We went to the Dour festival in Belgium last weekend, Simon had won tickets on popbitch who were hosting a tent there. It was mostly excellent, a smallish site in the countryside, on a farm, near a small town, though i could spot churches in all directions, so it must have been surrounded by various villages. two small bizarre looking hills were overlooking it too. when we arrived it was very hot and the shuttle bus was full of teenagers, lots of fresh faced boys with their shirts off, ready to party. the first field of the campsite was jam packed full already so luckily we managed to find a more peaceful field at the back that still had lots of space at its back end. a good move!
the lineup was very good, with a strong focus on the leftfield, ranging across the genres too, from goth, death metal, dub, acid folk to French ska, hip hop, and beyond, and a lot of cult names representing. So before i forget here's what we saw, plus comments if i have any:
Friday:
Electrelane: I saw one of their first gigs in Brighton when i still lived there, and have seen them various times, usually in a supporting role, over the years. i always thought there's something a bit po-faced about them, like they're trying too hard and don't have enough personality. this one though had a good groove and was more entertaining than the last time, even though there were sound problems i think.
Devendra Banhart: just great, a beautiful late afternoon, and Devendra very humbly let other band members sing their songs, invited someone from the audience to sing a song, and when the time had run out he insisted to leave the stage. A great set too!
Fantomas: I liked what i heard a lot, and was pleased to see Buzz (?) from the Melvins playing guitars too, that hairdo :-), Simon however dragged me away after a while, he thought it was too one-dimensional or something. (?)
Laibach: Okay, the last time i saw them was about 1985 in a small club in Berlin, i really liked their first or so album, there was something completely alien about them then. Well, they were good, and they still do what they do and it was very effective. By then it was getting dark and there was a big wooden wheel with pots carrying fire displays near the stage, the moon came out, so it was a pretty awesome pseudo-teutonic spectacle. Simon loved it and made lots of little videos. Turned out he had never heard any Laibach before, so it must have been impressive. they ended with 'Life is Life'.
Project Pitchfork: Long running dark wave band from Hamburg that i had heard about for eons. They were actually my highlight of the day. The popbitch tent was only half full but once you were inside they exuded this strange energy that really sucked me in, very dynamic, and an interesting front man, whose features recalled a more ragged looking Klaus Nomi at points, though his voice wasn't like that...
Anne Clark (feat. Implant): Blast from the past, she even played 'Sleeper in Metropolis' and 'Our Darkness'. Sounded relevant and endearing still, the crowd in the tent was electric...
Hawkwind: Mostly yawn, but at that point i was ready to crash really
Saturday:
Scout Niblett, Modey Lemon,
Why? vs Ms Ohio: really cool, liked all the beards!
Napalm Death: incredible vibe in the tent! gig of the day!
Hood: played in a tent that looked completely fogged up by its entrance, i guess it was dust, the bar at the side of the tent let the evening sun in to awesome effect, very photogenic. kinda suited the mood of the music too.
Television: a bit grumpy especially from the closeup position Simon insisted on, but had its (free-sprawling) moments.
The Young Gods 20th anniversay: Another good one, we sat down at the side of the field and let it wash over us, it was lush, the guy's voice was amazing, definitely wanted to be there and play for everyone (which helps!)
Sunday we nearly left but i'm glad we stuck around cos i think it turned out to be my favourite day starting with a great early afternoon melodic punk rock set by The
Queers, who I guess are not really queer in the 'conventional' sense, that finished with covers of The Who's 'The Kids Are Alright' and 'Rockaway Beach' by The Ramones. For some reason one of my favourite sets, it just felt right, one quick song after another, no fuss, and a nice early afternoon crowd.
The Faint: I really wanted to see them but they ended up playing for just ten minutes or so because of major sound (check) problems, or maybe they were just late to arrive. It was frustrating cause the 4 or so songs they played were really great slabs of fierce electropop that went down very well with the crowd. No 'Agenda Suicide' either!
13 & God: which is The Notwist playing with experimental hip hop trio Themselves. This is a revelation, for some reason this really works. I don't know what it is with The Notwist but they seem to go down extremely well at festivals, and this is just beautiful, their glitchy moody pop-meets-krautrock soundscapes together with the mellow hip hop vibes creating some truly magical alchemy (i know i'm not very good at describing this!). We're hooked on this for now!
Giant Sand: just right for Sunday evening, beautiful. a bit heavier than Lambchop.
