Blog

Just like last year, I should probably mention that I don't listen to the radio anymore, nor watch mtv or something, so most of the songs here are from albums I own.

Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart
Also winner of my music video of the year award. What can I say? It's dark. It's simple. It's awesome. It's my song of the year. I also had fun translating the lyrics into other languages (Si j'avais un coeur, je chanterais! - ...I'm not even sure that's correct heh). Still to come: Klingon translation.

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
First time I heard this was when I saw the video on youtube, I think it was in the summer. Laughed at the crazy vid, forgot about the song. Then at the end of the year, I picked up the Veckatimest album, and completely fell in love with the song. I can understand why people don't like it (especially Grizzly Bear fans!) but to me, it's close to being a perfect pop song. It's simple, and it gets stuck in your head, and it isn't nearly as annoying as the usual repetitive pop song.

HTRK - Rentboy
I just had to put a HTRK track here. Rent Boy, like most HTRK songs, is dirty, tragic and sexy. Very special atmosphere on this song. I love it though. I mean, the first line alone: "you there on the floor, unbutton my shirt" and continues with "your new release, all over my face". But this isn't Peaches or anything, the song is slow, mellow and sounds genuinely sad and fatalistic. Like being depressed and horny at the same time. Or something. Yeah. I love this song.

Luke Haines - 21st Century Man
I had some trouble picking my favourite song on Luke Haines' latest, which is new to me because I'm not actually a fan of his solo stuff apart from some songs. I'll talk about the other songs in my next entry, but ultimately I picked this one because...it's the title track I suppose. Yeah. And because "David Bowie lost it for years and everyone else died of aids". And "my parents don't like rock". No really, this song has too many good stuff when it comes to quotable lyrics.

Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor
I have to admit I don't really like a lot of songs on Patrick Wolf's latest album. But the ones I do like, I like muchly. Like this one! Oh, the drama of this song! And the naughtyness (blowing your horn, yonder comes my boy? oh my). And I can sing along to it easily, because I'm not getting married in the spring, nor fall. I do need someone to feed my hogs when I'm gone though :(

Pet Shop Boys - Love etc.
Yes, it sounds like Go West. Yes, it reminds me of 8-bit videogames (Castlevania!!!). Yes, the video is also very videogame-y. Yes, I love it. Yes, Pet Shop Boys are back, baby! (...or something).

Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers
Hey, I (somewhat) got into Dizzee Rascal thanks to this song! Is this a good time to say that I, not really being a hip hop fan, think I Luv U (the uncensored album version, of course) is one of the best songs of the 00's? No? Nevermind then. I like Bonkers because it's uncomprimisably poppy. I used to be an Armand van Helden fan (You don't know me was once my favourite song ever - hey, I was a depressed teen back then!), it's nice to hear he can still make good stuff.
Also: this song is pretty awesome live. Really. I
caught people on film enjoy it. Crazy people.

Bat for Lashes - Two Planets
I have a hard time choosing my favourite song on Two Suns (again, I'll talk more about this in my yearly album review update). I ultimately went with Two Planets because it was the first song on the album I really liked, and it's totally awesome live.

Some others:
Emiliana Torrini - Jungle drum
Gossip - Heavy Cross
La Roux - Bulletproof
Lily Allen - Not Fair
Noisettes - Don't upset the rhythm
Calvin Harris - Ready for the weekend
Fleet Foxes - Mykonos

Black Box Recorder - 18/2/2009
After being a fan since 2003 or so, I finally got to the infamous Black Box Recorder live. The general consenus seems that their gigs are pretty boring and that their music is better enjoyed at home. Second part might be true, but by no means are they boring. There was a fair amount of talk and jokes between songs, Sarah was brilliant in every way (but especially in the schoolmistress/dominatrix way), and did I really see His Misantropic Grumpiness Luke Haines -smile-? Setlist was great, two new songs were pretty good. Can't really say anything bad about it. But then I'm the biggest Black Box Recorder fanboy around, so yeah. Also, I had to make a 2-day trip to London just for this, so I would've been pretty mad if it had turned out to be a disappointment.


