Music Thursday - Fjodor

It is Thursday again so the time has come to reveal my absolute number one of Croatian rock bands to notice and adore and it is Fjodor.

As some of you maybe remember I watched these guys play before Zechs Marquise and I was flebbergasted with their mad skillz and gregarious delivery. At that time new album was in the works and there was to be a gig celebrating its release next Saturday so I contacted guys to ask them a few questions and they agreed to speak to me. Aljoša kindly took the center stage in representing the band.

DF: According to various sources available online Fjodor as a band exists from 2005. or 2006. and lineup was changed quite a few times - solve a mystery for us; how did it go down?

Aljoša: Band was formed in 2006. and there were a few changes to the lineup and our SoundCloud page gives a thorough explanation so you can check it up there.

DF: So, as Fjodor you have released three (going on four) albums: I (2008.), Riding through Black Hole (2011.), St.Anthony's Fire (2012.) how come none of them are available for online purchase? How do you distribute your materials?

Aljoša: Well,.. with first two albums (I and Riding Through The Black Hole) being 100% DIY we did not have much of a distribution, except concerts and a few web-shop enthusiasts. At this moment albums can be bought only by directly contacting the band and they are available in two versions - CD or USB stick (4gb). Of course, that only goes for first two albums; St. Anthony's Fire is currently in mastering and it will in April or May be released to CD and vinyl.When that comes all three will hopefully be available online by worldwide distributors and also at our enthusiast friends I already mentioned.

DF: And your fourth release?

Aljoša: About fourth album... I would not like to go into details, it still being "in the shop". There is still some recording to be done, and then mixing, mastering, ... so you can really expect it around 2014. if we don't win the lottery in the meantime. [laughs] Of course we're not buying lottery tickets.

DF: You played abroad a lot - how do you pick where to play? Audience?

Aljoša: Fjodor has been touring regularly since 2008. both through Balkan area and later Scandinavia.We're not solely oriented to a particular audience group but on past few tours it turned out that stoner/psy audience could be closest to our repertoire, I guess.

DF: If online materials, reviews and gig-reports are to be believed you look firmly oriented to stoner-psychedelic audience, but I'm actually convinced that your sound and energy has to be served to a broader listener base. How do you see that?

Aljoša: I believe you are right and I do think Fjodor sound has a broader reach. I am sure other subcultures also contain more than a few of our fans.

DF: What are your plans for 2013?

Aljoša: Some of our plans are Baltik and Scandinavian tour again, but this time with Temple of the Smoke. Other,... it still remains to be seen [laughs]. We're working on new stuff, it will definitely be recorded this year and we will play some 2-3 concerts in Zagreb and about 50 across Europe I hope.


DF: So, thank you guys for your time and I will definitely keep my eyes open for any announcement for your gigs as I hope to see and hear much, much more of you! In the meantime for all you present and future worshipers of this cool band here is their Facebook page and their Youtube channel so you could check it out, notice and adore!

And here's some sugar for the end:

To Greet a Friend - Pozdrav Azri @Tvornica 25Jan2013

Few days ago I went to see Pozdrav Azri at Tvornica.

Years ago, when I listened to Azra songs on late night drunken singalongs I remember loving the songs, funny and frivolous and yet also insightful and poetic, and in the same time hating the singer's pompous, condescending tone that always ruined the stories with his "better then thou" standpoint.

There was none of that condescending pompousness here on Pozdrav Azri show.

There was just joy and camaraderie and pleasure. Leiner & Hrnjak, members of original Azra lineup and bunch of their friends, guests, were singing and playing with them. There were people in the audience that surely do not go clubbing anymore but they came here to taste their youth again. People (including me) knew lyrics by heart and song came out of our memories dragging finest moments of our lives along: friendship, openness of heart, naivety.

But for one old snoop like me, there was pleasure inside pleasure - kind of like having my cake and eating it too moment - to ease some serenity into my heart of hearts. A friend got me into backstage and as you could imagine it was a treasure trove for observer and ambience soaker like me. There was everything to be seen and heard and smiled upon and at.

What I loved the most was seeing Corto transform for stage. As he was to sing a few songs he came early to prepare and he seemed just a normal next-door-like guy. He came in with his bag, looked around a bit inconspicuously, mingled some and greeted friends. Few moments before he would go onstage he made some quick adjustments to his outfit and his hair, he pulled himself to his full height and as the announcement boomed through the crowd he stepped into the spotlight a different man - sexy, aggressive, confident, macho. From guy next door into performer in stunning one-step transformation. It was exhilarating and surprising experience, Mr.Jackill and Dr. Hide moment.

Those are the moments music especially well serves me with and moments in which I fall in love with the world, against my better judgement. Those are moments that inspire me to search and to endure, to lose, to listen, to see, to write, to climb and to cry and to want to try to be a better human being.

