2010

The music year 2010 has been a brilliant time for softpop but otherwise left much to be desired.
I had really big plans for the blog this year, but the lack of posts is obvious now that there are only a few hours left until 2011. It is what it is and my lesson is to not promise more than I can hold. I still have the ideas I mentioned one year ago, but this time the plan is to post when the inspiration comes back.

Records
1. Very Truly Yours –Things You Used to Say
2. Allo Darlin - Allo Darlin
3. Katie Goes to Tokyo - My Naked Heart
4. The Soft City - The Soft City
5. Sambassadeur – European
6. The Jezabels – Dark Storm EP
7. The Secret History –The World That Never Was
8. Stars – The Five Ghosts
9. Will Driving West – The Breakout
10. Standard Fare – The Noyelle Beat

Also good: Minipop - Automatic Love EP, Now Now Every Children – Neighbors EP, The New Pornographers – Together, Säkert! – Facit, Seapony - Seapony EP

Songs
1. Katie Goes to Tokyo - Before You Fell in Love With Her
2. Sambassadeur - Stranded
3. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Say No to Love
4. Standard Fare - Love Doesn't Just Stop
5. Allo Darlin - Dreaming
6. Very Truly Yours - Your Funeral
7. Shrag - Rabbit Kids
8. Allo Darlin - My Heart Is a Drummer
9. Trembling Blue Stars - Cold Colours
10. Katie Goes to Tokyo - The Apartment, The Cat and The Dress
11. Minipop - Into the Night
12. Betty and the Werewolves - Paper Thin
13. The Jezabels - Sahara Mahala
14. Forest City Lovers - Minneapolis
15. Wild Nothing - Summer Holiday

2009

The year list of 2009 is finally complete and it is clear to me that my listening has been concentrated in a few albums. Lacrosse top the album chart, followed by a big gap down to second placed The Jezabels. When I listen to Bandages for the Heart it almost feels like the time before internet.

2010 will probably become a sort of comeback for the blog. I have some ideas I want to carry out, and it will be a very interesting year here on the blog if everything goes well.

Records
1. Lacrosse - Bandages for the Heart
2. The Jezabels - The Man Is Dead EP
3. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (LP)
4. Strawberry Whiplash - Picture Perfect EP
5. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
6. The Afternoon Naps - Parade
7. Joy Formidable - A Balloon Called Moaning
8. Grand Archieves - Keep in Mind Frankenstein
9. The Starlets - I Wake Up Dreaming
10. Burning Hearts - Aboa Sleeping

Also good: The Fauns - The Fauns, Headlights - Wildlife, State Broadcasters - The Ship and the Iceberg, JJ - JJ no 2, Immaculate Machine - High on Jackson Hill, God Help the Girl - God Help the Girl


Songs
1. Lacrosse - Come Back Song #1
2. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Young Adult Friction
3. Camera Obscura - French Navy
4. The Jezabels - Disco Biscuit Love
5. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Stay Alive
6. Grand Archieves - Oslo Novelist
7. The Starlets - To the Winter Park
8. The Jezabels - Be a Star
9. Burning Hearts - I Lost My Colour Vision
10. Strawberry Whiplash - Celestial
11. Ohbijou - Wildfires
12. Sally Shapiro - Miracle
13. The Besties - Man vs Wild
14. Metric - Sick Muse
15. Anna Järvinen - Äppelöga

The Jezabels - Disco Biscuit Love

Kylie Minogue and fellow countryman Nick Cave were deadly serious in the 1995 duet Where the Wild Roses Grow. It may well be the most beautiful moment in Australian pop music.

Ten years later, Melbourne band Architecture in Helsinki charmed concert audiences all across the Western world with shows based on the records Fingers Crossed and In Case We Die.

The huge island on the other side of the world has probably had more to offer than two admittedly very fond memories, but the Australian pop music landscape has always been a desert to me. I do not have a relationship with Australia's probably most acclaimed band The Lucksmiths, and it is telling that I only like the songs Camera-Shy and T-Shirt Weather when their recordings include eleven albums. I have never been particularly interested in Australian music, and it is perfectly logical that I did not bother to really investigate it. If I were to try to describe the Australian pop music scene, I would probably say "talented, but boring"

It is therefore so incredibly liberating to hear Sydney quartet The Jezabels invert my view of the world with disco-like piano pop which breaks my prejudices. The Jezabels make music to live to. Disco Biscuit Love appears on the band's first record The Man Is Dead EP which is absolutely brilliant all the way.

