March 19, 2000

JANEZ DETD, NOT DEAD
Janez Detd have just released their second album, no title, as they say themselves filled with "punkrock attitude with very melodic vocals, catchy sing-a-long lyrics, blistering hard guitars and genuine songs". The first 3000 copies of the CD come in a special digipack version, together with a taggin template (naughty). For collectors, there's a 300 copy vinyl promo of the album, and then there's also a new single (for promotion use only) called "Lisa (She's a Herpie)". The band will play only 6 gigs in the coming months (that's without the festival season of course), because they also plan on touring Holland, France and Germany. Everything you want (and don't want) to know about the band can now also be found at a website they just opened at www.janezdetd.com
The CD is a first release on the label Cabalero Recordings, a brand new sublabel for Virgin, which should become a haven for more Belgian punk-rock bands in the years that come. A second band will release a single on the label in April. Demo's can be sent to.

POPVERDORIE
There will a 2nd and improved edition of Popverdorie this year, the "music fair" for beginning musicians organized by Poppunt, Zamu, CC Leuven & Rif-Raf. The place to be is the same as last year (CC Leuven), the date is now April 15.
Goal of the day is "om door samenwerking vanuit het brede popveld een brug te slaan tussen de jonge beginnende muzikant en de professionelen in het circuit. D.m.v. workshops, debatten, infostands, talkshows, infostands en jamsessies van, met en door gelouterde, professionele muzikanten willen we in een stomend stoofpotje alle muzikanten de kans bieden iets op te steken van de ervaring van anderen. En dit zowel op het vlak van muzikale vorming als m.b.t. informatie over de meer zakelijke kant van popmuziek".
The Workshops will be (of course the programam could still be subject to changes) :
- Songwriting with Pascal Deweze (Metal Molly), Thé Lau (The Scene) and Stijn Meuris (Noordkaap RIP, Belmondo).
- Instruments with Franky De Smet-Van Damme (formerly of Channel Zero) about vocals, Filip Casteels (El Fish, JMX) about guitar, and Jean-Maries Aerts (see JMX) and Herman Gillis about crossover guitar/filterbank.
- Dance / Deejaying / Hip-Hop with Marlon Waghemans (ex-Jason Rawhead, Insect, Lowpass, now Akyra), Jan van Biesen (ZAMU-award dance), ABN.
- Instruments with Axl Peleman (bass with ex-Ashbury Faith, now with Paranoiacs), Michael Schack (drums with Blue Blot ...), Alex Callier (Hooverphonic, Shades).
There will also be other live-demonstrations, workshops, info-stands, little "talkshows" about "from demo to record deal" and "how to promote a band on the internet", and a direct contact with a number of A&R people who will judge the quality of demo's "live".
Tickets are 250 fr and can be obtained at tel : 016/22 21 13.

March 13, 2000

GLITTERING 2000
Play It Again Sam has asked a number of Belgian bands to play 'em again : tunes from the days when trousers had "flares", the choreographies were dumber than dumb, the outfits were flashier than a flashy; or in short: when the artist scene looked like Elton John: the glamrock era.
The artists that have participated and the songs that were "revisited" in this project are not of the least :
- Arid plays "Killer Queen" (original : Queen).
- Arno "All The Young Dudes" (original : Mott The Hoople)
- Daan "Hospitality On Parade" (original : The Sparks)
- Das Pop "Tonight" (original : The Rubettes), this also being their new single.
- De Mens "Do You Wanna Touch" (original Gary Glitter)
- Jeff Bodart "Get It On" (original : T.Rex)
- Kiss My Jazz "Cum On Feel The Noiz" (original : Slade)
- Machiavel "The Faith Healer" (original : The Sensational Alax Harvey Band)
- Marc Morgan & Vincent Venet "America" (original : The Nice)
- Mauro (Pawlowski) "Dynamite" (original : Mud)
- Neven "Rocket Girl" (original : Elton John)
- Ozark Henry "Suffragette City" (original : David Bowie)
- Praga Khan "Jean Genie" (original : David Bowie)
- Soulwax "Children of the Revolution" (original : Marc Bolan & T-Rex)
- Sttellla "Poppa Joe" (original : the Sweet)
The album will be presented today, and will hit the shops on March 20. More info on www.pias.com and this site, soon.

