Some homeworks are nicer than others

Cameron's Home Economics assignment provided us with the most fabulous Italian dinner this evening.

LASAGNA
All the ingredients needed (apart from the flour to thicken the sauce)



The bolognaise sauce


The cheese sauce


Layer the two sauces
with the pasta plates


Sprinkle grated
cheese on top


Bake in the oven for
about 25 minutes


Dinner table all set


And voalá!

And this week’s winners are …

1. THE DECEMBERISTS
No band manages to conjure up vivid images to ones mind like The Decemberists. There are stories of historical romance; sailors at sea; runaway teenage hustlers; embittered social scenes and what have you. Meloy’s ingenuity was emphasized to me as I started collecting words from his lyrics onto my Wordie site. There are words of such loveliness and mystery; one just cannot imagine where he gets them from. Have a look at my list here.



2. OKKERVIL RIVER
I think it was the name that first made me notice the band. Okkervil River is both a book by Tatiana Tolstaja and a river outside Saint Petersburg. Some free songs to be got here.

3. IRON & WINE
Some interesting trivia: The name Iron & Wine was taken from a dietary supplement named "Beef, Iron & Wine" that Sam Beam found in a general store while shooting a film. He liked the name, but decided to drop the "beef".And here is another one: I just learnt that Sarah Beam, Sam Beams sister, has contributed backing vocals on many of the studio recordings.

4. ELVIS PRESLEY
The kids again…

5. LOW
Cool slowcore. Apparently not to keen on the term themselves. It quite intrigues me how such cool music can be implicated with the mormon fate. Did I miss something…?



6. KATE & ANNA McGARRIGLE
Two sisters from Montréal who’s musical career began with the 1960s folk music movement. I love their singing, it is both beautiful and humorous; and of course very sixties! It is their first record I have listened to. It is called by their names and came out 1974. Favourite songs on there would be “Swimming Song” and “Complainte Pour Ste. Catherine”.

The sisters provided backing vocals on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds's 2001 album “No More Shall We Part” and they also appear in the 2006 Leonard Cohen tribute film “Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man”. They have also, among so much else, recorded with Irish group The Chieftains, with Emmylou Harris and with Joan Baez.

Have a listen here



7. ANNA TERNHEIM
Anna Ternheim provided me with one of the most memorable performances at this summers Love & Peace festival in Borlänge. She is so cool and she is so good! She also had the coolest outfit at the festival (well after Alice Cooper that is), with black puffed sleeve blouse, black braces, tight black trousers and black riding shoes. She’s cute!



8. CROSBY, STILLS & NASH
At the site of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum is to be read that Crosby, Stills & Nash are: “…America’s longest-running experiment in vocal harmony and social relevance.” I’d like to hear a bit more of David Crosby’s solo projects.



9. WOODPIGEON
Here most weeks. And in last weeks chart blog.

10. COWBOY JUNKIES
Does a brilliant version of “Sweet Jane”

11. CARISSA'S WIERD
Slow, rueful country-tinged indie rock. Could possibly join Low in the slow core genre, even though the sound is pretty different.

12. DAVID THOMAS BROUGHTON
Now, this is an interesting musician! Something that also becomes apparent in reading the Wikipedia presentation of him: “Generally playing solo with an acoustic guitar, he creates the sound of a large ensemble by sampling himself singing, playing, tapping and making an assortment of other sounds through a Digitech digital loop/delay pedal. He also uses various non-musical instruments to augment his songs, including long-wave radio and a portable television, and has recently begun incorporating seemingly self-conscious and/or ironic dance moves, as well as off-mic (often off-stage), singing into his set.”

The album I have been listening to, "The Complete Guide to Insufficiency", was recorded in Wrangthorn Church, Leeds, England. Review to be read here.



13. MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO
Everything Jason Molina does turns out gold.

14. GIANT SKYFLOWER BAND
This is real psych hippy stuff and/but very good! Proof is in some of the titles from the album to which I have been listening “Blood of the Sunworm”: “Rainbows and Dreams (With Worms Singing)”, “Bitter Wild Rabbit/Builds the Bone”, “The Arcangel (Hurray for the Beast)”, “Meditations on Christ and the Magi”.

Justin F. Farrar writes in a review of the album “…the dude sounds not only like a psychic hobo from Bolinas, but also a weary toker strung out on twee pop, British folk-rock, and David Crosby's burnout classic If Only I Could Remember My Name. There's not a single composition among Sunworm's 10 tracks -- just the barest of sketches and the acute feeling that Donaldson and partner Shayde Sartin did nothing more than record a stoned jam session, where the two Californians messed around with a room full of exotic instruments.”

The artist himself, Glenn Donaldson, describes the album as: “an exotic, flowery and crumbling new recording project with nods to fruity new age, psych, prog, folk, and pop songwriting.”



15. THE BUTTERFLIES OF LOVE
This is, contrary to what the band name would suggest, not hippy stuff; apparently though the tallest, skinniest band in America. New to me is that the band was doing Peel sessions as far back as 1998. If I had been listening to them for these last nearly ten years, I’d probably be well fed up with them, as I assume they have had this similar classic indie rock style all this time. But as it is they are new to me, and I really, really like them.

16. THE ACORN
Boring!!

17. THE COURT & SPARK
“…soundtracks for driving down a long dusty highway in late June.” Read a very well written review here.

18. BEGUSHKIN
See last weeks chart blog.

19. 16 HORSEPOWER
Can’t really remember listening… Must have been put on by mistake.

20. LEE HAZLEWOOD
See last weeks chart blog.

I wonder if ...

...that is one single piece of foil ...

Swedish Midsummer

I you guys only knew how true to life this is.

