Charlotte Hatherley - a great guitarist!

Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/lornethomson/

A few years back I started listening to a lot of Ash, but it was first about a year ago I realized that the lead-guitarists on those tracks was actually a woman: Charlotte Hatherley. Later she has left the band and got a solo career, but I still really love those guitarlicks that she made for the Ash songs. Tonight I also looked at some of her solo stuff and it's really cool to.

Great interview about guitarplaying.

Bastardo is a really funny song and a great cartoon video.
Making of Bastardo

Mostly her solo stuff is not as good as Ash though, but the guitarplay is genius as always :)

This is Shining light of Ash where I think she does some really really beautiful guitarlines exspecially on the refrains in the end. 1 (Look how little focus it is on Charlotte though she actually does more than sing and almost all the solo guitar stuff. That would never happen to a boy ;)

On Jules Holland though things are a little better. They always know the song before they film it ;)

This from Glastonbury is not so bad either

Cool interview, a little bit bad sound though :)

Pictures every day for a number of days

I just found a few very cool videos of people online where they have taken one photo each day of themselves and then made an animation of them. Really really cool, kind of a time laps thing that I wrote about before. It's hard to describe, so take a look for yourself:

The first one I found was these by madandcrazychild
1 2 I love the way her hair looks and the face also changes

But I think the master of them all might be this one I remember seeing that a long time ago and think it might be where the whole YouTube "take a photo every day" phenomena started. Amazing to see how his hair grows and how he grows and gets sidebruns and actually I think he slowly becomes a man.

This is also quite amazing! 8 years, at least it says so :)

Oh yes, and this is the Simpsons version! Very funny!

Live Radiohead webcast from Santa Barbara

As some of you may know, Radiohead played their last show fra Santa Barbara live on a webcast to. I saw it. I was dead tiered, cause it was 7 am, and I stayed up all night, but I saw it, so here it some selected highlights:

Paranoid Android
15 step

More will be added when published on YouTube :)

Mobilblog:.radiohead webcast

Life: New Cellphone

After 4 years using the same cell phone I have finally got a new one. My trusty Simens cellphone has been a loyal friend, but now the screen and battery is hardly working and there are constancly pieces of it falling off. The new phone is a very lovely music phone. I think the sound actually might be better than that of my mp3-player. It' has my favorite game Sims2 installed when you buy it and even counts every step I make. What a nice thing!! :D I am a bit obsessed and in love with it.

Besides that, my days are filled with applying for jobs, beening a union woman, watching Miami Vice and going to museums and then work some more and then watch some more movies.

Great covers: Umbrella - Manic Street Preachers

Photo by http://www.lovemanics.com/

Some songs gets a lot better when people do cover of them. This is one of those those times. I have always though that Umbrella was a little bit catchy, but when the brit-pop ledgends "The Manics" do it, it just became bloody awesome :) Have a listen:
live
studio

Great songs: Majesty by Madrugada

photo by http://www.olavsfestdagene.no/filestore/Bilde/madrugada-ingress.jpg

Some songs just hit you in the heart and spine like a fist. Majesty by Madrugada is that kind of song. I just heard it randomly on my computer and hadn't heard it for a while and I want "oh... Majesty!" to myself, though I am home alone. I was in the middle of some work and has a lot to do, but it just had to wait. I had to write this.

From the first guitarchord you just melt and wanna lay down and cry of the sadness and beauty that is this song. Sivert Høyems voice is always beautiful, but in this it's a miracle. Kind of reminds me of a cross between Michael Stipe and the vocalist of Interpol. The song is so so simple, and really reflects the feeling of the lyrics when a relationship is ending or over and you just feel all empty. I have never met anyone that has never been touched by this song. For me it's up there with Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah and Elliott Smiths Between the bars. Sadly Madrugada's great guitarist Robert Burås passed away last year, and I don't know what will happen know, if Madrugada will continue or the rest of the members will focus on their solo projects. Anyways Madrugada is one of the best of the best bands that Norway ever produced. I am sure I will write more about them later. Look forward to a post in my Musical Memories series for that :) Until then, ENJOY and be prepared to be very moved.

