¡Despierta!…… Wake Up!

Anyone wanna duet?
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Quand Mùm rime avec le soleil de septembre à Paris.
Après un très beau concert à la Maroquinerie,
plein de jolies mélodies d’amour qui effacent les gros bobos,
la blogothèque nous offre un adorable concert à emporter, dans un bus et aux buttes chaumont.

Cet été j’ai eu la chance d’aller au festival des musiques émergentes d’Abitibi Témiscamingue (FMEAT). Invité à titre de blogueur j’ai eu la chance de voir beaucoup, beaucoup de concerts et de vivre cet évènement à plein, comme dit Marie-Pierre Arthur.

C’est donc avec plaisir et nostalgie que j’ai regardé les quelques images mises en ligne par l’équipe de la blogothèque.

Jetez-y un coup d’oeil, ça vaut le coup.

Mother Mother, Alfa Rococo, Camaromance et Random Recipe.

Thus Owls, Mother Mother, le Roi Poisson, Clues, Berithan Berrio et Malajube

La suite est ici

This song tames this bloody post full moon halloween, thank you ricardo.

Piers, Camille and Dominique covering Nick Drake’s “One Of These Things First”

La blogotèque et ses concerts à emporter ne sont plus à présenter.

Voilà qu’ils offrent sur leur site un concert pour emporter avec le goupe Karkwa.

Le premier vidéo comprend une chanson encore jamais parue sur un album du groupe.

Marie tu pleures pour rien

Cliquez sur poursuivre pour voir les 2 autres.

La marche

La façade et échapper au sort

J’avoue moi quand il est question de Karkwa, je suis peu objectif, régalez-vous..

Îmi place deosebit de tare de oamenii de la Blogotheque şi ce reuşesc ei să facă.

În seara asta mi s-o pust pata pe For Emma, a lui Bon Iver, şi aşa am dat iar peste o chestie extraordinară care o filmat-o băieţii. Nu fac decât să mă repet, ştiu, dar trebuie să o spun iar că Bon Iver e/sunt unu din cele mai bune exemple ale faptului că poate să fie deloc complicat şi deosebit de frumos în acelaşi timp.

Daha önce Lykke Li ve El Perro Del Mar’ın San Francisco sokaklarındaki performansını müzik defterine koymuştum. Ama blogotheque ekibini çok da araştırmamıştım. Ama bugün sitelerinde girdiğimde ve birkaç röportajlarını okuduğumda aslında ne kadar mükemmel bir proje olduğunu fark ettim..

Paris’te yaşayan bu guerilla ekip, müzik ve filmi sokaklarda, değişik mekanlarda bir araya getiriyorlar. Take Away Shows adı altında çektikleri bu canlı performansların özelliği farklı mekanlarda, spontane olmaları. Seçtikleri isimler de, çektikleri mekanlar da çok etkileyici! Bir asansörün içinde Arcade Fire, bir gitar dükkanının içinde Eric Truffaz, Teksas sokaklarında bir kamyonetin arkasında Jose Gonzales, nehrin ortasında bir teknede French Cowboys, kocaman bir mutfakta Efterklang, hareket halindeki bir minibüsün içinde Vampire Weekend, tuvalette Grizzly Bear veya süpermarkette Bowerbirds performansı izlemeyi kim istemez?

Fikir ortaya şöyle çıkmış.. Proje sahipleri Moon ve Chryde, Arcade Fire’ın Paris’teki konserinde sahneden inip herkesle birlikte sokağa çıkmasından ve performansını sokakta sergilemesinden çok etkilenmişler. “Aslında hepimizin müzikten istediği bu” diye düşünüp, Blogotheque’i, 2006 yılında kurmuşlar. 

“La blogotheque presente un concert a emporter” ibaresiyle açılıyor tüm video’lar. Ve her videonun çekim hikayesini okuyabiliyorsunuz site üzerinden..

Take away show’ların birkaçından bahsedeyim…

Yo La Tengo - Sokaklarda çocuklar eşliğinde With a girl like You, tek kelimeyle muhteşem bir performans (ekip de onları best of the best olarak ifade ediyor)

Eric Truffaz - Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner’ parçasının performansını bir gitar dükkanının içinde gerçekleştiriyor.

My Brightest Diamond - büyüleyici bir performans; ormanda ağaçların arasında yalnızda ksilofon eşliğinde bir Disappear performansı veya New York’ta suyun ortasında L’Hymne A L’Amour seslendirişi izlemeye değer.

Sebastian Tellier - Şahane! Belfort’ta gece nehirde bir iskelede, ateşlerin arasında eğlenceli bir performans.

Animal Collective - Alışveriş arabaları ve kukalarla Animal Collective’e yakışır bir performans.

