Is there still a beat in all machines?

VETO.

When Carpark North broke the wall in 2001 amidst wailing, melancholic orchestras like Kashmir, Mew and Saybia, little did we know they prepared the ground for almost a decades worth of Danish electronic rock - one of the most significant waves in Danish music of the '00s. A wave spearheaded by VETO and Spleen United in the middle of the decade, and followed up by the likes of Dúné and Turboweekend amongst others.


A lot of water has run under the bridge since then, and the indie-electro-rock scene is rapidly deteriorating. Bands are leaving towards the darker reaches of club music, bands such as Turboweekend and (we must presume) Spleen United, while the remaining crossroads between contemporary indie and electronica has been taken over by a surge of, mostly, strong-voiced, melancholic women such as Oh Land and RebekkaMaria. In that perspective, the mid-decade wave of potent electro rock was perhaps a sign of the times - the economy was good, people had jobs and could afford to be partying with no worries.


VETO, as I mentioned, was one of the figureheads of the movement, emerging with the obvious statement of There's A Beat In All Machines, their debut album, in 2006, which I regard as one of the clear-cut best Danish albums of the decade. 2008's fist-in-the-face potent Crushing Digits saw them mark their territory even more clearly and took them on a tour de force through the country, but since then, we've been overloaded with front figure Troels Abrahamsen's neat, but slightly cold and boring solo work. Abrahamsen is a divine singer and a talented musician, but without his band mates, he lacks the distinctive spark, that made VETO's two first albums so special and so relevant.


So, is there still beat in all machines? I don't know. It remains to be seen, with VETO's third LP, Everything Is Amplified, out today. I've heard it once, so the jury is still very much out. But there is definitely a change of pace, which has been sort of expected. I mean, Crushing Digits was very good, but not a formula on which you can build much more. VETO have been forced to move in some direction, and I guess we all expected, feared, perhaps, that this would be in the direction of Abrahamsen's solo projects. We were right, and some of the later tunes, which seem to have more of a kinship with Crushing Digits, stick out awkwardly. As I said above, I don't want to rule out anything yet, but after the first listen, I'm left with an impression of Abrahamsen's often uninteresting melodies over sporadic bursts of the other band members adding their spice - a bit of aggressive drumming and a bit of wailing synth here and there.


I'll be back on this one in a few days, but for now, I'm not impressed.

The National: Fabulous and beautiful!

The National.
by Steffen Jørgensen,
(c) Photo-jint.dk

Sometimes I really feel blessed that I have been to such an abundance of memorable concerts. It sounds corny and all, but just this month, I've been blown away twice by eminent musical mastery and beauty. Yesterday it was The National, whom I saw at Roskilde last summer. It isn't always an advantage to have seen a band more than once. Whether you like it or not, you inevitably start comparing aspects of the different shows, and often your first live experience with a band has a special significance which makes it more memorable.

This time though, I think The National upped their game slightly, which is quite a compliment, their Roskilde-show being one of the highlights of my summer at the Animal Showgrounds. This band is so superior in balancing between melancholy and aggression, and that's really apparent live. Matt Berninger wasn't as much on fire as he was at Roskilde, which is kind of self-explanatory - eighteen thousand people are a bit more than four, but the band's quieter pieces really hit home this time around. Personal highlights for me were 'Daughters of the Soho Riots' and 'About Today'. I was unsure if they would play either of the two, so hearing them was obviously a nice surprise, as they are two of my absolute favorites.

Otherwise, regarding the set, I personally think it's a bit too heavily loaded with tunes from the newest album, High Violet, which isn't my favorite, but I must admit that many of the songs from exactly this album, such as 'England' for example, really do work very well live, and when the band plays a full 20-song set, it doesn't matter that much. I could have wished for 'Green Gloves' or 'The Geese of Beverly Road', but other than that, the set was pretty good, and as mentioned above, the inclusion of '... Soho Riots' and 'About Today' made it for me, other than inevitables such as 'Slow Show', 'Fake Empire' and 'Terrible Love' of course.

As so often is the case, there is a bit of a lack of nerve to normal, another-stop-on-the-tour concerts, compared to festivals, and it took the band a while to really get going. Not to make this a total High Violet-bashing, but part of the explanation for the slow start could be, that 6 of the first 9 songs were from that album. The band's strength lies in its impressive catalogue of songs. We got three songs from Alligator, which indisputably were all highlights, and so was, as before mentioned, 'About Today' from Cherry Tree. Seen in that light, some of the High Violet-tunes do come across as slightly more boring. It was very gutsy however to finish off with a totally unplugged, sing-along version of 'Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks'. It was as if the room suddenly became half as big, as everyone were singing or humming pensively along. In general, the crowd was amazing. Some might complain that people were too quiet and absent. Honestly, I don't think of it as such. I don't come to hear people yelling and clapping out of sync. I come to hear some of the most talented musicians and songwriters I know, and I was very happy that the vast majority of the crowd felt the same, as opposed to Roskilde, where people tore a tune like 'Fake Empire' completely apart by clapping on top of it. There seemed to be a nice, tacit agreement to just enjoy the music, and only clap and sing appropriately at highlights - which is the way a concert with a quality band should be, in all honesty.