Review: Lacrosse - Bandages for the Heart

Lacrosse's second album Bandages for the Heart is really a record of contrasts. Introducing tracks We Are Kids and You Are Blind are upbeat hits from a world where the sun always shines, love automatically is reciprocal and any problems easily are put off until tomorrow. Beneath the surface, however, there is a worry which constantly interrupts the party by pointing to the fragility of life. The transition between life angst in My Stop's story of an abandoned young person's consideration of the final farewell and hazy happiness in Come Back Song #1 is an almost provocative and for the record representative reminder of how the pendulum of life balances between joy and sorrow.

At a first listen, Bandages for the Heart could be mistaken for music made for children. Nina Wähä and Kristian Dahl convey the lyrics by both singing everything at the same time throughout the record. Nina changes her voice to fit different emotional states and sings the way each song requires. Nina's vocals are consistently naive and childish independent of mood state as her voice gives the record its character. Kristian still sounds like he did on Lacrosse's debut album This New Year Will Be for You and Me and basically sings with the same style on every song.

The producer Jari Haapalainen has described Bandages for the Heart as "music performed by children, but written for adults who stagger in life". I do not know if this concept was Haapalainen's or the band's idea but it does not really matter. The important thing is that the warmth from the debut album still remains and that the playfully interjected strange synth sounds are wonderful. Bandages for the Heart could very well be the first record which survived Haapalainen's production and that in itself is amazing. Every rule has its exceptions.

Each of the eleven songs stay in memory and they all have their little peculiarities. Song in the Morning, My Stop and Come Back Song #1 are my favourite songs. You can not ignore that My Stop and Come Back Song #1 are the emotionally strongest tracks. My Stop is a painfully honest depiction infinitely far away from children's music. My Stop describes how a young person who undergoes a life crisis becomes declared an idiot and ignored by the therapist.

When I talked to the psychiatrist, she merely shrugged at me
said this thing you're experiencing, you're not suicidal
you're just a human being my friend
and everybody feels like you do anyway

But even though everything may not be as dramatic and life-changing in retrospect, the problems and feelings are completely real and incredibly stressful for the one with emotional pain.

But look at me, now look at me
with my hand and my feet on the reiling
with my heart all bleed out
I bet you did not believe me when I said that this was different
When I said that this was different

Something is very wrong when someone who seeks help instead gets stamped on. My Stop continues with a monologue in which the character stages suicide to look like murder in order to give the parents, who face the nightmare of surviving their own child, an outsider towards whom they can direct their grief and anger. My Stop is very thought-provoking criticism of the current individualised and competitive society which, deliberately or not, has lost both safety nets and humanity. Come Back Song #1 starts a few seconds later with its contagious life happiness which serves as a first-aid kit for fragile young people crying inside.

I feel very strongly about this album. If it had come a few years earlier it had perhaps been one of the really big records of my life. I have not been emotionally hit like this since Hello Saferide's and Katie Goes to Tokyo's debut albums in 2005 and 2006. Listening to Lacrosse is like for once to be understood by an emotional person with a warm heart and similar life values.

Lacrosse do not give any answers or universal solutions though. Bandages for the Heart is no key, only a consolation for the moment. Lacrosse just ask questions, as in the final song What's Wrong With Love. It is up to ourselves to shape our own future.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Young Adult Friction

The Aislers Set's brilliant album The Last Match was released on Slumberland Records in spring 2000. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart bring out the carbon paper nine years later, release their debut album on the same label and get the breakthrough The Aislers Set never had.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart entered my year list in 2007 with their self-titled EP. The five songs were very similar in sound. When I heard the opening track This Love Is Fucking Right a night out at Blekinska the following spring, I jokingly said that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart have recorded the same song five times - but it is okay as the song is quite good.

I find a common theme now that I read what others write about The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's debut album. Nostalgic descriptions picture memories of bands such as The Pastels, Popsicle, My Bloody Valentine, and Lush. Except for already mentioned The Aislers Set, I also come to think about Ride.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart know their indie pop history very well, but it strikes me after a dozen listenings through the album that they completely lack a unique sound. The self-titled LP is one of 2009's best records so far thanks to amazing songs like Young Adult Friction and Stay Alive, but The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are far too gifted to throw away their talent on ambitious cover records.

Those who are introduced to indie pop music by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart will perhaps remember this album as one of the special records in their lives. For the rest of us it just remains a good album. There is something sad about the chorus of praise ignoring the obvious influences and the knowledge that copies all too often become larger than the originals.

The Popguns - Waiting for the Winter

Six weeks gone and not a word
this means the end

Wendy Morgan's desperate, unhappy voice was followed by jangle guitars through a fantastic upbeat melody. I was once again fascinated by the cirumstance that the most bitter insights often are told with the most uplifting and catchy pop melodies.

