Dario Zampetti (Veenue) – Interview (Part 1)

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Dario Zampetti from Veenue (just featured on MusicKO) is today’s interviewee. We talk about his startup (one of the most original I’ve seen in a while, actually), and then about the music he loves.

Thanks a bunch, Dario!

Full Name:
Dario Zampetti Age: 32
Startup: Veenue ltd
Position: founder & CEO

PART I

THE STARTUP

Tell us a little about your startup. How was it conceived? What are its most distinctive features in your opinion?

The veenue idea was born after a rehearsal with my friend and business partner Massimo. We were always surprised about how hard it was to find people to play music with.

“How can we find them?”, we thought.

And after a little while, the idea was clear: to build a search engine for musicians (what they play, how they look, what they like) and try to let them to play music together even if they’re far away from each other. I believe the most distinctive aspect of Veenue is the way everything’s approached. The idea to be free to search for people without any border, and to be free to play real music with them.

What was the original launch date?

3rd of October 2011

What has been the response so far? In which countries has it been more successful?

It’s still too early to say. Veenue is a simple idea, but the adoption of the whole system is not. It’s not like when you ask someone to write a text or email, we’re telling musicians that they can play together if they record a video. As it’s not a very common approach, we need time, marketing and good reviews to spread it : ) Continue reading →

Veenue – Collaborate With Musicians From All Over The World

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: Veenue
URL: http://www.veenue.com

Do you remember the video I posted earlier this year that brought together 100 different musicians playing Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog”? If you watched it back in the day, then I’m sure you do. That video was certainly impressive. The effort made by the folks who put it together was nothing short of titanic. I’m sure that many of you felt like being involved in something like that. And who could have guessed that you would be able to do it this soon?

Veenue is a music collaboration platform. It lets you connect with artists from every corner of the world, and create songs together. You do that by shooting and uploading videos of you performing. These are then used to create a “full” clip.

And just to add a little spice to how the site works, on Veenue you can become part of competitions which are sponsored by world-renowned brands. The first contest will start on the 3rd of October, and it will close on the 31st of March. Sponsored by Volkswagen, its winners are going to be invited to a studio in Berlin to record the song they have made together. And they’ll also get to produce a music video for the song.

Obviously, it’s still to soon to know how far this platform can go. We can’t know just yet if it will become the kind of social service people such as David Fincher end up making movies about. But the site is surely original, and you can use it without having to read a manual that would take half the Amazonia to make. And that’s just about the rightest way to kick things off, really.

Vincent Vega – Uruguayan Independent Artist

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Vincent Vega's Debut Album

The matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth. Because the truth is inexplicable, puzzling, mystifying. Well, it must be for this fellow who keeps on emailing me, asking why there’s never any guest posts on MusicKO, why it’s always me and the belly of the beast running the show.

OK, look. I did try hiring some folks to write stuff for this blog. I asked those who were interested to submit some capsule reviews, to see what they could do. And someone named Elbo Ludo sent three in. Two were a cut and paste affair, straight from the All Music Guide. The third and final one, now, was a short piece on a Uruguayan artist I’d never heard of in my life. That artist was named Vincent Vega. And that’s what this gentleman came up with:

Vincent Vega (pronunciation:[bjœːɳ ɵlˈveːɵs]): Named after actor Vincent D’Onofrio and Vega (the Spanish cage fighter from the “Street Fighter” franchise) Vincent Vega is a Uruguayan duo that had a chance to rise to prominence when they were commissioned by director Rob Marshall to write a song for the film “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”. The resulting track (“Huevo Maraca”) could be heard as the end credits were rolling. But since the vast majority of the people in the theaters always left by then, the duo’s pyrotechnical contribution to the film went largely unheeded by audiences, unaware of the credibility of what they would have heard had they stayed around.

So much for having guests authors on MusicKO, then.

But the silver lining (because there’s always one) was that I became really curious on this duo that went by the name of Vincent Vega. Hey, I’m always up for anything that could send people tripping as much as to write a review like the one I just shared with you. And you know what? After having been to a couple of their gigs and getting to know the guys personally, I must say their compositions are not only tasteful but truly resonant.

At its core, Vincent Vega is a duo made up of Matías González and Mauricio Sepúlveda (Dr. Gonzo & Mr. Vega to friends and foes). They’ve been around since 2008, and in November 2009 they released an eponymous album, which you can download for free.

Vincent Vega (Mauricio Sepúlveda & Matías González) At A Recent Gig

Their influences include artists as celebrated as The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Big Star and Wilco. And their main Uruguayan touchstone seems to be Eduardo Mateo, one of the seminal artists in the development of popular music in this country. Continue reading →

Sonic Youth Comes To Uruguay For The Very First Time

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Sonic Youth Playing The Second Night Of The Festival Primavera 0

Sonic Youth Playing The Second Night Of The Primavera 0 Festival

Yesterday, Sonic Youth played Uruguay for the first time in their three-decade career. The legendary New Yorkers headlined the second night of Primavera 0, a new music festival that’s brought many international acts to the country for the very first time. Just last week Beady Eye made a great Uruguayan debut, setting the opening night of the festival ablaze along with Uruguayan rockers Astroboy.

And yesterday, it was Sonic Youth’s turn to play to a Uruguayan audience for the first time. The crowd was decidedly different this time around, with much older folks in attendance. The show itself started too early (7 PM on a weekday) so I wasn’t surprised that the venue was half-empty when it all began. The Teatro de Verano became slowly crowded as the two openers played their sets.

