Music Saves

Maybe the best band you've never heard of

Devotchka is the amazing quartet from Denver (yes Colorado, not Romania or Bulgaria) that's paired with composer Mychael Danna (along with Sufjan Stevens) on the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack, and I just cannot stop listening...

Molina solo in Athens

A truly beautiful evening last night with Jason Molina performing live for very few people in Athens, at Planet Music.

The year's coolest party!

I guess they must have been playing for more than two hours but I was in such a trance from the music and the vibes that I didn't realize how much time had gone by...it was truly one of the best concerts/fiestas I've ever been to, everyone was ecstatic, dancing like mad, including Ojos. Suzie's flamenco was also incredible. They are music evolution itself.

Ojos de Brujo and the Greek concert ticket tragedy...

I'm off to see Ojos in a little while playing live in Athens and I wanted to comment on the ticket situation. As with many other concerts organized in the last couple of years in Greece, the tickets are extremely expensive.And as if that wasn't enough the production usually sucks (bad choice of venues & sound systems, way too many people shoved into the venues etc). The price for seeing Ojos tonite is 45 euros (thank god Lily got invites) - and 35 euros for the concert in Thessaloniki - a difference which doesnt really make any sense. So this made me address the production company, On Stage, with a complaint letter (maybe more of us could send complaints), I attach it here - in Greek:

Αγαπητοί Κύριοι,
Θα ήθελα με αυτό το email να σας εκφράσω την απογοήτευση - όχι μόνο την δική μου αλλά και πολλών άλλων ανθρώπων - που δημιουργείτε βάζοντας μια τόσο υπερβολικά υψηλή τιμή στα εισιτήρια των Ojos de Brujo. Είναι πραγματικά κρίμα διότι αυτό είναι ένα απογορευτικό ποσό για πολλούς νέους. Επίσης δεν μπορώ να καταλάβω για ποιό λόγο η τόσο μεγάλη διαφορά μεταξύ των εισιτιρίων Αθήνας (45) και Θεσ/νίκης (35)?
Όπως θα καταλάβετε και οι ίδιοι απόψε, ο κόσμος που θα είναι παρών στη συναυλία δεν θα είναι αυτός που αρμόζει σε ένα σχήμα σαν τους Ojos - δεν μιλώ για το ποιοί θα είναι αλλά για το πόσος κόσμος θα μαζευτεί. Αλλά ακόμη και αυτοί που θα έρθουν πιστέψτε με δεν θα έχουν μια χαλαρότητα, ένα κέφι ας το πούμε, θα είναι ήδη αρκετά σφιγμένοι λόγω του ποσού που δώσαν.
Με εκτίμηση...

I'm curious to see whether they will grace me with a reply.

The Cape May & Nina

Just some pics from the show the other day, the Cape May were great and Nina too...shame I cant say the same for the two Greek bands that opened the show.

Spring Fling

(photo by Kate Kunch)

Jolie Holland is my latest obsession. With a voice often likened to Billie Holiday, she fulfills all of my americana, folk, blues needs and dreams all at the same time! I simply cannot stop listening to Old Fashion Morphine from the Escondida album and I am so anxious to go home after work and listen to her latest release, Springtime Can Kill You, again from ANT1 records. I was reading about her on American Songwriter and Filter Magazine and I was suprised to hear that she can neither read nor write music and is entirely self-taught. Check her out on MySpace too.

The Cinematic Orchestra

Clip from their live performance on the 18th Nov. 2006, in Athens. The place was ultra-packed, sold out show...

Knight Riders Opening

Marita & Lilly at the exhibition entrance, in front of Kaimax Creative Industries graphics

There were some technical difficulties at first but still I found these pixeled "wrong" images quite interesting

The "correct" images

Images and video from last Thursday's opening of the Knight Riders. Photographer - video engineer Maria Mitzali, artist Alexander Mistriotis and musician Spyros Moschoutis have created an audio-visual installation of the Greek landscape, from images and sounds they have gathered from their wanderings all over Greece. It's on until 18/11/2006 (19.00-23.00 pm) in a very cool industrial building, Kiriadon str. 16-22 Kato Petralona, Athens.

Never letting go of BPB...

Listen to BPB sing along with the bewitching Dawn McCarthy (of Faun Fables), on the new album's 2nd track, Strange Form of Life...

Diggin' The Oohlas today

The Oohlas - Gone.mp3

His Majesty - Nick Cave

Once again, a fu**ing amazing performance, last night at Lycabettus theatre in Athens.

Cold War Kids

Hang Me Up To Dry Video - Don't miss CWK's first full length album "Robbers & Cowards", due for release Oct. 10th, 2006.

Athens' little treasures

I was walking past Art Rat early this morning. It's one of the various small record stores in the centre still remaining faithfull to vinyl like Art Nouveau, Vinyl Microstore etc. The Rat sells mostly underground music from the 60's-90's, on Z. Pigis 48. I just love these places, they have a very homey feeling and "transport" me to London or NYC...

M. Ward - The new troubadour

Matt Ward, a timeless folk-rocker, from Portland – Oregon, who at times may sound like Tom Waits, Johnny Cash or Nick Drake, but still plays and sings in his own eccentric, authentic perspective, is releasing his new album, Post War, on August 22nd, and here’s a sweet glimpse of it:

Chinese Translation - mp3

Neverending stories

I was going through some of my really old CD's and I stumbled upon Buffalo Springfield's first album. It felt kind of weird listening to the classic "For What It's Worth" because despite the fact that this song was written way back in 1966, during the Sunset Strip riots, it could be written for times like ours, see Israel - Lebanon conflict:

"There's somethin' happenin' here; what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there tellin' me I got to beware
Think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's goin' down..."

Just click on the title and download for your listening pleasure - and remember to rock on.

For my father

One of my closest friends happened to send me this beautiful song by José González a few days ago and the moment I heard it I realized why Chloe send it. So here goes, I uploaded it, for all of us who have lost someone truly wonderful.

Hints
while the crowd is waiting for the final kiss
the one which allows them to sleep well
we walk along the wrong path
the one which leed us to our own blessed

we need hints
before we get tired
but we need hints
before we get tired
now we need hints
before we loose pace
now we need a hint to know we´re on the right track

we need hints
before we get tired
but we need hints
before we get tired
now we need speed
before we loose pace
now we need a hint to know we´re on the right track

Mouse on Mars @ Synch

Synch Part II

Spatial Sounds

Mouse on Mars
The Chap
Boogying @ Afrika's set
Afrika Bambaataa
Synch's football squad

Dutch Colony: Edwin van der Heide's LSP1 show

Later today I'm gonna post the video from Marnix de Nijs & Edwin van der Heide's engine-powered installation: a speaker mounted on a rotating arm, scanning the surrounding space for visitors via a high-speed distance-measuring sensor, creating a spatial depiction of the space, continuously changing, rather similar to traditional radar. Spatial Sounds (100dB at 100km/h) detected visitors immediately. The installation reacts in both a musical and a gestural way. When the speaker is pointing at someone, it will generate a specific sound. Different locations in the space represent different sounds, as does the distance of the visitors to the rotating arm.The rotating arm itself can move up to a speed of 100km/h, making it difficult for the viewer to come too close.

Very interesting stuff.

K. Bhta - Transformations performance @ Synch