Musical memories: Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song

Every year I am always afraid of loosing the Christmas spirit before I actually get to Christmas itself. I don't want to be so sick an tired of Christmas that when it finally comes I won't feel a thing and just think that I hope it's over soon. I had a golden Christmas moment a few weeks ago when it was snowing, I listened to the first Christmas music of the year. I was on my way home from work on a bus and all the beautiful Christmas decorations and lights of Oslo was up. Somewhere between there and now, I lost it again. I thought it would help to come home to my mother's where I always celebrate Christmas and me and my boyfriend went home by train through a fantastic winter wonderland. But still nothing. A few hours after I came home I got a terrible cold and for the last 4 days I have had no Christmas feeling at all. But today my friends.. Today I have changed from being a sick little gal myself and into a nurse for my darling, who not surprisingly has the same bug as me. We are hopeing my mother doesn't get it too.

The three of us had a lovely Christmas lunch and after that I opened the chest and started to dig into the Christmas decorations. And then slowly, as I put every little ornament in it's place, half of it stuff I made in school over the years, it started to sneak up on me. Me and my mother laughed at the funny Santa we have that plays blues when you move him and a new Nisse got a new spot at the piano. Now I am really looking forward to going to go into the cold beautiful forest tomorrow and and getting the tree, and then, as I am decorating the tree, I am gonna listen to the greatest Christmas songs of all, in my mind: Nat King Cole's version of The Christmas Song.

You can listen to it here, and as you might notice, I have written about that experience before.

Great soundtracks: "Inception" feat Hans Zimmer and Johnny Marr

I went to see Inception a few weeks ago and it is just one of those amazing movies that leave you sitting quietly as a mouse in your seat and makes you want to clap when it's over. I am not sure if I have felt like this since Matrix. Something utterly new, a new way the brain things about the world around me. As I watched the movie in the theatre I was struck by the great soundtrack to the film, and as I watched the credits, I saw not surprisingly that it was one of my favourite soundtrack composers that had written it, the amazing Hans Zimmer. I have loved his work in stuff like The Da Vinci code and Gladiator etc.). So I have listened to the soundtrack for a few weeks now, and it's truly amazing. The build up's and the tension really take you back to the movie experience and makes you sit on needless even when you are not watching the movie.

Today I realized something not surprising but quite wonderful. Johnny Marr (of The Smiths) is playing guitar on the soundtrack! Of course it's him, I said to myself! Of course. And it is so perfect. So go see the movie, listen to the soundtrack and see Johnny talk about it!

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Friday Fun: Ed Byrne On The Smoking Law

As a smoker I find this clip extremely amusing, I hope you out there who is not smoking also can see the trials and strangeness in the everyday lives of this dying race ;)

Great websites: Audioboo

Audioboo reminds me quite a lot about a page I found a few years ago, but I have lost the link to. That page was filled with the sounds of the world, meaning it had a big map and you could click on different parts of the world and hear the sounds from this place. Audioboo also have some of that but also all kinds of other sound things. For instance I just listened to a man who had linked his clip to a road and where he talks about the fact that he does not want to drive on this road but wants to stay home in bed.

For me, this page is an amazing treasure chest. It mixes my love for sound and music with my love for people (most of the time). As a cultural historian I love how people go about with their little lives and how their customs and identity is shaped by and help shaping culture. It's like having the whole world in your computer. I love it so far and is looking forward to exploring it more and hopefully upload some of my own stuff one day.

Great covers: Amanda Palmer does Radiohead

I have heard about these covers for some weeks now, but haven't really found them anywhere online (Maybe I haven't really looked hard enough either..:) But anyway, here one is at least. The great Radiohead covered by Amanda Palmer and her ukulele. I love the title on the album, that alone almost reveals that this is a very cool record. It is: "Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele" Here is a link to her version of Idioteque. To even think about doing such an electric piece of music on something simple as ukulele is impressive enough, but she also actually do a very good job. I wish I could hear the rest of the album!

Friday Fun: Pingu Hop by DVA

(Yes, I know it's not Friday, but since I haven't posted anything in my Friday Fun series for a long time, this should be OK. You can look forward to your Friday on a Tuesday.)

