München...Berlin...Volksbühne - Pick up the phone

you can't imagine my pleasure when I saw that one of my favorite groups will release a new album - The Notwist. Since my Erasmus time, I was waiting for new songs from the best pop group ever (ok maybe it's too much, but when you listen to Neon Golden, yiou cannot say anything else). I saw them in Paris when they have made a project with Themselves (13+God) and it was tremendous. 

they will tour in Europe but not in France for the moment. one of the 2 dates planned in Germany will be in the old East German theater (Volksbühne) in Berlin (May 9th) . It looks like this night will be unforgetable.

and then on the sunday, Lali Puna will be on stage with other bands in the same venue. I have the impression that I will take some vacation to visit Berlin once again!!!!

Rainy Days & Grey Sky

Small post today. I was in the tube this morning with the last Syd Matters' album. I heard about him some years ago but I recently saw the movie "La question Humaine" and his music was in perfect harmony with this strange and difficult movie. But this morning, I don't know what happened... I was lost in my thoughts when I was submerged by the music. A strange feeling mixing beauty & sadness and Tears slowly came into my eyes without knowing what happened to me. Too much things to think maybe... but I was touched by the simplicity and depth of these songs, especially "Everything Else". In a certain way, it make me think of Nick Drake..."I was asleep" and "after all these years" are simply pure jewels.

Take the money and run...

Last week, I read the last text published by André Gorz before committing suicide with his wife. This text has been published in a excellent revue (ecorev). 

André Gorz was one of the leading social philosophers of the 20th century and a pioneer of political ecology. A member of the editorial committee (1961-74) of Jean-Paul Sartre's Les Temps Modernes, and a co-founder of theleftwing weekly Le Nouvel Observateur, he was also associated for a time with the ecological bi-monthly LeSauvage, where many of the articles collected in the groundbreaking Ecology As Politics (1975) were published. He argued that a meaningful political ecology must imply a critique of economic thought in general, on the basis that any adequate conception of wealth must necessarily exceed the economist's impoverished notion of "value". This thread ran through his later writings, which focused particularly on questions of the transformation of work and working time, envisaging the possibility that the productivity gains made possible by capitalism could be used to enhance individual and social life, rather than intensifying ruthless economic competition and social division.

 

His last work was very interesting to me in the light of the current situation of our society. I currently thin k that the system as such is not sustainable and should lead to a complete transformation of our way of doing. I always have in mind  lyrics from Godspeed you! Black emperor when I think about the current situation:"the car is on fire... and there's no driver at the wheel".

 

the current condition of workers in our globalised world is alarming. even if you work more, you will not necessarily have more money in order to consume (and this is crucial to calm down people in order not have a violent opposition).

 

the growth of product goes not with an increase of activity. Companies have to increase sell by lowering the cost of labour though productivity gains (or with computerisation or machines). but we are at the point where investment in production ceases to increase benefit. the value is not in the product in itself anymore. 

 

the value of a product is now depending on the (social, sexual, symbolical) significations vehiculed by it. For an excellent theory about conspicuous consumption, I can only recommend the work of J.Baudrillard.

 

when you look at the big companies, the only way to increase benefit is by reducing the number of employees or becoming an engine of innovation to increase the part of non-material value of a product. 

 

the system was sustainable when labour and capital went hand in hand. today as already said, labour (productivity) offer no more benefit. the only engine of growth is becoming the capital. but when you look at the recent development of the capitalist model, you can only conclude that it goes wrong. the so-called Krach with the sub-primes crisis showed that our model works on hazardous investments and on debts. An economy based on the art of making money by only selling other forms of money is not sustainable because nothing real and concrete has been produced.

 

So if you consider that people have less money and that the system needs to make money by "offering" money, the vicious circle is in place. 

 

In that way, Gorz works are very accurate. nonetheless, he also admits that we could avoid a crisis if we change the system by considering the immaterial content of product. By linking the knowledge based society, software and Open source, Gorz considers that a communitarian approach of labour and creation is possibly a solution to avoid a future like in the movie Mad Max...

 

article ecorev

Bohemian Rhapsody

Last week European Commissioner McGreevy (in charge of Internal Market) announced that his service will work on the copyright protection for perfoming artists. The main change will be an extended protection from 50 to 95 years. Nonetheless, as always, the devil is in the details. here we talk about performers (and producers) not about composers (protection right is 70 years). In his official statement, the Commissioner said that he wants to help the "poor cousins" of the music business. but let's have a closer look...

The music as we know it today starts becoming commercial as such in the beginning of the 50's. Glorious popular performers from this decade are still in activity (e.g: in France: Charles Aznavour, Johnny Hallyday - in UK the still living Beatles, Cliff Richards) but their current copyrights protection will start entering the public field (domaine public). Performers earn revenue from public gigs at the difference from composer. The revenue from CDs is another revenue for them but not the main one. There was an emergency to extend the protection of their early works... So this will only benefit the big performers still in activity.

Moreover the text that the EC wants to published before the summer break will also include the rights of producers. By effect, the owners of old recordings (often big majors) will also have more time to commercially exploit the artist's works...

IFPI statement

Some big mouths consider this issue as a lobbying from the French government and Big record labels behind the scene... everybody knows in France, that the President is not a close friend from J. Hallyday and Charler Aznavour...

Feel free to comment

see McGreevy press release

Ready.....to.....rumble

During my childhood, my brother and I spent our saturday afternoon watching the World Wrestling Federation TV programme (The Undertaker, Razor Ramon) and we were also fans from Japanese programmes such as X-Or (ok, it was very funny).

I've never thought that both of the programmes would be mixed one day into reality!

http://kaiju.com/

The 365 days project

It took us a while to find this one, we spent days on this site a few years back. ‘The 365 Days Project’, a piece of strange and obscure audio for each day of 2003 & 2007. Want to hear a rap song about gas, go ‘Jogging with Jesus’, maybe you want an examination into whether Paul McCartney is actually dead.So much great stuff on here we don’t know where to start, but if you only listen to one thing, check out Dean Milan’s ‘Do It Like A Dog’ from his ‘Phattest Jams’ LP. That’s had us in tears.

http://www.ubu.com/outsiders/365/index.shtml

it’s just a modern rock song...

Start my first post with some shared thoughts about music. I was the past months quite insatisfied with music I was listening to. I felt like no soul was put in LPs, the strange sensation that all the success are now written in advance by some magazines or key websites. No real excitment in discovering new stuff because everybody discover it at the same time...a strange feeling of harmonisation... but anyway...Ok maybe I sound like a geek with these words. But sometimes, it is precious to dig in some “underground” or maybe even less mainstream. Sometimes it is good to come back to what was really indie-pop, at the beginning...not the perverted word that we found in every big malls.

I wanted to come back to a cheesy, gummy sound, some people would say girly sounds...but what makes me feel good with music is that even you’ve listened to hundred songs about love, sadness, happiness you’re still thinking that each song is different but perfect.

after listening to several bands from Germany and Sweden I really have the impression that the heart of pop music moves from UK to other places with more heart and soul. The band Acid House Kings is a perfect example.simple melody, lyrics several times heard but you can’t stop listening and singing because it makes you smile and you remeber when you broke up or felt in love with someone in the street...

through several searches on the web, I was also astonished that a lot of indie pop bands are still promoted and quite alive! here below you'll find some links where you can find good free mp3, a very interesting article from pitchfork on true indie-pop... you could call it twee pop or anorak pop, but the indie spirit is there!

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/feature/10242-twee-as-fuck

http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/

http://www.indiepopradio.co.uk/

http://www.indiepages.com/

http://www.twee.net/