Bright Eyes: another good one. We were right in the front and it was intense, Conor appeared to be pretty drunk but he was still on top form, the rest of the band, featuring members of The Faint, played well, but it was his moody, nagging voice that held it all together and changed the tone of the music as soon as he started singing. He's a volatile, intuitive performer, and there were moments when it looked like it's all falling apart, but on this evening it still hung together...my last memory is of Conor climbing a keyboard stand and sitting on there wrapping up the last song with his hair flopping with the rhythm...
So, all in all, many teenage kicks for all the Euroboyz. and us. We've got some crowd photos, that morph into some cool portraits when zoomed in, so I'll try to post some sometimes...
Friday, July 22, 2005
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
people on the tube
I don't like taking the tube in London, the air is bad and it tends to depress me, though it can be fun to watch people sometimes. As noone usually speaks, they are all faces without words. I rely on it almost everyday though to take me to work and back, and around London, even though there is an alternative route that i sometimes take on the Silverlink, which can be annoying too. Anyway last thursday, 07.07. I was debating with myself for some split seconds which route to take but stayed on the side of the road that leads to West Hampstead tube station, took the tube to Baker Street, where an announcement informed that some lines weren't running because an incident, possibly a power failure. this was just after 9 am, i think. I didn't think too much about it, since these incidents, delays, cancellations occur with depressing regularity. So I still got the Bakerloo line which passes the *other* Edgware Road tube station and got to Paddington, where everyone got evacuated. I remember asking someone whether she knew what was going on, who turned out to be a tourist who didn't really speak English. In Paddington, overground trains were still running, so I got a 9.20 train to Ealing. I must have passed Edgware Road at about 9.10 or so...
I know the Circle line from Liverpool Street to Paddington very well too, from when I used to live in East London, and I know how busy all these places are around 9am, cause this is around the time i used to pass through there. Most people are dressed for work, and already present some sort of 'office type person' mask, are dressed in a certain way, and everyone just wants to get from A to B. It's very common for people in London to travel long distances through the city on a regular basis, you just have to. Despite this sense of conformity, and this collective rushing, squeezing, pushing, gaining ground, seats, reaching the end of a tunnel, hearing the right announcement to go to the right platform at the right time etc.. you can find an amazing diversity of people travelling in these underground tunnels, and there's often a sexy, horny atmosphere despite the heat and the claustrophobia, but maybe even because of it.
It's been said that peopel have to get on with their lives, and that Londoners have shown the world that they won't be beaten into fear, but I'm not so sure. Car traffic is heavier and more people seem to use alternatives to the tube right now. I think i'm going to avoid it even more at the moment too. Things are getting back to normal but it's not as easy as it seems underneath the surface...
I know the Circle line from Liverpool Street to Paddington very well too, from when I used to live in East London, and I know how busy all these places are around 9am, cause this is around the time i used to pass through there. Most people are dressed for work, and already present some sort of 'office type person' mask, are dressed in a certain way, and everyone just wants to get from A to B. It's very common for people in London to travel long distances through the city on a regular basis, you just have to. Despite this sense of conformity, and this collective rushing, squeezing, pushing, gaining ground, seats, reaching the end of a tunnel, hearing the right announcement to go to the right platform at the right time etc.. you can find an amazing diversity of people travelling in these underground tunnels, and there's often a sexy, horny atmosphere despite the heat and the claustrophobia, but maybe even because of it.
It's been said that peopel have to get on with their lives, and that Londoners have shown the world that they won't be beaten into fear, but I'm not so sure. Car traffic is heavier and more people seem to use alternatives to the tube right now. I think i'm going to avoid it even more at the moment too. Things are getting back to normal but it's not as easy as it seems underneath the surface...
