The Old North

As you may know I travel quite a bit between Cardiff and Rotterdam. Roughly once a month I fly over to the Lowlands to work together with my Dutch Dolls-colleague. I usually crash at her place, or I catsit for a friend who goes on holiday a lot. They both happen to live in what is rapidly becoming the funkiest area of Rotterdam: "Het Oude Noorden" ("The Old North").

Now I used to be a Westside girl (for years I lived in notorious Spangen) and swore West was the best. I never liked "The Old North" very much, with its dark narrow streets and boarded up houses. But the dark days are over. Every time I take tram number 4 or 8 from Central Station towards my temporary home I notice new eateries, new shops and new artist studios. Here are just a few of the gems that spawned here recently.


☝ Mother and daughter run Lof der Zoetheid, a shop and cafe located at Noordplein 1. They serve breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea, and they do catering as well. You can buy beautiful 'afternoon tea boxes', filled with yummie stuff and a special afternoon tea, for you to take home (or you can make yourself immortal by giving this to someone else).

Westerkaatje. This traiteur is an institute in Rotterdam, and in October they opened up a new restaurant at Benthuizerstraat 60-D. A first sign of gentrification??


☝ Cafe De Bel, Gerard Scholtenstraat 61b, is a dive that looks like its been there for ever, but only recently it became VERY fashionable to go here. It's even been dubbed "De Rotown van Noord". It is rumored that with every wodka you order you get a free bag of crisps! Every time I arrive in Rotterdam the first thing I shout is "I want to go to De Bel!", but for some reason it never happens. But this week I want to go to De Bel FOR REAL!!!


☝ For 60s lamps and furniture, 70s ceramics, weird 80s objects and art go to Spam (Zwaanshals 243a). There are also plenty of second hand (book)/antique shops in the area, and today I even spotted a charity shop on the Zaagmolenstraat!


☝ More and more empty stores are turned into studio spaces by artist, designers and party organizers, who double their work space as a shop. Take Maatschappij Voor Volksgeluk on the Benthuizerstraat for example. 19 artists are united in a former fire station "Center of applied arts" Rotabs at Zaagmolenkade 46. They also host events and there's a shop.

Nice opportunities to explore the area are festivals like the Swan Market and Route du Nord. Swan Market saw its first edition last month, and another one is scheduled for March 6! At this 'lifestyle market' designers sell their products in empty shops in the 'Zwaanshalsgebied'. Route du Nord takes place in June I believe. Artists open up their studios and all sorts of happenings, readings and shows take place.


☝ On my last ride on tram 4 I noticed the prison complex on the Noordsingel (pictured above) has closed and is now FOR SALE. Very curious to see what will happen to this HUGE complex. Think of the opportunities! A couple of years ago two friends of mine paid homage to this prison with this ukelele version - in Dutch - of Folsom Prison Blues. I think it's utterly brilliant!


De Wisselende Contacten - Noordsingel Blues. Get it here (YSI).


Johnny Cash – Folsom Prison Blues. Get it here (YSI).

Oh and I probably missed loads of places, so please leave comments and suggestions on The Old North!

Still under the covers

The heating is blazing, the warm water bottle is in daily use and "I am sitting in front of my computer with a blanket like an old person" as well: it got chilly here in Wales! And wet and grey and windy. But these covers are keeping me warm these days...


Erma Franklin - Hold On I'm Comin' (Sam and Dave cover). Get it here (YSI).


Frente - Bizarre Love Triangle (New Order cover). Get it here (YSI).


Body Language - Sandwiches (Alaska In Winter Remix) (Detroit Grand Pubahs cover). Get it here (YSI).

Three cheers for midweek drinking

Can I hear three cheers for midweek drinking?! One of the few good things about being self-employed is that I can go out on school nights (when I plan it properly of course..). And the most exciting artists always happen to been in town during the week, probably to cater for the enormous student population here in Cardiff. So in order to see some of my favorite bands and DJs in the flesh I have to endure hours of feeling old! It almost puts me off going, but I really want to go see the following men, who are in my opinion some of the more innovating men in the genre of subtle electronic music today...

Tomorrow (that's a Wednesday) i'm going to see a duo called Mount Kimbie at the Cardiff Arts Institute. Luckily my friend was wise enough to buy us tickets, because it sold out pretty quickly. I really like their hypnotic, organic sound and I'm curious how things will come across live. Hopefully the beanbags are still around at CAI..


Mount Kimbie - Tunnelvision. Get it here (YSI).