A memorable and beautiful concert, through and through.

The National day!

Today I'm going to see The National in Århus with a few of my buddies. It's gonna be grand. The National has been my absolute band of choice the past year, so even though I saw them at Roskilde, I'm in for one more ride. This time hopefully the set will be a bit longer than it was at Roskilde, where it was very heavily tilted towards the newest album High Violet. I haven't checked out any setlists prior to the concert as I often do, as I'd like to be surprised!

I figured the best way really to lead up to this for me very anticipated concert would be to simply make a list of my favorite tunes of these Ohio-turned-Brooklyn indie melancholics. I love lists, and I hate limiting myself, so instead of 10, it became 15. I'll try to be brief though, and if you're relatively new to the band, please do take an hour out of your plans to go through this list of pure beauty!

#15: 'Afraid of Everyone' (High Violet)
A tune I've come to like only recently, it's a nice tune about anxiety and desperation. It's in the classic mold of Berninger when he becomes political, and the music goes spotlessly with it. A pivotal tune on High Violet.

#14: 'Val Jester' (Alligator)
One of the lesser-exposed tunes off Alligator, and one of its quieter ones. I love how the guitar pattern and the violin work together. Lyrics are very simple and sincere, and this tune is the same kind of less-is-more ballad as is so abundant on Cherry Tree.

#13: 'Karen' (Alligator)

'Karen' is just a lovely tune. I love the monologue-style lyrics about debauchery and childish misbehaving. There's a begging for forgiveness or understanding or indulgence to this. A wayward soul on his knees.

#12: 'Mr. November' (Alligator)
This is one of the more iconic The National tunes, and there's a lovely hopefulness and high-spiritedness to it, even being as aggressive as it is. One of the band's true rock-out moments, and also a marvel live.

#11: 'Wasp Nest' (Cherry Tree)
Cherry Tree really is a little gem of an EP, and this is such a beautiful little tune. It's so intimate it almost gives you goose bumps. The lyrics are astounding - it's a song about almost giving in to something or someone that you know is gonna eventually be a wasp nest, something you'd perhaps rather not have done, someone who perhaps brought so much trouble or pain that you wonder if she or it was really worth it i the first place, but is so tantalizing and irresistible nonetheless.

#10: 'Green Gloves' (Boxer)
We're into the top 10 then, and here's the first tune from what's generally construed as The National's signature album, Boxer. 'Green Gloves' honestly doesn't exist without 'Slow Show', which comes after it on the album, or vice versa. The two guitars are marvelous together here, and this is the kind of song that never really evolves or explodes, but just slowly and steadily works through its theme of alienation (which I think it shares with 'Slow Show' by the way).

#9: 'Bloodbuzz Ohio' (High Violet)

OK, so I know this is basically a list of ballads, ballads and more ballads, but here's 'Bloodbuzz Ohio', a true Bryan Devendorf-driven masterpiece. The drums, the piano and the horns create such an amazing drive to this tune.

#8: 'The Geese of Beverly Road' (Alligator)
So, '... Beverly Road', with its fairly-tale, Farthing Woods-reminiscent intro, is another slightly overlooked track on Alligator. This is another of the (many) tunes where Bryan Devendorf's drumming is really extraordinary. It's pretty simple here, but contributes to the blissful high that this song seems to revel in. I get pictures on my mind of running around and away young, drunk and frolicsome with someone beautiful, being carelessly rapturous.


#7: 'Ada' (Boxer)
This is yet another song where the piano and horn ensemble lift the band to new highs. I love the way the piano carries the bridge from around 2:27, and how the horns rise slowly and voluminously at 3:01. This is a beautiful song with a lyrical theme of frustration and disappointment.

#6: 'Terrible Love' (High Violet)
So, this is as high as High Violet goes on this list. This is Matt Berninger at the top of his lungs, where he is often the most powerful, and it's such a strong and emotional tune, filled with unease and grief, with determination. I actually think this song really comes into its own in the rawer live version.

#5: 'All Dolled-Up In Straps' (Cherry Tree)
This is easily one of The National's darkest tunes, but it's so simple and beautiful, and I absolutely love the chord change from verse to chorus - it's simple and just astonishing!

