Call Of The Wild

Went to the Excel Center yesterday to see Wild - Blackhawks. The Blackhawks were on a amazing winning streak and the Wild on a losing, and that is how it continued. The Blackhawks played great and won with 4-1, the last goal being scored in an empty goal with 2 seconds left. It was a good game and really fun to see, just too bad that the Wild did not really start playing at their fullest until the last period.
We had great seats at a drinkrail right in the middle of the arena, but then we had also promised away our firstborn for those seats.

Tonight we are flying home, so today is pretty much doing some last things and moving some things around in our luggage so that no bag is over 50 lbs (23 kg). I think right now the score is: 23 kg, 22 kg, 22 kg and 21 kg. Gonna suck with four giant full heavy bags plus a carry-on each, but I guess that is why the taxi was invented.

Yesterday we went and saw Burn After Reading. Really funny movie, one of those Coen brothers movies where everyone is really stupid and most things go to hell. Brad Pitt plays a really dim and lovable character, really good. And John Malcovich is hilarious, same with George Clooney. So go and see it right away!

Weather has been warm and extremely slippery today, pretty hard to drive. Also took a trip to Mall Of America yesterday. Mall of America is a black time hole. Time just disappear there and never come back. It was very exhausting and not very much fun, but we got all the shopping done that needed to be done. Ate some pretty lame Chinese food at the food court.

Everything's Gone Green.

...just got home from Valkyrie which I thought was great. Amazing actors, good screenplay and really suspenseful (which is very hard considering that you the whole time know what will happen and how it will end). Tom Cruise was very toned down and very good. Kenneth Branagh was great, even though he was not in it very much, and Tom Wilkinson was, as always, brilliant. So go and see it.

Got a lot of nice presents last night, ate way too much food and drank some really good IPA's. All in all a very nice Christmas here in Minnesota. Anna and the gang is watching Benjamin Button and has not gotten home yet. Then I think it is time for more food and maybe a walk around the lake.

Still really cold and lots of snow, but I have gotten used to it. Which makes sense considering that I lived here for three years. It is great being back and it felt really good driving around uptown the other day with 93X on full volume in the car. Felt like I never left, which was weird.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

How did Darth Vader know what Luke Skywalker had bought him for Christmas?

Because he felt his presents.

Echo Of My Scream

Landed in Minneapolis yesterday after a long plane ride. I watched four movies, drank red wine and read a book. When we got to Minnesota we had to circle the state because the landing strips had to be plowed first. And then when we had landed Homeland Security took me in for questioning as they always do. Must say that even though I am used to it now (they always take me in for questioning), it is starting to get pretty annoying, mainly because they are so damn rude about it. This time the man behind the counter told me, and I am quoting: "It is obvious that you worked very hard to get your Green Card, but since you then decided not to live in the US you are not worthy of having one". And then they took it. So I am no longer a Green Card holding member of the United States Of America, from now on I am just a little Swedish music nerd.

Anyway, Minneapolis is covered with snow and right now it is -11 F (that is -24 C for you europeans, well I guess that is me). Yesterday I went to Electric Fetus, the best record store in the state of Minnesota and spent a lot of money. Felt great.

No Sleep ´til Hammersmith

Went and saw Motörhead... again! And it was definitely one of the better times I have seen them, which is pretty insane considering that Lemmy turns 63 in two weeks. They opened with Iron Fist and then straight into Stay Clean and not a lot of openings get a lot better than that. They had a pretty big production for being Motörhead, lots of lights, smoke and fire, oh yeah, lots of fire. The highpoint was probably a brilliant version of Metropolis and a absolutely insane Overkill with six minutes of only strobes and fire. Love it!

Anna also left for the states this weekend, so I am alone for a week, which usually means that I watch way to many movies and eat badly. But I am not sure I actually have time for that this week, got a lot of stuff to do, presents to buy and bags to pack. And then on saturday I will board a plane for Minneapolis. I am really looking forward to going there again, and to have some time off.

Anyway, time to do some dishes.

Fine Art In Silver

Hmm, took me quite a while to write again. But I have a great excuse, well a pretty good one at least. Tons of stuff has happened in a really short time and Anna and I have been pretty busy. But where to start?
Somewhere in the middle I guess.
Anna and I have started this tradition where we invite our friends every year for a big thanksgiving dinner. We cook for two days and then people come over drink a lot of beer and wine and finish all the food in a couple of hours. It is always really fun and even though we almost kill ourselves with the cooking it is obviously enough fun that we keep doing it. The tough part in Sweden is getting a big enough turkey, turkeys over here are pretty small (with american standards) and pretty damn frozen. The turkey this year took two days to thaw, which was a little big too long since I did not really start the process until 24 hours before the guests were coming. But everything went really well and people enjoyed the food and the drinks.
About that time, Anna got laid off. The financial crisis hit Sweden a little bit later and the small company that Anna works for were forced to cut down on personel. So Anna and four others were laid off. Annas last day will be january 8th. This means that we have to do some serious cuttings in our budget, but it should not be too bad. Anna is a member of the union and will get unemployment pay and I got a raise the same day she got the boot (how is that for irony).
What else? Hmm, maybe that was it.
Anyway, over and out.

Motörhead is in 5 days.

B A U H A U S

It seems like I totally forgot that in the beginning of this year Bauhaus released a pretty damn good album. And it also seems like totally forgot to put it on my list.

And it definitely needs to be on the Top10, maybe even top5. I need to think about this and revise the list. Crap!

Well, here goes again.

1. A Place To Bury Strangers - A Place To Bury Strangers
2. Ossler - Ett Brus
3. Firewater - The Golden Hour
4. Division Of Laura Lee - Violence Is Timeless
5. Bauhaus - Go Away White
6. Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold
7. Portishead - Third
8. Twelve - Houston We Have No Problem (I and II)
9. Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling
10. Mercury Rev - Snowflake Midnight
11. The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost
12. Spiritualized - Songs In A & E
13. Tv On The Radio - Dear Science
14. Disfear - Live The Storm
15. Melvins - Nude With Boots
16. Montys Loco - Farewell Mr Happy
17. The Dandy Warhols - Earth To The Dandy Warhols
18. The Soundtrack Of our Lives - Communion
19. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of Understatement
20. Bloc Party - Intimacy

BEST OF 2008

It is that time of year again.
Time to make lists, time to struggle and time to compile.
It was not easy doing this years best albums, especially considering how many albums that I was dissapointed by (Primal Scream (so lame, so lame), Brian Jonestown Massacre (half of it brilliant, half of it complete crap!), The Breeders (booooring), The Cure ( so incredible uneven), The Fall (very unfocused)).
The top 5 I was 100% certain of, and I could move them around in the top until I die, the 6-10 not as certain, and the rest could have ended up anywhere.
So enough talk, here it is. 2008 top 20, right this second:

1. A Place To Bury Strangers - A Place To Bury Strangers
2. Ossler - Ett Brus
3. Firewater - The Golden Hour
4. Division Of Laura Lee - Violence Is Timeless
5. Atmosphere - When Life Gives You Lemons You Paint That Shit Gold
6. Portishead - Third
7. Twelve - Houston We Have No Problem (I and II)
8. Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling
9. Mercury Rev - Snowflake Midnight
10. The Black Angels - Directions To See A Ghost
11. Spiritualized - Songs In A & E
12. Tv On The Radio - Dear Science
13. Disfear - Live The Storm
14. Melvins - Nude With Boots
15. Montys Loco - Farewell Mr Happy
16. The Dandy Warhols - Earth To The Dandy Warhols
17. The Soundtrack Of our Lives - Communion
18. The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of Understatement
19. Meshuggah - ObZen
20. Bloc Party - Intimacy

Chinese Democracy

Ok, quick review.
First of all it was not bad at all. That said, it was not good either, it was more like "shrugs". The main thing that hit me is that it is waaay too produced, waaay to arranged, and I get the impression that Axl should have worked on the songs instead of the production. There is constantly too much going on (5 guitars at the same time of which two are playing solos), Axl screaming over it, while Axl (yes again) is sing back-up vocals and we have a full string-section and keyboards. And sometimes you really get a "cut and paste" feel, like they could not decide on all the cool parts they had written so they put them all togheter in one song, wich gives a very schizofrenic impression.
So over all, there probably is a good album under there somewhere, but it is hard to find it.
What I want Axl to do, is pick out a semi-sloppy trio, no keyboards, no samples, ONE guitar and go out with this material and play some theaters. Play some good old sleezy rock, I think it is there. Somewhere.

