Media & Reviews

I wanted to complain about farmers spoiling milk or our "Grand" Duke receiving a prize by the vatican for being a good christian and protecting religious freedom (anybody say contradiction?) but then I found it's much more fun to talk about which music I recently bought. Usually buying music comes in waves, and although iTunes may suck at times, it sometimes helps you find great music as well. Anyways, the albums I bought recently are:

• Cass McCombs - Dropping the Writ - Nice album, just discovered this artist. Has a great beat, is melodical and shows many different faces
  
• Denison Witmer - Of Joy & Sorrow - definitely on the more quiet side. Not bad if you're in the mood
  
• Muse - The Resistance - Regardless of what anybody else says, I like it. Well at least the couple of good songs it has.
  
• Nick Castro - Further from Grace - Great style, more folky
  
• Noah and the Whale - Peaceful, the World lays me down - Also has a nice rhythm
  
• Physics of Meaning - Snake Charmer and Destiny of the Stroke of Midnight - Goes in the Andrew Bird spectrum, whatever that means, but great album.
  
• Proud Simon - Night of Criminals  - Death Cab for Cutie-like
  
• Roddy Woomble - My Secret is my Silence - Also folky at times, and a tad quiet, but overall also quite nice
  

One of my favorite music artists, especially live, is indie rocker John Vanderslice. I covered previous albums and concerts on this blog, now there's a new album out, called Romanian Names. You can tune into it at his site, and when you pre-order the album, you'll get an immediate free download of the complete album as well, which I find quite welcoming. So far the album seems quite good, less noisy and a bit calmer; maybe better than Emerald City but not as good as my all-time favorite Pixel Revolt. Also saw that he's doing the European Tour next fall, let's see if he keeps his promise of visiting Luxembourg this time. (I had a short chat with him during the amazing concert he gave in Heidelberg)

The Decemberists, one of my favorite bands just released their latest album, The Hazards of Love. And it is gorgeously magnificent! I can't figure out how one single band can produce such an immaculate record of fantastic albums, each one feeling a bit more mature and refined. I hope this release also means that they're considering a European tour at some point, something I've been waiting for ages. Go to iTunes and sample it already!

Here are the dates, I haven't decided on one yet, but I can guarantee you that I won't miss this one!
Apr 24      Bourges, Fr      Theatre Jacques Coeur
Apr 25     Rennes, FR     Ubu
Apr 27     Paris, FR     La Cigale
Apr 28     Nancy, FR     L'Autre Canal
Apr 29     Nantes, FR     Olympic
Apr 30     Lyon, FR     Epicerie Moderne
May 01     Cologne, DE     Luxor
May 03     Stockholm, SE     Strand
May 04     Copenhagen, DK     Lille Vega
May 05     Hamburg, DE     Uebel & Gefahrlich
May 06     Berlin, DE     Admiralsplast 101
May 07     Amsterdam, NL     Paradiso
May 09     Brussels, BE     Les Nuit de Botanique Cirque Royal
May 10     Bristol, GB     Thekla
May 11     London, GB     Shepherds Bush Empire
May 13     Manchester, GB     Academy 2
May 14     Glasgow, GB     Oran Mor

I'm usually not a huge fan of these blog memes but this one sounds like fun. Basically the question in the Luxembourgish blog scene arose whether or not mix tapes are still the way to go. So I just got the request from Joel to add the 4th track, and it wasn't an easy decision. Should I go with something weird, something classic, something alternative... I desperately wante to add some John Vanderslice, Andrew Bird, Decemberists or Sufjan Stevens, however, I went for something completely different. So here comes, Moondog with Bumbo from the Rare Materials CD (incidentally also the 4th track). Some Luxembourgish stuff following to keep the meme integer. Here's the link to the meme btw.

Lidd Nummer Eent

kennt vum Thorben

heescht Je temmène au vent vu Louise Attaque

bedeit him laang Owenter bis moies em véier am Flying mat sou villen Leit an esou villen gudden Momenter.

an passt heibai

Lidd Nummer Zwee

kennt vum Chris

heescht Skinny Love vum Bon Iver

bedeit him e wonnerbaren Album, deen en am Dezember 2008 entdeckt huet a bis well rop a rof läuschtert.

an passt heibai

Lidd Nummer Dräi

kennt vum Joël

heescht There Are Some Remedies Worse Than The Disease vun This Will Destroy You

bedeit him een Lidd, waat wéi gemaach ass fir dobai ze schreiwen, am Reen mam Auto ze fueren an dobai ze fëmmen, fir dGedanken op dRees iwert groniweleg Länner ze maachen, iwert denen en Zeppelin schwiewt.

