The Muses (Ancient Greek αἱ μοῦσαι, hai moũsai : perhaps from the o-grade of the Proto-Indo-European root *men- “think”) in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature are the goddesses or spirits who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths. Originally said to be three in number, by the Classical times of the 400s BC, their number had grown and become set at nine goddesses who embody the arts and inspire the creation process with their graces through remembered and improvised song and stage, writing, traditional music, and dance.

Muse in 7 pictures…

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Introductory remarks.
1)The Rhythm Junks is NOT a blues band. However, this may be presumed by the bygone days of front man Steven De bruyn and by such phenomena as The Rhythm Kings.
2)”Junks” has a second meaning as a verb: the rhythm “junks”. That is exactly what is going on: hard and fiercely.

LET’S ALL JUNK

This roots group exchanged its guitarist for a wind section. With the best drummer since Animal (Muppet Show). The bastard son of Toots plays the front. Fun and funk. Punk and power. Meet an exceptionally extraordinary band. Meet The Rhythm Junks.

Belgians that are famous abroad are Belgians that indulge themselves in something fabulous and original. Steven De bruyn (mind: UPPER-CASE D, lower-case b) keeps this finding at the back of his mind at all times. This extraordinary feature is one of the characteristics of The Rhythm Junks. Not with premeditation. Not as a stroke of genius. It just happens to be there.

It’s all about the structure. The Rhythm Junks is the hybrid of the master orchestras. A roots group that exchanged its guitarist for a wind section. A beatnik big band with its harmonica player as a conductor.
The ideal band for Tom Waits’ golden wedding. The engine runs on bass, drums and a mouth organ. The guitar is not a great loss. It is compensated by the wind section and allows room for the mouth organ…

No need to say it was a super concert,  it has been a while since I’ve seen such diversity in instruments, rhythm, talents  and fun… The Rhythm Junks is a group to see again, over and over… When you have the time, just go see… you can find all the info you need on their Rhythm Junks website.

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Metallica is an American heavy metal band that formed in 1981 in Los Angeles. Founded when drummer Lars Ulrich posted an advertisement in a local newspaper, Metallica’s line-up has primarily consisted of Ulrich, rhythm guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield, and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, while going through a number of bassists. Currently, the spot is held by Robert Trujillo.

Metallica’s early releases included fast tempos, instrumentals, and aggressive musicianship that placed them as one of the “big four” of the thrash metal subgenre alongside Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax. The band earned a growing fan base in the underground music community and critical acclaim, with the 1986 release Master of Puppets described as one of the most influential and “heavy” thrash metal albums. The band achieved substantial commercial success with Metallica (1991), which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. With this release the band expanded its musical direction resulting in an album that appealed to a more mainstream audience.

In 2000, Metallica was among several artists who filed a lawsuit against Napster for sharing the band’s copyright-protected material for free without the band members’ consent. A settlement was reached, and Napster became a pay-to-use service. Despite reaching number one on the Billboard 200, the release of St. Anger alienated many fans with the exclusion of guitar solos and the “steel-sounding” snare drum. A film titled Some Kind of Monster documented the recording process of St. Anger.

Metallica has released nine studio albums, two live albums, two EPs, twenty-two music videos, and forty-three singles. The band has won nine Grammy Awards, and has had five consecutive albums debut at number one on the Billboard 200, making Metallica the only band ever to do so. The band’s 1991 album, Metallica, has sold over 15 million copies in the United States, and 22 million copies worldwide, which makes it the 25th-highest-selling album in the country.The band has sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide as of the release of their latest album Death Magnetic. As of September 2008, Metallica is the fourth highest-selling music artist since the SoundScan era began tracking sales on May 25, 1991, selling a total of 51,136,000 albums in the United States alone.

Also check the images from the Metallica concert in Bergen Norway…: they can be found here.

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Metallica in Bergen, after a 3 day build of the stage we are ready for the concert. Due to the close proximity of houses, flame throwers and piro aren’t allowed to go really high. But the concert is quite impressive for me and I’m not really what you can call:  a “fan”… Tomorrow we take down the stage and we should be gone by tomorrow evening if the night crew performs well of course…

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By the age of six Calogero had already taken an interest in music. He quickly learned to play several instruments, including the flute, piano and bass, and in 1986 became the lead singer and song-writer for a band called Les Charts, that he started together with his brother, Gioacchino, and a childhood friend, Francis Maggiulli. Between 1989 and 1997, Les Charts released 5 albums.

As the band began to lose its momentum, (which is as sad as it sounds, but is true) Calogero decided to launch himself as a solo artist and gathered important connections by writing songs and collaborating with already popular artists, such as Zazie and Pascal Obispo. The latter helped produce Calogero’s first solo album Au milieu des Autres (2000). His second album, CALOGERO (2002) was a huge success with the hit singles “En apesanteur”, “Aussi libre que moi”, “Tien an men” and “Prendre racine”. Finally, in 2004, Calogero released 3, featuring “Face à la mer” a duet with French rapper Passi and several other top singles such as “Yalla” and “Si seulement je pouvais lui manquer”.

Calogero’s moving lyrics and frail, tender voice have made him one of France’s top pop/rock singers.

Calogero released his fourth studio album “Pomme C” on March 12, 2007.

17-05-2008:

Rigging load-in was yesterday so a calm day for us… The name of the game…waiting… and some more waiting. 8 safeties on the sound and that’s it. We waited until 4 PM for a 10 minute job. Plenty of time for some photos…

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