#4: 'Daughters of the Soho Riots' (Alligator)
All right, I'm gonna say this about this and the next three tunes and the ones before, but this is such an extraordinary tune! This, on a list of many songs that could be used or construed as break-up songs, is probably more genuinely so than any of the others, but this is of such an elegant pedigree that it really just works. There are so many marvelous lyrical passages here (it would take too much to list them, read the lyrics sheet!) that all revolve around the theme of unfaithfulness, inevitability, realization and reconciliation.

#3: 'About Today' (Cherry Tree)
This is such a simple song, which never really moves much backwards or forwards in the way of intensity, but exudes a vivid feeling of sadness, urgency and fear of losing something worth trying to keep. Once again, along with the lyrics, the drums really do the trick on this one, echoing a heart beating heavily. The live version of this one is perhaps even more beautiful.

#2: 'Fake Empire' (Boxer)
Guess once, which two songs occupy the top spots on this list? Yeah I know, it's kind of predictable, but there's just an air of utter brilliance around 'Fake Empire'. The wailing build-up to the intoxicating piano pattern beneath some of Matt Berninger's most iconic and most beautifully sung lyrics. Actually, this is quite a short and simple tune - only slightly above three minutes in length, and just three chords. But it needn't do more, it's enough with just those three little verses and the minuscule chorus and then it just rides away into the horizon echoing the lyrics about escaping reality, inevitability and structure and forgetting the imminence of tough decisions and conclusions.

#1: 'Slow Show' (Boxer)
So here sits 'Slow Show', the first The National song I really got into, and still atop my list. How? Well, how about lyrics that just gives you goose bumps, and beautiful instrumentation to go with it? The final part really gives it away, it's so honest and sincere it still blows my mind. Together with 'Green Gloves', it deals with being disconnected and alienated from something you really know you should keep close. It's so melancholic and poignant. The "slow, dumb show" is trying to win over your lover/friend/whatever from doubt in all kinds of nervous, indirect ways, whereas in the last part of the song, the slow show drowns in the honest, truest of truths. There are both great acoustic and live versions of this, too!

Colin Greenwood, you are the savior!

Radiohead.

So The King of Limbs has been alive for a week now, and I've been through it a good handful of times. Each time, I must admit, I've been liking it a bit more. Although, and this might be a bold statement but, this will never be my favorite Radiohead-album (I have none), it definitely adds its own little dimension to the Oxford fivesome's iconic musical universe.


The recurring thing on this album is just how innovative and inspiring a bassist Colin Greenwood is. It's pretty obvious on tunes like 'Bloom' and 'Lotus Flower', but how about 'Morning Mr. Magpie', where Greenwood parkinsonianly vibrates throughout the tune? In fact, this track is an entire piece of tremendous helter skelter. It has your feet asynchronously tip-tapping throughout. And 'Feral'? Jesus Christ, what exactly lifts this tune? It's hard to define. The King of Limbs is hard to define - it's made hard to define, of course, it's purposely introvert and nervous. It's like walking around in a mental asylum, frankly. The first part of it anyhow.


I am enormously intrigued by what actually goes on in Thom Yorke's mind. Like, what does he dream about for example? It's a bit scary actually, how this album's lyrics paints some scarily bizarre and anxious pictures for your eyes - especially on the panicky 'Morning Mr. Magpie', where Yorke sounds like an old, crazy man, wailing at a magpie outside his door. The music does it's own bit too though, obviously. In general, it's a hard album to love, but an inevitable album to be caught by. I love how the instruments are often askew, and how the band plays with harmonics - even tritonus once or twice. The rhythm section is very apparent, and makes the entire album a pretty bare-to-the-bone affair.


There's a pretty obvious split between 'Feral' and 'Lotus Flower', with the front four tunes on the album having a close kinship with the experimental electronic and IDM scene - think a less minimalist and more instruments-oriented version of Autechre, and you aren't far off. From 'Lotus Flower' and on, there is a bit of a tendency towards indietronica, soul and even dubstep. There is more Jonny Greenwood in this part; it's more band music. But all throughout, it's Colin who ties it all together. Like the main bass riff on 'Lotus Flower', which, pitch it up an octave or two, could easily be an annoying synth riff in some landfill indie-electro band. Masterful.


