Can I please join another line, asshole?
It's been half a year since I started this site and I'm not quite satisfied. I am not at all writing as often as I want to even though I have a lot to write about and my English hasn't improved in any remarkable way. But I prioritize my education and writing for Geiger higher, and I guess I'm just too lazy. It doesn't really matter either because not that many people read the content of these pages. It's more or less random hits that drop by so I guess I'll just continue with an unsteady amount of posts.
A lot of things happened the last couple of weeks. I was in London with my girlfriend shopping our pockets dry of money. But I got some excellent stuff. Besides shoes and shirts I finally got hold of the first Raincoats album which has been almost impossible for a long time. It has been reissued by Rough Trade and can be purchased from their netshop at £ 9.99 instead of the usual £ 30 or so it's normally costs used. It's a great album recorded in the fabolous postpunk days of the late 70's. The band was unusual by consisting only of women playing a fantastic mix of weird, folky punk with john cale-inspired violin.
Then we were at this giant raveparty in a industriel area headlined by Radio Soulwax and 2 many DJ's at the Canvas, but goddamn did they have the situation out of control. The doors opened at 10 pm, but when we came at 11.30 pm nobody were let in yet and a huge queue of probably 1500 people was building outside the place. We were told that there was a queue if we had tickets and another if we didn't have tickets yet. Well, not much to do about it so we took place in the end of the biggest queue. After an hour and a half we finally reached the end, got a body search and were told that we had been standing in the wrong queue. Because we had ordered our tickets on the internet, but chosen to pick them up at the venue and nobody told us there was a different queue for that. Fucking bastards!!! Our mood and alco buzz had at this moment dropped to an absolute lowpoint. Well, fuck it. Into the next queue which luckily was much shorter, then another queue, body search, queue, and when we finally got in it was so damn crowded we couldn't move and nobody knew where the big scenes were. It was hillarious, actually (not at the moment though). No matter who you asked they looked confused and shaked their head. After a while we found a bar downstairs and a couple of red bull/vodkas to calm our nerves. The music was a nice blend of indie/alternative dance so we stayed for a while before searching for the main events again. When we finally found it, it was so packed all over the place that there was no room at all for dancing or breathing even. My girlfriend panicked at one time because no matter what we did we were pushed around by more or less 3000 sweaty ravers packed in an all too small room. We found a place on the stairs where we could breathe and still hear the music. When 2 many DJ's went on we actually found a spot in the side where we could see them and still dance and then it actually became fun, but the hastle had been a bit too much. Downstairs was the most fun, because there you could actually dance without restrictions, and they played a great mix of indie, electro and old school hiphop. I rediscovered "The Humpty Dance" with Digital Underground for instance. When we tossed out in the bright morning at 7 am we have had a fun evening after all, but I have never experienced so awful an arranged venue.
Monday the 17th I went to see japanese sludge doom band Boris. As on the last album they mainly played dirty, high energy rock'n'roll, but there was also room for the doomy, psychadelic pieces that I love the most. The drummer Atsuo was definetely turned on, but Wata didn't seem in the mood at all. Her mindblowing guitarplaying was replaced with a more untight playing only elevating the songs a few times contrary to the albums where it mostly come out as fantastic. I was a bit disappointed at this.
The Pink Mountaintops/Black Mountain concert two days later was much better. I started out at this horrible place called Rio Bravo because I had to help a friend with an article, where I got fried pork, potatoes and parsley gravy. And lots of beers to top it off. Later I went on to a bar and met with a couple of net friends before moving on to the concert so I was kind of drunk when the bands took the stage. I can't remember anything in detail, but they sure did rock the hell out of the place. A bulletproof mix of Velvet Underground, Fifty Foot Hose, Hawkwind, Black Sabbath and so on. Pink Mountaintops had a countryrock/folky style, while Black Mountain was heavy and more psychedelic. They're a big bunch of thieves, but the best I've heard in years.
Who knows when I'll be writing here again.
A lot of things happened the last couple of weeks. I was in London with my girlfriend shopping our pockets dry of money. But I got some excellent stuff. Besides shoes and shirts I finally got hold of the first Raincoats album which has been almost impossible for a long time. It has been reissued by Rough Trade and can be purchased from their netshop at £ 9.99 instead of the usual £ 30 or so it's normally costs used. It's a great album recorded in the fabolous postpunk days of the late 70's. The band was unusual by consisting only of women playing a fantastic mix of weird, folky punk with john cale-inspired violin.