March 12, 2000

SHAMPOO RE-RELEASED
After "Ferre Grignard", the unfindable french album of Ferre Grignard that was recently re-released on cd, there is now a second franco-belgian gem that was digged up from the archives by HKM : Shampoo.
Originally intended as a "supergroup", with Luc Smets and Cel de Cauwer (from The Pebbles), Rudy Pincé, Swa Maes etc ... they did find a fan in France with Francis Dreyfus, who released the one and only album of the band in 1972 on Motors. The style of the album ranges from psychedelic to big-band-rock à la Chicago (as witnessed by the opening track "Brother") and is undeniably "seventies".
The re-release is as faithfull to the original releases as possible, although the tapes are digitally remastered. A nice feature is that also the prize has been kept very low.

Buy Shampoo at Fronstagefor just 469 Bfr. (shipping included in Benelux).

LEYERS & VANDER LINDEN IN DUET
From the 1st of May onwards, Jan Leyers (of Soulsister, My Velma) and Frank Van Der Linden (of De Mens) will be terrorizing a number of concert halls, in a friendly manner : they will do an acoustic duet-tour, celebrating their love for "the song". Apart from their own modest masterpieces, they will be laying their hands on work of Lennon & McCartney, of Eels, of Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Raymond van het Groeenwoud, or Billie Holiday.
The tour will start on May 1st in Berchem (Bouckenborgh). Other dates include May 3 (canelaershuys, Ukkel), May 10 (stadschouwburg, Mechelen), May 21 (Bourla, Antwerp), May 26 (Velinx, Tongere, May 28 (De Avonden, Leffinge), May 29 (AB-club, Brussels) and May 30 (Nieuwpoorttheater, Gent).

March 7, 2000

TAAAA ... TAAAA ....
Yesterday, the Ancienne Belgique was the scene of the 6th hand-out of the ZAMU-awards (organization of "singers & musicians" in Belgium). Intermingled with short performances of Soulsucker (with a female singer), Laïs, Roland & Wannes v/d Velde, Daan Stuyven and Raymond van het Groenewoud, an array of well-known Flemish personalities handed out 13 awards to "music-personalities of the last year".
These were (according to the voters) :
- Laïs (in the category "best vocals")
- Soulwax (in the categories "artist all languages" and "live-act"
- Raymond van het Groenewoud (in the category "artist dutch language")
- Arid (in the category "breaktrough")
- Bart Maris (of Think of One, Olla Vogola .... in the category "musician")
- Piet Goddaer (of Ozark Henry, in the category composer/author)
- Alex Callier (for his work on "Shades", in the category producer)
- de Nachten (in the category "musical event")
- Studio Galaxy (in the category "music studio")
- The Belgian Pop & Rock Archives (in the category "Media")
- DJ Jan Van Biesen (in the category "Dance")
- "My Bond with you and your planet: Disco!" by Zita Swoon (as best single)
The award of "Best Album" was awarded to Helmut Lotti's "Out of Africa" based on sales figures).
- Rocco Granata received the lifetime achievement award and closed the evening with a solo-performance with his accordion.
The ceremony was organized by S.E.M. this year (an organisation that manages athletes), hosted by Jan Leyers and introduced by chairman Johan Verminnen.

TA-TA-TA-TAAAAA
I would like to repeat a little line from the above news-item, just for the sweet sound of it : "- The Belgian Pop & Rock Archives (in the category "Media")".
Yup : that's the site you're reading now! And Yup, i'm writing this while the light of my desk-spot reflects down from a shining bronzish statuette.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who voted for me, and everybody that has contributed to these archives in the past two years (musicians, promo-boys & -girls, fans, the visitors to the site ...). And Zamu of course (if they had put me up against Rif-Raf and Stubru and Humo, I somehow have the feeling wouldn't have won it).
There, that was about 50 times as eloquent as the thank-you I muttered at the ceremony itself.

THE TRICK WITH THE FREE CD ...
Hype-alert: the debut-cd of Novastar, released only last week, has shot up to the n° 1 spot in the ranking of best-sold albums in Flanders (see Ultratop). Pushed by the current single "The Best is Yet To Come", 18,000 copies of this album have already found their way to the shops (that's almost gold) in the first week.
This is a remarkeable feature for a new album, and the last times that a similar coup-de-theatre was witnessed in the album charts was with K's Choice's "Cocoon Crash" and dEUS "The Ideal Crash". Conclusion : the trick with the free cd that comes with Humo does work ...