All Eyes on the Calender.

"And with these drinks, I plan to collapse and forget this wasted year.."

2010 is heading to its end. I am not a big fan of reviews, nor I am a big fan of the year 2010. But of course New Year has it's symbolic effect. And so it's time to leave plenty of things behind. 2010 was a year of total diversity for me, but I prefer to hold onto the good things, though it sometimes can be hard (“My private life is an inside joke. No one will explain it to me”..). 

Anyway..music was it that always saved me. I feel like music is sometimes more able to describe how someone’s feeling, than his own words could ever do.

Through the year I made some wonderful musical discoveries, I'd like to share with you. So here is my little selection, rowed in a Top 5:

5. Port O’Brien – All We Could Do Was Sing // 
Dial M for Murder! – Fiction Of Her Dreams

I couldn’t decide whom to put on number 5, so I just put two bands on it. These two bands couldn’t be more different, but I spent the first half of 2010 with them, so they both deserve a place in my Top 5 !
Let’s start with Port O’ Brien. Port O’Brien is a Indie-/Folk-Band from Alaska. They’re similar to The Decemberists and Friska Viljor. I even read somewhere that Port O’Brien is the new favorite band of M.Ward.
I prefer their album “All We Could Do Was Sing”, which was released in 2008. the Album opens with the danceable song “I Woke Up Today”. “All We Could Do Was Sing” as a whole is succeeded, in my opinion. Good to listen to and a few songs, that have the potential to grow. My personal favorite song is Fisherman’s Son.

Fisherman's Son - Port O'Brien

Totally contrary to Port O’Brien, Dial M for Murder! is a swedish Indie-/Post-Punk-Band, that was formed in 2007. Their album “Fiction of her Dreams” was released in 2009. When I first listened to the album this year, I also liked it as a whole and couldn’t stop hearing it for weeks. Dial M for Murder! definitely is a band that is worth to keep an eye on.

The People’s Key – Shell Games.

On Feb. 15^th Bright Eyes will release their new and probably last album. I’m looking forward to this a lot. You can pre-order it now on the Saddle Creek Website. And if  you do, you will already receive a download link on Feb. 1^st.

Ha ! So who is going to pre-order it today ??? I do !

On Saddle Creek there already is the first track you can downlaod from the new album. Shell Games. Lyrical I think it’s beautiful. Musically it sounds a bit different. But of course it does. The first Bright Eyes LP “Letting of the happiness” was released in 1998. Now it’s 12 years later. Wouldn’t it be worse if Conor Oberst still made the same music he did when he was 18?

But anyway… I really like the self-reflection in Shell Games:

“Took the fireworks and the vanity
The circuit board and the city streets
Shooting star, swaying palm tree”

I think fireworks refers to “Letting of the Happiness”, vanity to “Fevers and Mirrors”, circuit board to “Digital Ash in a Digital Urn”, city streets could be refering to “I’m wide awake it’s morning” and the shooting star and the swaying palm trees obviously to “Cassadaga”. And now on “The People’s Key” it’s time to let this all behind and to finally grow up..Let’s see if “The People’s Key” can manage it.

“I was dressed in white, touched by something pure
Death obsessed, like a teenager
Sold my tortured youth, pissed in vinegar
I'm still angry with no reason to be”

I know that I am going to like the new album, but am I going to love it? When I felt in love with Bright Eyes 5 years ago, I felt in love with the accoustic music, the personal “death obsessed” lyrics, the breakable voice...I still remember what my first song was..It was “Messenger Bird's Song”.

And then “Cassadaga” came..a very different album. So how is “The People’s Key” going to be? On Feb. 1^st I will know ! and I can’t tell you how excited I am about it.

http://store.saddle-creek.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=SCOS&Category_Code=Bright_Eyes 

--> Here you can download "Shell Games" and pre-order the album.

Prologue.

I don’t know what this blog is going to be about. I don’t know what to do with it. I don’t know who is going to read it….probably just a few friends, I will force to read it! Anyway…I have a Blog! A long time ago I felt that it was about time to become more creative about the things I care. So this Blog is more like an experiment…and with the self-consciousness I got, i think that it’s going to be a disaster…ha ha.