Filed under: Music | Tags: Best albums of 2009, Best band name of 2009, Best concerts of 2009, Best songs of 2009, End of year lists
Some webzines and blogs seem to be making a round up of the past decennium. We’re gonna be very modest at Weapon Of Beauty and just make the usual annual round-up. As usual everything’s listed in alphabetical order.
2009 was an ok year. Three albums really blew the competition away (Fever Ray, The Hickey Underworld and Sophia), but it was in the live arena that things were really super this year. Selecting those 10 gigs really was a matter of ‘kill your darlings’.
Best Albums:
Arctic Monkeys – Humbug
Daan – Manhay
Fever Ray – Fever Ray
Franz Ferdinand – Tonight
Future Of The Left – Travels With Myself And Another
Jarvis – Further Complications
Malcolm Middleton – Waxing Gibbous
Monsters Of Folk – Monsters Of Folk
Sophia – There Are No Goodbyes
The Hickey Underworld – The Hickey Underworld
Best Songs:
Clint Eastwood – Gran Torino
Eels – That Look You Gave That Guy
Nicole Atkins – The Tower (live)
Soulsavers – Death Bells (Mogwai remix)
The Flaming Lips – Borderline
The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition
The XX – Crystalised
White Lies – Farewell To The Fairground
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Zero
Yeasayer – Ambling Alp
Best Gigs:
Das Pop @ OLT, Antwerp
Faith No More @ Pukkelpop, Hasselt
Fever Ray @ Polsslag, Hasselt
Jarvis @ AB, Brussels
Malcolm Middleton @ Botanique, Brussels
Monsters Of Folk @ Crossing Border, Antwerp
Morrissey @ Koningin Elisabethzaal, Antwerp
Poni Hoax @ Recyclart, Brussels
Sophia @ Radiokulturhaus, Vienna
The Hickey Underworld @ everywhere
Best Band Name:
We Seem To Have Misplaced Our Igloo
Best news:
Pavement reunion
Yeasayer have finished recording their second album ‘Odd Blood’. Their debut album ‘All Hour Cymbals’ – filled with avant-garde rock and excellent vocal harmonies – was one of the best albums of 2007, so this follow up album is eagerly awaited in the WoB headquarters. It will be out early 2010.
In the meantime the band have dropped the first single ‘Ambling Alp’. A track they’ve been playing for a long time during their gigs. It even made my ‘best of 2008‘ list, based on this live version.
You can check out how the final studio version turned out by downloading the mp3 right here. Don’t thank me, thank flipper.
Is this the best photo of the year or what? (click to enlarge)
Poodle? Check!
Sneaker collection? Check!
PlayStation? Check!
What more can you ask for?
This photo comes from theselby.com a website that ”features photographs, paintings and videos by todd selby of interesting people and their creative spaces.”
It’s basically some sort of voyeurism into the homes or offices of people who have a ‘creative job’ and where their home is some sort of extension of this job and everything that comes with it.
The interiours vary from the uber-uber-stylish to ‘OMG! A paint bomb just exploded in my flat’.
A welcoming change from the usual minimalist interiours you get in most interior design magazines.
Filed under: Webstuff | Tags: city trips, iPhone, tourism guide, travel guide, Unlike.net, Vienna
The net is an unlimited source of information for those who like to plan their holiday trips in advance. My favourite source at the moment is the Unlike.net site. They’re currently covering 11 cities worldwide ranging from the inevitable Paris, Barcelona and London to less evident cities like Sao Paulo, Shanghai and Vienna.
Each city has it’s own sub-site which is divided into sections like: Shop, Food, Art, Hotel, After Dark,… Each section holds a number of locations worth a visit, ranging from the inevitable tourist must-sees to the only-locals-know-this-one locations. Each location page includes a short discription, some photos, a map, opening hours and public transport info on how to get there.
You can mark the locations you like, so they get added to a tour which gets its own unique page and URL so you can share it with friends. On the top of the page you get an expandable map with the location of all the selected spots.
If, like me, you don’t want to buy and carry around Rough Guides and Other Lonely Planets for each place you visit, Unlike.net has a great solution: you can upload your tour to your mobile phone and discover the city from there on.
For the less mobile you can also save and print a pdf version of your tour.
As an example I’ve compiled a to-visit-list of Vienna with loads of Weapon of Beauty-certified spots: http://vienna.unlike.net/tours/165880 and this is the link to visit the same selection from your mobile phone: http://m.vienna.unlike.net/my_tour?phone_id=165880&commit=Show+tour
Filed under: Music | Tags: Fever Ray, Here Before, limited edition 7", Nick Cave, Stranger than Kindness, Vashti Bunyan
If you’ve seen Fever Ray live over the past few months, you might have noticed that their set included 2 great non-album tracks. Both are actually covers: ‘Stranger than Kindness’ by Nick Cave & Anita Lane and
‘Here Before’ by Vashti Bunyan.
