CrashCarBurn – Keep Walking ft Kwesta [New Music Video]

The latest offering by power pop-rock heroes Crash Car Burn is out and on-line…
The rockers who brought us anthemic treasures such as the heavier “Serenade” and the slightly more bouncy sing-along “Kings of Summer” (in collaboration with Short Straw) are back with another tune you will inevitably find yourself knowing the words to.

We all know what that means… by the time you know a song’s lyrics, it is too late. You will start singing it along at gigs, later just coz it is playing in the pub… From there digresses into drunkenly singing it in the pub even when it is NOT playing at that moment.
The ultimate level might then be achieved: Soberly driving along, forgetting to turn on the radio and suddenly, you find yourself singing this tune to no-one and everyone at once.

Yes, I think that (should you not be phased by the daunting rap bits), this song will make it to solo-singing-while-making-rapper-moves-in-the-car level. And yes, you will probably suck at it, but the chorus makes it worthwhile:
One of these DAAayYYS, the sun’s gonna shiiine on meee….

 

Here’s the video, let me know what YOU think.
–Also, if you know who/what Dakar is (and I’m pretty sure not the rally), do tell me–

 

 

Well, as sharing is (s)caring – depends on what you’re sharing with who.
Either way, tell your friends about this post and they might just buy you a beer.

 

 

 

 

RAMFEST BAND REVIEW: BLK JKS and Desmond & the Tutus

As I promised in my general review of Ramfest 2011… Here are the band reviews!

Let me just start of by saying that I am not sorry if I offend anyone. Even if that “anyone” happens to be the family, friends and junkies (all no doubt the same people) that actually like BLK JKS. After all, as the legendary Henno Kruger of Running Wolf Rant says “Honesty is needed in rock journalism”

There, now that that is out there, I can do my first RAMFEST 2011 Band Review:

 

BLK JKS

Overrated, overexposed and overall just not that good. Yes, it was my first time seeing them perform live, and usually I give a band at LEAST 2 shows to prove themselves, so even though I’m open to the idea of being proven wrong (and I hope I can be) I doubt that I will be.  Feel free to contradict me.

My Recommendation: Give them a miss, unless they are followed by amazing bands to make the rest of the event awesome.

 

Desmond & The Tutus

It was my first live experience of this band, but one experience was all I needed to realise that I like them.
I was already a fan of their funky, vibey music and quirky lyrics before, but it so often happens that a band loses that edge on stage. Desmond & the Tutus lost nothing. In fact, just by looking at them on stage, you have to agree that this band is different (in a good way) than most other acts you will see.
I think their edge comes in that they don’t try too hard to be cool. They just are. And in their own way, it works for them. If any other band were to try and cover their songs, it would probably feel like watching a hearse transporting clowns. Something would not fit.

Do yourself a favour and take a look at the Desmond & The Tutus website (make sure to get a virtual hi5), follow them on Twitter and become a “Desmond & The Tutus Kid” on Facebook

My Recommendation: Take your drink, put a curly straw in it, and rush to the front of the stage with your friends. You are in for a treat!

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow, I’m featuring 2 more bands that were at Ramfest 2011. And remember to follow RAMfest on Twitter

(All pictures courtesy of Henno Kruger)

RAMFEST 2011: An objective review

The title said I have to be objective, so I guess I will have to try . . .

Being objective is actually more difficult than it sounds, seeing as I -to put it plainly- had a really good time.

Mind you, are opinions regarding entertainment not supposed to be completely biassed? I mean, if YOU are being entertained, it tends to make any other opinion rather relative…

So, that being said, here’s MY review of MY experience at Ramfest 2011.

Ramfest 2010 was awesome, but had enough irritations to make it less memorable. The parking was nightmarish, the bars useless and the toilet facilities were bad for the girls (I’m a guy. I need a tree)
One thing that can be said of the Ramfest organisers, is that they learn from their mistakes. EVERY SINGLE BAD THING from 2010 was addressed, and improved to near perfection for Ramfest 2011. Hi 5 Hilltop Live!
Parking was a breeze. Even getting out of the fest afterwards took us less than 10 minutes (in comparison to the 30 minutes I spent just walking to my car last year) .
Ordering drinks was made EASY. The combined size of the 3 bars present were -to my estimation- at least 2,5 times the size of last year’s. Only once did I wait longer than 2 minutes to be served, and even then it was maybe 4 minutes.. Compare that to the 2 hours I spent in line last year, and you can imagine my elation!
A rare sight at a fest like this, was NOT seeing any knee-bending, crotch-pinching people with yellow tears standing in waiting for the door to relief to open.

So far so good. Hi 5 Ramfest.

Now, being in the entertainment industry myself, I am EXTREMELY critical when it comes to the artists, sound, stage, lighting etc. So even if YOU saw nothing wrong with anything, I probably did. And so did you, you might just not have known what you didn’t see…
As for the bands, I am going to write individual reviews for each. For now I just want to focus a bit on the general setup.

Overall, the impression was VERY good.
The main stage was one of the most impressive ones you will probably ever see at a South African rockfest. Personally I would’ve went with a slightly different lighting setup on stage, but what they had worked, so let’s not dwell on this (just  a general observation to the lighting engineers would be that they need to realise that after 12 hours at a rockfest, too much strobe can be a bad thing)

The sound at the main stage was a bit of dump if you were in the front and centre. Only when you backed up about 25-30 meters could you get the effect of the side stacks, and then it was great. But let’s face it, who wants to stand 25-30 meters away from the stage? An easy solution would have been to have just 2 line-arrays front & centre, playing down on the crowd.

The awesomeness which is the main stage, unfortunately set the bar so high, that it was really easy for the 2nd stage to appear inadequate. The sound at the small stage was great (except for some feedback issues here and there). The stage itself just seemed a bit like the poor cousin with the ugly teeth that you try to hide away from your friends. so yah, it could’ve been better.

Stalls and more
I loved it. There were more than enough food stalls, without turning a rockfest into a vlooimark. It was expensive to eat, but not ridiculously over the top, so you could still munch a bit AND drink a lot 🙂

All in all, well done Ramfest, you made me feel alive (and deaf) and reminded me why I love South African rock so much!

(All photos courtesy of Henno Kruger and Simone Fourie)

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