, they won't fix it either, buuut they'll give you a new one for free and take yours to Appleland for undisclosed use.
3. Your library? Well, you'll have to deal with saving it on your own. When asked they'll direct you to "Senuti" (iTunes spelled backward), a free trial program to transfer the music in your ipod to your itunes library. So you'll have to do that leap of faith and download the said trial thing from one of the fishy websites -at least if your computer's a PC-, risking problems (it doesn't work for me, probably works for most people but I always seem to be the exception). And when you're done with it and you try to uninstall the program...will tell you it has but it won't have. Lovely, right?. Here are a few solutions, I just went to the folder and it let me delete the contents one by one.
I asked about this here some posts ago, how to do it (when I accidentally deleted my itunes library a while ago), but nobody answered (big news, lol).
4. I don't think it's fair ipods are not fixable and nobody tells you when you buy them.
5.I don't think it's fair senuti isn't a free app in itunes.
I rest my case.

PS A week or so later, still dealing with my songs, ...IRIP works best but it's a demo so it will only allow to transfer 100 songs... this web gives a better alternative, I'm on it..

Professionals discuss online music: FICOD'09

2009-11-18T15:19:00.010+01:00

Going on in Madrid these days is FICOD (International Forum on Digital Contents). The basic relation Internet/Music is of course among the topics. I attended this session yesterday: "Record industry?", also available in Spanish in their ficodtv (you'll have so scroll down to see the screen). May post more on it later or may not: it was curious but scarcely interesting as every party held on to their official (and some so wrong) positions. As for the round of questions at the end...oops, no time. Suspicious!
Anybody can attend for free (just by signing in on their website) or stream it (live if you want to) here.
Some really interesting things programmed and some big names attending (Kevin Spacey, Google, Flickr and Spotify gurus...), wish I could have been there longer but I'm an unbusy busy person so couldn't.

Ends tomorrow!

Infected coffee & hearts on the run

2009-11-16T11:46:00.022+01:00

Found this in my coffee grounds this morning, as I was going to clean the coffee thing (really!!).
Seems it happens to more people, these hearts appearances in people's coffee, as per my seriously intelectual 5 minute research.

Well, it gets scarier: I swear, as I was writing this post I turned around to see what the men fixing my wall were doing besides a lot lot lot of noise and I see this:

Uggg, bad beginning of the day, lol. They laughed quite a bit when I told them why I was taking the pic!
PS. Forgot about my choice of socks first thing this morning.
(actually these are my "will stay at home today" socks, reason obvious)
PS 2 just a note to clarify that despite the jokes love is beautiful, mostly the one given to one's family, friends and total strangers out of the bits of goodness left in us. This is a horrible world, that's what we have.

PS 3 Report on wall progress: this is the final look..I'd say the rainbow was a nice touch... (pic 24/03/10)

The starlets at Sala Heineken, Madrid

2009-11-09T16:34:00.009+01:00

So these guys came up on the Heineken stage with Mahou beer bottles in their hands (a classic Spanish brand)... they were set out to conquer Madrid's crowd and they did!.

Then they played the most assorted music set one could expect: a "spaguetti western" theme, a polka, some true pop, a Manilow style marshmallowish song (the one I liked less by far -oh, I'm suuuuch a bitter thing), all of them introduced and explained exclusively in Spanish by their singer. They seemed to really be enjoying themselves up there and the good vibes filled the place and got everyone (or almost) in a good happy mood . There's a dreamer quality to the singer that taps him directly to the audience. I don't know if that sentence makes any sense because my English is getting worse and worse now that I hardly practice it so my apologies, seriously weird sentences can be expected as time goes by!!

A great supporting band, really knew how to play. You might or might not become a fan afterwards, but chances are you'd have enjoyed this performance quite a bit.

I uploaded a bit of the polka, again the only thing that my limited camera recorded with a decent sound.

I wish I had taken this photo

2009-10-29T20:04:00.008+01:00

Came up in Flickr, taken by Anna Szczekutowicz, see it better here.
Not in the mood for further blogging.

Try this free (and great) song

2009-10-09T16:07:00.003+02:00

If you're not familiar with Butterfly Boucher, give this one a try. It's from her new just released album and it's available as a FREE download from Rolling Stone (click on this link, then on "complimentary downloads" in the left column).
"Gun for a tongue"

She really deserves way more attention, and hopefully the extensive (and exhausting) US tour she's currently doing will help her build a bigger audience. I missed her when she played at Philly's World cafe earlier in the Spring (was at another concert that night), big bummer.
It's been a while since her first (and most irregular) cd and she seems to have gotten rid of heavy make up in more ways than one, becoming even better. And her worth reading story here.
And this other one of hers, "Keeper", may even be better. Great video too, not official or anything, but great, really captures the strenght she pours into this song.

Also check out Ellemacho, the group she's formed with other 2 musicians, all for fun seems, some great songs too. Unfortunately few people seem to know them.
And...part II: Discovering new music...
is getting harder and harder in Europe, for what I've seen lately. Just like I discovered Butterfly through lastfm radio, that service is not free here anymore (like Spotify in my country), and most of its available full tracks in the US are not so in Europe. Same story with IMEEM, which I 'd listen to so much lately. Pandora's not available here either and even some regular youtube videos are not viewable here because of copyright issues -sigh-. "Listening services" are a whole different story from downloads, I don't think the restrictive path is the one to take, people end up listening to way less new music as it becomes so much more time consuming to find it, but... If the money asked for these services is not something most people can't pay, it involves a change of mentality that's going to be tougher. It's funny that in a country like the US, where people have a culture of paying for radios they listen to (member supported radios like XPN and NPR) just because they want to help (these radios are available to everyone regardless) there's much more liberty when it comes to online music listening. Maybe that should give us Europeans some ideas...

Keane - Sovereign Light Cafe

2009-09-21T15:05:00.000+02:00

Can't resist posting on Keane's new song:

May seem a little song , but damn catchy it is, and with strength too. Springsteenish vibe to me, don't know why. Sung for the first time on Sept 19th, apparently still on the works, so open to changes.
Thanks so much to the person who's posted a link to download the track (I believe bootleg sharing is legal? specially if it's unreleased material), found it through lastfm , worked for me (and I do buy their cd's).
And thanks so much too to the person who originally uploaded it to youtube (and so fast!), hope this one is it. Because yes, what's the deal with all those youtube polluters who insist on copying other people's videos and re-uploading them over and over again only in worse quality? Some kind of ego problem, laziness or what? They only make it harder to locate the best copy and dilute the number of plays while at it. Bad practice -am sure they're all really nice people, they just need to stop doing that (by the way, some of these replicators posted the lyrics to the song).
Now that I'm "removed" from the music scene it's great to find these things on the internet through others, my biggest thanks to them.
And yes, Infotaupe made it safe to the other side of the ocean. Infotaupe now hates cardboard boxes and houses with a small number of cupboards! (her things arrived not 2 weeks ago). Wish they sorted themselves out alone like in a Sara Lov's "A thousand bees" video fashion !!.
And now I'll disappear into the ether again.....gloops glooops gloooooooops-----------
Back to the song, it's funny how we don't want to lose what we've already lost. Silly people we all are.

Goodbye Philadelphia

2009-07-30T16:25:00.000+02:00

Time to go...

Many memories and so much music, my three years in Jersey (so close to Philly) have been a fantastic experience.

No idea if I'll keep posting. Still have a lot of stuff on Philly venues etc as well as other things, and I always wanted to do a giveaway too, had these cool cd's back in February but time flew...
Whatever. Have a great summer!!.

Hearings for parking tickets in Philly

2009-07-24T15:30:00.007+02:00

Drafted july'09, post activated a little later...
Yesterday I had a hearing for a parking ticket (Philadelphia). Figured I'd write about it since I tried to do a little research on the web before attending and couldn't find anything.
So, I got to the Parking authority half hour in advance but signed in anyway. They told me to sit and somebody would call my name. They said it would be 1 hour wait, give or take. Room was crowded, I left and came back 15 minutes later. I had printed photos, etc (they said to bring "evidence") but once they called me (aprox. 30 minutes after sign in) I was in for a surprise: a woman showed me a paper with my ticket nr and amount owed and asked if that was the ticket I was disputing. I said yes. She asked if the vehicle was in my posession (had been towed! -uggg. Got it back the same day after paying the towing), I said yes and just like that she said "The city of Philadelphia would like to cancel this ticket as a courtesy". No showing photos, no explaining....seems the money collected for the towing was enough. I asked about a refund for the towing amount since I didn't agree with the fine, she said impossible (!!!)
Hearings are usually scheduled approx 3 months after the fine. My ticket was a relatively small amount ($45), and it was defective (they said I was parked in the wrong street). They had no reason to issue it either because the signs were not where they should have been. In fact they towed like 20 cars at once...
It would have been easier to me to pay that fine than having these adventures, and if I had been guilty I certainly would have. But quite a few of the people in charge of traffic fines in Philly are of the highly predatory, abusive and cheeky kind (NY too), and that should be fought, if it's a nuisance. Abuse is never something one should remain passive about.

