Øya recap

OK, so I guess it's time to write something here. The Øya Festival is over, and I'm still tired. Generally it was a pretty weak year with alot of bad Norwegian bands, over-hyped foreigners, and a lot of repeats; but there were some highlights. Pictures below!

Wednesday

The festival really started on Tuesday night at Last Train with an excellent set from local heroes Bungelow Ranchstyle. They probably will be playing the main festival next year. They get better every time.

First up Wednesday was Mogwai, who I've possibly seen to many times, cuz it really wasn't all that exciting. It didn't help that it rained and the band looked bored. It did pick up at the end, but I've seen better Mogwai shows. I'll still buy the new record that's out soon on Matador Records.

The Mae Shi was disappointing. They called themselves the dumbest band at the festival and well, it showed. I like some of their stuff, but it didn't work with the constant spastic screaming. Maybe it was the bad sound. Good stage show though.

I could continue writing about all the bands that disappointed me at this festival, but as you know, I'm all about positivity you assholes!

No negative thinking.

Grinderman (sort of pictured above) also suffered from bad sound, and me being too tired to enjoy myself at this point. Enjoyed the Bad Seeds show earlier in the year more.

Thursday

One of the few surprises of the festival was Lightspeed Champion (who includes one of the guys from Test Icicles) It was one of the few shows where I stuck around for the whole set.

The other ones were Best Fwends and The Death Set. Both bands I've listened to before, but never really got into. Man was I wrong, they both put on fantastic shows. I saw them 3 or 4 times during the festival...they seemed to play everywhere. I skipped Sonic Youth to see The (motherfuckin') Death Set, if you know what I mean.

Thursday night I went to Rockefeller to catch Original Silence. This is a "Thurston Moore side project". He should just drop the Sonic Youth thing and do this full time. I saw Original Silence at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival without him, and the energy was even higher now. This band includes the best musicians playing right now: Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) Terrie Ex (The Ex), Mats Gustafsson (The Thing), Paal Nilssen-Love (The Thing, Atomic etc.) and Massimo Pupillo (Zu). The big surprise of the night was the Japanese trio Nissennenmondai who opened the show and blew me away. Noise grooves straight outta Compton.

Friday


Health played a frantic set; not as good as at Spasibar, but still worth seeing. That was about it at the festival Friday. (No negativity here folks!)
I did however finish up the night at Blå where Noxagt and Årabrot (pictured below) put on a good show.

Saturday


Saturday was all about seeing The Sonics. Being a former Seattlelite, it was fun to see them, even though the energy wasn't all the high. They did get a mosh pit going from their greaser fans though.

The Night Marchers (ex Hot Snakes) did not start out so good, but I stuck it out, and it turned out to be a good rock and roll show (with some guitar strap modifications).

A great supprise saturday was Janelle Monaè. Mark my words, she's gonna be huge. Outcast style funk, soul, r&b, rock and a fantastic live show, with dance moves that even got me going.

Several mediocre bands later it was time for another show by The Death Set. This time at camp indie; the smallest stage. This turned out to be the best show at the festival. They played Operation Ivy (Bombshell) and Nirvana (Tourette's) covers and constant samples from the beastie boys and dizzie rascal mixed with intense electro-punk madness. Ok, it might sound stupid, but it was stupid good. I was lucky enough thanks to The Death Set, to get into a private party for the volunteers that worked the festival and both The Death Set and Best Fwends played again. By this time I had reached blackout (due to champagne and cheap drink prices at the party) and I lost my camera. I also (almost) lost my molded earplugs earlier at camp indie where Johnny jumped me at the start of the set. The rest is a blur. If you want a real professional recap of the festival, you've come to the wrong place.

Maybe some videos and a recap of the Kongsberg Jazz festival later...maybe.

Dj at mono tomorrow.

AAARGH!

It's too fucking hot here to update this site.

Doing the Soft Bondage dj night at Mono Thursday.

Come and dance/buy me drinks or something...

Next week is the Øya festival. More info later.

