8/20/2011

15 bands/musicians I listen to that you might want to consider

This blog is not a music blog, that's why I don't usually talk about music. But since sometimes I found music recommendations useful that's why I'm writing this post. I got to know most of the bands through a german indie station named Indie Goes To Hollywood, some of them through collaborations between bands and some just because I came across them. I won't be posting videos, but just because I think it would make it too long and because everybody knows how to use youtube.

1. a-ha: Norway. I know it's not exactly a new band, but for me it's timeless music. Songs: appart from the obvious Take On Me, also Forever Not Yours, Shadowside, Did Anybody Approach You and Summer Moved On.

2. Apparatjik: England, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. Apparatjik is not easy to describe, because is not like anything else and even if their members are part of Coldplay, a-ha and Mew, they sound nothing like them, except of the obvious fact that Jonas is the lead singer. Songs: Datascroller, Look Kids and my favourite One Less Thing To Worry About.

3. Mando Diao: Sweden. Well Mando Diao is Rock and Roll but now. Songs: Dance With Somebody, Gloria, Song for Aberdeen and All My Senses.

4. Sugarplum Fairy: Sweden. They raise from the same city of Mando Diao, actually their two lead singers are brothers of one of Mando Diao's lead singers, so I guess it all stays in the family. Songs: You Can't Kill Rock'n'Roll, In Berlin, Harder To Say I'm Sorry and Left, Right, Black, White.

5. Carl Norén: Sweden. One of the lead singers in Sugarplum Fairy, he decided to go solo for a while doing a completely different music, relying more on raw feelings, well actually I don't know how to explain it, so just listen to it. Songs: Going Out Tonight, That's The Way I Like It and Tired Of Running.

6. Viktorious: Sweden. He's Carl Noren's brother and also the other Sugarplum Fairy lead singer, he is going solo for a while too but the style he has chosen is not quite the same as his brother's as he went for some electronic-pop music, he did something he called "Viktorious Weekends" letting fans download for free some of his songs and right now he's doing Viktorious Weekdays posting acoustic versions of his songs on youtube. Songs: Scandalous, Save Me From Falling and Killing The Fun make sure you check the acoustic version of this one too.

7. Frank Turner: England. Frank Turner is, as I've read on some Youtube comments, god if god could sing and was so good looking. I must confess I'm completely in love with him, irrationally in love, but it's really easy to fall in love with him, his lyrics are mind blowing and the energy he puts on singing all his songs, the way he pours his feelings in them. Songs: Worse Things Happen At Sea, Photosynthesis, The Road, If I Ever Stray, One Foot Before The Other and The Fastest Way Home.

8. The Hoosiers: England. The Hoosiers are a blast of energy, it's the only way I can define them. Songs: Goodbye Mr. A, Bumpy Ride and Choices.

9. Young The Giant: USA, California. I don't know what to say of them, you've to listen to their music, that's it. Songs: My Body and Cough Syrup. Really, check them.

10. Barcelona: USA, Washington. Barcelona it's an amazing city and also an amazing band, they are about to release their second album. Songs: It's About Time, Come Back When You Can and Please Don't Go.

11. Two Door Cinema Club: Northern Ireland. They have been quite a revelation around here and anyone who has listened to them can see why, catchy songs and somehow different to other indie bands. Songs: Do You Want It All, I Can Talk, Undercover Martyn and What You Know.

12. Blackroom: Norway. They are not a well known band, but believe me when I say that Ole's voice is the best male voice I've ever listened to, ever. They used to be named Lorraine, but then they changed it to Black Room just before the release of their second album and to Blackroom after that. Songs: I Feel It (Lorraine), Twenty Years Under Water (Lorraine) and Italian Girlfriend (Black Room).

13. The Temper Trap: Australia. One of their songs was featured on (500) Days of Summer and after that on a lot of advertisements, it's trademark is Dougy's falsetto. Songs: Sweet Disposition, Fader and Science Of Fear.

