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In the midst of chaos we all need humour.
Flight of The Conchords is a HBO quality production based on a real life New Zealand comedy duo performing their music. They combine stupidity with cleverness and they’re always on point. In short: They’re incredibly funny. Just check the videos.
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EDIT: Some good-hearted soul decided to share the Love Go album.
The Fleshquartet, or Fläskkvartetten (they switch between names now and then), got me interested in classical music and experimental stuff way back in 1987. I watched the Swedish TV show Daily Live, where their weird mix of classical music, modern rock and experimental madness made a huge impression on me. Their collaboration partners include the amazing Freddie Wadling, Stina Nordenstam, Morgan Ågren, Robyn, the great poet Bruno K. Öijer, Västerås Sinfonietta and many others. Browsing through my record collection I find that the band that I own most records with is actually The Fleshquartet. How interesting! And people think I only listen to black metal and Public Enemy…
I’ve never liked their embarrassing rap elements, though (or even worse, their rap metal elements…). Every track where Tim Wolde (MC Tim!) or Zak ”Clawfinger” Tell contribute really suck. In my opinion, they are at their best either when they freak out or when they ease down. The traditional rock songs are understandably rather boring. It’s almost as if they made these tunes to sell more records or something. Too bad, because they’ve created much more interesting stuff compared to that mainstream crap. Swedish Television has aired the concert with Västerås Sinfonietta on some rare occasions, and I think I’ve watched it a hundred times by now. It’s pure magick. I’ll try to make it available on the net in the future.
In my opinion, their best effort thus far is the Love Go album, released in 2000, to be found here. It mainly consists of modern classical music, sounds almost like a film score, and it’s jawdroppingly beautiful. Check it! Also go get Freddie Wadling’s amazing album A Soft-hearted Killer Collection if you want the best of his Fleshquartet songs.
The Fleshquartet – Lave (from the Love Go album)
The Fleshquartet featuring Freddie Wadling – 7th Day
Fläskkvartetten featuring Morgan Ågren – Off Punk
Fläskkvartetten featuring Bruno K. Öijer – En gång blommade trädet
The Fleshquartet featuring Stina Nordenstam & Freddie Wadling – Walk
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I’ve never been a fan of blues music. I like the stories that surround the genre, and I like that distinct bad sound quality of really old blues tracks, but when thinking of blues I think of wining men repeating themselves over and over again… And you know people who say all reggae sounds the same? That’s what blues is like to me. It all sounds the same.
But this weekend I passed that treshold of ignorance and realized it’s not like that at all. I’m still no big fan of blues, though. I own one single record and that’s it. No mpthrees, no movies, no books, nothing but that cd I bought this weekend. 24 tracks all sung by female blues singers. Yep, that’s right, female blues singers from way back in the 1920’s. I hardly even knew they existed, to tell you the truth.
Because things were quite different 90 years ago, especially on the gender role front. Women’s rights were a total joke and racism and discrimination was the normal state of the day; especially in the music business, and, I guess, especially in the blues business. Imagine being a black woman singing the blues then… What did people think about their stuff back then? How were they marketed to the public, if at all? How many copies were made? How many were sold? How are people able to find these ultrarare, superobscure recordings? There must be some mad stories to tell here.
However, many of these artists only recorded one song and for the most part there’s no information whatsoever to be found about them. Still most of these tracks are filled with so much emotion. Seems like many of them worked at carnivals, touring the vaudeville circuit. Some accompanied silent films. Still, there must be stories to tell. There are stories everywhere.
I found it strangely mesmerising listening to these old vocal ghosts (especially right before falling asleep at night). These women are wining and crying about just the same things that the men usually wine about, but from a woman’s perspective of course. In other words, they’re just as miserable as the men (Oops!). The title alone says it all: Oh, run into me, but don’t hurt me! A craving for sex, lust and feelings, ”between crudeness and despair” as stated in the liner notes.
Now you’re layin’ up in my bed, between my two white sheets
I can’t see and smell nothin’, but your doggone feet
And I’m thru, tryin’ to make a man of you
And if you can’t bring a job don’t you look for your daily stewI worked hard from Monday until late Saturday night
And you’re a dirty mistreater, you ain’t treatin’ me right
And I’m thru, cookin’ your stew and beans
And you’re a dirty pot hound, dirty as any man I’ve seen
Lucille Bogan, Pot Hound Blues (1929)
Did some google work and found that the Document label has released 14 CD’s that includes the complete output of obscure classic female blues singers from the 1920s/early ’30s. Well, the one I got is enough for now, but if I get hooked I guess this wiki article will keep me busy for a while. Always exploring, too much is never enough.
You may listen to samples of the songs at the Allmusic site.
