Happy Birthday CS

Happy Birthday Buddy!


Jens Lekman -- Happy Birthday, Dear Friend Lisa
From the When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog.

The Beatles -- Birthday
From The White Album.

The Sugarcubes -- Birthday
From the The Great Crossover Potential collection.

Sound Team -- No More Birthdays
From the Movie Monster album.

The Road To #1

I had half-heartedly joked to myself that I should start writing about my quest to have the #1 most popular song on Hype Machine...and then I go ahead and post a Jens Lekman song and bingo bango I am at #2...


Wilco -- Instrumental #2 (Take 2)
This is a demo from the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot recordings.

Haven't I Heard That Before #2: Jens Lekman and The Left Banke

Again, like my first post in this category, the newer one ("Black Cab") seems to pay homage to the older one by swiping the introduction from "I've Got Something On My Mind."

While best known for one of the greatest songs ever "Walk Away Renee" The Left Banke have a ton of great songs that almost no one really knows about. "I've Got Something On My Mind" is a prime example of this and the a great example of what became known as "baroque pop." Mr. Lekman seems like a natural successor to the "baroque pop" title.

The Left Banke -- I've Got Something On My Mind
I was going to write a long plea that you should go out and buy the complete Left Banke recordings called There's Gonna Be A Storm but it appears that it is out of print...what a travesty.

Jens Lekman -- Black Cab
From the Oh You're So Silent Jens collection.

Dennis

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about Sam Brownback and wondering why conservative voters didn't find him appealing. Today Salon writes about Dennis Kucinich and asks why liberal voters don't find him appealing? The headline reveals all: "Stop lying to yourself. You love Dennis Kucinich"...

In early 2004 I travelled down to Iowa for the Iowa Caucuses and saw speeches from Howard Dean, John Edwards, and Dennis Kucinich...Edwards' speech was the best and he has essentially been doing the same speech in the years since...Kucinich's speech was very good as well and I hung around to get his autograph afterword...I agreed with almost everything he said but I would never vote for him. Why? Because of shallow reasons I guess...as we were waiting for Dennis to arrive we were subjected to the musical stylings of two neo-hippies with bad folk songs which were mainly original compositions. The group was named something like "John & Sunrise" or something similar...they were fine upstanding people I am sure, I just don't want them apart of anything close to running my country. Something was just off kilter about them if you know what I mean.

As a gigantic X-Files fan and a believer that there is probably intelligent life out there, I will not broach the subject of Dennis & UFOs, but the feeling I got when watching that musical group is the same feeling people get when they hear Dennis saw a UFO.

In our heart of hearts, didn't we already know he had seen one?

Mystery Jets -- You Can't Fool Me Dennis

Jens Lekman -- Jens Lekman's Farewell to Rocky Dennis

The US version [called Zootime here] of the Mystery Jets debut Making Dens is outstanding and can be picked up here. The Jens Lekman song comes from the Rocky Dennis EP which is out of print in CD form but you can download it from Amazon for only $3.61.

Mr. Lekman in Bloomington

CS: Next time Jens Lekman stops by Bloomington give him a visit.

Jens Lekman -- "Maples Leaves" Live from Bloomington, Indiana:

Nice Shoes

The mainstream media discovers Jens Lekman.



Jens Lekman -- Pretty Shoes

You Say "Jens", I Say "Yens"

The only reason I am a huge fan of Jens Lekman is because of music blogs. Sixeyes to be specific.

There is no one else out there like Jens and if you don't believe me, just listen for yourself...Jens offers a bunch of free mp3s over at his website.

This one is his first song from his new album, Night Falls Over Kortedala, which will be out October 6th in North America and September 6th in Scandinavia...

Jens Lekman -- Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo

Buy Jens Lekman music here.