An Eclectic Array

My choice of music is very much ruled by my immediate frame of mind. Music that might be unthinkable one day, might be what I crave the next. As I scroll my selection, the choices I make involve very little contemplation; all I do is listen to my heart.

Come Sunday it is time for the week’s listenings to be compounded into a chart at Lastfm. I find this exciting for different reasons. For example do I like the element of surprise, as I have very often forgotten many of my listenings. I also think it is interesting to see the actual list compiled, with the different artists in relation to each other.

Last week's top 20:

1. WOODPIGEON
Woodpigeons’ “Songbook” has been my favorite album for some time. Their music has been appropriately described as: “[…] jingly, ramshackle chamber-folk concoctions driven by banjo, glockenspiel, a sprawling choir and quivering male vocals.” (Now Magazine ) Lyrics like “I went to ninja school, to learn how to murder you” and titles like “The Alison Yip School For Girls, If Only I Were A Painter I'd Paint For You The Moon” or “Home as a romanticized concept where everyone loves you always and forever” are proof of their brilliance.

Free Woodpigeon EP


2. THE MOUNTAIN GOATS
Number 3 in my over all chart, with over a thousand plays. It is the entertaining, story telling, clever and highly literary lyrics that does it for me.

3. MOMUS
Another great one for lyrics is Momus. Wikipedia says: “In his lyrics and his other writing he makes seemingly random use of decontextualized pieces of continental (mostly French) philosophy, and has built up a personal world he says is ‘dominated by values like diversity, orientalism, and a respect for otherness.’[…] He is fascinated by identity, Japan, the avant-garde, time travel and sex.” Momus is moreover Scottish and he has been in the music business since early eighties.



4. LEONARD COHEN
Not much more than the perfect background music.

5. ELVIS PRESLEY
It wasn’t me; it was my children.

6. DEVENDRA BANHART
If nothing else, he’s pretty.

7. MUGISON
Mugison is an Icelandic artist to whom I was introduced (albeit not personally) this spring. He performs on his own, with guitar and computer. The Independent Newspaper wrote in a review “he played wild, crashing guitar while mixing vocals and distorted breathing through a laptop - was a meld of the recklessly shambolic (his computer crashed twice), endearing love songs and epic, disturbing soundscapes out of the Barents sea.”

I love the song title “Sad as a truck”.




8. BEGUSHKIN Nightly Things (2006)
One of my many folky finds this year, and another one-man-band, constituted by Dan Smith. Begushkin's music is dark and haunting, late-night and mystical while still kind of cute. Some of the lyrics are very lovely.

From “At Night With Me”:

And you will be my monkey girl
I will be the dude
You and your monkey cars
and me
and my ox-blood shoes...


9. TOM WAITS



10. JOHNNY CASH
My favorite Johnny Cash album at the moment is Amerian III and my favorite songs on there are “Solitary Man” and (as much as I hate to admit it) Bono’s “One”. “I won’t back Down” is also very wonderful.


11. THE BAND
I did a blog on the band, and their “Last Walz”-album some time ago. It can be found here.


12. CALEXICO
My favorite band, topping my over all chart, with over 2000 plays. I love the sound of Calexico and I love the way it is so obvious that those guys are in it for the love of what they do.




13. JENS LEKMAN
Jens Lekman seems a genuinely nice, humble and undoubtedly very intelligent guy. Lyrics and video productions are cleverly brilliant. I really do wish I could fall for his music, but I can’t. It is that orchestra sound… I tried very hard, and that’s how he made my chart.


14. NEIL YOUNG



15. JOSÉ GONSÁLES
Same goes for him as for Devendra Banhart


16. LEE HAZLEWOOD
I will always love a baritone voice, and especially in combination with country music. And, I love a lot of Lee Hazelwoods songs. Not all of them though. I was very irritated to have fallen asleep while listening to him the other night, and so woken up by his “Strangers, Lovers, Friends” – can’t stand that song. “Dolly Parton’s Guitar” is another irritating track. In all I find his music very entertaining though, as there is such a great variety of songs and styles.

I had no idea Lee Hazelwood had just passed away (August 4). Neither did I know he lived in Sweden during the 1970’s. Here he wrote and produced the one hour television show Cowboy in Sweden.

17. RED HEART THE TICKER For the Wicked (2005)
“Very Marie” someone pointed out. I am sure it is too, which of course means that it, apart from being folky, according to me is very good. The album was recoded in a barn, and in one song there are crickets to be heard.


Tasters to be had here


18. WE ARE WOLVES
Someone sent me a taster. French Canadian post-punk and pretty good.


19. JOANNA NEWSOME
A true artist she is Joanna Newsome; and a multi-talented such, as a harpist, pianist, harpsichordist, singer and songwriter. Wikipedia says: “Although her harp playing is not completely divorced from conventional harp techniques, she considers her style distinct from that of classically-focused harpists. She has been strongly influenced by the polymetric style of playing used by West African kora players.” Further it reads: “Her songwriting incorporates elements of Appalachian music, avant-garde modernism, and African kora rhythms”.

Decemberists has made a fabulous cover of her song “Bridges and Ballons”. This is probably the reason for me giving time to Joanna Newsome, as I have a bit of a hard time getting her music to do anything for me.




20. KRAFTWERK
For sentimental reason, and for going to sleep.


My Lasfm profile

Making Murder Adorable

Having got rid of my main defence weapon, the cast iron frying pan, I am looking for a replacement. Quite its contrast but ever so effective would be the Hello Kitty AK-47 assault rifle with its hand-crocheted shoulder-stock muffler and its anodized titanium plating. I am also thinking along the lines of one of Antonio Rielli’s jewelled grenades.





More glamorous weaponry are to be viewed at glamguns.com where the shopping cart checkout link takes you to Amazone.com and A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms. More of Antonio Rielli’s art work is to be viewed here.