Inspiration

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I am vanished..... again!

Climbing dutchman

A Drooble review from Bulgaria!

Anyone who is a musician these days roams around the web to find opportunities, like platforms where you can share your music around. I'm no exception. Possibilities. One of the "newer', upcoming platforms is Drooble (you have to log-in though) where I have uploaded a few of my favourites. You can build up a network of listeners, give feedback to other hungry musicians. Earn Karma points. Read here for more information.
Well, as I've earned a few karma points and it came back to me with a nice album review of "Just Say kNOw": 
(and this time no Zappa reference , but Faith No More...)

Bulgarian Dutchman?

JoosTVD want you to Just Say Know to progressive funk

When you are a really competent musician who just wants to have fun, the result is JoosTVD. Just Say Know is 11 songs worth of expertly played, groovy, smooth progressive funk. The project’s style is very interesting and out there, not conforming to traditional songwriting and instrumentation.
There’s a playful mood to the record — there’s a song about one’s cat partaking in weed, for goodness’ sake! But what strikes us most is how much fun JoosTVD is having performing such tricky, jazzy, funky parts. It’s a lovely thing to observe and hear, yet JoosTVD is never comical or goofy.
Just Say Know is clearly a labor of love and that shows through the masterful songwriting, tight performance, and challenging, compelling song structures. This is a progressive project, after all, and the person behind it did one hell of a job!
If you ever wondered how Faith No More may sound if they dialed back the edginess, give Just Say Know a spin.
Horns up: Masterful instrumentation where the musicians play off each other in perfect sync.
Horns down: The vocals might need some getting used to.

Another nicely written review thanks to the Drooble team

Ok, I did it again!

Once in a while I add one of my songs to a playlist on Spotify and sometimes someone opens his ears for it. This time it was a playlist from Kahsay, a swedish musician, who wrote a few nice words for this song from my 2015 album "Lightning Dutchman". Thank U Kahsay from a fellow musician.

Have a nice weekend every1. Stay humble.....

"I have an collaborative playlist and been promoting that on different occasions and when I scrolled that playlist a song popped out and hit my ears. It' s a dutch songwriter that creates fantastic soundscapes in the area of funk, jazz and soul. I was blown away by the fantastic groove in the song "Don't Do It Again". Give him a listen. He's about to release an album in 2018. I'm looking forward to hear that album."

3-BulletFriday (Don't Do It Again)

That's it!

My um, short flashback.

2016: A year marked by unexpected deaths of  "Saying farewell to so many"
....in domino styled fashion.

2016: Dumb, dumber, Trumpest. (bad press is good news)

2016: The medium is definitely the message  (trending)

2016: JoosTVD (glad I did) release 2 albums:

Open Up My Parachute (april 2016)
Received some fine reviews/feedback and radio exposure. Songs aired: Chalky, Dancing Dutchman, Everything Is A-Okay, It's A Struggle Honey, Parachute, Jump For Your life, Cosmopolitan Circus.

For Your Pleasure Vol.3 (instrumentals for videomakers) (september 2016)

2016: Musical high and lows
My oh my, what a wealth of tunes to listen to! Music for everyone. Mostly the extensive reissues and archive releases (King Crimson, ELP, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd) dominated my listening hours.
Field Music, Jacob Collier, Ezperanza Spalding and Snarky Puppy represent the younger talents.
Of the 2016 releases I was dissapointed by: Sting, (man you just needed the Police!), Jeff Beck (is he for real? he's a guest on his own album!), Laura Mvula (her debut was just too good, the songs don't linger this time) and Michael Kiwanuka (not bad, too heavy-handed, retrofactor is too big, difficult second album).

                                                                     My favourite albums of 2016:

                                                                                   Field Music - Commontime

                                                             Quirky XTC, Talking Heads nerdy, catchy, fresh melodic pop.

