Salicrunette & Evripidis doing The Night Of The Living Covers-Pictures

Salicrunette & Evripidis doing The Night Of The Living Covers

On Friday 29th of April, me and music journalist and friend Marta Salicrú did a special show at bar Robadors 23. I was actually just playing the piano and singing mostly harmonies while she had to sing her lungs out. The concert was part of a special event where music journalists have to turn into performers for one night and be judged by musicians in the crowd. Our fierce critic was Mireia Madroñero aka Miss Carrussel.

http://www.myspace.com/misscarrussel

Our show was a cabaret version of some of our favourite tunes ever. Here is the playlist:

Te Esperare-Pic Nic

Baby-Os Mutantes

Your Woman-White Town

Como Un Aviador-Family

All Of a Tremble-St. Christopher

Some Velvet Morning-Lee Hazlewood & Nancy Sinatra

(Remember) Walking In The Sand-The Shangri-Las

The Look Of Love-Burt Bacharach

Our Mutual Friend-Divine Comedy

Hounds Of Love-Kate Bush

Nothing To Be Done-The Pastels

Elisa-Serge Gainsbourg

You Think You´re a Man-the Vaselines

The show brought back a lot of sweet memories in me because my first concert as Evripidis and his Tragedies had taken place at that bar, exactly six years ago, on April 2005. And though Robadors Street, a seedy narrow lane packed with prostitutes, junkies, pimps and petty criminals, has been cleared a little bit since 2005 (due to the construction of a luxurious hotel and some new apartments) it still maintains this Barrio Chino aura that makes it unique. It was a warm spring night and although we were a little nervous at the beginning, we had fun and we paid an homage to some of the artists that shaped not only our musical tastes but our lives as well.

Thank you Marta, you have been a wonderful companion!

Drawing for a gig poster

Me and Sergi Puyol created a poster for a collective concert of Evripidis and his Tragedies, Le Pianc and Villarroel at Moog Club in Barcelona. I did the drawing of this three-headed monster while Sergi did the design.

You can check more of Sergi´s work here:

http://sergipuyol.blogspot.com/

Comic strip for Colibrí

photo by Ignasi Casas, cover by Sergi Puyol

Colibrí is the fanzine that features my first comic strip (well, it is not practically a strip but never mind) ever published, a story about the writer´s block I experience every time I have to do some creative work and how I try to sort things out by procrastinating heavily, getting desperate, looking for absurd excuses and-finally-finding a way to make things happen...somehow!

Colibrí was created by Toni Mascaró from APA-APA CÒMICS and illustrator and graphic designer Sergi Puyol. The initial idea of making a fanzine were Sergi would publish his new comic strips alongside the work of other authors has grown into a marvelous little treasure where you can find the work of many talented people, some of them trying their luck on narration for the very first time! The 300 copies of the first issue have already sold out and the 400 copies of the second one are going very well so hurry up otherwise you won´t get yours! The third issue is due to come out in March-April. On the 26th of January Toni and Sergi are doing a presentation of Colibrí 2 at my "Switch the Jukebox On!" night at Switch Bar in Barcelona, with special guests the groups Arponera and Villaroel!

learn more about it here:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121181484616907&num_event_invites=0

Artists who participated in this Colibrí:

Elisa Riera

Sergi Puyol

Felipe Almendros

Clara Tanit

Evripidis Sabatis

Antoni Hervàs

Leandro Alzate

María Corte

Liz Prince

Markéta Michálková

Marc Bell

Sara González

Tommi Musturi

Mireia Pérez

Elena Barreras

Camille Vannier

Clara Artigas

Jonathan Millán

Cristina Spanó

Jessica Boston

Mirena Ossorno

Lamare

Read and see more about the wonderful editorial Apa Apa here!

http://www.apaapacomics.com/

Razzmatazz Book illustrations

photo by Ignasi Casas

Some months ago I received a call from Sergio. Sergio works for Razzmatazz Club and he had just found some old drawings of mine in the office. He kindly asked me if he could use them for a special book they were making for the 10th anniversary of Razzmatazz Club. I had totally forgotten the existence of those drawings, I had made them ages ago and they were never used so I naturally said yes. Now I am really glad I did so because the book, thanks to Sergio´s beautiful design and the material, both texts (from musicians, djs, journalists or friends) and photos, is incredible and I am really happy to be part of it. It is a book celebrating 10 years of youth culture, concerts, cigarettes and alcohol, crazy dance moves, one night stands and once in a lifetime loves, razzmatazz and nights on the town, fun fun fun and music to top it all up!

