Dear Santa...

Current wishlist.

Total jävla mörker – Totalt jävla mörker and Refused – The shape of punk to come, no idea why I don’t own these classic records yet but I don’t and not doing so somehow feels like living a lie. Need to find a decent CD-store in Berlin a.s.a.p.
New album from Rise Against – Appeal to Reason should be worth a listen, having heard their latest singlerelease.
Another album which I have listened to a lot but don’t yet own is brilliant The Blackening by Machine Head. I need to get it, simply because my ex kept his copy when we broke up.
Last but not least I have been looking out for the boys in The Mirimar Disaster and their new very much anticipated release Volumes for a while now. They didn’t have it in Sound Pollution in Stockholm a few weeks back but looking online, they do now. Get it.

Dean, Slomo, Frank and Nicky in The Mirimar Disaster

Bands I want to see live. Now.

-Maylene and the sons of disaster. Probably as close to my favourite sound in a nutshell as you can get. Oh and you will struggle to find a hotter singer this side of the moon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4GI4xOkJ1o&feature=related
-Khoma. Cult of Luna are amazing but it’s time for Khoma to wake up from their… uhm, coma.
-Refused. Doh.
-The Hellacopters. Their last gig ever, which I have tickets to, can’t come soon, or late, enough. Anticlimax or what.

Clutch at Klubben, Stockholm 25/8/2008

Clutch have not sold out, but nearly, and this is when they only played Sweden a month ago: Klubben is packed when the four piece band from Maryland enter the stage to the sound of a voice rapping “son of a bad man”. After two excellent support-acts from Dover and Graveyard, the expectations are high.

Playing a set of sixteen songs they never try to win their crowds commitment with any cheap tricks. There are no cool looks, posing guitarists or “sing-with-me”-moments involved, in fact they hardly even say a word between their songs. With Clutch it is all about the message of the music, a message which they seem determined to spread. (Have a look at their touring rate and get my point.)

The blues and punk influenced rock band of a touring machine that is Clutch is fronted by singer Neil Fallon who night after night like a preacher proclaims his prophecy with great gestures and steady belief. Together with Tim Sult, Dan Maines and Jean-Paul Gaster he delivers song after song with full force and a hint of arrogance, these guys know they’re good.
They know this that well that in between songs all band members almost look bored and it’s not until almost 15 songs have been delivered that what can be interpreted as a joke and possibly a smile slips Fallon’s lips. Which is ok.

Unfortunately their self belief goes that far that they ten songs in think that they can pull off a three songs long jamming session without getting boring. In my opinion they can’t, however great Gaster on drums may be.

So I leave the venue together with a muttering crowd, feeling a bit disappointed. Great ideas need at least a bit of charm to go down well, don’t they?