Time to sumuraize the festival with some pictures and a majestic cathedral of sound. That’s what many people associate with SPIRITUALIZED. Or, as bandleader Jason Pierce put it to New York Times last year when describing the latest album "And Nothing Hurt": “My original line, on the top of the recording list, was that it would sound like something that came from Columbia studios, but broadcast from a satellite.” There’s more to it though. For example, an almost reckless dedication, a deep understanding of music history that goes way beyond rock, affectionate songwriting and, of course, an unmistakable sense of space.
In 1992 SPIRITUALIZED, formed as an off-shot from SPACEMEN 3, released their debut album "Lazer Guided Melodies". In a review Melody Maker wrote: “The sound of heaven … at times, SPIRITUALIZED are making 21st Century gospel.” Seven more albums have followed, including 1997 classic "Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space" where they collaborated with The London Community Gospel Choir and New Orleans voodoo funk maestro Dr. John.
Spiritualized did perform at 20.20 on Linné, Thursday Aug 8.
Here are some pictures from the festival, enjoy!
Boneyard Hawaii Party
Flamingo Stage
Idles live at Linné
Site Team
Daniel Norgren
Pharoah Sanders
Khruangbin
Erykah Badu
V**gra Boys
The Cure
The Cure
Confetti
Héloïse Letissier of Christine and the Queens
Pyro
Solange
Erykah Badu
Fence Cover Balans
Love
Palm Beer
Art
Art
Today's tune "I Think I'm In Love" live at Metro Theatre in Sydney on 16 January 2009, the tune is taken from the third studio album "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space", released on 16 June 1997. The album features guest appearances from the Balanescu Quartet, The London Community Gospel Choir and Dr. John. The album's title is from the philosophical novel Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder, the context being:
Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence. Some of them fall off, but others cling on desperately and yell at the people nestling deep in the snug softness, stuffing themselves with delicious food and drink. 'Ladies and Gentlemen,' they yell, 'we are floating in space!' But none of the people down there care.
A collaboration out of the ordinary. An unusual but no less fruitful fusion. We know Amadou + Mariam as something of musical ambassadors for Mali and also among the most joyful acts you can experience live. Amadou Bagayoko lost his vision in his teens and Mariam Doumbia became blind as a child. The couple married in 1980 and started playing music together three years later. The music they make are very inclusive and embraces styles from all over the world, yet it never fail to expose Mali-blues for the world. In 2007 Amadou + Mariam were part of Damon Albarn’s project and tour Africa Express. On recordings the duo has worked together with Albarn, Manu Chao, Santigold and TV On The Radio, to name just a few.
If you think THE ROLLING STONES have been around for a while, they’re rookies compared to THE BLIND BOYS OF ALABAMA. This year the gospel ensemble celebrate their 80th anniversary. The current line-up hasn’t been part of the whole journey from then to now, but member Jimmy Carter joined in 1944 (founder Clarence Fountain held on until 2018, when he died of complications from diabetes). The group is living American music history, and so much more. In the sixties they sang at rallies for the civil rights movement, they have performed at the White House, influenced several generations of r’n’b/soul singers and collaborated with everyone from Bon Iver and Prince to Mavis Staples and Lou Reed. At Way Out West they did perform in the company of Amadou + Mariam. And it was like nothing else.
Amadou & Mariam are a musical duo from Mali, composed of the Bamako-born couple Amadou Bagayoko (guitar and vocals) (born 24 October 1954) and Mariam Doumbia (vocals) (born 15 April 1958).
The Blind Boys of Alabama (or simply Blind Boys of Alabama) is an American five-time Grammy Award-winning gospel group who first sang together in 1939. The Blind Boys have toured for eight decades and created an extensive discography. In 2016 the on-stage configuration of the group consisted of eight people: four blind singers—Jimmy Carter, Ben Moore, Eric "Ricky" McKinnie, Paul Beasley – guitarist and musical director Joey Williams, and a keyboardist, a bass guitarist, and a drummer.
The Blind Boys of Alabama sing mainly spiritually uplifting songs, as well as giving encouragement to those with disabilities. Blind group member Ricky McKinnie said "Our disability doesn't have to be a handicap. It's not about what you can't do. It's about what you do. And what we do is sing good gospel music."
