PeaceT(b)lo(g)

Hi there. I’m just back from the great final for these European Soccer games and I’m happy that Spain did win a game they deserved to win. Now I’m ready to roll into this new week. It’s worth to mention that I’m watching this serial called “The wire” that my friend Dr.C suggested to me. Actually, it’s a little out-of-date but I think at the time it was released it was pretty cool. Now I can see it just like the usual cops-drug eternal fight.

Today I need something pretty strong to wake up, therefore we go with the Soundgarden.

This American rock band was formed in Seattle and they played from 1984 till 1997. The band basically was centered around the lead singer and drummer Chris Cornell, with a very talented voice, especially for that kind of music. I remember the Soundgarden as one of the key bands in the creation of grunge. They arrived before Nirvana and Pearl Jam but did not achieve commercial success until the two mentioned bands popularized grunge in the early 1990s. After the band split, Chris Cornell became the vocalist for a new band called Audioslave, born from the dusts of Rage Against The Machine. Nice experiment but pretty void. Then he recently came back to his solo career, by releasing his second album.

When you think about Soundgarden, you will most probably think to one song, “Black Hole Sun”, the gorgeous song I’d like to share with you today:

Enjoy the week.

Domenico

T.G.I.F. and we’re ready to enjoy the weekend. Today I have the last part of my French exam and will also get the results to know whether I passed or not. Meanwhile, I did prepare a brief opinion about the life in the next 50 years. While I’m pretty sure you won’t be interested in getting more details on this, I’m also sure that today I have the opportunity to post some good French rap, as an answer to the so-called-crap music that somebody said I posted last time.

That’s why here I come to you with the politically and socially committed music of Keny Arkana.

Since 1996, this female French rap artist has been active in the alter-globalization movement with “La Rage Du Peuple”, a music collective created in 2004 in the neighborhood of Noailles in Marseilles. Keny Arkana also launched a series of local social fora through the association “Appel aux sans voix” (Appeal to voiceless people).

I found somewhere in YouTube that she also played live with the Italian hip-hop band Assalti Frontali, that I mentioned during the week of Italians rap. This year she released her last Street album “Désobéissance” but today we listen to the music of “La Rage”, where in the video you can also see several images from the Italian way of policemen to manage demos:

Bon weekend.

Domenico’

Here we go. Almost end of the week. Today the Cafeteria here at the UN is gonna close for two months but even worst the bar will be closed too!!! Bye Bye Ahbibi. Therefore I’m pretty sure we’ll be drunk just before the beginning of the game Spain-Russia. Que viva Espana!

Yesterday did rain a lot and suddenly seems that the air will turn into something more fresh. To enjoy the day, I just found a band that could delicately bring us through it, Joan As Police Woman.

The American singer/composer/violinist/guitarist whose real name is Joan Wasser is just a couple of years older than me but can already report so many success stories and collaborations. For example, she played with Lou Reed, Elton John, Sheryl Crow, she was part of the band Anthony and the Johnsons for the great album “I am A Bird Now”, was the girlfriend of a guy named Jeff Buckley at the time he died.

While she published just a couple of CDs, she spread her voice around the world. I’ve been caught by her voice and sound by just listening to the song I’m sharing with you today, “Eternal Flame”:

wish you a gorgeous day and a sweet night.

Domenico

We’re in the middle of a very alcoholic week! Monday: Farewell’s cocktail – Tuesday: Farewell’s cocktail – Today: beer(s) with colleagues + farewell’s dinner (…that will include some beers)… I think it in some way, a lot of friends are leaving the city!

Today I want to talk about a band that we can maybe consider the most important and still on the wave Italian rock band. The Afterhours.

The Afterhours come from Milano and they are maybe one of they few good things coming from that place. The band is fully centered on the vocalist/guitarist/composer Manuel Agnelli, who started this project officially in 1986 (22 years ago and they are still able to re-invent themselves in every new CD).

While the first two albums contain only songs played in English, in 1995 the CD “Germi” is one of the several milestones that will see the band changing to Italian songs. Always been very open to experiment different sounds and genres, they were influenced by hardcore, especially with the CD “Hai paura del buio?”, a memorable piece of history for the Italian rock music.

After the lead guitarist Xavier Iriondo left the band, their music has been darker and more intimate. They strictly collaborated with several artists, like Emidio “Mimi’” Clementi from Massimo Volume and Greg Dully, who helped in publishing an English version of the album “Ballate per piccole iene” with the translated English name “Ballads for Little Hyenas”.

Last month they released their last album “I milanesi ammazzano il sabato” which, strange but true, reached a high position in Italian music charts. Maybe after 22 years we Italian are ready for something different from the rhyme “cuore/amore”?!

Anyway, there are two songs I’d like to post today. The first one is “Voglio una pelle splendida”, from the CD “Hai paura del buio”:

while the second one is the song “Bye Bye Bombay” from the album “Quello che non c’e'”. This song stays in my mind since a week or so and I don’t know how it entered… but it doesn’t want to go out:

Domenico

Don’t know whether I’m already thinking about going on holiday or maybe it’s just the weather but, today I feel the Brazilian saudagi (don’t think it’s the proper writing but… the concept is well expressed by the song you will listen).

That’s why I found the song from a Cuban singer, Omara Portuondo.

This singer should have about 78 years and her voice contributed to spread the Cuban music around the world. With about 20 or more albums released, she collaborated with several artists, the last is Maria Bethania.

She also sung with Buena Vista Social Club and therefore I found a duet with Ibrahim Ferrer, for the song “Silencio”:

Enjoy. Domenico

Hi there, we’re back for another week of music. We’re back to work. Back from the parties over the weekend. Anyhow, back.

Let’s start the week with something very old, at least for our generation. Let’s talk about an Italian musician named Nada. (meaning “Nothing” in Spanish)

Nada Malanima (A.K.A. Nada) is an Italian singer-composer coming from Livorno, Tuscany, who was pretty famous expecially during the ’70s. At that time, music festivals as Sanremo or Canzonissima were the place to be to make the difference and sell a lot of records. Today, things have changed radically and 90% of the musicians participating to these events are just crap!

I started thinking again about this singer just a few weeks ago, when two of her songs have been inserted in a movie I saw at Votivkino. One of them is “Amore disperato” that was also played by an anonymous band named Delta B.

The second song is the one I’m proposing to you, “Ma che freddo fa”. I found her debut, at the age of fifteen, at the 1969 Festival della canzone italiana with this song , which gave her a sudden success, also with the Spanish language version “Hace frío ya”:

Enjoy. Domenico

P.S. I intentionally didn’t talk about yesterday’s football game.