New music: End of Fashion

Some of the best finds in music is find when you just jumble and stumble around on the net for instance on Spotify. I started to listening to an album called Essential Bands in there, cause I saw it had a lot of my favorite bands, and among the ones I hadn't heard before "End of Fashion" turned up. The song on the CD was OK and excited me enough to go and listen to a whole album of them and see if I like the rest. In most cases one is let down in those cases, but as I rolled into the second song on the album "O Yeah" I was still bobbing along, though it sounds an awful lot as the classic "Where is my mind?" by The Pixies. The third song on the slef titled album "End of fashion" is the amazing rock song "The game" and suddenly I was no longer in classic newer American alternative rock but in British rock in the style of one of my other bands Maximo Park. Hard, tight to the point and almost punky. The forth song really opened my eyes... And made me really stop what I was doing and listen. I suddenly heard Jeff Buckley singing without Jeff Buckley. "Anymore" is a quite standard pop/rock ballad, but wow! Singer Justin Burford sounds like Jeff Buckley and Kelly Jones of Stereophonics all in the span of a few lines. That to me, is one amazing voice. I still have to listen to everything in the rest of the album and will try to come back with more later. Now, the rest of my room needs to be moved.. And oh yeah, it's Australian, btw.. That's why I got confused about weather it sounded English or American. Apparently they have released a second album too.. hm.. I get confused when things are not on Spotify, need to find it somewhere else then :)

(Link to the album on Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/2AUu4arz88yY0bGU84KjfD )

Here is my absolute favourite so far:
The game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOIEcNouQOo


Unfortunately this is the only recording of Anymore I could find: and the quality is really very bad, but you can give it a try if you want to:




But here is "Oh Yeah" that also give you a little idea about the great voice and also how to rip off a Pixies song.. hehe
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/klneeqK8O1QPHqlYSU

End Of Fashion - O Yeah
Uploaded by JUAN-PABLO-LOVE-MEXICO. - Explore more music videos.

Great websites: LibraryThing.com - How to organize your books?

http://www.librarything.com

A friend of mine gave me this link after my blog about all my books earlier this week. It turns out to be an amazing site where you can add all your books and almost everything about them. There are wide opportunities to get to know other people that like the same books as you or keep in touch with old literature loving friends :)
You can add 200 books for free and you can choose yourself the price for an upgrade, though there is a fixed minimum price. More info here: http://www.librarything.com/upgrade.php
The whole site also seams very serious for some reason, I think it's the layout. I wish they could have made it a bit more cozy, but then again a neutral look will appeal to more people of all ages and backgrounds. Anyways.. Amazing site, I will add all my books there when I get them into their shelves!
Good night, I think it's supposed to be sun in Norway for the first time in a month or so tomorrow :)

Link to my profile here

Friday Fun: Graham Norton with Basil the singing opera dog across the sea

This is one of the funniest things I have seen on TV ever. Kathrine Jenkins is a classical trained singer as you will understand and around 2.00 the part where dogs gets involved starts: You just have to see it yourself.. hehe.. She seams to have been very like correct and a bit uptight during the whole interview, so it's good that she actually livens up a bit in the end:) Basil, what an amazing dog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foYqEUL3L8k

Life: Moving all the books

I am looking forward to seeing all of there organized in their shelv:)

Sports: Benneteau beat Federer

Some moments in sport just thrill you and makes you cry of the miracle and brilliance. Roger Federer has been the miracle man in tennis the last year and beating anyone and anything. Now however a miracle has happened. This unbeatable wizard of tennis was beaten by number 42 in the world, a totally unknown Frenchman in no other place than Paris. And what a game... You don't beat Federer by easy balls and medium play. And as the game progresses you can see how Benneteau gets more and more excited and shocked and happy, and when he realizes he has won, he just sits there and cries. I am tired of the Federer over-confidence-style and I hope we see more of Benneteau in the future.

Here is a 6 min version of the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e670eOLIU78

History: Armistice Day

Armistice Day in Chicago

11:00 on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, World War I ended in Western-Europe. This war is so often forgotten I feel in the midst of the commemorations of World War II. Still in many ways World War I was just as bloody and even more were the soldiers brave. This was the last war without advanced warfare like airplanes. It was slaughter in a much bigger way than World War one as the soilders ran over the edge of the foxholes towards a certain death.

If you want to see another splendid moment in WW1 you can watch the movie "Joyeux Noël" about Christmas Eve during the WW1 where the soldiers from Germany, France and Scotland decided to stop fighting for one night and spend the evening together. It's a true story and says something about being human no matter what happens. The movie in all, compared to a lot of other war movies, feels incredible real, much due to the fact that the Germans actually speak German and the French French.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424205/


But on this day it ended. You can read more details here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_Day

And view more photos of this important day here. http://images.google.no/images?source=ig&hl=no&rlz=1G1GGLQ_NONO286&=&q=Armistice%20Day&lr=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Live: Phoenix, Rockefeller, Oslo

I suppose I should not be shocked, but I really am. I expected to wake up this morning with reviews in papers, videos on YouTube or at least one photo somewhere, but none! It's like no one went to see Phoenix last night. But I did, and I know about 1000 others did to. I know people took photos, and I would have too, but I wisely positioned myself in the back after reading a big poster with "This concert will contain strobe lights!!" as I entered the venue. I haven't really had any problem with strobe lights for a lot of years, but the two times I passed out from them in the late 90's are still fresh in my mind :) And yepp, there were strobe lights for sure in this one. I was fine though..