Monday, June 20, 2005
madrid
I went to Madrid over the weekend, I've never been there before and I wouldn't have gone if it wouldn't be for my boyfriend's project, he is there for a week and a half and requested my presence to get his mind off work and to see Madrid which he hadn't really either, even though he's been there quite a few times for work. This project he's been working on has been frustratingly slow and drawn out and one of the main problems seems to be a crucial difference in mentality, the manana attitude, saying one thing and not following it. Spending 48 hours in the city definitely puts you in a different frame of mind so some of this almost became understandable. It was extemely hot and at first it was really quite difficult to get our head around the city. The hotel was just outside the city centre next to a really wide avenue leading all the way to the train station, and there was at least 4 lane traffic in all the surrounding streets, really bad air, too much traffic, and really confusing somehow. I started to hate it there when we decided to get a cab to Chueco, the gay village, a mad, heaving weekend nightlife area with lots of bars and little clubs over a series of parallel streets circling the tiny heart of it all, Plaza de Chueco. We got hammered and watched half of Madrid walk by, very mixed and raw, it seemed to hit its peaktime around 3 am, we were sitting on some trashcans drinking enormous portions of spirits out of plastic glasses. After that everything changed, as our outlook adjusted to the rhythm of the city: sleeping til very late, tapas, half-hearted walk into the city centre only to be overcome by the collective fatigue of the siesta hours, extreme heat preventing to walk any further, retiring in the Retiro (really! collapsing into solid shade), later in the afternoon checking out the cruisy part in some lush overgrown shady lanes further into the park, not managing to see the Prado, in the evening pretty much the same programme as the evening before, tapas etc... We finally managed to see the Prado on Sunday and it was amazing, especially seeing the Bosch pictures, Velazquez, Goya, etc. I felt better about being there in the end too, i actually eventually liked the tension and the heat of the city.
There was a huge demonstration on Saturday which turned out to be against gay marriage and 'for the family', it didn't really look homophobic so I didn't even understand what brought about a million people together, but apparently that's what it was, I found out later at the airport that it was a million people and it was against gay marriage and it was on the front of all the papers. People were walking around in colourful t-shirts with placards saying that 'the family is important'. Now, while I'm not a huge fan of the idea of gay marriage (even though i'm practically married as it is), I've got to say that gay people are integral parts of families too, if the family is important then all members of the family should be equally important, and gay people can form families or family-like structures in their lives too. Spain, particularly in the large cities, has a pretty big gay scene and high visibility, especially compared to other mediterranean countries (I've recently been to Palermo, a fairly big city which has just one totally gay bar, for instance), but seeing a large demonstration like that makes me wonder how conservative and traditional parts of the country still are. What was also weird was that not far from where the demonstration passed it was business as usual in the gay bars and on the streets as if nothing had happened, we spent some time in one bar where the DJ played Spanish music nonstop and everyone apart from us was singing along to every word, and there was never any trouble, as if it existed in some parallel universe. This part of town is in no way a ghetto either, it's where all the young people seem to go too, so it makes for a heady hedonistic mix.
There was a huge demonstration on Saturday which turned out to be against gay marriage and 'for the family', it didn't really look homophobic so I didn't even understand what brought about a million people together, but apparently that's what it was, I found out later at the airport that it was a million people and it was against gay marriage and it was on the front of all the papers. People were walking around in colourful t-shirts with placards saying that 'the family is important'. Now, while I'm not a huge fan of the idea of gay marriage (even though i'm practically married as it is), I've got to say that gay people are integral parts of families too, if the family is important then all members of the family should be equally important, and gay people can form families or family-like structures in their lives too. Spain, particularly in the large cities, has a pretty big gay scene and high visibility, especially compared to other mediterranean countries (I've recently been to Palermo, a fairly big city which has just one totally gay bar, for instance), but seeing a large demonstration like that makes me wonder how conservative and traditional parts of the country still are. What was also weird was that not far from where the demonstration passed it was business as usual in the gay bars and on the streets as if nothing had happened, we spent some time in one bar where the DJ played Spanish music nonstop and everyone apart from us was singing along to every word, and there was never any trouble, as if it existed in some parallel universe. This part of town is in no way a ghetto either, it's where all the young people seem to go too, so it makes for a heady hedonistic mix.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
the green wall
there's a green partition wall placed directly opposite my desk, a relic from a time when a manager was still roosting and doing what managers do in the space beyond it. The manager and the person who used to sit here have all left so i've inherited it. there were a couple of postcards pinned to it already, only one remains: it's 'Nighthawks' by Edward Hopper. Apart from that there's also:
a postcard advertising the Ramones 'End of the Century' doc ('A Seismic Snaphot of the Early Days of Punk!') with a great shot of the Ramones looking pretty pissed off,
a photocopy of the inside lyric sheet for GBV's Bee Thousand with the trainhead looming prominently,
a postcard of Eton College that my friend Charlie sent in to my work address for some reason,
a printout of the Easy Rider poster (in homage to our former IT support boy and ex-rugby player Ryder)
a cutout of a female model's head from an advert for cosmetics, i should think, judging by the bluish lipstick and eye shadow, it looks really silly,
a printout of a photo of the mother of the Italian bear sitting next to me, he insisted i put it there since he doesn't have a wall and has to look at it too :-),
a printout of a photo of a friend and colleague, Branka, who died of cancer earlier this year :-(
a printout from the Weezer and the muppets video, Kermit's eyes are coloured with pink marker, Rivers' glasses are marked with bright light green,
and a photocopy of a homemade cover for the GBV rarities collection 'I've Got Tickets To The Circus Of Delirium' (but I'm not supposed to tell you about it!)
