These Are Truly The Last Days

There shall be more reviews - mainly because I like writing them but also because a review seems a lot more "official" than just saying "oh, this album is a completely pile of dung" or "oh, this album is pretty nifty". The next one should surface before the end of the week. I have a little something-something in mind.

But anyway, moving on. I decided to bring out the big guns last night which meant I brought out good ol' Godspeed You! Black Emperor yet again. Let me tell you a little something about them (from now on referred to as GY!BE); GY!BE makes postrock. Very very good postrock to that. They've become the very epicenter of the entire canadian postrock-society with so many sideprojects in the same genre their entire estethic formula and fragments of their sounds lives in pretty much ever living canadian postrock-act - and there are plenty of those. Some people would say that the biggest of these little on-the-side things - A Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band - is better, but to me GY!BE remains king of that throne.

As I was saying; I decided to listen to GY!BE again for the first time in quite a while. This is mainly because this kind of postrock often needs a very special and definite state of mind to be able to give the most emotional value for the listener. Sure, it's always good but it's not exactly giving to listen to a 28 minuter long track without having set your mind to it. But I went into that "phase" last night and I feel fucking cleansed. It's music bordering on being more-than-music. Something a little bigger than "music", really.

Oh, just get Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven and see for yourselves. I doubt anyone following this piece of advice will ever regret it.

I'm A Pop Sensation!

Bloodhound Gang - Hefty Fine
Geffen Records, 2005



Five goddamn years. That's how long ago Pennsylvania's finest released their masterpiece Hooray For Boobies, leaving the world with hits such as the infamous "The Bad Touch", "Mope", "The Inevitable Return of The Great White Dope" and a whole lot more where it came from. It's been five years since I bought that album and since then I've gone through some very big changes in life, and mainly in taste. But Hooray For Boobies remained with me all this time. An album making an impact like that is hard to find, and the hunger for more has grown in me for five freaking years now. Tomorrow is the release date for the new delivery named Hefty Fine. I "got" my copy early and it is time for me to see if five cock-rocking Ville Valo-hangarounds can deliver the liver once more.

The first thing that surprises me is how short the album is. Only 9 real songs and three skits timing in at little more than 39 minutes. Well, good things come in small packages I guess. I click Play on my expensive iPod and we're on.
The second thing I realize is that this album sounds a lot more "worked on" than I'm used to when listening to BHG. It's also very much an electronic album, which is a new lane for them to travel as well. It's no surprise that the boys have a fondness for synthesizers - they did start out as a Depeche Mode-coverband after all - but never have they actually used electronic devices so much in their music. The old sound is still there but now it's been paintbrushed with synthesizers. A very nice touch that's far from original but it's a cool intiative.

Overall it seems like this album is a little bit more serious (I won't use the word "mature" because that generally means that's it's boring, and this album is NOT boring) than their previous efforts. I mean that in all ways positive; it's not the attitude or the lyrics that has changed - quite the opposite - but it just seems to me that BHG more so than before wants to seem like musicians rather than comedians, but naturally with the comedic parts as the main pillar for the whole album's structure. Jimmy Pop's lyrics are still wet-yourself-kind of funny and clever as well, but now he's also backed up by geniunly good backtracks as well. Everyone will probably reckognize the classic BHG riff-that-ain't-quite-riffs in songs such as "Ralph Wiggum" (a brilliant tribute to a very underrated character), "Pennsylvania" and "Balls Out".

You can find shards of genius in pretty much every song and although they aren't always as genuinly hard hitting as their older cousins on Hooray For Boobies this is still an album that kicks every ass nearby. A little less Jackass-with-guitars and a little more feeling, but still an extremely funny 39 minutes - now with synths!

R R R R R

You're Taking Everything For Granted

Now that spam-safe word identification thingee has been activate. I've been getting plenty of spam comments and I guess this works to filter away those.

This is just a very quick entry. I'll probably post more later but I just had to mention 30 Seconds To Mars which I heard for the first time last night when they visited Conan O'Brien. I've always had my doubts regarding bands with actors in them since that usually works out very badly on all accounts. But after seeing them live I was blown away. I have to check these guys out! And it really doesn't matter if Jared Leto is a smoking hottie or not (he is), it's the music that blew my mind.

