One Step Back...

today is a trifecta of curses
love hate and cynical nurses
prescription drugs in the form of news events
about some new war in faraway continents
I'm hiding devils up my sleeve and angels in the closet
go ahead and put down your deposit
the snow feels warm and the fire is freezing
this is gods joke that fucker is teasing

somewhere along the way we all lost our heads
no one can help us see
now we're sleeping in our unmade beds
among flowers of the withered tree

you cannot bend what's already broken
fix the words that's never spoken

Band Of Horses - Voxhall

"This show is dedicated to trucker Joe."

Fem fyrer der oser af god energi og venskab kan ikke slå fejl, og det gjorde de så afgjort heller ikke.

Danmark betyder uden tvivl noget for Band Of Horses, ikke bare bliver de spillet en del i radioen, men de har en stabil fan skare og deres koncerter i landet er altid udsolgte (aftens koncert var ingen undtagelse). Desuden har de spillet deres første "rigtige store" koncert på Roskilde Festival 08, som de selv kalder for deres livs koncert. Hvad de da også hintede til med nogle projekteret billeder, på det kæmpe lærred der dækkede hele scenen bag dem, under nummeret "Islands On The Coast" af dem rundt omkring på festival pladsen og under selve koncerten på Arena.

Som sagt var VoxHall pakket med mennesker, de knap 800 billetter der var sat til salg var væk efter en uges tid. Det må også siges at være lidt af et scoop for et lille spillested som VoxHall, at ha' fået så stort et navn som Band Of Horses til at gi' intimkoncert.

Opvarming bestod af danske Figures, håndplukket af hovednavnet selv. Jeg havde selv lidt blandet følelser da jeg hørte de stod for opvarming, men må bøje mig og erkende at de er et vel spillende live band. De minder genre mæssigt på mange punkter om BOH ret meget, så valget af dem må siges at være oplagt. De gjorde ihvertfald et fremragende job til trods for publikums noget kolde modtagelse af dem... Trist for de var sgu gode i aftes.

Fløjten fik mildt sagt en anden lyd da BOH gik på og stemning iblandt publikum gik kun en vej og det var op mod stjernerne. Bandet startede ud med den noget stille ballade "Infinite Arms" fra det seneste album af samme navn. En underlig måde at starte på kan man diskuter, men det fungerede nu meget godt. Dernæst fik den et lille nøk op med "Factory" også fra det nye album, også fik den ellers skrald for alle pengene på nummeret "Cigarettes, Wedding Bands" til et begejstret publikum, der brød ud i fælles sang.
Sådan gik det ellers resten af aftenen igennem med et godt varieret udbud af sange fra deres tre albums, plus et cover nummer af J.J. Cales "Thirteen Days".

Et nummer der især var værd at bemærke var "Older" der blev sunget af Ryan Monroe på keyboard og guitar. Han synger mindst ligeså godt som forsangeren Ben Bridwell og formår et ramme de karakteriske lyse tone Bridwell er kendt for.
Og selvfølgelig kogte publikum over da der blev spillet "Is There A Ghost", som har været et hit i "mainstream Danmark" siden udgivelesen.

De så ud til at hygge sig der oppe på den lille scene i Voxhall, hvor de små jokede med hinanden og publikum. I det hele taget var de meget veloplagte og det smittede af på os der stod som sild i tønder, så man glemte helt varmen og den lidt for fulde ældre herre man stod ved siden af. Tiden fløj afsted og før man viste af det var koncerten slut, eller ikke helt. For efter en klapsalve der ingen ende vil ta' medmindre ekstra nummerer blev lagt på bordet, kom de da os' tilbage og gav to ekstra nummerer.

Og ja, selve Voxhall er jo - efter min mening - et af de bedste spillesteder i Danmark. Lyden var som altid i en klasse for sig, intet mindre end perfekt og burde være et forbillede for alle andre større eller mindre venues. Bare hør lyde på det her YouTube klip optaget med en mobil telefon og forstil hvordan det har lydt.

Alt i alt, en hyggelig mindeværdig aften i selskab med nogle rare gutter.



Setliste:

Infinite Arms
Factory
Cigarettes, Wedding Bands
Marry Song
The Great Salt Lake
Islands On The Coast
NW Apt.
Is There A Ghost?
Weed Party
Older
Blue Beard
Compliments
Thirteen Days (J.J. Cale-cover)
Part One
Laredo
The General Specific
No One's Gonna Love You
Ode To LRC
Wicked Gil
The Funeral

Neighbor
The First Song

Frankenstein Guitar Part II

Guitar stripped down to the bone.


