we could make our castles here and sweep them all away

i know that i am just a grain of sand
meeting water at the land
we could make our castles here
and sweep them all away



Great lake swimmers - I am still discovering this act, although it is by no means new. Flowing and simple acoustic mixed with electric and steel guitar. Reminds me of Red house painters. I have several other songs that I want to share, but you'll just have to wait until I find the right photo to go with them..

Sorrow's a girl inside my cake

I live in a city Sorrow built
It's in my honey, it's in my milk


Whatever that thing is which a group needs to stand out, The National definitely have IT. Seems to be, at a glance it all sounds the same and appears almost boring. But having listened to them a few times around, they have become haunting, showing up inside my head at unexpected times. Go get wise!

A way to start the day

I imagine what my body would sound like
Slamming against those rocks


Björk won the 2010 Polar Prize award alongside Ennio Morricone. Yeay. And Robyn made a lovely cover of Hyperballad for the award ceremony, check it out here.

Disclaimer

I am currently, and will be for a while ahead, working on finishing my phd thesis. At the same time I have a beautiful baby boy to look after and, well, time is not unlimited. Posting may be few and far apart until I finish, but if you're looking for picture uploads you can find more frequent contributions at FLICKR

here

I miss you so much I've become light

It's okay
I'm all right
We'll meet again someday,
Somehow
Time, time's but a touch
I miss you so much
I've become light

Declan de Barra sings with an awesome voice, reminds at least me of Jeff Buckley in the combination of range and power with fragility and sensuality. Really nice singer and songwriter.

And now this is ending

You created me
And the things I see
And now I surrender
To the space between

You know Thom Yorke? That fantastic fellow fronting the band called Radiohead? This isn't him. This is his brother.

We make it up as we go along

How did it go so fast
you'll say as we are looking back
and then we'll understand
we held gold dust in our hands

Tori Amos - I've been listening to her for years and years. She was actually one of the few artists I collected releases from, back when there was a point to that. I must have 30 or so CD with here albums, bootlegs and singles. Here lyrics are not very dependable, in my opinion. Some albums - and more precisely some songs - are stellar, galactic, great great great. But not all. Some are weird, some songs too experimental, etc. But that's ok, so long as she still makes the type of nuggets that Gold Dust is..

You can't always know what they will uncover on the news

Beautiful secrets you guard them in your secret garden
You water and nurture them until they're bigger than life itself


Don't even know how I stumbled on Sarah Blasko, might have been a review in the morning paper, or it might just have been a random encounter on Spotify. Some of her songs have this nice dark tone to them and this is one of them.

The crumbs are gone and the way, the way is lost

Hear the sigh of the trees
Those who enter here never leave

A Fine Frenzy is top notch female songwriter and vocalist. Still only two albums available but I am biting my nails waiting for more.

Look what you have done

You're on your own
You said you fail to care

I love The Twilight Sad because I love the Scottish accent and I have a tendency to favour depressing musical flavours. I have no idea what the lyrics are about, but they don't paint a very happy picture.

I'm gonna take the sins of my father down to the pond

Night is falling like a bloody axe
Lies and rumours and the wind at my back
Hand on the wheel
Gravel on the road
Will the pawn shop sell me back what I sold?


Ok, if you're going to click, settle in, because it's ten minute listen, this epic tale of Tom's. The part that fascinates me is that it is a riveting listen all the way through. Simply put, the man is straight up genius. It was difficult to select a favourite line out of the song, especially since I keep discovering new twists in several verses. I might actually have to repost this song at a later stage..

Life of a selfless man

Out of all the flaws I've stumbled on,
It's the hardest one to focus on

Insanely pretty song by the preppy Bombay Bicycle Club. Can't say I'm all there as far as deciphering the lyrics is concerned but what the hey - when it's this well performed I don't need to get it.

Is there some idea to replace my life

Morning comes in Paradise
Morning comes in light

Sufjan Stevens is another regular on my playslists who hasn't made it onto the blog. "For the widows in Paradise, for the fatherless in Ypsilanti" is a phenomenal song that I first heard on a mixtape a friend made so I didn't know the names of any song. And as you can guess, it's not an easy name to divine.. I find it staggeringly beautiful so it was a treat to rediscover it on Spotify. Enjoy.

Into blood and into bone

I will let the sound of these woods that I have known
Sink into blood and to bone

Meadowlarks

I hold a cornucopia and a golden crown
For you to wear upon your fleecy down


It appears I haven't tagged any posts with Fleet Foxes which is a considerable oversight. Go listen to the song and you'll agree. They're a great little outfit of guys with a talent for vocal arrangements and a very retro sound. The lyrics hover around in little fragmented stories of country life and images of nature.

As you have noticed I have started to write comments on the posts lately. Don't know why, it just felt right to start qualifying my recommendations. Peace Out

Lay your weary head to rest

SLEEP TIGHT
LAY YOUR WEARY HEAD TO REST
TONIGHT
THE WOLF’S BEHIND THE GLASS


After a tip from my sister in-law Blaudzun of Holland has become a regular in the headphones. Here's one reason why.

it's that ancient love that you won't outgrow

it's that ancient love
that you won't outgrow


I discovered Bombay Bicycle club through WatchListenTell a few weeks ago. They did an acoustic version of this song and it blew me away in its simplicity and the guys were all so Ronald Weasley.. Since then, their album has been on repeat in my headphones. I will post a few of their other gems soon.

Time will see us realign

To the edge
till we all get off
I will take you away with me

Once and for all

'Deftones - Diamond Eyes' is a rediscovery for me. I used to listen frantically to their debut album, more years ago than I care to remember. It fills me with joy to see they still produce such marvellous metal.