14. Sigur Rós: Iceland. I guess most of you have heard of them, they are one of the most famous bands in Iceland and not only in there but also in other countries, and all this singing only in Icelandic or in Hopelandic. Songs: Hópipolla, Við spilum endalaust, Ára bátur and Goobledigook.

15. Jónsi: Iceland. He's the lead singer in Sigur Rós and he went solo last year to do a marvelous album completely in English, he did a song for "How to train your dragon" too. Songs: Boy Lilikoi, Tornado and Grow Till Tall.

That's it for today, I still have some left, but I think it's enough for now. I hope you enjoy them!


8/16/2011

Atheism

As I stated in several post already I'm an atheist, but I've haven't been one for all my life. I was raised as a catholic, my family is not the kind of family that goes to church every sunday, but mum believes in god though dad is an skeptic (he never said he didn't believe in god either he said he believed in it, and he's strongly against religion), I guess that since the only "kids club" (I don't really know how to say that...) was the one that was organized by the church I somehow ended up in there, singing church songs and all these things ending eventually in taking the first communion, but I don't know if this was because I really believed in it or because of the presents you got and the princess dress I would wear on that day.

After that I spent some idle time, well I mean idle regarding religion I was 9 nothing is idle at that time, and eventually realized that there were too many wrong things in the world for a god to exist so I guess that was the start of my atheism, though I'd never heard of the concept so it was just something unnamed. At some point I actually thought that buddhism was a better option than catholicism. Then there was a time I had a couple of religious weddings and while sitting in there listening at the priest I just couldn't believe all that. So I guess that I first acknowledged myself as being an atheist when I was 15. And since I've always been keen on Science I thought it was impossible to believe in something superior while studying life, evidence has always been stronger than faith for me.

I am lucky, I've never had any problem for being an atheist, actually there are plenty of atheists in here though there is some religious people in here. Actually, some of my distant relatives are really religious, though is usually only during "special" occasions, and I don't think they know I'm an atheist since we hardly ever see each other. Anyways as I said no one points at you on the street if they know you're an atheist, it's just not a big deal, that's why I'm surprised that in some places atheists are treated as if they were scum, as if they were inmoral people or worse. I've never treated religious people like this, I mean sometimes over religious people, like the ones that thinks god is going to solve all their problems or the ones that are always quoting the bible get me on my nerves, but I never go to them and tell them they're crap or that they should never ever have kids, of course I think that what they believe on is wrong but not for that I point at them on the street.

I know I cannot convince anyone of becoming an atheist, everyone has to become one for itself. For the same reason no one should try to convert an atheist.

8/12/2011

Love and me

Ok, you got here knowing nothing about me, I guess you just followed some crazy link or were looking for something different, but hey... here you are. First of all you have to know this post comes out on a sleepless night, I don't know why but I've been having some of them lately...

My love life has always been a disaster, but I guess I can sort out different disasters, and who knows, maybe it will help me sorting out things. As most of girls I've loved some times, but it took me longer, I guess that at first I wasn't really interested, also I didn't have the confidence nor any of the boys around me looked interested in me. But well after a slow start... it came a slow development, I guess I still wasn't confident. And now I'm in a steady phase, it is weird because I don't love anyone right now, of course I like some guys, but it's not the same it's not like I'm in love with any of them, dunno it's weird and since my writing ability relies on my sentimental status this is leading to a blank period. Anyways, this post is to talk about the kinds of "love" I've had in all this years, if you already feel like in a teenager diary you can skip this post and read the other ones if you feel like (I promise they're more mature than this one, but... I told you I can't sleep!).

1. The guy you think you love. When you are a teenager, specially if you're not a popular one, you like people who thinks you're awesome, so picture this, there is this guy who comes from nowhere and starts flattering you, well you will feel liked and you will think he's really nice. Eventually you'll fall in love with him, but how couldn't you? Then one day he disappears and you realize he's a dick. I think this kind of guys are the ones that you meet when you're still in highschool and you're naive... or actually anytime in your life.

2. The guy who's close to you. Picture this: you've got a really close friend who's really funny and you feel really good when you're together. Then you start to think is something more could happen. Well... no. I'm not saying it cannot work sometimes, but in most of the cases it doesn't work this way. Friends are one thing and tend to last longer than boyfriends.

