Generosidade alheia. É nisso que a viagem do músico Tjerk Ridder vai depender. Esse holandês de Utrecht saiu de sua cidade natal no início de janeiro para cruzar a Europa a bordo de um trailer. E nada mais. Ele vai ter que contar com caronas (ou melhor, reboques) de terceiros para chegar até a Turquia, seu destino final - pelo menos esse é o plano inicial. Well, ele também conta com alguns patrocinadores e doações.
A moral da história é justamente mostrar que a gente precisa uns dos outros para atingir nossos objetivos nessa vida. Ridder também adaptou seu trailer para que fosse mais eco-friendly: instalou painéis solares que são fonte de energia para seu telefone e lap top - agora, onde ele vai ter tanto sol no norte europeu em plano inverno eu não sei.
Durante a viagem, ele compõe músicas baseadas nas experiências que vai vivendo: perrengues, intercâmbios culturais e gentilezas.
A gente pode acompanhar a aventura pelo seu twitter e através de imagens no flick.r.
Ui. Decepcionante. A Dazed and Confused fez um auê sobre o videoclipe, mas vamos combinar que essa coreografia... nada a ver com ela, né?
O figurino não está mal, mas também não muito inovador. Apostou pelos hypes bem batidos: luvinha à la Lady Gaga, body à la Beyoncé, ombreiras marcadas que estão por todos os blogs fashionistas mundo afora. Diz a stylist Aldene Johnson, que queriam um look com um "pop-meets-fashion edge". Hum. Só ficou a impressão de que ela couldn't pull it off.
Continuo sendo fã, só que agora... semi-desencantada.
Quando ouvi “Blue Skies” de The First Days of Spring, minha reação foi a mesma de quando ouvi Quatro, dos Los Hermanos. Estranhei tanta lentidão. Cadê a alegria do álbum anterior? Mas, assim como los brasileños, esses inglesinhos sabem o que fazem. Não demorou muito para perceber que a suposta tristeza é na verdade uma melancolia esperançosa – aquela saudade doce, linda.
The First Days of Spring é diferente, sim, de Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down. E mais forte. A trilogia formada por “Instrumental#1”, “Love Of An Orchestra” e “Instrumental II” é, no mínimo, comovente. O disco fala de alguém tentando superar um coração partido (Charlie Fink se separou de Laura Marling, sabia? Além de namorada, ela fazia alguns vocais).
O folk-blues “My Broken Heart” diz tudo (”I saw my world cave in”) e Blue Skies diz mais um pouco: “This is a song for anyone who can’t get out of bed/I’ll do anything to be happy/Oh ’cause blue skies are coming/but I know it’s hard”. É deixar a lagriminha rolar no canto do olho pra depois enxugá-la.
O trailer do filme (sim, tem um) já pode ser visto no website oficial do grupo. E aqui ó:
Ela já é a queridinha de SPIN, Pitchfork Media e outras revistas cool, além de blogueiros e fashionistas.
Ladies and gentlemen, Lissy Trullie, a nova musa à la Nico/Moss/Gaga/Deyn, diretamente de NYC, que já está dando o que falar antes mesmo de lançar seu primeiro álbum.
Rock lo-fi bem honesto e potente, chapéuzinho preto e muita, mas muita atitude. Eu já sou fã.
O novo da Lily Allen faz uma reflexão bem legalzitcha sobre nós, meninas/mulheres de nearly 30 que às vezes nos olhamos no espelho e ainda lembramos de como era ter 22. E fazemos aquele balanço rápido de vida: onde estamos? Como chegamos até aqui?
A música fala de uma mulher não totalmente realizada, com uma carreira mais ou menos e em busca de um namorado (but she only gets one-night stands).
Por um lado me identifiquei, pois realmente tenho um allright job (ou tinha, porque agora são só freelas) mas não chega a ser uma carreira. E sim, quando tinha 22 esperava estar num lugar melhor à beira dos trinta. Por outro, minhas one night stands acabaram e, ao contrário do que sugere a letra, não dependo de um príncipe encantado que me ponha em seus ombros. (Aliás, nenhuma mulher deveria depender disso pra ser feliz, né?)
Anyway, também não concordo plenamente que a sociedade diz a nós quase-trintonas que não há nada o que fazer e que nossas vidas acabaram. Tá certo que ainda nos perguntam quando vai rolar o casamento, quando vamos comprar casa, essas pressões chatas.
