Archive for category Albums
Das Pop is back
Posted by JayAre in Albums, Big in Belgium on October 18th, 2009
It took Bent Van Looy and the other guys from Das Pop almost 4 years and the help of the Dewaele brothers (Soulwax) to get their third album, conveniently called Das Pop, in the stores. But the waiting time was totally worth it: Das Pop is back and what’s more, they sound better than ever.
In September they did an exclusive session in the StuBru studio. Das Pop played some surprising versions of five new songs and they even brought a string quartet. The playlist looked like this:
- Fool for love
- Underground
- Let me in
- The last thing
- Never get enough
And what’s even more, there is some live footage available from the StuBru Das Pop session. Enjoy!
Fool for love:
Manhay, the new Daan album
Posted by JayAre in Albums, Big in Belgium, Music News on May 4th, 2009
Daan Stuyven, the lost son Arno never had, released his new piece of art and called it Manhay (a village in the Belgian Ardennes, next to the place where he recorded the album). His new album breaks with his former work in the sense that synthesizer, although still present, have been replaced by the piano as main instrument. And like always, Daan gets away with it.
You already might have heard the first Manhay single Exes or might have seen Daan’s own Lumberjack clip for the song. I’m amazed by how many rhymes he managed to find for the word “exes”:
Manhay tracklisting:
- Exes
- Your eyes
- Brand new truth
- Icon
- Friendly fire
- Crawling from the wreck
- Bad boy, bad girl
- Radio silence
- A great retriever
- Decisions
- Beauty calls collect
- The stealing kind
Exes lyrics:
Exes I’ve got no acces to my exes
I’m sure by now they’ve moved to Texas
or took a one way trip to Naxos
Exes I’ve lost the battle of the sexes
Like making love inside of taxis
They liked the sting but not the cactusI know that exes reflect my youth
I know that exes are my male proof
I know they’re guilty of being the past
But you’ve killed the cupid
You’re over them
Exes I’ve got no problem with my exes
They loved me driving in my Lexus
A road’s as good as all its exits
Exes so out of date like sending faxes
I was the tree they were the axes
They liked the pray but not the mantisThe cynical collector of birds not bees
The problem detector got high on heels
The beauty protector with no degree
for exesWhich is good which is constructive
Which is what a woman needs
Don’t go asking for forgiveness
Go plead guilty all degrees
You were raised on definitions
With your dears obscuring deeds
Your actionsExes you like ‘m young but not the acne
You like the team but not the referee
I wonder how it feels to ex me
So go ahead and ex me
Try to forget just don’t annex me
I thought I threw away the frisbee
I’d say we try to stick to plan BLike a missile that ain’t guided
I was following my seed
Like a horse that hasn’t travelled
I took hay for upper purple weed
I got excommunicated
Cause I couldn’t play the creep
for exes
Exes too young to check all their reflexes
No use explaining who T-Rex is
They are the source of all complexes
You know… exes
Moiano 2nd Line
Posted by JayAre in Albums, Big in Belgium, Music Video on April 17th, 2009
Moiano, the band around Peter Lesage, just released after 4 years of silence their second album 2nd Line. The new Moiano album got quite good comments in the Belgian press (summer, feelgood, …) and Peter aims to affirm his position as musician with this record. In the past few years, he mainly worked with and for other artist like Gabriël Rios, Flip Kowlier and ex-Starflam’s Baloji, which made him mainly a musician’s musician.
But that’s all about to change now with 2nd Line:
The ‘first line’ of the infamous jazz-funerals were the people as part of the ceremony, clubmembers, family and friends. Brightly coloured beads and feathers were offered to the ‘second line’. This referred to people who were attracted to the music. Such people would follow behind the ‘first line’. Later it became more common for these onlookers to mix in or even get ahead of the band and first line. To follow because one enjoyed the music came to be known as to ‘second line’.
First single of 2nd Line was Ethiopics, not Peter’s strongest singing performance, but a more than just nice song to enjoy during the long and hot summer that awaits us all:
Tracklisting:
- After the flood
- 2nd Line
- Gold
- Brainwashed
- Piece of mine
- Come for you
- Heartbeat
- Funk today
- Get down
- Ethiopics
Tom Vanstiphout, the hardest “Working Man” in Belgium
Posted by JayAre in Albums, Big in Belgium on April 17th, 2009
Tom Vanstiphout is one of those guys you have absolutely, positively seen before. But you don’t seem to remember when or where. And that’s a pity…
Tom is one of the best session and live guitarists in Belgium. To name just a few bands and artists Tom has performed with: Clouseau (Flanders’ biggest pop band), Milow, Jan Leyers, …
In 2004 he stepped into the spotlights himself and released his first solo album Motion. A few songs got some airplay on the radio and Tom became a little bit big in Belgium as singer/songwriter (try to find Sixteen and Greyhound).
