Tag Archives: live

I Was A King live in Haugesund

Last night I saw I Was A King(IWAK) for the fourth time. It is a fantastic band and they just keeps getting better. They still sound a bit like a Teenage Fanclub and Byrds mix, and that’s a good thing.

The New album is a  fine mix of powerpop, guitar walls and great song writing. The guitars are “byrdsy” jangly and this time they flirt even more with the American side of indie-americana-pop. So you see, they’re kinda hard to describe. But they sound terrific!

IWAK has  gotten together with two fantastic popmusic masters this time, Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub vocalist, yes him!) and Robyn Hitchcock (Power-pop godfather, The Soft Boys member and solo artist extraordinaire), what a dream-team!

When i first read about it I really couldn’t believe it, it’s a match made in heaven.

IWAK once wrote a fine song called “Norman Bleik” (on the second album, 2009), about one of their inspirations, just as Norman Blake once wrote a song about one of his own heroes Neil Young, called “Neil Jung”. Fun fact.

The result of this collaboration is IWAK’s best album, a fully realised record with great songs. It sounds so big and it is full of air, but it’s not pretentious at all. They sound more mature and more pop. The Playing is better than ever and the songwriting is spectacular, I realy love this album (You guessed that, eh?) and it is a quintessential pop album. A love letter to music, no less.

Best on the album: Frozen Disease, Superhero and Leave

Best live in Haugesund: Food Wheels and A Million Signs (with The One I love snippet as intro!)

I Was A King gave us a lesson in harmony induced pop music in Haugesund last night. I’ve never heard them better. Normally they’re not very talkative with the audience, but this night was a bit different. Anne Lise Frøkedal had several fammily members in the audience and the atmosphere was very friendly. Of course there were no sing-alongs, but it was a fun and relaxed interaction.

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James Brown – Live at the Apollo was recorded 50 years ago today

“When I’m on stage, I’m trying to do one thing: bring people joy. Just like church does. People don’t go to church to find trouble, they go there to lose it.”
– James Brown

“Our whole thing was based on James Brown. We listened to Live at the Apollo endlessly on acid. We would listen to that in the van in the early days of 8-tracks on the way to the gigs to get us up for the gig. If you played in a band in Detroit in the days before The MC5, everybody did ‘Please, Please, Please’ and ‘I Go Crazy.’ These were standards. We modeled The MC5’s performance on those records. Everything we did was on a gut level about sweat and energy. It was anti-refinement. That’s what we were consciously going for.” 
– Wayne Cramer, MC5

Recorded October 24, 1962
Genre R&B, soul
Length 31:31 (Original LP),  40:47 (CD reissue)
Label KingSolid SmokePolydor
Producer James Brown (original)Harry Weinger (Polydor reissues)

See also the calendar post of today

One of the best live albums in music history, James Brown – Live at the Apollo was recorded on this day 50 years ago.

My favourite moment: The whole horn infused “Think” that borrows heavily from jazz legend Charlie Parker in the way Brown scats over the band with the crowd participating enthusiastically. Not remotely like the studioversions and terribly good!

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Video of the day: The Barr Brothers – Don’t Let It Bring You Down (Neil Young)

The Barr Brothers cover Neil Young’s “Don’t Let It Bring You Down” for a Fuel/Friends Music Blog Chapel Session from MeadowGrass Music Festival at La Foret in Black Forest, CO 5/27/12.

Read more at the very good music blog I am fuel, You are friend and see more video and hear more songs form the session.

– Hallgeir

Witchcraft live in Haugesund, Norway 2012, photo special

After a five year break,  Witchcraft(from Sweden) have released Legend, their fourth studio album and first for Nuclear Blast. Before their production style and sound was compared to the sound that made American bands like Blue Cheer so recognizable (“loudest band in the world” 60s) The new record sound much more up to date, it sounds great.

Thursday night they played in Haugesund (at Jimmy Legs), it was my first show seeing Witchcraft. What a great band! They mix modern hard rock with Sabbath-style doom metal and Roky Erickson psychedelia (and a bit grunge ala Soundgarden), the singer/band leader Magnus Pelander is fantastic. At times he seems to not know what to do with his hands, and I understand that this is his first album not playing the guitar.

When asked by About.com if it was strange not playing guitar he said:
“No, it is more of a relief not to have a guitar strap around your neck.”


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Look out for: Yuma Sun

I saw Yuma Sun on a small stage last Thrursday, they were good. They’re a very promising band. A bit rough around the edges, as expected from a young/new band, but very playful and very exciting. They have a vision and they are on their way.

They call their music “prairie rock”, and they fit the bill. It’s not country rock in The Eagles vein, but more a StanRidgeway/Wall of Voodoo (but without the 80s snaredrum sounds) twangy italian western influence. With an emphasis on the rock part.

They are right now in the middle of a release tour for their album, Romanza. Go see them if you can. 

Yuma Sun are: 

  Jaran Hereid – Akustisk gitar & vokal
Bjørn Ognøy – Baritongitar
Andreas Dyraas – Trommer
Jonas Konrad Knudsen – Bass
Espen Lund – Gitar

 My favourite from the new record is the opening track Another Day:

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