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понедельник, 16 июня 2014 г.

#Contempopranillo. Contempopránea 2014 en Badajoz, 6-7 of June. Day Two


The second and the last day of the fest should bring me one the most heart-wrenching experiences en mi vida taking in mind that earlier in my life I'd missed all the chances to see my favorite musicians live: Elliott Smith just died before I learned about his mere existence, and Smashing Pumpkins had already fallen from grace when they came to Moscow last year. So to see my current Most Favorite Band for me it's like.... I don't know what it's like, really. So all the day I was waiting for the moment. We might walk the perfect narrow streets of Badajoz, or feed the ducks in the parks, or look at the turtles in the waters of Guadiana, or have the drinks in cafeteria - everything was just a prelude.
The program of Contempopranea this day offered us the young band Happy New Year as the appetizer, then the English indie starlets Veronica Falls with their tiny variations on jangle pop and twee. The next persons of interest should be El Columpio Asesino, the Pamplona-based band that I've never tried (but always wanted) to fall for. I've never liked The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart so I haven't intended to go and see them, but Mercury Rev, who should follow, were one of the main focuses of attention for me. The renowned indie superstars who are spending the last years in semi-hiatus would came to Contempopranea with the one and only gig in Europe this year. Just the possibility to see them playing - no matter what - it was already giving me goosebumps. And then - Love Of Lesbian. I've never thought about trying to stay alive at the moment when they would leave the scene, so Fuel Fandango who would be the last band playing on the fest intentionally would not fated enough to catch our attention.
El Columpio Asesino

Right before the start of the Day 2 program we decided to take some rest instead of catching the shows of Happy New Year and Veronica Falls. So the Contempopranea Day 2 started for us with El Columpio Asesino. This band play quirky and harsh post-punk with strong melodic pieces that could be easily drowned in noise or in fractured rhythms - thus the pop hit potential of their songs is at least a moot point but creatively it makes them the band that is best loved by the other bands' members.
When we came in to the place the band was already playing. And they rocked. El Columpio Asesino live are like the good slap in your face. Or like bulldozer gone mad. The bursts of noise, the thick fog of shoegaze, wall of sound, you name it. The vocal duties are shared by Cristina Martinez (guitar) and Albaro Arizaleta (drums). The sound is three times louder than on albums. The kind of music that could make you sweat even if you just listen to it standing aside without a move.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

In fact, I've never listened to The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. I was enough with their first eponymous LP which I considered one of the worst albums ever praised in 2000's. So they should be only the intermission for me - you know, the good time to go and have a burger and a pint, or to stand the queue to the WC. But we came to the show only one band earlier, and at the moment we did not want to drink or eat or piss, so... So we were there standing right at the scene in the crowd. Kip Berman (yes I've managed to learn his name now) and his guys and a chick walked onstage, standed in line before us and then just fired full throttle. No, they were not more groundshaking than El Columpio Asesino - I suppose it's almost impossible - but fuck, the band that I neglected just turned my opinion on themselves absolutely down on the upside. Sometimes the things are changing in the good way.

Mercury Rev

After The Pains came off the stage some guys came onstage. Fuck, said I, this one with the mic seems to be Jonathan Donahue. And it was really Jonathan Donahue. The seminal 'indie rock meets pop psychedelia' band with over 25 years history just came in without pomp or anything and started connect the gear. Unlike their closest peers The Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev in the last three or four years silently disappeared off the radars but their radiosilence didn't mean the dissolution. The godfathers Donahue & Grasshopper with the guys just took a break from busy recording and touring lifestyle. Contempopranea was their first European gig this year. When everything was ready to start Jonathan came onstage with the bottle of wine (he'd gonna drink it up till mid-concert). His voice was a little bit late and returned to him only on the second  half of the second song of the set. So, Jonathan sang, Jonathan drank wine, Jonathan acted like a heron, Jonathan died and revived like a phoenix, Jonathan hardly stood on his feet. From my point of view and hearing I almost had no idea what Grasshopper was doing there on the far side of the scene. The sound was rich yet subtle and translucent - and the large part of thanks for it should go to the rhythm section (Anthony Molina and Jason Miranda). These guys were fucking great, incredibly great!
I shouldn't wish more when Mercury Rev finished but the main impression was still ahead.

