My father releases a single

The first musical release from my family was made back in the early 80′s during the peoples marches against nuclear power. It had the name “Dueplagen – Verdens Største Hær”. And it was released by my father and his orchestra “Ram&Sjang” – a beautiful 7inch held with a blue/white stencil on it featuring the title song and a B-side devoted to my mother by the name “Fanme Nej!”

I could write pages on end about my father and his musical influences on me, my music and my life. I consider myself to be a well lucky kid to have been brought up in a home with so much love towards music and culture as such. And often with direct or indirect political agendas on top of it – such as I had with Decorate Decorate and has with 30′s.

Now my father has made a song to support Kirkeasyl. The song is called Med Angst Ombord. A CD can be bought at Kirkeasyls homepage and all profits go to their work. And if you are poor but still want to listen to the song you can do so here where you will also find 3 beautiful folk songs he wrote that me and my brothers and sisters helped him record last year. These songs were printed on a CD that you can get a hold on by contacting me.

In the near future I will devoted a long feature on my fathers musical career on this blog. It will take days and ages to make so bare with me. It will include tracks from throughout his career.

Interior decorations done

Well, 3 years of playing with Martin, Viggo, Jan, Christian, Mikkel and a bit of Mixen has now come to a definitive ending. We decided to part a bit more than a month ago and thus cancelled the few shows we had planned following Instructions. This means that we actually just managed to play to “secret” shows after releasing our first full length record on the june 1st. I find this to be a bit of a shame since I really enjoyed playing a lot of the new songs in our “new” band. I will miss screaming the hell out of Mont Martre, going quiet on Away and drag the listeners eyes down, down, down on Brothel. Never the less it is for the best and I am really happy that this chapter of my life is over.

Decorate Decorate was the foundation of my rendevouz with playing music and through the band I had loads of nice experiences; rediscovering my urge to write songs, playing Ungdomshuset before it got smashed to the ground and getting some of my words out there. It is strange to find that this platform for that kind of lyrics now is gone. Where should I write this sort of material now? Well, maybe in 2045 we will reform and make an extensive world tour making us millionaires. It is a bit unlikely but…

The making of Instructions was a hard one for everyone in the band. We continuously found ourselfs lacking the urge to discuss, write, rehears and perform. It was so sad to the the joy of making music slowly leave the band. One of the most depressing things to witness ever. And some things can’t be undone. So eventhough we agreed to give it a shot after releasing Instructions it quickly became clear to us that there was no way to regain the joy. Actually I find that our best meeting and most joyful meeting in two years was when we had made the choice and met to sort out the remains of the condemned building that we once imagined.

I think that the guys in Decorate Decorate are brilliant musicians – really really!!! I sincerely hope that Viggo, Christian and Martin will continue on either a common path of in separate. Maybe we got a new band named Separate Separate coming up. I will be sleeping outside the record shop to get hold of such a release for sure. The guys are keeping the rehearsal room and hopefully something beautiful will be made in there.

I found that after the official split up of the band I have regained every single piece of joy that I find in music. I write far more than I have done in the past 2 years and I find my material to be bettter. I am filled up with ideas that I am either writing or persuving as we speak. I look so much forward to getting The 30′s and Sowjets Im Himmel on the go - we are close as fuck! And I love writing material for the coming act plus Soviets In The Sky With Diamonds. It will be good fun.

To the blokes who liked Decorate Decorate and are sad that we are no more I say: Sorry. But never again shall the musical foundation of anything I do be built on anything but sheer joy and pleasure. And that had died in Decorate Decorate. We made songs and had concerts that I am really proud of. And we made friendships that I hope will continue now.

Thanks Martin, Viggo, Jan, Mikkel, Christian, Mixen, Thomas, Bjarke and Michael of Target, Mads and Anders of A:Larm and all other contributors. We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in hell! Take care…

Repay the favour to Pavement

Oh sweet coincidence has yet again opened my eyes to a forgotten path which I once considered taking: A few weeks ago I had my annual revival of Pavement. Dusting off my cd racks (yes I do dust off stuff every now and then though leaning more to the then part) I found what in my humble opinion is the best Pavement release ever. I have never meet anyone who share my opinion on that matter. But for me Wowee Zowee is the album of Pavement and among my Top 10 of the 1990.

