So, on my day off oddly enough, when I wanted the least time to think about everything and got the most, I found Jónsi & Alex.  It is a collaboration between Jon Thor Birgisson, lead singer of Sigur Ros, and Alex Somers, who have been making music together since 2003.  I forget exactly how I came across their new album this morning, but I’ve had it on repeat all day.  You may listen to the stream of the album below and think, that’s about the last album I’d listen to on the day fate finally arrived between my girlfriend and I, but for me nothing could be more perfect.

Jonsi & Alex create music that resemble Sigur Ros in every way, but never reach anything above simple atmospheric beauty.  It’s music that can be thought of as sad or optimistic.  I heard the optimism and happiness in their music from the first couple of minutes of “Happiness” and all the way through Riceboy Sleeps. (watch the making of video below and I’m sure you’ll see the optimistic side as they talk about the stories behind each song)  And at the least, it’s simply a beautiful album that fits perfectly as uplifting background music to this rainy, lazy, and emotional day.

I hope most of you listen to this stream and find something unique to love about it, and I’m sure all you Sigur Ros fans will enjoy it immensely.  I sure have.  But I felt like writing this not out of pity for myself at all, but in celebration of all the great times Michelle and I had.  I regret absolutely nothing during our nine months together, and for most people, that’s a bold statement to claim for nine months spent with someone.  I wish her nothing but success in Annapolis, which I know she’ll have since she’s an incredibly smart cookie, and until I get up there to her again, here’s your goofy, musically obsessed, red head from Missouri wishing you all the luck in the world.

Track listing:
1. Happiness
2. Atlas Song
3. Indian Summer
4. Stokkseyri
5. Boy 1904
6. All The Big Trees
7. Daníell In The Sea
8. Howl
9. Sleeping Giant

My money soon ran dry and I was forced to take drastic measures.  You’re looking at probably the only music blogger who has sold most his cd’s.  And oddly enough, it really wasn’t that hard considering it’s all on my computer, and not having money makes you realize physical possessions are just that.  So, if you bump into me anytime soon, don’t ask to see my cd collection, just ask to borrow my external hard drive.

But that’s not the point of this rant honestly.  Sure, I had to sell stuff to get by, but right when I was at my wits end, everything suddenly worked out.  I had a few interviews with a new shoe company opening here in Springfield, Tradehome Shoes, as an assistant manager training to have my own store, and I ended up beating out over 300 people.  300 people!  When I couldn’t even beat out a high schooler for a job talking about video games.  Add to this great news the fact that phase 2 of Lemondrop is underway.  It’s super secret, our super secret website here, but basically Lemondrop is expanding to be a non-profit and going beyond just music to be a music, film, and art entity.  THAT I am super excited about and will tell you about later in the summer. (put your email in and you’ll get updates frequently as we unveil them!)

But I just wanted to thank all of you for sticking with me, even though I gave no explanation for my post every four or five days style lately, I’m pretty sure all will be back to normal now that I’ve got another job.  And not just another job, a REAL job.  Ooooh.  I’ve been meaning to revamp the Perch for a long time now, so here in a month when I get a paycheck or two in, I’m going to pay someone to make it look great and be more functional.  Then, my friend, the Perch will one heck of a blog. That I promise.

It goes without saying that I’ve got a mountain of music to choose from for future posts, so check back soon and I’ll do my best to get back to the way the Perch used to be, and the reason you came back time and time again in the first place.

The moral of this rant;  even if you lose your job and become the only music blogger in town who had to sell nearly all his cd’s, in the end, you’ll find a way through.  And as long as you’ve got great people around you, most times when it does all get figured out, it’ll end up even better than before it all went to crap.  That, my fellow readers, is a mantra I can stand behind.  See you back here soon!

A Perch Interview with Anders of Detektivbyran

Anders, Jon, and Martin,

First off, here’s a big hello from The Pelican’s Perch and all its readers.  I know I can speak for a few of my readers in saying we love all your music, almost too much, and especially Wermland.  I try to involve my readers whenever I can, so I asked them if they had any questions for you guys and the following few actually threw some questions my way.  We’ll start with those, and then end with my personal questions.  Thanks so much for taking time out to answer a few questions from your fans and be sure to keep in touch.

Hello!

The interview will be done by me, Anders Flanders. Thanks.

From Alex:

1.Vem/vad inspirerar er.Andra musiker,eller vad som helst?
(Who/what inspires you? Other musicians or artists, anything.)

Anders:  My 2 year old kid, people, huge white grand pianos, the deep still woods of Värmland (which is the same place as Wermland), travelling, doing nothing, just sit in front of piano keys specially at old out of tune pianos, movies (last movie I watched and got inspired by was Juno).

Alex and Tammy asked the same thing:

2. Vilken slags musik lyssnar ni på.Är det någon genre eller artist ni lyssnar speciellt mycket på?
(What kind of music do you listen to? What genres and musicians specifically?)

Anders:
We listen to too many different kinds of music to answer this question, but I could say pop/punk/hardcore/jazz/electronica/country/metal.
Also:
I love Joni Mitchell.
Also:
I love Bruce Springsteen.

