Norway’s premier power pop outfit, I Was A King recently completed a U.S. tour to promote their new self-titled record. We managed to catch them playing a couple of tracks during soundcheck at Brooklyn’s Union Hall. They had played a live acoustic set on my East Village Radio show a couple of nights earlier and I instantly fell for their hook laden and melodious tunes. They only had a short soundcheck as comedian Eugene Mirman was due to do a show in the same space imminently. Thus they played a couple of quick songs for us, the first being a stripped down version of Breathe.
Next up is Step Aside, with bass and drums re-entering the mix.
In light of the recent news of the sale of Swedish file sharing giant The Pirate Bay (see press realese) it’s worth taking another look at TV8’s coverage of gogoyoko, the future of legal music download and the trial against The Pirate Bay (including an interview with one of the founders, Peter Sunde, and the lawyer of the American film industry Monique Wadsted).
Some recent coverage on gogoyoko from Norway. Den Lille Kassetten music blog covers the social network aspects of the site and how artists can sell new music directly to the fans, right after they made it and decide the price of it. Music fra Norge features another article, “Alternatvies to PirateBay and the music industry” where Tore Stemland claims that despite the jungle of music sites and services out there, positive things are happening and artists and music fans should take a look at what gogoyoko has to offer.
Rhode Island’s The Low Anthem have been riding a wave of critical acclaim of late. The band recently reissued their 2009 LP Oh My God, Charlie Darwin LP on Nonesuch and were in New York after playing at the Bonnaroo Festival in Tennessee.
We had originally planned to shoot a song backstage at the Bowery Ballroom (to circumvent the venue’s $500 fee for filming bands during soundcheck) but time got away from us. We reconvened the following day between Ben’s recording sessions in an Upper East Side courtyard. Jeff folded out his WWI portable pump organ and with the minimum of accompanying instrumentation the band ran through a majestic acoustic version of To The Ghosts Who Write History Books.
More good press coming in from Sweden this month. Including an article in Computer Sweden, covering some of the similarities between gogoyoko and eBay, and another one in one of Sweden’s biggest IT & business sites; IT24.se. Let’s hope Apprentice Kidgets this translated in the comment section, for all of us who don’t understand the Swedish.
Ett Ebay för musik
“An Ebay for music”
Computer Sweden. Linus Larsson, 2009-05-06
Mames Babegenush was another Vincent Moon tip. They are a pretty damn accomplished group of young musicians having performed at none other than Carnegie Hall in NYC. When I met up with them they’d just come off stage after playing a sweat soaked show in one of Århus Musikhuset’s ballrooms. I’d managed to recruit Munich’s Mikael Kærsgaard to do sound for this, the last of my last of 9 live shoots that day. Luckily for us Mikael had a rehearsal studio in the building so we hastily set up and had Mames Babegenush run through a medley consisting of La Luna and Moldovenyaska. The surroundings are not the most picturesque or inspiring but the boys rose above such aesthetic concerns and put on a great show.
I met Mads Mouritz through his lady friend and Icelandic musical wonder, Dísa at a Crunchy Frog showcase and found him to be a highly entertaining fellow. We arranged for him to run through a song the next afternoon and managed to find a quiet spot in Annettes Sandwich’s back garden. So here’s Mads entertaining the munching lunchtime crowd. I’ve become a rather big fan of his music since and I reckon you should check him out too!
Maria Timm continues our smash-and-grab auditorium hijack sessions from the Spot Festival. With the precedent set we knew the Musikhuset backstage crew and they welcomed us back like old hands. Maria and her band run through an acoustic rendition of Dirty Place, the opening track off her debut album The Plan.
After playing at the past couple of Spot Festivals, Århus’ Munich sat out the 2009 edition. We first came to know the band via their summer hit The Young Ones. We caught up with Mikael Kærsgaard, the band’s songwriter and front man who ran through an acoustic rendition of an unreleased track that’s set to feature on the band’s forthcoming record.
In between shooting gogoyoko’s off-venue program on LYNfabrikken’s rooftop, we were busy shooting 6 one-off performances with bands in and around the SPOT Festival grounds in Århus. We present for you now the first two of these – choir of young believers and Taxi Taxi!
My friend Vincent Moon tipped me off to choir of young believers in the lead up to SPOT as he had been shooting in Copenhagen before the Festival. He had recently shot a dazzling performance by a female experimental choir Valby Vokal Gruppe which features two of the members of choir of young believers. The band had parked their tour bus by an abandoned rail yard and had acquainted themselves with the Christiania-type community of squatters who are transforming the space. They had spotted a slightly out of tune piano in their travels around the space and suggested it as a good spot to shoot. We only had a brief time window so the group took their positions and and went straight into Riot from their E.P. Burn The Flag.
