In the universally challenged "Currently listening to..."-series, today we feature the Lowlands 2005 performance by Vive La Fête, which can be listened to on 3voor12. Not that I have really much to say about it: it's just very decent electronic music which is fun to listen to.
The reason I'm mentioning it here is that, in order to get it on my MP3 player in a decent fashion, I split up the complete concert, and spent some time finding out what all the songs were called. Which wasn't that easy, either, given that the lyrics are in French, and many lyrics of songs were nowhere to be found. Anyway, I collected the following setlist for Vive la Fête at Lowlands 2005:
1. Intro
2. Nuit Blanche
3. Mon Dieu
4. Hot Shot
5. Schwarzkopf
6. Machine Sublime
7. Petite Putain
8. La Verité
9. Liberté
10. Assez
11. Maquillage
12. Jaloux
13. Noir Désir
14. Outro
15. 2005
16. Banana Split
17. Real Wild Child
If you want some small recommendations, I'd say Liberté and Noir Désir are pretty nice. The latter song is also featured as a video on 3voor12, but only the first 5 minutes of it; the song actually continues for 4 minutes of mainly screaming, which is quite cool.
Posted at 19:16 - [/music/listening] - permanent link
![[Mr Oizo - Moustache (half a scissor)]](../images/oizo.jpg)
In the mostly defunct "Currently Listening To" series, today we feature Moustache (half a scissor), the new album by Mr. Oizo.
Most (some?) people will still remember Mr. Oizo from the famous 1999 Levi's commercials in which the song "Flat beat" and the yellow puppet figure "Mr. Oizo" were featured. What most people don't know however, is that in the same year, Mr. Oizo (a pseudonym for Quentin Dupieux, the producer behind the commercial) also released an album called Analog Worms Attack. In fact I didn't know either, until some years ago I bought it for a euro or so in some obscure shop in the Czech Republic. It's sort of very minimalistic electronic techno-ish music, but in a very strange kind of way.
Anyway, now after 6 years, Quentin Dupieux managed to pull another 30 minutes of strange techno together. The album doesn't seem to be out yet, but it is featured on the 3voor12 luisterpaal this week, so anyone can listen to it which is quite nice. I haven't finished listening to it (currently at track 14, calld "1$44"), but the first impression is that the second album is even stranger than the first. While the first had tracks that were clearly recognizable as songs, even with some repeating parts in it, any such structure seems to be missing from this new disc. Also, it has the effect of making me feel slightly sick when listening intently to it. I do seem to like it though, so I would advise anyone to take a listen to it.
Posted at 22:16 - [/music/listening] - permanent link
In the mind-staggering "Currently Listening To"-series, today we feature the Citizen EP by a band called Home Video.
The band recently had a single in the Dutch alternate charts, Kink FM's Outlaw 41, with "In a submarine", and their recent performance at the Bazar Curieux, a smaller Dutch festival, was described on 3voor12 like this (article also contains link to online stream of the concert, titled "Radiohead clone as good as example"):
Home Video will probably always be associated with Radiohead, which is partly deserved. Because despide borrowing from them, Home Video secretly is much better.
Well, obviously, as a Radiohead fan, I could hardly leave this alone, so I listened to the concert, and when I found the CD in my local record store a few days ago, I bought the EP.
If you think Radiohead, it's definitely the Kid A Radiohead we're hearing on this EP. The style could be described as electronic pop, but there's no Kid A song that the EP directly reminds you of. We are seeing the good old cryptic texts, though in their process of becoming a Radiohead clone, Home Video got lost somewhere along the line, meaning their texts are about alienation, but they're still a bit too understandable. Example is the song "Citizen":
i have not seen horrible things / that must mean the're not happeningNot only is it crystal-clear what this text is about, but it even rhymes, for goodness sake!
the world is a dream / as seen on tv / i'm only scared when they tell me to be / the path of my life / is too big to see / i take tiny steps / when sugested to me
The voice of the singer does seem right like Thom's, and the two-voiced effect they put in their songs does bring back good memories. But it's the booklet artwork that completely does it: their use of extra-thick black paper with white pencil pictures of strange people makes you think they hired Stanley Donwood himself.
Still, the songs of the album are of way too consistent quality. Where each Radiohead album has week tracks (Treefingers!) as well as good ones, this EP only has pretty good tracks, though probably more in the background-sense than to really actively listen to. Perfect for relaxation, and never boring (and that's pretty good for this kind of music).
In conclusion, as a Radiohead clone, Home Video still has a way to go, but as a band by itself, they're definitely on the right track. Their neat artwork and nice songs makes me eager to hear their complete CD when it's released, because the 20 minutes of the Citizen EP is a bit short...
Posted at 22:02 - [/music/listening] - permanent link
As an update to yesterday's story, BOL.com just sent an e-mail stating the item has been sent and should arrive shortly. Way cool!
Update (23-09) I actually received the CD's today! Whoa!
