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Veckans tips! 27:e oktober – 2:e november 2014.

Shellac Press Photo

Måndagen den 27:e oktober: Slowrollgbg #3, Llama Lloyd, kl 18.45.

Imorn styr jag upp den tredje Slowrollern genom Göteborg. Första gången var vi riktigt många som cyklade till Ringön via Frihamnen, andra gången var det bara jag och Rickard som cyklade till Grimbo genom Hildedal, blev mest en sightseeing i svartklubbar. Imorn lutar det lite åt Bräcke tror jag. Eller har du ett bättre förslag? Säg nåt i eventet! Innan kan en med fördel demonstrera mot att regeringen vill införa studieavgifter.

Onsdagen den 29:e oktober: Shellac + Fun, Pustervik, kl 19.

Jag tror faktiskt de har blivit bandet jag har sett flest gånger. Första gången jag åkte till Primavera sound 2006 spelade de i Auditori, alltså konserthuset-scenen i Barcelona. De fyllde givetvis alla stolar så de bad folk komma ner och sätta sig i gångarna så att fler kunde få plats. Sedan körde de en spelning som kändes som en var i videon till Smells Like Teen Spirit. Och för er som inte känner till detta fantastiska band kan ju en övergång från Nirvana vara på sin plats. Deras sista album In Utero är nämligen producerat av Steve Albini, vars band detta är. Efter den där spelningen i Spanien har de varje år blivit inbjudna att spela på ATP-scenen på Primavera och jag har sett nästan alla spelningar. Kommer ihåg att jag en gång såg halva och klättrade upp för muren och sprang bort för att se halva Lower Dens som spelade samtidigt. Numera har de tyvärr säkrat upp festivalen lite så det går inte att ta den genvägen längre. Men du, du behöver inga genvägar till Pustervik, det räcker med 200 futtiga kronor. Spendera dem på höstens spelning. Jag lovar att du inte blir besviken. FB.

Lördagen den 1:e november: Vegandagen, Kompani 415, kl 16.

Jag har inte varit uppe och tittat till Kompani 415 sedan de höll på och fixade i ordning lokalen där uppe, har varit nyfiken på På Spåret-inspirerat quiz och nu ska de styra upp veganbuffé för att fira Vegandagen. Kanske tar jag mig ut till Kviberg. FB. Innan dess kanske jag stannar på ön, men får tummen ur och går på en Roller Derby Bout – till slut! FB.

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What will all tomorrow’s parties be? A bike-ride in Utrecht, The Netherlands? Maybe.


Moonface. Photo: Elizabeth Radzikowska.

On Monday I came back from a long lovely trip with two of the world’s best festivals ringing in my ears. All Tomorrow’s Parties hosted two last weekends of their marvelous concept where they let one band chose what other bands should play. This next to last weekend however was curated by themselves and their friends at the Primavera Sound festival (the very last the weekend after was curated by Loop). I had been to one ATP before, when Slint reunited, back in 2005. Now I made my way to Camber Sands yet again. Camber Sands is a beach resort for the English working-class but during the winter it occasionally transforms into a music nerd Mekka. I booked my ticket on a whim when I heard that they were about to sell out and I so very badly wanted to see Television perform their masterpiece Marqueen Moon in its entirety. One of the reasons I haven’t made it back to ATP since 2005 is the sleeping situation. You normally have to buy a whole room, a chalet. This time however, you could share a 4-berth room so I bought a ”half-chalet” and hoped someone would come to their senses this time and join me. It’s gotten a lot easier finding peeps to tag along to these fests with because of twitter and the lovely little Primavera Sound Crew group on Facebook, a group for people who are nerdy enough to go to festivals in other countries on their own and there meet up with kindred folk. A Swedish guy, Mattias, whom I had just spoken to once in person, took the chance to join me. We arrived with a crowd-funded bus (We can go dutch, I love y’all for that!) with a few of the others from the PS group. An hour later our new flat mates, Charlie and Ollie, two young brits, showed up. Naturally they would have to cuddle up on the sofa bed. Me and Mattias had gotten their first and in true viking manner just taken the two single beds.

I’m not gonna go into detail about all the bands, you can check out tiny little ”reviews” on every one of them at instagram.com/llamalloyd if there’s something special you would like my take on. The Thursday started with me trying to figure out if it really was Scout Niblett in a wig behind the drums at Magik Markers. Of course it wasn’t, she was upstairs and when I got up there she and her guitar gave me goosebumps, the very best thing that a band can give you. Icarus Line blew me away while Low made me so sleepy I literally went to bed, even before they had finished. I felt incredibly old.

