The Lemur Blog

1. Coralcola - Heath Ledger

2. Marit Bergman - I Will Always Be Your Soldier

3. Nordpolen - Skimret

4. Säkert! - Allt Som Är Ditt

5. Florence Valentin - Mitt Allt

6. Glasvegas - Geraldine

7. Alaska In Winter - The Homeless And The Hummingbirds

8. Jack Peñate - So Near

9. Asa - Fire On The Mountain

10. Arcade Fire - Wake Up

1. Nordpolen - På Nordpolen

2. Jonathan Johansson - En Hand I Himlen

3. The Knife - Silent Shout

4. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

5. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala

6. Glasvegas - Glasvegas

7. The Field - From Here We Go Sublime

8. Justice - Cross

9. Burial - Untrue

10. Asa - Asa

11. Björk - Vespertine

12. Arcade Fire - Funeral

13. Daft Punk - Discovery

14. Radiohead - Kid A

15. Gorillaz - Demon Days

16. Shad - When This Is Over

17. Elliott Smith - Figure 8

18. Maps - We Can Create

19. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours

20. Röyksopp - Junior

I can’t tell you much about it, because it’s just in the planning stage. But it WILL happen and I’ve already got my first signee, although a real contract hasn’t really been involved. I won’t however, let you know who it is until I’m ready to launch the label. I wouldn’t necessarily call it record company because it doesn’t necessarily mean releasing physical records - although it’s very likely that it will happen. I’d prefer to call it music company. Although I hate to call it company because it doesn’t involve a lot of money or structured organisation and the word company sounds so strict, formal and dull. But whatever, you get the point. The name of the record label is also to be announced further on. What I can tell you about the matter are some key words describing the label’s philosophy:

DIY

Independence

Freedom

Anti-establishment

Purity

Sincerity

Keep checking this blog for more updates and news regarding the label.

If you’re an artist feeling that you can connect to these key words I wrote above and would be interested in being signed by me, please let me know. And if you’re just some random person with tips, ideas, questions, suggestions or feel that you can and would like to help out forming this label, then please let me know too!

thelemurblog@hotmail.com

Here’s a sample of how the label’s music is going to sound. This is one of the bands I’m currently considering signing.

…

Haha, just kidding. Could you believe that? Japanese über-polished futuristic technopop girl trio Perfume on my label? Sometimes, Japanese pop music is so plastic and streamlined it hurts. Love this and the rest of the album: GAME, nonetheless!

Perfume - Baby Cruising Love

Buy GAME

You may or may not know that I’ve taken up the writing for Consequence Of Sound again. I focus mainly on record reviews. So I’ve been working on a bunch of reviews this Autumn and urge that you check out my archive here. Recommended especially are the Shad article and the review of Jack Peñate’s splendid second album Everything Is New. Check out his So Near below! The best track of the album and one of the very best pop songs of 2009 if you ask me!

Jack Peñate - So Near

Buy Everything Is New

If and when Hypem choose to pick up my blog for indexing mp3s again… I will return. So let’s hope they’re willing to pick up a small Lemur who’s ready to once again burst his heart open again for the music world he’s so lucky to be part of.

Kent is Sweden’s probably most popular pop/rock band (and, after The Knife, the BEST). This song ranks as one of their best (from their eponymous 1995 debut) and it measures up to the best Radiohead or Elliott Smith ever wrote and recorded. The lyrics in Swedish and in an English translation by me are found below. Just so you’ll “get” why I chose this as my comeback song. If you ask me, it’s one of the best ballads ever written.

Kent - Den Osynligen Mannen

Swedish lyrics

Kent - Den Osynlige Mannen

Fyll mig med luft igen
Gör mig synlig
Du får gärna avsky mig
Om det gör mig tydlig igen

Om du vill visa dig igen
Om du vill komma hit igen
Om du vill röra mig igen
Så måste jag vara i färg

Fyll mig med vatten min vän
Håll mig flytande
Jag låter dig avsky mig
Det gör mig tydlig igen

English translation (Free interpretation - out of necessity)

The Invisible Man

Fill me with air again
Make me visible
You’re more than welcome to loath me*
If it makes me visible again

If you want to show yourself again
If you want to come here again
If you want to touch me again
Then I’ll have to be in colour

Fill me with water, my friend
Keep me floating
I let you loath me
It makes me visible again

*This sentence could also be translated as “I gladly/willingly allow you to loath me”

The beauty and directness of the original language sort of disappears in a translation. But you probably get the point now why I chose it as my comeback song.

