Taber bombe...

Well, the internet connection in my apartment has been dead for the past few days, which, due to the fact that I’ve kind of gotten used to it working, has been incredibly annoying. (All the more reason to move, I guess.) However, once I’d dragged my computer over to a wireless area, then there was this lovely email from Ivan of Oliver North Boy Choir, which completely alleviated my rather unhappy mood. (Actually, there was also another super awesome email, but I don’t want to mention that until details are finalized -- but if you think you know what I’m talking about, then yes, that will be taking place, in some form anyway. Super awesome!)

Anyway, I was unaware that Oliver North Boy Choir existed -- in any incarnation -- in 2001, but apparently they did, and they were called, at that point, Pierre. Although they hadn’t yet made their Iran-Contra connection (yeah -- I’m not sure what motivated that name change), the band even at that early stage seems to have some sort of obsession with associating themselves with names representative of some of the most reprehensible times/events in US political history. I’ll forgive them, though, because the song’s so gorgeous -- and because they didn’t name it; it’s a cover, of OMD’s Enola Gay. Which, due to the nature of the email, I think is okay for me to offer up for you to download. (Tell me if I'm wrong.) And I think that, right now, unless you are on Oliver North Boy Choir’s email list, this is the only place you can get it.

I hate to admit I’d never heard of OMD (or their full name, Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark) -- much less, heard the original version of the song. I had to look them up, and was hoping they were either extremely obscure or that the abbreviation was. But that wasn't the case -- so now I feel guilty. There are so many bands I don't know, but we can’t all know everything, I guess. Anyway, you can listen to the original version of Enola Gay here. It’s very 80’s male synth-pop. I think I like ONBC’s better. Look at my last.fm and it certainly seems so.

Oh, and also, Ivan has moved his blog, In a Cyclone of Stones. It’s in the links column now, too, so you can access it easily, even when this posting is no longer at the top of the page.

--DL--
Enola Gay (Oliver North Boy Choir / Pierre)

På radioen igen

Played my first show on KPSU today. (If you didn’t catch it, the podcast is here.) Despite managing to forget approximately 98% of my Danish vocabulary, I think it went fairly well. There were no technical difficulties, except for when I dropped the keyboard on top of the sound board and turned off the CD input in the middle of a song. It actually only took me a few seconds to figure this out and correct it, which is something of a fluke, considering my history. Anyway, her er min spilleliste:

1. Teignmouth – Patrick Wolf
2. Byen Driver – Under Byen
3. Drown them Out – Viva Voce
4. Emily Scott – Esiotrot
5. Old Friends – the Bear Quartet
6. Ronan Keating – Free Loan Investments
7. Grisslappan RADIOaktiv – epo-555
8. Dance 3 – Kiss Me Deadly
9. The Voices – Citizens Here and Abroad
10. Empire State Human – Marsheaux
11. Strangelove – Tiger Baby
12. Graycoated Morning – David & the Citizens

In between talk breaks, I discovered that KPSU has a nice promo copy of Metric’s new/old album, Grow Up and Blow Away. (New/old because it was done in 2001, but was never released, and is now -- finally -- being put out again; you can buy it as of Tuesday, actually.) I’ve been waiting for it for months, so of course I had to give it a listen. And I was rather disappointed.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Metric is super excellent live, and decent -- but not really that excellent -- on recordings. There were two songs in particular that I was excited for. The first, Rock Me Now. Until today, I’d only heard it once -- and that was nearly a year ago, when they played it live at Bumbershoot. It was a rather electrified version, and Jimmy Shaw managed to falsetto even higher than Emily Haines does. I loved it. So I played the album version right away. It kind of sucks.

The second song I wanted to hear was Soft Rock Star. I’d fallen in love with the remixed version however long ago, and was looking forward to hearing the original. I should know by now that, generally, I like remixes a lot better than I like originals -- but in this case, I didn’t actually know it was a remix. I thought, ‘wow, this might be the best song Metric’s ever done.’ It isn’t -- and especially after hearing and loving the alternate version so much, it isn’t even very good.