On Saturday me and Mattias took a stroll along the beautiful beach and it was all sublime. We left for Eraas, which I just found out is the new duo behind postrock band Apse. I was happily surprised and then blown away by the marvelous instrumentalists Tortoise. The other band to give me goosebumps was of course the old men in Television during the title track of Marquee Moon. Brilliant stuff, still. Then laying down in the back listening to Godspeed You! Black Emperor was just blissful and someone brought a pet dino to Feel the pain with Dinosaur Jr.

Sunday’s lineup felt a little weak, but if you look at it in a positive way, then it felt like these were the band that were the future, instead of old-timers like Dinosaur Jr and Television (except for Los Planetas, enough with them already, Primavera!). These were the new noise-makers; Haxan Cloak and Pharmakon being the two who made the most, and most fucked-up noise. I liked Forest Swords, who had realized it’s much more fun to watch a guy with a bass instead of just having a bass track on his computer. Hebronix had really beautiful passages and stood for the best party trick at the entire festival when he came in to one of the chalet parties that played pretty awful music and asked to plug in his toaster. When he finally found an outlet the thing short circuited the stereo and everything went quiet and black. Brilliant!

Leaving the fest, hung over as the queen in Maida Vale fellow PS Crewers Joao, Blanca and me endured the bus ride and chilled a few hours at a Syrian restaurant. Our minds were pretty empty and it was lovely to just stare into the air for a while. I took a more comfortable than I had thought bus to Amsterdam (£1.60!) over night and continued chilling with the obvious visit to Rijksmuseum and Anne Frank house and a visit to the Documentary film festival and the lovely film Everyday Rebellion before it was time for the next festival.

On Thursday morning I got an email from the ceo of Spinlister, a site where you can rent locals’ bikes that my rental in Utrecht would be the first bike rented in ”Amsterdam”. I wonder what the good folks in Utrecht would say about that! Utrecht is a lovely university city about the size of Gothenburg half an hour away from Amsterdam. Here the festival Le Guess Who? takes place every year at different venues throughout the city, you could say it’s like Way Out West’s club programme Stay Out West but without all the massive queues you get with 25000 people. The biggest venue is about the size of Pustervik (appx 1000 people). I heard that the festival started as a birthday party and that it celebrated Canadian bands (hence Le Guess Who?) the first year and the next year they cheated with Beach House and Jana Hunter (both American). There’s still a lot of Canadian bands on the lineup and a lot of garage rock. My friend Ola was there last year and I agreed that they had a remarkable sense of what was ”up and coming” so I bought an Early Bird ticket for this year’s fest. I felt that they would give what I wanted and yes, the lineup made me smile.

When I got to Utrecht I walked to a part of town with schools and little family houses everywhere. I rang the door bell of one, where Wouter, the manufacturer of the interesting bike I had rented answered and led me out the back where he had these new chainless bikes he had designed and made. I rode with a backpack on my back and a smaller one on my tummy until I made my way to my Couchsurfing host, Eduard. Le Guess Who? has realized that the amount of hotel and hostel rooms in Utrecht is limited but they have an almost unlimited amount of students so you can actually ask for a couch directly on their site! Love that! Anyways I met three little Poles that were also couchsurfing at the same place and we got along very well, one of them, Szymon, runs a music blog called Kilof. A fun bunch. We all stayed in the attic of this kid Eduard who wasn’t really going to the festival until we were… Not the best situation, but yeah yeah. Wednesday started with the brilliance that is King Khan and then a little older brilliance by The Fall and after a little bike-ride to a smaller venue where there was a, mostly Norwegian, line, we saw Night Beats who performed last year as well. I can really see why they let them come back again. It’s always a good bet to go see a band that gets booked two years in a row. Biking around in the darkness a little drunk is fun and frankly, that’s exactly what I did at Stay Out West this year too. And you do manage to get into more than one club that way. In Utrecht everybody bikes. It’s the way to go.

Friday started with a few so-so bands before the marvellous Braids filled my heart with soul and my body with goosebumps. Sheer brilliance. I stuck around for The Black Angels instead of going directly to the Ty Segall curated night and they’re always a treat but in hindsight I feel that maybe I should’ve checked out Magnetix because if they were anything like the band Ty chose after them, J.C. Satán, I would’ve loved them too. J.C. were amazing, one of the best garage acts I’ve ever seen. Brilliant guitarist and it never got boring which garage can get sometimes if it’s too repetitive. None of that. Good shit!

