Graveyard

'You're not leaving your house until you've listened to this', a good friend commanded a couple of months ago. So there I was, locked in with nothing but me, my lover and this Graveyard record. I did as every person in this situation would do: ignore the record and sneak out of the house at 4 in the morning. 

Ironically enough, it seemed I couldn't escape this Graveyard record. There I was, having a beer in the most sleazy bar in town when the tunes out of the bar's speakers struck me. I felt like I was catapulted back to the 60s/70s era in a place where Led Zeppelin hasn't yet broken up. 'Who is this?' I yelled at the bartender. The eyes of the bartender lit up as he said 'Graveyard! A Swedish band. You should check out their newest, Hisingen Blues (which, at the time was their most recent full length).'

This was my introduction to the band I would listen to on a daily base from that moment on. Short after releasing their third album, they would come back to Antwerp for a show in Trix. And I was there, obviously. But only to be let down. From that night in the bar on, I would consider Graveyard as my all time favorite band, you see. So I kinda jinxed it myself. But in my defense, the lads on stage didn't seem to get control of the situation that night. 

It started with the first song where the drummer lost his rhythm. Badly. Admittedly, that could've been because the monitor mixer didn't know what to do. But throughout the whole set, Graveyard couldn't seem to care less. Yes, they've played their best songs, and yes, they did an encore, but all of it was so dull. The people attending that show that night should've been blown away by their raw sound and the singer's high squeaking voice. Sweat, blood and tears should've been shed. But none of that happened. The set was brought boringly and rapidly and they just couldn't seem to finish it fast enough. 

Kobalt's EP release

It's been a while since I've been talking about my band Kobalt. We've even changed the spelling of our name in the mean time. Front page news, people!

I wish it was. In the meantime, we're paving our road to success. After having delivered that very first demo about 9 months ago, we decided to invest in a rehearsal studio where we could also set up some recording gear. Last summer has brought us a really nice place in Lille (the Campine) and we're practicing almost daily ever since. The progress you make is incredible!

Now we're on the verge of releasing our very first EP; all songs are more or less recorded and the artwork is nearly finished. Just a couple of vocals here and there and then the mixing can begin! The joy...

You can check out a little rehearsal teaser from one of our newest songs.




We've also got two very nice shows coming up:

• 17 November 2012: Café Cycloon, Turnhout (Tune in)
• 1 December 2012: JC Den Eglantier, Berchem (Radio Friendly Unit II)

The end is near

According to Thom Yorke's statement in the yet to be released school text book 'The Rax Active Citizen Toolkit', the music industry will cease to exist. His band Radiohead is of course a perfect example for how things could be in the business: release your music on a DIY label and make lots of money with it.

Imagine how it would be: a world without majors. No EMI, Sony or Universal telling bands what to play or telling people what they should listen to. There would be a shitload of independent labels, and they would always be connected to just a handful of bands. Artist would get to choose what their music should sound like, what budget they will spend on a certain release, etc. 

Just imagine the creativity when it comes to promoting your own music, without having the hassle to be struggling against incredible big opponents such as majors are these days. There would be a war of bands, and I mean that in the best possible way: now they don't only have to make the best music on earth, they also have to come up with bigger and better ideas to get the music to the fans. 

The (DIY) tools already exist in this internet based era. Apart from the most common social media, more and more platforms get to see the light of day. Fanbridge, Pinerly, Soundcloud, Mixcloud and Songkick are just a few of them. 

I think it's a brilliant motivator for a beginning band to know wether they're built for it or not. Do they have what it takes to take everything under their own control? At least, I'd like to believe so. Statements like this make me want to start to manage my own band, Kobalt, and take it to the highest possible level. 

Organization Tomorrowland turns down 100 million bid

Tomorrowland, 2012

ID&T, organizers behind international dance events, couldn't be tempted by the $ 100 million dollar (€ 77 million) bid. 