And just for the record, traffic officers in general have all my admiration (once my car stopped dead in the middle of the Walt Whitman bridge, electric everything not working -battery-, couldn't even turn on the lights or use the car horn to signal (yep, really really scary). I managed to place the emergency triangles with cars speeding by and making gestures to me and blowing their horns -like it was my idea to stop there!-, and officers showed up really soon, pushed my car with theirs all the way to a safe location, and made sure I got it under control. But there sure are some rotten apples in the basket.
Just info...
Tags: disputing parking tickets Philly

Elizabeth and the catapult at the World Cafe FAN

2009-07-22T01:20:00.000+02:00

Another fantastic concert by them, this time with a bassist. A great last FAN for me. Setlist: Just uploaded a bit of "Rainiest day of Summer" to youtube (ahem, the whistling, pre-recorded, right?), which I love, so really glad they played it this time. Impossible not to think of The Carpenters and a bit of the Beatles' Abbey road-ish vibe, but all put to use for the best.

Elizabeth has one of the most beautiful voices I've heard (even better live). And fat chance that she hits a wrong note with it.
Can't believe they aren't more known. Can't believe that song was not on youtube yet (I checked 3 times, still can't believe it). They've even made it to a popular movie soundtrack ("New in Town", Renee Zellweger...ahem, not supposed to admit that I watch those silly movies. But lately I even enjoy some of these quite a bit (watched "Penelope" and "In Brugues" last week and really enjoyed them -thought I wouldn't, you never really know).

A few weeks ago they did another concert here in Philly (posted about it below), and I asked her which of her songs was her favourite. She told me but then by the time I got to write the post I wasn't sure (I have this terrible memory that mostly remembers what it shouldn't. The other stuff, it doesn't really care much about!). So I asked her again this time: it's "Golden Ink".

The Benjamin Franklin Bridge

2009-07-15T22:40:00.001+02:00

When I started blogging about the Tower Theater I wanted to do a post on things to do while in Philly, for those who aren't from around these parts. But then I'd hardly seen anything myself. I've done a better job of my "tourist" duties by now and this is the number one thing I suggest.
Just like when going to New York everybody recommends (me too) walking the Brooklyn bridge, I'd not seen any such thing about the Ben or any other Philly bridge in the usual tourist guides etc. And it is a great thing to do. You'll get glimpses of the city like this one (note the train!- btw, another option is taking that train -NJ transit-, ride in the first car, first row, there's a window in the front -generally quite dirty but not enough to block the view...almost)

It's a gorgeous walk, and even on relatively hot days there's a nice breeze up there.
I don't think it's always open (I've only recently seen people up there, and just did this a few weeks ago), as there's a pretty "drastic" weather in this city sometimes and also some maintenance work going on on the bridge itself, but you can check its status here. Right now only the south way is open.
And if you're into photography, you'll be busy. This is my favourite bridge.

Once done with it, I recommend a little walk (around 15 min) to "The Franklin fountain" (116 Market street), the place with the best ice creams around, but also a fantastic recreation of an old ice cream parlor that also has some cosy tables shaded by trees, on the street, to sit for a while. My pic doesn't capture it at all, it's really worth seeing it inside.
And one more reason I love this place: if you have a food allergy, they are very allergy friendly (some really good dairy/egg free soy ice cream). I have none but I'm well aware of how unfriendly and dangerous this world can be for people with severe food allergies. So I'm so thankful to those businesses who make the extra effort.

Well, to continue you're in Market street, which at that point is one of the liveliest places in the city, full of little restaurants, bars, and a few feet from concert venues like the Tin Angel or the Khyber, so plenty to do (terrible area to park, though).

So July = people going missing (it's called holidays). Lucky them will be lying on the beach somewhere nice, reflecting on nothing at all. I'm still here though, stuck with the usual stuff... really should know better by now. Take at least a "mental holiday", hmpf. A permanent mental holiday from certain things should even be better... will work on it, hope I'm luckier than with my new year's resolutions...shouldn't be difficult...

Wilco and Conor Oberst at Frawley Stadium (Delaware)

2009-07-11T18:11:00.000+02:00

A few pics, will post more later. Also uploaded a few bits of Wilco's show on youtube. Unfortunately the bits of Conor I recorded were so loud that the sound was completely distorted..

Diane Birch at the World Cafe

2009-07-08T04:45:00.000+02:00

Was hardly familiar with Diane Birch when I went to XPN's free at noon a few Fridays ago, one of those artists who are at their best live.

A pic and setlist:

Great voice and surprisingly strong songs for a first album-.

Melody Gardot at the World Cafe

2009-07-08T04:24:00.001+02:00

One of the few that sell out in Philadelphia (her city) as soon as a concert is announced. Pic and setlist of her June show:

She's another one to see live, I have yet to listen to either of her albums in full (ahemm, specially the last album. Read somewhere that the orchestration's excessive, I agree it dilutes things quite a bit), but live she's a different story. And her sense of theatrics is fantastic, always so perfectly put together and taking full control of the stage. But why does she insist on speaking in French???.

The best moment is still by far when she plays "Worrisome heart", that song's atmosphere fills the room to its last bit of space.

Uploaded on youtube a bit of the jazzy cover she did of "My favorite things" that night.

Tags: Melody Gardot setlist, Melody Gardot concert Philadelphia

Camera Obscura finally...and tour

2009-07-04T20:48:00.000+02:00

So a few days ago I had the chance to finally see Camera Obscura play live, and it was one of the music sets I've most enjoyed so far. Bummer that these things end so soon.
Although their image is pretty serious, offstage the band are at the very least as nice as their songs -the kind of people you'd like to have as friends.
And when they started playing the chords to "Honey in the sun" ... drummer Lee Thompson will make your jaw drop.. to the floor.
Asked Tracyanne what she's listening to these days and I'll share, hope it's ok. Surprising stuff, really: lately lots of Michael Jackson (these days...), Kanye West, Grizzly Bear and Anni Rossi, who's been supporting them on tour. That mixed with the usual: Patsy Cline... Who'd have guessed! (not the Patsy part).
They came to Philly's TLA, a few weeks ago and I couldn't make it (hggg). There's a nice review here (don't agree with the lyrics being any weak though. And the titles of their albums, like "Underachievers try harder", how cool is that!!) and some videos on youtube.
Their US tour now finished, they're back to Europe with a lot of dates, here (i should be able to make one, don't know yet where though!). Lucky UK is first.
Hands down, one of my most played bands these days.

Elizabeth and the Catapult play in Philly for the first time.

2009-06-30T02:46:00.001+02:00

(At the Tin Angel on the 27th June)
Such a fantastic show!. In the pic with Jeff Taylor, he sang a few songs with them (these two, some chemistry).

Setlist:

They said that it was the first time they weren't playing with a bassist in years, but that they were really loving the sound...couldn't play "Taller children" because of that though (somebody requested it). I don't really like that song much so...a very different matter was their not playing "Rainiest day..." ...was in the setlist but they forgot. Hmm.

They played a few new songs, have uploaded a bit of "Hypochondriac" I recorded since I can't find it anywhere else and it's really wow. Can't quite understand half the lyrics (anybody help?). Also uploaded the cover of M. Ward's "Fuel for fire" they did with Taylor. This last one sounded much better live. Really nice people, Elizabeth's voice is effortlessly impressive and Pete Woodman on guitar is pretty amazing. But the three of them really show that they've been playing together time enough to do so almost as one and that they're such talented people. After the show they stayed around to chat with everybody.

Opening act was Christina Courtin, whose first songs were pretty haunting.

Finished the post!. Since when I was almost packed to leave it's all been postponed a few more weeks...big mess but have a bit more of time. Pretty nerve wrecking, these last days before moving somewhere else.

Lloyd Cole at the Tin Angel - Nov'08

2009-06-27T04:15:00.000+02:00

I've just realized I didn't do a post on this one (really thought I had until I went and tried to look for it!. Then realized at that time I didn't want to post for a particular reason), can't be. Even if it's a short one, I'll sneak it now somewhere.

I started listening to him ages ago, and by then he already had a long career behind him, with an impressive amount of songs. He now lives in the US and is a very meticulous and quiet middle aged man in black, incredibly serious about his playing. .

..ever seen a setlist like this one?

