Even the Sky Seems Blue

Yesterday I was at a great new club called Hullabaloo. Well, it's not all new since Lee and Sebastian's had it once before at Panora, but now it will happen regularly, I hope. I won't be here to see it through though... Apparently there won't be much happening at Panora at all - it's closed until November! Sebastian had a fantastic northern club there before called Inner City Soul Club, and Marcus (who used to do The Gabb with him) had a garage/beat/psych club called Reaction!. I think he's starting a new club at Retro now instead. Lee, for the ignorant, is in the band Thee Exciters (he also played with us in ASAAR in Stockholm, which was very kind of him). Anyways, they played lots of loud and obscure 60's stuff yesterday as well as some more 50's-ish rock & roll and r & b. Heard a few favourites, like The Sorrows and "What Am I Going to Do" by The Dovers! But the place is a bit strange, it's in the basement to a quite posh restaurant called Brogatan. There were chairs and benches with vinyl seats, a wall covered with a metal grille and coloured light behind it - gradually changing from various horrid nuances, and a bar made of the same metal and orange plastic. And let's not go into the pictures you could see through the metal framewok! But it should be ok if only they turn off those lights. I hope there'll be some good sixties clubs in Glasgow too!

I'm dj-ing myself next weekend together with Kajsa, when The Lucksmiths visit Lund. The club's called Emma's House and you can expect to hear all my favourite songs whether "you've heard it all before" or if you haven't heard of them at all. And you can expect some 60's gems as well. Just because it's kind of a goodbye to Lund and Sweden and all my friends... I've told them all they're more than welcome to come and visit, so I hope some of you will!

DROP 1

The Budgies (you've seen enough pictures of them already haven't you?) are Goof, Kajsa, Henrik and Kalle and they're the best Swedish band at the moment. "Train Song" is one of their new songs and has quickly become one of my favourites (and it's not a cover btw). They haven't recorded it yet, so this live take is very exclusive! It's taken from their (hopefully) forthcoming live cdr with the gig from Kaninkanon.

DROP 1
The Budgies - Train Song (live)

Jangling Guitars In My Ears

That was going to be the name of a fanzine in the shape of a blog, that I was going to do - mostly about music. It's actually a mishearing of the opening lines of "The Sun Shines Here" by the magnificent Hurrah! (The correct words are: "it jangled, it talked in my ear"). Well, anyway I liked it because other fanzines have been inspired by Hurrah! songs - Are You Scared to Get Happy? is the most well know, written by Matt pre-Sarah. It's not going to happen now, because I have this blog instead. There will be will music here as well though, I'll try to stick to stuff that is not available anymore or that you can't buy anywhere. Starting today is a string of mp3s that will be catologue-numbered DROP x. If I ever get to one hundred I promise I will put in an announcement in the papers to tell you I'm quitting. Enjoy!

Friends In Literature

So, yesterday I was at Kaninkanon (translates as "Rabbit Cannon") in Copenhagen. It's a one-day festival arranged for the fourth year in a row by Mads from the Danish band Scaredycat. This year it was at the Literaturhaus, a former church, not usually a pop venue but a place for various cultural happenings. This is what the entrance looked like:


Being a former church, the acoustics had a potential for a good sound, and it DID sound good once in a while, but some of the gigs just turned into one big muddle. But overall it was a fine evening, although it did get terribly hot inside as there were no windows and the doors had to remain shut to avoid disturbing the neighbours. I remember thinking this is the warmest place I've ever been to that wasn't a sauna! There were 10 Swedish and Danish bands on the line-up, and the best gigs were by (from left to right below) Ampel, Let's Be Honeys (who's now actually changed name to Nils Folke Valdemar Sings:), The Budgies, bare knees and Strip Squad.


Best by far were The Budgies, who did one of their best shows ever. In the program it said that they would play at a "manic tempo" and they did play fast; I recorded the set on my mp3-player, but the first song was over before I could turn it on! (Well, "Dream" is about 20 seconds anyway...) The sound was pretty good then, or it just suited them, giving them a proper Talulah Gosh sound. The recording is pretty good too, after some heavy EQ-ing, so if the band approve I might make it available to the public one way or the other...