Posted at 23:57 - [/music] - permanent link
You may remember that earlier on, I wrote enthusiastically about the Free Record Shop site, at which I, after looking through all of Leeuwarden's record stores for cheap copies, I ordered two Radiohead CD's:
I ended up buying both at Freerecordshop.nl [at 01.09], which was a pretty painless process (...), and they even had an action causing the two CD's to actually cost €15 together. If you know what you want, for pretty popular, older CD's, in conclusion, the internet is the way to go.
But.
The Free Record Shop mentioned a probably shipping date of two to five working days, depending on whether the article was in stock. After two days, on 03.09, I received a message stating both Cd's were "ordered" by the Free Record shop:
While processing all orders of this article, we unfortunately found that today's available stock of the article is insufficient to satisfy all orders, which we process daily on order of arrival, at one time.Okay, that's unfortunate, but no reason for panic: the article could still arrive in time. But it didn't. After ten days, on 11.09, I received the following message:
Unfortunately, we have to tell you that (part of) your order, numbered xxxxx, has been delayed.The message promised the article would be re-ordered and should arrive in a few days though. And, today, another ten days later on 21.09, I received the same message again...
Though I'm not particularly angry the Free Record Shop, it does seem that the communication between the FRS and the companies it ships from could be improved a lot, so that the FRS can actually give accurate information on how long an article is going to ship. And whether it is going to ship at all, actually, because now on the FRS website, it is mentioned that the Amnesiac CD is no longer available, so apparently they did get some sign from their shipping companies that the CD is not available anymore.
Anyway, so I ordered the CD's today at BOL.com, which mentioned a shipping time of two to three working days, suggesting they do have the items in stock since some other items have much higher shipping times mentioned. It's costing me 5 euro plus shipping more than ordering at FRS, but I have good hope I will finally receive the CDs this week.
Which is a bit of a pity, because the concept of ordering online and getting the articles at a nearby shop could have been a very nice one. Though the question remains what items are actually shippable, the FRS does have a nice large online catalogue that's definitely worth browsing about.
Posted at 21:25 - [/music] - permanent link
Back from my holiday in the Czech Republic now. In one of the main shopping streets of the city (dunno about the name - it ends at a large museum building near the main train station), there was a music store just called "Music Store" which I normally wouldn't have entered except they played a Radiohead record when I walked past it, so I had to take a look. Pretty neat store.
The interesting thing was that they had some 10 Radiohead records, only one of them being a regular studio album: the rest of it was live CD's and compilations I had never even heared of, including some really neat stuff such as the Lost treasures collection of B-sides. Didn't buy anything though -- once you start collecting that stuff, I fear there's no stopping it.
This did make me question what Radiohead records are available in my hown town, Leeuwarden, so today I did a bit of bicycling between Leeuwarden's record stores to do a bit of a comparative research. I looked in the Yellow Pages for all record stores in the city, added a warehouse and a general electronics store to the list, and checked what Radiohead items they had in stock (well, I checked for some other things as well, but my main mission here was to compare the availability of Radiohead records only). The main goal was to find cheap copies of Kid A and Amnesiac, the two Radiohead albums I still need to buy. Both are available for € 10 on Freerecordshop.nl, so the goal would be to find the two albums at a cheaper price. Here's the results:
- Music Store, Wirdumerdijk 28 - Three CD's: I Might Be Wrong for €15, Kid A for €18 and Amnesiac for €24. Both the albums were there, but buying them both would cost me €42, double the target amount.
- Free Record Shop, Zaailand 123 - The Bends and OK Computer at €20; Hail To The Thief at €22. Both CD's I need not there, though available on their web site.
- Vroom & Dreesman, Nieuwestad - My Iron Lung at €10, I Might Be Wrong at €18, Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief at €22. No Kid A though.
- Joan Records, Westersingel 52 - Without this being mentioned on the Yellow Pages, this is not actually a record store but rather some kind of CD distributor. The fact that it is housed in a corporate flat directly raised some doubts, but on the inside it became clear that they were some kind of classical music distributor. I accidentally overheared a discussion about the gross margins another company selling CD's for €1.16, so cheap classical CD's are probably their main activity. No Radiohead CD's to be found though.
- Ear & Eye, Bilgaardspassage 56 - Replaced by an opticien. Both my non-city centre addresses thus proved fake.
- De Poort, Voorstreek 6 - All 6 albums except Amnesiac in the €18-€22 price range; Com Lag available for €23.
- King Kong Records, Voorstreek 11 - Kid A for €12, Com Lag for €20, OK Computer for €17, My Iron Lung for €10, the Bends for €20, the 2+2=5 DVD-single for €6,50, Hail to the Thief on vinyl for €22 (way cool!).
- Deja Vu, Slotmakersstraat 1a - As the name actually suggest, a second-hand store, and open only on Thursday to Saturday anyway so I couldn't look.
- Media Markt, De Centrale - All 6 albums except OK Computer but with I Might Be Wrong in the €14-€18 range.
- B v/d Akker, Nieuwestad 39 - I Might Be Wrong, The Bends, Kid A, Amnesiac and My Iron Lung in the €18-€23 range; Com Lag for €27.