From B.J.:
3. Ask Anders what type of accordion he has…!

Anders:  The accordion is a Dise Smaragd. Swedish brand, build in Italy though, where all the best accordions are built. Around 40 kilometers from Gothenburg where we live there’s an Accordion palace, I use to go out there for hours and just hang out, chat with the owners and dream away in their Accordion Museum which is awesome. You can check out a video from the place, it’s on our myspace page. Episode 1 from our album recording video diary.

Now on to my question:

4.  First of all, as a musician myself, I’m curious about your song writing process.  Does one person come up with an idea and everyone just builds off of it?

Anders:  One person comes up with a melody and perhaps some chords to the melody. Then we try what instruments fit best to the melody, we play it over and again and usually find something nice pretty fast. only some few times we have written a whole song by just playing, 054 is made that way.

5.  I watched the behind the scenes videos about the making of Wermland. Was the recording process for this new one different from the last few albums, and did it go well?

Anders:  When we made the Hemvägen EP we didn’t care about the fact that we were going to play the songs live, but on wermland every note was planned with the thought that everything should be able to do live. We like it best that way. That’s a big difference.

6.  Let’s talk “E18″ for a second.  It’s my favorite song of yours and I can’t get enough of it.  What does the song title mean, and who’s idea was it to have that instrumental breakdown around 1:30 where’s it is just synthesizer, accordion, and simple percussion? Love that part.

Anders:  thanks. the title is the name of a european highway which goes through wermland an Karlstad, our home town. it felt extremely right to us to name it e18. the drums have a travelling sound to me.
no idea who’s idea it was… it just came up I think. Often those ideas happens very fast and we forget who came up with the ideas.

7.  Your music is full of traditional instruments, most notably the accordion and reminds me a lot of the Amelie soundtrack.  Have you   a) seen Amelie and   b) heard any of Yann Tiersen’s music (the composer of the Amelie soundtrack)?  If so, is he an inspiration to your music? I couldn’t think of anything better than a collaboration soundtrack for Amelie 2 between you guys and Yann Tiersen.

Anders:
a) yes!

b) yes! when we started out the band in the beginning of 2005 me and martin was very much inspired by his work, we really liked the accordion and glockenspiel, so we bought those instruments extremely inspired by yann tiersen’s work. With the time we found out that electronics as beats and synth fit well with accordion and glockenspiel and also the vibraphone which we used a lot on Wermland.

8.  Is your live set up pretty simple, or do you have all kinds of instruments on stage that the three of you just jump around and play throughout the songs?

Anders:  I have my accordion and a monster synth called Traktofon. the Traktofon has all the sampled sounds we used on wermland, so I can play synth bass with my right hand and accordion chords with my left hand in one song, then play the music box on another song and then the sampled tack piano in another song.. martin has his vibraphone, a glockenspiel and a monster Traktofon synth. Jon has a drumkit and drumpads which goes through a monster Traktofon as well, so for example in Kärlekens Alla Färjor and in Life/Universe Jon plays the synth bass lines on the drum pads, and in neonland he has the sampled beats on the pads, everything is played live.

I could say we all have one or two acoustic things each and a electronic monster each.

9.  Speaking of live sets…any plans to come tour the states? I’d love to see you guys live and don’t exactly have means to travel to far off places like Debaser Medis, Stockholm.

Anders:  We played in Minneapolis in the end of september which was soooo much fun. The US is fantastic and we really wanna play there more. We have plans…

10.  Back to Wermland.  I have a feeling that if they made a movie whose plot somehow combined that of Amelie and Top Gun, “Life/Universe” would undoubtedly be its theme song.  Where did the idea for this song come from? It’s much darker sounding than most of your songs and the pulsing bass line, combined with the Top Gun 80’s synth towards the middle and the driving drums throughout, make it feel like you guys wanted to mix it up and try something completely different. Was this different sound what you were aiming for with this song?

Anders:  this is one ofthe few songs that were written pretty much together from the start and also the only song we have written being not sober together. We had some leftover alcohol from some show (we never drink when touring, though we use to bring all we can carry back home) and we were supposed to leave the studio for the day, the time was around 5 pm, when someone said “I have this idea of a melody” and also “there’s a lot of cider over there”. In the late night we had a rough demo version of what turned to be Life/Universe.

It happened naturally. we are looking for new sounds, new feelings when playing.

11.  Finally, I recently started my own record label, LemonDrop Records, and have been having a blast setting that up and helping bands out.  If I mailed some LemonDrop Records stickers to you guys, would you stick them all over each town you tour just so I can say my record label’s stickers are all over the world?

Anders:  no problem, bring it on! there’s an postal adress on our website.

Here’s another huge thanks from both me and my readers for doing this for us.  Thanks again, keep making such great music and I’m loving the new album.  Keep in touch and I hope the tour goes great.  Later!

Thank You!

Om Du Moter Vag

Neonland

Bonus:
E18

Official Site / Myspace

(pics and music after the jump!)
(Click on picture for full size version)

Akron/Family – I’ll be on the Water

Montag – 322 Water

Andrew Bird – The Water Jet Cilice

Why? – Waterfalls

Matt Pond PA – Devil in the Water

Fionn Regan – Black Water Child

Futureheads – Danger of the Water

Rachel’s – Water From the Same Source

Cake – You Part the Waters

I’ve got a message in a bottle,
That I wrote the other day.
It says exactly how I feel,
So I tossed it in the sea.

