N°78 MISS MONTREAL - JUST A FLIRT

Apologies, apologies. Haven't had the time or the feel good vibes to post anything. I've been sick for a few days. But here it is. A talent from our neighbour country The Netherlands: Lady Montreal.

I'm sure some of you must have thought she was Canadian or anything but she's as Dutch as tulips and windmills. Lady Montreal is a 28 year old singer songwriter who started her career in the band Ysis. In that band she was the lead singer but didn't play any insturment. After the band quit she started of as a solo artist and through small jobs in advertising campaings and duets with BLØF and Bertolf Lentink (used to be a band member of Ilse Delange) she finally got picked up by Giel Beelen a national radio DJ. He rocketed her to her first succes with the song I posted. It made number 11 in the national charts.

In 2009 she finally had her first album ready for release called Miss Montreal followed by a second album in 2010 So... Anything Else? With both albums she started touring through The Netherlands and Belgium. Miss Montreal will perform this year on a small festival in Grootebroek and now you may guess the name of that festival. No-one? Well it's called the Forever Young festival and this way it ties in into our previous song. Cool huh?

I'd like to tell you Forever Young takes place on May 11th and 12th 2012 and besides Miss Montreal the have Def P and The Howling Coyotes, King Jack, Maslov, Peter Pan Speedrock and the Loco Loco Disco Show on stage. If you might go there, enjoy it and now enjoy Miss Montreal.

Oh yeah one more fact: In interviews and in real life when she's talking, she stutters !!!

N°77 ALPHAVILLE - FOREVER YOUNG

For those amongst you who actually expected Alphaville in the previous link I’ll give you what you want. No problem with bringing some eighties music. 

They’re a German poppy synthesizer band founded early 1980’s and untill today they are still producing new records. Their latest album is titled Catching Rays On Giant and was produces only two years ago in 2010. In between this first album, from which Forever Young is the title track, in 1984 and Catching Rays they created twelve more original albums  (no best off or anything) of which one live album called Stark Naked and Absolutely Live. You could say their Singles Collection album is some kind of Best Off album though.

Alphaville actually started off under a different band name which was a bit gay to me. It sounded …. Forever Young so with this song we have the new band name and the old one combined in band name and song name. Alphaville became the band’s name just before the release of the first album in 1984 and it was based on the movie Alphaville. Anyway it sounds way cooler.

At the moment lead singer Marian Gold is the only remaining founding member. Bernhard Lloyd left the band in 2003 after a taning succes in the nineties and twennies. Frank Mertes left the band right after their first succes with the singles Big in Japan, Sounds Like A Melody and Big In Japan. Started ad a three man band they’re now a quartet with Marian Gold, Martin Liser, David Goodes and Pierson Grange. No German sounding names anymore.

I’ve chosen a song from their first album since that album contains the most hits. I don’t know any of their recent songs but since they’re still performing and recording I guess the rest of the albums aren’t crap … at least for the fans that is.

N°76 GUANO APES - BIG IN JAPAN

If anyone expected to hear Alphaville with Big in Japan I’m terribly sorry but I feel that the Guano Apes cover is way better than the original so here it is:

Guano Apes are a German rockband with a female lead singer (Sandra Nasic) who has a very sharp voice. Apart from Guano Apes she also delivered the vocals fora n Apocalyptica song but I can’t recall which one. I’ll have to go and search for it. All I know is that I think she a pretty good singer. Probably agressive undertone in her voice.

The band itself is a mixture of rap and metal. Sandra joined the band a little later than the still originals members and musicians. 1994 that is and it took them 3 years to create Proud Like A God, their first studio album. Their career got launched after they won a rock contest with their probably best known single Open Your Eyes. Must I say their first album contains the best known songs as there are also Lord of the Boards and Rain.

Later they’d produce a few more albums Don’t Give Me Names (2000), Walking on a Thin Line (2003) and Bel Air (2011) in between followed by two compilation albums. Big in Japan can be found on the second album and Living in a Lie is also on of the beauties.

The Guanos split up in 2005 since all of them wanted to go their own way and do their own thing in music. This is when Sandra caught up with that Apocaplyptica lyrics which I still can’t remember. I’ll get to it. She also release dan album of her own with little succes.

But they missed the band I guess and in 2009 some reunion concerts were given throughour Europe followed by writing on new songs. From this writing came a brand new album last year which already released 2 singles (Sunday Lover and Oh What A night). A third one is foreseen fort his year.

Now enjoy the Guano Apes !

N°75 MAY'N - LION

May'n is a  year old Japanese pop singer with quite some experiance already. At the age of 13 she was selected out of over 35000 candidates at a national talent scout and two years later she released her first single called Crazy Crazy Crazy.

Three years after her selection she lifts her career to the top when singing the end credits for the anime tv show Love Get Chu and after that she's asked to do more anime such as Macross Frontier. The song posted here comes from that anime Tv show and is supposed to be one of her biggest hits. As you probably already thought she's well known amongst anime lovers (not animal lovers !!!) and in Japan this is one of the highest anyones status can reach since Japan is the centre of the world when it come to animated cartoons.

I don't understand a single word she's singing and I don't like tone nor music but hey fuck that. It's cool to have Japanese stuff in the link as well. When the video starts it's also a little bit like Metallica goes Japanese hahahaha.

Again I'm wondering how can I link this further? ... got that one already since May'n is "big in Japan" !!! Later this week folks !!!

Greetz

N°74 MUMFORD AND SONS - LITTLE LION MAN

Been having some login problems lately on my blog and hotmail account so I haven't been posting a lot of shit but finally I managed to retrieve passwords and account details so here we go and Mumford and Sons it is !!!

Formed in December 2007, Mumford and Son are a pretty recent band who piloted themselves into fame almost immediately with their first and so far only album. The band started off as a bunch of musicians behind lead singer Laura Marling but at a certain point in their existence Marcus Mumford decided to go for their own project. Together with Winston Marschall, Ted Dwane and Ben Lovett he started to write his own music and started the Mumford and Sons project. 

Compared to a band like Noah and The Whale they bring mostly poppy bluegrass folkrock songs and Little Lion Man; their debut single; is a pretty good example of what the band stands for.The complete first album (Sigh No More) is an exquisit example of what four brilliant musicians can bring. All four play various instruments which creates a magical and happy sound.

I'd say listen, relax and sigh no more!

P.s.: LITTLE lion MAN = a leprichorn which is English for the Dutch word kabouter !!!