Solstice Coil's first video. Written by Shir Deutch and directed by Amir Armel in the summer of 2006, it recaptures the story of the protagonist of the graphic novel that appears on the album, only from a slightly different angle.
Solstice Coil
Porcupine Tree in Israel
Thursday, June 17, 2010 - 08:51
Okay, I finally caved and bought myself a ticket for the Porcupine Tree concert in Israel. Three weeks away, it doesn't seem like the prices are dropping and I wanted to make sure I got me a ticket before they ran out.
Hopefully they will play a lot of songs from my favorite album, Lightbulb Sun, and hopefully Aviv Geffen's "surprise guest appearance" will be short.
Also, in less than two weeks I'll be taking off to Cyprus to tie the knot with my wonderful fiancee, Orya. Actually this is completely unrelated to the matter of Porcupine Tree in Israel, but I just thought you should know.
P.S
I got my ticket on Mister Ticket, which offers the best price for this show as far as I'm aware. Although the site also claims that the show begins at 19:00, and I don't believe that is the case.
P.S.S
It was recently revealed that fellow alternative progressive rock band Eatliz will serve as the opening act for Porcupine Tree in Israel. Kudos to them!
Comments (1)
Okay, Update on that whole Concerts in Israel Thing...
Wednesday, June 9, 2010 - 09:33
I don't want to get too political here, but I feel like there should be an update after the previous post.
After the events of the Flotilla a week and a half ago, some major artists who were supposed to perform in Israel, the most notable of them being The Pixies, decided to cancel their concerts in Israel at the last minute.
This situation is very complicated, and I won't elaborate too much on it since this is really not the place. Also, I've wasted a lot of time and energy in the past week arguing with people on Facebook and other places and all I got to show for it is frustration, so it's not really worth it.
I will say this: while it is very unfortunate that people had died, it has been clearly proved that the "peace activists" aboard the Marmara were not peaceful at all. They were armed and spoiling for a fight. That doesn't mean that they deserved to die, but it does mean in my opinion that the actions of IDF soldiers were justified. Maybe there was another way to resolve this without bloodshed - military experts here say there wasn't. Either way, if those had been real peace activists, and if they hadn't struck the first blow - none of this would have happened.
As for The Pixies canceling their concert - I think that's a mistake, which is caused by political pressure and serves no purpose other than disappointing Pixies fans in Israel (which I am not among them, but that's beside the point.) If they had a political stance against Israel's policy concerning gaza, they shouldn't have booked the show in the first place, since this policy has been in effect since the 2006 Lebanon War.
International Rock Concerts in Israel
Monday, May 24, 2010 - 14:46
This summer it seems to be a renascence of international rock concerts in Israel. After a few years of being disregarded my many artists, as well as a long series of cancellations, major artists from all over the world are swarming at the Israeli audience like Israeli tourists at an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Last week I got to see K’s Choice, one of my favorite rock bands live at the Barby. I’ve already seen them twice in concert in 1999 and in 2000, and both concerts were brilliant. Ten years later, the Belgian (plus one American) bunch didn’t disappoint and gave an explosive show. It’s always moving to see such devotion on both the band and the audience, and I was impressed by the humility of Sarah Bettens, who was quite surprised to see that also know the lyrics to songs from her solo album.
A local Israeli rock band called The Carsitters opened for K’s Choice. If that name sounds familiar to you, it might be because I’ve mentioned them here before. We also once played a show with them about five years ago.
Yesterday there were many angry status lines on Facebook about the sound malfunctions that took place on the Metallica concert. Well, I’d be pissed too if I had to pay 250 dollars to see a Metallica show, but that’s just me.
Next week Placebo and the Pixies are coming here, but I don’t care about that much either. Also I’ll be performing with my side project band in Jerusalem on the day The Pixies will be performing, so even if I wanted to go, I couldn’t.
Another band that’s coming to Israel after not performing here in a decade is Porcupine Tree – I’ve actually seen them perform in 2000, when they were the opening act for K’s Choice! Still haven’t bought a ticket, waiting for the last minute – maybe prices will drop dramatically.
Archive in Israel
Tuesday, May 4, 2010 - 11:21
Last year, while driving back home from a band practice at 2am I got tired of the CD I was listening to and switched to 88fm, an Israeli radio station renowned for quality and sometimes obscure music. At the moment I switched to radio I heard a groovy, repetitive Clavinet riff playing and was totally hooked by it.
I kept on listening to the song, which seemed to never end. I had about 7 more minutes of driving till I reached home and by the time I got there, the song was still playing. Determined to figure out who's the artist and what is the song's name. Little did I know that this was a 16-minute-long song, so I kept sitting in parked car waiting for the song to end and hoping that the DJ will actually name the intriguing artist. Of course, DJs have the habit of neglecting to mention the credits for the obscure song they just played, instead opting for the familiar "that was Light My Fire by no other than The Doors, of course".
Fortunately, I remembered a line from the song, so upon getting home I immediately Googled the phrase "without your love you're tearing me apart". Google spat out a few links to an archived version of the song "Again", but curiously enough, non of the sites bothered to mention the artist name. Bear in mind that this was almost 3am on a weekday, so it took the penny a good while to drop: the artist name was Archive.
So I got my hands on "You All Look The Same To Me", the album with 'Again', the groovy, never-ending track that I've heard on the radio. Later I found out that their later albums are even cooler, the other tracks on 'You All Look The Same To Me' being less successful than 'Again' in my opinion.
This July, if to believe Israeli press, Archive will perform two concerts in Israel, marking one of the first times in history I manage to see a band live before I tire of it. Here's to hoping they won't cancel and that no stupid war will erupt. Again.