For someone who has not seen any image of him since his 80-90's grey eyed heartthrob aloof aired days, it's a change. He's still very much his very English self though, (his humour too!, made us laugh a lot) and a fantastic musician. And his voice has hardly changed.
He played solo and after the show he was very accessible (though his particular distant) so I was able to talk to him and ask him about "There for her", one of my all time favourite songs. He told me he also thought it was one of the best songs he's ever composed but that it was difficult to play it solo, hence his not playing it... bummer. I heard half of that song on a "independent" radio station one night ages ago, managed to record like 20 seconds of it (on tape, was that looong ago), loved it but didn't have the title, and no google then to do a search by lyrics. And few people listened to him in my country, certainly no one around me. I recognized his voice (I was quite taken with everything British then, would spend my allowance on imported Smash Hits and listen to the BBC Top 40 on the AM radio, lots of static, the sshhhs ended up being too much for me!) but that was all my info. A while after I went to the only record shop in my area that had his music and out of the Lloyd Cole cd's they had I tried to guess which had a title in it that could be my mystery song. I bet on "Love story" and my father bought it to me... it wasn't in it. Much later I remembered and googled it, finally found it, finally listened to it in full. When you have that story with a song, it's serious :)

Just lately heard Camera Obscura' explain that their song "Lloyd, I'm ready to be heartbroken" (fantastic song) is a reference to him and his famous Are you .... Apparently they sent it to him first thing and turns out his son is a Camera Obscura fan!

And it's a fact we take for granted that these days of Internet magic are so fantastic for music lovers...it was so much harder before. I've been using IMEEM quite a bit lately, pretty fast and has this ton of music, lots of different versions of songs and curious things. It's visually ugly and as far as radio /stats go lastfm is way better. But it has so much more music available. I recently read that this kind of sites (the article specifically mentioned Spotify as an example, which is not available here so I have no clue,but seems to be very popular in Europe), have reduced illegal music traffic by half. Still I doubt copyright owners are happy about it!

Anyway, I owe Lloyd for so many great songs (I'm still discovering some of them, today I listened to "Margo's waltz for the first time -shame on me-, so good, so dispassionately passionate, he was always one of the wisest). I also owe him for quite a lot of improvement of my English, after so many hours fighting to understand his lyrics, my Collins beside me...

I uploaded a few vids of his performance on my youtube channel.

Lisa Hannigan at the Artist Den

2009-06-20T17:23:00.003+02:00

This show as recorded on the 17th June in Montclair, NJ (the city of the million traffic lights, all strictly unsynchronized for further enjoyment...can be pretty nerve wrecking when you're running late...)

Post in progress, will write it later but I wanted to post pics (they said no flash photography, took some non-flash as always). Concert was great.

Setlist:

Been to 4 concerts these last 3 days so hope to post on one or two at least. These days are coming to an end for me so I'm trying to make the most of it!
PS May'11: You can now watch a preview of the episode on MSN here (depending on your location), or you can like the Artist Den on facebook and you'll have access to a preview (try here in case it works without the like step). Can't believe the time it's taken to finally be able to watch it!

Labels: "The artist Den lisa hannigan"

2009-06-19T15:09:00.000+02:00

Sad day for my country today.

There's some really brave people out there, there's also the viciously coward and mean. Sometimes these seem to win.

The white rabbits - It IS frightening!

2009-06-16T04:26:00.001+02:00

In the same line as the Annuals' two drummers, the White rabbits actually go and beat them by at some points making it three drummers. Saw it at their World Cafe show back in May 15th (ahemm, slight delay in posting), one of the guitars would also have a go at it (cymbals mostly). Still Jamie Levinson and Matthew Clark are the two official drummers, and seeing them play live is pretty impressive, speed and energy-wise, wow. Also operationally-wise: Clark (rotating the most) would alternatively play guitar or keyboards in other songs, and he was not the only one switching instruments/places...

Also check out Clark's palest blue eyes if you can. If you do you'll see I'm not being frivolous by mentioning them!. I had not paid attention until I asked him one of my usual dumb questions (he was most nice though!)

Listen to the whole set here (XPN Archives)

And this little guy I met this weekend reminded me I had to do this post!:

Camera Obscura's "Honey in the sun" video +Keane dj

2009-06-12T14:57:00.000+02:00

Camera Obscura' s just posted their latest video on Spinner here. Last track on their album, "Honey in the Sun" (5min 45s long!) is nevertheless my favourite one off "My maudlin career". The video isn't anything new but the photography in it is pretty beautiful and almost any still off it would make a fantastic pic.

Anybody familiar with this band knows how much better it will make you feel about acting like an utter dork in love matters. With poignant self explanatory lines as "The trouble is I got myself close to hating me, when I wake up in the morning it's your face I see" they'll still manage to uplift you to "happy as a clam" state. A public service!.

Still, dork / dorkette or not, half the tracks on their latest cd are completely fantastic. And they're currently on tour (U.S.)!

Lately my posts have been most erratic, seems I only get to post the short ones. If anybody follows this blog (I doubt it, but I have a few subscribers, thanks to them whoever they are!), just a note that I'm temporarily busy, unmotivated, and a bit overwhelmed by big changes so "solid" blogging's been relegated somehow. :)

Proof of that is the nonexistance of posts on all my Keane adventures last May!. Tonight Y-Rock on XPN will broadcast the songs each of them chose to dj when they visited the radio back then. I'm still sort of surprised that on such a short list one of Tim's was BFL's "Daniel". Kudos to Natasha.

If you can't listen to it today, not to worry, Y-Rock usually posts the takeovers some time later as free podcasts available for listening here.

Nicest guys.

Labels: "Keane takeover", "Keane XPN", "honey in the sun video"

Only today cheaper tix at Livenation!

2009-06-10T17:47:00.001+02:00

A heads up on LiveNation's 24 h. promotion: only today tix won't be charged the service fee. So if you're planning on buying a ticket, today's the day.
For instance:
*Tori Amos at the Tower Aug 15th
*Cat Power, The pretenders and Juliette Lewis at the Tower on Aug. 13th
And since I'm not a Livenation fan (and I have nothing to do with them) , there's many other concerts as worth checking out coming soon:
*Elizabeth and the Catapult at the Tin Angel (jun'09)
*Melody Gardot at the WCL (jun'09)
*Hayes Carll at the Tin Angel (jun'09)
*The Wallflowers at the Keswick (jul'09)
*Camera Obscura at the TLA (jun'09). Last but definitely not least.
I'll think of more and post them.

Baked oatmeal

2009-06-05T21:06:00.000+02:00

I had to send this recipe to somebody (or else she may stop talking to me!), so I might as well share it, make this blog even more surreal...

It's delicious (I'd go quite easier on the sugar though).

We stayed at a lovely B&B in Lancaster County not long ago and Carol, the owner, would cook this for breakfast. She's so used to being asked for the recipe she had this photocopy ready.
I still haven't tried to do it though. The thrill of cooking disappeared for me the moment that cooking became one more daily chore...

Another post sneaked between older stuff....

The unfindable "S" (almost!)

2009-06-04T21:46:00.000+02:00

So I was bored bored bored today with boring things to do, and after doing other silly stuff I went and wasted more time in front of my computer (how original). And typed "I'm bored" in lastfm's music search, see what inspiring ideas would come up. Haaa, that's when my boredom disappeared because "S" and her song "I'm so bored I'm going to sleep" showed up and triggered my curiosity. Since it sounded quite suitable I tried to listen to it... not available there so after a few searches (ok, this post is boring, it has to be...) I came up with a myspace for her but she wasn't in charge of it. So next step? Googling "S" didn't seem like a brilliant idea somehow ... well, at some point ended up finding her myspace here. But the page's so sparse, hardly any friends... Oh, and her latest track is called "??????" (- really good, not available for download though).

Well, I really like her music and it's different and curious, and finding it seems like one of those searches for the treasure with clues and a prize at the end. Guess she didn't make it to the "promote yourself" classes..or maybe she just prefers it this way...

PS There's actually more than one act with the name "S", the one I'm referring to is Jenn Ghetto (ex- Carissa's Wierd), she actually had great reviews of her record "Puking and crying" (don't let the title scare you away) a while ago, but seems it's still pretty off radar (can think of a few reasons...)

Well, people are not usually curious, though as Colin Farrell said in some award show (I couldn't stand the guy until he said this sentence) "curiosity is love". Couldn't agree more.As always I kind of drifted..off...topic... Check out her music though.

