Jens Lekman at the Henry Fonda Theater / photo by David Greenwald
And so much more. It’s going to be an intense week of show-going and decision-making in Los Angeles; I’ve got Jens Lekman at the Echo tonight and Harlem Shakes with Passion Pit at the Echoplex on Friday with Thursday still up for grabs (Jens again, St. Vincent or an early bedtime, depending on my constitution). My recs after the jump — who are you seeing? Read the rest of this entry »
How did I not know about this? “Inside” is an optimistic gem from New Buffalo’s brilliant The Last Beautiful Day, but apparently this version — with Jens Lekman on the chorus! — originated later, on 2005′s New Buffalo EP. The lyrics are a bit different than the album version, which is nice, but I’ll confess that Jens’ relaxed faux baritone sounds a little out of place after being so used to Sally Seltmann’s urgent alto. Otherwise, the two share a lot of similarities: clever, slick sample use and an ear for phenomenal melodies. It’s a wonder they haven’t collaborated more. Read the rest of this entry »
Jens posted this on his website a ways back and somehow the entire blogosphere (except Swedes Please) missed it, but what a gorgeous show. He plays Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al,” a solo version of “Shirin” and plenty of other jams. Dig the crowd sing-along on “A Postcard to Nina.”
I’m so busy, so busy, thinkin’ about kissing you…Jens Lekman performed the little-known Arthur Russell classic “A Little Lost” on Friday night. It was my first exposure to the song. In the three days since, I’ve tracked down the Four Songs of Arthur Russell covers EP, listened to it on repeat and learned the tune on guitar. I don’t care how busy you are, take a couple minutes to enjoy this. Anybody else notice a resemblance to Elliott Smith’s “Come To Me?”
Everybody’s favorite Swedish troubadour won’t be playing at the venue of the same name when he comes back to L.A. on March 21. Instead, Jens Lekman will be at the bigger but still intimate Henry Fonda Theater. See him before it’s too late – by Night Falls Over Kortedala West Coast swing #3, he’ll probably take tram #7 straight to the Wiltern. (Dates via P4k)
If Jens Lekman were a Smiths song, he’d be “This Charming Man.” The guy is just adorable. He spent the whole performance smiling, playing a set that drew mostly upon his fantastic latest disc, Night Falls Over Kortedala, but not to the exclusion of past classics (“Maple Leaves” and “You Are The Light” among others). I prefer Lekman’s ballads, but thanks to an excellent almost all-girl backing band, jamz such as “Sipping on the Sweet Nectar” fared even better than the slower numbers. I don’t think I’ve seen a crowd so happy to be at an indie rock show in ages – me and my date (!) included. A highlight of the two (!!) encores was a chorus-less cover of Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al” (refresh yourself on that one here) which, luckily, we can hear performed on a Swedish radio show after the jump. More photos, too (!!!). Read the rest of this entry »
1. Stuart Berman ends his Dandy Warhols compilation review with a frustratingly overzealous and dishonest observation, writing, “The Capitol Years is less interesting as a compilation of one sporadically successful band’s stint on a major label than a road map through an evolving underground rock...
">Pitchfork Reviews Reviews: stuart berman and iron maiden morning roundup.
4. there was a quasi-incredulous New York Times story this weekend about how Iron Maiden is still selling a ton of copies of their new record (their 15th record), and also how they’ve sold an unusually small number of downloads of the record and also an unusually small number of illegal downloads has been charted. people in the record industry give all sorts of quotes about why they think Iron Maiden is still selling so many records, like generic “they work hard and engage with their fans and tour a lot” and some other euphemistic stuff like that, but nobody interviewed gets anywhere near the obvious truth about this, which i guess we can call the Eminem Paradigm or the Susan Boyle Paradigm:
okay not to overgeneralize here, and i’m sure there are plenty of bright Iron Maiden fans, but if you are an artist that attracts a particularly old or technologically inept fanbase, you will still sell records because your fans don’t know how to download music, illegally or otherwise. there’s no mystery about why like Godsmack and Avenged Sevenfold always make chart-topping records, and if writers acknowledged that people who are seriously buying Iron Maiden’s 15th record are old and maybe ummm not the most discerning tools in the shed/pennies in the fountain/knives in the drawer, than there’d be no need for incredulous newspaper articles about it. not to be needlessly smug about why Iron Maiden’s 15th record has sold more records than every Best New Album this year combined, but you know what i’m saying
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from Dave:
This is so true and obvious
I used to make jokes about how people who buy country music don’t own computers, which is mean-spirited and very left coast liberal of me but probably not entirely false.
It seems surreal that the Weezer of my teenage years is also the Weezer of 2010’s teenage years, but then again, the band should really change its name to “Assholes who don’t deserve your continued or newfound attention” so as to avoid confusion.
How did I not know about this? “Inside” is an optimistic gem from 
