Nedtrykthed og jul tage hånd ind hånd

Today’s (well, technically, by the time I’m posting this, yesterday’s) show went well enough. I accidentally let Morrissey slip a swear word in, but the band on Hour Long Hour just a bit later did the same thing -- repeatedly -- so I figure I’m okay.

I’ve just gotten back from the Modern Age. Not as commercially successful -- or as musically enjoyable, for me anyway -- as last week. I guess it was alright -- I mean, I appreciate the complexity of things that people are able to do with machines, and I’m even okay with twenty distortion pedals or whatever, but for me, a computer just has no place onstage.

(Even though my own computer, apparently, is my best friend.)

Now I’m sitting in my beanbag chair, listening to Christmas songs and trying not to cry. None of the things I want will fit under a Christmas tree.

Her er spilleliste fra fredag:

1. The Dress – Blonde Redhead
2. Bryce’s Song – Typhoon
3. This Time – Bertine Zetlitz
4. Strawberries (Cassettes Won’t Listen remix) – Asobi Seksu
5. Subtle Changes – Sambassadeur
6. Dayplanner – Free Loan Investments
7. 5:15 Train – A Sunny Day in Glasgow
8. The World Is Full of Crashing Bores – Morrissey
9. Eventually It’ll Break Your Heart – Moneybrother
10. One Sailor Was Waving – ballboy
11. Afraid You Told Someone About Us – Air France
12. Things I Stole – Evil Death Machine

Actually, judging by that playlist, it looks like I knew that already. I thought I was pretty happy earlier -- but I guess I was wrong.

--DL--
Ashtrays Podcast (8-24-2007)

Jeg hader Au Revior Simone

Yes, I do. I’ve been trying to ignore them for the past month or so -- I’ve even nearly perfected the art of reading the newspaper without looking at the ads -- but I kind of do have to read the articles. So when they have glowing write-ups in both the Mercury and Willamette Week, I can’t help but notice.

What am I on about? Oh, it's the same old thing -- not being 21. Not Au Revoir Simone's fault. So, okay, I suppose I don’t hate them. I’m just... a bit upset. I mean, you’d think that in three US tours -- in the same year -- they could have managed at least once to play an all-ages show. But oh no. (Oh my. Is my only consolation -- knowing that anyone who sees Au Revoir Simone will also have to sit through the monster song. I, happily, won’t -- but it’s not much consolation.) I guess they assume all their fans are cool enough to have fake IDs or something. Well, I don't.

So here’s Sad Song, a download which is ILLEGAL -- but, like I said, I’m upset, and it seems appropriate. (And I’m destroying the link tomorrow morning, so perhaps no one will even have enough time to download it.)

And while you’re listening to Sad Song, something extra to do: grades are out, and I figured it’s safe to upload this now, so the whole mp3 sociology report is now online. It’s pretty detailed -- 19 pages long (unfortunately for my professor, who only wanted 10-15 double-spaced; I didn’t double-space. I got an A, though). I was going to make a nice PDF, but I couldn’t get my tables (yes, I have tables) right that way, so it’s just a word document, but that works just as well, I guess. You'll just have to download it instead of reading online.

Two things to keep in mind here. One -- please don’t anybody be offended by anything I’ve written. I tried really hard not to misconstrue things, but if I have, I’m sorry. Two -- this is pretty much the same as what I turned in for my final class version; however, this is a project that, if I had my way, I would like to continue working on for, say, five or ten more years. I see it as more of a draft than anything complete. Any comments or suggestions you have would be appreciated. In fact, even just letting me know you thought it was (or wasn’t) interesting would be great. I put a massive amount of work into this thing, and it would be nice to know that someone besides my professor actually read it.

Also, a huge thank you, again, to everyone who participated by taking the time to fill out that detailed questionnaire. You people are awesome.

--DL--
Sad Song (Au Revoir Simone)
The Social Roles of MP3 Blogs (Sara's blog paper)

Ny musik kommer

Mono Taxi’s latest song, the gorgeous and gorgeous and gorgeous The Sound of You, came out on 7” Monday. My copy’s in the mail. Where’s yours?

Other upcoming releases worth getting excited about:

The Boy Who Couldn’t Stop Dreaming, Club 8’s new album -- their first in four years -- is set for release 26. September. God I love Club 8. Even if I knew nothing about them, I would buy the album just for that title. If you’ve somehow managed to never hear the band -- here, have Whatever You Want, the album’s first single.

Sambassadeur’s as-yet-untitled new album is… well, it’s coming out. Their label says October; the band’s myspace/website says early November. Either way. If you haven’t heard Sambassadeur, try Subtle Changes, their first single (from this album). It's absolutely fantastic.

And a revelation: superbly enough -- both Club 8 and Sambassadeur are on Labrador, which means you can stream all the tracks from all their albums on last.fm. (Club 8 here; Sambassadeur here.) You can listen to five Mono Taxi songs, as well as see two videos, on their myspace. If for some reason you don’t want to do any of that -- well, while all three bands have distinct sounds, and with a bit of practice you can certainly tell them apart, they also all have certain wonderful similarities, like boy-girl vocal harmonies and soothing tones which are just the right mixture of light and heavy -- enough to keep you from drowning, but not so much that you’ll float completely away. Not that either of those are entirely awful things. Well, maybe drowning is -- but anyway, bad description. Yes, it’s an inapt description; I’ll admit it. There are some sensations words can’t describe.

