b-SHAKE » Reviews

London is burning!

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 09:38:52 +0000

And so we’re back from our last gig in Middlesex University in London and we have to agree: it was absolutely gorgeous! The past years show at Hope & Anchor was already good enough but this years show is where Britain’s really opened their hearts up to let the foreign music leak inside. During the show we’ve been offered their complete attention, smiles, jumps, dances, hand claps and laughs but after the performance we were rewarded with honest positive feedback.

Middlesex University is a huge audio/video engineer, producer, etc. qualification establishment. This “battle of the bands” was a part of their annual production project. So the aim here was to create a complete musical TV show episode. All band have been filmed before, during and after the performance and had a more in depth interview taped and edited. We should get the video soon and we’ll obviously share it with you straight away. We were kind of surprised by this fact and, intimidated by all these people asking questions and all these cameras, we saw our Belgian accent reappear (@ all the porn movie actors out there who read this: guys, how d’you manage to concentrate while surrounded by a huge production crowd? Please drop us an e-mail.). However it went fluently during and after the performance.

By the end of the event some of the members of the jury said we were a tight,great sounding, the killers like, outstanding band but hence we were not their type of music. Other members disagreed. All in all the winner of the battle were “The Charming Thieves” (great band!) but the reaction of the crowd was a testimonial of their disagreement with this choice and we’ve collected a huge amount of “it should be you…”-like comments and feedbacks. Guys, for us, this is the best price a band could ever expect from a contest so thank you thank you thank you! We promise you to come back and this time there will be a free Belgian chocolate give await for real!

Mouv’On Air

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:18:14 +0000

Mouv’On Air… sound like a new internet radio station. Well it’s almost correct. Actually Mouv’On Air is a monthly Belgian scout magazine. Virginie Tiberghien was there to interview us about the nuts & bolts of b-SHAKEs past, present and future. Here’s the French (and the only ) version of this magazine (well just the excerpt actually). Hope you’ll enjoy reading it.

Interview with Somojo Magazine

admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:54:21 +0000

You know we’ve been away for a while recently. This period of silence was due to the enormous amount of music related tasks and events that were keeping us busy. So now that we’ve got a minute to update our blog, things are coming in bulk. Today I’d like to share with you something that actually happened this year begin October. We’ve not been able to warn you earlier but better late than never right? Here’s a 6 pages interview with Somojo Magazine where we talk about all kind of b-SHAKE related stuff like history, equipment, band management, etc. I’m sure you’ll find something interesting for you in this loooooong interview. The PDF file of the October issue is HERE. You’ll need Adobe Acrobat to be able to view it.

National TV channel Télé Bruxelles sharing interesting stuff about b-SHAKE

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:59:00 +0000

We’ve just received a phone call which mentioned that Télé Bruxelles will broadcast a report about b-SHAKE today on November 18 from 18:00 and later on. If you’re based in Brussels and have a TV, tune in to watch the news. This report has been produced in the famous Jet Studio of Rudy Coclet in Brussels by Pière Bodeau.

I know some won’t be able to watch it so we’ll try to come back as soon as possible with a podcast or something. Stay tuned.

PS: there’s a possibility that this report will be broadcasted tomorrow. You know these journalists cannot be concrete.

Overview of b-SHAKE’s home studio

admin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:01:00 +0000

Sometimes people ask us how it all begins… How do we start creating our songs? Where the inspiration comes from? How do we transform this inspiration into ideas and afterward these ideas into complete songs? It’s not that simple to explain as the creative process may start with a simple melody in a head as well as with a drum bit played on a keyboard and the song may be developed in several completely different ways. But maybe the right place to start this explanation is to show you the “back end” of each and every song we’ve ever created. Today b-SHAKE takes you to a quick photo tour of its mini home studio. The place where we do our home work. View these pictures, read descriptions and you’ll get an idea of how b-SHAKE creates its songs.

MUZU TV

admin — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:38:40 +0000

Remember we’ve mentioned an interesting online TV channel called MUZU TV in one of our previous posts? Well this project became even more interesting now. I checked out their schedule and archives and was really amazed by the quantity (and, most importantly, the quality) of music videos of various emerging and confirmed artists all over the world. Honestly, it’s an honor to be a part of this community and we do strongly recommend you to tune in again to check out their roster. I found it an interesting difference between traditional TV chanels and online ones when it comes to connection between artists and audience. MUZU TV is where you can become a part of the community and get in touch with your favorite musicians (us for example ). Anyway, here’s a sweet badge they provided us with to let us share all this great material with you… Click on it and take a quick tour, I’m sure you’ll like it.

b-SHAKEs tracks reviewed on The Suite UK radiostation

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:24:44 +0000

Our music will be reviewed by a new radio station… wait. It isn’t really a radio station as we used to know it. People from The Suite decided to push the concept a bit further. Here’s a little excerpt which they are using to describe what they do:

“… The whole place is rigged with cameras that broadcast live over the internet, 24/7.

As The Suite is a working studio so you will also see us play, talk, listen, debate, argue and create music.

You can log on any time and watch for free.

Everything is broadcast live over the web. If it happens between these walls, you’ll see and hear it. … “

And here’s an introduction video:

They will review our music this Wednesday 18th March 2009 at 6PM (UK Time) so don’t forget to tune in and listen. We’ll try to podcast the whole thing afterward.

Visit their website to listen to the show: www.liveatthesuite.com

Performing on Chimay Spring Festival brought freshness in our minds

admin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:23:04 +0000

After a long break of nearly two month without gigging, the band is on the road again with a couple of interesting venues to come. And it all began this Saturday 7 March in Chimay (Belgium) during “Chimay Spring Festival”. As mentioned in a previous post, this is another new Belgian music festival which is about to get huge. This years bill was really impressive and we were overwhelmed with motivation and positive vibes when we saw our name written with thick strokes on the bill together with the artists who’s names we were using as “sound like” or “inspired by” sections of our MySpace page. Unfortunately a live gig (and especially when it comes to something as huge as this festival) is never perfect. And this time there was a technical problem in a guitar rig chain (billions of excuses for this one) which reduced our sound check to zero seconds. So we’ve played a shorter set but we gave our best and it seems like people appreciate this rock’n'roll attitude. Well done Chimay! Your festivals are as good as your famous beer…

Even more radio airplay

admin — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:59:03 +0000

And yes, a lot of interesting stuff happens with the band these last days. Most importantly it gets a lot of international exposure trough the radio waves. Both internet and FM radio stations include our tracks in their playlists. Some of them choose to talk live to the band. I couldn’t get the podcast of “The Blaylock Effect” showcase of Burnout Radio but here’s the interview from Teesdale radio (Barnard Castle/UK).

You’ll be able to hear the songs of b-SHAKE on the following radio stations:

Burnout Media [US] [Internet] – “The Blaylock Effect” live interview (now podcasted on their website) – www.burnoutmedia.com
Teesdale Radio [UK] [FM/Internet] – “The Undercurrent” showcase + featured artist on January 28th + 4 songs on their playlist + live interview – www.radioteesdale.co.uk
Radio Gets Wild [UK] [Internet]- www.radiogetswild.com
Wendy Spirit Of The Blues [Australia] [FM/Internet] – Our songs on their playlist – www.myspace.com/wendyspiritoftheblues
Head Case Radio [US] [Internet] – Our songs on their playlist – www.headcaseradio.com
Soupygato [US] [Internet] – Our songs on their playlist – soupygato.com
Venture Radio [UK] [Internet] – Every other Saturday 11am-12pm (GMT) – www.ventureradio.co.uk
Leith FM [UK] [FM/Internet] – Our songs on their playlist – www.leithfm.co.uk
Dale Cast [UK] [Internet] – Our songs on their playlist – www.dalecast.co.uk
T Internet Radio [UK] [Internet] – Our songs on their playlist- www.tinternetradio.com
Banbury Music Radio [UK] [Internet] – Our songs on their playlist- www.banburymusicradio.co.uk
Carillon Radio [UK] [MW/Internet] – Our songs on their playlist- www.carillonradio.com
UK Undiscovered [UK] [Internet] -Our songs on their playlist – www.ukundiscovered.co.uk
AR FM [UK] [Internet] – Our songs on their playlist- www.arfm.co.uk
Radio Seagull [NL] [AM/Internet] -Our songs on their playlist – www.radioseagull.com
Forest FM [UK] [FM/Internet] – “The Music Box” showcase + songs in their playlist – www.forestfm.co.uk
Omega Radio [DE] [Internet] -Our songs on their playlist – www.omegaradio.de
Lizzie B [UK] [Internet] – Our songs on their playlist – www.myspace.com/lizziebmusic
Radio Positive Energy [DE] [Internet] – Our songs on their playlist- www.radio-positive-energie.de
Net Sounds Podcast [US] [Internet] -Our songs on their playlist – www.netsoundspodcast.podomatic.com
Banana Peel Radio [UK] [Internet] -Our songs on their playlist – www.bananapeelradio.com
North American Broadcasting [US] [Internet] – Every Thursday 8pm-9pm (GMT) – www.northamericanbroadcasting.com
Blast 1386 [UK] [Internet] – Every Saturday 7pm-8pm (GMT) – www.blast1386.com
Stream Radio live [UK] [Internet] -Our songs on their playlist – www.streamradiolive.com
VS Recharged [UK] [Internet] -Our songs on their playlist - www.vsrecharged.com
Woody Radio [Canada] [US] [Internet] – Our songs on their playlist- www.woodyradio.com
Kansas City Online Radio [US] [Internet] – Every Friday at 8pm (Central America time) – www.kconlineradio.com
Hameldon Student Radio [UK] [Internet] – Tuesday & Wednesday – 12pm-1pm (GMT), Friday & Saturday 1pm-2pm (GMT) – www.hameldonfm.com
Caifox Radio [UK] [Internet] – Every Thursday 6pm-7pm (GMT) – caifoxradio.com
Smash FM [NL] [Internet] – Every Wednesday 10pm-11pm – www.smashfm.nl
Jump Radio [DE] [Internet] – Monday, Wednesday and Friday (visit the site to listen) – www.jumpradio.de
Celtica Radio [UK] [Internet] – (Visit the Podcast page) – www.celticaradio.com
CRMK Radio [UK] [Internet] – Wednesday 9.20pm – 10.20pm (GMT) – www.crmk.co.uk
Radio Enigma [UK] [Internet] – 9pm-10pm (EST) – www.radioenigma.com
GoGo Radio [US] [Internet] – Our songs on their playlist – www.gogoradio.com

Tune in…

We are back!

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:15:30 +0000

It’s been a while nothing happened on the front end of our blog and you felt a bit lonely BUT… a lot of stuff was happening behind the scenes. There was a lot of technical maintenance work over there. You shouldn’t see any changes but believe us it’s there. With all these updates we’ll be able to interact with you even more, faster and better.

Anyway… The first thing we’d like to do is to wish you a merry Christmas and a very happy new year! It looks like a huge amount of large scale events will happen this year. And whatever it will be we’d like to share it with you! So join our mailing list and let’s do it.

The first important event of this year was our first UK gig in London at Hope & Anchor venue. That was a tough one. Driving on the left site of the road was a real madness. In addition our GPS was sending us upwards to the North and we’ve almost landed in Scotland! All this, being incredibly tired as we’ve been awake for more than 30 hours (and some of us even more). This gig was our first little success in Great Britain. Here are some photographs we’ve brought. Read the captures and enjoy.