I hate to discourage people listening to Metric, because they are a pretty awesome band, and, of all the bands I currently listen to, they’re one of the ones I’ve liked the longest. However, I guess they just weren’t quite as good in 2001 as they were in 2005 or even 2003. Grow Up and Blow Away is an okay album (the title track is especially nice), but I’d stick to Old World Underground… and Live It Out if I were you. Those, and MSTRKRFT’s Monster Hospital remix. Talk about good.

--DL--
Ashtrays Podcast (6-29-2007)

Er jeg vågen?

Åh, it’s been such a long time, I know -- and Stytzer’s off on holiday, and Alison appears to have given up blogging entirely and it’s just me left (so, in their absence, everyone should send me stuff)… Again, apologies. This last week, I’ve either had such a ridiculous amount of free time that I’ve been unable to find motivation to do anything (including sleep -- unless I’m asleep right now, and it’s quite possible I could be), or I’ve had an equally ridiculous amount of things to do and have been unable to find the time. However, this is one of my favorite things to do, so I hope that once I’ve adjusted to the new schedule (which I hope will happen with expedience), postings ought to become more frequent/regular.

To be quite honest, I haven’t even listened to anything new in at least a week -- probably longer. Well, that’s not true -- I have, but it’s been live, or someone playing something to me, not things I can keep and listen to at home fifteen times over and over on my headphones because I’m in love. But speaking of such things (the connection makes sense to me), lately I’ve been inundated with accordions. This whole post was going to be about the various encounters I’ve had with accordions over the course of the week, but I guess they weren’t all as cool as I initially thought, because I keep forgetting them.

And even if I hadn’t, I think that this other thing is far more cool -- or at least, timely. After a couple months of inactivity, Ashtrays (the radio show, I mean) is back on the air. New slot, new station, but same show. I’m pretty excited. You can tune in at www.kpsu.org -- 3 to 4 pm (Pacific time) every Friday. Or, there are also podcasts -- and, while I will always have a special place in my heart for KLC, I must admit that KPSU’s streaming and podcasting reliability is far superior to KLC's. Which means that you will actually be able to hear the shows if you want to. And again -- first one’s tomorrow. Don’t miss it.

If you didn’t start reading the blog until after KLC’s website completely died, and have therefore never heard my show, and until tomorrow is too long to wait, you can listen to the podcast of Matthew’s show from 13. June, on which I did an apprenticeship as part of my new DJ training. And in this case, by ‘apprenticeship,’ I mean ‘pretty much played the whole show.’ Unfortunately, there are a few dead air moments and a couple other technical difficulties, but I think that’s rather inevitable when you’re taking your first try with new equipment. (Hopefully tomorrow will be free of such errors.) The playlist is here:

1. Our Ill Wills - Shout Out Louds
2. Just Like Heaven - the Cure
3. P.U.N.K. Girl - Heavenly
4. Chinaberry Tree - Mew
5. Punk Rock Girl - the Dead Milkmen
6. Die All Over Me - the Kingdom
7. Turn It Out - Death From Above 1979
8. Teach Me Tiger - Speaker Bite Me
9. Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts - Wolf Parade
10. A Day in Space - ballboy
11. Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf) - Pixies
12. Uninvisible - Medeski Martin & Wood
13. Arena Song - Sugarboom
14. Hush, Yeah Fly - Unicova

Since I didn’t realize I was going to be playing the whole show and that Matthew wasn’t bringing any music, I didn’t have quite an hour’s worth. (The podcast is an hour long, though.) Thus, there are a few songs which were thrown in, rather randomly, at the last minute. I’m not going to point them out, though, because I think you can probably tell which ones were mine or not.

I guess it’s fairly representative of what my show will usually be. Of course, I do normally play a bit more Scandinavian music (and a bit less Death From Above 1979-type music), and I normally talk in Danish a bit too. Although it’s been so long now since I’ve done that that I’m a bit frightened to. I will anyway, probably, but it’s equally probable that I’ll be rather rusty -- so if you’re a Danish speaker, bear with me. And thanks for listening. Friday 3-4. Okay.

