Bye bye, twenty ten

Source: ffffound.com

In the wee hours of 2010, here's my annual end-of-the-year post. However, no album top 50 this year, it was just too hard to pick! I could've made a top 100 if I wanted to. Therefore, here's a Spotify playlist I created, capturing 2010 in 201 songs.

Here's my top 10, in no particular order:


Arcade Fire - The Suburbs


Sleigh Bells - Treats


The Black Keys - Brothers


Balthazar - Applause


Yeasayer - Odd Blood


Tame Impala - Innerspeaker


Janelle Monáe - The Archandroid


Beach House - Teen Dream


Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest


Wolf Parade - Expo 86

Have a brilliant 2011 everyone!

Like a map with no ocean

My dear grandfather died this week. Tomorrow is the funeral. Christmas is going to be so strange this year.

New York Cares

After years and years of wanting to go there, I'm finally visiting New York. I'm going with a friend and we're leaving on Friday. That's tomorrow! So surreal. Anyway, to 'celebrate' or whatever, I made a mixtape. Yes, you probably guessed. This blog is becoming way too predictable.

A NY-mixtape is a thing I've been, in a way, working on for years as well. So now the time of wrapping up is finally here, I must say the result turned out pleasing but also rather surprising. Most of the featured artists are from New York, perhaps born or raised or even died there. The blend of old and new songs all have a certain almost melodramatic feel to them. The title was initially just a working title, taken from the Interpol song. But now that it's finished, it seems to fit the compilation rather well.


Picture by Ted Dwane.

NEW YORK CARES
1. The Strokes - New York City Cops
2. Ella Fitzgerald - Manhattan
3. Harlem Shakes - Niagara Falls
4. The Walkmen - 138th Street
5. Matt & Kim - I'll Take Us Home
6. Cat Power - Hard Times In New York Town (Bob Dylan Cover Peel Session)
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Yeah! New York
8. John Lennon - New York City (Rehearsal)
9. Beastie Boys - An Open Letter To NYC
10. Interpol - NYC
11. Vampire Weekend - M79
12. The Magnetic Fields - The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
13. Ol' Dirty Bastard - Brooklyn Zoo
14. LCD Soundsystem - New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down
15. Ramones - 53rd & 3rd
16. Jonathan Richman - Springtime in New York
17. Bishop Allen - Flight 180
18. Conor Oberst - NYC - Gone, Gone
19. The National - So Far Around The Bend
20. Julian Casablancas - Ludlow St.
21. Frank Sinatra - New York, New York

Bonus track: (yes, beyond corny, but I couldn't help it)
22. Jay-Z - Empire State of Mind (ft. Alicia Keys)

Also on Spotify (with limited availability).

Let's not fall apart

As if Tim Vanhamel wasn't perfect enough, he now is in a project that goes by the name Broken Glass Heroes, together with Pascal Deweze. Their first single Let's Not Fall Apart is the perfect tune for hot summer days and comes with a sweet, self-directed home video.

Art by Anneke

My friend Anneke Koster is an amazing illustrator from Amsterdam. She just graduated from art school and is now on her way to become famous! Here is some of my favourite work of hers:




(Wham! - Club Tropicana)






(an impression of Johnny Jordaan)




(embroidery)





And finally some work of her graduation project:









Her graduation exhibition is opened from 4-8 July at the Minerva Academy, Groningen.

A summer wasting

My exams are over (let's forget about that resit for a bit), the sun is shining like crazy and summer has officially begun: time for a mixtape!


Picture by Jen Gotch.

SUMMER SUPREME
1. Yeasayer - Sunrise
2. Modest Mouse - Dashboard
3. Nouvelle Vague - Blister in the Sun
4. Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream
5. Beyoncé - Crazy in Love (ft. Jay-Z)
6. Gotye - Learnalilgivinanlovin
7. Phoenix - Sometimes in a Fall
8. M.I.A. - It Takes a Muscle
9. Passion Pit - The Reeling
10. Broken Bells - The High Road
11. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Around the Bend
12. Girls - Lust for Life
13. Vampire Weekend - Run
14. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Bright Lit Blue Skies
15. The Drums - Submarine
16. The Very Best - Kamphopo
17. Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work
18. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - A Teenager in Love
19. Mayer Hawthorne - The Ills
20. Animal Collective - Fireworks

Also available on Spotify.

Dreaming of Another World

The Mystery Jets go dandy in their new video for the song 'Dreaming of Another World'. Their new album Serotonin will be released on the 5th of July.