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Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Lemmy, Van Halen, The Police, Soundgarden… Those are some of the influences mentioned in the Fingerspitzengefühl biography, and I could go on for weeks without sleep just naming names, but FSG won’t sound like any of them… That’s what matters. In short, this band seems to deal with two issues; how to endure life and how to cultivate their schizophrenia. Because the music is truly schizo, I kid you not. It’s like life and death colliding and collapsing. Don’t be fooled by that pop song Pick It Up, because you have Kursk waiting around the corner and it will kill you. If you’re narrow-minded about music you might have a problem here.
Fingerspitzengefühl have played together with Neurosis as well as to an empty crowd, all within a time range of a few weeks. That’s schizo as well.
In my opinion this is easily one of the top five active Swedish bands today. On stage they split your weak skull, body and soul in about a thousand pieces. That’s right.
Here are three mpthrees for you to download and listen to, but first check out this YouTubed version (distorted as fuck) of Kursk . It’s heavier than your mama.
Express Death from the two track promo released in 2008
The Smell of Stress And Death from the self titled album (2004)
Kursk from the Happy Doomsday album (2006)
Express Death [Please notice: d-beat!]
He gave you / A bitter name / To bring you down
An anchor / Gets a grip / On bottom of the sea
He gave you / Someone else’s name / To pull you down
Alone with / Its damnation / Forever tied to it
He gave you / A hollow soul / Impossible to waste
He greets you / With twinkling eyes / You can never reach
God’s great
He gave you / A bitter name / There’s nothing you can do
Roaring depth / Hand over you / You sink through the soil
He whispered / Your mother’s name / You know what she’ll be
Pungent pain / Indifference / God’s on my shoulder
I love you
Express death / Yeah, let it show / For her, expose / Death, and let it show
Guide her to the light
Genuine Semblance
Today is one of those tired days
A smell of stress and death
Bodies erect, heads depressed
Walking among faces and names
Can’t appreciate the luxury of barely standing up
The path of another man, a fist between the eyes
I fight this mortifying plague
I burn my belongings
I set the mall on fire
I turn into a thief
The infection burns the mold out
Tomorrow comes the cure
In hiding at the dead end
Better off like this
Look at the man’s eyes
Nothing looks back
Shift to sleep without transition
Tightening the noose
Black blood spurt
In one solid piece
Black blood
All defences fall
The world flickers like a picture
Moving in and out of focus
So monstrous and fantastic
Walk on through
Earthbound needs
Photo by Mattias Indy Pettersson
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“I can’t imagine how this law is going to be able to meet the demands of the European Declaration of Human Rights”, said Privacy International’s vice secretary general David Banisar yesterday, almost mocking the FRA law.
Today Sweden took a giant step away from democracy towards totalitarianism. The FRA, who’s been monitoring our business illegally for years, was not punished by applicable law for doing so, but rewarded. The Swedish parliament ignored the facts, its people and common sense and voted yes in favour of the FRA law.
It’s too sick to be true, really. But it is.
I’ll let the words of Promoe speak for themselves.
Promoe: Prime Time
Prisoner code THX 1138
I’m a break the chains and lidigate Bill Gates
And Ricky Lake type intruders of your private life
It’s like they got a million private eyes in the public eye
Then they publicize double lies in a love disguise
Wolf in a sheep clothing, I just love these guys
Talking about freedom of speech, freedom of the word
It’s a well known fact you need cash to make yourself heard
With topics like this they don’t literally stop me
But I’d be happy to sell 20 000 copies
That don’t make no revolution, so what am I to do then?
Rather die looting, then get my message diluted
Dilemma, either you say nothing to a lot of people
Or you try and kick some sense to a minority of equals
Who already know what you know and don’t need to be schooled
While 85 % of the population keeps getting fooled
Massmedia misleading ya
All them press idiots gets greedier
Chasing headlines and deadlines, the truth left behind
It’s prime time and the blind lead the blind
They tried to drug me with TV, deceive and mislead me
But on the low though, I don’t keep what they feed me
Believe me, I throw it up like a bulimic
Don’t tell no one though or they’ll put me in a clinic
For brainwashing, they wanna stop my guys
With money and lies, they got the truth monopolized
Manipulate and pollute the mind states
Generations are mind-raped
My voice echoed off the Walls of Jericho and Berlin in the old days
Listen close and hear it now in your own hallways
It’s your baby brother quoting me, he got all tapes
Some youths of today want substance, not All Saints
Massmedia don’t wanna deal with the real issues
They want you to think, life is about chasing the riches
But that materialistic shit will fade away
Don’t get caught up in the modern day slavery trade
The unemployed no longer want to be used
Modern day slavery, computer rules
In the school system, of miseducation
The entertainment business of indoctrination
Capitalist interests, run the press and information
Highway to hell approaching, the end-station
At a faster pace than Formula 1 racing
Blaming the problems of society, on immigration
When Sweden make guns, export it to poor nations
Causing wars and starvations, killing Africans and Asians
Calling it “foreign relations” and it’s all annihilation
Yo, you force them to leave their homeland for an unknown land
Then look upon them as more barbaric than Conan
They ask you for work, and you say ‘no man, you can’t be trusted’
They walk down your street and get busted
By your so-called justice designed to chain minds
To put you in the lead, and the others behind
Well I will never trod your road again, never vote again
Cus you will use them as a scape goat again
I’ll raid your radio-show again, like once P.E.
