As for the question that prompts such an answer? “Is the internet stifling new music?”

Via BBC no less.

The article is written by once-rock star John Taylor, former bass player for Duran Duran and Power Station. The man has been pelted by his share of female undergarments while performing live, and it shows:

When artists today are asked to Twitter their every thought, their every action, to record on video their every breath, their every performance, I believe they’re diluting their creative powers, their creative potency and the durability of their work.

And in the long run I believe they’re also diluting the magical power and the magnetic attraction that they can or will ever have over their audience.

Right. So the inaccessible rock god has given way to the singer-songwriter who shares a campfire with us all. That has long been established. But why exactly is the internet stifling new music today?  What makes the situation now any more dire than it was ten years ago?

My stepson is at New York University (NYU) and he was telling me how he’s currently into Cole Porter, music from the 1920s and swing music from the 40s. So the availability and accessibility of music on the internet today is truly incredible, and I applaud anything that can inspire interest or curiosity in anyone.

But this also means that those of us who before would have been looking towards the current culture for inspiration are now often to be found, like my stepson, in various backwaters of older music.

This relative lack of need for current, innovative culture can cause, has caused, is causing – maybe – the innovative culture to slow down, much as an assembly line in Detroit slows down and lay-offs have to be made when the demand for a new model recedes.

Gotcha.

It’s great to have a theory. It’s even better to have a little data to support it. As we go to print, the 1962 cast recording of Cole Porter’s Anything Goes (re-released in 1990) stands at #48,447 on Amazon’s music bestsellers. Not bad. You could do a lot worse. For example the “beautifully imaginative … magnificent” LP The Snake stands at #162,064. He just might have a point.  The internet (better said: the internet age) might be disincentivizing creativity.

But one release is 19 years old, the other has only a few months of promotion behind it. By point of reference Radiohead released Pablo Honey in 1993, and Amazon ranks that album at #5,070. Too pedestrian? OK.  Try, well, OK Computer at #729. Looking for something in the double digits? How about The Killers at #23?

It’s great that new listeners are uncovering old jazz, and it’s a shame that a rock übermenschlich has been forced to come down from the ivory tower (/sarcasm). But arguments with two data points are two dimensional, simple as that.

Hoboe Nckycctbo

Petrovosky Boulevard, Moscow, Russia

On the corner of one of Moscow’s famous Garden Rings,  stands the cosy Hoboe Nckycctbo store, a cultural haven of  literature, music and film.  With it’s peeling paint door and  a brass bell that rings on entering, the shop offers the kind of nostalgic kitsch that the Moscowites lap up.

Down a grand spiral staircase, below a first floor of DVDs and books, lies a musical kingdom. The warm wooden finish, and classical music softly seeping through two Bose speakers, create an ambience dissimilar to the atmospherics of your  average basement record store.

A large stand in the middle of the shop contains hardbacks’ on popular and classical music. The volumes, for sale at a pretty penny, compass everything from biographies of Beethoven to analysis of why new wave happened.

Behind this impressive literary collection, on the back of the stand, is the store’s proud collection of vinyl. Consisting mostly of represses of pop records, they are intended for the wealthy record lover and priced well out of our ballpark.

I flick through the alphabetical categorised sleeves,  stopping to pause at The Verve’s Urban Hymns and a few Beastie Boy LPs,  amongst the hordes of AC/DC and Iron Maiden. I run my fingers over Royksopp’s Melody AM and Radiohead’s Pablo Honey, both on double LP.  The feel of the plastic beneath teases at what I want, yet can’t have.

The vast CD selection, that runs along the walls, is  more reasonably priced. I find myself lingering over Underworld’s Everything Everything album, a live record from their 1998/1999 “Beaucoup Fish” World Tour. Along with Two Months Off, it’s the only Underworld LP  which I can’t claim in my collection.  However, having already splashed out on Breakfast whilst in Moscow, I can’t justify blowing my budget again, and force myself to move on.

Elsewhere the usual ‘trendy’ albums are on display and, apart from George Harrison’s Concert For Bangladesh ( the collaboration with Eric Clapton on ‘Whilst My Heart Gently Weeps’ is spine-tingling), nothing stands out as being worth the mortgage down-payment it would cost to buy it.

