It seems that Romania is becoming more and more a popular subject for movies or a good place to shoot one. In time, several movies either approached Romanian subjects (like Dracula, for instance) or were filmed here – Cold Mountain being one.
One of the movies who pomises to do both is “Marketing Malcoch“, a movie about two Coca-Cola truck drivers who are mistaken by the villagers in Maramures region as foreign investors. The movie promises to be a nice comedy, which reminds me of “The Red Coloured Grey Truck”.

As I am quite a fan of road movies, I believe it is going to be a nice film to see. Looking forward for the first trailers and will keep you posted.

This is onoe post I was indending to write for quiet some time now – it does not contain any news, just some old tracks which I like a lot. They can easily make it into an all-time favourites selection. Also, I believe some of them might be quite unknown everybody – even if they are from well known bands, the tracks were not generally (with few exceptions) very popular in time.

Enough said, here they are in no particular order. Downloads available by clicking on the title:

1. Pink Floyd – Have a Cigar

From the most popular album Wish You Are Here, this is one of my favourite songs from Pink Floyd. The guitar sound on this one is just fantastic. Also the song has a strong message and is written in the purest Pink Floyd spirit.

2. Sepultura – The Hunt

This is definitely one of my favourite songs from Sepultura. It is not as well known as Arise or Roots, but it is a very powerful song and very well tight together. And it also reminds me of some nice parties from the students age :)
3. Authority Zero – One More Minute

This is THE song for snowboarding. And also for the seaside :) Found it accidentely in a video shooting of some motorcycle stunts and loved it ever since. Very dynamic.

4. Bad Company – Burning Sky

This is one of those childhood songs I remember very strongly. It was the first song from the album and I used to play it over and over again on the old pick-up :) Great song from a not very popular band.

5. Deep Purple – April

Deep Purple had dozens of hits and another stack of great songs which did not make it to the charts. This is one of them – a very long song, made out of three distinct parts and is one of the first songs where Deep Purple used an orchestral accompaniment. If you take the patience of listening it though, you will find some great sections and experiences.

6. Faith No More – Evidence (Spanish version)
One of the best songs of Faith No More in my opinion. Also, I believe it sounds great in Spanish – exactly how a Spanish rock song should sound. Too bad I could not get more of this stuff.

7. Joe Dassin – Le Roi Du Blues

My favourite song from Joe Dassin probably – it has a special place as it reminds me of one of the best vacations, alone, in 2 Mai, doing absolutelly nothing :)

8. Led Zeppelin – When The Levee Breaks

Not as popular as Stairway to Heaven but equally nice in my view. I have no idea what levee reffers to in this song, but anyway it sounds great ! :)
9. Pantera – Cemetary Gates

Well, this is probably quite popular, but it is the best track of Panters in my opinion. Even though many would not expect this from a band like Pantera, they have some great guitar solos. One of the best is in this track. And as I am a sucker for great guitar plays, this track makes it into this selection
10. Queen – Teo Torriate

Probably one of the most unknown songs from Queen. The special thing about it is that it has some of the lyrics in Japanese. As a kid, after listening to this track, I started studying Japanese. Too bad I did not stick to it…

11. Urma – Buy Me With A Coffee

The only Romanian song in this selection – actually it is sand in English, but the band is Romanian. Their best song, in my opinion, reminds me of some nice trips to Vama Veche.

Via Los Angeles Times I came across an article about Bob Popescu, founder of one of the most popular Jazz Clubs in L.A. Mr. Popescu passed away few days ago, but the article describes his work and fame in the Jazz music community in the U.S.

“Bob was a visionary,” said bassist Richard Simon. “This town hasn’t always been hospitable to ventures such as his in a niche as fraught with uncertainty as jazz, but he managed to create a space that was hospitable to both local musicians and the name groups that visit from other parts of the world.”

The entire article can be found here.

Which reminds me I would love to open a jazz club/bar sometimes in Romania…. hopefully this will happen in some years.

Saas Fee (in Switzerland) was really nice – a very pittoresque atmosphere, nice slopes and a some nice clubs and restaurants. Unfortunatelly, it was not so much snowboarding, but as it was it was really nice.

As Switzerland is very far aways, some nice tracks got me going and here comes the part to share with you – Prodigy vs Enya – Smack My Bitch Up Orrinocco Flow. One of the few remixes I like, but I like it a lot !

And some pictures here.

Throughout the time, there have been very few French songs which I liked. Maybe because I don’t like the language or because I never felt a connection with the French, but except for some Joe Dassin and some Carla Bruni I wasn’t a big fan of the french music.

