Diego Ardon´s Blog

Well, 2010, despite its youngness, it has already brought a couple of casualities in the music world, with indie musician Jay Reatard probably being the most remarkable, other ones include Al Green producer and The Birthday Party . However, none of thsi was shocking for me, since really none of them which caught my attention this year, but a news I received from a friend, about a guy whom I really never met, however I saw him constantly since we shared school for 3 years. Not only his young age surprised me, but the fact that he decided to take his owm life. Just some days before this unfortunate event, I remember having joked with some friends, that if I died, than I wanted people to leave my facebook so others could come and comment how much they missed me, all these in a sarcastic tone way, however jokingly sarcastic it was, this proved to be just like taht or worse, when on the facebook feedback I read some really disturbing comments on a video about him. Phrases like "Men, if...

Just a couple of days ago, the other Honduran volunteer in Finland returned to Honduras. In the short while we got to befriend ourselves, not much, since we lived on opposite sides of Finland, we got to become good friends. In our last discussion, we retook a topic we had actually had on the first day we met. He, a 30 year old guy is famous among the volunteer circle for his successful flirtations, and numerous women he has attracted during his stay in Europe, a trend he had followed for some years before the trip. I find him really similar in that sense to some of my friends, an attitude, than even though it doesn't concern me, if I think too much about it, I certainly despise, however, deep in my heart, there is a male human sense of envy, for their possession of that of which I lack. I think it over and I don't really wish to be like that, and it actually scares me that on the before mentioned conversation, I found myself identified with my friend, when he explained how his...

Back in 2008 I felt Radiohead had been robbed of the Mercury Prize for the best album of the British Isles, when The Seldom Seen Kid was chosen over In Rainbows, however, I guess that to many that was not surprising, specially if you consider that whoever chooses the albums, ignore to nominate The Bends, and yes, Kid A. You should also note the judges chose New Forms over Ok Computer, Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea over Amnesiac, and Boy in da Corner over Hail to the Thief. However, I must also add, that when I made the judgement that this was an act of theft, I was still to listen to The Seldom Seen Kid. A truely enjoyable album, which attacks you with mellow vocals, pretentious lyrics that actually work, and great atmosphere and overall musical sound. I ignore completely Elbow's earlier discography, except for a video single I accidentally bought, and although I won't rush to look it up, I believe this band has indeed a lot to give. Even if the vocals are a litt...

Sorry I haven't been able to write these days, but I have been kept entertained, so, just for the moment, I'll share with you some album reviews I have made for another website: As you might have read on my review about Aura, I had planned to submit Re as my album of the week beforehand, considering it to be a safe card, meaning that the majority would like it or at least find it interesting. I ended up choosing CMX's album, but AotW is not gonna miss Re, because dmpulp has gladly offered it to the other range of non-Spanish speakers to listen to. As a consensus, I believe most of the Spanish speaking users would agree that CafeTa, if not the best band in our language, is definitely on the elite, and Re, being its highest point. Obviously, the greatest achievement of this album was the sound they achieved by mixing traditional and popular mexican rythms, with, well, rock. I've heard on TV they call them the Latin Beatles, and that could be accurate, but as Ezreal noted,...

I'm so sorry to have to accept that lately my days have been filled by stupidity, from the stupid rules at the place where I'm living (rules which nobody told me about), a guy stealing "my" beer (not all was mine), and an idiot who is watching some stupid finnish show at full volume. Ville, if you read this, lower down the volume please! Fuck, you are not... (this is an example of finnish communication anyways). But really, what really dropped my glass and unleashed in uncontrollable fury, well, actually I'm exagerating. I just happend to hit the TV screen where the picture of Boberto Goriletti appeared. Yep, it was not his picture what really bothered me, I try not to see them, but it was more the news that was accompanying the picture which really bothered me. I have been trying to avoid getting to political here on my blog, in regards to what happend in my country in June last year, but the fact that now the pseudo congress is deciding to give life salary to Mi...

