The Backpackers Hostel Blog

Fri 5 Sep 08

10:30pm at Parc del Forum- Auditori Gran (Llevant, 2-4) Buy tickets

Manolo García is a Spanish singer and painter. His first LPs were recorded with rock bands like “Los Rápidos”, “Los Burros” and “El Último de la Fila”. His singing style is a mix of pop rock, flamenco and arabic music. Today, García continues to have a successful solo career.

His third album was “Para que no se duerman mis sentidos”. Now he is releasing his new album “Saldremos a la lluvia”. (Taken from www.wikipedia.org & www.servicaixa.com).

Wed 3, Thu 4, Fri 5 Sep at 8pm
Sat 6 Sep 5pm & 9:30pm

At Gran Teatre del Liceu (La Rambla, 51-59) 14,25 – 95,75€ Buy tickets

The Balé da Cidade de São Paulo was founded in 1968. The contemporary idiom of its dancers has been further enriched by the company’s Brazilian flavour. With Mônica Mion as its artistic director, it has consolidated its position among the most innovative and original ballet troupes and has accepted the collaboration of top-ranking choreographers. For its debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu it offers a programme representative of its wide and varied repertory.

The piece by Gagik Ismailian (created specially for it in 2001) mingles fados sung by Amália Rodrigues with music by Wim Mertens and seeks, in the words of the choreographer, «to use the disquiet and melancholy of the fado to choreograph a love that is constant, violent, and almost tribal».

Perpetuum, on the other hand, is one of Ohad Naharin’s most surprising, variegated and popular choreographies. This veritable classic of contemporary dance, performed to waltz rhythms by Johann Strauss II, parodies drama, opera and dance itself in a whirlwind of humour, irony and colour.

The programme also features a new work by Cayetano Soto, a choreographer born in Sabadell who is a member of IT Dansa and the Ballett Theater München. Soto’s new ballet will be included in the repertory of the Balé da Cidade de São Paulo in its forthcoming international tours. (Taken from www.liceubarcelona.com)

Thu 4 Sep 08

9pm at L’Auditori, Hall 1 Pau Casals ( Lepant, 150)  30€  Buy tickets

After many years in the business, Moncho is returning to his roots, accompanied on his new album by a number of artists who confess to having listened to him ever since they were kids.

To them all (Lolita, Diego el Cigala, Josemi Carmona, Niña Pastori, Tomatito, etc.) MONCHO is Tío MONCHO. At the Auditori, a great show surrounded by top-flight musicians, the artist will recover the fusion of which he was a pioneer when, as a precursor of Catalan rumba, he sang flamenco and melodic song with Cuban airs and jazz tendencies.  (Taken from www.auditori.org).

Until Sun 2 Nov 08

Tue to Sun from 11am to 8pm / Thu 11 am to 10 pm / Closed on non-holiday at Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona CCCB ( Montalegre, 5)  Mon 4,5€

This exhibition offers an itinerary through Ballard‘s creative universe: his times and obsessions, his dissection of the secret keys of the contemporary, the traces of his own life in his fictional body of work, his artistic and literary referents, and his precise, disenchanted intuitions of a future life governed by the concepts of aseptic dystopia and disaster.

Ballard’s work represents an open-ended body of work that still has many revelations in store for his readers and the capacity to throw light on the course of our future. An author with an enormous influence on later generations of creators in all disciplines, from fantasy cinema to industrial music, Ballard is the author, among many other works, of The Empire of the Sun and Crash, adapted for the cinema by Spielberg and David Cronenberg, respectively. (Taken from www.cccb.org)

Until Thu 28 Aug 08

10pm at  Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona CCCB ( Montalegre, 5)  Free admission

Gandules 08 looks at the theme of interculturality, taking as its starting point an essential film principle: the viewpoint. In the form of fiction, essay and documentary, the films shown during Gandules 08 present works from the West and beyond which deal with two major themes that question the point of view: journeys that lead to another culture and situations of coexisting cultures in a single place.

Gandules 08 extends this year to provide a space for creation, inviting four young film makers to make a short film that dialogue with the programme.  (Taken from www.cccb.org).

See programme

Fri 15 – Thu 21 Aug 08

Fri 15 Aug 08

12 Hrs at Razzmatazz Sala 1 (C/Almogavers, 122) 12 – 15€ Buy tickets

A Mountain Of One is one of the better secrets at the moment. With some delicious and curious influences that tilt from the seventy to the ninety (from Love to The Beta Band, from Talk Talk to the sound Madchester, from Fleetwood Mac to the ‘balearic’ sound , from Arthur Russell to Pink Floyd).

As well it said Pitchfork, the epic sound of this individual mountain is the best option to listen fallen in the beach with the eyes closed; a characteristic that shares with the delicious music of the swedish project Studio and that will do that parch you to the sun. Its collection “Collected Works” (07), where they collected all the themes published in vinyl Lp’s during the last years, celebrates a timeless and precious music that fabulously has been received for the criticism.

Fred Falke, electronic bassist in collaborative work with Alan Braxe, a French electronic music artist; would carry out with this in 2000 ‘Intro’, a memorable one track of house hot and subtly ecstatic, based on a sampler of the ‘Crush On You’ of The Jets, and that would penetrate depth in the memory of the clubbers of all species. It composes since then small but perfect synthetic hymns, metalized and neo-romantics through and through (‘Palladium’, ‘Rubicon’, ‘Chrystal City’), that met in 2005 in the compilation “The Upper Cuts”. There it is re-mix of Goldfrapp, Röyksopp, The Infadels, Hot Chip, Kelis or Jamiroquai and, after to have offered, with the inseparable one Braxe, a remembering of the phenomenal and federalist one ‘D.A.N.C.E.’ of Justice, 2008 is starting good with ‘Music For My Friends’ his new release of 4 themes in Work It Baby, the seal of the colleague Kris Menace.

(Taken and adapted from www.salarazzmatazz.com).

Thu 14 Aug

12hrs at Razzmatazz (C/ Almogavers 122) 12 – 15€ Buy tickets

Ratatat is a New York City electronic music duo consisting of guitarist Mike Stroud and synthesizer driver and producer Evan Mast.

Their 2004 debut, Ratatat, was written and recorded in Mast’s Crown Heights, Brooklyn apartment on Stroud’s PowerBook. This album is entirely instrumental, except for occasional excerpts of dialog at the beginning and end of some tracks. For touring in 2006, they added a third member, Jacob Morris, on keyboard.

The group started out releasing their debut single Seventeen Years on Evan and his brother’s record label Audio Dregs label in the US and Rex Records in the UK. The official site has been updated showing that a new single, Shiller, is now available for purchase (only on 7″). The duo’s most recent album, LP3, was released on July 8, 2008. (Taken from www.wikipedia.org).

Fri 8 Aug 08

10pm at Ateneu Barcelones (C/ Canuda 6) 10€ Buy tickets

“Fados” and poetry Fusion. The music of Névoa is a selection of traditional melodies of the fado of Lisboa with lyrics of Catalan poets and like Enric Casasses, Feliu Formosa, Josep Maria de Sagarra, or also, Pablo Neruda. She is presenting her new album “‘Entre Pedres i Peixos” (Between stones and fishes).

The concert is in benefit of International Amnesty. (Tomado de www.telentrada.com & www.vesc.cat).

Until Sun 12 Oct 08

At CaixaForum Centre Social i Cultural (Av Marquès de Comillas, 6-8) Free admission
Mon, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun & Holidays 8am to 8pm /Tue 8am to 10pm / Wed 8am to 11pm