Saturday, June 21, 2008

JUST LIKE HEAVEN


Last night I went to one of my dream concerts: The Cure.
I'd like to share with you some thoughts, but also some videos and some pictures, so if you missed it, here´s a little bit of it.
Robert Smith consecrated as a legend last night. His sureal domain of music and audience are the most admireable qualities that this artist has. He´s been able to hold The Cure together for decades and the sound as well as the show was timeless, not only because some songs had the essence that could bring me back to the early videos, and with that I mean all the feeling that I could recieve from this music when I was 13 years old, but also because that concept and that feeling is still alive and felt more contemporary than ever.
I'm not going to review the show, I just want to share some thoughts.
The combination of the bass player with his punk style, the guitar player that looket as if he'd just come out of a Miller comic, the drum player as an hybrid pop 80's star and singer and guitarist, the tender freak Robert Smith, was the perfect blend for a 50 song set list that returned me to my primitive feelings and thoughts. Pure human sensibility that lasted for ever and that ended with the pop encore, the retro encore and the real encore:Killing an Arab.
I just want to say that to me,in a very special way, real artists consecrate themselves as my philosophers so here are some of The Cure's teachings.
I wish my videos where a little shorter and had less definition so I could share the ones I taped, but as I've been trying to upload them for a week and they're very heavy, here are some youtube videos I found for you.



Sunday, June 8, 2008

VINYL RETURNS. THE PROS AND CONS

last Rolling Stone Issue presented an article by David Browne titled Vinyl Returns in the age of MP3. The article listed the increase in vinyl production and sales by bands like Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Elvis Costello and Catpower, as well as the increase in turnetables' sales. But beyond what the article presents there are some questions that popped into my head.
First: Radiohead and their green tours main challenge as opposed to their production of vinyl records which compared to CDs and MP3 materials are less friendly with the enviroment. So in spanish you'd say: "lo que hacen con la mano lo borran con el codo" which in english would be something like: what you write with your hand you erase with yor elbow, or something like that. So, what's the point in all the effort they invest in the live tours earth fiendly venues and equipment if the real concept, which I undertand is to be friendly with the enviroment, is not taken beyond a tour?. Maybe it's hard to believe comming from a band I admire like Radiohead and specially Thom Yorke, but is it still all about the money?. Because as we all know, vinyl is selling.
Second:All the experts talk about the warm sound of vinyl, and I agree, but being realistic, what's the percentage of people that really care about the warm sound?, so as they well cite in the article, vinyl sales have a celing. And maybe it's just a trend that would only last for real music lovers (melomanos).
Third and most important of all to me, and something the article doesn't even mention. The vinyl trend is a great way to redescover old records that made history and that had concepts that mainstream music has forgotten. Let's say jazz recordings which in my experience, sound very different in digital format that in analog, or classic recordings that we all well know souch as Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Hendrix, Beatle's Saergent Pepper's lonely hearts club band,etc...which not only made history with the music concept and sound but with the art that came with music. So, will the vinyl return bring all the good music and the profound creative concept as well as the old fashioned sound back?
Hopefully it will, at least while the trend lasts.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

LSD IN ROCK N' ROLL

I've been reading a lot of interviews and books written by musicians that've made history in rock music. All of them describe their experience with drugs, specially LSD. It's just something undeniable that in a way, framed a period in history and because of that, framed musicians, and as a result, their music. If you're interested check out more youtube videos or some rolling Stone's (magazine) interviews.
Remember: LSD was legal

John Lennon's audio interview



Dr. Albert Hofmann. LSD "The Beyond within"