Actually it is one of the first truly alternative things I heard. Back then I played 1. division and 2. division pool in Aarhus and my mentor Kim Møller was into all these strange things. Amongst other records he generously lend me Surfer Rosa by Pixies, Green Mind by Dinosaur Jr. and Wowee Zowee by Pavement.  It was not that popular amongst my friends, and me eager to fit in had a little secret place in my room where I hid my inner urge to listen to these fuckers. I still remember my cousin laughing in my face when he read the inlay of Wowee Zowee: “Dick sucking fool at pussy licking school“. How could I defend listening to this music instead of Genesis, David Bowie, Mike Oldfield and such? I didn’t defend it. I hid it. But now the box is open!

Two years ago I had the idea to make a tribute to Pavement. To repay their favour of sticking on to me eventhough it was comme il faut in my friends reign of terror. I wanted to make a re-recording of the entire Wowee Zowee album. Thus I contacted I Am Bones to hear if they’d like to partake as my backing band. I caught Clubhouse (the bass player) over the phone while they rehearsed and I clearly remember Gammelby (the singer and guitar player) shouting “Ja, da for fanden, det skal VI da!” (babelfish this if you are from outside Denmark, which you are not, which makes my choice of language for this blog quite strange, huh!). I had the idea to record the entire album and have different singers for the different tracks. And to make a single out of the song Grave Architecture. A “We Are The World” version of this song that is. Well, none of this happened. I got lazy and made some Decorate Decorate stuff instead. Which was nice aswell. But the idea still taunted me for the years to come.

And now! A week after my revival it was out that Pavement were to reform for a few live shows in New York. And the day after they told that they would make a festival tour of Europe too. My heart exploded! And the idea came back. Thus in coalition with the wonderful Johannes Gammelby I will record a version of Grave Architecture plus a video. We are doing it “We Are The World”-style. And it is bound to change the music scene as we know it.

I am still to invite singers to this thing but I have heard around and made a list and everyone I asked is up for it. It will be splendid. And I have an idea of who will release it but it is still a secret. It will be a new and utterly amazing label.

So grab ya old Pavement records, get a steady groove on and wait a few months for the release of the first danish tribute single to Pavement. It will blow ya mind and fondle your soul.

Crunchy Frog: 15 years old and moist as fuck!

 

For the past couple of months Crunchy Frog has been in my mind. Firstly since Beta Satan asked me to front the band with Marie Højlund from Marybell Kathastrophy as substitution for Kaare who became a father a few days ago. Secondly since Mogens and Yebo from Crunchy asked Decorate Decorate to participate in the making of their 15 year anniversary compilation entitled “Saluting The Crunchy Frog-a-logue“.  Naturally I said yes to both proposals.

Me and the wonderful and multitalented musician Kaspar Kaae from CODY created a version of Junior Seniors song Move Your Feet. We made the entire track from scratch in less than 24 hours and the result can be heard on the compilation which feature loads and loads of great tunes from other Crunchy acts played by different non-Crunchy-bands such as Figurines, WhoMadeWho, Murder and Marybell Kathastrophy. Kaspar and I recorded the song in his appartment using lapsteel, acoustic and electric guitars, tambourine, banjo, Cello, handclaps and footstamps and a wonderful melotrome (is that how it’s spelled?!) I urge anyone in the entire world to buy this album. All profits go to Danish Red Cross and it’s far better than your regular compilation. Furthermore I urge anyone to buy the coming album Songs by CODY. It is a candidate to be the best danish release this year in my ears. Together with On No Ohos Eggs. And a few others.

As said I played the Beta Satan show this saturday with the wonderful singer Marie Højlund. She is fucking inspiring and a well nice person. We had one rehearsal before the show when I went to Aarhus thursday. I performed the songs 666, Pray The Gay Away and made a duet with Marie on Let’s Talk About Sex. Some pics were taken and some videos shot which will feature. Take a look here for pics and here for video.

