Thee Power Of Twee

I have totally forgotten to tell people or to make sure that it is in some shops. Well, it is in one shop… But if you are familiar with the swedish language and feel that this is something you would like to read. Mail me. You can get it for 10-20kr or for a zine, a mixtape, a mixcd, basically you can get it for almost anything hehe. The writing is at times good, at times so and so. But we hade great fun making it, that is for sure!

I also managed to get my act together and put up a proper link to “My Interviews” and to the page where I will be writing in swedish when I feel like it. Well, that was all for now. Put your headphones on, tie your shoes and go out for a stroll. Strutting down the streets singing along=)

At times it feels like that there is so much good music out there and it just keeps coming more and more. I have many years ago given up my naive hope of knowing about them all. A group called The Arrogants is just one of many that have come to slip through the cracks. Well I have known about them, but forgotten about them since I do not own any records with them. Thats one of the things I like about old zines and the internet, I get to know about them. Though a few years after everyone else, but when you fall in love with music it does not matter whether you heard it back in 93 or 05. The Arrogants have not released records since 93 but I think you understand where I am getting at.
Yesterday I sat reading some blogs that were all new to me. One of them was indie mp3 and it was there that I read that they hade recently released a new record. I downloaded some songs and I just could not hold myself, I had to order records with them. Some of their songs remind me of one of my favourite groups, The Sundays. Lovely female vocals (I think you have by now realised that I love female vocals, especially when they are this good), a dose of strumming guitars, synthesizers, drums and once again this soothing voice. It is like my heart stops for a second everytime Jana Heller starts to sing. The singing is a bit folk/singer-songwriter like, and it almost seems a bit distant. It is so beautiful, and it goes perfect with the music.
Have I cought your interest? Well if so, listen to these songs. If you have any of their records, let me know what you think of them. They have earlier released two EP:s on the wonderful Shelflife-records. This is their third release and their first full-lenght, containing 23 songs!!

The Arrogants - “I want you”
The first song I heard from the album, you propably understand why I came to think of The Sundays?!

The Arrogants - “Wishing well”
Turning it up a notch, I almost can not find words. The bass-line, the drums, the lovely chorus with a lovely synthesizer-line. Right now among my top songs of the year!

The Arrogants - “Cool shoes”
Just great, GREAT!

If you have liked these songs, visit their homepage and check out some more. And if you like them (how could you not?!) make sure to buy their records like I did.
The Arrogants-homepage
Take care.

Decoration that I wrote a few words about yesterday, they were the second band that I came across from SL-records. Forgot to mention the first one, that would be a band most of you know about, Ballboy.

Today I looked up the new issue from Friends Of The Heroes, looking at the record-reviews there I saw that Gordon McIntyre had been doing things on his own as Money Can´t Buy Music. Thinking that I like Gordon´s stuff I checked it out. At the homepage you could listen to snippets of some songs. Well, what can I say, I don´t like Gordon´s stuff, I love it! Now I have something to look forward to next year!

Money Can´t Buy Music
And no, this doesn´t mean that Ballboy doesn´t exist anymore.

The title alone says the words needed. Earlier this week I saw a new 7″. It was to be the second band that I have from SL-records.
I tried to listen to it at the shop but a person that was there was talking to me constantly so I couldn´t really listen to it, at that listen it didn´t seem that good.. After a day at work I couldn´t handle more than one thing at a time, atleast not as tired as I was that day. After he had left to shop I could listen to it properly and this time I liked it. The first thing that struck me when I put it on was that the singer sounded just like someone else, something I knew I liked. The man I thought he sounded like was David Gedge of the The Wedding Present.
Now I have listened to it a few times more and it just seems to grow on me. At this point I´m thinking that I like it a lot. As usual I´m not going to write about the music, instead you´ll have this song to listen to. It´s not a song from this 7″, it´s from their album that was released 17th October on SL-records.

