Hvorfor der er ikke et program i dag

I’m at a rock n roll camp for teenagers in Pendleton, the town where I grew up. I think I am supposed to be supervising students who are writing articles for a zine, but so far, I have done nothing useful. Perhaps that will change.

Since I’m gone, there will be no show tonight -- sorry. Dave is covering for me again, and Andrew will be covering the Friday show. I’ll be back next week.

Because I am kind of in a hurry to post this, I’m just going to link to the playlists on the KPSU site. If I have more time later on (somewhat unlikely) I’ll put them up properly. I apologize for the complete dearth of posts lately, too.

Here are playlists from last Wednesday and Friday.

By the way -- PDX Pop Now! was great. More to come.

--DL--
Ashtrays Podcast (23 july 2008)
Ashtrays Podcast (25 july 2008)

Skal vi sige… besked?

So, a couple of things. Aside from the three long Roskilde posts yesterday (which should have been more than enough to satiate everybody) I haven’t really done much here lately.

Let me explain. When I got back from Denmark, I didn’t live anywhere. That’s a problem. Happily, I’ve now moved into a new apartment. However, the new apartment is not equipped with internet -- and it’s not likely to be for probably at least another month or so, if even then. That’s also a problem. Since I’m not one of those lucky people who does their mp3 blog stuff while at work -- problem -- and I’m currently faced with a 45-minute walk and then a wait in line at the school computer labs every time I need to go online -- problem -- I think it’s kind of a given that there won’t be as much activity (at least from my end) on here for a while. I’ll try my hardest, but do expect posts to be fewer and further between.

A more pleasant (I guess?) thing -- there’ve been two more radio shows since my return that I’ve failed to mention on here. The missing playlists:

16. juli (onsdag):

1. Vessel in Vain – Smog
2. Mondays are Like Tuesdays – Acid House Kings (SV)
3. Better Days – Club 8 (SV)
4. The Meatpackers – Whirlwind Heat
5. Chemicals – the Notwist
6. Drown them Out – Viva Voce
7. 33 1/3 – Jesus and Mary Chain
8. Sixteen Years – Josef K
9. Let’s Not Fall Apart – David & the Citizens (SV)
10. Needle in the Camel’s Eye – Brian Eno
11. Wildcat – Ratatat
12. Rock Me Now – Metric
13. If I Was Young – the Raveonettes (DK)
14. You Belong With Us – My Favorite

Despite the fact that I cause occasional confusion by incorporating stuff like DFA 1979, I would hope it is fairly obvious that Darren, not I, chose track 4 there. He's also responsible for track 1 -- although that's one I might consider playing again.

18. juli (fredag):

1. Examinor – epo-555 (DK)
2. Heartbeats – the Knife (SV)
3. Radio Edit – Studio (SV)
4. On My Shoulders – the Dø (F)
5. 1986 – Fredrik (SV)
6. 1983 (Pelle & Sebastian) – Pelle Carlberg (SV)
7. Fragile – Wire
8. Where Do You Go To – Peter Sarstedt
9. Quiet Houses – Fleet Foxes
10. Back to Black – Amy Winehouse
11. Explosions – the Mary Onettes (SV)
12. She’s Lost Control – Joy Division
13. The Bicycle Song – Remington Super 60 (N)

And the next show will be tomorrow, 9 pm Pacific.

Also -- I’ll start writing in Danish again as soon as I find my dictionary.

--DL--
Ashtrays Podcast (16. juli 2008)
Ashtrays Podcast (18. juli 2008)

Roskilde Festival III

--This is part three (Saturday). Make sure you read parts one (Thursday) and two (Friday) first.--

Saturday was my longest day. (I didn’t go Sunday, for those who are wondering -- there wasn’t anyone I particularly wanted to see, and I decided I’d rather go back to Sweden.)

