YOUTUBE HOORT ACHTER DE MEER LINK!

Herinnert u zich deze nog, nog, nog?!
Om het geheugen wat op te frissen, drie keer The Visitor: ‘Ecoline’ (1982, compact cassette), ‘Liquid and Crystalline’ (1983, mini album) en ‘Black and Gold’ (1985, compact cassette).
Enjoy!

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Ikara Colt is one of those bands who weren’t easy to label. They mentioned bands such as Sonic Youth, Television and The Fall as important influence, but early British punk (think The Jam, Wire, Sham 69) also did leave their marks in the uncompromising songs of Ikara Colt. Inspite of these references they never got rid of the somewhat offending label ‘artrock’, which I think doesn’t suit them too well.
With ‘Chat And Business’ from 2002 the four bandmembers made their first full-length album and immediately announced to split-up after they would have recorded their second (’Modern Apprentice’) to keep things fresh.
The sound on this album is divers, going from noiserock (’Rudd’) to postpunk (’One Note’) and even some more or less poppy tracks (’Sink Venice’ and ‘Belgravia’) are on it and with ‘Bishop’s Son’ they made one of their best tracks. Too bad they decided to split-up so early; I don’t wanna know how many great speedy, noisy and hypnotizing tracks they took with them in their grave.

The CD came with a bonus CD, the EP ‘Basic Instructions’, which is also included with the zipfile. Enjoy!

Continue reading ‘Monday Morning Quickie: Ikara Colt’

Prominent film director Kon Ichikawa died of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital early Wednesday, his family said. He was 92.

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Almost twenty years ago, Harris Glenn Milstead died of an enlarged heart (though there were also various rumours about excessive drug-abuse and overdose). He was only 42 years old. Lots of different stories can be told about Harris Glenn Milstead and how he became Divine, one of the most famous drag-queens in the early eighties of the last century, but let’s stick with this one. Harris had his involuntary coming out as his grandmother caught him in the act of drag and furiously chased him through the gardens, meanwhile not wearing anything less but ladies underpants. Not too long after this incident he moved from his parental house in Baltimore to New York, together with his childhood friend John Waters, the one who later on became the world famous hosmose cultmovies director, who gave Divine quite some leading roles in his scandalous, bizarre and controversial underground movies.

Continue reading ‘Homsefest With Och’

Pocket Arnie a.k.a. Shortzenegger.

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‘Cindy, The Doll Is Mine’ is a short film by French director Bertrand Bonello. It stars Italian actress Asia Argento in the double role of photographer Cindy Sherman, a brunette, and her model, a blonde who strangely resemble one another. (wiki)

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One of the few pictures forever stored in the back of my mind is the one above of Texacala Jones made by Lex van Rossen, the famous Dutch photographer. Van Rossen, who sadly died of cancer almost a year ago, took this picture (one of his personal favourites) at Pandora’s Music Box, an underground music festival in The Netherlands, October 1985. Read more specific info on Pandora and this photo here and more general info on van Rossen here.

Texacala Jones was the sexy screaming siren of Tex And The Horseheads, an eighties cowpunk combo pretty well-known because of it’s live reputation and their explosive cocktail of punk, country, rock, blues and lots of booze. When mentioning TATH, Jeffrey Lee Pierce’s Gun Club is never far away. Partly because of their equal behaviour at the liquor front, but mainly because of the musical affinity between both bands. You could say that The Gun Club was playing their bluesy country rockmusic straight from out of the swamps, as TATH stood at the banks of it, doing their own dirty thing.

Continue reading ‘Tex And The Horseheads’

überLOL @ Arno & Eddy Merckx!!

- Hawaiian Tree by Le Prince Miiaou
- Ex-Fan Des Sixties by Jane Birkin
- Changes by Sylvia Kristel & Eddy De Clercq
- 15 (live) by Rilo Kiley
- I’m Good, I’m Gone by Lykke Li
- I’m Gonna Be Strong by Blue Angel

w00t! @ Texacala Jones in that club and Blackie Dammett, Anthony Kiedis’ dad who just got into a fight with someone. We’re talking 1983.

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It was a memorable night, saturdaynight the 18th of January 1992. Crime scene: The Grande Arche de la Défense (check here or here) in Paris. On the bill: Laurent Garnier and LFO, pioneers and masters of techno at that time, although you might still consider Garnier as a progressive DJ nowadays. LFO isn’t among us anymore, but back then they had already recorded their first underground floorfiller called – guess what – ‘LFO’ and was immediately signed by Warp Records on which they released their overwhelming debut ‘Frequencies’ in 1991. Their sound was surprisingly warm, but terrifying loud as well, with a barrage of basses so deep and penetrating it almost felt as if your lungs and heart were instantly ripped out and splashed on the floor. You’ll understand as soon as you know that LFO is an abbreviation of low-frequency oscillation.
In other terms, LFO was the perfect guerilla for a body- and mindblowing ‘rave’ or ‘warehouseparty’ as it was called those days. Luckily the guys (Mark Bell and Gez Varley) recorded their outrageous gig and that’s why you’ll be able to re-experience a part of the same magical night I had in the basement of la Défense in 1992.
But wait a minute… Re-experienced? Recorded?
Is it true?

Continue reading ‘The Night Paris Was Under Attack’

The ‘Grote Prijs Van Nederland’ is a yearly contest in The Netherlands for young, starting bands from all kind of genres. The music-archeologists from the sublime blog No Longer Forgotten Music put their hands on a compilation from the finalists of that contest from 1983.

Check!

Tuesdaymorning quickies to be filed under ‘Dead Beauties’ and ‘Woman That Look Like Man’.

