I had the pleasure of seeing mr Saadiq perform live at the Paradiso, as Lucy Pearl almost a decade a go. To this day, that Lucy Pearl concert is legendary! Unfortunately this time around I keep missing the train to any of the concert Raphael did in the Paradiso, I did pick up a bit during North Sea Jazz, but never just him and the band. During a ticket fiasco, me and my friend decided to travel passed the Dutch border and catch him in Brussels, and combine it with an awesome city trip.

Long story short, Raphael Saadiq is still legendary and Brussels is A PLUS!

If you’ve been following  Goapele’s twitter, you know she’s been in and out the studio getting creative and cooking up some sweet dishes to sooth the hunger of our ears and souls. And there you have it, over the weekend she released a new song ‘Milk and Honey’ and you can download it for free via her bandcamp page. So go on listen to it, and spread the love, don’t let other people stay hungry and feed their ears with ‘Milk and Honey’.

‘Hailing from Brooklyn, New York, Grizzly Bear are a four piece psychedelic/experimental band.  Grizzly Bear’s music is seductive and intimate, deep with hazy-eyed choruses, whistles, piano, banjo, and several woodwind instruments.  In their music, melody and ambiance are necessary complements. ‘ That’s what Last.fm says about this band.

Been listening to their album ‘Veckatimest‘, almost every other day for a little over 2 weeks. I truly truuuuuuuly utterly enjoy this album! It’s different than the stuff I usually listen to, but I already said that my musical taste has shifted and broadend throughout the years. Grizzly Bear fits right in the massive growing forest of Kimster’s musical journey.  If juggles well with those other forest animals I learned to love recently , Fleet Foxes, as well as Bon Iver & Soufjan Stevens. This is my weekend-sunday-morning-cup-of-chamomile-tea-relax-unwind-music. I love the artwork by William J. O’Brien.

The first time I heard a song by Grizzly Bear was on the latest Red Hot compilation Dark Was The Night. On which they are joined by Feist, Bon Iver, My Morning Jacket, Sufjan Stevens, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings and that’s just naming a few. A nice double disc compilation album worth spending your Euros/Dollars on. (proceeds will benefit the Red Hot Organization – an international charity dedicated to raising money and awareness for HIV and AIDS through popular culture)

Anyway back to the Grizzlies, This morning I saw the music video to one of my favorite cuts on the album ‘Two Weeks‘. A nice song and a well a very peculiar video. It kind of freaks me out, but that’s because it reminds me of porcelain dolls and the scared the living daylight out of me when I was 5.

If you live in the region of the Netherlands and you were smart enough to get tickets to this sold out festival,you can catch them on Lowlands on August 21. If not just join me on November 9th at one of the ‘bestest’ venues in this tiny country the Melkweg.

If I checked my calendar correctly I have 21 days left to get in the mood for North Sea Jazz 2009. 21 Days! Just 21 days that’s 504 hours, 30240 minutes or 1814400 seconds until it’s July 10, deduct around 6 hours of sleep a day that’s leaves about 378 hours I have left, to do my prep work for the festival. Considering I actually have to work and well still need to graduate, ow yeah  occasionally try to attempt a social life, there isn’t a lot of time to check out the music of the bands, artists I want to see.

Matterfact, I haven’t even really checked the full program yet. Unlike previous years as soon as the program became public the first week of May, I would start analyzing and dissect the 3 days stuffed with jazz related music. Who should I see, who do I know, who sounds interesting? Accumulate all the music I don’t know and start listening and seeing If I should take a peek in the room that band would be performing.

True, the best way to do North Sea Jazz is to just walk around the premises and whenever you hear something cool just pop in. That’s how I started out in my early teens, when my uncle dragged me allong. I didn’t know much at all, about this genre, but I was interested. Unc took me to his favorite trompet/bass player/trio or whatever and then he let me go flutter around with the sentence: “Open your ears, mind & eyes, wonder around, ENJOY see you at *insert location* at ten”. He’d go off with his band mates and me.. I was free to wander around. I brought a little notepad with and the  money I saved. And just walked around the Statenhallen, hop in the sweaty halls and pen down the bands I liked. When I finished my northseajazz massive chopped up pancake with powdered sugar I’d go to the music stand and pick out the 5 CD I wanted.

As I grew older things changed; I  no longer go with my uncle, North Sea Jazz changed cities and Kimpeezy changed up her strategy. :-)

Fast forwarding to June 2009 with less than a month to go, I still haven’t really grasped who will be performing. Although I already found out that two of the people I was looking forward to seeing have cancelled (Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed and Robin Thicke). Who I have spotted and have been looking forward to for a long time (ever since she cancelled her performance at last year’s NSJF and I didn’t get to her in Paradiso, HMH or Groningen) is ADELE! As my last.fm acount will tell ya, Adele is the artist I probably have listened to most in the last year, and last.fm doesn’t even keep track of the times I listen to 19 on vinyl!

So just for me and for you (that is if people actually drop by and read the bs I put out hehehe) Here something to get you in the mood for North Sea Jazz 2009 ….. MTV Unplugged:Adele! So Below, you’ll find one of my favourite songs on her debut album ‘Hometown Glory’

Things changed, years gone by but, the massive rolled up pancake with powdered sugar stayed :-) See in the Ju-Ly North Sea Jazz!

Adele will perfomering on the Nile stage on Sunday July 12.

I lost track of the years I waited for Maxwell to release an album (No I haven’t it’s been SEVEN Years). But Ladies and Gents, the wait is almost over over on July 7th ‘BLACKsummer’s Night’ is finally here! I’m overjoyed! It is said it’s the first installment of a trilogy, lets just hope he doesn’t let us wait an enternity for installment number two. I know it’s still a month and a half away before you can wrap your fingers around this beauty and caress your ears with his lovely voice, but in the meantime just listen to ‘Pretty Wings‘ and  get in the mood.

Yes yes I’m back, I know it’s been a while me leaving my mark in my virtual home,jeez you can see the cobwebs already.Not much has been going on here, until….. yesterday! Yeah I finally did something (been busy thesis writing).
And I did the best thing I could do… I went to see Solange Knowles or should I say Sol Angel and the Hadley st Dream in concert. If you missed it maaan you missed a stunna show. It was awesomo!
I’ve been playing her album since I think September last year, and loving it ever since. My friends dragged me to an Alicia Keys concert in Antwerp last year. It’s no secret I kinda like Alicia’s music but didn’t really feel like going (budget problems hahaha). So I was thinking of ways to get out of the obligation, until I saw who was supporting (can you even say that). It was Solange and I thought AWESOMOOOOO!! And it was nice, looking around I was probably the only one singing allong to well, pratically every tune. (since it has been playing almost on repeat on my trusty iPod).

So when I saw she was going to drop by one of my favourite venues and that for only €15,- , shoot well I just had to go! Too bad not a lot of people had that same idea in mind. Either they didn’t take the time to listen to the album, said ‘well she prob just a cheap knockoff of big sis’, were broke, or had no time. Basically THEIR LOSS! ‘Cause Solange is one of the freshest people out there.  It’s just too bad that the Melkweg was filled only half way, but that didn’t stop Solange and the band. No way JOSE! They killed it, straight out murdered it! Even though there were maybe a little over 150 people in the venue, all of them 150 people knew almost every song, and sang along loud & proud.


Solange used to remind of Big Bird,in my mind she was tall & a bit goofy like Big Bird and her eyes in my mind stood the same way as his. But I take that back, in real life up close (she jumped off stage to dance with the audience so I saw up close), she looks far from that yellow bloke. I ment no disrespect saying she looks like Big Bird, cause I think Big Bird is fun and dope, goofy too. But Solange is doper than him. And for all those who keep comparing her with Big Sis, DON’T! She in a league of her own, and that league is pretty mighty impressive. Solange is my favourite Knowles by far, matter fact one of my favourite singersongwriters by far.

DON’T MISS THE NEXT  CHANCE YOU GOT AT SEEING SOL ANGEL AND THE HADLEY ST DREAMS IN A VENUE NEAR YOU!