Category Archives: music

>Forget the swan

>Originally posted May 26, 2007.



When I found out that Dinosaur Jr would play a song at last nights Henry Rollins Show I immediately set my alarm clock. When the best band in the world appears on television that’s what you do. When I found out they were going to play Forget The Swan, their best song, the best indie song ever, one of the very best lo-fi tunes I’ve ever heard, I was almost moved to tears.
The song is featured on their first album, Dinosaur, which was released in 1985! This episode of the Rollins Show was aired in 2006…

The performance was flawless! I was down on my knees, all alone in my living room, worshipping the gods. No joke. The lyrics are so dark and twisted, and Lou Barlow’s emotionally haunted vocals were as moving as on the album. Mascis’ solo blew me away, as always, and Murph did his mad scientist style drumming as good as in the old days. Pure poetry.

Who, among similar bands, wrote stuff like this back in ´85?


This spell would be clear in non-tradition
And stepping on these pieces of pain and smirk
And rape goes through to sin my eyes
And shapes know where the heartache will lurk

Forget the swan, the dreams are gone
The pain goes on, they fly at dawn

Get the TV-clip here and download the mp3 here.
If you find it any good, here’s the three albums you should start off with.

>Tool and die

>Originally posted April 17, 2007.


NOV 2007 UPDATE: Click here.

The Virginia Tech Massacre.
30+ killed this time.
And still people ask the same stupid question: Why does this always happen in the United States of America – the land of the free, the biggest and best democracy in the world?
To answer this, once again I turn to rap music: one of the few genres where social realism and urban youth is allowed to collide head to head, no holds barred, free from moral restrictions (as we all know, punk and hardcore ought to be like this, but is far from it…).

Back in 1992 there was this pretty strange rap group called Consolidated. Strange because they were white, and strange because they were dealing with political issues on a higher level than most other rappers at the time. They weren’t in it for the fame. And not for the game either. They wanted world wide change. They were the white equivalent of Public Enemy, in a way, and they started already in 1989 unleashing the This is Fascism EP.
Their song Tool and Die is still as relevant today as it was back then, 15 years ago. Sadly, not much has changed. The NRA and the gun lobby are working hard for gun rights instead of gun control.


Download Tool and Die here, and get with the lyrics. Truly great stuff!
No lame bling-bling shit, this is true hardcore.
Can you deal with it?

ConsolidatedTool and Die

Damn, this is madness
its the fourth consectutive week I’ve had this
reoccuring nightmare of a woman who tries to walk her child to daycare
they pass some liquor store
see an average looking kid running out the door
in a moment frozen
they watch as he reveals a handgun
terror in her voice, no sound,
he unloads a round, her son goes down
then I wake up screaming but am I dreaming
cause its just another day
so many killings repeated until people have no feeling
when every two years guns take more
american lives than the whole vietnam war
Six teens and children die every day in gun homicides
and the NRA lobby fool
pay athletes to tell kids to stay in school
whoever said that must be joking
go tell that to the kids in Oakland,
DC. Detroit and Newark
and you wonder why kids don’t do their homework
the school is a warzone
teachers and students alike are afraid to leave home
hallways are an innocence tomb
the principal’s office a grieving room
this is a malignant cancer
guards and metal detectors won’t be the answer
hundreds of thousands of students say
they carry guns to school daily
growing up with fear and panic.
Bang – Nine – Automatic!

It’s genocide
America has the most homicides
Society devouring its own young
Take away the guns we need gun control

How can we stop the violence
when everywhere we look is the image of gun death
the Rodney King explosion is just one result of inner city erosion
take away all hope and kids will turn to robbery and dealing dope
you don’t care about elections
what urban youth want is protection
from a life of war
could be the Iraqi war or war in the Filmore
There is no more tragic sight
than a heavily armed youth with no respect for life
The leading cause of death in African American males under thirty five
at the funeral the friends will cry
but on the streets they tool and die
and Hollywood has done
more than anyone to glamorize the gun
movies, music and TV.
Its Genocide…can’t you see…
Got to take the profit out of crime
stop glamorizing death on primetime
Cities are the only places
where kids are waging arms races
in suburbs and rural areas
Across the country kids are carrying
three more hours and another teenage youth will have committed suicide
while his mothers crying
gun advocates are on TV lying
to the public
about how people are the ones who kill and guns don’t
until we have gun control
we can’t stop these ten year olds
from going in their father’s closet
were the gun was left unlocked and loaded
Where does it end?
When everyone gets their own piece, dividend

