A Teardrop Explodes

The Simpsons theme meets Captain Kirk.

Performed with Rhodes piano, Theremin and funnel.

Tune of the day!

Posted by TheDrude at 8/31/2006 03:35:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

It was about time!
A new era for digital music has started. No kidding.
Ok, just in the States & Canada and from December onwards But still!
Just check out http://www.spiralfrog.com and read yesterday's Press Release for all the very important info.

Posted by TheDrude at 8/30/2006 05:43:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Talking about Julian Cope on the previous post, I remembered that I had on my mind to tell you about the movie "The Lost", which will be featured on this year's Athens International Film Festival (20 Sept. - 1 Oct.).

The connection between this american indie flick and Julian is that the amazing soundtrack features music by the great Brain Donor, Julian's "metal" band. Except Brain Donor, while watching the movie, expect original music by Temistoclis H. Rutili (former of Red Red Meat, now on Califone), and songs by The Black Eyed Snakes (Side project of Low's Alan Sparhawk), The Black Heart Procession, Out Hud, The Ponys, Boris and Oblivians among many others.

"The Lost" is directed by Chris Silvertson who was co-director and co-writer of the cult horror flick "All Cheerleaders Die". Based on the novel by Jack Ketchum (an excerpt from the novel recently appeared in "The Outlaw Bible of American Literature" alongside excerpts from other writers such as William Burroughs, Hunter S Thompson, Jack Kerouac and Henry Miller), "The Lost" is a psychoviolent, raw, funny and nailbiting (a bit) low budget film which might be one of the highlights of the Festival this year.

From the O.S.T. listen to:
Temistoclis H. Rutili - Dreamless.mp3

Posted by TheDrude at 8/25/2006 01:58:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Last Friday, the excellent Guardian published a very interesting, as always, essay by non other than the Arch-Drude himself, Julian Cope.

As he is regularly doing on Head Heritage, Julian praises his favourite acts from the underground worldwide scene and he points that "Across the world, underground scenes are using the shell of heavy metal - the volume, the grinding riffs, the imagery, the nomenclature - to test rock'n'roll perceptions and explore boundaries, all the while shamelessly subsuming other vastly different musical styles into their own work".

Julian knows his shit and he is by far one of the best music writers around, so read on!

... and ofcourse listen:

Wolfmangler - Dirge.mp3
Cadaverous Condition - There is no death and there are no dead.mp3
Sangre Cavallum - A Canção Da Pedra.mp3

PS. I don't include samples from Six Organs Of Admittance, SunnO))), Comets On Fire & Acid Mothers Temple as I SUPPOSE that you know them alright. If not... well... educate yourself!

Posted by TheDrude at 8/25/2006 10:22:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by TheDrude at 8/25/2006 09:56:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Too many things to do, too many ideas, too many plans...

Even if 1% out of all those little creatures that are running around my brain gets out of it into reality alive, yes, I'll be as happy as I was during my holidays.


By the way, DON'T download this song:
Weird Al - Don't download this song.mp3

22 years after "Eat it" (remember that hilarious scene-by-scene parody of Michael Jackson's "Beat It"?) Weird Al Yankovic releases a new album next month and this is the lead single dedicated to all of us, the mp3 generation. (Ok, now pretend that you care a bit).

And in case, you were not around in the '80s, here is "Eat it":

Posted by TheDrude at 8/23/2006 01:15:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Last year was Antony, this year who will get the cash?

The Mercury Prize 2006 nominations were announced yesterday and... what else can I say, this is the Shortlist:

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Arctic Monkeys - Dancing Shoes.mp3

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ramblin Man.mp3

Editors - The Back Room
Editors – Lights.mp3

Guillemots - Through the Windowpane
Guillemots - Made up love song #43.mp3

Richard Hawley - Coles Corner
Richard Hawley - Hotel Room.mp3

Hot Chip - The Warning
Hot Chip - And I Was A Boy From School.mp3

Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
Muse - Map Of The Problematique.mp3

Zoe Rahman - Melting Pot
(Haven't heard it yet...)

Lou Rhodes - Beloved One
(Haven't heard it yet...)

