Slottsfjell day two.

As stated in previous posts, Friday had a lot more to offer music wise than Thursday. First up was Black Tusk at the stage on top of the hill. The rain was pouring down and there was even some thunder and lightning which made the attendence a quite small one. The lucky ones who were there though got a great show as the band didn't let the weather slow them down.

It's amazing the quality stuff the town of Savannah, GA, has provided over the last few years. Kylesa, Baroness and Black Tusk. Is Savannah the sludge metal capital of the world?

Next up was Tortoise, a highly influentual 90's alternative band. If you haven't heard this band yet you're certain to have heard bands and artists influenced by them during the past decade or so. This is really good rhythmic instrumental post-rock/krautrock/indie/alternative... Call it what you want, it's good music!

Timbuktu and his band Damn! has a great ability to make people dance. That they did today as well. Great versions of some of his classic early 00's songs that I listened to a lot at the time.

After a short food break we were ready for some more punk metal. This time it was served by the canadians in Cancer Bats. They were ok, their sound was a bit too "american" and straight forward for me. They did a cool cover of Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" though.

One of the biggest signings the festival made this year, for me was Wolfmother. I've seen them twice before and they have always been great. This time wasn't that different either. The only small complaint I have with them is that when you have such a great set of tracks you can play from both of your albums (especially the first one) you should really show it. At a festival like this you have limited time (they played for about an hour), so I don't like it when they use lots of time doing jams. "White Unicorn" ended up in a The Doorsy druged out jam. I also wonder what the band had been drinking/smoking before they went on stage? They didn't exactly seem sober at stage. They still manage to deliver the goods so no complaints about it.

Finally we saw a couple of songs by Pure Love, the band of the former Gallows singer. An ok band that may have some potential.

All in all it was a great day and today should be nothing short of that either. Starting with Graveyard early in the afternoon and ending with New Order tonight. Looking forward to it!

See you at Fjellet!

Black Tusk in pouring rain.

The shoes were white before I went to the festival. And they looked even worse when I got home last night.

Tortoise.

Timbuktu & Damn! put on a great show.

Cancer Bats, the highlight being a cool cover of Beastie Boys "Sabotage"

Wolfmother. One of the highlights of the festival so far.

Finally we saw some of the Pure Love set.

Slottsfjell!

Waiting for Tortoise as the sun starts to show it's face! Black Tusk killed!

Slottfjell day one.

The first day of the festival didn't mean a lot of concerts for me actually. I saw some of Bare Egil Band, a little bit more of Rival Sons, a little less of Janelle Monaé, a little bit of Suicidal Tendencies and I caught the entire show of Seigmen.

Instead I had a great time meeting people that I don't see everyday and had a lot of fun conversations with like minded people music wise. A great first day, even though the music wasn't the best.

Now I'm sitting here hoping the rain will stop as I'm about to head to the festival area. It's gonna be a great day music wise today starting with Black Tusk in a 25 minutes!

Se you at Fjellet!

Bare Egil Band is playing at Kongescenen, with hits like "Åsgårdsstrand Blues" and "Om Henning Kranes Understell"

The audience during the Seigmen concert.

Seigmen.

Tuesday night entertainment!

The pile of records that I haven't entered in my databases I use (excel and Discogs) has grown quite a lot so I decided to put some of them in there!

A look ahead to the Slottsfjell festival.

With only two days until this years biggest happening in Tönsberg kicks-off I thought I would do a little "look ahead".

This year marks the 10th year anniversary for the festival so it should be something special. Already their first booking last year showed proof of this when they booked Seigmen, whom I wrote about yesterday. It's been a decent run of bookings since then as well. I'll go ahead and list the shows I plan to catch, day by day. You can find the entire program and everything else on the Slottsfjell festival website.

Thursday:

As this is the first time me and my girlfriend will attend the festival as parents (we missed last years festival as our son had just been born), we get one day where he'll have a sleep over at his grandmothers'. Thursday is this day so this will be the "party day".

Music wise the first day is probably the weakest one with only two "must sees" for me. These two are Rival Sons and Seigmen. That gives more time for socializing though so that's cool! I'll catch parts or the whole shows of a couple of others as well including Bare Egil Band, Janelle Monaé and Suicidal Tendencies. This evening will hopefully end at Total Bar, where an official Seigmen after party is being held. Hopefully we'll get there in time before the place is packed!

