The Backpackers Hostel Blog

Sat 31 May

10pm at Espacio Movistar. Portal del Coneixement (C/Pascual i Vila s/n)   25€   Buy tickets

Fatboy Slim is an English big beat musician. He started a punk fanzine titled Peroxide with his neighbor Andrew Thomas and art student Ian McKay (formerly Laidlaw). Contemporary with his publishing activities, he played drums in Disque Attack (a British new-wave-influenced rock band) for which he later performed lead vocals.

A lot of fans around the world consider him as the the best DJ at the moment.

Awards

• 1999 three MTV awards for the video to “Praise You” – for best direction, best choreography and best breakthrough video.

• 2001 Fatboy Slim’s video for “Weapon of Choice” received six prizes at the MTV Video Awards, the most given to a single winner that year.

• 2007 Ivor Novello Award for his “outstanding contribution to British music”.

(Taken from www.20minutos.es and www.wikipedia.org)

Tue 27, Wed 28 May

9:30pm & 11:00pm at Jamboree (Plaça Reial) 12€ Buy tickets

Danish guitarist Mikkel Ploug Group featuring Mark Turner recorded this album in February for release on Fresh Sound Records. Three young creative musicians meet one of the most influential and in demand saxophonists on today’s jazz scene: Mark Turner. The music consist of originals written by Mikkel and it’s both melodic and challenging. Besides Mark Turner on Tenor saxophone, Sean Carpio (IE) is on drums, Jeppe Skovbakke (DK) is on bass and Mikkel Ploug (DK) on guitar. (Taken from www.freshsoundrecords.com and http://farm3.static.flickr.com).

Thu 29 May

7:30pm at Sala Bikini (Diagonal 547) 14-17€ Buy tickets

Porta is the new sensation of the Spanish hip-hop. From Barcelona, this young rapper managed to raise a great expectation with its first models, attracting a good number of visitors toward its place in MySpace and adding more than 5 million downloads of its themes. Later the contract arrived with Universal Records, that has given rise to its flaming record début recently published. (Taken from http://a7.img.v4.skyrock.com and www.ticktackticket.com)

Wed 28 May

10pm at Espacio Movistar. Portal del Coneixement (C/Pascual i Vila s/n)   28€   Buy tickets SOLD OUT

Alejandro Sanz was born in Madrid, Spain. He began playing guitar at the age of seven and composing his first songs three years later. His official debut, called “Viviendo Deprisa”, came in 1991 after signing up with Warner Music. “Si Tú Me Miras” followed in 1993, featuring contributions from Nacho Mañó, Chris Cameron and Paco de Lucía. His third album, aptly titled 3, was recorded in Venice, Italy, and produced by Miguel Angel Arenas and Emanuele Ruffinengo.

1997’s Más and 2000’s “El Alma al Aire”, the Spanish singer/songwriter achieved international top-selling status.

He also appeared in the film clip for The Corrs’ English translation of their duet, “Una Noche” (“One Night”) as Andrea’s love interest. The video is included in The Corrs’ DVD version of Best of The Corrs. In return, The Corrs sang “The Hardest Day” with him and “Una noche” for the spanish and latinamerican edition from the 2001 Corrs’gratest hits album.

In 2001, he became the first Spanish artist to record an Unplugged for MTV. In 2003, he recorded the album “No Es lo Mismo”, which won five 2004 Latin Grammy Awards. It won Record Of The Year, Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year, and Best Engineered Album with Mick Guzauski, Pepo Sherman, and Rafa Sardina as engineers.

Alejandro Sanz has won a total of 17 Grammys Awards (2 Regular Grammy Award and 15 Latin Grammy Awards) and has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide.

Tue 27 May

9pm at Palau de la Musica Catalana, Sala de Concerts (C/ Palau de la Música, 4-6)  15 – 68€   Buy tickets

Ernst Ottensamer, clarinet

MOZART: Quintet en La major, KV 581
MENDELSSOHN: Peça de concert per a 2 clarinets, op. 114
BRAHMS: Quintet en Si menor, op. 115

Fri 30 May

1:30am at Razzmatazz (SALA 1 (C/Almogàvers, 122) 15€ Buy tickets

The Enemy is an English rock band formed in Coventry in 2006, signed to Warner Music Group (UK). In June 2007, The Enemy played twice at Glastonbury Festival, played the ‘Guardian lounge’ on Saturday and the much larger ‘Other Stage’ on Sunday. They also headlined on the Saturday night of T In The Park in the ‘Futures’ tent on 7 July 2007.