Client/Deutch Amerikanische Freundschaft 28/3/2009
London, again! Now part of a proper London trip. Hadn't seen Client since 2004, and it was so good to see them again. They still kick ass, and after this I loved them more than ever. Great support act for DAF as far as I'm concerned - no-one there apart from those hyper/crazy/drunk/high germans agreed with me though. Whatever. Second time Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft as well for me, first time was in 2003. Can't say I remember much of that gig (it was at Pukkelpop, and Gabi had a broken arm or something), but then I only really started getting into DAF a couple of years ago. Even though all the electronic thingies are pre-recorded, it was still tons of fun. Gabi is awesome, during the songs he's all agressive, between songs he's all polite and humble and thankful (I remember him saying something like "I'm happy to see so many young people tonight!" - in german of course, he only spoke 2 words of english). Great setlist as well, I heard all my favourites like Rote Lippen, Kebabtraume, and omg - Der Rauber und Der Prinz!! Unbelievable.


Polsslag 2009
First time I went to this indoor festival, which can be considered the little brother of Pukkelpop. Generally don't like indoor festivals, but this was pretty good. I, like everyone there, was blown away by Fever Ray. Easily the most unique live experience in 2009. There were other good bands to enjoy like Fischerspooner, Noisettes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and more.


Bat For Lashes 15/5/2009 (and 31/10/2009)
And the award for best live act of 2009 goes to...Fever Ray! No wait, Bat for Lashes! Saw Bat For Lashes twice, and both were so, so, so good, and really better than anything else I've seen this year. Including Fever Ray. I mean, just Two Planets live does things to me I can't really describe. It's like tiny, insanely colourful fireworks going off in both my brain and heart. I guess eargasm is also an acceptable term. Oh yeah, and the rest of the gigs were pretty good as well. Heh. No really, awesome stuff. I knew she was good but I could've never imagined it was going to be this good.


Dour Festival
I only went one day, just to see Santigold. And it was worth it. Awesome performance, she's such a great entertainer. Oh, and her two dancers! So good. And maybe the best festival audience I've ever been part of. Everyone got really into it, with people even howling along on Anne heh. Again, I never expected it to have enjoyed it as much as I did. Definitely hope to see her again in 2010.

Pukkelpop festival
Worst Pukkelpop ever! And I mean it this time; the organisation clearly wasn't ready to handle the amount of people that showed up - even though 99% of people bought their ticket in advance. First time ever that the PP organisation disappointed me. BUT the music (partly) made up for it. Too many bands to mention (or just see my mini-review a couple of entries back), I'll just say that Patrick Wolf was my highlight. Saw him again in october but vastly prefer his Pukkelpop apperance, it was more fun and the setlist was much better. Other enjoyable things: Ebony Bones ("to the left! to the right!"), Kraftwerk (duh), Health (blew me away), all the dub/grime stuff in the chateau on the last day, especially The Bug.

Pet Shop Boys 15/12/2009
I've been a (casual) Pet Shop Boys fan ever since I saw Go West on MTV (which has been what, 18 years ago?), so I -finally- decided to go see them live. And I wasn't disappointed. I have to say that the atmosphere at this gig has been one of the best I've ever experienced. So nice and relaxed, and with a very positive buzz. It's really hard to explain, but certainly part of the reason why I really liked the gig. Setlist was pretty good, I had fun singing along with most songs (and didn't feel weird about it! Thank you, everyone around me, for singing along as well). And the highlight of the gig was the encore: a christmas song, complete with dancers dressed up like christmas trees and fake snow. Awesome.

Oh, and I have some pictures of the above gigs (and more) right here.

Pukkelpop 2009

thursday:
spent 2,5 hours queueing up in front of the entrance to get in. Unforgivable, surely they could've opened more entrances for people who already had their ticket (and this wasn't the only thing that bothered me this year, organisation really let me down for the first time in the 7 years I'm going)

Dizzee Rascal: the new songs sound quite nice, but obviously everyone was waiting for Bonkers. And, yes, it was very, very BONKERS. Took a video of it.

Soap&Skin: what a voice!! Her songs were quite varied as well, really enjoyed this.