Scritti Politti - White Bread, Black Beer
Scritti Politti - Snow In Sun.mp3

Sway - This Is My Demo
Sway - Products.mp3

Thom Yorke - The Eraser
Thom Yorke - The Eraser.mp3

Who I want to get the cash and the prize? I could say Guillemots, Richard Hawley or Isobel & Mark.
On who I could put my €€€ on? Arctic Monkeys...

The winner will be announced on Tuesday, September 5. Place your bets here.

Posted by TheDrude at 7/19/2006 06:38:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Something like 6 years ago to this day, I was at Royal Festival Hall in London and I saw for the first time live Lambchop with the company of a full strings session performing the masterpiece that is "Nixon". Before that landmark album, there was something with this weird alt-country collective from Nashville that I really liked, but since that that album and this show they have become one of my favourite ever bands. And yes, I still consider Kurt Wagner a genius of his generation of songwriters.

On the 14th of August, Lambchop will release their new album "Damaged", our new yearly fix of lambchop- related material, and since this blog will be on holidays then, well, here we go:

Read:
- the very informative press release by the City Slang people
- a very good preview in greek in MiC
- an excellent 5 stars review from last Sunday's Observer Music Monthly

Download:
Lambchop - Crackers.mp3
Lambchop - Beers Before The Barbican.mp3
Lambchop - The Rise and Fall of the Letter P.mp3

Pre-order a limited edition of "Damaged"with a Bonus CD here.

Posted by TheDrude at 7/19/2006 12:23:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Nektarios (VM) didn't pay attention to my early warnings, and so it is...

Suku will indeed be performing today at Vinyl Microstore.

Suku - Apokentrosi.mp3
Suku - Inside yr gun.mp3
Suku - o souidos.mp3

Dimitraki pes aleuri, o Druidis se gureuei

Posted by TheDrude at 7/18/2006 02:41:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

If the previous night we had the King, last night at the Herodium Theatre in Athens we had the Princess!

And although:
- I was extremely tired...
- I was feeling really sleepy...
- I was sitting maybe in the worst sits in the theatre with really bad acoustic...
- And foremost, I was sad for the -one more, hope to be last - misunderstanding with my dearest...

I can assure you that the soon-to-be-mother Diana Krall, with her magnificent backing trio, was perfect!

From Nat King Cole to Ella Fitzerald, from songs of her past recordings to brand new tracks from her forthcoming album, and ofcourse to songs that her husband Elvis Costello has penned, Diana Krall proved why she is considered the best female jazz piano-vocalist at the moment.

Posted by TheDrude at 7/14/2006 05:12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

According to today's Pitchfork's report, the NY's Out Hud is no more....

After 2 albums, various singles and split EPs, the band called it a day, to focus on !!!, and sophomore solo efforts.

So let's pay our respect to the band who released one of my favourite album's of the previous year (Buy it here) by dancing to their electro-punk-cello beats.

Posted by TheDrude at 7/13/2006 04:35:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Still under his command, like noble servants of his majesty, after yesterday's evening amazing and truly moving live show in Athens. No words to describe it... If you missed it, you should shoot yourself right about NOW!

From the songs that Tom Waits, Van Morrison & Bob Dylan penned for his 2002 comeback, to some of his old legendary songs like "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love" and "Cry to Me" to mesmerising classics immortalised by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Chuck Berry and Ray Charles or gospel and country standards.

And all of this with the energy of a 20 years old guy, despite the fact that he didn't move a bit from his throne throughout his performance...

P.S. My man Barry Humbert was so much inspired from The King's show that he made a Cool Fat People list! I am not sure... Should I ask him to include my Drudiness in his list?

Posted by TheDrude at 7/13/2006 10:15:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

I was never a Pink Floyd fan. To be honest with you I pretty much want to punch in the face most of the Pink Floyd fans... don't ask me why, just BECAUSE.

However, one of the reasons might be that I always felt that this band really died when Syd Barrett went completely out of his head and disappeared from the the public eye to stay with his mum in a village somewhere near Cambridge. He was the real thing, the british equivalent of Brian Wilson, the first real LSD casualty, the man who in just one album with the Floyds, the masterpiece that is "The Piper At The Gates of Dawn" (the only Pink Floyd album I own, I am proud to tell ya), he remained a shining light in the history of music. Syd was pop, Syd was melody, he wasn't the pretentious soul-less cash-in that were Pink floyd after he quit the band. Anyway....

Well, I suppose that I can let the Arch-Drude to tell it like it is, Syd was one of his heroes anyway...

