I’ve made two new playlists on YouTube, with the videos from the Motown concert and the last original tunes concert I played at NISS. And here’s the video recording of The Day and the Night. Sounds better with video, doesn’t it?
Also, if you’d care to take a look, an old childhood friend of mine is studying animation and has a YouTube channel where she posts some of her work. Please check out YamiNoRisu’s YouTube Channel!
Band: You Wish
Venue: Skuret Kulturpub, Oslo
Date: 10th of August, 2010
There is always a slight problem with reviewing bands you know personally, in that it’s not always so easy to be entirely objective. In addition to not really wanting to say anything bad about ones friends, ever, there’s also the chance that they might actually read this at some point, and what if they don’t like what they read?
All the same, I will try my damndest to be as objective as I can.
I have already raved about this band here. You Wish play music of a genre of their own creation, called Ghost Pop. It’s not really easy to describe, but the words “haunting” and “dance music” certainly fit in the mix. It’s a five-piece band, with guitar, drums, bass, keytar and vocals, and the music itself is based on hauntingly beautiful chords and somewhat unusual rhythmic patterns, though it is, perhaps, the vocals that most immediately sets it apart.
You Wish started their concert in a way that would have been extremely effective and awesome, had they been playing at a real concert venue rather than a pub, because between all the people talking, laughing and ordering beer it was a bit hard to tell whether they’d actually started playing yet or not. However, once they picked up the pace they seemed to get everyone’s attention. I was in the front, but looking behind me I don’t think I could see a single face that wasn’t turned towards the stage.
This was my first time seeing them play a full concert, so I was unfamiliar with most of the songs. I found most of them to be absolutely fantastic, and the ones I did know I sang along with as well as I could. If you’re anything like me, you can’t stand still to this kind of music. This was more true for some than others, and there was especially one couple dancing so violently they almost knocked me over twice.
There was an unfortunate mishap with the vocalist’s microphone in the middle of the concert, whereupon she was forced to switch microphones with the bassist (who is also backing singer), but after this, the concert went relatively smoothly. Pub sound is never as good as you’d want it to be, and the sound tech was less than attentive to the band’s gesticulations regarding monitoring, etc.
For such a tiny stage in such a dingy pub, the stage show was amazing. They were all wearing make-up and masks, feathers and glitter, and little butterflies pinned to their clothes. They were all rocking out and communicated with the audience pretty well.
The vocal harmonies were gorgeous and, given the monitoring in that place sucks on the best of days, very clean indeed. The main vocalist and the keytarist, who sometimes shares the main vocals, sing very well together, and communicate well.
I very much enjoyed the concert, and would like to recommend seeing this band to anyone who has the opportunity. So far that probably just means Norwegians, but keep your eyes peeled; you never know when these guys are gonna break through internationally. They’re certainly not far off from making it big here – I’m absolutely sure of it!
Photos were taken by me with my mobile phone. Sorry about the quality, or lack thereof.
Now for what I forgot to put in last night’s blogginess: Everything is now set for England. My offer changed from conditional to unconditional about two weeks ago and term starts on the 13th of September. I’m leaving on the 12th. I’ve applied for student housing and got a room in the student village (with my own bathroom, thank heavens!), bought plane tickets, made myself familiar with trains and buses… Now I just have to sit around for another month and a half and die silently.
I’m honestly quite terrified. I don’t even know why I’m scared anymore… I’ve sorted everything out, I have nothing more to stress about, I ought to be able to relax, but for some reason I still can’t. It’s like I just realised I’m going far, far away and I am freaking out.
Not to worry, I’m sure it’ll pass…
Got home yesterday afternoon. It was absolutely wonderful to sleep in my own bed again, with a good pillow, and a mattress that doesn’t have springs that poke my back. My legs are full of mosquito bites, but I did have a nice trip.