Decoration - “Intercom”

And here´s a video of their new singel
Decoration - “Escape routine”
Hope you enjoyed them.

I walked out the door, shut it, put my key in and locked it. As I started to walk down the street and over the small bridge, that goes over a road, I felt a emptiness. I could hear car-tires screech, and hear the rumble of the city. There was no colour and no life, everything was sterile and grey. I could hear my lungs screaming for air, I was choking.
I reached into my bag and pulled out my cd-player and headphones. I carefully put them on and pressed play.
Suddenly I could feel my feet moving again, my lungs taking in a deep breath. My eyes opening, showing me a different view. I fastened my pace and before I could realise it, I was taken by the state I was in. I came to a halt. I had by now walked so far that I had reached a small forest, or maybe it was merely a park, but it felt like a forest, a unexplored such. I could see the wind playing with the leaves as they danced in the air, on their way to the ground. Usually people say that leaves are dead when they fall, but that couldn´t be true. They sang with the wind as they sailed through the air. So full of life, with vivid colours. I had seized to hear the music from the cd, maybe it had stopped. Now I just heard the magical music which these leaves and the wonderful colours played.
All the grey colours had vanished and been replaced with wonderful, warm things. Everything had a colour of it´s own and they all played a tune of their own. I could hear music so beautiful that I didn´t even know words good enough to describe it.

As I, after a while started to reach the end of the forest I once again came to a halt. I stopped thinking it had started to rain, but it was just a tear that had fallen down my cheek. As I came out of the forest and back into the city again I took my headphones off and it suddenly struck me. It was my soul that had made the beautiful music, it had spoken to the nature in a language for us unknown. It felt like I had experienced something magical.
God I loved these autumn days.

Today I stood at work and after a while I came to realise that an auction on ebay that I was interested in was ending, we can´t visit ebay at work due to restricted pages. But after work I checked it out and I wasn´t too late to bid on it. So instead I took some time and bought some records. On the subway on my way home with tired eyes and a tired body, I sat there listening to a Breeze compilation simply just called “Extract of breeze B”. The reason why I bought it was that I had one of their compilations and had fallen in love with Fragile. While I was sitting there and enjoying the lovely tunes of Fragile - “This one´s for you” (and the other songs with lovely groups like The Saving Graces and Glaring Surge to name some), I was reading a fanzine. A fanzine from Finland (in english though) made in the 90´s. Since I was so tired I just skiped ahead to the record section, I like reading old record reviews for some reason, and it wasn´t without a laughter that I sat there. This is what I read:

I know that the image is too big, but I couldn´t make it smaller because then you wouldn´t have been able to read it. I have mentioned Strawberry Story here before (namedropped) and if you´re familiar with their music you would understand how one could listen to them on 33 instead 45rpm. I had the same problem with one of Plastic Pancakes 7″, Electrophonvintage - “I don´t want to stay”, I had imagined it being very very wimpy, and when I played it I was almost in chock, the same with Huon, though I should have realised it with Mia Schoen singin on it… well well. These things happen, I think they have happend to us all!
Here´s a song with Strawberry Story, a song that I like a lot! Hope you like it too! It´s there for about 7 days. Strawberry Story - “Gone like summer”Now I have to transfer money so that I can pay my won items on ebay, bye for now!

After I had written this I started to think about the Platic Pancake 7″, it wasn´t the one! I just now tried to figure out which one it was but to no luck.

But it´s in swedish! It had to be in swedish, I don´t feel (as usual) that I did my thoughts justice. But if you know swedish you can read the text HERE. Over and out.

