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Wednesday, April 26, 2000 --- 11:36 p.m.
mwng
In other mp3-news. Mwng is the title of the new Welsh-language, Super Furry Animals-album. Ysbeidiau Heulog is the first single of that album and will be released next week - the title apparently means 'sunny intervals' - but can already be downloaded here. At a quick first listen it sounds like a fairly typical SFA-song and there's nothing wrong with that.
Wednesday, April 26, 2000 --- 11:33 p.m.
Bright Eyes - A Line Allows Progress
I'm gradually getting the hang of this Napster thing. So far, I've downloaded stuff like Daphne & Celeste, Biz Markie (Just A Friend), something by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood etc - great stuff I've been looking for for ages. Anyway, it's a bit strange seeing someone else downloading something from your computer. Especially since, at the moment, I don't 'share' anything special. My mp3-directory is full of stuff that I've downloaded legally off the web. From recordcompanysites and epitonic etc. To make matters more complicated most of those files still have their original names, I hardly ever change it into the name of the artist and/or the song. Last night for instance somebody downloaded a track called brighteyes.mp3 from my computer. It's a rather peculiar, but rather nice as well, it sounds not unlike Elliott Smith but the singer has quite a weird voice, lofi-tune called A Line Allows Progress, A Circle Does Not by a band called Brighteyes I downloaded from the site from inkblotmagazine. I can't think why someone would use napster to get that file, I'm guessing he (or she) was looking for Bright Eyes by Simon & Garfunkel and is currently pretty disappointed (or not of course).
Tuesday, April 25, 2000 --- 11:35 p.m.
Napster
Finally downloaded and installed napster tonight and I must say I'm a bit disappointed. I had made a small list of tracks I would look for and so far found only one - Dead Prez's Hiphop. There's no sign of Sonic Boom Boys by Westworld or The Facts Of Life, that great new Black Box Recorder single and nobody seems to have Rescue Me/Into My Arms by Nu Generation even though I gathered it's a big hit in Italy and Slovenia at the moment. Oh, wait, there is some 3rd Bass, mostly Pop Goes The Weasel but some other stuff as well. At least that's something.
Tuesday, April 25, 2000 --- 03:57 p.m.
Cheiron
Take a look behind the scenes at the Home Of The Hits. Cheiron is the production company that's responsible for just about every top40-hit of the last couple of years. The company was started by the late Denniz Pop and has produced, and in most cases written as well, the incredible popsongs that made artists like Ace Of Base, 5ive, the Backstreet Boys and, of course, Britney. Sadly, they are also responsible for all those horrible ballads that Westlife and Boyzone keep releasing. But other than that, they are brilliant. Actually, it's not really a look behind the scenes but a rather boring site with bios of the people writing and producing the hits and a huge discography of all the stuff they've been involved with.
Monday, April 24, 2000 --- 11:58 a.m.
Broadcast
Broadcast's homepage does not only look pretty - in the style of the packaging of their debutalbum The Noise Made By People - but is also worth a visit because of its content. You can download an exclusive song recorded during the sessions for the forthcoming single Come On Let's Go, called Distant Call (look under Scrap Book) and listen to Broadcast Radio Mix #1, a 73-minute realaudio 'mix tape' with 'songs and sounds we love' wich seems to include a lot of United States Of America and Ennio Morricone.
Sunday, April 23, 2000 --- 11:38 p.m.
Rockstar
Pretend to be Frank Farian or Malcolm McLaren and go all Svengali-like by putting your own band together and try to earn loads of money buy letting them play loads of gigs and recording an album or a video every now and then. After a while you'll notice that the same accidents keep happening to your artists and it becomes a bit boring, but I wasted at least one afternoon on this last week.
Thursday, April 20, 2000 --- 11:51 p.m.
Net Lessons for Labels at Indies
Article in Wired explains what major labels can learn from the experiences of independents on the web.
Thursday, April 20, 2000 --- 11:50 p.m.
London Calling
This is the exact url where you can tune in and listen (in realaudio) to the London Calling festival at the Amsterdam Paradiso this weekend (Friday and Saturday). Check the 'live' section for the playing order and times. All times are, of course, CET.
Wednesday, April 19, 2000 --- 11:51 a.m.
