Incoming

Last night I had the opportunity to hang out with an old friend of mine (American) who was here, last minute, for some "job stuff". I won't mention her name because I don't want to be the one to let the cat out of the bag on her currently up in the air "job stuff". Anywho, it was sort of surreal to be sitting in the midst of a fine Stockholm Sunday night, beers in hand, with a familiar face from my past gang of Chicago comrades across the table. Her pack of cigs didn't have any Swedish death warning on them. These cigs were foreign! And it felt really nice to drop my guard and hear words like "Elston" and "buddy" come out of someone's mouth. Good luck to my unnamed friend who might possibly be making some super serious "job stuff" decisions in the coming days. I have a feeling that this is going to be a whatever is meant to happen will happen scenario for you and yours.

Before all this went down, I had a pleasant weekend getaway to m'sweet's old stomping ground Motala for a midsommar weekend. I found myself in one of those professional tents that someone would rent for a home-baked outdoor wedding reception. It was totally right. It rained, as it probably always will whenenver an outdoor Swedish holiday rolls around. I had the opportunity to chat a bunch with my new pal Fredrik . Now Fredrik is a friend of a friend and I've been aware of his musics since I moved to Sweden back in 2005. It was just recently that I got a hold of a cd and really gave it a proper listen. His band, The Lovekevins (although I think they want you to say "The LK") just so happened to release one of the best albums I've heard in recent time entitled "The LK vs. the Snow". The link above directs you to their myspace page. If I could recommend one band to go browse it would be them. They push all of those buttons of mine in wonderful sequence. Oh yeah, I'll be remixing a song of theirs sometime this summer. I love new projects.

This Saturday my parents will drop in Stockholm. That'll be really nice to have them here. The pond seems like it's drying up. Or maybe somebody has finally built a bridge. Or maybe it's just finally time to start seeing more familiar faces in these parts. I'm waiting.

Talk to me Genius

I've got this life over here now and it's usually very good. I get homesick every now and again. Sometimes I slide into a depression (because I miss my old friends, family) but it luckily doesn't last for more than a part of a day. I've gotten really strong. I think I'm an expert in waiting as long as I've got something really good to look forward to. I've got a small but solid support network here now when stuff comes up. On my team: I've got people that understand how this country works and other people that are learning just like me. I miss the States but I don't miss not having health care and stuff like that. I miss Chicago but I don't miss the crime. It's not a greener pasture over here. Finding work has been extremely tough. This culture can fuck with me sometimes. The simplest things I used to do and took for granted can now take a whole day of planning and searching. I'm working now. I won't talk about it online. But I'm speaking English and I work with other people who have Swedish girlfriends and aren't from this country. You have to find your place, see where you can squeeze in. Once you find that place you have to nurture it and eventually grow and bust out of it and take the good ones with to the next step.

I ride my bike everywhere and I wear a helmet. I don't think I'm cooler than them, but Swedes ride really carefully and it's boring to ride on the bike path behind them. I wear a helmet not because I'm afraid of what a car might do to me but because I'm afraid of what of those giant over-sized Swedish grandma bikes might do to me. These bikes have bells, lights, whistles, full fenders and they're totally practical. They make sense. I will never ride one. But they can. I think it's better than a car. I used to think Volvo's were pretty cool (the old stationwagon ones) but nobody drives them over here. All of the cars on the streets here are new. A new Volvo is like a new Chevy. Drive it into a lake or something.

I'm rambling but that's the point. I wanted to tell everyone in Chicago that I'll be back at the end of September. I'll be staying for two weeks. This isn't an accident; I'll be in Chicago on September 30th. That's the day that I'll turn 30 years old. I couldn't think of a better place to be on a day like that. So I hope to see a lot of you around then.

I hope your summer goes really good. Summer can be a time of too many unknown variables for me and ruin it. I think this summer is going to be above average for myself. My friend Simon has a little boat with an outboard motor and I think he's going to come and pick my ass up by the water behind my apartment. I don't know where he'll take me, but I'll let you know when I get somewhere and offer up a full report.

My camera broke and these words are all I've got.

