Kinky Thoughts I'm Thinking

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It is a glorious and blessed day! And not just because the Democrats took over the House, although that's sure a plus. No today is the day that they finally, after literal years of googling on my part, gave us a release date for all of the Cardigans six glorious and most perfect albums being reissued onto vinyl, huzzah! I don't get to post about my second favorite band very much because they haven't put out a new album in thirteen (goddamn) years - they have been doing some shows in Europe and the UK as of late, but I ignore that news because I can't go and it makes me sad. But there've been whispers (via the band's Facebook group mostly) that their albums, which've been out of print on vinyl and way expensive, would be reissued soon, and today I stumbled upon the truth of it...

It's happening on February 1st!!! For some reason the only one on Amazon US as of right now is the band's third album 1996's First Band on the Moon... okay that's the record with their biggest US hit "Lovefool" so I suppose I understand why that's more of a priority Stateside. But all six of their records, from Emmerdale in 1994 through Long Gone Before Daylight and Super Extra Gravity in the Aughts, are perfection, utter perfection, so Amazon US needs to get on it. ETA Okay they got on it -- all of the albums are out on February 8th -- click here to order! Now let's feel fuzzy inside with some "Lovefool"...

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Pic of the Day

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I love this popgrupp! #bros

A post shared by Nina Persson (@theninapersson) on Mar 23, 2017 at 8:47am PDT

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Oh my god it's all the Cardigans in one place.

From their Facebook page:

"Very very honoured to be selected into the Swedish Music Hall of Fame. And first time the five of us meet in ten years, which is fucking strange in itself. Hugs from the band."

Good god I wish they'd make new music.

Or at least tour. Just one show in my living-room, even!

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I Am Link

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--- Go On Gerwig - It's been super duper difficult for me to rein my eyeballs in and keep them off of reviews out of Sundance of Todd Solondz' Weiner-Dog, which premiered on Friday. (We posted a picture of the film's poster here.) I've skimmed a couple and stumbled upon mind-blowing details (Nina Persson sings a song about dog poop!) but I had to stop myself. But I did read this -- The Playlist talked to Greta Gerwig, who's playing Dawn Weiner in the film, and she had nothing but praise for Solondz:

"I love watching films where it feels like it can be anything you want. It can be anything you want! I think that people get so stuck in these very narrow parameters. To have someone who says, "I don't care" and it's not weirdness for weirdness' sake, it's completely internally consistent with itself and with his vision and what he's doing and, for him, it's the clearest way to express this story and communicate this emotion. And it's beautiful that he has the ability to stick with it like that. "

She also says that her older sister, an avowed movie hater, adored Welcome to the Dollhouse and made Lil' Greta watch it tons as they grew up, which is a story I love. Oh in other Greta news she's signed Oscar nominee Saorsie Ronan to star in her directorial debut called Lady Bird. Cannot wait! Third and lastly, on a depressing note, there's a one night celebration of playwright Arthur Miller happening on Broadway tonight (thanks Mac) that will feature Greta, Jake Gyllenhaal, Bradley Cooper, Peter Sarsgaard and many many more, and I can't go because tickets were too expensive. Fuck this world!

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--- Prophet Of Doom - This is not a headline I anticipated ever seeing - Sam Raimi's next film is going to be the American remake of Jacques Audiard's brilliantly effective 2009 crime thriller A Prophet, which gifted the world with not just a brilliant film but also a brilliant leading man performance from star Tahar Rahim. I actually really think the story could be translated into something good but different a la Scorsese's take on Infernal Affairs called maybe you have heard of it The Departed. But good luck finding another Tahar Rahim! Maybe just hire Tahar Rahim? He speaks English fine.

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--- Surface Effect - I don't know whether this signifies a real change or if it's just the fetish of the moment and lazy asses will go back to the cheap easy way but I found this New Yorker piece on the current love affair with the practical special effect heartening anyway. Everyone should try to be George Miller, basically. Of course going unspoken in the piece is that horror movies led the way, as they often do in their way -- the hatred for CG blood spatter over good old-fashioned gore has been a call to arms for awhile now.