I found this song totally randomly online while searching for other good music, through Spotify's related artist feature I think. And it's first of all just hilarious! But also cute, jazzyy and make me want to groove around the floor. It's something about penguins themselves that is just extremely funny if you like slap stick humour like me, I think. Hope you like it too!

Spotify link

New Music: Sean Lennon

I can't believe I haven't written anything about the magnificent Sean Lennon here yet! I discovered him for real in around 2006, but I post it now as new music, because I believe too few people have heard this.

I have always thought that Mr.Lennon was the exciting Beatle, so I thought to myself... "Wait a minute, that Sean Lennon, he must be one talented guy with those parents, what kind of things have he done." So I searched him up on the internet, and there it was: Such great music. The scariest thing, that should not scare me, but still did, was the fact that his voice and way of writing music sounds so so much like his father. The melodies are just delightful, springy and catchy and the voice, yes, we have heard that voice before. I was awestruck and still is.

Young Mr. Lennon is not surprisingly involved in all kinds of musical and artistic past-times in New York, and I must take my time some day to sit down and read up on it all, and I will tell you more then. For now, let the great music speak.

Ah! And I of course was reminded that his whole name is of course Sean Ono Lennon, thanks to his brilliant website..

Sean Lennon on Spotify.

And here are some videos:


This one can't be built in, but is equally great:
Parachutes

The Duke Spirit again

In november 2008 I found the lovely band "The Duke Spirit" and somehow they slipped out of my attention, but I found them again now, and my oh my, they are still fresh, raw and so so cool. So to follow up on my blog about this a few years ago, I still love them. And it was refreshing to hear. Hope they will release some new stuff soon!

For your enjoyment, the lovely live version of "The Step and The Walk".

Frank Sinatra Talks

Nothing beats Frank Sinatra on a rainy day (OK, maybe Ella is in the same league, but you get the picture). My love for Frank Sinatra started around about 2000 when I bought my first best of record, just to ease nicely into it. I am however sure he left his mark on me before that. I remember watching a live concert with him from Oslo on Norwegian TV when I was a kid. And the fact that I remember that, probably means that I like it, since I must have been about 4 at the time.

When Spotify came into my life about a year ago, I to my delight found a lot of live recordings in there by Sinatra. Still there is nothing that beats the cd "Live from The Sands" with Count Basie from the late 60's. I mean, with two such musical titans it MUST be good. It's just so much life and delight and joy and coolness in that recording. But what I also discovered is that Sinatra talked tons when he was doing live shows. It's not surprising, since he's like the greatest man showman ever, but these live cds include whole tracks where he ONLY talks. And it's insane stuff. He is crazy, witty, funny, cheesy and just plain great. I have decided to save all of those great moments in a play list on Spotify. You can listen to it here. Enjoy! I am so sad I never got to see the great guy live!

Great photos from a great band

If you like the band Phoenix, or if you just like to watch great photos, you should absolutely follow their RSS feed. Wherever they go all over the world they take photos and post them. And they are often lovely strange and artistic. Yet another great reason to love them, I think.

The address you need is: http://wearephoenix.com/journal/?feed=rss2 in your rss reader.
I use my Thunderbird to do that for me.

I was just about to post some links to photos from the rss here now, but Google tells me that Phoenix homepage is dangerous, so maybe you should wait a day or two them. Argh.

Design by Humans: The world's coolest t-shirts

A few weeks ago I ordered some very cool t-shirts from Design by Humans and today they arrived! I have been wanting to buy something from this store for years. All the designs are submitted by users all over the world and I love the uniqueness of that and the fact that a lot of the shirts have a story behind them. For instance "Apparently cats only have one life just like the rest of us" which is a tribute to the makers two dead cats.
I had to pay a lot more taxes than I thought to get them into Norway, but it was worth it. Seams like high quality shirt and I can recommend it for anyone.