Here is the song video, live, cd (Listen to the cd or live not only the video. Very bad sound quality on that one!)
, and these are the lyrics:
So am I
Good or bad
The way that things did turn out
I did only make you sad

And we cried and we cried
On the phone
Oh, but in my mind
You were never that all alone

Oh, you were majesty
Your roads were heavy
And your longing was cut from bone

So am I
Am I good or bad
Could only awake your anger
I could only make you mad
Now was that how you showed me
That you were still so young and bold
Anyway those fights did drive me
And I was dying of thirst and I wasn't growing old

Oh, you were majesty
Your ropes were heavy
And your roads were very cold
Oh, oh, oh, majesty

But in my mind
I could still climb inside your bed
And I could be victorious
Still the only man to pass through the glorious arch of your head, o-oh

Oh, you were majesty
Your ropes were heavy
And your cheeks were very red

Oh, you were majesty
Now it's like I said
That spirit, it's now dead

Computer Games:The Sims 3

Hey good people! I have been a fan of The Sims for a long long time and now I just found out there is gonna be a The Sims 3 in 2009! Just can't wait.

For more info

Want a song to make you seasick? Try this one!

I often do a lot of my late night listening through my headphones, so not to disturb my neighbors. This time something really crazy happened. I had crancked up Mogwai, cause they are good late-night-background-music. I haven't really heard the whole of the album before, just had it laying around on my server, waiting for me. Anyways, suddenly I started to feel a bit seasick. I realized that I was listening to the song "With Portfolio" and it has the most extreme panning I have heard in my life. Maybe it's just me, because I DO get seasick really easily, but this thing really threw me for a loop. :)

You can hear a bit of it here
It's really just the beginning, it gets worse and worse as you go along. I have never listened to the whole thing... hehe

Sunday fun questioner

A friend of mine at facebook posted this questioner thing and as I love to answer them, here are my answers: (I did a bit of editing to the questions, added a few and removed some that were a bit boring).



1: Reach for the book that is closest to you, turn to page 18 and find the forth line. What does it say?
-Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell by Susanna Clarke
(This was not (as he had supposed) a printed book, but a manuscript scribbled down very...) "hurriedly upon the backs of all kinds of bits of paper, most of them..." (odd ale-house bills.)


2: Rech with your left arm as far as you can, what does it touch?
- One of my shelves.


3: What was the last thing you watched on tv?
- Moby's chill out zone program on MTV.


4: Without looking, what time is it?
- About 12:30.


5: What time is it really?
- 12:50


6: Except your pc, what are you listening to right now?
- Music: Mogwai and 4our5ive6ix and The Postal Service.


7: When where you last outside your house?
- Last night.


8: what did you check out online before you saw this?
- Checked my mail and closed a wikipedia article about Arctic Monkeys.

9: What are you wearing?
- Bathrobe.


10: Did you dream last nigt?
- Yes, I think so, but I have forgotten what.

11: When did you laugh last?
- Last night at a party I was at.

12: what's on the walls in the room you are in?
- Notice board filled with notes and cards and good knows what, pictures (Lady of Sharlotte and others) and a nail with my necklesses on it.


13: Seen anything strange lately?
- Yes, I am sure I have. Just to tiered to remember right now.

14: What was the last film you saw?
- Mickyboo and me (I wrote the subtitles for it! Lovely movie about to young boys in Northern Irland in the 70's).


15: What would you have bought first if you won several millions?
- An apartment and then gone traveling for a long long time. Bought a lot of music equipment and a new computer.


16: Do you like to dance?
-Yes!!


17: what is George Bush really doing together with Dick Cheney?
-Drinks beer at Hooters ;)


18: If your firstborn is a girl, what should she be called?
-Karen Agnethe (If the father agree, of course)


19: Would you like to live abroad?
-Yes, would love to have lived in a few of the great cities of the world, like New York, London and Rome.