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--- And Speaking of fetishes, here's something for my biggest non-porny one - io9 shares a bunch of images from inside Neil Gaiman's library, and my god, mein gott, my gott in heaven, my words are all jumbled from the orgasming out of my eyeballs looking at it all.

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--- Volcanoes & Vulvas - This morning I thought about writing a big post on Tori Amos' album Boys For Pele when I read that it'd just celebrated its 20th anniversary, but I'll just link to this piece at Salon instead because I probably don't have time to do it justice. But I have got the most vivid memory of sitting in my first boyfriend's car in the parking lot of the mall, waiting for him to get off of work and listening to that album over and over and over again, literally for hours, and it signals to me such an important moment in my life. The album really means quite a lot to me; listening to it now transports me right back to that car, that parking lot, even though I've listened to the album more times than I could ever count.

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--- High Rollas - Here are a couple of top ten lists from good friends of MNPP -- Nathaniel posted his favorite, uh, 15 movies of 2015 over at The Film Experience, and Joe Reid posted his favorite movies and performances and so so much more over on his Tumblr, and save their inexplicable mentions of Creed all over the place (I always knew I was going to feel small and alone not liking it but it's begun to make me feel like a crazy person at this point because I DO NOT GET IT AT ALL; how can any sane person say that Stallone deserves an award for that pile he dropped?) their lists are pretty dang good.

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--- Bang Bang - This is not a drill - Matthias Schoenaerts is going to be playing a drummer! I repeat, Matthias Schoenaerts is going to be playing a drummer. His great big tree trunk arms, slamming up and down, up and down, covered with sweat... somebody catch me I am fallingggggg.... ahem. The film is called The Sound of Metal and it's written by Derek Cianfrance and it will co-star Matty's Bigger Splash co-star Dakota Johnson as the singer of the group, let me repeat, Matthias is a drummer for. Ba boom, ba boom, my heart.

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--- Too Much Magneto -  I got about halfway through this interview with Michael Fassbender talking about the next X-Men movie before I realized that dude, how are you allowed to answer all of these questions? I felt like he was giving the entire movie away while we've still got four months until it's even out. Shut your big beautiful mouth, Michael!

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I Am Link

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--- Always Looking - I'm halfway through this chat with Jonathan Groff at Playbill about all the stuff he's been up to lately - there's not much new info about the second season of Looking but it's nice to know the cast has actually become friends; he says they're on their way to Fire Island together right after the interview which, damn, I wanna bump into the Looking cast on Fire Island. As somebody did -- that picture to the left (via) being proof.

--- Summer Snow - As long as I don't crap out on it (I'm not feeling well today) I'll be seeing Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer a second time tonight this time on a big screen here in NYC with BJH in person (here's my original review of the film, which is terrific and I def. recommend - if for Tilda alone!) so linking to this piece on the movie at EW seems timely.

--- Live Wires - It's not a movie version of those a-hole characters they played on SNL but Jason Sudekis is in talks to co-star in a heist comedy with Kristen Wiig - actually the level of his"co-star"'ing isn't entirely clear since the movie is already set to star Zach Galifinakis as an armored car driver and Wiig as his love interest - it doesn't say where Sudeikis fits in. 

--- New Old Prey - Writer-director Shane Black says that his reboot of Predator isn't really a reboot but is actually a sequel. But as they point out at that link unless they get Arnold into it it will be starring a whole new cast and the only thing they'll be carrying over is the creature (and not even the original one since Arnold killed it with bombs) so yeah, basically a reboot. Just referincing the events of the original film - ooh look a scorched jungle! - does not a sequel make. Although in typing that I suddenly remember there was a second one with Danny Glover! I totally forgot that existed.

---  Big Fella - I don't even know why I'm linking to this interview with slab-of-meat Derek Theler - I mean I know why, but I feel as if I need some excuse if it's not just to ogle him. At least he's entirely clear with his place in the world as a slab-of-meat, and he comes off well in there, so I don't have to feel too gross about it. Dude is 6'4" and 240 pounds of nothing but muscle. I don't feel bad! Click here for lots of pictures of him.

--- Movie Pride - Over at The Film Experience Nathaniel the list-lover tackles a couple of recent ones - I'd seen and trembled in fright at the one of the 100 Greatest Movies according to some Hollywood folks (this is why the movies coming out of Hollywood suck so much - so little imagination up in there) but I'd missed the list of essential LGBT movies.

