First Mihai Cucos Trio release

[Mr Arkadin]

Hi fellow z inhabitants.

Just wanted to tell you about the first release of an EP of the trio I'm in. It's three guitars all strung somewhat unorthodoxically, straight into amps. No effects (and no Scope, soz!), so it's a bit 'ahem' experimental. Mihai Cucos is the composer.

Anyway you can listen to it on bandcamp if you like (and buy the flac if you really like).

http://mihaicucostrio.bandcamp.com/

Play it at maximum volume.

Cheers,

Antony

[borg]

really like this a lot!!! and kramer? nice...
Will definitely check this out further when I have some more time!

if you might not know this band, check out Kleg, a dutch 7 piece rocking combo (5 guitars), produced by lee ranaldo. I think you'll like it...

[ShogunSpy]

Me like too! The Loose strings sound good will pump it later on my big stereo. On a side note BandCamp rocks and SoundCloud is dying a slow death

[Mr Arkadin]

if you might not know this band, check out Kleg, a dutch 7 piece rocking combo (5 guitars), produced by lee ranaldo. I think you'll like it...

Didn't know about this - thanks for the tip. And thanks for the positive comments

Yes we're very much influenced by Glenn Branca, Sonic Youth etc.

[Mr Arkadin]

On a side note BandCamp rocks and SoundCloud is dying a slow death

Yes I like the fact you can download flac on Bandcamp, then burn your own CD. I'm old-fashioned and like physical stuff and hate mp3 quality. SoundCloud lost it for me with the new interface they pushed on everyone - I hardly go there now.

[borg]

https://soundcloud.com/kleg/sets for the lazy or busy... Zing is one of my favourite guitar albums.

I played two concerts with the Branca orchestra (symphony for 100 guitars), great and wonderful experience, but what a complete dickhead, that branca guy. so arrogant, drunk and full of himself, but man, the grand finale of the symphony was so powerfull!

[Mr Arkadin]

https://soundcloud.com/kleg/sets for the lazy or busy... Zing is one of my favourite guitar albums.

I played two concerts with the Branca orchestra (symphony for 100 guitars), great and wonderful experience, but what a complete dickhead, that branca guy. so arrogant, drunk and full of himself, but man, the grand finale of the symphony was so powerfull!

Haha, I like the fact that he's drunk, arrogant and storms off stage etc.

As it happens you would have probably played alongside Mihai Cucos at those gigs. I went along as a punter to Ghent (played twice in one night), London and maybe another Belgium one?

Actually I met Glenn once in a pub venue his wife was playing at and he was actually very talkative and forthcomimg.

Last year I went to see him in a car park in south London and was standing around drinking with Mihai and one of the organisers came up and asked if anyone knew how to rig cables as their equipment had arrived late and there weren't enough people to get it set up in time. I work in television so I'm always rigging outside broadcasts so in I dived in! There was a fantastic lightning storm going on which blew out the power on the very last chord of one piece and everyone thought it was part of the show! Glenn got pissed off and stormed off which made me very happy. It was great fun and afterwards we got chatting with the band and ended up back at their hotel for drinks till 3am!

This was the gig:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQ2m58ZLi3c

I think there is another 100 guitar piece coming up in Paris next year so look out for that (I hope to play in it, or at the very least I'll be there).

[borg]

wellwell, you saw me play then! It were indeed three concerts, two in Ghent and another in Kortrijk...
Glad you had a good time with their team. I wasn't supposed to play actually, as I was working for the organisers back then, but we were a bit short of 100 guitars, so I joined in at the very last. We didn't have such a good time with Glenn...

it was a bit hard getting to know 80+ people in 5 days, but is Mihai a pretty tall, slender guy, quite friendly, playing a black guitar (Ibanez or Fernandez), at least, about ten years ago?

[Mr Arkadin]

I had a good laugh at Ghent. I paid for one concert and got in the other free by hanging around. What was funny was that one of the performances I think was free to students or something. So there were all these clueless (to Branca) students wandering around drunk in fancy dress (you know how it is when you're a student) who were inticed by the word 'free' no doubt.

After the first movement some girls near the front had their back to the stage and were chatting. Anyway they didn't see the conductor counting in the second movement which opens with a really harsh chord. Blam! comes the chord and they jumped in the air and screamed. Having not learnt their lesson the same happened again on the third movement which has an even more discordant opening. Blam! Great stuff.

it was a bit hard getting to know 80+ people in 5 days, but is Mihai a pretty tall, slender guy, quite friendly, playing a black guitar (Ibanez or Fernandez), at least, about ten years ago?

Yes Mihai is very tall so hard to miss, probably playing a dark blue/black Yamaha Drop 6 (probably looks a bit like an Ibanez actually). Looking online the gig was actually October 2006, so nearly eight years ago (longer than I thought).

[borg]

Anyway you can listen to it on bandcamp if you like (and buy the flac if you really like).

http://mihaicucostrio.bandcamp.com/

really dig this, so dropped some cash, but waiting for the opportunity to play this loud, as suggested...
hope to catch you guys live some day!

[Mr Arkadin]

I just bought a Kleg "Eating & Sleeping" - having a bit of trouble tracking down "Zing" but on the lookout.

Thanks for dropping some cash.