It should be clear by now that reviews aren’t really my thing. If you come to this blog and you like to read, you should somehow “reactivate” Sr. Cartmanez… Iron & Wine played in Cologne as a full band this time promoting the new album “Kiss Each Other Clean” (which you will not find here, but Google is always a friend for something like that). As expected, the concert was beautiful and although the new album didn’t really do it for me I must say the new direction Sam Beam took with this LP is really fun in concert. Below you’ll find some videos I made. Pretty awesome versions of Teeth In The Grass And Boy With A Coin. Our german-speaking readers can also take a look at this review. It features some pictures, some videos including mine and somewhere the word “funkig” (Jesus Christ…).
[Space reserved for Sr.C. and his review, when he listens to the live recording. We accept donations for a good whiskey to speed up the process…]
Just a few words from me. The reunion of GY!BE was probably the most exciting announcement we got all year. I had seen them once again live in 2002, I think, but the memories weren’t that vivid anymore. The problem with concerts is that they are a one-time experience. An amazing one. Any mood you’re in in that particular moment or period, any emotion filters itself through the music for those 2 hours, leaving you sometimes excited, depressed, tired, confused. But the only way to relive that, would be to go back in time and watch it again. You stay only with the feeling. But I always found interesting how I found myself watching bands I’ve seen before. There’s always something different about it. Sometimes you see that you’ve outgrown something. Our taste in music is after all constantly changing shapes. Sometimes you get a new feeling to carry with you. Sometimes you will be strangely unaffected and the next day you’ll be listening to the whole discography of a beloved artist to find out why that was… And sometimes you will almost relive the original one. Which you think you have actually kind of forgotten. But GY!BE was a unique concert. Maybe due to the fact that it wasn’t a “new” tour. We didn’t have to listen to new songs and pay attention to what they’re gonna play next. That kind of a concert, if successful, gives you the opportunity to just build up on the old one. And get a new feeling from it, to have with you. Mixed with the new interpretations and emotions to make a new bundle. And given the mindfuck that this concert was, we got quite a nice bundle. “Swirling your brain” would be a nice description. Really, to see that kind of music happen in front of you needs a word, that I can’t find. And I’m sitting quite long on that sentence. You can download the high quality recording from Brussels from Archive.org.
(Original post date: 28.02.2011. Don't ask...) So the “King Of Limbs” is out and as a result there have been a couple of weeks full of Radiohead. Old habits die hard, so the preparation for the new album was the usual. Listening to albums, rarities, live performances, watching DVDs… And for that last part, I discovered another great project from Radiohead and their cool fan-base, in the same spirit as the infamous “Nataly Project”. "On 23rd August 2009 a group of Radiohead fans descended on the Výstavištĕ Holešovice Exhibition Hall in Prague on a mission – to capture the band playing using as many different angles as possible. Bringing together the exceptional talents of many contributors, here is the result." (Watch the trailer)
Well, lucky for us, there is another project like that: A benefit concert for Earthquake-stricken Haiti. The concept is exactly the same. Many portable cameras, the original board-recording and hours of mixing, I guess. However, the setlists are somehow unique with many hidden highlights. If you follow the links below, you can download both of them for free, in almost any possible format. You can also donate something for Haiti, if you want. An audio-only version (MP3) of the “Radiohead For Haiti” concert you can find HERE. Radiohead In Prague (Nataly) Radiohead for Haiti As for the “King Of Limbs”, I haven’t really decoded it yet. I knew from the first listening, this would take some time. So, I’m gonna give it to it, before I jump to “Amnesiac” conclusions. But If you’re wondering too, why the hell it is only 37 minutes long, maybe this link from conspiratist JDSO will keep you company.
The Unwinding Hours have risen from the ashes of the great Aereogramme. In their first album Craig B. and Iain Cook didn't forget our needs for haunted ballads and emotional outbursts with a scottish accent. Not only that (treat), but in their spirng tour they visited Europe with a mini-album in their bags. It continues the tradition of acoustic versions and b-sides during the tour like they used to do as Aereogramme. Turn down the lights, get your glass and if you're lucky enough to read this tonight go to the window and watch the full moon...
The Unwinding Hours, 06.04.2010, Werkstatt, Cologne
I was thinking about it the other day... What are really the most important concerts I have gone to? If you are a constant concert-goer and a music enthusiast, it's really hard to pick one. Or ten. So I'm gonna forget about that for a moment and just tell you that if you see Mr. Lanegan alone singing to an acoustic guitar is an experience you will never forget. I even think Sr. Cartmanez was looking for his whiskey when listening to him from my cell phone. Luckily for us, there was an acoustic CD from the same tour on the Merch-table from his performance in Leeds. It really doesn't capture the real vibe, but we must learn to live with substitutes, bootlegs and FLACs. Enjoy.
Take a look at these. They're from Berlin, from the same tour. http://www.youtube.com/user/MrAroy24#grid/user/2E4F0E87C5FD5E8B
It had to be the night of the famous August full moon to grab a bottle of wine and start typing. Well, our updates have become as rare as werewolf sightings...
But because laziness is the mother of many great things, we're not going to feel to bad about it. And when my computer is fixed and the evil forces of teeth charlatans don't gaze upon me, I promise you a nice radio show. Something for us to kick back with after the annual post-summer depression.
For now, some interesting news from our side of our musical woods.
Crippled Black Phoenix are emerging again with a mini album, coming out on September 6th. We will surely come back to that when it's released. Until then...
Do you remember that time, when you obsessively waited for the new album of your favourite band to come out, went to the record store 10 times in advance, reserving one limited edition copy, waiting, asking when it will finally arrive. Long before amazon would tell you when you will hold it in your hands and what it will look like, it was back in the day when the first time you actually laid eyes on your new baby was still important and you would unpack it in the bus back home and look at it from all different possible angles, savoring in every little detail the artwork could provide that you -only you- could have noticed so soon after it came out. The record would be glued to you even before you ever even heard it for the first time.As if that joy wasn't enough, you actually got to hear a whole new album from your stereo while reading the lyrics lying down doing nothing except paying attention.For the next days that record was part of your life and eventually it would become part of your soul, and the whole process would be burned into your memory like a love affair long faded but still vivid and red hot in the back of your head.It was this record that each time you gave it a spin again, after years, filled you with that warmth and never failed to summon a bitter smile on your face. Do you remember that record?
You should, and for all the other records just come here.
