woensdag 31 december 2008

As Tears Go By...

This year goes by...

Damn what a year 2008 was. I got a sort of degree for school, so I can continue my study, I started drinking again, saw some amazing concerts and met some amazing new friends.

2008 was also the year that I cried for the first time since my grandma died, that we smashed a bar in Horst at a Nightstick Justice gig, we saw one of my favourite hardcore bands: Justice playing their last gig and saw one of my best friends leaving for Australia for 2 years.

2008 ended with some stupid stuff yesterday but hopefully tonight will end this year in style, going to some stupid party with some friends...

Hopefully 2009 will be a lot better...

zaterdag 27 december 2008

GUITAR HEROES #2: Johnny Marr


My favourite guitarplayer from by far my favourite band ever.
I remember I heard the Smiths for the first time on a tv show called: "Dawsons Creek" and totally fell in love with Marr's guitarplaying in combination with Morrissey's lyrics and singing.

I guess Johnny Marr is often underrated when is spoken about the Smiths, ok Morrissey' s lyrics are from a level that no other artist has ever reached, but they are surely becoming stronger due Marr's insane melodic guitarpicking, a sort of guitarplaying most guitarplayers can't play very well.

Aside from Marr's insane melodic guitarplaying is the fact that he is one of the coolest looking guitarplayers ever! I hate leather and I hate smoking but when mister Marr does it it looks amazingly cool!

A sad thing about Johnny Marr is that he never really had a band were he could show his skills since the Smiths, he should be guitarpicking again!

vrijdag 26 december 2008

Times are A-changin'

The fact that I don't call myself straight edge anymore after 11 years, has nothing to do with the way I look at the world and judge it, it has to do with the fact that it felt more and more like a limitation instead of an ideal...

personal choice...again!

woensdag 24 december 2008

GUITAR HEROES #1: J. Mascis


I wanted to start an article about 5 of my favourite guitarplayers in no particular order, and why I love them so much...

The first one is about J. Mascis famous for his work with Dinosaur JR.
Dinosaur Jr. was always one of those bands I knew by name but never really checked out, till a couple of years ago when the album: "Beyond" was released and I totally got into this band.
Not long after that I saw them live and got blown away by J. Mascis' guitarplaying, so hard and chaotic! Earplugs were necesarry during their set, for sure!

Normally I am no fan of big solo's but when J. Mascis starts playing a solo, I wished it would last for hours! I can go on about how awesome and authentic is guitarplaying is but you should check out for yourself:

Morrissey #2

FUCK YEAH SEEMS LIKE I GOT TICKETS FOR THE ROTTERDAM SHOW

SIKED!

Sleepovers

Totally fucking ROCK! Yesterday I got this phonecall at my work from one of my best friends: Cat, she asked me if I would like to come over to hang around a bit. Well first I had to buy some things in the centre of Utrecht and after that I would come over.
I hadn't planned to sleepover because I had to clean up my room the day after before I had to go to work and towards my parents, but like always she talked me into it and I stayed over.
We talked till half past 5 in the morning till I really had to catch some sleep because I wanted to get up early.
But enough about yesterday...this post is all about sleepovers with best friends, how they are always awesome, talking till late, watching a lot of movies and eating too much haha.

Can't wait till the next sleepover.

Lost Wisdom (is a quiet echo)


When I started my weblog just a small week ago I was totally getting into this new record.
When I first listened to the opening song from the "Lost Wisdom" record bij Mount Eerie, they lyrics just kept haunting in my head.


"with one hand in the water running cold and clear
fog obliterates the morning and i don't know where i am
the heart is pounding and you are always on my mind
lost wisdom
is a quiet echo
lost wisdom
a boulder under the house
i used to know you
now i don't"


After two weeks I'm totally in love with this record, it's the perfect soundtrack for the winter, minimalistic accoustic music with beautifull sung lyrics by a men's and woman's voice, check it out!

Like you have noticed the name from my weblog came from the opening song from "Lost Wisdom".

maandag 22 december 2008

This is England

A movie about a young boy called: "Shaun" who lives in one of the desolated cities in England in the 80's. Shaun has a troubled youth since his father died in war and he gets bullied at school. One day Shaun gets home from school and walks into a group of skinheads, led by a skinhead called: "Woody", he directly takes Shaun under his wing and Shaun becomes a skinhead.
After some time Woody's friend Combo gets out of prison and seemed to have got really rightwinged since he stayed in prison for 3 years and directly takes over control in the group of skinheads, at this moment Shaun chooses to become friends with Combo and shares a lot of his ideas.
At the end...well I ain't gonna tell anything about the end.
"This is England" is a very good movie that really catches that desolated atmosphere from the 80's when a lot of people were unemployed and very unhappy with Thatcher in control.
It's a little bit like American History X in a more raw and realistic kinda way.

The movie ends with a nice Smiths cover!

The Little Things


FUCK FUCK FUCK! That's what I thought when the Morrissey show in Rotterdam was sold out in just a couple of hours.
Damn I was so fucking siked to see Morrissey for the fourth time in just a couple of years. I was a little less siked when I heard the pre sale started last thursday, a couple of days before I got my paycheck. So with the information that I had no money for the next couple of days in the back of my head I hoped that the show didn't get sold out in the next couple of days, well it did! FUCK FUCK FUCK! I am still angry about the fact I didn' t get tickets!
My last hope is that somebody has secretly bought tickets for my birthday (this happened with a Bruce Springsteen show in 2004), or else I will be forced to buy a ticket for fucking 90 euro's from one of those fuckfaces that buy tickets to get lots of profit through insane prices...there is no other option!