La Roux: good gig, but still didn't convince me to buy the album.

Andrew Bird: nice, and I was happy I was inside a tent when it started raining. It even rained inside the tent haha.

Grizzly Bear: surprise act Them Crooked Vultures wasn't my thing, so I went to the club. Pretty music, but again not really my thing.

The Offspring: I regocnised more songs than I thought I would, but I was relaxing at the back during this, didn't pay that much attention to them.

Beirut: quite liked this. The drummer is awesome heh.

friday:
Ebony Bones: saw her last year, same show. Still very awesome. Never expected the club to go along with that "to the left! to the right!" thing. Thumbs up.

Glasvegas: I can't believe it's not The Killers!

Kap Bambino: yes, this is more like it. Energy!

The Ting Tings: only saw the last bit, looked like a lot of fun.

Patrick Wolf: third time I see him at Pukkelpop, and his best gig by far. He wins Pukkelpop 2009. Loved singing, dancing, clapping along with everything.

Health: Health ALSO wins Pukkelpop 2009, in the 'discovery of the year' category. Performance reminded me very much of the Liars one in 2007, also in this awesome chateau tent. Awesome.

Fever Ray: 3 good bands in a row, I was on a roll!! Saw her before earlier this year. Still great (also album of the year for me so far, by the way). Again nice to see other people singing along and dancing (yes, you can dance to this!)

Crystal Antlers: after those 3, Crystal Antlers felt like a 'traditional' band, and therefor couldn't excite me.

Placebo: only saw the last few songs. Always nice to hear some old songs (Taste in men!!!!!!!!!). But I'm not going to any gigs of them anymore.

Kraftwerk: loved it, but it's still 80% the same show they did in 2004. Would love a new album and show sooner rather than later. Also, what is up with people who were in the first couple of rows but didn't even nod their head or anything? I was about the only one dancing and clapping along at some points. Is there an unwritten rule that you can't move during a Kraftwerk gig or something? Or are the majority of Kraftwerk fans just, well, horribly boring? (I can say the same thing about the average Radiohead fan, but that's for another time).

saturday:
Micachu & The Shapes: cute. Some good songs. But I thought the sound was quite horrible.

Hudson Mohawke: liked this, felt like early Jamie Lidell (his Muddlin Gear period). Not as exciting though.

Deerhunter: Marquee, 4PM on a sunny day is not the place nor time for this. Pretty music, but not for me.

Gang Gang Dance: this is more my thing then. DRUMS NOT DEAD, right guys?

Rusko/The Bug/Magnetic Man: I'm grouping these together because they're similar and all played in the chateau, and I liked them all. The Bug made me dance like crazy, it's been a very long time since that happened. I wasn't even in the tent for the other two (too crowded!) but I loved what I heard.

Peaches: she certainly wasn't bad, but I still felt bad about not going to see Whitest Boy Alive or Florence and the machine. I hate whoever made the decision to put them on all 3 at the same time. I hate him for life.

Little Boots: just like with La Roux: enjoyed the performance, but not enough to get the album. Little Boots put on a better show than La Roux, but I ever so slightly prefer La Roux's sound.

dEUS: I had seas of time before going to Moderat, so I relaxed a bit while listening to dEUS. The new songs (as in, last 2 albums) do absolutely nothing for me, but I enjoyed hearing stuff like Instant Street and Nothing really ends again.

Moderat: they looked like Kraftwerk minus one haha. I didn't know them and expected something...harder than what they did (more ambient/minimal style electro). But I still enjoyed it.

Arctic Monkeys: as a headliner on the last day, surely not? But I saw the last couple of songs, and I was quite impressed, they're a real band now instead of being random indie kids.

Conclusion: despite organisatory woes, this was still a good Pukkelpop with a more than decent line up (shame so many things overlapped for me though!). Like every year, I had lot more fun with the club/chateau bands than the marquee/main stage bands. And I only went to the dance hall once this year, that never happened before!

Not sure if I'll be able to go next year, but I expect bands like The Knife, Goldfrapp, Justice and M.I.A. to show up, so it'll be hard to resist.