Bergman Rock/Bob Hund
I check this site regularly but sadly there's been nothing more than this 'coming very soon'-sign for months. Bergman Rock, you see, is the 'international project' of Bob Hund, one of Sweden's best kept secrets. The main reason they - it's a band, not a person; the name means Bob The Dog - aren't worldfamous outside Scandinavia is that they sing in Swedish (there is a great page with English translations of their lyrics here). Bob Hund is probably one of the most unique sounding bands in the world, a bit like a mix between Servotron, the Super Furry Animals and Pere Ubu. But in an entirely different ballpark of their own. Anyway, for years now they've been promising to 'go international', but sadly nothing has materialized of this yet. For Bergman Rock they will not simply translate their lyrics into English - like for instance fellow Swedes Kent did - but they will write completely new songs, but with English lyrics. I'm certainly looking forward to whatever they come up with.
Tuesday, April 18, 2000 --- 10:59 p.m.
Elephant 6 Radio
If I wasn't in a situation right now where I was surfing via my telephoneline and thus paying by the minute I would probably be listening to this. I mean, nonstop Beulah and Neutral Milk Hotel and Dressy Bessy and Apples In Stereo and ...
Monday, April 17, 2000 --- 07:09 p.m.
London Calling
It's been a couple of weeks since I saw my last concert, but there's something very interesting that I'll be certainly attending this weekend at the Amsterdam Paradiso. There'll be another edition of the London Calling-festival. About 7 years ago this started as a showcase full of new British bands (the word Britpop wasn't invented yet) but over the years it has become a more international orientated festival. This edition there'll be 1 American band (Buelah), 2 Norwegian (Velvet Belly & Autopulver), 2 German (Chicks On Speed & Tocotronic) and 10 British bands (Echoboy, Ben Christopher, Broadcast, Seafruit, Seafood, JJ72, Bluetones, Terris, Feeder and Doves). The line-up looks pretty impressive but for some reason the festival has a tradition of bands cancelling at the last minute - one of the other bands that was supposed to be playing this time was Brassy but somewhere along the line they vanished from the line-up. Anyway, for those not in the vicinity of Amsterdam the festival will be broadcasted live in realaudio via 3voor12 (the site is in Dutch but click on anything that says LUISTER (=listen) and you will probably be alright) and I will certainly post a review here on Sunday.
Sunday, April 16, 2000 --- 06:05 p.m.
Robbie vs Liam Slugfest
A pretty funny beat'em up to download where you can fight with either Robbie Williams or Liam Gallagher. Check the special moves, which require you to drink a can of lager...
Sunday, April 16, 2000 --- 01:14 p.m.
The Black Vault
A Frank Black page with a special section with mp3's, mostly unreleased live-tracks. But remember when you pirate mp3's...
Friday, April 14, 2000 --- 05:54 p.m.
Doe Maar
Four tracks of the new Doe Maar album downloadable (for free) as mp3's!!! Anyone surfing in from outside The Netherlands probably doesn't know them, but here they are legendary. They were one of the first bands who sang in Dutch AND were cool. In the first half of the 80-ies they scored hit after hit with their rather unique reggae- and ska-influenced popmusic. For some unknown reason they were enormously popular with teenage girls, and caused a hype that puts the popularity of bands like Take That and the Backstreet Boys to shame, the strange thing being that all in the band were 30-something and most of'em had a past in some dodgy neo-hippie folkgroup. Anyway, they split up around 84 but are now back for some reunionconcerts and a new album. They are 'cashing in', we all know it, but we don't care. From the new stuff I've only heard the 2 singles so far and they are okay, nothing spectacular, especially not compared to their earlier stuff. Here at Vitaminic there are a couple of more new tracks to download.
Friday, April 14, 2000 --- 08:07 a.m.
DMX Krew
Haven't had much time to surf pointlessly around the web the last couple of days. But I did read this interview with the guy behind DMX Krew. It's pretty short and not particularly informative but still, the album We Are DMX is a definite recommendation if you liked Les Rythmes Digitales' Darkdancer album. It's full of cheesy, ultra-catchy, very 80-ies sounding electropop.
Wednesday, April 12, 2000 --- 07:13 p.m.
Sean Na Na - The Princess And The Pony (mp3)
Had this song in my head all day. Not that I mind, on the contrary. It's a great song. Don't know much about this Sean Na Na fella, but it's originally from a splitsingle with Mary Lou Lord on Killrockstars. It's also on the reasonably priced sampler Jackson's Jukebox released by the same label and available as mp3. The song itself is a rather straight forward but still very pretty pseudo-acoustic thingy. A bit singer/songwriter-ish but with both guitar as well as some nice warm organ sounds. Not unlike Elliott Smith, but happier. Lovely tune though, that, as said, will stick in your head all day.