SYD

It is with great distress and sadness that I learned the news of Syd Barrett's death. Although only 60 years old, to put an age on someone as timeless and mythical as Syd is like dating the Pyramids or Stonehenge - I'm sure if we'd learned that he was 10,000 years old, no one would have been particularly shocked. He had not contributed anything artistically to the public domain since the very early '70s, but somehow knowing that he was still there somewhere in Cambridge, albeit in a supposedly vegetative state, was in some way reassuring. That his body and his soul must now be consigned to the Underworld makes all of us several psychic megatonnes lighter tonight.

When I was given my first Barrett album by my then-girlfriend Jane Smith in 1973, Syd was already lamented as a probable casualty of the '60s. At that point, 36 months since his last release, we'd all hoped for some sort of artistic rebirth, however reduced that statement may have been. It's difficult now in the early 21st Century to explain just how divided were the opposing pro-Barrett and pro-Pink Floyd camps. We can gain some solace from Roky Erikson's return to public appearances, but not much - as Syd has quit this planet far too young.

I refuse to sign off with any dubious lyrical conceit, because I'm crying too much. Syd: thanks for staying as long as you did.

JULIAN

Read the excellent Guardian Obituary here.
Many interesting web links and youtube links here.
Buy the true Syd's masterpiece here.

And download some samples of his genius:
Pink Floyd - Apples & Oranges.mp3
Pink Floyd - Arnold Layne.mp3
Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine.mp3
Pink Floyd - Bike.mp3

Posted by TheDrude at 7/12/2006 10:13:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

It is one of those days... extremely busy in the office, totally stressed, capable of starting a fight with anybody for any stupid reason, without my usual sense of humour.

Is it really worth it? Dunno... but it was my decision to stick with my current "situation" for the past three years, so I can't really say a word.

Today, I should have been getting ready to go to the Rockwave Festival by now. Instead, I don't really fucking care. I can't be bothered. I prefer to go home, cook some pasta or something, watch a dvd, while finishing my bottle of gin and sleep early. Am I getting old and more conventional? Or am I getting more snobby and picky? Still, I don't know...

Don't pay any attention, I am just mumbling to avoid finishing a really BORING financial analysis...

Ah yes, the only thing (except a certain thought, that is) that relaxes me a bit and making me keep going is some good brand new musicThat's the point of good music isn't? to relax you & keep you going?

Guillemots - Little Bear.mp3
Triosk - Vision IV.mp3
The Donkeys - Come On Virginia.mp3
Final Fantasy - The Lamb Sells Condos.mp3
Beirut - Postcards From Italy.mp3

Posted by TheDrude at 7/11/2006 03:33:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

Amon Tobin - Precursor

Watch one of the sickest and funniest videos ever from the great Amon Tobin, surely the best act from the Synch Festival, that took place last weekend in Laurio, Athens. Besides Amon Tobin and a few other notable exceptions, especially Animal Collective, this year's Synch Festival was a real disappointment, unfortunately...

After last year's success, a real step forward for our scene, this year's awkward line up didn't attract many punters, and justified I may add... This time we can't blame the people who preferred not to go to the fest, but the Synch people who decided to stay on a low budget regarding the International artists and preferred to host instead many Greek artists, more than the previous years. "Artists" who didn't have anything to do with the Synch atmosphere or others without any artistic merit, just because they have connections of any (managerial) kind with the festival and hype without a reason.

Anyway, I am so disappointed that I can't be bothered to download the photos off my camera....

Posted by TheDrude at 7/10/2006 01:44:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

What do you mean "Mais Pourquois?" you frog sportcaster?

Because HE IS ZINEDINE ZIDANE, that's why!

Because the true greats don't like Happy Endings. Those are for the cocksucking Peles of the world.

A bientot ZiZou!

Zidane y va marquer!.mp3

Posted by TheDrude at 7/10/2006 12:07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

... not in general, just with the old plain template of the blog.

I think it's much better now, don't you agree?

Getting ready for Synch Festival... I managed to destroy the zipper of my bag, while in the office. Damn...

A colleague of mine, came today in the office, with a diy t-shirt with the photo of his new born baby yawning on it. I am not sure if this is cute or somehow pathetic... whatever...

