All the rowboats

Just got back from my summer vacation in Mexico, which was great! Hope to post on that experience soon.

I wanted to post this video by Regina Spektor first, cause I like it. I listened to the album in the record store and didn’t find it all too great, except for this song. I just like the topic of the song. Masterpieces wanting to be alive…

Enjoy.

“All The Rowboats”

All the rowboats in the paintings
They keep trying to row away
And the captains’ worried faces
Stay contorted and staring at the waves
They’ll keep hanging in their gold frames
For forever, forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away

Hear them whispering French and German
Dutch, Italian, and Latin
When no one’s looking I fetch a sculpture
Marble, gold, and soft as satin
But the most special are the most lonely
God, I pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing
They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing, how to sing

First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up
Masterpieces serving maximum sentences
It’s their own fault for being timeless
There’s a price to pay and a consequence
All the galleries, the museums
Here’s your ticket, welcome to the tombs
They’re just public mausoleums
The living dead fill every room
But the most special are the most lonely
God, I pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing
They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing

They will stay there in their gold frames
For forever, forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away

First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up
Masterpieces serving maximum sentences
It’s their own fault for being timeless
There’s a price to pay and a consequence
All the galleries, the museums
They will stay there forever and a day
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away
All the rowboats in the oil paintings
They keep trying to row away, row away…

Agnes Obel: “Riverside”

Since a few weeks now, I heard this song play on radio and tv but didn’t know the artist. It’s a song by Agnes Obel (singer and songwriter) and is from her first album “Philharmonics”. She’s Danish, living in Berlin (Germany) and I like her accent when she sings in English. Makes it a bit quirky. I find it great she masters, produces and records her work herself.

I bought the album 2 days ago and I like it. It has a certain mood to it that is like a theme throughout the album. One could argue that its much of the same, but that might be the case at a first hearing. If you listen a couple of times to the album, you feel its not the case. Each song has it’s subtleties and sounds delicate. I recommend it… but you have to like the genre. Or put it this way: if you liked the album “Pink” by Tori Amos, you are on the right track.

Official website:  http://www.agnesobel.com/

Enjoy!

Public Image Limited – P.I.L. concert in Brussels’ Ancienne Belgique

Last Saturday I went to the Ancienne Belgique  to see a Public Image Limited (or P.I.L.) concert. It’s my boyfriend’s favorite band and as a fan, I feel it is mandatory to owe up to your fandom and be there. (In case you have no idea who Public Image Limited is, it’s a band that centers round Johnny ‘Rotten’ Lydon, previously front man of the Sex Pistols.)

Don’t mind the out of focus picture I posted. Not easy in a moving crowd and having an inferior camera. At least I was able to take it! And we were very close to the stage too. Which is always great.

I went along not really knowing what I would experience at this concert. I know very little songs by P.I.L. except “This is not a love song”.  And I think there were a lot of people not really knowing what to expect. Their last album dates from 1992 and there is no new album in prospect (or at least not communicated). So what to expect? How will they sound?

Well, I found it an awesome concert. Johnny Lydon is pretty impressive, though maybe not the most mobile person on stage, he did manage to bust some moves. I did bust some moves. Who knew? You can definitely dance to P.I.L.!

But what really struck me is

Walk

I know I recently posted on the Foo Fighters, but I can’t help it. I’m devouring the new album like there is no tomorrow. Maybe not a good thing, seeing when you eat mashed potatoes every single day, every single week… well you’ll soon get fed up with mashed potatoes, don’t ya? Still. It’s under my skin so I’ll ride this album out till I can’t have it no more, I suppose.

So there you go, dragging you with me in my obsession. I think it’s called transferring? I’m no psych though I very much enjoyed the one class I took at college. 🙂

It’s the last track of the album, the video I mean. A bit softer than Burning Bridges, Rope or White Limo. But nonetheless, a nice track.

And again! A funny video. As said in their docu-movie: though they take their music seriously, they don’t much with their videos – but I don’t mind. I like a band with humor. It’s so like the movie Falling Down with Michael Douglas! But funny.

Ok, so here it is:

Foo Fighters, Back and Forth (2011) film

A couple of weeks ago I recorded with the digicorder (the European TIVO, I think) a documentary film  on the Foo Fighters: Foo Fighters, Back and Forth (2011), to reflect on the years passed and how they ended up making their 7th album: Wasting Light.

