gonzo - the life and work of dr. hunter s. thompson

Alex Gibney is one of the most important documentarists at work today. Two of his recent films - Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, about high-level corporate corruption in America, and Taxi to the Dark Side, an account of US military interrogation and torture in Afghanistan and Iraq - are essential viewing for anyone seeking an understanding of our times. His films are sober, carefully crafted and thoroughly researched, politically committed but not propagandistic, and deeply felt without focusing the camera on his own bleeding heart.
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S Thompson
Release: 2008
Country: USA
Cert (UK): 15
Runtime: 120 mins
Directors: Alex Gibney
Cast: Johnny Depp
More on this film
He is thus considerably different from the subject of his latest film, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr Hunter S. Thompson, one of the creators and most extreme exponent of the "New Journalism" of the 1960s, and the man who gave us that overworked phrase "fear and loathing". Thompson, who had an obsession with guns, owning 22 of them (all kept fully loaded), committed suicide with a gunshot to his head in 2005 at the age of 67.
The film is an impressionistic portrait of Thompson as eccentric libertarian, admired outsider, rebel, scabrous social critic. A romantic utopian, he was searching for the American Dream and lamenting its death. As an ambitious writer, he was chasing after that chimera "the Great American novel", but inevitably finding it eluded him.
Early on, Gibney takes us to the study in the Colorado farmhouse where Thompson lived for the last 40 years of his life, the camera scanning photographs of Mark Twain, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, the heroes he sought to emulate.
Thompson was one of three brothers raised in a lower-middle-class family in Louisville, Kentucky, and was in constant trouble at school and then in the US Air Force. The film, however, passes rapidly over the youth and early career, eager to get to the wild, rebellious 1960s, which he observed, participated in, helped shape the image of, and of which he was ultimately a victim through his reckless addiction to every possible kind of drug.
There is an extended section on his first book, Hell's Angels (1966), an excellent piece of reportage on California's motorcycle gangs, written after spending a year with them, and ending when he was given a terrible beating after they'd demanded a share of any money he made out of them. Gibney shows Thompson going to the self-destructive edge in writing this book and then plunging over that edge into Gonzo journalism.
Hell's Angels was participatory journalism that put the writer into the story and drew on the techniques of fiction. Gonzo happily stirred actual fiction into the brew (some of it extremely mischievous, as when he wrote of politician Ed Muskie as a drug addict) and added touches of the surreal. Thompson was introduced to the term 'Gonzo' by his friend, the Boston journalist Bill Cardoso; it's apparently an Irish-American term for the last man standing after an all-night drinking session. From 1970, British cartoonist Ralph Steadman illustrated many of Thompson's books and articles, and his bold graphic style, an expressionistic combination of George Grosz and Thomas Rowlandson, became an essential element in the Gonzo package. Steadman speaks with a warm, wry candour about their collaboration.
Having started out as a sport journalist, Thompson became immersed in politics. He ran unsuccessfully for sheriff in Aspen, Colorado, on an independent hippy ticket. More importantly, he covered all the presidential elections from 1968 onwards. "The Kennedys - they were his guys," one witness observes, but he became a friend of George McGovern, Gary Hart and Jimmy Carter, all of whom speak well of him, as does a less likely friend, the right-wing ideologue Pat Buchanan, who must have loathed everything Thompson stood for, yet arranged for him to ride in the back of Nixon's limousine during the 1968 election.
During this period, we see Thompson developing a public persona through his signature dark glasses, cigarette holder, floppy hat and outrageous behaviour and being taken over by it. By 1976, when travelling with Jimmy Carter, it was Thompson's autograph people sought, not the presidential candidate's. The peak of Thompson's madness was reached in 1974 when he accepted a Rolling Stone assignment to cover the Foreman-Ali 'Rumble in the Jungle' in Kinshasa. Instead of attending the fight (as more responsible New Journalists such as Tom Wolfe, George Plimpton and Norman Mailer did), he took a load of drugs and floated in his hotel pool wearing a Nixon mask and clutching a bottle of whisky.
Gibney's elaborately textured film draws on much home movie footage, new interviews, old TV appearances and clips from the feature films inspired by Thompson's antics (he's played by Bill Murray in Where the Buffalo Roam and Johnny Depp in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas). It's often hilarious and captures the spirit of the time, both in its early hopes and its inevitable disillusionment. Yet it's a sad movie and somehow inadequate in its lack of true pity or understanding. Thompson's first wife, Sondi, mother of his son Juan, put up with him for 20 years, until his excesses and egotism forced her to leave, and it is she alone who says: "I think his story was tragic."
And it is she who demurs from a general agreement that his suicide, like that of Hemingway, was somehow a courageous act. In this documentary, we watch a man go insane and destroy himself, his final act of madness being the funeral he organised in which his ashes were sent into the skies with red, white and blue fireworks from a self-aggrandising tower he'd designed with the help of Steadman.
· This article was amended on December 28 2008. In the article above we said: "Pat Buchanan, who must have loathed everything [Hunter S] Thompson stood for...arranged for him to ride in the back of Nixon's limousine during the 1972 election." We meant the 1968 election, when Nixon beat Hubert Humphrey. This has been corrected.

the guardian - philip french, the observer

as não listas de 2008

alguns anos depois da entrada definitiva do noise pela tv, começaram a aparecer uns discos bem à maneira.
para isso é preciso vestir o fato de jardinagem e pôr as mãos na terra.
aqui vão algumas menções honrosas para este esquizo.2008:

HANNA HIRSCH - TALA SVART
http://www.myspace.com/hannahirsch

HARVEY MILK - LIFE... THE BEST GAME IN TOWN
http://www.myspace.com/harveymilk

BLANK DOGS - ON TWO SIDES
http://www.myspace.com/blankdogtime

THE FALL - IMPERIAL WAX SOLVENT
http://www.myspace.com/fallthe

SIC ALPS - U.S EZ
http://www.sicalps.com/

NO AGE - NOUNS
http://www.myspace.com/nonoage

HIGH PLACES - S/T
http://www.myspace.com/hellohighplaces

TIMES NEW VIKING - RIP IT OFF
http://www.myspace.com/timesnewviking

THE ACT UPS - PLAY THE OLD PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDS OF TODAY
http://www.myspace.com/actups