Last year when Onelazycracka started with the album of the week, I managed to get a spot on the second week of November. I had a whole year to think what I could put up for you to bite on. I thought I could go for an average indie album (A Bourgeois Kitten), or focus on representing my geographic or language area. My favorite album for my country is made by a Honduran guy for Hondurans (Hablo Español), than Panama's Cienfue latest was quite good (Macho de Monte Suite), or I could "play safe" by choosing Cafe Tacvba's "Re", which many non-Spanish speakers ignore. However back then I wouldn't have thought I was to spend the second half of the year and the first of the next one in a country in North Europe called Finland. Music is one of my main interests, and what better way to learn where to go than through the RYM custom charts? Through I got to know the excellent 90s psychodelia of Kingston Wall, and the more Finnish Häntä koipien välissä, which might h...

It was no surprise to me, that the list entries managed to attract more people onto the site. Everybody loves list wether they are about the 10 best songs or the 100 best Friends quotes, see Digg.com and its full with those. So, having no intention to write and research about anything, and having nothing really interesting to share, I will rely to share this list I had kept for a while and which I actually fixed today. For a full list of 31 items, click here. 10. Mando Diao - Dance With Somebody When it comes to fun, dancefloor, radio friendly songs, this takes the cake for 2009. 9. White Lies - To Lose My Life Little to offer in sound. Take it as good new Interpol song. 8. Morrissey - I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris I currently have Moz's Years of Refusal, haven't heard it, but doubt anything inside will beat this. 7. Animal Collective - Brother Sport They say the Collective went pop on MPP. Try matching that in weirdness. 6. Alice in Chains - Check My Brain Have I said...

Sorry for not writing new entries, I've been quite busy this weeekend, I'll try to keep them coming through the week. For now I just leave you with my review for another great Neil Young album: Three classic albums into Neil Young's career and still no let down. Where "After the Goldrush" attacked us with unforgiveable melancholy, and "Harvest" had a more optimistic approach, "On the Beach" brings also a sense of melancholy, one that is lyrically filled by reflexive, moody songs, which musically, are filled by desolate sounding guitars and gap filling bass. Neil's voice doesn't go to any difficult ranges, but it really doesn't need to. "Walk On" is a nice introduction into what we are about to experience, specially on the album's highlight, the melancholy-filled "See the Sky About to Rain", and in a similar way, the title track. Some other fans might also add "Ambulance Blues" into the highlight, t...

I remember back in 2008, around April or May, the biggest hype on the internet was Vampire Weekend. The guys from New York, had a nice prep school dressing style, took their name from some old terror movie and had short and catchy songs, which were best represented by the lead single A-Punk. Then they were on David Letterman and even on Saturday Night Live, by then, I had already heard the album and had quite enjoyed it. It ended up on my top 10 of the year, and I will lie if I say I wasn't looking forward for this their sophomore release, which at many times tells if the band will fail or succeed. Since the first songs emerged on the internet, I mean Horchata, the album seemed to promised being as good as the one before. Cousins kept it quite well, and had a nice video to accompany it. Now, the boys have finally released the full album through their Myspace, and my opinion is quite divided. This is not revolutionary, first album wasn't either. There are some new experiments un...

Ever wondered why music used to be better years ago? That has a hard answer, but, have you wondered why music still, sometimes, manages to sound good today? That has an answer, and this is, the existence of bands like Pavement on the 90s. When you hear a Pavement album, you realize most of the good music today has taken great influence from this Californian band sound. Pavemente started back in 1989 in Stockton, California, but they didn't released their debut until 1992's Slanted Enchanted. In 1994, the band released Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, which is, actually, the only of their albums I have carefully heard, however, this proved enough to set Pavement on my top 10 bands of all-time. In 1999, after some dissing with Smashing Pumpkins and a lot of tour, lead singer Stephem Malkmus, decided it was time to give it a rest. Rumours of their reunion have been circling all over the decade, however, it was not until mid-2009, when it was made official, Pavement would be playing two...

