Part 2 of these awesome special effects from Ghana!

Michael Bay can learn a few tricks from these guys..

This year, we have a DIRTY SANTA TOP 12! This is part 1: Numbers 12 to 10

12. Dirty girl Santa

11. Beer belly Santa
 

10. Evil Santa
 

Check back tomorrow for numbers 9-7!

Awesome reading material for the weekend! The Belgian music website Kwadratuur posted a very extended special on the Incubate 2011 festival, giving their readers tips from our program such as Chris Corsano, Lustmord, A Grave With No Name and Kevin Drumm. You can read the full special here! (sorry, Dutch only)

“Met meer dan 250 aangekondigde acts zal Tilburg in elk geval op zijn grondvesten beven. Het thema voor 2011 is We Are Incubate, een gemeenschappelijk statement van artiesten die hun eigen weg bewandelen en die niet laten verstoren door de opslorpende muziekindustrie.  Van woord tot muziek, spektakel tot intiem, folk tot metal en ruig tot soft: dit avontuurlijke programma van onafhankelijke artiesten kan velen bekoren. Want uit dit thema blijkt ook: ‘Incubate’ staat voor een gezonde punkspirit, doe-het-zelfgeest en creatieve vernieuwingsdrang. Volg gerust de wegwijzers.”

De Affaire is a cool festival held in Nijmegen during the city’s annual Zomerfeesten. Because there are a lot of cool artists playing we wanted to give you our tips on what to go and see. As you can imagine, it’s a little bit busy at the Incubate headquarters during this time of year. That’s why we decided to ask Tjeerd van Erve (Nu.nl, Gonzo (circus)) to write a ‘small’ article on De Affaire. This piece didn’t turn out to be so small so we decided to cut it up into two posts. This is the second one, part one was posted last Friday.

“If I felt like writing a small article on “De Affaire” for the Incubate blog”, was the question that Joost Heijthuijsen dropped on me the other day. Eager as always to drop my words wherever and whenever there is space, I immediately said yes. But then, running trough the program of “De Affaire”, the dilemma started. Joost didn’t ask me to write a book, booklet nor an essay on the sevenday festival in Nijmegen. No, the assignment was simple and clear; point out five must see acts. So here I am, halfway the second day and I already have six artists in mind. In some sense this could only make my job easier. My article could stop here with the advice to go to “De Affaire”. Take a train, step in the car, step on your bike or walk – you surely won’t be the only one walking in the area – and go. But that would be me avoiding real work, taking decisions.

 So, here they are, my five (or six, maybe seven) must see acts on “De Affaire” this year.

Tuesday:
And then again, with such a bill you are likely to miss out on something, whilst seeing something great. Tuesday the one act you can’t miss must be 2562, Dutch dubstep with a hang to minimal. So far every record that he has produced has received critical acclaim, so surely this an artist to check.

Wednesday:
Wednesday has a more experimental hang to it. Knalpot and Dead Neantherthals will defy what you know as the borders on rock, punk, jazz and pop music. But the must see artist here is the indierock band Dananananaykroyd. In 2009 these young kids from England where one of the best acts on Incubate, blending indiepop with screamo and a strong need to entertain. Brace yourself to become part of their show, maybe even in a ‘wall of hugs’. A unique band with a unique blend.

Thursday:
Do you love blues inspired garagerock? Young boys that spark fire? Do you love rambling rock? Traumahelikopter on Thursday is your answer. Hailing all the way from Groningen, they will come to bring garagerock to Nijmegen. You won’t see Jack Oblivion, but you will feel the fire.

Friday:
A fire that also burns with the guys of Birth Of Joy. Organ based psychedelic blues rock rock that’ll certainly kick ass. But the highlight of the day must be Hauschka. His mesmerizing piano pieces were miraculous on Incubate in 2009, and even better on Incubated a year later. If you choose just to see one artist in the whole week, this surely is the one you should go for.

