2010 Can´t Dance Like Me

Seriously though. Welcome to 2010, everyone.

We have big plans for 2010, which will come as no surprise to those of you who read this blog regularly. Our company now officially exists which is great news, we just need to come up with a name and work out how to make it into a record company so we can start doing the fun stuff. Speaking of which, we´ve asked a wonderful artist, Ms Mari Østby Kjøll to do some art work for us with a view to using it for the official release of the record and perhaps some other stuff. I believe we referred to her brief after a few beers as "to begin the development of the Casa Murilo visual aesthetic". She´s great and you can see some of her wonderful work here.

We have a few gigs lined up, first we´re playing at Skuret on January 22nd and then we´ll be supporting Hiawata! for a gig to support Rock Mot Kreft (Rock Against Cancer). That´s February 5th at John Dee, which will be the biggest stage we´ve played yet. It´s a really good thing for us to be starting to move up a little bit. Certainly feels like progress.

We´re in a good place and plans are in place. There is much work to do.

Good day!

P.S. allscandinavian included us in their ones to watch in Norway 2010. Check it out here.

The Casa Murilo Advent Calendar #15

CASA MURILO IS ONE YEAR OLD TODAY!

Monday, December 15, 2008

FIRST POST

This is the first post from Casa Murilo. Obviously.

It´s the Monday night in December after our first gig on Friday. It went really well. Just me and Chris on acoustics at Chateau Neuf, Oslo University. The search for the rest of the musicians starts January.

We´ve got 4 songs up on our myspace, link below, that we´ve written and recorded in the past month or so. We´ve also got Yellow Umbrellas posted on an unsigned music chart site called Cherry Peel where we´ve been getting some positive responses.

We´re feeling good about where we´re at here in Oslo. Life´s looking pretty sweet for us both to be honest. We´ll be going back to Blighty for Christmas.

It is exactly 1 year since we met. How romantic. I´m off to buy flowers.

Casa Murilo

www.myspace.com/casamurilo

The Casa Murilo Advent Calendar #13

There is one man in Casa Murilo who towers above all others. The man is a giant. 6ft 3 inches of pure musical muscle. That man is Rudi Leo Johan Johansen.

Rudi started off as the bass player for our early gigs. He took no time at all to gel with the band and instantly became a vital member of Casa Murilo. We didn´t even know that he was primarily a guitarist, partly due to the fact that he seemed like such a natural bassist.

Soon enough Rudi spoke up about his desire to step down from the bass take to the stage as lead guitarist, once we had heard him play we could hardly say no.

Despite his menacing appearance, Mr Johansen is quite safe to approach so, should you see him out on the streets this winter, I encourage you to go over and say hello. You could even give him a high five and, who knows, he might let you touch his axe.

The Casa Murilo Advent Calendar #12

In February, before we had manipulated the rest of the lads into joining, Chris and I, accompanied by our ladyfriends, went to see a Norwegian band with an excellent name "Tommy Tokyo & Starving For My Gravy". It was an important time for us as we were still trying to find out what it was that we wanted to be as a group (bearing in mind there was only two of us and we hadn´t found anyone who was suitable for the project yet. The afternoon of the show Tommy himself had done his back in and was limited in his movement but he still managed to blow us away. Tommy himself looks biblical and uses a loudspeaker to great effect. Here is the band playing on Swedish TV.



And live in Tromsø, kicking ass.



The album "Smear Your Smiles Back On" is excellent and does all sorts of things that we want to do. Lyrically, it´s excellent, which I have to say is not all that common for Norwegian bands writing in English, though there are a few examples of really good writers working now, The Little Hands Of Asphalt being one we´ve already mentioned a few times on the blog. What I like most about Tommy is his sense of drama, both live and on record. He´s a bloody big presence but still manages not to take himself too seriously. Quite the balancing act.

Go and buy the album, you wont be disappointed.

Merry Christmas. x

The Casa Murilo Advent Calendar #11

Mere moments after our first gig, at Habibis on May 8th 2009, we were approached by Mr Eivind Fadnes, a fine gent of Molde stock who made an instant and lasting impression. He politely presented himself as impresario of a Norwegian festival, "Feriefestivalen", a name that will surely echo through the ages. He must have seen something in us that night as he asked us to play that summer, not only on the main stage aside such luminaries as The Little Hands of Asphalt and El Otro Sonido.

Thus began a wonderful relationship, not only with Eivind but his whole family, all wonderful, passionate people who are something of an inspiration to us in Casa Murilo. We are very close and we continue to make oversized plans together. Eivind in particular has a big part to play in our future and we wish him all the best for his trip to Latin America in January.

Big manly hugs to all those who were at Feriefestivalen to witness the first ever cave gig and a lovely wet kiss to the Fadnes family.

Merry Christmas!

The Casa Murilo Advent Calendar #10

Its difficult to remember exactly, but I think this was the second song we wrote. It was certainly one year ago this week. Vaer så godt.

Murilo I Love You

With ideas on my hands and a head full of plans
Should I keep my cool, sit on my hands and just wait
I said wait a second but you left in a flash
I got the brains but you got the cash and I´ll pay

So we told a few lies just to cut around the corners
and the princess at the door says Murilo I love you
the horse is on the floor as the show goes on around him
and the newspapers report Murilo I love you

You chase the questions and I´ll set the traps
set up an escape plan and stick pins in the maps on our way
They´re all growing up and I´m still getting high
It´s hard to see straight through the red in my eyes but I´ll try

The Casa Murilo Advent Calendar #9

Bodø has had a pretty good year in 2009 as far as their music scene goes I´d say.

We won´t mention the football team.

There seems to be an incredible group of bands emerging from the mountainous scenery of the north at the moment and Gouranga are most certainly one of the ones making the most noise. And what a beautiful noise indeed.



Gouranga is a young band, all their members are under 18, but listening to the music they make would offer no indication of this. They have already been described as Bodø´s most visually exciting live band, a huge compliment when you consider the competition, and played one of the most impressive sets during last months Bodø Harcore Festival. Catchy guitar hooks, clever melodies and the beautiful contrast of Elise Pernille Gryt´s and Kjetil Aleksander Bjelvin´s vocals seem to be setting Gouranga up for big things in 2010. Æ gleda mæ, as they say up in those parts.

They are currently working on recording their debut EP which should be finished in the early part of next year but in the mean time you can have a listen here. Enjoy.

Casa Murilo loves Gouranga and so should you.