--- Free Mila -  I'm with Daniel at Salon on that interview with Mila Kunis that everybody's calling her a bitch for - how fickle we are; wasn't it just a few months ago that she was an interviewer's darling? God forbid she not have patience for some dumb questions. One lousy turn in an Oz movie and one lousy looking trailer for a Wachowskis movie (and let's be honest, nobody wants to see her with Ashton Kutcher) and suddenly we're all out for blood.

--- And Finally ooh look a new Nina video! I loooove this song.

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Getting Lost in the Trees With Nina Persson

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Last night I pretended I'm not actually a mole-man shut-in (ha) and had a night full of fun-time reverie - I went to two count them two concerts! It was quite something. First up as seen above we had my beloved Nina Persson at the Mercury Lounge, performing songs off her delightful brand new album called Animal Heart, which you have maybe heard me talk about once or twice or infinity. Even though my arm's still sling-bound I managed to record a couple of songs - I pushed through the pain for you people! That said since I am half-crippled the videos are probably a little more shaky than usual, my apologies. Anyway here they be:

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She is a maverlous show-woman, I wish she'd give the international success a break and take up residency as a lounge singer in some seedy bar where I could go listen to her every single night.

Anyway right after that I ran over to the Bowery Ballroom where the bearded wundkerkind Ari Picker and his band Lost in the Trees were doing a show for their new album called Past Life. I one hundred percent stand by this admittedly obnoxious tweet I sent out right after the show:

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@littband are so good I wanna shake every single person who doesn't listen to them and tell them they're wasting their lives on garbage
— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) February 20, 2014

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Seriously, I've only had their new album for a few days but it is fucking epic, you guys. I cannot push them on you hard enough. THEY ARE INCREDIBLE. And live - live these guys blow my mind every single time. The title track off of their new album is my favorite one right this minute and I managed to record it last night, have a listen and then go buy the album, and then you can name your first through third borns after me cuz you're welcome.

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And here's them doing their older song "Neither Here Nor There":

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I Am Link

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--- Gimme Chance - The Playlist shares that there the first picture of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in Susanne Bier's upcoming movie A Second Chance, which is about a pair of policeman friends, something something, baby in a closet, something. I don't know if it's the painkiller medication I am on right now but the story they describe didn't make any sense to me. But hey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau!

--- Full Heart - Nina Persson of The Cardigans has her solo album called Animal Heart out today, buy it it's great, and here's a nice brief little chat with her over at CBS, including more positivity towards the idea of a new Cardigans album.

--- Wedding Wars - This project sounds aaaaaaamazing - I Am Love director Luca Guadagnino is going to direct A Reliable Wife, a thriller adapted by Se7en's screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker from a book set at the turn of the 20th Century in Wisconsin about a guy who puts out an ad for a wife and gets some hot crazy broad in response, and they both set about murdering each other or something. I wanna watch that movie right this minute. Anybody read the book?

--- Hot For Hot - I hope everything's alright with Matthias Schoenaerts - Deadline says he had to pull out (mmm) of the movie Alive Alone, which he was going to star in with Noomi Rapace, which is about a criminal turned taxi driver on the run with a prostitute... really? That's a story that somebody wants to tell again? Anyway Matty is out... and IDRIS ELBA is taking the role over. So obviously, cliched as it sounds, I'll be watching it all the same. If only it was Noomi who stepped out and Matthias and Idris were playing the criminal-prostitute duo. Anyway Sam Worthington is playing the bad guy they're running from.

--- Truth or Death - The guys who made Catfish and a couple of the Paranormal Activity movies are adapting the YA book Nerve for the screen - it's about an online Truth or Dare game getting out of hand for a high school wallflower. Their words. My favorite thing from this story, also their words: "the game evolves and soon she finds herself in a dangerous and life-ending situation." LIFE-ENDING SITUATION. It's like those prescription commercials that warn of "suicidal actions." Anyway a writer from American Horror Story wrote the script.

--- Strip Search - And finally, Channing Tatum has begun working on the script for the second Magic Mike movie, says Channing Tatum. Who do you want to be in it? Should they bring back some or all of the old gang? (We all want to see Matthew Bomer's in a thing again, obviously.) What new actors are on your wish list?