GANG GANG DANCE - SAINT DYMPHNA
http://www.myspace.com/ganggangdance

GALA DROP - S/T
http://www.myspace.com/galadrop

AWESOME COLOR - ELECTRIC ABORIGINES
http://www.myspace.com/awesomecolor

CRYSTAL CASTLES - S/T
http://www.myspace.com/crystalcastles

AIDS WOLF - CITIES OF GLASS
http://www.myspace.com/aidswolf

RELIGIOUS KNIVES - THE DOOR
http://www.myspace.com/religi0usknives

CLOCKCLEANER - BABYLON RULES
http://www.myspace.com/clockcleaner

JAY REATARD - MATADOR SINGLES '08
http://www.myspace.com/jayreatard

VIVIAN GIRLS - S/T
http://www.myspace.com/viviangirlsnyc

STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS - REAL EMOTIONAL TRASH
http://www.myspace.com/stephenmalkmus

TOMMY JAY - TALL TALES OF TRAUMA (REISSUE)
http://www.myspace.com/tomstalltales

WOODEN SHJIPS - VOLUME 1
http://www.myspace.com/woodenshjips

MUSGO - APNEIA
http://www.myspace.com/musgooo


para ouvir enquanto se comem as broas e o resto da família se encharca de doces.

o velho blitz - blog com estrela michelin

http://ovelhoblitz.blogspot.com/

feira laica, é a xiiª aterragem

afinal dezembro existe e cá está ... a feira laica outra vez.
a feira que aparece onde quer. depois de um início em jeito mitra.
rebenta com o resto das broas de mel
é a xiiª vez que que a cápsula aterra e agora no melhor hangar de lisboa.

"Vai haver uma Feira Laica no dia 20 de Dezembro durante o evento Furacão Mitra... Editores independentes que estejam interessados em participar é favor de contactar a Chili Com Carne para se inscreverem....Editores presentes:Averno, fanzine Alçapão - fanzine de arquitectura dura, Associação Chili Com Carne, jornal Coice de Mula, discos F.Leote, FlorCaveira, GAIA - Centro de Convergência, fanzine O Hábito Faz o Monstro, Hülülülü, Imprensa Canalha, Mike Goes West, MMMNNNRRRG (com o autor norte-americano Mike Diana), Opuntia Books, Os Gajos da Mula, [R]eject'zine, Serrote (com a autora Maria João Worm), Thisco e Via Óptima....Novidades Editoriais:- Blues Control de Pedro Lourenço (Imprensa Canalha);- Cartaz da colecção Checkpoint de Mike Diana (Mike Goes West)- Desenho de Luís Henriques em serigrafia (Mike Goes West)- Embroidered Muscles de André Lemos (Opuntia Books)- O Hábito Faz o Monstro #13 de Lucas Almeida- Colecção de Postais, vários autores (Os Gajos da Mula)- Puta prateada, de Jucifer, col. Comércio Tradicional (Mike Goes West)"



http://www.feiralaica.com/

lightning bolt - no -5 do camões

Nov 25th, 2008 Por Nuno Afonso
Há algum tempo que esperávamos ansiosamente pela vinda de uma das bandas mais importantes da última década. E essa espera compensou. A noite de ontem foi, em certa medida, musicalmente histórica. Uma daquelas raras actuações que merecem o estatuto de experiência; para lá de mero concerto. Rock ruidoso e visceral num parque de estacionamento subterrâneo em plena Lisboa? Só pode ser épico…
Stellar Om Source
Com a mudança de local para o parque de estacionamento subterrâneo -5 do Largo de Camões, um concerto que já por si se esperava grandioso, veio tornar-se inesquecível. Mais que não seja pela ousadia da organização em realizar um espectáculo destes num espaço tão improvável mas simultâneamente tão perfeito. E igualmente perfeita para a ocasião, foi a primeira parte a cargo de Om Stellar Om Source, projecto da holandesa holandesa Christelle Gualdi.
Tendo já tocado com gente como Mouthus ou Axolotl, Gualdi ofereceu-nos uma poderosa sessão de drones infernais e samples em deconstrução, num fantástico caos organizado. Extratos de riffs lentos pesados saídos de um ambiente pós-industrial em confronto com um imaginário algo esotérico. Esteticamente minimalista e até progressivo, Stellar Om Source é sinónimo de campo de forças magnéticas envoltas de radiação e alta tensão. Meia-hora de caminhos sónicos que prepararam corpo e mente para a chegada de um cometa chamado Lightning Bolt.
Lightning Bolt
Já todos tínhamos passado horas a fio em frente ao Youtube a delirar com as actuações únicas da guerrilha baixo e bateria que revolucionou meio mundo musical e vê-los, ali mesmo à nossa frente, foi inevitavelmente, um momento de recompensa face a esta longa espera de poder assistir a um concerto de Lightning Bolt por cá.
Uma massa de corpos rodeavam a banda que assim que tomaram posse dos seus instrumentos deram início a uma das actuações mais poderosas que a cidade assistiu nos últimos tempos. E sim, finalmente conseguimos ver e sentir o que outrora apenas víamos pelo ecran ainda que com a banda a actuar ao nível do público, os lugares mais à frente fossem os mais desejados.
O volume do som ia aumentando e com ele também a energia que se vivia naquele momento. Os dois primeiros temas estiveram mais próximos de um free-noise em que o baterista Brian Chippendalle já dava puro espectáculo, dignamente encapuzado e absolutamente imparável; ao invés, o baixista Brian Gibson manteve uma atitude mais discreta. Entre o público já se assistia ao habitual headbanging, crowd-surf e ainda houve quem não conseguisse controlar a sua excitação e se juntasse à banda através de uma inesperada prestação de air guitar. Idiotices à parte, até foi um momento aprazível, há que dizê-lo.
O momento alto da noite foi a interpretação de um dos temas-chave da banda, Dracula Mountain. Mosh colectivo, saltos desmesurados, cabeçadas e encontrões (tudo com amor e carinho, portanto) e uma descarga energética como só se podia esperar num concerto de Lightning Bolt. Para o encore, uma manifestação de artilharia sonora em modo crescendo que finalizou na perfeição uma noite que há muito se esperava. Concerto do ano? Possivelmente. Agora, já nos sentimos - musicalmente - um pouco mais realizados. E claro, a certeza de ter sido uma noite inesquecível.
Texto: Nuno Afonso

fotos de pedro polónio, blogue missdove e do flickr do izac2007.

texto da mescla sonora.

eu como não vi nada, só posso dizer que não cheiro a fritos.