Then we were at this giant raveparty in a industriel area headlined by Radio Soulwax and 2 many DJ's at the Canvas, but goddamn did they have the situation out of control. The doors opened at 10 pm, but when we came at 11.30 pm nobody were let in yet and a huge queue of probably 1500 people was building outside the place. We were told that there was a queue if we had tickets and another if we didn't have tickets yet. Well, not much to do about it so we took place in the end of the biggest queue. After an hour and a half we finally reached the end, got a body search and were told that we had been standing in the wrong queue. Because we had ordered our tickets on the internet, but chosen to pick them up at the venue and nobody told us there was a different queue for that. Fucking bastards!!! Our mood and alco buzz had at this moment dropped to an absolute lowpoint. Well, fuck it. Into the next queue which luckily was much shorter, then another queue, body search, queue, and when we finally got in it was so damn crowded we couldn't move and nobody knew where the big scenes were. It was hillarious, actually (not at the moment though). No matter who you asked they looked confused and shaked their head. After a while we found a bar downstairs and a couple of red bull/vodkas to calm our nerves. The music was a nice blend of indie/alternative dance so we stayed for a while before searching for the main events again. When we finally found it, it was so packed all over the place that there was no room at all for dancing or breathing even. My girlfriend panicked at one time because no matter what we did we were pushed around by more or less 3000 sweaty ravers packed in an all too small room. We found a place on the stairs where we could breathe and still hear the music. When 2 many DJ's went on we actually found a spot in the side where we could see them and still dance and then it actually became fun, but the hastle had been a bit too much. Downstairs was the most fun, because there you could actually dance without restrictions, and they played a great mix of indie, electro and old school hiphop. I rediscovered "The Humpty Dance" with Digital Underground for instance. When we tossed out in the bright morning at 7 am we have had a fun evening after all, but I have never experienced so awful an arranged venue.
Monday the 17th I went to see japanese sludge doom band Boris. As on the last album they mainly played dirty, high energy rock'n'roll, but there was also room for the doomy, psychadelic pieces that I love the most. The drummer Atsuo was definetely turned on, but Wata didn't seem in the mood at all. Her mindblowing guitarplaying was replaced with a more untight playing only elevating the songs a few times contrary to the albums where it mostly come out as fantastic. I was a bit disappointed at this.
The Pink Mountaintops/Black Mountain concert two days later was much better. I started out at this horrible place called Rio Bravo because I had to help a friend with an article, where I got fried pork, potatoes and parsley gravy. And lots of beers to top it off. Later I went on to a bar and met with a couple of net friends before moving on to the concert so I was kind of drunk when the bands took the stage. I can't remember anything in detail, but they sure did rock the hell out of the place. A bulletproof mix of Velvet Underground, Fifty Foot Hose, Hawkwind, Black Sabbath and so on. Pink Mountaintops had a countryrock/folky style, while Black Mountain was heavy and more psychedelic. They're a big bunch of thieves, but the best I've heard in years.
Who knows when I'll be writing here again.
Under byen - awestriking
Within the last year I've become more positive towards Danish artists. This weekend I was swept away by the emotional music of Under Byen (my girlfriend made their homepage). It was very intense and highly original. The two drummers' staccato moves incorporating a giant oil litter reminded me of Tom Waits, the use of strings was similiar to the rock take Silver Mt. Zion and Rachel's have on their strings, and Niels in the front made beautiful noise with his saw in the same way Sigur Ros would have loved it to sound. The front vocalist Henriette has often been compared to Bjork, but she's not at all that hysteric. All these things combined with the untraditional instrumentation makes them very unique, and they succeed at making grand, melancholic songs. At the end of the concert they even made noise the way I imagine My Bloody Valentine did in their heydays. Actually their new album is one of the best I've heard this year so far.
Baby Woodrose
Actually I discounted this band a couple of years ago when they opened Orange Stage at the Roskilde Festival as a second-rate, heavy-psych Monster Magnet-wannabe. Clearly I was young and foolish. Over the last couple of years I've become more and more interested in the band reevaluating my opinion without actually doing anything about it.
Then I had to interview them a week ago and I finally got to listen to their albums. They make great popsongs in the tradition of Love and 13th Floor Elevators. They play psychedelic garagerock, but the new one has spent more days in the production chamber than the first ones and are filled with great songs. It's very classic, but not in the market thinking kind of manner that many of the hyped retro-bands of today seem to be. This is goddamn honest rock'n'roll. Earlier today I almost cried over the beauty and simplicity of "Lights are changing":
"Too many people don't know
how to set free
They're spending all their lives
buying all kinds of shit
they don't need"
I'm not quite sure why, but the melancolic mood of the guitar chords and the sad truth of the lyrics moved me.
I regret ever thinking bad about Baby Woodrose.
Then I had to interview them a week ago and I finally got to listen to their albums. They make great popsongs in the tradition of Love and 13th Floor Elevators. They play psychedelic garagerock, but the new one has spent more days in the production chamber than the first ones and are filled with great songs. It's very classic, but not in the market thinking kind of manner that many of the hyped retro-bands of today seem to be. This is goddamn honest rock'n'roll. Earlier today I almost cried over the beauty and simplicity of "Lights are changing":
"Too many people don't know
how to set free
They're spending all their lives
buying all kinds of shit
they don't need"
I'm not quite sure why, but the melancolic mood of the guitar chords and the sad truth of the lyrics moved me.
I regret ever thinking bad about Baby Woodrose.