Whatever's Cool With Me

Anna has been in Denmark for a week and I have gotten hooked on True Blood. Been watching the whole week. Great show, good locations and great accents. Oh, and there are vampires. Always good.
Watched Hellboy II last night. I really liked it. The villian was not as good as in number 1 but still a good action movie and great characters.
Today I am going to interview Franz Ferdinand and then Anna is coming home and we are going to go and see them. Went to the recordcompany yesterday to listen to the new album. Some parts really different and some parts the same. But it sounded good, I will need a couple of more listens to really know what I think. But the first listen was positive. The fist songe was called Ullyses and had a pretty fat keyboard going through it, really cool song.

No song of the day today. A whole album instead.
sianSPHERIC - The Sound of the Colour of the Sun

Gargoyle Waiting.

Not much to report right now. I could bore you to tears with what is going on in Västertorp right now (reading, watching tv, listening to music, doing dishes, eating, reading, listening to music, etc) but I won't. So instead here is some really good stuff. Ride, one of my favorite bands, saw them in Sweden in 1991 and it was absolutely fantastic. One of the bands I really regret never seeing again.
Anyway, it starts with a short interview, and then Taste.

Enjoy!

Kill your television.

What a week. For a while there I thought I would never be able to sleep again. Is that by the way a sign that I am getting older, the constant talking about sleep? I hope not.
Anyway. 5 shows in 7 days and I got up at 4.45 everyday, except tuesday when I got up at 4.00. So to continue this trend of talking about my lack of sleep. I slept in general 4 hours per night this week, and if me and Anna had not found a free sofa during Spiritualized I am not sure I would have made it through. Which brings me to the next subject. Spiritualized. Great, great show, but very badly paced setlist. Great opening, first 4 songs was just incredible, then after that 1 hour of slow songs and ballads, all individualy amazing, but all in row a bit much. After that 4 rock songs again, and the show is over. And when the show is over I discover that my phone is no longer in my pocket. It has fallen out and landed behind the sofa and the wall. Now the sofa goes along the whole wall of the venue so I can not move it, and my arm is too short to actually reach the phone. So we went home, and I went back the next day, fished it up with some help from a electrician working there.

Song of the day will be by my old heroes. Brilliant song, brilliant video. Turn it up and enjpy!

Obama!

Wow! The last 24 hours have been crazy.
No sleep, tons of good music and on top of that Obama.
Last night we went and saw The Twilight Sad and MOGWAI. Great, great show and even though Mogwai might not have played my dream setlist they were as powerful as always and really goddamn good. The Twilight Sad was good too, but it is hard being the opening act and play to a less than half full venue to people who have no idea who you are, and do not really care either. Still a good gig.
And then home by midnight, quickly to bed and up at 4.00am for a breakfast with the american ambassador och several other important people at a hotel in town and waiting for the first voting results to come in. By the time we got there at 5.00am Obama was leading big and had soon won. From there is off to work. Now I am sitting home, I am watching BBC and sucking up everything about the election before I run of to go and see Spiritualized.

What a amazing election. I still think that Obama has some very tough years a head of him, the Bush administration has run the country to shreds and it will take a lot of time and effort to get back on track again. But this is not the time to be negative. I am very happy.

Maybe I can sleep next week.

The song of the day will of course be Mogwai. Don't forget to watch the video too, really good.

Space Dementia

Saw Division Of Laura Lee last night, great show. Good mix of old and new songs. As usual though the Stockholm audience were way too cool to actually face the stage and applaude between songs. The people in front of us stood pretty much the whole show with their backs to the stage talking. Sometimes I think it is only worth seeing bands in small towns, were the audience does not have to be cool, but only wants to have fun and see some good music. I have talked to a lot of bands that have said that the best shows are never in New York or London, but more like Freiburg, Norrköping, Ulan Bator or Baltimore.
Which explains why the show me and Tony saw with Deftones in Shitville New Jersey was so damn good. It still is the worst pizza I have ever eaten, though. And then to top that with a cabdriver that told us how much he used to beat his wife was a little bit more than scary. Still great show, great band.

This will be a busy week for me. I saw Division last night, in an hour I will leave for Love Is A Burning Thing, and then on tuesday Mogwai, wednesday Spiritualized and friday Monster Magnet. And I have tickets for all. Somewhere in there I will have time to sleep, I hope.

Now cross your fingers for Obama.

Halloween.

Just a short one. I am about to go and see Division Of Laura Lee.

But ten years ago today Shellac played a show in Chicago and came out on stage with David Yow from The Jesus Lizard. They were dressed as the Sex Pistols and played the whole show in character. A classic show that I really wished I had seen.

So here it is the only thing that exists from that show, one photo and a song taped on a walkman:

Floorshow.

So my old favorite band, that refuses to quit or release a new album, has decided to once again tour the world with the same new songs that are never recorded and the same old songs that everone wants to hear in the old versions. I am of course speaking of The Sisters Of Mercy, a band I just can not let go. I know I should, and every time I see them nowadays I get a little dissapointed. But still I can not help myself. They are still too close to my heart and evertime they tour the same thing happens. I log in to the forum everyday, checking setlists, reading reviews and downloading the liveshows. Especially since Christ Catalyst (aka Robochrist) joined the band, which I think is the most exciting thing in a long time.
And the reason I am writing this is of course that they just started a new tour, and so far the reports say, some surprises in the setlist and some new arrengements.

Anyway, song of the day..... of course (from this summer):

Sueisfine

Boring monday today. Boring route and boring weather. Spent most of the day listening to old Einsturzende Neubauten albums. They were incredible good once upon a time, sometimes I forget that.

Went out to a small place in Orminge (outside of Stockholm) on saturday and saw Thåström play a solo-show only backed by a accoustic guitar. Probably one of THE best shows I have seen, even though it was only about 45 minutes long. But seeing Thåström in such a small place do an intimate show like that was very special. Especially since he pulled out two old songs that I have never seen live and I have seen him on pretty much every tour since 1987. The songs were Höghus, låghus och dårhus and Die Mauer. It was absolutely amazing, I got goosebumbs and I do not think I was alone.

Anyway, enough of that. Song of the day, pure bloody pop of the best kind.

One Dub Island

It is friday and I am beat. This week went way too fast, and I had way too much work. The fact that I slept badly the whole week did not help either. But now it is friday and I am going to have a beer and some salt & vinegar chips.

Right now I am reading Låt den rätte komma in (or if you prefer english: Let The Right One In, or as the original Morrissey song is called that the title is taken from: Let The Right One Slip In) and it is absolutely great. The movie premiered in Sweden today and I have to read the book fast before someone at work says too much. But that should not be too hard since I can hardly put it down. So read it if you can, or see the movie, at least over here the reviews have been great, but I think they have in the US too.

