September 6, 2000
SECOND K3 ALBUM
K3,
the girly threesome which has been breaking each and every sales record in Flemish
music over the last year with the singles from their album "Parels",
have a brand new cd up and ready (even while the old one is still in the top 10
of best-selling albums over here, and as they are doing increasingly well with
their debut single "Heyah Mama" over in the Netherlands at this very
moment. Heck, in our stats, they are even the
most-listened-to band in this archive at the moment). The band & management
will present this new cd, entitled "Alle Kleuren", next Saturday
in Bellewaerde (a theme park for kids).
Of course, the album won't contain a drastic musical change and is completely
done in accordance with the rule "never change a winning team or formula".
The songs and soon-to-be soundtrack of your life if you have a daughter in the
age region 6-12 is Alle Kleuren (the current single), Hippie Shake,
Yippee Yippee (the new Heya Mama, and the next single), Ik ben verliefd
op Leonardo (about herr Caprio), Oma's aan de top, 1-2-Doe me me mee, Nacht
uit een miljoen, Laat de wind maar waaien, Om te dromen, Ik wil jou, Jongens zijn
gek, Doe maar, and last Het Gordellied (the other side of the current
double A-side single).
The album is
in the shops as of September 12.
MARRAKECH VLAAMS BLOK ENSEMBLE?
De
Standaard reported yesterday on a strange incident which involves the new release
of Think of One. On the back of their second
CD with the "Marrakech Emballages Ensemble", a project for which
the Belgian band is joined by a number of musicians from Morocco and plays a mix
of maghreb-music & rock, the band has printed the telephone number where the
band can be booked.
No news so far, but then weirdness strikes : because there was a slight error
in the telephone number, the destination of phonecalls is not Think of One or
Lowlands, but the secretariat of Vlaams Blok in Brussels (for anyone foreign
to Belgian politics : this an extreme right wing Flemish nationalist party). The
label was quick to react and wil be putting a sticker with the correct number
on all CD's. The release date of the Cd is set for September 19.
Strange coincidence indeed, as there already was a bit of controversy about the
track "Trap het af!" (get out of here), a song in which the band mixes
an Arabian chant with a rap that repeats a number of the racist predjudices against
immigrants. David Bovée & Thomas de Smet on this : "that song
was a bit of a joke, to say "get out of here". ... But there were immediate
reactions to it, even when we played it last year on the troubled spots of Antwerp
such as Hoboken & Borgerhout. There were people saying "hey, this is
outrageous", thinking we meant that literally, notwithstanding the fact we
play Arab music. We heard it from the organisers, who got angry letters about
this. There were even some Vlaams Blokkers who said : "those guys have the
guts to say it out loud".
An entire live-show of the band at last weeks Lowlands festival in Holland can
be relived on the net at the 3voor12-site.
More info on the new cd in an interview with the band at Cucamonga.
THE ANN CHRISTY REVIVAL
The team behind the "Ann Christy Revival"
is relentlessly sending out press releases and newsbits about the upcoming events
(the cd, the tribute concert, the documentary, video shoot).
Exclamation marks apart, this is the info :
- On Sunday November 19th, the Oktoberhallen in Wieze will be staging a tribute
concert, with a number of Flemish and international stars (dubbed "Ann
Christy All Stars") covering her songs. Between the live acts there will
be "unique" footage of the singer herself. Reservations for one of the
2480 tickets priced at 1200, 900 & 600fr: 0495/501911 or annchristy@pi.be.
- On September 12th, there will be a video shoot for to accompany the song
'Luister eens naar anderen' (a song she recorded in 1983 but never released).
The organisers are looking for about a hundred volutneers to figure in that video,
which will be shot in zaal Chivas in Waarschoot, between 10 to 22 o'clock, in
a direction of mr. Edwin Ysebaert himeself (ex VRT-presenter who is the man behind
the revival, in accordance with Marc Hognoul - the current Mr. Liliane
Saint-Pierre and former Mr. Ann Christy - and his son). The song will be released
on September 22, the date on which Ann Christy would've celebrated her 55nd birthday,
and originally was her entry to join the preselection of Eurosong 1983 (the year
Pas de Deux was sent off to the contest).