The Popguns hit me right in the heart on the very first attempt. Waiting for the Winter was their great super hit and the perfect introduction to the band.

The other eight songs on the debut album Eugenie followed the same line. Beautiful, sad and amazing Down on Your Knees reinforced that image. Eugenie was an emotional rollercoaster built by cynical, depressive lyrics about much more than failed relationships.

Much later I would discover that The Popguns made an even better song called Still a World Away. A song which inspires, gives hope and makes me dream. I will write about it another time. Until then, I just want to state that The Popguns was the best band of the 90's together with Red Sleeping Beauty and Belle and Sebastian.

A year of change

Spring is upon us, birds are singing outside my window and it should be too late to write an annual review, but I really want to share my thoughts on last year.

2008 gave me a lot of time for reflection and I got to know myself better. An intense but rewarding autumn lead me through the final transition between youth and adult life. I believe my life became more stable during the year. Ironically, I was close to giving up several things thad had been the lights in my existence in recent years. I almost lost my life interest in football, stopped going to concerts and abandoned my blog in the autumn. This summer's European Championship helped me get back my passion for football. I have, predictably, followed Arsenal's 2008-09 season from the kick off of the first game. My concert interest could not be saved that easily though. I had several chances to see good bands live, but I did not go to Malmö even once for various reasons. In the end I only went to one show in the autumn, and I do not regret I missed any gig. Nowadays there are only a few minutes of happiness at concerts except for less frequent special occasions. A concert where only one really good song is played can not be compared to the special feeling a favourite album gives me when the end of each song makes me think about the next song.

The music year 2008 gave me two memorable albums. The Indelicates, the duo of Julia Clark Lowes and Simon Clayton, delivered a debut album which increasingly sounds like this decade's generation record. Julia's piano and Simon's guitar build up stories so naturally told that it is not strange a track starts as a ballad to turn into an upbeat protest song. Julia and Simon are angry. American Demo discusses the search for identity, idolization, the false solidarity in subcultures, hypocrisy, lies and betrayed ideals before all is brought to a head in We Hate the Kids which attacks the ignorance that permeates generation after generation. American Demo and its intelligently formulated social criticism is pop music with a willingness to change. It is hard to imagine that Julia once formed The Pipettes and she clearly made the right choice to move on to The Indelicates instead.
Celestial's second album Crystal Heights is my favourite record of 2008. Guest singers Ulrika Nymark and Malin Dahlberg take Andreas Hagman's beautifully composed songs to a new level. Crystal Heights begins almost epically with jangle guitars and amazing vocals by Ulrika on the introducing track Preston Park. The next three songs are nice fillers. Crystal Heights take off again when Malin takes over the microphone on the record's title track. The four final songs How Does It Feel, Lonely Boulevard, Try to Understand and Hope You Know are up there with the most beautiful pop music ever recorded, among the records This Night and the Next (Laurel Muisc), Songs About You (Language of Flowers) and Your Simple Beauty (The Arrogants). Especially Try to Understand and Lonely Boulevard.

The boundaries between the years fade away. Last year I discovered Minipop and Monsters Are Waiting, two California-based bands that both released debut albums in 2007. I have listened a lot to the records and 2008 has now become 2009. I stand once again at Mejeriet to see Hello Saferide live. To my great joy, Annika Norlin has her friend Andrea Kellerman at her side. Annika is a great storyteller, but I do not listen so attentively this time. Three years has passed since I last saw Hello Saferide and I do not appreciate concerts as much now as before. I have had the privilege to see almost all my favourite bands live and new experiences are inevitably compared with shows I already have attended. The loss of incentive to go to concert is not followed by disappointment though. I rather feel immense gratitude to have experienced several of the world's best bands both live and on record. The records stand in my collection and I carry the finest concerts in memory forever.

The days turn into years, and I think back on all the nice things. When I walk home the leaves on the trees shift in red and yellow, Homesick by Aberdeen is played in my mp3 player while the sun sets in the horizon, and I get a tear in my eye. Two very good friends of mine have a daughter and I spend a weekend at their house to be with them and get to see when she learns to walk on her own. The April sun shines, I wear short sleeves and of course get cold. Again. It is the first day of summer and the cool breeze touches my hair. I look at her. I am happy and she smiles back with her eyes.

It often strikes me that life is so beautiful. I hope that feeling will last forever.

2008

Once again, I am waiting for a train that will take me from Lund and today feels like the right day to post the year list of 2008. It has been a weak music year and I do not think any album on this list would break into a revised version of last year's album list.

