Undskyld

First of all, I must apologize to everyone who has emailed me in the past few months, and whose messages I have not attended to. Secondly, I apologize for not keeping this blog regularly. There are reasons for these things, but they are vague and some are pathetic and others make sense only to me, and to make a long story short, I'll just say things have been a bit of a struggle of late. I'll never be the most prompt or reliable correspondent, but hopefully things will get better...

As to the playlists from last week's shows, due to both the amount of time elapsed since then and the lingering malaise, I'll refer you again to the KPSU archives for Wednesday and Friday. Both shows, I thought, were pretty good, although not without a few technical blunders caused by a new board which I am unfamiliar with and greatly dislike. I'm sure it was very expensive and, in the long run, I'm sure it will probably serve me well, but right now it reminds me of Barbie accessories.

On a radio-related note, denzions of PSU and the surrounding area may look for me in an upcoming issue of the Daily Vanguard, in which my photo may or may not appear; there was a photographer in during my show Friday. I'm very likely slouching, and it was time to do laundry, so I was dressed in -- for me -- rather an unusual way, and I probably look very, very much like a boy. Terrific. But perhaps they'll use a picture of someone else, or just run text.

Anyway, happier notes:

The new Hello Saferide is out; if you haven't heard it yet, do so. Mp3s are available from Klicktrack, CDs from Razzia (or, in the US, It's A Trap!), and vinyl will be out, in limited edition, 10 October from Hot Stuff.

Tomorrow the second half of Eardrums Music's four "CD" fall sampler will be released. The first half came out last Tuesday and is available for download. Check Eardrums tomorrow for part two. Should be good. Lots of Scandinavian music (although, to my estimation, not as much, or at least in as high a percentage, as on the summer sampler). Favorites from the first half included Slumber, by Norwegians Herostratos, and 7-11, a Shangri-Las-sounding Ramones cover performed by Floridians the Postmarks. Everything fits, I suppose, under the "pop" umbrella, but there's something for everybody, from shoegaze to bubblegum to almost hard rock to twee. Just don't let Volume 1's saccharine-sweet opening track scare you away.

Um... what else? I also haven't been reading much about or listening to new music lately. A few weeks ago, Oliver North Boy Choir released a cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain's Teenage Lust. I wish I'd written about this in a timely fashion... If you haven't heard this fine version already, it's available via the JAMC Covers Project. I think they did a very nice job with it -- Teenage Lust was always one of my favorite JAMC songs, and ONBC made it their own while still staying very true to the original. You can hear both bands clearly, which is cool. I often shy away from covers of songs I already like, and I've actually heard some bad covers of Teenage Lust before -- even the Mary Chain's own Desdemoana mix is absolutely awful -- but ONBC did real well. Now they're working on a new EP, Tonight, which will be released sometime in November.

And -- finally -- did I mention the new Hello Saferide album is out? I'm sure I did, but once more can't hurt. I am fully in love.

--DL--
Ashtrays Podcast (24. september 2008)
Ashtrays Podcast (26. september 2008)

Radio fra i fredags

Today is my day off and I slept in until 9:30, then lay in bed with my eyes closed for another fifteen minutes because I was cold. Later I’ll do laundry and dig an extra blanket out of my closet to keep me warmer at night.

Right now I’m working on sorting all the songs in my iTunes according to whether they are radio-friendly or afflicted with curse words. This is a project that will probably never be done. So far, I’ve made it to the Acid House Kings.

Here is Friday’s playlist, as promised:

1. Young Love – Moto Boy (SV)
2. Look at the Sun – Bang Gang (IS)
3. Hey Indian – Nils Gröndahl and Oliver Hoiness (DK)
4. Godrevy – Patrick Wolf
5. Get Sick Soon – Hello Saferide (SV)
6. The Strawberry Festival – Oh No Ono (DK)
7. Mere af det Samme og Meget Mere af det Hele – Under Byen (DK)
8. Couleurs – M83
9. Glósóli – Sigur Rós (IS)
10. From the Valley to the Stars – El Perro del Mar (SV)
11. Maundy Thursday – Air France (SV)
12. Petite – Pierre (DK)
13. Calvi – Sambassadeur (SV)

Perhaps it’s not immediately obvious, but a lot of the songs were instrumentals. Later I had a dream in which another DJ told me that he’d listened and thought the set sounded like I was dead. I think it just sounded relaxed. Anyway.