If I ever come into a large amount of money, the first thing I will do is jump on a plane to Moscow and go for a trolley dash around this place. Until then, their tasty but over-priced records will stay on the shelves.

I’ve always struggled with deciding on my favorite Radiohead album. So, being the nerd that I am, I decided to come up with an answer once and for all by quantifying it. I already had all the songs rated on iTunes, so I figured I’d total up all the stars, divide by the number of tracks, and get an average rating for the album. Here are the results:

The Bends (1995)
5 Stars: 6 Tracks
4 Stars: 5 Tracks
3 Stars: 1 Track
Album Rating: 4.42

OK Computer (1997)
5 Stars: 8 Tracks
4 Stars: 2 Tracks
3 Stars: 1 Track
2 Stars: 1 Track
Album Rating: 4.42

Pablo Honey (1993)
5 Stars: 6 Tracks
4 Stars: 5 Tracks
3 Stars: 1 Track
Album Rating: 4.42

Kid A (2000)
5 Stars: 5 Tracks
4 Stars: 2 Tracks
3 Stars: 3 Tracks
Album Rating: 4.2

In Rainbows (2007)
5 Stars: 2 Tracks
4 Stars: 4 Tracks
3 Stars: 3 Tracks
2 Stars: 1 Track
Album Rating: 3.7

Amnesiac (2001)
5 Stars: 1 Track
4 Stars: 2 Tracks
3 Stars: 6 Tracks
2 Stars: 2 Tracks
Album Rating: 3.18

Hail to the Thief (2003)
5 Stars: 1 Track
4 Stars: 3 Tracks
3 Stars: 4 Tracks
2 Stars: 6 Tracks
Album Rating: 2.93

Yes, you read that right, the exact albums that I struggled with, Pablo Honey, The Bends, and OK Computer, somehow, garnered the exact same score! Guess I didn’t accomplish much with this exercise.

So here I am in my babe’s office hoping he’d drop by from his class so I can ask where the computer center is.

Waiting and listening to the goddess Tori, I decided to look inside the boxes of books I sent him from home.  Some of them were mine and I was pleased to see my Neil Gaiman collection safe and intact.  Among the random tomes, I found, to giddy pleasure, a book given to me by my Glee Club.  It was actually a bunch of letters and miscellaneous comic strips and drawings sturdily bound and covered in plastic.  It’s title: Pumpkin Patch.  The cover was done by the budding artist, Meggy, who drew a Tim Burtonesque jack-o-lantern watering little pumpkins in his patch.  I guess the long-legged Jack is supposed to be me and my girls, the pumpkins.   It was charmingly creepy (or creepily charming) done in black and white because for some reason they thought I was into goth.

Digression:  On one of my birthdays, my club officers asked the girls not to wear anything colorful (a.k.a. only black) because “Ms. Cabel won’t like it.  She’s into goth.”  The truth is, I didn’t NOT like goth but I wasn’t into it as much as they assumed.  I wore mostly black because 1) it was sort of a UP College of Music performers’ uniform.  2) black was easy to mix with … black.   And when you’re a full-time teacher, you don’t have time to mix and match pieces from your closet when dressing up.  But me in black in ICA, it became my thing.  It was a piece of the Ms. Cabel puzzle along with my toy cactus, Pablo, and my ability to swing from one mood to another.

Alright, enough of that.

It’s been a couple of years since I read Pumpkin Patch.  I read it only twice since I got it because, even in my own company, I get very embarrassed when people say nice things about me.  I just go all squirmy and shy, wishing to just explode — poof! — into a cloud so I could hover away.  I know how to react to nastiness but niceness, not always.

I miss my Glee Club.  Those two years of moderating were the most exhausting, most emotionally-draining, and most gratifying of my time as a teacher.  I get teary-eyed just thinking about it.

You see, I’m no longer a teacher.

Here in Georgia, USA, I am not a teacher.  I am not a musician.  Not a writer.  Not an actress.  I’m not despairing, though, because I like where I am now.  I’m finally with my best friend and love and there’s no place I’d rather be.  But everything I was back in the Philippines is a memory for now.   I’m waiting to be who I was meant to be in this new and strange place.

I am in a cocoon and I’m waiting for wings.

You
Creep
How Do You?
Stop Whispering
Thinking About You
Anyone Can Play Guitar
Ripcord
Vegetable
Prove Yourself
I Can’t
Lurgee
Blow Out

Download

…mostly because if I had to hear “Creep” (or any other song from “Pablo Honey”) one more goddamn time, I was going to kill someone.