20:How many books are there in the room you are in?
-I guess about 300.

21: Do you collect anyhting?
Cds, books, guitars and Dvds. Would love to collect more old music memerobillia, like old music boxes.

Imogen Heap's videoblog - constant inspiration

Imogen Heap is one of the most talented, beautiful (soul and looks), excentric, funny young woman and musicians in the whole world if you ask me. She is hard to describe and it best viewed the way she is. I will probably write more about her later, and why I like her. For now I just wanted to share how much I love her videoblog and how it always inspires me to go off and do something creative myself.

Her is a link to Imogens videoblog. Take a look and I'll write a longer piece on her some other time when it's not 01:13 and I have slept 3 hours last night ;)

Olympic Games: Gold to the Norwegian handball team

What an amazing team, what an amazing match. Norway has never played better and won over the Russian team by 34-27!! That is .... there is really nothing to say.

Norway's woman's handball team has always been a favorite among the Norwegian audiences. I think partly because they are such great persons. You just love to see their interviews and feel everything they do. For so many years they have being almost cold medalists in the Olympics. They have won the European Championship and the World Championship but never the Olympics, and we have been waiting waiting waiting for it. This might not be a sport where a lot of people around the world follow it, but it's a very Norwegian thing to. Only in my class in school growin up there where always about half the class having played handball at some time. When there are so many people playing it has to result in a lot of great players, and now we can see the result.

Me, I cried through about all of the second half and the victory ceremony. One of the times it's really exciting to be a Norwegian and a fan of the national handball team. Now we'll just have to see if there will be another two golds to Norway during the rest of the day :D

http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/ol/spill/verdi/69052
http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/ol/spill/verdi/69057
http://www.dagbladet.no/sport/2008/08/23/544515.html

Musical Memories: The Wannadies

In the series of music that has meant a lot to me at some time during my life, and still do, I give you The Wannadies. I think I might have discovered The Wannadies back in 1998 at the same time almost as Kent. I remember walking down to a huge mall right next to where I used to have my piano lessons and buying "Bagsy Me". I think I must have heard You & Me song before that on radio or maybe in the Romeo and Juliet movie. What a movie soundtrack that is... (Lovefool - The Cardigans, Kissing you - Desree and Exit music (for a film) - Radiohead among others). When I listen to The Wannadies now, it kind of gives me a feeling of being 19 again (I was young once too ... hehe) and it really takes me back. The Wannadies also was the other band that made me become friends with my Kent-friend, that I have mentioned for you before.

The Wannadies sound Swedish in a way I think. I can't really explain why. They are basically just pure rock'n'roll and works well when you are really excited, mad or happy, because it has so much energy. Below I give you some of my favorite songs of them. And oh, yes, I love the videos too :)

Skin



You & Me song


Hit

Life: Did you have penpals growing up and want it again?

Are you one of those who like me had a lot of penpals when you where growing up and want that again? I used to have penpals from Canada, USA, Ghana, Turkey, South-Korea, Germany, England, Turkey, New Zealand, Italy, France and Finland.

The craziest thing though was when I wrote to an adresse I found in a Norwegian teenagers magazine, Topp. The address that I wrote to turned out to be to the National Scout magazine of Russia or actually the Sovjet Union, as this was in maybe 1990, just after or before the wall fell. I got 500!!! answers. I got used to getting 30 letters a day ;) In the end I ended up answering about 5 I think, that became good friends of mine.


These were the days before e-mail and I have really missed the excitement of getting letters in my mail. So, I found this great site online for people who wants to have "snail-mail" as in real letter, penpals again, and I all ready have found one in Las Vegas and one in Netherlands. This will be exciting. I just got back in touch with a penpal that I was writing to about 10 years ago and it was so lovely! We were just as excited to see each other and are writing some cards and letters to each other :)

So if you wanna: here is the adresse:
http://www.interpals.net/

Beware of strange marriage proposals, people beggin' for money and telling you that you are the love of their life. There really are A LOT of interesting people in there. Search by keyword for something you are really into and you'll find them.