De Affaire is a cool festival held in Nijmegen during the city’s annual Zomerfeesten. Because there are a lot of cool artists playing we wanted to give you our tips on what to go and see. As you can imagine, it’s a little bit busy at the Incubate headquarters during this time of year. That’s why we decided to ask Tjeerd van Erve (Nu.nl, Gonzo) to write a ‘small’ article on De Affaire. This piece didn’t turn out to be so small so we decided to cut it up into two posts. You can find the next one online in the beginning of next week. Enjoy!

“If I felt like writing a small article on “De Affaire” for the Incubate blog”, was the question that Joost Heijthuijsen dropped on me the other day. Eager as always to drop my words wherever and whenever there is space, I immediately said yes. But then, running trough the program of “De Affaire”, the dilemma started. Joost didn’t ask me to write a book, booklet nor an essay on the sevenday festival in Nijmegen. No, the assignment was simple and clear; point out five must see acts. So here I am, halfway the second day and I already have six artists in mind. In some sense this could only make my job easier. My article could stop here with the advice to go to “De Affaire”. Take a train, step in the car, step on your bike or walk – you surely won’t be the only one walking in the area – and go. But that would be me avoiding real work, taking decisions.

 So, here they are, my five (or six, maybe seven) must see acts on “De Affaire” this year.

Saturday:
Amatorski: Earlier this year this Belgian band came with a surprisingly dark mixture of lofi and triphop on their first full length ‘TBC’. Music that comes in sepia colours, with icy guitars, dry beats and overwhelming, but distant vocals. Naked music that is sparse in sounds, but those sounds that are there hit hard. Nice side effect is that they play early on the Saturday, which means you will surely be in time to also check out Jamie Woon. His debut ‘Mirriwriting’ shows the keen hand of a gifted songwriter with skilled ears focussed on modern music, mixing dubstep and electronics in traditional songs. And heck, why not stay late. It is Saturday anyway, you’re almost obliged to make it late. And staying late ensures you that you will see Eins, Zwei, Orchestra. And this happens to be one of the best shoegaze bands that the Netherlands has to offer for you at this moment.

Sunday:
Next I would advice you to go and see Washed Out on Sunday. You might think that chillwave is just a hipster thing, Washed Out proves you wrong. This is sensual, erotic almost. The cover art of his latest release says it all; boy, girl, intimate, slowly intertwining. But be sure to come early – even though you might have a hangover, because I advised you to stay late on Saturday – to see The Black Atlantic. Momentarily working on a new record, so these Dutch indiefolkies might try some new songs on you. But even if they don’t, their debut ‘Reverence For Fallen Trees’ was one of the best records from 2009. So no chance that they will disappoint you. Neither will dd/mm/yyyy. Their show on Fabriq in 2010 was a pleasure for all those lovers of high energy ADHD postpunk. Somewhere between Dananananaykroyd and The Panoply Academy, they will surely get you moving with their hectic noiserock.

Monday:
On Monday the act you must see is Shaking Godspeed. Records as raw and pure as their debut ‘Awe’ are a seldom pleasure for the ear. Their live performances have an even higher energy level, as they always seem to play like the end of the world is neigh. Think Blues Explosion meets Grinderman. Sadly enough they play at the same time as Avi Buffalo, but you can’t have it all.

This is part one in a two-part series. Check out Inlog.org this Monday for the next one!

With the Roadburn 2011 festival just around the corner (this thursday already!), we have selected some of the wisest men in the music business to recommend you their favorites! This is the third part in a five part series. Ingmar Griffioen from 3VOOR12 has selected his 4 must-see acts for the festival!

Gearing up for Roadburn 2011 putting some recommendations in writing isn’t the hard part, narrowing it down to three surely is gruesome. First of all it would be more than foolish to ignore the offerings and cues of curators Sunn O))): http://3voor12.vpro.nl/artikelen/artikel/44622992 (in Dutch). Secondly: after seeing the Black Mountain show @ Incubate 2010 I must also recommend the afterburner with apart from the Canadian psychrockers the simmering Samsara Blues Experiment (soothing the frustration that Roadburn ends there) and two excellent Dutch stonerbands: The Machine and Sungrazer.