3. The guy you would... I guess this is not exactly what we call love, but physical attraction. Sometimes this guys are not even your ideal of beauty, but there's some strange chemistry in the air. Still relationships with them won't work, it takes more than only physical attraction to get a stable relationship.

4. Love at first sight. You meet this guy who is just perfect, he makes you laugh, your legs shake when he looks you in the eye and he seems to like you. You can tell it by the way he looks at you. Still... how can you be so sure about this if you've just meet him. You can't it takes a long time to get to know a person. I guess that love at first sight only happens because we want it to happen at least once in our lives.

And well this would be it. As you can see I haven't included a long term relationship, which I guess will happen someday... when I find the right guy... ha! Screw this... I think I'll be happy living short termed intense relationships, so I better start looking for these!

8/10/2011

The pope is coming... again

Last year I wrote a post because the pope was coming to Barcelona, unfortunately it is in Catalan, so I guess most of you wouldn't understand it. This year the pope is coming again, this time to Madrid.

I don't know why he's coming and I couldn't care less, but today on the news they were saying that to accomodate the people who's going to see him they are using public equipment and they are not paying for it. Let's make something clear, Spain is supposed to be a non religious country, therefore there shouldn't be benefits for one religion and none for the others or for non religious people, if I want to go to a evolutionist fair I will have to pay for it myself, the state won't pay for it, then why if these people want to go to see the pope we have to pay for it?

Moreover, it is said that the whole thing is going to cost 50 million €, that's a lot of money. So aren't catholics so giving and everything they say that make them better persons? Why don't they give all this money to charity? Why does the pope need all this security and all that gold in everything he uses? I mean I'm not going to go where he is and punch him on the face, if he wants to believe in god and all this is okay to me, but I think that there's no need of spending so much money on believing in something and there's no need for everyone in the country to pay for it, even if they say that it's only money from the believers every year the church gets money from the government, and the government gets money from the people and most of the people just don't care about what the church says.

I'm positive that there's some of this people who work in charities and everything, but still the Catholic church makes enormous amounts of money that they are not using to feed the poor or all these things they are so proud they do with a small amount of the money they get. Seriously to talk about a religion do you really need to live in a palace?

I guess I'm biased in here, but it makes me angry to see how they are spending so much money in something now that there is economic crisis, of course you could tell me that we could say the same about concerts and festivals, but these things generate benefits as people pays to go and pays for a place to sleep. I don't know I guess I have to stop watching the news...

8/06/2011

Arto Paasilinna

I've been thinking about writing a post on Arto for a long time already. Arto Paasilinna is a Finn writer, unfortunately he's not really known here in Spain, I first came across him while reading a blog which I don't remember anymore whose was, the fact is that in that post there was a review on Arto's book "A Charming Mass Suicide" (Hurmaava joukkoitsemurha), the time passed and I never looked for it actively, but one day while reading a literary magazine my mum gets every two months that book was there and I decided to buy it. If you've never read Paasilinna you should be warned, he doesn't take seriously things like suicide and death, his books are not dark novels, they're just another insight to Finn society. As I was saying I got A Charming Mass Suicide after some days and I really liked the style, it was so different to everything else I'd read before that it made a big impression, surprisingly I laughed more than once understanding that you can actually find the funny side of almost everything and that it is good to laugh about ourselves. 
After A Charming Mass Suicide I had a Paasilinna-less period 'til I stumbled across The Howling Miller in a book shop, it was a pleasant surprise since I had long lost the hope of finding more of his books. The style was the same though the topic was different, but it is funny to see that what makes a person sane or insane is just the judgement of other people in some cases. 

This time I actually started looking for more of Arto's books, but the search was fruitless, it was really difficult to find anything, 'til I found "The Sweet Poison Cook" and "The Year Of The Hare", loved both of them though they are really different. After reading all these books I feel compelled to tell everyone to read them, they are a good read and they make you see things from a different angle. They you think. And this is good.