This Is The Last…

The Icelandic band called Stórsveit Nix Noltes started with a bang on saturday night at the Reykjavík Rite of Spring festival. I saw them for the first time at the Iceland Airwaves festival last year and just went wild at the dance floor dancing with the crowd. They have recently been touring in Europe with Animal Collective and playing at the SXSW festival. There are 9 musicians in the band all with different background but they all share interest and passion playing folk music from Bulgaria and the Balkan regions and their own version of it. They have recently released the album Orkideur Hawai on the 12 Tónar label and Bubblecore Records in the US. You should definitely check it out if your into this type of music. As for me i absolutely love them and they were great last night.

The band that I had been most exited about of all the bands at the festival was KAL. Being a fan of gypsies and just overall traditional east European music scene i was curious to see if the band that’s been called the hottest gypsy band would live up to its rumors. For the minute they walked on stage i just was in love! And the crowd loved them as well. Everyone just went wild dancing and enjoying the music. I think even KAL was surprised to see the response they got from the land of ice. I just couldn’t resist buying their album entitled KAL but i have to say it was a bit different from how they perform. The sound of the album is a bit more mixture of traditional and urban but i still like it. Their music made me go on a trip to Estern Europe in my mind and made me more desperate than ever to go there on a holiday. There is someting magical about this kind of music that makes you crave for getting to know its culture and traditiones.

It was a magical night, there were only smiling faces that came out from NASA in desperate need for a bath.

Just read on the web that Keith Richards was hospitalized in Fiji earlier this week. Apparently he was injured when he fell from a palm tree. Why was he on a palm tree? That part wasn’t explained in the statement given by Fran Curtis, a Rolling Stones spokeswoman. Not that an explanation is needed. Why else would a 62 year-old man be up in a palm tree? Other than to prove his virilty, of course.

I’m sure we can all relate. I can see it now, all of those islanders and there mean streaks…excuse me sir would you like to cut ahead of me…or maybe asking to hold his cane…bastards. Besides this is just the Rolling Stone way…keep on rocking until not one person on this Earth has any ounce of respect for them.

“Someone selling all your heroes and they seem so tame” - Dean Wareham

The second night of Reykjavík Rite of Spring festival started off with the incredible Bogomil Font (Sigtryggur Baldursson ) former Sugercubes member. This time performing with the band called Flís presenting their brand new calypso project, music from Trinidad and Tobago with horrible Icelandic lyrics. I ‘m a shame to tell that this was my first time seeing Bogomil Font perform though i’ve been fan for some time. Yet I was extremely surprised how great of performer he was. He was just on fire! And those horrible lyrics were hilarious, all of Nasa was just bursting in laughter. Singing about things like lying weather reporters and the icelandic yuppies combined with calypso music somehow made sense. This is definitely not the last show i see with Bogomil Font that’s for sure!

There was definitely excitement in the air when Petter Winnberg the bassist from our beloved icelandic reggae band Hjálmar came on stage with his 11 member band. Petter is now working on his first album entitled Easily Tricked. Despite having all that people there on the stage is just didn’t feel tight enough performance. It really felt like it was their fist concert together and perhaps it was. I liked the songs but it just didn’t come together for them. But i’m still exited about the album cause it might be better.

Then it was time for Soul Jazz Records to bring us their 100% Dynamite club featuring The Soul Jazz Soundsystem from London with set-up of two DJs and MC Ox. It was the mixture of soul, jazz, funk, hip hop and reggae. I had a great time dancing like a crazy to their music. Though it was kind of half empty at Nasa i didn’t really care just more space for me!

It surely was a great night for us dance fools.

Last night i went to the first concert night of The Reykjavík Rite of Spring festival at Nasa. The festival is held by Mr. Destiny who is also reasonable for bringing us The Iceland Airwaves festival every year. The Reykjavík Rite of Spring festival focuses on cutting edge folk, jazz and world music. Being the music addict i am i just had to buy myself a ticket for the festival. On thursday i went to see the brazilian jazz guitar maestro Ife Tolentino. And i have to tell you that i was not disappointed! That super sweet bossanova guitar jazz just win’s me over every time. And to me Portuguese should be the official jazz language. There’s just something about Portuguese… its soft like the finest silk and floats around the notes. Ife Tolentino’s singing was just as beautiful as his guitar playing. He preformed with one of my favorite Icelandic saxophonist Óskar Guðjónsson and jazz guitarist Ómar Guðjónsson.

