From Seattle to Stockholm

Keeping up with last year, I have created a list of 2012’s best albums. This list, however, is a little different in that I will name my top pick, and then lay out the other nine in no particular order. I’m also not going to go into too much detail about each album… call me lazy, I don’t care:

Bloom by Beach House – This is my TOP PICK for 2012. The album swims in glorious melodies that you will easily get lost in. It would be easier to list the tracks I liked the least, but I won’t do that. Instead, I’ll name my top three favourite tracks: “Myth”, “Wishes”, and my fave, “Other People”. Go get this album right now!

The Dollyrots by The Dollyrots – Total pop-rock, extremely reminiscent of Letters To Cleo (remember them?), but also extremely entertaining. Standout tracks include: “Twist Me To The Left”, and my fave, “Satellite”.

Moth by Exlovers – Incredibly catchy shoegazer dream-pop. Standout tracks include: “You Forget So Easily”, “This Love Will Lead You On”, and my fave, “You’re So Quiet”.

Bored Nothing by Bored Nothing – More amazing shoegazer music (this really was a great year for shoegazer, as you will see). Standout tracks include: “I Wish You Were Dead”, and my fave, “Let Down”.

Maraton by Alina Devecerski – This Swedish language pop album probably would have been my top pick if Bloom hadn’t been so amazing. Yeah, I love Swedish language pop, so sue me, but this album is still awesome. Standout tracks include: “Flytta På Dej”, “Jag Svär”, “Ärligt Talat”, and my fave, “Facka Ur”.

Myth by Geographer – Another alterna-electro-pop album heavy on great melodies. This was one of those albums that came out of nowhere and surprised me. Standout tracks include: “The Dream Has Faded”, “The Boulder”, and my fave, “Lover’s Game”.

III by Shiny Toy Guns – What can I say? This is a great album! Actually, I’d say it’s easily STG’s best effort to date. Standout tracks include: “Somewhere To Hide”, “Speaking Japanese”, and my fave, “Carrie”.

Observator by The Ravonettes – I don’t know why or how it took me until 2012 to discover The Ravonettes. These guys are fucking amazing! Standout tracks include: “Till The End”, “She Owns The Streets”, and my fave, “You Hit Me (I’m Down)”.

Sunset by Superbus – Great alternative pop from France. Standout tracks include: “Whisper”, “Mrs. Better”, and my fave, “À La Chaîne”.

Baby by Tribes – Amazing pop rock band from the UK. These guys put out a couple great EPs leading up to their debut LP, one of which has my favourite song called “Girlfriend” (go listen to it right now). That being said, the LP is solid. Standout tracks: “Whenever”, “We Were Children”, and my fave, “Nightdriving”

Seriously, making this list was hard, so I wanted to add a couple honorable mentions:
Modern Superstitions by Modern Superstitions
Hope by The Twilight Garden
2:54 by 2:54
Not Your Kind Of People by Garbage

Report abuse »

Yeah. I know. It’s been a long time. Trust me, a lot has been happening.

Short version: A sequence of events that resulted in a shit ton of stress and serious doubts that I would ever make my dream of living in Sweden a reality.

However, I am in the process of rising up from the ashes with a renewed sense of determination. After a six month break from school, I’m back in the thick of it, and am on track to finish up my first degree during the Spring quarter of next year… only 25 more credits after this quarter! My plan/hope is to get into Mid Sweden University in their Computer Sciences program. It’s not Stockholm, but it’s a start.

Speaking of Stockholm… it has been entirely too damn long since I visited. In fact, my last visit was almost two years ago!!! But, on that note, my other plan is to take a three week long trip to Sweden as soon as I finish school in the Spring. My goal is to check out the campus in Sundsvall as well as see Göteborg (it pains me I haven’t already). And, of course, I’m hoping to see all of the awesome friends I made in Stockholm as well.

Lastly, I have been getting a TON of spam comments on my various posts, so, I am disabling comments. Just an FYI.

Hejdå!

