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Lenny Kravitz used to be my music hero. When I was seventeen, I had all his albums lined up in my CD rack - knowing them by heart. When I missed a holiday flirt, I used to listen to Again and when high school drove me nuts, Fly Away was the logical choice.

But during the last couple of years, this love has faded a bit. I started listening to music that can be qualified as “less mainstream” and forgot about the rock star.

Yet when I saw an announcement on ticketmaster.nl saying Mr. Kravitz would perform in my country the coming summer, I - without a doubt - bought a ticket. He would rock the Goffert Park in Nijmegen and I was surely gonna be there.

Yesterday was that day. Although his songs had lost their privilege to feature on my iPod and I hadn’t bought any of his latest albums, an old music love did revamp. This guy is a rock star, a real performer, and a musician who knows everybody loves him and isn’t afraid to hide that.

So may I advise you, dear reader, to go and check out the tour dates of the band of your youth. I won’t disappoint you. It’s as running into the ex you still fancy a bit. Really.

Ladies and gentlemen, here’s some music for the weekend! The Rumble Strips! My weekend actually hasn’t begun yet, as I’m working on the first chapter of my ebook about blogging. Earlier today, I interviewed Edwin van Mijsbergen from ZBdigitaal about the archive function of blogs. He said some interesting things, which I’ll share with you later. For now, I wish you an excellent weekend and hope to contribute to it by presenting this indie sensation from British town Tavistock. They’ve found an almost perfect mix between ska, pop and rock, so they’ll probably spice up your weekend. Read the rest of this entry »

1939481920Every summer has it’s soundtrack. Last year I listened to Room Eleven while enjoying the parks of Amsterdam, the summer before that, the Beach Boys and the Arctic Monkeys (always a good combination) entertained me during a surf vacation with Peter Evers and in 2005 Gabriel Rios sparked up my trip to Italy. This summer I’ll stroll the Italian beaches while listening to Devendra Banhart.

Devendra Banhart was born May 30, 1981, in Houston, Texas, U.S. but was raised in Caracas, Venezuela from 2 to 13 years old. He is a folk rock singer-songwriter and musician. Banhart’s music has been classified as indie folk, psych folk, Naturalismo, and New Weird America; his lyrics are often surreal and naturalistic. (wiki)

I love the mysterious and somehow optimistic songs of this long-haired guy and so it was a true pleasure to create a playlist for you. Without a doubt, it will give those evenings on your balcony or veranda another dimension. Read the rest of this entry »

Jackson Pollock by Miltos Manetas, original design by Stamen

• More webart here

Generally, I hate tourist traps. I don’t care for the Eiffel tower, Big Ben or the San Marco square, I prefer to hang out with locals and discover shops, museums and bars I won’t find in Amsterdam. But to be honest with you, sometimes I actually do enjoy the typically tourist stuff. Perfect example, American diners who try to revive the fabulous fifties.

When Boris and me sat down in Lori’s diner for a quick break of all the Web 2.0 Expo chaos, I discovered an old-fashioned jukebox. So I robbed Boris, ended up with six quarters and enjoyed my jukebox moment. See a visual- (via microblogging service Twitter) and music (via Mixwit) representation.

After posting some pics on Flickr, I discovered I’m not the only Dutch fun of Lori’s cooking skills. Jeroen Mirck has also visited the place a couple of times and made some nice photographs.

Last week I participated in the Don’t-do-it-yourself-days. That might sound kind of awkward, so please allow me to explain this awesome concept:

• Invite 30 professionals from the creative industry;
• Put them in an industrial room with good food, drinks, web connection and four tables;
• Ask those professionals what their area of expertise is;
• Ask them what they want to get done;
• Get a speed date process going so that people who can something for each other will connect;
• Let them do great things for each other.

So why is this a great idea? Firstly, in less than two hours I’ve met some really interesting and inspiring folks - like Rolf Coppens from Grrr and Odilo Girod. Secondly, most cash-jobs suck. But when people meet to help each other out for free, creativity flourishes.

Photo by Frank Schuil

Imagine two girls on stage, rubbing each other’s asses, asking the audience to shout “fuck!”, lifting their skirts while dancing and singing a song about a night they were so drunk that performing any sexual acts was impossible. It would be one embarrassing show right? I mean, look what it did for Britney Spears. But you know what, French girls can get away with it. Only if it was just for the cute accent.

I’m talking about Nouvelle Vague, a French musical collective led by musicians Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux. Their famous for their covers of legendary 80’s songs like Dancing with Myself, Love Will Tear us Apart, Just Can’t Get Enough and Blue Monday. Yesterday, my girlfriend and me went to see them in de Melkweg. Tristan Thomas already warned me on Twitter: the show was going to be impressive.

And it was, but not just for the sensual performance of the ladies, also because of the musical quality and the gifted musicians. Their version of Love Will Tear us Apart reminded me of Ian Curtis‘ intensity and In a Manner of Speaking is a tear jerker. I’ve made a playlist on Mixwit for you guys, so that you can enjoy la musique incroyable as well. Read the rest of this entry »

I love the United States. I love movies. I love Amsterdam. I love the beauty of lost glory. It all comes together in this pic I’ve made:

After a rather impressing Rolling Stones concert in Budapest during the summer of 2007, me and four friends decided to start a band ourselves as well. Not with the ambition to become as good as The Rolling Stones of course, yet we felt like it would be fun to practice every now and then and have some beers afterwards. I mean, every guy should at least play in a sports team or a band, we have chosen the latter. The band is named after a boat we used to party on, the Christina (Five).

Now, six months later, we were offered the opportunity to play on an open stage in the Verkadefabriek (old chocolate factory in Zaandam). We couldn’t think of a reason not to. It’s all about fun after all. And the crowd would mainly consist of friends, so the quality of the music wouldn’t be all that important. And so it happened. After three hours of jazz, we were called to the stage. As you can imagine, we were pretty frustrated by that time. Which is good, if you’re in a rock band.

So watch the video to see the manic performance of Jerry Houtman (key-guitar), Ridzert Beetstra (bass), Peter Evers (drums), Sander Ritman (guitar) and me (singer front man):

When Mark Everett performs these days, he only needs one man besides him on stage: ‘the Chad’. Together with Edial Dekker and Peter Evers I drove 2,5 hours - which is a really long drive for Dutch standards - to see these two men playing the beautiful music of Eels in the theater of Enschede (Try to pronounce that if you don’t speak Dutch, The Chad came up with enchiladas).

My first thought was: how can only two men capture the rich sound of Eels? Yet after four songs, these doubts disappeared: I was blown away by the version of My Beloved Monster. Imagine Everett on just his white Holloway, singing the first lines, and then The Chad hitting the drums - to later switch to a guitar. Oh well, why don’t you just watch the video. (Recorded in Vicenza)

So both guys mastered all the instruments on stage - although I didn’t see Everett playing the saw - and they knew exactly how to show that off. During a raw version of the infamous Flyswatter - due to Desperate Housewives - The Chad and Everett switched piano and drums twice, without stopping the music. Impressive and exhilarating! Everett managed to get the whole theater in some sort of euphoric state (which is hard in the Eastern part of Holland, trust me) and then threw us back in his misery again by suddenly starting one of his sad songs. Read the rest of this entry »