If you missed Sound Judgment last night and want to hear more of me talking in English (and playing a lot of non-Scandinavian stuff, music I wouldn’t normally play on my own show) you can find the playlist here and download or stream the show (two hours' worth) here.

--DL--
Ashtrays Podcast (19. september 2008)

Sund dømmekraft

Tonight from 10 pm to midnight (Pacific time), while Arya is out of the office, I will be hosting Sound Judgment. You can listen at 1450 am in Portland, or at kpsu.org.

I'll post Friday's playlist once I figure out what tonight's is going to be.

NEJ...

Hello Saferide is coming to the United States in October but she is skipping the West Coast. I am so upset I could use swear words. Or shout.

Or cry. Which is probably what I'll do.

Please come to Portland, Annika. We love you here.

Ingen elskov

This morning while perusing the Forkcast (to see how many of the artists’ names I actually recognized (not very many)) I found a really disturbing remix of the Teenagers’ song Love No. It was mixed by Delorean, whose name is very similar to that of a Portland band, and I didn’t realize until later that they weren’t. I think that if this confusion hadn’t been the case, I wouldn’t have bothered. Why? I like the song, and I didn’t really know if I wanted to see what a remix would do to it.

I said it was disturbing, and I guess I don’t really mean that in a bad way. I think what unsettled me the most was the fact in the remix, Delorean removed all the unkind, unhappy, not in love lyrics, retaining only the constant refrain “Are you in love?” I think you have to have heard the original version for the significance of this change to really sink in -- but even if you haven’t, five and a half minutes of this sad, isolated voice (because in the remix, that’s largely how it sounds) asking whether you’re in love, even over a dance beat, is just… I don’t know. I didn’t like it for the first minute or so, then -- quickly -- it grew on me. And I became even sadder than before. This is one remix I will never dance to.

The Teenagers’ original version of Love No is sarcastic to the core, and when lead Quentin Delafon asks “Are you in love?” it’s a joke. In the remix, it’s plaintive, almost a plea; he really wants you to say yes. The song is still called Love No, though -- maybe because he’s already been told no, and now he’s trying, again, to see if maybe he can get the right answer, even though he knows it’s futile, but maybe just once…

I’m listening to the original again now, and must say -- as much as I like the Teenagers’ unadulterated (had to say it) version, I think the remix is even better. At least it hits me more.

If you do the Pitchfork thing, you probably heard both of these ages ago, but if not, you can download the remix, and stream the original at myspace.

--DL--
Love No – Delorean Remix (the Teenagers)

Spillelisten

Here’s Wednesday’s playlist, even though nobody cares.

1. The Tape – Working for a Nuclear Free City
2. Everything’s Gone – Bang Gang (IS)
3. I Want You – Mugison (IS)
4. Examinor – epo-555 (DK)
5. Norman Bleik – I Was A King (N)
6. Your Name Here – the Bear Quartet (SV)
7. Styrke – Lis Er Stille (DK)
8. Teenage Lust – Oliver North Boy Choir (DK)
9. Pet Grief – the Radio Dept. (SV)
10. Downfall – Resplandor
11. Get With the Program – I Am Bones (DK)
12. Watery (Drowning is Just Another Word for Being Buried Alive Under Water) – A Sunny Day in Glasgow
13. Springtime – Rumskib (DK)
14. Everything You Say – the Legends (SV)

I was going for kind of a shoegazey set -- or as much so as I could -- and today will most likely contain at least a fair amount of instrumental tracks. I’m in a weird mood lately.

--DL--
Ashtrays Podcast (17. September 2008)

Ikke normalt

I don’t usually write posts like this, but today (perhaps due in part to my annoyance with the weather) I wanted to. I’m sorry in advance. And I’ll put yesterday’s playlist up soon.