Pictures here. I'm uploading some short vids to my youtube channel as well. HD vids, great sound quality. Thank you Lumix TZ7!

Right, I joined this 'stats' group, and they have lots of links to yummy stat calculators. And you know how much I love stats! I didn't want to put them all on my front page, so here's an entry about them.

First:

This one is interesting because I did something similar a year or two ago, and then UK, US and Belgium were pretty much equal. So I UK-ified a lot in recent years. I'm also not surprised with the high France number, I feel half-french myself heh. But it's certainly nice to see some diversity in the countries.

Next one:

Another interesting one I think (also because it couldn't calculate my first and 1000th play because I have an "old account", have I really been using last.fm/audiscrobbler for more than 4 years?). The usual suspects are in it, but Liars seem to be the 'winner' here, Read the book that wrote itself and Hold you, drum are in it twice.
Oh, and that japanese artist is Koji Kondo, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time soundtrack.

Then there's the age calculator, which calculates the age (srsly?) of your neighbours, or that of listeners of a certain artist. My neighbours average age is...28!!! Which is very close to mine, so I guess I'm listening to the right music heh.

There's also the mainstream meter. I'm 30,39% mainstream (overall charts). Is that good or bad?

Another shorty: million track calculator. Plain depressing in my case.

Last one:

That's a good number I guess?

Okay, that's all for now.

And in a concept previously unseen on last.fm, I actually TALK about the albums instead of just listing them!


Suicide - Live 1977 - 1978
2008 has been the year of Suicide for me, bought their second album (with the additional first rehearsal tapes album) early in the year and got back into them big time. I knew about the existence of this live set (6 albums!) but found it a bit too expensive, and didn't think I was hardcore enough for this. But I caved in eventually. And I'm glad I did! Most albums contain 2 or 3 live sets, but they're always different enough from each other to keep things interesting. I don't have a clear favourite album or set, but spread over all the discs I have heard some spectacular versions of 'Ghost Rider', 'Dance', 'Harlem' and obviously 'Frankie Teardrop'. It also has that legendary Brussels set, with Vega uttering the possibly even more legendary words: “SHUT THE FUCK UP, THIS IS ABOUT FRANKIE!!” ...well it's legendary for us Suicide fans anyway.


Kelley Polar - I Need You To Hold On While The Sky Is Falling
Let's get this out of the way first: no, it's not as good as the first album. But partly thanks to this album, I realised ''Love songs of the hanging gardens'' is one of my favourite albums ever.
This one has plenty of yummy goodness though. 'Entropy Reigns' is one of my favourite songs of the year (more on that in my singles update), 'A feeling of the all-thing' is a great opener, and' Zeno of Elea' and 'Sea of sine waves' have the typical Kelley Polar magic. In short, there's not a bad song on this album. Some songs do drag on (the first 3 minutes of 'Satellites' are really great, but the rest is plain filler), and Mr. Kelley is taking some more risks when it comes to vocals, but it never gets annoying. Ultimately, it's not flawless, but it's the album I listened to most this year, and it's a clear favourite for album of the year.

It's also the second best album title of the year (winner is Martha Wainwright – I know you're married but I've got feelings too. Last year's winner was Yoko Ono – Yes, I'm a witch).

Lykke Li - Youth Novels
I saw her live at a festival, and I HAD to have her album! I was addicted to a couple of songs, and I mean real bad, but then I sorta fell out of love for a bit. The album really has a lot of great songs, but also stuff I skip without blinking. I just can't stand 'Tonight', sorry. I got bored of 'Little Bit' pretty soon after I got the album. And 'Melodies and Desires' is a pretty boring opener. Otherwise, it's all good. My favourite part of the album are the last 3 songs. 'Everybody but me' is a brother/sister to 'Dance dance dance', 'Time Flies' is just so deliciously dreamy, and 'Window Blues' is a dark (but lovely) closer. With 3 less songs, this would've been my album of the year.


