¡Vamos Hostias! - 2

The modern day festivals are more about socializing and less about music. So you may make a plan but you have to take it easy when your plan appears to go wrong. The Fiesta de Bienvenida offered us 10 names to perform on two stages situated side by side. Such the environmental organization ensured minimal lags between the performances and, more important, minimal movements for the audience. Twenty steps to the left, twenty steps to the right - and you have visited both the stages. A major improvement, without a doubt.

Out of the ten names mentioned, only three attracted my attention: Jimena Amarillo, a non-binary urban artist whose latest album I like; the band 30s40s50s fronted by Operación Triunfo alum Beli Basarte, and revived Delafe Y Las Flores Azules.

Unfortunately, the aim to see them all was never achieved. When we came to recinto ferial (main festival location) 30s40s50s were leaving the stage. The performance of Jimena Amarillo was long gone. But the colourful and energetic show of Delafe Y Las Flores Azules erased all the traces of regret caused by our late arrival. 

Oscar and Helena were in their top form presenting the pack of their top songs. The sunshine-electro-avant-hip-hop band was accompanied onstage by a tiny brass section whose members wholly participated in the main protagonists’ activities like cross-stage dancing etc. This was the event enormously lighthearted, uplifting and pure.

Why I started this entry with the “more about socializing” line? That’s because right after Helena & Oscar danced their bodies offstage we abandoned the music of the rest of the night and dove headfirst into socializing. In the old town of Aranda we had a late dinner with a bottle of wine and then came to Café Central for dancing. I do believe this was way more entertaining for us personally than the shows of urban performers Dillom and Cupido at recinto.

Somehow we ended up more introduced to communication at the expense of music this year. The music is important but the friends are more important, and we met so many friends those days!

Briefs #1

Unfortunately, at the moment I'm not able to post here as frequently as it was earlier due to some complicated circumstances at my dayjob, but the sun of Spanish rock still shines bright so I got an urge to write something about it, at least in brief.

First, there are some sad news.

• In August Javier Fernandez, the former drummer of Los Piratas, was accidentally killed by police attended at the place by the claims of domestic abuse. Fernandez, who suffered bipolar disorder, was shot dead after the refusal to obey the policemen. Later the family of the musician posted a message revealing that he was just ill and was never aggressive/abusive.
• After two cool albums and one equally cool EP Mi Pequena Radio finally called it a day as a band. I am waiting for any good news from the bandleader David Tabuena. 
• Mercromina decided to finalize the second stage of their existence, with Joaquin Pascual already having solo album to be released later this year. I was lucky enough to catch their show at Sonorama.
• Helena Miquel left Delafe Y Las Flores Azules putting the further perspectives of the band on hold. As for the time-being there are no additional notifications, let's say that from this moment on the band is just Oscar D'Aniello (Delafe) and Dani Acedo (no nickname).
• The Asturias-based indie label Discos Humeantes has called it quits for good. The final release of this garage/punk-oriented imprint is the 2-LP comp album "Siempre Adelante: Los Primeros Anos de Discos Humeantes". You can obtain the digital version of the album here on the 'name your price' basis.

The Best Of 2013. Albums 20 - 11

20. Extremoduro “Para Todos Los Publicos” (p) Warner Music Spain

19. Carlos Siles “Doce Maneras Para Esperar El Final” (p) Flor y Nata

18. Izal “Agujeros De Gusano” (p) HOOK

17. Breis “Invisibles” (p) Sweet Song

16. Grises “No Se Alarme Senora, Soy Sovietico” (p) Origami

15. El Pilar Azul “La Constante Sin Nombre” (p) El Hombre Bala

14. Delafe Y Las Flores Azules “De Ti Sin Mi – De Mi Sin Ti” (p) Music Bus

13. La Sonrisa De Julia “El Viaje Del Sonambulo” (p) Warner Music Spain

12. Buena Esperanza “Pacifica” (p) Gran Derby

11. Muy Fellini “Fragmentos De Una Explosion” (p) Clifford

Sonorama Ribera 2013. The Report. Day 2, 16.08.2013. Travelling and running - Part 2

When Jero Romero and his band walked off the stage we came closely to the stage trying to occupy the best places before Travis show. It was the 2nd Travis show we attended and it had all the remarkable moments of this band's arsenal: full-band strumming on the same acoustic guitar while performing "Flowers In The Window", Andy Dunlop's walk (limited by the lenght of the guitar cord) through the people during "All I Wanna Do Is Rock", and obligatory audience jumping in the last chorus of "Why Does It Always Rain On Me?" This band is really fine onstage. Fran Healy is pretty good in interacting with the public ("My Spanish is not good so I will talk to you in Scottish"). And all the new songs from the new album "Where You Stand" are mostly good. When the show came to an end no one walked away disappointed.