I think my ultimate complaint about this album is the lack of instant classics to tie it together. Not even instant classics, but just songs that have some sort of long-term significance. I know it's a bit of a demand, but Radiohead has managed at least a few legendary tunes on every record they've made. I mean, 'Codex' is pretty, but it's not 'Pyramid Song'. 'Lotus Flower' might be the exception though; it's really a track that's growing on me. But if you forget all about Radiohead's impressive track record, this album is still an impressive and, dare I say, considering this band could release an album of complete nonsensicalness, and people would still be all over it, bold effort. It's a much more confined and concentrated piece than In Rainbows was - there are no bursts of energy like 'Bodysnatchers' or obvious melancholy like 'All I Need'. In stead, it's an absence of grand gestures that becomes an insisting presence of Thom Yorke's wicked, crooked psyche, and this way, it becomes Radiohead's most restricted an sonically most uniform record - but masterfully executed nonetheless.

Lock the locks and leave.

Alright, so, before everything bowls over in Radiohead-rage, becoming The National on the weekend, then begetting the new VETO album on Monday, let's not forget The Streets actually released a new - his last - album a few weeks ago! I sorta owe a bit of a run through on this, or at least a point out of the tunes I'm fond of.


Thing is, I quite like it, Computers & Blues. I mean, it's not A Grand Don't Come For Free by any means, but its kinship with the 2002 concept classic is pretty apparent, and I guess Im sort of having my The Streets-period right now. A The Streets period anyhow.


I quite like how his imminent retirement, at least under this alias, as I guess we all know Mike Skinner isn't gonna pack bags at Sainsbury's anytime soon, shines through in a few of the tunes, notably 'Without A Blink' and closer 'Lock The Locks'. The latter is pretty obvious, but the former also deals with the entire ordeal in a nice way, discarding the sentimentality for a new found wildness, and a determination to "go down town without thinking and shout over a drink", echoing the same sort of dilemma as 'When You Wasn't Famous' did on The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living.


It's kinda hard not liking 'We Can Never Be Friends', which has the same heart-in-throat touch as the epic 'Dry Your Eyes' off the aforementioned A Grand Don't Come For Free. It's straightforwardness, in passages such as "the future lies in you seeing new guys", which is perhaps the one thing one just doesn't want to picture an ex-girlfriend or -lover doing, is pretty impressive, and once again Mike Skinner proves that he's one of the very few who can pull off such almost embarrassingly direct lyrics without making anyone's toes curl.


And really, there are so many awesome lyrical parts on this album. Such as on 'Roof Of Your Car', where Skinner is ruminating on "electrical implants for the brain that simulate raving sensations", wondering what it might be like if one could "get fucked without hanging his health up. Would this be illegal? Would the Daily Mail rail on it?" And is it evil to have to escape daily life? Pretty big questions indeed. Or the pretty amazing quote: "I'm pretty good at puzzles, but puzzled by people" ('Puzzled By People'), which interacts with Bon Iver (purposedly?) lyrically ("so the story goes"). And then there are tunes like 'Soldiers' (where Skinner might, just might, be referencing to his legendary performance at Roskilde 2008 ("eighty thousand people in a state of rowdy fever, there will never be a sequel to this evening") and 'Outside Inside' which are just epic.


Yeah, you see, there's much to like on this album really. Go fetch fellas, it's a pretty decent case of closing down the office!

The King of Limbs.

The King of Limbs.

So, it's here, The King of Limbs, Radiohead's eighth full-length effort, a day early, because the band felt they could just as well. All right then, we'll all change our plans guys - I had originally planned on doing an introductory, expectations-kind-of post tonight, but I guess not. But just to introduce briefly; this is very exciting. Since In Rainbows came three years and a bit ago, I've been through the compulsory Radiohead-period almost every music enthusiast goes through at some point in time. My knowledge of and relationship with Radiohead was all but non-existent prior to In Rainbows, so since then, I've been through OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac and Hail To The Thief at varying points in time and to various degrees.


But the new one's here now, and what's it all about? Well, it's very electronic. As much as Radiohead is a band, whose "sound" is hard to define, this album is unmistakably Radiohead. There are hints and elements of each of its four closest predecessors, from Kid A to In Rainbows. I think the one it perhaps reminisces the most might be Hail To The Thief. The first few tracks, 'Bloom' and 'Morning Mr. Magpie', remind me a lot of some of the more electronic Hail To The Thief-tunes such as 'Backdrifts' and 'The Gloaming', with the uneasy, pulsating electronics and skittering, buzzing drums.


With 'Little By Little', there's a bit of a change in sound, as actual guitars enter, but with 'Feral', we're back to what seems to be the general sound of this record: A mumbling Thom Yorke over electronic drums, ambient noises and dominating bass-lines. There are scattered guitars, on the above-mentioned 'Little By Little' and on the folksy 'Give Up The Ghost', and in general, the back half of the album is a bit more band music and a bit less programming music than the first part, even if it is still very mellow.


