Years ago, i stumbeled upon Death Cab for Cutie. It’s a very un-cool way i found this band, but it’s the way i found it. So, around 2005 when i went to high school, i was very into World of Warcraft, like very many of us were. People started making videos where they were fighting other players, showing of their skills and showing of their ability to master the game. People spent a lot of time, effort and thought regarding the musical choices of their videos as it also upped their credibility and the re-watchability of the video. In one of these videos some beautiful soul (thank you!!) put the song Soul Meets Body from the album Plans, by Death Cab for Cutie. Instantly, i fell in love. I must’ve played that tune a gazillion times, since.

I didn’t forget about Death Cab for Cutie, but my musical interest strayed away from them for a while, i discovered other genres and sounds – but some time ago i fell back deep into the hole again, and wow.

I’m very big on going on concerts and watching bands play live, so the pandemic was a tough time for my concert interest. Through Spotify i saw that Death Cab for Cutie was going to play live in Stockholm, and i decided to go see them, since they’ve been such a big part of my musical journey, and still are. This was my first time seeing DCFC live and i surely will try to catch them again. The concert was pretty close by in time and i decided to go alone, all by myself – this was my first time going to a live show on my own. I’ve been alone on gigs on like festivals and such, but i’ve been to the festival with friends – so that doesn’t count.

Death Cab for Cutie played the 6th of March, in Filadelfia Convention Center in Stockholm. This is, as it sounds, a Filadelfia church, a very cool venue with great acoustics. This stop was part of their Asphalt Meadows Tour, the album they released last year. Since they’ve been active for such a long time the crowd was all sorts of people, ages and paths of lifes. From young couples, to elderly concert goers.

According to Setlist.fm they played 23 songs. 19 songs, and another 4 songs in the encore. Setlist was a good mix of old tracks, new tracks, and medium old tracks. Sometimes i feel like going on ”album-tours”, like this was, can be rough since some artists just plays stuff from the new album and barely nothing of their older stuff – but DCFC had a good mix.

Musically they were fantastic, they are so tight together and it really looks like they enjoy what they are doing, and the company of each other. Ben’s vocals were great and on point, he sounds about the same live as he does on record.
I would give this gig 4/5 tunes as a score. Recommend catching them live, if you get the chance!

Until next time, take care
SLQT.

5th of March, 2023.

This friday, the 3rd, we got a new album drop from the brittish rapper slowthai!
slowthai has had his controversies, atleast in the UK, there was an incident where he was rather intoxicated on the stage of a nice establishment and he held the head of a Boris Johnson doll in his hand, as he performed his massive tune Doorman.

I first heard about slowthai when he released his song Doorman with Mura Masa. It’s a massive song and tune, and it hits differently than much of the music in the same genre does, it’s a fun overlap of musical genres in that track and much of his music.

I’ve been keeping up with slowthai since the release of his first album, Nothing Great About Britain in 2019 and there’s been some good tracks, but nothing that made me feel like Doorman did, when i first heard it. I’ve had the feeling that slowthai has been chasing a song like Doorman, since Doorman, which is understandable – however he’s been falling rather short.

That’s why i got very positively surprised when i listened through UGLY for the first time. There’s wide variety of sounds on this album, and you really hear that slowthai’s been experimenting and trying something else, and something for him, new. It’s a big pet peeve of mine, when artists keep on releasing the same album over and over again.
Songs to give a listen is for sure Yum & UGLY.

Until next time, take care.
SLQT.

The 5th of March, 2023.

I believe the most of us have some things, wheter it being authors, restaurants, artists or anything, that we were very early adapters to, or first to touch the ball on. For me it’s music and musical artists, since that’s something i am very interested in.

And one of the musical phenomenons that i was a very early adapter to is Skrillex, and the rather cringy brostep-era of music that he’s very associate with. A friend of mine sent me a link to Skrillex’s MySpace-site when Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites had <60k plays – i was floored, it in a sort of way reminded me to the heavy metal/death metal i had been listening to in high school, but this was the electronic equivalent. I forwarded this new music to friends that also had an interest in music, and after some time, Skrillex was the hottest act and musician on the market.

I lost intereste in the brostep music, it came much music during that era from musicians that ventured into the brostep-genre since that was the music of the time, that i found an interest in and got more into – a great example would be deadmau5 and his album 4×4=12, that doesn’t sound anything like his other albums because of the musical stream at the time.

Skrillex faded out a bit from the common mind and the mainstream and he didn’t produce as much music as he had done before. Ever since he has dropped some music with collaborators and collaborations that has been interesting – the things he did with Justin Bieber and Diplo got massive publicity.