Report abuse »

Truth be told, 2011 wasn’t that great of a year, but it did manage to see some truly spectacular music. Please take the time to read about what I consider to be the ten best albums of the year:

1. Det Vackra Livet by Det Vackra Livet – Some might say I’m slightly biased towards most things Swedish. This may be true, but I uphold that my love of this album would prevail with or without said bias. Det Vackra Livet , which means “the beautiful life”, is a magical blend of 80’s new-wave pop and more modern dreampop/shoegaze. The opening track, “Kristallen” will immediately bring to mind only the best that bands like The Smiths and The Cure had to offer at their peak. The album, which is entirely in Swedish, is beautifully melancholic while at the same time oddly optimistic. Truly, this is the most solid collection of songs I have heard in many years, not just in 2011. I implore those of you who have not heard this album: do not let the language barrier keep you from this masterpiece. I do have my favoutire tracks, but cannot bring myself to list them- the entire album must be given equal attention.

2. The Big Roar by The Joy Formidable – If I were to sum up The Big Roar in one word, it would be ‘epic’. You don’t simply listen to this album, you fucking experience it. The opening track will grab you by the ears and force you into a zombie-like trance, and at the end of it all, you’ll just be like “What just happened?!” It’s for that exact reason that I have a hard time naming individual tracks by name- they all blend together into this one big mushy, fuzzy glob of goddamn-amazing. Luckily, thanks to iTunes, I can say that the standout tracks are: ” The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade”, ” Greyhounds In The Slips”, and my favourite, “Buoy”.

3. Samsara by To/Die/For – It’s hard for me to classify what kind of sound To/Die/For creates. I usually liken them to the mixing of 80’s bands like Cutting Crew and A-Ha, and modern hard rock bands like HIM (makes sense as they’re both from Finland), and on my iTunes they are listed as Goth Rock… but they’re so much more than any of that. They create songs with such great melodies and amazing guitar riffs, resulting in what I consider to be the epitome of great rock. Samsara is their first album in 5 years, following 2006’s Wounds Wide Open, which I consider to be their weakest offering. It was only a few years ago that the band announced a break-up, and the lead vocalist began working on a new project, but lo and behold, they straightened themselves out and have produced one of their best albums ever. Standout tracks include: “Hail of Bullets”, “Love’s A Sickness”, and my favourite, “Damned Rapture”.

4. Devotion Implosion by Gliss – Okay, technically this album isn’t from 2011.. it’s from 2009, butlemmeexplain!! I discovered Gliss when they opened for Glasvegas this summer and, to be honest, we didn’t pay them much attention. A few days later I decided to check their album out and was blown away, kicking myself for not seeing their entire set. This is shoegazer rock at its finest: melodic, moody, and fuzzy as hell! I enjoyed this album so much that I felt obligated to include it in this list. Standout tracks include: “Lovers in the Bathroom”, “29 Acts of Love”, and my favourite, “Morning Light”.

5. Portamento by The Drums – One of the greatest things about The Drums’ sophomore effort is its simplicity. There are moments in the album where, if you closed your eyes, you might feel as if the band were playing these songs for you live, in your room, bringing an intense intimacy that I haven’t felt with a collection of songs in a long time. Standout tracks include: “Hard to Love”, “Days”, and my favourite, “I Don’t Know How to Love”.

6. Dominoes by Eva & The Heartmaker – There seems to be a resurgence of that classic 80’s new-wave pop sound these days, and Eva & The Heartmaker are easily leading that pack. Synthesizers, sweet vocals, jangly guitars, and electronic drums all come together in harmony, producing an album full of songs you’ll find yourself humming in the shower or on the road. It’s pure pop that I don’t feel dirty for enjoying. Standout tracks include: “Mr. Tokyo”, “Signals”, and my favourite, “Gone In a Flash”.

7. Sounds of a Playground Fading by In Flames – In Flames started out as, what would generally be accepted as a traditional Swedish melodic death metal band. This is very heavy metal music accompanied by guttural growls and screams in place of actual singing. I typically don’t care for this type of rock, and that would explain why I don’t particularly care for In Flames’ earlier stuff. But, the band has evolved over the years, reaching its apex with 2008’s A Sense of Purpose, in which the music became more melodic, less death-y, and actual vocals were used in place of Cookie Monster growls (though still a bit scream-y). It’s also the album where many die-hard fans began crying foul, saying the band had sold out. Perhaps, but fuck those fans. They can go back to cranking all those other bands they love that no one has ever heard of. Sounds of a Playground Fading builds off of A Sense of Purpose’s foundation, though the evolution has slowed a bit. The tunes are catchy and you can actually sing along to them. Win/win! Standout tracks include: “Where the Dead Ships Dwell”, “Fear Is the Weakness”, and my favourite, “Deliver Us”.

8. Bel Air by Guano Apes – Nostalgia gets a bad rap sometimes, especially when music is concerned. It can be quite easy to become musically “stuck” by means of nostalgia (ie: still cranking nothing but stuff you loved in high school… 20+ years later). Every once in a while, however, nostalgia comes up with ways to sneak up on you. Enter Bel Air by Guano Apes, a mid-90’s sounding band from Germany and also… the mid-90’s. Bel Air is their first LP in about eight years, and is easily their strongest. Listening to it brought me back to the days when angst-ridden female grunge vocalists were a dime a dozen. Bands like Garbage, Artificial Joy Club, and Salt came instantly to mind. However, Guano Apes manage to mask that mid-90’s sound in timeless melodies and hooks that have the ability to make you forget about eras and simply enjoy the music. Standout tracks include: “Sunday Lover”, “The Time”, and my favourite, “Carol And Shine”.

9. Hats Off to the Bull by Chevelle – If you didn’t know any better, you might write Chevelle off as one of those nu-metal bands from the early 2000’s that all decided to come out at the same time… and nothing more. And you’d be a fool to do so. Chevelle is one of the only bands to come from that time who has actually gotten better with age. In fact, I have thoroughly enjoyed their last three albums more so than any of their others. To me, they are what Tool could have been if they had taken Undertow and made it more radio-friendly. Commercial? Maybe. But still really damn good. The funny thing about Hats Off to the Bull is that, prior to writing this, only one track stood out to me. But, one or two songs does not an album make, and it’s the album, as a whole, that stands out as one of the best of the year. My favourite track: “Face to the Floor”.

10. Framebreaker by Return To Mono – Like many genres, Trip Hop has evolved from its beginnings. Bands like Portishead and Morcheeba paved the way for their heirs like Phantogram and SPC ECO. If you like any of these bands, you will like Return to Mono. The songs are moody and dark, and swim in an ocean of electronic noise and ambience, as Tanya Kelleher’s jazzy, bluesy, torch singer vocals pierce the electronic film on a gentle, yet sharp edge of echo. Standout tracks include: “Song of the Beast”, “Seeker Circuit”, and my favourite, “Doomsday Device”.

Report abuse »

You know, I kept meaning to write a new post once I got back from my most recent trip to Stockholm… but I just didn’t. My third trip in one years time, I was actually in Stockholm to mark the anniversary of my first visit, so that was very cool. I was able to spend a lot of time with many of the friends I’ve made in Stockholm as well as meet a few new people. Everyone is always so friendly, I love it.

After six straight months of working two jobs and going to school, all I wanted to do once I got to Sweden was nothing! And aside from cramming 13+ people into Anna’s tiny apartment, going to Fotografiska, and attending a cd release party for Self Deception, I didn’t do much. Well… I drank a lot, but that should have been expected.

I think the uncertainty of how I’ll exactly get over to Sweden long term, the possibility that it is still years off, and the discouraging perspectives of some of my Swedish friends has me wondering if it’ll ever really happen. Not to say that I don’t want it to, I still do. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, my busy life continues. I already have the next two quarters of school lined up and there’s still no end in sight. I am meeting with a Realtor this week to discuss selling my house… scary!

I guess that’s it for now. Sorry it took me so long to make an entry. Life.

Report abuse »

Although it has admittedly been a while since I last wrote anything here, I must say that it seems like it’s been so much longer. Oddly, I now measure time by my visits (both prior and future) to Stockholm. And while I’ve been home for just over two months, it feels like so much more… nine perhaps.

So what have I been doing during this drawn out stretch of existence? Not a damn thing! And maybe therein lies the reason for my skewed perception of passing time. Of course, “not a damn thing” is a tad untrue. Since I’ve been home I’ve started my second quarter at South Seattle, gotten a new roommate, recorded a new song, had a week-long vacation, and the other little this-and-that-these-and-those of life… but it all has just felt so tedious and boring!

Most of that has to do with cause and effect: school (as well as working the UW Husky football home games) took up my remaining free weeknights while also eating into my weekends. Any time I had left after all of this was sparse and I normally found (and still find) it hard to actually want to do anything aside from resting or just doing nothing. On my week of vacation I had intended to work on a few yet-to-be-completed songs I have waiting in the wings. Instead I worked on math and English assignments and spent the rest of the time playing video games and going out drinking.