                                          

                                                                                      David Bowie - Blackstar

                                                                                      His last star that will linger forever

                                                                           Snarky Puppy - Family Dinner Volume Two

                                                                        Real musicians, intense groovy, expressive impressive
                                                                                                        

                                                                                      Jacob Collier - In My Room

                                    Eclectic young talent, spectacular harmonies, instruments, tight arrangements

                                                                                 Esperanza Spalding - Emily's D+Evolution

                                                                   So (too?) many explosive ideas, Joni Mitchell style

                                                                                  Adrian Belew - Flux By Belew Volume One

                                                                                Fun, varied short stuff, melodic

                                                                                 David Crosby - Lighthouse

                                                                   High points: his voice, guitarpicking and harmonies

                                                   

                                                                                      Paul Simon- Stranger To Stranger

                                                 Although the layered songs are no singalongs, his lyrics are still subtle

                                          

  Recommended Books I've read:

Alyn Shipton- Nilsson (there's only one Harry!)
Alejandro Jodorowsky- The Dance Of Reality (magic)
Alejandro Jodorowsky- Sacred Trickery (more magic)
Carly Simon - Boys in the Trees A Memoir (selreflecting)
Chrissie Hynde- Reckless (tough lady)
Gary Wright- DreamWeaver (spiritual)
Kerry Acker- Nina Simone Women in the Arts (intense)
Michael Sheridan- A Man Called Harris (rugby)
Ruth Pointer- Still So Excited (sisters)
Holly Warren- A Man Called Destruction Alex Chilton (loner)

2017? Bring it on.

Platforms like....

      Bandcamp!

Modern times: storage

Maybe I'm exaggerating. Maybe I'm a pompous fool. Maybe we all are. So this for the fanatical music collectors out there.....
Anyone recognizes this situation? Sure, come on, you have to! How to handle all this data I've been buiding up all these years. The digital way of organising stuff is almost getting out of hand.
I've got 6 harddisks now: 2 ssd's, 2 intern hdd's and 2 extern hdd's. Too much? Well I've been a compulsive collector of music (my own and my favourites), books and video. Some of it you can digitize, some you just have to keep plain analog. I still got all my vinyl and cd's stored up safely (these are definately shrinking now) for sentimental reasons more or less, but I've got them all backed up too. Movies on VHS tape an cassettes, well, you can't watch them after 10 years I guess. I've been collecting and organising more and more and I need more space. kb, mb, gb, tb......?
SSD harddisks are very popular (read here Benchmark Reviews), so I've added the latest 850PRO ssd I already had a ssd 840PRO from Samsung to work better (more smoothly and faster) with Po Tools.
More speed, more space, more, more, more...!

2 Thousand + 5teen

The last blog, before I go.
So what did I do to make my life a little more bearable and more complete in 2015? I've listened. My ears seem to filter out the junk more quicker than before and that's a lot! That saved me a lot of time to focus on the writings, recording and releasing of a bunch of new songs. Thanks world.

As with 2014, the death celebrities of our time, become more frequent as age always proves to be the ultimate killer. Here are a "few" that have more or less influenced my state of being (source http://goo.gl/8871CK):

P.F.Sloan (Eve Of Destruction), Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor (Moterhead's drummer of Ace Of Spades), Andy White (Beatles "Love Me Do" drummer), Daevid Allen (Gong frontman, The Magick Brother), Chris Rainbow (Vocalist, Alan Parsons), Allen Toussaint (composer, producer, arranger, pianist, talentscout, inspirator, what a loss of talent!), Joost Zwagerman (schrijver), Drs P. (dutch singer, poet of humoristic absurdism), Gunnar Hansen (remember the original Leatherface?), Maureen O'Hara (John Wayne's favorite company on screen), Phil Woods (played alto sax on so many of my favorite albums of the seventies, like Billy Joel and Paul Simon), Oliver Sacks (the one who really used his brains), Rico Rodriquez (ska trombonist of the Specials), Wes Craven (horror director), Bob Johnston (sixties producer of Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel), Cilla Black (her rendition of bacharach's "Alfie" especially), Omar Sharif (screen legend), Patrick Macnee (remember when tv was " John Steed" cool), Chris Squire (Yes bassist-extraordinaire), Ornette Coleman (free jazz sax blower), Ron Moody (Oliver's Fagin), Christopher Lee (the best Dracula actor next to Bela Lugosi), BB King (subtle "Lucille" bluesplayer), Errol Brown (Hot Chocolate's "Every1's a Winner"), Andy Fraser (Free bassist, composer of Robert Palmer's "Every Kinda People"), Percy Sledge (voice of "When a Man Loves a Woman"), Ben E King (voice of "Stand By Me"), Günter Grass ("The Tin Drum" writer), Clark Terry (Fluegelhorn/ Trompet player), Lew Soloff (trumpet player of Blood, Sweat & Tears, loved those horn arrangements), Leonard Nimoy (logical Spock versus emotional Kirk), John Renbourn (british folk finger-picking guitarist), Rod McKuen (composer, poet), Anita Ekberg (Fellini's "La Dolce Vita"), Rod Taylor (actor of "The Time Machine"), Armand (60s protestsinger), Thé Lau (singer/songwriter), Hirth Martinez (singer/songwriter).

What did I work on in 2015? I've been having my own fun, writing, playing, recording and releasing two albums:  
                                                                  Lightning Dutchman

A few song hit the radio waves, like: Unscrew yourself, Don't Do It Again, Paranoiac With A Gun, Guru In A Lovetown, Limo, Rock'n Roll Me In Or Out

                                 
                                                and an instrumental For Your Pleasure vol.2

(more and more people seem to be interested in using my music for their viseo projects)

So what about the music of 2015?
The word "emo" fits the description. But is it emotion?
Only a few new albums made it, because as I grow older and greyer (bored? Nope!), the more I seem to dwell back to the sounds I used to listen when I was this green innocent seventies lad. Except for the much younger generations like Mercury Rev, Tame Impala and Steven Wilson maybe, but nothing else seem to linger.....  aaah, I'm such a romantic fool. It's just that a lot of the old guys keep coming back with a more fresher sound... Well not all the "older" ones though. I was very dissapointed by the releases of Prince (I mean HITnRUN Phase One, P. how do you sleep? but...his Phase 2 is just classic P.!). Ben Folds (pretentious, but vague chamber noodlings), Jeff Lynne's ELO (=Jeff Lynne...) or Seal (Trevor Horn is back, but...without any surprises).  All too predictable and safe.
It's the fault of these retro times. Now, every "new" production can reproduce qualities from the thirties up to the sixties, uuuhm, seventies and ....mmm...the eighties to my bemefit, because my mind seems to wander off easily to what I've already heard. It's just like these newbies are saying "Joost, I know you've got that somewhere on vinyl, but who really cares?". It says a lot of these smug, arrogant, narcistic times. Who will rise to the occasion to do the unexpected?

In the meantime, here are my faves of 2015:
                                                              
                                                                              J.D.Souther - Tenderness

Veteran songwriter surprises with less is more. Subtle arrangements, production, subtle songwriting, title says it all.


                                                                    Steve Martin & Edie Brickell - So Familiar

Bluegrass? BanJoost? No, this is just a very comforting listen, very Up, very welcome in these times.


                                                                                       Boz Scaggs - A Fool To Care

The only Boss for me, age can do good. Eclectic and very soulful. That voice never bores me. Less is so much more...


                                                                                     Joe Jackson - Fast Forward

Welcome back Joe the composer, arranger of wide, colourful canvases. Musicians from Berlin, New York, Amsterdam and New Orleans keep this album fresh.

                                                                         David Gilmour- Rattle That Lock

I just love his tone in voice and guitar. The surpringly jazzy "The Girl In The Yellow Dress (Orchestral Version)". The instrumentals don't add anything specific, but overall there's still a comfortable Floyd in the air.

                                                                         Tom Robinson - Only The Now

 
Welcome back Tom! You're still angry and I feel it. Wild, edgy, actual and in your face, the subtle arrangements in quieter moments (title song) though especially, draw me in.

                                                                     James Taylor - Before This World

A new JT album? I've kept playing it a few times more than I'd expect. Songcrafting they call it. Just James Taylor. Nothing less.