--DL--
Outside the Rhythm Plate (that's Matthew's show) Podcast (6-13-2007)

Hjemme igen

Jeg har kommet hjem fra østoregon, og jeg er meget villig for at skrive blogget igen. (Undskyld fordi mine notat var ikke så mange i måned, men alle tinge måtte altid kommer samtidigt, ved du?) Men, fordi jeg var hjemme (nå, husen af mine forældre), jeg lytte ikke til musik og jeg ved ikke hvad jeg skal skrive om. Så, nu, dette måtte gør for alle: Oliver North Boy Choir har en ny video, for deres nyest sang, Shell for the Morning. Videoet har bl.a. mennesker som spiller accordion (undsklyd, men jeg kan ikke se hvor man siger accordion på dansk). Jeg kan ikke høre accordion i sanget, men jeg er ikke ekspert. Og jeg kan ikke hellere se nogle af bandspillererne, men igen jeg kunne være forkert. Men det er ligesom spændende for at se, og der jeg er ikke forkert.

I andre nyheder -- Marsheaux (sig (jeg tror) mar-so) vil have en ny websider i morgen (22. juni). De er fra Grækenland, men de er skøn og også spændende. Og de og Tiger Baby lydder ligesom lige. Du kan lytte til alle sangerne fra deres to albumerne -- 2004s E-Bay Queen, og Peek A Boo fra denne år -- på last.fm. Du kan også downloade deres fremstilling af the Human League’s Empire State Human. Det er fint, og også, tror jeg, det eneste sang at jeg lyttede til, da jeg var borte.

Well, I’m back from Eastern Oregon and well primed to get going once again with the blog. (Sorry postings have been so few and far between of late, but things come, you know.) However, due to the recent foray, and the related necessary not listening to music for half a week, I don’t really know what to write about.

So for now this will have to suffice: Oliver North Boy Choir has finished a new video, to accompany their latest single Shell for the Mourning. The video features (among other things) a bunch of guys playing accordions. As far as I can detect, there is no accordion sound in the actual song -- but I’m no expert. I also don’t see any of the three band members in the video, but again, I could be wrong. Nevertheless, it is quite good visually (about which I am not wrong, because at school, I am minoring in movie-watching, so I do know about that kind of stuff) and rather interesting to watch.

In other news -- Marsheaux (pronounced, I believe, mar-so) will have a new website up tomorrow (22. June). They’re from Greece, but they’re all soft and exciting. And they and Tiger Baby sound a bit alike, in some ways. You can stream all tracks from both 2004’s E-Bay Queen and this year’s Peek A Boo on last.fm. You can also download their cover of the Human League’s Empire State Human, which is pretty cool and, I think, the only song I did listen to while I was gone.

--DL--
Empire State Human (Marsheaux)

Og mine eksamener er sluttet – igen for mine engelsk venner

Hvis du læst postet for en dag siden, dette er alle samme, men i engelsk. Der er ikke nogle ny.

It was my birthday last week -- 6. June. (If you missed it, don’t feel bad -- I’d just as soon have missed it as well -- but if you really feel bad, I guess I’ll still accept belated gifts. Mp3s are good.) Technically, I’ve turned twenty, but I don’t like the number twenty as an age, so I’ve decided I’ll be nineteen for another year. (I’d rather be twenty-one, but that doesn’t really work in the lovely prohibition-obssessed US.) But really, whatever I say, I’m not a teenager anymore. And I’m a bit sad about that.

But -- what I have today -- news about people who are still teenagers. First, Dúné. They are from Skive, in Jutland, and are all -- there are seven of them -- eighteen or nineteen years old. I thought they were older when I first heard them, because they sound much more organized and together than most bands made up of kids. But they’ve been playing together for six years -- maybe that’s why. They’re a bit louder than most of the music I listen to, and I can’t think of any bands to compare them to -- they’re unique, I guess -- but they are good. And by good, I probably mean really kinda great.

