Stars of Europe

Last Friday a pretty impressive bunch of artists performed at the Atomium in Brussels for a good cause, Unicef more precisely. Not only was this an excellent way to put this great organisation into the spotlights, there were also quite some musical highlights to enjoy.

My personal favourites of the evening:

* Starsailor, playing their own top hit "Four to the Floor", but also doing a beautiful cover version of U2's "All I want is you. Their singer is simply brilliant.
* Thomas Dutronc, son of Françoise Hardy and Jacques Dutronc, in duet with the legendary Adamo ànd solo.
* Air Traffic, with only 1/2 of the band on stage, but still convincing.
* OMD, because classics never grow old.

Let's just forget about Kate Ryan, Garou and Teatro. Please.

Starsailor - "All I Want Is You" (U2 cover)


Thomas Dutronc - "Jeune, je n'savais rien"

The Faint

The Faint - five lads from Nebraska with quite some temperament - have been around since 1995, but are still as relevant as global warming.
They just released a new album called 'Fasciinatiion', including a brand new single named 'The Geeks Were Right' that proves they are still on top of the electrorock scene, despite the loads of competition that has risen because of the ascendant popularity of the genre (think Late of the Pier or The Whip).
So better put on some songs by these guys, and quick!

Oh, and for the lucky bastards among you that understand Dutch, here is my review of their great gig at the Botanique in Brussels.

The Faint - "The Geeks Were Right"

Egghead boys with thin white legs - they got modified features with software brains. But thats what the girls like - the geeks were right.
You better believe them.

some songs of the previous albums

The Faint - "Glass Danse"


The Faint - "Take Me To The Hospital" (someone's home-made video)


The Faint - "Posed To Death" (another home-made thingy)

Red Light Company

Overcrowded campings made me miss their gig at the Pukkelpop festival, but nevertheless I just know Red Light Company deserve to be mentioned on here.
I got to know them as the support act for Editors in the AB (Brussels), where they effortlessly won the battle of the support acts from Mobius Band (they played a fucking awful set, but Red Light Company would've won anyway).

These five boys - from all over the world (UK, US, Australia, New Zealand and Japan) - have only released one EP so far (With Lights Out EP), but that's enough to make us very curious about their music. Led by singer-guitarist Richard Frenneaux (you'd love him just for his name, and then you haven't even heard his passionated voice - think Brandon Flowers or Win Butler) they already got their hands on a great live reputation and much acclaim for their dramatic and very touching songs. I wonder what their first complete album will bring!

Red Light Company - 'With Lights Out'


excellent live version


interview

The Verve

Everyone who is 'old' enough to have experienced the nineties consciously will definitely remember The Verve's glory days. They formed by the end of the eighties and released two (shoegazing style) albums and a couple of ep's - underground successes, but not very known by the masses - before really breaking through. The inducement for that was their third album Urban Hymns, including the hit singles 'Bittersweet Symphony', 'Lucky Man' and 'The Drugs Don't Work'. Two years later, however, they split up.

Singer Richard Ashcroft managed to deal with his drug problem and obtained quite some successes with his solo material (remember the beautiful 'Break The Night With Colour'). Nevertheless, in 2007, The Verve decided to give it another go. 2008 is the year of truth for Richard and his men, the year in which they release not only the new single 'Love Is Noise', but also a complete new album called 'Forth'. Not everyone is as fond of the ongoing voice sample in 'Love Is Noise', but I am a devoted fan of this new song.

The Verve - 'Love Is Noise'



Love is noise, love is pain
Love is these blues that I'm feeling again

live version at Glastonbury


looking back...

The Verve - 'Bittersweet Symphony'


The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work'


Richard Ashcroft - 'Break The Night With Colour'

- back -

...in full force. Keep a close eye on this blog, you won't have to wait another two months.

Lykke Li

If you're into cute Scandinavian girl accents, then it's time to have a listen at Lykke Li. This 22-year-old from Stockholm might remind you a bit of Robyn, but even more of the likes of Feist (the mysterious instrumentation) and Emiliana Torrini (the fragile yet beautiful voice). Her album "Youth Novels" - produced by Björn Yttling (from Peter, Björn and John) and Lasse Martén (known for his work with among others Shout Out Louds and The Perishers)- gets a European release this month.

Lykke Li - "I'm good I'm gone"


Lykke Li - "Dance Dance Dance"


Lykke Li - "A little bit"

The David Watts Battle

Help me figure out: what's the best version of the legendary "David Watts"? The amazing original by The Kinks, or the excellent cover version by The Jam?

The Kinks - "David Watts"


The Jam - "David Watts"


It's killing me to make a choice between Ray Davies and Paul Weller, so you better hurry and do the job for me!

