Go see… 

“Okay, we’re doing our little “autopsy” of 2007 events in independent music, thinking about what went right and wrong, and considering our own culpability. If “nothing gold can stay” (and Robert Frost seemed persuaded), we figure the events of 2007 aren’t going to stick around for long, either.

The last couple of years, we’ve all taken the hits together — the collapse of traditional promotional avenues, the erosion of CD sales, and the failure of digital downloads to meet the public’s reasonable request for affordable, accessible music. We’ve seen a difficult business on the ropes. We’ve watched some talented independent artists go from exploiting the fall of the major labels — from seizing the means of production and blazing paths directly to their audiences — to staffing merch tables. And it happened in a blink.

Sure, maybe it’s a good thing — the shirts and the hats — but we wonder. The apparel, especially the all-cotton stuff, has commercial value. But the music? It’s fast becoming the aural equivalent of a business card.

“Dude, dig that track? Buy a shirt! It changed my life!”

Maybe so.

But we can make our own changes in 2008. Say hey, you beautiful dreamers.”

20 January 08
DEN BOSCH (NL)
Plein 79 | with: Venus Flytrap

9 February 08
EMMELOORD (NL)
De Klos | with: Venus Flytrap

15 February 08
ARNHEM (NL)
Kultuurhuis Bosch | with: Venus Flytrap

18 February 08
NIGHTLIVE XS / KX Radio (live session)
22.00u

26 April 08
DRACHTEN (NL)
Iduna | with: Venus Flytrap and I do I do (BE)

7 June 08
VLIELAND (NL) TBC
Lopend Vuur Festival

MusicMaker (NL): “Album of the month!”

Daily Vault (USA): “Drop Little Boy is 34 minutes of the opposite of boring” (Rating: B+)

Cutting Edge(BE): “Fantastic debut!”

OOR (NL): “Not a bad song on the record. Fantastic debut album”

8WEEKLY (NL): “Versatile album made of concrete”

Musicfrom (NL): “The May Bees definitely know how to convince”

Underground A&R Report (USA): “Not a bad song on the disc. Highly recommended. A dutch smash (nat!)”

The Mouth O’ The Mule (USA): “Goddamnit, I love this record”

Deadline (NL): “The songs are more then a valuable completion of the indie rock scene”

Radio Mortale (NL): “Black Queen: Hit of the week”

“Using elements from 1950’s -70’s era magazines, pamphlets and obscure pictoral paperbacks as his primary tools, he portrays allegorical personas and hallucinogenic-type environments to create small, almost random synapses of unmistakable compositions with sardonic titles, each serving as a story unto itself. The Artist’s media utilizes the archetypes of the working class, becoming pawn deities and martyrs found within the strata of near fantasy religion and the collective unconscious. Most of these works were used as album art for Pollard’s own music releases throughout the same time period.” (According to the website of Studio Dante.)

- The May Bees recently released their new record “Drop Little Boy” and celebrated it with a party Thursday November 1st 2007.

- Paul Tibbets, the pilot and commander of the B-29 that dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima, Japan, died Thursday November 1st 2007.

The May Bees played a couple of songs at 3voor12 (Dutch national radio) last wednesday.

- Video: check out “Fields of Albany”: http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/ondemand/37509623
- Radio: you can listen to the whole concert if you click here: http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/ondemand/37509530

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-ntdB_IeIM]

Ik vind het een erg sympathiek en kansrijk initiatief. Punt. De kritiek van Peter van het andere indie platform MOMI op een citaat van mij uit het interview is overigens begrijpelijk en terecht. Maar was niet nodig geweest als 3voor12 het hele gesprek had gepubliceerd. Inderdaad Peter: “Fuck de scene!”. Maar mag ik in godsnaam wel gewoon de schurft hebben aan spelletjes met, voor, in en tussen bandjes?