Razzmatazz has been like a home to me. Even before I started working there as a dj, I used to go there every week. My memories of Barcelona will be forever linked to it. I still remember dancing my heart out to Arcade Fire´s "Rebellion (Lies)" as if there was THE ONLY song in the world that mattered and I still remember staying for hours outside the club, talking to people whilst "Such great heights" from The Postal Service would burst out of someone´s car, back in 2004, during my first months in the city. In the beginning I used to roam all five rooms of Razzmatazz looking for thrills, with starry eyes and a hungry heart, pushing my way through hundreds of wild kids, trying to make my own little corner of fun. As I grew older I started running away from the crowds and the electronic music and focused on the Pop Bar where I feel more at ease and the music is more of my taste plus the Torre Agbar view from the huge windows is magnificent.

It is in Razzmatazz where I gave my third concert as Evripidis and his Tragedies and the first one with a full band. I remember Javi Buenavista, one of the chief responsibles of the club and a good friend, telling me: "I offer you a show but...why don´t you build a group all around you and your piano so that it is going to be a more vivid gig? After all, you will play at 3 a.m in front of drunken people!" Well, I did so and suddenly it was eight of us on top of the tiny stage of the Pop Bar! After that there was no way-back: I keep on playing with a whole bunch of musicians and friends whenever I can. We ended up playing at Razzmatazz a lot of times, either alone or supporting groups like Arab Strap ( who ended up wanting to beat us up because our drummer stole their whiskey!) or Psapp. I also ended up being one of the residents djs of Pop bar. Five years have passed and I have shared the dj booth with friends like Bonnie and Clyde or iconic musicians like Jarvis from Pulp or Kate from The Long Blondes. And I have had the time of my life.

I cannot pretend that things are the same. As the years have passed a lot of the people who used to hang out at Razmatazz have gone away to give space to a whole new generation of kids, fierce and hungry for fun as always. Some time they get on my nerves (maybe because I envy their naif ways and incredible energy) and sometimes they wake up the tenderness in my heart because they remind me of how I used to be, when I still used to lose myself in the night, fall asleep in the corners (once I fell asleep on the front row of The Horrors concert at the main room of Razzmataz-fact!) just to wake up half an hour later and keep on dancing, make out with everyone, spill my drinks on me, perform absurd choreographies, sing my lungs out and end up with the most horrible hangover, sometimes alone, sometimes no. Although I mostly go to Razz in order to work nowadays, from time to time, for the old time´s sake, I still let the Devil take me by the hand and I kiss the floor when my dj session is over, remembering my dance moves and singing emotional hits at the top of my voice.

Once a journalist wrote in an article concerning my music that I am an "Ave Nocturna", a night bird in Spanish. Maybe he is right. Barcelona has a lot of stuff to offer but it is in its night spots where a big part of my life here has taken place. Classic and essential for the music scene venues like Razzmatazz, Apolo, Sidecar or Moog, much missed legendary places like Mond Club and La Paloma, bars like La Penultima, Las Guindas or La Bata de Boatiné and one-hit wonders (or should I say one-season wonders?) like Indie or El Balcon de Aquilles have been or still are responsible for giving our city a spicy nightlife and for giving us a playground where we can dream we are whoever we want to be...until the dawn breaks and the mirror shows panda eyes the side of a Plaza Cataluña.