KGB Jazz

Spendt the week at the Kongsberg Jazz Festival. I saw alot of good shows including Original Silence (picture above by stein hofve)
Original Silence (with Thurston Moore) will also play the Øya Festival in August. Good times.
Pictures and video from kgb soon. Next stop: Paris.

It's over...

Spasibar closed it's doors last night. A bunch of bands, no bartenders, and an open bar where you served yourself. People were encouraged to tare the place apart...and they did. The owners built a fire onstage at about 3am. 6 arrests and a firetruck later; it was all over. R.I.P.

Tornadoes...

Life is sorta shit right now. So what's better than some soothing depressing music? Well, it used to help, but no more. Still I will be seeing Bonnie Prince Billy tomorrow. On the positive side, I just had my birthday and it's one year closer to death. Good times!

Bonnie Prince Billy - Death to everyone set to tornadoes

Music is for the birds...

I really like Guided By Voices.
Everyone should own Mag Earwhig!.
GBV - Running Off With The Fun City Girls
(Japanese bonus track from Mag Earwhig!)

That is all.

More birds at Indietits
Buy the Guided by Voices record here.

PJ at the Opera

So Pj Harvey was here last night. She played in the brand new wooden Oslo Opera to a packed house of hardcore ecstatic fans. She played a varied set of old and new songs. Among the standouts were White Chalk, The Devil, Bring You My Love, Send His Love To Me, Man-Size, Snake, Down By The Water, When Under Ether and the last song (and my personal favorite) The Desperate Kingdom Of Love. It was fucking loud. Too loud in some parts. I thought we would have "opera sound", but instead we got a rock and roll show in the opera. A kick ass rocknroll show. Polly wasn't shy about using pedals and making loud loud noise with her guitars and voice. The only thing that was louder last night was the crowd. The acoustics in the opera were superb.
Here is the world famous Crappy mobile phone picture extravaganza:

Yes she looks like an angel.Took a short video with my crappy crappy phone (thanks nokia!



So yeah, fun was had by all. Nothing but great reviews in the papers. "The show of the year" etc. The summer isn't over yet. Lots more great stuff on the way. Ignore or keep reedin' dear reader.

Time of the Season

I see it's about time to update this damn thing...

So it's summer here in Oslo and (almost) all is well.
Concerts galore. Burn out city.
A trip to Paris very soon and deafening music all summer long.

BRH - Spring and by Summer Fall (rapidshare) buy


The Zombies - Time of the Season


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One very sad note from Oslo. Spasibar, hands down the best music venue in Oslo is closing their doors. Where the hell will bands like Vialka, Gay Against You, Dj Scotch Egg, and Crash Normal play next time they are in Oslo? I was lucky enough to dj there too (takk!)...always a blast. No one took a chance on the bands Spasibar did over the last 3.5 years. It was totally unique. Not only with its Russian theme bar, but also with its clientel, bands and employees. A big hole will be left in the music scene here. Hopefully something new will come out of it. There is a desperate need. Spasibar closes its doors on June 30th. There will be a big blowout party though...

Some Siberian punk for you:

Grazhdanskaya Oborona - Mertvie (rapidshare)

Soft Bondage at Mono

Yep, its about that time again. Thursday 29th of May Soft Bondage will be spinning some rock and/or roll at Cafe Mono. This time its myself and Per Gisle. Per Gisle happends to (among other things) play in Ranheim. Ranheim just got back from recording their new record with Steve Albini of Shellac fame. Check out Ranheim here.
Ranheim will aslo be releasing have a 7 inch release party on june 28th at Spasibar here in Oslo. Good times.

Other than that....Nick Cave was great. Health was one of this years best shows. Health will also play at the Øya Festival in August. Årabrot also played at the opening of Revolvers new club in the basement.

Guess what? I suck at updating this thing with any fun info.
Anyway, here are some more crappy cellphone photos: Health at Spasibar Årabrot at Revolver.

Somewhere in this photo is Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds...Yes I'm old. Sitting in the old people section.