Tuesday, April 11, 2000 --- 08:36 a.m.
All Tomorrow's Parties Summary at NME.com
Sunday, April 9, 2000 --- 02:18 p.m.
Idlewild
It'll be a while before I'll be able to afford their new album, 100 Broken Windows. In the meantime I'll just have to do with this BBC webcast from the session they did for Steve Lamacq.
Sunday, April 9, 2000 --- 10:05 a.m.
Mix Tapes
Made a mixtape last night (for the April Indiepoplist Tape Swap) and didn't follow any of Kempa's Art Of The Mixtape rules...
Sunday, April 9, 2000 --- 10:03 a.m.
De La Soul is still alive!!!
Saturday, April 8, 2000 --- 07:01 p.m.
Fierce Panda
I own quite a few releases on the wonderful Fierce Panda label but sadly none of the ones that made their rarities top 10.
Saturday, April 8, 2000 --- 06:50 p.m.
All Tomorrow's Parties
The NME is reporting 'live' from All Tomorrow's Parties.
Saturday, April 8, 2000 --- 03:59 p.m.
People Who Are Made Even Sexier By Their Crooked Teeth
According to MC Paul Barman
Saturday, April 8, 2000 --- 03:59 p.m.
Steven Wells
I'm reading two books at the time at the moment. One is a macro-economics book because I wanted to get a headstart on the course that'll start next week, the other is Tits-Out Teenage Terror Totty by Steven Wells. I usually love his work in the NME, but a whole book full of his a ramblings is probably too much for even his biggest fans. It's just page after page of sexs and drugs and violence and more drugs and violent sex and a little bit of rock'n'roll as well. It's all hilariously written, but very mindnumbing.
Thursday, April 6, 2000 --- 03:32 p.m.
Discount & bis
some gossip from Buddyhead: Florida’s discount is breaking up due to the fact that one of the guitar player’s is dating the girl from bis and is moving to scotland to be in love.
Thursday, April 6, 2000 --- 03:31 p.m.
Instituut voor de Nieuwe Economie
Thursday, April 6, 2000 --- 01:57 p.m.
Grandaddy (and more) @ Dotmusic
At Dotmusic they've got a Digital Download Thingy from V2 Records with some interesting stuff. A track off the new Grandaddy album for instance. Sadly all the songs (there's also stuff by the Stereophonics and Regular Fries and more) are Windows Media Player. Maybe I should install such a player on my computer one of these days.
Thursday, April 6, 2000 --- 01:55 p.m.
Everett True In New Zealand
Bugger. Precisely on the day that I have to sit behind the computer all day to finish a Psychology assignment I discover that Everett True has been writing a series of columns during his trip to the New Zealand and Australia. I haven't got time at all to read it today. Maybe over the weekend. Looks very interesting though.
Thursday, April 6, 2000 --- 10:37 a.m.
Badly Drawn Boy
Some news about Badly Drawn Boy (one of the most interesting 'singer/songwriters' of the moment): there'll be a new single called Another Pearl out on Monday 5th of June. His debut album The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast will be released three weeks later, ie the 26th of June. The nice people of Twisted Nerve promise a personal message from Damon Badly Drawn Boy about the album and a tracklisting will appear on their site very soon. I'm especially curious which of his previous singles will be on the album. Most of them were released in limited numbers and are currently much sought after.
Wednesday, April 5, 2000 --- 06:20 p.m.
Echoboy
I decided not to go see Echoboy tonight. Because a) it's in Rotterdam, which is an hour-and-a-half by train b) I've got no money and c) I could use the time for a paper I'm working on but mostly because d) according to his (Echoboy = Richard Warren) webpage he'll also play at the London Calling festival at the Paradiso here in Amsterdam later this month. I really like what I know so far by Echoboy; a nice krautrock and electronica and dub and indie and postrock and Velvet Underground and new wave etc crossover. Very interesting.
Wednesday, April 5, 2000 --- 11:10 a.m.
emode
Do tests like What Breed Of Dog Am I?, Are You Loony?, the Celebrity Matchmaker for Men and many, many more online at emode.com. Turns out I am a great Dane and should date Shania Twain. Hmmm
Wednesday, April 5, 2000 --- 08:42 a.m.