Regina's new song - Eet (lyrics)

2009-06-03T15:04:00.000+02:00

Woke up this morning to find this new little jewel by Regina Spektor. A somehow different sound for her in that chorus with the piano and the big drums (can't help it, that part reminds me of Keane's "Everybody's changing" but with its own identity). Coolest end. Lyrics here (songmeanings), also people's thoughts on the song's meaning.
Eet

Get this video and more at MySpace.com She's been posting new songs in her myspace for a few weeks now, her album Far out in a few weeks-.
And last time I'm embedding a myspace vid, quite the nuissance.
TAgs: eet lyrics, regina spektor eet, regina spektor eet lyrics

Tim's got what it takes

2009-05-29T18:08:00.000+02:00

My utmost admiration to this guy. Leaving all else aside, it takes what it takes to venture out on the street, alone, a mere thirty minutes after a gig at a 6.000 capacity sold out venue to meet a big crowd waiting, more so when in progress is a cosy after party thrown for you inside the venue. It takes what it takes, won't say the pair that come to mind 'cos I don't want to be vulgar! ;)

This was what was waiting for Tim Rice-Oxley (Keane). The other band members,Tom and Richard, would show up an hour and a half later. He had time for every single person, with a smile and thankfulness (real or not is somehow beside the point, looked real though).
I'm so glad there's still people like that.
PS No disrespect to the people waiting (me among them for a while!), they did "rise to the occasion".
On second thoughts: Olé tus huevos!!
-May 27th '09, Radio City Music Hall, NY-

Moby and Citizen Cope discuss radio

2009-05-29T17:30:00.000+02:00

So these last few days have been most unsettling to me, lots going on, still trying to digest things, will blog a bit about what I can (unfortunately will have to keep the most spectacular moments to myself for different reasons) hoping it will help. Will start with what's last (apart from tonight, going to Atlantic city for another concert!, so much driving is killing me)
Yesterday I attended a panel discussion with Moby moderating!. The issue at stake: Is radio still important to artists?, as part of a Noncomm radio meeting.
As surprise guests Citizen Cope and Sean Hoots (Hoots & Hellmouth) joined. A pic to illustrate (totally s*cks, seems a halos reunion but I was quite beat)

Was pretty interesting and Moby turned out to be a quite a hilarious but serious talker. To take the suspense out of the answer to the moto at stake, it really depends on the type of audience you have (internet, word of mouth...) but it always helps. And of course Non commercial radio is essential to these artists who don't go for big station fan bases.
But they dealt more with other topics such as success, how it affects a career...well, they agreed it can be a quite intense experience that may take you time to deal with but none of them consider themselves mainstream artists and as Citizen Cope put it "you make a hit for you, you aim for a song that brings a tear to your eye, goosebumps when you play it, touches you and hopefully it will touch someone else too" and "whatever success you achieve is accidental". As Moby added, record labels, in these their desperate times, can compel artists to take dramatic decisions.. He also said that success confused him for a few years on how to move forward, and that his moment of "epiphany" happened at a Grammy awards, sitting between Ludacris and Christina Aguilera, and thinking "what am I doing here, I have nothing in common with these people", that with all due respect "mainstream world had nothing to do with me". He remembered past milestones like his first ever release in 1983 with a hardcore band that sold 200 copies, or the time he did an interview in a top 40 radio st. where he was addressed to as Mob 9! (that came up when asked about what makes an interview good or bad, ahem, we get the idea) or the time he was included in a metal radio playlist and had to play concerts in between heavy metal bands (quit it as a mere "self preservation" thing, audiences weren't exactly appreciative!).
As Citizen Cope put it, the hardest part is getting to have the first 100 people in a venue, after that it all sort of comes naturally.
And they also brought up the festivals, so in fashion these days, also so helpful in terms of taking your music to more people, and surprisingly going on in the weirdest places (Moby's summer gigs include places such as Romania, Croatia, Morocco or Estonia). Well, those people deserve some quality gigs too!.
In the end, nothing new under the sky but very nice and interesting to hear these clever guys talking about these things in such a no fuss upfront way.
To wrap things up there were a few concerts scheduled later, I saw Cory Chisel again (always up for it!) and Serena Ryder, quite a voice.

Keane at the Tower Theater

2009-05-25T17:03:00.001+02:00

May 20Th '09, some pic I took during my time at the first row.Bedshaped, of course, deep blue.

Still have two dates near, I'm tempted! ...

This girl has posted the best vids of the gig (amazing camera):TristinAlix11 , HD. Thanks so much for posting.

Mi vid is terrible in comparison:

I hardly recorded any more than that.

Will finish the post later.

Coldplay -The free album

2009-05-16T21:27:00.001+02:00

Yesterday Coldplay made their "LeftRightLeftRighLeft" album available for download for free (still is here), 9 tracks of live versions of some of their best. So a big thank you to them, for there may or may not be marketing reasons behind it, but it undoubtedly is a very generous gift from them to their fans.

And a fantastic album too, it really captures the energy of their live act in a surprising way. If there's something Chris Martin can't be accused of is of not giving it all live, even during their most grueling tours. Saw them in their second Philly performance last year, didn't seem in "automatic mode" at all.

Specially outstanding "Viva la vida", love that song (still they could have done without the pre-recorded chorus for the live thing).

The cd cover: a paper butterfly confetti like those they shower the audience with during their live performances (I kept one, wonder where it is!).

PS March'10: found them!, here:

Meiko & Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons at the Tin Angel

2009-05-15T03:44:00.000+02:00

Some pics & Meiko's setlist of their May show in Philly:

Her encore was Piano song, "super freak" is a cover and "Good looking loser" is a new song she told me she had recorded but not released yet and was very excited about. "Inspired" by an ex of hers who shares my nationality, funny!.
And Cory Chisel & The wandering sons, a really great band to listen to live:

Posted a video of each on youtube: Meiko's here, and Cory's here.
The only other time I had seen Meiko live was last fall in the Hotel Tour together with, among others, Rachael Yamagata, who showed up at this show with most of her band. It's great when people are real pals and show their support for one another.

And have just seen the new lastfm player widget (when you play your library), real neat. As slow as usual though.

When in New York...

2009-05-11T18:26:00.000+02:00

A place I'd like to check out: McSorley's Old Ale House, NY. Seems the place has quite a bit of interesting history, more on their website. Rolling Stone magazine staff conduct some of their interviews there too.
Also since it's spring, a few of these are really cute (rings). Sometimes my blog = my notepad, sorry!

Peter Bjorn and John at the World Cafe Laleh

2009-05-08T05:14:00.000+02:00

Peter Bjorn and John are one of those bands that know how to make the most of their live performances. With just the simplest but most imaginative "backdrop" behind them they put up an impressive act full of energy, fun, and great beats. And later at the meet and greet, they were also fantastic, and striked the most fun poses I've seen for anyone who'd ask them for a pic. I couldn't resist so here's mine.

And out of the many Swedish acts that are out there these days I have to mention Laleh again. That's a voice, and a way to use it, she's done some of the best songs I've heard this year (unfortunately some of the worst too! ). Curious and different lyrics (when you speak in a language that's not yours you come up with "curious" expressions, ahem), and love those "snaking" flutes. She's also one of the most "untamed" and truly free out there (in a plain honest real way, no fuss or pose, no tormented looks or crazy words necessary), hope she keeps it up.

And talking about Swedish, can't help talking about another favourite of mine again...the Swedish chef!. He kind of reminds me of someone's cooking!.

Need to mention Camera Obscura's "My maudlin career" too, some songs so soppy and pretty (uh, not Swedish though).

This book...

2009-05-08T05:12:00.000+02:00

I've come across this very different art book, "X-Ray" by Nick Veasey.

Self explanatory, he uses x-rays to capture these amazing images. You can see many more in his peculiar website.

He seems to have come across a very different means of expression, surprisingly beautiful and most philosophical too.

If the images are well worth it, no less is the book's introduction. And I quote "I have found a way to see beneath the surface. Nothing gives me more pleasure (...) than revealing the inner beauty of a subject". Optimistic guy.

His technique is also interesting, he explains every work in his book and then there are articles like Wired's here. He's even x-rayed my favourite flower-shop-available flowers, anemones!(how does he do the colour thing, anyway)

Of course images and quotes in the post are his copyright, hope it's OK to show them here as they're on the net anyway.
Amazon here.
And since I've discovered a hole in the sole of one of my stay at home slippers (loved them, sad), the cold weather just needs to stop right now! (been raining 5 days in a row, non stop).

Ah, here they are in the kitchen -note my classy pose...ahem (and no x-ray mode in my camera, unfortunately!!):

Now a Spanish one: Christina Rosenvinge and a cool idea

2009-05-08T05:11:00.001+02:00

Another cool idea: a musician walks into a shop or wanders through the streets guitar in hand for an impromptu performance with the charm of improvisation. A newspaper's music blog has done it: it's the Spanish "Aquí te pillo aquí te grabo".
Rosenvinge (a well known Spanish singer who's been at it for decades) always wanted to play in that famous little music shop around the corner of Madrid's most important music theatre, El Real (mostly classical music, opera, ballet). Done-.

She does a little intro talk and then chooses "Animales vertebrados" (from her latest cd, been around a while now), a big f*ck you to an ex. Her voice may be sweet but, just as her words, it usually has a pretty sharp edge.
And this is a video of her beginnings ( very different, visually it has obviously aged a lot but I like the song) .
First video in much better quality, here:
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/05/05/elradar/1241513444.html

Many cool concerts coming and Bat For Lashes

2009-05-08T05:10:00.000+02:00

Quite a few good shows coming in the next weeks in the Philly area, check out XPN's concert listing here (best I know). Won't be able to make as many as I'd like but I'll keep my fingers crossed for a few of them.
And Bat for Lashes have recently been visiting for promo and concerts too, she certainly knows how to choose her company, which these days includes Charlotte Hatherley (ex fantastic "Free all angels" Ash) and Ben Christophers (nicest lad ever, really; has quite a few songs of his own but has also helped people like also great Françoise Hardy with some songwriting). For BFL he plays the most strange and gorgeous instruments like a Marxophone and others I don't even know the name of.
Here's their lo-fi version of "Daniel" on Stereogum. Got to briefly meet them (see pic on right side bar, bottom). Apparently her latest cd "Two suns" tells a linear story through its lyrics, with even a resolution in the end.. will have to read it in detail. Surely something relating to her New York break-up experience with Moon and Moon's front man -hence the two suns, I guess -doesn't take a genius-, and hence one of the songs title, Moon and Moon (aren't I clever, ohhh). article here.
And a footnote: she tracked for Two suns at NYC's Magic Shop studio , a place I had the chance to visit and blogged about (see archives May'07)

Cigarettes and milk?!?