Records
1. Celestial - Crystal Heights
2. The Rosie Taylor Project - This City Draws Maps
3. Sons and Daughters - This Gift
4. The Narrative - Just Say Yes EP
5. The Indelicates - American Demo
6. Tilly and the Wall - O
7. The Charade - Keeping Up Appearances
8. Stars - Sad Robots EP
9. Monsters Are Waiting - Ones and Zeros EP
10. The School - Let It Slip EP
11. Like Honey - Leaves
12. The Secret History - Desolation Town EP
13. Cloetta Paris - Secret Eyes
14. Mates of State - Re-arrange Us
15. Forest City Lovers - Haunting Moon Sinking

Also good: Sad Day for Puppets - Just Like a Ghost EP, The Boy Bathing - A Fire to Make Preparations, Headlights - Some Racing Some Stopping, The Kid - Transient Blood


Songs
1. Monsters Are Waiting - Ones and Zeros
2. Celestial - Try to Understand
3. Hello Saferide - Anna
4. Celestial - Lonely Boulevard
5. The School - I Want You Back
6. The Indelicates - We Hate the Kids
7. Speedmarket Avenue - Way Better Now
8. The Kid - Mayhem Troopers
9. The Long Blondes - The Couples
10. Secret Shine - Vocie of the Sea

Rip It Up 2008

A legend stood in front of us. I went over and introduced myself while the other guys thought about what they wanted to say.

- Are you Harvey?
- Yes, I am Harvey.
- Okay. Hi! The boys here would like to talk to you but they are too shy,  so they sent me instead.

I spoke a little with Harvey Williams and complimented him for You Should All Be Murdered and I'm in Love With a Girl Who Does Not Know I Exist. Then I stepped back to let the rest of the guys, the real fans, have a chat with their hero. Harvey Williams then walked away. We saw him on the scene a moment later, sitting at a synthesizer. The music was always present at Rip It Up, just as in this anecdote, but my days in Värmlandsbro instead came to be more focused on hanging around with people.

Rip It Up showed its most beautiful side on the sunny Thursday, the day before the festival officially started. The clock had just passed five in the afternoon and I was lying in the grass outside the train station in Säffle waiting for my friends. We soon met each other and turned down a black cab that was more expensive than the regular price before we got a real taxi which drove us out to the festival area in Värmlandsbro. We installed ourselves at the campsite across the stage and then went to the nearby located bird lake where we watched the sunset. 

I had been told that this festival was haunted by rain. The sky opened itself as on demand just in time for Friday's first live act The Dreamers. Another two Swedish bands played after The Dreamers, but the festival began for real when Harvey Williams went on stage at 9 pm. The realization that it would not sound as good live as on the record London Weekend lowered my expectations, but many people in the audience experienced their own romanticized illusion of legendary Another Sunny Day. It was a mediocre gig that did the old songs no justice.
Days played after Harvey Williams. Everyone in the crowd may disagree with me on this, but I still think that all of Days' songs sound the same, and it is unfortunately not a compliment. I do not like Days at all, they will never become a band I like, but it would at least be hilarious if they renamed and called themselves Days of Thunder instead. The Gothenburg quartet's show was like a weak track that precedes the album's great hit. I stayed in the crowd only to be certain to get a place in the front row for the next show.

Was something at Rip It Up good? It may sound like I thought everything was terrible but I did not have much to complain about apart from the rain. The festival meant reunions with dear friends and old acquaintances. It was also nice to meet new people. Music-wise my question would be answered only a soundcheck later, but I already knew that beforehand. The Bristol band Secret Shine lights up the dark sea which is overflowed by reunited, past it, former Sarah Records bands who have realised that there is a scene in Sweden for old British pop bands which had their best times fifteen to twenty years ago. St Cristopher is by the way the worst super-annuated former Sarah Records-band as they only have recorded shit except for the 19 year old song All of a Tremble. Secret Shine is different and they still have a desire to develop their sound. Secret Shine played an intense live set with Adored and Voice of the Sea as the strongest songs before they concluded with Loveblind which by far was the best (all categories) at Rip It Up. When the next band The Ruling Class had finished their show one hour layer, I went to my tent on a camping shrouded in fog.

I understood on the Saturday afternoon that Rip It Up showed its best side in the evenings. In daytime the water in the bird lake was coloured like a disgusting shade of green mixed with gray. Gray was also the colour of the asphalt on which we sat when Darren Hanlon opened the Saturday's gigs. It would had been really nice to sit on grass instead. Now I instead came to think about how strange this place was for being a festival area. At the end of the asphalt, though, Jörgen and Renee's record store Fractiondiscs was temporarily stationed under the roof of a party tent. That made me feel at home.

