Archive for the Category »Music «
This last week has been frightfully busy and tiring. It’s now only five days to go until Sweet Charity and there’s a lot of last minute rehearsing and cleaning of dance numbers, sorting out costumes and trying to get people to buy tickets.
Saturday evening I had the absolute pleasure of going to the Barbican to see Lars Horntveth, Jaga Jazzist and Britten Sinfonia. I was there as a guest of my father the sound engineer and sound producer (Asle Karstad), and also had the company of his girlfriend, whose birthday it was. I will readily admit that it became a severely wine fuelled evening (jazz musicians are really good at drinking) but that was mostly post-gig, I think I had two glasses during. So what I’m about to write is not from alcohol tinted glasses.
I have seen many, many, many gigs my father have worked on. Not only that, but I’ve seen many gigs, period. This was one of my top ten most outstanding concert experiences of my life. I’d heard them before on album but never live and while I liked them, they’d never really connected with me previously, so I was expecting to have a good time but not much more than that. I wasn’t expecting to be so blown away I felt like crying happy tears afterwards. I had to go and hug my dad and go ‘whoa’ a few times. It was absolutely stunning. I loved every minute of it. When it finished, the crowd exploded and there was a spontaneous standing ovation.
Some times you go to gig and it’s a band performing a collection of songs. Then other times you are lucky enough to see music. This was music. It was glorious, beautiful, complex music, with so many layers that my musicologist theorist brain almost burst with joy. It’s one of those gigs that you go to as a performer and you’re jealous of every single person on the stage, because they’re part of something so unbelievably special, and you wish you were a part of it too. Absolutely divine, and light years above the majority of acts I’ve seen perform live. It’s not the sort of response I often have to music these days, but I have to admit I’m a bit smitten with Jaga Jazzist now.
Aftewards, there was a lot of wine. Then we all headed back to the hotel and had some more. It went past the hour of the last tubes home, so my father booked me into the hotel as well, so I didn’t have to go home but could stay and be merry with everyone else. So that’s how I ended up staying overnight at the Barbican. We also had breakfast together in the morning (it’s in fact the second time we’ve eaten here together!) which is a rare treat, and then said our goodbyes quickly as I always hate that part of it.
I’m very proud of my father and the amazing work that he does, and I love going to work with him and just hang out, soak up the atmosphere and hope some of the awesome rubs off on me. To have been there on Saturday night was exhilarating and inspiring. It also reaffirms what I’ve been feeling so strongly for the last year; I don’t want to be someone who just watches any more. I want to do my own awesome stuff. I want to feel this sort of sensation by doing, by participating, by my own creativity.
Calvin Harris chocked on his cereal the other day when he heard the new Chris Brown song.
The first tweets… The abuse starts straight away (tweets in reverse order in the images).
Then he starts getting more abuse.
And in the end he just gives up.
I had a look at some of the replies to him and they were absolutely ridiculous.
It seems obvious to me listening to the two songs that Chris Brown’s is a rip off of I’m Not Alone, but I’m not going to link to it because it’s not worth listening to. Instead, listen to I’m Not Alone.
Beautiful, isn’t it? I hadn’t really heard the latest Calvin Harris album before I was made aware of the “fight” with Chris Brown – which mostly consisted of Calvin Harris being attacked by a lot of Chris Brown fans on Twitter for correctly pointing out that he’d gotten ripped off – and what poor showing of me that was. I have fallen quite hard for this song and it’s getting a lot of plays at home and during travels. I’m kicking myself for not buying this album sooner. Can twitter drama lead to album sales? Yes, it can.
What do you think, Mr Harris? I’ll let you have the last word.
Hi Voltaire,
I brought my lovely Deady not bootleg figure (attached to my bag) to see rage against the machine last night. Somehow, through the magic of mosh pits, I elbowed some dude in the face (or rather, he jumped into my elbow..), I sprained my finger and Deady disappeared. I am sorry to say he was probably trampled to deathA fitting way to go, sure, but I mourn his passing.
While no Deady can replace the one you sold me in person in Oslo, I do really want a new one. But merchdirect is lame and has none of your stuff on it. Where can I go to replace my poor lost (trampled, sniff) Deady? My bag looks all wrong without Deady.
Help?