If you’ve heard any one of the three bands, though, and like them -- you’ll probably enjoy the others as well. Mono Taxi is a bit janglier, louder -- unlike the other two, they use electric guitars. Sambassadeur is somewhat more nature-sounding, although certainly not in a nature sounds CD kind of way, and (usually) quieter -- their Labrador page notes that “they where too shy to even look at each other when first playing their songs.” Nice. And Club 8 is just… I don’t know. Perfect and twee. Oh, wait, that’s redundant.

--DL--
Whatever You Want (Club 8)
Subtle Changes (Sambassadeur)

To programerne! Jeg er i oven på tinge, for en gang...

Jeg mistede skriv om programmet fra læst uge. Undskyld for det. Men mit referet om mp3 blogerne er sluttet -- og er meget godt. Tak for alle hvem skrive tim mig om det. Det skal jeg have snart på internet, så du kan læse, hvis vil du gerne.

Nå, her er spilleliste fra læst fredags (10. august) program:

1. Just About Ready for Bed – The Morningside
2. Letter from Belgium – The Mountain Goats
3. You Are the Light – Jens Lekman
4. Artboy Meets Artgirl – moi Caprice
5. Clever Girls Like Clever Boys More than Clever Boys Like Clever Girls – Pelle Carlberg
6. If I Don’t Write This Song, Someone I Love Will Die – Hello Saferide
7. To Leave It Now – Trembling Blue Stars
8. L’Indifference – Radio LXMBRG
9. Must Be Wrong – The Rentals
10. The Blinding – Babyshambles
11. Split of a Second – Tiger Baby
12. Dawn – Brian Jonestown Massacre

Hvis du vil gerne, du kan lytte også til Live Friday og de første halv af Hour Long Hour fra 10. Bandet var Speaker Speaker, fra Seattle. De var meget høj -- men jeg kunne godt lide dem. Og, også, jeg skrive om det fordi jeg hjælpede at hoste programerne. Jeg taler ikke særlig meget, men jeg er der, så hvis du elsker min stemme, eller... ved jeg ikke.

Her er også spillelisten fra i forgårs (17. august) program:

1. Cobra – Oliver North Boy Choir
2. Sleep – The Dandy Warhols
3. Call It Ours – The Legends
4. Holland 1945 – Neutral Milk Hotel
5. Postcards from Italy – Beirut
6. Apocalypso – Mew
7. Special – Mew
8. The Zookeeper’s Boy – Mew
9. Hands Open – Snow Patrol
10. Chicago – Sufjan Stevens
11. Do Re Mi – Nirvana
12. Junk Bond Trader – Elliott Smith
13. I’d Ask – Mugison

I 17. talte jeg på dansk for hele programmet. Kan du forstå ikke? Vil du gerne at vide alle sagde jeg? Email mig. Actually, that should be in English, because it says ‘On the 17th, I talked in Danish for the whole show. Don’t understand? Want to know what I said? Email me.’

Mmm... også læst fredag (10. igen), The Modern Age gik spændende. Meget bedre end jeg håbte. Banderne var fantastisk -- jeg har nu set Typhoon to gange, og jeg synes, de er min ny yndling band i Portland -- og også fint var lytterne (rigtig ord?). I hele natten, vi har omkring et hundred og halvtres mennesker -- måske mere. Det var fantastisk, og jeg håber, næste uge er godt også. Hvis du bor i Portland, du skal kommer til det. Du kan se vores myspace for besked -- og, jeg tror, skal vi snart have en bedre side, med Wordpress. Banderne hvem spiller fredag er Atole, Armadillo Speedbump, og One Human Minute. De tre vil spille også på KPSUs Awareness is Free Festival i september. Undskyld fordi jeg kan ikke tale mere, men mere ved jeg ikke.

--DL--
Ashtrays Podcast (8-10-2007)
Ashtrays Podcast (8-17-2007)

Død

My speakers have died and I cannot function.

(Jeg vil, tror jeg, skrive mere efter jeg kommer hjem fra mit arbejde. Så på gensyn.)

Hvorfor vil I komme ikke til musikpladser hvor kan ung mennesker gør også?

Jens Lekman is coming to Portland in November. And guess where he’s playing? Actually I don’t know; it doesn’t make any difference to me. Not because I don’t love Jens Lekman, and wouldn’t love to see him live -- but because it’s in a bar. Of course.

Anyway -- what can you listen to of his? He’s one of the more generous artists I’ve encountered-- he’s actually got a whole batch of tour-only EPs up for download on his website, as well as a few randomly selected other tracks, my favorites of which are You Are the Light and Tammy, a very soft and pretty duet with El Perro del Mar.