Got the new album from A Place To Bury Strangers yesterday, and I am completely blown away. Easily one of the best albums I have heard this year.

And since it is friday the song of the day will be a party one (not the video though) and that also means that you need to turn it up, LOUD:

Jesus? This is Iggy!

Listening to Mindless Self Indulgence and getting blown away. Amazing band!
Sat up last night and watched baseball. Not that I am a great baseball fan, but it is great to see such underdogs win and prove everyone wrong. Might even get a heathen like me to continue to watch the World Series. Go Rays!!

Listened to the new The Cure in the rain today. And after a first listen, I think I like it. Reminded me of Wish, and that is always good, I guess.

Seems like I should make my song of the day links, actual links. Hmm, I have no idea how to do that. Help!

The Dark Is Rising

...so it took almost two months, but now we are done. Me and anna saw five seasons of The Wire and finished it this weekend. I have always been a huge fan of Deadwood and Homicide, but I actually think that The Wire was better. Homicide might have been better in parts, but the last couple of seasons were pretty bad. The Wire was excellent straight through. I was really worried in the fourth season because things were looking really bleak, bleak for people I liked, characters I was rooting for. But the fifth had a good ending. Not happy Hollywood-style ending, but a realistic ending were things went to hell for characters I loved and really well for some I hated. Just like life.

Anyway. Song of the day. Probably one of the all-time top ten songs. Hands down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lms8P3ZnWL8&feature=related

Without msg I am nothing

I sat down, opened a document, I was alone and prepared to do some serious writing, iTunes was loaded with good writing music (Neurosis The Eye Of Every Storm, Mogwai Come On Die Young, The Wedding Present Seamonsters), I poured myself a big glass of water, the light was good, the mood was good.
I typed a sentence, maybe two, they were pretty good, maybe I was onto something, maybe the words would flow, I lifted my glass of water, I looked at the screen, one of fingers caught a cable (for the iPod I would guess), my hand twitched with the cord and a gulp of water sailed through the air and landed on my laptop. To be more precise it landed on the Space, m, n, b ä, ö, l buttons.
So there you have it, that is why I stopped updating this page. My computer does not really work anymore. I have borrowed a keyboard from Mats that I am now writing on. Most of my keys are not working. Next week I will hand in the laptop for some kind of service. It will be expensive and it will not be fun.

Anyway, no song of the day today. For some reason the water in the laptop is stopping me from entering YouTube. Maybe just as well, I spend too much time there anyway.

I can tell you what I am listening to right now though.
AC DC – Black Ice
Carbon/Silicon – The Last Poet
Mercury Rev – Snowflake Midnight

Chord Of Souls

Listening to the new AC DC and doing some writing. Beautiful day today, but a bit too cold to sit and read on the balcony. Otherwise not much new. Saw Rules of attraction again, since it is one of my favorite Ellis books. Pretty good, but they miss so much from the book. Not scenes and plot so much, I am fine with that, but emotions and they way it is written in that you can not trust the narrators. But Avery is doing a great job and is very imaginative with the editing and filming.

Song of the day will be a old one I had almost forgot about. It is a solo-cut from Bon Geldof with a brilliant video, so check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgu-tzjfit0

Council Housed and Violent

So that took awhile. Saw that my last post was 10 days ago. Hmmm, not good.

I went and saw NHL in Stockholm, Penguins - Senators, great game and really fun. Johannes, Staffan and Henrik came up and stayed at our apartment and saw the game. Henrik had to go back right after the game though since he had work early in the morning.

Finished Murakami's Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Great book, really, really odd, but great. I had a lowpoint in the middle where I got slightly bored but then it kicked off again. Maybe not as good as Kafka on the shore, but better than Norweigan Wood.
Right now I am reading the new P-O Enqvist. So far, so good.

What else? My knee is messing with me, so right now I am on sickleave. Pretty damn boring. And pretty weird. I am home but I am not sick. And since my knee is whack I can not really go anywhere, so I am stuck here. Catching up with stuff, writing, watching movies, doing dishes, listening to albums and reading. Will get old pretty fast I reckon.

So song of the day... hmm, guess I will just post what I am listening to while I am writing this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whIQlw8VZX8

Queen Bee and her pals.

This was one long week. I thought for a while that the weekend would never come. But now it is friday and I have taken a bath, listened to John Coltrane and had myself a whiskey. Johannes have been here for two days and he will be back on sunday for the hockey. On sunday it is the NHL premiere and here in Stockholm we have the honour of Pittsburgh - Ottawa. The teams have been here for a week to get over jetlag and practice and even playing some swedish teams.

Right now I am reading The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, so far a really good book, even though not as good as Kafka on the shore, which I loved. So read any of those if you have the chance.

As the song of the day I have choses one of THE best riffs ever written, by one of the coolest band ever. So turn it up and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrGF_43I4hA

Aaaaarrgh!!

Got a new modem today from my internet provider. So my wireless does not work now. I have spent the whole afternoon working on this and sitting on the phone with my provider. I have done everything they say and still nothing. Extremely frustrating. So now I am sitting here hooked up with cables bloody everywhere and NO wireless.

Song of the day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOWB6rmSd4I

Bedårande Barn Av SinTid

Went and saw Tropic Thunder last night. And I must say that it was a long time since I laughed that hard. The movie is so stupid and so damn funny. Robert Downey Jr takes his character and just runs with it. I do not want to say too much, but he dominates almost every scene that he is in. The funny thing is though that the one that steals the show is Tom Cruise. He must have had so much fun with that roll. Think I just got a newfound respect for the old bartender. So just take my word for it and go and see it right away. And do not miss the trailers in the beginning, if I made trailers in Hollywood I would seriously consider a new approach after this movie.

Song of the day: Noice - Bedårande Barn Av Sin tid

Ogre Battle.

Turn up your speakers and put on your platform boots and white jumpsuits. It is time for the song of the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-SMOsXCc0c&feature=related

Super-Sonic

The tickets for the Minnesota Wild games in December were released on Saturday at 19.00, my time. I sat down in front of the computer a couple of minutes early and waited. When the clock struck 19.00 I started trying to buy tickets and nothing happened. I was planning on seeing two games, Wild- Hurricanes on the 23rd and Wild - Blackhawks on the 28th. I started with the Blackhawks. Everything for $46, sold out, I tried $24, sold out, I tried higher prices and higher prices. Finally at 19.04 I got two tickets for $98 each!!! I looked at Anna, what should I do? Just buy them she says. I click and I pay and I buy. Two seats in the club level for $98 each. I have no idea what this means so I look into it. It means middle of the arena, not very high up, two barstools (!!) at the drinkrail (!!). Damn, is that good? Bad? Did I just get screwed? I go into the Wild forum, I do a search for: barstool seating excel center. I find a couple of things. One says: best seats in the house. Another one writes: best seats in the arena, but beware of personal space, you will have to push people away and tell them that you actually paid for these seats.
Hmm, good? Bad? I decide that we got excellent seats and that it was totally worth the money. I also decide that one game is enough. So here we go, NHL game this year again!!!

Song of the day: Death From Above 1979 - Black History Month

Sleep When I'm Dead.

I am so tired today. For some reason I could not sleep last night, just tossed around, kicked my legs and turned the pillow around. Annoying as hell. Finally I got up and walked around the dark apartment, stretching, doing jumps and drinking water. But nothing worked. After getting out of bed and doing this a couple of times I sat down and read a little. Finally fell asleep at 3.00. The alarm went off at 4.45 as usual and it was time to work.
Right now I function as well as a zombie. My brain in sludge and my body heavy and lazy.

