New music: End of Fashion

Some of the best finds in music is find when you just jumble and stumble around on the net for instance on Spotify. I started to listening to an album called Essential Bands in there, cause I saw it had a lot of my favorite bands, and among the ones I hadn't heard before "End of Fashion" turned up. The song on the CD was OK and excited me enough to go and listen to a whole album of them and see if I like the rest. In most cases one is let down in those cases, but as I rolled into the second song on the album "O Yeah" I was still bobbing along, though it sounds an awful lot as the classic "Where is my mind?" by The Pixies. The third song on the slef titled album "End of fashion" is the amazing rock song "The game" and suddenly I was no longer in classic newer American alternative rock but in British rock in the style of one of my other bands Maximo Park. Hard, tight to the point and almost punky. The forth song really opened my eyes... And made me really stop what I was doing and listen. I suddenly heard Jeff Buckley singing without Jeff Buckley. "Anymore" is a quite standard pop/rock ballad, but wow! Singer Justin Burford sounds like Jeff Buckley and Kelly Jones of Stereophonics all in the span of a few lines. That to me, is one amazing voice. I still have to listen to everything in the rest of the album and will try to come back with more later. Now, the rest of my room needs to be moved.. And oh yeah, it's Australian, btw.. That's why I got confused about weather it sounded English or American. Apparently they have released a second album too.. hm.. I get confused when things are not on Spotify, need to find it somewhere else then :)

(Link to the album on Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/album/2AUu4arz88yY0bGU84KjfD )

Here is my absolute favourite so far:
The game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOIEcNouQOo


Unfortunately this is the only recording of Anymore I could find: and the quality is really very bad, but you can give it a try if you want to:




But here is "Oh Yeah" that also give you a little idea about the great voice and also how to rip off a Pixies song.. hehe
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/klneeqK8O1QPHqlYSU

End Of Fashion - O Yeah
Uploaded by JUAN-PABLO-LOVE-MEXICO. - Explore more music videos.

15 albums of my life

This is really a facebook thing, but since I wanted to share it with all of you, I put it here, and this will also end up in facebook notes, so all is good :)


Think of 15 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world. When you finish, tag 15 others, including me. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good. Tag, you're it!


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As chronological as possible

A-Ha - Hunting High and Low
This is the first album I remember buying at the age of 6 and I totally loved it. It was the perfect clever pop-synth of a 6 year old. Still love the album

Guns n' Roses - Use the illusion I
I think this started my craziness for guitars and guitar solos. Amazing rock album and I still love it. November Rain is still one of the greatest albums ever made. Perfect for a 12 year old :)

Nirvana - Live in NY MTV acoustic
This changed the whole way me and all my generation looked on music I think, though we didn't heard about Nirvana before Kurt was dear, I think ;)

Aerosmith - Living on the Edge
Oh, how we loved Crazy and Cryin'. Record listening and taping of videos onto vhs when I was 14.

The September When - Hugger Mugger
Opened my eyes for the great Norwegian band The September When and made me go out and buy everything they ever made and obsessively love it forever and know all the lyrics. Nice for a 15 year old.

Alanis Morisette - Jagged Little Pill
Girlpower in a cool way not the stupid spice girl way. Lovely for a 16 year old.

Blur - Blur
This album opened my head and ears to a whole musical world. I had never heard anything like the guitar on Essex Dogs, and still love it.

R.E.M - New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Started my relationship with R.E.M. I loved this album and we liked it so much that we even used it for a theatre performance, how advantage of us ;)

Radiohead - Ok Computer
Amazing, mind numbing, and so so filled with love on all levels.

Kent - Isola
Bought on a Swedish gas station outside Gothenburg on the way to Praha by bus with my high school senior class. Listened to it all the way there and back. Turned out to be the foundation of a friendship a few years later.

Jeff Buckley - Grace
So beautiful, so clever, so sad. Bought in Poland on another study trip and listened to all the way home.

Elliott Smith - XO
Not sure if this was the first one I bought of Elliott, but I pretty soon loved all his stuff and this is one of the albums I love most of all.

Travis - The Invisible Band
Remember buying it and sitting on the train station and thinking how much I loved ever song.. Amazing :) Sparked my whole love for Travis.

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not Amazing energy and cool guitars and vocals. Just a very very good debut album

The Raconteurs-Broken Boy Soldiers /Consolers of the Lonely Bought these two at ones. Lovely nice to the soul, deep, blues sound from the heart. listened to this all through the summer of 2008.

Great songs & great covers: Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah

Some songs just can't even be explained and just chills you to you bones. Jeff Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah is one of those. I won't even go into his voice right now. I'll return later with a own post about his beautiful beautiful voice. The first time heard it I was at a theater school and we had an evening where we all gathered for a kind of show and tell. A girl went forward and said: "This song will change your life." and told us the story of Jeff. We all sat so quietly that we ever had done and just listened and listened. It was pure magic.

Here is the studio version, the one that came out of the speakers that night:





Today, I found an amazing live version of Jeff doing the song, so you can enjoy it here. (Embedding is possible, sorry) It give it an extra dimension to actually see him singing the song. I have never seen that before!

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