Ready To Rock!!!!

CocoRosie: After The Afterlife

I quite like this duo formed by sisters Bianca (Coco) and Sierra (Rosie) Casady. Their free spirit exudes from every song and video. 

"After The Afterlife" is taken from their forthcoming album "Tales of Grassiwidow" and looks like something psychedelic. Directed by Mike Basich, it was filmed in Hawaii, where the two sisters spent the first years of their lives.

By the way, They have also provided soundtracks for Escada and Prada campaigns. Definitely a bonus point. 

日本大好き！

The Japanese Rising Sun Flag featured in the original version of Muse new single 'Panic Station', set in Tokyo. The flag is a symbol of Japanese Imperial Army during World War II and it is especcially controversial in China and Korea. 

So the Britsh band had to re-edit the video. 

But I don't know, I'm sure they didn't have any political aim. Music should be free, shouldn't it?

However, here's the video without the flag:

Needless to say, this video made me want to go back to Japan!

Amanda Palmer: A Poem For Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Amanda Palmer definitely know how to make people tal about her.

This time it's because of what she's written in her blog: a poem from the point of view of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, responsible of killing people during Boston marathon last week.

Here's the text:

you don’t know how it felt to be in the womb but it must have been at least a little warmer than this.

you don’t know how intimately they’re recording your every move on closed-circuit cameras until you see your face reflected back at you through through the pulp.

you don’t know how to stop picking at your fingers.

you don’t know how little you’ve been paying attention until you look down at your legs again.

you don’t know how many times you can say you’re coming until they just stop believing you.

you don’t know how orgasmic the act of taking in a lungful of oxygen is until they hold your head under the water.

you don’t know how many vietnamese soft rolls to order.

you don’t know how convinced your parents were that having children would be, absolutely, without question, the correct thing to do.

you don’t know how precious your iphone battery time was until you’re hiding in the bottom of the boat.

you don’t know how to get away from your fucking parents.

you don’t know how it’s possible to feel total compassion in one moment and total disconnection in the next moment.

you don’t know how things could change so incredibly fast.

you don’t know how to make something, but the instructions are on the internet.

you don’t know how to make sense of this massive parade.

you don’t know how to believe anyone anymore.

you don’t know how to tell the girl in the chair next to you that you’ve been peeking at her dissertation draft and there’s a grammatical typo in the actual file name.

you don’t know how to explain yourself.

you don’t want two percent but it’s all they have.

you don’t know how claustrophobic your house is until you can’t leave it.

you don’t know why you let that guy go without shooting him dead and stuffing him in some bushes between cambridge and watertown.

you don’t know where your friends went.

you don’t know how to dance but you give it a shot anyway.

you don’t know how your life managed to move twenty six miles forward and twenty eight miles back.

you don’t know how to pay your debts.

you don’t know how to separate from this partnership to escape and finally breathe.

you don’t know how come people run their goddamn knees into the ground anyway.

you don’t know how to measure the value of the twenty dollar bill clutched in your hurting hand.

you don’t know how you walked into this trap so obliviously.

you don’t know how to adjust the rearview mirror.

you don’t know how to mourn your dead brother.

you don’t know how to drive this car.

you don’t know the way to new york.

you don’t know the way to new york.

you don’t know the way to new york.

you don’t know the way to new york.

Long Live The Vinyl!

I still remember the vinyl player we used to have when I was a child. And I still remember my dad teaching my how to use it: the needle would have touched the disc and the music would have started. Then it got broken and I don't know why we never fixed it up.

Until one day I went back home and found out my parents had binned it.

Then the CD mania came, it seemed to be the new music frontier. Many years later, CD was replaced by mp3s, Netflix, TiVo, iTunes bla bla bla. And everybody seemed to have forgotten about the beautiful times when they could hold a vinyl in their hands, big disc, great art-designed covers...

Still, as Jack White puts it, 'There's no romance in a mouse.'

True. Just one simple click and you can have all the music you want.

But for all music lovers (and vinyl fetishists) there's no more rocking place than a record store (ok, probably a good gig would be a little bit more rocking...). I'm talking about proper indipendent record stores, the ones that  when you step into you can smell the passion for music, the ones that when you ask the owner for some advice he does know what you're talking about. Nothing to do with money maker chains like HMV, Fnac, Ricordi, whatever (although I know competitive prices are always appealing).

However, in 2007 Chris Brown of Bull Moose, a record store in Portland, thought about creating a 'Record Store Day'. Maybe it looked like something stupid at the beginning, but the vinyl day has been celebrated since then, with many stores all over the world joining it.  Even musicians have joined this initiative with limited album releases for the special occasion.

Yesterday was Record Store Day, and the number of interesting releases has been countless. Some of them included David Bowie, R.E.M., The Rolling Stones. You can have a clue at Record Store Day official website and have a clue about what you bought and what you missed. 

Some musicians even performed inside some stores: for example, Paul Weller feat. the Strypes played a gig in historical Rough Trade East in London.

However we put it, let me say 'God save Chris Brown!'

Another Album For David Bowie?

I'm not sure Noel Gallagher is the most accredited source of information and news... but (because there is ALWAYS a 'but'), according to his words super star David Bowie will release a new record after this year's 'The Nex Day'. 

'According to people I've spoken to, there's another album in the pipeline. There was, like, 29 songs or something', former Oasis man says. 

Although we don't know when, and if, David Bowie is actually going to release a new record, let's stay tuned! The full interview to Noel Gallagher will be broadcast tonight at Absolute Radio, 7pm.

Fingers crossed for David Bowie.

Good Bye Mr. Thorgerson

Defeated by a cancer, Storm Thorgerson died yesterday, at 69

A childhood friend of Pink Floyd, the artist designed many album covers for the band, but he is most probably famous thanks to Pink Floyd masterpiece: 'The Dark Side Of The Moon'. 

Pink Floyd, 'The Dark Side Of The Moon', 1973

As Pink Floyd's Dave Gilmour said: 'We first met in our teens. We would gather at Sheep's Green, a spot by the river in Cambridge and Storm would always be there holding forth, making the most noise, bursting with ideas and enthusiasm. Nothing has ever really changed."

Thorgerson has also been the author of album covers of many artists such as Muse, Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, Dream Theater, Audioslave... and many more. 

Here some of his works:

Muse, 'Absolution'-2003

Led Zeppelin, 'Houses of the Holy', 1973

Peter Gabriel, 'Peter Gabriel I', 1977

Dream Theater, 'Falling Into Infinity', 1997

Audioslave, 'Audioslave', 2002