Friday:

Friday is probably the strongest day, in good competition with Saturday. I have a couple of more must sees this day. This will also mean a lot more running up and down the hill, as Slottsfjell is held at a hill with stages both at the top of the hill and further down. The most interesting shows are usually held at the top, with the biggest stage situated in the middle of the hill (or can you call it a mountain?). I'll start at the top watching Black Tusk and probably hang around there to have a good spot for Tortoise. This is one of the shows I look forward to the most at the festival. I really hope to hear the song "Djed", from their masterpiece "Millions Now Living Will Never Die". There is one more must see this day and that is Wolfmother. Timubtu & Damn! usually puts on great and fun shows so I'll so most of that as well. And why not end the night dancing to Chase & Status?

Saturday:

Saturday starts quite slow as the first band I want to see starts at 16.45 and that is Graveyard. The Swedish hard rockers should put on a great show and besides the Tortoise concert this is really one to watch. Apart from Graveyard other must sees for me are: Gallows, Red Fang and New Order! I'll catch parts or the whole shows of: Daniel Norgren and Lissie.

What other bands are must sees? I don't know too much about some of the other ones...

See you at Fjellet!

Baroness - Yellow & Green vinyl!

Finally we arrived at the day where we got the new Baroness vinyl in our store! Obviously I had to bring one copy home with me.

I've listened to it a few times on various streaming services, but it's nice to finally have the product in your hands. I'm still waiting for my special edition copy sent from Relapse Records. This version is the standard black vinyl version. As Relapse is one of the worst labels to collect, I'll keep it to these two versions.

I'm really happy with the result on "Yellow & Green". It not be what you would've expected but Baroness makes their music feel fresh and forwardthinking and still bringing in some of their roots. The new album has really made some of their old fans angry about the musical path that Baroness has chosen. You could though already on the "Blue Record" hear some of what was in wait for Baroness fans. Much like Mastodon I wouldn't call Baroness a great metal band anymore, but simply a great rock 'n' roll band!

The record is a double album, clocks in at approx. 75 minutes. It's divided into two parts, simply the Yellow part and the Green part. On some editions of this vinyl the vinyls are yellow and green, which to me is quite cool. The two parts are quite similar, the green part being slightly more mellow perhaps.

All in all a great album so far!

Seigmen - Live at Total

During the 90's, Seigmen from Tønsberg was one of the biggest rock bands in Norway. They played the big stages and venues, until they split up in 1999.

Since then they have done a couple of re-union gigs, most noteably on the Slottfjell-festival six years ago and at the Opera in Oslo four years ago. Both of these shows were of course very well attended, with thousands of people coming to see them.

Last night they played a "secret" gig in their hometown (the town where me and my family lives). To get access to tickets you had to be invited to this special website that was originally linked in an e-mail, sent from the band. Luckily we have connections relatively close to the band so we got that e-mail. So with the tickets in our hands we could only start to look forward to a very special evening.

I should write a few words about the venue as well. Total opened it's doors around christmas in 2010. The venue/bar is run by the people behind the Slottsfjell festival here in Tønsberg so music is a huge part of this place. All over the walls are old concert flyers, posters and stuff. It's named after  one of Seigmen's albums. So it's a special place for the band to play, to say the least...

I don't know if the circumstances were the reason but the show started a bit slow. Both the band and the audience seemed a little hesitant, as if they didn't really know what to expect from each other, mind you that Seigmen hasn't played "at home" for six years. As the evening progressed, band and audience got more comfortable with one another and everyone was able to let lose a little. About halfway in, after a spectacular presentation of Marius Roth's vocal abilities (his an opera singer) the venue kind of explode and the next half hour or so showed me why Seigmen must be mentioned among the big ones in Norwegian rock.

I kind of envied the people in the audience who have grown up with the band, knowing every lyric etc. Norwegian music was never big in Sweden (which is kind of sad as it has a lot to offer), so I had never even heard of Seigmen before I moved here- I've heard a lot about and of them since though. I know the feeling of having this band that has been with you your whole life, in front of you on stage, where you never thought you'd see them again. It's a special feeling! I had no problems appreciating the experience last night though!

