We are so proud of our gold medalist Ranomi Kromowidjojo! And to elaborate on Dutch pride, I wanted to share Radar Love by Golden Earring with you, since they are one of our most successful bands of all time (internationally). Radar Love is an amazing song and pretty well known, I guess. I mean, even Homer Simpson covered it!
Other Dutch artists: Doe Maar (Language: Dutch), Caro Emerald (Language: English), De Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig (Dutch), Herman Brood (English), Grupo Sportivo (English), Spinvis (Dutch), etc. :)
I'm probably too early with my sadness, they say that it's treatable, but it turns out that my grandpa's cancer has spread and that news scares me terribly. I want to cry or yell at someone, yet I don't, because all the drama is a bit pointless (and the yelling-part quite unfair).
Whenever I cried for no good reason, and I still do that an awful lot, my grandpa used to tell me that his father always said, that he was only allowed to cry if someone slapped him - 'and barely no one ever did!' He didn't tell me this to make me feel guilty about crying, but he did want me to realize and enjoy the fact that my life is very easy: by all means easier than his, and he's still vivid and happy.
So today "I'm not gonna lose it, 'though I may wanna die, they say it's good to let it out, but I'm not gonna cry."
(I won't turn this thing into a diary, don't worry, I just didn't feel like finishing the happy posts I had started to write)
I'm so happy, so happy! My sisters and I just took possession of my father's entire record collection - he wanted to throw it away - and all these records are amazing. I never knew that my father owned almost ALL the music I listen to. Genes are very strong, I guess.
I was writing something amazing, but then this thunderstorm came and I got frightened by the lightning outside so I just ran away from my computer - I don't touch wired things during thunderstorms - and hid in the middle of our living room, far away from the windows, and watched the tv show Zomergasten ('Summerguests'). I'm not going to explain what this tv show is all about, for it was just an unimportant detail to lead you away from thinking that this is just a sad excuse for not having written anything. Not that anyone cares. That's the thing with excuses: no one cares except the one that wants to be excused and it's just pure sadism if the listener let's someone finish his whole act. My mother finds it hilarious when a student is hysterically searching in his bag for a none-existing paper to conclude with: 'I could've sworn that I put it in here'.
My story was true, however (except for the 'amazing'-part), so I'll just have to to fill the lack on my tumblr called '07/30' with a laughing baby on youtube and an extremely happy song (I loved it when they used it at the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics, I was the only one singing along):
Oh, and today I clicked on this link placed on The Willow & The Builder's facebook-page. I read it and after a few sentences (I know, it took me far too long) I thought, wait a minute, I wrote this. So that was pretty scary, 'cause now I realize that I'm writing nonsense that's actually accessible for everyone all over the world, including myself.
I love Regina Spektor so much. Her lyrics are great and her style is unconventional - and if there's one thing I love, it's unconventional people. This song is from her new album, What We Saw From The Cheap Seats, and it's absolutely amazing. Listen to it, you won't regret!
Right now, I feel like Blackbird is the only song on earth that's worth listening.
I wanted to post something about the 'riot grrrl'-genre or about the cool 60's girl groups that inspire me so much, but then I stumbled upon a post that made me think of Blackbird and I decided to just stick with sharing that, even though everyone already loves The Beatles, so their songs don't really need to be recommended.
It's just, Blackbird never fails to give me a a wonderful, strange feeling that makes me want to either listen to it until I die or to fly away (since both are impossible, I'll just put it on repeat till the Opening Ceremony of Olympics in London starts). It's like the aftertaste of chocolate, that makes you long for more and more and deep inside you know you can only kill the desire by eating something else, but you just don't want to, for while the aftertaste is still tickling your tongue, you believe that nothing else can taste as good as chocolate.
Listen to it and tell me: can, while suffering from the aftertaste of Blackbird, anything else satisfy? Maybe only its inspiration piece, Bach's Bourrée in E minor, has a chance to do so:
In a world full of war, famine, oppression, deceit, monotony, what - apart from the eternal innocence of animals - offers an image of hope? A mother with a newborn child in her arms? The child may end up as a murderer, or a murder victim, so that the hopeful image is a prefiguration of a pieta: a mother with her newly dead child on her lap. No, the image of hope is someone passing with a musical instrument in a case.
Harry Mulisch | The Discovery of Heaven
Photos: Pieta by Samuel Aranda, James Nachtwey, W. Eugene Smith
Sometimes I find a 'hidden' treasure (at least, hidden for me) in the music world by randomly typing words into google. I must confess, it's not the most profitable way of searching, but I'd like to compare it with beachcombing on a deserted beach: day after day you get up early in the morning to stroll through the dawn and always you end up with nothing but a couple of damaged buttons, until this one morning you wake up with the feeling that you're going to find something amazing. With renewed strength you start your quest and indeed, that evening you return to your sad and lonely home - after all, you're a beachcomber* - but this time you're actually happy, because in your pocket is shining a beautiful golden necklace.