It’s also interesting to me how my focus on school, which is driven by my motivation to move to Sweden, has served to remove Sweden from the forefront of my mind. I have done very little to practice my Swedish as the time to do so always seems to escape me. Just last week I received an email from a friend, Susanna, who lives in Sweden. She always writes to me in Swedish and it was such a nice feeling to have that practice again. It’s made me yearn for more, but the communications between me and my Swedish friends has diminished in the midst of our busy lives, much to my dismay.

I’ve been thinking of returning to Stockholm around the end of March, between the winter and spring quarters, but the timeframes are tight and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it. I want to though… very much. The intensified detachment I feel at home has only made that feeling of limbo grow. Do I belong anywhere?

Today I met my friend Kevin for lunch and coffee. He’ll be in San Francisco tomorrow for a job interview, one more reminder that the only constant is change.

Report abuse »

It’s only been eleven days since I returned home from my second trip to Stockholm, yet it seems like it’s been months. It feels like so much has changed and still everything is the same… but then again, I think most of the changes that have emerged from my Sweden trips have been internal.

Shortly after I got home, the wonderful Seattle weather began showing itself: grey skies and rain; and I couldn’t have been happier about it! I know most people simply can’t comprehend those of us who actually prefer this type of weather to bright, warm, sunny days… and I can’t really explain it myself- but there is a comfort I feel in this weather. I really do love it. I can’t wait for it to start getting darker earlier. Am I crazy? Some might say so, but I just think I know what makes me happy.

I’ve been super busy since I got home: I spent all of last week and today doing a special project that was both physically draining and mind numbing. Adding to that, I started covering the UW Husky home games again. They’ll eat into some of my weekends but the money more than makes up for it… and I’ve already started thinking about my next trip to Stockholm. I really want to go during winter as well as visit some other cities. Still trying to figure out when exactly though as I have to plan it around school now. Ugh! School. The Fall quarter starts in one week and I am SO not looking forward to it.

I’ve been feeling quite detached these last few days. Maintaining the balance between my present and my future is becoming more difficult as they grow closer to one another. I love Seattle and all of my friends here, but something else calls to me and it’s hard not to feel a tad guilty about that. It reminds me of when I left Sacramento to move to Seattle (though in that case I wasn’t going to miss the city at all… just my friends). Who knows? I think I’m rambling anyway… my thoughts aren’t feeling very cohesive at the moment.

Maybe I’m just a bit eager to begin the next chapter.

Report abuse »

Well, I got back from my second trip to Stockholm yesterday. The thing with this trip was that I really had no idea what to expect. Last time I knew that there would be the whole “toursity” phase that could have easily lasted the entire trip (which it thankfully did not)… but this trip wasn’t going to be like that. My main goal was to really explore the friendships that I had begun at the end of my last trip and had tried to maintain on Facebook over the past 6 months. Also, I really wanted to experience life in Stockholm as much as a local as possible. I can honestly say that this latest trip was exactly what I wanted… and then some. I got to spend A LOT of time with my friends there, and I really feel like those relationships grew quite a bit. The level of familiarity that I feel in Stockholm also grew and it hardly felt like I was “on vacation 4000+ miles away from home”… it felt like I was home.

What’s funny (and kind of sad, too) is that pretty much every friend I’ve made there in Stockholm has plans of leaving. Most of them have a strong dislike of the city and the people that live there and they have a hard time understanding why I want to move there. By now I’ve given up on trying to convey that reason to anyone really… but I kind of get why they have a hard time grasping the concept. It sucks to think that by the time I actually make it over there, none of these wonderful friends I’ve made will be there… but I’m not going to let that dissuade me. Now, more than ever, this move feels very do-able.

But, in the meantime, I’m back here in Seattle, working, studying, and everything else I can fit into my free time. Life continues. I miss Stockholm and even more, I miss my friends there.

Report abuse »

Well, eventhough I bought my tickets back in early June, the fact that I’ll be back in Stockholm on Tuesday finally feels “real”. My stay this time will be shorter, but I expect that I’ll have more fun since I’ll be staying with friends and not playing “tourist” as much as last time.

So what am I going to do while I’m there? I have no idea… and I don’t really even care… I just want to be back.