Among others, Robert Sillerman, an American businessman and media entrepreneur, had taken an interest in the company, but it hasn't been confirmed this was his bid. 

Together with Belgian brothers Manu and Michel Beers, ID&T organizes the successful dance event Tomorrowland, which has been elected 'best international festival'.  A couple of months ago brothers Beers stated that they weren't interested in selling their festival just because they can reinvent themselves every year and they love doing it.

ID&T's Duncan Stutterheim states: ‘We used to joke to eachother that we would sell the company for a hundred – a hundred thousand guilders (50 000 €),” he said. “Then, a few months ago, someone from America suddenly wanted to give us a hundred. A hundred million dollars. The choice was very difficult. But we didn’t do it. I think that this company can continue for another twenty years, that we may go into the world.”

Music and politics

In the past couple of weeks, Belgium's been subject to the elections. Normally, I'm not that much into politics. I vote for the party that I think deserves my vote, and I make a certain choice by my gut feeling, by what I think 'is right' for my country or city. But this time was different. I live in Antwerp, where it very soon became clear that - after 70 years of socialism - this time the nationalist would probably be in charge of our beautiful city.

This made me think of a Dutch tv show I've recently seen, 'De Wereld Draait Door'. Guest and radiopresentator Giel Beelen compared political parties with bands. I thought I could do the same, so here goes:

• Groen - Canned Heat: sure they have timeless songs, but they're such tree lovin' hippies
• CD&V - Coldplay: music for the mass without character
• VLD - Fun: a band consisting of people who aren't musicians and are only in it for the money
• NV-A - PSY (Gangnam Style): one hit wonder (Bart De Wever) with entertaining skills but without any content whatsoever
• sp.a - Kings of Leon: sellouts; they traded ideals for money
• Vlaams Belang - Rammstein: it doesn't matter how hard they bark, nobody listens to them anymore 
• PVDA - Green Day: what used to be a band with explosive songs and in your face lyrics, is now a mere parody of itself. They're aware of this so they try a new method, with a triptych album, but just can't get enough attention anymore. 

The CD turns 30

Thirty years ago, the CD and the CD player were first introduced to the world. As with every new invention, people didn't really believe in the new product. In comparison with the LP that ruled the music market, the CD was far too expensive and the first releases were almost entirely classical music. IF pop acts would release their newest album on CD, it would only be at least three months after their LP release. 

But the brand new product had a lot to offer too, and that's what eventually persuaded the big mass. The CD came in a nifty plastic design, promised virtually zero maintenance compared to LPs, had a never seen new feature called 'instant track skip' and a longer capacity without needing to flip sides. 

In the mid 80s, the price for a CD and CD players dropped eventually. By then, almost all titles previously released on LP had made the transfer to CD too. Bands and artists all over the world released their new albums instantly on CD and even car manufactures started integrating CD players in their newest models. 

Only true audiophiles kept going on about the mediocre sound quality. Even after a couple of upgrades regarding the listening experience, the CD still couldn't win from the LP when it came to the sound quality. And yes, it's one of the reasons - even today - I too choose vinyl over CDs. 

Nonetheless, happy birthday to you, mister CD! 

App review: Borderlive

Borderlive combines all concerts in Northern France and The Flanders (Belgium) in one clarifying concert line. Even when you're not connected to the internet, you can still browse the line up in full. 

It provides all the info needed, such as time, place, date, ticketprices, and you can share your favorite concerts on Facebook and Twitter. You can also invite your friends for a certain concert through mail. 

Online tickets can be bought via an easy link in the concert description and 'route' guides you to the gig withouth any hassle. 

The handy feature 'On Air' allows you to see the first upcoming show, and gives you a short summary of date, place and time in one touch. 

Borderlive is an intitiative of Clubcircuit and R.A.O.U.L, two NPO's that haven't been strangers to each other. In 2009 they founded TERMM (The EuroRegional Music Meeting), a project that tries to fade the borders between different countries. 