Curious personal trivia: this is my favourite drunk-song when I’m feelin’ blue, melancholic and am under the influence of alcohol.

I just totally lost all motivation to blog at all. School has started, I’ve picked up my writing for Consequence Of Sound, so less time after summer freedom = severe motivation problems and no posts.

I just feel like there’s so many things I could and would want to do with my self-hosted blog.

Do I wanna do the classic personal quasi-philosophy “write-whatever’s-on-my-mind” blog that I said I would?

Should I just continue going the same successful road I’ve been going for the last two years that The Lemur Blog has existed?

Should I prioritize school/Consequence Of Sound/clubbin’ ‘n’ giggin’/miscellaneous doings and let the blog shrink to a simple but effective “pic+awesome mp3″ format?

Should I turn it into a site (this is an idea I’ve had as of late) where I review old and new music releases (albums/EPs/singles and everything inbetween and relating to) and fulfill my dream of becoming the most famous, creddy and respected unprofessional/professional (the latter in the hope that Pitchfork picks me up) music reviewer/journalist (like a more thorough and indepth Robert Christgau, who’s the only individual that Wikipedia recognizes as a reliable review source)?

Should I just forget about it all and let it sink into oblivion in a disgraceful manner?

The last is probably not an option. I haven’t payed for a year’s worth of server hosting to not use it halfway through, you know. So something is going to be up here and whatever it is, it will be regularly. It will be on a daily basis, that is. I just need time to figure out what I want and how well it will fit my tight schedule. Until then help yourself to some Passion Pit

Passion Pit - The Reeling

P.S.

Popaganda @ Eriksdalsbadet 28-29/8 was awesome. Major Lazer @ Debaser Medis 2/9 was awesome. Passion Pit @ Debaser Slussen 3/9 was awesome. The Queue @ Stinsvillan 5/9 was awesome.

There’s no coincidence that Ricco was the name of choice for Love Antell when he wrote the title track to Florence Valentin’s third and latest album Spring Ricco. It’s not for any possible rhyming qualities. It’s not to sound exotic. The lyrics dealing with young violence point towards a brave and important reference to the Riccardo Campogiani incident in Sweden. An incident that struck a few heavy chords inside of me. Florence Valentin’s song strikes a few chords as well. Being the closest thing to Glasvegas any Swedish band has come, Florence Valentin mix exuberant popability á la Håkan Hellström and social-realistic themes where every word sounds like the truest ever sung.

The lyrics of the album will be translated and posted here on this blog soon!

Florence Valentin - Spring Ricco

Not dead. Just… resting… my… eyes (fingers?)… snore

While I was gone having a ball in Gothenburg this weekend the rest of the blogosphere was busy replying to all in a massmail. Do I need to comment on the stupidity that is filling my inbox or can you help yourself to some witty remarks about the matter?

My first Way Out West, my second music festival ever and the BEST music festival ever. WOW’s combination of classic, euphoric festival feeling in the beautiful park of Slottsskogen and heartthrobbing sensations in the nighttime clubcity of Gothenburg is simply fantastic. Go to WOW’s site to see which acts were booked and read on to see what I saw!

Despite having a new system for the year where only visitors of WOW have access to gigs at clubs, those clubgigs got filled up pretty quickly. Before the festival I thought I was gonna be able to cruise around the city like a drunken angel just sliding into this clubgig here and that clubgig there. But nope. I missed Hajen, Loney Dear and El Perro Del Mar at the beautiful Annedalskyrkan Thursday night. Humph.

I didn’t get in at Pustervik either, where Sonjagon, Deportees (yay!) and Blitzen Trapper were playing. I counted the people in line outside the club, people thought I worked there (I played along, hehe) and counted up to 365. Not bad for Sweden’s second biggest town I’d say. So instead I just moved on to Världskulturmuséet (World Culture Museum) and got caught up in the fiery electro set of Crookers.

Crookers? Ooohhh. That was dope. Heavy stuff. But after a while even their insanely high level gets monotonous. Two hours of build-up, release, middle part, build-up, release, middle part, build-up, release, middle part was a bit too much and the grinding floated way above the heads of the audience the last half hour. Day ‘N’ Nite won back a few people who were about to leave, of course, but in the end I think a DJ duo of Crookers’ calibre should have the taste to vary their style a little bit. Good gig anyway, and Crookers prove that they deserve to be the ones hyped in the fidget-electro/whatevs niche movement they’ve been headlining the last two years.

Vivian Girls?
Sparkling girlypunk glitter 13:00? Hmmm. On the other hand, who fits in at 13:00? Not many. And with that perspective Vivian Girls did a cool little gig to start the festival off nicely. They’re worth seeing just for the redtop cuteypie anyway. Gotta love her bang.