Photos: Favorite Radiohead photos

Yeah, I know, I know.. I am a Radiohead-freak. Today I am passing 3000 plays of Radiohead (Those are the ones that have been recorded!!) at my Last.fm account and I am celebrating this amazing event that is important to all human beeings by.... yes! Giving you my favorite photos of Radiohead. Found a lot of new ones that I have never seen before Last.Fm. For those of you that for some very daft and stupid reason do not like these gods, you CAN appreciate the good craftmanship of these photos. Some of them are just pure artworks, some have captured lovely little moment for ever. Observe the difference in high, especially when it comes to Ed and Thom, the lovely haircuts and sometimes strange clothes. And I actually think they are quite beautiful too :) Lovely stuff. Enjoy... I will ;)

Life: I am the master!!!

It's official! I am a master! I think a chocolate muffin was in order, to celebrate a little :)

Photos: Summer in the countryside

I spent a few weeks at my mother's house this summer and I took some great photos country life, so here you go :) A bit of summer, as we venture into the fall.

Great lyrics & Great collaborations: R.E.M - Be Mine

In 1996 R.E.M released the album New Adventures in Hi-Fi. I had heard Monster here and there, but the release of New Adventures was the turning stone for my interest in R.E.M and I still really really love this album, though R.E.M have so many great albums. (The whole R.E.M interest probably also sparked because my boyfriend at the time had all and everything by R.E.M on vinyl :) ). I have about 5 or 6 R.E.M songs that tower above the rest for me, much because of the lyrics. I am usually not one that listens so much to the lyrics. I tend to listen to all the musical tidbits and arrangements first, and then turn to the lyrics. That often opens a whole new dimension to the song and makes me love it even more.

In some songs though, the lyrics just penetrates the whole expression of the song and demands to be heard. One of those songs for me is Be Mine. I love the beginning with the flight sounds and the simple but beautiful build up of the song, but those lyrics almost makes me cry. It is so clear that this person wants the other one so much with such a passion and I think we all knows how that feels, don't we? I certainly do.

A few years later Thom Yorke of Radiohead also choose to do a cover of this song with the instrumentalists of R.E.M as much as I love Thom Yorkes voice, not even he can come close to Michael Stipe on this one.

Fingers crossed that they will play it on the third of september! :)


The song with R.E.M Album version
R.E.M and Thom Yorke Version 1 version 2

LYRICS:
(Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe)



("A speed zone up here too")

I never thought of this as funny
It speaks another world to me
I wanna be your Easter bunny
I wanna be your Christmas tree

I'll strip the world that you must live in
Of all its godforsaken greed
I'll ply the tar out of your feathers
I'll pluck the thorns out of your feet
You and me
You and me
You and me

And if I choose your sanctuary
I'll want to wash you with my hair
I'll want to drink of sacred fountains
And find the riches hidden there

I'll eat the lotus and peyote
I'll want to hear the caged-bird sing
I'll want the secrets of the temple
I'll want the finger with the ring
You and me
You and me
You and me

And if you make me your religion
I'll give you all you will need
I'll be the drawing of your breath
I'll be the cup if you should bleed
I'll be the sky above the Ganges
I'll be the vast and stormy sea
I'll be the lights that guide you inland
I'll be the visions you will see
Visions you will see
You will see
You will see
You and me
You and me
You and me
You and me
You and me
You and me

History: Wanna go for a holiday in a castle?