Swans
Like curators and doom masters Sunn O))) the group of Michael Gira tends to deliver a physically pounding experience on stage. Seeing the reunited Swans perform at last year’s Le Guess Who? festival I suddenly understood what the ‘noise’ was about. How about originating in the New York postpunk scene of the eighties, progressing through the end of the nineties and thus influencing tons of doom metal, noise, drones and sludge disciples, splitting up, reuniting more than twelve years later in 2010 and still kicking you in the gut, droning your intestines out and keep that up for a thoroughly griping ninety minutes. Well how about that? Certainly they weren’t fucking you about when they put this disclaimer on their site: SWANS ARE NOT DEAD.

A video of one of their live performances in 2010

Check out the comeback-record My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky here

Black Math Horseman
I really wanted to see Black Math Horseman last year, but I was robbed of both opportunities by one puffing Islandic volcano. This year they’re back and I definitely won’t be denied their full-on stoner grooving and postmetal riffing psychedelic experience. Producer Scott Reeder (Kyuss/The Obsessed) did some magic on the 2009 recording Wyllt, which is due for a follow-up. Did I mention they have amazing artwork including nice Griffins (!) and a really good looking female singer/bassplayer up their sleeves? More importantly: Sera Timms’ brutal classic vocals and screams give the LA foursome a dark and frightening twist. I’ll definitely start my Roadburn saturday deeply immersed in an hour of BMH.

Live at Emo’s Annex SXSW 3/19/2009 part 2

Ufomammut
Italian stoner giants Ufomammut have rocked Roadburn before, which is a good sign ofcourse. Another good sign is that the people of Roadburn picked their Eve as ‘Roadburn Album of the Year’. Honouring that choice Ufomammut plays the album in its entirety in one and a half hour set at the Midi Theatre. The Italian trio specialize in heavy sluggish stoner and sludge metal (the ‘mammut’ or mammoth piece) with psychedelic tendencies and bizarre sounds (‘ufo’ stylee). They do have possibly the best artwork and videoshow to accompany them, since two of the member are the masterminds behind the Malleus Rock Art Lab (www.malleusdelic.com) Together that should guarantee a intense, very memorable spacetrip, after which there’s still time remaining to finish of the Roadburn saturday with some cruel sounds from Swans or Gates of Slumber.

Ufomammut – Stigma @ S-Osis, Turku 2010

Audio of previous Roadburn performances:

Ufomammut @ Roadburn 2009

Ufomammut @ Roadburn 2006

Aluk Todolo
A recommendation of Sunn O)))’s Stephen O’Malley which seized me by the throat from the very first minute. I understood it to be satanic noiserock from the gutters of Paris (they share a rehearsal space with O’Malley) but there’s something way more sinister and utterly captivating going on here. But what? The band specializes in instrumental occult rock and consists of members of black metalbands Diamatregon and Vediog Svaor.

Listen to some full albums of the artists playing at Roadburn 2011 here:

The last week we have been giving you our tips for the FabrIQ festival, which will start this weekend. Here are the links to all of our specials from last week:

Sea of Bees

Nils Frahm

Sleep Party People

Benoît Pioulard

The Black Atlantic

Tu Fawning

We hope you enjoyed our special about this cool new festival. Check their blog for more info, tickets and a time schedule. Enjoy!

The second edition of FabrIQ festival will be held in Den Bosch this weekend. FabrIQ festival, also known as the festival of Intrusive Quality, focuses more on the intense and unknown music you can rarely find in the bigger pop venues. Just like last year the festival will take place at Plein79, De Verkadefabriek and the W2. Check all the info (time schedule, pre-sale info) on their blog. The following week, Incubate will give you their tips.

