Fiddles on Friday XI

Todays fiddler is awardwinning Jeremy Kittel

Kittel was born in Michigan, where he grew up alternating between classical training and various fiddle camps and music festivals, experiences he sees as more than just inspirational. “There’s such an honesty in those places,” he says, “an honesty in everyone’s love for music. And there’s a real lack of ego, more than I’ve experienced in any environment I’ve been in. It’s an amazing scene to be a part of.” Those fiddle festivals influenced his music style of course and the proof is in the pudding so let's listen to "Remember Blake" from his latest album "Chasing Sparks"

As you can hear, Jeremy is one of the foremost among a new breed of fiddlers and violinists who easily navigate a multitude of musical styles and traditions. Some of his recent exploits include: performing as a world-class jazz improviser in the Grammy-winning Turtle Island Quartet; leading his namesake group, the Jeremy Kittel Band, co-arranging and recording strings for rock band My Morning Jacket‘s latest record, performing at Bonnaroo & Telluride Bluegrass Festival with singer-songwriter Abigail Washburn; and teaching internationally as one of the world’s leading Scots-Irish fiddlers. Here we can see him at work with his own band

And here's the song "Disconnect" also from his album "Chasing sparks", enjoy and have a nice weekend!

Thunder on Thursday X

This items getting more and more followers, nice to get some feedback. Today it's up to John Coffey to give us the raw and deafening noise we need on a thundersday.

John Coffey is a character from the Green Mile (you know, the big black guy) but it's also a Dutch punkrock/post-hardcoreband. John Coffey is influenced by bands such as Refused, Every Time I Die and The Ghost of a Thousand. In september this year their second album called "Bright Companions" was released by the German music label Redfield Records. And it's a killer! But first take a look at the beautiful video from the second single of this album "Featherless Redheads" On their album "Bright Companions" they start with "Announce" and it's a hard but nice way to get attention with such an announce :). By the way, they partly could make this album with the help of their fans, In 2011 they completed a fundraising campaign. Another nice way to get attention is the fact that the first 1000 editions of their debut album Vanity (2009) were pierced with a bullit...now thats what i like.

Here's the soundcloud link to the full "Bright Companions", enjoy this thundersday!

Warm Wednesday IX

It could be a lot worser because the 3 sisters of HAIM are giving us a warm wednesday today :)

Haim is Danielle Haim (vocals, lead guitar), Alana Haim (vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, percussion), Este Haim (vocals, bass)and don't forget the drummer Dash Hutton. They are from Los Angeles and that sunny LA sound is a strong influence in their music It's a bit of R&B, a bit of folk and a lot of 80's pop... think Cyndi Lauper meets Destiny's Child or Gloria Estefan meets En Vogue. They were the talk of SXSW and since then it's going hard with them. Not bad for a band with just one EP on their shelve. Their debut EP is called "Forever" and it's also the title of their single, here's your warm wednesday video Here is the soundcloud link to 4 tracks of the forever EP and a bonus track a remix of Forever by Dan Lissvik, enjoy!

Tuesdays got Talent IX

Were back! and todays talent is Square Attic
 

Square Attic is a Dutch band consisting of: Alwi Kruize, Randy Schilder, Tommie Janssen and Roy Laane. Formed in 2008 on a dusty attic, between lots of old boxes, all with a story. Those stories are transformed and translated into nice uplifting popsongs. Nice guitar riffs going well together with the driving drum and on top of it all Alwi's beautiful voice, sometimes they remind me a bit of "The Doves" Here's the soundcloud link to their second EP "Daily Stories". Here's the video of "Bring Me Home"

Misty Monday IX

Today its really misty over here. So a perfect day for Lau Nau

Lau Nau or Laura Naukkarinen, (born 1980) is a singer-songwriter and musician from Helsinki, Finland. She is also a member of free improv and psych folk bands Kiila, Päivänsäde, the Anaksimandros, Avarus, Maailma, and the trio Hertta Lussu Ässä formed by fellow acid folk singer-songwriters Islaja and Kuupuu. She's credited as playing anything from "colorful juice glasses" and "witch laugh megaphone" to "beer cans". Lau Nau lives in the Finnish countryside of Kimito island with her husband and two sons. Overall you can say it's mesmerizing and tantalizing folk/ethnic music. First lets take a look to an older song she made, called "Painovoimaa valoa" from her 2008 album "Nukkuu" (Finnish for Sleep). Nice monday song isn't it? Her new album "VALOHIUKKANEN" is released a week ago via Fonal, here you can hear 3 songs from the 9 track album, I love the strings in the song "Valolle" Here's the video of the more uptempo song "Kuoleman tappajan kuolema"
 

Fiddles on Friday X

Our fiddler of today is Bertrand Déraspe

Bertrand is a fiddler from the Magdalan Islands (part of the Canadian province of Quebec), he was born in Point-aux-Loups and works as a lobster fisherman when not busy fiddling. He inherited a large répertoire of Acadian and "madelinots" tunes from his father, Arnold Deraspe and other Acadian fiddlers. First lets take a look at a video found on youtube. Here you see Bertrand playing some old tunes with his father on the kitchen table, I love it. He demonstrates how Madelinots fiddlers have a different bow stroke than Cape Breton fiddlers. The Madelinot fiddlers, who were mostly fishermen with calloused hands and sometimes missing fingers, would tend to play with less notes and more rhythm :) Bertrand started playing fiddle when he was 4 years old and was already playing for weddings when he was 6. He has been a member of various music groups, including Suroit, Les Clapotis, and Vent'arrière. He recorded a solo album called "Mes Racines" (my roots). From that Album the title track "Mes Racines" Here you can see him at work with a young fiddler Whilst searching for Bertrand videos and music files I also found the brothers Deraspe, or Les Frères Dèraspe, I have got a hunch that they are relatives or even the sons of Bertrand, but my French is "miserable" so it's a wild guess and please correct me if I'm wrong or if you got more info. And finally here's a compilation of songs by Bertrand and relatives, enjoy and have a nice weekend!