This intimate venue was the perfect setting for Seigmen to mark their return, as we got some surprises last night that might lead to something more...? They are now playing a few festival shows this summer, starting at the Slottsfjell festival on Thursday, where they will be performing in front of about 10 000 people (me and "the missus" included) instead of the 2-300 people that were present last night. The festival-goers will not have the same experience as we did last night and I feel privileged that I was there to witness the spectacle!

Vinyl storage.

So, it's time for me and my family to move again. In the blog where I wrote earlier I made a post about vinyl storage and how I would solve it the last time we moved (three years ago). When we moved I could use only the wooden cases but as the collection has grown I had to put them in an IKEA Expedit, which works great. I hope though that I'll be able to get something where I can browse all the records like in those wooden cases.

This is how it looks in the wooden cases

I've placed some gatefold records in gatefold PVC sleeves in the Expedit.

Where we're moving though we'll have two living rooms where one will be devoted to music and the record collection.

I wrote about these in the previous blog as well:

Where we are moving now, I'll probably have enough space for them. They are quite expensive though, and I can't seem to find them in Europe, so shipping from the US is just not an option. What I plan to do now is by some material and try to build a few of these. Can't be that hard, can it?

If someone has any other tips on record storage I'll gladly receive it!

Scott Kelly, Steve Von Till & Wino - Songs Of Townes Van Zandt

To be honest I haven't listened that much to Townes Van Zandt.. I've listened through some of the records a couple of times over the years. "Delta Momma Blues" and "Flyin' Shoes" for example. He is a big seller at the store so for that reason I've listened to him the last few years, it could have been more though.

When some of my favourite artists got together and compiled some songs for a tribute/cover record to the man I had to buy it. On this record we have three songs each by Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Steve Von Till (Neurosis) and Scott "Wino" Weinrich (Saint Vitus, Spirit Caravan, The Obsessed).

Townes Van Zandt's music fit perfectly for these three guys. The covers aren't that far from the originals, basically it's just them singing with a guitar in their hand.

It's a really cool album and it has left me wanting to listen to more of Townes Van Zandt's music. I guess this is also one of the reasons why records like these are put out, to bring the music to younger generations..

Storm Corrosion - Storm Corrosion

I finally got my hands on this piece of vinyl. I've been expecting this release for YEARS!

Ever since I heard the news about a possible collaboration between Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree among others) and Mikael Åkerfeldt (of Opeth among others) a couple of years ago I've had high hopes for this project.

These two guys are responsible for some of the greatest music produced in the 00's in their respective bands and some side projects.

This is the self titled debut album of the side project between Åkerfeldt and Wilson. They call themselves "Storm Corrosion.

One thing to have in mind when listening to this album (and this, the guys have been really clear about in interviews) is that this is just two talented musicians with similar taste in music, that has got together to make something together, without any thought to make a record at first. After hearing the first song from the album, "Drag Ropes", I got a little suspicious over the music that they had recorded. I expected something completely different (what that was, I'm not entirely sure, this wasn't it though...).

I haven't given that songs too many listens after that first one and I haven't heard anything else from the band until a few days ago when I finally got the vinyl.

This is really a special record and the music is really hard to describe. It's not a "easy listening" album to say the least, there is no clear rhythm and not a lot of guitars either. Sometimes it's more "sound" than it is a song, if you know what I mean? As I said, it's not easy to describe what is being served on this record.

I feared that this record was gonna be too impossible to listen to and that it was gonna be too "special". It's not though. It might not be what I had expected but it's an interesting listen from two brilliant musicians with an experementing ore.

The last song on the album, "Ljudet Innan" (the sound before), is probably the best one and you can almost hear a melody to it!

Baroness - Yellow & Green stream.

On the NPR Music website you're able to stream the new Baroness album "Yellow And Green". It's not released in physical form for another week and I hope my copy of the vinyl will arrive in a couple of weeks (sometimes, shipment from the US can take some time...)

I haven't listened to the stream yet, maybe I'll wait for the vinyl or maybe I'll cave in and stream the album...

Band Of Horses - Knock Knock.