Santogold - Santogold
This was an album I wasn't sure of picking up, but I eventually did. The songs that got me into it were 'My Superman' and 'Shove it'. Once I gave it some more spins, I came to love 'Anne' (yes, she howls like Patrick Wolf) and 'I'm a lady' (yes, it reminds me of Little Britain) as well. Actually, the only songs I don't like outright are 'Creator' (tiring) and 'Unstoppable' (same). The rest ranges from good to great. It's one of my most listened to album this year as well.


Morgan Geist - Double Night Time
Kelley Polar 2! Okay, not really, but the music is somewhat similar. I prefer KP, but this certainly isn't without charm. Very relaxing album as well. It has 2 clear highlights for me: 'Most of all' and 'Ruthless City' (alternative title: roofless city). Not that the rest of the album is boring, but none of the other songs are quite as good as these.


The Clement Peerens Explosition - Masterworks
CpeX rocks!! Non-flemish people won't get this band, but they are so damn awesome. This is a compilation with most of their songs, and some new ones. 'There is only one Sylvain' is great. My favourite songs are still 'Foorwijf' (just a bunch of insults thrown at one woman) and 'Filiaal van de hel' (a lamentation of female capitalism). Most women-unfriendly band I know, which is one of the many reasons why I love them so :D


Sebastien Tellier - Sexuality
This was my summer album this year (it also helps that I went to France for two weeks). Not a great album per se, but still nice enough, very relaxing. 'L'amour et la violence' is easily my favourite song on the album (and one of my favourite songs of the year actually). 'Sexual Sportswear' and 'Divine' aren't that bad either. It does have some less good songs (I find 'Manty' and 'Une Heure' a bit annoying), but overall, it's definitely good enough to be on this list.


MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Hype of the year! I did the smart thing and bought the album before the media-hell about them burst loose. It's a good album, but sometimes it does feel like they're trying to do too many things at once. Electro-hippie-psychedelic-pop-rock? The album also a bit unbalanced, in my opinion they released the best 3 songs as singles. The singer's voice also annoys me at times. And I'll stop complaining now, because it's still a solid album. Other songs I enjoy are 'Pieces of What' and 'The Handshake'.

Ladytron - Velocifero
I haven't been obsessed with this album as much as the previous ones, but it's still pretty damn good. My favourites here are 'Versus' and 'Deep Blue'. 'Ghosts' is pretty good as well, I'm surprised it didn't get more attention when it was released as a single. A lot of songs suffer from having too many things going on at the same time (drums + several synth lines + bass + voice +...), which also happens a lot live.

Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree
Took me a while to get into, and it's obviously not as good as the first 2 albums, but...I still like it quite a bit. It only has 2 or 3 standout songs, but the whole album has a certain charm and atmosphere I rather like. Very dreamy and pagan-like. 'Monster Love' is my favourite song (yes, I have a thing for album closers), 'A&E' and 'Happiness' get my thumbs up as well.

Justice - A Cross The Universe
No, I don't think the live album is as good as ''Daft Punk – Alive 2007''. This one...I don't know, there's something about the mix that doesn't sound quite right to me. Obviously it's still great, but the reason why I mention it here is the DVD. Really good stuff, sometimes very comical, other times very bleak and depressing, with some really nasty moments as well. Definitely worth watching.

I hardly listened to the radio or anything at all this year, so most of my song of the year candidates are simply songs from albums I bought.


Kelley Polar - Entropy Reigns (in the Celestial City)
Both a very typical (the music in general) and atypical (female vocals, talk about drugs and other debauchery) KP song. Very poppy as well. Best song on his latest album. According to my stats, it's also the song I listened to the most in 2008. Deservedly so.


Goldfrapp - A&E
One of the best songs on the Seventh Tree album, with a very nice video as well. What more do you want to know?


Lykke Li - Dance Dance Dance
This and Little Bit got me into Lykke Li, but after listening to the album a couple of times, I kept going back to DDD and started skipping Little Bit. And I just have to post some lyrics: "easy conversations, no such thing, no I'm shy shy shy. My hips they lie cause reality is, I'm shy shy shy". Love.
(alternative title: Daens Daens Daens)


Santogold - Shove It
One of the two songs that got me into the album (the other being My Superman). It has a certain energy and positiveness, I can't really describe it. 2008 has also been the year in which I came to terms with my reggae-loving, another reason why this song is special to me. And to round it all up, the bass in this is awesome.


