Sunday I went to this shady bar in Warmoestraat with Jacob and Marie for the sole reason that you are allowed to smoke in there and the beer is dead cheap. Everything else in there is awful and the crowd is somewhat suspect. However there I am – drunk as a bug – on my bar stool looking at the interior, and I discover this poster of and old renaissance panting and immediately fall in love. That my knowledge of art leaves a lot to be desired is nothing new, so it is no surprise to me when Jacob is rolling his eyes to my mentioning that: “it is by someone called Bruegel”.
So the following day I start investigating stuff on Wikipedia, and now at least I know who Pieter Bruegel was. Later that day I go to Concerto, the record store at Utrechtstraat to pick up a few things. I actually believe that my initial idea was to buy the new Gomez album, but I leave the store with Tim Hecker, Magnetic Fields and Nils Økland. The strange thing is that while the clerk is getting the CDs for me, I am looking at some of the price busters, and there in the middle of the table is the self titled album by Fleet Foxes, which I have seen a lot of times before, but only now realised, is using Netherlandish Proverbs; the exact same painting, as the album cover.
Like most recent years 2009 started with being all about the previous year – and all about getting those albums that I never knew or had time to buy/steal. But there has also been new releases and new concerts, and old songs getting a revival. Here are some Highlights and low points:
Tim Hecker beeing back with a new album called An Imaginary Country. It is a continuation of Harmony in Ultraviolet, but in my ears a little stronger and more refined – this is what he does no surprises, but he keeps getting better and must for sure now be The King of Glitch
Seeing Gang Gang Dance with Sonny on their only European show, due to the combustion of their gear later that night a Paradiso.
Seeing William Parker live for first time in the By Any Means trio.
Finding another critically acclaimed Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy album boring, boring booooooring! – yes it holds a few good songs, but I think Will Oldham no longer deserves the status of being one of the few who’s albums I buy automatically
Singing Sufjan Stevens songs in the first spring sun with Filip, and afterwards trying out the theory that every song with a bird in it is a good song.
Missing Animal Collective because I was in Panama
Missing Goodiepal because I was tired
Missing Chris Corsano (again)
Listening to another crappy album by Anthony and the Johnsons for reasons beyond me? I don’t get it – I just don’t.
Listening to the Woman King EP from Iron and Wine all the time, and getting new favourites on it – it really is his best work so far – and by the way isn’t there a new album due for May?
Discovering Matt and Kim, and admitting that they might last longer than the one week that I predicted.
Trying tpo get “What Happened”, the new album from Emeralds. It doesn’t really seem to want to let me in, but I keep on trying – it seems to be worth it. I do however think that Solar Bridge is more my thing – so why haven’t I bought that?
After a few drinks at Sid Lee’s I was meeting Denise to see Bram Stadhouders play with full band to support American singer/songwriter Dent May. The Korps is a sextet, that includes Bram’s duo improv partner Onno Govaert on drums, David Hoogerheide on keyboards, Harry Cherrin on saxophones and flute, Santiago Botero (yes I know what fellow bike riding enthusiasts are thinking now – but the answer is no!) on electric and acoustic bass and Claudia Hansen on percussion, has a somewhat Northern feel to it – though I might be saying this because I know the guys share my liking of Scandinavian improvisers.
As the case with fellow youngster Valerio Cosi, the Korps seem to move freely between composition and improvisation adhering to neithor. The set was made up of the loose compositions, but players were able to maneuver within those. The turning point is Stadhouders airy guitar picking that has the same tropical feel like the works of Manual, and the mood in general is not unlike what you would find on early Arve Henriksen records. However the group did stray into heavier and more dense territory with varying success putting them closer to the post rock discourse.
To fully enjoy the music though a quieter space than the one of Bitterzoet would be preferred, but the mixing was close to flawless, so even though the quieter moments drowned somewhat in the noise of the bar you were still able to enjoy them.
The setting seemed to suit Dent May a little more. Today a two piece act with May on Ukulele and whatshisname on percussion. It started of pretty cute in a I-am-just-singing-this-little-silly-song-about-love kinda way, not very far from some of the most enjoyable moments on Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs – but it never went anywhere from there and frankly just got a bit tiring at the end. Anyway I was not there to see Dent May in the first place, and I expect that he did what it is he does to the best of his abilities, and the in flux of semi-nerdy teenage girls didn’t seem to mind.
In the review for brainwashed.com of recently reissued Yoshi Wada album Earth Horns with Electronic Drone, Henry Smith ask the important question:
“This is truly directionless, and the musical change which takes place from beginning to end is near zilch. As with anything this unmoving then, the important question is whether or not the journey from beginning to end achieves its intended effect and whether that effect is worth one’s time.”
He of course answers the question himself, and you can go and read the review for that, but I just find the outtake above lovely enough to share.
Erik and I have this great tradition where we four times a year send each other a record that we hope is previously unheard to the other. It is usually hit or miss – but that is also the beauty of it.
Zu Carboniferous
Q1 in 2009 I have received “Carboniferous” by the group Zu. I was initially scared by noticing that it was issued by Mike Patton’s Ipecac label, and even more when realising that Patton himself contributed to the album. I am more or less of the believe that everything the man touches turn into (Angel) Dust, and Carboniferous does have elements of thin intangible Pattonism that in my ears sound directionless and adheres to an aesthetic beyond my grasp.
Zu is actually a great mix of metallike power, energi and volume not to forget seasoned with aggressive brass on some of the tracks, making them sound not unlike a band like The Thing. It’s also these tracks that I find the best – especially the penultimate track Obsidian, follows a stricter recipe that suits the music better. Actually I am sure that I could compile a nice little EP of the tracks that I like, and quite possibly it would stand out as some of my favourite stuff when not obscured by the majority of the tracks on the disc.
As house rules dictate, I was going to switch off the flash on my camera, to prepare to take photos of drummer Rashied Ali’s trio with bassists William Parker and Charles Gayle on saxophone and piano, but alas that ended up being the last action of my camera apart for the display changing to blue screen with the message: Battery Empty. So once again no photos for this blog – I thought – but no! – camera phone to the rescue, and it appears that the inability to zoom aside, the camera in the phone is actually more suited to take pictures in the dark.
Update: G’verdomme I cannot find the cable to extract the photos from my phone.
I cannot help it but my initial thought when the three players entered the stage was Rolling Stones, these multimillionaire guys that get unlimited praise for keeping on going, while not unimpressive, Ali: 73, Gayle: 69 and youngster Parker: 57 flew in the same day at 8 am, and couldn’t get a hotel bed until a couple of hours later and still played for almost 2 hours, sometimes at incredible speed.
First set started in a rather traditional manner with Gayle soloing on the sax over the rhythm section of the other two, then leaving the stage and bringing the attention to Parker and ultimately leaving Ali alone with his drum kit. More interesting was the middle part where all three players interacted. Parker is definitely my favourite jazz bassist but it is when he is layering the sets with heavy and complex rhythms I find him the strongest and not so much when he takes center stage. The set ended quieter with Gaye switching to the piano.
After a break of approximately 30 minutes, where I could enjoy a much needed cigarette in the cold Amsterdam night, the players returned to stage, picking up more or less where they left, but soon switching to what in my ears was the high light of the show. After being silent for a couple of minutes Gayle hits one of the low keys at the piano, which initiated a radical mood swing. Parker grabs the bow and plays deep droning tones while bending the string with his other hand, Alis playing is darker and quieter at this point, and Gayle sticking to the low keys with his left hand while pressing down a long span of keys with his right arm. The result is dark and complex and demonstrate the extend of these players ability.
The set then transfers in to a Coltrane ballad which I was a) unfamiliar with, b) don’t remember what was called, but it was lovely, before transforming into another less engaging exercise in solos and finishing with a tight free playing by the players who by now are tired as hell.
Friday night at Bimhuis always make for a more mature crowd and with my 31 years I felt like a youngster. In general the concert was possibly a bit to much of a traditional exercise, but I am thrilled to have finally seen William Parker live – now I only hope to see him as a band leader soon.
The theory is that most songs that incorporates birds in the lyrics are good – so now we will be compiling!
Beatles – Blackbird
Ride – Birdman
Iron and Wine – Boy with a Coin
Simon and Garfunkel – El condor paso
Dolly Parton – Little Sparrow
Leonard Cohen – Bird on a Wire
Nina Simone – Blackbird
Nina Simone – Feelin’ Good
Update: Now Filip sent me a very ambitious list which I off course need to top – there goes the night..
Once again I forgot my camera – this time I really regret it, as there were a lot of Kodak moments, and I was actually pretty close to the stage.
Well it all started with my posting in my facebook status (who the fuck uses Twitter anyway) that I was going to see Metronomy later that night, and Bjarke reacting to it – so we decided to go together, have a few beers and talk about the past, present and future – and a lot about cigarettes.
We met up at de Baile for a Columbus on draft before heading to a crowded Paradiso where Bloc Party was playing on the big stage and all the indie kids were sweating. Well tonight I had left the avant garde attitude at home so had no problems with walking up to the balcony and catching the last two songs by the British rock band, before heading into Kleine zaal where Metronomy was playing.
Metronomy are fun – and possibly my favourite indie act from last year. They came on stage all dressed in black with touch lamps attached to their shirts and a happy go lucky human robotic attitude reminding me of Devo. Probably not to concerned with being super tight they played their asses of, and had a pose for any moment not touching their instruments.
The set was mostly made up of songs from 2008′s Nights Out, but also a few tracks from the former one-man-band debut from 2006, that I mistakenly bought after the show. I found myself singing along and dancing, when not sipping one of the large beers that Bjarke insisted us drinking. I could tell that the band was hoping for a more eager crowd, but they still delivered, and made me smile throughout the whole concerts.
We stayed to watch We Have Band who played afterward. I remember meeting Petra and that they played an uninteresting cover version of a song that I have now forgotten – it was not a bad performance, but I am sure i will not remember it by the of the year. The Metronomy concert however I will.
A couple of years back I saw Gang Gang Dance in Copenhagen after their release of God’s Money, a record I at that time found interesting, but not mindblowing. The concert turned out to be a complete mess, and I was not at all impressed.
Gang Gang Dance
That event let to my more or less total disregard of last years Saint Dymphna until I out of boredom downloaded it anyway. It turned out to be one of my absolute favourites of last year, but with the previous concert in mind it was with some doubts that I went to see them again friday night at Paradiso.
Gang Gang Dance
Nothing to be afraid of though. Gang Gang Dance delivered the best concert so far this year. The focus was a little for on the percussive side of their (new) sound and with longer repetitive sections, but most of the stuff was recognisable as stuff from their most recent record. Not always 100% tight, the show was an hour long non-stop borderline danceable tour de force of the sound that makes the Gang Gang Dance quilt. I believe that this is as modern as it gets in widely accessible music right now.
