Music Monday #5: Love Parade Tragedy

On Music Monday this week:
1. Introduction
2. Favorite Listings
3. Top 5 Most Played Songs on Music Player
4. Drop me a line.

Usually I’m not too fond of too much techno/dance music at once (although with some exceptions) – but I think the events in Duisberg over the weekend deserve some attention. Yet again, I’m postponing the already promised post on classical and hiphop/R’n’B – and also a spark of inspiration from Friday to do a Josh Groban theme. So sorry if you’re disappointed, but this is how it is!

DR Nyheder: Aldrig mere Love Parade
DR Nyheder: Dødstallet i Duisburg er steget til 20

BBC News: Stampede at German Love Parade kills 19
BBC News: Germany’s Love Parade discontinued out of respect

CNN: 18 killed amid panic at Germany’s ‘Love Parade’
CNN: Number of dead, injured at German music festival rises
CNN: After deaths, German music fest won’t continue
CNN: Merkel orders ‘intensive’ investigation into festival stampede

19 20 dead. At least 342 injured. One festival less in the future.

My thoughts go out to everybody affected by this.

Go here to sign the book of condolences.

As I said (or at least tried to express earlier), I’m not too good at techno/dance. But here are a few of my fave dancables with an inhumanly steady groove:

Five For Comemorating
Tiësto: “In My Memory” (watch/listen @ YouTube)
— “Face me, sitting in my memory/Hold me, I remember […] I feel uneasy, under this thing/Thoughts away/The heavenly” – I’ll let the lyrics speak for themselves. Tiësto performed during the Love Parade.

Röyksopp: “What Else Is There? (Trentemøller Remix)” (watch/listen @ YouTube)
— I’ll let the lyrics speak for themselves.
I remember this one from the start of my studying for my higher preporatory exam (HF/secondary school/high school); we were planning on making an acoustic version of it in the extracurricular music class, but never made it that far.

Fatboy Slim: “Right Here, Right Now” (watch/listen @ YouTube)
— as in: There is nothing like the present when standing in an overcrowded crowd.
I still remember Fatboy Slim from my days of next to constant MTV, and later on the Roskilde Festival. A handful of tracks of the Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars album was considered for this entry – among them “Drop the Hate” (… Aw, heck: watch/listen @ YouTube. Drop the hate, forgive each other!).

Basshunter & DJ Mental Theo’s Bazzheadz: “Now You’re Gone” (watch/listen @ YouTube)
— …
Found by neat cooperation between vague memory and checking up on Sash!, having forgotten Basshunter’s name completely, but remembering “Boten Anna”. I was certain that I had known another version of “Boten Anna”, a version I thought I had heard before “Boten”, but… *sigh*… Admittedly, I must have heard the commercial for Crazy Frog before any other version – “Now You’re Gone” came after, as far as I’m informed by now.

Sash!: “Adelante” (watch/listen @ YouTube)
— “Porque la vida es corta.”
Again, doin’ some diggin’ from my MTV-days of the late 1990s.

The Top 5 most played on my portable music player is as of right now:
1. “Slow Me Down” (Emmy Rossum)
2. “Teardrop (LP Version)” (Massive Attack)
3. “Come Around” (Timbaland feat. Mia)
4. “Stay” (Emmy Rossum)
5. “Give It To Me” (Timbaland feat. Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake)

Got any reactions? Suggestions? Requests? Comment/reply away!

Follow Friday #6: Josh Groban

On Follow Friday this week:
1. Introduction
2. Blog
3. Twitter
4. Drop Me a Line.

Okay, so I thought I would have done a political FF as my next move – but then I came across the front page of Twitter, revealing yet another laughable tweet from my favorite mainstream big shot proffessional scribbler, warbler, and ivory tickler all-in-one these days, Josh Groban (of course, my not-so-mainstream ditto is Anders Filipsen).

When it comes to blogging, Josh has a tendency to vlog when there are more than one thing to mention – and not only does he upload the video to his Vimeo vlog, but he adds it as a blogpost as well (thus I don’t add the link to his vlog around here, unless I have to link to a specific video (say, if I need to point out something about stocking up on canned goods – and you’ll only have to see the first 23 seconds to get it)).

You can find his blog at joshgrobanblog.tumblr.com.

And yes, you can also find him on Twitter. Go to @joshgroban to follow him.

Twitter topic for today…Intelligent Design Vs. Evolution. GO! <runs behind wall made of 140 bricks or less>
about 3 hours ago via web
Source: @joshgroban

Reactions? Suggestions? Requests? Comment/reply away!