Out put connected to volume pot - one in on the side and one wire on top (weird wiring, but whatever).


Another view of the wiring for the out put.


Ground wired on middle tone pot.


Another view of ground wiring.


Grounded to the back.

Then just following the diagram for a standard tree pick-up to five way switch set-up.

& VOILA:



It's done! & it sounds fuckin' awesome!

Frankenstein Guitar

My cousin gave me his old beat up Stagg guitar. I think it looks pretty cool. The fretboard feels good to play on and though worn down, I reckon it still has some years to go on. The pick-ups sounds alright, much better then I expected for a ridiculous cheap chinese guitar like this. However I think it can be better with a few significant modifications; I'm going to put in all new electronics, Fender 54 pick-ups and a new tremolo bridge.

To be continued...

Polaroids From RF2010

Roskilde 2010 - Feeling The Orange Vibe

Roskilde Festival 2010 is over, it all went by so fast. Too much too see, so little time, but the memories of the best Roskilde year out of my now five years in a row is still fresh. Experiences you can't find any where else, people you can't find any where else and of course the amazing concerts. Those two swedish girls I smoked joints with at a reggae concert; that drunk stranger who stumbled into our camp and kept on telling us he loved us; that girl in the neighbour camp who gave us a frame of can beer the last day; Those crazy campsite parties; all the dirt, smell of urine, warm beer and licorice shots.

I can be drunk and stoned for 7-9 days without feeling hung over. Don't know how it's possible; maybe it's all the fresh air or maybe it's that magical "orange feeling." Whatever it is, it's fantastic.

One week where you forget the outside world, nothing else exist, no bills to worry about. The break-down-depressions I've increasingly been having fades away, all that's left is a sincere love for everyone and everything. It sounds corny, but I've never felt more alive then I do while I'm there. It's one of the few places where I can be my uncut true self.

All Packed & Ready To Go!

Sitting here checking off the checklist over what to bring to Roskilde, while drinking Guld Tuborg and chain-smoking cigarettes. I think I've managed to get everything I need packed... Now all there's left to do is clean the apartment and get some sleep before we take off tonight. The gates for the camping site won't open until tomorrow at 18:00, but after the last four times I've been there, I've come to learn that not only do I not want to wait that long when I've packed, but also nothing goes according to plan when it comes to Roskilde; which by any means is not a complaint -- I love the chaos.

So yeah, I'm killing time, counting hours (28 hours, 8 minutes and 23 seconds) and filled with an excitement only Roskilde can endues.

Ready For Roskilde?

Well, accordding to the checklist I am.



Unless I forgot to write something on it, which is highly plausible, but who cares; I'M FUCKING READY!!!

Photography

I want to get back into photography, or rather start to really get into it.

For as long as I remember, I've been interested in visual design/art. I drew a lot when I was a kid, of course pretty much any kid likes to draw, but I was very serious about it even at an early age. I'd spend hours at a time trying to copy characters from comic books. It was all did, beside hanging out with other kids and playing video games that is.
My mother is definitely where I got this urge to be creative from, she's the one who sparked my passion in drawing. She's a very creative person whether it be drawing, designing, painting, origami, whatever really.

I stopped drawing a long time ago, but my interest in visual design persisted. I love editing photos and playing around with photo editing programs; taking pictures, setting up a scene which is to be captured and edited to the desired end result. This is want I enjoy and I think I'm pretty good at it. I should've realized this back when I dropped out of school, pursued a career in photography and graphic design, but I didn't. Instead I'm now chained to a job I hate; a job that's slowly, but surely, draining me mentally and physically, making me depressed and on the occasional verge of a break down.

But enough of that. Right now I'm excited about getting a respectable (DSLR) camera and after a lot of asking around and browsing the world wide web I'm down to two possible candidates, I can afford: the Cannon EOS 550D or the Nikon D90 - I'm leaning towards the Cannon, but we'll see.

"Next Blog"

One of my favorite things to do when I'm bored out of my mind, is browsing through random blogs by clicking the "next blog" link on top of this page. 9 out of 10 times you're just directed to some family blog with a bunch of pictures of children eating ice cream, failed journalist writing bullshit stories or pages trying to sell you something. Things I couldn't care less about. (I realize there's probably those who couldn't care less about this blog. Well, just click that link then, if that's the case.) Sometimes, though, you come across something interesting, real people with something to share that interests me. Insight to some strangers life.