Driving down Guerrero
cut off a psycho kid looked like Sendero
Luminoso, words were froze so
I don’t start talking shit or acting macho
you could get popped in a minute
this is the wild, wild west and we’re in it
and my kids don’t want to play
when they have to worry about ducking spray
or two drunks having an argument
in front of our apartment
when I hear that sound
I yell: Everyone get inside and get down!

>The return……

>Originally posted March 08, 2007.


It’s been a long while since B-Girls got down.
T-Love said it, and she said it ten years ago. So where the fuck are all the ladies at? Being a woman in the rap scene is definitely not the easiest of tasks, but every once in a while it’s time for one of them to step up and shine.
I’m talking about MC’s who can rock the mic and spit lyrics that kill, and who’s got skilled producers to back them up.
We’ve got Lady Luck, What What, Sonja Blade, Leila K (!) and sadly not that many more (in my opinion and to my knowledge). Sure, there’s always underground female MC’s ready to pop, but they rarely show their skills. Too bad.
And please, don’t give me crap like Missy Elliot. She’s just super wack.
Lady Sovereign? Eh… Well, for fun maybe.
Lil’Kim? Hmm… Every once in a while. At least she’s portrayed really cool in this photo:


There’s probably some really cool female grime artists as well, but that’s not my kind of rap really, so I can’t speak about that.

So it was back in ´97 that T-Love made this super dope track Return of The B-Girl. She was supported by Kool Keith, one of the most sexist dudes in the whole rap industry, but also one of the very best. How awesome then that this amazing collaboration turned into one of the fattest hip hop joints ever.
Listen to the song and fall to your knees pissing. It’s that good.
Download the Return of The B-Girl mp3 here! Do it. Now.

And listen to the lyrics:

There’s a lot of girls rhymin on the mic with no direction
Don’t know why they flexin, forgot rules and lessons
The essence: beats and rhymes and shit
I’m about to show these bitches that I’ll die for this

It’s been a long time, I shouldn’t have left you
Sorry for the wack shit you slept through

Yeah, it’s been ten years of wack shit. Where are you now? Please, I’d love a re-return of the B-Girl. Hear me now, T-Love.

—–


And get this book:

>The best albums of 2006 according to Indy

>Originally posted December 31, 2006.

UPDATE Nov 2007: I posted a list of my fave albums of 2006. It’s too tiresome to redo that massive post again, so here’s the list without comments and album covers. If you want it all, click here.

Antaeus – Blood Libels
Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
Bestial Holocaust – Final Exterminacion
Boris – Dronevil FINAL
Celtic Frost – Monotheist
Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words – Old Ghosts, New Ghosts, All Ghosts
Death Breath – Stinking Up The Night
Dissection – Reinkaos
Edwige – The Inconsolable Widow Thanks All Those Who Consoled Her
Fingerspitzengefühl – Happy Doomsday
General Surgery – Left Hand Pathology
Gorgoroth – Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam
Heresi – Psalm II – Infusco Ignis
Iron Maiden – A Matter of Life And Death
Katharsis – WorldWithoutEnd
The Knife – Silent Shout
Krux – II
Krister Linder – Songs From The Silent Years
Massgrav/Diskonto – A Blaze In The Northern Sky
Mastodon – Blood Mountain
Mogwai – Mr Beast
Mono – You Are There
Negative Plane – Et In Saecula Saeculorum
Joanna Newsom – Ys
pp7 gaftzeb – pp7 gaftzeb Kastar Första Stenen
Regurgitate – Sickening Bliss
Repugnant – Epitome of Darkness
Skitsystem – Stigmata
Sunn0))) & Boris – Altar
Svarte Greiner – Knive
Anna Ternheim – Separation Road
Tom Waits – Orphans – Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards
Scott Walker – The Drift
Witch – Witch
Woven Hand – Mosaic

And that’s just the full lenght albums. I didn’t have the time to write about tapes, EP’s and stuff.
And I skipped all rap records…

>Alpha Erection

>Originally posted December 10, 2006.