THIS SHOW CAN'T GO ON WITHOUT ME!

zondag 21 december 2008

Union Town

Yesterday I went to this gig in a small village next to the place my parents live, and I went to see The Real Danger (check them out) and Union Town, the second to last band that played was Union Town.
I was already a fan of their shows and 2 records (a demo 7" and 12") so I was pretty stoked to see them live again since it was some time ago I saw them.
Well that night yesterday they played in my eyes one of their coolest shows allthough the drummer said that they didn't played that well. The drummer was beating so fucking hard on his drumkit and their guitarplayer was rocking it hard, I guess everybody that didn't know them was amazed by their performance.
Union Town is a Dutch band that plays hardcore/indie in the vein of the old DC bands like Embrace, Rites of Spring and Ignition, they just released a cd/lp on Powered Records so check that out!

Saturday=Youth

Another late entry in my yearlist (yeah I have to update my list below). When I traveled back from the Tindersticks concert Wouter got his Ipod and he let me hear some albums he was into the last couple of weeks. One of those bands was M83, which I never heard of...
So the next day I checked out their new record and was amazed by it, M83 reminded me of My Bloody Valentine but more electronic and new wave (think of Sisters of Mercy) and less noisy.
Check out their new record: "Saturday=Youth".

Here is one of my favourite tracks of the record:

zaterdag 20 december 2008

A Skin Too Few

I remember I got introduced to Nick Drake's music at my first college year in Utrecht by one of my teachers and was directly moved by Nick's story, lyrics and guitarplaying.
I started listening every now and then to Nick's 3 albums and got really moved by his music.
Last summer I went to this recordshop in Venlo and saw this boxset featuring Nick's 3 Lp's and a documentary about his life. Obviously I bought the boxset and went home to listen more and more to the 3 records that were included in the boxset. Since 3 weeks ago when I had a girl to visit who wanted to shut down the tv and listen to Nick Drake records I rediscovered Nick Drake, and again I started to listen to it almost every day.
Yesterday I went to my parents and remembered the documentary that came with the boxset and noticed that I never really watched it, so I stepped into the train, got my computer out and watched the documentary, and again I got moved by Nick's story, it was a little short but very moving documentary with some really beautiful landscape views that really fits Nick's music. Well I know that documentary is only included in the vinyl boxset so if you want to see it I posted some Youtube links towards it.

Watch it and get moved by the story of one of my favourite singer-songwriters of all time:









vrijdag 19 december 2008

I Wished Dreams Came True

WTF! I just woke up half an hour ago and had the weirdest and hardest dream.
I dreamt I was at a hardcore festival in the United States and hanging around with some friends and I was waiting for one of my favourite NY bands to do a reunion, when they came on stage EVERYBODY started moshing, fucking hell why don't dreams come true.

They started their set with the following song, one of the hardest hardcore songs ever!

donderdag 18 december 2008

Yearlist 2008

1) Fucked Up / The Chemistry of Common Life

2) The Gaslight Anthem / The '59 Sound

3) Ryan Adams + the Cardinals / Cardinology

4) Bon Iver / For Emma, Forever Go

5) Fleet Foxes / Fleet Foxes

6) Tindersticks / Hungry Saw

7) Sigur Ros / Meo Suo....

8) Woven Hand / Ten Stones

9) Mgmt / Oracular Spectacular

10) Port 'o Brien / All We Could Do Was Sing

11) Vampire Weekend /Vampire Weekend

12) The Last Shadow Puppets / The Age of ....

13) The Welcome Wagon / Welcome to the Welcome Wagon

14) R.E.M. / Accelerate

15) The Cure / 4:13 Dream

16) Black Mountain / In the Future

17) British Sea Power / Do You Like Rock Music?

18) Tenement Kids / We've All Been Down

19) Have Heart / Songs To Scream At The Sun

20) White Rabbits / White Rabbits

21) M83 / Saturday=Youth

22) Mount Eerie / Lost Wisdom

23) Union Town / Union Town

Hope There' s Someone

That will arrange me some free tickets towards the Antony and The Johnsons show next year in Eindhoven.

Yesterday after a fucked up day with lots of traveling and school I got late at my work and checked my e-mail.
When I opened an e-mail from one of my best friends I couldn't believe my eyes, Antony and the Johnsons were coming over on tour while I had been talking about it for a few weeks (that I hoped they would do an Euro tour). The Bad news in the e-mail was that the tickets would cost 69 euro while the show in Bruxelles costs 40 euros.

So the plan is to do a roadtrip with Wouter towards Bruxelles, watch Antony there, hang around for the weekend and travel back...

SIKED

check out my favourite song by Antony and the Johnsons, you'll love it or hate it

Tiny Tears Make Up an Ocean

The last week of April last year, was a little a fucked up week, I was switching a little too fast from happiness towards sadness I guess. Well the thing I remembered was that on queensday I got really emotional after listening to some Tindersticks records, and guess what? that same week I got tickets to see the Tindersticks live in Utrecht.

Now a few months later, I am doing well and again I got tickets for a Tindersticks show.

Again I got touched by the music and lyrics by Stuart Staples and his Tindersticks, but it is weird that sometimes music and memories go hand in hand and don't want to let eachother go.

Here some videos I made during their set:



Let's Start Today

It' s been a few months...even years I guess since I put out my last issue of "Put it Aside" fanzine. I always liked to speak my mind and stay active by releasing fanzines, but since "Put it Aside" was put on a hiatus I figured out that I missed a platform to speak my mind.
So the reason why I am starting this blog is simply because the motivation to start a fanzine on a short notice is pretty low and by this platform I can still write about the things I love or hate.
Well that's it for my first little writing,

enjoy