I will admit I’m guilty of it too: downloading mp3s which seem interesting, listening to them once, perhaps twice, and then abandoning them to the dark folds of my iTunes library.

But every once in a while, on a day like today, I go through said library and find things that I can’t remember but vaguely, and play them again, and am intrigued (probably again) -- and then I even go online to further investigate the band.

Today’s case in point: The Echoing Green, who are actually from New Mexico, which is probably partially accountable for my negligence of their music. I found a song of theirs called Seaside, in the iTunes comment box of which I’d written “sounds so familiar.” (I do things like this when something reminds me of something else but I can’t remember what.) With a repeat listen, I got a total M83 vibe -- and from not just the instruments but also the vocals. A beautiful blend of shoegazeyness (I’m sure that’s not a word) and pop and Cure-esque depression.

I was beating myself up for missing out on this, and then I went and found their myspace (don't do it), since their real website hasn’t been updated since 2004. While the myspace selection of songs is perhaps not representative of their whole catalog, it’s also generally true that bands put their best songs up on there, isn’t it? Here’s what I think of those six:

1) Sanctuary – Awful. And as soon as the girl starts singing, it sounds like Evanescence, which is even worse than… anything.

2) Blind – Sounds like a bad Nine Inch Nails song. Usually I (surprisingly enough) like Nine Inch Nails. But this is really bad.

3) Seaside – See the previous, laudatory, description. This sounds completely different than their other songs. If you told me it was secretly another band, I would believe you.

4) Here is the House – Not bad. Sounds a lot like Depeche Mode. A bit overlong -- getting overdone toward the end.

5) Flame – Most of it does not stand out. However, while I’m not saying she has a bad voice, it would sound a lot better if the girl did not sing. The further this song progresses, the more it sounds like something from the eighties, perhaps one of the ballads performed by a hair band. (Oh, but now it’s got a 90s-era Madonna beat.) And it ends poorly. Despite all this, Flame is my favorite of the previously unheard songs.

6) The Story of Our Lives – You know how some bands use really obvious drum machines and it sounds cool? This doesn’t. It sounds like Depeche Mode again, and while I don’t particularly like Depeche Mode, their heyday was nearly 20 years ago. You get what I mean? Move on.

Overall, it’s not horrible (except Sanctuary) and I know at least one person who would probably really like this. But to me, it sounds like a cross between early (by which I mean 80s) electro/mope rock and this dancey, female-dominated genre of the early 90s that I never listened to enough to be able to properly describe. Maybe it’s rave music. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think that that’s probably what it is. If I listened to it for a long time, I would probably get to like -- or at least tolerate -- it more. But I don’t want to do that. Frankly, I'm embarrassed that if my neighbors walk by in the hallway, they might hear what I'm listening to and think I like it.

So -- great -- now Seaside is spoiled for me, and, if I’m particularly unfortunate, M83 will be for a while, too.

On the other hand, one less band to be upset about nobody having leaked their new album onto the internet yet. Only six days until Hello Saferide!

--DL--
Seaside (The Echoing Green)

Ekstra...

Her er spillelisten fra i onsdags:

1. I’d Rather Dance With You – Kings of Convenience (NW)
2. Exit Bag – Andy Love (SV)
3. Hungry Heart – Sexton Blake
4. Who Let You Come Out? – Agata & Me (DK)
5. Fljótavik – Sigur Rós (IS)
6. Dancing Behind My Eyelids – Múm (IS)
7. Mr. Beerbourineman – Oceano da Cruz (DK)
8. Hotel Room – Richard Hawley
9. This Moment – Under Electric Light
10. Blue & Green – the Little Hands of Asphalt (NW)
11. Subtle Changes – Sambassadeur (SV)
12. Anna – Hello Saferide (SV)
13. Stick to You – Billie the Vision & the Dancers (SV)
14. Tomorrow – the Concretes (SV)

Og fra i dag:

1. Because Trees Can Fly – Lampshade (DK)
2. Disappearing Act – the Bear Quartet (SV)
3. The Man Who Came to Stay – Babyshambles
4. At Some Point – Bakers at Dawn (SV)
5. I Won’t Ever Let You Down – Jackson (DK)
6. At Least I’m Honest – Tiger Baby (DK)
7. Fallen Snow (the Teenagers remix) – Au Revoir Simone
8. Hold On to Me, Baby – Air France (SV)
9. Ilotikaamme – Mikko Singh (SV)
10. Saintly Friend – Said the Shark (DK)
11. Better Days – Club 8 (SV)
12. Little Dance – Jesper Norda (SE)
13. The Twist – Frightened Rabbit
14. Fish and Shark – Jonas Game (SV)
15. Vi Kommer att Dö Samtidgt – Säkert! (SV)

Download Andy Love’s Exit Bag and Jesper Norda’s Little Dance. Both very good and mellow, albeit in different ways. Podcasts will be up later -- sorry for the delay, but there's nothing I can do; the KPSU archive is down.

Uh, well... In other, better, news, Avi (It’s A Trap!) confirms that the new Hello Saferide album will be released on vinyl, possibly as early as the CD/digital release; no more than a few weeks after. Cross your fingers for sooner rather than later.

Arya informs me that (in especially good news for those who, like me, couldn’t get the MSN video thing to work with their browsers) the Anna video is now up on Pitchfork. Mark Hogan does a better job of describing it the second time around, but not by much. At least in my opinion. Maybe, I think, the problem is just that he doesn’t know what it’s like when your heart breaks…

--DL--
Ashtrays Podcast (10. september 2008)
Ashtrays Podcast (12. september 2008)
Exit Bag (Andy Love)
Little Dance (Jesper Norda)

Næsten ny (kun en uge gammel)

Great. Now I have a Rod Stewart song stuck in my head.

It's actually not that bad, though. It occurred to me yesterday that I hadn’t heard anything from Au Revoir Simone, one of my favorite American bands, forever -- no tours, no new albums -- nothing. (Of course, to be fair, I hadn’t really been looking.) A quick myspace blog search revealed that they have been posing for magazine fashion spreads, running through a quick European mini-tour, and -- oh, yeah -- recording, in conjunction with fellow New Yorkers Disco Pusher, a cover of Rod Stewart’s Young Turks. You can’t download it, but there’s a stream over at myspace, and I’ve been playing it all day…

Another ARS thing I didn’t know: Heather (one of the girls) is studying astrophysics at Columbia University and has a blog about space/science. God I love this band.

Jeg elsker Anna.

God, just couldn’t wait. Hello Saferide is all over the news lately. Of course, her new album, More Modern Short Stories from Hello Saferide, will be out 24. September. The first single, Anna, was released about a week ago, and is now available for free via myspace -- or, on second thought, why don’t I just make it easier, allow you to avoid myspace entirely, and put it up here?

The new single earned a nice write-up on Pitchfork (reinforcing my belief that Marc Hogan is actually the only person who writes for Pitchfork; seriously, at least 95 percent of everything I’ve read on there was written by him), and has also been featured on a bunch of blogs… And now there’s a wonderful video, the saddest video in the world.

For a less-sad video, there is also a live one of Arjeplog, available on PSL. The write-up there is in Swedish, and since I miss translations, I translated it all. I did the last paragraph myself, because it had the most words I already knew, and then I sort of cheated and used google translator for the first part. Of course, google translator, while very useful, is not very good at grammar and sentence structure and things, and it also misses compound words quite a lot, so I still had to go in and fix more than half of it anyway. Well, I pretty much re-translated the whole thing. But it was fun.

Anyway. The wording here is still at times a little awkward, but now it at least all makes sense. And so, for those non-Swedish-reading devotees of Hello Saferide, here is a translation of the PSL write-up, in the good English that you can read:

/ Music With: Hello Saferide

We are very proud; today this will premier on ‘Music With.’

It is wise to prepare to expect no handclaps and hardly any acoustic guitars on the upcoming record, Hello Saferide let be known a few weeks ago. And certainly ‘More Modern Short Stories from Hello Saferide’ sounds more subdued and bleak than her debut. The shape of the sound is harder and one can clearly hear that it is the master Andreas Mattsson as the producer.