Years later, after “The Bends” and “OK Computer” were released, I would roll my eyes when people began to spout off about how awesome they had become, how they had reinvented themselves and were the future of music as we knew it. I chalked it up to a lot of hype, figuring they’d go the way of most other early nineties alterna-bands, showing up on a VH1 special about one-hit wonders to reminisce about their heyday of “Creep.”

Nowadays, I’m older, (slightly) wiser, and a lot more willing to listen to music with an open ear. Because of this, I have to admit that I’ve been absolutely and utterly wrong about Radiohead, their career and their music.

For me, the awakening began with Thom Yorke’s guest appearance on the track “Rabbit in your Headlights” from the UNKLE album “Psyence Fiction.” I loved that song, listening to it over and over again; in doing so, it began to dawn on me that maybe there was more to Thom Yorke than just a whiny voice.

In 2000, a friend burned me a copy of “Kid A,” and I began to tell people that I still didn’t like Radiohead, but that they had created a pretty superb album. And then “Amnesiac” hit in 2001, and someone gave me a burn of that disc. And then “Hail to the Thief” was released in 2003. And so on, and so on.

And so I feel I must take a moment here to make amends:

Dear Radiohead,

You most certainly do not suck. I was just a stupid kid.

I apologize. Please forgive me.

Sincerely,

Justin Shady

It’s now safe to say that I’m an actual fan of Radiohead, which means that I was excited to hear that their first six albums were being re-released as collectors editions this year. This past March, the band’s first three albums were released in two editions (“Collectors Edition” and “Special Collectors Edition”), but I didn’t receive any of them for review.

Luckily, I did receive “Special Collectors Edition” sets of “Kid A”, “Amnesiac” and “Hail to the Thief”, all of which were just released a few weeks back.

Each set includes two CDs and one DVD. The first disc in each set is the original full-length release. The second CD in each set contains rare live performances and concert recordings; included are performances from BBC Radio One, sessions from Canal+ Studios, and a 2003 recording from the “Jo Whiley Show.”

The DVDs in the sets serve as a scrapbook for the band from 2000 to 2003. Collecting live performances from “Later… with Jools Holland” and “Top of the Pops”, as well as a few promotional music videos thrown in for fun, Radiohead fans are given a glimpse into the evolution of the band during this time.

If you’re a fan of Radiohead, chances are you’ve already picked these up. If you’re not a fan of Radiohead, you should really reconsider it. Take it from a recovered Radiohead hater.

I was the creep,

-Shady

Confirming Mark Greif’s thesis — that Radiohead is the most successful rock act “to incarnate a particular historical situation” — will require something of a hike through the Radiohead musical and lyrical catalog. This way the truly horrible play on words in the title — taken from a book that has nothing to do with this or with anything else — indeed commences our trek quite nicely. The release of OK Computer marked the day music critics stopped ignoring Radiohead. They had no choice. The album is remarkable in every measure: aesthetic, accessibility, lyrical, and yes, philosophical. Even the first few seconds of the opening track — a tense, aching guitar lick that stays with you for days — promises something altogether special. And the rest of the LP delivers. It is their finest work and has rarely been surpassed by any artist, in any musical genre, ever since.

Removing Pablo Honey and The Bends from consideration leaves five studio albums, but I will stop the search after Amnesiac because of personal preferences. Radiohead sort of lost me with the careless Hail to the Thief and certainly didn’t find me again with In Rainbows. The gimmicky honor-system distribution seems intended to overshadow the sub-par music, at least to these ears. This leaves us with OK Computer, Kid A, and Amnesiac: this is by most accounts their peak period, anyway.