Posted by TheDrude at 7/07/2006 11:38:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Ah, the world of technology! Just some years ago, we had to wait for radio stations to recieve promo cds from the record companies in order to listen a brand new track from our favourite major artists. Nowadays, it is just the artist, a computer and a MySpace page.

Latest example, our dear old chap Jarvis Cocker, who just a couple of days ago, he managed to upload his personal MySpace webpage, where he left a note and... his first solo effort! (Well, to be honest, I am pretty sure that this is just another marketing trick from the record label, but anyway...)

The song is called "Cunts are still running the world", and yes as you may understand Jarvis is pissed off with the rullers of the world... Crossed my fingers, I hope he won't turn to a Bono!

This is supposed to be his first song out of his upcoming, some months later, first solo album since the demise (?) of Pulp.

Download:

Jarvis Cocker - Cunts Are Still Running The World.mp3

Posted by TheDrude at 7/06/2006 03:50:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

As for the next 3 days I'll be synch-ronised with the 3rd Synch Festival, and I do not know the state I will be on Monday morning, let me just provide you with an advance warning:

On Monday the 1oth, in all faithfull (online) record stores there will be available to order in an all new edition, the album that is regarded as one of the cornerstones of US indie rock. Yes, we are talking about "III", the seminal album of Sebadoh which was originally released back in 1991.

Domino Records are doing again what they have been doing for the past year on the early Pavement album catalogue, now on this Sebadoh's great album, which is re-mastering and re-releasing the album, with an extra CD with rare & unreleased tracks from the same recording era and with additional liner notes & photos.
The first disc of the release is the original album with all 23 tracks, remastered ofcourse, and it is an amalgamation of US indie rock sounds. The album is epitomised by the different musical directions of the three members of the band, with Lou Barlow being attracted by the folky acoustic sound, Eric Gaffney being more of the noise maker, and Jason Loewenstein trying to balance the other two.

The second disc offers a variety of interesting gems recorded at the same era, even the same recording sessions, with "III". Especially the opening track of the total 18, "Gimme Indie Rock", which was released as a 7", is a certain little masterpiece, a funny little indie rock history lesson by Lou Barlow, namechecking bands like The Stooges, Pussy Galore, Husker Du, Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth.

Download:
From Disc 1: Sebadoh - The Freed Pig.mp3
From Disc 2: Sebadoh - Gimme Indie Rock.mp3

And preorder from here. It's such a shame not to own this indie masterpiece, trust TheDrude.

Posted by TheDrude at 7/06/2006 11:26:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by TheDrude at 7/05/2006 11:14:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

With the World Cup almost over, I suppose that it is time to get back on the music track...

All this footbal frenzy has kept us away from the piles of cds and mp3 that have remained unlistened all this time. So, it is about time to get back to them and embrace them, listen what they have to offer for our pleasure, and yes, stop listening to laddy sport radio on the way and back to/from the office, and grab again our precious iPod!

By the way, my thanx to all the good people from various indie US labels and promotional agencies who have appreciated this blog and have provided me with a bunch of interesting albums, most of them, not available in Europe.

However, for starter, let me celebrate the 950th download (and counting) from this noble blog of the luvely Lily Allen's songs with a clever little cover by the new urban pop UK princess of the Kaiser Chiefs' "Oh My God"!

Lily Allen - Oh My God (Kaiser Chiefs cover).mp3

By the way, the debut album is a nice little summer gem, don't hesitate to pre-order it! Proper release date 17/7/2006.

Talking about Lily Allen & World Cup in the same post... you may read her views on England's poor performance and recent defeat from the Portuguese on her latest post on her myspace blog
And something you can't say is that she knows shit about football, as she is Keith Allen's little daughter.

Posted by TheDrude at 7/05/2006 10:03:00 AM | Permalink | Comments

Όπως δάκρυσα όταν τον είδα στο αεροδρόμιο σε καροτσάκι όταν επέστρεφε από τις επεμβάσεις στην Αγγλία...
Όπως δάκρυσα όταν τον πρωτοείδα να μπαίνει στο κλειστό με το καροτσάκι κλαίγοντας...
έτσι δάκρυσα και σήμερα που έμαθα για τον θανατό του...

Τι να πω άλλο...

Απλά... αντίο Boban, ξεκουράσου

Posted by TheDrude at 6/29/2006 10:14:00 AM | Permalink | Comments