Thanks to the I am fuel, You are friends blog, I had the chance to experience one of the greatest moments in music recently – Pearl Jam playing a native Hawaii-an song, composed by Israel “The Gentle Giant” Kamakawiwo’ole.

The song is extremely powerful, covering the ancient theme of the land of the native Americans and the industrial revolution destroying their beauty.

The original version is sang by Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, one of the most appreciated Hawaiian artists. He started singing at the age of 11 and dies at the age of 38, suffering from a breathing illness caused by obesity – he was about 340 kg.

The Pearl Jam interpretation of the song preserves the power and emotion behind the original version, adding the power of Eddie Vedder’s voice. The performance was during a Pearl Jam show in Hawaii and is covered in Surfline magazine.

Courtesy of the I Am Fuel, You Are Friends blog, you can find both versions to listen to below:

Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – Hawai I ’78 – original version

Pearl Jam – Hawai I’78 – cover.

Not much going on recently in my music habits, except for the recent discovery of two excellent tracks.

The first one is from the Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift movie – it is actually the opening track, sang by DJ Shadow and is entitled Six Days. I was just too impressed when I first heard it and I immediately searched for it – you can find the video here.

The second comes from the radio and it was a pretty hard challenge to identify it. It is one of the very few house / dance bands in Romania I appreciate and it is the first single out of their future album – Activ – Reasons. You can download it following the link – not hosted by musicblog – or you can just wait for the album to go and legally buy it.

Quite strange that both tracks are from the same genre, not one I would particularly like, but maybe it is just my mood of driving these days….

It seems that the weather in Romania is not much favoring the snowboarders nowadays – we don’t have too much chances for snow until mid-December or so.

Still, I am happy that on New Year’s Eve I will definetely be on the board on the nice slopes of Zell Am See. So if you are around this area on New Year’s Eve, just give a sign, maybe we organize something :)

On the other hand, not much time for music these days, with a hectic schedule at work which prevents me from sitting still more than 10 minutes.

I am mostly in a mood for chill-out, and the first song which comes to my mind is Free Bird, again. Excellent guitar, nice lyrics and an overall relaxed atmosphere.

Just finished watching the “First Descent” movie – something I’ve been really looking forward some days now, after seeing the trailer. Of course, the movie just amplified my already-high appetite for snowboarding as soon as possible.

I could not say it is an excellent movie per se – pretty dull as a movie if you are not a big snowboard fan, but it is good that it shows both some amazing scenes of snowboard in Alaska and it also takes you through the entire snowboarding history.

Definitely the best moment of the movie was Terje‘s first descent of the 7601 peak – an excellent accomplishment by the world’s best snowboarder. Truly amazing !

Therefore, also the track for today – Foo Fighters – Hell – the soundtrack song for that descent.

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 :)

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 !

Finally, after some years since the last real vacation, I managed to decide to leave for some days. Of course, all the plans for this vacation have ben changed and changed and finally it seems I will be in some quiet and peacefull seaside retreat.

The plans for these 8 days or so are quite impressive: 4 books and dozens of business articles to read, about 2 Gb of music to review and some business plans to put in order and analyse thoroughly. Hope I will manage to do most of them while also getting some rest and relaxation.

And as all these activities require some nice music in the background, the playlist for this time is impressive. Here are some of the tracks which will keep me company through the days:

[mp3] Bob Dylan – Hurricane – One of the most powerful of Dylan’s protest songs, released in 1976 and inspired by the story of Rubin Carter and his trial.

[mp3] David Gilmour – On An Island – One of the most relaxing songs ever, this is meant to give me that state of bliss an island should inspire.

[mp3] Dido – Sand In My Shoes – Well, sand is for sure to be found there, so this track goes along pretty well. One of Dido’s best tracks, in my opinion.

[wma] Eliades Ochoa – Chan Chan – My favourite Buena Vista Social Club song. It is one of Compay’s last songs he composed and became an instand success after being released in 1987. Like this songs inspires, sifting sand on the beach is probably going to be one of the daily activities :)

[mp3] Erin Bode – Graceland – Along with David Gilmour’s On an Island, is one of the most relaxing songs, as I mentioned previously on this blog.

[wma] Gotan Project – Una Musica Brutal – this song has remained in my mind since hearing it the first time at 6 AM on a beach, with an incredibly strong coffee in my hand.

[mp3] Johnny Cash – Father and Son – Johnny Cash is one of my favourite artists and his music was a great partner some years ago, in the same resort. Therefore, he could not fail the playlist.

[mp3] Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird – Combining both an excellent guitar (I am a sucker for guitar, in general) and a great melody, this is one of the songs I would recommend to Andrei when discussing guitarists and their performance. Probably Van Halen’s Erruption and Pink Floyd’s Confortably Numb are going to come along, too.

[mp3] Sergio Mendez – Mas Que Nada – A recent addition, provides a great feeling of the Samba spirit. And Brazil is marked as a “not to miss” destination for the future years.

[mp3] The Cult – Painted on my Heart – I just like this song a lot, so he makes the playlist.

Well, this is about it. Some 24 hours till departure left, so let the music play.

Downloads above are just for sampling purposes, respect copyright and go buy the album, do not distribute.

No more samba this year, at the World Soccer Championship. This is both sad and disapointing. :(

I am still wondering how this week I managed to find a couple of hours for myself to try to put some order into stuff that was in my mind and on the hard-drive :) As expected, this proved to have amazing and quite unexpected benefits, as I discovered a lot of things:

- Wyclef Jean is still great and I love it, for example this track – Where Fugees At.

- Apocalyptica sounds also great and it’s a pitty I never managed to get to the concert. But maybe I’ll find someone to write about it ;) Meanwhile, Enter Sandman is heavily played.

- Erin Bode is very relaxing. I still wonder how would Graceland look like.

- Racla was one of the Romanian bands I used to love some years ago and I rediscovered how good they used to sound. Too bad they are not playing anymore. Even though a little commercial, this track – 2 in 1 – gives me a very nice feeling everytime I listen to it.

- Some bands can bring back great memories. For example Tapinarii. This track – Doi Bani – is about just sitting alone on the beach in Vama Veche while Puiul meu …. is really special.

- Once I was staying in a rented apartment in Titulescu and this track – Pearl Jam – Even Flow – was excelent for waking up. Thanks Cris !

- A new business idea has been put down on paper and it looks like it’s going to fly. The entrepreneur feeling gives me amazing energies :)

- Filling up your fridge with Heineken is always a good thing :)

- I need a better connection as upload is taking too much time.

- and a lot more which is going to be crystalized later.

Cheers ! 

…from the seaside. It was 3 (or four) days of fun, laughing and sitting without doing much. Exepct for the nights….oh…the nights !

Well, I guess all of you know what is usually happening there, it was not much of an exception now just that I felt much better than the last time, at Stufstock last year.

The goods: the way to the seaside, the Saturday - all day long, the place we’ve been stayin’, the music and, most important, the people there.

The bads: tequilla, the cold nights and … again, it was too short.

Speaking about the music, this track has been played over and over again, in all clubs… So here you are, for the ones who were there and liked it and for the ones who were not there – to get a feeling: Partice – Soul’s Storm.

P.S. Some pictures to come soon…