Anyway. I arrived around three thirty and spent the next hour or so wedging my way into the Astoria tent for Efterklang’s show. Astoria was one of only two stages with walls, meaning you had to be inside to see the band. And a lot of people wanted to be inside for Efterklang. I don’t know if I’ve ever been so hot. It was stifling. The veins on my arms were so close they almost looked like they could have been outside the skin. At some points, I felt almost like I was standing inside other people, we were so close. Eventually I wound up inside the tent -- although certainly nowhere near close -- due to space opening up as other, closer people had to leave due to heat exhaustion.

They started late and I remember dozens of bands going through my head as I tried to think of who they reminded me of. The only ones I can think of right now are Typhoon and Patrick Wolf. And also -- after some thought -- of Montreal. They were all dressed in white suits, and for some reason, that made the of Montreal connection. But as for the others, I don’t remember what I thought was similar, and I don’t remember why. I liked them, though. They were more orchestral than I’d expected, but orchestral’s not the right word.

I just looked them up in my database, and found one of their songs -- Step Aside. In the comments box, I’d written, “you don’t really notice it.” I feel like that’s kind of true of their music in general. I mean that in an entirely good way, because I did like them. And a mega-packed house can’t be completely wrong. It’s a paradox, though. Because there was definitely energy, and it was definitely an experience, but it kind of faded fast. It’s there, but it’s not really… present.

I don’t know what I mean anymore.

After Efterklang finished, I had about two and a half hours before The Notwist, on the same stage, was due on at eight. I wandered around for a while, then headed back to Astoria for Nicole Atkins & the Sea, which, from my somewhat fragmented interpretation of the Danish program guide, sounded the most interesting of the bands playing at the hour. They were horrible. There’s no other word for it. At one point, Atkins described what they were playing as “make-out music;” I wouldn’t even give it that.

I left pretty quickly, vaguely wondering what had gone wrong, and wandered around some more. Having not drank anything in ages, and unwilling to pay for water, I bought a pint (the festival is sponsored by Tuborg; everything comes in pints) of something that was called lemonade but which I am absolutely, 100 percent sure was fruit punch. Normally I hate fruit punch, but -- especially after the veritable human straitjacket that was Efterklang -- it was absolutely awesome.

So, while drinking my lemonade/fruit punch/whatever (I saw what I think was the same thing advertised elsewhere as “red juice”) I worked my way over to Odeon and saw the last 45 minutes of Joan as Police Woman’s apparently very long set. It wasn’t bad -- and it was definitely better than Nicole Atkins & the Sea -- but it wasn’t that great, either. I liked the songs a lot better when she played guitar; unfortunately she spent most of the time on keyboards. I stayed for the whole set, but wasn’t interested enough to stay for an encore, so honestly, I don’t know if she played one.

Back over to Astoria for the Notwist. The tent was, blessedly, much less full than it had been for Efterklang; I wound up getting closer to the stage than I had been for any other band, save Säkert!. The Notwist was amazing. Sort of like really melodic shoegaze, or something. I don’t quite know how to describe them. They didn’t talk at all between songs, which in this case seemed incredibly appropriate. I really enjoyed it.

The only downside (and in this the band was in no way at fault) -- the Notwist started at 8 pm. My Bloody Valentine was scheduled -- on the far other side of the festival grounds -- at 9. I’d timed the walk, and figuring on how much time I’d need to work my way into a decent viewing spot at the other stage, planned on leaving at twenty ‘til. They were so good I kept giving myself five more minutes; I think I finally left at around 8:55, feeling sad the entire way across that I hadn’t been able to stay for the whole show.

I walked very quickly and was close enough to hear that roar of applause when the band comes onstage, so while I missed seeing the first few minutes of My Bloody Valentine’s set, I did hear it all. The Arena, where they played, wasn’t as full as I would have expected for a band which released its last album and stopped performing seventeen years ago (although, on the other hand, perhaps that had something to do with it). It took me a while to work my way under the tent, but -- especially for someone who arrived after the band had already begun -- I think I wound up fairly close. And once they started the 20 minutes of noise, I got even closer.