Today's tune "Bamako To Birmingham" is a colloboration between the acts.
The blues runs deep in Daniel Norgren. It flows from his heart, to every part of his body, thru any instrument and out into the world. In his early concerts Daniel proved this whole-body-blues theory by playing guitar, drums, bells, harmonica, horn and singing – all at the the same time! Nowadays he plays just one guitar, or sometimes a piano, at a time but the dirty blues is still strong in him. Even if it has picked up a side order of gospel, country, hymns and good old rock & roll on the way. His latest album Wooh Dang was released back in April and was Norgren’s first worldwide release. The whole thing was recorded in an old house from the 19th century near his home in south-western Sweden together with the band consisting of Anders Grahn (bass), Erik Berntsson (drums) och Andreas Filipsson (guitar and banjo) who will all join Daniel on stage during his summer tour.
The performance at Way Out West was Daniel Norgrens only festival show in Sweden this summer and hey, he surely delivered a magic hour.
Today's tune "Moonshine Got Me" taken from the album "Buck". The video clip is an amateur footage shot at Skråen/Nordkraft in Aalborg, Denmark - 30th Oktober 2011
The hits and the classics are so many that even a three and a half hour long gig feel too short and fifteen encores are way too few. By now it is also impossible to reimagine pop music – or pop culture – without those cobwebbed forests of hair from Crawley. A quick glance might give the impression that THE CURE is one of music history’s most consistent bands: after all they’ve always looked the same, no matter the line-up. More than anyone else they’ve defined the goth look. But if you think just a little bit further or if you sit down with their enormous song catalogue and really listen to it, you’ll soon realize that this is a far more restless and adventurous band than they get credit for. There is no small span between, say, "A Forest" and "Let’s Go To Bed" or between "Shake Dog Shake" and "Lovesong". You can go on like that for quite some time and before you know it you’ll get an understanding why it takes marathon-long concerts to do all justice.
Foto by Micke Sandström at Way Out West 2019
THE CURE did a great show in Slottsskogen yesterday, good sound, cool lightning and pretty happy Robert Smith.
THE CURE was recently elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but to many of us Robert Smith and his crew have always had a sacred place in rock music’s most holy rooms. They’ve sold about thirty million albums. Their singles discography is extremely hard to match. Then there’s all those unforgettable music videos. Their iconic style and creative use of lipstick. And: they have a new album on its way, their first in a decade. Robert Smith has described it as ”incredibly intense” and it is planned to be released for, yep, Halloween.
Today's tune "Friday I'm in Love" is a song by British rock band THE CURE. It is the second single taken from the album Wish (1992), and was a worldwide hit. It won the award for European Viewer's Choice for Best Music Video at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards.
Robert Smith, the song's primary writer, described it in 1992 as both "a throw your hands in the air, let's get happy kind of record" and "a very naïve, happy type of pop song."
Upcoming Shows
11 AUG 2019 FLOW FESTIVAL Helsinki Finland
16 AUG 2019 GLASGOW SUMMER SESSIONS Glasgow United Kingdom
23 AUG 2019 ROCK EN SEINE Paris France
31 AUG 2019 PASADENA DAYDREAM FESTIVAL Pasadena United States
05 OCT 2019 AUSTIN CITY LIMITS Austin United States
12 OCT 2019 AUSTIN CITY LIMITS Austin United States
Badder than the most. The undisputed queen of neo-soul. One of those voices you’ll never forget. Also actor, activist, icon. Erykah Badu is many things, most of all she’s hard to ignore and always interesting – musically, philosophically or in a stylistic sense. Erykah Badu played at the very first Way Out West festival in 2007. And even though she hasn’t released an album since 2010, she’s no less relevant or influential now. After all, she’s Erykah Badu. The rest of us aren’t.
Erykah Badu, born and raised in Dallas, made herself a name in the late 1990’s–early 2000’s as a member of the musical collective Soulquarians, who mixed spiritual soul sounds and hip-hop vibes. D’Angelo, Common, Talib Kweli, Q-Tip, Mos Def, the Roots drummer Questlove and now deceased jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove were also part of the crew. On debut album Baduizm in 1997 she appeared as a fully formed artist and the record was a huge success that also won a Grammy for Best R&B Album. Mama’s Gun came three years later, and in The Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau wrote: “Maybe her sources are autobiographical, but she’s here to inspire all black-identified women and the men who admire them.”