Made it to a concert while I was there; “Dialekt Rock”, with Lasse Eriksson, from Närpes. This won’t make much sense to most people, but Närpes is a burrough in Finland where they speak just about the weirdest Swedish dialect in the world. Lasse Eriksson has made a thing out of it, and he writes and sings songs in this dialect, challenging his audience to try and understand them, occasionally fitting in a few other odd dialects as well. Highly entertaining!
I had a very uncomfortable trip home. We left on Saturday morning to go to a family reunion thing. My parents dropped us off (us being the boyfriend and I) in Vasa to hang out for a couple of hours, since the family reunion mostly consisted of my mother’s cousins (and not their kids), none of whom I know. Anyway, it was very hot and I was feeling a bit under the weather since the previous night, but it was okay. We had some lunch, but I didn’t have much of an appetite. When we were picked up and got to the other place, we got some dinner, but I didn’t eat much of that either.
The next morning I had a very small breakfast, still not having much of an appetite, besides which we had to get up at 6:30 am. It was a long drive to Helsinki, and when we got there I still couldn’t eat. I was hungry, but I didn’t want any food. In the end I managed to eat a small bag of crisps and a chocolate bar which sustained me until dinner, at which time I finally had almost a full meal. I went to bed almost straight after dinner, spending some time reading before trying to get some sleep. I woke up very shortly after because we had some rough seas. The rocking made me feel slightly seasick, so I got up, put some clothes on, and went to buy myself a coke. Then I went out on deck where I stood for about two hours before daring to go back to bed when we were nearing Åland.
But after we’d left Mariehamn, the waves once again brought me out of my half slumber, and I went out again. It wasn’t until we entered Stockholm’s sjärgård and the sea completely calmed that I went to bed again and fell asleep. I slept for as long as I can, which brought my total up to about three hours for the whole night.
Needless to say, when I got home I was entirely destroyed. We watched some TV, had some snacks and then went to bed. This morning I slept until I woke up of my own accord, which was bliss.
Anyway, falling asleep in my seat. I’ll blog about something relevant tomorrow (or something).
Had some time on a computer, so here’s a quick update on stuff.
Nice and warm weather here. Was a bit too warm the day before yesterday, but then a thunder front passed by and it got cooler and less humid. Also, forgive any typos; this keyboard is really old and not very good. Waiting to head out to the airport to pick up the boyfriend who’s arriving today, so that will be nice. Haven’t seen him since Sunday morning.
I’m working on a new song. Or, the lyrics are old, I wrote them when I was here last year. You can find them here. I think I’ll call the song Summertime Lullaby when it’s done. I’ve got a melody for it. Tried to play around with chords a bit on my grandmother’s piano earlier, but the grandfather clock in the living room is so loud that it’s impossible to play anything that’doesn’t go in 60 bpm, besides which you can’t play tight when you’re trying to find chords. So I gave up cause the clock annoyed me so much, but I do have a general key now, at least.
I want to submit this song to the MetaFilter Music July Challenge, which is to make a summer tune. It’ll be a tight deadline to try to finish and record it by the 31st when I get home in the evening on the 26th, but I might just make it.
Definitely going to the beach today. Hope the water is as warm as it was on Tuesday.
I’m leaving for Finland early tomorrow morning, which means I probably won’t be online much until I get back on the evening of the 26th. It’ll be lovely with a summer holiday away from the bustle of the city, which, while I love the city, can get stressful even when you have nothing to do. Maybe I’ll be able to chill out and not think so much about the future, too. Just live in the moment for a couple of weeks. See ya!
It’s almost 7 am and I haven’t slept a wink tonight, so now’s as good a time as any to share some cool MySpaces, I think. Most of these are old classmates and small-ish local acts.
Luna Park only have one song up at the moment, probably due to their recent change in line-up, but that one song is very cool, and we’re lead to believe there will be more soon. They play pretty straight forward rock, with some cool electronic effects, courtesy of Kristoffer Hansen whom you’ll find in some live recordings from last year here on this site.