The House Was On Fire

After listening to a few songs from Kaiser Cheif's album Employment I've grown quite fond of it. It actually sounds sort of like a very neat mix between Blur and Franz Ferdinand (which are two of the finer things in life, obviously). So far, it's a pretty freakin' good album. Not as good as Franz Ferdinand's new one though. The Franzes stand their ground pretty well with this one.

On my first un-musical related matter I've become very excited about seeing Lars von Trier's new movie Manderlay which is, for those of you who missed it, the sequel to his masterpiece Dogville. I loved Dogville when I saw it on DVD quite some time ago. It's still the most depressing piece of film I've ever seen and by far Nicole Kidman's best performance ever (which is saying a lot). If anyone missed that then I really urge you to look out for it. It's as far from a feel-good feature you'll ever come but it's very moving and an interesting experiment that works out better than you'd think.
Sadly, Nicole Kidman did not sign on to do the sequel because she didn't like working with von Trier (something almost everyone that's worked with him has said afterwards) so Bryce Dallas Howard (Ron Howard's daughter) has slipped on her dirty slippers for Manderlay. But hopefully that wont matter when I see the film itself. I have my hopes up now so I just have to wait for it to be released on DVD - you can't watch movies like that in overcrowded cinemas.

Doesn't It Feel Good Now, Hurricane?

I have some quick sad news to share with everyone that's unaware and living in the Stockholm area with at least a slight knowledge of the record store-scene. Frizzle Records is officially closing down for good on September 29th which means the best record store I've ever visited will disappear into thin air just like that. Frizzle is a huge part of my life and I've loved every visit I've made in that store over the past few years. It's much thanks to Frizzle that I've become such a record fanatic and now it's going away forever. It's very sad and it makes me all kinds of emotional. I went there today, probably not the last time (it felt like a wake though, everyone was so happy but with sad undercurrents), but it still felt like a goodbye. I bought two 7'' (indie-points!) singles with Foo Fighters; "All My Life" and "Times Like These". It was a very nice visit and I had a chat with Ilhan (the man who IS Frizzle) about Kent's new bogus single and I'm going to miss those very short chats about some random band or release.

R.I.P. Frizzle Records

So anyway;

I "got" Franz Ferdinand's new album You Could Have It So Much Better today and I must say it's very good this far. It feels a lot more "loose" than the debut. It feels like they've roughened up the edges a bit and gone a bit more wild in the studio. It sounds very good so far.

And just to finish off I have to say that Ett Kolikbarns Bekännelser by Håkan Hellström is this years best swedish album, even beating Kent - Du & Jag Döden. You didn't see that opinion coming, huh?

I Am Still An Open Book

I've gotten lots of complaints regarding my last entry about Kaizers Orchestra. Close friends that was insulted because of what I wrote. Since it was a touchy subject I decided to listen to the song again and now I feel I want to clarify my views of it:

I still hate Kaizers Orchestra.

There. Now we can move on to other things.

I finally got my ordered Ed Harcourt - From Every Sphere in the mail today which was really nice. I haven't listened to it yet but I figured I could listen to it on the stereo and have a bit of a rest. I think it's the kind of album that is only enhanced if you listen to it while lying dead still the entire time.

I also made another sweet purchase today. A Foo Fighters-shirt with a nice One By One-print on it. I'm going to order a Jens Lekman-shirt next week so I'm starting to build a nice little collection of good bandmerch. By the way: if anyone knows of a place where you can get Ed Harcourt-shirts or other merch; CONTACT ME.

What's That Supposed To Mean?

When I was travelling on the bus home from work today I felt like doing a big entry to this very blog and write about some of the nice music I've heard over the pass few days. I got a new album in the mail (will mention which in another entry, it's not of any significance in this one) and I was in a particulary good mood. Then I came home and choose to listen to a song someone sent me a while ago that I hadn't listened to yet, and then this entry's future was re-written in an instant.

Now, let's bring up Kaizers Orchestra. This band originates from Norway and have recently struck some fame and fortune (?) among the type of music people that are aware of "what is the shit at the moment" and I decided to check them out and so my friend Mats sent me the song "Ompa Til Du Dør".

Is this serious? People listen to this? Haha, really?

Is it a case of "it's so bad that it's good"? Doesn't appear so.
People actually seem to like - LIKE - this band. I have listened to "Ompa Til Du Dør" about 5-6 times now and it still baffles me. Who the hell did they murder to get the keys to a record studio? Why didn't anyone with taste put down their foot before this reached the general masses? How the f-word can music be this bad?