Erykah Badu will perform at 20.00 on Flamingo, Saturday Aug 10.
Today's tune "Didn't Cha Know?" is the second single from singer Erykah Badu's 2000 album "Mama's Gun". The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for 2001.
"Didn't Cha Know?" was produced by fellow Soulquarian member J Dilla, and features a sample from the Tarika Blue recording "Dreamflower", which was used without prior permission from the group. A settlement fee was reached with the group outside of court.
Some call it street blues; smart and dumb at the same time, sad, lonely but always with a smirk and a unique knack for deadpan funny but grim storytelling. Stockholm punk rockers V**gra Boys make great music, sort of like The Stooges meets The Birthday Party, or Devo cross-pollinated with Mark E Smith’s Fall – it might not be for everyone, but like Gibby said: ‘There’s a time to shit and a time for god, the last shit I took was pretty fucking odd’. Grimey, acid highway full throttle; V**gra Boys debut album ‘Street Worms’ released last year is an interesting ride as vocalist Sebastian Murphy lets you ride shotgun while this trip takes you blazing to the top of a mountain before speeding right back down to the basement again. The bass line ferociously drives the car and the drums make sure you stay on the road – this is one of those trips where you sporadically wake up and find yourself in strange situations, wondering how the f*ck you got there.
V**gra Boys will perform at 23.00 on Linné, Saturday, Aug 10.
Today's tune "Just Like You" is taken from the debut studio album "Street Worms" by Swedish post-punk band, V**gra Boys. The album was released on 28 September 2018 through YEAR0001.
If you don’t get blown away by IDLES, you may not get blown away by anything. This goes beyond whether you’re into rock or not. Rock it is, though. Spastic and rhythmical, captivating and polemic, intense and edgy in a postpunk sense, humorous and tragic, smart and dumb, exhilarated and pissed off, vulnerable and mean as hell, brave and scared shitless. IDLES question themselves, masculinity and their homeland, takes a stranglehold on nationalism and increasing narrowness, do not hold back all because why would they? It’s like they’re on a mission to recapture the concept of ”honesty” from those dark forces who claim to ”tell it like it is”. The underlying violence in the band’s music does actually express a concern that society no longer can offer.
Just in time for their tenth anniversary, things look good for the Bristol quintet. Lead vocalist Joe Talbot owns an ability to transform personal grief into universal anthems that attack all the listener’s senses and it’s done with full force on Joy As An Act Of Resistance, the band’s second album that was released last year. Solomon Burke’s soul classic Cry To Me sure is impeccable but the intensity IDLES bring into their version make the song something completely different than we’re used to. That’s just how it is with IDLES. Without preaching and without appearing superior they make you want to revalue, they make you want to change, they see every human as a hope and as an asset rather than a burden. A lot of people have a lot to learn from them.
IDLES did perform at 15.50 on Linné, Thursday Aug 8. Awesome show!
IDLES, are an English punk rock band formed in Bristol in 2009. Their debut album, Brutalism, was released in 2017 to critical acclaim, as was their second album Joy as an Act of Resistance in 2018.
Today's tune "Mother" is taken from the debut album "Brutalism", released in March 2017.
The video was shot at Dilston Grove, one of CGP London's 2 galleries in the heart of Southwark Park in south London. CGP is an artist-led gallery founded in 1984 by The Bermondsey Artists' Group.
They commission major artworks by artists at all stages of their career. It's a vital part of London's art scene offering space and support that no-one else can across two stunning galleries.
Its an amazing cavernous raw space that hosts a lot of performance, music and live art. They rent it out in between shows to get the crucial funding they need to keep supporting artists. There's nowhere quite like it!
Dilston is one of the first poured concrete structures in the UK, built in 1909 by Cambridge University. It had been derelict since the 60s until the gallery took it on. There'd been a mission church on that site since 1896 after Bishop of Rochester, Edward Stuart TALBOT decided Cambridge should have a post in South London to support the poor.