It was such a fucking pleasure. I really love those guys and to be invited to join in on stage is an utter pleasure. Most of all I love being able to scream while singing. Hardly any of my other projects allows me to do that. But with Beta Satan it is mandatory.

Well, thanks to Crunchy for 15 years of pleasure and pain. As it says on the bottom of a poster to the great Tremolo Beer Gut band “2 Times The Pleasure – 9 Times The Pain”. I’m looking forward to the next releases from this great label. And hopefully one of them will be with me in it! You’ll never know.

The wait is over

I do appologize if any of the two regular followers of this blog have felt abandoned for the past while. I am now back, curtesy of Erik S. Andersen (who might be the one of the two).

Loads have happened during the past few months. Firstly Decorate Decorate (now without any dots whatsoever) released the album Instructions to fair reviews – some of them stating us as being the best new danish band there is at the moment. Which is far from the truth but I am nevertheless happy that some journalist seem to think so.

We haven’t received that much attendtion on Instructions and thus I do not think we will sell that many albums. I don’t know, I haven’t got any figures yet. We have release three singles; first “Pleasure” that got fair airplay at P3 (rotation B I think), then “Under The Aeroplane, Over The Sea” and “Paper Cuts” which had shit rotation on P3 (Late night) which I assume means that we have a growing fan base amongst taxi drivers, night porters and bus drivers. What do I know.

We have cancelled all planned touring out of necessity and that is a bit sad. I would have like to play those shows. But hey, that’s how it goes. Luckily there’s some other acts to play live with at the moment. Amongst others I have just played a raving show with White Pony. We played a stunning 4 sets and got drunk as fuck at Bornholm. A really nice festival. I will write more on it the next blog. And… And I played a show with Beta Satan to celebrate the 15 year anniversary of Crunchy Frog this saturday. More on that later as well. It was tremenduously fun. Eventhough I forgot my newly purchased smoked fishes at the party when I went on to the Specktors release party at Rust that same night. More on that later aswell.

Well, good to be back.

The war isn’t over

 

I spent a couple of days with Beta Satan in Hambourg and Berlin last week. It was nice as fuck. And fuck is nice as far as I know. How should I know though. I think it would be nice to fuck. Interesting at least. Well, what do I know. I Just had a weekende with people I really do like and a band that I enjoy far more than any other danish bands. But…

While I was there I wanted to buy a record I have loved for a long time. You know, one of the cds that you love so much that you lend it out to all too many people. And at some point it ends up with a guy you never call. And then it is forever gone. But being in the capital of European anarchism and the punk HQ of all I wanted to find this album again (yes I could download it illegally but I don’t do that eventhough I will encourage people to do so). So I asked around. In stores. No one knew the album. They all looked ashamed that they did not know of a release by the Morr Music label entitled The New Human Is Illegal. And hopefully they learned a lesson and order it home to be part of their FUCKING SMART selection. I do talk about Sole. Who release The New Human Is Illegal. Under the name man’sbestfriend. Like that. Listen.

Launch of Sowjets Im Himmel

Klaus visited me yesterday and we recorded the foundation for a song that has the working title Gorba – an aggressive dialog between USA and Soviet Union that simulates the Space Race. It is quite a beauty but unluckily I had left the power plug at my old flat and thus my amp wouldn’t work. Still we manage to record a deceant version of the vocals by borrowing a monitor station from Frederik Thaae and using my bed room as a studio. I sincerely apologise to any of my neighbours for screaming after 10pm. But Sowiets Im Himmel needs shouting!

And now we have finally published some of the finished tunes at facebook. Feel free to visit a site, become a fan and drop a comment. That would make both Klaus and I happy.

Ponies, Sowjets and an unknown swedish folk guy

I was originally going to Aarhus today to work on finishing Sowjets Im Himmel with Klaus but unfortunately something came in the way. Luckily Klaus has broken his left arm in order to get off from work and thus he arrives at my humble house at noon tomorrow. And how I am looking forward to that! We haven’t worked together since the Beta Satan release of their debut Girl, where Klaus has been occupied touring and getting drunk – without me (which in itself is a huge problem!).