Mas, ah, we are doing all that we can, aren't we?
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The new Lily Allen's video talks about us, nearly-30 women who sometimes look at ourselves on the mirror and remember how it was when we were 22. And then we stop for a moment to ask ourselves: where am I? How did I get here?
The song depicts this women that doesn't feel entirely satisfied, that has a mediocre carreer and wants a boyfriend (but she only gets one-night stands).
I kind of saw myself on her shoes, since I have an alright job (well, just "ok" freelance jobs now), but it's not really a carreer. And honestly, when I was 22 I thought I'd be doing better by now.
On the other hand, my one-night stands are over, and, opposite to what the lyrics suggest, I don't depend on a prince charming picking me up and putting me over his shoulders.
(Actually no woman should depend on that to be happy, right?)
Anyway, I also disagree that society says that there's nothing to say and that our lives are over. Although... people still ask us when we are going to get married and when we are going to buy a house and those annoying stuff.
But, hey, we are doing all that we can, aren't we?
Esse veideoclpe kate bushiano é 'Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)', do novo álbum "Lungs", Florence and The Machine. Que, por sinal, tá demais. Amei a arte, sou fã da música e me encanta o cabelo dela.
A GO MAG é minha bíblia da música por aqui. Uma revista independente, só sobre musica, sempre buscando revelar artistas novos, descobrir (ou inventar) cenas, estar por dentro da vanguarda, seja onde esteja: no rock, no pop, no jazz, na eletrônica, na Espanha, na Inglaterra, na Dinamarca ou no pólo norte. Mas sempre independente. Diferente de muitas publicações cool de hoje, a Go Mag não é revista de imagem. Aposta no texto. Muito texto. E de qualidade. Isso tem lá suas vantagens e desvantagens, mas isso a gente pode discutir em outro post.
No seu número 100 (que tá cheio de preciosidades, dando uma aula de criatividade em números comemorativos que encontramos por aí) traz um mapa da música independente do século XXI através de 20 discos indispensáveis. Na reportagem, duas bandas que marcaram uma cena, mais 3 discos de outras bandas que também merecem destaque.
ROCK DANÇANTE The Strokes e Franz Ferdinand + "Elephant", de The White Stripes "LCD Soundsystem", de LCD Soundsystem "Silent Alarm", de Bloc Party
ELETRÔNICA DE MASSAS Daft Punk e Justice + "1", de Fischerspooner "As heard on the radio Soulwax pat. 2", de 2 Many DJs "Crystal Castles", de Crystal Castles
HIP HOP Jay Z e Kanye West + "The Marshak Matters", de Eminem "Stankonia", de Otkast "Donuts", de J Dilla
POP ROCK ÉPICO Sigur Rós e Arcade Fire + "Parachutes", de Coldplay "Want One", de Rufus Wainright "I am a bird now", de Antony and the Johnsons
AMÉRICA Wilco e Fleet Foxes + "American III: Solitarian man", de Johnny Cash "Love yoi just the same", de Centro-Matic "Cassadaga", de Bright Eyes
INDIE POP-ROCK Hood e Animal Collective + "Up in flames", de Manitoba "Akron family", de Akron / Family "Bromst", de Dan Deacon
INTERNET M.I.A. / Diplo e Radiohead + "Vespertine", de Björk "Whatever people say I am, that's what I'm not", de Arctic Monkeys "A ballon called moaning", de The Joy Formidable
CONTINUUM HARDCORE The Streets e Burial + "The don't know", de So Solid Crew "In fine style", de Horsepower Productions "Boy in da Corner", de Disee Rascal
ELETRÔNICA Fennesz e Stars of the Lid + "Insen", de Alva Noto e Ryuichi Sakamoto "The blue notebook", de Marx Richter "Fordlandia", de Jóhann Jóhannsson
INDIE ESPANHOL La Buena Vida e El Guincho + "Todo sigue intacto", de Apeiron "Performance", de Astrud "Cuchillo", de Cuchillo
Clipe da minha mais nova banda preferida (vocês nao acham que ela tem uma voz parecida com a vocalista do The Cranberries?), Florence and The Machine. Dirigido por Tom Beard, essa festa de pierrôs, palhaços e colombinas tem cheiro de algodão doce e gosto de psicodelia.
Remember School of Seven Bells, that i've mentioned before? Well, i'm writing an article about them in portuguese for Noize's next issue and just found out the two vocalists happen to be identical twin sisters. Ooooh, isn't it cute?
