Hello, rarely-updated blog! My friend KÃ¥re just pointed out this video for Norwegian artist Torgny‘s “The Only Game,” along with the description, “This is what it is like growing up in rural Norway and Sweden. A lot of boredom and cars.” And…that’s what you see in this video, but it’s beautifully directed by Emil Trier and the song sung by Torgny and Maria Due is lovely. (Random thing: Torgny used to he the frontman of hardcore punk band Amulet. I’ve never listened to Amulet, but methinks his latest project is probably more to my liking.)

This video came out last year, but Torgny just released his full-length album Chameleon Days this month. According to pechakucha.no, “The Only Game” is the first of three videos about “young, contemporary Scandinavia.” Here’s the second one for “Big Day” (described by KÃ¥re as “what our end of high school partying looks”):

I think Even could sing a cat food jingle and I’d probably love it.

[scratches head]

Whether that’s good or bad, I’m not sure. He has three new tracks from his upcoming album, The Simple Life, up at his myspace page. At first listen I thought, “Mm…okay,” nothing relevatory, but since then I’ve listened to each song a gajillion times, roughly. AHHHHH, WHYYYY OH WHYYY…(um, because I like them)…

I’ll admit I’m pretty tired of his lyrics. I dunno, write a song about waffles, dammit! Okay, waffles don’t sell records, nor are they the most inspiring subject to write a song about.

But even if there are no waffles, I’ll keep listening. I’ve been listening relatively non-stop for 5 or 6 years. That’s a quarter of my life! That’s a…lot.

I keep getting emails from record labels and whatnot and I don’t know why. Do you people even read this site? If you did you’d notice I barely update, that I probably won’t write about what you want me to write about and I DON’T CARE ABOUT SXSW OH JESUS.

Alright, I know you’re just doing your job. Hm. Well, while you’re in Texas, I’ll be in Paris. Not watching any live music, but sidestepping around doggie poo in the streets and gorging on pastries. I WIN, OH YEEAAH!

MAGNET. The artist that I love dearly, that few other people care about…(okay, that’s not true, but his fans aren’t concentrated in the US so being a Magnet fanatic can feel lonely).

I’m not a horrible webmaster; I just don’t get much info. So while randomly looking at website stats, I found some news about his upcoming album. It’s coming out on March 26th (in Norway, at least) and will be called “The Simple Life”…which I don’t know if I can get used to since it just reminds me of the reality TV show. But. Well. [shrugs]

You can listen to one of his new songs, “Lonely No More”, at sonybmg.no. The song is rather upbeat and happy feeling, which is good…right? Even if I absolutely love his depressing stuff? I WANT DEPRESSION! Give to me.

I mean…this is lovely. I’m not used to it yet, but I suppose I will be after I play it a gazillion times. Wee!

Oh, on second thought this song actually is depressing because it reminds me of my loneliness. Sweet! I feel better now.

Actually, I’d be willing to see it without the subtitles and just pretend I understand the Norwegian.

It’s not just hard to be a rock ‘n roller. Some of us [points to self] are helpless and could use some inspiration. Here’s the synopsis (from the Norwegian Film Institute):

A documentary about the music group Merkesteinane from Volda in the region of Sunnmøre. The group consists of mentally challenged individuals. The band has ten members – all of them with distinct personalities, abilities and, not least,
with widely differing ambitions. Eight of them are disabled, two are participating leaders; Øivind and Jostein. With generosity, cheerfulness and love of music, the band has survived for 11 years. They have become an odd social and cultural institution in the Volda district.

You can watch the trailer on the official site or with Quicktime (via twitchfilm).

guess what “MELKE” means!

Some years ago I randomly got Hopeness and didn’t really like it. For whatever reason, I liked Melke immediately. If not for the 169 kr pricetag, I would’ve gotten it there. (169 kr is about $27.) His music is a bucket of clicky glitchy electronic-y fun stuff, ye know? Yup.

The nice guy behind the counter was really helpful and kept giving Diana and me more albums to listen to. While most weren’t exactly my cup of tea (“Electric Violence” by Next Life, was probably the strangest one, in that it was…really experimental?), I really liked Pooka by Lars Horntveth.

POOKA!!!

I had been interested in the album every since it came out a few years ago, but I never got around to actually buying it. Giving the whole thing a quick listen-through helped…although I could’ve done that earlier on Bleep (which also has Melke) if I so desired. OOPS. Oh well, you can do it now:

Lastly, here’s where I was the other day:

down the moutain we go

Insane, I tell ya.

This isn’t a music post. Oops.

I’m in Bergen, Norway right now. See that photo? It looks like that. It’s. Very. Lovely. Pretty to the gazillionth power.

Like whoa.

I have not come across any famous musicians, not that I plan to. There was a pre-teen boy in the main square busking with an electric guitar though. He was freakishly good. Damn! What’s up with that?

I might see some live music thing during my trip. Maayyybeee.

cheese

I like this brown cheese stuff that you can find pretty much…everywhere. Mmm mmmm.

Time to go back on vacation.

…I’m leaning towards the first. If it’s “Quiet & Still”-esque, I will be all over it.

And I have no freakin’ clue what the rest of it says, but there ye go.

And tickets to Norway increased muchly since I checked last week. Dammit. I’m getting on it!

Magnet’s playing! Ralph Myerz and the Jack Herren Band is too! And I’d like to see the Owens. (See the full program.)

Oh well, I’m so not going. But it sounds fun.

I mean, I love em. Professor Pez is quite lovable. Happy poppy tunes that go perfect with the sunny weather we’ve been having in NYC lately. I don’t know if the weather is like that in Norway or if making this happy poppy stuff makes it easier to cope with gloomy weather, but…whatever, it’s nice. So here’s what they have going for them:

# They’re Norwegian, from BERGEN, of course
# They’re music is cute, kinda B&S-ish, except I’m not a huge B&S fan for some reason…but I mention them for comparison’s sake
# They have an amusing biography
# They’re ninja friendly

You can download a bunch of things from their official page or listen to stuff on myspace. “Stuff” and “things”…yes, my vocabulary is growing larger every day.

I found out about this band through Echo, which has about a gazillion other things you should listen to. Really. I dunno the last time I spent so long listening to everything on one blog.

[There are other random bits and bobs I want to talk about, but I'm pretty damn lazy. If you sent me an email saying I should listen to something, I did listen to it. I don't get to write about everything I want to. Mrah.]

If I could learn any other language, it’d be Norwegian.

…Actually, it’d be Japanese, but those Asian languages stump me.

Random: Even sings on “Christine Sandtorv’s”:http://www.christinesandtorv.com/ (of female pop trio, “Ephemera”:http://www.ephemera.no) new album, “First Last Dance”:http://www.dagsavisen.no/nyetakter/anmeldelser/article2007675.ece, on the first track, “Ten Out Of Ten”. Yes, that sentence was too long. Anyhoo, you can listen to a clip at “music from norway”:http://www.musicfromnorway.com/default.aspx?norwegian=album&music=30780. I’m not sure how much I like this particular song, but I love both of their voices in general.