Got All My Dreams Kept Up to Date About You

Alright, I confess, I've given in and finally created a MySpace account: www.myspace.com/ofthebedsitinfamy. Half of the joy was making "friends" with The Mayfields, one of the Truly Great Bands. They've just put up an old demo for download, which you shouldn't miss for the world. Well, there's not that much on my page - there will be four demos I've recorded. (There's only two now and a third that doesn't seem to want to work...). I've really only written one song this year, but there's a new one on the way, called "A Dream You Gave to Me". Have to finish it soon, as I won't be able to bring my guitar when I leave! I'm going to Kaninkanon this evening, and you can read all about it here tomorrow. It looks like it's going to be soaking wet bike-ride home though...

The Crystals of Time, I Found Them On the Ground

I just have to tell you about the new album by Pipas! It's called Sorry Love and might well turn out to be the album of the year. It's been two years since the Bitter Club EP and some might have given up hope for a new record. Then out of the blue Pipas are booked to the Emmaboda festival and collect all their new songs to make up the fourth release on their own Long Lost Cousin label! I bought a copy at Emmaboda but haven't listened to it properly until now. It's just fab! Perhaps their best yet, at least as good as Chunnel Autumnal and Golden Square. It's much more textured and varied than earlier records and brimful of flowing melodies and shimmering guitars. "Windswept Room" is my favourite at the moment (that's where the title of the post is from). They've done their second song in Spanish, which is good news considering the last one "No suspires más" is one of their finest moments. A hiphop beat has never sounded as good as in "Yrrdbk", which you might have heard live already. What can you say about a line such as "adios to all that came before ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba"? Those two together with "Riff Raff" were on the long lost Long Lost Tour CD and "Riff Raff" can still be downloaded from here. There's a video as well! "Boxes", I think, was on a Matinée compilation earlier. Pipas also have a new website at www.pipasforthepeople.com were you can buy Sorry Love (do it now!) and a fresh MySpace account at www.myspace.com/pipas4real.

Oh, in case you're wondering, it IS less than 25 minutes long.

Just What the World Needs Now, Another Poet

Starting the third post in a row with a line from a Hey Paulette song DOES say something about the greatness of the recently released comp Long Ball Into Nowhere. Anyways, when I got back home the first thing I did was to open the packet containing my copy of Souvenirs From Egg Records. It has 27 songs on it and several are now among my top 100 songs ever. The one that really floored me however, was "Take Me Away" with The Submarines. I might post it here later when I get the possibility. But wait just a sec! Wasn't there another festival i should mention? That's right, the Sunday after Emmaboda was the day for "I'm From Bräkne-Hoby" (a pun on a, sadly, successful Swedish band). It was in a village called Bräkne-Hoby, in a massive brick building we were told was a former mental hospital. It was very cosy, although we were all quite tired. Check out the line-up at www.imfrombraknehoby.tk! It was everyone's "Lucky Sunday" when The Budgies played a punky set. I caught them somewhere mid-song, hence the blur! We're now gearing up for their next gig, at the Kaninkanon festival in Copenhagen this Friday.

A lot of English was spoken between and during concerts as half of the crowd didn't speak Swedish (I think there were 70 paying visitors). On the morning the following day, before catching the bus home, me and Goof played a song of mine at the "breakfast punk" (a pun on Emmaboda's breakfast pop). We introduced ourselves as the The Bedtime Stories and said that it was our only live performance ever... (New name next time I guess!). On the bus we took home it said "via all stations"...

It was a bit sad saying goodbye to Andrew, Carly and Sterling from Pants Yell! and all our other friends but I hope to see them soon again. Their coming single is a treat, I can tell you. Don't Stop Making Music!