So one night I was dreaming about you, Alice, and there were these tiny little tea cups and... oh no, except that was Alessi's Ark tea party. There was an animated horse made of sugar grains aaaaand a bear made of cookies. Actually, I don't know if it was a bear or an owl. And also a... ahnmm... a kitty cat. And she was wearing a beautiful dress. I want the dress. I want the pink sandwiches too. I know! There is jelly in them. Probably made of a very pink fruit like... like... cherry. Yes. Or strawberry. And can I have the cinnamon bunny as well? Please, please, please!
Ok, now I'm in love. I was talking about Bat For Lashes a few posts ago, but then I saw these ladies in my Pitchfork TV marathon evening and BAM! Instantly fell for them. So I google them and guess what? They are opening for Natasha's band durng their tour in UK, next April.
(I wanna be there!)
Listen to all of their songs, but if you don't have much time nor patience to do so, at least listen to: Half Asleep Trance Figure
Quizás la conoces por la canción (y el dulce videoclip) Prescilla. Banda de la multinstrumentalista, cantautora, poeta, y artista visual Natasha Khan, Bat For Lashes fue mi obsesión durante unos dos meses en 2008, cuando telonearon Radiohead en su gira por Europa. Es que me encantó el grupo, su música, su estética y, claro, Natasha y su historia. Por más que intentase entrevistarles para el primer numero de FEW (llamé a Londres, a NYC, fuimos a Madrid hablar con los de EMI music) no había forma de lograrlo. El motivo? Según sus representantes, no estaban interesados en hacer promo en España. Ya.
Me lo tomé con un silencio amargo. Sólo pude verles desde lejos, en el escenario. Y qué sorpresa ver a Natasha en la portada de Dazed and Confused. Ahora, con disco nuevo casi lanzado (Two Suns, en el 6 de Abril) y gira por todo el mundo. Trés cool.
Además de haber sido nominados al Mercury Prize 2007 y al Brit Awards 2008, ganaron elogios de la crítica y fans como Jarvis Cocker, Björk, Devendra Banhart (que en realidad es amigo íntimo de Natasha) y Thom Yorke, por supuesto.
Natasha Khan nació en Inglaterra, pero viajó mucho cuando pequeña. Pasó unos años cuando niña en Paquistán, su padre es de allí. Ahora vive entre Brighton y New York. Empezó su carrera musical tocando el piano, pero hoy toca muchas otras cosas (sus conciertos suelen tener instrumentos poco convencionales). Para que tengas una idea de su excentricidad, parte del álbum Fur and Gold (2006) fue grabado en la floresta.
Le gusta crear su propio universo, siempre con un aura de fantasía, mágica, algo de sueño… todo es transmitido a través de canciones densas y un marcado arte visual. El maquillaje va más allá, se convierte en pintura en la cara. El vestuario que lleva tiene temáticas de la naturaleza (animales, indígenas, etc) y algo de cuentos de hadas. Y es que Natasha mete su dedo artista en todas las etapas del proceso creativo. Ilustra las portadas de sus discos, su web, hace camisetas, expone obras en galerías, colabora con los realizadores de sus videoclips, crea el escenario de las actuaciones en directo.
Y no para ahí. Ya figuró en editoriales de moda de revistas de prestigio y es también la co-productora de sus dos álbumes.
(Ao me dar conta que os meus posts obsessivos compulsivos de videoclipes da Pitchfork TV estavam deixando o Carolinacos arrastado, apelei pros links. É o jeito.)
O que eu mais gostei deste clipe do The Presets foi que se trata de teenagers dançando no Brooklyn e, mesmo assim, nao é street dance e a música nao é hip hop e nao tem ninguém rebolando.
Sou suspeita, minha formaçao de ballet clássico e dança contemporânea - sim, gente, já fui bailarina durante dez anos - ainda deixa buraquinhos que lacrimejam quando vejo espetáculos ou vídeos assim. Nao é lindo? Encantador? Até mais hipnotizante do que as pernas da Beyoncé.
Tá certo que no final do clipe a faísca bailante murcha um pouco, mas já nao importa, os primeiros três quartos matam, nail it. And that's what really matters, porque você olhou até o final.