Florence and The Machine - Girl With One Eye
There are different versions of this song floating around, mine was found on a promo-cd for a dutch festival (London Calling I think). Still the best version I heard, really nice bass towards the end of the song. Anyway, I love the cruelty of the song, and the way the lyrics (and the song in general) flow.


Sebastien Tellier - L'Amour Et La Violence
Because Divine would be too obvious. No, I simply like this one more than any other Tellier song. I love the simple lyrics, and the music somewhat reminds me of the soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange.


Justice - Stress
I actually hadn't been paying much attention to this one last year, but the controversial video made me realise I quite like it after all. As my northern friends would say, it goes "vet hard" and is definitely "kanker vet".


Patrick Wolf - Wargames (Demo)
Yes, it was such a horrible year that I have to list a demo heh. To me it's as worthy as a full song though. It sounds like it could've been on Lycantrophy (which is a good thing!)


MGMT - Kids
I like this, Time to pretend and Electric Feel about equally, but apparently I listened to Kids more, so...


Some other songs I liked:

Estelle - American boy
Fischerspooner - The Best Revenge
Kylie Minogue - In my arms (c'mon, it's basically a Calvin Harris song with Kylie doing the vocals)
Gabriella Cilmi - Nothing sweet about me (alternative title: Nothing's Swede about me)
The Do - On my shoulders
Sam Sparro - Black & Gold

10 gigs/festivals, in chronological order:

1) Ladytron, Vooruit Gent, 1/5/2008
3rd Ladytron gig for me. Was a bit weird, I was really bored the first couple of songs, but then they played Soft Power and I just freaked out. Such an awesome song. Rest of the gig was suddenly a lot better.
(my pictures)

2) Justice, AB Brussels, 10/5/2008
Gig of the year? All I know is, I was headbanging/feet-stomping/agressive-dancing like a madman. Exercising my demons I guess. It was so much fun. I also enjoyed everyone else freaking out, this was one of the best crowds I've ever seen.
(my pictures)

3) Rock Wercher
Only went on saturday. The Sigur Ros – Radiohead combo was just too awesome. So much, in fact, that the greatness of Sigur Ros overshadowed the Radiohead gig a bit. This is why I want to see the 'head in a venue for a change, this hasn't happened in Belgium since 2003. I blame Clearchannel/Herman Schueremans.
(my pictures)

4) Cactus festival Brugge
Only went to see the B-52s. It was worth it. Such a fun band really. Rock Lobster and Planet Claire are songs for eternity. The gig was somewhat ruined for me because of some overly enthousiastic/drunk/drugged up fan next to me, I constantly had to dodge his arm-swinging and stuff.

5) Lovebox London
First of all: what were they thinking putting Dandy Warhols and Goldfrapp up against each other?? Grr. I chose Goldfrapp. Very much worth it. Lovely, relaxed atmosphere, but there was much dancing as well. I loved the maypole, the dancers, the wolfladies and the mudmen. Yum. Great show.
Again, it's been ages since they did a venue gig here in Belgium (2003!!!!), come on!
(my pictures)

6) Pukkelpop
Worst Pukkelpop ever? Not quite. It lacked my usual band-suspects (none of the bands I put on my wishlist made it, that was a first), but there was still plenty of fun to be had. I'm going to link you to my very short review (here), but I still want to mention Jamie Liddel, Lykke Li and Robyn for being particularly awesome.
(my pictures)

7) Kelley Polar, Minnemeers Gent, 12/9/2008
I got into mr Kelley thanks to Pukkelpop actually (2005 edition), and since then I've been very much looking forward to seeing him again. And yes, I got lucky this year. The gig was a bit weird (hardly any people around, some technical difficulties) but I loved it. My beauty in the moon made me explode with joy. Already an excellent song of its own, live, it's in a whole other universe. I really, really want to see him again in 2009.

8) Leffingeleuren
More tradition than anything else, although I've seen some really good things in the past few years (Stereo Total, and my first – but certainly not last – Liars gig). This year, I really enjoyed Nouvelle Vague and Goose.