When you return to this triptych, the first thing you notice (actually this is the second thing you notice, but I’ve already started typing) is its sheer lyrical sparseness. All combined lyrics from this period — written out as sung, strung end-to-end, one song after the next, inclusive of repeated words — come in far under 10,000 words, about the length of two magazine cover articles. Taking out repeated phrases or those passages mixed underneath the music brings the word count to somewhere around 3,000 words, or 1,000 words per album. The final version of this post will be roughly 1,000 words. To wit, the complete lyric sheet to “Everything in its Right Place” reads as follows, when you remove repeated words or phrases:

Kid A
Everything in its right place
Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon
I’ve got two colours in my head
What was that you tried to say?
(From Kid A [2000])

The lyric sheet to “Airbag” is quite minimalist as well:

In the next world war
in a jack knifed juggernaut
I am born again
In the neon sign scrolling up and down
In an interstellar burst I am back to save the universe
In a deep deep sleep of the innocent I am born again
In a fast german car I’m amazed that I survived
An airbag saved my life
(From OK Computer [1997])

You should go listen to that track right now, if for no other reason than to hear the inaugural guitar line again.

As a writer I can relate to their brevity (it’s the soul of wit!). Why say in 1,000 words what you can in 500? Or fewer? It will make our job more difficult: the sparseness will add ambiguity. The ambiguity will cloud almost everything: narrator, voice, intent, context, more. But the references to the next world war, to the interstellar burst, to the implied crash, to the hot, sudden, alarming inflation of the airbag, these introduce what you really notice first when you revisit the band’s finest work: violence. Greif is absolutely right about one thing. Radiohead’s music is deeply, disarmingly violent:

“When I am king you will be first against the wall … Off with his head man, off with his head man/Why don’t you remember my name?” “We hope your rules and wisdom choke you/ now we are one in everlasting peace/We hope that you choke.” “This is what you get, when you mess with us.” “Riot shields, voodoo economics, it’s, it’s just business/Cattle prods and the IMF.” “It’s always best when the light is off, I am the pick in the ice/Do not cry out or hit the alarm, we’re friends till we die/And either way you turn, I’ll be there, open up your skull.” “Bruises that won’t heal/You look so tired, unhappy/Bring down the government/They don’t, they don’t speak for us.” “Kill me Sirrah, kill me again with love, it’s gonna be a glorious day/ Pull me out of the aircrash, pull me out of the wreck, cause I’m your superhero.”

And that’s just OK Computer.

(A caveat: my lyric sources are unofficial. If you know any of the above lyrics to be wrong, please leave a comment.)

Repetitious, manic, sparse, and violent. There is only one way to distill such a concoction into one word, and that word is “terror.” But diagram the sentences: is the violence meant for the subject of the piece, or the object? In other words, is the vocalist playing Thom Yorke the Terrible? Or Thom Yorke the Terrified? The way I read it, Greif’s point is that Yorke is playing both. It’s a compelling argument, but let’s keep reading:”I’m a reasonable man, get off my case.” “Once again, I’m in trouble with my only friend.” It’s difficult to decipher intent in any rock lyric sheet, and those of Radiohead are certainly no exception. But which lyrics seem more genuine, the belligerent, or the persecuted? Which lyrics seem sarcastic, or which seem delivered in character? If you asked Yorke these questions during an interview, would he even know the answers? Probably not. And a good musician wouldn’t answer even if he did.

So far there’s one key ingredient missing in our assessment of Radiohead’s embodiment of the Right Now. (I’ll give you a hint: it’s one of the words in our name, and it isn’t “The,” “Muse” or “In.” We’ll bring this review into full compliance when next we meet.)

Note that this post is one part in a series. To view all posts in the series, start here.

Háromcédés, díszdobozos formátumban adták ki újra a Radiohead első három nagylemezét. A Pablo Honey, a Bends és az OK Computer került fel a Thom Yorke gitáros-énekes vezette öttagú oxfordi zenekar különleges kiadványára. A pakk már itthon is megvásárolható!

Bella settimana questa!

In programma a breve un WWRY Italy, segnalato oltre che da Brian May stesso anche dal TG1, stiamo organizzando assieme al Meetup664 ed al gruppo di radiolondra.tv un’intervista con Arcangelo Badolati, e sto ascoltando tanta ma tanta musica.

Visto che il post parla di questo, eccovi qua sta bella topfive, per il resto nient’altro da dire se non “Stay tuned!!!”

1. Oasis “Stop The Clocks”
2. Led Zeppelin “Remasters”
3. Radiohead “Pablo Honey”
4. Queen “Live Magic”
5. Afterhours “Ballata per piccole iene”

P.S. l’unica nota dolente è stata una mail arrivata da Last.fm, dove si dice che il servizio nel mio paese non è più garantito a tariffa gratuita ma verrà riconvertito in account premium a 3 euro al mese.