Band Of Horses has just released a new track from their upcoming album "Mirage Rock", to be released in September!

Upcoming releases.

Yesterday I made a post about the year in records so far. I also mentioned that there weren't that many records to look forward too...

There are a few though that I have high hopes for, like the ones I mentioned in other posts.

Pitchfork made a list of upcoming releases on their website. I've chosen ten that I'm really eager to hear. I think that there might be some great music on some of these!

The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten
Om - Advaitic Songs
Dead Can Dance - Anastasis
Swans - The Seer
Band Of Horses - TBA
Bob Mould - Silver Age
Calexico - Algiers
The XX - Coexist
Dinosaur Jr. - I Bet On Sky
Muse - The 2nd Law

Tame Impala

"Australia's Dungen" announces the date for the follow up to the brilliant debut "Innerspeaker" from 2010.

They also have a new song for everyone to download, sounds good!

Here's the post on Modular.

Upcoming release from Katatonia.

A couple of weeks ago we got the first listen (and view) on what to expect on the upcoming Katatonia release.




This is the song "Dead Letters" from the album "Dead End Kings", which is released at the end of August. Ideally it would have been released maybe a month later as Katatonia usually is the perfect autumn soundtrack. Here in Scandinavia there is nothing saying that fall won't start in early September though...

This sounds like the Katatonia we have learned to love over the last ten-fifteen years, an über dark rock band and not the atmospheric black metal band they started out as... I like this Katatonia over the old one!

The last record they made, "Night Is The New Day" is still one of my favourite records of '09 and I ranked it at number three at the time.

Half way through 2012.

So we're just over halfway through the year of 2012. I'm sad to say that it hasn't been the awesome year, record wise, as 2011 was...

All in all I got about 80 records from last year but so far I only have 15-20 records from this year. I don't think that I will get anywhere near as many records this year, there just aren't that many good ones to look forward too.

I have a couple on pre-order that I'm really looking forward to (Katatonia and Baroness) and I'm gonna get the Smashing Pumpkins album the next time I'm at The Garden.

The best record of the year so far is without a doubt The Mars Volta's seventh album "Noctourniquet". I'm wating for it to arrive in the mail box, it was sent from the US two weeks ago so it should be here any day now. I'll write more about the album once I've got the vinyl.

Other records worth mentioning:
Alabama Shakes - Boys & Girls
Beach House - Bloom
High On Fire - De Vermiis Mysteriis
Mark Lanegan Band - Blues Funeral
Meshuggah - Koloss
Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again
Napalm Death - Utilitarian
Skraeckoedlan - Äppelträdet

Late night "ebaying"

Sometimes I like to browse the record section on eBay and see what is soon ending.

This is a great way to make some real bargains as there might be records that haven't recieved any bids which might actually be worth some money.

Tonight I was able to win a few auctions. A couple of them are records that I have in bad condition, (two CSN-vinyls for example) the ones I bought now were graded as VG++ so hopefully they are better than the ones I have at home at the moment. It only cost me about a dollar or two per record!

Lately I've been listening to a lot of soul music so when one seller had quite a lote of northern soul 45's ending within a few minutes I had to take my chances and bid on some of them. I have no idea what records I just bought but they were cheap, and who knows what beautiful music I might have lying in wait for me? If nothing else it's probably "danceable" music:)

Skraeckoedlan - Äppelträdet

Skraeckoedlan is another one of my new favourite Swedish bands! I've recently got three "new" releases from the band.

This is their debut LP "Äppelträdet" ("The Apple Tree") released by the brilliant new record label Gaphals, last year.

This record shouldn't be good though! Stoner rock is a genre full of clichés, and "Äppelträdet" is full of them! You have your fuzzy riffs, the spaced out lyrics, you even got a fuzzy melodic instrumental song. However this really is a quality stoner record.

Basically there is just one bad ass riff after another and the band play with what seems to be a genuine love of the genre, and some of the lyrics are just brilliant- like the song about Cactus Galaxus... I would describe the sound as a mix of two of the bigger stoner/fuzz rock bands from Sweden, the more straightforward Dozer and the more spaced oout Truckfighters.

I would guess that the guys of Skraeckoedlan are fans are both of them...

A huge plus is also that some of their songs are in Swedish.