The single will contain a remastering of the song done by Luc Smets (the
Pebbles) and the original demo.
- Somewhat related is the news that the new single of Vanessa Chinitor
will be a version of the song "Ik neem vandaag de trein" of Ann Christy.
And on that bright note, we conclude ...
September 3, 2000
VOTE FOR A NOVASTAR WEBSITE
The search for the official title of "Novastar webmaster" (see the poptelex
edition of June 20) is coming to a close: over 200
people reacted to the challenge, and over 50 have actually made a site. The results
of their labour of love is online, and you can be the judge of it : at the voting
booth, you get randomly picked sites from the lot, which you can grade with
a "disgusting", "bad", "dunno", "i like it"
or a "fabulous".
After going through 'em all, I can honestly say may favorite is certainly not
this one, but
probably this one,
this one or this
one. Favourite comment found : "The nice thing about building a site
is that you can get to use all kinds of new techniques. With this site, I've made
use of flash (first page). Unfortunately, the demo expired a little early, otherwise
the whole site would've been in Flash". Duh. Favourite new thing I learned
: the n°1 site of Joost Zweegers is ... (suspense) ... The Belgian Pop &
Rock Archives (or so he apparently said in an interview with Computer Magazine).
August 31, 2000
HOOVERPHONIC, THE MAGNIFICENT T(H)REE
News
of the week here in Belgium, music-wise, is of course the first "major"
release of the season, the new, 3rd album of the trippop formation Hooverphonic.
Here are some interesting facts about the new (& very good) album:
- the album has cost 8,000,000 Bef (170,000$) to record, surely making
it one of the most expensive Belgian albums ever. Some of the reasons for this
costs come from the fact that the first three weeks of recording were trown away,
as they apparently were heading in the wrong direction. The record company hopes
to sell 500,000 of it, much more than the 150,000 of the previous two albums (the
band just received a gold album for 25,000 copies of "Blue Wonder Power Milk"
here in Belgium).
- There are 11 songs on it, and the second single is going to be "Vinegar
& Salt"
,
one of the tracks that is consistently named as the best by reviewers who heard
the album. The other song that gets best marks is "Jackie Cane",
a song written by Alex in partnership with Cathy Dennis (had a hit with
the house-formation D'Mob and a subsequent succesful solo-album "Move to
this" in 1991).
- The album is the first of Hooverphonic as a trio, as Frank Duchene and Alex
Callier were fed up with each other. Frank Duchêne is nowadays a rather
succesful producer of all kinds of bands and has recently opened a witty site
about himself at frankduchene.com.
- Just as the debut album, this album was produced by the band itself.
- In Belgium only, it comes with an exclusive extra CD that contains a remix of
"Mad About You",
a quicktime video of that same song, the entire 11 minutes-long uncut version
of "Visions" (the song that they wrote for the opening of Euro
2000) and some "Magnificent Tree wallpaper". Through the innovative
use of internet, however, American or other fans can also buy this album easily
from the comfort of their homes (simple : buy it at Frontstage
).
- The album will be released in almost all European countries in the next weeks,
but in the States only at the end of September. The band will then head over to
the States to do a tour of at least 30 cities, together with the electronic
musician BT (Brian Transeau), the artist that created the soundtrack for the millenium
dome (Pffffffffffff?). The plans for this tour can be seen at Jensenergy.
- More info : the official Hooverphonic site
is getting really good, or there's an interesting interview (in Dutch) up at the
site of Cucamonga.
20 YEARS IN A LIVING ROOM
Red Zebra are celebrating 20 years
of "I Can't Live In a Living Room",
and want to do that in style. They have been plotting and planning a very special
show all year, and the outcome will be seen on October 28th in the Stadsschouwburg
of their hometown Brugge, and for a seated audience. There will be plenty of special
guests (the site does mention already that Chery Derycke of Elisa
Waut will be joining them that evening, but more will be announced).
Places are limited, so if interested, see this
page at the Red Zebra-site for reservations.
August 29, 2000
EAVESDROPPER GOES AARS!