That morning, I’d talked to one of the boys staying in my room at the hostel. He was English, and had come in just for Roskilde. It was his seventh festival. He told me two things that I really remembered: firstly, that the previous year, it had rained so badly that one of the stages had to be evacuated so that festival workers could dig a moat around it (this is why I chose not to camp -- although of course it was amazingly and perfectly sunny this year) and secondly, that My Bloody Valentine was really, really loud -- their “20 minutes of noise” had been compared to a jet taking off.

I would not compare it to a jet taking off. Jets take off far more expediently, and they are far less noisy. I had earplugs in and my hands over my ears and it was still the loudest thing I’ve ever heard. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the naked ears of all the people in front of me with their hands in the air. Nevertheless, watching the four members of My Bloody Valentine up onstage playing the same notes (or drumbeats) over and over was strangely fulfilling. And those of us who stuck out the twenty minutes -- as it really was; I thought they surely would have cut it off sooner; they didn’t -- were rewarded with about 90 seconds of deafening melody before the band, one at a time, hung up their instruments and headed off.

My Bloody Valentine is -- and, I think, will probably remain -- the loudest band I’ve ever seen. Noise aside, they were incredibly melodic, and while they, like the Notwist, refrained from any kind of onstage banter or even much of anything besides playing their instruments and singing straight into the microphones, it was very fitting. I think witty comments in between songs would have cheapened it, you know.

They didn’t play an encore, and I, along with a lot of others, were disappointed -- but I don’t think any of us could have argued that what we’d gotten wasn’t good enough. If I wasn’t so in love with Säkert!, My Bloody Valentine would have been the best band of the festival, hands down. I walked out of there with my ears ringing (and they continued to do so for at least thirty minutes afterward) and it was great.

I walked by the Orange stage on my way out. Neil Young was playing electric, but it was nothing next to My Bloody Valentine. The crowd was so thick, he switched to acoustic before I was even halfway by the stage and -- nothing against Neil Young, but it just wasn’t something I wanted to hear right then. I remember thinking that, while the music itself didn’t seem to suffer from it, he just seemed tired -- really tired. My walking pace allowed me to give him nearly three songs to play something I knew, but he didn’t, so I kept walking.

I could have stuck around for Lykke Li at 11, the Raveonettes at 12, or even Black Mountain at 2. I didn’t -- though I felt mildly guilty when I ran into Rasmus (ex-professor) as I was on my way out and he was just coming in -- because I’d had enough by then. And I mean that in the best possible way. Like: there is nothing more than this. Well, maybe one thing -- but really, realistically, there was nothing. If I think about it hard enough, I can still hear my ears ringing.

A few more photos here, too.

Roskilde Festival II

--This is part two (Friday). Make sure you read part one (Thursday) first.--

Friday I didn’t get to the festival grounds until a little after seven o’clock. Let me explain. I don’t like crowds -- especially when I’m by myself. I couldn’t do it. Ultimately I decided I’d probably regret only going to the shortest day of a four-day event, and convinced myself to go back, but I also decided that I’d have a far better time if I limited my exposure. One of the things I like best about going to shows is being there with people I know, and without any of those available… well.

It’s a completely different thing when you’re sandwiched in front of a stage between a bunch of sweaty kids you don’t know, locked in tight, and surprisingly enough, I don’t mind that -- but what about the rest of the time? So, while I’d originally planned to start at noon with Kirsten Ketsjer (if only due to the highly interesting and somewhat comical fact that they must distinguish themselves as the rock band, not the lawyer) I scaled back. A lot.

I think I did mean to get there in time to see A Kid Hereafter at six, but apparently my sense of direction is not what it used to be. So I heard a bit of Kings of Leon’s Orange stage set (though I didn’t ever get close enough to see them) and thought it sounded good. I listened to them a little bit a long time ago, and may now have to resume. I think I remember one of the guys saying that the Roskilde show was their favorite of the summer.