9) Lykke Li, AB Brussels, 22/9/2008
Not really a great gig for any particular reason, but still worth mentioning. She really has a great band with her, all very sympathetic and humble dudes who know what they're doing.

10) The Clement Peerens Explosition, De Zwerver Leffinge, 10/10/2008
There is only one Sylvain! Okay, they just play the songs exactly as they sound on the album, but the between-songs banter makes them worth seeing. I consider Hugo Matthyssen to be one of the best humouristic masterminds ever. Shame Bart Peeters had to leave the band.

Thu 14 Aug – Pukkelpop

Day 1:

Kaizers Orchestra
5th time I saw them actually! So yes, they're completely awesome live, but this really was a festival set: no new songs, just their greatest hits.

A Mountain of One
Their video projections will give me nightmares, seriously. The music wasn't really bad either.

Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong
Stupid name, fairly crappy music, but I enjoyed the gay dancing.

Amy Macdonald
She likes the Killers, so I hate her! Nah I'm kidding. No, it wasn't bad, not my thing, but I enjoyed relaxing in front of the main stage

SoKo
Absolutely rubbish gig (she kept messing up, forgetting lyrics, giggling in the middle of a song), but I loved it. I still have to leave a message on her myspace saying "I'm single too!"

Little Dragon
Nice trip-hop music...which means I almost fell asleep.

Dirty Pretty Things
Again, I'm not a fan, but this gig was quite good.

Menomena
Some good songs, especially the more drum-driven ones, but I didn't stay the entire gig.

Part of the weekend never dies
Yes, I went to the cinema! This was a Soulwax tour movie of sorts. It was fun to watch this with a crowd. Some really fun moments. Conclusion: I'm so happy I'm not them, all this touring and whatever would completely destroy me. They must be on some heavy drugs.

Tricky
Only saw the last couple of songs, didn't really convice me.

Ian Brown
I liked this, but it would have been better to put it later on the day. 6PM on a very sunny day isn't really the time for melancholic music.

Hot Chip
Their albums didn't really convince me, but live, they're great. Ready for the floor is awesome of course. And they did a cover of Nothing compares 2 U. Weird, but great!

Sebastian
I felt like more dancing (and avoiding Editors, having seen them once too many already), so to the Boiler Room I went! And he was great. He played Daft Punk - Rollin' & Scratchin' , and for that he's one of my favourite DJ's ever.

Roisin Murphy
I got quite close to the stage, but sorta wish I hadn't, because everyone there was simply waiting for The Killers. Boring. Still had a good time, although her performance wasn't as good as the one she gave in the AB last year.

Flaming Lips
Saw them 2 months ago, this was exactly the same show, only a bit shorter. I have to be honest and say I can't stand the main guy ("c'mon guys, c'mon, c'mon motherfuckers, c'mon! c'mon!" between every damn song), but they obviously have some great songs (Do you realise, Yoshimi, Yeah yeah yeah song) and a good show.

The Killers
Not a fan, and especially not a fan of their fans! (see above) But I actually enjoyed their performance, especially the slower parts (Sam's town). I still didn't stay the entire gig, but I can understand people loving them.

Day 2:

Lightspeed Champion
Started 10 minutes too late (unforgivable!), but they get bonus points for having a female drummer. And the music really wasn't bad at all. And anyone playing the Star Wars theme can't be bad.

Girls In Hawaii
Really one of the best belgian bands around.

Michael Franti & Spearhead
I think I've seen them several times before, because I recognised a few songs! Michael Franti is such a hippie though. But a great guy. You have to see them at least once in your life.

The Dø
Pretty good. Good vocalist, and On my shoulders is a great song.

Los Campesinos!
I think everyone who saw them can describe the gig with one of their song titles: You! Me! Dancing!

Foals
Not bad, not bad at all!

Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Didn't really do anything for me. Was expecting more from them.

Tim Vanhamel
I'm not familiar with his solo stuff, but it sounded quite good. Much, much softer than Millionaire, but that's not a bad thing.