I have written before in this blog about both my love of the British and also of history. Those two are quite closely linked I think, so basically this is a dream internett site for me: A page filled with castles where you can go and sleep over. Some of them are in such great scenery that it almost takes my breath away and brings tears to my eyes. The Scottish ones seam to especially be in beautiful and wild locations. I guess that's Scotland for you. I gotta go back. The train-ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh was one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had traveling. I was surrounded by good friends, going by train (I love trains!), being in Britain, just been served a really good British cup of tea (it does not taste the same anywhere else..) and going to a place filed with history. Sigh!.. I wanna go back, and maybe see some more castles this time. Anyone know a lord that is available for marriage? I have good breeding, experiences with historic estates and polite and perfect behavior and conversation skills !

http://www.celticcastles.com/
This castle even has it's own video: Castle Stuart

Art: Annie Leibowitz

Annie Leibowitz is one of, if not, my favorite photographer. I remember seeing a program on tv about her a long long time ago and I became amazed. Since then she has turned up every now and then in my life, and I look forward to finally get the money to buy one of her books soon. She is such a master of portraits and light and capturing peoples souls. I'll write more about this some other time, as it's pretty late now, but here are some links to some great photos:









Some of the amazing Disney Portrait sequence can be found here. Portraits of famous people in Disney fantasies as Peter Pan etc. I'll do more on that one some other time.

Olympic games: Novak Djokovic imitates

Novak Djokovic is one of the world's greatest tennis players to, and this is some incredible clips of him imitaiting other world famous players, and got the broze medal in the Olympic games. Most fun if you have watched some tennis the last years though. He is GOOD :D

1



2


3

Olympic games: Nadal

The last few months I have developed a somewhat keen interest in Tennis. It all started when I watched Federer and Nadal in this years Wimbledon final. It was amazing. The placement of the balls. the strength, the concentration and the magic was overwhelming. So today I find myself watching the final in the men's single tennis with much suspense and cheering out for Nadal to win. There something about the man that is a bit captivating, from the incredible hard serves to the gentle ass scratching and drying of sweat he's an amazing guy and the victory and Olympic gold was well deserved.

I like the whole fight between Federer and Nadal quite much. Federer seams to be like this upperclass, cold, gelegant, visionary player, while Nadal is the hard working, never-giving-up muscle machine. Usually I would choose elegance, but it's something stuck up about Federer these days. He's been number 1 for too long, and it seams to have gone a bit to his head... Or maybe he's just shy.. I don't know. Just don't like it :)

Here is a clip about the famed Federer and Nadal last match in Wimbledon.



Here is another great video that tells the story of Federer and Nadal.



Oh and that butt...


Victory ceremony in the Olympic cames

Looking forward to seeing Editors

photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/45street/

A few months back I got an amazing surprise! I knew I was going to see R.E.M and that it was going to be an amazing experience, but then I found out Editors was going to be one of the warm-up bands. Amazing! For you people that haven't heard this amazing band yet I give you to of my favorite songs of the live. Their music is somehow a mix of R.E.M and Coldplay with the vocals of Madrugada and Interpol. (Very fitting as Madrugada and Mew opened for R.E.M the last time they were in Oslo) I love the duality of their guitars and that voice is just like velvet. They just seam to play all their songs a bit to fast live, so hope they won't do that this time to. (Common mistake.. we do it too.. hehe) Incredible stuff though!!

Here is Munich and Escape the nest. Enjoy!





(Escape version 2 better vocals here)
Munich Music video

New Music: 4our5ive6ix

Well, this music is not really new to me, but since I think it will be to most of you others, I put it in the New Music: category. 4our5ive6ix is a guy I found by chance a few years ago through the LastFm network. He makes the most amazing electroica/post-rock, and I am honored to be his friend and get tips from him on how to start of my future career in that part of the musical landscape. Lesson number 1: Learn Cubase.

Here is a link to his Last.Fm page, where you can also download his music. I love all of it :) Enjoy!

Oplympic Games: NRK's games

Just found a quite cool link to NRK's (The Norwegian national broadcaster) Olympic Games. 4 teams of Norwegian celebrities are fighting to be the best team in 12 different Olympic sports. Very funny if you are Norwegian, probably not as funny if you are not Norwegian, because you don't know the celebrities, but might still prove to be entertaining as they are doing things like Rhythmical gymnastics and pole vault :D

There are different episodes released throughout the next two weeks, and so far you can watch 4 of them.