Patrick Watson - Ekibiyle birlikte cadde üzerinde bir camekanın içinde veya metroda veya gece sokaklarda etkileyici performanslarını sergiliyor.

Architecture in Helsinki - gümbür gümbür bir şov. Heart it Races’ı apartman pencerelerinden sokağa bağırarak seslendiriyorlar. Sadece biraz daha iyi çekilebilirdi sanki..

Fleet Foxes - Armonilerini en güzel yankıyı veren Grand Palais’de sergiliyorlar.

Jose Gonzales - Teksas sokaklarında, hareket halindeki bir kamyonetin arkasında Hints’i seslendiriyor

Sigur Ros - La Closerie des Lilas’nın içinde Vid Spilum Endalaust performansı çok keyifli.

French Cowboys - ‘A Sall Away Show’ bu kez.. Nehrin ortasında bir teknede çok keyifli bir performans.

Vampire Weekend - Otoparkta Kids Don’t Stand A Chance performansı veya hareket halindeki bir minibüsün içinde Mansard Roof seslendirişler çok keyifli.

Beirut - Paris sokaklarında kalabalık orkestrasıyla kur dolu performansı çok güzel.

Arcade Fire - Bir asansörün içinde Neon Bible seslendiriyor. Mutlaka izlenmeli.

Efterklang - Grafitilerle dolu duvarların arasında, merdivenlerde Mirador performansı veya Bottom of the Hill mutfağında Echo Wave performansı çok güzel.

Lykke Li ve El Perro Del Mar - San Francisco sokaklarında After Laughter, Dance Dance Dance ve Somebodys Baby düetlerini yapıyorlar.

Grizzly Bear – Küçücük bir tuvalette Shift’i seslendiriyor veya Paris sokaklarında yürüyen bir a capella korosu olarak The Knife’ı söylüyorlar.

Tom Jones – Otel odasında We Got Love, If We Should Ever Leave You, Green Green Grass of Home parçalarını seslendiriyor.

Bloc Party – Bar kapısının önünde This Modern Love’ın akustik performansını sergiliyor.

Stephen Malkmus - Kapanmış bir barın içinde, ters çevrilmiş sandalyelerin arasında We Can’t Help You seslendiriyor.

St Vincent – Çatı katı bir odada yatağın içerisinde Marry Me parçasını seslendiriyor.

Xiu Xiu – şişeler, kutular ve bilimum aparatlarla değişik bir Improvisation performansı gerçekleştiriyor.

Bu yazdıkların sanırım sitede bulunan performansların sadece 4′te biri.. Diğerlerini bizzat vatanında görmek üzere buraya tıklayın..

Favori videolarımı eklemek istiyorum ama liste çok uzar. O yüzden sadece birkaçını aşağıda ekliyorum, izlemenizi şiddetle öneriyorum. Yakında dvd de basarlar herhalde.. Basarlarsa her müzik severin koleksiyonuna gireceğinden eminim! Peki ben Blogotheque olsam kimi nerede çekmek isterdim acaba? Bunu bir düşüneyim…….. 

Son de Liverpool y son un producto directo del Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, fundado por Paul McCartney. Esto forma parte de la estupenda página web La Blogothéque.

Would have given next to anything to be at this show.

There are a few more videos of the show at La Blogotheque’s Vimeo. I’d check them out if you knew what was good for you. Actually, if I were you, instead of getting a swine flu vaccine or downing echinacea/Vit-C cocktails, I’d just spend hours browsing through the Blogotheque videos. They are the cure for AIDS, cancer, and the common cold.

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Would have given next to anything to have written this story by Giancarlo DiTrapano over at Everyday Genius.

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Would have given next to anything to have been the designer who got paid 400,000 pounds sterling to eat a box of Capt. Crunch with Crunchberries and throw up on his Illustrator for the London 2012 Olympics.

This is a beautiful performance by Andrew Bird and St Vincent as captured by La Blogotheque, a French run blog about music. This site has many wonderful articles and videos about various known and unknown artists. Even though most of the site is in French, the content is gold. Definitely worth checking out: www.blogotheque.net

I don’t really have many French artists in my music mix. French sounding artists maybe and probably some who can speak French because of my vast amount of Canadian darlings.
Anyway, I really should start listening to more French music because Kid Bombardos make me want more.
The peculiar thing about this music is, that it sounds so much like Britpop and quite some Strokes-influences plus the mundane sound of French cinema in the 50s/60s.
Kid Bombardos was the great grandfather of Thomas, Vincent and Simon Martinelli and he was a boxer. One of ye olden boxers and maybe that’s why they have kept a certain nostalgia to their sound. They let their friend David Loridan (now, THAT is a great name) join in to make the perfect four-piece band.
Plus, any English lyrics sung with this charming French accent are bound to make you long for a dark cafe, a good book, red wine and a knowing look on your face in the midst of blossoming French culture.
It might not be the most innovative music in the world, but I tell you, this French flair is doing something very good with this Britpop and that alone should let this kids get on our dancefloors, please.

