First off I want to thank those of you who showed up for the gig. The indoor festival venue was kind of tricky to find, (being, as it was, an outdoor festival) resulting in a frustrated flow of text messages and missed calls on the cell during and after the show. In any case, we had a real blast and felt that we really managed to represent ourselves well on the biggest festival in Sweden.
Besides yours truly, a bunch of other bands played too of course. I had the pleasure of attending some good gigs, especially The Wildhearts and Faith No More. I first saw Faith back in 1998 on their very last tour when they visited the Lollipop Festival in Stockholm. That gig was not very good, the band looking painfully tired of touring, lacking the energy in the performance and output. This time was a lot different. It was one of the best live shows I’ve seen. I was amazed at how good a frontman Mike Patton really is, with his mezmerizing gaze and wild bursts of energy, frantically waving a white cane in the air whilst switching back and forth between opera-like vocals and growling. If you get a chance to see them on their reunion tour, regardless of whether you’ve heard them before or not, take it!
The big disappointment at this festival was, sadly, Chris Cornell. Oh, how far the mighty have fallen… I still don’t get why the f*** he decided to throw his career away and start experimenting with Timbaland. Something is really very wrong. The band backing him isn’t the best either, despite the fact that they’re all skilled musicians. There’s just very little chemistry on stage. The magical moments are sparse, but at least they’re there during “Spoonman” and “Black Hole Sun”, and Chris is definitely lucky he’s got that voice of his, otherwise I’m sure I would have left during the middle part of the show where he only served new crap and some boring Audioslave songs.
Anyhow, all in all this was one of the best festivals I’ve had the pleasure of attending. The last night after the last show most of the bands and artists gathered in the backstage area for a few beers and socializing. So Morty and I didn’t get to bed until about 5.30 in the morning - some nights you just don’t want to end! It was a good thing we had to drive back to Stockholm in the morning, thus preventing me to devour excessive amounts of alcohol and managing to avoid hangover altogether.
So, what’s next? Some well deserved time off, maybe some rehearsing and perhaps I will get into the mood of songwriting again. Now I’m off for an afternoon beer in the sun. Cheerio!
Thursday’s the day when The Genuine Fakes enter the Orion stage at the Peace & Love Festival in Borlänge. 6.30 pm is the time. Check out the calendar for more information.
The next must-have in this powerpop album collection is Jellyfish’s masterpiece “Spilt Milk” from 1993. I only just got into the band a few years back, having missed them completely throughout my youth for some reason. This is a true gem, and the last of the two albums that Jellyfish released before they disbanded in 1994. It includes the epic song “Joining a Fan Club” which is a tribute to the music fans, collecting 8×10s and putting up posters on the wall. The song is built up in the same way as “Stairway to Heaven” and “Bohemian Rhapsody”, consisting of many different parts merged together in one huge masterpiece.
This is yet another album you’ll be hard-pressed to find any flaws on. Andy Sturmer (lead singer/drummer/main songwriter) worked meticulously for a long time to finish it, at a tremendous cost for the record company. But the result speaks for itself. Tunes like “Bye, bye, bye”, “Sebrina, Paste and Plato”, “Glutton of Sympathy”, “New Mistake” and “The Ghost at Number One” hit you like a brick in the head with intricate arrangements and crisp production. For those of you who are vocal harmony junkies, you will find that Jellyfish will give The Beach Boys and The Beatles a run for their money any day. Now run down to the record store and get a tangible copy of this album, you won’t regret it. Happy listening kids!
Here’s a live performance of “Joining a Fan Club”.
If you haven’t noticed yet, the praised TGF version of Beyoncé’s ballad “Irreplaceable” is now available for listening over at http://music.thegenuinefakes.com. Much enjoyment!
That’s right folks, The Genuine Fakes will grace the Peace and Love festival in Borlänge, Sweden with a visit on June 25. This means they’ll be joining the fine lineup of greats such as Chris Cornell, Faith No More, Mötley Crüe and Monster Magnet, not to mention Morty Fake’s favorite band - The Wildhearts.
We have updated the music section with a brand new mediaplayer! The new player is powered by Bandcamp and provides high-quality streaming - you can really tell the difference from our old MySpace-player.
Right now I’m redescovering Pearl Jam. It’s one of my all time favorite bands and I’ve followed them since I was in junior high. They were the band that got me hooked on the Seattle scene that subsequently led me onto powerpop through The Posies. Last month they reissued their monumental debut album “Ten”, repackaged, remixed and remastered. I always thought that their first album sounded a bit dated, unlike their other albums that have withstood the test of time a lot better. Well, they seem to have felt the same as they brought in Brenden O’Brien (who engineered and mixed their finest albums - Vs., Vitalogy, No Code and Yield) to work through the old master tapes and give the songs a well needed facelift. Do youselves a favor and check out “Ten - Redux”. I’d recommend getting the edition that comes with the previously unreleased MTV Unplugged on a bonus DVD. I taped it on my VCR back when it was first aired and watched that ’til my eyes bled! To this day, Pearl Jam are still relevant and they keep releasing albums that are interesting - something that can hardly be said for most bands that came out in the early ’90s.
While trimming my mustache the other day I started thinking about all of the fabulous mustaches out there - you’ve got the Faker-style thin mustache or the Magnum-style mega thick stache etc.
A great place to find all sorts of serious and fun facts about the good ol’ stache is the American Mustache Institute.
I think that The Wannadies is one of greatest bands in the world - I just don’t understand why they didn’t make it even bigger… Practically every song is a smash hit as far as I’m concerned!
I’ve linked some YouTube-clips that are definitely worth checking out. The first is the video for the song Friends which is one of their best songs…
The second clip is this simple but cool video for the song I Don’t Like You.
The third clip is from their awesome song Hit. We attempted to play it once with a cover band but it is seriously difficult to get the guitars and rhythm right. The Wannadies are just so tight…
Just look at their unbelievably cool discography; all of their albums are sooo good!
The Wannadies (1990)
Aquanautic (1992)
Be a Girl (1994)
Bagsy Me (1997)
The Wannadies (1997) - release for the US market
Yeah (1999)
Before & After (2002)
Skellefteå (1998) - Compilation and remix album
Tune in on Spotify for some excellent tunes by The Wannadies.
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