"One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain"
-Bob Marley-

"Football (soccer) is a matter of life and death, except more important
"
-Bill Shankly-

"A film is a petrified fountain of thought
"
-Jean Cocteau-

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

ORGCORE

        hello dear readers it's been a while since i have not posted anything new. i apologize for that. anyway i've  have been thinking about making a post about a bunch of bands that i like but that don't have much in common among them, except maybe for influences and lyrical content until a found a term online that puts bands like the gaslight anthem and alkaline trio in the same category with leatherface and dillinger four. This musical style is called ORGCORE. the term started as a joke on the punknews.org forums to group together bands that didn't fit into any punk scene due to different reasons such as poetic lyrics, complex guitar work, and no particular dressing code, etc. this bands have their base in Gainsville Florida, home of NO IDEA RECORDS, i have talked to some of the fans of this fairly new scene and found that they are as hard to group into one category as ORGCORE itself is. some wear cowboy shirts and shorts while others sport soccer jerseys.therefore, they create a very unique scene of their own where music is above looks, which is something very hard to find in this day and age. anyways if you liked the short description about the movement you can get more information about it on these sites. your scene sucks, urban dictionary, and punknews. i know these refernces are vague at best but like i said this moment is fairly new here are a group of bands that are very influential to the movement.

LEATHERFACE: this is a very inovative band from Sunderland, uk. They mix american folk music with hardcore and post-hardcore with some touches of blues. they are the founding fathers of  orgcore. They started in 1988 (about 20 years before the term was first used) they have influenced every single one of the bands that carry the orgcore tag today from hot water music to the saint catherines. their lyrics are full of energy and melancholy; they often make references in their lyrics to everything from dreams and allusions to the love of the singer for AFC SUNDERLAND, their local football club.they are the true pioneers of the orgcore movement and my personal favorites.  anyways here are two songs that i truly enjoy from this band.

Little White God from their 1993 album "the last"
I Want the Moon from their best album to date "Mush"

the next band from this movement that i am going to recommend is HOT WATER MUSIC this is arguably the second most influential band in the movement and highly influential alternative hardcore punk musicians. they started in 1993 and have had several break-ups and reunions ever since, the most recent being
in 2008. they are from Gainsville, Florida. However, nowadays you can find them touring all over the world. you can find more info about the band here  here's a video of their song paper thin.

THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM:  this band is probably the most successful orgcore act so far, they have played with Bruce Springsteen, toured the world, and found success with their second album "the '59 sound" although i prefer their first album " sink or swim" which you can get for free here
they hail from new jersey and have that characteristic jersey sound very raw but nostalgic at the same time. they play everything from blues to cow punk with some influence of Bruce Springsteen.  anyways since i don't feel like putting a huge description of this excellent band i'll leave the job of researching about the band to my readers you can find info about them at their web page which is here

here's video of their song " I'da called you woody joe" from their "sink or swim" album

here's a video of what is probably their most succesful song to date "the '59 sound" from the album "the '59 sound"
so there you go this are the three bands from the orgcore movent that have achieved some succes with their music and are probably the most well-known orgcore bands today. i know that i left out other highly influential bands such as ALKALINE TRIO, THE BOUNCING SOULS, POLAR BEAR CLUB, THE WEAKERTHANS,ETC. but like i said at the beginning the fact that these bands are orgcore can be disputable since the movent is fairly new. Not very many bands want to carry the burden of being associated with orgcore or with any other branch of alternative punk.

please pardon my poor spelling and punctuation. please any sugestions or proofreading will be welcomed. thanks


 

Thursday, June 16, 2011

EL GENIO EQUIVOCADO RECORDS (BARCELONA)

         " EL GENIO EQUIVOCADO" is a record company from barcelona. they have been in the indie bussiness for a while now, but i do not know much of their history 'coz i recently found out about them. i found this record company by accident one day i was watching a " BEST COAST" video and found that one of the suggested videos was of a band called "MONTEVIDEO". after watching a couple of montevideo videos i did some research about the band but couldn't find a bandpage, so i decided to go to the webpage of the record company listed on one of their videos. that was a very lucky move on my behalf because thanks to that i was able to discover a couple of bands signed by this record company that really have blown me away. i will post a brief description of all of them along with a video.

