It should have been a brilliant summer morning, but it's raining. Been like that for days now, you should be used to it, but no. Not yet. You wake up already tired. In the bathroom mirror you stare at while shaving, you can see what you became. The chances you missed, the opportunities you wasted, the wounds you got and the ones you gave, all of them draw little lines on your forehead, around your eyes, your cheeks, your mouth... Laughing wrinkles they call them. Bah. They just get deeper every day, [...]
Sometimes life happens, you know... Relatives and old friends visiting, deadlines looming, code crashing, that kind of stuff... Anyhow. As a kid, I wasn't especially fond of the "Find the differences" games. It always looked a bit contrived, and if the Devil's in the details, why should I want to drive him out ? However, I came across some really endearing versions by Ivoryboy : the first version consisted in finding only 5 differences . A sequel has been released a few weeks back, where you have to find 6 differences [...]
Don't be misled by the title of this post: I'm not talking about the chain of espresso bars that started in Ithaca, NY before expanding all over New York State (after all, they're really called "Gimme! Coffee" ), but about the late Hot Corners , here in Athens, GA. Yep, late. Hot Corners , this local institution providing coffee, treats and couches for thousands of students and night owls since 2003, closed its doors for good on Fri. 05/09. The very last cup of coffee was offered to yet another local institution, [...]
It's no secret that I don't like Radiohead. There was even a regular joke with an ex of mine that we couldn't date Radiohead fans: I still can't. I found the band's music pretentious, boring and uninspired. I'm quite willing to admit that I'm prejudiced, but you know, whatever. Normally, I would not bother post about that, but a couple of recent events infuriate me. As a follow-up to their last winter PR stunt, where their album " In Rainbows " was available online for what you deemed it worth, the band recently opened a [...]
Our good friend Keith John Adams just completed a 3-weeks tour with Andy From Denver , and the last show was Tuesday at Flicker, with Andy opening and Casper & the Cookies headlining. It's always a rare pleasure to catch Keith our side of the pond. My first introduction was in 2005, for the second Popfest . Keith played part of his set in the street, outside the 40W, with an acoustic guitar. We were lucky to have the same experience Tuesday, when the first half [...]
Some old and dear friend of mine and a friend of hers came to visit Athens this week-end straight from up North, somewhere "in the real world" as they nicknamed their Massachusetts haven. Luckily for my guests, there was plenty to do... Fri. 04/04 (incidentally, the 7th anniversary of my American Adventures) saw Spring Tigers rocking the Flicker Bar out. That was the second Tigers show since their return from SXSW, and they were really tight. Unfortunately, the PA had some difficulties catching up with their set-up and the sound was [...]
Dear reader, can you spot the inconsistencies in the following speech, given today by Fed. Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke ? Here's an extract (the full speech is available here ): Well-functioning financial markets are essential for the efficacy of monetary policy and, indeed, for economic growth and stability. To improve market liquidity and market functioning, and consistent with its role as the nation's central bank, the Federal Reserve has supplemented its longstanding discount window by establishing three new facilities for lending to depository institutions and primary dealers. ... The Primary Dealer Credit Facility was [...]
Yesterday, I ran into an article of Wired about demonstrations of Emo Kids in Mexico, protesting the recent raise of violent anti-emo acts over the country. As stated by Wired, A series of attacks on dyed-hair, eye-makeup-wearing emo kids began in early March when several hundred people went on an emo-beating rampage in Querétaro, a town of 1.5 million about 160 miles north of Mexico City. The next week, shaggy-haired emo teenagers were harassed again by punks and rockabillys in the capital, prompting police protection and a segment on the TV news. [...]
"Where did time go" was the motto of that week: following the lateness pattern initiated the previous week, I ended up missing most shows. Tue. 03/04 I was pretty thrilled to hear that the HEAP (ex HEAP project) was playing at Caledonia, along Diet Rock Stars and Kenosha Kid . For once however, the show was early and on time, with HEAP opening, so they were already done by the time I showed up. Pity, for I'm a [...]
Back online eventually, after some exhausting but fun weeks without regular internet connection. I missed several posts, prepared off-line but not quite finalized yet, so bear with me for a little while. The big event of this past Easter week-end was a concert of Stars at the Georgia Theatre . Stars have a very special place in my indie-pop life. Just before I moved to the States, early 2001, my little brother gave me a couple of CDs of MP3s. On one of them was Nightsongs , [...]