I'm happy to see a fellow Dutchie coming to Cardiff this Thursday when Martyn plays Buffalo Bar. He's a genre bending composer and producer, and he has done remixes for some big names on the scene. He describes his music as "music for a warm but rainy day", which is a perfect description. Apparently he used to live very close to me in Rotterdam, as he named his label after the zip code: 3024. And apparently he's buddies with my former art teacher Erosie, who designed the cover for his album.


Kode 9 - You Don't Wash (Martyn's Scrub Vocal). Get it here (YSI).

Third cheer is for James Blake who will grace us Cardiffians with his presence on Thursday November 25th. I'm severly addicted to his track CMYK but his latest single Limit To Your Love (a Feist cover) is 'not bad' either. As is the video.

Get Under The Covers!

Today was the first day I actually turned on the heat in my house. My toes were a whitish pink and I sat in front of my computer with a blanket like an old person. Rotterdam was even more grey than it usually is, and also more wet. Yes, fall is definately here. And to adjust properly to the upcoming moodswings: some beautiful noisy tearjerkers with a shoegaze flavor for you, because the summer has really left us. Booehooooe!

Grizzly Bear - He Hit Me (Crystals Cover) get it here (YSI)



Ted Leo - With Every Heartbeat (Robyn Cover) get it here (YSI)



Little Girls - 10 Mile Stereo (Beach House Cover) get it here (YSI)

Wie schön das ist

It's 19.00 and I'm ready for bed. My eyes are droopy and the skin below them is a dark shade of purplish blue... I am recovering from a fantastic weekend. Friends of mine got married on Saturday, but the celebrations lasted the whole weekend! It was a special day for a number of reasons. Of course it was special to see my friends getting married, but there were a lot of details that made this wedding an extraordinary one: the fantastic setting of Cardiff Castle, the cake and the stunning wedding dress (both made by the bride herself!), the Dusty Springfieldesque hairdo’s of the bridesmaids, the beer (smuggled across the German border by two of their friends) and last but not least the ORIGAMI FLOWER ARRANGMENTS (also made by the bride herself!!).


For the party they’d booked the EXCELLENT Klezmer Kollective, an 8-piece outfit from Cardiff. Their music led to wild and ecstatic dancing by all guests (as you can vaguely see on the picture above)! As there weren’t any DJ-facilities the couple had asked me to put together some compilation cd’s for the evening and night. Because the now-husband is German and the now-wife is Welsh I dug up songs by German and Welsh artists and some odd covers in either German or Welsh, some of which I’ll share with you here. I especially love Motown ‘auf Deutsch’, they sing with the cutest accent. Sehr süß!

Marvin Gaye - Wie Schön Das Ist. Get it here (YSI).

The Beatles – Sie Liebt Dich. Get it here (YSI).

Marty Roos - Blauer Montag. Get it here (YSI.

Tom Jones – Ring Of Fire. Get it here (YSI).

Alex Warren and Terema Wainwright - Newport Ymerodraeth State Of Mind. Get it here (YSI).

An ear for an ear

My apologies dear readers for being off the radar for so long. Holiday in France, working on our rollator-soundsystem Blanche, tight deadlines, a course at Central Saint Martins in London and friends visiting were to blame. But now I’m catsitting in London for a week so for once I’ve got loads of interesting stuff to blog about!

In between work I’m planning to go to lots of museums and exhibitions, a musical, the Hackney carnival, do shopping (of course), go to Brighton and see lots of live music. I’m not doing too bad on the latter with Field Day festival, Jens Lekman, the Blow and the Evan Parker Trio already under my belt.

Funnily enough balding men were the stars at Field Day. Caribou was great live, playing songs of his EXCELLENT album Swim. Max Tundra could play schlagers for all I care ‘cause his dance moves are the best and make his sets always enjoyable. I was pleasantly surprised by a very techno-oriented set by experimentalist Matthew Herbert, partly created from the top of a ladder and in a little dome tent on stage.

Then on Tuesday we went to see Jens Lekman and The Blow in the beautiful Union Chapel in London’s East End. My friend Kate was spot on when she described The Blow as “the female Max Tundra”; her dancing was a bit like a spastic tapdance. Very nice, just like the songs (with lots of finger snapping and hand clapping sound effects). It was a bit of a pitty her lyrics were inaudible due to the enormous natural reverb of the church. Then again, it's a real church with pews and a pulpit and candles, so what are you gonna do. Jens Lekman's performance was a joy, as always. I never listen to his albums (his “tram number seven to heaven, did you eat your banana from Seven Eleven”- lyrics tend to get on my nerves), but when he’s in the neighborhood I can’t resist seeing him. He's just too charming! And from the balcony where I was sitting I noticed Jens is balding…

Last night my beau tried to push my musical boundaries by taking me to The Vortex Jazz Club to see Evan Parker, an apparently very famous free jazz improvising saxophone player. This music needs trained ears to be fully appreciated, I think. So I just took a pen and doodled away on the reservation card that was lying on the table. In return for enduring this my boy promised me to join me to ANY show of my choice. So tonight I’m dragging him along to a African house club night at Notting Hill Arts Club. Ngagna, sweet revenge.