Run up in your office screaming and raving play me!
I got the hottest beats out there courtesy of Embee
And rhymes with the message to set your mindstate free
>When Close-Up Magazine celebrated their 100th issue they published a list of their favourite albums released since 1991 (when issue #1 was released). I love lists of all kinds, so of course I had to do one myself.
One rule: One album per band.
Note: The list is only sorted somewhat by genres, otherwise in no particular order.
Indy’s Top 40 albums 1991 – 2008
01. Wu-Tang Clan – Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
02. Smut Peddlers – Porn Again
03. Dr. Octagon – Ecologyst
04. Gang Starr – Moment of Truth
05. Mobb Deep – The Infamous
06. The Goats – Tricks of The Shade
07. The Terror Show – S/T
08. Dissection – Storm of The Light’s Bane
09. Deathspell Omega – Si Monumentum Requires Circumspice
10. Funeral Mist – Salvation
11. Mayhem – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
12. Darkthrone – A Blaze In The Northern Sky
13. Nifelheim – Servants of Darkness
14. Watain – Sworn To The Dark
15. Master’s Hammer – The Jilemnice Occultist
16. Dinosaur Jr – Where You Been
17. Stereolab – Switched On
18. Björk – Homogenic
19. Beck – One Foot In The Grave
20. Svarte Greiner – Knive
21. Proiekt Hat – Lebensunwertes Lebens
22. Erik Enocksson – Farväl Falkenberg
23. Flesh Quartet – Love Go
24. Morte Macabre – Symphonic Holocaust
25. Plastikman – Sheet One
26. The Sabres of Paradise – Sabresonic
27. Entombed – Clandestine
28. Autopsy – Mental Funeral
29. Opeth – Still Life
30. Repugnant – Epitome of Darkness
31. At The Gates – Slaughter of The Soul
32. Mastodon – Leviathan
33. Neurosis – Souls At Zero
34. Today Is The Day – In The Eyes of God
35. Faith No More – Angel Dust
36. Primus – Sailing The Seas of Cheese
37. Turbonegro – Ass Cobra
38. His Hero Is Gone – Monuments To Thieves
39. Swans – Soundtracks For The Blind
40. Jex Thoth – S/T
And here are another 40 albums that could’ve easily made it onto the first list. I know it’s cheating, but who cares…
01. Earth – The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull
02. Brainbombs – Urge To Kill
03. Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works II
04. Sunn0)))/Boris – Altar
05. Godspeed You Black Emperor – f# a# oo
06. Deutsch Nepal – Benevolence
07. Brighter Death Now – Great Death box set
08. B12 – Time Tourist
09. Goldie – Timeless
10. Massive Attack – Protection
11. Souls of Mischief – ´93 Til Infinity
12. Group Home – Livin’ Proof
13. Nas – Illmatic
14. The Pharcyde – Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde
15. Kool Keith – Sex Style
16. Loop Troop – A Modern Day City Symphony
17. Rage Against The Machine – S/T
18. Seigmen – Total
19. Pearl Jam – Ten
20. Nirvana – Nevermind
21. Candlemass – From The 13th Sun
22. Audionom – Retrospektiv
23. Fingerspitzengefühl – Happy Doomsday
24. Voivod – Phobos
25. Celtic Frost – Monotheist
26. Murder Squad – Unsane, Insane And Mentally Deranged
27. Morbid Angel – Blessed Are The Sick
28. Brutal Truth – Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses
29. God Macabre – The Winterlong
30. Archgoat – Whore of Bethlehem
31. Immortal – Pure Holocaust
32. Witch – S/T
33. Counterblast – Balance of Pain
34. Disfear – Soul Scars
35. Loud Pipes – The Downhill Blues
36. Arsedestroyer – Teen Ass Revolt
37. Poison Idea – Blank Blackout Vacant
38. Antony & The Johnsons – I Am A Bird Now
39. Stina Nordenstam – People Are Strange
40. bob hund – S/T (the 1994 album)