It's an easy to use app, suited for both people who live in the given areas and tourists who want to check the local live music scene when they're on vacation. 

Borderlive is available for iPhone and Android. 

 

Antwerp DIY music promoters

In Antwerp you’ll find one ‘real’ music club, Trix. There you’ll see all kinds of bands from different sizes. The bigger events take place in the main hall, which used to be Hof Ter Lo, and the smaller shows you’ll see in Trix club or Trix bar. And of course, there is also Petrol club.

But then that’s it. I’m not complaining about their programmation, but back when my two companions and myself founded pooping bird we were utterly frustrated about the limited amount of shows we could go to. We as ‘big’ music lovers would change this and I’m sure this is the incentive that drove our colleages aswell.

DIY promoters overall are people who are driven by their love for music in the first place. They are often youngsters who don’t have the money to regulary buy € 15 tickets, but who’d love to see more live shows as they already do. Overall, they have a very critic view on today’s music industry and it’s mainstream way of thinking.

pooping bird.
As I told you before, most of the DIY organisators felt there was something missing in Antwerp, and so did we. Back then, Noon was still studying in Ghent where a lot of DIY concerts took place. We started to get the hang of these very cheap and still very decent concerts, and wanted to take them to Antwerp. We knew a couple of places like for example Scheld’apen who did such shows, so we started to get to know the Antwerp scenery a bit better.

Screamo, post-punk and math rock were our personal favorite shows, because of the no-nonsense attitude and the energy of both the bands and the promoters. But with our organisation, we wanted line ups filled with unknown bands of all genres with just one thing in common: the high standard of their music. pooping bird was born.

Our first pooping bird. event ever was in a small squatted venue, called ‘t Logement. We still had a sloth left on the bill and so little time to promote the event, so we asked our friends of Intergalactic Lovers if they’d like to play that night for gazoline costs. They gladly said ‘yes’ and that was the birth of pooping bird.


Of course, we aren’t the first nor the last DIY promoters Antwerp will ever know, and luckily, we became good friends with some other organizers. Some had inspired us, like Jelle with his Hands Like Birds shows in the beginning of 2008. Others found us to be inspiring and founded their own organisations. Sometimes, we collaborate if we want to do a ‘bigger’ event (cultus online).

When asked why they to what they do, a lot of my fellow colleagues answered that on top of their unconditional love for music they’d miss an underground scenery, where everything was made possible. Through MySpace (ages ago), facebook and the growing number of music streaming sites, a lot of brilliant bands nowadays can easily find their way to a promoter and vice versa. 

Antwerp still has too little high quality concerts in specific genres, but I’m glad there are a couple organisations now (like: Kelly Splinter, Hands Like Birds, Teloorgangshows, Kaspar Hauser Records, ...) who are still trying to work together as a front to lower the threshold and bring decent music to everyone interested.



 

pooping bird: Often moved about within a context of reason

Well hello there!

Time to get out of our wintersleep, don't you think? You may have noticed that we don't have a lot of
shows coming up for the moment. Well don't you worry: we're still alive and kicking.

We're working on different projects at the moment. Me and Dimi are playing in a band called Cobalt. At the moment we're recording our first demo. You can already check us out here or here.

In the meantime, Noon is trying to keep herself busy building a website for pooping bird. which is a lot more difficult than we thought it would be. So, bear with us.

And apart from the above, Noon and I are preparing for the Burnout festival, which is a gigantic project for school. I'm the head of production, and with only 3 weeks before the festival, I have my hands full with placing orders, making last minute decisions and whatnot. 

We also have kind of (well, actually really) exciting news! We've decided that we want to expand our thingy a bit by starting a booking and management agency. (I don't like the word "agency". I'm sorry for using it. It implies that it's all about business and money. That's not our purpose. So, let's just call it a collective. Sounds more friendly that way)

We're so lucky that the Antwerp based band Cat Claw (ex-Calicifer) have enough faith in us
that they want to work with us. So, yay!
They're  rehearsing in Kavka as we speak, because they're going to record their first demo tomorrow.
As we said: Exciting times are ahead of us.

