Proper music post!

There's this thing called Ja Ja Ja club where Nordic bands and artists play tunes and it's organized (bi?)monthly at The Lexington. I like this idea and think I'll go again and keep track of what's happening! This Thursday was the day. I heard about it at about 4pm on Thursday when my boss asked if I wanted to go and introduce myself to the Musex UK project manager. Yeah, why not. So I went to see Manna (FIN), Freja Loeb (DEN) and Útidúr (ICE). (I apologize for linking to MySpace but they don't seem to have websites!) Had a few words with the guy, he was very tall. After Manna's set I was already really tired and had a headache so I was getting ready to leave when I saw one of the boys from the next band carry a saxophone on stage and decided to stay for a bit. I stayed for two more songs and headed out. Bummed that I didn't get to see the last band but as I was very disoriented (getting lost on straight hallways, almost missing my tube stop - twice, bumping into people, etc.) on my way home it was probably for the best that I left. By the time I was home I just and just managed put on my pajamas before crashing. Slept like a.... thing that sleeps very deeply.

Anyway, I liked Manna. I've never heard any of her songs before even though she's been in the media quite a bit in Finland for the past, I don't know, maybe couple of years? I'm very bad with time. I was very positively surprised as I was expecting just another female singer-songwriter that we're all getting a bit bored of, amirite? But she had just enough rock and just enough groove to be interesting. I have to say, they (she?) were more intriguing on stage than on record and I spent a lot of time trying to find a video that would do them (her?) justice. This one's alright but still lacks something that was there during a live performance. Wine, perhaps...

The next group, Freja Loeb, were essentially the exact same thing as Manna. Same cereal, different packaging. There's a band, there's the girl, the group's name is her name, they play indie, both girls wore leggings as pants and red lipstick, you get the idea. Manna had the advantage of being first so people (me) weren't yet bored with that. And in my mind she was more likable anyway, more real. Her voice was also definitely stronger while I couldn't really even hear Freja for a big chunk of the time. But they had the sax and that alone is cause for mad props in my book. I also realize that had Freja been first on stage, I'd be comparing them in reverse and that might affect how I feel.

As I already mentioned, I didn't stay long enough to catch the last band, Útidúr from Iceland, but I've since checked them out on YouTube. My first thought was that they sound very Icelandic. Not really my cuppa tea normally, but I'm strangely fascinated anyway. I can picture a time and place for this and will make a mental note to listen to this more when that time and place present themselves. Beautiful sounds and I do love me a bit of violin and trumpets. For a fraction of a second they remind me of a chilled out and slowed down version of Katzenjammer (NOR).

I wish I'd seen them live but no can do.

For a bonus, here's Katzenjammer with A Bar In Amsterdam. 

No Place Like London

Let me just say, Jamie's Italian is a beautiful restaurant. My feelings may have been enhanced by those two bottles of wine we had during the course of the night, but it was good wine! And the fact that I really like Jamie, I think he's fun and has the right attitude towards food and cooking.

That was last Sunday. Also the day I realized that I love this city. I've been perfectly content here all this time but now I'm starting to really grasp the magnificence of this place. We spent the day having Sunday roast at a pub, then just strolling down the street by Thames, visiting Tate Modern, admiring the view and then had great - yet affordable - food.

I started making a list. List of things to do when my friend Maria is coming for a visit. I'm getting really excited about that even though it's still five weeks away. There's so much to do and see!

There's these little quirky things that are so interesting about this city! Like wandering around London Bridge area (sort of city centre) and stumbling upon some little cottage that looks like it's been teleported here from some idyllic little village on the countryside. Huge office building towering over it on the background. And going to Canary Wharf for the first time to be amazed by how it seems like a completely different city. Completely different country even! And this guy and his guitar:

Rockin' by the River

One of our bands released their new single on Monday. Check out the video here. (I would embed the whole thing but for some reason YouTube search can't find it) They're such a fun band, I really like them. Also, we're releasing five new singles from five new bands from five different cities on April 30th. Now it's relentless promoting of that for the next five weeks. Five seems to be the magic number here. That gives me a flimsy excuse to do this:

Weird science

I read an article about how aging affects the brain and how that affects our musical tastes. Dopamine, one of the important chemicals that affect the brain's reward centre and gives us chills when we hear new catchy hooks and exciting tunes, has a lesser effect when we get older. Thus, no more insane excitement over the newest fad in the musical world, and more nostalgia driven choices of playlists. Nostalgia is a natural antidepressant and evolutionally important in that remembering the 'good ole days' will prevent you from dwelling in your cave and whimpering about how life is hard and then dying of hunger or getting mauled by a saber tooth tiger.

