]
As promised last week, here's my "smelliest of" lists for 2011:
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Album
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1 :: Tip Toe Topic - No Sleep 2 :: Rott Childs - Riches Will Come Thy Way: A Musical 3 :: Birds That Change Color - On Recording The Moon 4 :: Black Cassette - Black Cassette 5 :: Benny Zen & The Syphilis Madmen - Run Back To The Safety Of The Town 6 :: Mike Patton - The Solitude Of Prime Numbers 7 :: Kourosh Yaghmei - Back From The Brink 8 :: Primus - Green Naughahyde 9 :: Maxon Blewitt - June '81 10 :: Erkin Koray - Mechul |
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Gig
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1 :: 2011.10.17 - Flat Earth Society (R.I.P.) - De Singer 2 :: 2011.04.18 - Imaad Wasif - Trix 3 :: 2011.09.24 - Drums Are For Parades - Trix (Here We Are Now, Entertain Us) 4 :: 2011.09.13 - Omar Souleyman - Trix 5 :: 2011.10.30 - Melvins - De Kreun (Sonic City) 6 :: 2011.04.14 - Slayer - Klokgebouw 7 :: 2011.05.03 - Queens Of The Stone Age - AB 8 :: 2011.05.17 - Group Doueh - AB club 9 :: 2011.01.13 - Wolf People - Trix 10 :: 2011.09.09 - Man Man - Le Grand Mix |
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Theatre
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| 1 :: 2011.10.29 - I Love Sarah & Friends - CC Spinoy (Contour) |
As always, you're very welcome to disagree with me. Have yourself a brown 2012, don't forget to check out the latest Christmas single, and if the world doesn't end first: until next time!
Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum! 't Is the season once again for me to bestow another steaming pile of Christmas music upon the unsuspecting masses. This year's masterwork is a rendition of "Deck The Halls" and can be found, as always, on my music page. Merry Christmas, and stay tuned for the equally traditional 2011 faves lists. Until then: poop long and prosper!
Welcome to the latest semi-annual SoundsBrown update! Several people (that means more than one, but admittedly also less than five) have complained about what they perceive to be a lack of activity on this site, so an attempt to do something about it might not be misplaced. I'll start with baby steps, by writing about two recent gigs that I went to.
Tim Vanhamel teamed up with a bunch of other people to play at Buurtsalon 2018. What was announced as "Tim Vanhamel and Thomas Loyens" actually turned out to be a small army of musicians who needed a two-story stage to hold all of them: Tim Vanhamel and Pascal Deweze on guitar; Ben Younes on bass; Thomas Loyens, Jeroen Stevens and some other dude on drums and percussion; Sjoerd Bruyl in a pair of blinding white trousers; Georgios Tzatzikipopoulos on bass, recorder and cowbell; and yet another dude I didn't know on guitar and empty bottles. They came on stage one by one, starting with Tim and Sjoerd who laid down some oriental-sounding guitar drones. The drums and bass then kicked the whole thing into a higher gear and gave the remaining band members something to freewheel around. Georgios, who donned a cape, mask and an intimidatingly large top hat, wheeled especially freely. He played a recorder through some particularly vile stomp boxes, scraped his microphone over the walls, swung it by its cable between the band members on the ground floor, and even threw rice over the people down below. Oh, the hijinks! And speaking of hijinks, Primus are hard at work on a comeback: they're planning to release a new studio album later this year, and they played at a sold-out AB a few weeks ago. For me, the gig was a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the level of musicianship on display was as good as could be expected. I don't think I need to tell anyone what an absurdly good bass player Claypool is, and guitarist Larry LaLonde learned his chops from none other than Joe "Guitar Yoda" Satriani. On the other hand, I probably should have dusted off the albums before going to this show, because I only recognized about a handful of songs. I was not at all hoping for a greatest hits show -- far from it -- but the gig just seemed to have few real highlights. The one that stood out for me was the encore: Claypool teased the crowd with the first three notes of "Too Many Puppies", and then went for the decidedly funkier "Pudding Time" instead. That was good, but what I really missed was something off "Antipop". On the other other hand (yes, I have three hands), the band did manage to keep a respectable mosh pit going, so maybe I've simply become a grumpy old curmudgeon who's always looking for something to complain about. Yes, that must be it -- it was a great gig after all! So, with that said, all complaints about my laziness in updating this site have been nipped in the bud (at least for a while). If we don't see each other before then: merry Christmas!What's up, bitches? I hope you all made it through the holiday season without doubling your BMI like I did. Is it true that you should seek medical attention if it goes over 50? Anyways, remember that you can download my latest Christmas single, Last Xmas, if you're feeling adventurous. In keeping with tradition I also owe you some lists, so below are my 10 favorite gigs and albums of 2010.