Well, tomorrow we got the hole day to go through the songs and hopefully we will be sort of finish by friday at 18 where I am off to the P3-Gold nomination party. It will be great fun. I’ve got a good feeling that White Pony can win the award for experiment of the year. But even if we go home empty handed it will be a night to remember. To be honest I am quite proud of the nominations. This is my first real musical recognition from the media (that did not particular like Decorate. Decorate.s debut, except for the nice bloke Erik Jensen from Politiken).

I had a few lagers with Martin Siebenhaar at his studio last night. He has a little wonderful house of 13 m2 close by where I live. He played me the songs of his next solo stuff and there’s really something to look forward to. A punk rock extravaganza with loads of delicious floats and rhymes. It reminded me a bit of the awesome Man’s Best Friend that was released at Morr Music in 2003. And that is amongst my top 3 rap albums ever – besides Still Standing with Goodie Mob.

Furthermore Pato played me this country folk Swede who has recorded but not release a really beautiful album in his native language. A dark and deep voice on top of pedal steel, acoustic guitars and drums played with whiskers. He reminds me a bit of Kjellwänder that I have had the honour of experiencing live at 3 occasions – best of which was in KB in Malmö with my friend Mikkel Groth. We had the best of days watching football at Café Sporten on Fælledvej, eating chinese and taking the train to and from Malmö City. Just lovely. KB is a great venue not unlike Voxhall in Aarhus. Still the best Swedish venue I’ve visited is Mejeriet in Lund. Go there. They have a spectacular line up from time to time topping it with Vashti Bunyan in 2006.

Well, Pato played this guy for me. Mats Danell is his name. Give yourself the pleasure of listening to his dark lyrics at his myspace and drop him a comment. I have the feeling that this guy has gone through quite a few hard times in his life and he could use a good cheering up.

Modern protest singers

Coming from a socialist family that valued cultural education highly I’ve been fed the old protest singers from the day I was born – my father being one himself with his now dissolved band Ram&Sjang. I’ve attended 27 celebrations of May 1st where my father has performed at at least 20 of these. And I have had the pleasure of playing with Decorate. Decorate. at May 1st in Fælledparken, Copenhagen, at a show arranged by SF. I knew the lyrics for Når Jeg Ser Et Rødt Flag (“When I see the red flag”) before I knew how to walk. And I’ve been to the long closed Land & Folk (Land and people) Festival for 10 years untill it closed with the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991. But nowadays it seems like the protest scene has died and left its remains in the hands of the aggressive punk and rap scenes. Which is nice in a way. But what about the folky tunes that people knew how to sing along to and understand? The statements made so clear and honest that you instantly understood? Is this scene completely dead?

Luckily the answer is no. A revival led by a teenager from Nebraska started in 1994. I am of course talking about Conor Oberst from the band Bright Eyes. Opening the eyes of a larger public with his commercially succesful CD I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning from 2005 he went from being a well kept underground secret in the independent milieu to being hailed as the next Dylan to enter the world stage. With violently heartfelt and beautiful lyrics about social in-justice, self-loathing, political issues, drugs and love he took a huge step into my socialist heart where he still is. The fragile duet Land Locked Blues he made with Emmylou Harris still stands as one of the most beautiful new protest songs of my time. A bullet shot through the indifference of the war lords and hard necessity to be “chosen” to tell the world the truth. I will post the lyrics for you here and urge you to buy his albums I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Fevers & Mirrors: Oh Holy Fools. These are the two masterpieces from his hand.

Land Locked Blues

If you walk away, I’ll walk away
First tell me which road you will take
I don’t want to risk our paths crossing some day
So you walk that way, I’ll walk this way

The future hangs over our heads
And it moves with each current event
Until it falls around like a cold, steady rain
Just stay in when it’s looking this way

The moon’s laying low in the sky
Forcing everything metal to shine
And the sidewalk holds diamonds,
Like a jewlery store case
They argue, “Walk this way,
no, walk this way.”

Laura’s asleep in my bed
As I’m leaving she wakes up and says,
“I dreamed you were carried away,
On the crest of a wave. Baby, don’t go away.
Come here.”