I Am Link

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--- King Redbeard - Instead of making the awards circuit and helping us side-step the nightmare that will be Jared Leto winning an Oscar, Michael Fassbender has been in Scotland filming the new MacBeth movie from Snowtown director Justin Kurzel with Marion Cotillard as his Lady. Come on, Fassy! This is your damned statue!!! Sigh. Anyway now we know who else is in it and it's a total batch of great actors surrounding them, but most excitingly it's got Elizabeth Debecki who was the best thing going on in Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby.

--- Viva Veronica - Hey look it's a Buzzfeed interview with Kristen Bell about Frozen and Veronica Mars and stuff, conducted by our pal Jarett Weiselman. Our pal Jarett has chatted with Kristen Bell like one thousand times now, and that's just what we've seen publicly, so clearly they are best friends and that makes Kristen Bell one degree of separation from me, so I have decided she and I are going to start having lunch together once a week. Jarett, make it happen!

--- Jungle Boy - I guess that Netflix Amazon Instant has released the pilots of their prospective new shows online to get a handle on what they should be green-lighting, I guess this is a thing they do? Anyway go read up on this one starring pocket hottie Gael Garcia Bernal and produced by Jason Schwartzman, it sounds good. We need more Gael in the world.

--- Mother Carrie - Netflix for the win! They're making a show starring Kyle Chandler and Linda Cardellini as brother and sister, and SISSY SPACEK is playing their mother. I mean, HELLO. I adore Cardellini too, but I didn't watch Friday Night Lights (I know, I know) so I never really got the Chandler thing til recently - he was the only thing I liked about The Wolf of Wall Street (well him and Johanna Lumley, and also Jean Dujardin's possible hint of cock) and he was fantastic in The Spectacular Now, so I get him now.

--- Forever Nina - I don't know if you've noticed what with me posting song after song after song from it but I'm a super spazzy Cardigans fan and I'm pretty psyched about front-woman Nina Persson's solo record Animal Heart, which comes out next week. Here's an interview with her where she talks about the record as well as the question of whether there could be a new Cardigans album in the future... oh I won't make you wait to click over - the answer is probably maybe!

--- Phone It In - While I still haven't stopped stinging from the fact that David Gordon Green's remake of Suspiria starring my favorite psycho-girl Isabelle Fuhrmann appears as dead as the deadest dead thing, this is pretty cool news too - Fuhrmann's landed the female lead role in the adaptation of Stephen King's book Cell. Unfortunately everyone else attached - the director of Paranormal Activity 2 and John Cusack in the lead - aren't nearly as thrilling. I wish Eli Roth were still making it.

--- Sand Man - Mostly this sounds like a movie that won't interest me) and Rodrigo Garcia's not a director I follow), but Last Days in the Desert will be starring Ewan McGregor in two roles as a "holy man and a demon" on a journey across the desert together, so that's probably worth a look. If for no other reason than it's likely he'll take his clothes off. Desert's be hot, yo!

--- Constant Buggery - It was nice to see Evangeline Lilly in the latest Hobbit movie - I didn't really realize that I missed Kate, but I did. I liked her on Lost, and I like her in general. So that's good, because she is probably going to be playing the leading lady part in Edgar Wright's Ant Man movie opposite Paul Rudd. Normally I'd shrug about a girl role in a Marvel superhero movie, they don't often get very much to do, but I trust Edgar Wright not to be like that.

--- Good Day For Deities - Neil Gaiman says that a production company has picked up the TV adaptation of his terrific book American Gods after HBO passed on making it, so it will probably be turned into a show, just for some channel we don't know which yet. That is fabulous news.

--- Extra Kate - Even though Lawless was a pretty big snooze (besides the chance to admire Tom Hardy and Jason Clarke in Depression-are trousers and haircuts) the director John Hillcoat is still managing to attract the best and brightest to his new picture, the crime thriller Triple Nine. It's already got (deep breathe) Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael B. Jordan, Aaron Paul, Teresa Palmer (yay we love her!) and Michael Pena on board, and now comes word that Kate fuckin' Winslet's getting up in there as well.