This is the link to the first one.

The man of my dreams

I found a description of my ideal man that I wrote some time ago, but it still what I want and totally unrealistic think that I'll ever find it. I think I described him pretty well though? I will settle for less... hehe (You know him? Give him my number and say that I am looking for him)

I guess in a totally unrealiztical way I would want Mr. Darcy to come riding in on his horse, then suddenly turn into a indie-rocker of some kind and then say "Hi babe, how are you feeling today? Wanna go to a museum or just watch some people or take some photos of things in the world" while he lights a cigarette... hehe... Something like that ;)

Olympic Games: Fake Fireworks

It turns out that some of the fireworks at the Olympic Opening Ceremony was actually fake... Very disappointing...

As the ceremony got under way with a dramatic, drummed countdown, viewers watching at home and on giant screens inside the Bird's Nest National Stadium watched as a series of giant footprints outlined in fireworks processed gloriously above the city from Tiananmen Square.

What they did not realise was that what they were watching was in fact computer graphics, meticulously created over a period of months and inserted into the coverage electronically at exactly the right moment.

Read more in the Daily Telegraph

Olympic Games: Georgia and Russia

As I am sure you know, there is a war now going on between Russia and Georgia. I find the whole conflict so confusing that I think it's hard to figure out what to think about this whole thing. I however found this clip on the Norwegian broadcasters NRK's page with clips from the Olympic Games. It's about two shooters from Russia and Georgia and then giving each other a hug after winning silver and gold. It just shows the people in the big conflict and made me spontaniously cry in front of my computer screen. Have a look...

http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/ol/spill/verdi/67754

Polish morning in the rain

I woke up at 7 this morning of the Polish workers in our backyard hammering and banging on something and talking a bit (" sjiskji kusjyvy macschin") from time to time. Not my favorite way to wake up, but they are doing their job... After about half an hour, I decided to go out on the veranda to have a cigarette. So imagine me... stepping out on the veranda in my white fluffy, towel like bathrobe and my hair as a birds nest on the head. I opened my door and suddenly found myself in the middle of some scaffolding while three polish workers look at me from above, one from below and 3 from the side. The one from below kind of smiled at me as I kind of just politely smiled back and said "oh!". I didn't feel like going over and under beams in the bathrobe in the rain while workers were watching, but I wasn't prepared to be afraid of smoking on my "own" veranda. I squeezed myself into the little shelf in the wall right outside the door and smoked the fastest cigarette in my life. So much for a private veranda. We are starting to wonder if the people that own the apartment choose this year to go to France for a reason. They just painted the whole front of the house and now they are building a lot in the back. Well, I am of to my little shelf again. Wish me good luck ;)

The video that IS Oslo in the summer... Jarle Bernhoft's "Sunday"

Just found this thanks to a friend of mine. Jarle Bernhoft used to be the singer of the amazing Norwegian rock band Span, but decided to quite a few yers back. Now he's back with his solo album. I think he does rock better, but the voice is still amazing and this video for "Sunday" IS Oslo in the summer. Take a look and you will feel it too.

The whole album is supposedly about his relationship to Oslo. I really know what he means and feel a lot of the same as he says on his MySpace-page:

huba. the idea behind the 'ceramik' project is to give a musical portrait of the fragile relationship between oslo and myself. i constantly fall in love with this town, in spite of, or because of, its lack of identity. oslo is always struggling to be something it isn't, in millons of ways at once. i shouldn't like it, but i do. i have to leave, but it always draws me back. it estranges me, still it's who i am. those paradoxes create the songs, and there are plenty more. these traks are originally intended as hushed home demos, but i thought the aesthetic of suppressed slo-fi energy turned out both defining for the music and, well, cool as anything. and in time now, some of them will bloom into something else. hope you like it. it will take pressure, but no hard impacts with sharp or blunt objects. squeeze it, but don't hit it. wear it on your wrist, but don't lick it.