Non intendo aprire un account del genere, e mi sto già attrezzando per trovare valide alternative

cuando estuviste aqui antes
no pude mirarte a los ojos
eres como un angel
tu piel me hace llorar
flotas como un hoja
en un mundo bello
y ojala yo fuera especial
tu eres tan jodidamente especial

pero soy un asqueroso
soy un raro
que demonios estoy haciendo aquí?
no pertenezco aquí

no me importa si duele
yo quiero tener control
quiero un cuerpo perfecto
quiero un alma perfecta
quiero que notes
cuando estoy por aquí
tu eres tan jodidamente especial
ojala yo fuera especial

pero soy un asqueroso
soy un…
…

ella está corriendo otra vez
ella está corriendo
corriendo

se lo que sea lo que te haga feliz
lo que quieras
tu eres tan jodidamente especial
ojala yo fuera especial

pero soy un asqueroso…
…

Helen, va por ti:

Disfruta a tope del concierto!

Yo.  Little bit of news first.  It’s been announced that the surprise opening act on the upcoming Jane’s Addiction/NIN tour is (for the moment) the band Street Sweeper, which features former Rage/Audioslave guitarist Tom Morello and The Coup rapper Boots Riley.  This is the first I’ve heard of The Coup or Riley but I’m guessing we’ll be hearing more from these dudes given the high profile slot to debut their music.  You can listen to a tune right here.  The holepuncher verdict?  Been there, done that.  Hey Tom? If you’re going to be in a band that sounds so much like Rage Against the Machine why not just be in Rage Against the Machine?  And didn’t that sound get stale, I don’t know, about nine years ago?

Anyway, speaking of Reznor he apparently dropped this bomb on Twitter the other day:  “You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell’s record? Jesus.” YOWZA!  That’s pretty cold. Note to Cornell: see yesterday’s Badmotorfinger post.  Note to Reznor: are you really that freaking excited about Street Sweeper?? Really??

Okay, let’s move on and wrap this list up today which is easily going to be the toughest five to pick.  I know exactly where to start though…

16)  Sunny Day Real Estate – LP2 (1995)

Here’s another record that pretty much made everything else I was listening to at the time seem so embarrassingly bad in comparison.  I didn’t even realize that I had heard Sunny Day Real Estate before 1995 (that came later when I saw the video for “Seven” and remembered the Ah Ha-ness of it) and by the time LP2 was dropped the band was pretty much over.  Well, for the first time at least.  They’d get together and break up again later, releasing two more very good albums to go along with the emo bible that is the band’s 1994 debut Diary but “The Pink Album” has always been my favorite.  It’s kind of a weird album.  The songs have odd structures and quiet moments where you expect loudness and vice versa, but I also feel like it’s an album that absorbs you because of this.  It’s almost begging to be listened to repeatedly just to kind of make sense of it all, specifically singer Jeremy Enigk’s lyrics which ocasionally sound as if they were sang with his back to the microphone.  But this album has it all; it’s noisy, sweeping, uplifting, depressing as a funeral for a kitten, playful, and dare I say pretty?  Yes.  Definitely pretty.  In some ways, I wish the band had let this disc be the curtain call on their career as it left SDRE at the time with a mystique that provided part of the joy of being a fan and established a sound that was just beginning to be imitated.  When the band reunited in 1998 their sound had changed into something that was a little easier to swallow and lacked the sense of discovery that I got from listening to LP2.  To this day, there’s still nothing that sounds quite like it.  Here’s the song that hooked me, though unfortunately it’s an inferior live version (just get the record already!).  This is “J’Nuh”:

17) Chavez – Gone Glimmering (1995)

I’ve written about Chavez before, so I’ll keep this one short.  Basically, I think this is the record that more or less got me listening to indie rock and yet it’s definitely one of the heaviest (at least guitar wise) albums that could ever possibly fit into that genre.  A great band, a great brilliantly concise record, and one that was just horribly overlooked at the time and has only recently started to get some of the praise it deserves.  This following song is so good and the lack of videos on YouTube so depressing that I’m just going to post this for a record breaking 2nd time on this blog.  Here’s “Break Up Your Band”:

18) Radiohead – Hail to the Thief (2003)