                                                                         Prince - HITnRUN Phase Two

I have a love/hate relation with the purple one. But I think this is his most matured collection (with a few exceptions like Screwdriver) since.......fill me in! A more colourful production, especially the organic feel in the arrangements do the trick, if you like horns and slapping basses.

Books.
What usually happens when I read a biography, is the documenting part of it. I obsessively dig up everything I have in my possession (music to listen to, I listen to it again or movies I've watched, I watch again) or try to find it on www.
For example, The Grateful Dead, all the albums I once  indifferently listened to, I can appreciate and understand them better now, especially after reading a biography. The same happened with Alex Harvey, quite a lad! Another band that I've admired since 1977, Talking heads, I appreciate even more now (Remain In Light is my personal fave) than ever. So I read!

Quoting former post 2014:"And for the sensational background information, here's a few books I've read this year. As usual, mostly sleezy (auto)biographies. Recommended:"

Bobby Whitlock - A Rock'n Roll Biography (a lot of misfortunes, Eric Clapton, Derek & The Dominoes singer/keyboardsman)

David Byrne - How Music Works (this works a lot)

Dennis Mcnally - A Long Strange Trip Grateful Dead (the music man, LSD anyone?)

Donald L Barlett - Howard Hughes, his life & madness (exentric guy, strange times)

Gene Wilder - Kiss Me Like A Stranger My Search for Love and Art (talented guy)

John Neil Munro - The Sensational Alex Harvey (what a life!)

Jonathan Lethem - Talking Heads' Fear of Music (the first album I bought of TH in 1979 that made me an obsessive fan)

Martin Kielty - SAHB Story (the versatile band behind Alex Harvey)

Pamela De Barres - I'm With The Band (narcistic tale of obsessive groupie)

Rod Stewart - The Autobio (Rod does Rod)

David Bowman- Talking Heads This Must Be The Place (one of the best bands in the period 1977-1983 that made the eighties bearable)







 

Face me, U, me like!

Well, I don't visit my facebookbandpage (Face JoosTVD) that often, and it shows. I only spread some silly stuff around, by clicking on the icons. Yes, I like clicking, you know, ahum. But, as you've got the nerves to visit this page, you can do something with those itchy fingers. Click on these icons too!
On the right somewhere.... Oooo, yes I'm desperate!

Desperate Facebookaddict

BTW, there's free music up here for you to like too. So support that poor, lonely page (I'm sobbing like a gelly fruitcake now). No, I ain't gonna show a picture of that scene , couldn't face that one...

Music everywhere!

You just wanna stream the whole lot, before the next step?

Spot(ify) me

Orson Nietes: The songguide

For those who want to to know everything, nothing spicy, shocking or special Murdochish up here........but take a deeper look into my humble kitchen sink an take a trip into the deep. The process of creating something from nothing is only possible when I let myself go. Doing it immediately from the void! So much fun I had! And sorry soundengineers, I ain't one, the sound had to be a big blasting powerhouse. I guess you would do a more professional thing here. Thanks to all of you that have listened this last year, your feedback has made my self-confidence (Orson Nietes) grow a little bit more. Already teased the hungry listener with the first 11 tracks on bandcamp. And now finally,  I bring you these 24 stories, doing it like it's a full blown double vinyl album, my 15th album: (hey pssss...GRAB me....it´s over there, somewhere on the right...it's the "lite"version for now)                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                   
                                                        01.Back In The Race

Sort of  a comeback song isn't it? No, it isn't. Well, that pushy drive (banging out on the piano) got me to these competetive words. A little edgy (rock energy). I wanted a full, organic bandfeel. For me this had to be the opener.  


02.Bigger Things
Had a lot of ideas floating around, some didn't immediately fit. Two of them I melted into a bigger one. Just sing along and feel happy, think BIG.             

   

                                                                                                                             03.Alice Tea 

Goofy humor? A trippy LST or LSD song with a lot of Chaplin Slapstick to set that goofy mood.  Sugar your tea honey. Aktion- reaction effects from the soundlibrary and yours truly.    