On Saturday there was something called Le Mini Who? which meant free gigs at little art clubs and cafés throughout the city. Me and my new couchsurfing host Dominique (I couch-jumped – didn’t stay the whole time at one person’s home) went to see ZZZ’s but they had swapped times with Pins who were awesome, really good stuff. They had been on my ”first band of the itinerary” but this way it was ok that we had so much Mexican food that we didn’t get there in time for their ”proper” gig. Unfortunately the upstairs was full, too bad, I really would’ve wanted to see Thao & The Get Down Stay Down but the goosebumps from Scout Niblett once again was more than enough downstairs. The only Swedish band on the lineup were The Thing, the jazz trio Neneh Cherry made a brilliant album with recently. On their own they play so incredibly loud and fast you almost get sweaty just watching them. Fire! in a condensed form. Happy to be a Swede. After them even Metz sounded kinda lame. A bike ride over to ZZZ’s and a little queueing before I managed to hear the last two songs these Japanese noise women performed. Great stuff.

The Sunday was suitably timed a lot earlier with Matt Elliott, Moonface and Destroyer as my opening trio in a modern church. The Moonface album Julia with Blue Jeans On that landed about a month ago took my friend Madeleine by storm and I remember thinking ”What the hell” when she gave it 9/10 a few hours after it had been made available. It took me a little longer to come to realize she was completely right and when Spencer Krug performed these piano pieces I was in a trance and was very close to crying. Between these remarkably beautiful pieces he seemed to be another man, though, joking about getting shat on in Lissabon and whatnot. I got to think it through, but that might very well have been the concert of the year. The fact that I’m thinking about going to London just to catch see him again should tell me ”yes, it was”…

I sat through most of Destroyer but mostly it felt like just watching a drunk getting more drunk. It wasn’t getting better with Spencer Krug refilling his whiskey. Speaking of sad, the next act was Damien Jurado, whose songs might be the saddest of the bunch. The man himself, though, was very jetlagged and had been up 24 hours. In spite of that he was a lot of fun joking around and speaking about his artwork for the Le Guess Who? totebag that was inspired by ads of companies doing their ”final” sale. In between that he sang his songs while the entire Tivoli fell quiet. I realized I haven’t listened to him in years and that it was time to correct my mistake.

Maybe the biggest name on the bill was Yo La Tengo, who I hadn’t seen for ten years. They played for an hour and a half and I especially enjoyed The Story of Yo La Tengo off my favorite record of 2006, I’m not afraid of you and I will beat your ass. Love it.

I had already returned the bike so I started walking back, the Poles taking the bus and on the way was the other Tivoli, where Wooden Shjips were playing their psychadelia. I couldn’t NOT swing by. It was as packed as ten sardines in a condom. I went for the bar, that’s a good excuse to get into a crowd like that with your coat still on and that Beck’s beer might very well have been the best beer on-site during this, my new favorite festival, Le Guess Who?

PS. The best lager all-in-all was the Hertog Jan! I heard the festival was still doing minus on their account. This should be their beer sponsor!

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#bestllama12

Illustration: Kimiaki Yaegashi — Alpizzaca. @okimi www.okimi.com.

Ikväll sker årets musikhändelse, nej inte P3 Guld, rockcirkeln har ju årsmöte! Det innebär att jag och ett dussin karlar i 60-årsåldern redogör vilka skivor vi gillade bäst 2012. Dessutom ska vi göra varsin lista över Beatles och Rolling Stones fem bästa låtar. Här kommer mina listor över 2012.

ÅRETS BÄSTA SKIVOR:

1. Alt-J: An Awesome Wave.

Alt-J, eller ∆, som de egentligen heter hänförde mig fullkomligt med dubbelsingeln Matilda/Fitzpleasure och jag ”tjejlyssnade” på allt jag kunde hitta och när albumet väl kom var jag först lite besviken att där inte var så mycket nytt, jag hade hört versioner av det mesta. Nackdelen med att nörda ner sig för mycket, helt enkelt. Efter ett tag och lite tid ifrån skivan fick jag dock lite bättre förhållande till den och förälskade mig även i alla små interludes. Mer sånt! Vi gjorde en intervju med Gus här.

2. Dirty Projectors: Swing Lo Magellan

David Longstreth och hans Dirty Projectors har tidigare inte lyckats fånga mig helt, men i med Swing Lo hamnade jag helt i deras makt.

3. Grimes: Genesis

Grimes (Claire Boucher) släppte tidigt på året skivan Genesis och det blev min mars-platta. Live på Primavera var hon sådär, men det blev ändå en skitkul upplevelse då vår skribent Éric hade med sig en stor röd flagga som symboliserade studentprotesterna i Montréal. Grimes brorsa tog upp den på scen och det var en härlig spelning. Plattan är fortsatt fantastisk och jag ser fram emot ny musik, vilket det verkar som hon grejar med just nu, när hon inte twittrar. Vi pratade om potatis här.

4. The xx: Coexist

Det tog lite längre tid innan även andra skivan med The xx satte sig och numera har det blivit helt ok live, dessutom! Trevligt!