Because I’m not ready to tell you,
just how I feel.

Standing on the shoreline,
as I watch my message float away.
I immediately jumped into the sea,
To get my message back to me.

Because I’m finally ready to tell you,
Just how I feel.

So I’ve got my message in a bottle,
and I’ve got you standing next to me.
It seems it just takes a message from the sea,
To get exactly what I need.

I need you.

music and lyrics copyright Kevin Ehlers 2007

Mr. Optimistic
by Kevin Ehlers
mp3 / youtube

Tragedy’s befallen me again it seems.
What am I to do?
Mr. Optimistic’s feeling down these days.
She broke his heart in two.

So if you see us walking with our heads hung low,
You know what to do.
Point us home.

I love you,
But I’m not in love with you.
She says, as I laugh and say
Could you be more cliché?
Well I love you too,
but it seems I’m still in love with you.
I wish that it wasn’t so hard to fall out of love,
With you.
Just point me home.

Lyrics and music copyright Kevin Ehlers 2007

Heart

[youtube dk04OlWbbf0]

Heart
by Kevin Ehlers (aka Honest Artist)

It’s that feeling that you get when you just know
What they came to say and it shows.
It’s that feeling that you get before your heart
Disappears…

It’s that feeling that you get when she just stares at you
And you know,
That she’s not there.
It’s that feeling that you get when your heart sinks for good
Because you know
She never cared,
Like you do.

It’s because of you
I feel this way.
It’s because of you
I’ll never feel the same.

I ran in circles for you
Chasing love to the end of the world
Oh what a shame.
There’s always a catch with you
I was hoping that one day you could change,
Oh what a shame.

It’s that feeling that you get when you just know,
That she’s gone.

Well, not exactly.  But I’m traveling tomorrow and seeing “No Country For Old Men” with my dad.  Then, we’ve got the big Holiday.  So, I’m wishing everyone a happy Turkey Day now since I won’t post probably until Friday.  Enjoy the random songs I found when searching for the word Turkey.

Bob Dylan – Turkey Chase

John Lennon – Cold Turkey

The Ohio Players – Jive Turkey

P.S.  Two new demos Joe and I just finished.  Once again, unmixed, super unpolished.  But you get the idea.  Epiphany turned out extra good with the new additions we came up with.  You’ll hear them.  Joe played drums on the keyboard by the way.  Pretty impressive.

Epiphany

The Metaphor

1. The Acorn – Hold Your Breath
   
2. Yeasayer – Sunrise
   
3. Jesca Hoop – Summertime
   
4. The Mabuses – Mirth
   
5. Matt Pond PA – Wild Girl
   
6. Sunset Rubdown – Up on Your Leopard, Upon Your Feral Days
   
7. The Golden Republic – Hemel Dalingen
   
8. Enon – Pigeneration
   
9. Frida Hyvonen – The Modern
   
10. Regina Spektor – Chemo Limo
    
11. The Acorn – Lullabye (Mountain)
    

We made it! Three years of blogging and 40 Perch Mixes down. Of course, I kind of just went at my own pace as far as posting Perch Mixes, but still, 40 Perch Mixes is a good milestone to get to. This Perch Mix is a little different feeling than most, mainly because of the random music I’ve been listening to lately that are a bit out of the norm for me. Yeasayer is a great new band I’m really into. The Acorn are all time favs and have further proven that fact with their latest release. We’ve got a strange one from Sunset Rubdown which is curiously captivating, a short number from Matt Pond PA, and one of my favorite heartbreakers in “Chemo Limo” not only because it reminds me a lot of riding around listening to Regina Spektor with Tiffany, but also because the lyrics about someone fighting cancer get me every time. I also couldn’t leave out Enon, whose latest release isn’t their best, but I still really like that band.

Enjoy the latest Perch Mix and here’s seeing you 10 Perch Mixes from now for the big five-O.

P.S. Joe and I are starting to record all the songs we’ve learned so far in demo form to teach our new band members. Here’s a more polished version of “10,000 Miles”. I don’t like the very end, kind of sloppy, but Joe had a date so we had to cut the session short and this was the result. We also got a very rough take done of “Nothing Like This”. The levels are all over the place, as are the filters, but you get the picture. Honest Artist is very close to being a real band with five members. I couldn’t be more excited.

10,000 Miles (New Demo)

Nothing Like This (barebones version)

Nothing Like This live at Your Mom Fest w/drums
[youtube BWpKwclsQiQ ]

Someone recently left this comment on Tiffany and my youtube “Hyperballad” video we did the last morning I was in Chicago. If that doesn’t brighten your day, I don’t know what will. I’m a lucky guy indeed to have such a great girl. Sorry for the random post, just wanted to share that.

[youtube f0KoMqUtGPo]

Did I mention she’s hilarious as well?

Match.vom video (just scroll back a second when it freezes to see the end)
[youtube BZDu14gP_ME]