The shows on Saturday were a bonus as I still was lyrical about the Friday night. Pocketbooks and Twig were good, but I felt sorry for The Clientele who got their show ruined by rain and I really longed for an indoor club when all the umbrellas stretched dangerously in every direction. I was very pleased with the Saturday, despite the extremely amateurish sound checks which destroyed The Tidy Ups' gig, when I crawled into my sleeping bag to get some sleep before returning home the following day.

Rip It Up 2008 was a cozy festival with nice people and good food. The best thing was perhaps that the arrangers had the good sense to keep the festival short. It was very great to come home to my real bed and a proper bathroom after three days in the wilderness.

Half year summary 2008

Records

While waiting for the train which will take me north, I take the opportunity to finish my half year summary. Sons and Daughters top my album list. The introductory song Gilt Complex defines the entire record just as Lust in the Movies set the bar for The Long Blondes' debut album Someone to Drive You Home.
Tilly and the Wall's opening six minutes on the new album O sums up the band. It is possible that it will change if I listen more, but I now feel that O quality-wise is more consistent than the band's previous records. And did I say that Pot Kettle Black is wonderful? Speaking of reliability, Mates of State delivers as usual. Their fifth album Re-Arrange Us is not as good as the brilliant Bring It Back, but still a given on this list.

1. Sons and Daughers - This Gift
2. Tilly and the Wall - O
3. The School - Let It Slip EP
4. Mates of State - Re-Arrange Us
5. The Rosie Taylor Project - This City Draws Maps

Also good: Cloetta Paris - Secret Eyes, Sad Day for Puppets - Just Like a Ghost, M83 - Saturdays = Youth, Headlights - Some Racing Some Stopping, Ally Kerr - Off the Radar.


Other
This year's best news is that Kathleen Bracken plays with Those Transatlantics again. Beyond that there are many other music-related things which made me happy. Some old and some new. I come to think about this right now:

Aberdeen (band)
Minipop (band)
El Perro del Mar (concert at Mejeriet)
Bruce Springsteen (concert at Nya Ullevi in Gothenburg on July 5)
Katie Goes to Tokyo - Big City (song)
Sad Day for Puppets - Hush (song)

Open Your Heart

There is still much left to write about 2007 before I sum up the first half of 2008.

Arcade Fire needs no presentation. I am writing about them only now because I heard the song The Well and the Lighthouse as late as this spring. Arcade Fire were not unknown to me, but the sound on their debut album Funeral did not appeal to me. I therefore never cared about their second album Neon Bible. Imagine my surprise when I heard The Well and the Lighthouse by chance. Incredibly good. Remember where you read it last.

This whole genre called indie rock is quite unknown to me. Los Angeles-based Earlimart are said to belong to the same genre but I am already familiar with their sound. That is probably because Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray are from California. Answers and Questions stands out as by far the best track on the album Mentor Tormentor released last year. You can listen to the whole album in good quality here.
In Los Angeles, we also find the hippie quartet Lavender Diamond which plays folk/pop with piano. Open Your Heart is a very beautiful track on their debut album Imagine Our Love.

Swedish Blind Terry also base their music on piano. They sing about burning down the school, but the hit When Prefab Sprout Wrecked My Mind deservedly receives the most attention. Blind Terry would have fit in well in the Rip It Up festival line-up, but they will play at this year's Emmaboda festival instead.
Taste of Honey sound promising with their sweet song Sylvia Said. The same can be said about Susanna Brandin's acoustic music project Winter Took His Life. Listen to When You Said You Headed Home! With the even longer album title You Know What It's Like to Be Alone and Shut Down we have a female counterpart to Sufjan Stevens.

In our neighbouring country Norway, we find Dylan Mondegreen which sound very much like their compatriots Love Dance. You can listen to their entire debut album While I Walk You Home at lastfm. In summer t-shirt weather, British Little Name also charm us with For the Attention of and especially Tracy and I.

Last out is the Minnesota band Gospel Gossip which is the city's main export since the hockey team moved to Dallas. The album Sing into My Mouth, another debut album, wanders between shoegaze and pop with many different sound images. Three short tracks, around a minute each, are reminiscent of What the Snowman Learned About Love, the introductory track on Stars' album Heart. Shadows Are Bent is the best song on Sing into My Mouth. Listen at the band's website and lastfm.

Review: The School - Let It Slip EP

Placed as tenth and eleventh on my year list of 2007, Let It Slip and You'll Never Notice Me were both fantastic up beat songs by previously unknown bands. The School and The Garlands have both released an EP this year, but that is probably the only thing that still is common in the respective bands' careers.