kill me tomorrow - 11 de dezembro

mais um nome para um grande ano musical.
na INTERPRESS:: Rua Luz Soriano, 67 Bairro Alto

musgo - apneia (novo disco)

http://www.myspace.com/musgooo
http://www.myspace.com/skinpinrecords

built to spill - a banda popular

Built to Spill were one of the most popular indie rock acts of the '90s, finding the middle ground between postmodern, Pavement-style pop and the loose, spacious jamming of Neil Young. From the outset, the band was a vehicle for singer/songwriter/guitarist Doug Martsch, who revived the concept of the indie guitar hero just as Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis -- another important influence -- was beginning to fade from the limelight. On record, Martsch the arranger crafted intricate, artfully knotted tangles of guitar; in concert, his rough-edged soloing heroics earned Built to Spill a reputation as an exciting and unpredictable live act. Much like Pavement, Martsch's compositions were filled with fractured song structures and melodies, often veering abruptly into new sections with little attention to continuity or traditional form. (In fact, the difficulty of Martsch's songs helped force him to abandon his original intention of working with many different lineups, since the twists and turns were difficult to master.) His lyrics had all the loopy wit and pop-culture references of many a '90s slacker icon, but Martsch changed things up with a genuine wistfulness borrowed from Mascis' and Young's more introspective moments. Unlike Pavement, Built to Spill were never hailed as rock's next great hope; they were neither as revolutionary nor as eclectic, and their music -- with its winding instrumental passages and less immediate construction -- required more effort to absorb. Instead, they remained even more firmly underground, where their unorthodox approach enjoyed tremendous support from the indie faithful.
Built to Spill were formed in Boise, ID, in 1993, shortly after Martsch had departed the Boise-rooted, Seattle-based Treepeople. Martsch had grown up in Twin Falls, ID, where he formed his first band, Farm Days, with bassist Brett Nelson and drummer Andy Capps while in high school during the mid-'80s. After moving to Boise, Martsch hooked up with former members of the local hardcore punk band State of Confusion to form Treepeople, who relocated to Seattle in 1988. There they signed with the local indie C/Z, and issued several albums and EPs that offered a distinctive take on early Northwestern grunge. Eventually tiring of the band's far-ranging touring commitments, Martsch departed after 1993's Just Kidding album, and despite the continuing boom of the Seattle scene, he returned to Boise to refresh himself.

Martsch formed the first incarnation of Built to Spill with bassist/guitarist Brett Netson (also a member of Boise scenesters Caustic Resin) and drummer Ralf Youtz. Initially maintaining a relationship with C/Z, Built to Spill debuted on record in 1993 with Ultimate Alternative Wavers, on which Martsch billed himself as "Dug." Afterward, Martsch moved the band over to another Seattle indie, Up Records, and revamped the rhythm section, in keeping with his plan to make Built to Spill a loose aggregation that would allow him to work with a variety of musicians. This time, he was joined by bassist Brett Nelson (not Netson, but his old cohort from Farm Days) and drummer Andy Capps (also from Farm Days, who'd joined Nelson in a group called Butterfly Train).

Accompanied by cellist John McMahon and guest spots from several ex-Treepeople, Built to Spill scored a creative breakthrough with 1994's acclaimed There's Nothing Wrong With Love. With the help of producer/engineer Phil Ek, who would become the band's regular collaborator, Martsch's fragmentary songwriting aesthetic and detailed arrangements really hit their stride, resulting in a minor gem of quirky indie guitar pop. The same year, Martsch formed a side project with Beat Happening frontman and K Records honcho Calvin Johnson, and they recorded the first of three albums as the Halo Benders. Martsch formed a new lineup of Built to Spill with former Lync rhythm section James Bertram (bass) and Dave Schneider (drums), but this incarnation existed only for a series of live gigs in America and Europe during 1995, which included a stint on the second stage of that summer's Lollapalooza tour.

The positive response to There's Nothing Wrong With Love -- coupled with the increased exposure of Lollapalooza -- helped create a buzz around Built to Spill, and before 1995 was out, Martsch inked a deal with Warner Brothers that promised a good amount of creative control. In the meantime, he and Brett Nelson reunited with Brett Netson and several other members of Caustic Resin for a collaborative (not split) EP on Up, titled Built to Spill Caustic Resin. In early 1996, K Records issued a compilation of rarities and outtakes, The Normal Years, that spanned 1993-1995 and featured work by most of the band's lineups. Martsch then turned his attention to recording Built to Spill's major-label debut. At first, he started working with drummer Peter Lansdowne and no bassist, but found that the chemistry was wrong for the more expansive songs he was trying to write. He brought back Brett Nelson and recruited former Spinanes drummer Scott Plouf, and re-recorded most of the album, only to have the master tapes damaged. The third re-recording was the charm, and featured guest guitar work by Brett Netson to boot. Finally released in 1997, Perfect From Now On was a set of longer, moodier songs that once again earned positive reviews, and substantially expanded the band's growing fan base.

Tired of continually reteaching the band's repertoire, Martsch subsequently made Nelson and Plouf permanent members of Built to Spill. Material for their next album was, for the first time, worked out through collaborative effort -- mostly full-band jam sessions. Despite those origins, Keep It Like a Secret emerged as the tightest batch of songs on any Built to Spill record yet, and was greeted with some of their most enthusiastic reviews to date when it appeared in 1999; it also became their first to reach the pop charts. New supporting cast member Sam Coomes -- also of Quasi, formerly of Heatmiser -- contributed keyboard work. In response to demand from fans, the Live album was culled from the supporting tour, featuring additional guitar work from Brett Netson and longtime band cohort Jim Roth; assembled from three different gigs by Ek, it was released in 2000. The proper studio follow-up to Keep It Like a Secret arrived with 2001's Ancient Melodies of the Future; critical responses ranged from enthusiasm to indifference. The following year, Martsch took a breather to release Now You Know, a solo album on which he delved into more traditional folk and blues. After a long break from releasing records, the revamped group (now a quartet comprised of Martsch, Nelson, Plouf, and Roth with additional help from the guitar-playing Brett Netson) stormed back with one of the finest records of their career, 2006's You in Reverse. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide

quando tudo soa bem é porque doug martsch pensou que poderia ser assim.

o que é que faz o som de built to spill?

o rock iberbe numa expressão tão escondida.

como que um lenhador que gosta de teenage bubblegum.

provocadores e primeiros responsáveis pelo maldito grunge.

sempre os mesmos graúdos com chapéus de telepizza na cabeça.

cogumelos pop.

maçãs derretidas com caramelo.

mãos cheias de açúcar só de tocar na guitarra.

essa barba do doug, só serve para ninguém o confundir com um irmão mais novo de neil young.

keep on bearing in the pop world!

car - music video

www.myspace.com/builttospill

superchunk - músculo pop

Perhaps no band was more emblematic of the true spirit of American indie rock during the 1990s than Superchunk, the pride of Chapel Hill, NC. Following the D.I.Y. ethic to the letter, the group operated solely by their own rules, ignoring all passing trends by sticking to their trademark sound — typified by the buzzing guitars and high, impassioned vocals of frontman Mac McCaughan — and rejecting all major-label advances in favor of the unlimited freedom afforded by owning their own company, the highly successful Merge Records. Although Superchunk's resistance to the overtures of the music industry may have deprived them of the wider audience their work clearly deserved, perhaps their greatest legacy remains their unwavering dedication to the indie tradition, a model which all up-and-coming bands should strive to emulate.