I ran into Rolling Stone’s resident Scandophile David Fricke later that night and he was raving about choir of young believers after catching their festival performance. Along with the obligatory stash of 70’s Danish vinyl he’d dug up, Fricke had also managed to track down a double-vinyl copy of the band’s new album This Is For The White In Your Eyes and was banging on about it’s beautiful design and artwork. High praise.
The gogoyoko folks had been enjoying the debut E.P. by Stockholm’s Taxi Taxi! for some time and were keen for me to shoot a performance by twin sisters Miriam and Johanna Eriksson Berhan. The duo have the good fortune to be on the stellar Rumraket label which is run by their manager, Efterklang’s Rasmus Stolberg and he was happy to to have the band sing for us.
The only issue was finding a suitably quiet venue. With the wind whipping around outside and the din of restless beer fueling festival goers inside it was proving rather difficult until I decided to requisition an entire theater for our use. As this was Friday and I was new to the venues I was unaware that there were many smaller venues in the Musikhuset. I noticed that the second largest theater was open with the spotlights on and Persian carpet laid. Ready for showtime I thought, and using considerable enterprising spirit I had a few burly Icelandic mates close and guard the entry doors and had Miriam and Johanna set themselves up on the stage.
Just as we started shooting the stage crew began hauling a grand piano in from backstage. From experience in these situations I realize that you just have to own it and I politely informed them that Taxi Taxi! were checking the acoustics before their afternoon show in the theater. They happily agreed to come back in 10 minutes by which time we had shot our two videos. Here is the first, Ripest Fruit.
Next up from gogoyoko’s LYNfabrikken rooftop sessions are Århus natives The Green Lives. What you see here unbelievably is the band’s acoustic debut. For mine they came off as pro’s and their session ending set was arguably the best received and attended of the afternoon. The band is getting some deserved buzz at the moment and are on a roll coming out of Spot. Here’s their lovely acoustic rendition of Home.
Faroese indie pop sensation Høgni kicked off the afternoon of shows at LYNfabrikken performing tunes from his fêted new album Haré! Haré. Joining him is Brandur Jacobsen, who also plays in the bluesy Crawling Blue and Orka’s Jens L. Thomsen. Interestingly, Høgni and Jens were the rhythm section for Clickhaze, with Høgni on drums, Jens on bass and Eivör Pálsdóttir on vocals. Here’s Høgni and the boys running through Burstin’ Bubble.
Shitty rainy nights are perfect for catching a show at the local movie house. My mate Ben sent over the trailer for a new documentary called Anvil! The Story of Anvil and said my local East Village cinema was screening a one-off show . I’ve never been a metal man but I love a good story and this one looked like a peach. We arrived at the box office just shy of the 10pm showtime only to be told that the session was sold out. It was then that I spotted Robb Reiner, Anvil’s drummer who said that the band is playing after the screening.
Suddenly I had a near hysterical need to be in on this event. I spied Ben looking over the publicists’ shoulder at the VIP list. At this juncture I should to inform you that I’m Australian (read: criminally trained mind) and he’s English (read: dodgy). He tells me that the only name he’s been able to glean from the list is Sebastian Bach. I’m always up for a blag and asked the publicist whether she believed that I was Sebastian Bach. As she’s furiously looking through the VIP list to find his name blissfully unaware that I was not in fact captain spandex an English bloke who was obviously impressed by our enterprising spirit gave us a cheeky grin and passed us a couple of free tickets. It turns out that our ticket angel was the film’s Director, Sacha Gervasi who when introducing his film says that the first time he saw Anvil play he had to graft his way into their sold out show. Ben leans over and whispers “The lord loves a trier”. Amen to that.
As the credits begin to roll at the end of the film the crunchy squeals of speed metal envelop the room as Anvil begin their 30-minute live set. I managed to scoot down to the stage floor and catch the action up close. Here’s what I managed to catch on my dodgy cell phone. What you see here is a glimpse of the sincerity and passion that has enabled this remarkable band to get their (belatedly) deserved plaudits.
It’s not every day that the likes of Helena Christensen and Chris Martin are mingling in the foyer of your local theater after a show. I managed to glad hand Lips on my way out and after congratulating him on the show joked that it was good to see that he’d pulled the Danish supermodel. “Helena Christensen” he said. “I have no idea who she is”. Perfect.
Do yourself a favor – go and see this film. Tell your friends to see this film. They will like you more as a result. I’ve seen a few music documentaries in my time but this tops the lot. It’s majestic. Better still after seeing Anvil play I’m a newly minted metal man. Wrok on!
What’s better than a cool beer, the sun beating down on you and great live music on the rooftops of Århus? Well, that’s rhetorical question, innit?
We were graced with the presence of five bands playing for gogoyoko during a sunny Saturday afternoon at the SPOT Festival and we’re proud to feature footage from the event here on our blog.