I don't know what I think of this yet. It's got the same conceptuality as each of Radiohead's three masterpiece albums, OK Computer, Kid A and Amnesiac, all of which have some sort of pervasive spirit an atmosphere. Hail To The Thief, although containing its fair share of the bright spots you would expect from any band anyone has ever dared label as the "best band on Earth", was a bit too long and schizoid, and while In Rainbows is a collection of almost exclusively brilliant tunes, and in many ways much brighter than Radiohead have ever been, there isn't much of a common denominator. There's a long way from '15 Step' to 'House of Cards' and 'Nude' to 'Bodysnatchers' and 'Jigsaw Falling Into Place'.


So, it seems Radiohead have once again managed to confine themselves to some sort of sonic box, that doesn't limit them, but rather strengthens the creative output and the overall impression. Or does it? I don't know. The thing with an album like Kid A is that for all the navel-gazing, it has pure excellence written all over it because it's not navel-gazing, but rather some sort of actively chosen absence. Same goes for Amnesiac.


It doesn't seem that The King of Limbs has got quite the same quality. Not yet, anyhow. It might end up truly excelling in it's less-is-more'ness after a dozen of listens, but honestly, after having been through it twice, I'm slightly left with the feeling of: "OK, we waited three years, and we get this?" - I mean, for all they could have done, it seems The King of Limbs just never really rises to the occasion. 'Codex' is very nice, it's a nice ballad in the mold of 'All I Need' or 'Videotape', but all in all, this is a very introvert record. Thom Yorke is mumbling more than ever here, and all in all, this record is a bit like the weirdo dude someone brought to the party. You never know, he might be the wittiest and most interesting of the bunch, but he sits in the corner with his arms crossed and his gaze wandering planlessly round the room in a paranoid, sociopathic way. He might win you over, but he's not exactly inviting at first glance.


I reserve every right to change my mind completely. Maybe I'm just not in the right mindset for Radiohead right now. I'm in a period of baritones singing intelligible lyrics and music with a lot of passion and emotion and feelings all over it, which is pretty far from Radiohead. I'd say right now I'm satisfied, but not impressed. I need to get this into my headphones, and I need to get a grasp on the lyrics. I hope this album will grow on me though. Of all the albums in the world, it really could.

Awesome electronic Wednesday vibes!!

Jamie xx and Gil Scott-Heron.

Oi oi oi! I've got a few really mind-boggling tunes for you lot to check out! First of all, I'm gonna go for broke and declare, that one of the albums I'm looking forward to the most this spring is Young Galaxy's new, Dan Lissvik-produced, release, Shapeshifting. Just check out 'We Have Everything'. Isn't it just epic?


I mentioned Jamie xx yesterday - he's here, there and everywhere, remixing and DJ'ing, and most prominently, he's taken Gil Scott-Heron's much acclaimed album of yesteryear and reshuffled. I'm crazy crazy crazy about 'NY Is Killing Me'!!


Rainbow Arabia is this orientally influenced California duo. They've got a few EPs on their track record, and I found 'Without You' the other day, which I think you should check out. Think The Knife meets Gang Gang Dance meets vintage-sounding vocals. It's pretty sweet!


So, that's a few tunes to get your midweek spinning. I'm not really doing much these days. I'm a bit bored actually. A good thing to do when you're bored is to check out some vids of interesting bands. In case you hadn't noticed, Treefight For Sunlight are on an absolute roll right now abroad, which is really exciting to follow! Back in the fall, they did an unplugged set at a Copenhagen church - there's a snip of that to be seen here. It's really nice, and it features a few of the lesser-exposed tunes on their trippy album, which I have been digging a lot lately!

BIG elephants boogie-woogie.

Radiohead.

A few big names have made waves the past few days. It's been hard to avoid noticing the reactions to Arcade Fire winning the Grammy yesterday. Honestly, I could care only a little less, but it's nice to see proper music get some recognition in the mainstream. I'm sure the Montreal outfit shook quite a few God's Country ignorant teens in their musical foundation with their intense performance of 'Month of May' yesterday anyway.


But wait up guys - the BIG elephant moving 'round the hood is Radiohead, whose 8th studio album is out on Saturday! It's called The King of Limbs, and I guess we all expected it to come a-sneakin' some time this year. This is a bit early though, but while In Rainbows is still being referred to universally as "the new one", it does have more than three years on its wheels now. I'm choosing to disregard the fancy-schmanzy newspaper-release. Honestly, if a CD-sleeve doesn't fit on my shelf, I needn't own it physically, so I guess I'll have to live with the digital version. As for the music, it's hard to know what to expect. I'm probably gonna do a post on that later this week.