I don't always feel like putting up pictures and stuff, at home or anywhere, but when i start somewhere i can't stop and a lot of the stuff gets put up very quickly without thinking about it too much. Now that the office is being rearranged there has been talk of removing the green wall, which so far i've protested. Nothing on there needs to be there to greet me in the morning, but it's certainly helped to make it my little corner. Saaad but true.
a postcard advertising the Ramones 'End of the Century' doc ('A Seismic Snaphot of the Early Days of Punk!') with a great shot of the Ramones looking pretty pissed off,
a photocopy of the inside lyric sheet for GBV's Bee Thousand with the trainhead looming prominently,
a postcard of Eton College that my friend Charlie sent in to my work address for some reason,
a printout of the Easy Rider poster (in homage to our former IT support boy and ex-rugby player Ryder)
a cutout of a female model's head from an advert for cosmetics, i should think, judging by the bluish lipstick and eye shadow, it looks really silly,
a printout of a photo of the mother of the Italian bear sitting next to me, he insisted i put it there since he doesn't have a wall and has to look at it too :-),
a printout of a photo of a friend and colleague, Branka, who died of cancer earlier this year :-(
a printout from the Weezer and the muppets video, Kermit's eyes are coloured with pink marker, Rivers' glasses are marked with bright light green,
and a photocopy of a homemade cover for the GBV rarities collection 'I've Got Tickets To The Circus Of Delirium' (but I'm not supposed to tell you about it!)
I don't always feel like putting up pictures and stuff, at home or anywhere, but when i start somewhere i can't stop and a lot of the stuff gets put up very quickly without thinking about it too much. Now that the office is being rearranged there has been talk of removing the green wall, which so far i've protested. Nothing on there needs to be there to greet me in the morning, but it's certainly helped to make it my little corner. Saaad but true.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
joy zipper
the new album is really nice. what is 'the heartlight set'? is there a story behind this?
i saw them a couple of years ago in the tiny Rough Trade shop in Covent Garden, they played our favourite song (well, of theirs), and handed out beers, and were very sweet. Seem to have gone through some weird shit with record label folding etc...but came through anyway, and still sound like they're just churning out these gorgeous songs in their sleep without too much effort. last time i saw them it was some sponsored BBC new 'community' thing at 93 Ft East, for which you had sign up and then get in free, badly organised, so they were really late and could only play for 20 minutes. First it was 'Let's trash this joint!', then it was 'ok let's just play one more song'.
i saw them a couple of years ago in the tiny Rough Trade shop in Covent Garden, they played our favourite song (well, of theirs), and handed out beers, and were very sweet. Seem to have gone through some weird shit with record label folding etc...but came through anyway, and still sound like they're just churning out these gorgeous songs in their sleep without too much effort. last time i saw them it was some sponsored BBC new 'community' thing at 93 Ft East, for which you had sign up and then get in free, badly organised, so they were really late and could only play for 20 minutes. First it was 'Let's trash this joint!', then it was 'ok let's just play one more song'.
Friday, June 03, 2005
hey
so I've decided to start writing a blog, see what happens, or not.
The name 'From A Voice Plantation' is the title of a Guided by Voices song from the album 'Universal Truths and Cycles', and it's one of my favourite tracks on the album, though it seems a lot of GBV fans don't particularly like it. I've always liked the almost gothic drama in it, something that's hinted at quite frequently throughout GBVs work but rarely expressed quite like this, the heavy, haunted feel and the fact that it starts, builds up and then ends very quickly. It seems like a good enough name for a blog too :-)
I'm at work so can't post too much, but I want to see what this looks like.
The name 'From A Voice Plantation' is the title of a Guided by Voices song from the album 'Universal Truths and Cycles', and it's one of my favourite tracks on the album, though it seems a lot of GBV fans don't particularly like it. I've always liked the almost gothic drama in it, something that's hinted at quite frequently throughout GBVs work but rarely expressed quite like this, the heavy, haunted feel and the fact that it starts, builds up and then ends very quickly. It seems like a good enough name for a blog too :-)
I'm at work so can't post too much, but I want to see what this looks like.
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