MONTEVIDEO: they are from barcelona and sing in spannish. they play a very soft indie rock that reminds me a little bit of "BANDA DE TURISTAS" from argentina vey thoughtful and somehow direct. if you like bands such as: Best Coast, Banda de Turistas, and indie rock in general you will like them. i will post a video of the song "saldremos de esta" ,which is my personal favorite, from the album "vertigo y euforia". you can download their promo here: download


ODIO PARIS: this band is also from barcelona; they are fairly new as they have been playing only for the past 4 years or so. however, they have a very promising future because their sound is unparalleled in the spanish speaking world. i cannot mention a single band that plays Spanish indie rock that come close to them. they play a type of very chilled surf dreampop that sounds like a mix between my bloody valentine and the beach boys (pet sounds) with some sonic youth thrown in there too. their first album is fantastic, and you can order it from "el genio equivocado webpage" i will post a link to the site at the end of the post. anyways you can download their demo form HERE.  and also here's a video i found on youtube of one of their songs from their new album. the song is called " cuando nadie pone un disco"

WIGGUM:this is a band also from barcelona. they play a kind of indie pop that incorporates 60's rock. they remind me of all those popular artists from the 60's from the beatles and the beach boys to the rolling stones.
they have enough pop in their music to make them sound mellow. however, the indie rock parts are very noticeable. if you like Montevideo, the beach boys, and beach fossils, do not miss this band. here's a video of their song called "la chica imaginaria"

AIAS: they are band from barcelona also. they play surf/indie pop that sounds very similar to vivian girls, best coast, beach fossils, and all those surfy bands very popular now a days. however, they have enough identity to distance themselves from those bands. they sing in catalan, which is the other official language of the city of barcelona; this in itself is a plus because you will not find many bands that sing in that language, i bet this is the first one ha!. their sound like i mentioned before is similar to vivian girls and best coast, but they have more melody in them then the groups previously mentioned. here's a video of their song " tu manes"


if you find a place where you can download any of their demos please let me know i would appreciated.

JOAQUIN PASCUAL: he's also singned to el genio equivocado records. his style is very unique because he plays everything from surf rock to acoustic to indie to just plain pop. if you like bands such as crystal stilts, dum dum girls, and jacuzzi boys you'll probably like him too. here's a video of one of his songs called "jugando al escondite"


anyways there are more cool bands signed by el genio equivocado. you can visit their web page : HERE

thanks for reading, please leave me a comment to let me know any recommendations or just to say how much you like or dislike these bands

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Team of the day: FC St. Pauli (Germany)

St. Pauli is a German sports club based in Hamburg. the Team has enjoyed modest success on the field as they have spent the majority of their existence playing in the lower leagues of the German Football Federation. the club is widely recognised for its unique culture and has a large popular following as one of the country's "Kult" clubs. they could be called Germany's Punk club and quite frankly they are probably one of the few if not the only punk club in the world as evidenced by their "skull and crossbones" logo. they publicly oppose to racism and facism.in addition, they are pro-gay rights as their owner is gay. it is said that a great deal of their supporters are of left-wing ideals. however, it is also clear that no all of fc st. pauli's fans embrace those ideals.   like i mentioned before on the pitch they have not been very successful. however, they have played on the German Bundesliga, the top tier of German football, and have advanced as far as the quarterfinals of the annual German cup on at least one occasion. i have seen a couple of their matches and liked their physical style of play. muscicians such as alex rosamilia from the gaslight anthem and Georg Holm, bassist of Sigur Rós can be counted amonst the loyal followers of this interesting german club.  if you are interested to know more about them,  visit their website: FC ST.PAULI WEBPAGE

Here's another article about st. pauli published on the CNN webpage:  http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SPORT/football/08/18/football.st.pauli.punks/index.html

Here's avideo of their fans celebrating a goal

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

First Recomendation "Los Cafres"

Los Cafres are an argentinean band from buenos aires. they formed in 1987 and continue to make good reggae en espanol to this day. my favorite los cafres song is "suena la alarma" from their fourth album "suena la alarma" they use their brass instruments perfectly to have a smooth sound that will get you hooked form the minute you listen to any of their songs. they have a soft and very soulful sound that reminds me somewhat of laurel Aiken and all that skinhead reggae from trojan records circa 1969. now that's just an opinion because i am not a reggae expert in any way shape or form. if you like bands like gondwana, los pericos, nonpalidece, or just enjoy reggae in general you will find this band irresistible.

here's a video of one of their singles from their 2007 album "barrilete". the song is called "bastara".
web page:http://www.loscafres.net/
if you like their music, you can download their album "barrilete" from this blog

http://freedomrootska.blogspot.com/2009/07/los-cafres-barrilete-2007.html





The First Blog

Hello everyone. this is my first post. i hope to continue posting stuff at least on a weekly basis. however, it all depends on how much time i have available.