The consequences of an exellent party

I went to bed at 5AM last night and I'm quite sure that's the latest I've ever stayed up. I went to a quite epic party to celebrate one of my good friends' 18th birthday and though they were only about 12-14 people and it was at a private little house it was still fantastic. But you know, these people were good people - and the music played last night was mostly fabulous. Not many people my age have more than decent taste in music and at parties I often find myself hating the party just because Akon or David Guetta is playaed for the 10th time in one night. Yesterday's party wasn't just good because of the wine and the people but also because of the music. I guess you can't avoid hearing the same song more than once at a party - but yesterday the repeated songs we'rent bad. I heard an awful lot of La Roux last night and though it got a bit too much for me at one point, I'm not complaining. As far as electropop goes nowadays the British duo is one of the better ones.

This, a song of theirs I hadn't heard before, was the highlight for me. The pounding rhythm and the distinctive voice of Eleanor Jackson make up a strong, fantastic pop tune that actually makes you want to listen to the song at a party and dance about manically.

I made two new musical discoveries last night as well. A met a very cool guy who told me stories about lamp posts, flowers and watching Nick Cave at Roskilde Festival and he told me about a band called Focus and a track of theirs called 'Hocus Pocus'. This isn't really my kind of music - though I bet my dad would love it - yet this is extremely cool, entertaining and worth sharing. I'm not going to spoil the fun, so just watch it and let it speak for itself.

The other discovery happened when it was getting late, the people were getting fewer and the atmosphere had become more relaxed and laid-back. Somehow a record by Hauschka, a German piano-project, found its way to the speakers. I don't know what the record was called or which songs we heard from it, but I remembered the name. When I searched on YouTube this came up:

Pure musical beauty and definitely the kind of music I'll feel like listening to during the dark, rainy days we're getting so many of these days. I have yet to find out more about this new acquaintance but so far I'm fascinated and interested.

NSFW

Recently I've learned a new internet term known as 'NSFW'. It might always have existed, somehow I just haven't come across it before. It's short for 'not suitable for work', meaning, you know, that you shouldn't watch/read this content from a computer at work unless you want raised eyebrows and the like from your colleagues. Lately quite a lot of bands have released NSFW videos (Flaming Lips + Girls) - this is my favourite, though:

It's kind of insane and ridiculous, yet suits the song perfectly and provides some quite breathtaking images.

Stars

In this world of YouTube, MySpace, Google and libraries you extremely rarely have to buy a piece of music to hear it - mostly you've heard a preview, a song or maybe even the whole thing online before investing in an album. At least that's the way it has become. When I was little and just started being interested in music (I think was about 11, and - whisper it - Maroon 5 were my first favourite band after I'd grown out of Aqua and Britney Spears) I remember the excitement of actually going to the store, buying the CD and hoping it had more good music on it than just that one song. Back then I probably bought two CDs a year and then listened to them over and over and over - while nowadays it's quite different. It varies depending on how much money I've got but I don't think there's been a month this year where I haven't bought at least five-ten CDs and often many more. It is not only a consequence of me having gotten my musical horizons broadened and my wallet having gotten bigger but also one of the internet. There is almost no music you cannot find buried on the web somewhere - which is quite handy as you don't have to buy anything before you've heard at least a part of it. It's practical if you want to avoid buying something that might turn out to be crap but also takes away some of the pleasure of buying a record and being excited about getting to hear it. So sometimes I like to do really spontanous buys just to feel that little excitement again. The last time I did one of those spontanous was when I went to Aarhus to see Efterklang. Before the gig my friend and I went into my favourite record shop (called Badstuerock) and looked at used CDs. Between the new albums I couldn't find anything I wanted that I couldn't get for less on the Rough Trade website though and I was feeling slightly desperate to buy something. As my friend looked through all the older, used CDs in there he showed me 'Set Yourself On Fire' by Canadian band Stars and told me it was good. Stars were the kind of band I'd only heard about but never actually heard any music by - but from what I'd heard about them I assumed I would like them, so I bought it and gave it a listen the next day. I really liked it. It's becoming a cliché for me to say it but I'm a sucker for good pop music. And 'Set Yourself On Fire' contains lovely, lovely pop music with boy-girl vocals, horns, strings and electronics.

Albums to look forward to in 2010

So 2009 is slowly coming to an end and the musical year of 2010 is vaguely beginning to take shape. Personally I'm really, really looking forward to January and February already. Here are a few of the reasons:

It kind of surprises me as I haven't paid that much attention to either Charlotte Gainsbourg's or Becks' projects before but their forthcoming album, 'IRM', is beginning to become one of the records of 2010 I'm looking most forward to. This track, 'Heaven Can Wait', its fantastic video (featuring more than one WTF moment) and the title track (available as a free download on the web) seem very promising to me. Also, I've always loved Charlotte's speaking voice, so it's probably about time I check out her music.