Last night was really cool. We got there late because I am trying to revise after all, and only caught the end of Gogol Bordello. But Rage Against The Machine was so much fun! And yes, I at one point could not resist any longer, I thrust my handbag into Mr Pharmacist’s arms and hurled myself into a circle pit, where I pushed and showed like the rest of them. AWESOME. Of course, I hurt my finger in the first jump in, someone fell on me, on my finger, and it was Holy Owwie. But I satisfied myself that it was not broken, and went back in. I’m surprised I’m not covered in bruises, and that the finger was the full extent of my injuries. I’m pretty sure someone else lost a tooth.
It feels highly appropriate to have a minor injury after seeing Rage Against The Machine. Afterwards I felt knackered, with a sore throat from all the shouting and I was drenched in sweat. It felt amazing. I feel like I’ve gotten in touch with my Inner Badass again. And while my finger hurts, and I have to cover it in cold patches to try to reduce the swelling, every second of ache is absolutely worth it. I felt so alive last night, like something in me resurfaced that’s been buried for a long time.
Pixies and Rage Against The Machine in one weekend. Man, I feel so alive. I needed this kick in the face (no actual kicks in the face ocurred) to shake me out of my funk.
This Thursday and Friday, the mighty Pixies played two fan exclusive shows at The Troxy in London, a venue I’d never even heard of before. It’s in Limehouse, which is surprisingly close to where I’m living and quite easy to get to from here, thanks to the magic of the new London Overground service.
The venue was a cute, old fashioned style theatre. We were upstairs in unassigned seating, and though we arrived before the support came on, it was fairly full already. There was a section of reserved seats in front of us, which had tables. I wonder how you got those seats, they weren’t on sale on the pixies website.It was warm in there. I was sitting, like everyone else (the upstairs crowd only got to their feet at the encore) and I was drenched from just dance-bouncing in my seat. And I wasn’t really expecting all that much, but I was blown away. Hit after hit, and then they played Caribou, by far my favourite Pixies song. It was just like I dreamed it would be live, intense and powerful. I was beside myself with joy. I loved every second of the gig.
On my way home, @nikki randomly came up behind me and said hello, I turned to face her and had a “oh shit this person seems to know who I am and I have forgotten them who is it come on brain come on brain” moment before she revealed her identity and I blurted out “you look nothing like your picture!” – that came out wrong Nikki, so sorry! You know what it’s like with people you know online sometimes, you have an idea in your head of what someone looks like, and some times these ideas are utterly wrong. Case in point – this time! And those seconds before nikki revealed who she was, I was racing through my mind trying to find something that fit the person in front of me. Funnily enough, her boyfriend looked entirely like what I thought he would.
All in all, a pretty good night!!
Setlist
1. Cecilia Ann
2. Rock Music [aborted]
3. Bone Machine
4. Monkey Gone to Heaven
5. Gouge Away
6. Hey
7. Velouria
8. Dig for Fire
9. Allison
10. Debaser
11. Planet Of Sound
12. Alec Eiffel
13. Caribou
14. River Euphrates
15. Cactus
16. Is She Weird?
17. Break My Body
18. The Sad Punk
19. Head On [The Jesus and Mary Chain]
20. U-Mass
21. Tame
22. Isla de Encanta
23. Broken Face
24. Wave of Mutilation
25. Nimrod’s Son
26. Holiday Song
27. Gigantic
Encore
1. Where is my Mind?
2. Here Comes Your Man
See this guy? This is Vincent Frank, aka Frankmusik, and he released his debut album Complete Me earlier this year, a delightful piece of electronic music that never fails to put me in a good mood. Very recently he also release the entire album as an acoustic work, named Completely Me, just him and piano, and it’s still pretty damn good. The beats are infectious, the hooks addictive and the voice impressive. I saw him live in December and his voice is as strong live as on record – what you get on the record is what you get live.
But don’t take my word for it internets, here’s some songs for you to check out.
Also available on YouTube but not embeddable: Three little Words, Better off as two.
I want to know what you think I might have missed out on this year. Is there an album that will always be the album that reminds you of 2009? Did you fall in love with a new artist? Did you re-discover an old love? Did an artist surprise you by knocking you sideways with a new album when you’d given up on them? What was your musical 2009 like?