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Album
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1 :: Mauro Pawlowski - Original Music From The Performance NieuwZwart 2 :: Strumpets - Hello Strumpets! 3 :: Broken Glass Heroes - Grandchildren Of The Revolution 4 :: Mike Patton - Mondo Cane 5 :: Alain Johannes - Spark 6 :: Master Musicians Of Bukkake - Themes From The Motion Picture "Man With The Green Gloves On" b/w Themes From The Science Fiction Telivision Show "Bạn Bè Của Anh Ãy" 7 :: The Ex - Catch My Shoe 8 :: Liars - Sisterworld 9 :: Motorpsycho - Heavy Metal Fruit 10 :: John Zorn - Ipsissimus |
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Gig
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1 :: 2010.11.12 - Japanese New Music Festival - Magasin 4 2 :: 2010.03.12 - Popcorn Night(mare) - Scheld'apen 3 :: 2010.05.24 - Flat Earth Society - Ham Sessions 4 :: 2010.09.27 - Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - P60 5 :: 2010.10.20 - Quintron & Miss Pussycat - Scheld'apen 6 :: 2010.02.06 - The Crab Four - CC De Mol 7 :: 2010.02.25 - Mugison - Botanique 8 :: 2010.05.22 - NieuwZwart Trio - TrixTrax Festival 9 :: 2010.10.01 - Shellac - Zaal België 10 :: 2010.09.16 - Hoquets - TrixTrax |
It was particularly tough to narrow down a list of only 10 gigs this year. Specifically, I think Benny Zen, Eat Lions, Tip Toe Topic and I Love Sarah deserve an honorable mention here. Better luck next year, fellas!
Smelly Christmas everyone! I haven't been very punctual with updates to the site the past months, but I have done my best to finish my yearly Christmas single on time. This year's effort is called "Last Xmas", and you can play or download it from the music page. I hope you will agree that it sounds like shit!
I put up a bunch of new pictures for your perusal. This means I'm now a mere 5 months behind with my updates, which is pretty good by my standards! Here's a concise rundown of some of the highlights of the months of March, April and May.
I Love Sarah played on the roof of the Sint-Romboutstoren in their hometown of Mechelen. I pity the sherpas who had to drag the drum kit and other gear up 550 steps and back down again, but it was possibly the coolest location I've ever been to for a gig. The guys played jazz versions of their songs in honour of Saint Aloysius III, the man who brought jazz music to Mechelen in the 13th century. Good stuff!
We caught a particularly catchy and cheerful Club Moral gig at Les Ateliers Claus. As a refreshing change, DDV and AMVK were joined by Mauro on drums and Aldo on bass to perform such instant hits as "Bodies Bodies Bodies" and "Eating Limbs". Mauro also did something vague with Antoine Boute and some other guy afterwards. There was some pretty neat guitar riffage in there, but it was also sort of a battle of endurance, which the crowd lost.
Mauro also appeared as part of NieuwZwart Trio a couple of times, including at STUK, Bar Mondial and Trix. I haven't had the pleasure of enjoying NieuwZwart with the dancers, but the band sure sounds brown without them! The set at Trix was particularly smelly.
I also got a generous helping of Japanese rock shit. My favorite Japanese person, Yoshida Tatsuya, stopped by Magasin 4 for a double bill with Ruins Alone and Sax Ruins. The solo set was a bit more diverse than the Sax Ruins one, incorporating some songs from Tatsuya's other projects such as the excellent "Bectemm Polt" by Koenjihyakkei. I've been a Tatsuya fanboy for years now, but the amount of brownness that oozes from this man's every orifice continues to bewilder me!