Graham Coxon: You & I

photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/virginfestival/


As Blur split up and Damon Albarn went of the do things like Gorillaz, music from Mali and The Good, The Bad and The Queen, Graham Coxon (Blur's guitarist) went of to do a solo career. I hadn't heard a pip about that until about a year ago and always though Blur was more or less all inspired by Damon. Then I discovered Graham's stuff and realized who much of the greatness of Blur's music actually comes from him as I listened to his records. I am sure I'll write more about Graham later, but for starters I give you "You & I". As I searched YouTube to find a video for you, I realized this is some song. It has been used in countless commercials too, and I've always known it has some of my favorite guitar licks ever coming from Coxon, and man, he has some great ones.

The second song is "Freakin' out". It was my first favorite of Coxon's song, and I nearly drove a flatmate crazy by singing it constantly ;)

Her you go:



and...¨(watch out, it's a bit loud!) And I love the lallallalley part !!

Eno's critique of Coldplay

What Brian Eno thought of Coldplay before he produced the album: (not very happy thoughts but good ones)

Here

Great productions: Kelly Clarkson - Since U been gone

Some songs just hit me right in the spine, just because they are so well produced. One of them is Since you've been gone by Kelly Clarkson. It's not real easy to explain why, but I am gonna try.

The first vers is a perfect build up... The sound is quite tight. The drums are very mechanic and a bit muffled and the sound is almost a bit electronic. Then the second guitar enters and promises that something is gonna happen and keeps the groove going. As a final sparkly touch there is this third guitar that is very high and single notes. And then come the moment that gives me shivers and brings tears to my eyes. All the other instruments than Kelly's voice is cut away as a moment of quiet before the storm, and then booom... the music foldes out and uses the whole spectrum and Kelly is one of those girls that sings like she would die if she didn't on this song. And that gets me. Then on the second verse is a bit more rocked up version of the first one. But the second vocals are added more, that's a really cool effect all through the song that I really like too, almost all of it is done with a double vocal of Kelly, either just similar or with a slight second melody. Makes the sound deeper and fuller. Then for the second chorus that again gives me shivers... and now the bridge that is also great... It just takes of and flyes og and just when it's boring the guitar is cut away for a few beats which makes it interessting, The it quiets down and the the electronica drums form the beginning are back. Before a great build up and just doing all that is possible to make the last vers explode, before ending almost where it started.

The lyrics are of course doing a lot too, since it's a very universal "I wanna get back at you song". I can imagine it would be very good for break-ups and girl power. And I really really believe Kelly when she sings, though I really don't like her as a person after the whole world idol event. I am sure we will get back to that some other time.

And oh... The producer is not surprisingly Max Martin, the pop mad man behind all pop sensations:

he crafted a string of worldwide hits for pop artists like the clean-cut boy bands The Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, Britney Spears, P!nk, Swedish starlet Robyn and the Swedish eurodance star E-Type among many others, in the mid/late '90s to mid 2000s.

Wikipedia

But even though he is knowen as the ultimate teen pop commercialized producer but he is very very good at what he do in that genre and makes a lot of really perfect choices, I think.
More on the song

Just read there about the song being very similar to The Strokes song Last Night.
And that is actually quite true... at least when it comes to the rhythm. Love The Strokes song even more though :)


Song and video

Classical music saves children in Venezuela

I just watched this on 60 minutes and it's amazing. It's about a project called El Sistema in Venezuela. Kids from really poor parts of the cities are given education and learn how to play and instrument in a classical orchestra. This opens a whole new world to this kids. They learn about culture, how to socialized with other people without using violence, and it they are really good they get to join an orchestra that goes on tour all over the world. They say as a result of music becoming a part of their life the whole view on life changes and they become doctors and lawyers instead of drug dealers. It actually made me cry when I watched this. Music can save life. Music is universal. 200 000 kids in Venezuela is proof.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/11/60minutes/main4009335.shtml

Great covers: Travis - Lovely Rita

I am not only a huge Radiohead fan, I also really really love Travis, though not quite to that extreem as Radiohead (This kind of sounds like a 12 year old deciding which boy she is more in love with, right?). A friend once came into my room while I was watching some clips of Travis from the studio, and he says it was like seeing someone watch their old friends from high school. I was talking very load and very enthusiastically about things like some funny new joke they did probably.