Here’s what Wiki tells us about Moe & Nico:
”Life in Exile after Abdication is the second album by Maureen Ann “Moe” Tucker, released in 1989. Rather than performing all of the instruments herself, as on her debut album, Tucker is accompanied by performers such as Lou Reed, Jad Fair, Daniel Johnston and members of Sonic Youth.” read more >>

”Drama of Exile, recorded by Nico (Christa Päffgen) in 1981, was originally released by indie label Aura. The original album was plagued by suspicious circumstances. The master tapes were either stolen or sold by Nico for fix money. The tapes were incomplete so Nico returned immediately to the studio and re-recorded the entire album with slightly different personnel and instrumentation.”
read more >>

Maureen Tucker – Life In Exile After Abdication
Nico – Drama Of Exile
Get ‘em both in one zip-file

Continue reading ‘Moe & Nico: Ex-Velvets In Exile’

Krijn Torringa en Ad ‘Mr. Toppop’ Visser present their end of year show in 1976 of the legendary Dutch programme Toppop, the first weekly popmusic show with clips and studio performances. Rare material uploaded from Betamax tape by Krijn Torringa’s son. Cool stuff!

Check it on 123video or here at Och.

Continue reading ‘Toppop Yeah!’

July 18 1953, Memphis, Tennessee. An eighteen year old boy walks into a building at 706 Union Avenue to buy his mother a birthday present.
The building? Sam Phillips ‘Sun‘ Studio.
The present? A recording of ‘My Happiness’ and ‘That’s When Your Heartaches Begin’ on acetate.
The boy? Elvis Aaron Presley.
That particular day in 1953 became the starting point of what can be marked as one of the most important parts in music-history, though it took more than two years for his final breakthrough. But scheduled every night among some 15 other career seeking singers in The Louisiana Hayride, his exceptional qualities as a singer and performer were undoubtable. Crowd and especially the girls had their favorite performer and went wild. A new star was born and Rock ‘n’ Roll finally got it’s own white figurehead for the masses.
By listening to these historical takes from The Louisiana Hayride (all recorded inbetween 1954 and 1956) you’ll probably be able to feel the same high energy excitement that people in the audience back then must have felt, knowing they were watching the next big thing in music-history.
Happy birthday Elvis and come on in, Rams, *–* and Goodie!

Elvis Presley – The Louisiana Hayride Archives

Continue reading ‘Where It All Started’

Hello stranger,
a few weeks ago you were wondering if some files could possibly be re-upped. Well, it took a little while, but it’s done.
Check here and here.

With their mini-album debut Drinkin’, Lechin’ & Lyin’ from 1989 Boss Hog didn’t only put attention on themselves because of their energetic bluesy punk-rock sound. It was leadsinger and Jon Spencer’s wife Miss Martinez being totally naked on the albumcover that caused some rumours too. Later they recorded Cold Hands (1990, with Martinez naked again), Boss Hog (1995) and Whiteout (2000) on which Cristina Martinez wore a bit more clothes.
Their debut containes elementary garage-rock songs, sauced with typical Jon Spencer (yes, the one from The Blues Explosion) blues-licks. In his vocabulary that means filthy and annoying, damn good and very addictive.
But within 12 years their sound became less trashy and more poppy. Electro was added, songs became more structured although they worked with noise-loving producers like Jim Sclavunos (Sonic Youth, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds) and Jim Thirlwell (Foetus) for this one. The NYC blues-punk combo transformed into an outstanding indie-pop group with strong beats, samples and Martinez as a seductive singer, who’s voice reminds a little at Shirley Manson’s (Garbage). Pity that married couple Martinez and Spencer don’t seem to put any effort into Boss Hog anymore.
All that’s left, is Jon Spencers Blues Explosion leftovers album from last year and his raging project Heavy Trash. But that ain’t no punishment. Not at all.

Drinkin’, Lechin’ & Lyin’ & Whiteout

Continue reading ‘Boss Hog’

Wat doe jij vanavond?

Liefs,
Maks

Leaving 2007 behind means looking forward to 2008. More precised the 2008 cd-releases. To mention a few: Bauhaus, Goldfrapp, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Cat Power, Vampire Weekend, Coralie Clément, Be Your Own Pet, Antony & The Johnsons, Portishead, Dolly Parton, The Kills, dEUS, Ladytron, Devotchka, Dirty Pretty Things, The Breeders, Autechre, N.E.R.D., Mars Volta, Blur, The Long Blondes, Stereolab, Camille, The Raconteurs and the new Mariah Carey of course.

w00t! first tip!
One album I luckily was already able to listen to, is the self-titled debut by Vampire Weekend. And what an exciting way to kick off a new year! These New Yorkers label their music ‘Upper West Side Soweto Music’ which suits quite well. Their afro-meets-indie kinda preppy rock sounds very refreshing and makes you already aching for the first sunny days of 2008. And though the comparison with Yeasayer is easy to be made because of all the African influences, Vampire Weekend is more a classical group, writing catchy songs in accordance with the traditional verse/chorus structure. Let’s sundance for the best of 2008 ’till now!

You can get some free tracks here (live Daytrotter Sessions) or here. But you can also check their MySpace. The clip that comes with ‘Mansard Roof’ is on YouTube of course.

Cheers and congrats Shane!

From Klaxons to Deathspell Omega, from DJ Mayonnaise to the lovely Vanessa Paradis and from Arcade Fire to Annihilator: They’re all at the
Ochblog Editors Personal 2007 List!

Continue reading ‘They Were Here To Stay’

Thank you schöne Mädel, sie können gehen. I probably do have the attention of the Och-audience now…

Continue reading ‘Heimatklänge’

Freedom of w00t!
< < w00t! >>