Banda De Turistas

Argentinean band “Banda de Turistas” played tightly and with determination, while Uruguayan alt rockers “La Hermana Menor” ran through a set that had the audience captivated for most of its duration. They lost it towards the end, with most people where I was criticizing the slow songs they used to close their performance. And it didn’t help that some idiot in the audience kept shouting insults at them whenever the music stopped.

La Hermana Menor

Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley and Mark Ibold came onstage at 10:00 PM. Sonic Youth played a set that included highlights from all over its career, but (as it was only suitable) the emphasis was put on the band’s older compositions. They included songs from the closest they came to a commercial peak such as “Teen Age Riot” (from the Daydream Nation album, their major label debut from 1988) and newest cuts like “Sacred Trickster” and “What We Know”. Both kind of compositions were received rapturously, and the band did all their trademark tricks. Although they used no water bottles, screwdrivers found their way in and out of their guitars, and strident passages were used to interconnect different songs. Continue reading →

Beady Eye In Uruguay

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

As you know, the one band that made me become interested in music was Oasis. So, when I learned that Beady Eye (Liam Gallagher’s new outfit) was to headline the first day of the festival “Primavera 0” I didn’t have to think it long before buying the best ticket I could.

The way things turned out, I managed to make it to the very first row. Words fail me to describe how I felt when I saw Liam take the stage.

Beady Eye Rocking The First Night Of The "Primavera 0" Festival

Just imagine what it’s like to stand this proximate to one of the most emblematic members of the band responsible of making a music lover out of you.

Liam Gallagher Playing Uruguay For The First Time

And I must also praise the opening act, Astroboy. That’s a band I really disliked back in the day, and I actively criticized it. Yet, time has let me see their transcendence within the Uruguayan scene. Their music sounded nothing short of celebratory that night. They played with real precision and determination, with an honesty and integrity that could prove the biggest nay-sayer wrong.

Astroboy

And you know what? Next Tuesday, the headliner is no-one else but Sonic Youth. They’re not a band that I’m crazy about, but the chance to catch up with such a legendary performer is not to be missed. Even if the show is only half as exciting as this one, it’ll be worth every cent.

Month In Review – October 2011

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

October’s highlights included the release of Pablo Farago’s “Mantras” (a compilation of some of his finest work, as recorded over the past ten years), a post on electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram, and an article about the day Manhattan thought Radiohead would play a free concert. If anything, that post is worth a good look because it showcases how quickly a mere rumor can spread online nowadays, until everybody is repeating something that is plain wrong as if it were the gospel truth.

And as far as websites for music lovers were concerned, the startups I reviewed on October included ListnPlay, LyricStatus and MyDjSpace. And the one iPad app that I got to feature was WildChords, a game from these great folks at Ovelin that lets you learn to play the guitar. And by “great folks”, I mean it – just look at the interview they gave me! Thanks, guys!

And fans of Joy Division should check what happens when our favorite Mancunians meet some playmobil…

On November, I’m certain to review Vincent Vega’s self-debut album. I know them personally, I’ve been to a good couple of their shows, and I’ve pogoed with delirious abandon right at the front, along with the horde of misfits that follows them through light and shade.

Well, not really. They are an acoustic duo, and their live shows could perfectly be the recipient of a Nobel peace prize.

Vincent Vega

But I’ve been there, and I’ve greatly enjoyed their music throughout. I’ll be delighted to feature them on MusicKO this month. Check the blog later next week to read about them!

LyricStatus – Get Lyrics On Facebook Right

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

Name: LyricStatus
URL: http://www.lyricstatus.com

A person who has never posted a song lyric to Facebook to convey the way he’s feeling is like a kid who has never watched “The Lion King”. That doesn’t happen, not even in another universe. Songs lyrics are tailor made for something like Facebook, a site that redefines how one presents himself to the world. The mere fact of interacting on a social network means that one’s exposing a lot about himself, so that anything that can sort of depersonalize the experience without sacrificing expressivity is just perfect. And song lyrics fall squarely in that category. Song lyrics can be used to tell someone he/she makes you feel special in front of the whole world without having to address him/her directly. They can be used to wind somebody up. And they also come in handy when you simply want to slag others off.

And in all cases, there’s nothing more embarrassing than getting the lyrics you’re quoting wrong. When you post lyrics on Facebook, the last thing you want is people commenting that you got them all mixed up. You want them to think about what they might mean to you and other, not to pick on words that you might have got wrong. That throws everything out of the window, as discussions will revolve around these words you messed up, and not what you actually meant to convey when posting them.

Such a thing is certainly frustrating, but (thankfully) you can prevent that from happening by using a site like this one. LyricStatus is a search engine for lyrics. This site lets you find lyrics both by artist and by song, and the idea is that once you’ve found what you are looking for you can have it posted to Facebook straightaway. Continue reading →

Christoph Thür (Ovelin) – Interview (Part 2)

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Emilio Pérez Miguel

The second part of the interview I conducted with Christoph Thür from Ovelin, the creators of the super-cool WildChords for iPad. You can read the first part of this interview here. And this is my review of WildChords. Enjoy, and share!

PART II

MUSIC & YOU

When did you become interested in music? What was the first album or single you ever purchased?

I always loved those evenings at the scout summer camp where we were singing next to the fire. I think the first album I bought with my own money was Keep the Faith from Bon Jovi. Continue reading →