Catching up (sort of), whining, etc. etc. etc...

The important stuff first. Perhaps not important to you, but to me it sure is. And since this is my blog, I make the rules around here. My back is feeling better. Not fantastic. Not great. Not even good. Just better. But better is definitely a whole lot easier to cope with than the mother-f!"#¤%g pain, I experienced only a few days ago.

My unintentional break unfortunately paused my "clean out the mailbox" project, so I'm back at square one with plenty of stuff to delete go through. I don't count the numbers of mails I receive, but it sure exceeds the number of hits to the blog. Amazing thought really!

One band I've been monitoring real close for exactly a year now is UK quartet HUSH! and two weeks ago the band finally doubled the numbers of published tracks...from one to two! New track Cruel is not a world beater like the stunning debut track There's Something In The Stars Tonight, but still a wonderful melodic and catchy pop piece with a fair share of 80's sound added to the mix. The band is currently shooting a video for a forthcoming single (called Blush), so hopefully we won't have to go through another 12 months of wait, before we'll hear new songs!


Rather brilliant Danish singer-songwriter Stærosaurus has a new track out called Under Stranden (translates into "under the beach"), which, being mostly electronic, really doesn't sound that singer-songwriter-like at all. But the track is thoughtful, laid-back, dreamy and pretty, so somehow I do think that it does fit that category pretty well...after all...though who cares anyway? What matters is, whether or not the track is any good. And it most certainly is!


Anyone remember EPO-555? I hope you do! If not, you've either forgotten about or managed to completely miss out on arguably the most interesting Danish indie band of the mid-zeroes. The band split-up following the release of their second album Mafia (or was it later?) and since then the band members have been involved in various other projects (Helsinki Poetry, Oliver North Boy Choir, The Boombox Hearts und so weiter). But recently there has been increased activity on the band's Facebook page and answering the question (not asked by me though) "should one start hoping for news/new stuff", the band replied "don't expect too much, but a little news and some great news as well". Again; not stirring up rumors, just passing on observations...


Still a few things left to write and share, but real life is once again catching up with me, so I better start turning my attention to work. Rounding out today's post with the hilarious tennis themed video for the new Yuck single Middle Sea, which I've previously (in them old, but not so memorable "writing-in-Danish" days) described as simply excellent (and without any doubt, it remains absolutely glorious)...

Stay positive...

It’s tough these days. Really, really tough. Just when I was finally starting to believe that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and foolishly hoped that my back was close to healing, I suffered setbacks. At first it was just the minor one following the “opera marathon”, but then a little more than two weeks ago, things got pretty bad. What happened I cannot explain (because I really don’t know what went wrong), but for a few days I was barely able to walk and what little hope and energy I had left disappeared completely. I was drained, high on pain killers and cried my fair share of tears. Since then I’ve been consulting a specialist a number of times and things have luckily improved, so I am now able to walk (though not without some pain), go to work etc. I do my best to stay positive, but as impatient I may be, things seem to have slightly stalled. Frustrating as hell, as “state of normal”, where I can walk, run, sit down etc. without pain, feels like light-years away.



Pains and frustrations aside…look out for some kind of catching up post later today or tomorrow…

But...

the computer at work isn't...and I promise that I'll be back posting for real (or whatever you'd call what I'm doing) tomorrow!

Hard times ahead...

the computer at home is dead...

Catching up...

What a truly awful week it has been so far. Had last week off from work and a lovely week it was, spending it with the family doing all the stuff families normally do (I guess); museum, zoo, cinema, theater etc. Ending it in a proper manner (without the family though) with that wonderful The Divine Comedy concert Saturday evening. But back at work Monday morning, I learned that my colleague had been ill all of last week (and she has not returned yet), meaning that no (zero, zip, nada) work in my department had been taken care of. So the past two days I’ve been more than busy trying to clean my desk (and my colleague’s), as well as preparing for (and attending) a couple of meetings. Did I ever say that work is highly overrated? Sorry about the whining. Will post some proper stuff later today!

Mailbox...?