Annika Norlin wanted us to see each other in a church or in a churchyard. It was the latter. Therefore, yesterday we met in the forest churchyard (Skogskyrkogården) outside Stockholm to play in a PSL version of the new album’s last song, Arjeplog, a tune she wrote after she lived in, er… Arjeplog [it’s a little town in northern Sweden] for two weeks last spring. What did she do there? Got her driver’s license, of course.

It’s cute, and, while it’s not quite Anna, I do like the song. I also like that at one point, you can hear birds chirping in the background.

Finally, you can pre-order the new CD via Bengan’s. (No word yet on whether there will be vinyl.) As I understand it, pre-ordering will ensure that the album arrives at your home on release day. Which is less than three weeks away. OH MY GOD.

--

After a bit of quiet, Sincerely Yours put out a few new things last week. I’m beginning to get their pattern -- nothing, and then a whole bunch. It works.

Anyway -- a new Air France video, to go with the song Collapsing at Your Doorstep, from their most recent album. I never thought I’d contentedly spend four and a half minutes watching windmills, but I did. Normally I’m not a video person, but this is strangely good, in, as SY writes, a mesmerizing way.

Also out is a new three-track single from Nordpolen. The actual single, Vem Har Sagt, can now be streamed on myspace. If you have the patience to do so in thirty-second clips, the other two tracks can also be streamed through artful manipulation of the preview function at Klicktrack. Of course, you can also buy them.

What I’ve heard sounds like other stuff I’ve heard by Nordpolen, and like other stuff that has come out on Sincerely Yours. (Except that he sings in Swedish.) Good sound.

There is also a Nordpolen T-shirt. I find the design (look at it) very attractive. If more things in the world looked like this, I would be very happy. Of course, I don’t really wear T-shirts any more, and even if I did, with the current exchange rate, while Warren Buffet might be able to afford to buy things from Sweden, I certainly can’t. You would think IKEA could afford to pay me more…

--DL--
Anna (Hello Saferide)

Jeg tænkte, dette vil ske

To all radio listeners:

KPSU is currently in the process of installing a bunch of new (and, in my opinion, rather unnecessary) equipment. As of now, the signal is down -- so there will be no show today. Hopefully things will be back in order by Wednesday.

So that you're not too sad (don't be -- I didn't have anything planned anyway) here is Wednesday's playlist:

1. Smedby - Gentle Touch (SV)
2. Private Life of a Cat - the LK (SV)
3. Gloomy Planets - the Notwist
4. Summercat - Billie the Vision & the Dancers (SV)
5. Pretenders (featuring Hello Saferide) - Montt Mardié
6. Starman - David Bowie
7. Moonman - Rebecca Phinney
8. Far Apart - Oliver North Boy Choir (DK)
9. (Lack of) Love Will Tear Us Apart - the Honeydrips (SV)
10. 156 - Mew (DK)
11. Shake It Off - El Perro Del Mar (SV)
12. Salt - Mugison (IS)
13. Going to Where the Tea Trees Are - Peter von Poehl (SV)

And because I am so nice -- also because I realize I have not done so in several weeks -- there are two songs you can download, both of which come from the label Songs I Wish I Had Written, which I think is an excellent name. Anyway -- Gentle Touch's Smedby, which I discovered under the loved tracks on my last.fm, despite not remembering ever having heard it before -- who knows? -- and the LK's Private Life of a Cat, which starts out kind of strangely, at least in terms of sound, but still winds up being very good. Both are kind of electro, but not overly so. Smedby is more indie-pop-ish, albeit with an obvious drum machine. Private Life of a Cat has a very catchy chorus, and it is not really obviously about/told by a cat, which I also like.

Tomorrow -- or perhaps later today -- I will have another post about Hello Saferide and Sincerely Yours. And hopefully I'll soon be able to overcome my apathy toward writing (and, I guess, pretty much doing anything in general), because there's so much stuff going on right now, and I really should be out doing it, or writing about. Soon...

--DL--
Ashtrays Podcast (3. september 2008)
Smedby (Gentle Touch)
Private Life of a Cat (the LK)