26/05/2007
On the day they were finishing their successful series of shows at El Sol in Madrid, presenting the EP "Días de cine", Alex Diez said jokingly that COOPER were "Spanish pop’s best kept secret". The game continues, because the band’s seventh single is actually titled "Guárdame un secreto" ("Keep a secret for me"). We can find some on this new EP that adds up to COOPER’s already brilliant list of small format records. Four songs that follow up from the previous one from the very cover, with Catherine Deneuve starring again, and introducing the band’s new drummer, Nacho García (WINNERYS).
"Canción de viernes" opens the EP with the classic COOPER sound, self-referencing their own repertoire as in songs like "Vértigo" or "Nudo en la garganta" (in fact the repetition of words from these songs is absolutely conscious). "Diario" is about emotional instability -a secret to keep, hidden from the rest-, in a power pop style. "Steph" is a precious song, poetic and very moving, with a different sound to the band’s previous efforts: as if SHAZAM would play a BEATLES song with Evan Dando. If anything. The last song (the last onecategoría), "Flea market", is a comeback to Alex‘s anglophile roots, a danceable instrumental number lead by Carlo Coupé‘s marvelous organ. With this guest musician COOPER travel to pl [ Read more ]
01/01/2007
One of the inspirations for the song "Un día de furia", featured on COOPER’s cinema-inspired "Días de cine" EP, was the Spanish translation of the movie "Falling down", starred by Michael Douglas in 1992. But for the videoclip of this song, directors Joel Rojas and Marc Molina (The Hands Collective, IT’S NOT NOT) have preferred to base their inspiration on another one of the explicit influences that Alex Diez likes so much: the "wild strawberry eclipse" he mentions in the lyrics, after the painting of the same name by American pop-art painter Robert Rauschenberg. The aesthetic of pop-art floats over the whole footage of the video, the texture of which looks like if it was a moving painting hanging on a wall. The story is divided in two (one of them is the band playing the song), going forward and backward symmetrically from opposite points, until they found each other when the last chord of this splendid video comes out from the amps. You will want to watch it again. [ Read more ]
19/10/2006
After the good news that was receiving the songs and finally releasing "Días de cine" (four new excellent tracks by COOPER) we have more great news for their many fans: COOPER will be back on the road for a Spanish tour introducing the four tasty guitar pop songs featured on their recently released EP. During november and december, COOPER will play live songs like "El sur" or "Un día de furia" and "Rainman", as well as their fantastic version of "Where I find my heaven", originally by the GIGOLO AUNTS, that will add up to the magnificent repertoire of melodic power pop with which the band has built its well-deserved fame of being one of the best live acts around.
The dates and cities to be hit by the "Días de cine" tour are as follows:
NovemberFriday 24th- Valladolid (Bagur)Saturday 25th – Bilbao (Azkena)
DecemberFriday 1st – La Coruña (Playa Club)Saturday 2nd – Vigo (La Fábrica de Chocolate)Friday 15th – Alicante (Stereo)Saturday 16th – Valencia (Loco Club)Wednesday 27th- Santander (Paraninfo de la universidad)
JanuaryFriday 26th – Pamplona (Tótem)Saturday 27th – Zaragoza (CC Universidad)
FebruaryFriday 2nd – Madrid (Sala El Sol)Saturday 3rd – Madrid (Sala El sol)
COOPER: back on the roadpicture: Cooper vuelve a la carretera19/10/2006 [ Read more ]
08/09/2006
In a few weeks time we will at least receive "Días de cine", the new EP by COOPER with the conceptual link of the appreciation of cinema. The cinematic references can be found above all in the titles of the three original songs we find in this new deliver of our best guitar pop songsmiths, which will mean as well the return of COOPER to live shows and concerts, presenting these new songs on the road during the last weeks of 2006.The record opens with "El sur", a guitar pop song that had already been played live by Alex Díez and his band in their latest shows. The following track is "Rainman", a mid-tempo that follows the tracks of TEENAGE FANCLUB’s guitar work, and "Un día de furia", a song so new it didn’t even have a title when they entered the studio to record it, which starts and finishes with a catchy distorted synthesizer riff giving the counterpart to the vocal lines. As a bonus track, COOPER close this magnificent EP with a version of the 90’s guitar pop classic "Where I find my heaven", originally by the GIGOLO AUNTS.
