n°7, 22nd of October, 2009
Dear friends, fans and passing smiles,
are you enjoying Awa-news? It seems so, since the number of visits increases every week. Thank you for you faithfulness. This issue, we offer you a present, a rare Awaken item, that will allow you to save up to 100 euros! Also, songwriter Allee Willis, from the Museum Of Kitsch, kindly accepted to answer our questions. Plus our philosophy, album review (Nakashima Mika) and other past events. What else do you need? Some news? Here they are:
Awaken's friend Kevin Shakey released a new album with Ted Melvins: First. Their music, based on guitar experimentations, being rather hard to label, I can only advise you to listen and download the whole album here: http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/53590
1. Guitar Lesson
2. Guitar Duet
3. Wyatt Sing A Song
4. Johnny Winter Interlude
5. Das Land Von
6. Budd Dwyer Beat
7. Monkey Goes To Heaven
OK, time to jump into Awa-news number 7!
Artists sometimes say very smart sentences, with or without knowing.
It's rock'n'roll philosophy time!
Without music life would be a mistake. (Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche)
Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence. (Robert Fripp)
Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman. (Ludwig Van Beethoven)
What are the hottest news in Awaken's Universe?
AWAKEN OFFERS YOU A COLLECTOR!
Back in the flat 90's, Awaken was releasing demo tapes, featuring tunes that would later become Awaken's classics (really?), in different versions than the ones that would later appear on the cd TALES OF ACID ICE CREAM. Four tapes were released: Numb (03/1993), Phase II: Scrappy (09/1993), Zéro Sur Dix: Encore Raté (08/1994, Snowcat solo) and Awaken III: Blurp! (01/1995).
Despite a never ending background noise due to McGyver-like recording techniques, these tapes are now widely appreciated by fans who want to know more about Awaken's past work. But they became rare, hard-to-find items. For example, Awaken III: Blurp! is sold around 40 euros now and the ultra-rare Phase 2: Scrappy can reach up to 100 euros!
Although Awaken doesn't even own a copy of Phase 2: Scrappy, we have a digital copy preciously kept on a CD. And this week, we decided to offer a limited free download to the fans who would ask.
How to do? Just send an email to awanews(at)hellokitty.com (replace "at" by "@") with "Scrappy" in the subject line. TAKE CARE: without that line, your mail could be lost among 254.326 offers of penis enlargers, 471.214 promotions for Viagra and 696.969 proposals. Once we receive your email, we send you a secret link (after 1 or 2 days, following our laziness) and you can download this wonderful demo.
Needless to say, the offer only lasts until next issue of Awa-news, 29th of October, 2009.
And this holy collector is worth 100 euros / 2,646,671 VND / 13,508 JPY ... lucky you.
ps: Read our article on love & money lower before jumping for joy.
Links: Awaken demo tapes and bootlegs
Our interview:
Allee Willis: full of spirit and life
Allee Willis, being a multimedia artist, is also running the amazing Museum Of Kitsch, where you can find an incredible bunch or the kitschest objects in the world. And of course you can contribute by sending her a pic of yours! Now you can start to scan your Awaken albums' covers, dude...
-What brought you to become an active musician?
-Allee Willis: I love music, especially vintage Soul and Pop. I still don't know how to read, write or play music. I hear it all in my head and I plat it down note by note, a finger at a time, by any means necessary. I’m a true multimedia artist, have been for about 30 years. I don't like working exclusively in music. It's a joint vision with my art, video and interactive web work.
-You co-wrote an incredible bunch of songs with different songwriters: Jon Lind, Maurice White, Bill Meyers, David Foster, to name a few. Do you feel that there's a common point between them all, a common point that creates a spark between them and you when you create a song?
-Allee Willis: No common point between those writers, all of whom were associated with Earth Wind & Fire. I have very different kinds of collaborations with different writers. I also write both music and lyrics. When people use me for just lyrics it's totally not interesting to me and a waste of my talent. I haven't come into any project for just lyrics in about 20 years. I try and really get to know the person and the quirks of their personality. I think my specialty is being able to interpret personality in both music and lyrics.
September 2009: Allee is joined by Verdine White, Luenell and Larry Dunn to perform "September" and "Boogie Wonderland".
-Among your work, what is the piece that you think represents you the most, and why?
-Allee Willis: Among my known work, and I'm assuming you're talking about songs, I would say Earth Wind & Fire's "September" because of its incessantly positive spirit and probably Pet Shop Boys "What Have I Done To Deserve This" because of the chant and the unusual pop song structure with four distinct sections that most people would have turned into four separate songs.
Patti Labelle's "Tasty" features 2 jewels by Allee Willis: "Litte Girls" & "I See Home"
-Any song you’re ashamed of, and why?
-Allee Willis: I wouldn't say ashamed exactly because it was an achievement just getting them done but I'd say that I found a fair number of them boring and uninspired. A lot of times when I worked with very famous singers who weren't very good songwriters a lot of it was about babysitting them and just getting something written so they can own some publishing. That's the way a lot of songwriters, especially in the 80s, got their songs cut. And that's exactly why I started doing a lot of other stuff besides music. It's horrible knowing you're writing something that's substandard but you won't get on the record if you push for it to be better.