Next up was Mezzoforte but i only lasted one song with them. I just didn’t have it in me to spoil those beautiful brazilian bozzanova tunes still playing in my head. Plus i’ve never really understood the popularity of Mezzoforte. I remember traveling in German when i was a kid and going to record stores and always seeing copies of Mezzoforte albums along side with Sugercubes albums. Ok i can totally understand why they would have albums with the Sugercubes but not Mezzoforte. What can i say its not that they aren’t excellent musicians its just their music isn’t appealing to me.

But i was really happy about Ife’s performance and i do hope that Ife comes back to Iceland to play for us as promised. Check out his lastest album called Brazil in Black & White- a Tribute to Chico Buarque.

You now I really couldn’t go a whole week without mentioning Gnarls Barkley.

The Kooks have also covered “Crazy”- you can download it here.
(Link via My Old Kentucky Blog)

Pitchfork has a nice interview with Gnarls Barkley here. In the interview Danger Mouse reveals that he just finished working on a non-Gorillaz album with Damon Albarn.

From Tiny Mix Tapes…

Since 1996, Yo La Tengo has been visiting the WFMU studios to whore themselves out for the station’s annual fundraising marathon. Not literally whore themselves out (although Hoboken can be pretty rough), but whore themselves out musically – that is, by playing any song that a caller who pledges money to the station wants to hear. They’ve made a few CDs of cover songs culled from these sessions over the years, and now they’ve culled covers from those CDs (we call this a double-cull) and put them on a brand new CD called Yo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics.

If you read the description on the Matador website or the note that Ira sent out to the Yo La e-mail list, you’d think the album was really embarrassingly awful and actually unpleasant to hear. The website calls the album “a Best-of, or Best-of-the-Worst, or Worst-of-the-Best, or … oh, what’s the use, it’s dreadful,” and Ira says that it’s “more fun than going to the dentist … barely.”

Anyway, if you want to find out whether the “70 excruciating minutes” of covers are as “excruciating” as Ira says, you can buy a copy of the album on the Matador website. There’s no official tracklist.
So, to sum up: it’s a bunch of covers played by Yo La Tengo — they might be good, they might be horrible.

I just read on Boing Boing…

From the makers of MAKE — CRAFT, a new magazine devoted making cool stuff. It’s launching in Fall 2006.

I had a subscription to MAKE magazine and I never had the skills or the tools to build/modify things like their projects. But maybe because this one is crafty, it might have some real fun projects.

A while ago I posted about Devotchka putting out a new EP entitled “Curse Your Little Heart“. Its coming out May 2nd and they’ll be doing some covers on it.

Here’s the tracklisting for the upcoming album…
01. I Cried Like A Silly Boy (Ted Thacker of Baldo Rex)
02. Curse Your Little Heart
03. The Last Beat Of My Heart (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
04. Something Stupid (Frank Sinatra)
05. Venus In Furs (Velvet Underground)

Someone from their promotions sent me a copy of their cover of Siouxise and the Banshee’s song “Last Beat of My Heart”.

You can listen to it here.

If you like what you hear, you can pick up a copy of the new album here. They totally do the song justice. Just listening to it gives me goosebumps. I’m thinking of a new music genre - Gypsy/Goth, has a nice ring to it.

I have the biggest blog crush on Torr. He’s always posting interesting music clips. Like so…

Kent has posted 13 videos on their myspace.

BONUS Morrissey YouTube goodies:
“Shoplifters” [Sweden 1997]
“There Is A Light” [Jools Holland, 2004]
“Still Ill” [UK TV 2006]

Download a recent Rufus Wainwright gig.

Download an intstrumental version of Muse’s Absolution.

Download Nina Cardigan covering The White Stripes’ “Dead Leaves & The Dirty Ground.”

Download-two recent Elbow sessions.

You Ain’t No Picasso posted a few Michael Jackson covers, some better than others…

Check ‘em out here…

Ben Gibbard-Thriller(live).mp3
Belle and Sebastian-Billie Jean(live).mp3
Petra Haden-Thriller.mp3

Which is your favorite? I’m leaning towards Petra. She also does a pretty good cover of the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” at the same site.