5. Spiritualized: Sweet Heart Sweet Light

Jason Pierce och Spiritualizeds gospelnoise är nåt av det bästa jag vet och spelningen på Primavera är högt upp på årets lista (ok, en sådan har jag faktiskt inte gjort).

6. Lambchop: Mr. M

Kurt Wagner. Jag älskar dig och du älskar din förlorade vän.

7. Cat Power: Sun

Chan Marshall. Jag älskar även dig, även om jag förväntade mig än mer av den här skivan.

8. Bahamas: Barchords

En kanadensare som sövt mig många gånger detta år är Afie Jurvanen. Snart kommer han dessutom till Sverige, dock ej Göteborg. :(

9. The Wave Pictures: Long Black Cars

Textmästarna.

10. Andrew Bird: Break it yourself

Fiolmästaren.

Andra bra skivor som är värda att nämnas:

Beach House: Bloom, M. Ward: A Wasteland Companion, Alabama Shakes: Boys & Girls, Chromatics: Kill for Love, Best Coast: The Only Place, Bobby Womack: The Bravest Man in the Universe, Cloud Nothings: Attack on Memory, Dan Deacon: America, Divine Fits: A Thing Called Divine Fits, Four Tet: Pink, Islands: A Sleep and a Forgetting, Tennis: Young and Old, Liars: WIXIW, Lower Dens: Nootropics, Menomena: Moms, Neneh Cherry & The Thing: The Cherry Thing, Purity Ring: Shrines, Sea Wolf: Old World Romance, Sleigh Bells: Reign of Terror, The Tallest Man of Earth: There’s No Leaving Now, Tame Impala: Lonerism, Thåström: Beväpna dig med vingar, Tindersticks: The Something Rain, Ty Segall: Twins

ÅRETS BÄSTA LÅTAR:

1. Bat for Lashes: Laura

Jag föll för Natasha Khan för några år sedan, men sedan tröttnade jag på nåt vis, men på Hultsfred återfick hon mitt förtroende och så går hon och gör årets bästa låt. Inte illa!

2. Rhye: The Fall

Den här låten är så hejdlöst vacker. Open var inte dum den heller (jag älskade när han sjöng den för sin tjej). Albumet som snart släpps var jag dock lite besviken på.

3. Alt-J: Breezeblocks

Alt-J gjorde en hel drös skitbra låtar, men det här är min favorit.

4. Dirty Projectors: Swing Lo Magellan

Snyggaste låten, inte smartaste, men mest direkt och som går rätt in i mig varje gång.

5. FIDLAR: Cheap Beer

”I DRINK CHEAP BEER, SO WHAT?, FUCK YOU!”, är årets bästa refräng. Kul video som alltid från dem. Om du undrar vad de gillar för billig öl så läs den kortaste intervjun jag gjort.

BÄSTA NYA ARTIST:

Alt-J.

MEST UNDERSKATTADE PLATTAN:

Islands: A Sleep and a Forgetting.

MEST ÖVERSKATTADE SKIVAN:

Frank Ocean: Channel Orange.

STÖRSTA BESVIKELSEN:

Jens Lekman: I know what love isn’t.

BÄSTA LIVE-AKT:

Spiritualized.

ROLIGASTE ARTISTEN PÅ TWITTER:

Dan Deacon (@ebaynetflix)

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Way Out West – tre små band 2/3.


Förra året gjorde jag ett blandband till min kamrat Camilas 25-årsdag, hon är således född 1986 och idén var att bara använda låtar släppta det året. En av ganska få bra skivor jag hittade från det året var Billy Braggs Talking with the Taxman about Poetry. Det ska bli gött att knyta näven igen.

Uppdaterad spotify-lista.

I Break Horses krockade med Lower Dens på Primavera så jag såg tyvärr bara hälften av Maria Lindén och hennes lilla band. Om Blur är tråkiga och ni ändå inte ska försöka klubba får ni verkligen inte missa dessa Stockholmare!

Wilco gjorde 2000-talets bästa skiva med Yankee Hotel Foxtrot för drygt 10 år sedan och även om flera av skivorna därefter varit jävligt tråkiga är det svårt att slita sig när nåt så perfekt som Jesus Etc. går igång (av den anledning kom jag aldrig till Thee Oh Sees på Primavera Sound…) Live är de alltid utsökta, se eller se om.

När det gäller klubbar på fredagen är jag rätt lost på fredagen. Jag gillade Waters som tydligen är en av snubbarna från splittrade Port O’Brien. Swans känner jag inte för, John Maus kanske? Nej, jag går nog hem efter I Break Horses, 30+ som jag är. Jonathan Richman tidigt på lördagen ju!