Listening to: autechre, the cure, the dandy warhols

I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead

Got the new Mogwai The Hawk Is Howling in the mail today. It sounds really good after the first listen. See what the round can do with it tomorrow.
Also got the new Imperiet dvd (for all you people out there in the rest of the world, Imperiet was the best band we had in this country in the eighties, they broke up september 11 1988). It was filmed by Peter Stormare at the final show at Ritz in Stockholm and is really damn good. The problem is that today Imperiet themselves stopped the release, and right now I have no idea what will happen with it. The Thåström forum is going warm. It will be too bad if it is never released becasue it is a really good show and a great liveband. But I think it will find its audience somehow.

Tonight Anna and I will go to a listeningparty for the new AC DC album. Will be real fun, the new single sounded great, good old primitive AC DC rock. Pretty bluesy.

The Wire still rocks!

Storm Warnings.

So, the biggest reason why I have not been here for awhile is spelled The Wire. I have, about 6 years after everybody else, discovered this absolutely magnificent tv-series. Anna and I are now about halfway into season 2 and we cannot stop. This is one of the few shows I have seen in which every character is fully 3-dimensional. The cops, the villians, the gangsters, they are all good and bad, and no one is 100% of anything. I root just as much for some of the gangsters as some of the cops. Just like I think some cops are worse than some of the gangsters. Truly good writing and good environment. It is funny that two of my favorite shows are both on HBO and both the biggest losses the channel has had. Seems like not that many people like dark dramas with lots of talk and interesting characters. Eveything that The Wire and Deadwood have.
And if anyone cares, my two favorites in The Wire are Bubbles and Omar.

Wrote a long review today about the new Metallica and I tried to be as fair as I could but it is really hard when a band has that much history and that much amazing music and just as much crap behind them. But I think the review turned out ok.

Enchanted Thoughtfist

Some great shows coming up soon, sadly I am missing one of the best ones. The Vaselines have started playing some shows and they are coming to Stockholm. But they play the same weekend that we have rented a car to drive and visit my parents. Which kind of sucks, but at the same time I can not see everything, I tried in New York but that almost killed me.
From what I have heard after the show they did in London, they are supposed to sound great. Out of tune and not very rehearsed, but then again, I expect nothing less.
Hopefully some Nirvana fans will go and see the original.

Back in a Melvins funk right now. Lots of Melvins.

That's Not Beef, That's Pork.

Went and saw Atmosphere the other night, and even though it was a great show, I want to talk about another thing.
When we got to the show it was one hour before they were supposed to be on stage and Ant (the dj) stood outside the venue smoking and talking to fans and posing for photos. Slug (the mc) was inside selling t-shirts and cd's at the merchtable. And there he stood until 2 minutes before they went on stage. While on stage he said: While I was selling t-shirts I talked to a lot of you, but not all, so if anyone wants to talk I will be there again after the show.
And I just felt so good. It was great seeing a artist willing to work that hard and really being there for the fans. Yeah, Atmosphere is not a huge band but definitely big enough that they do not have to work the merchtable.
So thanks for that, maybe some more bands should be a bit more humble.

Dig out Your Soul.

Did a phone interview with Liam Gallagher from Oasis today. We have been trying to make it happen for two weeks, but the Gallagher brothers have been really busy and and it has been cancelled a couple of times. But today Liam called me and we talked until his cellphone cut out and the call broke. I thought the interview was over and turned up the volume on the olympics again, when the phone rings and it is Liam again: Sorry, me fucking phone quit on me.
He was really easy to talk to, gave me some great quotes and I think it will be a pretty good article. The best thing is that I really think the new album is great and that they have taken a pretty big step forward, hopefully everyone will agree with me. Because the musicworld is a much more enjoyable plave when the Gallagher brothers are at the centre of attention. It has always been my opinion that no one give better interviews than Oasis. Too bad their music has not been as good lately, but that will change with the new album.

Tonight Atmospehere will play in Stockholm and me and Anna are going. That is, if this damn rainstorm will stop first. I kind of get the impression that neither of us are really interested in going out right now. But then again, it is not everyday that Minneapolis proudest are i town.

I noticed pretty quickly that I could not translate to music that was short and bouncy, I tended to listen to much to the music and not concentrate enough on the words of the text. At the same time, I needed the music to translate and I needed it to be loud. So, I quickly found some stuff that worked and even though it was way more than this, these are the albums I think I listened to the most while translating tokyo suckerpunch:

• jesu - heartache
• jesu - eluvium (split)
• jesu - pale scetches
• jesu - sunrise/sunset
• swans - swans are dead
• swans - the great annihilator
  
• red sparowes - every red heart shines towards the red sun
• my bloody valentine - loveless
• twelve - 03
• twelve - houston we have no problem part 1 and 2
• killing joke - killing joke (1980)
• mogwai - young team (remastered 2cd)
• the cure - pornography
• amusement parks on fire - out of the angeles
• bauhaus - go away white
• sianspheric - the sound of the colour of the sun
  

Tatty Seaside Town.

it is 13.15.
i have just opened a bottle of auchentoshan tripple barrel single malt.
poured myself a healthy glass.
the olympics is on the TV.
and about 5 minutes ago, to the tones of the brand new metallica song cyanide i wrote the last sentence of the translation of tokyo suckerpunch.

over and out.
up the irons.
see you on tour.

Please, do not smoke here.

Took a photo of this sign today in a elevator on my round, and I must say that I am slightly confused. For the people who do not speak Swedish I can tell you that it says: Please, do not smoke here. And as you can see there is a drawing of a women eating soup.
Now I totally understand why you would not want people to smoke in your elevator, but what confuses me is the kind of messages they are trying to give us.
1. Do not smoke here because I am eating soup?
2. This is not a elevator, this is a restaurant?
3. This is not a elevator, this is my kitchen?
4. Do not smoke here because this is where single soup-eating females hang out?
5. Please, feel free to smoke in the rest of this building, but please not in the elevator because we tend to eat our breakfast cereal here on our way to work?

So I went and saw the new Batman movie - The Dark Knight. And I must say that I realy liked it, just like the first one (Batman Begins) it was a dark, actionfilled and a character driven movie. Heath Ledger was absolutely amazing, Michael Caine was, as always, brilliant and Christian Bale was as good as ever. And yeah I know that you are supposed to hail Heath Ledger because he is dead and all that, but the fact of the matter is that he was great and it would be sad to hold that back just because he died and everyone wants to talk about how he should get and Oscar and so on.
The way I see it is this. Al Pacino got an Oscar for Scent Of A Woman, and that movie sucked and Al was not especially good. So if we look at it from that point of view, Hell yeah give Heath the Oscar and then some more.
But Daniel-Day Lewis also got an Oscar for My Left Foot, and no Heath is not that good. So there you go, either way it would be right. And who cares about the Oscars anyway? Just see the damn movie.

Listening to: Senseless Things - Empire Of The Senseless

Suddenly it's a folk song.

So, it seems like the Butthole Surfers have reunited and are touring Europe. Normally this would be very exciting and I would start looking into how to go somewhere and see them. But luckily I looked into it first. And the whole thing sounds pretty damn lame too me. My guess would be that the old Buttholes are once again broke and in desperate need of money. The touring band is Gibby (of course) and the original drummer and bassplayer and 20 (!!!), yes, twenty, kids from the School Of Rock. I mean, what the hell? So we get three Surfers and 20 kids who are going to school to learn how to play an instrument? Hmmm, and they want £45 for this? Jesus, someone is running low on drugs.
And this is the same band that sued their own independent recordcompany for not getting payed enough and wanting the rights to their albums. Which the record company happy gave them to not have to deal with them anymore. And that was the last we heard of Butthole Surfers. No other company wanted them, so their albums dissapeared from the shelves and they could not get a tour together themselves. Now this was 10 years ago.
Anyway, I should not complain to much, I really liked them for awhile. Their last album was really awful though. Really awful.

