Tuesday, July 10, 2007
The music keeps on playing...
I’ve had a break from blogging for awhile, and it’s been great – taking time off in the mountains (right - the Stadsaal Caves, Cedarberg), along the coast and focusing on things other than the blog. Music carries on with or without what I write, I am pleased to say, and there have been some amazing moments for South African music as a whole over the last few weeks! How about Arno Carstens and New Porn opening for the legendary Rolling stones in Spain a few weeks ago? Damn! Talk about a highlight in ones performance career! Can just imagine Arno parking off in years to come, his grandkids bouncing on his knee explaining how he’d opened for the grandfathers of rock!
New Porn was invited to fill-in for a last minute cancellation at the massive UK music festival Isle of Wight, in front of some 65 000 people. I have heard that it was the Stones manager that got them in there, and that when he registered how the audience rocked, he booked New Porn to be the main support act for The Rolling Stones on the June 23rd in San Sebastian, Spain at the Estadio De Anoeta. Frikken awesome! South African actress, poet and television personality Lebo Mashile has won the 2006 Pan African book prize, the Noma Award, for her first published collection of poems, In A Ribbon Of Rhythm, published in 2005.
There was also some wrong info that went out about SAM Award winners Lark, and their suppose break-up… “Speculation suggests it’s because lead singer, Inge Beckmann, wants to do her own thing. Semi-official sources claim she's ‘Just going overseas for a month’”, but I am glad to be able to say from an official source that: It’s rumours and lies…. The band is taking a break and that is all. Inge is going overseas for a while but she will be back. (Dominque Gawlowski - Lark's manager)
So there you have! No more lies!
On an international note, one of our sexiest groups, The Aerial Showgirls was invited, for the second year in a row, to choreograph and perform aerials with Carmen Electra and her dance group in Palm Springs – I will get some footage of this show soon!
We’ve also been invited to a couple of Coda shows in the last few weeks, and it’s always great to see how audiences are enjoying the group. Last night they appeared at Madam Zingara’s Mirror Tent on the foreshore to a packed house – and it was a pretty cool show.And if the audience knew that half the group were as sick as hell, they would’ve been even more appreciative, because its damn hard to sing ‘ting wid a blocked dnose’ and to shake it all on stage when you haven’t been able to get out of bed for three days! Respect guys!
Coda was followed by the very funky Iridium Project, with sassy Lou Chase sex’ing up the front of stage, and DJ’s Nick Mathews & Craig da Sousa laying down a bed of orgasmic beats from the back.
If there is any group in Cape Town that brings all the passion of summer to an event, even on a chilly July night, then its Iridium Project.They ooze sex appeal, getting their audience off their butts and onto the dance-floor, where they gyrate and bop right until the end of the set.
You cannot sit still.
And you cannot claim to have kept full control of your feet during the show. Every part of you wants to move; get down and funky; and in my case, my body starts to think I am as cool as John Travolta in the Pulp Fiction scene at Jack Rabbit Slim’s…
I hope everyones week is going to be as great as I am sure mine is going to be!
Labels: coda, iridium project, Lark, music, New Porn
Friday, April 20, 2007
Just Jinjer, the Rudimentals & Lark updates
Just to fill you in on some info before the weekend starts, below you’ll find some info on the Rudimentals, Lark & Just Jinjer. The South African music business is a hive of activity, and looking as healthy as a spring chicken!The Rudiementals have taken most of April off, after their highly successful CTIJF appearance, to try and give themselves some breathing space to do some of the following things:
1. Breathe.
2. Begin editing the live DVD of Kirstenbosch, shot on 18 March 2007.
3. Breathe again.
4. Start mixing the live album recorded on the same date as above.
5. Start working on new songs.
6. Preparing for a full tilt charge until the end of the year.
Upcoming gigs to look out for are Zula Sound Bar on 27 April and the much awaited Mad Caddies gig at Tafelberg Tavern on Thursday 3 May. They will be sharing the opening slots with Half Price and Hog Hoggidy Hog. Doors open at 7pm sharp and the gig is open to all ages. Tickets are R170 at Computicket or R200 at the door.
Just Jinjer will be touring South Africa in November & December this year, I’ll more details about that later, but if you are wanting to book one of South Africa’s top bands, this info will save you quite abit of international travel costs! They’ll already be here! Wundaful stuff!And finally LARK launch the re-release of their ‘Mouth of Me’ EP in Gauteng.
While LARK are busy road tripping and winning awards, they have also been in studio remixing and remastering their ‘Mouth of Me’ EP that sold out at the beginning of last year.
The EP will have the original 6 tracks remixed to include their drummer as well as three new tracks, ‘Black Swan’, ‘Weights’ and ‘Heroin Mary’. Included in the release will be their award winning music video ‘Moonlight’ and a dolby surround sound mix of ‘Moonlight’ as well as two remixes of the tracks ‘Grey Evening’ by Mr Sakitumi and ‘Half Eaten’ by Jacob Israel.The EP was recorded at Sound and Motion Studios in Cape Town and will be released through JUST MUSIC nation wide in the coming month. The band have decided to launch in Gauteng first and then in Cape Town at a later date as there is something special being planned for the band’s hometown fans.
The launch dates are as follows:
2nd MAY – Tings n Times (with Jacob Israel) – Pretoria
3rd MAY – Tings n Times – Pretoria
4th MAY – 88 – Johannesburg
9th MAY – Café Barcelona – Pretoria
10th MAY – Back 2 Basix – Johannesburg
The band will also be doing shows at The Wanderers Club in Johannesburg on the 5th of MAY and at TEMPOS (21:00) in Johannesburg on the 6th of MAY.
Here's a little treat - Just Jinjer live in Johannesburg in 2006.
As I said - have an awesome weekend!
Labels: gigs, Just Jinjer, Lark, Rudimentals
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Lark owes me a butt-kick
I want to tell you about what a ‘poephol’ I made of myself the other day, with Lark, our newest SAMA winners of Best Alternative Album for Razbliuto, the funky electronic organic fusion album that’s causing major waves. We were caught up in the frenzy of production for the SNG Peace Breaker launch, and we toying with groups to support the Nudies – when I suddenly thought about Lark!Lark, as you may already know, has been around for a few years. They’re a young, dynamic mix of artists that fuse a multitude of instruments and disciplines to dramatic effect. I first heard about them through Anton Ressel, a founder of the very cool Streetwires, who is the brother of Paul Ressel, and who I also happened to go to school with. I had done some research, & made contact, but sometimes it takes time to meet.
So I shouted to Denise to call Anton the other day, to get Paul's number to ask them if they would like to open for the Nudies at the Tafelberg Tavern? I explained to him who I am (I’m starting to sound like a bit of an ‘ou man’ now), and then Paul very graciously declined, explaining that they were going to be in Sun City on Friday, and so they wouldn’t be able to – though they would have enjoyed it!And then on Monday I realized what I had done, when I presented the 2007 SAMA winners on my own blog…
Damn… I couldn’t believe that I had been such a poephol!I wrote to them immediately, apologizing, knee’s getting indented by little stones in the dirt, and they forgave me. And told me they had sent their latest DVD and CD (SAMA winner!!) in the post. (Jasper suggested I needed my bum kicked... and Kai showed how)
I’m happy. They are VERY happy. And so to make you happy – here’s their most awesome video – Moonlight, from the award winning album Razbliuto – which was also rated as Best Video of All Time on MK89… See for yourself…
Labels: cape town, electronica, fusion, Lark, music, SAMA