First off is The State, The Market and the DJ (also known as SMDJ). Normally a quartet but on the rooftop terrace of LYNfabrikken they played short of a drummer, creating a fragile and tense atmosphere that saw mothers hushing their kids and people listening intently to the group’s brilliant vocals. SMDJ recently released their debut album /New Speak/. Have a look at the video and listen to one of their songs “1981-1990” they so kindly submitted to our blog player. Keep an eye on this space as the album will be available on gogoyoko in near future.
Next up is Norwegian indie darling Hanne Hukkelberg playing the track Seventeen from her third full-length LP Blood From a Stone. Hanne also brought a stripped down version of her full touring band which made for a uniquely compelling set.
We’ll be bringing you two more performances from LYNfabrikken’s roof on Wednesday – The Green Lives and Høgni.
These artists have absolutely nothing in common except not having a record contract. Why they don’t is beyond me. Will someone please sign them and do the world a favor?
Have a listen to their tunes. Jessie’s is called “King Of Villains” and the We Are Animal track is called “1268″.
gogoyoko has received some nice coverage in the Swedish press lately. In his article for Dagens Industri, one of the country’s biggest daily, journalist Carl-Johan Lejland explains how gogoyoko plans to strengthen the relationship between the artists and the music fan – and provide artists with greater control over how their music is sold.
Hopefully we can get some of this translated for the blog, but until than;
This Friday, May 29th (tomorrow) gogoyoko in co-operation with The Reykjavík Grapevine plays host to yet another evening of the über-hip concert series gogoyoko Presents: Grapevine Grand Rock.
We get an established band to curate the night, which serves as an exciting melting pot of genre-crossing.
This time, Iceland’s main-stay in rock, kimono, headlines the night with opening acts Rökkurró and Me, The Slumbering Napoleon. kimono is best described as Fugazi meets Fleetwood Mac on steroids, while Rökkurró’s sound is more folky and genuinely Icelandic. Me, The Slumbering Napoleon mix up a leathal cocktail of Polvo and I’m Being Good. Stop-and-go math rock
Incidentally, you can find songs with kimono and Rökkurró in our blog player, while MTSN have yet to produce a recording. I’m promised that’s gonna change this summer.
On May 1st we had a small party at Jacobsen, Reykjavik in celebration of our beta launch in Iceland.
We invited the artists that have been working with us in alpha-mode, a great bunch of talented people, along with our friends and allies. It was a great night that we (or most of us) will never forget.
Valdís Thor took the photos for us and we would like to share those with you.
Check out these cool songs by artists that support gogoyoko:
About
gogoyoko is a fair play social music marketplace, where artists and music fans can transact and interact. We’re an online music shop, but also so much more.
Artists
We do not only offer artists a revolutionary cut from their music sales and revenue from streaming. We provide them with the platform to create their online destination and manage everything themselves; the sale, promotion and distribution of their music, without the use of middlemen.
Fans
Music fans are provided with the tool to discover, stream or buy and download music straight from the source. They can also create a profile page and socialize with their favorite artists, friends and other music fans, find gigs, events and tour dates via our global music map and read and write all about music.
Background
After years of experience from selling their music in the US, UK and mainland Europe - seeing most of the money of the transaction being swallowed by middlemen - a group of artists was led to create what they saw as a dream platform to enter the global music market. A place where they would not only get exposure and be in contact with their fans, but also receive a fair share of their music sales and the streaming of their music.
We provide artists and other music right holders with the platform to create their online destination and manage themselves the sale, promotion and distribution of their music.
By artists for artists
gogoyoko is made by artists for artists and is all about fair play. That’s why we strive to keep the best deal out there for artists. Apart from legal obligations (royalty and transaction fees) we don’t take any cut from music sales. Additionally, we share 40% of our income from advertisements with artists based on the streaming of their music.
gogoyoko consists of four primary sections:
The Social Network, where artists, record labels, music professionals and music fans create profiles, interact and contribute to the ever-changing music scene
The Store, which can be customized by artists and record labels, and embedded to other sites on the Internet
The Music Magazine, where music fans can impart and keep up to date with new releases, exclusive interviews, reviews, special offers etc.
The Worldwide Music Map, a (groundbreaking) tool to find gigs, events and tour dates any where in the world
gogoyoko was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, in November 2007. Today the team is based in Germany, Norway, India and Iceland.
Charity
We believe in social responsibility, doing good and running our business with a contribution towards charity and environmental issues. We like to believe that our users and partners think the same. Therefore, charity is an important factor in the philosophy behind gogoyoko.
10% of our income from advertisements goes to partnering international charity and environmental organizations. This means that everybody visiting, buying and selling through gogoyoko contributes.
In addition we provide all gogoyoko users with the opportunity to donate to our charity partners through various means. Artists can donate 10% of their music sales and users and browsers can donate directly to the organizations on a special charity page.
The charity page is the place where everyone on gogoyoko can monitor how much has been donated to charity through gogoyoko, learn about the organizations and follow their latest news and projects.
