Leonard Cohen - 5 lessons from the master

Olympisch Stadion, 21 August 2012

Leonard Cohen is one of the greats. In a career that spans 45 years the man has done it all, and I’m pretty sure he has won enough awards and accolades that he doesn’t need me or this blog to tell him just how good he is. So instead, here are the 5 things that I learnt from the master at his show in Amsterdam last week:

Snoop Dogg, Paradiso, 17 August, 2012

Imagine my surprise, and twinge of disappointment, when the artist formally known as Snoop Dogg announced that he was through with his gangster lifestyle? That he was embracing the Rastafarian way of life, that he had recorded a reggae album and was that he was now going by the name of Snoop Lion?

All this when I had a moderately expensive ticket in my hand that clearly said Snoop Dogg @ Paradiso!

Shearwater – Sugar factory, 6 July 2012

Sugar factory, 6 July 2012

It was a Friday night and I had a ticket to a gig, in a new venue (for me - The Sugar Factory) for a band with reasonable amounts of music industry hype surrounding them and furthermore they had no schedule to return to my European shores in quite a while. What more could you ask for?

Ramona Falls - New York City

The Mercury Lounge, 14 June 2012 

Recently when I was in New York I headed with some friends to the Mercury Lounge to see a band called Ramona Falls.

Boy & Bear - Paradiso, 20 August 2012

I really, really want to love Boy & Bear.

They have all the pieces of something that I should love. What is there not to love about 5 extremely talented musicians, with great harmonies and from my home town? My sister first got me He Will Have His Way for Christmas in 2010 and I, like everyone else, fell in love with their version of Fall at Your Feet. And I bought Moonfire, their first full length album, as soon as it was released.

The John Spencer Blues Explosion: No Bullshit Rock n’ Roll

Club Ziggo; 13 August 2012

Not a day goes by that I don’t wish I was a part of the John Spencer Blues Explosion.

Rock Werchter 2012

Festivals have never been my live music format of choice. Back in 2008 I went to Rock Werchter for the first time and had a fantastic day and possibly my romantic memories of that day pushed me into trying it again in 2012, with the hope of reliving the fun.

Interview: Yeasayer - Ira Wolf Tuton

For anyone out there who has been living under an indie-music rock for the past few months, US band Yeasayer will release Fragrant World, their highly anticpated third album, later this month.

Early releases of Henrietta and Longevity have already created quite a buzz online and when VP Music had the chance to get hold of a pre-release copy of the album we were all over it like a fat kid on a cup cake! Odd Blood was one of our album's of 2010, so despite what the band might have been feeling (see below), we had high expectations of the follow-up.

We are pleased to report it has not been taken off high rotation since the moment we loaded it on to the ipods! Fingers Never Bleed (opening track) and Devil and the Deed (track 5) in particular are fantastic. As good as anything from the first two albums and I think fans are going to be pretty happy once they get their hands on it.

Yeasayer were in Amsterdam last month and VP Music had the absolute pleasure of catching up with bass player Ira Wolf Tuton. Laid back, articualte and always entertaining - Ira was able to confirm Yeasayer are not in fact Interpol or Foster the People, he has never sold drugs to put food on the table (only to buy more drugs) and Fragant World is a Happy-Go-Lucky album!

Madonna - Let me feel the fiber of your fabric, after all we are living in a material world....

Madonna Ziggo Dome 7 July 2012

There was a time in my life that I would have said, and I quote “as long as my arse points to the ground, I will never go and watch someone like Madonna in a live show”.

Maybe I have matured (unlikely), maybe I have started to learn from my mistakes, or maybe, just maybe, I have realized that to have an informed opinion on something you need to have experienced it in some way shape or form? So therefore Madonna bound I would be.