--- You Stay Put - I will be very very sad if Kristin Scott Thomas sticks to her word that she's tired of acting and is giving it all up, if only because she's the type of actress who could make a still-birth like Only God Forgives totally memorable by just spitting out the words "cum dumpster" with such relish. Nathaniel agrees with me and lists nine more roles of hers which are his faves over at The Film Experience.

--- And finally I forgot to link to this earlier this week but the folks over at The Wire listed what they considered the most memorable roles that Philip Seymour Hoffman played in his way way way too brief career (everybody said it already but it's monstrous how many years worth of interesting performances we've been robbed of by his senseless death), and it's my friend Joe Reid's look back at Hoffman's work in Synecdoche New York that wrung the tears outta me. Go read it, and then go watch Synecdoche. I rewatched it two nights ago and it's a movie that busts my brain with its everythingness.

Food For The Beast

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Via Paste comes yet another track off of Nina Persson's upcoming solo record which is called Animal Heart and is out on February 11th. This is the third song that's been released off the album - you can hear the song "Dreaming Of Houses" here and you can hear the title track here. Oh and I saw her perform the new song "Burning Bridges For Fuel" live a couple of months ago and recorded that one here. So basically we're halfway to having the full album already.

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Dreaming Of Houses

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New Nina Persson song!

New Nina Persson song!

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You Can Blink Like A Star

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Sink like a stone in the sea... So thanks to my pal (slash fellow Perssoniac - I just made that word up) John for the heads-up on Nina Persson's first single from her forthcoming solo album (and its super fun single-take video). The single is called "Animal Heart" and you can watch the video above. I've listened to the song  so many times this weekend already that I could probably sing the entire thing to you right now... although why you'd want that when you can listen to someone with a voice like Nina Persson's - and not even just like, but actually Nina Persson's! - I don't know. So just listen to her. It's very good! Nina's album will be out in January, and I will of course be yapping about it bunches because I worship and adore her.

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I Can Hear Your Cannons Call

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I've been a mega fan of the band The Cardigans for what, twenty years now? Anyway I don't know what it is but over the course of this Summer my Cardigans fan-dom has exploded - I've been listening to them more over the past couple of months than I did even at the peak of their popularity, and believe me friends, that equals a whole lot. And it's been two of their old albums that've specifically re-taken me by storm - their 1995 album Life and their 1996 album First Band on the Moon have basically been on iPod rotation non-stop. It's easy to say, "Oh you just need something poppy and happy right now, that's why," but the thing I love about this band is if you listen to the lyrics The Cardigans are anything but. Taking Nina Persson at her word, her lyrics that is, lady is a mess. And I love her for it! 

All that aside I've been going a little bit nuts seeing that the band has been doing shows overseas for the past several months. On more than one occasion I've fantasized about flying to Europe just to go to one of their shows, even. If this blog made money rain upon me, which you know fingers crossed that one day that happens, if that were true I'd have been over there like a flash. Alas.

There is good news today though - there's been talk of it for some time but Nina Perrson has officially announced her first solo album. That's sort of a technical "first solo album" - she made two albums with other collaborators under the name A Camp, which are basically solo albums, but whatever. She's set up a Facebook page, and posted this video:

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Good Morning, World

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Not that I don't ever have music by The Cardigans on my most played playlists but I have been on a real kick with them this week, listening to nothing but pretty much, and so when this song popped up this morning and it immediately put me into a good mood, I thought I'd spread the wealth. (Of course as with most Cardigans songs if you actually listen to the lyrics things get real dark real fast, but that just makes it all the finer if you ask me.)

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Who'll Kiss The Heartache Away

I wish the sound were a little bit better on this video but it's something I've never seen before and I'm really missing Nina Persson today so I'm posting it anyway. It's from "An Evening With Dusty," a concert in Sweden where a bunch of artists performed Dusty Springfield songs in 2007. This is Nina singing "Losing You." God I love her so. Come out with new music, Nina! Please!

