When everyone else is listening to the new Morrissey album, “You Are The Quarry” (which I’m quite disappointed in), I listen to canadian The Organ instead. Imagine a band that sounds like The Smiths but with Moz as a girl, and a lot more organ. There you go, The Organ! Now go discover while I go to bed! :) Good night…
I sooooo wanna see Madonna’s Re-Invention Tour which opened in L.A. yesterday! It seems to have gotten great reviews almost everywhere!
“The powerful footage dominated long sections of the show – including during Madonna’s cover of John Lennon’s Imagine. When Lennon’s photo was flashed on the screen, the audience erupted. “
No show is confirmed for Sweden… yet, but I doubt it will happen this time. I hope it will be released on DVD at least, which probably is a no as well. Read somewhere that she’s focusing on a behind the scenes-documentary.
At Svante’s request in my latest playlist entry I’ve posted my personal record shop guide (with map). For both Stockholm and online.
**Stockholm:**
Click here for maps. (taken from Eniro).
Skivfönstret. Located in Ringen at Skanstull. My favourite shop at the moment. They almost always have the singles I want at their respective release dates, or earlier! Nice and knowledgeable staff.
Petsounds. Skånegatan 53 at Söder. Great for indie-stuff, but they’re not that fast getting the newest. In my opinion. I’m very impatient. :)
Soundpollution. Stora Nygatan 18, Gamla Stan. When you need your dose of metal and hard electronica this is the place to go shop. They also have some indie. Nice staff. The cd covers are not in the best shape if you care about things like that.
Record & CD Exchange. Gamla Brogatan 15, Norrmalm. Very wide range of everything from alternative to pop and progressive. They also have a good constant(?) sale.
Åhlens. Sergels Torg, Norrmalm. Very underrated department store. I like it because of their punctual releases and their small price tags unlike the 50% wide ones they have on Megastore. Some good sale finds too.
St Eriksgatan, Vasastan. Not the name of a store, but a street with lot’s of nice second hand stores I won’t mention individually. Good for used cd’s and promos.
Don’t miss Diamond Records which is located right under the bridge to Kungsholmen.
**Online**
For better prices and no tags, go online!
HMV (uk). Good prices on UK singles. Pretty fast air mail.
Amazon.de (de). Lightning fast, but expensive. Mostly just useful for german imports.
CD Universe (us). Wonderful prices and fast shipping! Recommended!
CD-Wow (sg). Very good prices with shipping included.
EIL.com (uk). Pretty expensive, but when you need that rarity, you need it. :)
Norman Records (uk). Very friendly indie store! Good sale and good reading.
Tweekitten and Darla.com (us). Indie indie indie.
CD Baby (us). These guys simply have the coolest order confirmations mails on earth. :)
cdon (se). Good but slow. Great range.
Ginza (se). Very fast and great sales.
Skivhugget (se). Not the fastest, but cheap shipping and great range.
It’s the 24th and time for the monthly playlist post. :) I still want to know if it’s legal to put up a “mixtape” of it and stream. Anyone? No? So here they are. My 10 most played songs:
May 2004
Marit Bergman – I Will Always Be Your Soldier
Suicide Commando – One Nation Under God
Hanin Elias – Future Noir
Linda Perry – Success (Thanks to Peter @ work!)
Skinny Puppy – Pro-Test
PJ Harvey – The Letter
Morrissey – Irish Blood English Heart
Patti Smith – My Blakean Year
Leaves Eyes – Tale Of The Seamaid
Otep – Nein
Edit: Ha! The entry got posted 5:55, and yesterday’s post was 4:44.. too bad there’s no 6:66. 
Dannii, my favourite Minogue musically, is rumoured to have been dropped from Warner.