The one above and the one below are the ones I choose: (Click on them for more info)

"Apparently cats only have one life just like the rest of us"

Soft, sweet, big, slow, lovely Oslo

It's always a strange feeling coming back to this city that I like to call my home. The moment the train comes out of the tunnel right outside the city, it's like my shoulders fall down from under my ears and I start to relax. It's a little bit like meeting an old familiar friend that floats against me and takes me into it's arms and says "Welcome home, are you ready for new adventures and sights?". For me Oslo is more than anything a feeling, and now it's the lazy, slow, big, soft, sweet feeling of the summer city that meets you.

The feeling also brings with it all them memories I have of this city. The way the light falls on the buildings in March (low and almost like a flash light), the way the cars, trams, buses and people struggles through the first snow, the silence in the city on my way home on a late evening, the empty streets of Easter, the rumble of tourists from all over the world that is a sure spring sign, and the view of the city and all the green of Hovedøya and the leaves in it's parks in the autumn, when the whole city breaths out after a hectic summer. Oslo for me is one of the most beautiful places in the world and equals for me the beauty of the Norwegian mountains I have seen this week.

Some days I hate the random people of this city, but mostly I truly love them.

The mother and the little kid with the dog at Oslo s: the kid looses the dogs lead and walks giggling after it, while the dog goes slowly after the mother, before she turns around sees what's going on and gathers together child and dog and we all laugh together.

The affectionate father with his little kid on a bus that makes a sound like a seagull, which makes us all turn around and the father says laughing:" No, I am not torturing him!" which makes us all laugh.

The bus driver who decides to give us all a guided tour and wishes us all a happy day. The man that at 22 o'clock on Wednesday in February decides to bring a canoe into the bus, and makes us all giggle and smile a bit.

I love it when little things like this happen. It makes me love the people and the city.

I love the nature, the silence and the mountains of Norway. But Oslo, Oslo is my home, where I feel like myself.

Fran Healys first singel from his solo album

I have for months been awaiting Fran Healy of the band Travis' new solo album. As followers of this blog will have noticed, I am huge fan of Travis. I think I might be just as big fan of Andy Dunlop's guitarsolos as Fran's writing skills though. They have been a little up and down the last years too, I think, though I really liked their last album where they went a little back to their rock'n'roll roots. Anyhow I was eager to hear Fran's new song, but at the same a little prepared that it would be a bit boring maybe. And yepp, I am sad to say, but I was right. It's a very cute little pop song, but not particularly catchy, the lyrics seam quite random and a bit boring, and yepp I really miss the sound of the rest of the band. It's just quite frankly a little blend. I don't hate it, but it doesn't give me a little kick like a lot of Travis songs do. Let's hope there are other stuff to come from the album that I will like better or/and that Travis will come back soon. I am sure they will and sometimes you have to try something else to see what you are missing ;)

Here you can judge for yourself:
http://www.spin.com/articles/exclusive-song-travis-fran-healy-goes-solo

Fran is also writing a quite amusing little blog and he wrote about trying to fill inn for Tom Cheplin of Keane the other day. Very well written. Here.

Modeselektor and Thom Yorke - The White Flash

This is a song I have been listening to a lot lately. It has some of the greatest drums and bass I have ever heard in my whole life. What is also very clear to me is that Thom Yorke has listened a lot to Modeselektor when he made his solo album, and at the same time it's quite clear that he must at some point has been involved with the process of writing this song as it sounds a lot different from most other Modeselektor stuff and somehow a bit Thom Yorkeish. To summarize: it's a great result of a great collaboration. I have tried to listen to Modeselektor a lot after this, but somehow it's not the same without mr. Yorke. Guess it is the magic touch somehow. Well, enjoy.

Spotify link and Youtube:

New single from Blur: Fool's Day

It's due to lots of work, school, love and last but not least, it's been a long time since I've found something new that I really liked. Though Blur came out with a new single yesterday, and that was of course very exciting. It sounds a lot like I thought it would, to be honest. Like a strange mix of Graham Coxon's solo stuff and Gorillaz somehow. Still it's lacking the ultimate magic.. There are a lot of talent in that room, that's for sure, but it somehow sounds like they are standing next to each other rather than working together. I have a feeling that is what happens when you haven't made music for a while. I absolutely love Graham's guitar parts though and after listening to the song quite a few times I am really starting to love the lyrics. It's a good song, not brilliant, but good. I hope we'll get some more from them soon :) And sigh.. Can't wait 'til Flea and Thom are not playing together more and go back to their own bands. We need some real quality from some of the big bands soon.