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The Four Letter Word Is Out Of My Head

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This song came up on my iPod this morning and has been stuck in my head ever since. Why has Nina abandoned me? I mean us. No I mean me. Where are you, girl?
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5 Off My Head - Albums Of '09

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Let's just get this outta the way: I am not a music writer. I've tried to write reviews of albums in the past and it comes out, "Ooh I like the way this sounds. Durrr... pretty." The end. I just lack the skills there. Well everywhere really but especially there. And besides that... I just don't listen to a lot of music. I mean I listen to music all the time... it's just the same music, over and over. At this point in my life I appear to have begun closing myself off, walling myself up, in my occasionally twee indie mope-rock cocoon. It's safe from monsters like Fergie in here! Oh sometimes a good pop song will break through the defenses - like the rest of the world, I do believe that I'm kinda sorta addicted to some Lady Gaga right now - but mostly, I just stick to my happy place. Give a big-eyed boy with a squeaky voice a banjo and a background of harpsichords and trombones and I'm in love. (Hi Sufjan!)

So. I'm not gonna be getting around to my movie-related Best of 2009 posts until next year. No way around that - there's still too much for me to see, and I still need to ruminate about a lot that I have already seen. But I can burn this music list off easily, because of everything I said in the previous paragraph. And none of these will surprise anyone who's ever noticed any of my music-related posts. I'm not even gonna try to review them either. Just representin'! These are just the five albums of 2009 that I have listened to the most and loved the most, and so on. You get the gist. Durrr.... pretty. Firstly, 5 runner's up:


Metric - Fantasies; Florence and the Machine - Lungs; The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love; Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You; and the Dark Was the Night compilation.

And now... My 5 favorite albums from 2009!

#5 A Camp - Colonia

#4 Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

#3 Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

#2 Yeahs Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz

#1 Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

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Speak Of The Devil Persson

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No sooner did I finish my previous post exclaiming the wonders of last night's A Camp show I attended then did an email pop up in my in-box telling me the following delightful news:

"We are very excited to announce that we are getting ready to release an EP of cover songs that we’ve been hoarding. They will be available on iTunes on June 9th, and other digital sites on June 16th.

The track listing is:

"US + THEM": By Pink Floyd of course, one of the most beautiful songs imaginable. The only reason we thought we could approach this one at all is it just seemed to sit perfectly within our musical vocabulary and we thought Nina’s voice could perhaps add another dimension to this already brilliant piece of music.

"BOYS KEEP SWINGING": Who doesn’t love Bowie? He’s given us so much...and again we thought it would be rocking to hear this particular track come out of a girl’s mouth, also at this point it’s the loudest thing in our live set and is a massive energy release. It’s a totally catchy song as well, and it’s like Bowie just said to hell with it and recorded things in the most train-wrecked non-commercial way he could come up with, almost guaranteeing its commercial failure back in ’79.

"DONE IT AGAIN": Grace Jones did this originally on her Nightclubbing album (pull up to my bumper baby!), and it’s a hot track. We were drawn initially to the bizarre very smart lyrics and also that the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind is name-checked, that HAS to be the only instance of that in pop music. The time-travel/"ZELIG" tone to the words made a lot of sense as well as that’s kind of our vibe with Colonia. And we dug the sweet cocaine, studio-in-Barbados groove. The song manages to simultaneously seem nearly asleep and yet totally insane (in the best way), full of this world-weary sadness, plus a rage deep in there somewhere...not unlike Grace herself! As it happens we were on tour recently in Europe about a day behind her, so would see fresh traces of her along our journey, it was spooky and fun. We don’t believe she really exists. This track has become a fan fave in our live show. It’s got that Bosso flav; and Nina gets to bust out her magic claves!"

They performed all of these last night and they sounded great, so this is very exciting to me and me alone all me I am the only one that matters and I am excited. Or you too, if you like that sort of thing. Weirdo!
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Let's Raise Our Glasses To Murderous Asses...

... like you...

may you sleep soundly...

Got to see A Camp for the second sweet time in my life last evening and for the second sweet time they did not disappoint. A Camp you may should know are the side project of The Cardigans' front-lady and wunderkind of my eternal worship Nina Persson along with her husband Nathan Larson (formerly of the group Shudder To Think) as well as other fine folks.