an passt heibai

Lidd Nummer Véier

kennt vum Charel

heescht Bumbo vum Moondog

bedeit him een Lidd, waat ee fesselt an dobäi an eng parallel Welt eranzit, déi wäit eweg an dach nobäi ass. Eppes lieweges fléisst duerch seng musikalesch Oderen, de systolesche Rythmus erënnert mech un draam-ähnlech Sequenzen, déi ech nëmmen aus Lynch Filmer an Luciden Dreem hier kennen.

an passt heibäi:

Komm mir probéiren mol de Bengel weiderzeschéissen un de Staater

baton4.mp3

During my breakfast, I like listening to classical or jazz music. I always tune in on a German radio station that features a good selection of music (right before they turn to the "Wort zum Tag" by some church dude) and it sort of gets me in the right mood. A couple of months ago, I heard a fantastic Jazz song but forgot to look the artist up soon afterward. Then, this Monday they featured another song by the same guy and I immediately grabbed my Moleskine and marked down "Look up Moondog"... which I did, and I came across an very interesting wiki article and album selection on iTunes. Moondog or Louis Thomas Hardin was a blind jazz musician / philosopher / instrument inventor / hobo spending most of his days in the streets of Manhattan wearing his homemade Thor (the god, not the protein, sorry to disappoint you) costume. I can highly recommend him to any avant-garde jazz percussion fan!

I recently purchased two albums, namely Chinese Democracy by Guns 'N Roses and 4:13 Dream by The Cure. And I don't care what critics say, I like both of them. Sure they're not the same than they used to be, but at least they don't embarrass themselves (yet). What do you think?

If you've ever been to Tokyo, chances are you took the Yamanote line, which, complementary to the Tokyo Metro lines circles the "center" of the city in a big circle. Anybody using this line will probably remember the fact that each station has its own eerie tune when the train enters, which is not only due to the usual Japanese queerness, but also serves the purpose of guiding blind passengers (apparently).
Since I started taking Japanese lessons a week ago, I've been surfing around and came across this site that features all the melodies from the different stations (and also from every other line). I'm not really sure why I'm posting this though... probably nostalgia...

Japan, Yamanote, Train, Tunes, MP3

The Rock um Knuedler, one of Luxembourg cities most important rock concert series of the year was yesterday a couple of meter next to where I live. However, since I'm not a big connoisseur of the Luxembourgish music scene (also I had better things to do), I passed most of its line-up to see Alan Parsons and his band. What I found most remarkable was the fact that around half the people waiting there for him were around 30 something and seemed to think of it as the music of their youth. Needless to say that the vast majority of them disappeared once Alan Parsons got his synthesizers and keyboards fired up. The concert was good, it's always a pain to get Luxembourgish spectators somewhat involved but I think they did a decent job. They featured some of their classics and some new stuff, although I must admit that I don't know too many titles by name. Most of my knowledge about the Alan Parsons project actually comes from my fathers scratchy LPs. Good concert nevertheless!
Technorati Tags: music, rock, alan parsons, rock um knuedler, lëtzebuerg

Ever since I listened to my first Bjørk disk, I became enchanted by Icelandic music. There is just something that encapsulates you and touches you deep inside. Well anyhow, after numerous endorsements by my fellow blogbuerg bloggers, I finally decided to give Sigur Rós a try. Usually, when I try to discover a new artist, I first have to focus on one album to develop a relationship to its music and sounds. I tried with (), then Von, but somehow, it didn't suck me in. It was good all right, but not exceptional. At least it didn't keep me going. Now that their new album "með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust" (with a buzz in our ears we play endlessly) is out and much twittered about, I thought I'd give it another fair try. Well wow! I definitely converted! Mea culpa! What a great work, the best album I listened to in months! Thanks Thierry, Joel and Georges.

I've seen a couple of tweets excited about the alledged iPhone 3G release in Luxembourg. Now I don't really know what I should think about this.Not that the phone doesn't look all glorious shiny, and offers a lot of interesting tools and features in an Apple design, but I'm no really sure if I need something like that. I know it could potentially be interesting to have all those beloved gadgets (GPS, phone, organizer, camera, MP3 player et al) in one gloomy box... But somehow I'm not overly happy with Apple's financial policy on this phone. But, after all, isn't it things that make our lives better? Especially those you don't reallly need?