You can download Blur's single here. Darn I wish I had one of those LP-singles :)

Thom York's gig in Cambridge

On the 26th of February Thom Yorke took to the stage in Cambridge where i also played some new songs. I am of course always excited about new things from that part of the musical landscape, but I must admit the new songs sound a bit blend, but you also have to have in mind that I usually don't like Radiohead/Thom Yorke songs before after a while and I can all ready feel myself liking Lotus Flower and These Are My Twisted Words a lot more now than when I heard it for the first time. One of the people that added comments on the ateasweb, commented on the exact thing as I always think: These songs need to be "greenwoodified", meaning that we need Jonny Greenwood to have a go at them too and then they will turn out to the brilliant mix that is Radiohead. If these songs will even be part of Radiohead? Who knows what Thom will do with them. The new Radiohead album is said to be out in not too long, so very excited about that :D Right now the songs to me sound a little like things I have heard Thom Yorke do so many times before.. same chords, same way he plays them, same melodies.. It's good, don't get me wrong, but I need more than this. I was truly excited when I heard Airbag at the end of the set and all the beautiful melodies in it.. :) Of course, it also helps to listen to this version of These Are My Twisted Words compared to the one that was released a while ago. Then you can see what will happen to the others too.

Here is a link to the page where you can see videos from the concert :)

Life: Bread

I am proud:)

No Distance Left To Run - New Blur movie!

As many of you know I have been a fan of Blur for at least 10 years now, and I am so proud and honored to have been there in Hyde Park this summer, when Blur took to the stage again. It to me feels like a big part of musical history! Now there is gonna be a movie about the whole Blur adventure, including the reunion this summer. I can't wait to go and see it!!

Read more and watch the trailer here:

Best of 2009

According to my Last.fm account this is what I like the most in 2009 in plays:

Artist:
* Phoenix (544 plays)
* Radiohead (539 plays)
* Imogen Heap (241 plays)
* Blur (221 plays)
* Frank Sinatra (209 plays)
* Elliott Smith (183 plays)
* Graham Coxon (179 plays)
* Kent (175 plays)
* Arctic Monkeys 162
* Bill Frisell 151
* Bo Kaspers Orkester 148
* Coldplay 141
* Björk 128
* Travis 126
* Beirut 123

I think the biggest surprise for me in this list was that Radiohead wasn't on top and that Frank Sinatra was this high up! Other then that.. No surprises.

Top tracks:
1 Phoenix – 1901 60
2 Phoenix – Lisztomania 36
3 Ida Maria – Oh My God 33
4 Phoenix – Rome 29
5 4our5ive6ix – 7even8ight 28
6 Thom Yorke – Black Swan 27
7 Phoenix – Lasso 26
8 Phoenix – Fences 25
9 Phoenix – Love Like A Sunset Part I 23
10 Lily Allen – Smile 21
10 Phoenix – Consolation Prizes 21
Thom Yorke – Harrowdown Hill 20
12 Kaiser Chiefs – I Predict A Riot 20
12 Regina Spektor – On the Radio 20
12 Phoenix – Girlfriend 20
12 Sia – Electric Bird 20
Phoenix – Countdown 19
deLillos – Flink 19
Phoenix – Love Like A Sunset Part II 19
Arctic Monkeys – Cornerstone 18
Radiohead – Paranoid Android 18
Justice – D.A.N.C.E. 18
Phoenix – Armistice 24
Blur – Song 2 24
Kaiser Chiefs – Oh My God 24
Radiohead – Palo Alto 24
The Teenagers – Homecoming

wow! I listened to a lot of Phoenix this year, and I hope 5ive6ix7even is happy about beating Thom Yorke :) All this songs are extreemly good though, so check them out if you haven't :) and wow the gap between number 1 and 2 on this list!