France songs

Instead of telling about my trip to St. Malo in France, I'm going to sum it up with the songs that from now on will probably remind me of being down there and experiencing all those unforgettable things.


First off is a song by a Danish band I've been liking lately, When Saints Go Machine. I don't know if I listened to them a lot in France because I missed Denmark or just because they fitted my mood, but Spitting Image was definitely part of the soundtrack. Especially when I was on the bus to school in the morning and it was still dark and cool outside.


As almost the exact opposite of When Saints are The Very Best's funky and sunny African rhythms and beats. As a bit of a coincidence I had checked their MySpace and listened to a bit of their stuff before going on the trip and then one day down in France a friend of mine played me a song of theirs on his iPod and I was hooked. I decided to check them out further and I'm absolutely in love with this track - it's the sunniest, most summer-y and forget-the-winter-is-underway track I've heard all year. As a contrast to the When Saints Go Machine track it seems very fitting for the days in France as well - in the morning and during the night, the weather was cold and ungracious while in the day time it was hot and sunny as if we were in the middle of the summer. The Very Best would definitely be the very best music to remind me of those happy days spent in the sun.


Another of the songs this particular friend played me was one that seemed very fitting - for obvious reasons (we went to Paris on the last day before returning to Denmark) - and one I already knew and liked. It just has a bit more meaning now, I guess. Lovin' the cowbell.


In Paris I was surprised to actually hear some French music I knew, which is why this song will probably remind me of that one day in Paris from now on. I heard '1901' by Phoenix played out loud in a shop near Les Halles in Paris and couldn't help but smile at the fact that I heard good French music in France (even though that probably isn't weird or unusual at all).

I'm home!

Yesterday I came home from a week in France as an exchange student. There's too much to tell about the week and my experiences during it to tell, so let's just say that it was incredibly special and definitely one of the bigger things I've tried in my life. But now I'm home and going to school as normal on Monday. The week has made me hungry for new music to match the way I think the trip has changed me and my understanding of the world and so I've been spending the last few hours looking and listening to whatever I've found in my favourite music blogs and beyond. I've just come across the newest video from one of the best and most internationally known Danish groups around, Mew. It's for the track 'Repeaterbeater' from their new album (yes, the one with the abnormally long time). I like the track and the video's scary atmosphere... and I kind of like the fact that they speak Danish in it. I've been speaking so much English and French in the past week that it's nice to be able to go 'hah, I understand more than what's translated in the subtitles!'... but oh well. My French is still bad.

What does your favourite children's book sound like?

The headline is a question I've been asking myself lately. Literal references in music aren't the rarest thing, though the character of said references can be quite varied. Lately I've been hearing quite a few children's themed ones that I'd like to share with you.

Karen O & the Kids

Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is behind the music in Spike Jonze's highly anticipated and before-on-this-blog-mentioned Where The Wild Things Are, a movie based on the Maurice Sendak's classic children's book. I haven't decided if I like this as music I could listen to casually but I definitely think it captures some childish essence that probably would fit both the book and the movie perfectly. I like it, because I really do think it's more important for the music to fit the mood and set the tone than be listenable and good-sounding. I'll look forward to actually hearing the song in the movie and make my final decision though.

Marina & the Diamonds

I've been avoiding British, piano-playing, coo-cooking girls for a while. But this particular track by Marina & the Diamonds, the latest female pop kook from the UK has grabbed my attention for its catchiness, electronic rhytm and sound effects and not-too-over-the-top-British accent vocals. Also, I love how this song sounds like it's name. Mowgli's Road. This song sounds like the Jungle Book as I remember it. Fun, funky and more fun. It might have been a while since the last time I read or saw the Jungle Book, but this song sends me the vibes so I won't have to go to the library or turn on Disney Channel anytime soon.


An oldie that came to mind with the whole headline-question was Regina Spektor's 'Baobabs'. While 'The Little Prince' might not strictly be a children's book, I think the song fits the description 'a song that sounds like the book it references' pretty well. Regina sounds and seems like a girl who'd have 'The Little Prince' as one of her favourite books and just that fact qualifies her as a perfect interpreter for the childish, innocent and philosophical story.