Northside Festival in Århus is amping up quite a line-up. Besides favorite hate-objects White Lies and Band of Horses, The Streets and now Crystal Castles too have been added the line-up. I'm strongly considering going. I got Computers & Blues today, which is nice. I like 'Without Thinking'.


Roskilde meanwhile are gonna hopefully amp up soon. Honestly, if they get neither Radiohead nor The Strokes, that's a bit fail. They do however have PJ Harvey, whose new album, Let England Shake, has garnered absolutely rave reviews almost everywhere. I've seen two 6/6's in Danish media, and almost a 9.0 grade on Pitchfork. I might have to check it out, even though it's a bit off my branch.


I'm listening to Gil Scott-Heron & Jamie xx curious new collaboration album, We're New Here. No verdict yet, but check it out!

Quotes on my wall.

The Streets.

What up? I thought I'd tell you about a new project I did a few weeks ago. Kind of lacking some art on my big bare white wall, I bought three wee chalkboards - this way I can chance my decoration according to mood, cool huh!? I'm shit at drawing though, so I immediately opted for quotes. Here's what I've got right now:


1) Was originally:

There are doors that let you in and out, but never open.

Which is from Radiohead's love-it-or-loathe-it 'Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors' off Amnesiac. Originally, I'd have liked to have the entire lyrics, but there wasn't really room. 'Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors' is about life, the universe and everything, described with doors as a metaphor. I find the above line particularly descriptive, and it's sort of a lash against people being too calculated. You know, the people you've known for a long time, or very intimately, but you don't really know them. You wander in and out in their life, but they never really open themselves. Now though, the chalkboard reads:

Allow your mind to become a moving prism, catching light from as many angles as possible!

Courtesy of C.W. Mills via my mate Jacob. I find it kind of interesting, and perhaps I see it as sort of a lesson I still have to learn. The objective enlightening of a subject or topic from many different viewpoints, the empathic trying to understand situations and feelings from other people's perspective.


2) Reads:

Love is an astronaut: It comes back, but it's never the same.

Courtesy of James Murphy/LCD Soundsystem, from the song 'Drunk Girls'. A peculiar quote perhaps, but I like it - I think it describes the fact that you get something out of every romantic encounter you have, be it short or long, deep or superficial. You always learn something, and when love returns, you've got a different perspective of it, which might or might not be to your advantage.


3) Reads:

I came to this world with nothing, and I leave with nothing but love. Everything else is just borrowed.

This is one of my favorite quotes, and I guess it's ultimately an elegant swing at materialism. Why we spend all of our time and money going to Ikea and buying furniture and ingenious things for our kitchens, or indebt ourselves with cars and houses and stuff, when all of that is left behind when we die anyway. The only thing we might carry with us is what's in our hearts - our love, experiences, memories, passion and emotions, which is why that is what we should cherish while we're alive too. It is of course from The Streets' tune 'Everything Is Borrowed'.

Do you wanna come over and kill some time?

Bloc Party.

So, I'm gonna do the lyrics-thing again, just because it's Friday night and I'm saving myself for tomorrow, which is gonna be a bash!

I went through The National's 'Fake Empire' a few weeks ago, because it was really instrumental to me in that particular period I was going through. Another tune that was equally so was Bloc Party's 'This Modern Love', off their gorgeous 2005 debut, Silent Alarm.

This is such a beautiful song, so I thought I wanted to share it with you. I think it's about eventually being defeated by love, about slowly realizing that a particular thing just isn't gonna work out. We all know that love comes in many different tempi, and rarely are two lovers equally matched. I think that's what's going on here - the narrator just wants to be together, even if it just means drinking coffee and watching meaningless stuff on the telly ("do you wanna come over and kill some time"), so he's bitterly blaming the other for being scared of romance, and for not letting go (the "what are you holding out for"-stanza). It's sort of a bash at modern love, people's need to be all in control and not be feeling to much and always be planning and thinking ahead and things.

I think what ultimately hits me about this tune is just its honesty. The sincereness of being head over heels and being aware of it.

The above link is the studio version, but there are also a few epic, epic acoustic versions, one from a few years ago, and a legendary Take-Away Show!

To be lost in the forest,

to be cut adrift.

You've been trying to reach me,

you bought me a book.

To be lost in the forest,

to be cut adrift.

I've been paid,

I've been paid.

Don't get offended

if I seem absentminded,

just keep telling me facts

and keep making me smile.

Don't get offended

if I seem absentminded,

I get tongue-tied.

Baby you've got to be more discerning,

I've never known what's good for me.

Baby you've got to be more demanding.

I will be yours.

I'll pay for you anytime.

And you told me you wanted to eat up my sadness.

Well jump on, enjoy, you can gorge away!

And you told me you wanted to eat up my sadness,

jump right!

