The Norwich connection

Last weekend, I went to Norwich with Carmenkata. We played on Friday in the Norwich Arts Centre, and acted out our tourist dreams the rest of the days.
The reactions we got from the locals were encouraging. Someone said her "heart melted", and people were hanging over the balcony to watch us. That normally doesn't happen, so I was told. We did an acoustic gig in the bar. Next time we'll play amplified in the main hall, together with Zea and Persil. That will be on September 10. I'll keep you posted of course.
You can read an impression of this weekend by Carmen, together with some pics. I shot a lot more, but those will come later.
We had our B&B at Adam and Emma of da Garv. This band is right now busy making a new album. I had the honour to listen to the new material. It sounded very promising! The're definitely migrating towards another sound. Seeking the diversity, as their songs get either more poppy, or more melancholical. The record should be finished by the end of the summer.

At the gig, I met some local musicians of Magoo and Bearsuit. While talking with them, I found out that a date had been set on playing in Paradiso! If all is well, Magoo, Fiel Garvie and Bearsuit will play in Paradiso on the 12th of October. I have to get some final confirmation from Marcel of Transformed Dreams, though.

I worked for Euro*PA again yesterday. This time in Amsterdam, my hometown. We had to setup the PA for a company party of KLM, in café De Engel. So, it can be fun after all. No absolute ruler as your 'boss', but a colleague. The local organisation doesn't treat you like shit, but is from the same age, subculture and IQ as you. And the coverband is actually quite good: Disco Disciples. The singer is a bit mad. But in a good way. I never heard anybody sing that high. His pronounciation of English is rather bad, but his stage act which involves a lot of manic dancing makes up for it. He moves a bit like Mick Jagger.

Editing of 'Crap' at SAE

Yesterday the weather was great, so we decided to lock ourselves up in the climate-controlled office building of SAE and edit the song we recorded a week ago. There's still some choices to be made. Does the bass-guitar add something to the song? Shouldn't we re-record the backing vocals? But it already sounds promising.
We intend to record two more songs and then bring out a demo of our electric stuff. This way we should be able to get more loud gigs...

RSS feed

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We lost

So Carmenkata lost the semi finals of Mooie Noten. Too bad. Lucky for us, we don't even want to play together with the finalists. They're simply not kindred souls. The ones that were, also didn't make it to the finals. I think of Vorago, Summers (never got to the semi-finals), Robin Block and Jaap.

Keep the soul alive! ;-)

BTW, there was a promotor who wanted to work with us after he saw us perform twice at the Mooie Noten. After the verdict of the jury, he was even more frustrated and angry than us. Carmen took it real hard after it sunk in. But now she has already transfomed her frustrations into a strong belief in herself and her artistic healing powers... I'm proud of you, sister Carmen!

live at Mooie Noten

I'm now posting through my smartphone! Long live the new Blogger :-)
I'm waiting for the verdict of the jury... nervous!

The Last Poets in my own neighbourhood

I have seen the history of rap music, and they're called the Last Poets. This legendary group of experimental black poets are considered to be the forefathers of rap music. Many have sampled their raps, including Biggie Smalls and NWA. And now they performed in our local library, in front of a mostly black audience. I live in a black neighbourhood, that's why.
The concert was the most inspiring I've seen for a long time. Strong, enigmatic and every song influential in retrospect. So this is where Public Enemy and the Wu-Tang Clan got their ideas from. But the Last Poets are so much more positive, and show so much more depth and artistry in their work.
They still tour the Netherlands for the week to come. Tomorrow they'll do Doornroosje in Nijmegen, Thursday they'll play Paard van Troje in The Hague, Friday in Nighttown Rotterdam and Saturday I'll be in Paradiso, Amsterdam to see them play again. Don't say that I didn't warn you...

Gig in Paradiso

The 15 minutes of fame for Carmenkata in Paradiso went really well. I hope we can move on to the finals in the Vondelpark. Below you see a pic of the Vondelpark Theater.



We produced a special cd for the semi-finals of Mooie Noten, and sold all 10 of them! On the cd, you can hear all the 5 songs we played for the Mooie Noten singer/songwriter contest so far.

Recording at SAE

Last Saturday, we recorded an electric song of Carmenkata for the first time. Up till now, it has all been either rehearsal recordings or accoustic stuff. This time, we went to the SAE school in Amsterdam and recorded the song 'Crap'. We also took the chance to get to know our new bass player a bit better. Yes, we expanded our band from two to three! So now we're no longer able to say we sound like the White Stripes... We never did anyways, but nevermind.