Robyn
One of the pleasant surprises of the festival for me. Good performance, great voice, and With every heartbeat was so good, really.

Erol Alkan
Not my thing at all.

The Breeders
Only saw a short bit of this, but it didn't sound too bad.

Within Temptation
Another band I seen too many times already (they seem to be at PP every damn year!), but I have to admit I actually like Mother earth and Ice queen. Go ahead, make fun of me.

Blood Red Shoes
Great gig, I'm happy I chose them over Alphabeat.

Metallica
Not a fan (how many times have I said this already in this review?), but they somewhat entertained me. Fire geisers, wooo!!!! I planned to see them for an hour or something, but they started 20 minutes late so I only stayed half an hour longer.

Day 3:

Lykke Li
Yum. Really the best music I heard at the festival. Her performance wasn't that great or anything, but she has a good band, who played a lot of instruments. All the hits sounded great as well.

The Whip
Opening with Daft Punk - Prime time of your life raises exceptations that no-one can fulfill. Sorry guys, you ruined it for yourself.

Late of the Pier
Then this was a lot better, much more varied, and the main guy reminded me of Courtney from Dandy Warhols at times.

The National
Another hyped band, while they really just looked and sounded like Editors minus piano plus saxophone. Start writing your hatemail now!

Yelle
This was supposed to be my lol gig of the festival, and it still was most of the time, but then that super-awesome version of A cause des garçons kicked in. It was like Justice suddenly took over.

Plain White T's
Now this was the lol gig of the festival! I had so much fun laughing with the lyrics of "write you a love song" or something, and the singer saying "this one is for the girls!" Well duh, I don't think you have any male fans.

dan le sac Vs. Scroobius Pip
"does anyone here like hip hop? You do? Don't bother, it's all rubbish!" I don't like hip hop, but I did like this performance. Thumbs up.

MGMT
Too damn crowded -_- And they did a really really short gig compared to that at Werchter. Hmm. And let's be honest here: they have some great songs (Time to pretend, Electric feel, kids) but live, they're really not that great.

Manic Street Preachers
I only know one song, and they actually played it right at the end: If you tolerate this, your children will be next. Respect, they were far better live than I thought.

dresden dolls
Where did all the people go? They were seriously missing out, because Dresden Dolls did another great performance. As always, really.

Bloc Party
Another main stage artist I ended up enjoying, what the hell? I saw them a couple of years ago in the club, and didn't really like them, but now they were quite good. Kele must have had "how to become a good frontman" lessons since the last gig.

Jamie Lidell
What a sexy party this was. I danced, and if there were any single girls around me, I would've so impressed them with my sensual dancing. Really! But seriously, I enjoyed this gig so, so much.

Simian Mobile Disco
And thanks to Jamie being so great, I missed most of this. No regrets, this sounded good but also very cliché, it was like The Whip was playing again, exactly the same.

2 Many DJ's
I heard Fischerspooner - Emerge, and cursed myself for not wearing my Fischerspooner t-shirt haha. There were far too many people there, gah.

Dr. Lektroluv
Which is why I only stayed about 20 minutes for this. And the sound was pretty horrible too. I only really recognised Dance en france (Fischerspooner, again), the rest just sounded all the same. Yuck. Still buying the album of this set though, I'm a Lektroluv fanboy, believe it or not.

We Are Scientists
Saw them earlier this year, and they're really not that bad. Highly unoriginal of course, but still entertaining.

Soulwax
meh.

Crystal Castles
meh.

Elbow
Crap, I only realised I was tired of all the dance stuff when I stumbled into the marquee to see this. Only saw the last 10 minutes, wish I saw more.


Conclusion: there weren't that many personal highlights for me, but overall, it was another great edition. I mean, you can complain about not having enough real headliners and all that, but Pukkelpop always has more than enough great bands. You just have to keep an open mind and explore (not like those overly static The Killers and Metallica fans).

This is also the first year that the weather was this great. Wow. And probably also the first year they only had 1, yes, one cancellation during the festival. This was my 6th year, and other years had far more cancellations and crap.

So, chances of me being at Pukkelpop 2009: high.

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tem365/sets/72157606420791046/