-If you had a magic wand, in what band would you play right now?
-Allee Willis: The Allee Willis band.
-What would you say to Awa-news readers who might not know you, to convince them to listen to your songs?
-Allee Willis: I've sold over 50 million records. If you're not convinced by now, don't listen. But I'd definitely suggest going to YouTube and doing a search for me and seeing some of the music/art/video smash-ups I've done over the last few years.
-A song of yours that I find fascinating is EWF’s "Evil Roy". Do you have some memories to share with Awa-news about that man who sleeps all day? Could you say that Evil Roy was a kitsch man who didn’t know about it?
-Allee Willis: I don't think that he was kitsch at all. My definition of kitsch is something or someone that's full of spirit and life. Evil Roy was at the opposite end. He was a hustler and ultimately that never gets you anywhere other than deeper into your own hole. "Evil Roy" was a cautionary tale and by no means a glorification of that guy in the song.
-Last but not least, would you openly admit that you are an Awaken / Gilles Snowcat fan?
-Allee Willis: I'd have to be because you had the good sense to ask me for this interview!
Links: http://www.alleewillis.com
http://www.alleewillis.com/museumofkitsch
Have you noticed? Have you noticed, or not?
Le poinçonneur de France-Télécom and his wife...
Back in 1958, French singer Serge Gainsbourg depicted in his song “Le Poinçonneur des Lilas” the despair of a worker who couldn’t see any other solution to his problems and boredom than shooting himself. Suicide at work, this is not new. One more reason to react quickly.
Japan has one of the highest rates of suicides in the world. Suicide is even the main cause of death among the people under 30. Well, this second point can also be explained by the better health at that age, therefore heart attacks and cancers are still rare and, logically, suicide comes statistically first. However, this is more than scary. Why people go to a point of seeing no other exit than death? Japan is famous for its harsh working system, making salary men and office ladies slaves of their company, without forgetting the social and familial pressure. Losing mind in this case is easier than we could think. When will “we” understand that if work is a necessary activity, it can only be a part of a human being’s life, and not the whole thing?
Suicides don’t occur only in Japan, though. If you heard the news about French telephone company France Telecom, you are surely aware that within only several weeks, none less than 25 workers decided to kill themselves. Twenty-five. France is not known for being a country where hard-working is the rule, to say the least, but this phenomenon increases anyway.
Is France Telecom a hell to work in? This is more than possible, and probably has a big part of truth. But not only. There’s also a dramatic lack of personal safety valve. What can you expect from a worker who not only gets an enormous pressure doing a job he doesn’t like, to make his family live, but gets back home being scolded by the wife / children because money doesn’t follow, because he’s always busy, because he’s depressed,… ?
Why that fucking money always has to spoil families, couples, lovers, parents vs children? Don’t mistake me, I kinda like money, I’d rather have 100.000.000 dollars on my bank account than zero. But is it worth destroying lives so quickly, so easily? Can’t a man live his 70 years on Earth without being pressured by those fucking social conventions? If not, can’t he escape them without feeling guilty of making his relatives sad and disappointed? After all, the problem is there. The real pressure comes from that inside guilt. It becomes easier to die than face that destructive “endo-sadness”.
Practical matters kill couples. Money, job, prestige come to spoil the precious link making two lovers so close to each other. And when a couple can be torn apart by a reason that’s so far away from love itself, this is purely unacceptable to the human. ATM machines seem less sensitive to that. But they hardly get married.
Links: an interesting article (in French) by Bernard-Henri Lévy
What happened on October some years ago?
Let's jump into Awa-news' time machine...
21/10/1921: Birth of Sir Malcolm Arnold. He was famous among rock fans for his work with organist Jon Lord (Deep Purple).
03/10/1988: Release of Keith Richards' Talk Is Cheap.
09/10/1978: Death of Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel.
You like Awaken? You *will* like this album:
NAMASHIMA MIKA, Love (2003)
Kagoshima singer Nakashima Mika has already a successful career, in only 7 years of mediatic presence. She sure deserves it! Unpredictable in her musical choices, she sings soulful music, with a little touch of jazz, techno, ambient or hard-rock, following the songs and albums. Far from the flashy dressing code of most female Japanese singers, Nakashima san has a sober if not somber, darker and serious style, strangely matching with her shy manners and typical politeness.
Having hits with sophisticated songs like "Stars", "Will" or "Hitori" is not common in Europe, but luckily not rare in Japan. The best way to start discovering Mika's repertoire is, in my humble opinion, her second album "Love", released in 2003.Should I say more? No, just listen and... enjoy!
Links: www.mikanakashima.com
What's hot on the web side? Awa-net surfed for you and found this:
LES AMIS DU VIETNAM
URL: http://www.lesamisduvietnam.be
Tomorrow is just another day. Next week is next week. And Stäni Steinbock will tell you about his unusual musical carreer, we'll review an album from Mỹ Tâm for you and, who knows, a surprising news on Awaken's side. Who knows...
email: awamail(at)hellokitty.com
Awaken main sites: www.awaken.be
© AWAKEN-Awanews-
[downloadable pdf version here]
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