Alright, this comparison is really bad, I'm nothing like a beachcomber: randomly typing words into google is not my hobby, I certainly don't get up with the dawn to do it and I must admit, I would rather like searching music on a laptop with sand between my toes, a beautiful view on the North Sea and the sun desperately trying to bronze my skin without achieving considerable success. Sadly enough, I don't have a laptop and if I did, it would probably be very insensible to bring it to the beach.
However, the only reason for me to write this ridiculously long introduction was to compare the self-titled album by The Willow & The Builder with a beautiful golden necklace, since I thought that comparison would be so original. Last week I accidentally stumbled upon this duo formed by Richard Miron and Adrian Simon and I immediately fell in love with their folky, infectious indie-popsongs. Admittedly, their music is not of a groundbreaking new sort, but why would someone overdecorate a simple golden necklace, if it's already beautiful?
The first song (Teahouse Treehouse) starts quietly with Miron and Simon singing in harmony, before the song explodes into as a catchy, upbeat song, the chorus supported by the happy stamping of feet and group vocals: a song that probably even the grumpiest people can't dislike.
There's a similar 'sweetness' dripping through the entire album, yet it never gets too much. Some lines taste like cotton candy and the singers' young voices make everything sound so innocent, but let's not forget, I'm not some sorrow, old beachcomber**, so I actually don't really mind the sweetness - in fact, I love it: for example. Oh Willow! (Why Wallow?), a song with dancing bragginflies and bumble bees, is one of my favourite tracks. It's just, you know, I wanted to come across as a serious person, giving a finely tuned judgement...
Besides, the haunting Heartache and moving Cut It Down already compensate for the sweetness and fill the lack of 'darkness' in the album, if darkness is something one can really miss. The latter song is by the way one of the best songs on the album, if not the best, including some lines that make me think of Regina Spektor's lyrics in On the radio (which is nothing but a compliment, for I love Regina Spektor - just don't focus too much on the video clip). However, my absolutely favourite songs on the album are Mansion Man and Rosaline, both sweet, catchy and touching lovesongs with lyrics that quite fit my 'if you love somebody, set them free'-mood.
If you're just like me, clicking on every link you stumble on (oh, hellish viruses, won't you just leave me alone?!), you've most likely already discovered that all songs are written around the theme The Willow & The Builder, something that has worked out very well. The subjects are therefore typical those that are relevant for young students and relatable for everyone. So, to conclude: you won't regret buying the album, or downloading it for free, on their bandcampsite. I'm a bit ashamed for not having bought it myself, but I still don't have a credit card/paypal account. As soon as I get (one of) those, the first thing I buy will obviously be The Willow & The Builder - the second thing probably a poster to finally replace the one of Jack Sparrow that's been hanging on my wall for years, framed and all: it's getting really pathetic.
*I'm really sorry, I don't want to seem prejudiced. I know beachcombing is not a sad way of surviving that's reserved for poor, lonely men. It's actually a perfectly normal hobby, just like trainspotting, collecting stamps and writing reviews that probably no one will ever read, except maybe someone, someday who likes randomly typing words into google. I definitely hope that person won't think of me as a damaged old button.
I wouldn't call it a guilty pleasure, since it's nothing to feel guilty about, but one of my greatest weaknessess is Romani music (also known as 'gypsy' music, a word I'll avoid, for some people find it very offensive - and I hate being offensive). I don't remember how I rolled into it - I do know that I listened to Romani music even before I found out about Tony Gatlif's movies - but every now and then some Romani sounds fill my bedroom. I once was stupid enough to enthusiastically share a more 'advanced' song - a song that's apparently not easy to enjoy - with one of my friends, but sadly enough she honestly answered: 'I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that I can't like this'.