“Dannii won’t be releasing another record with Warner. She enjoyed some success but just doesn’t sell enough records to merit a new deal.”
from: playlouder.com
This is probably a good thing. I hope she will picked up by an electronica based label for some more electroish sound. Apparently she seems to be writing some new material with the legendary songwriter Billy Steinberg, who’s behind the hits “Like a virgin” and “Eternal flame” among others. I hope that won’t be a problem for being picked up by a not-so-commercial electro label. I’ll keep my thumbs crossed. :)
Germany’s new president for the next 5 years is Horst Köhler, who won the election against Gesine Schwan. Just like the swedish king, the president have no real political power and is not to be confused with the Bundeskansler. The president’s job is basically to represent the republic internationally.
We’ll see how it goes. Not considering their agendas, I think I would’ve preferred Gesine in this case. A top woman is not as dull as a former economist. The sexual equality really needs a push in Germany.
Saw Troy yesterday! Wow! I’m very pleased with Wolfgang Petersen’s adaptation. Of course it has some annoying bits and flaws, but overall a very powerful och beautiful movie. Brian Cox and Eric Bana played fantastic as Agamemnon and Hector. I also liked the portrayal of Akilles and Briseis very much. A solid 4 out of 5!
Picked up our new DSL modem for Bostream Scream today. I measured the speed to 6 mbps which I guess is ok at this distance (4,5 km from the telestation).
What’s better than starting out a 4 day weekend with the new VNV Nation DVD “Pastperfect”? Depends on your mood. The first thing that annoyed me was the DVD production itself. No 5.1 sound, only 2-channel dolby. Second, the sound isn’t from one continous concert, but mixed from different sound sources… who knows exactly. This definately brings down the production, which otherwise is very good considering design and packing.
It’s not all bad though, when coming to track 4, “Honour” (my favourite), you can really feel the raw energy and that live feeling!
Stand your ground this is what we are fighting for. For our spirit and laws and ways. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war. For heaven or hell we shall not wait. Shall I think of honour as lies? Or lament it’s aged slow demise? Shall I stand as a total stranger? On this day in this stone chamber?
Even though the DVD is not flawless, it’s essential for any fan. I haven’t checked out the other discs yet, but I feel they might as well put it all on one dual-layered DVD instead of 2 single.
After that I watched Spartan, a pretty good action thriller starring Val Kilmer. Watch it if you get the chance.
PJ Harvey released the single “The Letter” today, which is the first taste of the highly anticipated new album, “Uh Hu Her”. The new sound is picked up from Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age and his “Desert Sessions” side project, on which PJ appeared last year. Since I’m a big fan of her last album, “Stories From The City..”, I’m a little disappointed in this new turn. I guess my wet dream would be Josh Homme producing it the stoner rock way, like QOTSA. But anyway… I’m just glad she’s back! :)
Phew…what a day. I’m sooo tired, although my production skills are getting better and better. Patrik at work tipped me about Dive, a band that sounds like something between Porcupine Tree and A Perfect Circle. Very good. They’re playing live at Snövit this friday.
Bremort is the title of Hans Appelqvist‘s new album, which is amazing! The pressrelease describes his sound as “lucid harmonics and a largely straightforward structure created out of classical musical elements and accompanied by a simple, clear-cut theme”. I wouldn’t know how to describe it myself. :)
Also don’t miss his cool 3 inch EP “Att möta verkligheten” on the label Häpna. Dagensskiva.com reviewed it here. Damn I’m hung over…
This is so fucked. Bush takes Greenpeace to court.
The trial begins on May 17th, and results from a protest against an illegal shipment of mahogany headed for the Port of Miami in Florida two years ago. Unable to find a suitable law against calling attention to environmental crimes, the Attorney General has charged Greenpeace under an obscure 19th-century law designed to stop prostitutes from boarding sailing vessels.
Tell Bush and Ashcroft to prosecute illegal loggers, not Greenpeace.
Just listened through the first album from Leaves Eyes, and I must say I’m positively surprised.
Leaves Eyes is a new band of Liv Kristine Espenaes Krull, former lead singer of Theatre Of Tragedy, and the members of Atrocity. The music of Leaves Eyes is based on the wonderful voice of Liv and beautiful melodic arrangements.