Holy hell, what a glorious evening, this Friday 8th of December 2006!
Fuck “No Fun”, this was the total opposite – total fun.

The Segerhuva scientists had arranged this evening in the name of noise (no, not Melt Banana/Boredoms-style as the local fuck-ups (journalists) wrote in Metro), and we were honoured by the presence of the almighty Government Alpha straight out of Japan.

The venue, Sugarbar at Kammakargatan in Stockholm, was the smallest ever (my living room is twice the size), and when 30 people had arrived the place was overcrowded. Cool thing, since you were forced to be in the front no matter what. Hail bar gigs!

Sewer Election and Treriksröset (Dan and Tommy) were up first, Tommy introducing his companion as “Sewer Erection”, which was quite funny knowing that the local fuck-ups (journalists) wrote “Sewer Selection” in the paper.

Unfortunately no sound at all (to my knowledge) was heard from Dan’s equipment due to speaker failure, so Tommy’s stuff was all we could hear. Dan had brought these cymbals and metal sheets and various metal junk all clamped together, and that is what he used – banging that shit hard straight into the table. Being in the front it was fucking dangerous with that metal shit flying around. If he´d hit me in the face I would’ve killed him. But it was cool as hell at the same time, and I immensely enjoyed it.


Noise gigs need to be more on the physical side or else you’ll yawn yourself to death. This gig was a perfect example of how to keep the audience on their toes, always paying attention to what was going on so you’d be ready when that kamikaze cymbal came flying through the air aimed at your throat… Bring danger back into noise!


The gig was aggressive without being macho (hello Macronympha!) and in the end Tommy freaked out screaming like a father figure and hitting his pedals with all he had. Dan destroyed that poor table. Government Alpha stood by my side screaming. It was all good, but the sound failure was a big disappointment.

Yasutoshi Yoshida (who is Government Alpha) had brought a friend and his stage name was Montage. It was kind of funny seeing him unload his super high tech hardware from heaven when Sewer Election/Treriksröset had used just a minimum of equipment, but the guy’s japanese… Nuff said.


He started his set with some rumbling dark loops which sounded quite ok. He added some speech samples (in japanese) and continued this way for a while. Nothing spectacular, really. It seems he had problems with his mic, and all I could think of (like with the SE/TRR-gig) was that mic not working properly and it distracted me from hearing what was actually going on. Fucking bad. At gigs like this the sound is extremely important. It should be insanely loud and it should – above all – work! Unfortunately the sound was way too low, and I even stood in the front close to the speaker.

Montage didn’t impress me that much, so I looked forward to GA blowing my brains out instead. And for sure he did! This mini-man was totally amazing! I’d like to put one thousand exclamation marks here, because he was the absolute shit!

From the first shriek he was totally into it, mastering the controls like a rocket scientist, producing the harshest and most varied noise I’ve heard in a long while. Fortunately the microphone worked this time so he yelled his lungs out rock’n’roll-style: “ONE TWO, ONE TWO THREE FOUR!!” and then BANGBANGBANG full throttle chaos.

The small crowd in this jam packed little venue went berserk, screaming, fistbanging and worshipping. Tommy did the only reasonable thing and picked up one of the speakers, lifting it up and down like a fucking Samson-maniac. Palle from Sanctum helped him out and together they held this speaker on their shoulders while Government Alpha churned out the most vicious noise known to swedish ears. I was laughing out loud because it was just so damned good.

The gig lasted ten minutes. Pure genius.


Despite the weak sound, this evening was pure fun. Cool people showed up and the mood was perfect. No bitter, grim-looking neonazi faggots (well, I bet some of them were there…), just cool people having a good time.
Because let’s face it: Those neonazi faggots tend to look upon industrial/noise/extreme-gigs as some sanctuary; the only place where they dare to raise their right thalidomide child arms in a nazi salute in “public”. Pathetic cunts, I just laugh at your so called “conviction”, your feeble attempt to instill fear. Go home and comb your hair that you’ve dyed black and cut in the formation of a cunt, listen to your weak synth shit on your weak stereo and just wank off in front of your weak computer. Hitler would’ve pissed on your worthlessness and lack of pride.