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Way Out West – tre små band 1/3.


Idag drar som vi alla vet Way Out West igång igen. För att inte översvämma er med massa tips så här sent tänkte vi ge er tre låtar från tre artister som spelar idag. Du kan med fördel dunka på den tre låtar korta listan när du tar en köttbullemacka till frulle för att härda ut den vegetariska festivalen.

#wowgbg llamalloyd.se

Nneka är en ung dam med rötter i platsen på jorden Shell inte vill att du ska känna till: Nigerdeltat. Om vi har tur blir det här årets Janelle Monáe. Men pass på, hon går på redan 15.40!


The Black Keys är torsdagens headliners, men är de verkligen så stora här i Sverige? Personligen fullkomligt älskade jag deras tidiga plattor när Dan Auerbach och Patrick Carney själva spelade in sin garage innan producenter som Danger Mouse kom och slätade ut det sketna.


Största krocken på festivalen är helt klart var man ska försöka sig komma in på torsdagen. Lower Dens, Chromatics och Purity Ring var alla bra på Primavera Sound och det var länge sedan jag senast såg Papa M (David Pajo). undra förresten om Luger har lagt ett svärd i hans loge?. Jag kommer dock skippa alla dem för att se festivalens mest intressanta nya band: brittiska konststudenterna i Δ (alt-J). Ses vi i kön till Trädgårn? Jag är även nyfiken på Bob Mould (ex-Husker Dü) som spelar efter och sedan kanske man orkar stanna även till Cloud Nothings som var finfina på Pustervik i våras.

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Andra kvartalsrapporten 2012.

White Denim. Foto: Press-bild av okänd.

En gång i kvartalet brukar jag lista de låtar som hamnat i mitt musikbibliotek och som sedan har lyckats fånga mitt intresse till den grad att jag tagit mig tid att betygsätta dem med stjärnor i iTunes. Betygsystemet ser ut så här:

5 — låt jag kan tänka mig att lyssna på när som helst
4 — mycket bra
3 — bra
2 — dålig, men på en bra platta
1 — skit, ta bort ur biblioteket vid nästa rensning

Dessa är låtarna som hittat in och fått en fyra, Heartbeats och My Baby Just Cares for Me har sedan gammalt en femma. 43 av de 57 låtarna finns på Spotify, dock ej alla:

Alabama Shakes — Heavy Chevy

En av årets hittills bästa skivor står förra årets sydstatsrockupptäckt för, men det klarade vi av i första kvartalet. Med LP:n får man en fin sjua med den här låten som kör över det mesta!

Alt-J (∆) – Breezeblocks, Fitzpleasure, Matilda, MS & Tessellate

Fantastiska Alt-J (∆) fick mig att gå ner i brygga när Way Out West bokade dem och jag började leta reda på allt de gjort. Till slut kom albumet som innehöll många gamla favoriter som man nästan lyssnat sönder då. Nu, några månader senare, känns det aktuellt igen. Ni såg väl att vi gjorde en intervju med Gus från bandet? Vi ses väl i kön till klubben de spelar på?

Beach House — Myth, Wild & Lazuli

En av årets mest eftertraktade bjöd på några goingar. Jag har inte fallit fullkomligt dock. Extremt svårt att toppa Teen Dream.

Beck — I Just Started Hating Some People Today

Beck släppte en sjua på Jack White vars bas är country men som leker med nåt screamoaktigt och avslutas med nån go’ 60-tals-pop. Härligt att du leker igen, herr Hansen!

Best Coast — The Only Place

Man vill ju flytta till Kalifornien när någon kan älska en stat på detta vis. Pepp på Way Out West här!

Black Lips — O Katrina! & How Do You Tell a Child That Someone has Died?

Black Lips spelade på Primavera och de här är fortfarande deras bästa låtar.

Blitzen Trapper — Skirts on Fire

Blitzen Trapper släppte en kass cover på Hendrix Hey Joe. B-sidan var betydligt bättre. The Band of the 21st century.

Bobby Womack — Please Forgive My Heart

Släng din streamade rip av Frank Ocean åt helvete, det här är årets r’n’b.

Cat Power — Ruin

Efter sex år kommer äntligen Chan med nåt nytt. Och det låter verkligen nytt. Det tog mig lite tid att ta till mig fullt ut, men nu är jag otroligt peppad på kommande LP:n Sun. Den enda andra låt som vi har fått ta del av är Cherokee som man kan höra 17 minuter och 15 sekunder in i det här avsnittet av världens bästa podcast: All Songs Considered på amerikanske NPR.