And it was a moment brought upon by unexpected kindness of a friend. Thank you Ari, you are the best!

Dining with Cronenberg - Naked Lunch

I felt like a change in my diet so I had myself some Naked Lunch last night.

I will not talk about how much of Burroughs's life and novel had Mr. Cronenberg put into this film as you can all google and search through Wiki but I would like to tell a few things about the movie itself and its components.

First of all things I noticed was how wonderful the photography of this movie is. Live colors, saturated, deep. Warm hues, with squishy feel of baby cashmere. Things looking like things, not props, having weight and real feel of mushy lines not being absurdly surrounded by contrast.

Wonderful lighting.

Bunch of exterminator guys sitting around the table and every one beautifully lit around the eyes as they come into the focus of the camera. I almost started to cry when I saw Justin Louis (he was so young!).

Peter Weller, my God! He is astonishing!

With wis paperthin see-through skin and glassy, bulging eyes ready to pop out of their sockets he is the Junky Incarnate, avatar of Addiction God.

His confusion is so consuming, his pain so palpable.

And then, Julian Sands.
This is a face that launched a thousand ships. A voice so soothing it could convince you there is no hope, there never was any and never could have been.

And the movie as a whole is wonderful and terrifying. Like a sticky nightmare you cannot wake up from because you cannot convince yourself that this is a nightmare and your real life is somewhere out there. Scenes follow one another and I find myself with trembling hands and holding breath. My heart is pounding in my ears. I smile. All is well.

The scene I loved the most is the desire scene...

... and how in that scene Yves has shown us the power and insanity of pure desire. He is cracked open like a fractured skull. He would do whatever, be whoever, pay a billion breakfasts and give his heart on a plate just to get what he wants.

To understand. To have. To own.

Music Thursday - Rens Argoa

Another fine specimen of Croatian rock bands to notice and adore is Rens Argoa.

I first heard Rens Argoa play when they were opening for Maybeshewill at Attack!. That concert was sold out months in advance and I waited for it so eagerly that I assumed there was nothing that could even remotely capture my attention but this guys managed to do just that.

Later on, I found out that they made this  fun video:

...and months later, after listening through their excellent album The Black Hole In The Room (free download from Bandcamp) for a billion times I contacted them to see if they would be willing to chat a bit with me so I could praise them online.

And they were.

 DF: Rens Argoa sounds totally interesting and exotic, like Latin name of some big predator, but what is that? How did you come up with that?

Miran: [Laughs] It sounds like a different thing to everyone. We even got some comments that it sounds like fertilizer brand, but, like most of our song names, it doesn't have any meaning whatsoever! At least not that we know of. We toiled thinking up a name for the band and in the end it just got out like that. You know, you go to sleep and your subconscious rummages through your verbal centers and in the moment of maximum confusion spits out silly whatnots.

DF: So, you are from Koprivnica. Where did you meet, start a band?

Miran: We are from Koprivnica, but we met on college, we studied together. It was spontaneous; Marko and I were talking about music to run away from gloomy boredom and misery of printing presses and I told him about a demo album I made at home. At that time I really did not plan to play that with anyone else but I sent him the demos and next day he called me, something like:"OK, let's play this! Dejan will be our bass, when is the rehearsal?" So, in actuality Marko is the one who started up the band.

DF: I liked the description of your band from bandcamp/last.fm pages: "made with pure slave labour love in the basement factories of Croatia. Its flavor can be described as a fine blend of caramel, cinnamon and ginger. If you try hard enough, you might just hear some noise when you consume it -that's Dejan Halusek on bass, Marko Kuhar on drums and Miran Katar on guitar". It is kind of cross-over of caramel recipe and intro of Smurfs - who thought of that? And under what conditions?

Miran: If by "conditions" you mean drugs - we swear we have never tried them! [Laughs] Well, we needed a description and as we thought nobody cares about typical biography of a band they never heard about we decided to go with humorous approach. Also, beside music, my biggest passion is babbling, especially in foreign languages, so this description seemed most logical.

DF: You released self-produced first album "The Black Hole in the Room" last year in May, made excellent and fun video for title song, played with Maybeshewill, filled the year 2012 with gigs to the very end - what are your plans for 2013?

Miran: That's right, we went with DIY on the album and I admit we had a great time doing that! Plans include playing as much as possible until the summer, in Croatia and neighbouring countries, at the moment we're arranging for gigs in Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia and on Croatian shore, not an easy task for a bend without a booking agency so we're deep into that now.

DF: So, now you're working under Rocklive.hr patronage? Can we expect you as a part of Rocklive Festival?

Miran: That's right! Rocklive is our daddy, but we're not sure about the festival. It depends what our and their plans will be until then, but it is possible!