We’ll start off this series with a very special act. Sea of Bees is the soloproject of Sacramento based multi-instrumentalist Julie Ann Baenziger. Julie Ann found her way with dreamy, psychedelic folk inspired by short stories, fables and her own experiences in life. She released her album ‘Songs for the Ravens’ earlier this month which can be streamed here. Her show at FabrIQ festival will be the only show in the Netherlands this tour so don’t sleep on this!

Sea of Bees, Verkadefabriek -  18:00/18:45

You’ve seen more TOTP video’s in this special. That’s because the producers often request the artist to lip-sync, what artists don’t like. This is a nice one too. Enjoy!

By now the artist stream flooding into Tilburg is getting enormous! What do you need to see? Everything! That’s right: it’s all worth it.

Just surprise yourself, don’t see only the things you already know.

Jandek, Misery Signals, Kayo Dot, Mad Professor, Tryee Cooper, Altaar, Jessica Bailiff, Shackleton, AU, Schlachthofbronx, Kraaklink, New Jacks, are of course a couple of the more familiar names today.

Two words will be uttered a lot today: Wardruna and Aktion.

Wardruna is a special folk project Einar ‘Kvitrafn’ Selvik (Jotunspor and ex-Gorgoroth). Wardruna creates ritualistic folk music with traditional instruments such as antlers and wooden logs, inspired by old runes. Fire, water, stones, and branches are use as well. The musical atmosphere that reminds one of an old pagan ritual site complete with trees, fires and druids, will become reality during Incubate as they will perform in an Amphitheater. With the mighty Gaahl of God Seed (also ex-Gorgoroth) on vocals.

Bus schedule:
Busstop will be the parkinglot alongside the Spoorlaan, facing the ABN Amro building. That is just 200 meters from the Info and Ticket Centre.

Bus ride 1 from Tilburg to Natuurtheater: 21.00
Lecture Kennet Granholm: 21.45 – 22.30

Bus ride 2 from Tilburg to Natuurtheater: 22.00
Show Wardruna: 23.00 – 00.00

Bus ride 3 from Natuurtheater back to Tilburg: 00.15
Bus ride 4 from Natuurtheater back to Tilburg: 01.00

Tickets for the bus rides (3 Euros for a return ticket) can be bought at the Info and Ticket centre at the Spoorlaan.

Click on the Wardruna @ Natuurtheater link for more info!

Hermann Nitsch part 6 of 6 from Incubate Tilburg on Vimeo.

Hermann Nitsch‘s Action is the most talked about Incubate happening this year.

Blood. Horror. Filth. Beauty? Rationality? Education? These are some of the ingredients the Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch uses and some of the questions his work raises. Highly controversial for some, highly regarded by others; Nitsch is someone you need to have an opinion on. Not to have one is not possible once you’ve seen the work by one of the instigators of performance art.

Location: 16:00-19:00 Zwijsenpand, Gasthuisring 58, Tilburg (the Netherlands).

click the image for a bigger picture/ klik op het plaatje voor een vergroting.

The whole shabang:

De bloedprofessor, de slager van Prinzendorf of de goeroe van het geronnen bloed. Allemaal bijnamen voor de Oostenrijkse kunstenaar Hermann Nitsch die niets aan de verbeelding over laten.

Door zijn bloederige rituele performances ligt de 70-jarige kunstenaar al een halve eeuw onder vuur van dierenactivitisten, katholieken en rechtse politici.

Met de Oostenrijkse kunstenaar als hoofdgast haalt het Festival Incubate (13 t/m 20 september) ook de kritiek op zijn werk naar Tilburg.

De organisatoren van het achtdaagse Tilburgse festival richten zich vooral op de onafhankelijke onderstromen van de hedendaagse cultuur. Het werk van Nitsch, die al sinds 1959 bezig is, sluit volgens de organisatoren aan bij een actuele stroming van hedendaagse kunstenaars die zich met hun werk ook richten op totale overgave en morele grenzen op zoeken.

