BROOKLYN NIGHTS

Yesterday I had a gig at Freddy's backroom and this is the guy that went before us. His name is Jesse.

MUSIC THAT FITS THE WEATHER

Bajofondo performance last Friday at Summerstage (Central Park NYC) was very intense.
After a rainy afternoon the band showed as usual the best they had.Santaolalla, composer of award winning soudtracks souch as Brokeback mountain and Diarios de motocicleta, said it: "esta música es perfecta para este clima" (This music fits the weather) or something like that. Eventhough I was unconfortable because I was soaked and all the tall Newyorkers (or visitors) where in front of me, the concert was worth it. The band is better live than on a CD, and the energy I got from them is more uplifting that the usual tango music. It's a very interesting and original art form that comes straight from Argentina and Urugay.
Here´s a video. Hope you enjoy!

NYC'S ROCK N' ROLL HALL OF FAME

In November 2008, the Rock N' Roll hall of fame plans to open an annex in 76 Mercer Street in Manhattan.
The actual space is in Cleveland and was opened to the public in 1995, eventhough the foundation started in 1983 by a group of music executives.
The point of opening an annex in NYC is to call attention to the Cleveland exhibit that's visited by half a million people per year.
For now, in the 25.000 square-foot annex there'll be Jonny Ramone's and Eric Clapton's guitars, a CBGB's Phonebooth and Bruce Springsteen's first car, a yellow 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible.

KANYE'S GOT IT ALL

Kanye West,the nine times Grammy award winner, has one of the best web music pages I've seen.
I'm not talking about his music, who personally I don't like, but this man knows exactly what he's doing.
The page's designed by Takashi Murakami, the japanese artist and exponent of global fan-geek culture who made Kanye UniverseCity as a crayon-colored cartoon. As VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN wrote for the Nwe York Times: "an ever-expanding metropolis on the order of Shanghai".
Kanye's web page also has a blog, videos, music, photos, tour dates, and everything you want to know.
Check it out and have fun

http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com

DESTINO

In 1946 Salvador Dalí and Walt Disney worked on the animation for "Destino", a song by the Mexican composer Armando Domínguez. After 8 months of work the project wasn't finished so in 2003 it was completed under the direction of Dominique Monterey.
Sometimes I feel like this sureal movie.
Here´s an abstract I found on youtube.

PRUEBA

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.

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.

MORE MOBY

Last remix

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"