Seguindo o pseudo-sucesso do meu post anterior (I wonder numa digressao muito maior do que deveria caber em um parentesis: serah que tenho que escrever mais sobre assuntos populares como series de TV pra que as pessoas me leiam ou pelo menos se sintam motivadas a deixar comentarios? Eh, eu gosto de ser lida e de comentarios, pro bem ou pro mal. Leiam e escrevam!) deixo aqui de regalo de Dia de Reyes (que eh quando as criancas espanholas ganham presente) o link do MySpace do Flight of the Conchords.
Minha favorita eh "Bowie". Pra rolar de rir. Tipo: um dia eu quero produzir uma serie como essa. Sonho mesmo. Coracao indie com humor sarcastico e escrachado tambem, musica boa, um que de ridiculo provocador, essas faiscas inteligentes que surpreendem, simplesmente o maximo.
This was published in the August edition of Noize Magazine. Here, the "writer's cut" or unedited version, in english.
And yes, theremust be a lot of mistyped stuff...
Me: Let’s start from the beginning: tell me your names and how the band started.
Aleks: We formed the band in the second year of Uni. All began when Ellen, Neil and Ollie started practicing together, playing around and then gradually others joined one by one. First Tom, then Gareth, then Harriet then I joined finally. It was just something that just happened. Nobody had plans on having a career. We would just get together once a week, played songs, worked towards playing one gig.
Me: What were you studying in Cardiff?
E: I studied journalism, media studies. Harriet, tom and neil did english together.
Me: It must be hard to be a university student and a rock star at the same time. How did the band affected your studies?
A: I think in the second year it wasn’t that intense, coz it wasn’t intense with the uni and it wasn’t intense with the band. We had a couple of gigs here and there so it didn’t really interfere with university work. Then that was the third year, when it got a lot more serious. We all didn’t wanna compromise finishing our degrees in order to have to be on the road all the time. We took a quite long break, actually, about 3 months.
E: yeah, we really couldn’t do anything, cause we were really serious students. (laughs) There was no way we could do both: touring and taking exams.
A: knowing that we were doing gigs in the States, that we wre touring in the summer, that motivated me a lot to do the work I needed.
Me: Why Los Campesinos? How did you come up with this name?
Ellen: Because Neil did Spanish and we were thinking about the name of the band and it just came up. At the time I thought it was rubbish, but I got used to it… there’s no meaning behind it, it’s just because it sounds nice. Then the exclamation mark came in later.
Me: Can you talk about your album “Hold on now, youngster…”?
A: We recorded the album about a year ago now. After a couple of months focusing on uni work we had the chance to go to Canada and work with the producer we had worked before and we wanted hi to produce the album because we felt really comfortable working with him and he had great new ideas. Because it was our first experience in a studio we needed someone who wouldn’t intimidate us, who would be in a friendly basis with and David Newfeld was that person for us. We spent 5 weeks in the studio, working.
E: It was surreal.
A: Yeah, strange, but certainly an experience.
E: I’m really proud of the outcome of it. We like it.
Me: Is it hard to make decision in such a large group of people? Do you have problems with decision making because you are such a big group?
A: It really depends. There are certain things some people have really strong opinions about, but I like to think even though there those different opinions sometimes everyone feels comfortable to say something to someone at least. Especially musically. This is our fisrt album. I don’t think any of us is professional and expert enough to KNOW something is not gonna work. So generally if anyone comes up with a suggestion we would try out and see how it sounds. And if it sounds rubbish, it’s ok to say so.
E: it’s really hard when you are 7 people. It’s good because you get diverse opinion and it’s bad because you get diverse of opinion. Some people are more opinionated, some people are more opinionated, so we try to understand that and appreciate it. It’s just more interesting having more of a group dynamics, specially when spending more time together.
Me: Who writes the lyrics, usually?
E: Gareth. And tom records the demos on the computer and send them to us and then we all have a listen and change things, keep things, leave things and structures. It’s all an organic process.
Me: What do you think about being labelled as TWEE band?
E: I think it’s stupid.
A: I can see maybe why people would initially label us as that without knowing anything about us and our music, or maybe the essential ingredients could potentially be there, but I think it’s a bit just one dimensional to just look at us and tsay something like that. Maybe from live performances and stuff like that . Actually I find difficult to put certain music groups a certain label, cause everyone wants to think description in music journalism like what do they sound like, what labels do they fall under. I guess It’s easy to just group us into something, but at the same time it’s not that one dimension.
E: If you saw a photo of us you could say we are twee, but I don’t think our album is twee, I don’t think live we are twee at all. And when someone says it, it’s like a spiral – everyone starts calling us twee.