On July 16, 2007 the band’s debut album: We’ll Live and Die in These Towns went straight to Number 1 in the UK Albums chart on release.

(Taken from www.roots-and-branches.com and www.wikipedia.org)

Wed 28 May

9:30pm at Razzmatazz, SALA 3 (C/ Pamplona, 88) 20€ Buy tickets

King Creosote is the name used for current solo releases of the musician Kenny Anderson, born in Scotland.

He is a prolific songwriter, having released (at last count) 38 albums, most of these being CD-R releases on his own Fence Records label.

King Creosote maintains that the song is more important than the style, and that the performance outweighs recording quality. If a part can’t be recorded in one take, scrap it for something simpler. No sample should be longer than four seconds, and although samples should be in tune or in time, not necessarily both.

(Taken from www.wikipedia.com and www.liverpool.com)

Sun 8 Jun

10am Bikes at C/ Aragón (between C/ Balmes and paseo de Gràcia)

10am Skates at paseo de Gràcia, (between C/ Aragón and C/ Valencia)

All the activities are free, with exception of the bike’s renting (call Biciclot 93 307 74 75 between 2 – 6 June, from 9:30am to 2pm)

This is the 28th edition of the Bike & Skate Festival. This is not a competition, it is just a festivity so family and friends can have fun and make a trip of few kilometers around the city of Barcelona.

Last year there were 15 thousand participants and the organizers expect that this year will be more. After the trip, there is going to be a big party at Montjuic mountain with activities such as spectacular exhibitions of the 11 times champion of the world of Bike Trial, Cesar Cañas; workshops and kids games; kids circuits; the traditional Fair, and many more.

This festival will be also a supportive festival. And the fact is that by second consecutive year the Bike & Skate Festival will participate with the NGO Active Africa collaborating in the recollection of material and spare parts for bicycles.

Route

More info at Bike & Skate Festival (just Spanish and Catalan)

From Fri 30 May – Sun 20 Jul

Fundació Joan Miró (Av Miramar, 1 – Sants-Montjuïc)

Tue – Sat 10am – 7pm (Oct-Jun). 10am – 8pm (Jul-Sep). Thu 10am – 9:30
Sun and public holidays 10am – 2:30pm. Mon (except public holidays) Closed.
General ticket: adults: € 8. Reduced rate: € 6 /Temporary exhibitions: adults € 4. Reduced rate € 3 / Espai 13 € 2,5

Kohei Nawa was born in Osaka in 1975. Since completing a Ph.D in fine art sculpture from Kyoto City University of Art in 2003, he has won several awards including the Kirin Art Award 2003, confirming his reputation as an up-and-coming young artist whose work is highly regarded both in Japan and overseas. Together with the influence of British sculpture derived from his experience as an exchange student at the Royal College of Art, one can also discern in Nawa’s works the development of the Japanese sculptural approach of focusing on the “outer layer.”

Nawa’s sculpture series include works consisting of various objects purchased in Internet auctions, such as toys and stuffed animals, that the artist has covered with transparent glass beads or placed in prism boxes. First, through searches using key words, he finds an object from the sea of information on the Web and perceives it as a digital image on a computer screen (first contact with the object). Next, once the object has come into his hands, he experiences its actual physical presence (second contact). Then, by adding the effect of glass beads or prism box, the object is presented as a work emerging from the new order of the information society. These works reveal the uncertainty of the position of reality between seeing and perception. (Taken from www.undo.net, www.artnet.com and www.fjmiro.es)

Mon14 & Tue 15 Jul

At Auditorium Forum – Ticket Hotline 902 10 12 12. International enquiries +34 933 262 946. Buy Tickets also available online from www.telentrada.com. Tickets on sale Monday 2nd June at 9.00AM.

Tom Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by one critic as sounding “like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.”

With this trademark growl; his incorporation of pre-rock styles such as blues, jazz, and Vaudeville; and experimental tendencies verging on industrial music,Waits has built up a distinctive musical persona. He has worked as a composer for movies and musical plays and as a supporting actor in films, including The Fisher King, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Short Cuts. He has been nominated for an Academy Award for his soundtrack work on One from the Heart.

Lyrically, Waits’ songs are known for atmospheric portrayals of bizarre, seedy characters and places, although he has also shown a penchant for more conventional ballads.

(Taken from http://www.antilabelblog.com and www.wikipedia.org)