You Make Me Feel Closer to the Door Than the Hinges

Well, I've returned alive from six arduous festival days. Emmaboda honestly exceeded my expectations by far. I don't think I've ever met so many of my friends in such a short period of time. The weather was much nicer than the forecasts had said as well, it was sunny right up until the Saturday. Which was the day I played with A Smile and a Ribbon... Fortunately it stopped raining just before we were on! The gig went well considering it was our second ever. Our cover of The Chefs' "Sweetie" seemed to be appreciated, and a few shy kids came up to us afterwards to express their appreciation. Andrew from Pants Yell! enjoyed it as well, which was flattering! Back at our camp I discovered a good five centimeters of rainwater in mine and Goof's tent, but luckily Lisa came to the resque when she said that her friend was picking her up in her car that evening! Otherwise I would've had no place to sleep. They dropped me off in Bräkne-Hoby, which you can read about in the next post.


Just before we left I had my best time of the whole festival, watching Camera Obscura in a gentle Glaswegian drizzle. It was the best gig just because I've longed to see them for so long (two years?). They were late and in a hurry, but I had a chat with Gavin who seemed to remember me. I warned him that I was coming to Glasgow to harrass him and the rest of the band quite soon! The second best shows were Pipas, Pants Yell! and The Pipettes. Here's a picture of a tired Lupe and Mark, watching Bobby from The Pipettes play solo. It was lucky they were able to come, as many flights from London were cancelled because of some terrorist wankers. Don't they ever get tired?


We had a very unofficial mini-festival at our camp during the first day as well. As you can see Goof played a few songs in his Razorcuts shirt, and Let's Be Honeys played too as well as 2/5 of Ampel, Andrew from Pants Yell!, Strip Squad's alias Tommy Lindell and ehm... me! I've never done that before so it wasn't flawless, but we didn't have any microphones anyway so anyone outside a five meter radius probably didn't hear a note (not to mention the ones i missed). I did a version of "I Fought In a War", four of my own songs and concluded with "The Year of Driving Langourously" by our favourite Aussies. I met Mark Monnone later, but I didn't tell him. I'll be seeing him again soon togther with the other two (sorry, three it is these days) in Gothenburg and Lund, just before I leave. Which reminds me to tell you that the date is now set: I will arrive at Prestwick on September 8th!

I Must Be In Love

There's been quite a lot happening over here lately - it's just a month until I'm leaving now. I've already had sort of a farewell party. Perhaps you were there? And two great records came out just today! The LONG-AWAITED Hey Paulette comp on German Firestation Records, and a new compilation from Egg Records featuring bands like Even As We Speak, Baby Lemonade, This Poison! and Remember Fun. Now we're just waiting for that St. Christoper comp on Bus Stop and the secretive James Dean Driving Experience one. I'm going to start writing more on here now. And there'll be pictures, and further on music as well. Keep the faith!

Everything Went POP!

It seems my Musicology essay on C86 has been read by a few people now. It still up on Indie-MP3 - http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/2005/12/c86-essay.html. I could have done it much better now, but if you're interested in C86 it might be a good read. If not only for the contributions from legends like Gregory Webster, Amelia Fletcher, Everett True (aka The Legend!, aka Jeffrey Thackray), Matt Haynes, Clare Wadd etc.

Fly Away On a Paper Plane

I've made some flyers - 96 of them to be exact. They're numbered of course and come in four different designs. The nicest ones look something like this. I might do some sort of lottery of it later... If you come to Retro in Malmö tomorrow you might get your hands on one. The club for the day is You Can't Hide Your Love Forever with a prestigious guest-dj set from Kajsa of A Smile and a Ribbon/The Budgies/Lätt Som En Plätt fame.

A Smile and a Ribbon

A Smile and a Ribbon had its first gig a couple of weeks ago. It took place at Trädgården in Stockholm, Sweden. It went exceptionally well considering Rebecca and me have never performed live before (the other four members have though). We're now rehearsing for our next gig, at the Emmaboda festival. We're going to do a fab cover, which we will keep secret for the time being... It looks as if it's going to be a great festival this year - everyone's coming, the clouds are clearing up and it'll be really nice to hang out with Pipas and The Pipettes once again. The album "The Boy I Wish I Never Met" is due out sometime this fall, a couple of tracks are available at the website
(www.asmileandaribbon.com) or the MySpace page (www.myspace.com/asaar).