Chromatics — Into the Black, Kill for Love & Lady

Chromatics börjat sitt album Kill for Love med en fullkomligt fantastisk elektroversion av Neil Youngs Hey Hey My My som de väljer att kalla Into the Black och när den är slut kommer titelspåret igång med ett jävla drag. Man vill ju bara dansa. Gillar ni filmen Drive kommer ni gilla Chromatics, det var nämligen delar av bandet som gjorde soundtracket till just den rullen.

Daughn Gibson — Tiffany Lou

En amerikansk crooner. Me like.

Death in Vegas — Silver Time Machine

Jag peppade Primavera med Death in Vegas, men såg dem aldrig då de krockade med nåt. Det här var i vart fall bästa låten.

Dirty Beaches — Sweet 17

Rockabilly-inspirerad galenskap. Sånt gillar vi. Ni såg intervjun vi gjorde med honom, va?

Eight and a Half — Go Ego

Kanadensiska skivbolaget Arts & Crafts är hem till kollektivet Broken Social Scene, som sägs ha blivit broken for good. På bolaget finns många av deras andra projekt. Eight and a Half är trummisen Justin Peroffs projekt med Dave Hamelin och Liam O’Neil från The Stills. En skiva jag borde lyssna mer på.

Friends — I’m his Girl

Friends skiva landade och det är fortfarande singeln som sticker ut. Tänk er ett härligt ESG-inspirerat gäng live, kan vara värt att köa till på Wow.

Gold Panda — Quitters Raga

Belle & Sebastian gjorde en till Late Night Tales och valde bland annat den här sköna sitar-samplade låten.

Grimes — Vanessa

Jag hade faktiskt missat Grimes innan hennes fantastiska album Visions landade. Men då fick vi gjort en intervju i vart fall. Vanessa är en fantastisk låt från hennes split-ep med d’Eon. Videon som hon gjorde själv är inte dum den heller.

Hush Arbors — Coming Home

Den här hittade jag nånstans och föll handlöst. Har inte fallit lika mycket för resten av skivan dock.

Iggy and the Stooges — I Got a Right

Den här gamla bootleggen hade försvunnit ur biblioteket. Ordningen är nu återställd.

Kindness — Gee Up

Fantastisk låt med kul video. Live är de dock inte så roliga att du vill ställa dig i kön för dem.

The Knife — Heartbeats

Deep Cuts hittade tillbaka in i biblioteket. Även om Heartbeats är enda låten jag älskar från den skivan. Både den självbetitlade och Silent Shout är dubbelt så bra.

Liars — No. 1 Againt the Rush & Brats

En efterlängtad skiva jag verkligen ska lyssna mer på. Dessutom har Matmos gjort en fin remix på No. 1. Jag håller tummarna för en bokning av Wow här i veckan…

Lower Dens — Alphabet Song & Brains

Fantastiskt från Jana Hunter & co. Värt att köa till på Wow.

M. Ward — Me and My Shadow & The First Time I Ran Away

M. Ward spelade in sin senaste skiva på en rad olika orter, i en rad olika studios med en rad olika musiker. Det är dess svaghet, de här två låtarna är, till skillnad från singeln Primitive Girl, några av de som är så bra man förväntar sig att M. Ward ska vara.

Nina Simone — Mood Indigo & My Baby Just Cares For Me

Jag brukar lyssna på en Nina Simone skiva jag inte hört då och då. Mest för att jag inte vill dränera hela den källan i ett svep. Från Little Girl Blue är det än så länge endast dessa två klassiker som jag bemödat mig att betygsätta.

Spiritualized — Hey Jane, Little Girl, Too Late & Freedom

Efter en fullkomligt fantastisk spelning på Primavera lyssnade jag nästan sönder den här skivan. Topp fem hittills i år.

The Stone Roses — Ten Storey Long Song

Jag peppade inför Hultan. Hur var Hultan? Jodå, de två första dagarna var det väldigt lite folk och ett band per dag jag verkligen ville se; Stone Roses och The Cure. Så vad gör man när man inte har massa band att se? Jo, man dricker. Så jag kommer ärligt talat inte ihåg speciellt mycket från de där spelningarna. Lördagen var det däremot skitmycket folk och massa bra band. Bat for Lashes och Errors var nog allra bäst! Men nån fjortis snodde min mössa på Justice. Buhu.

The Tallest Man on Earth — To Just Grow Away

Kristian Matsson släppte ännu en vacker platta. Jag skulle dock vilja att han låter frugan Amanda (Idiot Wind) vara med mer.

Tennis — Deep in the Woods

Bra Tennis!

Tortoise — DJed & Glass Museum

Klassisk postrock håller än!

The Wave Pictures — Stay Here & Take Care of the Chickens, Spaghetti & Long Black Cars

En av världens bästa textförfattare har gjort det igen. Och bättre musik än förra plattan på det. Lovely.