Superchunk was formed in the college town of Chapel Hill in 1989 by singer/guitarist McCaughan, bassist Laura Ballance, drummer Chuck Garrison, and guitarist Jack McCook. Initially dubbed merely Chunk — the "Super" prefix was later added to avoid confusion with a similarly named New York City avant-jazz band — the group's debut single, What Do I, was soon issued on Merge, a label jointly run by McCaughan and Ballance. The follow-up was 1990's epochal Slack Motherfucker, MacCaughan's blistering tirade against a lazy Kinko's co-worker; the single was immediately hailed on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the definitive indie anthems of the era; and with the subsequent release of their self-titled debut LP, Superchunk was widely celebrated among the most promising young bands in America.

As the success of acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam made their hometown of Seattle the early-'90s music scene du jour, label heads scrambled to locate the next alternative rock hotbed; Chapel Hill became the consensus choice, and Superchunk was tapped as the Next Big Thing. The quartet — which had subsequently exchanged McCook for guitarist Jim Wilbur — soon found themselves in the middle of a major-label bidding war, but they defiantly stuck to their guns, remaining on Merge for their brilliant 1991 sophomore effort No Pocky for Kitty, recorded by Steve Albini and distributed by Matador. A singles collection, Tossing Seeds, followed in 1992, and a year later Superchunk — now with new drummer Jon Wurster — returned with the superb On the Mouth, highlighted by the singles "Mower" and "The Question Is How Fast."

In addition to Superchunk's relentless tour itinerary and prolific recording schedule, McCaughan released the 1994 LP I Hope Your Heart Is Not Brittle, the first full-length release from his side project Portastatic. Even as media attention shifted elsewhere, Superchunk forged ahead, following the release of 1994's Foolish with Incidental Music, a second compilation of singles, B-sides, compilation tracks, and other assorted offerings. 1995's Here's Where the Strings Come In heralded a subtle refinement of their core sound, and was supported by a tour on the second stage at that summer's Lollapalooza festival; the first single and video, the surging "Hyper Enough," was even a minor hit. A brief hiatus preceded the release of the 1996 EP The Laughter Guns; the full-length Indoor Living appeared the next year, and Superchunk returned again in 1999 with Come Pick Me Up. Ten years on, Superchunk remained as prolific as ever with thier eighth full length, Come Pick Me Up, arriving in 2001. Their third collection of singles, a two CD set titled Cup of Sand, followed in 2003.




das primeiras bandas que enchiam o olho,
mais que não fosse pela postura diy.
na família matador abríam.lhes as portas todas.
a do carro, da casa dos vizinhos, do frigorífico, todas mesmo.
motivacionais e auto.suficientes.
era 2ª década de ouro da pop.
aquela que estão sempre a tentar destruir todos os dias na tv.
apesar de ainda andarem por aí, é só para ver se vos apanham a ouvir outras merdas.
este video first part é de 94 e é do c...
superchunk.

urusei yatsura

Urusei Yatsura came together in the summer of 1993 when Graham Kemp met Fergus Lawrie while both were studying at Glasgow University, and where they bonded over their shared love of the Velvet Underground and Galaxy 500. Each persuaded the other to join an imaginary band, which, with the drink fuelled recruitment of bass player Elaine Graham became a reality. Revelling in a spirit of awkwardness the band decide to call themselves after an obscure Japanese comic Urusei Yatsura, the translation of which changes depending on who you ask and how it's been written. The band prefer "Noisy Stars". The three ricocheted around the Glasgow gigging circuit until they managed to coerce Elaine's younger brother into banging the drums for an impromptu set one night. Seven years later, the line-up remains the same.
Late in 1994 they made their first outing on vinyl by contributing a live recording of the song "Guitars are Boring" to a compilation released by the Kazoo Club (based in Glasgow's notorious 13th Note). This recording, along with their fanzine "Kitten Frenzy" brought the band to the attention of John Peel and a session followed, preceded by a six track maxi single "All Hail Urusei Yatsura". With the proceeds of the Peel session the band released a split single on their own Modern Independent Records label, "Pampered Adolescent", which they followed up with releases by some of their favourite Glasgow contemporaries. Although being in charge of their own record label was a dream shared by all of the band, lack of finances and an opportunity to work with London based Che Records persuaded them to shelve their label and fanzine for the time being and concentrate on recording for the London based label.

Through a busy 1995 the band notched up an Evening Session Single of the Week (with "Kernel") and an NME Single of the Week (with "Plastic Ashtray") then started the new year by recording their first LP "We Are Urusei Yatsura". To coincide with the May release of the album the band embarked on the first of many nationwide tours, supported by Mogwai and Backwater, and having their first brush with real fame by boarding with the original Milky Bar Kid's mother on route.
After playing the CMJ in New York they recorded their next two singles ("Fake Fur" and "Strategic Hamlets") in London at Ray Davies' KONK studio, before heading back to the States for a longer snowy winter tour.
Cue 1997 and while their single, "Strategic Hamlets", nudges the grown up charts the band faced feedback noise disaster as all their guitars are stolen from their van after a gig in Liverpool. After looking into the gaping maw of the 'a capella' circuit they are saved by donations of cheap charity shop guitars from fans and are able to complete their tour with label mates Superstar Disco Club, before rushing straight back into KONK to record their second album, "Slain by Urusei Yatsura". During these recordings, which included the chart bound "Hello Tiger", Che Records encountered their first problems licensing to a major label resulting in the album release being delayed for almost a year.
Far from being idle Urusei spent a surreal summer surviving a series of near death experiences as they played festivals around Britain and Europe, Ian surviving a tent fire at Phoenix to play a 'smoking' gig and the whole band narrowly avoiding being crushed by a collapsing roof while on stage at a Spanish festival. They ended the year supporting the Super Furry Animals and playing a bizarre set of gigs in the former East Germany.