Benoît Pioulard

I'd like to begin this post on a newer of my musical obsessions with a request to the reader. Think of nature. Imagine the most nature-like landscape you can - and then image its sounds, its moods, its colours. Then you're on the way to imagine the sound of Benoît Pioulard. If you ask me what I associate Benoît Pioulard's mystical musical universe with, nature would be my answer. Which might seem odd, since Thomas Meluch, the mastermind behind the name, mainly makes his music using his computer, guitar and voice. But with his mix of collected sounds, noises you wonder where come from and the recumbent vocals, his music creates soundscapes - when you listen to Benoît Pioulard it creates a mood, a state of mind. I've experienced that there probably is no place or situation better suitable for listening to Thom's music than when taking a long walk outside in the dark, pouring rain while glancing at houses, trees, flowers, fields and other people's lives passing by. It's hard to explain, but it is exactly what Benoît Pioulard sounds like. And it's a fantastic state of mind to be in, you'll understand, just listen to 'La Guerre De Sept Ans', 'Moth Wings', 'Triggering Back' or 'The Loom Pedal'. Or anything on his MySpace, really.
www.myspace.com/pioulard

While You Wait For The Others

As I've said before, I love Grizzly Bear. But I don't think I've mentioned how much I love them for their videos - they usually make me go 'awesome, though probably made by somebody on acid'. They're uniquely weird and mad, yet also appropriate and fascinating. I still don't dare re-watch the video for 'Knife' though - it fucks with my mind and still makes absolutely no sense whatsoever in a pretty scary way. But this one I can handle - yes, it might be weird and meaningless, but somehow I think the images are very fitting for the song.

Track of the day #4

Dead Man's Bones - 'In The Room Where You Sleep'
It seems to become more and more of a trend for indie-hipster actors to try and turn things around by entering the music biz, and obviously this isn't always a good idea. I'm quite surprised that I actually like the latest in the row - i.e. Ryan Gosling's goth-orchestra-rock-gospel project Dead Man's Bones. I wouldn't call the name genius, but I've fallen for this particular video and I quite like the concept. Children's choirs are often pretty badass, and this one is without a doubt exactly that. Especially that little guy with the sword by the end. And a strong track this is too.

Way Out West 2009

I'm sick and bored and I've come to the conclusion that it'd probably be a good idea to write something here to kill some time. And I think it would be good start when getting back into my blogging to write something about the two fantastic musical days I had on August 14 and 15 at this year's Way Out West festival in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. With this year's amazing line-up my expectations were sky high and I don't think I'll see this many good artists in such a short period of time again anytime soon. So let's start at the beginning.

Friday

My brother and I arrived at the festival on Friday afternoon and started out by managing to catch the last two tracks of Bon Iver's set on the Linné stage, which is Way Out West's only tent stage. We then went and had a look around before catching about three or four songs of Beirut's set on the Flamingo stage. Their performance seemed very fitting in the lovely sunshine that graced the Friday afternoon, but we left early to try and get a good spot for Grizzly Bear's set in the Linné tent. As the band were soundchecking it slowly became apparent that something was wrong - the bass was too loud and the drums didn't sound right. But since Grizzly Bear have meant quite a lot to me over the last few months - from discovering the gorgeousness of Yellow House to seeing all those reviews of Veckatimest declaring it a masterpiece and trying to avoid listening to the leak, I just felt like I had to see them. And so I did, even though the sound only got slightly better during the actual set. I found it kind of awkward seeing GB on a tent stage at a festival in the afternoon, as I feel like the most fitting setting for a gig of theirs would be either on a Paris street (see: http://tinyurl.com/2gyvvy) or in some deep, dark club with dimmed lights and the audience sitting on the floor in complete, mesmerized silence. So this gig didn't turn out as I had hoped, obviously. But as I've noticed, Grizzly Bear generally sound a lot better and alive when they play live than on record and so, as expected, the times when the bass and drums weren't overshadowing everything else, it was blissful as hell. And as they played 'On A Neck, On A Spit' as the last song the big highlight finally arrived and one couldn't help but dance politely to one of the best, most upbeat GB songs and looking forward to hopefully seeing them 'for real' on their upcoming European tour.