Travis

There was some time for us to spend before Pumuky. We might walk to Castilla y Leon to look at Delafe y Las Flores Azules or stay at Ribera del Duero and kill some time with the hot indie darlings Lori Meyers - but instead we made a short run to the car to leave there the bag with CDs and t-shirts which irritaded me so much. When we run to the car, Delafe y Las Flores Azules caught our attention so when we returned to the 'recinto ferial' we watched the end of their show. Their music had some similarities to England's punk leftists Chumbawamba - full of the hip-hop singalongs flowered with the beautiful voice of the female vocalist Helena (who is in fact 'Flores Azules' in the band name) and remarkable stage behaviour of the male vocalist Oscar (who is 'Delafe').

Pumuky is the outstanding band for me. Spearheaded by Jair Ramirez, this quintet makes music so somber and so sad that you can never imagine that it was born in such the heavenly place as Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. Their 2nd LP called "El Bosque En Llamas" ("The Forest In Flames") topped almost all the possible Spanish indie charts in 2009 (as long as entered my own Spanish indie rock all-time top10 at 3rd position) and the band became a kind of sensation while their presence on the mainland music festivals was still limited. The 3rd effort "Plus Ultra" was issued in 2011 and it marked the widening of musical pallette as band had incorporated the elements of dreampop and pure shoegaze to their core base of the mournful folk rock mixed with synths and even theremin. Me and Jair became amigos in Facebook not so long before the Sonorama, so me and Tanya prepared some pequeno regalito for him. The absence of the security gap between the FutureStars stage and the audience fitted well for the transfer of the regalito. We only had to wait when the show ended.
First of all, the band faced some trouble when plugging in and tuning. This delayed the show for 10-15 minutes giving the band less time to perform.
Sad and detached on the albums, Pumuky stayed the same live. But while their albums are mostly quiet, en directo they gave us the full-blown three-guitar swirl that could make the bands like A Place To Bury Strangers or God Is An Astronaut jealous. We stood right in front of the monitors, and every punching beat of the drums has tossed the quantums of life out of our bodies. It was not the show - it was the experience.
I suppose, there was the largest audience for FutureStars, and all the people was as shocked and amazed as were we. We all shouted 'Escenario principal!!!' three times as long as the band surely deserved much larger audience. And then the show ended, and guys just walked away and that's all.

Pumuky

"What..." - could only say I. The regalito (now revealed to be the tiny matryoska) was still in my pocket and there was no one to give it to. A couple of minutes we just stayed there being not able to make a move. And then the band came in and began to unplug the instruments. Jair was in 1,5 meters from me. "Jair!" - shouted I. He raised his head, and I threw the matryoska at him. He caught it and without a glance put it in his pocket. "What..." - could only say I, again. But at that moment Tanya shouted 'Rusiaaaaa!' - and it worked well catching his attention. He just understood who was throwing things at him. We just waved hands, shook hands - but it was enough for me and Tanya to become absolutely happy.

But the night was still not over. So we should move quickly to attend Miss Caffeina show.
With the new album "De Polvo Y Flores" ("Of The Dust And Flowers") the band distinguished almost unbelievable level of melodicism. The songs 'Gigantes', 'Venimos', 'San Francisco' and especially 'Hielo T' got such the armour-crashing choruses that it seemed like the band had wrote them for the pan-universal song contest where Miss Caffeina would be the only contestant from planet Earth.
The members of Miss Caffeina looked onstage like the glamourized hipsters - with the glittering guitar belts, pink drumkit plastics and the superhero make-up of the singer Alberto. But the songs were really great, and "Hielo T" was the perfect ending for this massive gig.

Miss Caffeina

Honestly, we could withstand only four songs of the 2nd day headliners Dorian because at that moment they started playing we got absolutely exhausted. The Ribera del Duero stage was upgraded especialy for them, and it was all beautiful around with all these blue and violet lights but... It was 3 a.m. and I could only quote Det. Murtaugh: "I'm too old for this shit". Sorry, Dorian, we will catch you later.

Dorian