The mailbox is still a mess, so my plan today was to bring out the broom and start sweeping. But my back is killing me and I've spent the first 30 minutes at work lying on the floor (far less painful than walking, standing or even sitting in a chair). So I guess the only right thing to do is to get some work done and then head home. Or simply wait for the damn painkillers to start working!

Grumpy...

Fuck this has become predictably boring! Once again I’m a grumpy old man and feel the need of complaining about something! Perhaps my age has finally caught up with me and begun to show its ugly face? Because, believing that the world has united in a collective attempt to piss me off is simply too paranoiac, so it has to have something to do with my age! I suppose! I hope! Anyhow; this morning I learned that my file host boxstr.com had transformed itself into OpenDrive, but of course not before deleting all my previously uploaded files. I did read somewhere that true reason is that boxstr.com has been hacked, but I can find no verification of this anywhere. And no matter the reason, this meant that I had to spend quite some time re-uploading a string of songs to prevent people from bumping into far too many broken links. Well at least on the front-page. And tomorrow I wouldn't be surprised if things are back to normal, thus making today’s work a complete waste of time...fuck modern technology and bring back the glorious days of vinyl and cassettes...told you I was grumpy!

Guess it’s time to put focus back on music and leave all my whining behind!

Danish youngsters Avisitor has three new tracks streaming at Myspace. While you're there, why not give the new track Easy Come Sit by the lovely Majorian a listen? And Lastbandalive has a couple of new ones streaming as well! Too much streaming for my liking, but still great to learn that things are brewing!

Chris is excited about the news that Shout Out Louds are in the studio recording their third album! And give me one good reason why he shouldn't be?

Konrad has mailed me his never-released remix of the Track a Tiger track (try repeating that: “Track a Tiger track”) Don’t Make a Weapon. Since I really like this band and the remix certainly isn’t “killing” the song, I have no problems posting it. The original version of the song can be found on the band’s second album We Moved Like Ghosts.
+ Don't Make a Weapon (Konrad remix)

My hands are tied…

My new job is quite nice. It really is. You know! Nice colleagues, great view from the office, the job is challenging without being too stressful etc. Not much to complain about really. Well except for one thing - my computer! It might have some historic value, as I’m certain Churchill used it when he was writing his speeches during the Second World War. But as a workstation in the year 2008, it is completely, totally, utterly and absolutely useless. If I tell you that there is plenty of time for nearly two cups of coffee, before the thing has even started in the morning, you probably get the picture what I’m dealing with.
Now that’s one thing and obviously I’m not very thrilled when unsaved spreadsheets etc. decide to crash at the most inconvenient moment. But from a blogger point of view this so-called computer makes life even worse. It has no speakers and a version of explorer that is so slow and without any applications, which means that it is impossible to watch videos, listen to music etc. And I’m not quite sure that it’s a good idea (just yet) to start installing various programs including Firefox and bringing my own speakers. So if you’re unhappy with the lack of updates, I can assure it’s nothing compared to my ever-growing frustrations.

So there’s definitely a problem that needs to be addressed and I believe these are my options:
1) Quit the new job and get the old one back. I recall that I had plenty of time for blogging there. But there was a reason why I decided to leave, so this one doesn’t sound very appealing to me.
2) Quit the job and start being a full-time blogger. Unlike the above this sounds very appealing. But exactly how will I be able to pay my bills? Just no one click those adds!
3) Be patient and once I’m in-expendable (and in my vanity I believe, I will be just that very soon), I will start whining and get myself a new computer (with speakers etc.).
4) Any suggestions?

Business as usual...

Exactly! Nothing new under the sun. I'm busy and expect to spend the next 12 hours at work. Unfortunately the pivotal point of life cannot be blogging, though that certainly would be quite an appealing scenario. But every now and then my “real life” job requires some attention, and with the next paycheck in mind, I’ll try to focus on work today (at least for the next couple of hours…....)!
Since I doubt very much that anyone are the slightest bit interested in my personal whinings, I’ve posted this absolutely gorgeous indie/electronic pop track instead (recorded by 17 year-old wunderkid Ben Garrett under the alias frYars), to get everyone's focus back on track. I've been given permission to post more tracks, so check back for more (but not today)!
+ The Ides