Baby you've got to be more discerning,

I've never known what's good for me.

And baby you've got to be more demanding,

jump left.

What are you holding out for?

What's always in the way?

Why so damn absentminded?

Why so scared of romance?

This modern love

breaks me.

This modern love

wastes me.

Do you wanna come over and kill some time?

Throw your arms around me.

James Bland?

James Blake.

I really don't want to sound like a hater, but after listening to James Blake's much discussed, anticipated and acclaimed eponymous debut album, I have now decided that it's probably not really my thing (yet, anyway...).


Have any of you ever heard the phrase: "All my favorite singers couldn't sing."? Chance is, you probably have. One of the most devout musos I know mentioned it to me the other day (after which he put on Neutral Milk Hotel, go figure...), and I realize that this has a lot to do with my skepticism concerning this record. Ever thought of just why Bob Dylan has sold a freakzillion records? Or just why 'With A Little Help From My Friends' is one of the most universally liked and recognized songs? Why The Streets retrospectively was unquestionably more of a benchmark in '00s British recording history than Coldplay? Or why Paul Potts or Susan Boyle, or everything else emerging from Britain's Got Talent with bona fide vocal talent but less charisma than your local furniture store, won't ever matter in musical history?


James Blake is an amazing singer, but he has my toes curled in slightly the same way as the yearly slaughter of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at the Super Bowl. Ok, his phrasings aren't as tediously infinite as [insert random American Idol winner or has-been MTV-star], but I don't think it's coincidental, that the tracks on James Blake that hit me the most are 'Lindesfarne I' and 'II' his two-part homage to/rip-off of an artist most decidedly not in his own alley, Bon Iver.


Blake himself has mentioned The xx as inspirational, and also as pavers of the way he will enter the mainstream. They've sort of kept the seat warm. Blake's problem is, that for all his genuine talent and interesting genre fuse, he's a million times less interesting and charismatic than The xx. Where xx is ultimately an emotional and sincere album, or at least it appears so, James Blake comes along as a much too calculated effort. It hasn't got the raw grit of dubstep, and neither has it got the soul of the singer-songwriters it emulates. It's a slight bit too faceless and bland to really develop the bite you need to pull off a minimalist masterpiece.

New Tuesday-tunes!

Beach Fossils.

Start your engines, kids! Here are a few new tunes to rev down, rev up and kick back, as the new week gets sloooowly underway!


Rev down with Beach Fossils. I'm generally not all down with the lo-fi wave that has been dominating American indie the past year or so, but Beach Fossils seem to hover above the mess with songwriting so catchy it is at times impossible to ignore, this time with 'What A Pleasure'.


Rev up with Kiwi outfit The Naked And Famous. They fit pretty snugly within my M83-revival a few weeks ago with their new single 'Young Blood'. It's epic, euphonic, crisp electro-pop. Choice, bro!


Kick back with Søren Huss' extraordinarily beautiful interpretation of Sebastian's 'Romeo'. This tune, already a classic here in old Denny, gets an entirely more touchy dimension by Huss, who seems to perfect everything he touches these days. But it's hard to screw up such a wonderful piece of lyric.

Iron & Wine: True musicianship never fails.

At any given concert, there are a few non-musical factors that always contribute greatly (or, in turn, are remarkably absent). Such as recognition and emotional connection - the reason I always get a lump in my throat when Kashmir play 'The Aftermath', for example. The show and visuals are also important parts; this is the reason why many a concert at big-ass venues and stages always etch themselves decisively into your memory. But when you go to a show at a stripped-down and basic venue, with an artist whose latest album you've heard only a handful of times, and from whose back catalogue you know absolutely nothing, the only thing to lift the experience is the music and musicality itself.


That's how it was for me at Iron & Wine this Saturday. Luckily, Sam Beam and his seven-man/woman entourage of gifted musicians proved in every way able to manage such a daunting task. Unless you're one of the die-hard, nu-country addicts to be offended by Beam's thorough reinterpretations of much of his early stuff (such as the reviewer who covered the concert at Vega yesterday for Soundvenue, and gave it a 3/6 - who poured fucking acid into that guy's beer?), it's hard to imagine not being won over by Iron & Wine's enchanting show this Saturday.


