Last year NIN toured the US and South America with the Lights in the Sky Tour. Trent Reznor recorded some of these shows for a DVD/Blu-ray release in the near future. However, his old record company didn’t give permission.

Today however, Trent posted THIS on his website. All the HD(!) video material they recorded at 3 NIN shows is avalaible through Torrents. Trent encourages fans to make their own ‘DVD’. So if you’re good at video editing, give it a shot!!

Pretty much every big city in the Netherlands has his own famous nightclub/venue. Amsterdam has Paradiso/Melkweg. Utrecht has Tivoli.

Now, Rotterdam (2nd largest city in the Netherlands) has WATT.  A new venue with a concert hall, club room, café and even a restaurant. The first couple of months some amazing artists performed at WATT. Iggy Pop & The Stooges, Klaxons, Public Enemy, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and N*E*R*D.

But the best about this new venue is it’s environmantal part. All the toilets are flushed with rain water which is collected at the roof of the venue. The ‘flush parts’ of the toilets are transparent so you can see how much water you use. All the beverage servings systems are guided from one single system in the basement. This means they’ll have much lesser waste. No half-empty bottles any more!

The absolutely best part is the dancefloor! It produces energy! It uses your kinetic energy to produce power! AMAZING! The floor has been designed by students and the Sustainable Dance Club.  A lot of new clubs around the world have show interest in having such a dancefloor aswell. I’m not that technical but i’ll try to tell how the floor works. People dance on ‘boxes’. The top of this box will make a movement when you dance on it. The dynamo inside this box will transform this movement into power. Right now the power of the dancefloor is used for the LED lights al over the floor. However, people are working on new technologies to get even more power out of the dancefloor!

check out a video about the Dancefloor HERE!

A couple of weeks ago I posted about Bloc Party’s new single (Mercury).  They released and played the single on radio without announcing it. It was a warm suprise for all Bloc Party fans.

Now it’s getting even better. Last monday the band hosted a webchat where they told fans the third album ’Intimacy’ would be released the same week! Following  Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, The Raconteurs, and many others Bloc Party choose to release their new album over the internet, on really short notice.

What you pay for the download depends on where you live. US/Mexican/South America residents pay $10 for the digital download. For $20 you’ll get the download + the physical release. Check this site for all the details.

The physical release of ‘Intimacy’ will be out on October 28. According to the band this physical version will feature additional songs, which are not included on the digital version.

You can listen to new songs Mercury, One Month Off, Signs and Trojan Horse on the official Bloc Party MySpace.

Most of the Bloc Party fans already know this for a while, but last week Bloc Party released a new single called ‘Mercury‘. The day before the release their website mysteriously changed into a black/white countdown. When the countdown ended a message told us we should listen to Radio 1 (UK) that same evening. During the night Zane Low premiered the brand new Bloc Party song!
You can listen to the song on their Myspace or Official site. The single will get a physical release on August 3rd. The cd version features remixes by CSS, Flosstradamus and Hervé is in disarray. They even shot a really cool video for the song! Check it out!

The band is still working on their third album, which will be released at the end of the year!

It’s summer! Sun, beaches, convertibles, holidays and music festivals! I always visit the Hurricane Festival in Germany. Over the years some great acts have performed here, just click to see the line ups over the past years.

This year the festival had two well-known headliners. Radiohead and Foo Fighters. Beside booking famous alternative bands, the hurricane festival also books local bands and bands from all over the world. This year there were two mexican acts performing. Rodrigo y Gabriela and Panteón Rococó. Both performances were unique and amazing!

One of the best acts of the weekend were The Chemical Brothers. They played all their hits companied by one of the most amazing light shows i’ve ever seen. Check the video!

Yes, I know… It happens sometimes. You’re at a gig watching your favorite band. Somehow one of the bandmembers makes a mistake (slips, falls, etc.). Yes, really funny! (when he’s not seriously injured ofcourse!)

Thanks to the digital camera revolution and youtube it’s even funnier, because the whole world will see it again!

In this video you’ll see Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Queens Of The Stone Age) on the stage and BOOM! he falls!!!       Now, I know, it happens all the time. I just wanted to post this because Dave Grohl is THE man who knows how to handle a situation like that. Just by saying ‘What the f*ck was that!!’ and throwing away his $2000 gibson…

Priceless…

On March 2, Nine Inch Nails released an Instrumental album (Ghosts) almost for free. You could choose a couple of different options how to buy the album. Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) followed Radiohead in a new way to release music using the internet.

Today, NIN suprised me again by releasing a brand new album for free! Just go to http://theslip.nin.com/. All you have to do is enter your emailadress and you will be sent a download link where you can choose in which quality you want to download the album. The download comes with a PDF file containing artwork and credits.

I wish more bands would release their albums like this, but please note that Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are in a situation where they don’t need the money from record labels anymore, to release their music.

The Kooks - Jackie Big Tits (Melkweg, Amsterdam)

The Kooks released their debut album Inside In, Inside Out the same day as the Arctic Monkeys debut album. Not a really smart move, but somehow they managed to sell 1.5 million copies. On the day of this gig they released their much anticipated second album Konk.

After a couple of listenings into Konk, I really liked it, so I was really looking forward to the show. The show sold out in 30 minutes, so it was packed. Support act Get Cape Wear Cape Fly were pretty fun. You should check out their myspace, even if it’s just for the amazing band name.

The Kooks started their set with See The World, which really got the crowd going, esspecially when they played new single Always Where I Need To Be. They played almost all the songs from Inside In, Inside Out, but also songs from Konk. The band was really suprised about the postive reactions from the crowd (especially during See The Sun and Do You Wanna). Perhaps they forgot Konk found it´s way on the internet one month(!) before the release date.

The Kooks are pretty fun to watch. They’re really good musicians. They know how to handle the crowd. The one annoying thing about the show were all the little girls at the front who think that Luke Pritchard (lead singer) is the new Elvis. Every time he moved towards them they started screaming like they just won the lottery.

Everyone seemed really pleased by their performance. With a bag full of new tunes and good live shows, The Kooks have a bright future!

See you at the festivals!