I had a thought of writing about my friday night when I after work went to meet some friends. I got to hear their first EP as a band, they had went straight into town from the studio, which was great. But more about that night later, maybe tomorrow. Who knows.
Instead I´m just going to write a little about a voice that makes my heart melt everytime. Everytime I hear her voice it´s like all the burdens on my shoulders fall off, like my troublesome thoughts fly away and I feel a warmth in my heart and soul. That woman is Pamela Barry. This is how they present her at the Chickfactor page: “is the other cofounding editor of chickfactor; she exited politely in the mid-’90s to focus on her singing career. pam also started slumberland records with mike schulman & friends back in 1990, changing the d.c. musical landscape forever. she’s sung with black tambourine, veronica lake, bright colored lights, glo-worm, belmondo, the shapiros, castaway stones, seashell sea, the pines, and many others. she lives in london, is a craftmaking genius, and is about to discover motherhood.”
To get to the page, just click here. Well, I can´t say that much about the zine, since I was a late one with zines I tend to miss a lot. Well I have known about Chickfactor for a while, well practically since the first time I heard Pams voice, but I´ve never read one and had no idea about them being on the web. So big thanks to Think Small for opening my eyes (never been so good at searching the web, not that it´s difficult in any way, just that it´s never been something I enjoy doing). Now I think it´s about time for me to go to sleep, early morning, maybe I´ll put that lovely voice, and wonderful music, on play and dream myself away, floating into sleep. Good night.

The last few days I have been feeling a bit down, since I only work part-time I should be used to having a lot of sparetime. Well I usually have a lot of other stuff to do during that time… but recently I have felt uncapable to do anything. The days seem long and dull. Not even books seem to help me. But today I went and got me some therapy, today I spent a whole lot of time at my favourite recordshop, well I stood there and watched the store for some hours while the owner went and ran some arrends. But I have a tendancy to spend hours there anyway so… As usual I came home with a bag full of candy. Candy that makes me forget all the dull and gray in my life. One of the records I bought gave me a sweet taste, and it was well needed earcandy. Martenor - “les*ondes”

I haven´t quite yet comprehended how much I like it. But what I know is that as soon as I pressed play at the shop, I fell in love. It´s not everyday that I feel like this for pop sung in the language of spanish. When I think about it, it was propably Mirafiori - “Cinco minuto”, that made me feel like this the last time. I am right now, at this moment, sitting here and listening to it for the second (third) time. But here are three songs from it (#1,7&9), so that you can build your own picture, and maybe even your own love?

Martenot - “Colores”

Martenot - “Estacionaria”

Martenot - “SCL”

As usual, suport them and buy their record if you like what you hear. I would say “and visit their homepage”, but it´s in spanish, but visit it anyway for pictures and more. Hope you like it!

When I think of Denmark I think of open-minded, liberated people. I don´t come to think of music. Denmark isn´t known for producing much quality music. At least not in my mind. Well I recently bought a 7″ with danish shoegaze pop which I like. But besides that it´s Labrador, nothing else… Maybe it´s just me, maybe I just should search more (don´t think that will happen). But this year I have come to like a record-label from Japan, Quince records. They deliver loads of quality music! Among them are Ultrasport from Finland, Club 8 and The Shermans from Sweden, Cherry Orchard… and the list goes on. Some of the releases are rereleases, but that doesn´t matter. Still great records! And the record that has given me a new look on Denmark as a music country, Tiger Baby - “Lost in you”. The first song that I heard with them was a song on the “Guitar sketch” - compilation released by (yes, you guessed right) Quince records. That particular record is one of the records I put up as a picture here earlier (Feels like sunday). Then when I saw the record in a shop I knew that I recogniced them from somewhere… It came to me, when I saw the label, Quince. I knew it would be good, you know when you sometimes get the feeling that THIS IS GOOD. You wouldn´t even have to listen to it. But enough about my relation to the record, instead of writing about it I think you should listen to these three songs (#1,2&6 on their debutalbum)

Tiger Baby-”Sweetheart”
Tiger Baby-”Chinese Fairytale
Tiger Baby-”Shy”

Hope you enjoyed them as much as I do! Make sure to visit their page where you can order records, t-shirts and why not a poster! You can even watch a video! Over and out.