There were two sets I definitely wanted to see Friday night. Both were on the same stage, Cosmopol. The first was Santogold, who I had never -- not even once -- listened to prior to Roskilde. (I think I may have done this on purpose. Don’t ask.) I was told to see her, and somehow this became an extremely important priority item. How was it? It was okay. I didn’t hate it, but I wasn’t terribly impressed. After her DJ or MC or whatever that guy is called played fifteen minutes worth of records (including, unless my memory fails me, Every Breath You Take by the Police and something by the Smiths or Morrissey) she came on late, played/sang an extremely short -- thirty-minute -- set, and skipped an encore. Some of the people in front of me seemed really into it, but in my opinion, it could have been a lot better. However, I did like the second song – which I have a sneaking suspicion may be the song that has been stuck in my head for the past two weeks. No, seriously. It has.

And now, after taking the initiative, going back, and finding that song, I am amending this entry. Yeah, it was L.E.S. Artistes, the first song from Santogold’s debut, that has been continually popping up repeatedly in my head after my having heard it only once, a long time ago. And going through the rest of the album, I recognize a lot of the songs, despite, again, having only heard them once. So she’s pretty catchy. I’m warming up to her. And I can also say this -- L.E.S. Artistes, especially, is about twenty-five times better live than it is on the album.

Moving on… Santogold finished at about 9:15, 9:20 maybe, and Robyn (the other must-see) wasn’t due on until 10, so I walked clear across the grounds to the Arena, where Mogwai was playing. I was there for about fifteen minutes, which for Mogwai was about a song and a half. That’s okay -- though I wish I could have been there longer. They don’t sing, so it’s harder to notice, but Mogwai is/are (?) Scottish. And they’re not really what one could call pop, either, but whatever. I love Scottish bands. Mogwai was awesome. And really loud.

Then back over to Robyn. I was so far back I could barely see her -- it really filled up in the time I was gone. People are really into Robyn. Everyone there seemed super excited. I’d barely even heard Robyn’s music before, and I was super excited.

A little story about Robyn. When I was really young -- eight or nine, maybe -- I was a girl scout. Part of our girl scout membership fee included subscription to this magazine called American Girl, which, when you reached a certain age, was replaced with a more mature magazine called Girls Life. I’m fairly sure I stopped being a girl scout long before reaching this age, but for some reason, my magazine subscription never got cancelled. I always read it, even though it was mostly ridiculous. And one of the only articles I remember -- and have always remembered -- was about (oddly enough) Robyn. It must have been ten years ago; I was that young. I don’t really remember the article, except that it was very positive, but I remember the picture -- she had what looked like thin strips of white athletic tape wrapped around her fingers like rings -- and the title: Robyn is Here. Same as the album -- although not why I remember it. To be honest, I don't know why I remember it, or even why it was significant, and I know it didn’t make me go out and buy her album (however unfortunately). I just thought it was strange that that was one of the things I remembered. Maybe, somehow, I knew...

Anyway. People were jumping around and going crazy and singing along and I was in the very back of the tent -- I can’t imagine what they were doing up close. Robyn seemed equally enthused. She played two encores, and I really believe that almost nobody left. Everybody’s hands were in the shape of hearts. It was excellent, and I wish I’d taken that stupid magazine more seriously way back then. I’m very much looking forward to the fall '08 date she promised Portland in exchange for the cancellation in May. Now I understand why people were SO upset.

Let’s see. Then I went over for Grinderman at the Orange stage. I saw three songs, the third of which was No Pussy Blues, the first and, I think, only song I’d ever heard by Grinderman. But Nick Cave is Nick Cave, and even from a quarter mile or however far I was away, he was Nick Cave. I saw him on both guitar and piano. Pretty interesting. Very unique. I don’t know what else to say.

I ended the night with Goldfrapp. I wasn’t really impressed; in fact, it was something of a letdown. Not that there’s anything wrong with Stevie Nicks, but she was very Stevie Nicks, and that’s not what I want to see from Alison Goldfrapp. Well, to be honest, I’m not quite sure what I wanted to see, but it wasn’t that. A little more energy, maybe? Her vocal range is impressive, but at a live show, you need a little more than that… I mean, really, she was just standing there singing, and looking like it was 1970, but in the bad way. I don’t know -- I think I wanted something slightly dirtier and less glittery. I left after a couple songs, and went home kind of disappointed. Maybe staying for Spleen United at 2 a.m. would have alleviated it, but I probably would have fallen asleep standing up in the meantime. I think I spent the rest of the night pretending Robyn was the last act I’d seen. Yesssss.