Thank you Javi, Julie, Cristian, Nuria, Paloma, Ariadne, Sergio, Albert, Marc, Mirella, Marta, Aleix, Dani, Aileen, Antonio, Carol, Paco, Ray, Laura and all those who work or have worked in Razz all these years for being such a pleasure to be with!

xx

Handsome Devils

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB31_P63-ng


All the streets are crammed with things
Eager to be held
I know what hands are for
And I'd like to help myself
You ask me the time
But I sense something more
And I would like to give
What I think you're asking for
You handsome devil
Oh, you handsome devil

Let me get my hands
On your mammary glands
And let me get your head
On the conjugal bed
I say, I say, I say


I crack the whip
And you skip
But you deserve it
You deserve it, deserve it, deserve it


A boy in the bush
Is worth two in the hand
I think I can help you get through your exams
Oh, you handsome devil


Oh, let me get my hands
On your mammary glands
And let me get your head
On the conjugal bed
I say, I say, I say


I crack the whip
And you skip
But you deserve it
You deserve it, deserve it, deserve it


And when we're in your scholarly room
Who will swallow whom ?
When we're in your scholarly room
Who will swallow whom ?
You handsome devil


Oh, let me get my hands
On your mammary glands
And let me get your head
On the conjugal bed
I say, I say, I say


There's more to life than books, you know
But not much more
Oh, there's more to life than books, you know
But not much more, not much more
Oh, you handsome devil
Oh, you handsome devil
Ow !

(The Smiths)

Devils of the Deep

Those are the first drawings of a new series called "Devils of the Deep".
Ink on paper.

Motorbike in Dani´s patio

The other day, my friends Nacho, Maria and Pablo came to my place to record me playing at my flatmate´s my patio. We were all under a terrible hangover due to some serious partying (so common during summertime in this corner of the world) from the night before but we somehow managed to make it. Among plants, many of them tortured by the heatwave, I played some new songs. The is the first video of the series. The song is called Motorbike and it is about, well, being on a motorbike with someone you love...or at least fancy, cruising on the avenues. Enjoy!


http://www.vimeo.com/13441828

Won´t you take me for a ride

on that shabby old motorbike

and the city will change its face

won´t we cruise down the avenues,

won´t we run past the

people as they go to work

they look grey and dull as we enjoy

two-wheeled freedom for a moment

won´t you take me for a ride

on that shabby old motorbike

and our story could change its pace

you´d enjoy scaring me

jumping red lights and going full speed

I hope you do it for a purpose

so crystal clear so that, I, pushed by fear

will grab you tighter and feel

how your heart beats for me

so won´t we take ride?

won´t we take a ride?

on that shabby motorbike!

won´t you take me for a ride

nn that shabby old motorbike

so that holding you won´t be just a dream

I´ll rest my face on your shoulder

and go slightly insane with the scent of your neck

while churches, bridges, parks parade by our side

Why don´t we drive up the hill and seal our ride with a kiss

as the city lays below our feet

I´ll give myself to you

daydreaming is free!

Illustrations for "Autoplacer" festival

These are some Ilustrations (and some chords indication) I did for "Autoplacer " festival that takes place in Madrid this Thursday first of July at Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo in Móstoles. A festival about do-it-your self ethics basically, where there will be concerts and where they will be giving out a fanzine of illustrations and a cd of inedit songs. Among the songs will be "Before it´s over" by Evripidis and his Tragedies, a song about, well... self sufficiency basically ;) ! Check out the lyrics above and you will see why...

More information here:
http://autoplacer.tumblr.com/

Save Cala Reona!

Here is the drawing I made for a new project, curated by our friend Fran (of Ilustración fanzine), on the topic of the posible housing development on Cala Reona.

Cala Reona is an idylic bay in the Murcia province in Spain. It is the last virgin beach that remains between Cavo de Palos and the Natural Park of Calblanque, it is famous for it´s crystal clear water and is a shelter for various species of typically mediteranean plants and wildlife that is protected by law.

Lately there has been a reconsideration of plans to begin construction there, plans that were rejected ´80s and they had been revisited lately. Constructing on Cala Reona would destroy a site of extraordinary natural beauty, would threaten the existence of various plants and animals and would have negative effects on the nearby Natural Park of Calblanque.

you can read some more (in Spanish I´m afraid) here:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cala_Reona_(Cartagena)

http://www.asociacionanse.org/

http://www.laverdad.es/murcia/v/20100228/

cartagena/comunidad-rechaza-urbanizar-cala-

20100228.html

In the link below you can see more work made by a variety of artists, including Jeleton, Chuso Ordi, Antonio Juan Sánchez, Eulita, Pepo Moreno, Moco de Pavo, Delphi Deleas, Lucía Torres González, Jordirosa, José Antonio Delgado, Radioboy and me, Roque Lopez, Aitor Vieco, Delia Marín, Dofi and more...

http://fanzinecalareona.blogspot.com/

Special thanks to Fran for starting this!