Their terrific new album Colonia came out a few weeks ago and you should buy it, it's terrific. Terrific!!! Here's the video for the song called "Stronger Than Jesus":

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Those pics at the top from last night's show,
along with several more, come via here.
Love you, Nina!
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Conquering Colonia

Last night's Neko Case music news wasn't the only bright and shining beacon of hope musically speaking that revealed itself as I left my office - word also came to me about the second album by the band A Camp, otherwise known as the group the front-woman for The Cardigans, my lady lover, Nina Persson does when she's not doing The Cardigans. It's called Colonia and it's being released on February 2nd in Europe and here's the cover:

Wig.

The first single called "Stronger Than Jesus" will come out on this upcoming Monday supposedly too (dunno if that's just in Europe or what, but the internet is our friend here ya know). This news might've revealed itself earlier than last evening but last night was when I stumbled upon it. You might say to yourself, hey, don't you consider yourself a crazy fan of them, why do you have to randomly stumble upon news of their latest release? Well first off, you're rude, asking questions like that. And secondly, I suck.

But the album... well let's just say a little internet birdy tells me it sounds wonderful. A little internet birdy in those striped jail pajamas, that's how I picture this birdy. Anyway, rock on. Now I just need to stumble upon their tour schedule. Come to me, Nina! Make love to me with your sweet and sultry voice.
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The Most Insidious Song Ever Written Is...

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... "Rise & Shine" by The Cardigans. Seriously.

I realized this a few month's ago, when I went on a road-trip and brought their greatest hits collection for the car (I do love them so very much, although they're stuff post-Gran Turismo is much more my speed) and I came to discover that hmm, I heard this tune "Rise & Shine" one time - one time! - while driving around, and now I've been humming the damned thing all week long.

However, I didn't realize this well enough, apparently, to then go and delete the song from my iPod, lest I fall prey again. Come to last night, I'm innocently washing the dishes, listening to some tunes. What should start to play? Indeed. I ran with swift speed to the other room to change the song as quickly as I could. I only heard perhaps thirty seconds... long enough for it to have gotten to the chorus, though... that insidious chorus...

"Rise and shine! (Rise and shine.) Rise and shine, my sister!
Rise and shine! (Rise and shine.) Rise and shine, my sister!"

The night continued. I listenned to other music as I finished the dishes. I watched a movie. I went to bed. I slept for seven hours. I woke up. I went jogging and listened to my iPod as I ran. I went home, showered, got dressed, rode the subway to work while listening to my iPod some more. All different music; not once did I hear "Rise & Shine" again. Just those brief few seconds last night. I get to my office... I sit down here at my computer...

And what is running through my fucking head on non-stop repeat?

"Rise and shine! (Rise and shine.) Rise and shine, my sister!
Rise and shine! (Rise and shine.) Rise and shine, my sister!"

Curse you, Cardigans! Curse you straight to heck!

Anyway, I apologize for this univited, wayward rant. But it must be vented, or else... unspeakable, unspeakable.

I ask y'all: What song was the last one to wind its tendrils deep into your brain, burrow a little nook and/or cranny, and take up home? And since this post is positively useless without proof of Nina Persson's devilry, here's an mp3 of "Rise & Shine" so you can all go mad alongside me! Whee!
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Nina, matt, and Neko - Oh My!

I just uploaded two new songs to that Box widget thingamajig down there in the right-hand column - I'm seriously neglectful of that thing, I know - and thought I'd tell y'all what they are since they're there now. I'm also giving you the links to download them, cuz I'm a generous, kind soul. Strangely, they both feel kinda reminiscent of 70's Lite FM to me - am I nuts? - but I guess that's what I've been feeling lately...

The first is an oldie but a goodie - not even sure where it's from or if it was ever officially released (and am far too lazy to look it up right now; if anybody knows you can tell me in the comments, that's sooo much simpler), but it's a cover of the song "Black Winged Bird" by my love, my life, Nina Persson of The Cardigans.

Download "Black Winged Bird"
by Nina Persson here.

The second song is a new song - it's off of the great matt pond PA's forthcoming album, titled Last Light (out Sept. 25th), and it's a duet with none other than the other love of my life (who am I kidding, I have like a thousand loves of my life, but she's a big one!), Neko Case! It's called "Taught To Look Away" and I've listened to it like 1000 times in the past 24 hours.

Download "Taught to Look Away"
by matt pond PA (with Neko Case) here.
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