As January 1998 swung into view, "Hello Tiger" was chalked up for release and in February Urusei scored their biggest hit to date. Number 40 in the proper charts. In March "Slain by..." finally made it to the shops and was warmly received by a bevy of critics who took it to their hearts. The group set off on another UK tour, this time accompanied by Magoo and Prolapse before undertaking their first major tour across Europe. On arriving back in the UK the "Slain by Elf" single was released and ended up selling even more than "Hello Tiger". The band spent a low key summer writing what was to become "Everybody Loves...", with only short breaks to play the Reading Festival and to support Garbage at the Glasgow Barrowlands.
It was only a spit away from Christmas and the band settled down to write and record again. US Producer Bryce Goggins made contact with the band, expressing his desire to work with them after hearing them on a B-side compilation album. With roughly twenty songs on demo, Bryce flew into Glasgow and headed to CaVa studios to start recording. Unfortunately while the recording was going great their record label went bust leaving them with a 18 month legal wrangle which won them ownership of the recordings and the right to release them themselves.
While in the process of setting up their own label, the "Yon Kyoko Iri EP" was released on Beggars Banquet in November 1999 before finally achieving their dream with the forming of Oni Records in March 2000. The first output from this label will be the bands' new single "Louche 33" on 21st August 2000 with their 3rd album "Everybody Loves Urusei Yatsura" following close behind on 4th September 2000.
The single 'Eastern Youth', which was the bands final ever single, was released in the early winter months of 2001.

perdidos entre fanzines e referências musicais dos pavement,

apareceram.me estes demónios do pop. na mesma altura que devorava drop nineteens (ainda não é hoje).

3 discos e uma porrada de singles.

felizes, divertidos, com os seus camioezinhos de plástico, guitaras da tanga roubadas de um gajo qualquer.

soam àquilo que mais queríamos, uma banda do c.......

mãos na algibeira com o jornal a sair do bolso de trás das calças e plastic ashtray.

we love urusei yatsura... ainda hoje

http://www.myspace.com/weareuruseiyatsura
http://www.urusei-yatsura.co.uk/

chet baker - lets get lost

Let's Get Lost is a 1988 American documentary film about the turbulent life and career of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker written and directed by Bruce Weber. A group of Baker fans, ranging from ex-associates to ex-wives and children, talk about the man. WeberΓ??s film traces the manΓ??s career from the 1950s, when he was in his prime, playing with jazz greats like Charlie Parker and Gerry Mulligan, to the 1980s, when he had become a skid row junkie unable to get a decent gig. By juxtaposing these two decades, Weber presents a sharp contrast between the younger, handsome Baker Γ?? the statuesque idol who resembled a mix of James Dean and Jack Kerouac Γ?? to what he became, Γ??a seamy looking drugstore cowboy-cum-derelict,Γ?? as J. Hoberman put it in his Village Voice review.[1] LetΓ??s Get Lost begins near the end of BakerΓ??s life, on the beaches of Santa Monica, and ends at the Cannes Film Festival. Weber uses these moments in the present as bookends to the historic footage contained in the bulk of the film. The documentation ranges from vintage photographs by William Claxton in 1953 to appearances on The Steve Allen Show and kitschy, low budget Italian films Baker did for quick money.

e mais um torrent, é sempre a somar:

http://www.sumotorrent.com/en/details/1337323/Chet%20baker%20-%20Lets%20Get%20Lost%20-%20by%20Bruce%20weber.html

the wonderful and frightening world of mark e. smith

BBC FOUR focuses on one of England’s truly unique and underrated bands - The Fall - in this special documentary.
One of the most enigmatic, idiosyncratic and chaotic garage bands of the last 30 years, The Fall are led by the belligerent and poetic Mark E Smith.
The band grew out of the fringe of the Manchester punk scene and to date have released in excess of three dozen albums, toured relentlessly, inspired two successful stage plays, recorded 24 Peel Sessions and performed with contemporary ballet dancer Michael Clarke, along with various spoken word events.
All this has happened under the guidance of Smith with various line-ups currently totalling over 40 different members.
They have never conformed to fashion or musical trends and when asked why they were his favourite band, John Peel replied: “They are always different, they are always the same.”
This is the first time that Mark E Smith has agreed to the story being told on television and he, along with many of the major players, takes us through this unique English rock ‘n’ roll story.
Their rollercoaster story is told alongside footage of their most recent and sadly now last Peel Session recorded in August at the legendary BBC Maida Vale studios.
There is also film of John playing out the session at Peel Acres a week later.
Contributors include past and present band members including Marc Riley, Una Baines, Steve Hanley, Ben Pritchard and Eleni Smith plus thoughts from key fans and critics including Paul Morley, Tony Wilson, Stewart Lee, promoter Alan Wise, original Buzzcocks manager Richard Boon and Franz Ferdinand.

cá está o torrent:
http://www.greylodge.org/gpc/?p=346

patti smith - dream of life

I noticed my own heart beating, breath passing through my nostrils,
My feet walking, eyes seeing.
—Allen Ginsberg, “On the Cremation of Chögyam Thungpa Vidyadhara”

I was lost, and the cost,
and the cost didn’t matter to me.
I was lost, and the cost
was to be outside society.
—Patti Smith, “Rock and Roll Nigger”

“I was born in Chicago, mainline of America, in the center of a blizzard after World War II.” Biographical fact, yes, but so elliptical and so visceral in its phrasing, Patti Smith’s birth here links culture, history, and weather—like she’s some fantastic force come to earth to surprise us all. This notion is reinforced throughout Patti Smith: Dream of Life, a film and art installation and photography book 11 years in the making. Now playing at New York’s Film Forum, Steven Sebring’s documentary opens with the artist’s self-narration—her siblings’ arrivals, the family’s move to the City of Brotherly Love—over images of running, red-lit horses (of course), followed by footage from a train window, apartment buildings and train tracks and traffic. “Life is an adventure of our own design,” she says, “intersected by fate and a series of lucky and unlucky accidents.”

Dream of Life follows her adventure, specifically after her career started again. She had already lived in New York, worked and lived with Robert Mapplethorpe and Sam Shepard, and recorded seminal punk rock albums in 1974 and ‘75,) when she met Fred Sonic Smith. In 1979, they moved to Detroit, his “beloved Detroit,” where they began raising their two children, Jackson and Jesse. It was only when Fred and then her brother Todd died suddenly, that Smith even considered returning to a public life. To support her family and encouraged by Allen Ginsberg ("Let go of the spirit of the departed and continue your life’s celebration), in 1995 she brought her children back east and began performing on stage again. “Shaking off the performance dust,” she says, “and saying hello to the road.”

As Smith narrates this decision, the movie shows her emerging from a car pulling an Airstreamer, hardly your average camper. Like much of the footage assembled for the film—and again, she and Sebring collaborated on the project for a decade—this image is at once oddly ceremonial, appositely punk, and utterly self-knowing. The film is suffused with Smith’s sense of irony, outrage, and loss, and it is shaped according to her changing sense of self, her dedication to her kids, her constant political commitments. Smith frames her story as an junction of experiences: “Life isn’t some vertical or horizontal line,” Smith observes. “You have your own interior world and it’s not neat, therefore the importance and beauty of music, sound, noise, when you go outside and walk on the street.”

