2011: Wouter Vanhaelemeesch

Good: Music From Saharan Cellphones on endless repeat in the car while touring Europe with Hellvete and Edgar Wappenhalter. Seeing Endless Boogie playing a mindfrying set in Oslo. Christophe Heemann's Mighty Joe Young tape was a particular delight. Youtube clips of Portal playing live in NY. Pretty much every release on Bill Kouligas' PAN label (André Vida! Eli Kezler!!). Marcel Turkowsky en Francesco Cavaliere screaming through dulcimers at the Gymnastic Sounds Festival in Amsterdam. Cian Nugent growing up to be a beautiful young woman. The music of Oidupaa Vladimir Oiun. Doing my solo exhibition in Issue Project Room, NY and seeing my buddy Jozef van Wissem playing amazing sets with Loren Connors and Jim Jarmush there (and Heresy of the Free Spirit, etc...). Date Palms new record. Rebooting the audioMER label with my friends Jeroen Wille and Han van den Hoof. Putting out the White Out and Hieroglyphic Being records. Stephan Mathieu spinning me 78's of Blind Willie Johnson. A very funny live show by Vom Grill in a container. Anything by Wooden Wand is worth checking out. Live sets by Floris van Hoof have been many and have been fantastic every single time. Seeing good friends doing better all the time.

Bad: surrounded by people who play horribly shitty bluesrock. The question here isn't so much wether white people can play the blues, the question is should they play the blues. Just because it ain't broke, that don't mean it's fixed, guys.

Wouter Vanhaelemeesch - audioMER