The Garlands' self-titled EP was another Swedish contribution to the Cloudberry Records catalogue. The four tracks are all fine, but it would had been more interesting if Roger Gunnarsson and Christin Wolderth instead wrote a new hit.

Liz Hunt's The School are new label mates with Camera Obscura and Lucky Soul on Elefant Records (Lucky Soul also release their records on their own label Ruffa Lane Records), which is funny because these were the bands I came to think about immediately the first time I heard Let It Slip in the end of last year.

The EP Let It Slip was released on June 16 and lives up to all expectations. The EP balances on the thin line between crystal clear sound and overproduction, ends up at the wrong side a couple of times, but still gets away with because Liz sings the way she does. The title track is rearranged with beautiful backing vocals and strings, but the third song I Want You Back is the on which knocks me. I Want You Back really begins like a fairy tale with the line Once upon a time. I know when the music stops that this is the best song of the year so far. The EP ends in the best of manner with I Don't Believe in Love, a beautiful song about miserable love with a narrative that shifts between two different voices.

Pretending to see the future

In November 2006 the news reached me that legendary Shelflife Records, the record label which had become my favourite one in less than a year, would start releasing records again. Shelflife's founder Ed Mazzucco was ready for the difficult second catalogue.

I looked forward to Shelflife's comeback with joy, but I feel greatly disappointed now that I have listened to the first five releases of the new LIFE1000 series. I soon realise that the old LIFE catalogue was made of bands that were unique "once in a life"-gems gathered under one roof. I need to accept that the old bands were much better and still give the new bands a chance. I see potential in The Ruling Class. At the same time, I can not help but wonder why the band's development has stood still since the demo of Umbrella Folds was posted on their myspace last year.

The key words of the new catalogue appears to be "talented but boring". You can not live on old merits forever, not even if you once were the best in the world.

You Say Party! We Say Die! - Monster

What kind of music do you listen to?

A common question that means different things to different people. I previously tried to explain how my favourite pop bands sound, but now I will just give one answer in the future: "I listen to music that either tells me something or hits that I can dance to on a Friday night.

You Say Party! We Say Die! play elegantly arranged punky pop that brings thoughts back to fall 2005 and Tralala's debut album. Not quite as good, but still lovable. My favourite song is probably Monster in fierce competition with Like I Give a Care.

Global Fussball

The 2008 European Football Championship begins on Saturday and I want to say a few words about my relationship with the beautiful game.

I was seven or eight years old when I started playing football. My story begins several years later. I grew up with the Swedish football show Tipsextra which broadcasted English football. I dedicated the Saturday afternoons to English top football unless I played a match myself. There was something incredibly fascinating about football which really appealed to me, but I had not chosen a favourite team yet. Some people would say that it is unhealthy for a Swede to develop emotional ties to an English football club, but those who say so do not understand that admiration even in its most idealised form can be limitless. Arsenal FC of London was my first love.

In spring 1993, Arsenal played the FA cup quarter final against Ipswich. Arsenal's captain Tony Adams came out with a bandage around his head. Ipswich took an early lead, but Tony Adams scored a decisive headed goal on a corner. Blood came through the bandage, but it was worth it as the ball had found the net. Tony Adams became a hero for me at that moment, and later scored another important goal on the way to the FA cup triumph. My interest in Arsenal got more intense during the 1997-98 season. I have been a proud supporter and followed the team in prosperity and adversity ever since then.

My football interest should had lasted all my life, but the spring of 2008 made me question the meaning of being a football fan for a long time. Many people think it is childish to blame the referee and believe that things even out in the end of a season. With some distance to the season, I can only say that such opinions are naive bullshit. Things do not even out during a season because that is statistically unlikely.