In my country we have a major misconception about our big North neighbor (not Guatemala, further up!). Of course, I mean the USA. We believe that over there everything is perfect, like many TV shows have portrayed it that way through the years. That is the main reason why many people from the South risk their lives searching for better opportunities up there. However, the truth is the US does have its issues, a lot, and yes! poverty is among those ones. The fact is that for years noe, though itwas probably different back when this record was made, the mid US states like Oklahoma or Kansas are mainly agricultural, and as The Grapes of Wrath, its movie and this record portray, when banks and landowners took advantage of their positions to drive people out of the lands they had worked, if not owned for years, it must have been total chaos. We can even forget about this, and still, a farmer's life doesn't look any easier. Your work depends on highly unpredictable things as water pr...

I hope the headline did not surprise you, since it is no secret, that since some months ago, when RHCP finally resumed from the hiatus they had set themselves in after the promotion of their 2006 album Stadium Arcadium, that guitarist and successful solo artist, had split from the band. Frusciante released the critically acclaimed The Empyrean last year, and I would guess (a little lazy to research), that he wants to focus on his solo career. Frusciante was only 17 when he joined the peppers after the death, due to drug abuse of guitarist Hillel Slovak. Frusciante surprised the band members enough to make him part of the gang, and along with him, the band recorded what is considered to be their best record, Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik. Unfortunately Frusciante fell victim to drug consumption and was near a young death. All this is documented on a film, of which I also don't recall the name at the moment. John managed to live through it, and after been clean he rejoined the peppers and...

If there is people out there, who are expecting me to post things about my life in Finland, well, that's not happening for the moment. Not much happening these days, nothing has happend to the extend I've been feeling a little depressed (maybe that's why I've been writing so much these days), but I don't want to get into that at the moment, cause I actually feel good after having to give chemistry class today, reminded me I'm here for a reason. Anyways, back on the entries topic. Before coming to Finland, I thought about getting my year supply of albums, I went for some bands I didn't know much about. Among those records I got were the now loved Belle & Sebastian's "If You're Feeling Sinister", Deep Purple's rocking "Machine Head" and Santana's "Abraxas", the last one which I only owned in vinyl format. I'm still to hear some of them, like Buzzcock's "Another Music in Different Kitchen" or W...

Time goes fast, or rather the internet makes it even faster. Just some days ago I was babbling about the albums I expected this year. Certainly, I didn't expect to be hearing one of them mere 2 days after writing such entry. Yep, Contra, Vampire Weekend's second album is up for free streaming at the band's Myspace one week before the physical release. Hope you (and I) like it.

Before coming to Finland, well, maybe a year or even more before coming to Finland, I got an interest in cinema. Yep, good movies, whatever I have been made into thinking that might be good, than I got it from the video rental. Be it a friend reccomendation, an IMDB or if it was referenced many times on popular culture, this way I got into watching movies as old as Nosferatu or even Voyeux a la Lune, or however it's written. Also, every now and then, I went to the cinema to watch the hyped movie of the moment, but this was not very usual. Now that I'm in Finland I always get movies either from TV or from the library, which gives free rental, but the cinema? Once I've been there. The reason? It's 10€, that's more than 3 Cinemark entry tickets, plus I've only two cinema rooms in my village, which show one movie a day, which might be changed every week. Also, the only movie I watched was not such a nice experience, since it was Quentin Tarantino's "Inglori...

I could still talk some more about 2009, best songs, best music videos, best movies, but hell no! I'm not living in the past, so welcome 2010. Today I'll talk as I've done some years before , about the inductees this year of the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. Some months ago, the organization unveiled some of the candidates to be inducted this year which also included for the first time artists like Beastie Boys, Depeche Mode, Bon Jovi, Peter Gabriel, Cyndi Lauper, Rush, XTC, Slayer, The Smiths, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Duran Duran, The Cure, Sonic Youth, Billy Idol, The Replacements, Tom Waits, Chicago, Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond, Judas Priest, Brian Eno, Hall & Oates, Devo, Captain Beefheart, Kraftwek, Black Flag. The final list was unveiled just some weeks ago and surprised quite a few, when the final choices made by the selectors were as follows: 1. The Stooges I had actually predicted The Stooges would have been on last year's class, but the selectors had to wait for gu...