04.Leak
 Yes, it's about leaking in general and it's about those wiki revelations, that won't go away. Gimme some truth. I'm especially fond of the combination of melody and chords,  so I kept it very direct and simple.                                          


             
                  
                                                          05.Suits In A Building

 Elevator blues! Stuck in slowfunk. It started with a piano pattern. I doubled      different bass parts to make it more pulsing funky. 


06.Showking

I'll show you! Rock'n troll pastiche. Quick, Short ditty on the piano. Had a lot a fun with myself, but only 1.19 minutes, ha.                                                             




 
07.Tweet                                               


I had to write this.....
poor birdy...retweet  







08.Pukeman     

I really got it going. Wrote all these crazy songs very quickly! (Alice Tea, Tweet, Showking). It's good to puke sometimes. Karmacleaning. Man, I had too much energy, I had to....                                                                           

                                                                                         
                                                                              09.Bill Withus





To keep things fresh, I often switch between guitar and  piano when I write. It started with this breaky melodic intro. All instinct, funky, groovy fingers hammering on the keys, basically around G7. "Hey Bill, are you with us?" The music busines vs Bill Withers. Very talented man, not taken seriously by these A&R guys. Well, watch the documentary... Hope you like it Bill (although he'll probably never hear it).  


10.Climb Another Hill
You can relax now. Variation in mood, tempo and theme right here. Basically a lovesong for the desperate ones, written and played on the piano, yours truly.       



                                                                                                                  
        11.My Sweet Spanish Drama 

I love spanish flicks and although I've never been there before, I feel something matadoresque bullying in my blood, si, si. I was in a flamenco mood.    


Don't Stop now! (In the old days my turntable would repeat itself, scratching the vinyl at the end, so I had to flip it over to the other side, try to do that with your device!)

                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                        12.Citizen Able



"Started at the top, worked my way down", he said. This song tries to do the opposite. With a smooth latin beat I worked myself up.                                                                                                                        


13.Mask
A sober approach, intimate atmosphere contrasts with the first half of the album. I always try to vary with tempo, style, just to keep myself on my toes. A personal favourite. So revealing.                     



          

                            
                                                                            14.Jazz Off

    

"I do not play jazz", Miles said, just to get those jazzpurists reaching for their guns.. It's all music in the end man, and we all hear it in our own way . I love it when musicians reach out, explore something they haven't done before. There is nothing new up here, but I'm always fascinated by hypnotic, repeated patterns or rhythms. I tried to sing unusual, different melodies on top of that (listen: Talking Heads- Remain In Light [1980].                                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                             15.Miracle



JoosTVD does a poppy one. Well, everything I do has got to have some sort of a melody. This I did on piano, quickly writing itself.    





16.Sombrero
Siesta! My sweet spanish drama under Mexican hideaways.                                                                           
                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                                                17.Sugar Tune





Something that's hard for me to do sometimes (sorry mom and the rest), so I write about it: a lighten up-live a little-song. Soft melodic one, written on the piano. Lost my teeth in there..                                                            


18.Mermaids In Bloom


The girl is growing up, finding her own feet.
You know who you are...                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  19.Entre Nous                                                                                                       
Instrumental, consisting of two seperate pieces I had other plans with orignally. Found them interesting enough to melt together. But keep it "between us".                                                                                                      




20.Has To Be
I'm a big fan of blue-eyed soul, (I think black music is rhythmically more subtle) but offcours I'm just a plain, stiff euro-celtic. It has to be this way....                                                                                                                                                                                               21.Overdrive        

At first I had this slow pianoballad version, but decided to change the tempo. The result: I combined those two. I love to play these chords on piano.                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                           22.Flag Of The World              

Think about that, mmm.......a dream......utopian music?                                                                                                                                           






                                                                   23.Machito                              

Mucho-Macho-Macheato. it was a combination of words, chords and the "Riders On The Storm" inspired Bass-pattern that made this fun to write.


24.Dad Waltz (The Song He Gave Me)
  
Basically me, touching strings. Heard it on his funural....