Fever Ray have now recorded studio versions of both tracks. In the olden days, they would have popped up as b-sides. Nowadays, it means that there will be a deluxe re-release of the album with an extra disc with these tracks (and some other extras) on it. Which is great news if you’ve already bought the album before. Not.
Anyways, in case you don’t want to buy the album again, they’ve also put them on a limited edition (999 numbered copies) 7″ that you can buy in the Fever Ray web shop for £4.
If you haven’t seen Fever Ray live yet, you’ll have to hurry as they’ve just announced their very last tour dates. They’re playing the US at the end of September and a small European tour that ends in the first week of December.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Broken, Butthole Surfers, Death Bells, download, Gibby Haynes, Mark Lanegan, Mogwai, mp3, remix, Soulsavers
Mark Lanegan fans no doubt already bought ‘Broken’, the new Soulsavers CD (released mid August). Second track on that album is ‘Death Bells’ featuring Lanegan and Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers) on vocals.
Mogwai have now remixed ‘Death Bells’ and in my opinion the remix just blows away the original. They’ve left the structure and vocals of the original, but added loads of their trademark feedback and wall of noise, which transform the song in to one heavy thundering freight train coming your way.
And do check out that earth scorching guitar 3 minutes in. Pure fucking bliss!
The track was released as a free MP3 , so feel free to download it here, possums. Essential listening fodder, I tell ya.
Filed under: Art | Tags: Dan Graham, Dennis Tyfus, John Olson, Patti Smith, Richard Kern, Richard Prince, Sensational fix, Sonic Youth
Dennis Tyfus has made a a string of Sonic Youth posters and t-shirts and also did a bunch of stuff for Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! label (logo, t-shirts, skateboard,…). So it was no big surprise that some of his art also features in the Sensational Fix exhibition.
Sensational Fix is a travelling expo wich focuses on the multidisciplinary activities of Sonic Youth since its formation in 1981. It features the band’s collaborations with visual artists, filmmakers, designers and musicians, as well as a choice of other works selected by the band. The exhibition is in Malmö until September 20. It will move to Madrid in 2010 and other places around the globe after that.
The works of Tyfus are displayed in a section of so-called ‘noise artists’ with the likes of Richard Prince, John Olson, Richard Kern, Patti Smith and Dan Graham (Belgians might remember his big glass artwork on the Sint-Jansplein in Antwerp which kept on being vandalised until they decided to move it to the Middelheim museum).
Tyfus is showing a number of drawing that show a new direction in his work: more hectic drawing, the use of photos in them, the blobs of colour and ink smudges,… Noise art indeed!
Below are some shots with an overview of the noise art section and close-ups of the the Tyfus works on that wall.
All photos by Sensational Fix.
PS Dennis Tyfus was also featured in the first issue of the Sensational Fix zine.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Blonde Fire, Joe Vanhoutteghem, Naïve, single, The Hickey Underworld, video
The Hickey Underworld have just released the video for third single ‘Blonde Fire’ (excellent track, but what else did you expect?).
The video was directed by Joe Vanhoutteghem and is one of the best music video ever made in this little country. Warning: this video contains fire, blood, nudity and a cute bunny!
The Hickey Underworld’s debut album is out in Belgium right now and will get a European release in the Fall. They will tour Holland in October and November.
PS Spot the 2 album and first single cover references in the video and win err… nothing.
Pukkelpop have announced that there’s a surprise act planned at the Marquee on Thursday at 20.55.
All they say is that the audience will be amazed. To quote a Dutch a radio presenter: “I’ll eat a shoe if it’s not Them Crooked Vultures”. Them Crooked Vultures are rumoured to play Lowlands 2 days later, late Saturday afternoon.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: album, Dave Grohl, Deserve The Future, Foo Fighters, John Paul Jones, Josh Homme, Led Zeppelin, lowlands, pukkelpop, QOTSA, Them Crooked Vultures
The big news today is the confirmation of a new supergroup: Them Crooked Vultures.
The band has Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) on drums, Josh Homme (QOTSA) on guitar and John Paul Jones (Led Zep) on bass. That’s about as super as supergroups get, I guess.
And to make things even better: they’ve already recorded an album. No official release date has been set, as it turns out that an earlier announced release date of 23 October turns out to be fake. Also the album cover and album name ‘Never Deserved The Future’ that were doing the rounds of the internet are fake. The official band website and the first merchandise do use the frase ‘Deserve the Future’ frequently, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that becomes the eventual album title.
First gig is this Sunday in Chicago and rumour has it they will also play Lowlands festival in Holland. Let’s hope they come to Europe a week early and also play at Pukkelpop. No need to worry if they don’t as they’re apparently planning a world tour around the album release.
