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)...

A catching up post? Not quite...

Know I promised a catching up post, but guess it will have to wait at least until tomorrow. Was simply too tired yesterday to write, work, anything and today my schedule is simply impossible. Manning the phones at work this morning and later I'm off to Funen for a meeting. But busy or not, I thought I'd post the two tracks that by far are my favorite songs of the moment...and as always I hope you'll enjoy them as well!

No question that Prince of Spain is rapidly becoming one of my new favorite band. Away We Go is the band's third single and possibly their best effort so far; which humbly said is quite a feat, as the previous ones were, well, just brilliant. Perhaps not quite as folk popish as Rising Sun/Finding Love, but instead a slightly more straight forward pop song with one of those chorus that will stick in your head for hours and hours after just one listen. The purest of gems!
One thing has struck me though. I've read that the band is based in Nashville, but that's about all the information I can find. So starting to wonder if someone more "established" could be hiding behind the alias? No stirring up rumors; just wondering...


The timing is completely off when it comes to my second favorite track of the moment. Sports by The Eclectic Moniker is all summer, summer, summer, but it just gives me a boost of energy every time I listen to it...and boy do I need those boosts more than ever these days...

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…

Night Café...

Check out this new video from old (and we're talking about way back to the early 80's) favorites OMD for the single Night Café. The song is a simply wonderful and catchy electronic pop piece and the album English Electric has to take the prize as surprise of the year (History of Modern was actually pretty darn good, but still pales in comparison), but the video is truly, truly bizarre (if you can make any sense of it, please do tell)!

Rising sun...

Last week I posted the wonderful debut single Find Love by Nashville act Prince of Spain, which I called (roughly translated) "folk pop when it's most beautiful, melodic and dreamy". A second single called Rising Sun has now been released and guess what (you already have); it's equally beautiful, melodic, dreamy and simply wonderful! A new favorite band?



oh...there's a video too...

One step forward; two steps back...

I’m seriously considering a switch back to English. The logic being that my posts in Danish are shit and so were my posts in English. Though it shouldn’t really matter since no one’s reading anything I write anyway. But after all; writing in English should increase the number of people not reading my posts. By that I mean that there are far more people understanding English than Danish, so by switching back you can say that I’ll be ignored by a far greater number of people. Make sense of that if you can…

The title refers to the shape of my back. It’s been hurting for nearly three months and just when I thought things were getting better, I spent 9 hours this past weekend on a bench, in a church, in Copenhagen watching a somewhat shortened version of Wagner’s Ring Cycle (the blurry photo is from Die Walküre). I survived and actually thought it was immensely enjoyable, but my back sure took a setback (it prefers that I’m either laying down or standing up). Perhaps someday I’ll write some thoughts on the Ring Cycle, as there sure is a lot to say, mean, think etc. But (hopefully) without sounding too melodramatic, music, movies etc. will never quite be the same again after being introduced to The Ring, as I will constantly from now on and forever be hearing and looking for references.

In case you didn’t understand any of my Danish posts (and you probably weren’t around anyway) they were in vast majority a copy paste of previous posts written in English. Most of the time bitching and nagging about the poor quality of the music found in the mailbox. Or putting it another way…shitty music for at shitty blog! However some music was actually pretty OK, so you really should do yourself the favor and scroll down or check some older posts. There were gems!

But today I’m just cursing at my back pain…ouch...and will perhaps be checking out some music as well, but don't count on it!

Over & Over...

De smukke sange står åbenbart på række i dag og tilsyneladende bare venter på lidt opmærksomhed...Over & Over med det engelske stjerneskud (?) Sivu er tilbagelænet, britisk, følsom singer-songwriter-agtig og bare helt gennemført vidunderlig...dage som i dag er hele besværet værd!

Prince of Spain...

Startede dagen med dette vilkårlige pluk fra maildyngen og til min pænt store forbløffelse røg nummeret ind under huden fra første sekund...debutsinglen Find Love fra Nashville bandet Prince of Spain er folk pop, når det er allermest følsomt, smukt, melodisk, drømmende...(tilføj, om du lyster)...
 

Just kids...

Som jeg vist fik pjevset rigeligt over i sidste uge, har jeg pænt travlt på arbejde lige nu, så desværre er det så som så med tid til at opstøve nyt. Så yderst tilfredsstillende at konstatere at "fødekæden" fungerer upåklageligt og at J.A. som altid står klar i kulissen med en solid anbefaling. Og nok en gang rammer han den klokkerent til et suverænt homerun, for Just Kids med den engelske trio F.U.R.S er præcis et af de her energiske, melodiske, guitardrevne og let støjende numre, som man bare (jeg kan i hvert fald ikke) aldrig kan få nok af!

Klar, parat...

Et af mine yndlingsbands fra snart ufatteligt længe siden krydser spor med et af mine yndlingsbands fra nyere tid. Tears for Fears (The Hurting er nok det bedste album nogensinde) har indspillet denne cover version af Arcade Fires Ready To Start. Nok mere interessant end egentlig godt, men en helt igennem egen fortolkning af sangen, hvilket jo altid er at foretrække frem for de versioner, som deler 99% DNA med originalen. Facebook opdateringer og egen SoundCloud side kunne jo godt indikere, at bandet snart har mere i ærmet...nok utopi at forvente en The Hurting part II, men mindre burde vel kunne gøre det?