I was especially impressed by the musicians' unbelievable wit. I've seen and heard some good musicians play in my time, but I have rarely experienced eight (eight!) of them to be so unyieldingly tight. The percussionist was ingenious, and the bassist was as scintillatingly awesome as only bassists can be. It's so splendidly fascinating when a lot of musicians play very little each, and you're able to hear each and every little sound. OK, I give, it's a relatively easier task to captivate the absolute attention of a small audience in an intimate venue, than to catch all the inevitable passersby at a festival, but put that notion on its head, and it's an equally impressive achievement to be an uber-niche American act unknown to everyone bar the connoisseur posse of Pitchfork faithfuls, and sell out an - alright, small - but still significant venue in a Joe Normal town in Scandinavia, and have this crowd silent as at a funeral at key points in the set, such as during the completely overwhelmingly beautiful closer, 'Flightless Bird, American Mouth'.


So for all the musical wit and all the accolades, the bottom line must in all fairness be, that this was an extraordinarily well-played hour and a half of unquestionably viable, life-affirmingly well composed material - honestly, one of the better concert's I've ever attended!


Other than that, I've had an absolutely brilliant and, yeah, life-affirming weekend of interesting new people, good friends and happy reunions and long-time-no-sees, not to mention the Pack winning the Supe yesterday night. Exactly the kind of weekend I needed after a few ones of becoming ineluctably moody by the clock's and the alcohol level's passing a certain point. I'm up and running again (I think), and today I won't let even the grey as weather put me down!

Streets, Iron & Wine.

So, it's almost here, the presumably last album from The Streets. Mike Skinner is a man of pretty severe artistic credibility, but I have a tough time taking all these "now we're/I'm done"-statements. I mean, who wants to bet we're gonna see The White Stripes do a reunion tour in a few years or five?


Anyhow, I listened to Computers & Blues in its entirety this afternoon, and was mildly positive. I haven't really been expecting much, but with that said, from The Streets' two latest albums, I haven't heard anything but the obvious singles. My relationship with Birmingham's finest is fiercely dependent on A Grand Don't Come For Free, and to a lesser extent the debut, Original Pirate Material.


So, I kinda liked Computers & Blues. It's gonna take a few other appealing names for me to spend 700 kroner on a ticket to Northside Festival (being as the other big names so far announced are two of the bands I love to hate the most - Band of Horses and White Lies), especially as Skinner is rumored to Copenhagen later in the year too (why not Roskilde, you shmuck?). Initial highlights include 'Outside Inside', which samples from Skream's iconic Watch The Ride, and 'We Can Never Be Friends', which has a definite A Grand Don't Come For Free-taste to it, so touchy it fucking almost made me cry. I was also impressed by the rhyming on 'ABC' and 'Trust Me'. Generally speaking, Skinner has got the most impressive, unerring flow. It's such a joy to listen him spitting out words, making everyday life sound so awfully poetic. That being said, I detest his silly need to bring along random, (presumably) Afro-American soul/r'n'b-kinda singers. What are they doing there!?!?! I want to hear Mike Skinner rap, for fucks sake, I don't listen to it to hear his middle-of-the-road beats!


I'm moseying down to Århus tomorrow for the rest of the weekend (which includes the Superbowl being won by the mighty Cheesehead Pride), and tomorrow night I'm gonna see Iron & Wine at Voxhall. I gave his new record Kiss Each Other Clean, and found it pretty pleasant - pleasant enough I might buy it, depending on what else shows up through the next few weeks. If I were to point out a few highlights, it would be 'Rabbit Will Run' and the strong closer 'Your Fake Name Is Good Enough for Me'. Check it out! I think he's almost sold out, and Voxhall is an awesome venue for these smaller, intimater names.

Trophy Wife, Toro Y Moi & James Blake.

Toro Y Moi.

Oi folks! Here are a few new awesome tunes to sweet up your Tuesday! Some interesting names that I'm not all convinced about yet, but they're moving!


I have been sort of 50/50 on Toro Y Moi. Some of it is decidedly to sugary for me, but I really dig the bass in 'New Beat'. It's got such a summery vibe to it!


Oxford outfit Trophy Wife sound like the second incarnation of Foals' Antidotes on 'The Quiet Earth', but let's just forget for a moment how Antidotes has slid into obscurity after the arrival of Total Life Forever, and embrace how this young band sound like something really interesting, and definitely worth following! They're supporting talk-of-the-town Esben and The Witch this spring, so look out for them!


I don't know about this James Blake fellow. His eponymous debut album is out Monday next week, but I must admit I'm a bit reluctant. I listened to a track-by-track teaser yesterday, and I wasn't all won over. There's an obvious The xx reference, but I think the very things that nudge The xx along, the intimacy and the vocal interplay, is sort of not Blake's ballgame. No, sure, he's got a beautiful voice and what not, but I don't know... Check out this live take of 'The Wilhelm Scream' and hear for yourself.


I bought a ticket for Iron & Wine this Saturday on the spur of the moment, so now I've got to listen to the album a few more times to justify the money spent. Hopefully it will be every bit as good as I expect!