These worlds exist across space and time. When she revisits Detroit, photos show Smith immersed in her young family (pregnant, leaning into Fred, entranced by a sleeping infant), Sebring’s camera takes you through the old house, revealing dishes in a sink, children’s handprints on otherwise empty walls, a home abandoned now but dense with memories. As Smith makes her way down a stairwell or gazes out windows, the soundtrack offers “The Jackson Song”: “When day is done and little dreamers spin, / First take my hand, now let it go.”

Loss is a persistent theme in the film, considered in various dimensions. She visits Blake’s and Gregory Corso’s graves (“‘Remember you are mortal,’ said Gregory, ‘but poetry is not’"), compares photos of Baghdad’s Golden Dome Mosque, before and after the U.S. invasion ("What are we doing in Iraq?"), and describes her own “alteration” since her brother’s death: “My heart went from feeling like a cold black ember to a warm really joyful flame,” she says, “All his finest qualities somehow entered me as a human being.”



As the camera follows Smith and her band on the road (including shows in Tokyo, London, Paris, and Atlanta), it also returns again and again to the city that seduced her. Remembering her early days in New York, she touches on people (William Burroughs, “our guardian angel") and places (CBGB), the film illustrating briefly as she skips from one recollection to another. “New York,” a decades-younger Smith recites, “is the thing that formed me, New York is the thing that deformed me, New York is the thing that perverted me, New York is the thing that converted me… It’s my little prayer for New York.” The city is here less a place than a point of perpetual departure. And the film, despite Smith’s own date-pocked narration, is hardly chronological, but rather, a lyrical construction of moments—black and white or color, crisp or grainy, posed or apparently improvised—pieces and connections rather than conclusions.

This shifting portrait assumes viewers’ assumptions and filters, doesn’t impose a reading. Rather, it slinks and shimmies, stops and starts, provokes and seduces. Just so, Smith comes in and out of frame, each actual place a repository and occasion. When she enters her “corner,” a room in the Chelsea Hotel to which the film returns more than once, the image focuses on black boots first, then tips up to show the camera hanging from her neck. Pans of the room show accumulating memories: photos (Ralph Nader, for whom she campaigned in 2000), wooden clogs, books (Walt Whitman, Mickey Spillane, William Blake, Rimbaud), and her instruments. She found in rock and roll, she says, a means to express herself, “albeit somewhat awkwardly.”

Modest and even shy offstage, Smith is famously explosive on it. The film’s concert footage is occasionally overlaid with alternate soundtracks (Smith reading poems), but always makes clears her uncanny charisma. “My mission,” Smith says, “is to communicate, to wake people up, to give them my energy and to suck theirs.” Just so, her recent performances include calls to action against the current U.S. administration. In Philadelphia, she reads from the Declaration of Independence ("a long train of abuses") in order to “indict George W. Bush for befouling our country’s name.” On the DC Mall, she sings “Radio Baghdad,” from her 2004 CD Trampin’ ("Suffer not the paralysis of your neighbor, / Suffer not, but extend your hand"), as the film shows an anti-war collage.

Smith’s journeys are by turns intimate and indistinct, comic (a bit with Flea on a beach, comparing stories of pissing into bottles) and spiritual (she walks with Jesse through Central Park as she remembers the song “She Walked Home,” which she wrote but never recorded because, she says, “Somehow Fred made it his own"). As much as this collaborative film reveals of Smith, it never tries to define her or even make her its only focus. Instead, it takes her at her word: “We all have a voice. We have a responsibility to exercise it, to use it.”


by Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters Film and TV Editor

Patti Smith: Dream of Life
Director: Steven Sebring
Cast: Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, Oliver Ray, Tony Shanahan, Jay Dee Daughterty, Jackson Smith, Jesse Smith, Tom Verlaine, Sam Shepard, Phillip Glass, Benjamin Smoke, Michael Stipe, Flea

é...
temos sempre aqui o torrent a cair no desktop:
http://www.mininova.org/tor/1339304

festival de cinema periférico

os belos vencidos

Beautiful Losers film trailer from beautifullosersfilm on Vimeo.



Beautiful Losers
Beautiful Losers is a feature documentary film celebrating the independent and D.I.Y. spirit that unified a loose-knit group of American artists who emerged from the underground youth subcultures of skateboarding, graffiti, punk rock and hip-hop. This documentary tells the story of how a group of outsiders with little or no formal training and almost no conception or interest of the inner workings of the art world ended up having an incredible impact on the worlds of art, fashion, music, film and pop culture.

the act-ups - play that old psychadelic sounds of today

e cá está ele, o novo dos the act-ups.
roque ende role cheio de brilhantina, muscles cars, tatuagem no peito, miúdas com cabelos altos.
a história é sempre a mesma, 50s blues, southern rock, rockabilly revival.
punk garajeiro, directo.
a voz de nick nicotine é fogo posto combinado com um fuzz de 70s.
tudo isto com uma sonoridade gun club, electric eels, hank williams, reverend horton heat, comets on fire, kid congo.
portanto a formula é o roque ende role. é dar, baralhar de novo e distribuir o espírito movido a gasolina com hábitos de whisky.
isto tudo em vinil pela gigantesca editora groovie records .




http://www.groovierecords.com/home.htm

the act-ups - alive again

cá vai o single de avanço para o novo album.

jona bechtolt - see a penny (pick it up)

See A Penny (Pick It Up) from Jona Bechtolt on Vimeo.



e a aproveitar a vinda destes west coast healers pela mão da zdb,
se vires o cêntimo apanha.o ...
são uma questão de ocasião e interesse,
estas sucessivas edições da dfa e congéneres.
aglutinação de folquelore, pop, palminhas, vozes miudas, dança.
é tudo pop. analógico.
pop muito visual. é o inchaço americano.
é um disco feito com os cêntimos no chão.
portanto: 3 bolas de berlim em 5 possíveis.

para a primeira parte, e daqui vai metade do bilhete para a entrada,
calhau!
duo de grigg-skjellerup e portugal.
ruído para audiências estáticas. do melhor.
rejeitemos o signo chinês, criemos o signo português.



http://www.myspace.com/calhau
http://www.myspace.com/yacht

feira laica em coimbra

http://www.feiralaica.com/

the gringo stars - all y'all

Gringo Star "All Y'all" from analogmonkey.tv on Vimeo.


pop genial.
parece com...
parece com... hum, farinha com caramelo.
pópe.

golden triangle

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golden triangle [website] are a raucous, female-fronted brooklyn garage-punk act with a bratty attitude and stylish costumes that resemble some kind of performance art cabaret band. their hypnotic drumming, vocal chants and lofi guitars are just notes from chaos but always exactly where they need to be.