Finally, after the semi-cancellation of last year's tour, the Decemberists are coming to Europe again. And this time, I won't miss them!

 

• 07.03.08 Kristiansand, Norway @ Quart Festival
  
• 7.05.08 Arvika, Sweden @ Arvikafestivalen
• 07.07.08 Paris, France @ Alhambra
• 07.08.08 Antwerp, Belgium @ Riverenhof (Open Air)
• 07.09.08 Cologne, Germany @ Live Music Hall
• 07.10.08 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg
• 7.11.08 Berlin, Germany @ Kesselhaus
• 07.12.08 Hamburg, Germany @ Grosse Freiheit 36
• 07.15.08 Birmingham, UK @ Birmingham Academy
• 07.16.08 Manchester, UK @ Manchester Apollo
• 07.17.08 London, UK @ Brixton Academy
• 07.18.08 Suffolk, UK @ Latitude Festival
• 07.20.08 Benicassim, Spain @ Benicassim Festival

A couple of days ago, I saw somewhere on the web a sales comparison between the iTunes store and Amazon (and others) MP3 downloads. The most important difference being that the MP3s you buy at iTunes are copy-right protected, or DRMs while some of the other shops began introducing DRM free music downloads. Meaning that the music you legally purchase from iTunes can only be burnt a couple of times and cannot be played on a number of MP3 players (except, you guessed right, iPods of course) and you have to go through the idiotic and illegal method of burning and ripping the music that you in fact own before you really own it. Sales from iTunes were up through the roof while nobody cared about the DRM free ones. Don't get me wrong, I love iTunes. I'm not a big Apple fan (neither any other platform), I don't have an iPod (how dare I?), nevertheless, I somehow "got used" to buying my music through iTunes. Of course the DRM issue upsets me, but either I'm too lazy to move to another shop, or somehow deep inside of me I simply got hooked to iTunes and am reluctant to switch. Another issue is the bit-rate. I don't pretend to be that much of a music critic that I could actually hear the difference in the formats and bitrates that easily through my laptop speakers or, alas, my Sennheiser ear plugs. But I'm thinking of integrating my music into my upcoming home theater system, so I thought about which formats to choose to rip my audio CD collection to. And I don't like the fact that when you purchase a song on iTunes, that you won't get the possibility of choosing between let's say normal, good and lossless quality. Probably they will have to change this someday in the future, bandwidth and harddrive space not being much of an issue anymore. But then again, if we keep demanding DRM free music and settle for iTunes, it won't happen that soon. The music industry keeps complaining about illegal downloads. Times have changed, they will have to adept! As so we! We can't continue to demand more freedom and rights if we're too reluctant to use them.

I started this a little more than a year ago, and thought I'd give it a new try to see how much would change (also I watched High Fidelity). So the idea is if you had the opportunity to do one last CD (80min), what would you put on it. I hope this time I find somebody willing to participate, I'm highly interested what other people consider as their vital 80 minutes... I highlites the newcomers to the list. So here it is, version 2.0 (maybe I'll repeat this procedure in a year or yo to see how my taste changes over time...). Ordered Artist - Album - Length

1. Echo and the Bunnymen - Songs to learn and sing - The Killing Moon - 5:50
   
2. Oasis - (What's the story) Morning Glory - Wonderwall - 4:18
3. Sting - Demolition Man - Shape of my heart - 4:43
4. Nirvana - Nevermind - Smells like Teen Spirit - 5:01
5. The Curch - Starfish - Under the Milky Way - 4:58
6. Ego-Wrappin' - Michishio no Romance - Katsute... - 5:55
7. Coldplay - Parachutes - Don't Panic - 2:17
8. Queen - A Night At The Opera - Bohemian Rhapsody - 5:56
9. Louise Attaque - Louise Attaque - Je t'emmène au vent - 3:03
10. Dire Straits - Money for Nothing - Money For Nothing - 4:09
11. Madrugada - Industrial Silence - Strange Colour Blue - 5:05
12. Elliott Smith - Elliott Smith - Needle in the Hay - 4:17
13. Andrew Bird - Soldier On - Sic of Elephants - 4:46
14. The Decemberists - Castaways And Cutouts - Leslie Anne Levine - 4:13
15. Jeremy Enigk - World Waits - A New Beginning - 1:27
16. John Vanderslice - Pixel Revolt - Exodus Damage - 5:01
17. Katie Melua - Pictures - If You Were A Sailboat - 4:03
18. Peter and the Wolf - Storyteller - Tommy - 2:24
19. Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight - Under The Blacklight - 3:33