2009-05-08T04:47:00.000+02:00

Today a dream woke me up at 6 am (which, believe me, never happens!!!). It was most real and silly. In it I was reading somebody's post on their blog and it was just a short paragraph that told the complete essence of who the blogger truly was, with total sincerity, baring all in a most matter of facted manner. It started (only part I remember) with "I love cigarettes and milk" (which is obviously a barely disguised rip off of Rufus Waiwright's, and a very weird way of starting a description of oneself -oh oh my brain...)... and it moved me so, it woke me up.
I'm probably tired of my own self-editing as well as everybody else's. Which on the other hand is unavoidable (oops, did it again, eliminated half the post!).
I don't know what would the emotional cost of so much sincerity be. Got me to thinking that maybe all the pretending in the world is for survival's sake after all, much less exhausting. Well, I know some really well adapted people then...
Musicians are somehow an exception, it's a big part of their charm.
And why I write this silly post I don't know. Probably because nobody reads these nonmusic non art posts -hopefully. Can't help it.

Berry, "Mademoiselle"

2009-05-01T22:50:00.001+02:00

Berry vient de présenter son dernier vidéo, "Mademoiselle" (peux pas éviter de penser à la bande sonore de Fanfan -Nicolas Jorelle- ), dans la meilleure tradition des chanteuses françaises et leur façon d'approcher paroles et sentiments... Une jolie chanson, un charmant vidéo, un très "sharp" album ("Démain", "Enfant de salaud"...).
Et merci à elle on a aussi découverte une alternative a youtube: daily motion!(mais dommage, les pop-ups son encore plus ennuyeux). Son youtube chanel ici (casadeberry).
C'est curieux, ici en Amérique on peut écouter des full tracks dans son myspace mais si on est par exemple a l'Espagne il y a seulement des morceaux!

Neko Case at the Keswick (April 10th, 2009)

2009-05-01T16:52:00.000+02:00

I always like to post a few pics of the gigs I attend so this is Neko's:

And respect it I did, though agree I did not.

But regarding her movie - her concert, I mean, though it did look like a movie screening more often than one would desire. She had a pretty big screen behind her showing images during most of the show (elephants and other animal silhouettes during "I'm an animal", bits of the "People got a lotta..." video during that one, footage of blurry skies, roads, you get the idea...she mentioned that somebody was backstage mixing the stuff "live"). And when in a dark room there's a glowing canvas showing images, people's attentions tend to drift towards it. So I'd turn to that sea of seats and would see an audience that for the most part didn't differ much from that of any Movieplex. Which is not my idea of a concert.
Her usual band was with her, starting by left hand Kelly Hogan on backing vocals (though she's quite a few steps up from that), and the concert was in very much the same style as when I saw her two years ago at the Mann Center supporting Rufus Wainwright, could have been the day after. Almost same banter even (Neko and Kelly back and forth about nothing transcendental or interesting or funny 90 % of the time). My take, others have very different opinions (see this, for instance)
And the songs sounded basically identical to her records.

Highlights for me were "That teenage feeling" and "I'm an animal", not necessarily my favourites but the ones that had more spark live.

After the show I asked for a setlist, since I was seating very close to the stage. But that too was apparently banned and none was to be given away, staff said apologetically. Which wins Case first spot in the "Most restrictive" of the long list of concerts I've been to... who'd have thought it!

So I decided to squeeze my brain and write down what I remembered that night to avoid my usual "data loss": she did play most of all the new album and next in number of songs was "Confessor" (5 songs). Concert opened with "Maybe sparrow" followed by "People gotta...". Other songs included "Hold on", "Don't forget me", "Margaret vs. Pauline", "I'm an animal", "This tornado loves you", "Middle cyclone" (with Kelly holding the funny music-box like machine) and "The Pharaohs" as well as "The tigers have spoken".

The encore was lengthy, 5 or 6 songs, including "Magpie...", "Never turn your back..", "Favourite", and "Star witness". This last one was the one before last, and they played it because the audience kept asking for it, so at one point Kelly said "would it kill us to do Starwitness?". They had not played it since September last year, they explained, and they were not so sure about the results. Of course it was impeccable (a real herniator of a song too, Kelly explained!). Well, it's a fantastic song, glad they played it.

I may be wrong, but I think the above list is correct. There's others I can't remember, or I had not heard before.
Through her career Case has definitely succeeded in creating a most rich, personal and unique universe from which her songs and characteristic artwork always surge. That can't be denied, and it makes her a very interesting artist. But that place she evokes feels a bit too chilly at times and a bit too static live. Despite that her songs are always good to hear.

And on a funnier note it was interesting to see the cragslist listing for this sold out show, here are some:

* " Neko Case wanted by nice Center City guy - $35 (...)- will buy first round of drinks as a means of appreciation! "
* "Neko Case Tonight! 1 ticket available - $35 - I have one ticket available for tonight's show. (...) Ok, to be totally honest I'd prefer to sell this to a good looking girl since I've got to sit next to you . . . Just thought I'd put that out there . . . "

* And another one involved a girl who'd bought tickets as a gift to a boyfriend, who turns out had been cheating on her for a year with some online girl and then had dumped her for the not-anymore-online girl, so understandably she was selling her ticket and ranting about his ex's scumbag-ness (wonder if anybody bought that ticket!). Sad but funny. It's not there anymore so I can't copy it.

Some colourful audience!

A.C. Newman at Johnny Brenda's (Philadelphia)

2009-03-23T02:31:00.000+01:00

Some pics I took from his March 17Th concert:

The night's setlist is in one of the picsadamsjp2010's posted here on flickr (thanks for sharing!). Song before last was "Come crash", not showing in the pic. He made a "pact" with the audience and skipped the bit where they leave the stage to return for the encore, so the set was a smooth run of songs sprinkled with bits of banter all along... like, being a redhead on St Patrick's day he felt sort of compelled to explain he's not Irish but Nordic!, also joked about Neko being loaded...

Though he's not mainly known for his ballads those, to me, stood out in an impressive way and though I had not heard "Come crash" nor "The cloud prayer" before (am an AC newbie) I was mesmerized when he played them. Massively beautiful, had that something that live music has sometimes, like some magic something. I recorded a bit and uploaded it on youtube, but as usual it's not the same.
"The cloud prayer":

Sound in the room was overall a bit too loud, drums specially, but the peculiarity of this very special venue probably had a hand in it. And it was packed. There were a total of 6 musicians onstage and they played faultlessly, achieving a round sound, but the violin player's histrionics were a bit too much, at times it seemed she'd go and push AC off the stage to have more room!. But as far as musicality goes, fantastic. Show ended up hanging the "sold out" sign, and a curious thing was the proportion of males versus females in the audience, like 10 to 1 at least!
And lots of merch to choose from, like different arty prints made each for a different one of the cities of the tour (the one with the big white AC letters in the pic was Philly's). As per the pic, A.C. hung around the table before and after the show and made himself available for his fans.

Great show.

Labels: AC Newman Philadelphia, AC Newman Johnny Brenda's, AC Newman setlist, AC Newman prints, AC Newman posters

Shuttle riding bat

2009-03-22T20:33:00.001+01:00

You can't miss this bat. Not a blog for these things, but it's kind of remarkable, the number of unthinkable things one gets see in life...
You know where you start, never can image where you'll end
Erin Mckeown's "To the stars" seems appropriate...
PS Apr'09 just back from a visit to FL that included a trip to Kennedy Space Center. Understandable that it would happen because, paradox enough, place is sitting in the middle of a wildlife sanctuary full of all kinds of birds, alligators ... (apparently they get pretty aggressive when there's a launch going on, can't be blamed). Merritt island, just around the corner, has hosts such as manatees, sea turtles and even cougars. A beautiful very tropical place with occasional rocket shows...

SXSW sampler

2009-03-20T14:42:00.000+01:00

SXSW going on now in the US, lots of bands playing in Austin, lucky few get to go...but the rest of us can at least get a 10 song free sampler from XPN, click here and you can check it out and download it free from I-tunes! .Can't say for the most part those are the ones I'd have chosen out of the bunch but...

And this is a not very serious blog on music, so now and then I stray... -hate smilers but :)

So I'll just quickly make a note that my sister is getting married, congrats from here!!. And I've lately been neglecting my blog being as I was on a mission -more mentally than hands on 90% of the time!- to find a dress. Not one for that stuff but ended up being fun. And got one!!. So almost ready for my 14h airport marathon...-hate to fly-..