White Denim — Transparency, Heart From Us All, You Can’t Say & Shake Shake Shake

Lars tipsade om det här bandet när vi gjorde en podcast inför Primavera och jag måste än en gång tacka honom för årets bästa upptäckt. Ett band som har roligare, är skickligare eller mer älskvärda än White Denim har jag för tillfället svårt att se framför mig. Live jammar de i 20 minuters-set. Divine. Se om du har möjlighet, innan dess kan du skaffa alla deras plattor. Fantastiska saker allihop!

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Primavera Sound 2012.

Sleigh Bells, photo: Robin Olsson

Sleigh Bells, photo: Robin Olsson

Since there aren’t any Swedish vowels on this keyboard I’ll just do this in English, otherwise I would have to tell you about “Navel”.

Wednesday.
The festival started with a free gig for all at Arc de Triomf. It’s a very nice idea to have free gigs since a lot of the young in Barcelona can’t afford coming to the festival any more. When I was here for the first time, in 2006, Swedes were so rare that when I ran into José González he thought I was in one of the other Swedish bands, I’m from Barcelona. These days, 40% of the festival-goers are from abroad and you can hear Swedish everywhere.

The first act was Jeremy Jay at the packed park, he went by without striking any chords with me, after that The Wedding Present played their beautiful album Seamonsters, it was alright, but pretty much just another reunion show. The Walkmen were ok, but they seem to have had their hay day. Black Lips, who closed the park are always fun, but I prefer them on album. We took a taxi but still had to queue for an hour or so to get into the “secret gig” at Apolo with very good Chairlift, so-so Beach Fossils and boring Kindness.

Thursday.
Thursday means the first day at the beautiful Parc del Forum, last year it started with a wonderful gig with Spanish postrockers Toundra, it’s the best slot for Spanish bands since nothing else is playing. This year it was an electronic duo called Pegasvs, it was decent, but an hour later another Spanish band, Unicornibot, played the stage right next to it, they had tinfoil around their heads and played wonderfully bizarre music that made me think about Lightning Bolt, but they had a full band, this year’s Toundra, for sure! I went over to the stage right next to it, to check out one of the most hyped bands at the moment, Purity Ring, who were a girl in an old-school dress and a guy playing these strange lights, it was a strange but rather beautiful thing, I liked it, but went back to see another dose of Unicornibot and then onto boring Baxter Dury, whom I left to burn away in the sun. Way over at the Mini stage Friends were playing. No, no, not the Bert Karlsson bullshit, this was group of friends from Brooklyn who played a very nice ESG-influenced indie-disco, the singer Samantha Urbani sat on a security guard’s shoulders and sang a song moving around the audience. Fun with friends. After that the boring Danish kids in Iceage performed, I couldn’t really care less. I was mostly just waiting for one of my highlights, Grimes, who were to perform at the same Pitchfork stage. She had some sound problems but we had had just the right amount of beer to get to dancing. My friend Éric took the lead and took us up front and he was waving his flag in support of the Montréal protests, the flag wandered to the hands of Grimes’s brother who were dancing on stage with some other friends, it was a lot of fun.

When I saw this year’s lineup I was intrigued to see Death Cab for Cutie again, it’s been eight years since I saw them last, but then I made a podcast where Lars recommended White Denim, this rock trio from Texas. I ended up choosing them over Death Cab, who’s last album is quite dull anyways. The Texans had an extra guitarist along and the four of them jammed forever, it was great to see, really marvellous musicians! Then I saw the last song by Mazzy Star which was a lot louder than I thought it would be. Good stuff, then onto well-known and well-seen Wilco, who I was about to leave for Thee Oh Sees, but then Jesus Etc came on. You just can’t go then… The night continued with a dash of nicely done hardcore from Refused, a little of boring The XX, then some desert rock from lovely Bombino, dull rap from A$AP Rocky, a lovely set from Spiritualized with it’s mix of shoe-gaze and gospel. Then we closed the night with a little dance with Spanish electro-man John Talabot.

