June 15, 2008

Earthlings to perform Klingon opera

Filed under: Music by Branko Collin @ 12:01 pm

The Klingon Terran Research Ensemble is planning to perform a real Klingon opera called U in November this year. If you cannot wait until then, the ensemble regularly holds musical “battles” at the Zeebelt theater in the Hague. It also has several videos up at Youtube showcasing Klingon instruments and techniques.

According to the print version of Zone 5300, KTRE founder Floris Schönfeld takes his work very serious and many of the artists involved are classically schooled.

For those of you who have been stuck In Real Life the past forty years, Klingons are a race of space aliens from the fictional Star Trek universe.

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May 31, 2008

Mamma Mia gay night and goody bags

Filed under: Film,Music,Shows by Orangemaster @ 11:33 am
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The girls have had their girls’ night out at the movies, now the gays will get with a Mammia Mia! evening to make them feel all warm and peach fuzzy inside. The week before the première of the musical film Mamma Mia!, tons of movie theatres in cities such as Amsterdam, Utrecht, Groningen, Tilburg, Delft and Haarlem will hold special ‘gay nights’ on July 9.

What’s the big hairy deal? The gays get a goody bag after the show and a free drink at the nearest gay bar.

So the question remains: what’s in a gay goody bag? Condoms is the quick and dirty answer, and the mother of all clichés. A small bottle of raspberry Absolut vodka? Beauty products? I want to know.

(Link: fok.nl)

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May 30, 2008

Record gift voucher to be replaced by chip card

Filed under: Music by Branko Collin @ 10:39 am

The Nationale Entertainmentbon, colloquially still known as the Nationale Platenbon (national record gift voucher), has been given its sentence. At the end of this year, the voucher that would have celebrated its 50th anniversary next year will be no more, Dutch Cowboys report (Dutch). On 1 September, the voucher will be replaced by a chip card that gives its buyer a couple more options. Choices. The buyer can decide the amount (up to 150 euro), and can use the card to shop on the internet.

The Dutch Cowboys also mention that the association for Dutch music stores has seen its membership dwindle from 1600 to 400 stores in the past few years.

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May 24, 2008

National Song Festival 1975

Filed under: Music by Branko Collin @ 7:38 pm

Tonight is the latest episode of the world’s biggest schmalz fest, the Eurovision Song Contest, and for another year the Netherlands are not participating due to lack of quality. In fact, the last time we won was in 1975 with Teach In’s Ding-a-dong.

The song was performed in Stockholm in English, but during the national competition it was sung in this Dutch version. The national competition was set up so that three competitors all had to sing each other’s songs. As a result, there are also recordings by Albert West and Debbie. Which one do you like best?

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May 8, 2008

Biking through Tilburg

Filed under: Bicycles,Music by Branko Collin @ 2:30 pm

Biking through Tilburg on a bakfiets. Just a sweet little tune by Batiste and David to say hello to the Spring.

Via Jong Nieuws (Dutch).

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April 25, 2008

“Number 1 hit costs 5000 euro”

Filed under: Music by Branko Collin @ 8:38 pm

Singer/politician Henk Westbroek told daily De Pers (The Press) that it takes about 5000 euro to engineer a Top 40 hit. For this money a mysterious “team” called De Hitmakers will strategically buy songs at different stores both on- and off-line. Since less and less singles are being sold in the Netherlands, it takes less and less sales to top the charts. According to De Pers it takes as little as 500 downloads. GfK, owner of amongst other the 3FM Mega Top 50, tries to right things when it suspects manipulation by removing entries from the list or lowering them, but this has led to protests from genuine pop artists.

Perhaps the Dutch market is getting too small for hit parades, unless other methods of counting are introduced. But the country is probably still big enough to act as an international seed market for pop songs, where artists can attract international attention by scoring a hit. Not that I would like to suggest that budding pop artists from abroad start employing De Hitmakers’ services. That would be … immoral!

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April 1, 2008

Dutch singer Gordon to start gay radio station

Filed under: General,Music by Orangemaster @ 8:50 am
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Singer and well-known gay personality Gordon is the founder and station voice of the new digital radio station OZ Radio. It will be online in August and will only play “happy, feel good, gay music”.

The name OZ was taken from the film ‘The wizard of Oz’, starring gay icon Judy Garland. Other artists that qualify for airplay include Shirley Bassey, Diana Ross, the Village People and Kylie Minogue.

I have this feeling that Melissa Etheridge, The Gossip and K. D. Lang won’t get any airplay… or is it just me?

Not impressed so far. Sounds like a huge gay excluding lesbian cliché fest. And an Australian one at that.

(Link: gaykrant.nl)

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March 20, 2008

Junkie XL commissioned to remix Madonna

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 9:07 pm
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Tonight on Dutch television show ‘De Wereld Draait Door’, DJ Junkie XL (Tom Holkenborg), presented the world premiere of his remix for the new single ‘4 Minutes’ by Madonna.

Orlando Puerto, the man who handles Madonna’s record company business, suggested she do a remix. A list of DJs was submitted to the pop diva and in the end, Junkie XL came out the winner.

Holkenborg had an international hit with a remix of Elvis’ ‘A little less conversation’. The hit, which was originally music for a Nike advertising, went platinum in 24 countries. Junkie XL’s new album ‘Booming back at you’ came out on 10 March and will be presented on March 23 at the Melkweg in Amsterdam.

(Links: dewerelddraaitdoor.vara.nl)

Update: the entire show here (Junkie XL at 38.35 and onwards), or the Junkie XL / Madonna bit at Youtube.

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March 8, 2008

TMF cancels plan to list all downloads in its hit parade

Filed under: Music by Branko Collin @ 2:09 pm

TV music channel TMF (The Music Factory, owned by MTV) recently announced plans to include all downloads in the computation of its new hit parade called Superchart, both from legal and illegal sources. This week the station cancelled those plans, according to NRC (Dutch). Counting paid downloads in hit parades is a relatively new phenomenon. Two years ago, in April 2006, Gnarls Barkeley were the first act to top a major (UK) hit parade on the strength of downloads.

NRC lists no reason why TMF would change the format of their chart at the last minute, other than that the station considers downloading from an illegal source to be “wrong”. NVPI, Dutch representatives of the record industry, applaud TMF’s decision. “You are sending a fatal message if you count all downloads for your hit parades,” Wouter Rutten said. “It would be as if the music industry had accepted downloads from an illegal source.” Oh my.

(Why the unwieldy “downloads from an illegal source”? Because the Netherlands, like Canada and a few other countries, allow copies for private use. The phrase “illegal downloads”, recently gaining popularity in the Netherlands, may be snappier but is also incorrect.)

Via Dagelinks (Dutch).

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March 6, 2008

Yuppies kill horses rather than send them to the butcher

Filed under: Animals,Food & Drink,Music by Branko Collin @ 2:25 pm
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Singer Henk Westbroek praised the sausages of Wim van Beek in his column in De Pers yesterday. Van Beek was one of the last horse butchers of the Netherlands, and died last year. After a hiatus of three months, his son ewopened the business, and the man who is one of the founders of the 1980s Nederpop movement thinks the son’s sausages are as good as those of the father.

But there is a problem. According to Westbroek, the butcher only has a limited supply of horses. He only buys horses that are two year olds or younger, which usually are hobby horses with which the owner got bored. Nowadays, owners think it is “sad” that horses are killed for their meat, so they have the horses put to sleep (and presumably have the horses buried). And so the famous sausages of Van Beek in Utrecht are never on sale for long.

Update 12-3: the text of the column is now available in Dutch on Westbroek’s site.

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