"Días de cine" is just four three-minute pop songs; a short dose of hummable melodies, infectious beats and dreamy lyrics that take you to the dark but comfortable atmosphere of a projection room: the ephemeral magic of the best pop music, condensed in its most natural format. [ Read more ]
21/06/2006
We are delighted to announce some good news for the many fans of COOPER, who have been patiently waiting for this moment for some time now. A few days ago, Alejandro‘s band entered the recording studio to lay down four new tracks, destined to be released as a four-track EP titled "Días de cine" ("cinema days", the title of a cult late night TV show in Spanish TV). The songs that are currently being recorded by the band and which will form the new, cinematic EP by COOPER are "El sur" (the title to a movie by Spanish cult director Víctor Erice, and a song that had already been played live at some gigs by the band), their cover version of "Where I find my heaven", originally by the GIGOLO AUNTS (and featured in the OST of the movie "Dumb and dumber") plus two completely new tracks: "Rainman" and a new song as yet untitled. [ Read more ]
11/07/2005
Revista 69, a Peruvian magazine dedicated to independent music, will give Hawai its readers along with the June issue an exclusive CD, “Como un fan”, featuring twenty-four songs taken from the Elefant Records catalogue. An excellent introduction into our label for the Peruvian fans, given away inside a magazine which has dedicated its two alternative covers (they’ve got no back cover) to Beck and NEW ORDER, and which also includes on this issue other interviews, articles and reviews on such artists as LOS BELKING’S, Rufus Wainwright, THE ARCADE FIRE, Daniel Melero, KINGS OF CONVENIENCE or Juana Molina.The website of Perú’s Revista 69 is http://www.revista69.comThe tracklist for this CD is as follows:
01 El bello verano [FAMILY]02 Rimas [ENTRE RÍOS]03 Canción de si tú me quieres [LE MANS]04 Los amantes [ANA D]05 Amor cúbico [NIZA]06 Honey [SINGLE]07 Keep it clean [CAMERA OBSCURA]08 Cierra los ojos [COOPER]09 Poppy girl [VACACIONES]10 Lady Dilema [CARLOS BERLANGA]11 El sol no brillará nunca mas [LA CASA AZUL]12 The sea is so quiet [TREMBLING BLUE STARS]13 Sunday Sahara Spain [IBON ERRAZKIN]14 I love my Jean [CAMERA OBSCURA]15 Rabia [COOPER]16 À Hélène [LES TRES BIEN ENSEMBLE]17 Tantas cosas que arreglar [LA CASA AZUL]18 Volverás [JUNIPER MOON]19 Open Skies [TREMBLING BLUE STARS]20 Los días de Perky Pat [LA MONJA ENANA]21 Paradise lost [METRO]22 La balada de la primavera [L [ Read more ]
11/01/2005
COOPER is currently touring Spain extensively, presenting the songs on his new album, "Retrovisor", and confirming the excellent live fame he´s got throughout the years. During this tour he´s giving away a very special present: an exclusive CD-single addressed to the fans and the people attending his shows, a single which won’t be sold nor available in shops, featuring two songs and a videoclip. The main track on the single is "Seis menos diez" (a cover version of the song "Upside down" by THE MUFFS, adapted into Spanish by Alejandro), and the present is complete with the song "Rabia", already included on "Retrovisor" and an additional track featuring this last song´s videoclip.
+ new CD-Single given away with the ticketTracklist: 01 Rabia 02 Seis menos diez 03 Video clip Rabia
Ticket Price: 10 euros
[February 2005]
Saturday, 12 Cooper Santa Pola [Alicante]price: 10 euros + CD-SingleCamelot
Friday, 18 Cooper Zaragoza price: 10 euros + CD-SingleLa Casa del Loco
Saturday, 19 Cooper Barcelona price: 10 euros + CD-SingleApolo
Friday, 25 Cooper Santander price: 10 euros + CD-SingleIndian
Saturday, 26 Cooper León price: 10 euros + CD-SingleEstudio 54
[March 2005]
Friday, 4 Cooper Madrid price: 12 euros + CD-SingleEl Sol Jardines 3
Saturday, 5 Cooper Madrid price: 12 euros + CD-SingleEl Sol
Friday, 11 Cooper Salamanca price: 10 euros + CD-SinglePotemkin
Friday, 18 Cooper Valladolid 20: [ Read more ]
15/11/2004
Tracklist: 1. Cierra los ojos 2. Rabia 3. Cerca del sol 4. 747 5. Munich 6. Oxidado 7. A oscuras 8. Silverstone 9. Yo sé lo que te pasa 10. Lejos 11. Sin respiración 12. Quiero regresar
“Retrovisor” is a new COOPER album, although the band has only recorded three new songs; in short sessions, always stuck to their compromise with immediacy and spontaneity. They have been reunited in an album with other songs that have been appearing during 2003 and 2004 in different formats. Twelve songs to be a past viewfinder, a complete retrospective to be graphically expressed in the album design with a collage technique (images from different moments, different situations, different formats, in perfect analogy with the album’s sound content). The elements in the collage are pieces of art by others (besides “chance art”) in a certain way used by Alejandro to build his own universe, linking music and lyrics with the images they bring to the mind of someone obsessed with pop culture: The plane from "747", Chillida’s Comb of Winds from "Oxidado" (also with mentions of the Kursaal), the Munich BMW building or even Manchester Cooper Street. A series of references as keys to understand an aesthetic and musical universe which evolves -at the same time, revealing itself with growing clarity- in every new step by Alejandro as composer and creator.