Our last event was a massive succes, and I'd like to think it's because of the collaboration with the lovely people of cultusonline. We did a stonerrock special for the unlucky ones without a ticket to the Roadburn festival that same weekend. Mars Red Sky, who played Roadburn that weekend, were more than willing to play our gig in Kavka and so were Radar Men From The Moon, Cat Claw and Cobalt. It's been a while since we had so much fun and a bill full of exiting bands. Thanks again for everyone who spent the night with us!

Our next series of concerts and events will start this summer. I'm looking forward to it, and so is the rest of our team. Keep an eye on our website, facebook and twitter if you want to stay up to date.

See you soon! 

All is going well in Cobalt land

It's been a while since I've posted something on this blog, and I'm proud to say that it's been going great in the meantime. As you know, we've sort of pre-released our first demo a little while ago and even when it's (still) not mixed and mastered yet, it has already opened some small doors. We're not playing Glastonbury yet but hey, it's a start.

 Even when we're still in the making of our final song of that first demo (read: our singer can't decide wheter he's gonna grunt or squeak), we've won some free studio time at the Pianofabriek! If we work quikly enough, we can even record a song or 3! This friday is our first recording day, so wish us luck.

Apart from that, we've got some nice gigs coming up, so feel free to come check us out:

• 29th of March: Bal Masqué at Scheld'apen (Antwerp)
• 13th of April: An evening full of stonerrock at Kavka, with Mars Red Sky and Radar Men From The Moon 
• 3rd of May: housebands night in Kavka with Willow as support 

 There is even more to come, but I'm afraid I can't make that public yet.. Just sit tight for a little, and before you know: BAAAMM! Oh, well, just a teaser: there are some booking agencies interested already! I'm hoping not to jinx it by saying this, but we're having our fingers crossed. Hopefully someday soon we will be playing all of the nice venues in town, with the help of a motivated booker.




- C

Cobalt, the demo!

Formed and based in the caverns of the centre of Antwerp, Cobalt brings imagery in music and sounds, telling tales with noise and voice. Influenced by stories and colors, true people and structures; Cobalt embraces the eclectic coming and going of waves. Four people with a variety of sounds and a live energy invite you to a journey that will not leave you untouched.

Listen to our demo here and/or visit us on facebook!

Cobalt - All Books Tell Tales

It's been several posts, thus quite a large amount of time since I've talked about The Band. Back then we were struggling with finding the right name for our four-piece band, so now I'm really proud to announce our new bandname: Cobalt. It's exclusive, really, so consider yourselves lucky to be the firsts to hear about The Best Band In The World.

Also, we're recording a demo. Like with everything we do, it takes ages to finish it. We've set up several deadlines so it wouldn't take months for us to realize it, and it's still not ready yet. But let's stay positive: we're almost there! We're halfway through recording the vocals. Once that's done, we can start mixing the songs.

I can't wait to share our music with you, but since not a single song is fully recorded yet I simply can't. Here's a little teaser of our song 'All Books Tell Tales', though. Which is, of course, a working title.

Must have tripped off on a rainy day
When a man drenched in his coat
Took me aboard
His ship like a women scorned lay restless

When he finally spoke,
Jabberin his chin
Come and meet her then
For me he had something in store

Should have noticed then,
But i had my hands full

Remembering my name


A two coin trip, into deaths arms

temper temper, I urge you to remember
write down the names of those who came before

help others see in their dark troubled minds
deep waters and labyrinths alike

all books tell tales
but you'll have to pay if you're planning to go this way

Guess i should have noticed then, but i had my hands full
Rememering my own name

Not withstanding

A two coin trip into death's arms.