Seafood @ Pop Is Love
One of my favourite (relatively) new bands is Seafood at the moment. They're currently bringing their Sonic Youth-gone-punk indierock to the British masses and you can read all about what they get up to before, during and after their gigs in their tourdiary at the, for the rest also excellent e-zine, Pop Is Love.
Tuesday, April 4, 2000 --- 11:58 p.m.
North Of America
I really like North Of America's mp3-only ep I downloaded a while ago at Matlock Records, so I guess these two tracks will be okay as well (although I haven't had the time yet do download them). 'Old-fashioned' American indie-rock with a hint of Trumans Water-ish madness.
Tuesday, April 4, 2000 --- 11:56 p.m.
Brottet som nyhet (Crime as news)
Interesting article in today's Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish newspaper. In it a criminologist (sp?) of the Stockholm university argues that the whole 'popularity' of Being Tough On Crime and Zero-Tolerance and such in the media and with politicians is just an excuse, or even a cover-up, to give the public a false sense of security. Apparently crime hasn't particularly risen in the last decennia, but the globalization-process has made people feel very insecure, but instead of attacking the real social issues politicians (and the media) blame it on the poor, the underpriviliged and, here in Europe very much an issue, immigrants.
Tuesday, April 4, 2000 --- 04:02 p.m.
nme
it looks like they've revamped the mainpage of nme.com. I am not sure if I like it. It took me a while to find the single-reviews. That 'Prodigy split' headline is a bit of a exaggeration by the way. It's just Leeroy, the dancer, that has left the band, the other three will still be the Prodigy and are currently recording their next album.
Tuesday, April 4, 2000 --- 03:58 p.m.
Vibraphone
make y'r own wierd, Aphex Twin-ish, experimental ambient with this
Monday, April 3, 2000 --- 10:59 p.m.
Man II Boyz
This looks interesting. Like MTV's The Real World meets The Backstreet Boys, or something. I wonder if there'll be a Dutch tv-station that will pick this show up. It's one of those reality soaps but this time it's about a brand new, recently manufactured boy band that lives together on one house. (Thanks to New York London Paris Munich)
Monday, April 3, 2000 --- 10:52 p.m.
Embrace
The last couple of days I've been mostly listening to Embraces new album, Drawn From Memory, can't believe how good it is. There's no bad track on it. Compared to their first, The Good Will Out, it's more varied. There are still loads of beautiful, lighters-in-the-air, stadium-size ballads, but there's more; a couple of more groovy, Beck/Gomez-like tracks, such as first single Hooligan and Save Me. But what impresses me most is that no matter what Embrace do, their songs all seem so natural, so easy. Singer Danny's voice is still rather unremarkable, maybe even weak, and its mostly the melodies themselves that just ooze with confidence and make this album so great. It's the opposite of what's the case with Oasis, where they've got like the ultimate rock'n'roll singer but, at least on their last two albums, forgettable songs. At the moment I definitely prefer Embrace. I've got one problem though. This saturday they'll play here in Amsterdam, but I am absolutely broke and I can't afford to go, certainly not if I want to buy the new Chicks On Speed and Elastica albums and that Tullycraft singles compilation as well. I haven't been able to find out yet who will open for them and if that's very interesting maybe I'll try and scrape some money from somewhere someway.
Sunday, April 2, 2000 --- 10:11 p.m.
It's The End Of TV As We Know It
I just watched the second part of a documentary on tv called It's The End Of TV As We Know it. It's all about how the internet changes the way we watch tv. Lots of Talking Heads (as in people being interviewed) and not much of a central conclusion or 'point', but many interesting things were said. They interviewed people from Disney, About.com and the Hollywood Stock Exchange and even Hal Varian, who I remember from the courseliterature when I did micro-economics. The website is in Dutch, but you can also see fragments of the interviews and they're all in English.
Sunday, April 2, 2000 --- 04:15 p.m.
Kindamuzik
There's a new edition of my webradio-show online. Every month or so I record a programme with about 30 minutes of new alternative and indiemusic for a webzine called The Kinda Muzik You Like. I apologise in advance for my crap Dutch accent when I speak English
Sunday, April 2, 2000 --- 04:00 p.m.
Daniel Johnston Museum Of Love
Found this great Daniel Johnston page, where you can buy some of his paintings but also read a biography about this unique singer/songwriter and even download an mp3 of a song called Grievances, apparently it was one of the first songs he ever wrote
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