Therefore, whenever I put on Romani music, I turn the sound of my computer a bit lower, so that my parents won't think that I've gone mad. Not because Romani music is mad, it really is beautiful, but this genre demands to be discovered step by step to fully appreciate it - just like Mongolian overtone singing (even though I still don't really know how to listen to that). My parents or friends aren't narrow-minded, but starting with Taraf de Haïdouks can be a huge mistake, for most western ears aren't used to the so-called 'gypsy-scale' and the dissonance of some Romani tunes. This scale has a sort of sob in it which never fails to touch me intensely and for that reason, I think everyone is able to fall in love with Romani music, even though not everyone appreciates it from the first listen. In this post, I'd like to show you which path I'd recommend for you to follow, if you want to discover the beautiful world of Romani.*
Step 1: Gypsy Jazz
Gypsy Jazz (I'll continue to call it hot club jazz, named after 'La Quintette du Hot Club de France') is probably the easiest form of Romani music for 'unexperienced' people to enjoy: some people even think it isn't really Romani, which too means that if you don't know your way around in the jazz world yet, it might be sensible to postpone your plan to discover Romani music. Artists such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Billie Holiday must have grown on you already, but of course, you could also use hot club jazz as a useful leg up to the jazz world.
The most important artists of hot club jazz are Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli, the founders of La Quintette du Hot Club de France. Their music is beautiful, but it's hard to find Romani elements in it. Nevertheless, when you listen carefully to songs such as Minor Swing, you can hear something that is very typical of Romani (and Klezmer) music and I don't know how to say it in English, but in Dutch we describe it as 'lachen met tranen': 'laughing with tears'. The songs can be happy and sad at the same time - a youtube commenter already observed this.
Recommended hot club jazz artists: Jimmy Rosenberg, Pearl Django (funny name) and Damian & Brothers.
Step 2: Flamenco
I adore Flamenco. I certainly don't know everything about its history, but I do know that it has been highly influenced by the gitanos, who belong to the Iberian Kale group. Some people think flamenco is purely gitano, but that's not true. It definitely contains a lot of influences from the Spanish culture too. However, it's of course neither a coincident that the greatest cantaor of all time (at least, to me he is), Camarón de la Isla, was a gitano, just like many of his collegues were. Thanks to its gitano history, you clearly hear sounds similar to the Romani sobs/Jewish Krekhts in Flamenco singing. Cantaores and cantaoras cry their songs in the most beautiful way...
If you clicked on 'cantaores' and 'cantaoras', you already found out about Estrella Morente and Diego El Cigala. They both sing Flamenco that is (I think) comparable to the music of Camarón de la Isla, like I said, my favourite cantaor. If you understand Spanish, you must certainly focus on the lyrics of his songs too - some of them are incredible!
I could of course go on and recommend you a whole list of artists such as Los Delinquentes, Ojos de Brujo and Paco de Lucia, but I could also just share this amazing website and its youtube channel.
Step 3: Klezmer
Klezmer is Jewish folk, not Romani, but I just can't help sharing it with you, partly because Romani music and klezmer are a lot alike, mostly because I just love the Jewish culture and klezmer.
I actually prefer listening to modern klezmer bands. One of the most popular bands in this genre is the Amsterdam Klezmer Band, a Dutch band that tries to modernize klezmer without losing the original sound. However, they did launch the album Remixed, on which they collaborated with artists such as Shantel and Yuriy Gurzhy. Strangely enough, the klezmer-sounds on this are still audible. Most of the music by the Amsterdam Klezmer Band is (fortunately) far more traditional. I do like the linked songs though, especially the latter one: one of my other great weaknessess is Russian rap. Anyway, other nice klezmer bands are, amongst others, Di Gojim and The Klezmatics.
I don't know a lot about older klezmer, so it's better to discover that without my interference. However, I would like to share the beautiful yiddish song Kinderyuhren with you, sung by Bente Kahan. I love yiddish. Being Dutch, I feel like I understand it a bit, but I actually don't.
Nice fact: Tom Waits seemed to be inspired by klezmer too, as Rain Dogs proves.
Step 4.1: Gypsy Romani Punk
Gypsy Punk, I'll just call it Romani Punk, is not my favourite genre. There are a lot of nice artists and song, but I just don't listen to it that much. However, when talking about Romani influenced music, I don't think I can ignore it. My favourite Balkan Band is Balkan Beat Box, the most popular Romani Punk artists are Gogol Bordello and Katzenjammer.
Step 4.2: Romani Music
You've made it to the final step: Real Romani Music. Dive into the warm bath of artists such as Fanfare Ciocărlia, Taraf de Haïdouks, Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra, Kočani Orkestar and Mahala Raï Banda. Besides these fenomenal artists, you could also buy the movie Latcho Drom by Tony Gatlif. An amazing movie, from which I'll post a little video after I've finished this post.
I really spend too much time on this post, considering no one will ever read it. However, if you read this and you happen to be an expert in Romani Music: I always like getting suggestions. Oh, and if I made a huge, hopefully not offensive, mistake: please tell me!
*I made this path up in situ, so the working hasn't been proven yet and I haven't overthought it that seriously. Just click on the links and enjoy the wonderful music: reading all this would be such a waste of time!
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