Sooo, my spelling control does not work right now, so excuse me if the text above looks like i was written by someone who can not spell.

How to BBQ on your Swedish vacation.

The Pros & Cons Of Hitch-Hiking.

Sometimes being a mailman is the best job in the world. Yeah, sure I get up at 4.45 and that really sucks. But so far in july I have never been of later than 11.00, usually more around 10.20. And that my friends is bloody brilliant.
You sort your mail, fill your little cart and your waterbottle and head out into the sun with great music in your headphones. Then you just walk around in the sun, deliver some mail, drink some water and then you go home. When I head down the escalators to the subway I meet people going to their jobs and I feel that the couple of hours of more sleep they get is just not worth it.
Now, if I only made more money...

The Hawk is Howling.

Looks like november will be a really great month. Today I bought tickets to see Mogwai at Cirkus in Stockholm on the 4th. The night after I have tickets to see Spiritualized at Berns. Two great shows. And right now it seems like Melvins will show up later same month. Seems like all the best shows of the year will be within a week of eachother.

Good Dope Good Fun

Bought the latest Spiritualized today even though I have had a digital copy for a couple of months now. It just did not look right without it in the shelf. Great album, not the best, but a really good one. Especially Death take your fiddle is great.
Otherwise I am sitting in the sun and heat planning my christmas. Feels really odd to sweat and complain and hide from the sun while planning some winterstuff. But that is the case when you need to travel over the Atlantic every second year to spend christmas. But I have not been in Minneapolis for a while now so that will be really fun. Was quite long time ago I saw any sort of snow on christmas. And best of all, I can see some hockey. Right now it looks like I will see Wild - Hurricanes and Wild - Blackhawks. Hurricanes might not be the worlds most fun team to see, but hey it is the NHL, I do not really care.

Still dissapointed by the new Primal Scream, damn it is boring.

A Storm Of Light

so I kinda took a summerbreak, was not really planning on coming back either, but there you go, now i am back. it has rained the whole vacation but now the sun is shining and it is really warm, really warm. anna is baking bread so the oven is on full force which does not help. but it will nice with bread though. i am sitting here doing some writing and listening to some old melvins. life could be worse.
i think we are going to head down to the water and lay on the grass and read for a while. maybe take a swim, maybe not.

watching john adams right now. we have seen four episodes so far and have three left. but the tv will have to wait while the sun is up. great show though.

anyways, i am dissapointed with the new primal scream. never thought i would say this, but they feel old.

Aly Walk With Me

...so Elsa is staying with us right now... and let me just say this, there is nothing that will make you feel older than going up at 4.45 and having a 21 year old in the apartment that went to bed an hour before you got up...

...other than that the translation is going steadily forward, 70 pages to go and then summer... can not wait... me and anna are going to glasgow to see my bloody valentine and then from there to london to visit billy, susan, pepper and astro... and when we come home from that we are going to stay in a cabin on the swedish westcoast, way out on an island... lets just cross our fingers for nice weather...

...have fallen into a pretty deep butthole surfers pit right now... been spending my mailrounds going through their discography... again... what a brilliant band... and what a uneven band... their highs are so high and their lows are just so low... how can someone produce so much crap when they are that good....

The Gold is back in Europe!!

Driven like the snow.

...so for som reason it is raining, last week pure summer, today... fall?

...today it is the semifinal and of course we are meeting canada, so we are pretty much out... but i have faith and i think with the wind in our backs, downhill, sun facing our opponents and maybe with some helt from the audience, referee and bad skates for the canadians we can win... i have even put some money on it, i bet that sweden would win 4-3... but we'll see, maybe i should have just flushed the money down the toilet...

...for some reason i am pretty much only listening to the sisters of mercy and judas preist right now.... that can not be a sign of full health... i need to look into this...

Hockey.

...so the world cup is on and that is about all that i do... sweden started out pretty damn crappy, played a bad game against belarus and them a worse one against switzerland... and i had almost given up hope on this team... when we play russia, and man that was a good game... probably one of the best i have seen, and if not the best, then at least the most fun... great hockey... well, now we are in quarterfinal against the czechs and that we should win since we easily have the best goalie, but i have noticed that life is not always like that... so we will see...

listening to the special edition of mudhoney's superfuzz bigmuff, great album...

Last Exit Brooklyn.

...well, that only took a year and a half to write again... and the worst part is that i do not even have a good excuse, i just have not gotten around to it... we have had full summer here and the weather has been absolutely great... so a blog kind of fell from my priorities... sadly...

...but the good news is that trent reznor showed the world once again how you treat fans, how music does not have to be put on a shelf for a year so that the record companies can spend millions on finding a strategy to try and sell it... trent recorded a new album and right away put it out for download... for free... no year on the shelf, no record company at all... and no cost... just a thanks to all the fans for our support...

...the translation is moving forward, and yes, as you probably have allready guessed, i am translating right now... that is why i am here...
...i had a pretty weird weekend were i sat at home the whole time tricking myself that i was translating... but when i afterwards looked at how much i had done is was not nearly enough... but i think all of us do that once in a while, we trick ourself into thinking that we are working harder than we are...

...new MUDHONEY out!!! woo-hoo!! so everybody run out and buy it... they recorded and mixed it in three days... suck on that Axl!! does anyone belive that he will ever release a new album? hands up anyone?

Songs From The Year Of Our Demise

...day off today, and i was supposed to translate the whole day... well, it went so-so... i translated most of the day, but my translating skills were numb and not so good... things went slow and i had to struggle... so, yeah, i worked hard but have almost nothing to show for it... but i guess that happens some days... now i will try on saturday and sunday too, and hopefully i will be better then...

1st of may today, and man, where did that spring go... it just flew by and i wonder what happened with all the time i had... things go way to fast and i want them to slow down...

re-reading the fuck-up, great book... arthur nersesian has a great flow and wonderful pace in his books, and a very attractive absurdism that i like... went and saw girls agianst boys at the bowery ballroom in new york once, it was one of those years when i saw them four times, and before the show i talked to the bassist julian temple in the bar and he introduced me to arthur, which i had read a lot of by then... and he was this really quiet and shy guy who stood in a corner with a beer just observing... i have no idea what i am trying to say here... maybe it is just the fact that you very rarely meet a author you are actually reading and likes... anyway to stray even more from the subject and make less sense... bowery ballroom was maybe halffull that night, but bono was hanging in the bar drinking guiness and i was really surprised seeing him there and at that specific show... girls against boys were definitely not hip then, and not a show that people went to to be seen at... anyway, i did not talk to him...

but back to reality... what i really wanted to say was that i think i actually appreciate the fuck-up more this time and wish i could write half as good and with as much humour as arthur... but then again if i wrote an eighth as well as bret easton ellis or norman mailer i would not be sitting here blogging would i...

over and out.

Sandblasted.

...my cd-shelves are here, and i spent yesterday organizing and putting up all my cd's... and it looks great, and it feels great.. finally!

