Taksigelsesfest

Wow. I’ve been at my parents’ house -- and away from my computer -- for a few days, in celebration of Thanksgiving. (One good thing about living in the United States: a day of from school? and from work? Okay!) Of course, I’ve been back for nearly an equal amount of time, but due to the fact that I procrastinate and had/have three papers due this week, hmm… kind of some neglect of the blog. I hope no one checks this thing every day; they must be sorely disappointed. But anyway.

Before I get interesting, one other holiday-related thing I should clarify: if somehow you’ve downloaded/listened to last Friday’s show without it being on here -- well, it’s probably pretty obvious, but in case you haven’t noticed, I’ll point it out again -- that’s not me. I haven’t gone all weird -- I was just out of town, and had another DJ cover the show for me. This Friday, things will pick up again as normal.

Also this Friday, at the Modern Age -- five bands, starting at 7 o’clock: the Online Romance, Doubledutch, Almost Nearly, the Nihilist Croquet Club, and Museum. The Portland Museum. Not the Danish one. But I’m sure they’re good, too. And, if you’re in Portland, hope to see you there in a few days.

So, now, since this is supposed to be an mp3 blog, here’s what I have. I tend to group music into three categories, according to time of season: music I primarily listen to in the spring and summer, music I primarily listen to in the winter, and that which I listen to all year round.

In addition to the onset of winter, several things over the course of the past week have reminded me of a snowy-weather band I haven’t listened to in quite a while: Doí. They’re Danish, and not as well-known as they ought to be. (Read: their stuff is very hard to find, or at least it was last time I looked.) I listened to them a lot around January -- the last time it snowed in Portland -- and Doí was the band that was playing in my head that time I went out and wandered around in that frozen fountain in the dark. Yes, I actually did that.

Anyway, as anyone who’s at all familiar with this blog can probably attest, I have an incredibly difficult time describing music, a trait which is not really a helpful one for somebody who writes about music all the time. So here’s my description of Doí, which I conceived of last night in the bathtub. Listening to Doí encourages me to imagine hiding in a miniature log cabin out in the middle of nowhere, lying curled up on the floor in the dark, surrounded by a nest of pillows and blankets, looking up through a skylight at the stars and snow falling on pine trees.

If that isn’t appealing to you, perhaps you’ll get the wrong impression of Doí. So maybe I should explain what that scenario means to me: it’s the idea of being quite happy, or at least rather content, yet knowing, at the same time, that such a thing is unattainable. “We’ll wake when rivers run dry” is one of the only lines of their songs that I can, at the moment, remember. It’s like that -- waking up, and then -- oh, wait -- it’s too late already. Although that’s not entirely bad. Know what I mean?

If you’re in the mood -- for a bit of lying on the floor in pseudo-depression -- give them a listen. Here is Missing, the song I’ve listened to the most. Or you can hear their entire debut album, Sing the Boy Electric, on last.fm. Nice.

And now -- hearing this -- you ought to understand why I’ve been unproductive…

--DL--
Missing (Doí)