It amazes me how much some people are willing to share with (in theory) the whole world. I know I'm no better, I've put my personal life in display here as well, which is a pretty peculiar thing to do when you think about it. Personally it feels almost therapeutic writing something and putting it out for everyone to see, even though the number of people reading this could be limited to myself. Like I already said, there's most likely a few who's click "next blog" and been directed to this blog, whom in turn thought "I couldn't care less about this," next blog.

Roskilde Schedule

I do this every year; make a schedule of bands to see and time when I should get in line for each band, depending on how eager I am to get close to the stage. I do this every every year, and every year my plans - with the exception of a select few - fall to the ground. I'll end up too drunk or stoned in a camp not even making it to the festival site, forget time and miss one of the bands I planned to see.. Or I'll get dragged to see another band not on my list by fellow campers.

So why bother? I don't know. As long as I get to see Porcupine Tree again, I'll be happy. They're the only band I HAVE to see, the rest is just icing on the cake

The schedule, so far, looks like this:

--------------------

Sunday:

Kill Screen Music
Kandy Kolored Tangerine
Iceage

Monday:

Susanne Sundfør
Mescalin, Baby
Fallulah
Thee Attacks

Tuesday:

Night Fever
Sleep Party People
Joensuu 1685
Ghost Society

Wednesday:

Chimes & Bells
Ignug
Fonän

Thursday:

Serena-Maneesh
Solstafir / LCD Soundsystem - Playing at the same time, but I'm leaning towards Solstafir.
Porcupine Tree / Gorillaz - Also playing around roughly the same time, but as I mentioned above, Porcupine Tree wins.

Friday:

Teddybears
Delphic
Alice In Chains
Biffy Clyro
Dirty Projecors / Them Crooked Vultures / HEALTH - Another timing problem, but I really want to see HEALTH, so...
Tech N9ne
Japan Droids
Beat Torrent
Den Sorte Skole / Hocus Pocus - I think both will be awesome, so whatever I'm closes to I guess.

Saturday

Kings Of Convenience
The Floor Is Made Of Lava / Vampire Weekend: - When I thing about it, I'm not sure I really want see either....
Beach House
Pendulum
Drake / Robyn - All depending on my mood.
The Prodigy
Moderate / Kellermensch - I saw Kellermensch last year and Moderate seems to my very limited knowledge of them, as a do not miss kind of band.

Sunday

Converge
Local Natives
Mötorhead
The National
Kasabian
Pavement / The Temper Trap: - Really don't know.
Prince

----------------------

So there you have it. The list that gives the illusion of organization, written to never be used.

The Human Brain

It cannot feel pain. The brain can feel pain from all over the body, but not within itself.
The brain can survive for up to about six minutes after the heart stops...

Summer Breeze 2010

- "I know what you did last summer!"
- "Really 'cause I forgot..."

Yeah, the joke only works if you were stoned with me in the summer of 2004.
Sorry for wasting your time.

Summer breeze makes me feel fine...


---

Grey Tone Soul

I feel like something is crawling around inside my head
something with a mind of it's own, but with words unsaid
I catch an occasional glimpse of it out the corner of my eye
it's always with me - always nearby

could be the memory of you lingering in my mind
the good time we had and the bad intertwined
manifested is this paranoiac state you left be behind
something malignantly designed

I sense it in the day of light and see it late at night
though still out of my width of sight
waiting for a chance to stab a knife in my back
and give me my long over due anxiety attack

I wonder what to do
while I'm thinking about you
feeling like the living dead
listening to your words spoken inside my head

New Amp - Vox AC15C1

My new amp arrived last friday and after having spend the last three days playing the shit out of it, I can say that I'm in love with this thing.

It's a member of the family of the latest amps in the Custom Classic series from Vox; a Vox AC15C1. Don't let the 15 watts fool you, this thing is loud. This 15 watts all tube amp kills the 75 watts Line 6 transister amp I have. Of course it's not a matter of how loud it is, the sound is what matters, and it sounds incredible; exactly what I was searching for. I had plans of changing the stock Celestion Greenback speaker to a Celestion Blue, but right now I'm perfectly happy with the Green one - it's killer!

I tried a bunch of amps before deciding that it was either going to be this one or a Fender Hot Rod, but in the end the Vox won me over. It seemed to me much more diverse, capable of more then the FHR. I still think the FHR is a good amp, even though I've heard otherwise from a lot of people, but I love the thickness in tone on this Vox that the Hot Rod seemed to be lacking.

Just look at it. It looks as good as it sounds:




And best of all. To my surprise it sounds great with my old customized Les Paul.
I solely brought it based on how it did with my Telecaster, didn't expect it to be this good with the Les Paul. Win - Win.