...And redirecting this post to music...I've actually discovered a few good songs while shopping in places like Macy's (Amy Winehouse's "Help yourself" comes to mind, a while ago when she wasn't popular), they go for unusual choices, which is really good. Yesterday as I was strolling around with my bag they played Erin Mckeown, then Alice Russell's "Mean to me" (this last one's not my thing though!). Shops are really getting rid of elevator music and I'm so glad for that.

And let's end this post in deep cheesy-land with a pic of sis and I and our dog Atila (was sort of naughty) from a long time ago. Lol. We are definitely not that cute anymore!!

Kathleen Edwards at the World Cafe

2009-03-14T20:24:00.001+01:00

Luckily Kathleen Edwards made a stop at Philly's World Cafe on Feb 20th. Had only seen her at the Noncomm almost one year ago and setlist was too short then (posted on that here) so a full concert...a treat.
Found many pics of this concert here through lastfm, good thing since this time my camera (has a great sense of opportunity!) started blinking a "low battery" message as soon as I turned it on (I had assumed it was charged...I assume too many things). So I was only able to take very few weak shots.
The setlist she used is also in one of the pics on flickr, but she made a few changes: she didn't play "Goodnight California" (my bad luck with setlists continues... one of my favourites of hers). She also did a cover of The Outfield's "Your love" which made many in the audience smile and sing along. The actual setlist can be found here (post #4) together with a link to a bootleg of the show (thanks Deanokat!, haven't heard it yet though, dealing with the flac file!).
Best to me was when she was left alone onstage to sing "Run" and "National Steel" (no offence to the band, pals Jim Bryson & Gord Tough, they were great!).
After the show she did a meet and greet, a veery long line of people. Invested my time in asking her about the amazing "The lone wolf", told her that to me it seemed quite a departure from all her other songs. She said she agreed it was so, but that she didn't know why. That people ask for it sometimes and she loves to play it. That she composed it when she was living in the country during one of her walks, and was coming up with lines as she was taking steps (afraid my English fails me, she was gesturing and I don't think I'm describing it well, bummer). You do get that sense of taking steps in the song's rhythm though, the song has a very particular structure. And as somber as it is, it's still most beautiful. I've come across a surprisingly good cover of the song on youtube here (by thebrooke). And there's only one clip of Kathleen playing it on youtube!?!. Strange.
If Kathleen's a fantastic musician, she's an even better lyricist, not afraid to deal with all kinds of stuff. In 3 minutes she can manage to perfectly describe the most difficult and complex feelings. A very special person.
The music I listen to keeps changing constantly, Kathleen's is one of the very few -if not the only one- I keep going back to. She certainly doesn't disappoint live.
Supporting act was The last town chorus, I was familiar with some of her songs and was looking forward to it but it wasn't a good night for her (had a cold, nobody's fault). I'm not particularly keen on lap guitars either. But she definitely has some touching songs. Pic:

Tags: Kathleen Edwards Philadelphia, Kathleen Edwards setlist

Stereogum - fresh legal downloads + Laura Marling's "Blackberry stone"

2009-03-11T03:00:00.001+01:00

So I've come across this site -Stereogum- now and then but only now do I discover its 'Gum Drop: you subscribe (free) and each Wednesday they have a free new song you can download (so far some really good names). And once subscribed you can download past weeks songs too, many times exclusive versions (some names: Laura Marling's "Blackberry Stone" -a B-side not in her album!, Marissa Nadler, My brightest Diamond, Frightened Rabbit, Nicole Atkins...) Or A Camp's "Love has left the room" ** (side project of The Cardigan's Nina Persson), only listened to it once and somehow disappointed -hard to match some of the Cardigans' best material. But their mini interview is strangely strange (the questions too: "When love finally does leave the room, where does it go?" Uh, let's see... -Nina's answer's bitterly gooood)
Kind of great site with tons of interesting news you won't see anywhere else. Browsed through serious interviews and lighter stuff like Liz Phair's ad for Banana Republic, oops, everybody has a bad day, funny article, terrible vid- I really think she's great but... Well, Sara Bareilles' wasn't much better.
Anyway...Really good site.
Laura Marling's "Blackberry Stone": "I've no reason to reason with you", how sad is that. It happens.

** Oct'09 Actually I take that back, "Love has left the room" as well as other songs from the album are regulars in my ipod these days. Love the angle from which it talks about the end of a relationship...read somewhere that one of the main excuses people use not to move on is their "need for closure". Like you're going to get a full report with all the reasons, all the answers to all the doubts regarding what happened, why it's over...well, wake up. The only reason you need to close the book is he's not here fighting for you, is he...now all you need is to stop making excuses.

Lisa Hannigan on tour

2009-03-07T17:50:00.000+01:00

Lisa Hannigan is wrapping up her U.S. tour with her final dates, if you can catch one of her last shows, do!!
She's definitely a much stronger set live than in her cd.
Saw her at the World Cafe on the 5Th, this is a bit I recorded that will give an idea ("I don't know", one of her lightest songs, the most popular too)- select high quality! (HQ):

Years of experience doing backing vocals for Damien Rice really show, she knows how to make the most of her singing, and her breezy, ordinary (in a beautiful and best of ways) voice soars and floats and keeps giving you unexpected goosebumps, specially with higher notes (she usually stays on lower registers though). Her music and her appearance go hand in hand, she couldn't be more natural, more up-front. No make up (at least looked like that), no "hair works", no crisp outfit. She pulls it off, seems like it's in her essence. I love that. And not to mistake that with obviousness, at all.
The only other person I've seen going onstage like that was Kate Nash. On the other hand the most put together would probably be Melody Gardot, I guess (& Coldplay!) (nothing wrong with either way, gives the show one more shade - I sort of admire it, could never do it!).

Anyway, best of the night for me was her cover of Air's "Playground love". Seriously, beats the original, wish she'd record it. In her version Air's "cold" edge is substituted by the most intense longing. Somebody uploaded it on youtube here, but it really isn't anywhere near the way it sounds live.
She played this curious (and temperamental, after her words) harmonium in most of the songs. The band playing with her (4) fit together really well, drums guy Tom Osander doing most of the backing vocals (TomO, does her photo blog, one smiling guy!).
The show was nearly sold out, which is so impressive for an Irish singer who's just released her first record, so congrats to her. Setlist:

And her lovely and most original video for "Lille" here.
BTW I've listened to "My one and only thrill" (thanks B!), GArdot's written some really beautiful tracks.
TAGS: lisa hannigan, Philadelphia setlist, lisa hannigan live, lisa hannigan i don't know, harmonium,

Compile pls! - Lily Allen and Elbow are game.

2009-03-04T20:02:00.001+01:00

One more compilation I've come across that's pretty appealing (as opposed to its title, am afraid):War Child presents Heroes . People like Lily Allen, Duffy, Yeah Yeah Yeahs or Elbow and a brilliant idea behind it (and I quote) "We asked some of the biggest legends in music history (Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, David Bowie) to select a classic track from their own songwriting catalog, and nominate an artist from the next generation to create a modern reworking of that classic song". Released Feb 24Th. I've just listened to Lily's cover of The Clash's "Straight to hell" and sounds pretty well (for the dramatic story behind those cryptic lyrics go here), even features Mick Jones. Covers, in general, tend to be pointless unless you have your own style and make the song yours. Seems these people -most of them at least- have done just that.

Last but not least, it's for a good cause (War child). If anyone could be spared from pain, it should be the children.

And the story of the little backyard faucet that could...

2009-03-02T23:33:00.001+01:00

There's this faucet in my backyard I wrote a post about last year. One day it basically dripped and made a most curious bottle shaped ice piece that I photographed, then the piece slid from my gloved fingers and ended up broken in hundreds of mini-ice cubes. It was a winter day very much like today, so this afternoon I went to check. Well, as it is always desirable, I had learned from my mistakes (two points!) and the faucet had not dripped a single droppp... but there's a second part to the story: incredibly enough this time around poor faucet itself was an ice piece: water had dripped from the roof on that very exact spot!!!. Well, our luck is one sometimes and there's just no escaping it, I guess. I so feel like my faucet.

Didn't want to post about this, but how could I not. To fix its non-musicality a bit I'll recommend a beautiful song and video that's been around for almost a year but I've just discovered. In a weird way it matches this post. Laleh, "Live tomorrow" (it's the one with the close up pic of her eyes).

Hell no

2009-03-02T17:41:00.001+01:00

I was supposed to be doing some very cool music stuff this morning, but mother nature had other plans...see my window, take a guess...
So instead I get to stay at home and rant, and listen to this Regina Spektor and Sondre Lerche duet I just discovered ("Dan in real life" soundtrack, I don't usually go for that type of movies, but Juliette Binoche was in it, and it ended up being a sweet movie). Because sometimes in life you can't help going HELL, NO (and "you were such a jerk" too, btw !%&!?).
But spring is coming, right?. Not soon enough, "apparently".
And if blogger wasn't so messy and complicated, today this blog would have this song on autoplay. Yess.

