The biggest fleamarket on planet earth

So on Queen's Day Holland is basically one big flea market. I tried to take some of pictures of it on the day,  but it was pointless - photo's simply can't convey the vastness of it. Instead imagine this: streets and streets full of secondhand stuff, as far as the eye can see. It goes on for kilometers and kilometers. And this in every village, town and city in The Netherlands. It's unbelievable. It's heaven.

Like with charity shops you need to go to the more swanky areas to find the best deals, and in the case of Amsterdam this is the southern part of the city. Most of the sellers are just ordinary people: groups of friends or families who had a spring cleaning try to flog their surplus on the streets for bargain prices. But you'll come across all sorts of stuff and sellers. You'll get the occasional antiques trader with highly priced but quality stuff (I drooled over a snakeskin record case, but the guy wanted €50 for it. Alas...). Kids get creative trying to earn a few quick bucks by selling lemonade and homemade cupcakes, by having you play their games (having water balloons thrown at them was popular this year), or by giving a musical or dance performance. All very cute. There were stylists offering clothes, shoes and accessories, and even a famous writer (Abdelkader Benali) had set up a stall where he was selling books from his private collection. I was kind of gutted because the very first item I had picked up that day was his book Bruiloft aan Zee. Because I didn't feel like carrying it around all day  I left it. Who could have known I could have had this well-read copy signed by the author only an hour or two later!

For various practical reasons I couldn't buy as much as I'd liked to, but I am very pleased with the few items I got that day:

 ∧ embroidered cushion €0.50

 ∧ 1960s Danish or Finnish design fondue set €5

 ∧ €1! The heels were a bit battered but nothing a marker couldn't fix.

 ∧ bubblegum new wave from 1982 by The Go Go's on vinyl €0.50

To THEE Satisfaction

Seriously, this is the best thing I've heard in a while: THEESatisfaction - a couple from Seattle who have just released their debut album awE naturalE. Their music is an amazing mix of soulful vocals with spoken word like rap, funky grooves, loops, jazz, break beats and handclaps. And I am so happy I got to see them live with just a handful of people at record store Rise in Bristol yesterday!

THEESatisfaction - QueenS. Download it here or over at Subpop Records.

This convinced me to take the afternoon off and go on an hour long train journey to see them:

I was on a boat!

Last night I went to see Wild Flag in Bristol, on a boat! I think Thekla has easily made it into my top 3 list of most favorite venues on the planet. Their programming is ace, the stage in the boat's belly is dark and industrial but in no sense claustrophobic, you can have a fag on the deck, and I believe there's another cafe/bar in the bridge of the ship. 

Anyways, Wild Flag is the latest incarnation of two members from legendary riot grrrl band Sleater-Kinney: guitar player/singer Carrie Brownstein and drummer Janet Weiss. They are two of the coolest people alive ∨

But I was possibly even more impressed by supporting band Peggy Sue. This indiefolky formation from Brighton has been on my radar for a while and I was thrilled to see them live. The band consists of two girls on guitar and vocals, and a quirky drummer. They have the most beautiful voices, goosebumps evoking harmonies, but it's all quiet dark and haunting. Think PJ Harvey x (early) Cat Power  x The Breeders x 2 Neko Cases. So good.

 
Peggy Sue - Song & Dance. Download it here.


Peggy Sue - Watchman. Download it here.

The thing with lists

I regret not having made a "Best of 2011" list. I'm a pretty obsessive list maker: shopping lists, to do lists, checklists, playlists... And I especially love end-of-the-year lists. What better way to reflect on the past year than to put it in lists? It raises all sorts of issues. Like what the hell have I been up to these last 12 months? With whom? Have my tastes shifted? What is it exactly I enjoy in this song or movie or book? Oh remember that gig?! Wait a minute, was that this year, or last year? What were my highlights and what were my lows? Etc. 

I know exactly the reason for the absence of my musical Best-of list. I just find it too difficult to put one song above the other, to put them in a hierarchy. I guess for me thinking about the list is more important that the actual countdown. But I do want to force upon you the songs from 2011 that I enjoyed the most (even though it's way too late - we're almost two weeks into the new year (yikes!)), so I'm just going to do it by presenting you a few in quiet random categories.

In the category Best Retro Indie Pop...

Cults - Bumper. Download it here.

Love the girl group sound. With a guy. 

In the category Best Fuzzy Guitar...

Male Bonding - Bones. Download it here.

Runner ups: The Drums, Wavves, WU LYF and Wild Flag (though not as fuzzy).

In the category Best Electronic...

Little Dragon - Ritual Union. Download it here.

This song was a revelation to me it was.

In the category Best Foreign Language...

Chucha Santamaria Y Usted - Fiebre Tropical. Download it here.

From Oakland of all places..

In the category Best British Alternative Rapper...

Ghostpoet - Cash and Carry Me Home. Download it here.

Overall Dels impressed me more with his album GOB, but then again his best singles were released in 2010. The fact that Ghostpoet's show was one of my most enjoyable gigs of the year puts him in favor here.