XYX - Hey

Hey!

This band is from Mexyxco.
Info here: Nene Records

Myspazz

Buy 7 inch from S-S Records

17 May

Gratulere med dagen folkens.

It's about that time again:

Dancing spastic to weird music.

The 17th of May is the national day of independence,

and you get a team antiharrs gig.

What a deal! It's free if you wear your bunad.

Some shows over the last week+

Grainy cellphone extravaganza:

Street party outside the blitz house.

Skeletons & the Kings of All Cities outside at Spasibar
Grabba Grabba Tape and Margartia at Spasibar
Nick Cave tomorrow...lots of other good stuff on the way. Maybe I'll actually post something of value/interest (like mp3s) when I have some time.

Last week in music

Ok, so I've been sort of M.I.A again...

Alot of concerts as usual.

Here are some grainy mobile phone photos for you:

DJ Scotch Egg

I was lucky enough to dj a bit before his gig (his plane was delayed) He's got a really good varied taste in music I found out. He's even got a soft spot for Norwegian noise bands. (Anders Hana from Noxagt plays on his Drumized record on Load Records)


Japanese New Music Festival

Yoshida Tatsuya (Ruins Alone) and Kawabata Makoto (Acid Mother Temple) did 4 sets of noise, punk, and everything in between.
Toothbrushes, a camera, and a giant chinese carrot were some of the things used to make noise. This great night was put on by the good people at Dans For Voksne.

Blonde Redhead
Also Blonde Redhead played a nice set at Rockefeller.
That was this week.

Just got back from Paris. Hung out with some friends and bought French punk and new wave. What an amazing town.
I am currently obsessed with BIPPP French Synth-wave 1979-1985.
Go buy it from Born Bad Records here. Seriously.

Polyrock: My favorite video (this week)

Oh, this is an oldy but a goodie.
Did you ever hear of Polyrock? No? Me neither until I read about this band somewhere, some time ago in a galaxy far far....anyway, Polyrock was a New York new wave band produced by Phillip Glass. They put out 2.5 records and dissapeared. All you ever want to know or hear by Polyrock you can find here. If you're not a total souless jerk, you can buy it from Wounded Bird Records.
Check out this video for the brilliant track Bucket Rider.
Don't forget to do your eighties dance infront of your computer.
Go ahead, no one is looking.



More info: http://www.myspace.com/polyrock

More shameful self promotion...

SOFT BONDAGE
(djs tomb + hammers)

noise/avantrock, indie, sleaze, folk/frifolk, plingplong, jazz, punk etc.
Cafe Mono, Thursday 27th of March.

Show up at Mono on thursday or just quietly enjoy it from afar.

Plague of Frogs

It's time for another lazy music post here on CMA.
This time out it's Chicago supergroup Lake Of Dracula.
Why they weren't a top 40 MTV hit, I will never understand...


If this crazy shit is your thing, go buy from Skingraft.
If not, buy it anyway and send it to me. thnx.

Polly to Oslo

I just got front row center tickets to PJ Harvey at the Opera House in Oslo June 19th....I think I just wet myself.

Shameless self promotion....

Or is it shameful self indulgence? You decide.

Ugh

You know, you hope for the best in life but then your dreams are crushed and you lie bloody in the gutter; dissapointed......again. Life is a cruel joke.
Oh, and my TV quit working...anyone got an extra one?



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This week is the By:Larm festival here in Oslo.
Lots of bands and junk. Kinda like the SXSW of Norway, only a hell of alot further north and crappier. Some recommended artist this year are Shining, Next Life, and Jason Forrest. Should be a good time.

Jason Forrest - Stepping Off

"Gay Hussar" by Agaskodo Teliverek / video by Weirdcore

Take your seizure medication before this one:



The last few weeks have pretty much been like this insane video.
I need a break. 3 dj gigs and more concerts are coming up.
No rest for the wicked.

Goodies from Agaskodo Teliverek can be found here.

WEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Hayden