I loved the Foo Fighters since their 1997 album The Colour and the Shape. I devoured that album. For weeks on end. Knowing every word.

As with most things, I got obsessed with them back then. I was 15 years old… so young… so young… (am in my late twenties now, and having a hard time accepting it). I had just gotten out the Heather Nova period, which was preceeded by The Smiths and my Foo Fighters period would be followed by a heavy Cure obsession which lasted a long time until college, where I got into the blues of Chris Whitley with a lot of enthusiasm. These past couple of years have been pretty obsessive-less… which is a nice break, because buying CD’s can be heard on the wallet, let me tell you! At least I have a job now. I still wonder how I got to buy all those albums in high school like that and not be broke!

Still, I should thank my brother’s excessive CD collection, which has taught me a lot on different kinds of music and is easy access to pick and chose… borrow, I mean. 🙂

Epiphone … be in my home!!!!

The DOT cherry

… soon to be in my home to listen to every day! Pretty cool if I say so myself! That’s the fun when living with a guitarist!

The WILDKAT

… my choice, if only I could play!

Maybe not a Gibson, but the next best thing.

Words are useless, just look at it!

A beauty.

Oh to be a domestic godess!

To say I’m a princess in the kitchen would be a lie. I cook to survive.  🙂

I am interested in the art of gastronomy on a plate. It looks good, it smells good, and food tastes good. I’m a big fan. But when it comes to getting it done, I’m not always able to do well.

I can do wonders with minced meat, olives, onions, carrots, whip up a spicy tomato sauce with it… and present it with flair.

Just now, I’m searching for recipes for fish dishes (decided that Tuesdays and Fridays will be fish-menu-days) and thankfully most sites have search engines with “difficulty”-levels! If only I knew more kinds of fish besides the “it has fins and goes blurb doesn’t it?”-kind.

Something I noticed since I got my place, is that I cannot stand it to have a quiet kitchen. It makes me nervous. And come to think of it… mom always has her radio playing in the kitchen. I need to have music. But due to the size of my kitchen (I’ve known tool boxes to have more room), and all the stuff I put in it… there simply is no room to put a radio. So I listen to the iPod. I cook with headphones on. And besides the occasional accident with the headphones cord getting stuck behind things (that’s me!), it makes me happy to cook that way.

I’ve tried several genres of music. Until now what works well are the Kaiser Chiefs (Yours Truly, Angry Mob), though Joss Stone is a great one when making salads. But nothing makes you chop up onions and carrots better than “Highroyds”, I think. Pearl Jam is also a good one, the self titled album or Binaural.

So I wonder actually, if there are other people who also need a noisy kitchen, like me? Cause let me tell you, it helps to have background noises when you drop the darn spoons again for the umpteenth time. It makes it less obvious (or I’m deceiving myself in thinking so…).

Ladytron: soon to be out ‘Best of Ladytron: 00-10’

Ladytron is a band from Liverpool that makes electronic pop music, but with definite New Wave influences. They sound experimental at times and as Wikipedia descibes them  it better than I do: ” including psychedelic elements, using an array of vintage analogue equipment to achieve their distinctive sound.”

I seem to be drawn to ’80s kind of sounds like New Wave in most music (though I still consider myself a rock-chick at heart!)… with my Cure obsession… maybe because I’m born in the ’80s, but then so are many others who do not tend this way. It’s just me, I suppose. 😉

I had briefly posted on Ladytron when I reviewed the movie Mammoth (2009), where you can hear them at the end credits.

On their Facebook page I read today that they are celebrating their 10-year existence with a best of album, including 2 new tracks.

Maybe you like it, maybe you don’t, maybe you need to listen to it several times to take a liking to it… anyway, I’m posting some of the stuff here and can only hope you’ll enjoy!

VIDEO on 10-years Ladytron

VIDEO new track

LINK new cover track

http://soundcloud.com/nettwerkmusicgroup/ladytron-little-black-angel

Daan “Icon”, Belgium’s answer to Johnny Cash

I shouldn’t say that actually. Because you cannot compare Daan’s work to Cash’s. Just that this song has a similar feel, and the voice has a hint of the man.

It’s been stuck in my head since they’ve played it on the radio. It’s from his new album “Manhay”.
I’ve put the lyrics below, cause it’s just delicious to sing along to. Enjoy.

Mammoth (2009)

The last movie I saw at the Brussels Film Festival was Mammoth (2009) by Lukas Moodysson (Swedish director).