Santi Balmes

Love Of Lesbian have so wide range of songs that one could easily compile a number of concert sets that would be greatly diversified in tone and mood. This night the band decided to show us their foolish side. The set included all the songs that I disliked the most, like "Miau", "Me Amo", "Pizzigatos" and especially "Si Tu Me Dices Ben, Yo Digo Affleck" (to put it correct, the band played these songs the way that they sounded much better than their studio versions). The most strange and foolish songs in the band's back catalogue were accompanied by a) the sometimes strange sometimes foolish videos on the backstage, and b) the stage behaviour of the band members. During the songs Santi Balmes faked the autocastration with the huge pink scissors, Joan Ramon Planell (bass) acted like he's Axl Rose (just take in mind that Joan Ramon Planell is two times heavier than real Axl)... But all this was not important for the crowd. The crowd roared, moaned, squalled like it was a million-mouthed Godzilla in her early puberty. Love Of Lesbian has really large fanbase, and the huge part of it are the young girls. I might be somebody's dad there in this crowd, really. Despite all the aforementioned we were having fun. It became even more funnier whan Santi came to the crowd right before my nose. I just touched him with my index finger, he was real.

Of course, to the moment when Love Of Lesbian's show was over we were not able to stand one more show, so we walked off to fall asleep in the hotel room.


вторник, 10 июня 2014 г.

#Contempopranillo. Contempopránea 2014 en Badajoz, 6-7 of June. Day One


Contempopranea (pronounced with the emphasis on the 1st ‘a’) is one of the longest-running indie festivals in Spain. This year marks the considerable change in the concept of the fest. Historically, it always took its place in the town of Alburquerque, Extremadura province. But within the 19th edition of festival it was divided onto two legs: 1st to take part in the town of Badajoz (with such the renowned acts as Russian Red, Love Of Lesbian and Fuel Fandango as the headliners), and 2nd in Alburquerque (with La Habitacion Roja, Ninos Mutantes, etc.) As the 1st leg would a) coincide with my birthday, and b) present my favorite band Love Of Lesbian along with my wife Tanya’s favorite band Izal, we have decided to attend it anyway. Later it was announced that Russian Red would left the lineup due to her obligations with the Asian mini-tour and would be replaced by Ivan Ferreiro. It was nice news for me cos Ivan is one of my favorite musicians as well.

To get there we should take a pretty long trip: by plane from Moscow to Madrid, and then by car from Madrid airport Barajas 415 km to Badajoz. In sum it should take about 9 hours of pure travelling from point A to point B, in fact it took over 14 hours of our lives so we entered the old town of Badajoz at 05:00 pm of 6th of June being a bit exhausted. Having no time to rest, we run to the historical site of Alcazaba – an ancient castle on the hill by the river Guadiana (that gave the name to vine region DO Ribera del Guadiana - and this is why there is hashtag "contempopranillo" in the heading of my report) shore, where, inside the castle, the Contempopranea fest should take its place. We received our wrist braces in taquilla and then were approached by a woman who tried to ask us about something we were not in touch really. She spoke bad English, we spoke bad Spanish.
Then we had a small amount of time to walk around and see the surroundings.
Burgim

At 8.00 pm we came to Alcazaba to see the 1st band of Contempopranea 2014 - Burgim. Burgim were not great but they were good enough. They have pack of really good songs, and while their appearance onstage still wasn’t one of their strengths their abilities are quite promising and the potential of their music is visible.
Mikel Izal

The next band that should appear before our eyes were Izal. Izal is by all means one of the greatest Spanish bands in terms of stage presence. We missed them last year on Sonorama (in fact, we missed them there even two times – taking in mind their secret concert on the Carson stage) where their show was much lauded. Now we were prepared and successfully moved our bodies right at the security bars before the stage while the audience was not overwhelmingly numerous at that moment. Mikel Izal is the great showman. Not only because he has really great voice but also because onstage is the place where he lives his life. All his stage behavior speaks on this. The band played all the songs that we wanted them to (“Prueba Y Error”, “La Mujer De Verde”, “Panico Practico”, “Magia Y Efectos Especiales” amongst others) and left the place followed by the thunder-like applause.