Follow Friday #3: President Medvedev

On Follow Friday this week:
1. Introduction
2. Twitter: Pres. Dmitry Medvedev of Russia
3. Drop Me a Line.

I haven’t been as thorough this week – I don’t have too much to show, but I do like what I found!

You remember how I think it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the leaders of the World?

A couple of days ago, I discovered through @joshgroban (and essentially also through @BarackObama and @whitehouse) that the President of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, has joined the Twitterverse. I copy/pasted two tweets I really liked to show here:

“Russia and the US are working to improve global security, but the goal of this visit is to improve our economic relations.
The decision of major American companies to come to Russia and invest shows that we can agree on more than just missiles.”
– @KremlinRussia_E on June 24th around 22:00/10 PM.

As you can see, you can find him at @KremlinRussia_E – but if you know Russian, you can also find him at @kremlinrussia.

There’s a news story on Medvedev’s homepage on creating the accounts – you can find it right here.

Suggestions? Reactions? Comments? Leave a comment/reply!

Music Monday #2: MySpace

On Music Monday this week:
1. Introduction
2. Five Picks
3. Top 5 Most Played Songs on Music Player
4. Drop me a line.

Can’t we just pretend it’s still Monday?

Today, my focus is on MySpace – since I think it’s an excellent place for music (and comedy and whatnot). And no, I don’t think I’ll be focussing on big names already released on big time record labels.

Here are my five picks this week:
Maja Toudal – http://www.myspace.com/majatoudalmusic
Maja Toudal is a singer/songwriter with a crystal clear voice. She started writing poetry, making music as a pre-teen and – as far as I’ve understood – she lives and breathes for it.

Nadja Loran – http://www.myspace.com/nadjaloran
Here’s a girl I remember from being a teenager; back then I didn’t know what would become of her if she didn’t become a singer. She’s bright, intelligent, so I have no doubt she would make it at whatever she puts her mind to, but yet again we have a case of someone wanting something enough – and having the talent to do it.
Personally, I enjoy the sweet attitude and the sense of the Danish term hygge in her music.

Emilie Delance – http://www.myspace.com/emiliedelance
The first time I heard Emilie sing was at a gospel workshop in Jerusalemskirken back in 2007. The workshop was a joint venture between the adult gospel choirs of Gospelkirken/Jerusalemskirken; Emilie was in one choir, I was (and am still) in another. I was blown away by the depth of her voice, and was thrilled to find her on MySpace – even while she only had that one song up there, and (though also regrettably) continues to have it that way.

Farven Luft – http://www.myspace.com/farvenluft
Speaking of the gospel choir I sing in, the director and the pianist of this choir are in a band called Farven Luft (meaning: the Color Air). If asked, I would initially have reacted by describing them af avantgarde jazz, as I know that both Sofie (the director and lead singer) and Anders (on the keys) are into that. But listening to them again, I agree more to the categories they have put on MySpace: alternative, pop, and experimental.
Although it may not be typically within the borders of my musical taste and I may have a certain weakness for the band because of Sofie and Anders, I still do enjoy the experimentality (so to say) and the bohemian girlishness/princess-ity that Sofie sometimes adds to it, and the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Lemony Snicket-like gloominess that are also present every now and then (just watch the video for “Circus”, and poof! there it is, the stuff I’m talking about).
They’re making a new record, thus there are a few pre-master tracks up on their profile.

Mames Babegenush – http://www.myspace.com/mambab
Mames Babegenush is a band playing Balkan folk music – but consisting of Danish musicians. This is the kind of music I never thought I’d enjoy listen to for long, but somehow I’m drawn to it again and again.

The Top 5 most played on my portable music player is as of right now:
Actually, they’re just the same as last week…:
1. A-Gusta (Safri Duo)
2. Snakefood (Safri Duo)
3. Samb-Adagio (Safri Duo)
4. Take Me To That Place (KEFAS)
5. I Got Joy (KEFAS)

Just to amuse you (or is it myself?…), here are the most played songs on my portable player right now (BESIDES Safri Duo and KEFAS!):
1. Slow Me Down (Emmy Rossum)
2. Teardrop (LP Version) (Massive Attack)
3. Canto Alla Vita (Josh Groban/The Corrs)
4. Stay (Emmy Rossum)
5. Beep (Pussycat Dolls)

Got any reactions? Suggestions? Requests? Comment away!