Out of nowhere a couple of weeks ago Skrillex showed up with a new look, and there was some publicity regarding his upcoming album release, something i looked forward to – old habits die hard, and all that. The first release was the album Quest for Fire, with music that has elements and inspiration from the earlier Skrillex-projects, and sounds a bit ”brosteppy” – there are a few really good tracks on this album, for example: Butterflies, RATATA & Tears. The collaborations on this album is off the charts, with massive acts and legendary musicians such as: Missy Elliott, Mr. Oizo, Fred again…, Four Tet and Porter Robinson – just to name a few of them. The artwork for the album is also very dope. I think Quest for Fire is worth a listen, it’s a solid album with interesting mixing, features and technical phenomenons.

With the release of Quest for Fire, Skrillex in an interview said that he had more music in the pipeline that he was to drop sometime under 2023, very interesting and generous, i thought to myself. Turns out that the new album release came faster than anyone could anticipate as it dropped the day after the first release. Two releases from Skrillex in two days, wild.

The second album, Don’t Get Too Close, is the better album, musically. It’s also full of massive, massive features and collaborations with artists such as: Trippie Redd, Yung Lean, Bladee, Chief Keef, Kid Cudi & Swae Lee – just to name a few. The music on this album feels more adapted to the current stream of electronic music, and somehow the wide gap and variety inbetween the tracks is enormous – no track sound the same. I have been bumping this album regularly since the release, and let me tell you, it’s magnificent. Worse artwork tho.

Until next time, take care.
SLQT.

Edit from the author: I started writing this, and never finished it. It’s been in my drafts for weeks now.

Friday the 10th of February 2023.

We’ve gotten a new release from the veterans of rock music, Paramore!
This is their first release since their 2017 release After Laughter.

In 2007 Paramore revolutionized the musical mind of me, whilst in high school. Kids, a few years older than me released an album, Riot!, that completely blew my mind. So, Paramore holds a special place in my heart, even if i haven’t held them under tabs these last few years.

However, this new release, This Is Why, has been very hyped around the internet and in different media platforms – this made me very happy to see.

I’ve given this new album a listen, and i did enjoy it. It sounded like Paramore, Hayley William and her voice has just gotten better and more refined over the years, and she has like many other singers a very distinct sound to her voice that makes you recognize it as her, as soon as you hear the first tune.

The lyrics and the instrumental have gotten a more mellow sound to them, compared to what many of us maybe recognize as the sound of Paramore.

Since this text has been resting since the 10th of February without any updates, i believe that is also a sort of reflection from my side regarding my interest in the album by Paramore. I kind of forgot about it after i gave it a couple of listenings, but i haven’t went back since.

Until next time, take care.
SLQT.

That was the name of the documentary series i saw on SVT, the swedish state television some odd months ago. It stuck with me. The concept is that they take a look on the swedish hard rock scene and it’s impact on other genres, countries and music overall. It’s a four part documentary that starts early, and ends in fairly recent times. I believe that this is a must watch for anyone who’s interested in music and the hard rock scene.

Anyways, as i wrote above, it stuck with me, as it introduced me to much new music, and reminded me of bands and acts that i listened to years ago, and made me revisit them. Below i will list three artists and bands that they mention in the documentary, that i have been listening to a lot since i watched this series.

On third place i have put Left Hand Path by Entombed. There’s something special about this album, and the sounds you hear in this rather early album, have influenced so many bands that came after, and to this day you still hear new productions that tries to sound like Entombed did on Left Hand Path.

On second place we have Bathory by Bathory. I’m not sure that Bathory needs an introduction, but this self-titled album is from 1984 and inspired almost all metal that came after it. This album was, and is a game changer, and it stays strong to this very day. As i wrote about Left Hand Path, you still hear references, influences and groups that try to mimic the Bathory sound to this very day.

On first place we have Slaughter of the Soul by At the Gates. When they started to play the title track, Slaughter of the Soul, from this album in the documentary – i had to pause and listen straight through the album. It’s so good, and i got so caught up in it, that Slaughter of the Soul by At the Gates ended up being my most played album of 2022, and At the Gates themself ended up being my second most played artist of 2022 – despite not being introduced to them until late september! This album has something that has been dubbed ”the gothenburg sound”, that is a very special sound, that you can hear to this day in many metal and hard rock acts. The most popular band that uses ”the gothenburg sound”, and that most will recognize it from is by the swedish band In Flames who came from the same area as At the Gates, outskirts of Gothenburg, and they started playing around the same time.

If you’re interested in watching Hårdrock på Export, as it’s called in swedish it’s available on SVT Play – however, i believe you might need to be inside of Sweden to be able to watch it. I saw that some beautiful soul put all music that they use in the series into a spotify playlist.

Until next time, take care.
SLQT