odd one out

77.08

Mr. T.M.F. van de Wijdeven celebrates his 31th birthday today, april 25th. This man is terribly important to Spider James, eventough we suspect he still hasn't figured out who he wants to be in this band. We don't care. He's more than a guitarist. Band-diplomat, financial manager, concept artist, funky rhythm guitar player, mr. tambourine man, noisy avant-jazzist vs. mainstream pop fan, a great guy. Congratulations.

drenched

saturday 19th

A huge amount of black coffee, some good conversation and new music turned Yesterday into a good day. As for the music, my idea of a 'Olé Coltrane'-style groove and Boyke's reinterpretation of a piece of music that has been around for some time (the coda to a song we don't even play anymore), seem to fit perfectly together. That's what is great about this band. Ideas get melted together - partly through composing, partly through jamming - and things never turn out the way you'd expected.

attack release

popular music

I was just looking back on the two nights of live music, Portishead in HMH Amsterdam on Monday (simply marvelous) and dEUS in Doornroosje on Tuesday (very loud, lots of attitude but where's the magic gone?). Seeing these bands and their audiences, I couldn't help thinking about this record we've made. Will we sell out Doornroosje one day? Will we be loved? Misunderstood? Overlooked? Maybe some journalist at some magazine will say our album is rubbish. We'll try not to care, but of course we'll do. At this point, everything is possible. Let's hold on to that thought and stay optimistic.

music marketing and promotion

end of part I

WJP did an excellent job recording his backing vocals Yesterday. So this means the work is done. We have finally finished recording and we can prepare ourselves for the second chapter, which is mixing the album. With Mr. Kloos engineering, we're not worried. Time to wonder though what we're gonna do with this album once it's mixed and mastered. Would be a shame if no-one gets to listen to it...

neu!

dinger

Just last week I mentioned the 70th birthday of Can-man Holger Czukay. Today I read that Klaus Dinger, just as much a Krautrock legend, has died. Klaus Dinger was 61 years old. Dinger played drums on the first self-titled Kraftwerk album in 1970. In his Kraftwerk-period Dinger met guitarist Michael Rother with whome he formed Neu! in 1971.
I only discovered Neu! three or four years ago. I clearly remember hearing the hypnotizing 'Hallogallo' - Dinger's motorik drumstyle and Rother's spacey, mellow guitar sound - for the first time. It blew me away. Without a doubt one of my favourite pieces of music ever made.

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