Not a whole lot to say about this record.  I liked all of Radiohead’s previous output, save for Pablo Honey which I still find pretty uninspiring, and I’m fairly convinced that 2008’s In Rainbows is actually the best thing they’ve ever done, but it was this album that really floored me with what the band could achieve when all of their influences came together perfectly.  By my math, there are about nine songs on this album that would individually be career bests for most other bands.  The thought of nine such songs appearing on the same record is kind of mind blowing.  And seriously – listen to the last half of this record starting with “There There” and finishing with “A Wolf at the Door.”  Just an amazing succession of tracks that lift this album above anything else you could compare it to.   Rest assured if any band writes a song as good as this next one, it’ll be Radiohead themselves.  Here’s “Myxomatosis”:

19) Wilco – A Ghost is Born (2004)

This is getting really tough now but I have to give this album its due.  I honestly don’t even really know how to describe what Wilco did on this record.  The band came to the attention of the masses earlier as a rootsy, Americana, alt-country mish-mash led by singer/guitarist Jeff Tweedy but then shifted gears into something more layered, more electronic and electric, and definitely more eclectic.  And isn’t that always when bands start getting interesting and start making their best music?  I find that’s certainly the case with Wilco and A Ghost is Born is a record that dominated my iPod for a long while.  It’s a record where you can hear a band taking chances and doing exactly what they want to do.  But what’s maybe most interesting about Wilco’s experiments is how they manage to retain a sense of cohesiveness, even with a track like “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” stuck right up at the front of the record to test the listener’s patience.  When they reach for something outside of what might be comfortable, they do so without ever ceasing to be Wilco.  It all still fits under the same umbrella, somehow and that’s not something that should be overlooked.  Here’s “At Least that’s What You Said,” and if you drop out before the 1:55 mark then bad things will happen to you:

20) Mastodon – Blood Mountain (2006)

I don’t know how it happened exactly, but this is the album that got me listening to metal again.  Mostly I think it was born out of boredom with everything else I was listening to and me getting tired with the ever increasing lameness of indie rock bands stealing their sound, their look, and their names from the obvious influences that had come before them.  And so I discovered Mastodon when I had already been going back and listening to some older metal (Iron Maiden mostly), and initially I wasn’t sure I liked it.  The biggest threshold to cross with modern metal is the growling style of vocals that most bands employ these days and Mastodon is no exception.  Still though, I kept coming back to it and listening to the band online and eventually bought the cd.  At last, I crossed the aforementioned threshold and it felt like my eyes had been opened after years of having them sewn shut (by Alice in Chains).  I’ve found so much new music lately that I really, really like and I owe that to this record for starting the slippery slope.  Truthfully, I think Leviathan (2004) is a stronger album than Blood Mountain, but that’s like saying a hot cookie is better than a cold one.  It’s still a damn cookie and you know you want to eat it.  What I love most about this band is that it just feels genuine.  I don’t get the sense that they’re trying to be the heaviest band on the planet.  They’re just trying to write interesting songs and they somehow have managed to extend beyond the metal community without excluding that group either.  Who else could boast touring with Slayer and playing Bonnaroo?  It’s ridiculous.  There’s no way to understand how they’ve become successful other than the simple fact that they are GREAT at what they do.  The potential for this band is unlimited and it’s probably only a matter of time before they become the biggest name in heavy music.  Good for them, I say.  Here’s “Hand of Stone” live:

And there you have it.  A long-winded journey into my musical muck.  Enjoy your weekend.  More Monday…

miercoles 4 de Marzo
Osos Polares en concierto
+ breed & breathe

jueves 5 de Marzo
Presentación del libro “Solo para la noche” de Ana Muñoz
con las actuaciones de Alex Extige, Alex Mister Hyde, Experimentos in Da Notte, Louissiana y Falta de orden