"Retrovisor" represents a review of the results of COOPER’s brand [ Read more ]
10/10/2004
Popland and Cinemaspop are two stores (actually three, because Popland has two different premises) from the Malasaña area in Madrid, but they both provide half Spain and abroad with aesthetic pleasures. In Popland, an enormous variety of accessories, garnishing, furniture, records and pop memorabilia on the whole can be found, whereas in Cinemaspop, pop culture comes on the top of movie going and cinema love. Two colouristic concepts with a passionate interest for pop’s different sides, that were to meet Elefant Records’ music.
Both stores have just released the album "Popland 25 hit parade", including that number of successful songs from Elefant Records catalogue: COOPER, LA CASA AZUL, CAMERA OBSCURA, BERLANGA, LE MANS, HEAVENLY or JUNIPER MOON, among others, playing the perfect soundtrack to the lush aesthetic of this retro consumption’s paradise.
01. Cerca del sol (COOPER)02. Una mañana (ME ENVENENO DE AZULES)03. Amor cúbico (NIZA)04. Cherry people (SHIZUKA)05. Cerca de Shibuya (LA CASA AZUL)06. Vacaciones (Carlos Berlanga)07. Superdisco (Naomi Mix) (LES FRÈRES CHECKOLADE)08. Ride the tiger (ANTI)09. Salven las sirenas (ENTRE RÍOS)10. Vamos a caminar (CIELO)11. Keep it clean (CAMERA OBSCURA)12. Los amantes (Ana D)13. Dame estrellas o limones (FAMILY)14. Vacaciones (GASCA)15. Un rayo de sol (LE MANS)16. Space manatee (HEAVENLY)17. Madrid (JUNIPER MOON)18. Watch over you (AUTOMATICS)19. Roll with it (MOGUL)20. Oh [ Read more ]
31/08/2004
We´re happy to bring you “Momentos perdidos” a collection of rarities, b-sides, wrong hits and a bunch of previously unreleased gifts. Lovely souvenirs from such different harbours as Japan, Germany, United States, France, England and, of course, Spain.
“Momentos perdidos” shouldn´t be seen as the usual compilation, nor a balance of the most representative stuff from the last years: we only expect to bring you a collection of delightful songs that, due to different reasons, were hidden in a record or never came to be published.
01. Stop in the name of love LOS FLECHAZOSTaken from ER-174 “si tú te vas” Single
02. Tantas cosas que arreglar LA CASA AZUL (UNRELEASED)
03. Desde ayer GUILLERMINE (UNRELEASED)
04. Radio star NIZA (UNRELEASED)
05. Open skies TREMBLING BLUE STARSTaken from ER-356 “Southern skies brigther extended play” CD-Single.
06. I don´t want to see you CAMERA OBSCURATaken from ER-352 “Teenager” CD-Single
07. Nadadora NOSOTRÄSH (UNRELEASED)
08. Today SPRING (UNRELEASED)
09. Velero lleno de estrellas y bahías Ana DTaken from ER-185 “Recordando” Single
10. Pasa por mí ENTRE RÍOS (UNRELEASED)
11. La vaca PURÉ (UNRELEASED)
12. El halcón milenario PATRULLERO MANCUSOTaken from ER-183 “El halcón milenario” Single
13. El último tiro JUNIPER MOON (UNRELEASED)
14. Sara tiene un secreto COOPERTaken from ER-339 &ldqu [ Read more ]
26/01/2004
Release date: 26-1-2004
After a successful tour all over Germany last December, Alejandro Diez comes back with brand new songs. "Oxidado" is the new single by one of the best composers and pop musicians of all time. With an extensive career, supported by such important projects as LOS FLECHAZOS, Alejandro has turned to be one of the most personal and admired music writers in the Spanish indie scene. COOPER’s new single includes four songs.
"Cerca del sol" One of the most complete songs in his career, a powerful tune supported by a catchy guitar riff and a brilliant chorus, a fresh and direct song, a new classic on Alejandro´s discography. "Cerca del sol" is COOPER´s new video clip.
"Silverstone" Another classic since its first hearing, possibly the most complete song of his new single, psychedelic pop with celestial choirs and a breathtaking melody.
"Oxidado" It is clear we’ve in our hands a brilliant single, songs such as "Oxidado" reveal COOPER´s excellent present situation, composing brilliant pop anthems with painstaking lyrics.
"Ráfagas" The band´s fans already know this brilliant cover from COOPER´s firsts gigs, quite a classic of the eighties Spanish pop by LOS BÓLIDOS, the best composition by this cursed band, made a success by LOS SECRETOS in 1982.
The new COOPER single shows our hero exactly where he wants to be. His style of composing, writi [ Read more ]