Roskilde Festival I

I’ve been needing to write this post for… gosh, it’s been two weeks now. Things have been rough. But here it is, at last -- Roskilde. (Or rather, the first third of Roskilde. I’m going to post in sections; otherwise it would be unbearably long. Here’s Thursday, with more to come.)

Thursday morning I had my final. I think I passed it, although looking back, I have no idea what I wrote. I checked in at my hostel and left for the festival at three in the afternoon. The town of Roskilde is about a half-hour train ride west of Copenhagen. I arrived at the festival grounds at about five fifty, I think. I’ll leave it up to you to imagine how hopelessly lost -- on multiple occasions -- I became; suffice it to say I’m sure I paid a lot more, and walked a lot more, than I needed to.

I spent the first hour or so doing reconnaissance. I’d hoped to do that when my class visited the festival grounds a week earlier, but it rained so hard then that we’d had to cancel the tour. Once I had a general idea of where I was, I hung out in the vicinity of the Orange stage, where I heard bits of Teitur’s opening set. Not bad. After a while, I started wandering toward Odeon (another stage), where MGMT was supposed to be playing, but fifteen minutes before they were due on, I found the whole area -- not just the space under the canopy of the tent -- to be far too crowded for my comfort, and was forced to leave. For those of you not familiar with the festival, about 100,000 people attended this year, and 180 bands played on seven different stages.

After escaping the throng, I think I caught the tail end of Teitur’s set before staking out a spot on the left side, perhaps fifteen yards from Astoria’s stage, for The Dø’s show. I could have been closer, but I didn’t feel like it. The Dø started out sounding really unenergetic, and I was vastly disappointed. It’s hard to explain, since their songs are so high-energy, and they still sounded that way -- but to me, at least, Dan and Olivia (the band members) seemed to be really lacking enthusiasm, like they were just going through the motions. But after a few songs, things picked up, and both the audience and the people onstage got real excited. The floor never filled all the way, so there was still room for breathing, but it got all hot and sweaty like any good show. Some of the in-between-song banter was a bit annoying, but the music, overall, was great. They played a number of songs from A Mouthful (the album) as well as a few new tracks -- and my favorite was the second and closing song of the encore, for which Olivia played a sweet acoustic version of Stay (Just a Little Bit More). I’d wondered if they’d close with that. They did, and while I was initially disappointed at the acoustic-ness, it couldn’t have been done better.

Unless, of course, it had been performed by Säkert!. Säkert! is the Swedish-language project of Annika Norlin, better known perhaps in these parts for her English-language project, Hello Saferide (which has been described, accurately, as “the aural love of [my] life”). Säkert! had the misfortune of being scheduled at 10:30, essentially the same time as Radiohead (10:00), and while I don’t dislike Radiohead, it should be obvious who I picked.

The scheduling was additionally advantageous to me, because it meant that when I arrived at 9:15, there was nobody else there, and there continued to be pretty much nobody there through the sound check and up until after ten. I don’t mean to brag, but I was the fourth person there, and I stood in one very small place against the stage barricade for about two hours, even though this meant sore feet and lots of second-hand smoke. It was worth it.

Going into the festival, I didn’t know a lot of Säkert!’s (or, for that matter, almost any of the artists’) music, so I didn’t have many or high expectations. So it would be pointless to say I wasn’t disappointed. I don’t see how anyone who saw Säkert! could possibly have been. Despite all the other negative factors (which I won’t go into) it was the best time I’d had in a long time. It was an experience. It was just what I’d hoped it might be -- I mean, they even had little throw rugs and a floral backdrop. And she seemed like she was having a great time, and it was contagious. Sure, I didn’t understand more than maybe every tenth word she said, but still… when you get me grinning uncontrollably and singing along in another language to a song I only kind of know -- well, I’d say it’s pretty… well, it’s pretty phenomenal.