Overschrijdt de met bloed bespatte kunst van Nitsch de morele grenzen? Dat is de prangende vraag die steeds weer opduikt.

Check out the 4 pages counting special in Brabants Dagblad today!

Something like  Travolta’s with Brian Wilson or The Spades with Johnny Thunders.

The reason I was late

This week’s Special is about Tom Gauld.

Lake Monster

This week’s Special is about Tom Gauld.

Television and literature

This week’s Special is about Tom Gauld.

This week’s Special is about Tom Gauld.

The Gigantic Robot

This week’s Special is about Tom Gauld.

He made the ZXZW 2007 poster seen above.

Want to know how this creature looks on the inside?

Since Neurotic Deathfest is taking place in our beloved Tilburg today and tomorrow, we dedicate this week’s special to this very cool death metal festival!

The pic above is of Behemoth. But since they get already enough attention, we focus on other bands. So just before it all starts two bands; one famous, one not yet: both deserving attention.

Not Yet: Human Mincer from Spain.

Famous: Unleashed from Sweden (but you knew that already).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZnCWPhm2Wg&feature=player_embedded]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQrTU3oCwI0&feature=player_embedded]

Now you can run along to 013 and scream your lungs out because you know the cool bands that are coming thanks to ZXZWBlog!

You’re Welcome.

Since Neurotic Deathfest is taking place in our beloved Tilburg tomorrow, we dedicate this week’s special to this very cool death metal festival!

Whereas ZXZW 2009 has Impure Wilhelmina including ex-Knut members, Neurotic Deathfest has also an ex-knut members band. By the name of Mumakil these Swiss dudes try to destroy everything around them sonically. If you like your metal full of ultra high speed, aggression and not too long, you should check Mumakil out this weekend.

Since Neurotic Deathfest is taking place in our beloved Tilburg this weekend, we dedicate this week’s special to this very cool death metal festival!

Next: Order of Ennead, a progressive death metal band incorporating two members of the well-known Deicide (Kevin Quirion – Vocals & Rhythm Guitar and Steve Asheim – Drums, Acoustic Guitar, Piano).

What is the Ennead? The Greater Ennead consists of the 9 beings that gave birth to the universe and bestowed knowledge upon man in Egyptian mythology. Order Of Ennead has taken this term and used it as a representation of the potential creation that lies within. ” Through self awareness we will be enlightened. Through self discipline we will be ascended.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cI_qnhuoOA&feature=player_embedded]

Since Neurotic Deathfest is taking place in our beloved Tilburg this weekend, we dedicate this week’s special to this very cool death metal festival!

The New Dominion was in 2007 one of the acts at ZXZW.

We wrote about in 2007 about them: What’s ZXZW without a band from hometown Tilburg? And what’s ZXZW without a band that plays modern and dynamic thrash metal? Well, The New Dominion combines both of them and it’s easy to understand why this band is proclaiming world leadership throughout their music. Bush can eat his heart out as well as the Dutch prime minister Balkenende because it’s obvious The New Dominion is here to stay.

And what can we say now in 2009 more than then? Nothing actually. They’ve grown musically and signed with Neurotic Records, which shows these guys are still seriously trying to enslave the world.

Since Neurotic Deathfest is taking place in our beloved Tilburg this weekend, we dedicate this week’s special to this very cool death metal festival!

Since grindcore/deathmetal outfit Leng Tch’e played  ZXZW 2005 we’ll start with paying some attention to them:

LENG TCH’E aka death by a thousand cuts, is an ancient Chinese torture ritual where the victim has been doped up and is being cut into bits. The victim doesn’t feel a thing of this procedure until it is far too late and death is unavoidable.

