Urban Youth Files

I got back from Pukkelpop late afternoon yesterday and I have to say that it was probably my favourite edition yet. Mostly cause it was spent with lots and lots of friends. Line-up wise I didn’t find it to be THAT impressive, as the bands I wanted to see I’d already seen earlier in the year.

Anyways, me and Gisèle didn’t get there till about 2PM due to transport issues and us not being in much of a hurry. That’s why we missed Chapel Club, We Are Scientists and Bear In Heaven. First act on our bill however, blew us away…

Tampe Impala
Rate: 9/10
Comment: we arrived at the Club (this is how the stage is called) when they were just about to start and we were immediately blown away by their psychedelic jams. THE highlight however, was their cover of Blue Boy’s Remember Me. Yes, they had me at Solitude Is Bliss but Remember Me was more of a surprise. Before we knew it, everyone was dancing and singing along. My favourite act of the day!

(by Rien Geypen)

Darwin Deez
Rate: 8/10
Comment: I would’ve given Darwin and his gang higher grades if the sound would’ve been better but unfortunately Darwin’s voice got a little lost in the mix. Their synchronized dancing totally made up for that though! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: there’s no other band that can make me smile as hard as Darwin Deez can. And the 16-year old hipster kids were eating out of his hands.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Rate: 8/10
Comment: we didn’t feel like joining the huge crowd (the heat had already kind of floored us) so we watched BRMC from outside on the screen. Me & Gisèle kept saying we were about to leave to buy earplugs but every song made us want to stay more. A couple of great songs and a solid performance, sometimes it doesn’t have to be more than that. Later the next day the news reached us that their bassist’s dad and the band’s soundguy had passed away backstage. RIP Michael Been.

(by Joris Bulckens)

Blink-182
Rate: 5/10
Comment: Oh dear, I might’ve gotten a bit over excited for this – for old time’s sake. We headed to the main stage on time and soon saw the guys appear. And they hadn’t changed one bit in about 10 years. They had the same hairdos, the same clothes and the same adolescent babbling (penises, penises and guess what, more penises). To be honest, it was just hilariously bad. It’s not like they’re the best of musicians and the swearing in between wasn’t very cool either – even though they seemed to think it was. Entertaining for a little while, but not for long. Let’s just stay where you were guys – in the nineties.

Girls
Rate: 6/10
Comment: the third time in less than a year that we watched Christopher Owens (or Jesus, as Gisèle tends to call him) and his band play Belgium and it was the 2nd best time. Which is not to say that it was very good. When we first watched them in the small room in the Botanique in October and they totally blew us away. When we saw them again in March I was rather bored to be honest. They played a low key, stripped down set and the enthusiasm they had at the beginning seemed to have vanished. I had that same feeling at Pukkelpop, although they played a slightly tighter set. But I feel like they will never sound as fresh as they did in October.

Stornoway
Rate: 7/10
Comment: it took me a long while to get into Stornoway and I’m still not entirely persuaded. But the truth has to be told: they are some talented musicians! And they know how to craft a beautiful song. Their set was rather special but I couldn’t enjoy it entirely due to the tiredness kicking in. Best enjoyed in a venue and not at a festival also, I reckon.

(by Tim Broddin)

Miike Snow
Rate: 8/10
Comment: another act we saw from outside on the screen. I’ve heard several times that people find Miike Snow to be a bad live act but I think I can safely say that we all enjoyed it thoroughly. It sounded good and our feet seemed to like it as well cause they hardly stood still.

Afterwards me & Gisèle headed ‘home’ cause our bodies simply couldn’t take any more. This made us miss both These New Puritans and Flaming Lips but rumour has it we didn’t miss that much. To be honest, day 1 kind of felt like the introduction to the rest of the festival. Kind of easing into it all. But it was soon to kick off for real!

Come back tomorrow for more!
Gerlin

One of the most interesting producers out there at the moment, Martyn, is starring in his first shortfilm, which goes by the same name as his album debut: Great Lenghts, shot by Ramón Gieling.