Troy premieres tomorrow. I have some mixed feelings about it. I loved the greek mythology when I was younger, but a movie like this… I’m sceptic. Haven’t been to the movies for months now. I suppose it’s time for another visit. Tomorrow is BBQ night over at boss’ place though.
Anyone wanna buy me a subscription to D-Side? Kickass french magazine about electro/industrial/dark/underground music. I don’t know french, but check out those great sampler cd’s!
Pre-ordered Tori Amos‘ soon to be released “Welcome To Sunny Florida” from cd-wow. 123 SEK for a live-dvd and a bonus-cd (even though cd-wow lists it the other way around) must be considered as a bargain in this case! :)
I’ve been at the new job for a week now and starting to settle down. Here I’m describing a typical day at the office:
07:18: I get out of bed after waking up to P3 on the radio, shower, make a cup of coffee and skim through Computer Sweden and the cultural pages of SvD (switching back to DN soon).
07:46: I hurry out to my bike and start to pedal. When I pass the suburban farm, I want to take a romantic mobile picture of the grazing horse right beside the road.
“Tomorrow”, I think to myself.
08:02: Entering the office panting. Kero, the office dog, wants to inspect my lunch box.
“Good morning” everybody. Usually just 2 more at this time. I gradually end up in front of my computer and start doing some work.
10:00:00: Break. Not a second after 10. The smokers are more punctual than an atomic watch. Me and the other non-smokers chat in the kitchen instead.
12:06: Lunch. Boss goes out somewhere and the rest of us start up the microwave ovens. Mr. M whistles “Popcorn” or any of his karaoke hits that day while heating up the frozen food. Chat + coffee and then back to work. A walk with Mr. P and Kero is optional.
15:06: Afternoon break. The smokers are eager to suck another one down, but I tend to just grab a soft drink and carry on.
17:12: After finishing up I grab my jacket and go home. Note to self: Oil up the bicycle chain! “Tomorrow”, I reply subconsciously.
At home.. Computer + dinner + Simpsons (or any other favourite tv show) + more computer…. Then zZz.
Some idiots have broken something at the telestation, so my internet connection has been down all weekend and won’t be up until tomorrow.. I guess. Call me an addict, but it’s very frustrating being this offline. Thanks to 3/3G I can at least type this.. I need my fix!! ;)
Maaaaaaaaake haaay not waaaaaaar….
Catatonia – Dead From The Waist Down + wine. Have a nice weekend.
Really slow day work-wise today, but good for talking. While trying to learn some new Photoshop shortcut keys we (me and the other new guy) went to Office One to pick up our new computers. They were of course not ready yet, so we had to wait there for like an hour. I was pretty annoyed since I didn’t get an optical mouse (although I think I got one anyway).
Me and the other new guy discussed music while bossy smoked. (I hope this was the last ride I have to take with his smell-of-smoke car). We talked about Thåström and how we looked forward to his new album…which I guess still is unconfirmed. I thought it would be cool if his songs were remixed by his industrial side project Peace Love & Pitbulls. Guess no one except us would like that. Feels good with a soul mate in that matter at least. :) On the way home I was kept going by a nice discussion about language theory and philosophy.. Kind of cosy actually, getting paid for talking. :)
“We’re all whores” said boss and continued talking about customer phone relations…
Aah.. had the new limited edition Melissa Auf Der Maur-single in the mail when I got home. :)
If you’re wondering about the mess on the site now, it’s because I’m upgrading it live. The minimal design is gone and will be replaced by this. I didn’t really feel comfortable with the other one. This is more “me”. The transition will probably take a few days.
Nice and slow first day at work today. Mostly just learning the basics and lunch with the boss. Very nice people there. I think I’ll enjoy this. :) Took the bike, which was a mistake. Too hot, but good if you wanna sleep a bit longer.