Dúné has a new album, called We Are In There You Are Out Here, and it is quite good. I especially like A Blast Beat, and Bloodlines, the most popular, is also nice. But I think my favorite song is Robot Beat, from their 2005 EP. But all of their songs are good. You can’t download any of them -- but you can stream all of the songs on their website, on the media page. It says the songs are only 30-second samples, but they’re the whole things, and that’s supercool.

Also -- remember when I was talking about remixes? Dúné will let you remix not just one, but three of their songs -- A Blast Beat, Dry Lips, and/or John Wayne vs. Mary Chain. You can download them here. (It's all in Danish, but the links are easy enough to find at the bottom.) And that’s a contest as well -- it ends 24. August. (If you want the Danish rules explained to you, email me, because I actually managed to read them all.)

Okay. Next band -- Electrojuice. They’re also from Denmark, also from Jutland -- from Århus. And they are even younger than Dúné -- they’re two boys, and they’re thirteen and fourteen years old. I also couldn’t believe that, but it’s the truth. They make electronic music and do remixes, and, I think, even if they were twice their ages, they would be excellent. But they are not twice their ages, and their youth, I think, just makes them even better.

I don’t think there are many people listening to them, although I can’t understand why. You should download their song Cut Your Fingers Off, and it will have you dancing…

Also -- this seems like an appropriate place to write about this other band, The Teenagers. I think they’re all in their twenties, but, you know, the name… They’re from France, but now live in England. They half-sing, half-speak indie-pop songs (I guess that’s what I’d say) with a lot of rather inappropriate language. If you’re easily offended by the gratuitous (and it’s certainly gratuitous -- they say, being French, that they didn’t know those words were so offensive in English, though I don’t quite buy it) use of four-letter words, you probably won’t like them. But if you’re okay with that -- well, I think The Teenagers are really excellent -- and, yes, their lyrics too.

You can stream four of their songs on their (extremely colorful) myspace, and five of their remixes on their other myspace. I love their remix of Au Revoir Simone’s Fallen Snow, but it’s not on there anymore. You can probably find it somewhere online if you care to look a bit, though. You can also, with much less work, watch their video for Homecoming, and it is very cute, but also kind of… not so cute -- you know? But I have to love it.

--DL--
Cut Your Fingers Off (Electrojuice) - two clicks; sorry; myspace is stupid

Mine eksamener er sluttet!

Det var min fødselsdag, i ugen, den sjette. (Hvis du manglede det, du skal ikke føle bedrøvet -- jeg kan ikke især lide min fødselsdag -- med hvis du føle reelt bedrøvet, jeg vil tage forsinket gaver. Mp3erne er godt.) Tekniskisk, jeg er nu tyve år, men jeg kan ikke lide nummeren tyve som alder for mennesker, så jeg afgørede, jeg vil være nitten år igen. (Jeg vil hellere være enogtyve, men det kan ikke arbejde i USA.) Men reelt, jeg er ikke nu en teenager. Og det er jeg ligesom trist for.

Men -- hvad jeg har i dag -- nyheder om mennesker som er endnu teenagerne. Første, Dúné. De er fra Skive, i Jylland, og de er alle -- der er syv om dem -- atten eller nitten år. Jeg troede de var ældre hvis jeg hørte dem først, fordi de lydder meget mere organisist og samtidig end det meste banderne om børnene. Men de havde spiller sammen for seks år -- måske det er fordi. De er ligesom højere end de meste andre musik jeg lytte til, og jeg kan ikke tænke om nogle bander at jeg kan sammenlinge dem til -- de er enestående, tror jeg -- men de er god.

Dúné har en ny album, hedder We Are In There You Are Out Here, og det er meget godt. Jeg kan især godt lide A Blast Beat, og Bloodlines, den mest populær, er flot også. Men, jeg synes, mit yndlingt sang er Robot Beat, fra deres 2005 EP. Men alle af deres sangerne er godt. Du kan ikke downloade nogle af dem -- men du kan lytte til alle af deres sangerne på deres websider, på media siden. Det siger sangerne er kun kort prøver, men det er alle helt, og det er superfint.

Også -- husker du, da jeg talte om remixerne? Dúné vil have du remixer ikke en, men tre af deres sangerne -- A Blast Beat, Dry Lips, og/eller John Wayne vs. Mary Chain. Du kan tage dem her (klikker hvor det siger 'download her!'). Og det er en konkurrence, også -- til 24. august.

OK. Næste band -- Electrojuice. De er også fra Danmark, og også Jylland -- fra Århus. Og de er meget yngre end Dúné -- de er to drenge, og de er tretten og fjorten år. Jeg også kunne ikke tro det, men det er rigtigt. De laver elektronisk musik og gøre remixerne, og, jeg synes, selv om de var to gange deres alder, de vil være udmærket. Men de er ikke, og deres ung alder, synes jeg, laves dem bedre. Der er ikke særlig mange mennesker som lytte til dem, tror jeg, men jeg kan ikke forstå hvorfor. Du skal downloade deres sang Cut Your Fingers Off, fra deres myspace, og det vil have du danser...

Og også, denne synes en godt plads til skriver om et andet band, The Teenagers. Jeg tror, de er i deres tyverne, men fordi af deres navne... De er fra Frankrig, men de bor nu i England. De synger indie-pop sangerne, synes jeg, med en masse af grov ordene. Så, hvis den genere dig, du vil ikke lide dem, men hvis du tror den er OK, nå, jeg synes The Teenagers er meget godt, og, ja, deres lyrik også.

Du kan lytte til fire af deres sangerne på deres (meget farvefuld) myspace, og fem af deres remixerne på deres anden myspace. Jeg elsker der remix af Au Revoir Simone’s Fallen Snow, men det er ikke der, nu. Men du kan måske finde det i nogle andre plads i Internet hvis du vil se. Du kan også, med mindre arbejdet, se deres video for Homecoming, og det er sød, men også, ikke så sød -- ved du? Men det elsker jeg.

And tomorrow (because that is quite a lot of writing for one day) I will rewrite all that in English.

--DL--
Cut Your Fingers Off (Electrojuice) - to klikker, fordi myspace er dum. Undskyld.

Kort notat om Tiger Baby

This is NOT what I'm supposed to be doing right now, so very quickly: Stytzer has links to two new Tiger Baby remixes. In my opinion, the Zvook Mescalin remix of At Least I'm Honest is the better of the two. You can also now (and for probably only a short time) download Tiger Baby's awesome cover of Depeche Mode's Strangelove from their myspace. And Tiger Baby and Sweden's Thermostatic have done some kinda reciprocation thing, which you cannot download but can stream via last.fm -- Thermostatic's Girlfriend remix; Tiger Baby's The Box remix.

And now all I need is the Joy Division cover and I can pretend my collection is complete.

--DL--
At Least I'm Honest - Zvook Mescalin remix (Tiger Baby)

Jeg lyvede da jeg sagde, jeg ikke danser

I've been saving this one for a while. Sorry to have kept it from you -- but I had a very good reason for it. Anyway, here it is now:

You can download all the songs from the first two albums -- I Was So Unpopular in School and Now They're Giving Me This Beautiful Bicycle and The World According to Pablo -- by Billie the Vision & the Dancers, on their very cute website. (Actually, the cute side of their website seems to be having trouble connecting to the files, but if you go to the parent directory, you will find links to all the songs on a fully-functional, if not very attractive, page.) The songs are pretty gorgeous -- just the right mix between lo-fi popishness and danceability. The consensus online seems to be that Summer Cat is their best song, and it's good, but not my favorite. You may instead wish to try Want To Cannot Help But Dance.

Unfortunately, Billie the Vision & the Dancers' latest album, Where The Ocean Meets My Hand, is not available for download, but you can stream two tracks on myspace -- one of which is 'Overdosing With You,' a duet with the phenomenal Hello Saferide. It's about watching TV, which I don't do, but even though I've never seen either (any?) of the programs they talk about, I still love it. I've had the line 'hello Pablo, I've got this vision we can dance to' stuck in my head since, I think, the first time I heard it. I really wish I knew someone called Pablo so I could say it to him, but, alas, I don't. Anyway.

--DL--
Summer Cat (Billie the Vision & the Dancers)
Want To Cannot Help But Dance (Billie the Vision & the Dancers)

Forskellige versioner

I’ve been meaning to mention this forever but keep forgetting (although, now, it’s probably better that I’ve forgotten, because now you can go all at once instead of going back over and over (although there’s certainly nothing wrong with revisiting quality websites)). Anyway, getting to the point -- over the last week, Speaker Bite Me has put up eight nice remixes of their songs, all of which you may download. (Right here.) My favorite is SuperTroels' remix of Teach Me Tiger, which is, for lack of a better word, super. Also kind of interesting is the Marybell Katastrophy version of War is Over.

Of course, for those who’ve never heard Speaker Bite Me before, please keep in mind -- they can be a little... weird. If you don’t like the song(s) at first listen, instead of deleting them from your library, you ought to listen to them, say, three or four more times. At least. Because I hated Teach Me Tiger (my first exposure to Speaker Bite Me) initially, but the more I heard it, the more I came to love the song. The remix took me even longer, and I’m still not fond of the entirely a cappella first minute or so, but as for the rest -- wonderful.

Even better than eight free remixes (plus original versions of Teach Me Tiger and Belle de Boskoop), you can download a separated version of "Whataboutyou" to remix yourself. Also, for all you remixers of pop songs, Blonde Redhead likewise encourages you to remix their song Signs Along the Path. You can also listen to what other people have done with it. And if you create a remix -- of either song -- tell me. I’d love to hear.

--DL--
Teach Me Tiger – SuperTroels remix (Speaker Bite Me)
War is Over - Marybell Katastrophy remix (Speaker Bite Me)

At lytte, men at se ikke

Taking a brief break from my studying (not really. I never study) to complain about not being old enough to go to shows (that I probably wouldn’t go to anyway because I’m too busy (not) studying)...

And other things, too -- like epo-555. Their album Mafia was released in the US last Tuesday, 22. May -- and now they are coming here! Quite exciting, except -- oh, wait. Three shows in New York and one in Massachusetts. Not exactly driving distance for me, you know. (But if you’re over there -- aren’t you lucky.) In other news, they’re in the process of making a pretty new website. You can still get to the old one, though, if you know where to go, and I know where to go -- it’s here.

Now, what makes me even sadder than epo-555 playing not just one but three shows in New York and none on the west coast -- tonight, Au Revoir Simone, currently my favorite American band, is playing about two miles away from where I live. I can’t go. Enough said -- except, oh, okay, this too -- Monday night, same place, the Raveonettes. They were the first Danish band I ever liked (unless we count Aqua, and, uh, let’s not count Aqua). Can’t go to that, either. If you want a full list of shows I’d like to but can’t attend because they’re in bars, email me; I love sharing it. And I update regularly. It makes me feel even happier about life.

Anyway, lest we become too depressed… actually, no, this won’t do it at all. But you can download Dead Sound, a new and as-yet-unreleased Raveonettes track that was just (two days ago) made available. You can listen to an alternate version of it on myspace. While you’re there, check out the blog; Sune is ultra-super-regular about updating it. He’s way better than I am.

Speaking of blogs, last night I realized that if you’ve been viewing this one on a Mac (or, possibly, any other non-Dell kind of machine) the position of the text under the picture may have been a bit messed up. I apologize for this ugliness -- and I feel a bit inadequate, as it was like that for a couple of weeks. However, it has been fixed now, and hopefully no other cosmetic issues will arise.

--DL--
Dead Sound (the Raveonettes)