Great Lengths is a tribute to Martyn’s parents, his father, former PSV team-leading scorer Gerrie Deijkers, who died of heart falure in 2003. Martyn plays his father, Halina Reijn the widow. After the ball is taken away from him, we see Martyn at his own farewell gathering. Beautiful:

If you’re not familiar with Martyn yet, we made a must-see video about the man a couple of months ago:

We’re not doing a list of things you should be seeing at Pukkelpop because, frankly, there are enough of those. There’s gonna be a BIG write-up afterwards though. The (best Belgian) festival starts tomorrow and we won’t get home till Sunday so prepare for a few quiet days.

Before you get to hear all our Pukkelpop stories, here are some recommendations of things to see by other blogs I like & with whom I agree (all in Dutch though, sorry!):

Disco Naïveté

Over Muziek

Dilly Blog

Last but not least, these are the bands I’m most looking forward to see: Beach House, Darwin Deez, Blink-182, Girls, Flaming Lips, Matt & Kim, Tame Impala, We Have Band, Avi Buffalo, Foals, HURTS, Pulled Apart By Horses, Cymbals Eat Guitars, QOTSA and Au Revoir Simone.


See you there? Fuck yeah!
Gerlin

Blend’ was the track that put them on the map as Uphigh Collective (you’ve seen the live video, you’ve got the 7″ vinyl, or the mp3 – out on On-Point Records), gaining them international acclaim from Athens to Los Angeles over London and Amsterdam.

Currently preparing their live show and with new tracks to surface soon, now seemed the appropriate time to share more sounds from two of the Uphigh producers: Oddlaner and Ducap.

The two ep’s are now up for free downloads: EP1: Oddlaner and EP2: Ducap. The download is free for all, but as always in these hard times, any donation is heavily appreciated, all profit going directly to the artists and their future output. And you know that’ll sound mighty fine!

On-Point Records is a small independent label, so if you’re digging the sounds… please share this with your friends, followers and fans.

About Oddlaner:

Emmanuel Oddlaner is a side project/alter-ego of the man behind Raydius360. A funky, lost-in-space-and-time character with beats sounding way too electronical for the classic boombap lover. A product of the new beat generation, a bedroom studio rocker loving crazy arpeggiators and vintage synths.

About Ducap:

Developing his style with i-Sa since 2004 Ducap now settled down into his comfy corner and got to work on refining his own thing. Soul music with one foot in the past, one foot in the future, and a couple of toes dipped in an ocean of analog synts. He’s a beat soundscaper, with all sorts of quality bits from across the modern palette, continually on the pulse to improve himself.

Little video interview with Slip3, founder of the MPC crew.

Last week I was in London, so no fashion update, but I’ll make it up to you with another style award. It’s been a while since the last one, but the seventh one goes to … Dum Dum Girls!

These girls look pure rock’nroll and that is what they are. It is very rare to have this natural “cool”, you either have it or you don’t, but clothes are a big part of it though.

They mostly wear black clothes, with a little detail here and there, like striped tights or a lace top. Leather is common too. I really like their hairstyles, which adds to the coolness.

Again (as I always say), look for vintage shops. You’ll find such unique items that make you stand out. In London I went to Brick Lane market and the surrounding vintage shops and that was pure heaven, so if you’re ever there, definitely check it out!

Enjoy yr Sunday!

Phara.

We don’t often post videos. I think that on my part it was due to a shitty laptop that couldn’t play a video decently. If I did try and play a video then my laptop would slow everything down / get stuck. Basically, I haven’t been watching videos for the past 10 months. So many things I have been missing out on! But I’ve been catching up the past couple of weeks.

I’ve got a brand new laptop that’s as fast as lightning. A round of applause for that, please.

Anyway, it is a pr’s job to say that a video is amazing but really there are only a few pr people out there that I trust when they tell me something is amazing. So I kinda ignored it when we were sent a video for Hermanos Inglesos’s Wanderland. Also, they are Belgians (as are we) and I’m not into Belgian music much.

But then one of the pr people I do always believe (mister James Penycate) posted it on his own blog so I decided to watch. And boy, it IS amazing! Look:

Great use of colour and just overall a great video. Done by Kristof Luyckx (yet another fellow Belgian) whose work I’ve been admiring for a couple of years now (I even got some badges made by the guy).
The track’s pretty sweet too.

Enjoy! No, seriously, enjoy.
Gerlin