It is about a couple, Leo and Ellen, that lives in New York with their daughter Jacky. The main cast is Gael García Bernal , Michelle Williams and Marife Necesito as the nanny of their daughter.

PLOT

Leo and Ellen live in luxury in their loft. Leo is a successful man having gained his wealth with games, who travels often. Ellen is a top-notch surgeon who works in the emergency, but suffers from insomnia due to her workload. Because both of them are taken by their work, they have a Filipino nanny, Gloria, to take care of their 7-year old daughter.

Leo leaves for Thailand with his partner to get some contracts signed. While his partner negotiates, Leo is bored and decides to visit some parts of Thailand in the meanwhile. At some club, a beautiful girl offers him “fun”, which he refuses. He pays her but asks her to go home. But that is not the last time he sees the girl again.

Gloria left her 2 young sons back in the Philippines with her mother and brother. The boys miss her terribly. Because their mother is in the US to make money so their house can be finished building, the eldest son of 10, Salvador, tries to get a job. But this proves not to be easy. And unfortunately, it proves to be very bad for him…

trailer:

OPINION

I liked this movie a lot. You get to show how globalisation is in our lives, but in a subtle way. The contrast between the things the New York couple can offer their daughter, and what Gloria has to do for her sons.

Several times, when lending DVD’s at the library, I had taken Moodysson’s previous movie Lilia 4-ever, but never got the time to watch it. I’ve been told it will be very different from Mammoth, but I’m curious now. When I’ll lend it, I’ll try not to take other DVD’s… or I’ll be repeating a pattern of “unwatching Lilia 4-ever”!

It won the Public Award (Prix du Publique, Publieksprijs) and I do hope my vote of 5/5 stars had something to do with it.

MUSIC

The credit song (also featuring in the movie) is by Ladytron: Distroy Everything you Touch. Here is a clip. My boyfriend found it to have a Pet Shop Boys feel to it… I’ll let you judge if you take that as a positive or a negative argument….

I did like the music used in this movie. That’s a plus as well.

Ladytron – Destroy Everything You Touch
envoyé par trou_Duc. – Regardez d’autres vidéos de musique.

Mando Diao “Gloria”… to Fando y Lis

Never heard of them, till I heard them on my online radio about 3 minutes ago (you’ve never seen me post this quick, now have you!).

 

They are a garage rock band from Sweden, dabbling in alternative, blues and indie, but this track is so sixties. “Gloria” is from the album “Give me fire”(2009).

Seems there is no clear explanation for the band’s name.

The name Mando makes me think of Fando, from Fando y Lis (1968), a movie by Jodorowski, but that’s a whole other can of worms for me to get into. For who wants to know: Fando and his paralyzed girlfriend Lis travel through a barren wasteland, postapocalyptic, to go to Tar, a city where all wishes come true.

A controversial movie: caused a riot at its premiere in Acapulco, was banned in Mexico, underwent cuts and a load of bad reviews… I was a bit taken aback by this movie, I must admit. But I did not regret having seen it. It’s an art film; you must not expect it to be a mainstream, relaxing with a cup of coffee kind of movie… I read it was influenced by performance art, which Jodorowsky was involved in at the time. Knowing this, you can understand why the movie is how it is and can stir controversy.

The movie has nothing to do with this band/video, other than that the similarity of the name made my brain jump right to that sixties movie… though I think it’d be good to go with the images. Debatable, I know.

I don’t know who out there knows this band, and I don’t know their work other than this song. But it has taken my interest, crossed my radar and I’m going to see if it is worth it.

Official website: http://www.mandodiao.com/ & Wiki page: here

Heather Nova in concert!!! Yeay!

 Last night I went with my sister to the concert of Heather Nova, here in the Ancienne Belgique concert venue. I had already posted on her here: Sugar, sugar in my throat .

For a bio, I invite you to go to her official website. I can just say she is a singer-songwriter (mostly indie) and a poet, born in Bermuda. She has 7 albums (I think…) , of which I have 5. It’s been 2 years since she was on tour. Last night in Brussels, it was her second concert of the tour. Glad to be back in Brussels, she did compare the Ancienne Belgique venue to a set of a Mad Max movie, with the balcony’s a bit like the cages seen in that film. And you know what, it is.

