sound advice 2 - Loney, Dear

one of my favorite musical memories of 2006 was going to the Swedish Cultural Institute for their Fete de la Musique concert. They had a bunch of Swede bands and artists, mostly folk and pop, playing in their courtyard. I went with a good buddy from my second-hand CD store days, and it was a great event, not even dampened by the semi-rainy conditions.
For some reason Sweden has been a pretty big force in the music world in the past few years, with a lot of folk-influenced artists notably. Which is good, because for a lot of people Swedish music means ABBA, and though there's a time and place for ABBA, it's not exactly the greatest thing since sliced bread (or stale one, for that matter).There are also some good rock bands out of there, like The Hives, Sahara Hotnights or the eccentric Dungen, but for me the whole Swedish folk scene has made the biggest mark. It all started in 1998 with Kristofer Astrom's brilliant Go, Went, Gone, and since then I've periodically discovered artists in that vein coming from the land of fjords, like Nicolai Dunger or Christian Kjellvander.
The newest addition to this ever-growing family is Loney, Dear. It's really one guy, called Emil Svanängen, and he makes some great pop with just a sliver of folk. I hear some Bob Wilson, some Paul Simon and others in his tunes, which is just the sort of stuff I'm looking for. He recently signed with SubPop in the US, which led them to release his new self-titled album early this month, hopefully to some success. The guy started in 2004, recording most of his stuff at home, making and selling CD-Rs of his resulting demos. It worked enough for him so that he managed to self-release an album last year, Sologne, and it seems like 2007 might be a big year for him. I actually haven't heard his new one in its entirety, but I'm so stuck on Sologne, which I discovered two weeks ago, that I don't know if that day will come very soon. Sologne is chock full of pretty harmonies, ascending choruses, and speaks of a world that sounds much more optimistic and colourful than the one I'm used to. Although the music is acoustic guitar-driven, there are a bunch of other, less common instruments used here, kind of like what Sufjan Stevens does. And despite my general description of the material, it's not just lullabyes and sugary ditties, as some songs have a pretty strong drive. For me the standout is I Love You (In With The Arms), but that is an opinion that might change, for there are so many great tracks on here. Of course the guy was in concert in London ten days ago, and I only found out about it this week, but you can bet your ABBA vinyls that when he comes back I'll be there to enjoy the musical goodness.

official site
myspace
youtube: live performance of I Love You (In With The Arms)

The Last Kiss

just watched this, and I have to admit, it wasn't that bad, but it was really kinda dull. It's about this 29-ish guy (played by Zach Braff) who realizes his life is kinda set: his girlfriend (the gorgeous Jacinda Barrett) is pregnant, she wants to buy a house, he's got a good job,yadda yadda... In the 50s, this would be the definition of a perfect life (well, except for the not married part), but since Mike is from this so-called Gen X, he gets antsy about it. And when he meets this cute carefree college girl he immediately falls for her. All the while we see his three childhood friends who all have relationship problems of their own, as if that age was some sort of momentous passage to real grown-up land or something, which apparently is supposed to scare guys.

SPOILER ALERT

Mike does sleep with the girl, and understandably his gf is pissed. Apparently that's when boy genius realizes what he has is great and he really has messed up, so he tries to win her back.

END SPOILER

The main problem with the movie is we aren't made to understand clearly what Mike's problem is. Just because he's in his late-20s and his life is set doesn't automatically mean he should have this giant problem with it. As if that were an automatic recipe for a quarter life crisis. One of Mike's friend (played by Casey Affleck), who is married and has a kid, is in a similar situation, but in his case you can sorta empathize with him because you understand from his interactions with his wife there might be some issues between these two. Mike, from what we see on screen, just comes off as a slight moron who's bored, and that's a pretty big problem for this type of relationship movie, where characters are everything.
Anytime of these relationship movies for the young come out (like Garden State) they call it The Graduate for a new generation. But as someone who's seen that movie a bunch of times, I can honestly say The Graduate is The Graduate for today's generation. That flick is still as relevant today as it was in 1967, and though I'd love for an equivalent movie to be made for us Gen-Xers, I haven't seen it happen yet.

sigh

I am such a cliché: right now I am checking out the Internet (and typing this, obviously) on my Macbook at the local Starbucks.
In other news the move to London went great, I found a place in three days and I will now focus my undivided energy to the job hunt. But not after watching the Superbowl at the local pub.