I might only have been a Final Fantasy fan for about a year but I almost feel like I've been waiting for 'Heartland' as long as everyone else - that's about 3 or 4 years. With Owen having played so many of the new songs live and them all sounding incredible I've become less and less patient - if it is even half as amazing as I already feel like it is/will be I won't be disappointed. Just a little less than two months to go and I will finally get to hear this album... and if I'm really lucky, I might even get to see him live again in January. Fingers crossed!


Over the last few days Efterklang have bombarded their Facebook and MySpace followers with YouTube videos of different so-called 'magic chairs' (my favorite: http://tinyurl.com/ya92vrs) and I'm probably not the only person who has been wondering why. Today the reason was revealed - their new album is titled 'Magic Chairs' and is released on February 22 next year. The new songs they played last week in Aarhus all sounded very lovely and so this album one I definitely look forward to. Above is a video of one my favorites of the new songs they played last Friday.


When I saw the artwork for Vampire Weekend's 'Cousins' single I thought 'that's got to be a still from the video'. I was right. The video is quirky, cute and very, well, Vampire Weekend. The song will probably always remind me of being in Hyde Park in bottle rain while waiting for VW to finish and Blur to finally enter the stage. Doesn't make it less of a good song, though.

A follow-up

After having dissed Sugababes' cover of Florence & the Machine's 'Rabbit Heart', I feel like I should mention this example where a pop act covers a less known band and actually succeeds. Solange Knowles, Beyoncé's sister, has recently covered Dirty Projectors' 'Stillness Is The Move'. 'Stilness...' is a fantastically fantastic track, one of the best I've heard this year and it is definitely an r'n'b track at heart, so this kinda ought to happen. And though the original is still superior, I don't think this cover is bad at all. It's good and it had to happen. Its weakness lays in the fact that it makes you want to go and listen to the original because it is that good bit better. So I think you should do so as well - and then you also have an excuse to watch the ridicously cool video.

Performing Parades

Yesterday I had the fantastic pleasure of seeing the Danish postrock band Efterklang live in Musikhuset in Aarhus. The show was part of the band's so-called DOX:TOUR - meaning that the night consisted of a movie screening and a gig. The movie being shown was the concert film 'Performing Parades' which documents the concert Efterklang played last year accompanied by the Danish National Chamber Orchestra. It was a both musical and visual treat - in the movie the band's latest album 'Parades' is played in its entirety from beginning to end. It is filmed intensely and beautifully - and the entire band and orchestra play with a passion and musicality it is a delight to witness even though it might only be on a screen. Visually the viewer is also treated to the genius of Danish design duo Hvass&Hannibal. The musicans are presented as part of a mountain landscape on the stage as everyone wears pointy little hats and the core of the band colourful garments all created specially for the occasion. 'Performing Parades' is the kind of concert movie that makes you go 'dammit, why wasn't I there?!' - but the visual documentation is definitely much, much better than nothing. For me the movie was almost good enough to let the night already be considered memorable.
But then there was a short break and the real Efterklang entered the little stage (the smallest one, I think, in Musikhuset) and blew me even more away. I was almost expecting to be disappointed as they now didn't have an orchestra and didn't wear fancy clothes. But I was proven wrong - Efterklang are, luckily, the kind of band who play with a musicality and joy that makes it an absolute pleasure watching them go. Represented was the core of the band (including before-on-this-blog-mentioned Peter Broderick). The band's set consisted of new songs and older material from before the Parades album. It was the kind of gig that made me remember just how much I love music - and especially live music. Efterklang make some of the most beautiful music I know and play it uniquely well. The crowd clapped along but remained mostly silent and observing - but by the end the band's frontman, Casper Clausen, nicely asked the sitting crowd to come closer - and so my friend and I ran down and were part of the new little crowd on the floor right in front of the band. Afterwards I bought a beautiful double-vinyl package with a DVD of the 'Performing Parades' film and I cannot wait to have it playing in the background - or in the foreground - when I read or study or do nothing else in these coming winter months.

Oh, the horror, the horror...

This is not a review of the Horrors gig I went to on Sunday (since you ask, it was very good - noisy in just the right way) but a post where I want to share something horrible. Normally I'd like to only mention good music on this blog, but there is lots of bad music out there too - and sometimes I feel almost compelled to focus on that fact. That is for example when bad music attacks good music. I just came across this - a fresh example of what I'm talking about:

That's Sugarbabes covering Florence & the Machine. Gone is the sheer force of Florence Welch's insisting vocals, the heavy drums and the incredible energy of the original and instead we get a weird, look-how-much-soul-we-got version complete with congas and three anonymous girl group vocals. This isn't the worst cover I've ever heard but I think it's both quite weak and pretty boring, which isn't at all what I would label the original song with.