Analog vs. Digital

I'm an analog guy trapped in a digital world.

I'm one of those freaks who prefers vinyl over cds and mp3s. Of course it's not like I don't own cds or an iPod. Hell, I'm writing this on a computer, does that make me a hypocrite? Maybe it does, but that's not the point. At least I've come to learn of the warmth present in anything and everything analog. Digital is cold, you can't change my mind about that, period.

Yes, digital is convenient; easy - just press a button and fly away - but really, is the convenience over quality really worth it? I don't think so. In my world the inconvenience is part of the beauty.
For instance, it's my experience that you can throw any cd on your stereo, or play any mp3 file on your computer and yeah, sometimes you listen to it, but after a while you barely notice it. On the other hand when you take out an old (or brand new for that matter) vinyl record from the jacket, dust it off and put it on the turntable, then you've put a certain amount of effort into wanting to hear that record and correspondently want to listen to it, instead of just having it play in the background.

(I'm not really saying what I wanted to say, but I hope the point is there somewhere. My head is killing me, I feel nauseous and my eye sight is fucked up. I shouldn't be sitting here writing while staring into the screen, but I forget my physical condition when I do. Like shooting yourself in the leg to forget the pain in your chest.)

And don't even get me started on guitar amps. Transistors vs. Tubes, though it's something else completely, well kind of...
Which gives me a chance to throw in that my 15 watts all tube Vox amp should be arriving with the post tomorrow. Something that will definitely be mentioned here upon its arrival.

Syd Barret

Possible one of my biggest influences, inspirations and (even though I hate that word) idols.

He was one of those people who was so ahead of his time that people called him crazy, and ultimately he became just that. "He reached for the secret too soon."

He was a genius in his own way, so much more then Roger Waters and David Gilmour, who are normally what most people think of when Pink Floyd is mentioned. Don't get me wrong I enjoy post-Barret Pink Floyd, but there is something special about an album like "The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn" that I just can't find in the other Pink Floyd albums.

It's not just his music, though it's a big part of it, but it's just as much the way he was as a person.



I see myself in him and that makes me a little afraid. As much as he fascinates me, he made a lot of sacrifices that I'm sure not ready to make. Of course I'm no Syd Barret, but there's a small piece of me in the back of my head that reminds me of him.

Shine on, you crazy diamond...

2010 Roskilde Festival Poster

The Festival posted a contest on their website today, involving designing a poster for the festival. The price is two tickets for the festival and even though I already bought my ticket, I thought it could be fun to make one anyway. That and I think the original poster sucks - headliner wise.

So here it is:

50 Days Till I'm Home Again

I can almost smell that sweet combination of beer, weed and piss. Can almost feel the dust in my hair, hear the drunken swedes and the even drunker icelandic people singing in the distance.
I miss all of it. All those happy beautiful carefree people, the music, the atmosphere. Even the chaos of not finding a spot for the camp, the never moving lines for recharging cellphones, the portable toilets.

Roskilde Festival is getting closer and my senses are tinkling. Getting ready to awake from their slumber.





Soon enough everything will be good again...

Another State Of Mind

Every once in a while -- if you're lucky enough and willing -- you cross path with something that will change your perception so dramatically, in a way where you completely forget how you perceived things before it. It can be through a movie, a book, music, a painting, anything. It will come through in sense, in smell and in taste ever so lightly. It will feel familiar and unknown at the same time. It will puzzle you like a déjà vu. The term "déjà vu" describes it well. Only it will feel much stronger and after it, you'll no longer be the person you were before. That person will seem like a shadow, an empty husk to you now.

The best way for me to describe it to you is to compare it with a dream. It will feel like a dream, in fact you'll think you're dreaming. Everything around you seems vague and odd, but you'll accept it. Imagine walking around on the streets in a big city in the middle of the day were cars and people should be all around you, but there are no cars, no people. All there is are the deserted streets you walk, every house and store is empty -- you're completely alone. The mere idea is preposterous, but you accept it and you like it.

This déjà vu like feeling may sound intimidating to the uninitiated, but fear not, at worst you'll be left puzzled and mystified for a period of time until you either solve it, dwell in it or brush it off.

I choose to dwell in it. I want to experience it to it's fullest, and I fear that by solving what it is it might go away. I've learn how to trigger it through certain books and songs. Though I may not experience it every day, I know it's there right behind me. Days, months, years can pass by without seeing it and then one day I turn around and there it is again, starring into my eyes -- into my soul. It creeps up on you slowly, and then you suddenly realize you're in this state of mind again.

Embrace it. Love it. I know I do. Whatever it is...