Lithiumstate

It`s safe to say that I`m not a fan of apple, I don`t own any Apple devices nor ever bought an Apple device for the straight up reason that I do not see any point in their products, I have better and often cheaper alternatives than Apple offers me, and no ! I seriously never had an iPod before !
I know ! the whole world must have had owned one at some point in time, except me I reckon, I for one didn`t like the library system how vurnable it was and many other niggles with iTunes which is beside the point of this.

*sigh* so yeah today, after having rejected iTunes since it`s inception I`ve finally kick the bucket and bought not one but three albums from the iTunes store.
Why you ask ?
For the simple reason that getting these albums on an actual CD in a store in my country is impossible, not to mention that I`d have to go back to Tokyo (not a bad idea) to buy this.
Another alternative was to import these albums but that would have easily costed 3.5 times the price these albums go for on iTunes, so it was an easy deceision to make going iTunes, but also an annoying one.

More about my shocking subversion to iTunes after the jump !

(continue reading…)

Laura Marling, just became 18 last weekend and already capturing the hearts of
many troughout Europe.
Who is she ? She`s a folk-pop singer-songwriter from Reading, Berkshire, England .
Her songs, especially her lyrics are often described as powerfull pieces of poetry
what it translates to this humble blogger as soft, soothing sometimes nostalgic
and even bitter. But even the negative emotions that can come off from some
of her songs are lit in a bright perspective of live & let live , be at peace.

Right that probably didn`t make much sense, welcome to my world I reckon.

Having been introduced to Laura Marling by none other then , wait .. wait for it ?
Ninh Bui, coding boy genious (do check out his website if you love ruby on rails) cock-slapped me
right across the face with a youtube video of Laura`s latest music video “New Romantic”

As you can see for yourself, this song has every reason for you to <3 it.
It`s no wonder that I found myself arranging two tickets to see her
perform in the snuggly little hall of the Paradiso in Amsterdam, with the size
of the hall you are litarly standing infront of the artists giving their
acoustic performance an almost intimate feel; which is exactly the kind of
feeling we`ve got from Laura Marling`s little concert.

Warm, fuzzy, intimate, captivating .. are what i`d describe the experience.
I always say, you can measure how good an artist is only after having hear
them perform live.
Laura Marling blew away my already exhorbantly high expectations and
snared me along every note of her songs.

… I wasnt kidding when i said small & intimate concert…

… just bloody brilliant …

Accompanying Laura was the soundcheck guy .
Ok his name was Marcus and he has his own band, he played a few
songs from his own musicbefore Laura came on stage as a lil warming up .
I wasn`t expecting much from a guy that was so shy that he couldn`t
properly introduce himself at first, but man .. Laura knows how to pick em .
This guy could sing ! He stood alone with a Gibson guitar that really
needed to be taken care off.
Yet he pulled off such a powerfull performance using simple tools at
his disposal such as loudly thumping on the stage in rythm to
his powerfull chorus .

After Laura (finally) got in stage, he acted as her backup, playing
required acoustic instruments to help realise Laura`s songs .
A wonderfull combination, and several warm smiles during the
performances due to the hilarious interaction with the crowd .

…. Marcus doing his thing solo ..

All in all , leaving the Paradiso almost felt heartbreaking.
I had a taste of something great, and there the plate went
running off with the sweets.
I wanted more, and I wont get it till the next tour she`ll be doing.
No doubt, by that time she`ll be playing in bigger halls, losing that
unique intimacy with the crowd both me and Ninh (and not Milou)
experienced tonight.
Speaking of Milou, yes I was thinking about you the whole time.
Wishing you were there, but you weren`t ^_`

Last but not least I`ll leave you, dear reader(s) with footage
taken by Ninh`s cameraphone .
It`s not the best of quality but hey it`s better than nothing.

What do I spye with my eye ?
Mr Miyagi attending the second session of “Caput”
It`s a new party introduced by Amsterdam`s Club 8.
Caput aims to bring you the finest electro & mash-up artists of this generation
I haven`t seen or heard of the first Caput but you can be DAMN SURE
I will be attending the second session for Mr Miyagi is spinning the tables
and turning the crowd shirtless with their mind wrecking mash-up skills.

See you there !
Or not ? Cause you dont believe me ?
Well don`t take my word for it ?!
Watch & listen to these guys for yourself !

p.s : no i dont care for the other ppl coming to Caput