Next up was Florence & the Machine, the band I've now seen live the most times, this being the fourth time. When I saw her in London last summer I predicted big things and I do think I have been quite right, with her album reaching number 2 in the UK charts (and she would probably have topped it if it wasn't for that Michael Jackson guy), her Brit Award win and her Mercury Prize nomination, and so it is also quite interesting to have seen her develop from a lo-fi, drum-hitting girl in a gold jacket with a big voice to a fully grown popstar in high heels and extravagant stage pieces designed by TopShop accompanied by a five-piece band. But somehow with all the succes I have a few times felt like Flo was in the process of losing a her rawness and strong stage presence. As she supported Blur in Hyde Park she didn't seem capable of filling that big stage, while seeing her play acoustic at the Rough Trade shop was a lovely and refreshing different take on her music though still quite different from back in the day. When I saw her at Way Out West she absolutely proved herself to have grown to a different, but still fantastic pop star with an edge. Stomping and dancing across the stage Florence still has a way of being herself as part of the mainstream while maintaining something that is her very own.


After Florence's set it was time to get something to eat and so we did, while listening to Wilco in the distance. After that we headed to the Flamingo stage and found a nice, chilled-out place in grass to sit down and enjoy the uniquely amazing Antony. Accompanied by the Gothenburg Symphonic Orchestra he sang his heart out to all of us in the audience and gave one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful live performances I've heard and with Antony's charming and thankful apperance, telling the audience about how strange it was being recognised in Gothenburg and calling us his 'little angels' it just made me want to give him a great big hug.


As the afternoon turned into evening and into night, it was time to watch the Arctic Monkeys on the Flamingo stage. I wouldn't call myself the biggest Artic Monkeys fan, as I generally think they are very good at what they're good at - making energetic, straight-forward indie-rock, but not much more than that. They are absolute expert on this area though and as they are one of the bigger bands of the world today I felt like I had to see them. And it was worth it, as they ran through a set with lots of new material and proved themselves as being a very good live band. I was glad they played that many new songs as I think it made for a quite interesting set. I haven't actually heard their new album yet, but they do seem to have grown up and started being interesting again. I was quite gutted to have missed Fever Ray, though, but since she's Swedish I'll hopefully get a chance to see her at some other point. We left a bit early from the Arctic Monkeys set to try and get into Annedalskyrkan, the church that served as a one of the festival's club stages, to see Andrew Bird. But the queue outside the church was so long I couldn't believe my eyes and we ended up standing outside listening. I was pretty sad to have missed Andrew's set, as he is supposed to be amazing live, but it was still a fantastic day. Oh, and we even caught the particular part of Röykopp's set I wanted to see, i.e. the part where they were joined on stage by Karin Dreijer (of The Knife and Fever Ray) to play 'What Else Is There?' - it was a lovely little highlight since that song is my favourite of theirs.

Saturday

We kicked of Saturday with Patrick Wolf's set in the Linné tent at 1PM. From what I'd noticed when looking on the internet and in the papers and at the growing audience on the day, this was an eagerly anticipated set. I stood beside a girl dressed in all blue (including her hair) and saw quite a lot of people sporting looks not unsimilar to Patrick's. But we had to wait a while for the boy himself as he and his band didn't enter the stage before 5-10 minutes past 1. And at a festival with 45 minute sets that shortened the gig more than one would have liked. But anyway, Patrick entered the stage as extravagant as always, wearing a grey, black and white Union Jack jumpsuit (which he later took off, even though he promised not strip this time, as he had apparently done the last time he was in Sweden), a headpiece and his signature knee high socks. Though I have only seen videos from gigs of his before seeing him live for real, I think I can safely say his live performance must have changed a bit over the last year or so, as he has adopted something, for the viola- and piano-playing Patrick, as strange as the electric guitar and judging from this set it has had a big impact on his live show. Most of the songs he played, including the older ones, seemed to suddenly have turned into rock numbers with the added guitar, which I had a hard time (no pun intended) figuring out whether was a good or a bad thing. It became much more of a rock show, which isn't really what I would expect or want from Patrick, but it was a good and entertaining show anyway, though I think it could have been better under different circumstances.


