So, what’s next? Well, some say we need need ideologies, but truth is that old theories like Marxism still got a chance if are put in practice properly.
From today until Monday, the Marxism Festival is taking place in London, and there will be many interesting issues treated that people might find interesting. Why don’t you give it a chance instead of spending the night drinking at the pub or whatching Big Brother?
It’s time for us as a people to change and start to think by ourselves, and in order to do that, we need to look back to those great philosophers whom thought of different models of societies.
Last Thursday, Mike Patton & Fred Frith performed at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as a part of the Ornette Coleman Meltdown.
Basically they played organized noise, instrumental ugliness and chaotic sound effects.
The concert was pretty good. Interesting and experimental.
Fred Frith was on the guitar and he used several pedals to create different sound effects, played the guitar with his hands and also used many different tools, such as balls, peanuts, metal boxes, a violin bow, and many other stuff.
Mike Patton was in front of a table with so many machines, controlling sound effects made by his voice or by music boxes. Both of Fred and Mike were synchronized even though some might say there wasn’t any rhythm at all, trust me there was.
Sometimes it reminded me to Mike Patton & Kaada’s experiment, but more free-jazzy in a sort of way. Probably that’s why they were part of Ornette’s programme.
They only played four songs, and for the last two of them, a beatboxer joined them in the stage and I have to say he did a great job. It wasn’t common hip-hop beatbox skills, he was in the mood of noise and he adapted perfectly to Mike and Fred. He played not only with rhythms but also with natural noises and singing.
It was a good time to free your mind and just let be driven by music and chaos.
Where some don’t find rythm and sense, others do: that’s the difference between genius and musicians.
Yesterday night I had the opportunity to witness a historical success. The first concert in over 11 years of the worldwide acclaimed band Faith No More took place at the Brixton Academy, London. It was the kick off of ‘The Second Coming’ tour, a proof of fire for the band and an absolute privilege for about 5.000 people. The result: Faith No More did an amazing show.
It last for two hours and was absolutely remarkable. The musicians were dressing smart suits, a different colour each other, except the drummer, who was wearing sports clothes, like he used to.
‘So, what have you been up to this 11 years?’ Asked Mike Patton to the audience. Well man, you know. Trying to survive… t’kind of stuff. What about you?
Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Peeping Tom, John Zorn, Zu, Bjork, Tomahawk, X-Ecutioners, Dan the Automator, Rahzel, movie soundtracks, and so many other projects and collaborations… Mike Patton is one of the most prolific artists ever. Hyperactive. And yesterday night he expressed himself all along his many identities. And he shocked us. He made us love him.
Hold on… is it Caruso singing? Nah… Nah… it’s Mike
Patton was definitely extraordinary. With the exception of the Opera singers, I’ve never seen alive a better singer. He can achieve tones and sounds that normally a singer can’t, while moving and dancing and after more than an hour singing and shouting.
Special moment was when they played Bee Gees cover ‘I started a joke’. I thought I was listening someone singing a Verdi composition. There were so many special moments that I couldn’t name them all…
For me it was a pending coursework to see Mr. Patton alive. I never had the chance to see him with his multiple bands, and luckily I managed to get a ticket for the first Faith No More date in 11 years. Did the fate had this prepared to me? Who knows…
Don’t miss ‘em
If you have the chance to see them alive, don’t miss it. You’ll be pleased.
Check the above youtube video that some fan recorded last night when ‘Land of Sunshine’ was performed. Patton uses a megaphone, and in minute 2:10 you can see and listen Mike’s powerful and beautiful voice. And it’s a fan’s video recorded with a digital camera, which doesn’t catch the sound properly. Imagine how was to be there.
First, and tremendously hilarious, is his human Pacman on a supermarket. Remi is Mr. Pacman while some of his friends are the four ghosts trying to catch him. But they haven’t thought of extra enemies they’ll find on their way…
Secondly, Remi celebrates his town football team ‘Montpellier Herault Sports Club’ promotion into the first French Football league with some stunning kicks. His sports skills are evident on the video.
For those whom didn’t know who Remi Gaillard was, go to his website and check some videos out. His humour is not only funny but necessary as he does it free and its casual, you don’t know when, where or what is his next step gonna be like.
Sri Lanka’s government claims to have defeated Tamil Tiger rebels.
After the announcement of a cease-fire of the Tamil Tiger rebels, a military action was taken by Sri Lanka’s army where a hundreds of rebels were killed. Also, leader of Tigers Velupillai Prabhakaran, has been killed, the military says. Several online news sites have published the surrender of the rebels after more than 25 years struggling.
Tamil refugees protesting in London
The Tigers had been fighting for a separate state for Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka since the 1970’s.
In front of the Houses of Parliament, London, since January there have been several protests of civilian Tamil refugees. They object British government has been helping Sri Lanka’s government to fight against Tamil Tigers, and therefore against Tamil civilian population.
The government of the small island below India has prosecuted and criminalized Tamil culture and ethnic. On the other side, some international organizations and political parties have supported Tamil population and condemned by the genocide that Sri Lankan army.
Now, the future of Tamils seems to be very unclear. UN would not do anything as British government has several interests and pacts with Sri Lanka, so the international help will be inexistent once again. Only a few NGO’s will help the refugees after they’ve left the country, but the life for them is going to be much more difficult now.
Here’s the new videoclip from Fermin Muguruza’s album Asthmatic Lion. The song, with the same name, features myself rapping a few rhymes. You can read them translated into English below.