Report abuse »

This has nothing to do with Sweden or anything but I thought it was funny so…

Back sometime in the early part of 2001, I was part of a goth-online-dating/social-network… I don’t even remember what it was called now. At the time I was really interested in meeting a goth girl… for obvious reasons. Anyway, I met a girl through that site (whose name I can’t remember either… (I want to say “Robin”, but whatever), she lived somewhere near El Dorado Hills (near Sacramento, CA). Her picture looked fake as fuck now that I think about it. It was a very grainy, professional looking picture of a woman near what looked like a castle, her back to the camera. It was very obscure and I wasn’t sure it was really even her, but she sounded cool and we talked a bunch through email and IM so I eventually agreed to meet up with her.

On the night we had arranged, I drove to her (actually, her parents’) house deep in the back roads of wherever the hell she lived. Shortly off of the freeway, the road to her place became unpaved, quite narrow, and very twisted. There were several times I was worried about wrecking, as her place was several miles down this road .Her house was fairly large with a small vineyard in front that her parents apparently owned. I remember seeing her for the first time as I walked to her front door; she was pretty overweight, and looked nothing like her “picture”. But, we still had a lot to talk about over dinner. She was supposedly a musician and the singer of a goth band. She went on telling me how all their equipment had recently been stolen, and how she might be leaving them and joining some other band and blah blah blah. I had told her to record some of her music for me prior to our meeting and as I left her house that night she gave me a cassette tape that had various goth music on it… and also a few songs by her “band”.

When I listened to the tape later there was one song in the selection of her “band’s” songs that I was totally in love with… but the recording was shit, like it had been dubbed many, many times. So I asked her about the song and if she had a cd copy of it. She never told me the name of the song, said that she had a cd “somewhere” but that she would have to find it and, again, blah blah blah. The song was really good… like REALLY fucking good… but I was never convinced that it was really her and her “band”. I never did get a better copy of the song and eventually she and I lost contact.

Fast forward to around 6 months ago when it was that I discovered a goth band, Claire Voyant (who happened to be from Sacramento)… There was a song on their latest album, Lustre, called “Into Oblivion” and the vocals in that song instantly reminded me of something I’d heard before. I had looked for their other albums but could never find any of them (for free anyways). So, today I was driving home from the grocery store and, being a little tired of listening to Kent, I popped in a cd that had Claire Voyant on it, and “Into Oblivion” came on. It finally clicked that the vocals reminded me of that song “Robin” had taped for me some 10 years ago, and they being from Sacramento made even more sense. I knew that all of their albums were on Amazon so I decided to sample some of the older songs. I was convinced “Robin’s” song would be among them…

I started with an album of theirs that was released around the time I met her… and the INSTANT the preview for track 4, titled “Everafter, began I knew it was the song. So fucking funny! This is a song I haven’t heard in at least 9 years, always wanted, that I got from a chick who I knew was lying to me about its origins… and 10 years later, I find it, as if I had just heard it yesterday. I immediately bought the cd.

As an aside, as I was listening to this song, it brought me back to that time which seems so very long ago now. I realized that I was so into this song at the time that I was inspired to write a song of my own in the same style. It is called “Drown”, and I wrote it in the early part of 2001.

Hejdå!

-j

Report abuse »

Yes, one month from today I will be on a plane headed back to Stockholm. Ugh! I can’t wait!!! I know it’s been a long time since last I posted anything… maybe nothing much has been happening, or maybe I’ve been way too busy to think about blogging (not that I think about it that much anyway). Whatever the reason, I’m posting now, so get over it (all… one or two of you!).

So I am back in school… though it doesn’t really feel like school yet. Right now, for the summer quarter, I’m taking a computer art class which, while fun, is super easy. But in the Fall I’ll be taking a math and English class. That’s when I think it’ll really feel like “school” again. You know… when it sucks. But at least I’m sticking with my plan.

Aside from that there hasn’t been much to speak of. I’ve kept in contact with the core group of people I met in Stockholm and am really looking forward to seeing them again. I’ve been slacking on my Rosetta Stone lessons but have still maintained a steady stream of Kent songs that I’ve been learning. I love Kent… I don’t even care anymore that they totally abandoned their rock roots (though it would be cool to hear a new Kent “rock” album again).

I guess that’s it. I wish I had more to say… I wish things were moving faster… but things are how they are and we must simply deal with it.

Until next time

Report abuse »