Our bass player is called Rick Kup, and he lives in the far east of the Netherlands. We live in the west, but it doesn't matter. This country is very small. We rehearsed on Friday in dB's. The sound is different when you have a bass player, but it's ok. There's a lot to get used to before we're ready to put it on stage, but it's very promising. I hope we'll be ready by the 4th of June, when we'll play in Hengelo.

Special Carmenkata sampler update

Almost done with recording the songs! Of course I still need to mix and master it. Carmen has been busy making the cd sleeves. The track listing will be as follows:

1. Stop!
2. Reach me
3. That light
4. Let it flow
5. The way you are (for Amber)

The first song originates from the last Carmenkata album 'Dear angel soft clown'.

Even hell has its moments

Yesterday highlighted one of the most diverse days in my life. And I don't mean diverse in a positive way. I'm talking insurmountable differences. During the day, me and Carmen produced some songs for the upcoming special sampler we plan to sell at May 9. It went like a charm, working with Carmen lately is becoming quite a treat.
That night I went to work as a roadie for EuroPA. Little did I know of what I was getting into. It turned out to be a a men's only party where mentally impaired tape-acts, striptease dancers and other 'artists' were to perform before a drunken crowd of corps students. If the crowd didn't like the show, they could throw beer to the artist. Especially some of the mental patients suffered badly. They didn't understand what was going on, they became scared and bewildered. Suffice to say, I watched the scene with silent repulsion. The striptease dancers (they were called 'whores' on the programme) topped off this glimpse into hell.
The night was ended though by the still fabulous voice of Lee Towers. I had to do the spotlight for him. Lee always demands a spotlight when he performs. It was the first time for me. It was fun, made me forget a little of what went on before...

Carmenkata will release special cd

To celebrate that we are playing in the Mooie Noten singer/songwriter contest, Carmenkata will sell a special cd containing all the 5 songs we played on this contest. Right now we're busy recording some of the songs. The tracklisting will be:
- My deepest wish
- Let it flow
- Stop!
- The way you are
- Reach me

You'll be able to buy the cd at our gig in Paradiso. The price will be low, only 3 euros!

BTW, if you print out the flyer you see to the right, you have 1 euro discount on the semifinals at May 9!

Carmenkata plays Paradiso

Carmenkata will play in Paradiso for the Mooie Noten singer/songwriter contest. Of course, you knew that already. But you maybe didn't know the date, which is May 9. That's a Sunday afternoon. We start at 3 PM, I believe...

[drga-drga] evolving

We had a [drga-drga] meeting yesterday. It seems we're naturally evolving into a production house. Organizations like Extract are asking us to do production, and we're organizing more and more events. Also, people with a promising network in theater-production like Gysèle are willing to work with us.

Some events in the pipeline:
- Drug of the Nation festival in Metropool, on June 4. As usual, we'll have visual artists together with great bands and an experimental electronic act. The lineup is already confirmed: Audiotransparent, Carmenkata, Commando Cauldron and Lawn.
- Drug of the Nation festival in Norwich, UK! Yes, we're going abroad. This time in cooperation with the Transformed Dreams label, the festival will travel to Norwich. Norwich is the hometown of Fiel Garvie, also a [drga-drga] band. The lineup has been confirmed and will be Carmenkata, Persil and Zea. Of course, we'll take our visual artists with us. Maybe we could do something with local artists as well, since this is one of our ways to get people interested...
- In the springtime, we hope to be back in Norwich for another round. Bands that have shown interest to play are Lawn and We vs Death. The local promotor Annie Wombat of WombatWombat productions is also enthousiastic about these bands. After all, she'll do the final selection...
- We have a new experimental electronic act coming up: Erectromorph. At the end of this year, Erectromorph will highlight his cd release with a theater production in which you will be fed gourmet food whilst blindfolded by snubby butlers. The food will be cooked live as well. And of course you will hear the cd while you eat. The production had been set up in his hometown Groningen last year, and we'll help him set it up in Amsterdam this time.
- My fellow labelmanager Marten is doing great with his experimental electronic act, Commando Cauldron. He has now hooked himself up with a couple of international dancers, Sarah and Vincent. He'll not only provide the music, but is also dancing himself! I'd like to see that... :-) No dates yet, but there will be a production further down the line. In the meantime, his music will be used in a tour of these dancers that will cover the US eastcoast. Yes, I'm jealous ;-)