Anyways, this is not the time to describe my feelings for Travis. That calls for a separate post later ;) This one though is for Travis' lovely cover of Beatles' Lovely Rita. It is exceptionally good. Travis are really really good at doing covers that sound so similar to the original that it's scary. That is of course somewhat boring, but still very very beautiful. This was made when Sgt. Pepper had it's 40th anniversary and there are a lot of good covers to, that I am sure I will return to later.

There are two clips available. The first one is of the whole process of the recording, and the second one is just the song, so you can adjust your choice to your need of Travis triviata and enjoyment, or like seeing songs get produced. Crazy people like me, like to watch both ;) Oh it's recorded by the man that recorded the original and resulted in Travis new album also being recorded on an 4 track, like the original. (Supposedly in 3 weeks! The Travis album that is.. ) Will be very exciting.


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Friday fun: Speak the Hungarian Rapper

This is not a joke believe it or not. It's just crazy funny....

Sometimes people fight the war, don't know what it's for

com'on, yeah.... peace

Hahahaha

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Great live clips: Radiohead - Arpeggi /Weird fishes Live from Dublin

As I am sure you know, I am a huge Radiohead fan, so there will probably be a lot of posts about them, but I will try to restrain myself a little bit ;) I just found an amazing live clip of arpeggi from their new album In Rainbows. It was filmed by a fan in Dublin and it's just bloody amazing!!! And how well dressed they are for a change, though that sweater of Johnny's is rather odd, better than that red sweater though. But hey, he's a genius, he can do whatever he want.

I love the structure of this song It just rises and rises and gets more and more beautiful, before stopping up and get going again. It is just PERFECTLY arranged and all the choices are right and all the melodies beutiful. It's for sure my favorite on the record and one of the fav's over all :D

Let me be your guide you through this, and show you why this footage is perfect and filmed by a person that really knows this song and what to expect:

I love the first few seconds when you can see Johnny and Ed getting ready at the left of the screen, like "Let's do this thing" and Colin jumping like always in the background. Then you can see Johnny heading over to his side and Ed is concentrating like hell there. Oh, I know how he feels. Just let the fingers do what they want to and don't think to much about it. And suddenly.... oh there is actually three guitars now... ( I knew.. hehe) Perfect panning over to Ed that is screaming his lungs out and doing a perfect job. I think he should be allowed to sing more on record to, as he did on this part on this song. I love the person who filmed this. Perfect pan over to Johnny as he starts doing some impro (I think ?) on the right. Cool stuff at least. Then he heads over to play some piano or organ or something like that. Perfectly capture the handgesture from Colin to make the people sing loader too :)Mr. nice guy and probably the only one except Phil that at this point has any focus and attention to spare. The others are concentrating like hell. Thom sure is. Ed is looking a bit more relaxed though... hehe... Haha... again perfect capture as the drums come back, and during this part Greenwood has before recorded stuff that he then loops and plays with later, wonder if he all ready has done that or maybe he will now... hm... Let's see...Oh yes... here he goes, and that ladies and gentlemen is a Fender Starcaster. Beautiful piece of guitar, that is. Ah... that just adds that perfect extra spark to the song. Perfect panning over to Colin as the bass rejoins. And hey! Thom is doing some basslike things too. Of course, why didn't I think of that. genius... And very classic head-bobbin' there.. hehe... Sigh... and it's over. I'll be back with more some other day ;)Just realized this person filmed the whole concert, bless him, so I will probably post parts of it from time to time and write a little about the songs and why I like them.

Oh, and you can go on the youtube page and see it in high definition if you find the link right under the videowindow. Not sure if that is included when I embed the file, but I don't think so..

Oh, and I made a video for this song too...

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