My year in music so far

Almost a quarter of a year has passed already, so what has this year brought so far and which new promises did it bring? Here's some of my personal high (and low) lights of the year in music so far. 2011 is still looking fingerlicking good!

Wild Flag
Last year I knew the band existed and who was in. Now I've heard a studio recording and have watched them live per live stream at SXSW. I've heard and seen the women in action now. Verdict? This is what rock music needs. This is what punk needs. This is what women need. This is what I need. Wild Flag is a great rock band who enjoy what they're doing. Something that's actually refreshing. The album will be out this Autumn on Merge Records. This one is candidate for Record of the Year, based on the songs live so far. High expectations can easily lead to high disappointments but this time I don't think that will happen.

Radiohead
So.... Radiohead suddenly released an album and had the entire population of music geeks in extacy. For me it's been a load of shit that's been released. Seriously, how many obscure bleeps, whacky piano loops and annoying vocals can you squeeze into one song? And this 8 times! I congratulate Radiohead with the surprise the release was but I officially won't call myself a fan of the band anymore. Yeah, I'm a stuck-up bitch who claims that they used to be better in their early days. Fuck that, it's true!

The Splinters
Didn't know them last year but these Brooklyn women have stole my music heart by storm. They also have a tambourine player. Yes, a sole tambourine player. I think that's class. And the songs are great too. They're one to watch.

The Cribs
Played their last show at the end of August at Leeds festival last year. Announced a two year break. Fast forward 7 months and they're back together in Wakefield recording songs in the drummer's garage. The return of lo-fi they're calling it themselves. Sounds promising. Johnny Marr is on his way to Moscow for one thing or another. Fine. Not sure if he'll return to the band but as great as it's been, I wouldn't really miss him. The punk male counter part to Wild Flag? This is a huge compliment I'm making to the Cribs who I rate extremely high and to Wild Flag. This is no offence. This means that I'm really happy with the Cribs' quick return. Bring it on!

The Boxer Rebellion
Following that band since (roughly) 2004 thanks to my sister. 2011 seems to be the year the rest of the world wakes up and seems to embrace them. They fully deserve that. But it's still weird. Why now? Why not three years ago? These guys had to work in shoe stores to keep their dream alive. They're really independent, releasing everything on their own label, everything independent for real. It's hard work. It's paying of. It's almost surreal to witness. But fully deserving.

Images from:
www.facebook.com/wildflag
www.twitter.com/thecribs

It's the apocalypse! Do you remember? Hello?

Birds fall dead from the sky! Fish die in lakes! Chemical plants go up in flames! The apocalypse is there!

Of course the fire yesterday in the South West (Moerdijk to be precise, an industrial small town between Rotterdam and Breda) that kept the Netherlands quite worried doesn't relate to the mysterious deaths of the birds and the fish in America and Sweden, though if this would occur in the Netherlands these coming days, we at least do have an explaination for it. Because as much the authorities tell us no toxic gasses have been released during yesterday's massive fire at a huge chemical plant, the entire chemical plants has burned down and tanks have been exploded live on television, this material is somewhere, being a hazard to our health or not, they are somewhere in the sky. I'm not one quickly to shout catastrophy and will not do this now, but saying nothing has escaped? Does that mean all the chemicals are left on the ground where once was a chemical plant?

Of course this was wonderful TV. A reporter a few meters away from the fire, reporting with explosions clearly visable in the back (Hollywood must have been so jealous of that footage), saying he's allowed to stand there, the wind blows into the other directions, he does have a dry mouth and his tongue tingles, but all is safe and sound. Kaboom! As you can see, explosions still occur, people are ordered to keep their doors and windows shut. Another reporter reports from an empty street that people do keep inside. The weather reporters explain how the wind works in layers, tell us the rain which was predicted will take whatever is blown into the air down and shows us where the wind will take the remainings of the fire. Amsterdam is safe. However, a friend of this weather reporter has told him he could smell something funny all the way in Schiphol! Sidenote, Schiphol is the airport close to Amsterdam and is an AIRPORT. Kerosine anyone? Still, the whole inferno, as one newspaper called it this morning, made an impression on me. It also launched a lot of jokes, some of which I won't repeat in an open blog. And that were just my jokes!

It also raised one question. Do we remember this apocalypse in a month time? Will it make it to the year-end lists and stand-up shows? As much as we get off on all these reports of catastrophies, we forget about them just as quickly. Ask anyone over 30 and they can tell you all about Tsjernobyl. But try the same thing in 25 years with Moerdijk (where I strongly need to add that Tsjernobyl was a lot worse than what happened in Moerdijk). We have all the media feeding us with news, information and pictures, which we had a lot less of 25 years ago, but the more we know and see, the less impact it makes and how easily we forget. There's something really bitter about that and it isn't falling from the sky right now.

2011, will you do me good?

Hello 2011, how do you do? So far, my first day at work has been a bit of a drag. I'm a down right moody bitch and it's annoying myself even. There's something about a new year, like you should start it jolly and fresh and enthusiastic like 2010 did not happen. I guess that just rubs me the wrong way. There are however a few things to look forward to in 2011 and here's three of them.

Kaizers Orchestra
The Norwegian band has completed recording their Violeta Violeta trilogy and will unleash it to the world these two years, its first release is scheduled for this month and in March they'll be playing in Amsterdam which show I will obviously attend, if only it was to meet up with one of my best friends who I met two years ago at the same venue for the same band. As with the first Kaizers Orchestra albums, these albums tell a story. It's a trilogy after all. It tells the story of a family with a small child. The mother gets seriously insane and the father takes the child and runs away, hiding in the world. The mother obviously goes more insane, doesn't leave her house for 7 years, crying buckets filled with tears. During one of her moments of pure insanity, she wears her wedding dress, goes crying through the house and pours gasoline over her dress. She catches fire and gets seriously burned. She survives and her sadness turns into anger and vows to hunt down the father and the child. Expect a grand finale. I can't wait!

Janet Weiss
With Carrie Brownstein, Mary Timony and Rebecca Cole she has formed Wild Flag which will be recording an album and release it as well. If that isn't enough, it's known that the Jicks, as in Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks where she drums as well, have been messing about in some exciting basement in Portland (the one of Jick Joanna Bolme and husband and Crib Gary Jarman) and the band has already recorded and apparently Beck (yes, that Loser guy) is involved as well. Goody! Quasi is also touring in 2011 so Janet Weiss is very busy. Which means good for music. Let's hope she'll find her way to Europe once more.

Photography
I have a Fisheye 2. I have a Diana F+ Edelweiss. Hello??!! When I picked my pictures from the lab (department store HEMA) yesterday, there was one picture that made it all worth while. Do you know these pictures of highways, where you can only see the lights of the cars as a beautiful string of light? That's the kind of picture I made (with the Diana mini) and made me very excited about making more pictures. I want layers! Light effects! Long exposures! No more just snapping the pets (which is a fun thing to do), let's go mess up photos and take pictures of each other in silly settings and poses. 2011, I'll capture you good!