I’m gonna try

By the way, this video is one of the many exceptional music videos you get to see not only on youtube but on THIS site, which is called La blogotheque and which has the best bands doing great performances, beautifully shot. If you love Beirut’s “Nantes” you will probably die out of sheer amazement when you see the blogotheque-version.
Ah well, I just handed in my papers today and am in a good mood, here you go:

(it’s so perfect, I am in love with spiral stairs since the first time I saw it)

It does not keep the country free.

EN ESTA ENTREVISTA fuera de lo común (le preguntan que animal sería) Zach menciona algunas de sus canciones preferidas. Estas son.

Jorge Ben Jor – Take It Easy My Brother Charles

La entrevista de hoy se titula y cuenta el por qué del nombre BEIRUT:

Zach Condon: Beirut’s musical chameleon (July 2009)

Q:You play a number of instruments. What sort of formal training did you have?

A:Only on trumpet. I picked up that in elementary school. That’s the only instrument. My grandmother died and I was given her accordion. So instruments started to collect in the house and I started to figure them out. Even the voice. It sounds ridiculous, but I literally just figured it out one day.

Q:It is a very distinct sounding voice, and perhaps the only constant on all your albums.

A:Yeah. I would say it probably is the most import part at this time. It’s the most personal. Music can be sort of twisted in that it is sort of pulling emotions out of people. But the voice can do it the most because it is what everyone can relate to and that’s where the most emotion in music comes out of, just these subtle little vocal twists on melody and that’s the thing you become fascinated with and can’t explain why. That’s why I consider it the most important instrument.

Q: Before Beirut, you called yourself Realpeople?

A:Yeah, that’s where Realpeople name came from. It was just bedroom recordings. I had a bunch of names. Beirut itself comes from a whole list of city names I was using. I was quite serious when I said I was recording a song a night. It was like couldn’t go to sleep unless I had a new hook to listen to before I went to sleep and be proud of having accomplished something. So, I was writing so many songs that it got to the point where naming them would be ridiculous and I was literally pointing at a map and saying, “This week my name is Bilbao, and the next album is going to be called Hamburg,and the first song is going to be called Venice,”

Q:And why was it city names?

A: I think this was sort of the childhood fantasy of being a world traveler. I grew up in a small town in New Mexico and ever kid looks up to these sort of Tintin or Indiana Jones characters hopping around the world. So it was more of me sort of trying to invent the persona for myself via city names I’ve never been to.

Q: So, when you were 17, you finally had a chance to stretch your legs and you went to Paris. What happened there?

A: Not a whole lot. It wasn’t a huge epiphany or anything like that. I mean, mostly it was just a drunken trip to Paris. But there were a few things that stuck in my mind and that was a lot of the instruments I found myself around and the sounds I heard there.

Mina Mazzini – Se Telefonando

AQUÍ LA VERSION DE ZACH DE LA CANCIÓN.

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La Route du rock, c’était bien. Surtout lorsqu’on tournait les pieds dans l’eau.

Photo Ronan Tronchot – Vidéo La Blogothèque

 So many things go through my mind when I’m at a concert.

But it’s been awhile since I’ve wondered about this.

So I’ll throw the question out there again.

What classifies or defines a musical performance event as a concert?  Sure, that wiki link gives me some answers.

 But still I wonder what makes a “concert” a concert?

Is it where it takes place?

How many people are there?

How many people aren’t there?

Where the audience is?

Who the audience is?

How big the audience is?

What the audience is doing during the show?

The ticket cost?

What type of instruments and how the band is playing them?

Like I said, I’ve wondered all these things many times before. And what made these questions start to flow again was another late night viewing of Current TV as they featured Blogotheque’s Take Away Shows–which is an ongoing series where bands put on concerts in unlikely locations such as in a bathroom, a van, a gymnasium, etc. The one that I saw recently was with Fleet Foxes as they sung a capella and unplugged in a gymnasium. I also scoped out Ra Ra Riot’s show, too while I was at it.

Translated from French to English via Google’ language translator here’s how Le Blogoteque describes their Take Away Show mission:

“Each week, a film session with an artist or a group invited to play in the city, a bar, the street, a park, an apartment, with the passage of incidents, hesitations, those moments of madness. Without mounting cosmetics, with its gross capture a moment, film music as it came, without preparation, without tricks.”