Me: I’ve seen that in a couple of concerts, some fans invaded the stage. Does it happen a lot? How do you see it?
A: It depends. Sometimes it’s really exiting, because they are people enthusiastic about your music, but there are different types of stage invaders. We have the one that just wanna have a good time and wanna be a part of the band experience and they’ll make sure they don’t disrupt any musical equipment and then there are the ones who just wanna go on stage…
E: … because they want some attention and then they touch or steal stuff.
Me: Did it happen? Stealing?
A:, yeah, someone took my melody horn at one gig, but they got it back in the end.
E: I’ve had a couple of people coming in stage and kissing me, which I really don’t like. Like, in Amsterdam a couple of teenagers came and kissed me on the cheek and that was cute, cause they are teenagers. But then in America a guy got on stage and kind of kissed me and that was kind of gross cause he was 35 or something and I thought it was inappropriate. And also he came after me in the backstage… that was uughh..
A: I guess this is the kind of danger of putting yourself out there so much, exposing yourself to the public. People feel they’ve got a claim to you.
E: I think there are people who do it with innocence, but some people are just creepy and it pissed me off cause it’s like: you don’t have the right to do that!
Me: What is the importance of playing live for you?
A: I think the live experience when talking about us is certainly important and completely differente from listening to our records, a new energy comes across. When I see bands and I see that happening that is really exciting. There is a certain atmosphere about live gigs. Isn’t it becoming more popular? I read that even though the music industry is kind of dying slowly the live music is the only part of it that is really expanding, because people are realising that that is something they can’t get online, just download for free.
E: doing a gig is extreme in the sense that you can do a gig and you can feel really good or really bad about what what you are doing, depending on your performance or your mood. I’m very genuine, so I can’t pretend I’m enjoying myself if I’m not I the mood.
A: yeah, you’ve got the sexy moody reputation…!
E: Ha ha
A: but don’t you think that playing a live gig can actually improve the way you’re feeling? Like sometimes I shake myself off of a bad mood just when we are on stage. Certain crowds can really lift you.
E: yes, the crowd makes all the difference.
A: And also we can never be happy 24/7 , but that’s a good thing about being 7 of us: there’ always someone who’s really into it and it helps.
E: If one of us is really loving it it can change completely the energy of the stage, cause then everyone is like YEAH!
Me: You’ve been playing in a lot of festivals… how do you like it? What’s the difference between playing in a festival and a regular gig?
E: the food and hospitality!
A: every festival has its own personality. We can go from playing in a massive festival like Glastonbury to tiny festivals like this we played in kent, it was like a kids day out environment. You never know what to expect from each festival, we all enjoy that aspect of it.
Me: Can you name a favourite one?
E: I think that one in Kent is one of my favourite ones so far. We played in this tiny winny tent and the audience was really really good. Playing in Glastonbury is obviously amazing, but you’re playing in this big stage far away from the audience, I feel isolated and that’s strange.
Me: You seem to take very seriously the band project and most of all its identity: you all have Campesinos as a last name and you also have this whole universe surrounding the band (the zine, etc).
E: I like that, we’ve came up with this methaforical or mythological universe. I think it’s really important to have that, an identity that extends beyond the music. It’s important for people to appreciate something else and understand. It’s also about sharing with everyone else and being more accessible to people so they can feel oart of it.
A: I think it was also a way of showing that we have other interests as individuals as well. All of us individually, we are not just about music. We have a variety of hobbies and things we are passionate about. Doing things like writing the zine, even making decisions about artwork and stuff like that lets us project our personalities more on to things we are doing every day, like the band.
Me: What are you major influences?
A.: We listen to a lot of north-american bands, more than average of british people. Bands like Broken Social Scene, Pavement.
E: it’s hard to come up with a band that everyone likes. Recently we´ve been listening to newish bands.
Me: What have you been listening to lately?
A: The Age, Time New Viking…
Me: You guys are playing everywhere, even in Japan! Did you expect such a worldwide success? Isn’t it overwhelming?
E: I don’t feel overwhelmed because I don’t think about it. I’m just appreciating it and not stopping to analyze it, cause if I do I’ll probably go mad.
A: I think we accept it but we didn’t expect it.
Me: I read there is the possibility of adding more people to the band in the future…
E:Yes, it would be nice. Having more instruments, adding more layers…
A: I think 7 is enough but really… we cannot predict. Our rule is never say never!
