26/06/08

La Machine @ Miloco

Combining the talents of director Daniel Brown and the forward-thinking physical Miloco Theatre, La Machine is a mixture of live performance and video. It follows two survivors of disaster in a dystopian near-future as they struggle to survive against the odds.

Described as a tale of the desperation of two clowns in love, this is not the typical science-fiction of spaceships and aliens. La Machine seeks to explore human emotion in bleak circumstances, as relevant to the modern world as it is to its fictional future. Conceived by the two main stars, Vanessa Gendron and Jeff Smith, La Machine is the product of an international ensemble of talent at the Miloco Theatre.

27/06/08

Respect Music Festival @Ostrov Stvanice

The Respect World Music Festival returns to Prague for an 11th year of diversity on Stvanice island this weekend. The open-air festival offers artists from all backgrounds, including the Iranian family-band, Shanbehzdah Ensemble, with bag-pipe lead, and Oumou Sangare, the songbird of her native Wassalou. Le Cor de La Plana offer the sounds of Corsican polyphony, and Tanya Tagaq (a Bjork and Kronos Quartet collaborator) delivers the beautiful expression of the Inuit language.

The Friday event is headlined by the Kaisai All-Stars, a large ensemble group from the Kasai region comprising of five ethnicities, all bringing their own languages and instruments to the mix. Saturday is headlined by Dengue Fever, who combine Cambodian pop with a range of Western influences including psychedelic rock.

With its serene island location, this diverse selection of artists and more, there's something to please anyone looking for a bit of cultural entertainment.

Tickets are 285KC for one day or 400 for the whole weekend.

28/06/08
Hip-Hop Festival @ Riegrovy Sady
Hip-Hop isn't very popular in Prague - but EVERY Hip-Hop lover we know is going to the Hip-Hop fest this week-end. Headliners this year are PSH and H16, but you should not miss V E C, a band from Slovakia who remained true to Old School Hip-Hop roots. Dramatikz performance should also be quite interesting, since they're about to release their first LP by the end of the year and will be showcasing new songs here in Prague...

The Wind Wistles @ Chateau Rouge
To most people music is nothing but a good tune, and you need no more than a folk guitar to write one. The Wind Whistles is a folk duo from Canada who enjoy     travelling and meeting people as much as they like to play music. The Czech Republic isn't such a big country, yet they'll be touring in Zilina, Ostrava, Brno and Prague for two whole weeks. Reminiscent of anti-folk duo The Moldy Peaches - without the messiness- they sometimes sound like they've spent more time in the Wild West than in Vancouver, but as long as they're playful, all their song works well.

30/06/08
Jaguar Love @ Lucerna
Consisting of vocalist/pianist Johnny Whitney and guitarist/bassist Cody Votolato from the Blood Brothers, and keyboardist/bassist/drummer Jay Clark from Pretty Girls Make Graves, Jaguar Love are a West Coast indie rock trio that hopped on the fast road to success in the summer of 2007. Votolato and Clark were neighbors in Seattle and became friends when the Blood Brothers and Pretty Girls Make Graves toured together. When talk of forming a new band was introduced, the two made a move to Portland to join up with Whitney and write new music. Within a few months they had four songs recorded and started considering different labels. After a brief tour with Queens of the Stone Age, Jaguar Love signed a deal with indie big-leaguers Matador in January of 2008. (allmusic)

01/07/08

Suzanne Vega @ Kongresove Centrum
Vega has always been an adventurous artist, stretching the boundaries of the singer-songwriter format. When British producers DNA famously remixed her "Tom's Diner," giving the original cappella tune an ongoing life as a sample sought-after by many dance music and hip hop artists, they were simply responding to something Vega herself had done: "They felt the rhythm was already in the song and they just added to it. When I approved it, I felt that they'd expressed a part of my life that I was not able to do for myself at the time."

02/07/08

Flogging Molly @ Rock Café

Prepare yourself for the pipes and whistles to sound in Prague, as Irish-American celtic-punk band Flogging Molly return for their European tour. In March this year, their fourth studio album Float went straight into #4 in the Billboard 200 chart, described by Alternative Press as "one of the most important records of this year, if not the decade". The seven-member band saw it as a turning point for themselves, as their first album recorded in Ireland. It brings a darker and more political sound than their previous punk outings, and its success was a milestone for record label SideOneDummy and the Celtic Punk genre in general. With two members of the band recently wed whilst on tour on Tokyo (lead singer Dave King and fiddle-player Bridget Regan), there's plenty of reason for celebration as Flogging Molly tear their way through Europe.

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