This is where we are at. Seven (I think it's seven) random norwegians bang everything they can see and sing a song about a norwegian dance and people - defying all laws of taste - actually listen to it. PAY MONEY to hear more. It's insane. It blows my goddamn mind. Kaizers Orchestra's "Ompa Til Du Dør" is easily one of the five worst songs I've heard in my entire life and I've heard quite a few so that's saying something. Is it me? Am I not seeing what's to see? It seems so obvious to everyone else, but I can't see what the freaking deal is. Goddamn it.

Nagisa Ni Te sings "Me, On The Beach" and that heals me...

Just Like Bonnie & Clyde

I'll just give you a little shortlist of the songs that currently makes my heart sing and dance.

Ed Harcourt - Alligator Boy
Ed Harcourt - Sugarbomb
Foo Fighters - Miracle
Foo Fighters - Times Like These
Fort Minor - Petrified
Jens Lekman - Rocky Dennis' Farewell Song (To The Blind Girl)
Mötley Crüe - Sick Love Song*
Nagisa Ni Te - Me, On The Beach
Social Distortion - Reach For The Sky
The Motorhomes - For Whom It May Concern
Vanity Beach - Take Me To Tokyo

* = Yeah, I know... But it's a really good song nonetheless.

And I want to close off with showing off my first won eBay auction:
This is some good shit right here!

Too Romantic To Fall In Love

Head over to Bergman Rock's homepage now and download a brand new free song! It's called "Even Endlessness Begins (With An End)" and is pretty damn good. I actually heard it live and now that I hear it again it's got all these details and cool synthesizer-noises that I've fallen in love with. It's really more of a "bob hund in english"-song than a typical Bergman Rock-track. Be sure to check it out!

I went to Pet Sounds (indie!!) and bought the maxi-single for "Speed of Sound" by Coldplay with two nice b-sides. I love the cover so it was mainly because of that I wanted it, the CD itself is copy controlled so I had to download the songs anyway. Good ones though, but you could tell why they were b- and not a-sides.

On a hunch I downloaded Stakka Bo's album "Jr." yesterday. It was a very positive surprise actually. Electropop with a touch of Kent really, and Jocke is actually featuring on one of the better songs of the album; "Killer". If you like Kent and Nåid you should really check out this cd.

In An Empty Cinema

Not much to report today, except Doktor Kosmos seems like a band I should probably check out further.

Also, I've been bidding on a few eBay-auctions for Ed Harcourt-related stuff. Keep your fingers crossed I'm winning!
I really need a Bill Hicks-tee as well. But I have to save some money now so that will have to wait, sadly.

You Learn To Love Again

New albums bought, new concert visited and a song that blew my mind. All coming up below this cheesy introduction.

I bought the third, and latest, album by a certain Håkan Hellström a few days ago and I was surprised to find that it's just as good as his first album. He has lost the samba, the bateria and al the annoying choirs. Ett Kolikbarns Bekännelser (The Confessions of a Colic Child) is mellow, mostly acoustic and filled with beautiful songs like the gorgeous love song with the strange title "Gårdakvarnar & Skit" (Farmmills & Shit).

I also bought my very first album over iTunes Music Store. I've always been suspicious when it comes to buying music over the internet because so much of the charm with buying music disappears. No strolling through endless amounts of record stores, picking out the CD you want, browse through the booklet and so on. But since the album in question was a internet-only release I had to swallow my pride. The album was Ed Harcourt - Elephant's Graveyard which is a collection of rare songs, unreleased songs and b-sides. Most of the songs are really neat and surprising. I was completely baffled by "Alligator Boy" which is a led-heavy blues rock track. It's overall an awesome album and definetly worth the £7 I gave for it. I had lots of trouble converting the shitty m4p-files to mp3 so I could listen to them in Winamp but apart from that it wasn't as bad as I thought buying records from iTunes.

I still hate iTunes though.

I also have a new obsession: Foo Fighters. I loved In Your Honour. I think it's a fantastic album and it makes so much sense to divide it into two different cds. In Your Honour is one of the best albums of the year, no doubt. But the song I've been completely nuts about the past few days is the acoustic version of "Times Like These". The original is a good song, the acoustic version makes me wet myself in pleasure. I can't begin to describe how awesome it is and how much I love it.

I still love Dave Grohl.