Dark Was The Night - Or the art of gathering an impressive list of artists for a compilation

2009-02-27T17:54:00.000+01:00

In case anybody missed it (I just found out!!- oops), check out the list of songs included in the latest edition of the Red Hot compilation released a week ago here. Impressive: from Andrew Bird to Blonde Redhead, from Cat Power to My morning Jacket, all kinds of styles by the elite of the "indie/alternative" scene today. Bound to be a few tracks you'll want to listen to. The ones I've looked up are previously unreleased covers.
An example: Feist and Ben Gibbard's cover of "Train song" here. And because of this great site, Stereogum, I found out about the original by Vashti Bunyan. Agreed, quite gorgeous:

Definitely worth checking out.
Official website here.

Brits, Girls aloud and School of Seven bells

2009-02-20T00:29:00.000+01:00

Woke up reading about the Brits, had forgotten about it. Duffy was proclaimed winner of the night but seems to me the ones that made the most of it are this group Girls aloud with their performance of "Promise". I had never heard of them before, but just watched the video and they certainly made the most of their opportunity. Truth is the song is catchy bright fizzy brit untrascendental pop at its best, and the performance... a blast, not to miss the guys' terrible white suits and the faces they made trying to look, uh, "attractive and intriguing"?. That's always a crack....(and easier on the fans, guys, it's annoying); girls, on the other hand, fantastic, managed to stay classy and pulled it off really well (the blonde, Sarah, great voice, minute 4.07 is amazing). It's gonna have everyone buzzing; I really like it. Still best British single of the year seems... excessive; most spectacular tv performance, could be.
Estelle's "American boy" mixed with the Ting Tings was also worth watching (loved the version she did with Kanye West at the Grammys too).
On a completely different page, met School of Seven bells' people yesterday(cool) (very, they're really nice and they sound fantastic live). A few days ago they released the official video for "Half asleep" and they're currently touring pretty much all over the place. And for UK's April gigs they'll be supporting Bat for Lashes (!), which is pretty impressive for a band that has practically just released their first album. Even more impressive is how they achieved this.
Boring me asked them my usual question: what are they listening to these days? (but I really am curious!). Well, lots of different stuff but a name they dropped is Fever Ray , The knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson's solo project. (I didn't tell them about my blog, hope they don't mind my sharing it - I should have mentioned it though). Then got home, watched CSI NY and their "Prince of peace" was in it! Serendipity after serendipity.
The only pic I have is blurry and doesn't do anybody justice, but (they're much handsomer in the flesh -forgot my camera, had to use an old one)... lucky me, I get to wear a black spot !-should have made it larger though!!

Other things:
* Youtube has removed one of the clips I uploaded. Ingrid Michaelson singing Edelweiss bothers The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. Whatever. Hell, I get it, nobody's heard that song before!. Nobody cares but...
* Somehow deleted my whole itunes library, which is pretty inconvenient. Nobody cares either but ... Bummer. For what I've googled, looks like I need to download a program to transfer songs from my ipod to the library, if anybody's done it pls let me know which you used!

And now I'm off to get me a fuchsia feathered fan !!

Today

2009-02-12T05:55:00.000+01:00

Things I found out about today since I woke up this morning at 7.45 am (urggg):
* There's this very extensive interview to Neko Case in Paste Magazine's online thing here. BTW a very good source for discovering new fresh music I often use are Paste magazine's samplers (cds they give away for free with the magazine. You have like 20 tracks of all kinds of music, there never fails to be one or two ace discoveries - also a few very forgettable boring ones, course).
*I came across this music blog with a bitterly fantastic name: It's hard to find a friend. Yes. On the other hand, it's easy finding a crappy stupid mean human being ready to lie and hurt you for no particular reason. Phonies. Yess.
*Found out Cat Power released a new covers EP in December (Dark end of the street).Just as I'm writing this, the radio station I'm listening to (I hardly ever listen to the radio) plays...Living proof (it never does). Et voila, sometimes, the world does seem to turn around you, if only for one spin.

A Heads UP!

2009-02-08T17:32:00.000+01:00

Who's up for a cool dance track?. Plus you can go here and download it for free... Nice. Singer is Chairlift's Caroline Polachek, lending a hand to Flosstradamus (never heard of them before, but sounds good).

Annuals at the World Cafe

2009-02-07T20:42:00.000+01:00

Annuals (World Cafe FAN, Jan. 30Th).

What's most remarkable about this band are the double drums in some of the songs. Really curious to see two drummers onstage, a first for me. I asked main drummer Donzel Radford about it, he said they love drums (obviously) and music seemed to ask for them. How do they do it?. Go to recording studio, one drummer to the left side, one drummer to the right, try, and see what works. Not much room for improvisation?. Uh, no.... And how long has he been playing drums? (he's pretty amazing at it). Practically since he could hold a pair of sticks in his hands..
Uploaded a mini clip of "Confessor", off their last album, on YouTube here.
And Rachael Yamagata was in the audience (and she didn't run when she saw me!!!- you'd have to read previous posts to catch this. I behaved and didn't ask her anything this time).
By the way, itunes' free single of the week is Alela Diane's. Go for it.

Dr Dog, "are you my curse or are you my friend?"

2009-02-06T21:18:00.000+01:00

Philly's own Dr Dog, at Philly's World Cafe today, great show. Line's from one of the songs they've played, "The rabbit, the bat and the reindeer".Quite a few good songs, pretty cool bunch to watch, amazing drums.

You can listen to the broadcast at XPN's website.
Uploaded "The breeze" on youtube here. By the way, what a pain youtube has become lately, seen the new ads with sound that slow it down even more and are imposed on you these days?. Stinks...greedy greedy humankind.

The coolest concerts I know of - Artist Den

2009-02-02T17:31:00.000+01:00

In case you're not familiar with the Artist Den, they are responsible for the coolest concerts around: these are "secret" concerts in non-musical fantastic venues such as museums, old ships, churches... all with great artists, for very small audiences (partly lucky fans -tickets are free- partly members. Really fair, I'd say). These concerts are taped, and they've just announced they're finally starting to broadcast them starting this February. First one to air is Alanis Morissette.

I was so lucky to attend Jakob Dylan's in NY in September (check out my blog's september archives, I entered to win tickets, entered my guy too...I didn't win them, he did, which is funny because he's as musical as a log!!- but ok, got to go -which is what matters - plus he enjoyed it a lot) and they've already posted a mini clip of it here (place looks way bigger than it actually was). There's also this one on youtube.
For other artists appearing and for the tv schedule go to their site.

To the good times lyrics - Elin Sigvardsson

2009-02-01T17:08:00.000+01:00

Cheers to all the good times we’ve had
Cheers to the things that we will regret
I long for you I’m out of my head
You’re all around my heart
You’re inside my bed

Here’s to the good times we’ve had
And the ones we won’t get
Cheers to all the tears that I cried
Cheers to the loneliness and the wine
I long for you
I see you everywhere
------infotaupe.blogspot.com----
You’re stuck on my mind
Tangled up in my hair

Here’s to the good times we’ve had
And the ones we won’t share
Cheers to the walls
And Cheers to the floor
Cheers to your feet
When they walked out the door

I long for you
More than ever before
The night’s a joke
And the day’s such a bore

Here’s to the good times we’ve had
They won’t come back no more
Cheers to the plans and the house by the sea
There sails our boat
There falls the balcony

I long for you
That is still haunting me
Those visions of us
Just won’t let me be

Here’s to the good times we’ve had
And the ones we won’t see
Cheers to the glass I pour in the sink
Cheers to the olive in your favourite drink
I long for you but don’t say you’ll miss me
There’s no use in lying
If that’s what you think

Here’s to the good times we’ve had
It didn’t mean a thing
Here’s to the good times we’ve had
That just didn’t mean a thing
*************************************
As it turns out the other Elin lyrics I posted on my blog are one of my most visited pages, so I'll post other songs of hers I can't find on the net!

Andrew Bird - WHY? in Philly's TLA

2009-01-30T14:59:00.000+01:00

Someone's just posted this on youtube*, WOOOWW. Seriously, how good is he?

For my post on when I got to ask him what he's listening to these days go to this post.
Had not listened to this song yet (still working my way through the last two records), was blown away for the the umpteenth time. And he was sick...

This so could be a Carina Round song, would love to see these two work together.
*Thnx to JoThere for uploading!

Snow and chocolate water

2009-01-28T18:26:00.001+01:00

First day of close down due to snow in NJ this year, time for one of my "nobody cares but I've been wandering around in the snow and taking pics, so" post. Beautiful:

Will blog later about the chocolate water, sort of chopped that part out.