In the summer of 2007, the prospective league winners Manchester United spent more than £50M on transfer fees for new players despite having bank loans of hundred of million pounds to pay off. Arsenal on the other hand showed a positive balance sheet in the same transfer period. I may be biased, but this is something unique to Arsenal thanks to the vision and integrity of our manager Arsene Wenger. While other top clubs buy established superstars from lesser clubs for amounts higher than £15M, Arsenal generally recruit young players, often for prices below £2M, and then give them both playing time and confidence in their abilities. This environment allows several of our players to develop into superstars.
After a brilliant first half of the season, Arsenal had taken the lead in the league with a five point gap down to the second placed team Manchester United. It could have been, and should have been, an eight point gap after the league game away to Birmingham in February. Our striker Eduardo (who during the season scored goals like this) had gotten his leg broken after a mad tackle by a player in the oppposite team, and our players looked shaken in a way I have never seen them before. Our young midfield conductor Cesc Fabregas, who has been regular in Arsenal's starting line-up since age 17, looked like he had seen a ghost and all of our players were obviously scared to challenge for the ball after that. That was a very human reaction, but we (the Arsenal players on the field) somehow managed to pull ourselves together and turn a 0-1 deficit to a 2-1 lead. The tragedy occured in the 93rd match minute when referee Mike Dean incredibly blowed for a penalty to Birmingham. Dean somehow spotted a foul where neutrals noticed a fair and correct tackle by Arsenal's left back Gael Clichy. I would like to add that supporters of rival clubs felt that this was a referee scandal and absolutely horrible. Officials have certainly made mistakes before, but the last straw was when it was repeated two league games later against Middlesbrough. The Arsenal striker Emmanuelle Adebayor got a correct  goal ruled out as offside although the ball came from a defensive player of the opposite team. The Middlesbrough player accidently set Adebayor free with an unfortunate backward pass (the offside rule simply means that a free kick is awarded to the defending team when the attacking player is on the wrong side of the last player of the defending team - not counting the goalkeeper except for special cases - at the very moment a teammate in the attacking team passes the ball forward. A player in the attacking team can never be offside if the pass comes from a player of the defending team, ie the opposite team). Another two league games later we met Chelsea and took the lead 1-0. Then two Chelsea players were offside by over a meter (which is very much in this context) when a pass from a Chelsea player set one of their strikers free to score. The goal should had been ruled out as offside but stood anway. The officials' mistakes in those crucial games cost us seven points in the battle for the league title. In the end we ended up four points behind the prospective league winners Manchester United. Sour grapes, said the fox.

The dream of winning this year's Champions League ended when the officials robbed us in the quarter final against Liverpool. Arsenal had a crystal clear penalty situation in the first leg turned down whereas Liverpool were awarded a penalty after a situation with minimal body contact in the second leg. Achievments such as 19-year-old Theo Walcott's world class run across the whole field counted for nothing after the referees gave decisive decisions against Arsenal. Again. In defense of the European referees, we do not have a story with the referees  in Champions League and I regard the decisions in the quarter final of Champions League as bad luck only.

I know that I am a bad loser when it comes to football, but I have followed Arsenal closely for more than ten years and still not experienced anything like this spring before. I have of course seen individual matches with shocking referee decisions, but not a whole serie of games with highly dubious and very decisive calls against Arsenal. On the last day of the league, Manchester United's central defender Rio Ferdinand covered a shot with his arm in his own penalty box. According to the rules and normal refereeing, it would had been a penalty for the opposite team and a red card for Rio Ferdinand. Manchester United and Rio Ferdinand, however, got away with it. It was now obvious to me that some of the referees were heavily biased and I seriously came to think about how rigged this year's Premier League was. Referee scandals occur each year in Italy, and several clubs across Europe have also been found guilty of being involved in referee scandals and corruption. Why could it not happen in England? It was a rethorical question if anyone wonders.

Being a fan is a lifestyle. Key matches can throw you between indescribable happiness and sadness in less than a minute. We have the camera technology to correct referee mistakes which occur when the game is too fast for the human eye, but we do not use this technology for some stupid reasons. I feel very bitter about the fact that Arsenal did not win any title this season when we actually deserved to win the league if the referees had treated all teams equally, but you have to move on. And I do that here and now. The world has never been fair so why would football be?

It took me several weeks to get over it, but I know I will follow my beloved Arsenal from the first second of the next season. Football is a wonderful sport and another great tournament begins on Saturday. Let us live for the beauty in the world (but if you hear someone yell referee bastard it may well be me).

Chick Habit - Rip It Up

I can lie for hours and listen to this song on repeat. The end is fading into the intro and I really love that transition.

Rip It Up is also the name of a festival in July, running for the second year in a row. This time the lineup appeals to me and I clearly consider to get a ticket. Who can say no to a weekend with pop music in company of good friends?
But do not play Rip It Up by Orange Juice! Do not play Orange Juice at all. They are rubbish. And if anyone is wondering, the April March song with the same name as the band of today's post is just horrible.

Lost in Translation

This is so sick that I do not know what to say. The Japanese edition of Lucky Soul's debut album The Great Unwanted can be purchased at Cduniverse.

Monsters Are Waiting - Ones and Zeros

Brittle Stars reunite in a few weeks for their supposedly last show ever, but I can already name their successors. Monsters Are Waiting do have a different sound, but their beautiful song Ones and Zeros sounds like a more poppy and upbeat Brittle Stars.