There’s kid’s playing guns in the street
And one’s pointing his tree branch at me
So I put my hands up, I say “Enough is enough.
If you walk away, I’ll walk away.”
And he shot me dead

I found a liquid cure
For my land-locked blues
It will pass away, like a slow parade
It’s leaving, but I don’t know how soon

The world’s got me dizzy again
You’d think after 22 years I’d be used to the spin
And it only feels worse when I stay in one place
So I’m always pacing around,
Or walking away

I’m drinking the ink from my pen
And I’m balancing history books up on my head
But it all boils down to one quotable phrase
“If you love something, give it away.”

A good woman would pick you apart
A box full of suggestions for your possible heart
And you may be offended, and you may be afraid
But don’t walk away, don’t walk away

We made love on the living room floor
With the noise in the background from a televised war
And in that defeaning pleasure
I thought I heard someone say
“If we walk away, they’ll walk away.”

But greed is a bottomless pit
And our freedom’s a joke, we’re just taking a piss
And the whole world must watch
The sad comic display
If you’re still free, start running away
‘Cuz we’re coming for ya

I’ve grown tired of holding this pose
I feel more like a stranger each time I come home
So I’m making a deal with the devils of fame
Saying “Let me walk away, please.”

You’ll be free, child, once you have died
From the shackles of language
And measurable time
And then we can trade places
Play musical graves
Tell them walk away, walk away, walk away

So I’m up at dawn
Putting on my shoes
I just want to make a clean escape
I’m leaving, but I don’t know where to
I know I’m leaving, but I don’t know where to

Intuitive versus reflective creation

My idea of the simple somewhat led me to the love of the intuitive. The necessity of creation must be intuitive and must be administered in the exact process of creating. One can not force necessity into poetry and music – it must happen from an inner urge to express yourself in order to change; the world and yourself.

Not many people are able to work together with others in an intuitive manner. It craves complete trust in one another and in your own creation. If one starts to question the work partners effort, thoughts and ideas the intuition will immediately dissolve, become tainted by reflection. Still, intuition in itself will not guarantee beauty just as arts created in a reflective environment can be just as beautiful and important as the other. But these are two completely different work form that will lead to completely different outlets. I remember an interview that danish TV star Jarl Friis Mikkelsen did in the 80′s with Leonard Cohen (that by the way got completely drunk during the one our interview) where Cohen tells a story about him meeting Bob Dylan. Dylan asked Cohen how long it took for him to write Suzanne and understatedly Cohen said it took him about 3 years. Afterwards Cohen asked Dylan how long it took for him to write Blowing In The Wind. 15 minutes was the answer. This is a perfect example of the two different work forms.

I really enjoy to work in an environment of common reflection where every stone is turned and placed carefully on the path before the music. This is how we work in Decorate. Decorate. And this is the main reason why it has taken us so long to finish our second album Instructions. But admittedly I think I am far better working intuitively. Since I am not in any way skilled in the traditionel sense of the word when it comes to music I must use my intuition and my imagery to express my ideas and my thoughts. I am in no way able to “discuss” my ideas – simply because I do not have the words to replace my intuition. Therefore I really enjoy working with one man. A guy I have known for a couple of years and who has become one of my dearest friends. Klaus Hedegaard Nielsen.

Klaus is the drummer from the band Beta Satan and makes electronic music under the name Qlauz. I met him when he was mixing D.D.s first album Normandie – a mix that he did with Kenneth Anders which we ended up not using. Since then we have been drinking quite a few lagers, aten quite a few meat balls and made quite a few songs. In august 2008 (I think it was) we made the band Sowjets Im Himmel and in three sessions of 2-4 days we wrote 14 songs in a row – with no preparation what so ever. All songs are recorded as the are written at Beta Satans and I Am Bones studio near the harbour in Aarhus. We have only used drums, vocals and an old Orla organ that Mogens used to play when Klaus’ old band Tiger Tunes still existed (wherefore it has a nice little picture of Mogens taped to it for inspiration).

I trust Klaus completely when it comes to music just as he trusts me. This is why we’ve been able to create these strange tunes by the harbour in Aarhus. At the moment we are in the process of mixing and mastering the tunes in order to release a CD in the future. But for now you can listen to a few uneditet tracks from our last.fm page. Take good care of it.