[600 pressed; 500 black vinyl, 100 gold vinyl] rob house records

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side a: prize fighter, red coat. side b: night brigade

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numa cidade onde nas esquinas já só se lê vivian girls,

rescreve.se em tag por cima golden triangle.

e prize fighter é uma música do cacete.

9ª feira int do fanzine

as carradas de fanzines que existiam, davam para forrar um camião e pô.lo a arder.

desde os anos 20 e pelos 30, 40, 50, anos 60, anos 70, anos 80, anos 90, uma nesga nos anos 00.

era essa a rede onde se pescava.

agora com tudo embalado parece que está tudo mais burro.

of montreal - skeletal lamping

http://www.ofmontreal.net/

the fall - reformation! post - tlc

NEW ALBUM OUT NOW
There aren’t very many bands that have been together longer than The Fall and, with a few exceptions, it’s difficult to think of any who, like The Fall, have released brand new material every year. Formed at the height of the punk rock movement in Manchester in 1976, The Fall has released around 50 singles, 25 studio albums and perhaps 50 live and compilation albums.
Famously the band has gone through numerous personnel changes over the years (there have been over 30 different line-ups so far) but always present is the enigmatic Mark E. Smith – musical genius, obnoxious drunk, Salford’s finest poet, journalist’s worst nightmare, working class hero. Dubbed ‘The Grumpiest Man in Pop’, by the NME, Mark E. Smith has been carving his jaundiced signature on the music scene for the past twenty plus years. Rarely tempted to celebrate the lighter side of life, Smith uses humour and horror to illuminate vile hypocrisies and injustices.
It’s now over a year since the release of the critically acclaimed Fall Heads Roll and with a new line-up now in place, Fall aficionados everywhere have been looking forward, with a degree of impatience, to the next album. At last a date has been set for the release of Reformation Post TLC, The Fall’s stunning new work, which is yet another winner and set to supersede the success of Fall Heads Roll.
What they are saying about 'Reformation Post TLC':
“The end result is probably the best Fall album since the Halcyon days of This Nations Saving Grace and Hex Enduction Hour, another worth addition to the guys track record” (The Independent)
“No matter how often he's written off, Smith keeps bouncing back.” (The Times)
“It doesn't really sound like anything the Fall have done before, which bodes well for the future. As the stoic Fall fan knows, you write them off at your peril.”.” (The Guardian)

the fall - reformation!

Reformation!

socic scope 2008

Vários Artistas - «Sonic Scope 2008» CD Grain of Sound € 12.95
É sempre uma ocasião importante quando temas nas mãos uma edição que é
inteiramente feita por portugueses, em Portugal e que reflete uma realidade bela,
dura e crua sobre a música experimental e improvisada actual.
Nuno Moita e João Vicente da editora merecem a nossa confiança e a Fonoteca
Municipal de Lisboa o aplausa por apoiar a iniciativa.
Desde 2001 que o Festival Sonic Scope se vai afirmando, mas julgo que só este ano é que teve
direito a documento em CD.
Destaque para 9 participações, desde os One-Off a Sei Miguel, passando por os Curia, Plan, Red
Trio, Whit, Carlos Pereira, Feltro e a «vaquinha» entre Vitor Joaquim eos @c.
É sempre uma ocasião importante quando, disponibilizando o nosso precioso tempo, podemos
ouvir um disco assim.

http://www.grainofsound.com/

musgo - o ar lá em baixo

http://www.virb.com/musgo

stephen malkmus - gardenia

quem é uma gardenia?
marado...

ideas for muscles - promo video

ideas for muscles ( novo cd/ new cd ) - misuse of muscle's appliance - promo video from pedro carvalho costa on Vimeo.

damo suzuki + loosers

poster de joão maio pinto.

concerto: six organs of admittance, wooden shjips e sic alps

neste dia a caixa vai abaixo.

http://www.filhounico.com

jandek na serralves em janeiro

Estreia nacional da que é “uma das figuras mais fascinantes da música do século XX” (e dos dias de hoje), e provavelmente o homem que levou a solidão e isolamento no processo de trabalho aos maiores extremos em toda a história conhecida da música independente. Eremita, compositor de canções de abandono, entropia e superação, é editado pela misteriosa Corwood Industries desde o final dos anos 70 e, dezenas de discos e quase 30 anos depois de arrancar a carreira, apresentou-se pela primeira ao mundo (sem nunca ter dado entrevistas, sem nunca ter comunicado com os media em discurso directo) num concerto em Glasgow, em 2004, onde não vinha sequer listado.
Desde então realiza um número bastante limitado de actuações por ano, pelo que é um enorme prazer anunciarmos que a Filho Único e a Fundação de Serralves, em co-produção, irão apresentar um concerto deste criador incomparável. Na véspera, a 9 de Janeiro, a Fundação de Serralves irá projectar o filme “Jandek On Corwood” (Chad Friedrichs, 2003), documentário sobre a carreira do artista à época nunca avistado.

joão silva e carlos santos n'o século

www.myspace.com/carlosmsantos
www.myspace.com/joaomsilva
________________________________________
http://www.oseculo.com/

ta da - os autoramas

http://www.myspace.com/autoramas
www.groovierecords.com

les baton rouge - drop dead fest lisboa

les baton rouge @ drop dead fest lisboa from pedro carvalho costa on Vimeo.


e este ano o festival fez.se em lisboa.

doc lx (???) 2008

e lá continua o doc lisboa sempre de pé.
sem parar em semáforos e sem hesitar em bifurcações.
os documentários portugueses continuam sem aparecer.
sabe.se lá porquê.

the fall - totally wired

iiiiiii'm t-t-t-totally wired!

the fall - mr. pharmacist

pronto, hoje o dia é dedicado aos the fall.
e amanhã e depois também.
vou encher o porta.luvas com cds copiados.

as várias caras de mark e smith

estava a ler o the guardian online e de repente, vi o mark e smith a apontar para mim.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/gallery/2008/apr/11/1?picture=333505165

tiago pereira

tiago pereira from pedro carvalho costa on Vimeo.

musgo - o fim

musgo - o fim from pedro carvalho costa on Vimeo.


musgo - o fim do disco apneia

numbers - zdb

numbers from pedro carvalho costa on Vimeo.

wolf eyes - zdb

wolf eyes @ zdb from pedro carvalho costa on Vimeo.


eu já não me lembro quando é que isto foi, mas foi do caraças.
olhar assim um lobo de tão perto.

gala drop ...ou a selva lisboeta

depois do concerto de domingo dia 5 (ontem) no museu do chiado e depois de devorar o disco, compreendo agora como lisboa é uma selva.
autocarros suados e peganhentos, equatoriais.
é o português africano que podia também representar no downtown 81.
gala drop descobre.se com sombras de nova iorque de 79.80.81.
quem não ouve aqui liquid liquid e mesmo a banda de basquiat, gray?
ou até mesmo os loosers, ou klaus schulze em tons tropicais.
uma boa banda sonora para uma cidade sem a sua.