LENG TCH’E the band formed in early 2001, basing their own hybrid of grindcore on bands such as Regurgitate, Hemdale, Nasum and Blood Duster and mixing it all up with some stoner / rock / hardcore influences, the band baptized their own unique style, now known as ‘razorgrind’.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a_AhZKVCSA&feature=player_embedded]

This week our special will be about the great idea called Black Cab Sessions: One cab, one song, one take.

Blackcabsessions.com: “Thanks largely to the efforts of bros Hanson and the hapless ‘nil points’ Gemini, the track record of bands made up of siblings is not too hot. Ok so maybe we do have a soft spot for the Jackson Five but that was a long, long time ago. But hey, who’s this we’ve got in the cab? why it’s none other than Ian and James Felice (with other brother Simone and runaway friend Christmas holed up in the trunk). These boys are dynamite.” (More here)

This week our special will be about the great idea called Black Cab Sessions: One cab, one song, one take.

Blackcabsessions.com: “It was an honour and a joy to have Daniel and his college mate / demon guitar player Brett Hartenbach on board as we cruised around north London. There was one scare along the ride though. When we came to a standstill at some traffic lights a white van man pulled up alongside, and stared at us menacingly. Please, please, please don’t shout anything obscene, we thought. But he didn’t, and in fact as he heard Daniel’s song drift out of the window, we’re pretty sure that scowl curled up into a little suggestion of a smile. Ah.” (Read more)

This week our special will be about the great idea called Black Cab Sessions: One cab, one song, one take.

Blackcabsessions.com: “Spoon just happens to be the very first sessionist in the cab to don a pair of sunnies. Maybe if we’d ever had bono and his orange perma-specs on board then the duck would have been broken much sooner, but we hadn’t, so the honour fell to spoon. and to borrow a line from a recent octaganarian – didn’t he do well? He pulls it off with aplomb. In fact, he wears them so effortlessly that we didn’t even notice them on him until we’d watched it back a few times.” (More here)

This week our special will be about the great idea called Black Cab Sessions: One cab, one song, one take.

Blackcabsessions.com: “We’re in Kilburn, North West London, standing outside The Luminaire venue, waiting, predictably, for a taxi to swing by. Behind us, the crowd is already gathering around the entrance, 2 hours in advance, patiently waiting for the doors to be thrown open and the show to start. Headlining is Sunset Rubdown, one of this decades, we reckon, most impressive bands. We have wanted to do a session with them for an age now. Finally they are here, and we have the privilege of promoting their sold out London show as well as doing this session. (More here)

This week our special will be about the great idea called Black Cab Sessions: One cab, one song, one take.

Blackcabsessions.com: “Dear Black Cabs,” the email began, “would you please consider filming a session with Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys).” They really didn’t need to add that last bit about the Beach Boys. A few weeks later we were outside Abbey Studios, with the taxi humming patiently behind us, nervously awaiting one of the most influential songwriters of all time. And then he emerged with his band: five of them in total. Bit tricky that because, of course, you can only sit five in the back of cab, and seeing as there were two of us to film and record sound, that made an unlucky seven in total. So we jettisoned sound recording duties, made the five of them comfortable, and wedged our cameraman in an awkward stress position between the jump seats. (More here)

This week you can wake up to some cover versions to get you kickstarted!

Today we shift our attention to the ‘Hungarian suicide song’ “Gloomy Sunday” originally composed by Hungarian pianist Rezső Seress who committed suicide in1968.

It was covered many times here’s an overview containing Björk, Billie Holiday, Portishead, Diamanda Galas:

Billie Holiday:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48cTUnUtzx4]

Portishead:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyKXEdnN8b4]

Björk (I will stop bugging you about the heavy metal umlaut soon):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCEJtUNe90A]

Diamanda Galas:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzWVWY5QUzg]

This week you can wake up to some cover versions to get you kickstarted!

Weekendbreak: Schoppenaas by local hero Dikke Dennis. It is a dutch translation of the classic Motörhead-(with heavy metal umlaut on the second o)-song Ace of Spades:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImrtZRrS70w]