          
So, it remains to hope we'll see and hear more of Rens Argoa in 2013. and until then listen to the album, notice and adore!

It Takes A Pair To Beat The Odds

As I was watching 50/50 last night I was moved by Joseph Gordon-Levitt's nuanced performance and I admired his character's great portrayal of bullshit tolerance. I love how his composed demeanor crumbles with more and more evidence shown and I love how the filmmakers have shown Kübler-Ross model at work.There is a great movie there and great underlining to the story of what happens when one's love exempts someone from marketing forces.

I love how his friend Kyle (in Seth Rogen's brilliant performance) manages never to reveal the depth of his shock and his fear at the same time being biggest blabbermouth on the planet (talk about hidden in plain sight).

I love the part when it is finally clear to Adam that there is such a thing as the duration of "forever" and also crushing finality of "never again".

Music Thursday - We Can Surely Rock! - She Loves Pablo

Reexamining impressions during list-making season I noticed that there have been many Croatian band concerts in 2012. that I really loved but just like the old proverb says: "No man is a prophet in his own land" this societal idiosyncrasy rules Croatian sound scene.

I do not like that and it does not seem fair to me so I'm going to point out some of the finest specimens to be noticed and adored. Three to be exact, in bussiness of making rock music that really rocks.

First one up, my longtime favorites - She Loves Pablo.

I have first noticed them in 2011. when they opened for Been Obscene and they almost stole the show, fact that was immediatelly and wholeheartedly acknowledged by guys from Been Obscene as they went onstage.

In March I went to see them on El Stonero and they were even better. I loved the show and I loved their sex and their energy. I also loved their audience and I loved being their audience - energized, aroused, ready to sin and to sacrifice. Their music is all you would want from a rock band and then some, and their 2009. album Mother of All (still available for free downoad) lost nothing of its freshness and its power.

But they were already preparing new material at that time and Gamblin' was first official video released:

Second one, even more to my taste, was Impassive, Massive and Aggressive:

And tomorrow, on Friday January 25th 2013.,  their new album will be out and presented  to the loving public at KSET. You do not want to miss that.

Ticket 20 kn, door at 20:00. See you there!

Let there be Music... Thursday!

Work crazyness and new home shenanigans have ceased a bit and in forseable future there should be more time for me to write here about things that make me happy.

Happy like music makes me happy..

End of the last year brought on quite a lot of chart-making and summary writting and I enjoyed remembering and summarizing but I've also hated the arbitrary note of choosing the best among music released in a single year. I do not listen to music in terms of new or old releases. I do not care for release date in any way but to give the music in question its sociocultural background, context that intensifies the experience seldomly by looking at one album or one song. Sociocultural background and time-space coordinates are the parameters that make a difference in context of work and growth and changes and discographies. Out of that context, one of band and its music as a living organism, one album or one song is but a fleeting snowflake - every one different, but all just the same.

So I think I will invest some time talking and writing about music I like the way I like it. Taking sides, praising tries, glorifying successes and mourning failures. With no regard to release-date-freshness of the material, but with regard to its freshness to my own feelings and to function music fulfills to me, the recipient, and to music makers as senders of the message.

Additionaly, I like my happines served regularly so I'll do this every Thursday beginning today.

Today I share few photos from gigs I haven't written about. Yet. But I loved them nevertheless.

Dosh Lee (Velika Rock Eksplozija #5 @Močvara)

Zvonka adjusting before gig on Strossmartre.

Bernays Propaganda at Močvara.

Winter Moss Set

During last couple of weeks I knitted like crazy in every waking moment because there were deadlines to be met and Gift season waits for no man but I was also very inspired so I designed and made this lovely set.

First I made small cowl as I needed one at once, and then I progressed along with some short fingerless gloves.

And the gloves were so satisfying to knit I made them in a day...

... and then I had so much yarn left over I opted to make a slouchy hat to go with.

I am so pleased with the results I even wrote the directions down and I'm going to format them and upload them so you could make one for yourself.

To Make Myself Proud

In July 2012. I wrote about Penny Arcade and how they are going to employ crowdfunding to make some of their dreams come true and to experiment some in the process. Kickstarter campaign was a sparkling success and I was thrilled and overjeyed to see that through as a backer. 

And now, I even got a Certificate of Appreciation to show for it!

This just got here by snail mail and it is the loveliest thing ever, and a thing I'm aspecially proud of since this is solid proof of me standing up for my beliefs and puting my money where my mouth is.

I like that.

So often I doubt myself and see myself lazy, inert and hypocritical - talking instead of doing - and this is but a first firm step in the right direction: growing the tree of realization from the seed of resolve.

New Year, Day One

New Year started well. I cannot remember when I was this relaxed. And I even managed to go running in the evening. I like this. This will be a good Year.