Death Cab For Cutie's Newborn

The new released album of DCFC is called ' Narrow Stairs'. There's no change of style since their last album 'Plans', but still every album of theirs is worth the attempt of listening and when the simple melodies open up, they won't leave your head. Hail to the thief, grab it!


Death Cab For Cuty - Narrow Stairs (album in mp3)

The password is: nodata.tv. If you type that in your internet browser, you'll find a very fine blog!

Veteran Swap

Tina in
Phil out

Now that's what I call a good trade.

Starting Point

Yesterday dEUS kicked-off their new tour along small venues across Europe, hawking their upcoming album Vantage Point. Doornroosje in Nijmegen had the honour of being the first of over twenty stages to be taken possession of, which shouldn’t be that much of a problem. My point of reference in this respect was the stunning performance they gave in the Aula Magna, Lisbon, Fall 2005, which is likely to be the most suitable concert location I ever visited.

I soon discovered that wasn’t really fair, for the obvious reason that at this stage the band is still entitled to some degree of imperfection. Plus, during their a two-hour (!) show I’m almost convinced they managed to play every single track of their new album. That’s the spirit!

Some points worth mentioning:

• The Black Box Revelation, opening for dEUS, prooved once again that Belgians know their way around guitars.
• “Slow” sounded a little… slow. Wait, make that feebly.
• Mauro Pawlowski without a beard looks like John Stamos. All bearded he bears a striking resemblance to The Magic Numbers.
• Mauro knows how to use his voice. Still, he should work on his facial expressions.
• For us Dutchmen it is rather embarrassing and sometimes awkward when someone speaks Flemish and you don’t understand what’s being said. So Mauro, if what you meant to say was ‘thank you’, then you’re welcome.
• Mauro Pawlowski is rather intriguing…

dEUS - The Architect (video)
dEUS - Instant Street (track on MySpace)

Verily, doth this cause you affront?

Does it Offend You, Yeah? first got onto my musical radar because of their weird, weird name. They stayed there for a long time until they popped up, stealthily, on a bored, what-shall-we-do(wn)-now afternoon. "You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into" the album title read. Well, neither did I.

Neither did I.

At first, I - grasping at straws by now - compared them to WRM, but that didn't match up. White Rose Movement is rather awesome too (will be subject of a next post, I promise) , but DIOYY transcend the genre - if there even is one to speak of.

I would totally understand you if you had no clue what I was talking about so here's a few a clinks: We Are Rockstars, and my personal favorite Doomed Now. Doesn't come across half as well as the original but what can you do? You could download the original,wink, wink, nudge, nudge. It makes me happy!

Young, Fresh & New

Der Jugend is zurück: De Jeugd van tegenwoordig – Hollereer (mp3)

Post-Postal Service-before-there-was-a-Postal Service: The Notwist – Good Lies (mp3)

80's synths and Miami Vice drums, isn't that really all you need? M83 – Kim & Jessie (mp3)

Zoot alors: Zoot Woman – live in my Head (mp3)

Hmmm, maybe there's still hope for Chinese Democracy too: Portishead – Machine Gun (mp3)

They only want you when you’re seventeen part II

For some mysterious reason 'youth' seems to be a theme these days. Check MGMT's 'Kids' and 'The Youth', seventeen year-old Laura Marling who sings on Mystery Jets' 'Young Love' or M83's new album 'Saturdays=Youth'. And now Ladytron (best known for their hit 'Seventeen') have released a new single as well as Dutch electro hip-hoppers De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig ('Today's Youth').

Hollerate: De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig - Hollereer (stream)

Ladytron - Black Cat (mp3)

Ladytron - Seventeen (mp3)

They only want you when you’re seventeen

Laura Marling, you know, the ultra-talented seventeen year old girl with the amazing voice and the catchy folk-pop songs? She played in Paradiso in Amsterdam yesterday. Dressed in one of her bear-sized grandpa’s shirts and fresh from the blind lady next door who cut her hair she awkwardly played some songs. And she must have practiced a lot, since they sounded exactly as they sound on her (quite excellent) debut album. I guess she had to concentrate real hard to reproduce those songs so well because she kept looking at her shoes or her microphone. Well done, Laura!

Afterwards I had a couple of drinks with some seventeen-something girls (and no it wasn’t like that at all) who knew what being seventeen is all about. Hot fashion, juicy gossip (‘you know Chris and Janine…well, they totally did it!’), bitchfights (“bitter is not a good color on you honey”) and even throwing drinks in someone's face (I thought that only happened on tv). Suffice it to say; I prefer my seventeen year-old girls that way.

Laura Marling – Ghosts (mp3)

Mystery Jets – Young Love (featuring Laura Marling) (mp3)