Still, recently I came upon another one which made the playlist for some days in a row and I still like it. It comes from Tarantino’s “Grindhouse” movie – a pretty silly movie but with a nice soundtrack.

The song is named Lasser tombe les fille and is sang by France Gall. A great song, here it is for you to listen: France Gall – Laisse tomber les filles. It was also covered by April March in an English version, but surprisingly I prefer the original French version :).

Probably one of the most important releases of this year comes from Wyclef Jean, one of my most favourite artists of all time. 10 years after his solo debut with Carnival one, here comes the Carnival, Vol. 2: Memoirs of an Immigrant album.

The album sounds, as expected, amazingly good. On each track Wycleaf invited some friends to sing with, therefore you can also hear Shakira, Norah Jones, Mary J Blige and so on.

One of the best tracks comes from what would seem like an odd combination – Wyclef Jean feat Serj Tankian (from System of a Down) – Riot into the most rock sound of the album.

“Sweetest girl (dollar bill)” is one of the most played tracks on the radios, featuring Akon and Lil Wayne. Then there’s “Any Other Day“, with Nina Simone, featuring a more peaceful sound in order to adapt to her great voice. Paul Simon sings on “Fast Car“, reminding of Tracy Chapman’s track while Mary J Blige puts the passion she’s renowed for in “What about the Baby“.

All in all, a great album and an amazing journey through a diversity of musical genres.

And as you are used to, here is one song to download: Wyclef Jean feat Serj Tankian – Riot.

As it seems a lot of people felt in love instantly with this song just after it was featured in the Dorna commercial in Romania, I thought I would make everybody’s life easier and put it up for download. Therefore, here it is, the full version – Conjure One – Tears from the Moon.

And a few words about Conjure One – their are a Canadian electronic music band. They released 2 albums until today, Conjure One (2002) and Extraordinary Ways (2005). Tears from the Moon appeared initially on their first album and then was released as a single also in 2003. You can find more about them on www.conjureone.com.

Bran Van 3000 plays some of the best “chill-out and driving” music, according to my taste. I have loved them since the beginning and I’ve been listening to Glee, their first album, religiously.

Unfortunatelly, they did not released too much ever since so I had to stick to that one – until recently I rediscovered their 2007 album, Rose.

Quite a different sound, more profound, they dropped some of the rapping they were using on the first one and overall a more consistent music. Gets closer to Buddha Bar or Hotel Costes. Still, I prefer it to the above as it is more dynamic and has more substance.

One of the tracks I liked best out of Rose – House Lights. You can buy the album on Amazon.

2 days have passed and it’s still hard not to think about the Deep Purple concert on Wednesday.

Of course, the excitement was huge as until some months ago I would have never expected to see them playing live. It is hard to imagine a band which made history in the 70s to be still playing, touring and moving crowds just like 40 years ago.

The concert started at about 8:45 and they played for about one hour both old and new tracks. Towards the end, the focused mostly on old tracks, probably seeing the enjoyment on the people’s faces.

Overall, it all sounded great. Gillan still has a great voice, even though he cannot scream as he used too. This is also the reason why they did not play Child in Time, most likely. Steve Moss did an amazing job on the guitars, he had a lot of solo parts and the crowd enjoyed it to the full. Paice and Glover also had some solos, but rather short.

Unfortunatelly, the show was little disrupted by the power on the sound going off few times – luckily, it only lasted for some seconds and the band went though this really easy, they just kept playing and having a good time.

All in all, a great show from Deep Purple, for the first time in Romania and playing in front of 10.000 fans. Personally, I think it was the concert I enjoyed the most and way better than Rolling Stones. It was for sure less show but much more passion and much more … music.

“Je ne veux pas travailler…je ne veux pas dejuner” – this is what I was singing out loud Saturday evening, after the Pink Martini show in Bucharest.

Pink Martini came to Bucharest for a great show at Sala Palatului, in front of a full room of people. It seems that this took them by surprize a little, as they said “How did you even hear about us, they don’t have our albums here, do they?” :)

Still, despite the lack of presence from the Romanian music market, they put up a great show which made happy the entire audience. It was a great sound, ranging from more alert and dance-friendly tracks like Je Ne Veux Pas… to more complex violin or trumpet sets. It was also a nice atmosphere with Thomas Lauderdale translating everything he could from English to Romanian.

Overall, a great concert, which confirms to me again that the shows at Sala Palatului are probably the best you can have :)

P.S. And it was not at all cold outside ;)