viernes 6 de Marzo
Herbal

sábado 7 de Marzo
Capitán Mosca
http://capitanmosca.blogspot.com/

jueves 12 de Marzo
El muro de Berlin.
Presentación nuevo disco
El Muro de Berlín (EMDB) es la nueva sensación del ya denominado en todos los medios ‘pop rock canallo-dulzón’. Con más de dos años de vida : Grillo al frente (vocalista; hasta entonces contaba con 4 años en su carrera como cantautor); Manu (bajista,músico de nacimiento y con una dilatada trayectoria musical colaborando con diversas bandas de rock and roll de Barcelona y Zaragoza); Josan (baterista que ha estado acompañando a numerosas formaciones del panorama musical zaragozano en los últimos años); Gaud Gasalla (guitarra rítmico, que también ha dejado su huella en diversas bandas de la zona); y por último, Simankats (guitarra solista, que perteneció a un grupo bastante exitoso en Latinoamérica, con el que recorrió infinidad de países en su última gira). Letras frescas y desenfadas, melodías pegadizas, contando historias cotidianas en las que cualquiera puede verse reflejado. Contadas y cantadas desde la sencillez y con la particular voz de Grillo. Una combinación explosiva de ironía y picardía, canciones bien cuidadas.. Con su primer disco “diferente?” en el mercado, han recorrido bastante geografía española; actualmente, están enmaquetando los temas que compondrán su segundo trabajo, y a su vez, están negociando con varias discográficas y promotoras para encontrar ese pequeño apoyo que les falta para conseguir su objetivo (hacer llegar su música a todos los rincones del país y más si cabe). Además, han trabajado duro en el montaje de su nuevo show acústico que ya ha empezado a rodar y les llevará por los forums Fnac de las principales ciudades españolas, intercalando, a su vez, su vena más eléctrica en diferentes salas…demostrando así la enorme versatilidad y sus ganas de ofrecer algo diferente al público a modo de agradecimiento. Bendecidos por grupos como Sidecars, Despistaos o Los Galván, cabe señalar que con ‘Miss Diferente’, quedaron clasificados entre los 20 mejores de más de 1000 grupos de toda España en un concurso que patrocinaron Samsung y Warner También despertaron el interés de un productor de Madrid que trabaja para una multinacional con el que han preparado una demo para presentarla a dicha discográfica – la compañia de telefonía movil Orange, seleccionó uno de sus más exitosos temas ‘toca despertar’ como Nuevo Talento Orange ofreciéndoles un contrato.
+ de 150.000 visitas en su myspace oficial y + de 25.000 descargas de sus nuevas canciones en apenas un mes, avalan la gran acogida de EMDB entre el público. Para rematar la faena, como en toda buena corrida de toros que se precie, sus seguidores han creado un foro, un myspace y un fotolog-facebook oficial del grupo para poder compartir absolutamente todo lo referente al universo emdb

El pasado viernes 7 de noviembre hicieron su primera grabación en directo en la conocida sala Cabaret Pop de Zaragoza Dispuestos a hacerse un hueco en el panorama musical nacional creen que la clave del éxito está en el trabajo constante, acompañado de ilusión y algo de suerte. Quieren que quede bien clarito que no son un grupo destinado al éxito efímero y que el 2009 es el año EMDB

viernes 13 de Marzo
FIESTA DO YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST BRIT
Que tiempos los del Brit y los del Wagon
Para los que echamos de menos buenos locales con buena música en Zaragoza… y con buena gente.
Después del éxito de las dos fiestas de enero y junio de 2008, volvemos a la carga.
Reunión de antiguos clientes y camareros del Brit para pasar una noche como las de antaño…. y con música Brit por supuesto… pinchada por nosotros… si nos acordamos, claro.

sábado 14 de Marzo
Pablo Honey

jueves 19 de Marzo
Diego Stabilito & The Sundance Kid

viernes 20 de Marzo
Osos polares en concirto
+ Pablo Honey

sábado 21 de Marzo
Vacaciones en el Bar
¡Vuelve Vacaciones en el Bar!
Después de un breve parón Vacaciones en el Bar aterriza por primera vez en Groenlandia con una propuesta llena de diversión, como siempre.

En primer lugar asaltarán la cabina dos miembros de este colectivo, los Sweet Sinners. Nominados a los premios de la música aragonesa desplegarán todo su abanico de polifacéticos hits como solo ellos saben mezclar. Todo vale siempre y cuando se mezcle con el malabarismo que les caracteriza. Para acompañarles, Vacaciones en el Bar trae como invitado especial a Astredu, la mitad de Los Novios Instantáneos Djs, un selector con gran personalidad y muy muy divertido. Ha recorrido las cabinas de los clubs mas alternativos España con su electro-pop y sus temazos de electroclash patrio.