Last month, Tom Vanstiphout released his second solo album Working Man. First single is Better Be Ready:
Tracklisting:
- Better Be Ready
- The Party
- Slept Too Long
- Pretty Girls
- Night
- Working Man
- Blood on Blood
- Early Days
- Good Times So Far
- How Boys Get
- Morning
Een echte cowboy houdt van aardappelpuree
Jasper Erkens’ debut album: The Brightest Story
Posted by JayAre in Albums, Big in Belgium on March 30th, 2009
Only 15 years old, Jasper Erkens became second in Humo’s Rock Rally 2008 (the biggest rock concours in Belgium). The singer-songwriter ‘with a bunch of hair‘ impressed the jury with an acoustic cover of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy.
A little more than one year later, Jasper has released his debut album The Brightest Story. The Gnarls Barkley cover that got him so far got so much airplay in Belgium that most people started to think Jasper wouldn’t be able to live up to the expectations. But they were wrong, so wrong. The sky is the limit if you can come up with such a great album at age 16. Just imagine what this little guy from Diest with a guitar will be able to do in a few years…
Tracklisting:
- Everybody is the same
- Waiting like a dog
- Crazy
- The brighter story
- Dear diary
- Elliot
- How could I know
- Pageturner
- Stay alive
- When would you tell
- Needed
The first single is Waiting Like A Dog and after a couple of weeks, Jasper already managed to take first place in Belgium’s popcharts:
Listen to Jasper Erkens on last.fm
And because we still like his Crazy-cover, here it is once again:
Waiting Like A Dog lyrics:
I’ve been waiting like a dog now
and i’ve been waiting to get back on my feet
I’ve been waiting like a dog now
waiting on the ground to get a treei’ve been wainting for hours
thinking back to times that call my name
I’ve been waiting like a dog now
despizing the one that i becameI’ve been waiting like a dog now
weeks will turn into months and months turn into years
every colour is the same now
there’s no black no white there’s only greyi’ve been waiting for hours
still there’s nothing changed
I’ve been waiting like a dog now
gazing at the backdoor once againand i don’t want to wait untill i die
and i know i know i know i know
i know i know i know i know
it takes time
don’t leave me behind
and i’ve been to places and seen many faces
but nothing that could ease my mind
don’t leave me behindI’ve been waiting like a dog now
I’ve been waiting like a dog now
I’ve been waiting like a dog now
I’ve been waiting like a dog nowand i know i know i know i know
i know i know i know i know
it takes time
don’t leave me behind
and i’ve been to places and seen many faces
but nothing that could ease my mind
don’t leave me behinddon’t leave me behind
but ease my mind
don’t leave me behind
but ease my mind
don’t leave me behind
but ease my mindI’ve been waiting like a dog now
New album for Ghinzu: Mirror Mirror
Posted by JayAre in Albums, Big in Belgium on March 29th, 2009
Tomorrow, March 30th, the guys from Ghinzu release their third album Mirror Mirror. Although they come from Brussels, Belgium, their fame mainly reached France so far. But with the new album, Ghinzu hopes to get some airplay in Belgium as well.
Their music is often compared to Radiohead, but maybe that’s a bridge too far. Think more of a combination of (hard)rock, progrock and electronics. In the french press Ghinzu is often called “le dEUS wallon“, or the dEUS counterpart from the french speaking part of Belgium.
The new album Mirror Mirror is promoted with this rather cool video:
Tracklisting Mirror Mirror:
- Cold Love
- Take It Easy
- Mother Allegra
- Mirror Mirror
- Dream Maker
- The End of the World
- This Light
- This War is Silent
- Je t’Attendrai
- Birds in my Head
- Kill the Surfers
- Interstellar Orgy
Let’s wish them all the luck in the world, and maybe you can see them at this year’s Rock Werchter festival where Ghinzu has a spot in the Pyramid Marquee on sunday.
Enjoy their biggest success so far, Do You Read Me? in an acoustic version:
