Owlspotting

Mix tapes are very consuming enterprises even for someone who makes plenty of playlists on a regular basis. I finally got around to putting together a bunch of songs to stand as my 40 American months mix, and I have to admit I’m pleased with this one (read about past ones here). I went through […]

The end of the year is a good idea to make lists, so here’s one of albums. Yes, this is a very subjective line-up, but that doesn’t mean I don’t highly recommend every single one. You can use the trust-worthy Hype Machine to stream these bands (with the exception of #3) in case you’re not […]

“American Hardcore” is a documentary that tells the story of the early 80s Reagan years and the rebellion embodied by the hardcore punk movement led by bands like Bad Brains, Blag Flag or Minor Threat. The anger and frustration expressed was the protest outlet of kids who couldn’t stomach the American normalcy endorsed by the […]

One mid-August morning caught me on a train from Bucharest to Sighisoara. I had just spent two weeks there with my friends–going out at night and taking the first subway home, sleeping in cars in Vama Veche and getting pissed at Placebo. I was staring aimlessly out the window when the train stopped in Brasov. […]

Freaky Fridays have made a career over the past couple of months in Targu Mures so it was time to export a little of the magic to the nation’s capital, Bucharest. I woke up early to be as close to spending 24 hours on the Bucharest streets as possible–thus shining a brief ray of light […]

Top five lists don’t often get blown up. Look at the drama it caused Rob in “High Fidelity” when he had to admit to himself that Laura had to be included among the Top 5 All-Time Breakups. Last night, Niste Baieti, a makeshift punk outfit from Bucharest, broke into my Top 5 concerts list, which […]

On Friday morning, my brother and I drove towards Bacau for a story I’m working on. We chose the Targu Mures-Sovata-Gheorgheni-Piatra Neamt route. We talked some, but we mostly let the car stereo do its thing. My brother is into electronic music (drum n bass), while these days I’m into softer indie rock stuff. It’s […]

One thing has constantly topped my list of things to do since I came home: throw a party. I used to ask my friends every week: “so, anyone found a basement yet?” I talked so much about this possibility that we filled our time coming up with party themes: Bucegi party, reading party, underwear party […]

The Placebo concert in Romania was supposed to be a landmark musical event in Romania–proof that not only “dead” bands make a stop in our country. But the Placebo concert was a weak affair. The organizers did a horrible job planning the event–it took two hours to have people trickle in through one entrance, like […]

In 2000, a couple of friends and I were looking for an unknown Romanian rock band to book for a party we were throwing at school. Someone gave us a demo CD for a band called ab4. We listened, we liked, we paid $300 and we let them rip. At the time, ab4 was nothing […]