He is also one half of the duo sgrow (here credited as Kristoffer Lislegaard), the other half being the gorgeous and fantastic Vilde Nupen, who has the most beautiful, expressive voice in the whole world. sgrow is an electronica and vocal duo who play very interesting, creative and original music. Close is quite possibly one of my favourite songs in the world.
Another one of my favourite songs is Fit In by You Wish. This band play what they characterise as “ghost pop”, a rather interesting new “genre”. It can’t really be explained, but must be experienced. They have three fantastic songs up, heavy with guitars, synthesisers and untraditional vocals and rhythm section.
Why Control is a girl punk band. That’s really all you need to know. They’re raw and all over the place, and if you happen to be in Oslo when they’re playing a gig, they’re well worth it.
Deseized are quite a bit bigger than the ones I have linked to thus far. Signed to a major label, but still relatively underground, they play noisy hardcore metal with progressive elements. Prepare for screamy, growly vocals and loads of distorted guitars.
Serenity Trace is another hardcore/metal band, and are also somewhat big, but more underground, and possibly noisier and screamier than Deseized. Not for the faint of heart.
While You Slept is a small indie band with male and female vocals. It’s an interesting and relatively original band, with harmonious rock guitars and a cute (in my opinion) sound.
And now for a couple of non-locals:
I kind of knew a couple of these guys when they were an Oslo band. However, Daddysmilk migrated to Manchester a couple of years back. They have since changed bassists a few times, and are still unsigned, but seem to have built up a pretty steady reputation and a record deal is probably not too far away. They play hard rock.
The final band I wish to share with my readers (all three of you) this morning is the only band on this list I have absolutely no connection to. The line-up of Blue Gillespie includes Gareth David-Lloyd, of Torchwood fame, which is how I came across them. They play angry rock/metal with lyrics that are downright unpleasant, but according to them, this is completely on purpose, and the idea is that listening to this kind of music will appease your angry alter-ego and make you a happier person. I don’t know about that, but it’s certainly fun music!
This morning, a convoy of supply ships headed for Gaza with humanitarian aid, crewed by civilian peace activists, were boarded by Israeli soldiers. 19 people were killed, several more wounded. You already know this. You also know that it happened in international waters, that the Israelis claim that the activists shot first, that the flotilla was towed to an Israeli port and that there’s been little contact with those on board. I’m not sitting here to speculate, not really. I’m just trying to make sense of it… What little sense there is to be made of such senseless violence, anyway. What is the world coming to, and all that. It’s enough to make even me cynical, and if you know me, you know I’m about the biggest optimist who ever walked this Earth… Well, sometimes.
I got my grade for my exam today, and I got a B, which is wonderful. I can’t help but wonder, if my voice had been better and I had dared to rock out a little more, if I wouldn’t have been able to make an A, but meh. It’s still a good grade. So, happy!
I recently joined a new internet community, called MetaFilter. It’s a blogging community, where people share links to interesting things on the web. Anyone can read, but you have to pay a one-time membership fee of $5 to post. This gives you lifetime membership, and is the only time you have to pay anything. This place is full of friendly people and awesome discussions, but more importantly, they have a music section, where members can upload their own songs.
This has brought me into contact with all sorts of interesting people, many of whom seem to be professional musicians, or just amateurs with a really big budget. Either way, I’ve offered to record vocals for one track someone else has written, and been asked to do some vocals for another (just now, actually). I’m completely stoked! This is really brilliant. MetaFilter is awesome! There are also plans of creating a CD to raise money for charity, and I’m considering making a submission.
So, as soon as I’m done with my exams and my cleaning and moving, I’ll get started on all that. I think it’s gonna be lots of fun! With challenges like these, I’ll have all the opportunity in the world to keep singing during the summer, which is always a problem. Yay!
EDIT: Also, I have dyed my hair magenta: 