I was fully ready to go home after that, and if I had, even though it would have meant missing the festival’s other three days, I don’t think I would have regretted it. It was that good. I know it’s not a Säkert! reference, but damn, that girl makes me wish I was a lesbian.

I went home -- or rather, back to my hostel in Copenhagen -- after Säkert!’s brilliant hour-long set. I walked by the Orange stage, where Radiohead was finishing up, on my way out. They were playing one of the songs from OK Computer, which I recognized but am now unable to remember, to a huge crowd. From where I was -- pretty far away -- it sounded good, but I kept going. I think I was in shock for a large part of the walk back to the station. The good kind of shock. Oh. My. God.

Photos here.

Det første program (igen)

Right now I’m in the process of listening to Friday’s show so I can remember what I played. I pulled all the CDs straight from the shelves (unusual for me), and since the KPSU website was down during my show time, there was no place for me to archive the playlist. All I remember are a Lykke Li song, a really nice Crystal Castles remix, and, of course, Oh, Yoko. I don’t think I’ve forgotten Oh, Yoko for a minute since Friday afternoon.

If you want to know the Roxy Music story: I’ll make it brief. The second-last week I was in Denmark, we spent a lot of time driving around in a bus -- but, fortunately, the nice kind of bus, with amenities. I would have been content to look out the window, which I mostly did, but during the longer stretches, other people watched movies. One of the movies (which I think was a really bad choice for a bus movie) they chose was Lost in Translation. I like Lost in Translation, and I really like (by really like, I mean am profoundly affected by) the part where Bill Murray sings More than This, by, of course, Roxy Music. Bill Murray also appears in Rushmore, which, oddly enough considering my musical upbringing, is the first place I ever heard Oh, Yoko. It’s not a very strong connection, but it made sense to me at the time.

Anyway, spillelisten:
1. Massive Nights – the Hold Steady
2. Everybody but Me – Lykke Li (SV)
3. Oh, Yoko – John Lennon
4. Split of a Second – Tiger Baby (DK)
5. Atlantis (Crystal Castles Remix) – Klaxons
6. I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times – the Beach Boys
7. Hands Up Baby – Camera Obscura
8. God Knows – El Perro del Mar (SV)
9. Don’t Want You to Wake Up – Teitur (Færo Islands)
10. Go Places – the New Pornographers
11. Forks and Knives – Beirut
12. Black Flowers – Yo La Tengo
13. I Guess I Was Daydreaming – Cake on Cake (SV)
14. Well Worn Hands – Editors

Not much Scandinavian music. Tune in Wednesday for that, hopefully. Things should be back in gear soon-ish.

--DL--
Ashtrays Podcast (11. juli 2008)

Undskyld

Anyone who tuned in last night in eager anticipation of my return to the radio already knows, and those of you waiting for the podcast are about to find out -- I didn't do my show last night. (Dave covered for me again, and I'm sure he did a fine job.) I was just too exhausted, and too confused, and too busy... Sorry.

I will be back tomorrow for the afternoon (3-4 pm) show, though I can't promise how great it will be, since I don't have any blank CDs (hence, no way to make music from my computer playable over the air) and am, in light of numerous other concerns, am unmotivated to get them. But there will be a show.

There will also be a long Roskilde post (or two, or three) very soon.

Stærkt post om Roskilde

This afternoon/evening will be the third (and, for me, final) day of the Roskilde Festival. I wanted to put up a quick note before it all ends, and before I get home and do a mega write-up. (This post is short both because I don’t have a lot of time, and because I’m using a Danish keyboard, which I despise – I appreciate the fact that the extra Danish characters are more easily reached here, but their presence means that everything else is in the wrong place and suddenly I cannot type.)

In the past two days, I’ve seen several full sets and a whole bunch of partial ones (and heard a few of those, too). My favorite has undoubtedly been Säkert! (are you surprised?) who closed my Friday night, and last night Robyn, who had two encores, was pretty awesome, too -- the crowd was really into it. Today I’m heading back in about an hour to start with Efterklang at four o’clock.

More to come...