Sidonie

Earlier this year Sidonie have put to release their new album “Sierra Y Canada” which marked their stylistic move from psychedelic retro-rock of their previous LP “El Fluido Garcia” to electronica-based future pop. I expected them to be play electronica here but otherwise Marc, Jes y Axel, backed up by the live members Marcel (guitar) and Edu (keyboards), were rocking out like a solid rock band. They used MIDI-sequensors and other ‘digital noise generators’ but only for supporting role, not as the main part of the sound palette. Their live program covered all the second part of the band’s career starting from the breakthrough album “La Costa Azul” though the main focus of attention was, for instance, “Sierra Y Canada”. The songs from the album being played with rock instrumentation sounded much better for my taste than they were on the album. When it was all over I considered the show of Sidonie absolutely astonishing on par (or even a bit better) with Izal’s one. 

Ivan Ferreiro

Then we came back to hotel to put our tired bodies to rest before the late night show of Ivan Ferreiro cos The Horrors and Maximo Park were none of our interest and it was better for us to sleep a couple of hours than to see these bands. 2.45 am we woke up and without any preparations or make-up or any we walked to Alcazaba again to see Ivan Ferreiro. Like Sidonie before him, Ivan was not concentrated fully on his last record “Val Minor - Madrid” and started the show with “Turnedo” from his first solo album “Las Canciones Del Tiempo Y La Distancia”. Then “Abrazame” from “Las Siete Y La Media” followed. So the show was more like the career-spun tour than the new album presentation. To my surprise, no songs from my favorite Ivan’s album “Picnic Extraterrestre” were played, and there was only one song from “Mentiroso Mentiroso” – “NYC” on which I cried like a child. In his three-piece suit Ivan looked like an alternative version of middle-aged Frank Sinatra. Periodically he played the pianola but mostly he walked over the scene with the strange birdish walk and heroic poses. Under the bottom line, for me as a fan it was great. For Tanya who is not a fan of him, it was some kind of The Great White Spot - something that one could never understand.


среда, 4 июня 2014 г.

Contempopranea Nos Espera! Burgim "The Way That You Smile"


Burgim "The Way That You Smile" (p)2014

Burgim was the only name from the Contempopranea cartel that I wasn't known of. So I just followed the links and listened to their new album "The Way That You Smile" on their Bandcamp page just to be prepared.
The album starts from some Nashville-like (mostly like any member of Ten Out Of Tenn formation) roots-rock song "White Whale" beautiful enough to attract you. The second track "Shame" is a pure classic. It showcases not only the acoustic guitar strummings but also more solid-sounding drums and perfect backing vocals. "Shame" is followed by the pack of mostly acoustic folk-pop songs with intimate vocals and vibraphone-sounding Hammond on the background.
The things changed on the track #7: "Illusion". This track is a Britpop-based midtempo song which abandons tiny folk rock in favor of the electric guitar solos and - do I really heard it? - 'chug-chug'. Though it sounds like some kind of 'play on the set up subject' it is really intereting twist. But band goes further on the next track. "Mister User" really rocks on full throttle with no strings attached. And you know what? The next "Mile In A Tear" is even more hard-rockin' piece! The song starts from the guitar part that repeats the introduction to the hit of the football-obsessed alternative deutsche-punks Sportfreunde Stiller  "Ans Ende Denken Wir Zuletzt"- but in a lo-fi way. The rest of the song is 'quiet verse - loud chorus'-structured theme with very catchy chorus.
So within this album the band makes a trip from contemporary Nashville folk pop to British/European alternative rock. Both faces of this Janus are far from 'one of a kind' position but overall pleasant, and I really expect them to be great onstage.

The best tracks: Shame, Mr. User, So Happy, No One Must Never (Take Us Apart)