The video has been created and directed by Moro & Kuka, two multimedia artists from New York and Madrid. It’s a colourful piece that mixes urban elements with hip-hop, lots of graffiti, skateboarding and rastafarian references. Enjoy it.
Asthmatic Lion Rap, by Comandante X:
“A WORLD UNITED BY THE SOUND SYSTEM
EYES MEET, JOY AND PAIN
TRAVELS WITH A TASTE OF EBONY, LIKE KAPUSCINSKI
NEW YORK, JAPAN, PARIS, TEXAS, NATASSJA KINSKI.
BORDERS NO LONGER EXIST
ASIDE FROM THOSE THAT YOU DRAW IN YOUR MIND
HIGH SPEED BRAINS, LIKE ALI JUMPING THE ROPE
ESCAPE FROM JAIL WITH ROARS OF RAGE
ENTER INTO THE KITCHEN, GET IN THE ZONE
DANCE, APPEASE YOUR ANGER, ORGANIZE A PARTY
DIVERSION IS THE WEAPON THAT WILL OPEN THE DOORS
MICROPHONE IS TURNED ON, MULTISOUND CHANNEL
BETWEEN THE GROOVES OF THE VINYL, LOOKING FOR GOLD
WE SING FREE, WITH OPEN HEARTS
THE LION IS ALERT, ALWAYS ON THE PROWL
WITH LOVE AND HATE; IT’S MATHEMATICAL
LISTEN TO FERMIN MUGURUZA
LISTEN TO THE ASTHMATIC LION”
Yesterday night FC Barcelona won La Copa del Rey against Athletic Bilbao on a stunning final.
Barça literally demolished Bilbao by playing the best football probably ever seen. A beautiful game based on touching the ball, creating spaces and most importantly: attacking and erasing any possibility of attacking to their opponent. Ali’s philosophy
Former boxer heavyweight champion of the world Muhammad Ali made popular his own philosophy on the ring with a catchy rap: ‘float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, your can’t hit what your eyes can’t see.’
Ali used to dance and jump constantly around his opponents and attack them constantly without giving them any chance to defence themselves. With that strategy he made them see useless to the eyes of the world. And that’s what Barça does when they play.
Though, Ali’s opponents were great sportsmen, great boxers, but they didn’t had anything to do against Ali. Not only because he was the best, also because of the thrill of winning that evolved Muhammad’s spirit. And it’s the same with Barça. They play against great teams, but they simply destroy their playing systems. The first triumph
La Copa del Rey has been the first of the season’s championships. They will mathematically win La Liga next weekend, and they’ll play next May the 27th the UEFA Champions League final against Manchester United. If they succeed this can be a year to remember for the Catalan team. Whether they win or not, what is sure is Barça is currently playing the best football in the world and probably the best football ever. They can win or loose, but seeing them playing is just a pleasure. Long life to the greatest sport ever.
When everybody says something is worthless there must be always someone else who likes what the multitude dislikes. And, on the other hand, when someone does something that is not expected to do and which is different from everything he did in the past, everyone will try to discredit him by saying bullshit. Scream!
And here I am. I can fearless say Chris Cornell’s new album is fantastic. All right, it’s not Soundgarden, it’s not even Audioslave. But who said Chris pretended to do the same as he did with these two bands?
People evolve, and artists especially do. They like to experiment themselves with different stuff. They like to do something that they’ve never tried before. They want challenges. As a result, they can be successful or not. And even though, not everyone will agree on the success or the defeat. That’s the greatness of arts. Step forward
Now, to understand Chris Cornell’s last album, we got to know his career as a musician. He’s one of the best voices that music (and especially rock) has given in the last 15 years. He’s got power, he’s got tenderness, he’s got rage, and he’s got personality. His voice has everything that music requires to a singer.
So knowing that, why wouldn’t he try a different thing? He knows his skills can allow him to try such a thing like Scream, the new album.
Once we got that, the only thing left is someone like Timbaland knocking at your door. Timbaland is a prolific artist and music producer who has worked with several mainstream artists, and that doesn’t necessarily means he’s not talented. As opposed, he is very talented.
I guess when he did the collaboration with One Republic he thought that he could try something different he never did before. And working with a rock singer enough open-minded to sing over a different music would be ideal.
Then you got it. You got the why and the how. And it is absolutely understandable. Keep rockin Chris
I do admit it. This album will not satisfy rock die-hard fans. In fact it will make them hate it, as they actually do. It’s more focused for the club and dancing, but that just makes it enjoyable in another way.
The lyrics might not be as good as Audioslave’s Out of Exile (in my opinion the best work as a lyricist that Chris has done), but they do the work. Some of them are quite banal, but not as bad as we normally see on mainstream. Scream is a really kick-ass experiment. Well driven by both Timbaland and Chris Cornell. I would say it’s even more interesting than previous Chris’s album Carry on.
However, that’s not by far the best Chris has done, it’s just not as bad as people is currently saying.
I just leave you one of the best songs written by him, and that somehow responds to all the gossips and backbites he’s receiving. Be yourself is all that you can do.
Recently two documentaries about Palestine have been released.
The first one it’s called ‘Erased, Wiped Off the Map’ and it’s directed by Alberto Arce and Miguel Llorens. They went to Palestine last december to witness the genocide that Israel’s army was commiting against the Palestine population.
The second one it’s called ‘Checkpoint Rock, Songs from Palestine’, and it’s directed by Fermin Muguruza. It’s about Palestine musicians and how they try to break the cultural and the politic blocks at the same time.