Jon Auer

Most people know Jon Auer as a part of The Posies or even Big Star. What kind of seems to have slipped through, is the fact that Jon has released a gorgeous album of his own in 2006. The most amazing song on "Song from the year of our demise" - at least in my opinion - is "Six Feet Under", a painfully beautiful break-up song. So don't get mad and I won't cry / And don't expect a long goodbye / I'll call you when we're six feet under ground

There's not a video or such for this song, so you'll have to do it with this very nice live performance:

Personal Eurovision 2008 Top 3

It's over already, this year's Eurovision Song Contest. As usual, the show's patient viewers and listeners had to put up with lots of utter crap, but - also as usual - a few songs did manage to convince. My personal top 3 looked like this:

1. Laka - Pokusaj (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
2. Sébastien Tellier - Divine (France)
3. Jelena Tomasevic - Oro (Serbia)

Enjoy the videos for these three great songs, and feel free to share your own Eurosong 2008 favourites!

Laka - "Pokusaj"


Sébastien Tellier - "Divine"


Jelena Tomasevic - "Oro"

FrYars

Ben Garrett - better known as FrYars, with a big Y just like KanYe (yes, he's got a big Y as well!) - is only 19 years old and is actually a pretty timid guy, but that doesn't stop him from making some of the most innovative tunes that have been heard recently. He loves David Bowie and Serge Gainsbourg, but sounds more like an interesting crossbreed between Jarvis Cocker, Lloyd Cole and Patrick Wolf. Don't hesitate to check out his two EP's ('The Ides' and 'The Perfidy') or one of his gigs. This nice Londoner is a man for the future!

FrYars - "Olive Eyes"


FrYars - "The Ides"

Delays

I thought their debut album 'Faded Seaside Glamour' was okay, but it was the non-album single 'Lost in a Melody' and the second album 'You See Colours' that turned me into probably one of the biggest Delays fans around.

Delays are four pretty boys (don't want to be superficial, but it has to be said) from Southampton who make irristible indie pop, famous for its catchy mix of keyboards, guitars and falsetto yet raw vocals provided by lead singer Greg Gilbert. They have just released their third studio album 'Everything's the Rush', which as could be expected contains lots of fresh supertunes!

Delays - "Hooray" (the new and very exiting single!)


Delays - "Love Made Visible" (also taken from the new album as well as from the Love Made Visible EP)


Delays - "Valentine" (one of my favourites on the previous album)


I can go on for ages... This is what pop music should be like!

Jamie Lidell

...needs to be mentioned again, because I love him quite a lot.


I've never felt a lot like forcing people into liking music, but I can't deny it'd seriously be worried if you wouldn't be into Jamie Lidell. The man has got a superb voice, amazing songs and live shows that simply blow you away. Soul and funk combined with electronics...it can sound completely non-authentic and awful, but Mr. Lidell proves it can also sound like one of the best things you've ever heard. Both his new album 'Jim' and its predecessor 'Multiply' are absolutely must-haves!

Jamie Lidell - "A little bit of feel good"


Jamie Lidell - "Another Day"


Jamie Lidell - "Multiply"

A soundtrack for great weather

As said above... The songs in today's post are some of my personal favourites to listen to when the sun is shining, the smell of fresh-mown grass and sun lotion is in the air, and evenings are filled with friends, music and way too much red wine.

Interpol - "Evil" (not everyone tends to see this as a summery song, but I definitely do, I think mostly because of the very sultry guitar riffs)


U2 - Beautiful Day (I always play this song when the sun finally permanently makes it through the clouds - Bono's voice timbre adds so much to the atmosphere of this song, it's one of my ultimate favourites)


Jamie Lidell - "What's The Use?" (he'll definitely appear again in the blog sometime very very soon, but - awaiting that glorious moment - the amazing Mr. Lidell deserves to be mentioned in this post as well, because of his ultimate summer tune 'What's The Use?')


Stereophonics - "Dakota" (whereas Interpol's "Evil" imo demonstrates the ultimate summer-like guitar riffs, this song owns the most summery synths ever)


The Beatles - "Here comes the sun" (no explanation needed, I reckon - love to George!)


The Beatles - "You've got to hide your love away" (one of my favourite Beatles songs, John's voice is so gorgeous in it - I like to sing along to this song whilst leaning out of my bedroom window)

Black Kids

Black Kids are an American band consisting of five members, of which only two are actually - somewhat - black. Doesn't really matter anyway, since all we can think of anymore is their extremely lovable debut single 'I'm not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance with you'. What immediately strikes the listener is the huge resemblance to The Cure. Black Kids exceed in melancholic lyrics, vocals and synths, just like Robert Smith and his companions do. Still they have a very modern sound of their own, which makes it never boring to listen to their music.

Black Kids - "I'm not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance with you"


Great songs attract many followers. The most famous Black Kids cover so far is a version of "I'm not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance with you" by Kate Nash. I don't like it as much as the original, but I appreciate the fact she's trying to 'innovate' the song in her style.

MGMT

Number 9 in BBC's Sound of 2008, but number 1 to their many fans: MGMT!
A couple of years ago, Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden started out as a little known band called The Management, but now they're one of the biggest hypes around. Contrary to many other hypes, though, they dó make great, fascinating and fresh-sounding music. From psychedelica to disco, from glamrock to indie pop...MGMT is THE soundtrack to this spring!

MGMT - "Kids"


MGMT - "Time to pretend" (live at David Letterman) -- wearing capes!