Para satisfacer la faceta cultural Vacaciones en el Bar presentará en exclusiva los últimos trabajos de la fotógrafa Greta Trebolet, un derroche de imaginación en una serie de retratos coloristas, sensuales y oníricos.

Como en todas las fiestas los regalos estarán presentes durante toda la noche: camisetas, chapas y alguna que otra cosilla caerán en manos de los asistentes. Además varios artistas del colectivo personalizarán algunos de estos regalos.

Si no vienes a divertirte, quédate en casa.

jueves 26 de Marzo
Deviaje

viernes 27 Marzo
Ivan de Ramos

sábado 28 de Marzo
Pablo Honey

Not that these bands are lacking of free advertising… but here’s some good news that came out this past week. U2’s upcoming No Line on the Horizon (due out in March) now has a cover and tracklist…

1. No Line on the Horizon
2. Magnificent
3. Moment of Surrender
4. Unknown Caller
5. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
6. Get On Your Boots (streaming at u2.com or on YouTube)
7. Stand Up Comedy
8. Fez – Being Born
9. White as Snow
10. Breathe
11. Cedars of Lebanon

The Amazons also has No Line on the Horizon for pre-order now.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

meets

Radiohead’s guitarist anti-rockstar Jonny Greenwood is recently collaborated with Israeli singer Dudu Tasa on the new single, “What a Day“.  The song is streaming over HERE (browser warning: IE only).  It’s good, but not like Jonny’s usual fare (i.e. – it’s not like the more experimental Bodysong or There Will Be Blood).

Also in recent directly Radiohead news… EMI/Capitol is re-issuing triple-disc versions (2CD+DVD) of the band’s first three albums (Pablo Honey, The Bends, and OK Computer).  There are no previously unreleased tracks on any of these issues, but it will be a more cohesive place for all of the b-sides rather than the glut of import singles and EPs that the band released as “tweeners.”  They’re due out in late March.

The original singles up through those on Amnesiac are also being repressed in 180 gram 12″ vinyl.  The one for the Drill EP was the one I sprung for… I’d only heard it before in crappy mp3.  It’ll be nice in the analog, backwards technology re-issuance.  They’re due out in late April.

~Dan – np: Antibalas – Who is this America?

Nada muito interessante por aqui nesta semana, que foi recheada de fofocas sobre Amy Winehouse. Mas como eu me recuso a alimentar esse circo triste em torno da cantora, vamos ao que eu li por aqui: 

- De acordo com um relatório divulgado pela Federação Internacional da Indústria Fonográfica (IFPI em inglês), apesar do crescimento em vendas de música digital, 95% das músicas disponíveis na internet ainda são baixadas ilegalmente. O relatório diz que a indústria conseguiu se adaptar rapidamente ao crescimento do mercado digital, mas que não conseguiu ainda encontrar uma maneira de controlar a pirataria na internet. Em pesquisa realizada pela IFPI em 16 países, mais de 40 bilhões de arquivos foram distribuídos ilegalmente na internet, ano passado. Para quem quiser ler o relatório da IFPI, basta seguir por aqui.

- A EMI anunciou que vai relançar, em março, os três primeiros álbuns do Radiohead em edições especiais. Pablo Honey, The Bends and OK Computer virão, cada, em duas diferentes versões: a mais simples com o álbum original, b-sides, EPs e a gravação do BBC Radio 1 Sessions; a segunda versão incluirá ainda um DVD com um show no Astoria em 1994 ou uma aparição no programa Later with Jools Holland em 1997. Parece que a decisão foi da gravadora e que a banda não está muito contente com isso.

- De acordo com Phil Maymin, professor da Universidade de New York, a batida da música que é n.1 na parada da Billboard americana indica o que vai acontecer com o mercado financeiro (matéria aqui). Depois de estudar por anos o 100 Hot Hits da Billboard, Maymin concluiu que quanto mais constante a batida do n.1, mais instável é a bolsa americana. Ele acredita que o mercado se torna instável após a parada de sucesso estar cheia de músicas com pouca variação rítmica. A atual “responsável” pelo mercado instável seria o hit Single Ladies, da Beyoncé. Fala sério…

-  Boy George (foto da AP) recebeu uma sentença de 15 meses na prisão por ter algemado e batido em um garoto de programa,em abril de 2007,  num acesso de paranóia provocado pelo uso de cocaína.