Caribou - Sun. Get it here (YSI).

Max Tundra - What Time is Love (KLF cover). Get it here (YSI).

The Blow - Hey Boy. Get it here (YSI).

Jens Lekman - A Postcard to Nina. Get it here (YSI).

Evan Parker - Dark Interior (extract - just to give you an idea...)

1+1=3+1=?

The XX's remix of Florence and the Machine's cover of The Source and Candi Staton's You've Got The Love gets remixed by The Very Best... Christ! But I dig it.

Florence and the Machine - You've Got The Love (The Very Best Remix). Get it here (YSI).

Still sobbing over Michael

It hit me like a ton of bricks last friday; Michael Jacksons death. I have to even admit that I sobbed. Yesyes, I did. I wasn't going to blog about it because I figured that the blogs would be swamped with stories about the King of Pop. But whatever, I just feel like paying some respect.

He was a true hero, an innovator. Not a lyrical one, but the ultimate songwriter with the ultimate vision. I respect people with strong ideas and opinions, because it's so easy to get sidetracked. All music junkies of my generation will admit at some point that they had a special moment in their life and that that special moment was linked to a MJ song in some way. I have moments like that. Being a little girl, dancing in front of the TV when 'toppop' was on. Trying to copy Michaels moves together with my sis. Then my early twenties, as a hardcore clubber battling my co-clubbers on some oldschool hiphop track, that would eventually be followed by Don't Stop Till You Get Enough. Popping and locking and flirting our asses off! And we never did get enough, nor will we ever get enough in the future. Because where there's a party, there will be Michael Jackson. This stuff is timeless, your future kid might loose it's virginity to I Just Can't Stop Loving You.... Yes, That is a possibility. Scary? No. Good.

To make this slightly sentimental blogpost somewhat cheerful. I'm leaving you with this very funny hindi-version of Don't Stop Till You Get Enough. Now that you know I'm a true fan, you'll know I'm not mocking MJ with this.

Usha Uthup - Chhupke Kaun Aya. Get it here (YSI).

Sour times

So today I wanted to write a review of the Micachu & The Shapes show at Buffalo Bar last Wednesday night. I had already missed them twice, so I was very happy my time had finally come. But when I arrived at the scene it turned out Micachu had CANCELED at the very last moment. What is wrong here?? Is this the story of my life? WTF??? I was so sad and disappointed I couldn’t be bothered with the other bands anymore (sorry other bands). Instead I ordered a WHISKEY SOUR at the bar, to match my mood...

I’m not going to post any songs by Micachu here. I can’t bear it. No, I’m giving you a song about WHISKEY and a song about SOUR. Cheers.

Cat Power - Moonshiner (Bob Dylan cover). Get it here (YSI).

Portishead - Sour Times (Live at Roseland NYC). Get it here (YSI).

They call it 'a tribute', I call it an improvement.

Some people dont have them. Some people don't have the right ones. Some think they have the right ones, but they don't. Some of them are just so wrong, they should'nt be allowed at all. I have alot of them, and will always send 'em out there. Never keep opinions to yourself I say. Even if you change your mind the next day..

I think Madonna sucks. When will she retire.. ?

There, I've said it. In what category that opinion belongs, is up to you. I'm just glad there are people covering her songs. They call it 'a tribute', I call it an improvement.

Here's one by the wonderful and marvellous Giant Drag. This californian grunge/indieband released their debut album 'Hearts and Unicorns' in 2005. This gem is one of my favorite albums ever (one of the 500). It's hard to believe they have been dropped by their label and have been struggeling to find a new one ever since. I found their lead singer Annie Hardy selling homemade stuff on Ebay just to make a living. Madonna should buy all her stuff, just to thank her for this beautiful version of Oh Father.

Giant Drag - Oh father. Download it here.

Contradictory to my statement before, I'm not going to have an opinion on Sonic Youth. Simply because I don't have one. SY's sideproject Ciccone youth (Ciccone being the real surname of Madonna) is something I DO have an opinion on. I like it! They recorded 2 albums together. The Whitey Album showing a detail of madonna's face. Their version of 'Get into the Groove' must be the wildest thing ever being connected to Madonna.

Ciccone Youth - Get into the Groove. Download it here.