The Crying Game (Continued)

Today it was an extremely rainy day. It didn´t stop pouring since early in the morning. After having watched the sky weeping for almost 24 hours and after having listened a zillion times "The tracks of my tears" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, I made the first The Crying Game playlist with some of my favorite songs about sobbing and you can download it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=F553CKIZ

The Crying Game

Who said that pop music is happy? The other day, out of pure curiosity I started searching songs with titles where the act of crying appears somehow and I was hardly surprised by the results.

Pop music is truely a weeping man´s world, full of songs about bitter tears and tears of a clown, 96 tears and rosy star tears from heaven, tears for affairs and tears in one´s cup, tears that dry on their own and tears that run rings around the eyes, tears for the man on the moon and black tears, rain and tears and nothing but tears, golden teardrops and and two types of teardrops, crying games and crying times, crying in the chapel and crying one self to sleep, crying in the rain and crying a river, crying to heaven and crying the night away, crying for attention and crying one´s heart, crying for a shadow and crying all the way to the pawnshop, dancing with tears in one´s eyes and doves (& angels) that cry.

Obviously, people have always chosen to sing about emotional outbursts that involve heavy lacrimating. Love may be still pop music´s favourite subject but crying, being one of the side effecs, also rides high in popularity.

When stress levels grow too much, crying is the only way to let off some steam and lighten up. It has been said that through tears and mucosal secretion-remember all those snotty kleenex you leave all around in each outbreak- the body gets rid of a great amounts of hormones accosiated with stress.

Thus we all feel better after a good weeping session . I would also point out that crying, being a violent outburst, makes us feel human like beings, alive and kicking. No wonder that in a stressfull and quite mechanical and antiseptic world there are so many people who go to watch sad movies in order to be able to let go in the darkness of a cinema, people who listen on repeat THAT song that reminds them of THAT moment and can never fail pull their trigger or even people who go to funerals often, even to funerals of peope they do not even know to cry their hearts out. Some might say that those people do not have real problems and need to invent their little tragedies-and maybe this is quite true.

Some might say that all the above are clearly acts of masochism . I would point out that maybe they are acts of hedonism because at the end of the day crying, just like laughter, feels good. And sounds good in songs. And looks good-have you ever looked yourself in the mirror after a good session of sobbing? The eyes have a distinct shine, their colour is brighter, the face looks calm, serene, peaceful. I could fall in love easily with somone who has just burst into tears in front of me. In fact I have.

Furthermore, apart from being a reaction to pain and stress, crying is a sign of helpnessness, a non-verbal and often unconscious cry for help towads the people around us. We are taught to be self sufficient since our youngest days but even the bravest, most proud person can sometimes feel like a scared ugly ducklin who needs to hide below the wings of mother goose and cry itself to sleep.

On the other hand, it is also said that boys don´t cry and big girls neither .The truth is that for a lot of people the pleasure of crying is denied. A friend of mine was telling me the other day that he is totally unable to cry. A question of culture or character? Is crying a guilty pleasure maybe? In the future are there going to be “sobbing shops” like “sex shops” where we will sneak with a slight embarassed expression on our faces just to pay to get into a cabin where they project sad movies and they play tearjerkers?

Could it be that crying is going to be like an illegal drug? Are there going to be crying dens like the opium dens, where people will gather secretly to tell heartbreaking stories and put on the saddest ballads by Patsi Cline or Irma Tomas?

Having said all that, I have to admit I haven´t shed too many tears lately. Maybe at some french movie, one of those where everything is romantic and doomed at the same moment and love can never win. Or maybe listening to some bittersweet song from some indie spanish pop band reminding me of summers long gone. Some could say that the luxury of talking about crying in only for those who don´t really have to cry, for those western-world middle class kids without serious problems, for those who have not been touched by real tragedies…and they are probably true.

But I just love pop music and I am old enough to say that I know all there is to know about the crying game, I had my share of the crying game, first there are kisses, then there are sighs…la la la. Just remember what the Caravelles sang back in 1963…You don´t have to be a baby to cry.