ou como dizem na fact:
http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1066&Itemid=52

silver jews - dvd 23 de setembro

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=6021455

vivian girls - tell the world

falem delas! contem ao resto das pessoas acerca do rock and roll!

some girls - i need drugs

droogs, droogs, droogs.

the chinese stars - listen to your left brain

i tried to kiss in 4th dimension...

robert crumb - the new yorker

marcos farrajota - noitadas, deprês e bubas

é então mais difícil escrever uma má estória que publicá.la?

uma aubiografia entre os anos de 95 e 97.

paracem polaroids dessa década.

muito fumo de charros, mão morta, fantasias na carreira do 414? sem guita, música em altos berros, existencial.

um trabalho interno rico e muito interessante que não começa nem acaba com este livro.

é de notar as referências e o um total apoio e conhecimento do que se fazia internacionalmente.

as esperas no cofre do apartado por novos números.

um bonito exemplar e um sinal de esforço. isto ainda há.de vingar.

oito euros é um preço mais que convidativo.

mas para uma melhor compreensão...

http://lerbd.blogspot.com/2008/07/noitadas-deprs-e-bubas-marcos-farrajota.html

ir ao cinema antes que ele venha até nós.

em velha a branca acontece isto

Velha-a-Branca Estalo Cultural

Braga dia 26 e 27 de Setembro

Frango e Bruno Silva

Tropa Macaca e Gustavo Costa

lobster + ideas.for.muscles @ zdb 26 set

Os Lobster intitulam-se power-rangers do noise rock, mas ao contrário dos super-heróis, Guilherme Canhão e Ricardo Martins não possuem super-poderes; isto pelo menos se considerarmos que a química que os une não é em si um super-poder. Cansaram-se de combater o crime e nos últimos tempos incendiaram palcos sempre que para isso tiveram oportunidade; não só em Portugal, mas também em Espanha e em França. Fizeram mossa desde os primeiros tempos, transformaram-se rapidamente numa das melhores bandas portuguesas ao vivo e agora havia que dar um passo decisivo e corajoso em frente."Sexually Transmitted Electricity" é o primeiro bilhete de identidade da dupla depois de algumas licenças prévias que ficaram para a história. (...) é um documento que apanha os Lobster no seu melhor momento. Não chegou tarde nem cedo; chegou mesmo a horas. Tamanha urgência merecia um disco assim – uma estreia mais do que notável.www.myspace.cpm/wearelobsters

Acabadinhos de lançar "Misuse of Muscle's Appliance", esta é a segunda visita dos Ideas For Muscles à galeria ZDB. Afirmam-se como um power duo destrutivo e psicadélico a ter muito em conta, e mostram-nos que o rock ainda pode conseguir soltar faisca. Munido de ritmos programados, vozes em delay, suor rock'n'roll, psicadelismo afro-beat, apresentam neste novo ep um re-inventar da fórmula apresentada no seu primeiro Fuck the Trainer (edição de autor). O método de trabalho utilizado no registo de estreia baseado em encontrar ordem no caos, é aqui "invertido". Em Misuse of Muscle's Appliance o desafio foi destruir a ordem criada pelas composições inicialmente orientadas para o formato "canção". Disco duro, espontâneo e aventuroso. Os concertos são curtos e directos, convidam à diluição dos corpos e à comunhão etérea.www.myspace.com/ideasformuscles

http://cultodoimperio.blogspot.com

einsturzende neubauten - "ich komme davon" (the jewels)

If music were baseball, the departure of Blixa Bargeld from the Bad Seeds to focus exlusively on Einstürzende Neubauten would be considered one of the greatest front office moves of all time, one of those that leaves both squads better. Since Bargeld left in 2004, both his and Nick Cave’s band have put out some of the best music of their long careers. It freed Cave to tap into his rocker roots; the difference between Abbatoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus and Nocturama is so drastic that the only link is Cave’s voice - and allowed Bargeld to focus his efforts solely on Neubauten and its vision of what music should be.
And that vision happens to include reshaping the way the audience and the artist interact. Their last album, Alles Wieder Offen, was funded by fan subscriptions, and this album actually started its life as bonus material for said subscribers. And while the Neubauten website still makes no reference to this album as a physical unit (only as a digital download), it does document its release, track-by-track, between March 2006 and February 2007. Unlike the songs on Alles, which was deliberately worked on and revised over that same span, those collected in The Jewels were all made quickly, in a day or two at most. And, in the grand tradition of Brian Eno, they built each track around the results of a card game based on neglected ideas from previous albums. Each band member would take a couple cards, grab an instrument or instruments (defined as loosely as possible, in that way only they can) and start playing. The remarkable part is that, when you listen to it, there is no hint of its diverse origins. The album is that coherent.
The material itself is, unsurprisingly, pretty close to that of Alles, just with a little less menace. Don’t get me wrong, it’s nearly impossible for Neubauten to not be menacing or imposing, but the eerie factor seems to be ratcheted down just a tad. There are still plenty of moments of dark ambience, crashing metal and rustling construction supplies, like the horror film clamor of “Mei Ro” and “Die Libellen,” but they are mere elements of songs, balanced out by snatches of melody, almost-calming drones, and a sense of pacing that makes them feel almost natural. Plus they are joined by the lovely melodicism of “Ich Komme Davon,” “Jeder Satz mit Ihr Hallt Nach,” and “Am I Only Jesus?” and the call-and-response of “Magyar Energia,” which at least partially subvert any menace hidden in the background. And “Epharisto” is about as close as Neubauten gets to Tom Waits, with its limping groove, off-kitler guitar and Bargeld’s random vocal interjections. The songs are all relatively short for recent Neubauten material - the average length is just over 2 minutes - so there is little space for the sweeping builds and flowing forms that characterize so much of their output. In a way, this album ends up occupying a space half-way in the early ’80s and half-way in the present. It almost makes for a great summation of what Bargeld and Co. are all about.
What’s really fascinating is that, while Neubauten doesn’t have the immediate rock’n’roll punch of recent Nick Cave, both groups seem to be starting from the same place: noise. As Emerson Dameron says in his review of Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, the latest Nick Cave record is also largely built around “scrapes and rattles,” mostly from Warren Ellis. And while it would be impossible to confuse one group for the other, it’s an interesting parallel, and perhaps speaks to why Cave hired Bargeld in the first place.
By Dan Ruccia -dusted magazine

http://www.dustedmagazine.com/

http://www.neubauten.org/