Go to Monsters Are Waiting's myspace and listen to a cover of I Wanna Be Adored and the less immediate but equally lovely song Ha Ha.

Popaganda in true Luger spirit

Sometimes a press release is enough to open a circus. The non-profit music association Popaganda decided to sell out and invited Sweden's most disgusting booking agency named Luger. Without having to change clothes, the latter soon found themselves comfortable in the roles of clown and monkey.

The free (no entrance paid by the audience) Popaganda festival was held on the campus in Stockholm in late May 2001 to 2006. The Stockholm University Student Union (Stockholms universitets studentkår, SUS) financed the festival whereas the association Popagande were responsible for the arrangement. The last Popaganda festival was held in May 2006 and offered the audience live shows with artists such as Mew, Frida Hyvönen, Final Fantasy, and Hello Saferide. I would had gone to the Popaganda festival that spring if it had not overlapped in time with the opportunity to see my beloved favourite band Language of Flowers at a real indoor stage at a place with amazing sound (I just described the venue Mejeriet which is located in Lund).
The negotiations between SUS and Popaganda stalled in October 2006. The two project leaders at Popagande left their positions. Officially, they said that their salary issue was not resolved. The association Popaganda was more direct and referred to frictions with SUS. SUS responded by replacing the locks and blocking the pass cards of Popaganda's office in the student union building. The conflict was on. So much for six years of collaboration.

SUS moved on, threw out the pop music and arranged Re:publik, a "broader" festival, the following spring. Re:publik's line up may not have impressed any music fan, but the reduced artist fees resulted in a more balanced budget and less risks. In one way, I can fully understand SUS's intention. As a festival arranger you surely must dare to lose in order to win, but it still feels insanely gratuitous to defend a potential budget loss of hundred of thousands Swedish crowns (SEK), as was the case if the festival was ruined by bad weather. Popaganda also moved on and started a free club at The Southern Theater (Södra Teatern) instead.

In an interview a few months ago, the SUS President spoke about Popaganda:
- I think it is fun that Popaganda continues even without our involvement. There are few free festivals and it feels good to have been building up a free festival such as Popaganda. I do not think they are going to start cashing in on the brand. It is only positive if someone else is willing to secure the supply for the students, says Stockholm University Student Union President Edith Ringmar.

I read somewhere that Popaganda's project leader wished SUS good luck with Re:publik. Just when relationships were improved, at least in public, the bomb was released:
The association Popaganda and Luger have initiated a collaboration that allows Popaganda to resurrect, monitor and evolve its existence in The Festival Sweden. A new venue will host a late summer party of large dimensions, namely Eriksdalsbadet in Southern Stockholm.
On August 29-30, it is time for the sequel that breaks the original.

Suddenly it appears that SUS and Popaganda were cut from the same cloth. What happened to the ideals? But Luger is the worst. This new festival will not, despite the name, have much in common with the old Popaganda festival. My first thought was that Luger just complimented Way Out West with a newly promoted Way Out East 2. There are not many things left of the festival formerly called Popaganda. The 18-year age limit is replaced by a 13-year limit, the non-profit collaborator (the student union) has been dumped for a strictly business relationship, and the date is moved to late summer.
On closer examination it turns out that Popaganda 2008 will be held on the weekend that the free festival Pop Dakar was held the last two years.

Somehow Luger still managed a piece of art. First they broke an unwritten rule in The Festival Sweden by scheduling their festival Where The Action Is on the same date as another festival, then they put their teeth into Popaganda. Only one thing is clear, this will be difficult to beat.


By the way, El Perro del Mar's gig almost two weeks ago was wonderful. Somewhat surprisingly, I Can't Talk About It was the best song of her concert set. But I was a little disappointed that the admission fee of 185 SEK was not reduced. The event was promoted as a live package with both Lycke Li and El Perro del Mar, and only one of them came to the venue (the right person though). When I got home I was reminded that Mejeriet had booked the show via Luger. Curtain down.

Sunny in Lund

The venue Mejeriet writes on its website that Lycke Li is temporarily ill and can not sing for a week. That suits me perfectly since the mentioned Li does not have the luck to be honored a visit by yours truly any more times.

However, I really look forward to see El Perro del Mar who thus becomes the evening's main act. Last time I saw her in Lund, El Perro del Mar outshone The Concretes fronted by Victoria Bergsman high on valium. Tonight El Perro del Mar will, very deservedly, be the center of attention. I hope she looks forward to it as much as I do.

As I am writing this, the sky is blue outside my window while I am eating breakfast at the computer to start the best weekday of all.