New installment of our "Frenchies Oldies" series... Most of the times, when people think about French music, they think ye-ye ( Dutronc , Hardy , Gainsbourg in the 60es) or realist ( Piaf , Brel ), and that's about it. Fine, but we have more, far more to offer. What about Post-punk , for example ? In a town that gave us Pylon and [...]
Springtime is about to settle in Athens, at last, which tends to set me in a rather cozy mood. So, minimal review of last week's shows. Thu.02/28 - 40 Watt Showcase for Jimmy Hughes' ( Folklore , Elf Power ) bumbleBEAR label, back to activity after 5 years of slumber. I showed up far too late and missed most of the bands, but did catch Titans of Filth in their newest incarnation. A few months ago, the band lost their multi-instrumentalist [...]
In 1980, Wanda de Vasconcelos is 18, a Portuguese exiled in Belgium and already better known as Lio , thanks to the immense success of her very first single, " Banana split " . She asks Jacno and Elli Medeiros , who have recently disbanded their punk combo the Stinky Toys but still perform as a duo, to adapt in French their song " Lonely Lovers ". They agree, Elli taking care of the lyrics, Jacno of [...]
Wow I'm later than a white rabbit, so let's not wait and start our "Last week in show"... Mon. 02/18 Killick & Tatsuya Nakatani - Flicker Technically, I didn't attend that show, I was outside, sipping a PBR after having bought some cigs, and waiting for Caledonia to open their doors. Anyway, I'm utterly impervious to this kind of improv' on percussions ( Nakatani ) and cello ( Killick ), even if I recognize the talent [...]
In 1973, Françoise Hardy was in studio with Michel Berger , recording "Message Personnel" and the eponymous single which immediately became a hit (and now the third installment of our FOG series). I was only a toddler but this song was so popular that you just couldn't avoid it growing up. It is still played nowadays and can be considered as part of the French psyche: take " 8 women " as an example. Anyway, the piece speaks for itself. The change in lexical register in the original [...]
Even today, in this age of internet and file sharing, my favorite way to discover new music is to frequent local record stores, the mom and pop kind of operations where you can bring your coffee and chat with the staff for hours at time. Here in Athens, we're blessed with Wuxtry , a true institution since 1976. I stopped there a few days ago as Mike was working, to show off my shiny new hot pink cellphone and its Wired up ringtone (how tacky is that ?). Mike greeted me [...]
Tue. 02/12 A: - Hey, what are you up to tonight ? B: - Dunno, maybe gonna try to catch a show... A: - Who's playing ? B: - Dunno A: - OK, gimme a call when you're downtown and let's meet. B: - We have a plan. Fact Not Fiction - Caledonia Fact Not Fiction is a 4-dude, generic indie-rock band from Northeastern Georgia, with already two albums behind them. They are tight, they definitely know how to play, but [...]
...it's today, it's one of my favorite movies, and you know, whatever. Baci a tutte.
FOG#2 : Les Calamités New Frenchies Oldies but Goodies installment, spurred by a recent post on Skatterbrain ... Early 80es, three chicks from Beaune (a small town in Burgundy), Caroline Augier , Isabelle Petit and Odile Repolt decide to keep boredom at bay and to form a rock band. Les Calamités (the Calamities) are born. After placing a song on a compilation, the girls release a first 9-tracks album in 1984, " A bride abattue ", which could be translated as either [...]
The nice side effect of living under a rock is that you tend to get good surprises when you leave your little shelter. Let's take the example of Calvin Harris . This young (he turned 24 a few weeks ago) Scot from Dumfries released his first album, the very modestly titled " I Created Disco ", in June 2007 in the UK and in September 2007 in the US, and I just heard about it this very morning. So you know the story, EMI discovered his myspace page [...]
A hipster's progress
No Church In The Wild
Nas - Daughters
The Rains of Castamere by The National
CHROMATICS "THESE STREETS WILL NEVER LOOK THE SAME"
DIIV "How Long Have You Known?" (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
iamamiwhoami: kin - Teaser
Album Review: alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros: Here
Azealia Banks – ’1991′ & ‘Van Vouge’