Following Patrick Wolf's show was Jenny Wilson on the Flamingo stage, which was quite a highlight, even though it was pouring down with rain at this point. Jenny is one of my favourite pop songstresses out there at the moment - she's funky, fresh and strong, and has a voice I haven't heard a hundred times before. If they played her songs on MTV instead of Lady Gaga and Jordin Sparks I know that channel (and the world in general) would be a much better place. Backed by an almost all-female Jenny sported a big blue dress and hat and sang, clapped and played her way through tracks from her two albums 'Love & Youth' and 'Hardships!'. And her saxophonist was very, very cool as well.


A while later, as the rain still fell from the sky, we watched Vampire Weekend on the very same Flamingo stage and they were as always fun, sunny and nice. Afterwards it would be an even longer while before the next act we wanted to see was due and so we hid from the rain for a while.


We were back for My Bloody Valentine, who I've decided to remain undecided about. Because I quite like them on record - Loveless is a really good album - but after just two tracks I decided they were far, far too loud for my fragile ears - I just couldn't enjoy their set (especially since I hate wearing earplugs). So we decided we could live without theirs and Lily Allen's set and made our way to Annedalskyrkan on the other side of the road from the Slottsskogen forest where the festival took place.


Though the first of that evening's three acts in the church wasn't scheduled to play before an hour later, the queue was already pretty long, so coming early was a very, very good idea we found out. We mainly wanted to get in because I wanted to be sure to see Final Fantasy, the last of the three acts, but as things turned out, that night in general ended up being one of the absolute biggest highlights of the festival. Both of the two others acts had I heard the names of, but never heard any music from and I ended up being pleasantly surprised by both. Especially the first act, Peter Broderick, put on one of the most compelling, mesmerizing and fascinating live performances I've witnessed. As a multi-instrumentialist and someone who isn't afraid to record and loop everything and part-sing with himself, he left me ever wondering what he was going to do next. He picked up the guitar, the violin and the musical saw as well as encourage the entire audience to scream so he could hear how that would sound in the church - by the end he even ran through the church, singing with his looped self, while playng two tambourine-like instruments. He kept everyone spellbound through the entire set, resulting in a standing ovation by the end. He was followed by the young girl duo First Aid Kit, who played a charming and heartwarming combination of classic singer-songwriter tales and folk music. They were very good, but by the end I couldn't help but start to become a bit bored, as I knew what was up next. The concert that for me at the moment ranks as the best I've ever been to in my life so far is the one where I saw Final Fantasy at the Union Chapel in London this year. It was perfectly flawless and amazing and though I knew it would be different, I couldn't wait to hear what Owen Pallett had up his sleeve this time. That, it turned out to be, was a setlist very different to the one from the London gig. He played some oldies, some rarities, some covers and some new songs and ended the show with a cover of the slightly obscure song 'Independence Is No Solution', something I had never heard before. It was different from the London gig, definitely, but still incredible - I don't know how he does it, but Owen just manages to always put on a fantastic, beautiful and blissful show whatever the circumstances.
All in all, Way Out West was a mindblowing experience with so many great gigs in just two days. On the ferry home I realised just how many of my favourite artists I'd just seen live and I had a hard time getting my head around that fact. I'm definitely back next year, if their line-up is even just half as good as it was this year.

[ALL ARTIST PHOTOS FROM rockfoto.nu]