It may not be the right season for some of this stuff, though -- I haven’t listened to El Perro del Mar in months, due to the weather -- but on the other hand, Jens Lekman does seem to be rather fond of horns in some of his arrangements, and I guess those are summery, in the brass band in a gazebo in the park kind of way. Actually, when I listen to You Are the Light, I picture people in full drum major costumes, complete with the enormous hats, marching in a parade and moving their trumpets back and forth in the air in a way that probably only cartoon characters are capable of. That, and how absolutely in love I would be with anyone who used their one free phone call after being arrested to request a song on the radio. He does have some nice lyrics… and the contact page of his site is still one of my favorite web pages. Ever. Think you can figure out why?

And for those of you who want the opposite of what that thing suggests because you’re still not old enough to see shows, perhaps this will be a slight consolation: The Modern Age (we have a myspace now!), which is a small Portland all-ages venue which I work/volunteer at, is having four bands this Friday (10 August) -- Typhoon, Eskimo & Sons, the Bustling Townships, and the Red River. Show’s at eight, admission’s three bucks, and one of the members of Typhoon plays the accordion.

If you’re still bored -- or even if you’re not bored, just helpful and nice -- fill out a blog questionnaire. (If the server is down, as it, annoyingly, is right now, try back later.) I wouldn’t be asking this if I didn’t need people to do it. So please. And thanks, those who have.

--DL--
You are the Light (Jens Lekman)
Tammy (Jens Lekman and El Perro del Mar)

Radioprogrammet, ja, undskyld

I thought I’d posted this yesterday -- in fact, I’m quite sure I posted this yesterday -- but apparently I did not. At least, something (possibly my battery dying) went wrong, enough to make the whole thing vanish. So here it is again, with even more apologies this time.

If there are any hopelessly devoted radio show fans out there, sorry for taking so long to put the playlist up. I was busy moving all weekend, though, and even if I hadn’t been busy, moving means I now have absolutely no internet. Well.

Fredags spilleliste:

1. Love is Not Enough – Blue Skies for Black Hearts
2. Hungry Heart – Sexton Blake
3. A Man of Happy Solutions – My Friend George
4. Everybody’s Happy Nowadays – Buzzcocks
5. As You Fall (I Watch With Love) – David & the Citizens
6. Pas på du ikke falder i! – Thunderbear
7. Wind in the Wires – Patrick Wolf
8. Beehives Mighty Vicious – Oceano da Cruz
9. O Valencia! – the Decemberists
10. Young Folks – Peter Björn and John
11. Film Music – Electrelane
12. The Young Ones – Munich

Please fill out the blog questionnaire, too. Mange tak.

--DL--
Ashtrays Podcast (8-3-2007)

Lidt hjælp?

Okay. Maybe you already know this, but if not -- I am in school right now. Happily enough (especially since it’s summer) I have managed to incorporate music even into this academic aspect of my life; I have this class called Music and Sociology.

This is important to the blog because I’m doing a research project on -- yes -- music and sociology. Or, more specifically, the social roles of mp3 blogs. As far as I can tell, nobody else has done much work on this, so I’m gathering pretty much all the evidence or data or whatever you’d like to call it myself. Obviously -- as this is sociology -- this requires the participation of individuals other than myself.

So here’s my request: if you’re here, it logically follows that you’re a blog reader. Even if this is the only mp3 blog you ever look at, please, do me a huge favor and download this questionnaire, fill it out and return it to me. If you write an mp3 blog, too, you can do this one instead. (They're word documents and should download just fine, but if you have trouble, try going here and clicking the appropriate link.)

It’s very easy to do -- I just ask you to tell me some things about why you read mp3 blogs, what (if any) relationships you have with the people who write them, and what you think of music. It doesn’t take very long, either (unless you want to get very detailed, which I have no objection to). And it’s for a very good cause -- me not flunking out of college. Please. And please don’t decide not to do this because of the assumption that everyone else will -- because I think in this case, everyone is not all that many people, and I need as many of these as I can get.

As advance thanks/reward for your assistance, I am going to give you not just one but two nice mp3s, both of which I like very much, but haven’t posted or even really talked about because neither of the bands live in Scandinavia.

The first of these two bands, Slumber Party, is a bunch of girls who live in Detroit, Michigan. (I say a bunch because the number tends to vary.) I Don’t Mind is from their first, self-titled album -- the one I don’t have. So I don’t know what the rest of the album sounds like, but this song is great -- very spacey, in every possible sense of the word -- and so are the three other albums they’ve put out since then.

Esiotrot is composed of seven (I think) boys and girls who live in Brighton, England. Sally Likes the Beach Boys is a very short song from their first EP, which was put out back when there were only four members in the band. They’ve done some more things since then, including the simultaneously sweet and (a bit) creepy Emily Scott (the name of the song, not a person), which you can stream on myspace.

And again -- please take a few minutes to fill out this questionnaire for me. (Tell your friends about it, too.) I’ll let you read the paper when I’m done and everything -- I promise. Mange tak for alle.

--DL--
Blog Reader Questionnaire
Blog Writer Questionnaire
I Don't Mind (Slumber Party)
Sally Likes the Beach Boys (Esiotrot)