Timo Räisänen?
The son of Gothenburg and uncrowned prince of Swedish indie poprock did as good as he could but the crowd wasn’t warmed up yet and “the feeling” that usually surrounds Timo kinda got lost. Reduced to another perfect warm-up.

Bon Iver?
5/5! 9/10! The guy is humble enough to play any time of the day. 24/7. And the music is as emotionally evoking as it sounds through the ipod headphones. Or more! We’re talking freakin Bon Iver live here. It was glorious. I got tears in my eyes from the amazing ovations he received. The crowd response was one of the best of the festival. It was under the Linné stage’s tent roof but I’ll be damned if all of Slottsskogen wasn’t clapping.

Beirut? Grizzly Bear?

What did I do here? I think it was lunch or hangin out with friends. I know I heard most of Beirut’s gig (it was good but itwasn’t much to actually LOOK at, as you might understand) but I completely forgot about Grizzly Bear. They had a short gig and probably couldn’t top Bon Iver as the next band @ the Linné stage. But still a darn shame. They’re music is complex enough for me to play all their records on the train down to Gothenburg just for the sake to get into the music. Oh well. I guess I’ll have to catch them when they come to Debaser Medis this Autumn.

Band Of Horses?
Splendid! Bridwell’s voice sounded great over the sunny park. In the setting with the perfect weather and the crowd’s excitement, Band Of Horses couldn’t help surpassing the dark and gloomier sides you can hear on their albums to instead deliver life-affirming indie rock that few bands can brag about. Props to the band for learning some key Swedish phrases. My sister especially enjoyed Bridwell’s “fy fan”.

Robyn?
Exquisite! She’s been guesting a lot of artists the last years since her 2005 comeback and 2007 international comeback. On that Friday afternoon she was the unquestionable star. She dropped all of her hits from her latest album backed up by the furiously popping Kleerup and Klas Åhlund. It didn’t even have to be dark. The daytime disco was on! And for once, she was the one who brough out guests. Mapei and Dr. Alban (!) where both fun choices. A little bit unexpectedly Röyksopp guested HER too and played The Girl And The Robot to everyone’s big content. I just got a little worried that Röyksopp would skip TGATR during their gig later that night… My fear’s didn’t come true! But it wasn’t one of those guests or her own hits that struck me hardest.

She left for a minute or so. Then two figures concealed by black, semi-transparent veils came out. One was Robyn, you could easily guess that. But who was the other one. They start singing I Want To Break Free. That sweet melody by those two sweet sweet sweet Swedish voices. Have you guessed yet which other notable Swedish artist joined Robyn on stage? OK. Well, if you ask me, Robyn’s and Lykke Li’s touching ballad reinterpretation of the Queen classic was one of the most memorable moments of WOW 2009. JUst fantastic.

Florence And The Machine?
Nope. Missed. But I’m sure the gig was great.

Wilco?
Nope. Missed this one too.

Laakso?
Yes indeed. I had to catch them because after Laakso, who performed a nice gig (I’ve seen them two times now, my infatuation with everything that has to do with Krunegård remains strong) I had to make sure I got right up against the fence as Röyksopp was the next band to play @ the Linné stage.

Antony And The Johnsons with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra?
Sorry my beloved Antony. Sometimes you need to make sacrifices to reach those fantastic moments. And that’s why I painfully had to miss you. I’m sure the collaboration with GSO took your music to new heights. But I had my priorities straight and those were Röyksopp and Fever Ray.

Glasvegas?
Same here. Painful sacrifice.

Röyksopp?
Yes. Of course. Best show of the whole festival. My favourite band didn’t disappoint and the show was electrifying. Robyn did guest and we got to hear The Girl And The Robot AGAIN. Twice on the same festival. WOW visitors got lucky. Karin Dreijer Andersson guested on What Else Is There? and This Must Be It in a brilliant horrific unreal creature suit. But where was Tricky Tricky? I know it wasn’t exactly my favourite track off Junior but still! Anneli Drecker didn’t exactly look dressed for the occasion but she delivered spotless, beautiful vocals to You Don’t Have A Clue, Only This Moment and Happy Up Here. But where was the energetic version of Sparks we could hear on Röyksopp’s Night Out? And where was the equally fine ballad on which she also guested on Junior: Vision One? And wouldn’t it have been interesting to here a juicy, live version of Across The Graveyard?