ANYWAYS.. back to the concert. If it hadn't been for the Blur concert in Hyde Park this summer. (I am not sure anything will ever top that), this would have been the concert of the year for me for sure. Part of it can of course be due to the fact that I have wanted to see Phoenix for 5 years now, but it was all I expected. They started off the show with "Lizstomania" and "Long distance call". Very wise moves. We were all putty in their hands by then. What I like about Phoenix and have always thought was what makes their distinct sound is elegance. I mean these people grew up in the same city as the worlds most elaborate and luxury castle was ever built, Versailles. Some of the has to have rubbed off on them over the years. There is no mistakes in Phoneix music. The arrangements are amazing, every musician plays like it's the last night of his life playing, and behind it all this elegant little touch that I think must be french. I have no other description for it. It doesn't even matter that Thomas Mars (vocals) as usual in his blue shirt, have a slight little french accent. It just makes it better and more distinct. The music hits you like a wall of excitement, joy and bliss, before they stop for a perfect second and than goes straight back onto it. Amazing stuff. A statement more than anything is that I that was in the total back clinging to a bar disk and jumping up every now and them to catch a glimpse felt the excitement to the very last nerve. Of course I know the music and so on too, but I was not the only one that felt that way. I am sure.

Oh, yes, and Noah and the Whale did warm ups! It was very very good too. The same perfect balance between quiet and loud and made you just flow away at times

By the time we came to the encore the whole audience were more or less grooving around. Strobe light, yes, but man so many other good light effects too. At one point the light flashes in red stripes over the scene, the next light flows slowly out in a cable that is wired around the edges of all the amplifiers. Beautiful and powerful.

I had read the setlists from the former concerts this tour, because I was so curious, and I had noted to my delight that they played almost all my favorite songs, and they did :) "Funky Square Dance", "Consolation prizes" and "Napoleon says". In the former set lists I had seen that they usually have played two songs as encore, but this concert must have been as special as I thought. They did 5 encore songs including two great acoustic versions of "Everything is Everything" and "Love for Granted". At the end they just kept playing "1901" and it all ended up with about 40 audience members rocking along on stage. It's been a long time since I have felt such joy in one place :) Sigh, it was a good concert. I have a feeling we will see them on a bigger stage the next time :)

The soundtrack of this blog has been this clip from P3-sessions about 5 years ago. It gives you a bit of the energy of them: http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/klipp/45821 Yepp there are a lot of clapping at Phoenix concerts :) hehe And they have only gotten better since then.

Here is Mr Mars running around in the audience in Stockholm. I think he did that in Oslo too :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93OrBFnoN_E


Here is a good one from New York this summer that really gives you a feel of the atmosphere:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2HCf_CLMl0

Last.fm: 35 000 songs played and good humor

First of all, I passed 35 000 songs on Last.fm the other day! It's a big event for me, though it might not be for other people in the world ;) I had just bought myself a subscription for their radios again, because it has the last years been my nr.1 source for new and exciting music experiences. I like to be surprised of what I have actually listened to over the last years and to find new thing through the related artist radios that you find on any artists page. Anyhow, Last.fm is amazing and today I found something that just makes them even better.. I got this message while browsing around. I love a website with good humor :) Go to www.Last.fm today too :D (sorry that the text might be a little hard to read, but you should at least get the two first lines!

Great Covers: Punch Brothers (Chris Thile) Heart in a Cage

Wonderful little speech about Hanna Montana and The Jonas Brothers before an amazing cover of The Strokes "Heart in a Cage" bluegrass style! Amazing. Chris Thile never stop to amaze me :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJW9IMfkfLM

The orginal can be heard and seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbw-LT5ZCJo

I love that one too :)

Life: It's snowing!

The first snow has reached norway. By the words of Anne Grethe Preus: "Silent starsister from invisible mouths". The best song about snow ever. I love the calmness that comes with snow:)

Stephen Malkmus on The Late Show with Letterman

Wow.. So I was finding this song totally by chance because Spotify played it. I am thinking to myself: "This sounds good, it remind me of Elliott Smith". And then it turnes out that Stephen Malkmus is from the same city as Elliott.. Hm.. Strange. Must be the Portland air, I think :) I will have to listen to Pavement now :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEanHqTHIyA

Phoenix - 1901 (Live on89.3 The Current)

This must be one of the greatest accustic live things ever.. I mean.. Drums via iPhone. Not many people can pull that off :) Love it :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGuAHzRbckQ