Pete Philly

Last week a friend and I decided to go see Pete Philly play at a local club tonight. I had heard his album online and always enjoy live music, so was expecting a good night.

Wow. SO much better than expected. What a good artist, and great band. Definitely a good choice to go! I now also have a signed CD, woohoo!

The album is still available for a listen at Radio 6, an online soul/funk/jazz radiostation: One



(Oh, and seeing him live is really a lot better than just listening to these tracks online)

World famous

I am not a particular Jason Mraz fan, but sitting in the sun this afternoon and enjoying one of the final summer days this year, this song jumped to mind. And mostly, because of a Slovakia memory.

You must really be famous - or at least have a really really likable song - if your song comes on the radio in a small mountain cottage in the High Tatras in Slovakia and everyone (really, everyone and various nationalities) in the cottage restaurant starts humming and moving along to the tune....

Hauschka

on the beach
Originally uploaded by macchi.

At the beginning of September, I spent a weekend on the Dutch island of Vlieland. It was for me the first time to go there which was a good reason in itself. But the main reason was the Into The Great Wide Open festival. Fantastic weather, great atmosphere and some really good music. We've already booked accomodation next year! (now to get the tickets for the festival itself though...)

Anyway, why write about this now?

I just stumbled across a fascinating string of video's from one of the most surprising performances at the festival - Hauschka. He does amazing things on the piano. In fact, things you would not dream of doing to your own piano!

Have a look at this:



It's only making me more excited about the prospect of possibly having a piano in my house as well sometime in the next few months. Looking forward to playing again!

Happy up here

Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

Am looking forward to the new album, but am also hoping that it will be more and better than just this song....

A new favourite [updated]

The gig on Friday by Wir Sind Helden was great! I guess I can add a new favourite band to an evergrowing list. At the least, a new addition to my cd-collection. Perfect music for a happy mood like this afternoon.

Can't wait for the other live music things that I have planned.... Finally some drum'n'bass again in two weeks time, possibly Miss Kittin the week after, and finally the Arcade Fire in November. Yeah.

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It's two weeks later, but have more to add to the above list:
Aphrodite was great (but short)
Miss Kittin is a definite by now
Seeing Flip Kowlier and Tom Pintens in Antwerp (am currently listening to Flip's music to find out what I'll be seeing)
And I should maybe also be seeing a musical or something similar in Brussels next month...

Good stuff (*^-^*)

New! Music!

Finally some new music to keep me entertained:

* Wir Sind Helden - tomorrow at Paradiso (see above)

* Broken Social Scene - the mail delivered the latest cd by one of their main people today. yay!

Finally

Getting up early (-ish) on a Saturday morning can be worth it, if it means getting tickets to an upcoming Arcade Fire concert! Woohoo!

I've wanted to see them live for ages but keep missing the concert announcements (or decided not to go to the festival where they are playing today). Not this time. Bigger venue than I want, but can't have it all. Now I just have to wait until November.

Short preview is in an earlier post of mine.

Shellac

How to know you bought a cool new cd:

* when the cool guy behind the counter actually shows the other cool guys what you're buying and they're all nodding in approval.

The kind of stuff that makes a normal day just that much nicer!

(an old draft I forgot to post)

I like Thursdays

Or at least, I liked my last Thursday:


Lots of fun, great show - almost 2,5 hours of loads of favourite songs. I'm getting all excited about going to many more concerts again. There's this for example, which is becoming increasingly tempting....

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More fun stuff yesterday: I had lunch at my old place of employment. Such a good ego boost! Have to do that some time soon again ;-)

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I'm also loving the book that I'm reading at the moment: In search of Kazakhstan, the country that disappeared. A travelogue-type book describing life in Kazakhstan, with a combination of current affairs and history (oh, and no mention of Borat). Very interesting, but the places he describes are so different from what I've seen. I think he also goes to Baikonur so that should be a good test to find out how to really judge the book.

Why I love

the Luisterpaal: Cassadaga is online!

I think I might just be getting tickets for this gig in July....

In more good news

A few cool things that I'm looking forward to in the next few weeks:

* in two weeks time I'm again going to Motel Mozaique with a friend, partly to see Zita Swoon again but also to have a good night out with more new bands. Wheee!

* spring! It's pretty much here already and it's making me feel so much better. I've resolved to take advantage of the weather and more free day time to start experimenting with my camera more. So hopefully this will result in a more visual blog aswell.

* more theater... one of my resolutions for this year was to see more live music. Luckily that has worked (yay) but it has also meant not seeing so many plays on stage anymore, something that I love as well (not to mention the fact that I haven't seen a dance performance for years. grrrr). Wednesday I'm seeing a new play by a local (but by now, famous) author Ilja Leonard Pfeiffer De eeuw van mijn dochter. It's supposed to be a critique on contemporary Dutch politics so am quite curious!

New favourite

After discovering Pandora a few months ago, I've recently (re-) discovered another online music source: 3voor12 Luisterpaal which lists new (and usually quite cool) albums for a few days to discover.

Excellent entertainment!

Salutti Tutti

Watching this video makes me even more annoyed that the Arcade Fire gig in the Netherlands was sold out way before I even found out about it.

I've also discovered why my not-so-legal cd of them has French narration: I think it's this concert instead of their proper cd. Ah well. I'm sponsoring them now in any case as I just ordered their new album Neon Bible. Wheee!

And the Dutch win the battle!

Or at least, during the Decemberists concert last week the Dutch navy won their battle with the Brits in 1667 or whenever. Which was the encore at the end of their show - the Dutch and British ships being people in the audience. Needless to say, it was a very cool show.

If you really want to know what I'm talking about: watch this!

Room 11 - One of these days

Because I've finally discovered YouTube, and because the live gig of this band was awesome - enjoy :) (unfortunately can't find any good live videos though...)

Oh, and the singer is completely inspiring me to dress more adventurous again, love her style!

M-flo - Come Again

While trying to come up with a brilliant job application I've been bopping along to M-Flo - a favourite Japanese band. And they have one of my favourite karaoke-songs! (not this one though...). This song is a few years old - they're part of my Osaka-memories. *Sigh*