Visited Thu 27 May – The Temper Trap, The Kissaway Trail @ Melkweg yesterday. Wasn't too impressed - had an enjoyable evening, but it was a bit tame. Obviously I saw a band on stage that had grown to solid music machine, but there weren't much extra's in the concert that set it apart from their album.

It struck me at some point that instead of deciding each day which of their songs they would play that night, Temper Trap had only to decide in which order they wanted to play the songs. I tried to dig up from memory…

Fri 27 Nov – The Tragically Hip

As a Hip concert is always worth your money, I wasn't expecting that they would surprise me. I've seen them live maybe 6 or 7 times, and maybe once they were slightly disappointing, but the other appearances ranged from quite good to good. But they outdid themselves this time.

I'm not sure what the difference was - but it sure sounded different. Maybe it was their last record. Although I can't say that I like it, live the songs from this album may have added a bit more mellow tone, which did the…

My favorite Dutch music magazine, Oor, this month published their top 100 of the years 'zero'. For this, they asked all music journalist to compose their own favorite top 10. As they didn't ask me, I decided to compile my own. As this is my own list, I took the liberty to compile a list of fourteen. Here goes.

1. Radiohead - Kid A
I was very surprised to see they didn't choose Kid A as the number 1, but chose The Strokes' Is This It instead. A fine album, but nowhere near as influential and groundbreaking as this…

The frequency of my writing really doesn't match the frequency of my downloads… so I'm probably missing out on a lot of stuff. But here are some gems again.

1. Kyteman - The Hermit Sessions.
I prefer them playing live, as they seem to incorporate more jazz influences then, but still good stuff. I actually bought this on CD.

2. Muse - The Resistance.
Sheer bombastic brilliance.

3. The xx - XX.
Moody, scary, minimal. Very interesting.

4. White Denim - Fits.
I never seem to grasp what garage rock means - but this is Cream…

I neglected my last.fm journal for a while, so I'm going to need to catch up. These aren't all Emusic downloads since February, but the ones I've got to tell the most about.

- TV On The Radio - Young Liars.
EP. I've got to get all music by them. This is not outstanding though.

- Screaming Trees - Clairvoyance.
Also to complete my collection. I prefer Mark Lanegan's solo work.

- Daniel Lohues - Allennig III.
The third part of his solo series about the seasons. Good song writing, and especially interesting for Dutch speakers.…

Thu 7 May – The Veils, Connan Mockasin

I always wonder, how someone apparently so shy, is able to climb a stage with his songs and perform them before an audience. Finn Andrews, the frontman of The Veils, is such a person. And his personality was a burden on the gig as well as a huge advantage.

Andrews doesn't really communicate with the audience, only through the music. That's not necessarily a problem, but continuously asking "Hows it going" followed by a sheepish smile, will at some point be irritating. The concert suffered from this, and the fact that…

Tue 24 Mar – Amadou & Mariam

dirkpaul at an African concert? Yes, it was my first, but you shouldn't be too suprised. Next month I'll be seeing Orchestre Baobab, so there. ;-)

And I had a great night. There were a few surprises: a synth player, who could be left out in my opinion, and the sound being much louder and much more European than I had anticipated. But it was dance, dance, dance. Very good band as well.

I didn't know many of their tunes, but some have gotten into my head. From the couple, Amadou made…

Kind of a returning tradition, I went to see Fri 20 Mar – The Presidents of the United States of America in Paradiso. Had a great night. Last time I saw them was - I think, might be 2004 - in 2005 at the same venue. When you go to see PUSA, you know what you are getting - party. And this time it was no different.

What struck me was that they played quite some old material - I don't really mind, as I think the best stuff still is from their debut in '95. I think they played…

Yesterday, in Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant (in Dutch) a review appeared of a Kings of Leon gig in the Netherlands. And that article pretty much summed up my feelings about them.

I own 3 albums of the Kings: Youth and Young Manhood, Aha Shake Heartbreak and Only By the Night. One reason I liked them in the beginning, was their charming amateurism - it wasn't perfect, but it tasted sooooo nice. When I first heard Sex on Fire, I thought, great track, and went out to buy the album. Came back disappointed.

Why? Because I like some…

Better late than never:

1. Iron And Wine / Calexico - In The Reins.
Sounds like a regular Calexico album to me - and that's a compliment.

2. De Staat - Wait For Evolution.
Debut album for this Dutch rock band. Queens of the Stone Age for the dancefloor.

3. Ataxia - Automatic Writing.
Filling up a hole in my John Frusciante collection. Looking forward to his new solo, which was just released.

4. Presidents of the USA - These Are The Good Times People.
When I visit their gig in March I need to be…