Friday.
We were early to get our hands on Jeff Mangum tickets and hung out in Auditori with Nick Garrie doing his nice singer-songwriter album The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas. I almost fell asleep. I kinda tried to be honest. Laura Marling was more interesting and “Alas I cannot swim” gave me goose-bumps. After the gig the queues for Jeff Mangum were huge and I got really annoyed with people jumping it. After a while I had to realize this isn’t Sweden and the world (Sweden included) is becoming a really terribly egoistic place. Jeff Mangum was all by himself, just a few guitars, a chair and a mic. Todos. With this he performed most of his masterpiece with Neutral Milk Hotel, In an Aeroplane over the Sea. More goosebumps! Best grade you can get! After that there was one of the biggest clashes; I Break Horses and Lower Dens. I started with the Swedes, they were good but I went over to Lower Dens and came in the middle of the lovely “Brains” and thoroughly enjoy them. Then a little African Cubanese music with Afrocubism, loads of guys on stage. A nice rhythmic detour from the indie scene. Then straight into straight rock with The War on Drugs. It was very straight, not gay at all. The Cure were kinda boring, but we might not have giving them our ears’s full attention. We mostly attended our mouths with beer in the VIP section. The beer weren’t free anymore and I will probably not buy the VIP next year since the first “normal” tickets go for a lot less and I prefer to drink my beer where I can see the bands. I left a while in to go see Sleigh Bells who I really enjoyed, I was a bit intrigued to see if there was gonna be a live insane drummer or not, it was just a bunch of Marshall stacks instead but I loved it anyways, danced like a mad man. Went over to the clashing Dirty Three, had a beer and I totally loved the brilliantly alarm that was Some Summers They Drop Like Flies which closed their set. A friend had told me that I had to see M83, who I think has a good song here and there but live was kinda dull so I left after a few songs. Codeine were a lot better, sounded like Slint. Good stuff. SBTRKT were boring and I fell asleep to The Men. When I woke up Éric had texted me four times and he had been kicked out because of the flag, you see it’s a red square without any text so naturally people here in Spain won’t know that it represents a solidarity to the kids in Quebec, I can totally see it rings differently here. But he got in again when they found my booking in the computer. I’m glad he could come in and enjoy this festival’s best gig; The Rapture, they were totally amazing, I really love the bass player and highlights included “House of Jealous Lovers” and the track that stood out from last year’s album In the Grace of your love; “How deep is your love?” To answer that question is easy; very.

Saturday.
We hung out in the park for Dirty Beaches, who Éric did an interview with. It was a little slow and minimal, but hanging out in a park is always nice. I met a girl I made friends with when I gave her my Sufjan Stevens ticket to last year’s amazing gig in the Auditori. A little more sedative Nick Garrie again and some nice rock tunes from Obits. Bleached were the shittiest band I’ve seen in quite some time. Straight outta their mother’s basement where they spent an hour or two.

We went over to the Forum area and had the same kebab as the day before, we’re Swedish after all. Being Swedish I went to see Jeff Mangum play another, different, set. This time with more b-sides and rarities than before. Before that I passed by the dull Sharon van Etten and the equally boring Tall Firs. After Mangum I checked out Buffy Sainte-Marie, the indian singer most well-known for the classic track “Universal Soldier”. Her new approach was a lot more rock, but when she did her stuff from the sixties it was a lot more satisfying. All in all quite boring, though. Saw The Olivia Tremor Control perform “Jumping Fences” and then went over to Mini where almost everyone seemed to be watching Beach House. They’ve gotten too big, I liked them a lot on smaller stages and you know what you’re going to get so I went over to another gig where you know what you’re going to get; Shellac.
Their annual gig seems to always clash with something, I saw most of it where they performed two new tracks and it was the usual bliss that Steve Albini, Todd Trainer and Bob Weston gives us. When they did “The End of Radio” I jumped the fence and ran over to Chromatics and saw them do their last three songs. It was insanely packed. For the first time in Primavera history (at Parc del Forum at least) they sold out, 42 000 people were around this day, normally it’s around 30 000. Chromatics were good and closed their set with “Into the Black”, their beautiful cover of Neil Young’s “Hey Hey My My”. I finally understood where the VIP section at Mini was and I felt a bit awkward having a secluded area right by the stage. Yo La Tengo started a bit boring but came to and did great versions of “Mr Tough”, “Autumn Sweater” and the wonderful noise of “Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind”. The last went on for more than the normal 11 minutes I believe. Just lovely noise. On the way back I saw some of the old dudes doing the punk that is The Pop Group. So-so. Had two chocolate pancakes and hung out in the food court, checked out boring Neon Indian and bought a poster from a nice German before heading back.

Sunday.
Milk Music were a rocky bunch that didn’t catch my ears at all, Zacharias filmed the gig, though, so I guess he liked it. Girls Names were pretty nice and I liked the twee that is Veronica Falls. Then we wrestled in the park and I won over Zacharias in a sprint. Good park fun. We continued with orange fights instead of the packed gigs at Arc de Triumf. Finally there was truce and we saw a little of boring Yann Tiersen and the Morrissey-esque Richard Hawley. Took a perfect break for the rain with sangria. I still suffer from that, or maybe it’s the six days drinking that I’m suffering from. All in all, this was the less interesting Primavera I’ve been to, especially Saturday was quite uninteresting, I want to be blown away a few times more. Better luck next year.