And where was Lykke Li? Why wasn’t she brought up for Miss It So Much or, dare I say, Were You Ever Wanted? I mean, as long as she was at WOW…

It’s not complaining, because there was nothing to complain about. All the sufficient and most known and loved tracks were dropped with an impressive energy and skill. I couldn’t possibly ask for more tracks, especially not non-single tracks. One of the highlights for me was hearing the normal version of Poor Leno instead of the Istanbul Forever Take remix version they’ve been playing live in the past (as heard on RNO).
5/5! 10/10!

Fever Ray?
Genius. Absolutely genius. Most interesting, creepy, hypnotic and mind-thrilling show of the whole festival. Fever Ray is a must-see live. Perhaps even better than The Knife live (haven’t seen them myself, though).

Erol Alkan?
Nope. Got stuck in a window with a couple of friendly Cape Town dudes and two nice German girls travelling all over the place. I don’t know if Alkan could’ve topped that

Jenny Wilson? I heard her over a beer in the restricted alcohol area. But I did see that she had an even more eye-catching outfit than Fever Ray. A bright blue dress, it was an abomination. And that’s just one of the reasons to love Wilson - the uncrowned, completely original and unique princess of Swedish indie pop innovation.

[ingenting]?
Nothing. I can’t say nothing. They played, I enjoy their music very much. So the gig was good.

Calexico?
Heard them while grabbing good places in front of the Vampire Weekend stage. Sounded great but heard elsewhere that they’re quite boring to watch, especially in rain…

Vampire Weekend?
They pushed away the rain by popping one hit after another and the indie cindy crowd bounced like rubber balls. The gig was standard but great. We got to hear a few new songs from their upcoming second album. And guys… get ready for another insane but exaggerated hype when it drops… Their ability to push away the rain from hundreds of people’s minds tells me that they have pushed through into mainstream lands where they could get even bigger.

Dead Prez? Nas?
Nope. Outdoors hip hop gigs was not on my priority list even though I totally respect most of said acts’ works.

Florence Valentin?
Absolutely! No Swedish festival is complete without Florence Valentin lead singer and frontman Love Antell bashing at society and standing up for the little man. Saw them last year at Popaganda, saw they at WOW and now they’re coming back to Popaganda again this year. Spring Ricco is one of my favourite albums so far this year so it should be even better this time around.

Wolfmother?
I love Wolfmother but I needed to secure a place for myself in front of Basemet Jaxx. Sorry guys.

Basement Jaxx?
Holy shit! The best of their back catalogue was presented in the festival’s undoubtedly wildest gig! Colourful and strong songstresses, bingo here, bango there… Was it a hurricane? Was it a tropical storm?

My Bloody Valentine? Lily Allen? Teddybears STHLM?
Nope. No matter how bad I wanted to see these three acts I just could give up my hopes of seeing…

Ladyhawke?
Yes! I got in. I was there sooo early for the club gig. Nervous as hell, asking everyone questions. Couldn’t believe I was going to see Ladyhawke IN PERSON. There are few artists I get nervous about but I feels so humble and full of respect when it comes to Pip Brown. I stood like one feet away from her. Had to help her hold the mic stand while the guy at the club was trying to fasten it to keep it from falling backwards knocking her teeth out, haha. It worked out eventually and the gig was great. The intimacy, the love, the alchohol I had drunk… It was a dream come true. The more I think about it, the better the gig gets. I’m sooo glad that I sacrificed Gang Gang Dance and Deerhunter for her. I missed Crazy World and Morning Dreams and perhaps Manipulating Woman but I can’t complain. I’m usually quite reluctant to catching drumsticks and such. But she gave me her plectrum. Thank you Oh what the hell. It was my favourite gig of WOW, haha. Check out my top 10 below!

The Lemur’s Way Out West Top 10

1. Ladyhawke <3
2. Röyksopp
3. Bon Iver
4. Fever Ray
5. Robyn
6. Basement Jaxx
7. Florence Valentin
8. Band Of Horses
9. Vampire Weekend
10. [ingenting]

Fever Ray - Seven

P.S.

Skriet and David Sandström Overdrive performed before Ladyhawke. I liked Skriet but have a hard time seeing who would want to buy their music and DSO was some really really nice rock music.

I just remembered it’s for the better if I release this very important post tomorrow instead. It’s important for me anyway. You see, I’ll be at Way Out West (see you there, someone?) Thursday through Saturday (and staying half of Sunday in Gothenburg where this wonderful music festival is held). So tomorrow I’ll release the text on what is so important about me and life in general. So I can let that post “sink in” while I’m having a ball in Gothenburg - away from computers and internet.

Interpol - (Untitled)