I wrote about the French band April and their 2009’s debut album “Ten Stones” not so long time ago – find the review HERE. “Ten Stones” sounded like a collision between Roxette, The Smashing Pumpkins and Dead Can Dance, a mixture of gloomy rock and smooth pop with nice and subtle classic ambiance.
“Sunderlands” definitively it’s a step further, the duo from Bordeaux find their own path and developed a quite unique blending of gothic gloom and gentle sensitivity, a mixture of dark rock tones and catchy pop themes, all nicely laying on the spacy textures of strings and discrete electronics. Read more April – Sunderlands (2011)
Disturbed – The Lost Children (2011)
Some bands have better B-sides than others A-sides or albums. Disturbed guaranteed one of them. “The Lost Children” features all of Disturbed’s B-side tracks that were recorded during a time period of 11 years with the exception of the song “Glass Shatters”, while the only song on the album not previously available is “Mine”. We’ve got 16 pumping and pounding tracks, and while Disturbed are going on an indefinite hiatus for awhile, hopefully this is not also a waving good-bye act, the swan song of the band.
Regarding the album title, it comes from the band calling their songs “their children” and they can’t pick a favorite. Read more Disturbed – The Lost Children (2011)
Leningrad Cowboys – Buena Vodka Social Club (2011)
World famous Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki’s cult – and hilarious road – ’89 movie, “Leningrad Cowboys go America” describes the fortunes and misadventures of a struggling Siberian rock band on their way from the tundra to America, eventually ending up in Mexico and on the local top ten chart. Aki Kaurismäki teamed-up in a bar with Sakke Jarvenpää and Mato Valtonen, members of the Finnish pop-punk band Sleepy Sleepers in ’86 and their collaboration result with a short film “Rocky VI” followed by two more short films “Thru the Wire” (1987) and “L.A. Woman” (1988) until the critically acclaimed “Leningrad Cowboys go America”. After the success of the film, the band took on a life of its own, recording several albums, making videos and giving concerts. The band appeared in two other Aki Kaurismäki films, the “Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses” (1994) and the “Total Balalaika Show” (1994), which is a film of a concert performed by the band and the full 160-member Alexandrov ensemble in Helsinki, Finland in June 1993. Read more Leningrad Cowboys – Buena Vodka Social Club (2011)
Sick Mindz V – 5 Noiembrie 2011
Pentru cei cu poftă de o bubuială electro-urbană, evenimentul Sick Mindz aflată la a cincea ediție este ocazia ideală pentru o bâțâială și destrăbălare pe cinste. Acces liber, volum maxim și o listă substanțială de prestatori de zgomote contorsionateȘ SOSK, CAI VERZI, CNER, AKM, SIBERIA, QISHTA (DJ SET), RAZVANEL și CuI?.
Ostilitățile încep la ora 21, locul de desfășurare fiind clubul Underworld din București, Coltei, nr 48.
Și de făcut poftă și încălzirea, ceva-ceva muzică de la artiștii de serviciu din această seară: Read more Sick Mindz V – 5 Noiembrie 2011
Tabu: Elena Udrea – Jackie Kennedy sau Monica Lewinsky?
Pentru un pictorial al revistei Tabu, ministrul Udrea a fost pe rând Cleopatra, Jackie Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher și Madonna. Sincer, privind tentativa Jackie Kennedy, Udrea amintește aproape fantomatic de nu mai puțin celebra Monica Lewinsky. Și la propriu, și la figurat și… invers.
În timp ce guvernul se împrumută cu 511 euro în fiecare secundă, în medie pentru 72 de șomeri este disponibilă o singură slujbă, ministrul Turismului și al Dezvoltării Regionale, Elena Udrea pozează în revista Tabu cu nonșalanță și ne spune: “În România rămâne de dus până la sfârşit această provocare: să avem o femeie preşedinte sau prim-ministru. Cred că momentan nu e foarte departe, în ciuda unei societăţi încă misogine”.
Dan Silviu Boerescu, director editorial “Tabu” dezvăluie despre culisele pictorialului: “Am vrut să facem un număr dedicat femeilor puternice şi am ajuns la concluzia că Elena Udrea întruchipează perfect această ipostază, reuşind totodată să rămână feminină. Este un etalon de frumuseţe şi senzualitate”.