What is much, much, much worse, though, is this:

Cascada has commited many crimes to music over the years, but for me this is the worst. 'Because The Night' is a fantastic pop song - especially in Patti Smith's version - and I don't really feel like I need to say more. Listen to Cascada's version, then Patti's and if you don't find the existence of Cascada's version incredibly sad afterwards, I'm afraid you have no soul.

I've got three reasons as to why this video belongs in the blog.
1. 'Damaris' is one of very good songs on Patrick Wolf's latest album, which generally wasn't that fantastic.
2. The video somehow perfectly fits what I saw in my head the first time I heard the song: fields/nature, romance and Patrick being as pretentious as always while singing about love and tears. I don't experience that often - but somehow this video, though it indeed could be seen as both too pretentious and kind of silly fits perfectly - this is just the way Patrick does it and while I've disliked both of the other videos he has put out for this album, this one somehow captures something very fitting and beautiful for the song.
3. I'll admit: at the moment I have the biggest crush on a boy who looks a bit like Patrick. And I most definitely wouldn't mind messing about in a forest somewhere with him while wearing fancy clothes like mr. Wolf and his actress friend do in this video.

Track the day #7

Mika - 'Rain'

I've had a strangely good day considering how tired I was supposed be after going to bed at 1AM last night. We had a not-very-easy math test today and I was prepared to do terribly - but I think it went quite well. One of my dear classmates turned 18 today as well and the entire class celebrated by eating cake, singing 'happy birthday', talking about christmas and generally not doing what we were supposed to be doing in our music lesson. Then I went to the dentist (where everything was as it was supposed to be) and then visited my best friend Anne for a couple of hours. I couldn't help but be jealous of her - on Saturday she went to see the Flaming Lips live and had the pleasure of dancing on the stage and in general the most amazing fun I've heard about in a while. But it'll be two weeks before I get to see her again, so I was pretty focused on just having a good time with her. Today our definition of a good time was talking about music, boys and clothes and listening to Mika. We had 'Rain' on repeat for a while and though my relationship with Mika is slightly awkward, since I really cannot decide whether I like him or not (sometimes I do and sometimes he annoys me A LOT) - but the colourfulness and fun of this song definitely fitted my far-better-than-expected day quite well.

Tonight

I'm off to see The Horrors tonight. I have yet to hear their first album but it seems to be widely known that their second album, 'Primary Colours', which came out this year, contains some of the best dark rock/post-punk/shoegaze heard in years. Since I can't go see Joy Division, I guess this is the next best thing.

I don't think I'll ever be able to dislike Jarvis.

Few people can make a good music video just by goofing around and act silly. Jarvis Cocker is one of those few people. This, his new video for the title track from his latest album, proves just why the Jarv is so special. He is of my biggest musical idols ever and one who I've continued to admire since I randomly discovered his solo record and then Pulp and Blur and britpop afterwards a few years ago. He is basically one of the main reasons why I listen to the music I do today. And yet I haven't got my hands on his newest solo album though it's been out for months. I still love both Pulp and Blur but I've seemed to move on and so haven't really thought about giving that new record a listen. This video and song makes me reconsider doing so. The video reminds me of that soon-I-think-15-or-20-year-old video for Pulp's 'Babies' where El Jarvo does few things except wearing a very green shirt and act Jarvis-ly in front of a white background. This video seems like an updated version somehow - he's older, has grown a beard and got less colourful clothes. Yet somehow he still is nobody but the Jarvis we all know so well. He dances, lip-synces, wears glasses (that's actually an important thing) and acts silly. After all these years he is still truly one of a kind.

Track of the day #6

Thao With The Get Down Stay Down - 'When We Swam'
Today was the day I realised that it was no longer summer, not even at the least. No way back, only winter ahead. It was absolutely freezing outside when I walked home from school and though I had my new winter coat and my gloves on it was impossible to keep warm. Now I'm safely at home underneath my duvet enjoying the finally-turned-on heat in our house and I'm listening to the some of the nicest music I can find in my iTunes library. I just found myself a free download of the song 'Know Better Learn Faster' by Thao With The Get Down Stay Down and it's very, very nice. I thought I wanted that one to be song of the day - but then I saw the video for 'When We Swam' by the same band and started missing summer even more. Blue sky, sun, beach, sand, soap bubbles and a band consisting of a girl with a children's-sized guitar and two guys with a yellow tambourine and a pink ukulele. If that doesn't seem like fun, then I really don't know what does.