In the category Most Overlooked Artist...

Theophilus London - Why Even Try (feat. Sara Quin) (from Tegan and Sara) (RAC Remix). Download it here.

I've been madly in love with this guy from Brooklyn ever since his early mix tapes, that were full of The Smiths references. Every single tune he's released since then has been absolute quality. 

In the category Best Cover...

Spoek Mathambo - Control (Joy Division).

This was a tough one. I listend to Tennis' cover of Brenda Lee's Is It True? an awful lot. But it's the video for Control that has made me tip over to the South African.

For the Graca Da Silva's

Two of my good friends are moving to Bali next week (guess what my next holiday destination is going to be!) and we had a farewell party in their honor last Friday *snif*. The couple had asked me to supply them with some music for the night, which I happily did. She is Indonesian, he is half English/half Portuguese and they both have traveled the world extensively, which is reflected in their musical tastes.

Of course I played Dara Paspita for her (read about this Indonesian girl group here), and for him I selected some oldskool hip hop (as requested):

 

Eric B. and Rakim - I Know You Got Soul. MC/DJ combo hailing from Long Island, New York. Download it here.

and some contemporary dance music from Senegal:

 

Alif (Liberate Attack of the Feminist Infantry) - Douta Mbaye. All female hip hop group from Dakar. Download it here. Buy it from out|here Records.

and something Portuguese:

 

Batida - Yumbala. Lisbon's DJ Mpula mixes "the high speed rhythms of kuduro with sweet melodic guitar samples of '60s Angolan semba music" with some fine Angolan MCs on top. Download it here. Buy it from Ghetto Bassquake.

(and Survivor's Eye of the Tiger so there could be a push up contest, which for some strange reason has become a tradition at our parties...)

Girlschool

My eyes have scanned an enormous amount of secondhand junk over the (extended) weekend. Sadly it was mostly just junk and I've come home with just a few items..

On Thursday I went to an auction for charity at a convent. That was to say, I went to the viewing. Because apart from an needlework portrait from the 1980s (God knows how it ended up with the nuns!) there was nothing of interest to me. The portrait was a bit like this (less Madonnaesque but I think you get my drift):

Imagine this in needlework! It truly was a masterpiece, but I dreaded the thought of having to sit through the whole auction. I even skipped the homemade cupcakes and tea, and went straight for dinner in town instead.

Today I went to my usual car boot sale. I did manage to scoop up some great 7" singles for just 20p a piece. I bought ten, including songs by Al Green, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Curtis Mayfield, The Smiths and The Specials. And the vendor recommended me a cover of Soul Man by Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave) and Lou Reed. Of course Lou Reed's version is completely soulless, which is pretty hilarious.

Saturday I went to some charity shops on the other side of town. Fresh junk! Maybe the fact that my friend and I were chatting so much explains my meager score, but I only bought one item, spending a whopping 99p: a record by Girlschool. Girlschool is the best British all-female metal band from the 1980s. Well the best (female) metal band ever, period. These girls were clearly respected for their music and virtuoso guitar riffs and not for their looks!

I've got their first three albums and the one I found yesterday is their fourth, Play Dirty (1983). Like all the metal from the mid 80s their sound is more stadium like (and more mid-tempo) on this one. Commercially it wasn't such a success as their previous albums, but the songs are still good and catchy. Personally I prefer their earlier work as well, so here are two of their hits from way back in the days. I suggest you download them (and get all their other hits), put them on your iPod, listen to them while you're on your bike and I promise you'll get to where you need to be in a jiffy!

Girlschool - C'mon Let's Go. Download it here.

Girlschool - Demolition Boys. Download it here.

Gems from the East and the West

I'm a big fan of girl groups; they make up a substantial amount of my record collection. So you might imagine the thrill when I came across the cd Let's A Go-Go! Singapore and Southeast Asian Pop Scene 1964-69 at Earwax in Brooklyn. Which is a nice little store by the way. They don't have a huge selection, but what they have is all good (lots of reissues that are dirt cheap). The 31 tracks on the cd feature not only girl groups, but also boy bands and solo female vocalists. It's a rather nice compilation of pop songs, rock 'n roll, beat, garage and surf in several languages. These are two of my favorite songs:

Betty Chung - Bang Bang (yes that's a Nancy Sinatra cover). Download it here.

I couldn't find out more about Betty Chung than she was (is??) Chinese and also an actress and played in a Bruce Lee movie.

Dara Puspita - A Go-Go. Download it here.

Dara Puspita were one of the more successful girl groups in Indonesia in the 1960s. What made them really stand out at that time was that they played all their music themselves. Their live shows are supposed to be really wild and quite a sensation! And all this in an oppressive regime, where you could be jailed for playing rock 'n roll. There is a greatest hits album out on the Sublime Frequencies label, which I desperately want to get a hold of.

I also bought the double LP West Indies Funk 2. I have no means of letting you hear anything off this record, but just to give you a taste here's a track of volume 3: a steel drum version of Hold On I'm Coming!! Also highly on my wish list as you will understand.