Good weekend

Ah, the weekend. One of the few things I'm actually looking forward to in 'the adult life'. I've been trying hard to push it forward, sticking into college for another two years after graduating last summer. But having the weekend off, every weekend, is definitely something I could get used to.


Picture by Milo Vermeulen.

On Friday I saw Slagsmålsklubben, a crazy-sweet bunch of goofy Swedes and on Saturday: Yeasayer. Plenty of reasons to say 'Yea' there. And tonight I am going to see Owen Pallett perform in a church! I-am-excited!

I know it must sound incredibly corny, but the past few days were so... inspiring. I've had a little free time on my hands so I had the time to indulge myself in books and music and movies and tv and magazines and people and cities... Basically I'm a big spunge, absorbing all of it. Or maybe it's just springtime lurking, and the desperate need for change after the long, cold winter.

Last Thursday it had been exactly one year since I posted my first entry here. So happy birthday to... my blog? Speaking of blogs, I started another one, as an assignment for a course in uni. It's mainly about social media for now, but I'm exploring the topic of IT and organizations, which is what it needs to be about. In fact, we're obliged to use Twitter and Google Analytics as well. This blog can be found here: http://nikkie-media.blogspot.com/ and I'm acutally partly graded on the number of visitors I get, so please don't hesitate to pay a visit!

Romance is never boring

Romance is Boring is the title of the third album of Los Campesinos!, which will be released on February 1. A title that would normally appeal to any spinster like myself, however, in the case of this band, the romance is all around. They stole my heart back in 2006, when I received a couple of mp3's and gradually continued to impress me with their passion for making music (and playing it live in such a devoted manner) and their clever, witty lyrics.

I cannot emphasise enough that my body is a / Badly designed, poorly put together vessel / Harbouring these diminishing, so-called vital organs / I hope my heart goes first
(We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed)

Yesterday they played a sold out show in Rotown, Rotterdam. This also was the mainland-Europe introduction to Kim Campesinos, who replaced the former bandmember Aleks who left the band to return to her studies. She did quite well (although the sound was a bit off at times) and was received most enthousiastically by the men in the audience... Anyway. The crowd only went mental during the second song, which left me unprepared and caused me to spill my drink all over myself BUT, most importantly, Los Campesinos! played a great show, mixing older tunes like Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks and You! Me! Dancing! with songs off their second album and a couple of no-so-sneaky previews from Romance is Boring, according to the singing along (ty, internet leaks). One thing that I so love about this band, is how approachable they are. Singer Gareth and guitarist Neil entered the crowd several times, and despite selling out the venue, the band packed their gear by themselves and hung around long after most of the concert visitors left.



They'll be back around soon:
13 March: Gebäude 9, Cologne (D)
14 March: Melkweg, Amsterdam (NL)
18 March: Botanique, Brussels (BE)

They're also playing a free instore at Rough Trade East, Brick Lane, London on the 31st of January and doing a full UK tour in February. OR, for the quick Dutchies, they're playing in Groningen tonight at 21:50 at the Eurosonic Festival in Simplon.

Put the radiator on

Picture by William Hawkins.

It's cold. I know it, you know it, everyone in Europe knows it. In my humble 23 years on this planet, I don't think I've experienced more than three consecutive-ish weeks of snow, like now. In order to cuddle up next to the radiator to, I made a wintery mixtape last year, enjoy!

Tracklisting:
1. Sigur Rós - Hoppípolla
2. Belle and Sebastian - Winter Wooskie
3. The Smiths - Hand in Glove
4. Explosions in the Sky - Snow and Lights
5. Special Needs - Winter Gardens
6. Joy Division - Atmosphere
7. Sufjan Stevens - Sister Winter
8. Regina Spektor - 20 Years of Snow
9. The Long Winters - It'll Be a Breeze
10. Radiohead - Reckoner
11. Iron & Wine - Faded from the Winter
12. The National - Squalor Victoria
13. St. Vincent - We Put a Pearl in the Ground
14. Jens Lekman - The Cold Swedish Winter
15. Arcade Fire - Winter for a Year
16. Stars - Your Ex-Lover is Dead (Final Fantasy)
17. Matt Pond PA - Snow Day
18. Bright Eyes - If Winter Ends
19. Wolf Parade - This Heart's on Fire

Download HERE.

Obsessed with the mess that's America

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful NYE and that all your fingers and limbs are still intact. Definitely a great way to kick off 2010 with, the lovely Marina & the Diamonds ('and' or ampersand? I'm still unsure) released an acoustic version of her latest single Hollywood on Youtube, with a cosy and very stylish video:



She's performing at the Eurosonic festival in Groningen, next weekend and her debut album The Family Jewels will be released in February.