Yves
de Mey, aka Eavesdropper, is releasing his soundtrack for the theater play
"Aars!" as a CD on his own Knobsounds label (distributed by Lowlands).
"Aars!" (indeed, the dutch word for arse) is a theater play by
Peter Verhelst & Luk Perceval and was a co-prodution of the Antwerp Toneelhuis
& the Dutch Holland Festival. It premiered in june, but is now back on stage
for a full month in the strange location of the Military Hospital in Antwerp (details
at the site of het Toneelhuis).
Eavesdropper, best known for his drum'n'breakbeats & appearances at I Love
Techno, was closely involved in the production of the play (he's even listed as
an actor), described his contribution as "a scenery in sound"
and the process of making a cd out of it as "an ordeal to go ruminating
and digesting the whole thing again, to end up with a cd that can stand on its
own and still is part of the whole. Cut-copy-paste. Eight pieces of music, as
souvenirs, as cd-worthy bits of drama. About 1800 different sounds and/ or samples
... Drones, clicks, beats and silence in a seemingly random order ...".
The cd is entitled "We're always hungry", and can be bought after
the theater shows, or from September onwards in the shops.
VOTING TIME FOR TMF-AWARDS AGAIN
After
quite a succesful year of establishing itself on the Flemish television scene
as the local music-clips-station, TMF is gearing up the pace again towards its
annual "TMF awards", which will be handed out this year in Ghent, in
the "Sportpaleis".
A number of Belgian and International bands/artists have been preselected (and
are presented on the station), and now it's up to the viewer to decide the winnes
in each category.
The Belgian nominees are :
- as live act: Arid, Janez
Detd & Praga Khan
- as "most promising": Janez
Detd, Belle Perez, The Oh
- as best dance : Fiocco ft. Scoop, Da Boy Tommy, Milk
Inc.
- as best single: Milk Inc. - Walk
on Water, Novastar - Wrong, Praga
Khan - Power of the Flower
- as best singer: Joost Zwegers (Novastar),
Gene (X-Session), Jasper Steverlinck (Arid)
- as best rock band : Soulwax, Arid,
Metal Molly
- as best pop band : X-Session, K3, The
Oh
- as best rnb/rap : ABN, Hof
van Commerce, Krewcial
- as best album: Novastar - Novastar,
Praga Khan - Mutant Funk, An
Pierle - Mud Stories
- as best singer: Sarah Bettens, An
Pierlé & Axelle Red
- and finally for the award as best video : Hooverphonic
- Mad About You, Praga Khan - Love, Wizards
of Ooze - Cheezy, Axelle Red - Parce
que c'est toi or Soulwax - Much Against
The voting booth is right here.
August 28, 2000
UPDATE ON THE DRUMMER SWAP
Some reactions to the story of the "great drummer swap" that we wrote
here on August 20:
- Trigger Finger is a bit sad about the fact that they were not once mentioned
in the article, although Mario Goossens is also is the drummer of this
band. Trigger Finger is a trio of Ruben Block (ex-Sin
Alley, and with Angelico), Wladimir
Geels (another ex-Noordkaap), and has a nice site up at triggerfinger.net,
where you can pick up interesting tidbits such as the release date of the Angelico-album
(October 8th), or the news that a certain Mr. Goossens is planning on getting
married in November, in Las Vegas.
- Stijn Meuris wants to point out that I have my seasons all mixed up : His new
band Monza will record next spring (nót in the fall 2001),
and wíth Mario Goossens. Moreover, the debut CD is scheduled to appear
just before next summer, as the group has plans on making some major havoc during
the festival season. And all this despite the fact that Hooverphonic hasn't only
"snatched" their drummer, but also David Poltrock, the keyboard-player
of the band. Which leads me to the next loosely related newsfact : that same Mr.
Poltrock also hits the keyboards with Babel (a band singing in Dutch, the successor
to The Boondocks), who are going to release their debut album in September, featuring
one track sung by ... Geike Arnaert of Hooverphonic,
who have today released their new album "The Magnificent Tree" and are
touring live with ... (this is starting to look like a puzzle where every piece
fits every other piece).