Mind you, I find it totally ok sieging heil and all that crap when it’s done for fun, but when those priceless fucks who claim to be true do it on gigs I just wanna fuck them up the ass with a jack hammer.

The European scene has its nazi shit, the American scene has its serial killer shit… Japan, on the other hand, just blast without no lame image. And that was what this evening was all about; no lame image – just blast. Punk as fuck.





>Bad Brains – The baddest!

>Originally posted December 06, 2006.


They weren’t meant to be. They were the ultimate contradiction in terms.

Bad Brains – black as night and bad as hell. They formed in Washington DC in 1977 as a jazz fusion ensemble, but then out of the blue pioneered the whole american hardcore scene being the fastest and most extreme band for years to come. Even today their old stuff kicks the shit out of most bands’ so called ‘hardcore’.

The intensity of their shows is still unmatched.
Proof:
Click here to watch the Live at CBGB 1982 DVD in its entirety online!
It’s so good you’ll be a complete fool forever if you don’t buy the DVD right away.


>Bon Scott – Saviour of The Soul

>Originally posted December 06, 2006.

Haha, just look at this man! Look at his jeans way up high, so tight that his balls seem to be gasping for air…
This dude is on to something. Or was on to something, since this is the great Bon Scott who died rock’n’roll style in february 1980.

So what’s that got to do with anything? I almost never listen to AC/DC anyway.

Well, me and my good friend Micke (his online keyboard warrior name is WorkKills) had a very serious talk the other day. We discussed deep shit like how to gain control and freedom in your life, how to cultivate one’s independence, totally controlling your own time, living the life you really want to live, freeing your soul… The biggest problem here mainly being that we both work 8 hours a day. Fucking bummer.

What are you prepared to sacrifice? You have to sacrifice something valuable in order to gain something else, roughly speaking. Are you willing to live your life in constant poverty because you quit your job? Are you willing to leave your loved ones, your wife, your best friends, to live like a hermit… all for the sake of freedom? What about ending your life?
ACTA NON VERBA!

Stuff like that.

It was a good discussion and it was serious as hell. We didn’t reach any mindbending conclusions, but it’s really great to have these kind of talks once in a while. It makes you think even harder.

The best thing though was when Micke put on this AC/DC record and everything just fell into place. So perfect, so simple and so true. And so cheesy in a way.
But the fact is that the very essence of what we’d been talking about was put into words with such ease by the man with the tight trousers… Bon Scott put it this way:

My Daddy was workin’ nine to five
When my Momma was havin’ me
By the time I was half alive
They knew what I was gonna be
But I left school and grew my hair
They didn’t understand
They wanted me to be respected as
A doctor or a lawyer man
(But I had other plans)

Gonna be a rock ‘n’ roll singer
Gonna be a rock ‘n’ roll star
Gonna be a rock ‘n’ roll singer
I’m gonna be a rock ‘n’ roll,
A rock ‘n’ roll star

Well I worked real hard and bought myself
A rock ‘n’ roll guitar
I gotta be on top some day
I wanna be a star
I can see my name in lights
And I can see the queue
I got the devil in my blood
Tellin’ me what to do
(And I’m all ears)

Gonna be a rock ‘n’ roll singer
Gonna be a rock ‘n’ roll star
Gonna be a rock ‘n’ roll singer
I’m gonna be a rock ‘n’ roll,
A rock ‘n’ roll star
(I hear it pays well)

Well you can stick your nine to five livin’
And your collar and your tie
You can stick your moral standards
‘Cause it’s all a dirty lie
You can stick your golden handshake
And you can stick your silly rules
And all the other shit
That you teach to kids in school
(‘Cause I ain’t no fool)

The last verse pretty much says it all.

I’m not saying we’re dreaming of becoming rock stars, that’s not the point at all. What’s he really saying? Just listen to the words, the way he sings these last lines and then worship forever.

The essence of it all? Well, maybe something like do what thou wilt, do your own thing, do it yourself, don’t believe the hype… The standard clichés. You know all that crap. But why the fuck do you still sit around doing nothing then? Think about that instead.

Sometimes all you need is a dude like Bon Scott, telling it like it is, and then things seem just a tiny bit better.

R.I.P.

(The song is called Rock ‘N Roll Singer and is from their second album T.N.T. (1975))