If you ever have a chance to catch a show at Liverpool's Korova you must do so at all cost...that's if you can pull yourself away from the Scousingtons maurading the cobbled streets!
Thanks to Gemma at Mercy—the hostess with the mostess!
UPDATE: We missed this though. Drats!
29 August 2008
LIVERPOOL 28 AUGUST 2008
28 August 2008
26 August 2008
25 August 2008
GOING TO MEET THE DON
24 August 2008
22 August 2008
UNMISTAKEABLE OTHERNESS
A review of this week's show at the legendary Whelans in Dublin...
In my shameful ignorance of African music I had no idea what to expect, but what I was greeted with was a complete surprise. It was incredibly dense music, constantly changing rhythm, tempo, language, mood and tone to create a whirlpool of sound. It defied all my preconceived notions of African music. It certainly sound like rock music, and there was also an obvious heavy western influence. Yet it also had a unmistakable otherness to it, an Africanness, something exciting, invigorating and alien.
It was a complete medley of genres. This was reflected even in their stage presence and stances. Linda Buthelezi, lead guitarist and vocalist, cut an angular figure, with violent punk poses and reckless thrashing, while to his left bassist Molefi Makananise seemed to be straight out of a seventies funk band. Contrastingly, rhythm guitarist Mpumi Mcata’s jumpy grooving completely suited his clipped reggae style, and at the back Tshepang Ramoba’s ecstatic drumming and solos put me in mind of a free jazz player. Yet although they all seemed to be from different bands and different genres, hell even different eras, they gelled, the music worked and it resulted in fantastic show.
Real talk via Analogue magazine.
Special thanks to Mark ChoiceCuts for putting on some great shows. And also to the dude on the street in Galway who taught us how to say "you're with two beautiful women" in Gaelic.
19 August 2008
15 August 2008
THIS DEEJAY WILL SAVE YOUR LIFE
LA-based superstar DJ Garth Trinidad has been a big champion of BLK JKS for a sec now, bumping the necksnap "One Must Die" on the KCRW airwaves (webwaves?) and generally sparking for the band on the West Coast.
This Saturday's show is dedicated to KCRW's summer fundraising drive, and Garth will be giving away South Africa-only CD editions of the BLK JKS "Mystery EP"to supporters of the station's progressive public radio programming.
Garth's "Chocolate City" show is on from 6-9PM on Saturday. Please tune in (online!) and make it happen!!!
14 August 2008
ACTUAL PROOF: NEW YORK TIMES PLAYLIST
Had to repost this family:
"Now and then it’s easy to guess that Blk Jks, from Johannesburg, are an African band on their four-song “Mystery EP” (Robinson Projects, available for download from digital.othermusic.com). That’s when they go bounding into three-chord South African township grooves in “Lakeside” or overlay the reggae foundation of “Summertime” with syncopated guitars. But Blk Jks make their music in a global swirl of possibilities; they are an art-rock band. Produced in New York by Brandon Curtis of the band Secret Machines, the songs on the EP are far closer to TV on the Radio and the Mars Volta than they are to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. While the lyrics (mostly in English) ponder philosophical quandaries — “All the wise men ’round the world don’t know the answers” — the band’s quick-fingered, multilayered vamps well up out of murky echoes, piling jubilation atop the anxiety, before submerging again. An earlier Blk Jks song, “Transit Camp,” is available (from Emusic or CD Baby) on the South African compilation “Phrased Differently” (Runway Music); less vertiginously produced and furiously propulsive, it has the band “smiling into oblivion, then dreaming swift into the heart of the abyss.”
Tree free reading here.
13 August 2008
A PARIS: STREET EDITION
BLK JKS did the unthinkable for a band on the run, taking a couple days off in Paris after the packed out show at Fleche D'Or. Of course, Paris is a fine enough place to recover from the vicissitudes of life on the road...get a little existential...streteched out in a sunny park with a little falafel and Lebanese beer...
12 August 2008
11 August 2008
PARIS
Yesterday while you were reading this BLK JKS made their Paris debut at Fleche D'Or, an amazing rock club set inside an old Metro station.
Thanks Cathy at Gigs Production for the hard work and the vidz!
10 August 2008
SIDE NOTES
We're in Paris blowing the roof off the club, but this came over the wires so we thought we'd share...
"Beats From Down Home to Far From Home"
New York Times playlist by Jon Pareles
Now and then it’s easy to guess that Blk Jks, from Johannesburg, are an African band on their four-song “Mystery EP” (Robinson Projects, available for download from digital.othermusic.com). That’s when they go bounding into three-chord South African township grooves in “Lakeside” or overlay the reggae foundation of “Summertime” with syncopated guitars. But Blk Jks make their music in a global swirl of possibilities; they are an art-rock band. Produced in New York by Brandon Curtis of the band Secret Machines, the songs on the EP are far closer to TV on the Radio and the Mars Volta than they are to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. While the lyrics (mostly in English) ponder philosophical quandaries — “All the wise men ’round the world don’t know the answers” — the band’s quick-fingered, multilayered vamps well up out of murky echoes, piling jubilation atop the anxiety, before submerging again. An earlier Blk Jks song, “Transit Camp,” is available (from Emusic or CD Baby) on the South African compilation “Phrased Differently” (Runway Music); less vertiginously produced and furiously propulsive, it has the band “smiling into oblivion, then dreaming swift into the heart of the abyss.”
NYT dude going IN!
OG link
09 August 2008
PARADISE
Photos by Jen Mazer.
Since you've been a regular reader of this site for a while now, you know the BLK JKS story has been nothing if not a wild ride—a rush of shocking vibes, unlikely turns and a little healthy buzz from the press. But at its core the experience has always pulsed an heart of depthless passion and incalculable invention. These are strange songs for strange days: certainly a new story for Azania but also for the world—in flashes it has felt like this might be the first music of our century.
Last night's performance at Paradiso—Amsterdam's premiere music venue—was one such flash. Leaving aside a tedious backstory of visa dramatics and travel hassle, BLK JKS stepped on stage shortly after midnight and proceeded to dial down into the music. "Concentration" flowed into "Molalatladi" and it went on from there, as four young lions alternated churns through raw material with considered lucid moments and polymathic pivots. At then at some point the set opened up and songs were leavened into songlines, passes became passages, spaces turned into space. Something new was suddenly created, this was something different and yeah yo its always like that any time you find yourself dancing and laughing and crying outside of yourself and everyone else is, too, it seemed as if the music itself was reaching out to us with its own speaking, its own message for each of us, a few years ago out in the A someone told me Africa has a plan for each one of her sons and certainly her daughters and it's up to us to uncover or discover that plan. I'd like to tell you when the music ended but it hasnt yet
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07 August 2008
04 August 2008
MANTUA PROJECT
Sure, we got an apologetic SMS from Mark ChoiceCuts a few days before our set at Ireland's Mantua Project—an amazing progressive music festival set deeeeeep in rural Emerald Isle. But when dude texted "heavy weather, stage underwater, bring wellies and rain gear" how bad could it be?
Turns out the stage wasnt acutally submerged, mainly because it was on the highest hill around. When we arrived on Saturday, though, the combination of insane amounts of rain and happily undeterred festivalgoers had churned the grounds into an heaving, seething mass of thick ass mud with a mind of its own. True enough the weather cleared up a bit for the BLK JKS set on Sunday but a couple bros took the stage fully wellied up...and left Roscommon with the wellies on!
03 August 2008
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