...went and saw entombed this weekend, i tried to count which time it was, but i did not have the strength, but i would guess somehwere between 10-15... this was definitely one of the better, even though alex is now alone on guitar... it works really well, but you miss uffe once in awhile when that wall of guitars is needed... they played a lot of old stuff and a bunch from clandestine which was fun... best was the encore though, i mean look at this: morning star, demon, wolverine blues, out of hand...

...tomorrow is valborg and me and anna are going to riddarholmen to look at the fire like we did last year, after that i have no clue what happens... maybe flim (a technonight at a hotel), maybe something else...

...so velvet revolver fired scott weiland which came as no surprise, the last album sucked and when i saw them last summer they seemed really tired and uninspired... what really surpised me though is that he went straight to chicago so record a soloalbum with steve albini... hmmm, i wonder how that is going to work out...

...so the gastroscopy is finally over and i am a bit shaky... but everything was fine, my stomach looked good and i do not have to come back and do it again... and since i had to take the day off for this today i am now laying in the sofa with all the comfort-things i can get my hands on... this means that i have been spending the whole morning listening to the cramps, eating subs, drinking soda and now i am watching silverado...

...in an hour i will go and cut my hair... and as usual i am trying a brand new hairdresser out in the suburbs, so no one really knows what i will look like after... hopefully not worse than i can not fix it with a shower and some wax, but we will know in an hour and a half... cross your fingers...

...tonight my parents will show up with the new cd-shelves and i am pretty excited, it sounds like they look really good, and i can not wait to start sorting my cd's again...

...but back to the world of the cramps, soda and silverado...

over and out.

Refuse Amen

...took this today in an elevator on my mailroute... my interpretation is that this warning sign means: this will happen if you whistle in an elevator ...but i could be wrong... sure looks like it hurts though... just to be sure i will stop whistling in elevators...

...tomorrow it is time again for a gastroscopy... i do not look forward to this... the last time was horrible, and i have no hopes that this will be any different... the only good thing is that it only takes 10 minutes... if it took any longer there would be a pretty big chance of me just sitting straight up and pulling up all 6-7 meters of hose from my stomach and throw it on the floor, trash the place and run out... luckily, i am not Begbie ("A total psycho, but he's a mate, so what can you do?"), so the chances are probably pretty slim... you know, no one really is as tough as they think...

...redisovered Amen the other day... i had totally forgot how damn good they are... really, really good, especially we have come for your parents... me and tony saw them in a tiny room above a club in minneapolis... there was about 50 people there and the show was a on a stage that went to our knees and they played at 4 in the afternoon... really good, intense and aggressive show... to bad no one in usa ever liked them... three record companies on three albums... three albums that no one but me and tony bought it seems like... supposedly they were big in manchester... but who knows...

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

...when you have played your precious vinyls... a little tip from me would be to put them back in their sleeves and then back to where you took them... i did not... i left it on the record player... not expecting the sun to suddenly come to sweden after months of rain and darkness... my vinylplayer is next to the apartments biggest window... biggest! ...and the sun was shining the whole day... well, let me put it this way, i now need to go to a used store and find imperiets first ep from 1984... the original press... again...

Kill All Hippies.

...so colorado won... again... and wild's season is over... well, well, they lasted pretty long, maybe next year... so the hope is for rangers (yeah, sure) and detroit now... i really feel that detroit can take home the whole thing... lets cross our fingers...

...translated a lot this weekend, which feels really good... if i could just finish the damn thing soon...

...my parents will show up on friday with my new cd-shelves... really exciting... the first time in a looong while that i will have proper shelves and be able to keep order again... will be nice for anna also when i am not running around in a frenzy trying to locate a specific cd... -it is gone, i have lost it, and i need that song now!


Punk is not sexual, its just aggression
10-4 old buddies
Destroy, kill all hippies
Anarchy! disco sucks
Subvert normality
-primal scream

Call Of The Wild.

...we have summer here today, sun is shining, it is t-shirt weather and the balconydoor is open... i am sitting at the kitchentable translating, and since the wall is now down, i have the tv on watching the wild - colorado... what a day!

the new portishead is absolutely fantastic!

Front Street

...so a couple of weeks ago i was supposed to interview greg dulli from the gutter twins... he was in berlin and i got a time and a phonenumber... well, at the exact time i call and it is busy, i call again, and again, and again... and after a little over an hour i give up... i contact the record company and explain the situation... they will look into it... the next day i get an email, everything had run late and greg did not have time, but he was in amsterdam tomorrow and i got a new number and a new time... i called, and called, and called, same thing... got a new day and time again, this time in paris... i call, and greg answers... -hi i am mathias from sweden, are you ready for the interview? -actually no, i am about to go to a interview now, talk to my tourmanager *click*... the record company does not understand anything... but two weeks pass and i get a email, can you talk to greg in stockholm before the show... sure, no problem, give a place and a time... subpop emails me, i will talk to one of them at 18.00 at the venue, probably greg, but it might be mark... sure, fine with me... i get there at 17.45 and tells the venue staff that i am here for a interview and that i wanna see the tourmanager... just a second and they call him... -never heard of a interview, we are out walking in stockholm, do not when we will be back *click*... i am really starting to hate this tourmanager, has he even told the band? or is he just completely useless? ...i decide to wait and call my contact at the swedish record company... she does not understand anything, subpop promised that everything was set and that the tourmanagers knows... she will look into it... i wait, and wait, the tourmanager refuses to see me and i wait some more... after a bit over an hour i call the recordcompany and tell them i am leaving... they understand...

the question is, who is to blame here? from my point of view all my problems has been with a tourmanager that does not seem to manage... because this is his job, organize interviews, make sure that the star is where e/she is supposed to be, and agaian to organize things... not to say "have i never heard of" and hang up... that is very unprofessional... i have dealt with a lot of stars and bands and just as many tourmanagers... and this is by far one of the worst ones... i really hope for their sake thar greg and mark are in the dark about this, because if they know, or if they actually are the problem... that would just be really sad...

i have a email from subpop with the time and place and the tourmanager in the box for who got the email, so he has the email... he has the time and place... and still...

the sad thing about this is that i wanted a interview for publication before the album came out and before the show... but nothing happened... now the show i went to is only half-full... i do not want to belive that i have a lot of power or anything, but i bet that a article about the band might have gottten a few more people to show up? ...right, isn't publicity a good thing for a touring band?

Methamphetamine Blues.

...saw the gutter twins last night... really good show, greg dulli had collapsed three days earlier in belgium and been taken to the hospital, so this was the first show since then... which you could tell, because he was a bit more careful and looked a bit worn-out... on the other hand, he had rested for three days which meant that his voice sounded really damn good... mark lanegen was his usual zombie-like self, grown to the floor with a steady grip on the microphone stand... during the encore they played two songs from lanegans bubblegum album and that might have been the highpoint... dulli did pj harveys parts...

i think spring is finally here, we have sunshine and pretty warm days... so in othet words, perfect weather for a mailman...

Blank Generation.

...the weather has been insane, one day warm and sunny, t-shirt weather... the next day minus degrees and snow, then 0 degrees and rain, back to sunshine and warm, and, well, you get it... it kind of wears you down, but we should be used to it by now i guess... the tents over our windows are finally gone... yesterday was the first day in over two weeks that we had daylight in the apartment, so nice... the cd-shelves we ordered are done too, my dad picked them up today and will bring them up to stockholm in two weeks... i can not wait...

...still on the please, kill me trip... i can not stop reading it and while i am reading i am going through all the music on the stereo, dead boys, heartbreakers, ramones, richard hell, suicide, blondie, velvet underground, stooges and mc5... damn, those bands are good, but what tragic lifes they all lived, it seems like they were all struggling to die as soon as possible... crazy times...