To write a song

2009-01-24T21:31:00.000+01:00

Check out this blog The New York times is featuring in which singers like Andrew Bird or Suzanne Vega dissect the songwriting process (even featuring demos of the different stages of a song),:
http://measureformeasure.blogs.nytimes.com/
Hope more composers will join.
Phew, was quite behind on my posts, don't think I'll post for a month after this!!! These last few days have been quite the thing in icy, freezing, damn, but damn cold Philly & NJ.

Bird's noble beast + the music he's listening to these days

2009-01-24T17:11:00.000+01:00

Very recently I crossed paths for a minute with Andrew Bird, whose music I discovered little ago. His latest album, "Noble beast" has just been released and it has pearls such as "Oh, no" and "Fitz and the dizzyspells", both of which I'm pretty sure we'll soon hear on some stylish tv commercial. They're that catchy but so good too -and yet difficult and dark at the same time, partly because of the intricate lyrics. That contrast is what makes him specially interesting (go figure out what Fitz& Dizzyspells is about!). That said, once you know their meaning they make such perfect sense you wonder how you could not realize: point made with oh no, which everybody knows by now (but hardly anybody guessed before he spoke) is about the idiotic obsession of humans with hiding their emotions & thoughts (like that makes things easier for anybody!).
His music, which has steadily been increasing in popularity with time, revolves around the violin (his playing is more than impressive), sobriety and more and more the whistling - same sonic neighborhood as the violin-, as well as the gorgeous resonance his voice hits sometimes. Check out the amazing violin loops he does live (see what I mean here, specially in Fitz. And how beautiful is that smile at the very end, how shy and happy and short). Most clever stuff. This release is making a lot of noise and getting rave reviews from music gurus everywhere.
Anyway, was able to ask this very determined, thin and bony man of most intimidatingly sharp gaze (who by the way looks much younger in the flesh) about what he is listening to these days, and this was his answer: mainly jazz from the early fifties (instrumental), he named a couple of artists but they didn't sound familiar and I forgot (Lester Young? Not sure -pff I'm a total ignorant in that area, asked if Coltrane, not, older stuff). And nothing contemporary?: Department of Eagles.
So there you go!
A real treat to be able to hear him play and shake his hand.
And find the lyrics for "Noble beast" here (took me a while to find them, really a bummer not to understand every word of a song I like..which is almost always the case when I can't find them written somewhere). -YOu can also check out the song "Fake palindromes" and read what people say about it, wow!
And good interview here (Wireless Bolinger) and mini talk clip here.

Rachael Yamagata for Musicians on call

2009-01-24T15:12:00.001+01:00

"Happenstance"' producer John Alagia joined Rachael onstage at Philly's World Cafe (Jan 21st '09) for a song:

She is including more and more songs from her latest release in her set, and I happened to find her before the show and asked about it (was eager to hear some of these songs live). Seems they're still mastering Don't (so not playing it yet, though it's one of the songs she likes best -I agree!), but she has started playing Over and over and the Hidden track (she wondered if people actually gets to hear it or not). Problem with those songs is some of them are 9 -10 minutes long an as she always plays Sunday... and says she's uncapable of editing herself!. Some people's attention span is not that long. Asked her if she didn't get a little blue singing those songs. She said that sometimes she gets "really bummed" but not often.

She always meets her "fans" after her shows, so again I seized the opportunity to ask her what she's listening to these days (next time she sees me, she may start running!!): Jenny Lewis' "Acid tongue", Aztec Camera (she has just discovered it, good old Roddy Frame!), My morning Jacket, Kings of Leon and loves Mute Math's "You are mine".
Show was excellent as usual and don't worry about getting sad-depressed, she will turn it into a more than "uplifting" experience with lots of laughs! (bless her!!).
All proceeds from the concert benefited "Musicians on call", a program that takes musicians to the bedsides of patients in health care facilities. She joined to witness one of those trips (said that she couldn't contribute with her songs or patients would directly pull the plug, lol!), said it impressed and affected her and "had to drink heavily after"...Matt Duke performed as well, I was bummed to miss his performance, really nice talented guy.

Uploaded two vids of Rachael's performance on my youtube profile:

"Over and over" + really funny banter on breaking up through txt mssgng -like she said: us women, we don't need closure, we can just move 0n...-

"Reason Why"

Another bit of banter I can transcribe is this cute bit, the intro to her last hidden track : "I have to say, as miserable and sad and painful as something can be I'm a big believer in lessons, and a big believer in connections and a big believer in meant to be's and there's a reason, you know what I mean?". Got to learn from her optimism...

Oops, almost forgot, amazing, fantastic Giraldi on drums, specially during "Sidedish friend", and the most innocent face ever, a terrible pic (sorry, he does move a lot):

And guitar guy (can't remember the name, usually there's Kanakis on guitar with her - during the Hotel Cafe Tour he was in front of me and when during one of his interventions he indicated to the audience it was hugging time, he came straight to me and gave me the biggest bear hug ever , got to love the guy- while everybody in the audience hugged one another, it was a blast, that tour too, the whore-tell tour as Rachael named it, because of all the girls and how sassy they got onstage - but this once it was someone different who really got into it too during one of the songs, recorded this bit with terrible sound but will try to upload it, not to miss Yamagata's face, like everybody else, fun and quite like wow.
Tags: Rachael Yamagata listening to, Rachael Yamagata Musicians on call, Rachael Yamagata new songs live

Adele at the World Cafe

2009-01-17T21:14:00.000+01:00

Seems Adele describes her music as "heartbroken soul". Thing is, she opens her mouth, your jaw drops. Amazing voice that sings so effortlessly... Can't say that I like most of her songs (a couple of them I really love though), but I really like the voice (and don't miss her website's great video player).
A pic:

Uploaded this vid of her encore, a cover of Sam Cooke's "That's it, I quit, I'm moving on". She had finished her set (the only part that is being broadcast) and she had a show that night, still she played this one more song for us. Thumbs up-
Listen to the concert: XPN's archives here.
Gossip: I almost bumped into her as she was getting out of an elevator and a few inches away she is pretty tall, way less plump, very white and has a lovely English face, beautiful in a non standard soft way. Well, my ideal of beauty is in sync with the feelings you get when you look at someone. Looking at plastic, empty faces with swollen lips that can only articulate nonsense , that's a pain, if they are "beautiful".
PS Feb: saw her yesterday at the Grammys, she's sabotaging herself with that make up and those grandma dresses, she looks so much better in the flesh.

Christmas stuff & recaps

2008-12-17T18:46:00.000+01:00

Ok, guess it's the time of year for my Christmas post!. Only this year I'm not feeling Christmassy at all, don't know, must have been at the supermarket when the spirit came to visit.. or something. So I'm trying to take it in, get ready for next week, and these are some "new" C. songs I've come across:
* Ra ra riot's version of 'Happy Xmas (War Is Over)' (just press play, then click to the right to skip the ad). Song's as brilliant and depressing as always...
* Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson's Winter song (cute, again... sad)
* The bird and the bee's yearly carol "12 days of Christmas" (incoherent but not sad, good!. Cool cool breezy version. But each time I listen to it I can't help wondering about her true love's gift choices - three French hens?-, guess after all I'm lucky with what I get)
* The eccentric nuts combo of the year is "Joseph, Better You Than Me", by... The killers, Elton John, also Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant. Hmm, really?. Whoever says life isn't full of surprises... But good charity cause behind it.
* Not peculiar enough?. Try this, Julian Koster and his Singing saw at Christmas time. Well, like it or not but at the moment it's sold out on amazon.
* And the oldie (I just discovered it though), Rachael Yamagata with River, a cover of Joni Mitchell's. Again, sad, pff. But beautiful.

And suggestions in the gift department (again, following last year's tradition)...
1. This is a nice book (and gossippy, which songs are in Gwyneth's ipod?. Well, not hubby! -she says. And more serious stuff too, there's a really good interview to architect Frank Gehry): Spain...A Culinary Road Trip (places recommended are really good, recipes who knows but who's planning on cooking them anyway?)

2. CD's, my pics:
-A little note: keep Rachael's cd1 for post-Christmas, not the best festive mood setter, and don't miss its last track (yep, the very hidden one that those who aren't deserving will or have already miss/ed - clever Rachael ; )
And in the recaps section, good news for those of you who conclude that New Year's resolutions are in order: I just read that it takes a mere 21 days to make or break a habit, you should be in dry land by the end of January. Bad news is it was in the kind of magazine you really can't trust, obviously. But you can always try, trying is good. I'm just going to try to leave my two worst habits buried in 2008 (ok, maybe only 1) - so can't wait for 2009!!! yippeee!!!!
And one more year going down the drain, ain't that nice... Happy Christmas everybody!!!* Now for the punch!!!!!
Tags: new songs christmas 2008, new christmas tunes 2008, best christmas 2008, christmas presents, christmas cd's

Funnn

2008-12-17T18:13:00.000+01:00

Cash Cash... There's a party in your bedroom. A dance energy fun song somebody has recommended -give it a minute-. The kind to jump to on top of your bed when you feel you can't take one more Christmas song ...
They're releasing their forthcoming album in a few days. Funnn.