Civilization

Fairly recently (3 weeks, cough, cough) I went to my only festival of the year: festival deBeschaving. It was just outside of Utrecht so no hassle with tents and travel and stuff. I'll share my highlights here, I'll spare you the criticism of Pete Doherty, Kate Nash, et al.

First act we managed to catch was Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly. (Yes, the interpunction is important!) Really nice laptoppy singer-songwriter stuff. I was particularly taken by War of the Worlds and I-Spy. His throaty voice and (slightly) critical lyrics make this a worthy addition to my shortish trophy room of singer-songwriters.

Next was the Dodos. Advertised as calm, folk, not a beat too many. What we got instead was postfolk: droning on, pulsating. Brilliant! Not entirely representative but still good is this video of Fools. It's really amazing how just a guitar, drums and an occasional shout into the microphone can absorb you. Their new album, Visiter, is good but it does not catch the feel of their live show.
For me this was really the highlight of the festival, but my ears hurt a little afterward.

We enjoyed the sun, Das Pop, Kaizers Orchestra (a lot but from a distance) and Oi Va Voi after that, but the final highlight for me is definitely Slagmalsklubben (I'm missing an a with a circle above it here, I'm sure!). Weird Teletubby-influenced Swedish electro, so-lame-they're-funny ramblings between songs but still, you can't go wrong with a song like Sponsored By Destiny. Oh yeah, and some blinking lights!

The final bus back home beckoned, so no Mogwai.

Transformers

I'm not writing much, I know. Sorry! My Internet is down most of the time, yadda yadda yadda. (The rest of the blog is down too, but I can't explain that away that easily!)

Robots in Disguise is, however, one band I think you should not miss out on!

The Sex Has Made Me Stupid was fabulous first time around - I could not stop listening to it. Even without the video, it's still pretty cool!

And for some strange reason I really, really, really like 'I live in Berlin' - Although my German girlfriend may have something to do with that! (She does not live in Berlin, nor is she a robot in disguise, and she's smarter than me!)

In the end, Motormark may have the final word, though! Everybody at the discotheque has made me stupid! Remember folks, Motormark let made you stupid first ;-) This version is by Stereo Total, but the original was better. Crystal Castles avant la lettre, but even more chaotic!

Maybe the next best thing!

Jack (Will and Grace) on playing blackjack: "Oh, no, all that "hit me, hit me" gets me excited for all the wrong reasons."

Anyway, here's a Hit Me (more like a Hit Machine?) that gets me excited for all the wrong reasons. The biggest surprise, probably, is that they're not even Scandinavian. They're from Amsterdam!

Hit Me TV - Maybe The Dancefloor

P.S. See if you can find the Blokgolf Remix. It might even help you through your exams, Euro 2008, etc. Here it is!

Most Boring Post! Nice music? Yes!

Glasvegas is nice. They make me think of Nancy Sinatra (by way of Jarvis) and JMAC.

Here's a (sorry for the indirection) link.

Enjoy!

Daddy's gone is nice as well, maybe I like it even better. Come to think of it, it's eight years almost to the day my little brother hanged himself so there might be some symbolism in that vid.

And since these guys look like rockabillies from 1980 (check the hairdos!) I am not going to embellish this post with still pictures.

They've not got the noisyness of A Place To Bury Strangers - Willem, is that next Monday? - but they're kind of human. I like humans! For breakfast; that is.

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)