...it is also weird to read this book and realize that even though new york city is this incredible fast changing city, places close and open everyday, and you can eat a restuarant on the monday and then when you go there on wednesday it is a laundromat, new york is still a city were some things never change... there is this story in the book about the time when dead boys drummer johnny blitz almost gets stabbed to death on a east village sidewalk... the interesting thing is that they talk about that at night after cbgb's closed all the musicians used to go to this deli the deli stop on 5th and 2nd avenue to buy candy and chips and beer and stuff and it is outside this deli that blitz gets stabbed... the thing is that when we lived in new york we used to go the same deli after drinking in the east village or going to shows at the knitting factory to buy water or candy... i also remember that it was the only place in new york where i could find the chocolat bar bounty, so i always went there and bought a bunch... pretty weird isn't it...

anyway, minnesota beat colorado last night again and things are starting to look really good...

Sandinista

...saw Low last night at this old, really nice theatre... me and Anna were on the first row on the balcony and had great seats... Low was just amazing and really tight and intense... one of the better shows i have seen in a long time... great sound too... especially pissed and dragonfly were good... really good guitars from alan sparhawk... he kind of riffed and played solo at the same time... something i really only have seen bob mould do before...

...minnesota against colorado... this will be good!!

...thursday is malcolm middleton and then the posies on sunday, the gutter twins next tuesday and we end the month with entombed on the 26th... great month for rock...

rereading please kill me again... great book, great time and great music... i am really glad i tried to see as much of the classic places as i could while i was living in new york... i mean cbgb's is not even there anymore... what a crappy place that was though... lots of history and a great soundsystem, but what a crappy place, disgusting bathrooms too... saw a great show with bird blobs there though... and a really shitty one with the vines... but who is really surprised...

Sunday Morning.

...drinking lots of water, translating and listening to jesu... just another sunday...

Everything's a wave

...to no ones real surprise did i sleep bad last night... or to be more truthfull, i did not sleep much at all... my insomnia comes and goes, but i have always had trouble sleeping... i never really fall asleep and i wake up really early... in new york things were really bad and i did not have a full nights sleep for four years... that could have been because i had a rotating schedule of opening, midday and night shifts all mixed up and different each week... it could be monday 9-17, tuesday 19 - 02, wednesday 12- 18, thursday 9-17, friday 19-02 and so on... so i could go to bed at around 23.oo and lay in bed and toss and turn fully awake until i gave up around 3 or 4 and went up and wacthed some tv or something, night after night... but it has been really good now for awhile, which is why that last week has caught me by surprise... i am back in the tossing and turning mode... the only difference now is that i get up at 4.44 every morning, so if i fall asleep at around 3 i do not get much sleep at all... but enough whining...

ministry's cover album is pretty damn fun, not great, but fun, i love the version of rolling stones under my thumb and radar love is pretty damn good too.... check it out...

Luke Skywalker

Minnesota Wild are in the playoffs!

the new breeders is really boring.

The name is Broder Daniel

...sadly i just found out that the 32 year-old guitarplayer in Broder Daniel commited suicide this weekend by jumping from a bridge not very far from here... i have always been a very big BD-fan and i have seen them live well over 10 times, some real brilliant shows (park-festivalen in oskarshamn, pudas in växjö) and some horrible ones (emmaboda-festivalen, hultsfred before black grape), and i have always bougth their albums... BD is very småland for me, i listened to them a lot living in oskarshamn and a lot studying in växjö, i have very found memories connected with a lot of their songs and their albums... and don't forget that BD is the soundtrack to most of Fucking Åmal (that would be Show Me Love for you americans)...

Electric Alice

...so i was not gonna go to any festivals this summer... i was not going to spend all my time and money as i usually do, running around on festivals, sleeping in tents, eating bad food and doing my toilet buisness in well-peed bushes... but man, was i wrong... today the festival in göteborg (way out west) announced some new bands and i had no choice but to try and get a ticket... listen to this:
sonic youth
flaming lips

and G R I N D E R MA N

...of course it is probably to late to get a ticket, and i am probably to broke... but i will try... i will really try... i do not care about the national, sigur ros, yeahsayer, franz ferdinand or all the other indie-bands, seen them all, been there, done that... but grinderman... i mean seriously... grinderman....

i have to go...

Vancover - Minnesota 0 - 4

Very Metal Noise Pollution

...just got back from a tintin exhibit at a museum in town... it was concentrating on the ocean aspects of the tintin books and really damn cool... lots of displays, really thought through, and filled with cool original tintin drawings, hergés pen (!), scetches and other stuff... the best part of it though was that the shark-submarine from Red Rackham's Treasure was on display in full size... really nice...

...now it is off out to my sisters where wewill babysit and probably play some Xbox 360 NHL 2007... which is what William is getting on his birthday from us... should be fun...

...go Wild!

Dance Of The Mad Bastards

...so its been awhile...

...as soon as the wall was done, it was time for the next project... the house we live was going to get all the windows fixed and now it is our turn... so at 7 in the morning (i was long gone to work, but Anna was just out of bed) came the handymen and took out the windows, left a huge mess and disapeared... this means that we now have only the inner glass left and huge tent like things covering all the windows... the result? well, we can not see out, it always dark and minus degrees indoors... did i mention that the apartment now looks like a constructionsite? ...the work will take 3 weeks and during that time we are living like this, always overdressed indoors, and sleeping under double blankets and lots of clothing...

Brain Damage

...it is still snowing, took a photo with my phone for this page... but the photo looked like shit, so you have to imagine it... the translating is going ok, and that is better then expected... this is by far the hardest text i have worked on... marketing... it is just not my world, and sometimes it could might as well have been a completly differnt language, hindu, korean, swahili or anything... but i am slowly struggling, and i will be done tonight... i have to be done tonight...

saw the devil wears prada and 3.10 to yuma last night... prada okay, streep was excellent, as always, and tucci was very good too... so yeah, okay entertainment... 3.10 on the other hand was great, really good old-school western... and russel crowe was a very good villian...

over and out.

...a photo from my phone of the wall and the mess...

Easter & The Bunnymen

...did i say happy easter? ...in my quest to relax, get some sleep and get back to normal life again i completely forgot that it was easter... so no eggs, painting of eggs or watching max von sydow being crucifide on tv... just wine, good food, movies and laying in the sofa reading... yeah, and translating... it is going okey, pretty odd text, they pretty much picked 5 words and then use them in every sentence over and over again...

...still snow, and cold, but we do have sun and it is pretty beautiful outside our apartment in the real world... might go out later and return the movies... but it might be dark again then... well, i got some daylight yesterday... that should do for awhile...

(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais

...got another translation to work on this weekend... a 5 page management training document... will be tough i think, but should work... or actually it has to work, i am getting payed for it so... saw michael clayton last night... great movie, amazing acting... tilda swinton, george clooney and tom wilkinson were all amazing... really good movie... saw stardust too... good 2 hours of entertainment... definitely worth seeing if you just want to have fun and not have to think about the state of the planet, ha ha...

...today i will work on the translation the whole day and then probably watch some hockey tonight... minnesota lost last night, but they are doing fine anyway... play-offs here we come!

Snowblind

...we never had a winter at all... no snow in december, no snow in january, no snow in february... i really thought we would never get one at all... and now this... we have now had snow for two days and it keeps snowing... i must say, if it can't bother in december then i do not really want it at all... just a week ago we had nice warm springweather... and people say there are no such thing as global warming...

...saw clerks 2 last night... hilarious movie... so kevin smith has not lost the touch... really thought he had after the last couple of movies... but this one was great...

