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Simple Minds 5 x 5 Live

Lisbon was the first European city to receive a fabulous concert by the Simple Minds tonight, three hours ago. This 5x5 tour focuses on their first 5 albums, the best in this band's career. Forget the FM Rock and catchy tunes. Jim Kerr and his mates covered their most iconic albums from "Life in a Day" to "New Gold Dream" and made no concessions, thank God. "Promised you a miracle", "the American", "I travel" and "Factory" were some of the great tunes in this concert and "Love Song" and "Someone Somewhere in Summertime" were the best moments for the Lisbon audience. A concert that managed indeed to bring back the fans who had given up on this band when they decided to make music for the masses. But there is hope again for this band. And a word of advise - do not expect to listen to cheesy tunes such as "Don't you forget about me" as they did not play them in Lisbon and chances are that they will not play them in the coming gigs on this tour either.

The return of Simple Minds

Simple Minds, one of the most iconic bands from the eighties are back on the road for a number of concerts from Portugal to Ireland, through to Norway, Denmark, Germany or Italy. But this is not a simple return as the band promises to play 5 songs from each of their first albums. That is a smart move and a good way to bring back old fans who have deserted the band after the album "Sparkle in the Rain", from 1984. This tour sounds like a reconciliation and an great opportunity to listen to great themes such as "The American", "Love Song", "I Travel" Someone somewhere in summertime" or "Up on the catwalk". As far as Trendenz is concerned they should focus on their 5 landmark albums alone, play all the songs from "New Gold Dream" and "Empires and Dance" and leave the songs they have launched after 1985 for the masses, for the open air concerts. After all hardocre Simple Minds' fans will be there to listen to a band which was at some point one of the best in their lot, together with Echo and The Bunnymen, The Cure, Psichedelic Furs or Siouxsie and The Banshees, just to name a few.

Sónar festival travels the world

Cape Town, Tokyo, São Paulo, and Barcelona. Sónar, the huge acclaimed electronic and advanced arts festival will take place in four four different cities in 2012. These are the cities selected for this year after previous events in places such as United States, South Korea, Germany, Mexico, Switzerland, Portugal, the United Kingdom or Argentina in a total of 31 events worldwide.
The first Sónar festival to be held this year outside the Spanish borders will take place in Cape Town and feature names such as Modeselektor, Byetone or Brodinski, along with local South African names. This African edition of "A Taste of Sónar" will be hosted in collaboration with the event Design Indaba and will take place on March the 2nd.
The next stop in Sonar’s world adventure will be Tokyo and will feature names such as Squarepusher or The Cinematic Orchestra or Vincent Gallo and other Japanese artists.
São Paulo, the booming Brazilian city will receive sonar for the first time on May 11 and 12. According to this festival's organisation, this will be "the largest of all the events organized by Sónar outside Barcelona". This festival will feature names such as Mogwai, Jeff Mills, Squarepusher, Björk, Justice, Alva Noto & Ryuichi Sakamoto, James Blake, Four Tet and Modeselektor.
In June Sónar will return home and take place as usual in the Catalan city of Barcelona in the usual Sonar Day venues at the cultural centre of Barcelona CCCB and Sónar Night at Fira Barcelona. The names confirmed so far for Barcelona are Fatboy Slim, Hot Chip, Richie Hawtin, Deadmaus or James Blake among others.
This important festival has an attendance of 90 thousand people per edition. This is limit set by the organisation. Hence book in advance, buy the ticket, and book a hotel room or a holiday apartment so as not to miss a bit of this festival which attracts a huge crowd with an average turnout of 40 per cent foreigners who flock to Barcelona from all corners of the world.

Wild Divas take to Barcelona

The capital of Catalonia is having a wild week and the weekend promises to be a smashing one. The city is full of events. One of them is the Fashion Film Festival, which finishes today and is hosted by Diane Pernet, the woman behind the nootoriouis fashion blog A Shaded View on Fashion.

The fashion and trend fair Brandery is another event in the agenda. During the day you can visit the stands and engage in the usual networking. At night there will be concerts and a promising one will be tomorrow night's concert by Fangoria, the band featuring the iconic Spanish singer Alaska.

And should you have some energy left, which I am sure you will, then do not miss the DJ set this Saturday too by Boy George at Cabaret Berlin, one of wildest clubs in town.

The return of Dead Can Dance

Dead Can Dance, one of the best bands from the 4AD label, the same label from the equally iconic band This Mortal Coil, wil be back on the road in 2012 and have just announced a new album. Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry formed the band in 1981 in Melbourne, Australia, having moved to London one year after, but the band split in 1998. "Rakim" is one of their finest moments. Enjoy it as an appetizer for of the most anxiously awaited world tours and album.

The Gift's Explode among the best record covers of 2011

"Explode" by the Portuguese band The Gift was considered one of the best record covers of 2011. Kasabian, Strokes, Apparat or Fleet Foxes were some of the bands whose vynil record covers were also deemded the best of 2011.
This was made by Velcro Design and the remarkable photos by the Indian photgraph  Poras Chaudhary who was also in charge of all the inlay photos. This record was released last Spring and this recogniton comes one week before The Gift launch their new record on January 9th, 2012.