Conclusion: Today's music is not shit and older music is not decidedly better, our brains just react differently to them because of actual physical differences. Our tastes do not become more refined and sophisticated because we get older and wiser but because our brain chemistry is different.

Dopamine is also the reason why our brains are secretly into Justin Bieber, no matter how carefully hipster our existence or how loyally hard rock we pretend to be. Predictable pop music is physically addictive, fo realz.

Special thanks to Cracked.com for introducing me to these articles.

People are strange

While out shopping I found this gem in Urban Outfitters. For £475 it could be yours!

Too bad I'm too short for this

If you're not quite that well off but totally love the design you might find comfort in that this lovely shirt was only £135.

Bargain!

Then we saw this fun street performance. Knocks bird-whistler right to second in my 'weirdest way to apply yourself' -list.

Russell Brand is a giant

This week started off with going to a band competition, Hard Rock Rising, to show our great affection and support for our fellow intern whose band was battling for a chance to win this thing. They didn't. You may as well still check them out. Apparently it came really close between them and the winning band, which doesn't surprise me.

There's been a lot of promotion going on. There are many new releases coming up, quite a few tours happening and other exciting news for our bands so we've been sending out press releases like crazy. If you want to keep track of what's happening here, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. One mention worthy thing (because I thought it was funny) would be taking over the promotion for Athletes In Paris' new single release after Linda up and left. I stumbled upon this little quote in one of the music blogs that has featured them "What I think they sound like: a dancey rock band (I was going to describe them as "Scissor Sisters Without The Camp" but thought that may be a tad unfair to both bands." I personally quite like that.

I bet he's taller than you thought. 

Saturday I went to Madame Tussaud's with two other Finnish girls who are also doing their internships here. Afterwards we went to a pub to get some food and hang out and then two of us decided to go out for the night. First we stumbled into this really cool, kinda bohemian, artsy little tavern where the 'Madame' gave us a kiss on the hand when we ordered our first drinks, then dragged some guy hurriedly into the disabled toilet with her. It was a beautiful place and I must go there again! Finding a club proved to be a bit more difficult since people kept giving us wrong directions. We were gonna meet up with a colleague of mine at a club called 'Mother' in Shoreditch. Once we found the right street, we asked some guys which way it was. They warned us to stay far away from that awful place but we didn't listen. We finally got there and it was pretty much as horrible as the guys made it sound, but free entrance. We had one drink there and headed off to find something else. Someone recommended Plastic People but as the queue was long and the entrance £10 we didn't bother. Now that I've googled it and it is said to be the birthplace of dubstep I'm glad we didn't. Instead we noticed a bar across the street and went there. The music was bad and people looked well-groomed, but at least it wasn't too expensive. We ended up having a good night after all.

See how ridiculously tall he is!

Buses here are a constant headache for me. I can never find the right stop! I know for a fact that my bus goes to Shoreditch and I was probably quite close to the right stop but just couldn't find it! I ended up walking way longer than I should've and then found a bus that took me to Trafalgar Square and from there I can always find the right bus. But that's way more complicated than it should've been.

I was first a bit annoyed that clubs close around 2-3am here but now I'm glad they do since I get way lighter hangovers. Not that mine have ever been exceptionally bad but now they're pretty much nonexistent. When I first open my eyes after a night out I keep expecting to feel somewhat queazy but quickly notice that I'm absolutely fine. This has happened two-three times now so I'm definitely safe saying it's more a rule than an exception.

I finally managed to open a bank account! Cheers, Churchill, for abolishing identity cards to "set people free" and making things so complicated. National Identity Register is a GOOD thing, Brits. Now I'm waiting for them to activate my card so I can start using it too.

*Oh, hey, attention! There's a little easter egg hidden somewhere in the links, can you find it? It's not exceptionally hard.