Sorry...

...one more thing.

Colorado - Minnesota 1 -3

Hell yeah!!

Born Slippy.

...should really go to bed, so i think i will... tomorrow is the last day though before the FOUR day easter break... i love religious holidays that gives you time off from work...

anyway, 30rock is one great show!

Bohemian Like You.

...i have never really liked mondays, not really for the fact that you have to work, well that too, but mainly because i sleep so bad on sunday nights that i am extremely tired all of monday... today was no different, sleepwalked my way through work like a zombie... and then home and stare at the mess and feel like i have no strenght for this... maybe it is time for some more entourage?

good shows coming up in stockholm next two months though:

low
the gutter twins
nick cave
malcolm middleton
blonde redhead
einsturzende neubauten
explosions in the sky
deus

In The Falt Field

...somehow the wall is not done yet, there seem to always be one tool missing to be able to finish what we are doing... which means one more trip to the hardware store and more money spent that we do not have... when all this is over we will have all the tools ever needed to do anything at all... i would not be totally surprised if we can, in our apartment, build a spaceship if we want to... so more work, more money and more dust laying on everything... personally i am starting to get really tired of living on a construction site and stumbling over tools and timber and a giant vacuum cleaner wherever i go... i have even noticed that i take long routes to get home since i do not really want to face the situation... better to take a little trip in town first, maybe check out some books or cd's... or why not just randomly walk around... and then home... or maybe one more stop...

...i have also completly got stuck on love and rockets... the band that three fourths of bauhaus formed after that band crashed and burned... especially the album sweet f.a. have been going on repeat in my ipod... do not really know why... there is nothing really special about that album, but right now i love it...

...it is not until you start building or tearing down something that you really start to miss having a car...getting material, paint, timber or anything else like that is impossible in a big city... everything is far away and non-reachable with the subway or a bus... and if you would manage to get there by yourself, you will not be able to carry anything home... right now we need 25 kg of cement and some timber... i am not going to carry that on the subway...

...heard some pretty good stuff from the new remix album from mindless self indulgance... maybe i should pick that one up...

Wild.

...in case anyone did not know, minnesota wild is now number 3 in the western conference...

Going Underground.

...sitting in the library at hornstull today with my trusted laptop working away on the book translation... it feels like i have been translating this for about 67 years now... but i guess that is the sad truth when you do it after work on your freetime, it gets sporadic... but i am doing my best...

...today it rained and was kind of sucky on my round... big houses with 8 floors and a lot of really heavy magazines... and my vest that i have the mail in broke, so i had to carry everything, which sucked and hurt my shoulder...

...still listening to the new nin, i have discovered that it is a very good album to sit and type to...

The Dust Brothers.

...so the fine dust is still everywhere, me and anna have cleaned, dusted and scrubbed everything, and when we turn around it is all there again... could drive someone crazy... we also managed to saw of the electrical cable in the wall... which means that the electrical outlets only works on two placesin the apartment now... which means that everything in the apartment is hooked up to these through connection after connection... probably not very safe, or smart, but necessary... but sadly this also means that we need to hire a electrician for another pile of cash that we do not have... the word money trap comes to mind now when i think of home improvement... but i guess that is life and will give us tons of grown-up points...

not listening to anything right now, but i am watching a show on travel channel about wine making in spain... yeah, i could live there...

BERLIN.

...the wall is down... the whole place is covered in a fine, fine layer of dust... everything... no, really, everything... money is flowing... we are coughing... but it lookes great... still, a lot of work left... need to get started again...

did i say that it was raining?

What is sleep?

...roland landed today, together with a big bag of tools... d-day is set for saturday and we will the tear down our wall... should be interesting...

...the big theme right now is otherwise that i am so bloody tired... i have been sleeping badly the whole week and have a hard time staying awake past 21.00... which is slightly sad...

...discovered yesterday that the singer in one of my favorite bands, girls against boys, will releases a soloalbum in march... i have been spending most of the afternoon listeing to some songs on myspace and it sounds great... he calls himself paramount styles... and the album failure american style... check it out, it is really good!

...well, the camping translation is now done and delivered, so i celebrated with a beer, oppigårds ale...

cheers!

Tired.

...so on saturday our wall between the kitchen and the livingroom will come down... it will present us with some minor problems, but i think that all in all it will be great... the apartment will get a lot more air and space and, maybe most important of all, i can see the tv from the kitchen... which means that i will not have to run back and fourth between NHL on the tv and the cooking on the stove... now if we could only win some money so that we can buy that new stove... it is proved to be hard to cook without a oven...

...the new nick cave is still really good, so is the new NIN... i really like what trent is doing with downloading and hope that others will follow... i also really like the approach with the new album, really great music to translate to...

...and talking about translating, right now i am struggling with a camping thingie that needs to be finished on thursday night... halfway there...

listens to: postpunk chronicles scared to dance

Bored?

...if you would ever feel down, depressed or just simply bored...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9PqjMSNfkU

...i promise it is worth clicking on...

Back In Black.

... so after a few days off, while dave was here, i am not back at work... i must say it was hard getting up at 4.44 this morning, i felt and probably looked like a zombie... it takes me almost 3 stations on the subway before i am fully awake, and then i have allready had a cup of tea before leaving the apartment... i do not think humans are made for these hours... and people who think that are actually lying... and that is a fact...

...saw a danish band called printer at debaser the other night... sounded kind of like a mix of old-school new order and underworld... really good... i bought the cd and is listening to it now... you should check it out... nice cover too...

... is it only me or is the press only publishing photos of hillary where she looks like either hitler or satan? ...all photos of obama are really nice and positive...

...well, i do not have time for this now... i have a camping pamflet to translate and a book that still is not done... gotta work...

up the irons.

Kent.

...so dave left today, and i will try and really start to write on this page, it seems like i chose a weird time to start this thing...
...two nights ago we went to västerås and saw kent and as usual they were absolutely amazing, great show, with great light and sound... it was also fun to see them outside of stockholm, with a crowd who was not to cool to applaud or dance and even sing along... i guess there is a reason why no bands ever claims that the best show on the tour was in new york, london or stockholm... small towns just rocks a little bit harder...

...but now the apartment is empty and me and anna are alone again, my guess is that we will spend the day in the sofa in front of the tv, some movies, some hockey and a couple of episodes of entourage, maybe even flight of the concords...

...anyway, until the next time...

Weekend.

...well, i waited for dave... and i waited... and waited... finally i called him on the cellphone that would not work in sweden... and he answered.
...dave was at work in boston, and i had got everything wrong... he was coming the next day...

typical mathias...

living in the fast lane.

...stress, stress, stress, i am running around like a lost little goblin and do not really get anything done... i have a whole bunch of reviews that will not write themselves, and an apartment to clean... i also need to finish the painting the hallway that me and anna started yesterday... and anna is sick on top of everything... the reason for all this chaos is that dave is flying in tomorrow from boston and it would be nice if the place do not look like it just got thrashed... we like to give the impression that people actually lives here... and that means for example that my piles of cd's that are everywhere needs to go somewhere... clothes need to get a home and dishes should be done... anna will also schedule our bills, in case we forget to pay them while dave is here... i know, i know, things like that have happened, and are likely to happen again...

anyway, i do not have time to sit here and philosphy anymore, i need to pick a cleaning a soundtrack and open a beer...

...just read what i wrote and it seems like my english has gone down the drain a bit while living in stockholm, i guess you guys will just have to live with that :)

listen to:
bauhaus - go away white
the gutter twins - saturnalia
atmosphere - strictly leakage