- Black Marker, Voorstreek - Not mentioned on the Yellow Pages being pretty new. Closed, but last time I checked they didn't have any Radiohead items in stock anyway, being more of a cheap leftovers shop.
To conclude things, no record shop sold the records I wanted anywhere near the target price of €10, except for the €12 price of Kid A at King Kong. I ended up buying both at Freerecordshop.nl, which was a pretty painless process (except for a silly error causing the registration not to work with Firefox - I had to reboot and use Internet Explurer -- Ugh!), and they even had an action causing the two CD's to actually cost €15 together. If you know what you want, for pretty popular, older CD's, in conclusion, the internet is the way to go -- if you live in Leeuwarden, anyway :)
Posted at 23:42 - [/music] - permanent link
Finally succeeded in downloading the Rock am Ring video of Muse, so I played a bit of Where's Wally on it. Since I and Sander were pretty much up front, I guess we should be visible in multiple camera shots, but a quick look revealed one at last.
Todays assignment: Where's Wally? There's Wally!
Posted at 01:06 - [/music] - permanent link
![[Pooier 666 Rules, You Suck Balls]](../images/pooier666rules.jpg)
Kind of sad actually that I am so quick to find out, but hondeneuker just posted this a few days ago on the Pooier 666 guestbook:
Put the full demo ina zip and is downloadableDo it! Do it now! The whole thing is like 10 minutes in total. Didn't listen to all of it yet, but it does seem to have the typical Pooier 666 sound to it :) I mentioned the Pooiers several times earlier.
Posted at 23:25 - [/music] - permanent link
![[Hail to the Thief]](../images/httt.jpg)
Listened to my recently purchased copy of Hail to the Thief, and I found out the official version was different from the one I had been listening to all the time! Maked sense, because I had downloaded it before the actual release, so I probably had an old leaked version. OTOH, the same version also seems to have been in a Radiohead collection I downloaded, so I was quite surprised... No revolutionary changes, most are just very subtle, but noticable nonetheless. Can't say which version is better though.
Anyway, another reason to want to rip the album, which the copyright protection tries to prevent me from. Which is ridiculous from today onward since I own the CD now... Luckily, the CDDA Paranoia package for Unix seems to be ripping through the thing quite well (and it's more than halfway through now...). For some odd reason, my usual ripping package, GRIP, which uses paranoia, seems to choke at the CD, but then again this might be something with the hardware because I didn't try other CD's, but doing paranoia from the command line works just fine:
cdparanoia -sB cdparanoia -vsQ
The first command gives a listing, the second one does the actual ripping. So, if you own the CD and you'd like to have the MP3's, I'd be glad to share them with you... what a waste of time copyright protection is.
Posted at 22:05 - [/music] - permanent link
Stumbled across two cheapishly priced Radiohead CD's today at the Mediamarkt: Hail to the Thief for 8 euro, and Com Lag for 18 euro (though that is admittedly not that cheap I was going to buy it anyway and the other shop had it for 20 euro). So I bought them, at once doubling my Radiohead collection (previously only OK Computer and Meeting People is Easy). Going to buy Kid A soon probably, too.
One of the main reasons I wanted Com Lag (previously featured in Currently Listening To) since I saw it is that the cover art is really brilliant. More info here. The fact that it was originally a Japan release (the front says: "This compilation is for Japan") also causes this: the booklet has Japanese song texts and a Japanese back paper, which is quite a funny effect. I'm going to have a bit of a closer look when I'm in the train back home.
Also stumbled around what is called "the holy grail of Radiohead bootlegs": Towering above the Rest, a 10-CD set filled with live tracks and B-sides. Torrent available, obviously. Anyway, I'm really wanting to have this thing now. Also, there's some FTP site which has the first two CD's, from which I downloaded the full version of Life in a Glass House, which has a terrific jazzy intro, so I'm really looking forward to listening to the rest of the 10 CD's.
A bit of a less joyful experience was the fact that my copy of Hail to the Thief was copy-protected! Quite a disappointment, especially given the fact that you'd expect Radiohead of all bands to be against this kind of thing. Anyway, the consequence is that the CD doesn't play under Linux (tried it with kscd only though), and tries to install some trashy player under Windows. This kind of thing really forces you to download the album. For me, being able to listen to the thing on my MP3 player is just an absolute requirement for the CD to be of much use. I mean, what are these no-dicks at EMI thinking? I'm sorry, but the whole pointlessness of it all just makes me a bit angry. So now I would have to waste my time downloading an album off the internet when I just legally purchased it? I mean, it's not like this copy protection thingy is going to stop people copying it, now is it? Rather the reverse, I'd say: sort of makes you want to make tons of copies of the CD and throw them at random people in a shopping mall...
That felt good.
In unrelated news, I cleaned my keyboard a week ago or so, but in the process I broke my left CTRL key, which is quite irritating, and my 'm' key is working a lot worse now as well, I really have to hit it in the middle to make anything come out of it. So if some m's are missing, you know why...
Posted at 16:08 - [/music] - permanent link