Tot mai rubensiană, Udrea este totuși etalonul nesimțirii și întruchiparea rețetei succesului femeii române, succes bazat predominant pe calitățile orale. Read more Tabu: Elena Udrea – Jackie Kennedy sau Monica Lewinsky?
Manele si Monarhie
Născut în data de 25 octombrie 1921, la Sinaia, Principe de Hohenzollern, Mihai I, Rege al României, Principe al Romaniei, ieri a împlinit venerabila vârstă de 90 de ani.
Între manelismul actualului președinte și patosul meșteșugit monarhist al unor politicieni, jurnaliști, dar chiar și cetățeni obișnuiți, mie mi-a lipsit normalitatea. Putem să-l iubim, să-l admirăm, etc, sau putem să-l ignorăm să ne fie indiferent, fostul suveran merită totuși măcar respect. Atitudinea lui Băsescu și al unor fruntași PD-L este strict prostească. Însă și înflăcărarea unora a dat în penibil clar. Și a contrastat mai cu seamă cu simplitatea, naturalețea și modestia Regelui. Nu este productiv nici să-l numești trădător pe Mihai I, dar nici să-l consideri “unsul lui Dumnezeu”. Ca să n-o lungesc aiurea, nici Mihai I, nici Isărescu, nici Ponta cu Antonescu (Crin) și nimeni altcineva, nu ne v-a salva vreodată de ceva. Nu atâta timp cât noi nu vrem, nu facem nimic pentru a ne salva. Privitor la Monarhie, Read more Manele si Monarhie
Pentagram – Bloodywood (2011)
Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the largest centers of film production in the world. Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai – formerly known as Bombay -, Maharashtra, India. The name “Bollywood” is derived from Bombay and Hollywood, the center of the American film industry, but unlike Hollywood, Bollywood does not exist as a physical place. Slumdog Millionaires anybody? Going to Bollywood? Or… Bloodywood?
It was only a matter of time till India begun delivering also rock bands on the conveyor. And here we go, we’ve got Pentagram. Not very original band name, several other bands all over the world use it, but “Bloodywood” is a quite catchy album title. I didn’t take too seriously this one, but well, I was wrong. “Bloodywood” is an excellent modern rock/metal album. Read more Pentagram – Bloodywood (2011)
Bruthal 6 – Augenblick (2011)
Their cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” drew attention among the metal fans and users of the YouTube back in 2006 and actually, it was a murderous cover. And well, Bruthal 6 are a murderous band, they find a brutal mixture of powerful thrash, groove and nu metal grindings with strong and melodious vocals and striking, memorable alternative metal schemes. Eventually imagine a collision between Godsmack and Sepultura, a perfect balance between aggression and harmonies, between brutality and expressive melodies. This band from Buenos Aires, Argentina fined their own, catchy and criminal style of metal. Read more Bruthal 6 – Augenblick (2011)
April – Ten Stones (2009)
April seems to be a very popular name among artist: a couple of bands running using this simple name which make pretty hard to identify one of them, make the difference. After some hard digging I find on MySpace the profile of this French duo, from there I’ve get to their official site and Facebook profile. I thought “Ten Stones” is their actual album, but I was wrong, it was released back in 2009. Merging classic music elements with electronic layers and samplers, combining pop, rock, indie and trip hop elements, JiBé (music, voice) and Flora (voice) delivered their own flavored music. Read more April – Ten Stones (2009)
32crash – Y2112Y (2011)
“Earth, year 2107. …. The average temperature at the surface of the planet raised by 8°C during the ten last decades. Because of its unsustainable heat, he equatorial belt today is improper for inhabitation…”
Picking up where their debut, 2007’s “Weird news from an uncertain future” left off, “Y2112Y” is another twisted journey into the future as Jean-Luc De Meyer see it. “I could have died at three of a unknown malignant virus / I could have died at five of a missile fired by mistake / I almost died at ten during the floodings on Pluto/ At twenty I survived the bombings of the cosmic war / I should have died at thirty when a meteor struck the earth / I nearly died at forty when my spaceship crashed on Mars / But I’m alive today to start my second century”.
And if 32crash doesn’t ring the bell, the name of Jean-Luc De Meyer (the voice of the legendary Belgian EBM band Front 242, but also of several other projects) should. At least if you’re interested in the electro-industrial are of music. Read more 32crash – Y2112Y (2011)