I was really exited about this concert, and my excitement was rewarded. The voice on her, it is amazing. She can really sing, and I mean really. Her live performances are great. I saw her about 10 years ago, I believe it was, together with my sister on the Marktrock festival in Leuven. It was raining then, but that didn’t stop her from rocking. And I feel that her liver performances are always edgier than her albums. Her guitarist gives her all, and that is what makes the concert such an experience. And though Heather’s voice usually sounds like a siren from the deepest oceans, fragile and mesmerizing… it can be raw and downright breath stopping. I get goosebumps every time she sings Island.

I can’t remember all the tracks she performed. I believe only 2 or 3 were from her upcoming album, not yet available here in Belgium.

What I remembered she played:

• Heal
• Head and shoulder
• Blood of me
• Someone new
• Fool for you
• Renegade
• I wanna be your light
• London Rain (Nothing heals like you do)
• Motherland
• Not only human
• Island
• Paper cup
• Redbird (but I’m not sure about that)
• Winterblue
• Walk this world
• All I need
• Like lovers do
• Beautiful storm (new track)

I don’t care what others think or say. In the end, it’s your own opinion and taste that counts. I think Heather Nova rocks and her concert will be a beautiful memory of mine. Thank you, sister-in-crime, to have invited me. You rock too (not to forget!).

Chris Whitley and Trixie

 Some time ago, Chris Whitley’s (official site) name came up in conversation. I’ve been an avid fan of his, but came to know him not long enough. He was a musician, originally from Texas, mostly New York based, but with ties to Belgium, seeing his daughter Trixie was born here in Ghent. Chris Whitley passed away in November 2005, after his battle against lung cancer. Only a few months before (September, I believe), I almost had the chance to see him perform live his new album Soft Dangerous Shores (2005), but they cancelled the very evening, him being unwell. I really regretted that.

Just last week, I read an interview in the magazine HUMO with his daughter Trixie, and thought, what are the odds?

I had heard her on some live tracks of Chris, and on the album Rocket House (2001), where she was credited as well as DJ Tadpole. Now she returns to New York and is working on her own album. I checked her out on MySpace, and maybe she doesn’t like to be compared to Chris, but to me, you can clearly hear she’s his daughter. I just heard the track Undress your name, and her singing style is her own, I admit, but you feel a bit of Chris as well. That’s up for debate.

I liked Chris Whitley because his style of music and choice of lyrics appealed to me. Blues, guitar, eclectic and always that sense of restlessness in his tracks. Some songs seems a bit unconventional at times, cause as listener he could take you musically to where you didn’t expect to go. Which I can understand, is not easy to get into. I admit fully, not to have liked my introduction to his music. It took me several years to come back to the album I had received as a gift, to sit down and really listen to it. I maybe had to grow into it… or to grow up in some way. Musically. To appreciate it.

I do hope nobody considers his music to be country music. That would be a mistake in my eyes. It’s blues. It has a soul. And it has weight to it.

The Black Box Revelation

Yesterday I went to the festival Bruksel Live in the park, and we saw a band that had enough energy to blow the crowd away in a whirlwind of sound! They are called The Black Box Revelation, a band from Dilbeek (near Brussels). They are just two guys, Jan and Dries, but they have such power on stage. They have a dirty rock sound and we liked it!

Picture taken from this site.

 

Here you can find their official site and also on myspace.

The clip below is filmed under the river Schelde in Antwerp, I believe (at least I recognize it). There is a pedestrian tunnel that runs under the river to take you from the East side to the West side of Antwerp.

This clip does not beat the live version of this song. The Black Box Revelation is a great band to watch live on stage… I recommend it!

I THINK I LIKE YOU 

Let’s go Scandinavian with just a little Roman Polanski twist to it

This is one I didn’t know by them… I need some fine wine and you, you need to be nicer by The Cardigans.

It just drew my attention, cause her hair is like Liv Ullmann a bit, in Autumn Sonata (not a very good Bergman movie I think). I just flashed back to Liv when seeing Nina with the hairdo so stereotypically associated with Scandinavian women.

This second video I like better: Hanging around. It is said to be inspired by Roman Polanski‘s Repulsion. I do not know the movie from 1965, so cannot judge. But if you click here you can see an extract from the movie with Catherine Deneuve and compare. It also explains why Nina wears a wig in the clip below, to resemble Catherine’s character more.

But this clip actually just gives me goosebumps… it has some eeriness about it… just watch (and sorry for the bad sound quality).