This hopefully marks the beginning of regular updates on this blog with photos and Killer songs. Subscribe by clicking here and get regular updates.. (Not familiar with RSS-feeds? Check out Google Reader. It can help you keep up with all blogs, microblogs etc that you may want to follow..)

It's been a while

Yeah, yeah, I know. But you should know I just had a kid and left town for a while as well.. Let's call this a summer hiatus and look forward to new killer songs and photos later on..

Hang in there. I will be back. Subscribe to the feed and you'll be the first to know..

And if you desperately need to see something, head over to havregryning.blogspot.com where I am posting photos from my phone on a more regular basis..

Take care
Take off

Oh, The divorces!

She's great. She's back. She's Tracey Thorn. Go listen to her album here.

A girl with a bird she found in the snow

A girl with a bird she found in the snow

---
And on an informative note Spotify have recently removed some of my favorite albums so some past links may not work anymore.. Boo and hiss. It is an annoyance that agreements with record labels and artists seem to be subject to random changes without information.

>:-(

For this reason I feel I should tell you that there are alternatives to Spotify, albeit being on more shaky legal ground and I have no idea if the artists get anything for being listened to. Check out grooveshark at www.grooveshark.com. It's free and it's commercial free. I just figured out how to share tracks from GS so I'll be starting to do that from now on when Spotify fails..

Take care

Peace on earth

P O W

And we can dance like open windows in the evening air

And we can dance like open windows in the evening air

for something

I'm almost done
and the fine line between
this and some dream
is that I sold my soul
for something
i could never give

People climbed into the night like cool wells

People climbed into the night like cool wells
Shiny bottles in their hands
Drinking their new selves
They say it's their true selves

i hate this place i hate this crowd

it's cold in here
the music is too loud
i hate this place
i hate this crowd

All clothed in black

What once was clothed in white
Bears the bruise of a burden

If you just hold in your breath

If you just hold in your breath
'Til you come back up in full
Hold in your breath
'Til you've thought it through
You fool

Shooting up the ladder

You're pink you're young you'e middle-class
they say it doesn't matter
fifteen blue shirts and womanly hands
you're shooting up the ladder

Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth

Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth
Mid-sweet-talk
newspaper word cutouts

They made it past the enemy lines

They started out beneath the knowledge tree.
Then they chopped it down to make white picket fences,
And, marching along the railroad tracks,
They smile real wide for the camera lenses.
They made it past the enemy lines
Just to become enslaved in the assembly lines.

There'll be no comprimising

Cold, no heat on the horizon
guess I'm cold
there'll be no comprimising
cold
cool
cold
stone cold


(This is an old favourite of mine from the great Tears for Fears... enjoy)

They scour the earth for the things they saw in your tiny little hands

They raise you up like a God onto your tiny little stand
Until their faith, once like a rock, is ground up turning into sand
They scour the earth for the things they saw in your tiny little hands
You see, they're old enough to dream but just too young to understand
Gabriella, was this all part of your plan?

Stay out super late tonight

Stay out super late tonight
Picking apples, making pies
Put a little something in our lemonade and take it with us
We're half awake in a fake empire

With the wild wolves around you

With the wild wolves around you

A fragment of light at the end of the tunnel

And I'm ill with the thought of your kiss
Coffee laced, intoxicating on her lips

A tree born crooked will never grow straight

A tree born crooked
Will never grow straight
She sunk like a hammer into the lake

A long lost letter
and an old leaky boat
Promises I never meant To keep

Elements - A fine frenzy

Oh the elements I do not fear
But I fall apart when you appear
Cos you are the greatest
The greatest disaster

the things we did i can´t forget

Your picture is still on my wall
The colors are bright
bright as ever
the things we did i can´t forget

your boldness stands alone among the wreck

your grace is wasted in your face,
your boldness stands alone among the wreck

as you see the snow kiss the curb

You're up on the bar and you're shaking
With every grimy word
Who will you love
What's love when you've hurt
You wonder as you see the snow kiss the curb

One little leak becomes a lake

The tick tock tick of a ticking timebomb
Fifty feet of concrete underground
One little leak becomes a lake
Says the tiny voice in my earpiece

Caught in a rat's nest

Clicks on the phone
I cannot help you
Caught by your work
Caught in a rat's nest
Eat our young
Chew through wires

Still shudder when I see that dorsal fin

is it cold outside
enough to chill
daisies on the window sill

What's lost can never be broken

Everything has it's price
Everything has it's place
What's more romantic than dying in the moonlight?

Now they're all watching the sea
What's lost can never be broken
Her roots were sweet
But they were so shallow

are you ever going to make them pay

i count the nights
i count the days
you try to show that nothing stays
but im still hanging around

When you think like a hermit you forget what you know

We all know what we know, it's a hard swath to mow
When you think like a hermit you forget what you know

anyone would let it go

anyone would let it go
anyone would let it go

I don't want to go home

drifting away
to where the angels would play like you'd almost forgotten
and then on with the next breath so impossibly new
like the curve of your waist all warm and ceramic and smooth

i dont want to go home
i want to come home

Things I've seen will chase me

Things I've seen will chase me
To the grave

Carnivals of silverfish

We can ill afford
To give ourselves to sentiment
When our time is oh so short
There are names beneath the lichen
On these cemetery stones
And carnivals of silverfish
Waiting to dance upon our bones

New Year's eve 1995

New Year's eve 1995
sad to still be here
But happy to be alive
Seems like the more one lives the less one thrives
Days getting shorter
But the longing just keeps on coming

It's Christmas Time

The desert danced in flames
We played in artificial snow