Everything that I questioned at the beginning of this post about  the true definition of or what makes a concert a “concert”, is everything that a Take Away Show isn’t. 

And since improvisation  and intimacy were both key stage setters for both the Fleet Foxes and Ra Ra Riot’s Take Away Shows.  I paused for a moment and marveled at the fact that there wasn’t a crowd to influence the performance (the only audience was sitting at home, like me, on a couch, soaking up the dreamy harmoics and rhythms of Fleet Foxes and Ra Ra Riot.)  

That said, I definitely wouldn’t clasifiy Take Away Shows as ”concerts.” But calling them  ”shows”  is spot on. Because both ”shows” showed (or revealed) a new dimension of the bands that I didn’t see before. These bands put on two very different live performances as I reviewed them both before. But one thing that escaped both shows live was so much more present and paramount in these Take Away shows. Meaning, the level of comfort the bands felt appeared to be much higher, which increased the  level intimacy I felt from their performance coming through the TV screen.

Was this because there wasn’t an audience of thousands staring at them to intimidate the band?

Did these shows allow the band to feel more like they were peforming in a relaxed studio environment or at home in their bedroom?

Either way, what struck me the most, was how they still both managed to retain the feel and the emotional elements of a live show even though they didn’t have most of the basic elements and surroundings of a live concert.  

Have you seen the Take Away Shows?   

Did they make you rethink was a concert really is and how a concert can really make you feel?

What do you take away from the  Take Away Shows?

Do you feel the same way?

I'm From Barcelona

I know I was duped by Elliot Brood, but I wasn’t fooled by I’m From Barcelona. They don’t look Spanish, they don’t sound Spanish, they don’t dress Spanish…heck, they’re not Spanish.  What they are though is an eclectic 30 member band from Sweden.  Check out the video link below, I’m not joking…30 band members!

It all started back in 2005 with frontman Emanuel Lundgren writing a few songs and inviting 29 of his closest friends into the recording studio with him.  Soon after they performed a few live shows with all the members and caught the attention of record companies and Swedish bloggers.  Personally they were brought to me on Christmas morning a couple of years back in a mixtape that Jesus my sister made for me.  Although her cd was full of really great music, this one song in particular stood out.  We’re From Barcelona was the bands first (sort of) hit song and since then they have released their second full length album.  For those of you who liked the Blogotheque version of the Fleet Foxes song, I have included a really cool Take Away Show which features Emanual Lundgren in a Parisian bar singing one of my favorite songs by I’m From Barcelona.

As usual, here is their website and a free mp3 from their album Let me Introduce My Friends is below.  If you want to check out a cool (and sort of cheesy video for the band, click here).  I hope you really enjoy.

Free mp3:  I’m From Barcelona – We’re From Barcelona

production La Blogothèque, Stances réalisation Benoit Toulemonde, Chryde son Etienne Pozzo assisté de Gilles Barbier image Benoit Toulemonde, Benjamin Rohel, Vincent Moon, Thomas Jacquet, Guillaume le Grontec montage Nathanaël Le Scouarnec étalonnage David Bouhsira

Architecture in Helsinki

Band names are funny things.  Usually they can be separated into two categories: those that were chosen due to a special meaning and those that were chosen because, well, they just sound cool.  The moniker of this six-piece band from Melbourne, Australia fits firmly under the latter category despite the hope that they’ll be able to give a mini-lecture on the artistic merits of Finnish buildings. Not many people I know share the same love for Architecture in Helsinki that I do.  They are fun, awesome, radical and make me want to dance.  No one has had the same effect on me since Lionel Richie or Sharon, Lois and Bram.

All you have to do is listen to their third album Places Like This and you will understand what I am talking about;  lots of upbeat tempos, enthusiastic screaming, frantic climaxes…this band is all about creating the perfect indie rock/pop rush.  There are congas, synths, saxophones, and, hell, whatever else you could imagine thrown into every song and when it works, like Architecture in Helsinki seem to have mastered, it’s probably the best ever.  To get your dance on, check out their website and then download the free mp3 below and then watch the video below that…but only in that specific order.

Free mp3:  Architecture in Helsinki – Do the Whirlwind

With Grizzly Bear confirming a September 30th return last week, just thought it would be appropriate to share with everyone one of my favorite videos.  Via Blogotheque 2006.  “The Knife” by Grizzly Bear…enjoy!

Postcards from Italy.

(En la librería de la Alianza Francesa de Miraflores)

Elephant Gun.

(En la escalera, esa muchacha no quería moverse y se lo dije.)

Filmaciones del concierto en la Alianza Francesa: un. deux. trois. quatre.

D.