Tatsuya also tours with Zeni Geva, who I saw at De Kreun. Zeni Geva deals only in white-hot searing hatred. This was made clear even before the show, when the light man came up to ask singer KK Null for instructions. "Only white. No smoke. No flashing.", Null grunted straight to the point, thus essentially sending the guy home. The show was great, but I did wonder if the band is ever going to release anything new (they put out a live album, but no new studio material).
Master Musicians Of Bukkake played at Trix opening for Wooden Shjips. The big surprise of the evening, however, were Eugene, Oregon doom metal sensation Yob, who did a great aftershow. I had never heard of them before, but I was quickly converted to fandom!
Flat Earth Society appeared at the Ham Sessions, a small jazz festival of sorts that saxophonist Michel Mast organizes in his back yard. The band were joined by Esther Lybeert, so a lot of the set was taken from "Answer Songs". The guys also dusted off a few old classics, though, such as "Come On A My House", "Lucky Ol' Sun" and "Mr. Monotony". For the latter, Teun played percussion on Berlinde's tuba while Berlinde was simultaneously playing it herself. Neat! Also a first for me was "Hi Tom" by A Group, which was sung by Pierre Vervloesem. Brilliant show!
I was skeptical about Garcia Plays Kyuss: at the time, I likened it to Marc Requilé organizing an Evil Superstars reunion with a band consisting of former Clouseau members. I went anyway, and although it did somewhat smack of prostitution, it was actually better than I expected.
Be sure to tune in again next week for a review of June, July and August!
You might not think so by the looks of me, but I'm still alive. I let myself get hopelessly behind with my updates to this site, and the spambots happily took over from me. After painstakingly removing all the random gibberish and the Viagra ads, I figured I'd unleash my inner nerd and do something about it. Hence, you are now looking at SoundsBrown version 3.0!
Following up on the smashing success of last year's "La Bamba" night, Ultra Eczema decided to host a Popcorn Night(mare) this year. The concept was as simple as it was lethal: nothing but cover versions of Gershon Kingsley's classic song "Popcorn", all night long, both on stage and in the DJ booth. The party lasted until the next morning, which for us meant non-stop "Popcorn" exposure for well over eight hours on end. A mind-altering experience if ever there was one! The party also coincided with the release of a double LP with cover versions by many of the artists who also performed at the event -- meaning that you can relive the magic any time you want in the privacy of your own home! I can't begin to describe all the live acts, but I'll go over a few of the brownest ones.
A first highlight was a dude (whose name I regrettably didn't catch) who played the tune by slapping on his own cheeks and opening and closing his mouth to control the pitch. Very skillful! Elko Blijweert also did a good version, appearing as one half of Autistic Youth. The other half was ill, so Elko had the guitar parts recorded into a loop station and complemented them with highly energetic live drumming on a floor tom and a cardboard box. Michiel from CWTAB and his homey Steven played a fun version as well, using guitar, synth and tambourine and dressed up in robes and turbans.
Another fascinating performance was the one by a large tent. "Popcorn"-inspired sounds emanated from its mystical interior, while actual popcorn spewed from an opening near the top. Equally surreal was a performance by a group of horse-headed people, who tapped the rhythm of the song on typewriters. Finally, Possessed Factory (Mauro, Jef and Jeroen on this occasion), played something really loud and fast which I couldn't quite recognize as being "Popcorn". I'm sure it must have been in there somewhere, but I was already too far gone at this point to find it. They rocked that shit pretty goddamn hard, though. So hard, in fact, that a certain very drunk person crawled up on the stage and tried to perform oral sex on Mauro, presumably as a token of gratitude for the rocking. It's always a good sign when that happens!
We admitted defeat after seeing Possessed Factory (around 5 AM if memory serves), and called it a night. We were wading up to our knees in popcorn at this point, and we also got to relive the magic the next day by picking bits of popcorn out of our various orifices. Hooray for popcorn!