Now this is great news – EMusic comes to Europe. Finally, I’ve been searching so long for a nice pay-to-download site…

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This weekend someone introduced me to a Macedonian band called Foltin. Quite interesting combination of jazz, ambiental, etno and funk music – too bad we only had one track and I could not find much over the web.

Still, I managed to find another Macedonian Jazz album which is quite ensightful and could easily be added to the Guide of World Music which I wrote about previously.

Here is the tracklisting and links to each of the tracks. What do you think ?

1. Gora – Big Band MRT & Ilija Pejovski
2. Lonely woman – Toni Kitanovski
3. You promised – Toni Kitanovski & Zoran Madzirov
4. Pretty child – Labish
5. Bel dedo – Beneventan Trio
6. Modern society – Set
7. Hon-Shi – Foltin
8. Ne si go prodavaj – Big Band MRT & Ilija Pejovski
9. Wounded knee – Toni Kitanovski

I told you this is the year of the great comebacks… Recently Iron Maiden, a band which has had numerous ups and downs in the recent times, released a new album – A Matter of Life and Death.

With Bruce Dickinson again on the vocals, the album gives a feeling of continuity to the initial Iron Maiden style – pure rock and metal style, excellent colaboration between all the members of the band and a clear message of the album.

As a sample, some videos are here, here and here.

This is a nice way to be close to your most devoted fans – Dave Grohl, of Foo Fighters, says he’ll make good on his promise to go for beer with two Australian miners who listened to the Foo Fighters while trapped underground for two weeks.

The entire story here.

I posted the “The Roots – The Seed 2.0” track some while ago, after dicsovering it in VV, together with a friend. We loved the track since then, and I still listen to it with great pleasure.

In the same time, quite a lot of people downloaded it and listen to it, but most of them came back with the same reaction – “Man, those lyrics are so obscene!“. So I decided to put some clarity into it :)

At the first listening, yes, they sound quite strange. Lyrics like ” I only wanna fertilize another behind my lover’s back”, ” I push my seed in her push for life” or ” I lick the opposition cuz she don’t take no pill” may seem just out of line. But wait a second ! What if all this song is really about something else and the message is just hidden ?

Actually, the song has nothing to do with sex, but it desguises the message in those strange lyrics for a certain reason. Actually, the story is about this guy – the singer – who is just fed up with the popularity of rap and hip-hop and being pushed to sing that when he is actually a fan of rock-and-roll and this would be his dream – to sing rock-n-roll. Let’s look up closely.

Background: The Roots are quite a rap band, most of the songs would fall into this genre. Still, this song – The Seed 2.0 – is only one of the few that is more rockish. Why the sudden change?

The lyrics: Here is how the lyrics should be interpreted and their actual meaning

“She want neo-soul, this hip-hop is old
She don’t want no rock-n-roll
She want platinum or ice or gold”
“She” is actually the substitute for the audience, the record label or such. These lyrics show that the interest is mostly focused on neo-soul and not on rock-n-roll.
“And we can make money to burn
If you allow me the latest game
I don’t ask for much, but enough room to spread my wings
And the world finna know my name”
Talking about the potential success of this experiment. He just wants some liberty in choosing what to sing and he is sure that fame will follow.
“I don’t ask, for much these days
And I don’t bitch, and whine, if I don’t get my way
I only wanna fertilize another behind my lover’s back”
This is actually about how he will make the experiment of singing rock-and-roll even without the support from the “partner”.
“If Mary drops my baby girl tonight
I would name her Rock-N-Roll”
This is actually revealing that the “baby” of his experiment is going to be a rock-and-roll track.

So, actually The Seed should be regarded more as of a poetical license and not a song about sex and “behind the back” fertilizing :) It is actually a song about following your dreams and creating the music you like, not just the one that sells.

Well, this was probably the last weekend in Vama Veche. I managed to arrive also this time and it was wonderful, overall, despite some initial problems.

Quite bad weather on Saturday, an excellent weather on Sunday – the sea was also warm – and overall quite a deserted resort. A lot of products missing from the shelves, B52, Expirat and others were already closed and there was no traditional reed-burning.

Also, not too may visitors, which gave an overall feeling of peace and calm. Lovely !

Here are some photos – low quality again – but, most important, this weekend’s track / obsession – Regina Spektor – On The Radio :)

Blogmusik.net is quite an interesting site that allows you to listen to a lot of tracks over the web. With a simple interface, similar to an iPod, you can search or browse for artists and listen to their tracks. Also, for registered users, you can create playlists.

What is quite interesting – and still remains a mistery – is their licensing model. There is no information about that on the site and you are not required to pay anything. Of course, you cannot download tracks either.

Works quite well via a regular connection, so go and check it out.

This is official – I am buying the “Last Concert in Italy” Nirvana DVD. Anybody got one for sale ?

So, not much posting going on lately…this is mainly because of being busy at work, focusing more on the reminder to “read that pile of books” and doing … stuff :)

Still, I could not help noticing that I don’t feel much like changing that series of 20 or so tracks in Winamp which I am listening for some weeks now. Am I getting old / bored or is it just that latelythere haven’t been too many great releases ? And reaching for the old HDD full of excelent music just seams too much….

So, just for sharing, here are some of the powerplays of the last 20 days or so:

- E.M.I.L – Dub Shot – no download link, but go and search for it, it’s really worth it !
- Sergio Mendez – Mas Que Nada

- Bob Dylan – Hurricane

- Red Hot Chilli Peppers – On Mercury (thanks to A.)

- Outkast – Roses

- Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird – that guitar solo is fantastic

- Patrice – Up In My Room – (again, A.)

- The Roots – The Seed 2.0

- Regina Spektor – On The Radio

- Radiohead – Video Killed the Radiostar – yes, it is not the original version, but sounds excellent.

- and a lot of that Ray Charles album.

- Emily Haines – The Lottery – this is newly discovered and sounds great !

After Tapinarii in the first day, the second day had as main “attraction” the Pheonix concert. First of all, congrats to the organizing committee for managing to get Pheonix together on a stage in such a great line-up – with Baniciu, Covaci and Tandarica and all the others.

The show was excellent, even though myself and other people would have liked more old songs and not many from the new album. They managed to offer great solos – I specially liked Cristi Gram (guitarist) and, of course, Tandarica. This guy is amazing how he can play the drums at 53 years old !

For all of you who did not have the chance to attend, here are some pictures – Pheonix at Stufstock 2006. Sorry for the low quality, they were made with a mobile phone camera…