Mike

ADDITION:
Just thought of this:
If anyone has any contacts/ideas on how to get tickets to the Cubs v. Pirates game on Sunday, Sept. 23 @ Wrigley, please let me know. It looks like it's the only game I'll be able to catch this year. I didn't have any luck ordering them from the Cubs website. Please help if you can. Shoot me an email with strategies.

Mathlete on Myspace

Mathlete was Dan Marsden and Mike Downey. We spilled beer on 4 track machines and ran our vocals through outboard effects from 1997 - 2000. We now have a Myspace profile. Please add us as a friend.

Mathlete on Myspace
As a prize, you'll be rewarded with 4 downloadable songs currently beeping on the profile including "Plexiglass Girls" which was previously only available on vinyl. Thanks to Dan for digitizing that 7" (The Household Frequencies EP). I'll be posting all of those songs as a podcast sometime this summer.

Enjoy your week and you enjoy myself.

Respondent EP

Resplendent/Downey : Respondent EP

I'm happy to announce that the Respondent EP by Resplendent/Downey is officially available as of today. This is a free MP3 release. You don't have to do anything except execute a few keystrokes and listen. Both Michael Lenzi and I want you to own this music; there is no financial obligation. Because: This EP was not asked for, planned on or even audibly discussed. There were some MP3s and some emails on our part. It was all very quick and painless. Here it is:

The Respondent EP by Resplendent/Downey is now available for free download on the heartphone page.
From the desk of Michael Lenzi:

In the beginning of 2005 I played my one and only show under the name of Resplendent. I had a band of 4 people consisting of Derek See (guitar), Pat O'Connell (guitar) and Joe Adamik (drums).

I was a bit discouraged after that and decided I needed to take a break. Perhaps that would revive me. It did temporarily and I set about recording an EP called Spring. I thought that I would release it under the name of Michael Lenzi, thus retiring the Resplendent moniker.

I came up with 3 songs which I recorded in a few weeks in my home studio Plastic Skull. I promptly shared them with a few people and forgot about them. My desire to make music vanished.

I did however share them on my website. That is how Mike Downey heard them. He contacted me and we talked about a collaboration but it fizzled on my end. I just couldn't get the music going again.

He plugged away on his own and sent me a remixed track by email. It was awesome. He went ahead and did the other two tracks from the EP. I loved them so we decided to release the collaboration. This is it.

All my tracks were recorded using my two samplers: the AKAI MPC 2000 XL and the Roland DJ-70. I recorded them on a 1/2" analog 8-track machine. Mike did his remixing, editing and additional recording in early 2007 at his home studio Funkis & Svettis in Stockholm using an iBook and Ableton Live.

If you would like to contact me about Resplendent, Fire Show or Number One Cup music, you can visit my website: www.michaellenzi.com or send me an email: michaellenzi@sbcglobal.net.

---Michael Lenzi, June 2007, Chicago


I hope you enjoy this EP. I can say that it was an honor for me to work with music that Michael had recorded. He's been someone I've kept tabs on and looked up to for over 10 years now. I felt that these 3 songs were really strong and captured the essense of what Michael's songwriting and style are all about: honest and emotional; broken pop heart; jaded and happy. I originally heard these songs about 2 years ago and eventually took it as my duty to bring them to another sort of public realm. It felt like the simple songs he recorded and randomly uploaded onto his webpage were made to be given this treatment. Thanks Michael for letting me play along and thanks to anyone who downloads these and gets anything from them.

Sportscenter

It was an interesting night in Scandinavian footie last night to say the least. Sweden matched up against Denmark in Copenhagen for a qualifying match for the UEFA Euro 2008. Tensions were of course high, as it is expected to be when two neighboring countries meet.

Sweden raged in the first half, leading the game for a while at 3-0. Denmark fought back and by the 75th minute had tied it up with 3 unanswered goals. Up until this point it was a really exciting game with two evenly matched teams battling it out. Denmark was full steam ahead and had no shortage of chances to take the lead late in the match.

Now, the final minutes of the match went beyond exciting; they veered into the realm of just plain weird. Here's how it went down: with two minutes left in the game Danish defender Christian Poulsen punches Sweden's Markus Rosenberg in the stomach in the Swedish penalty box. Rosenberg dropped immediately into a heap. The referee gives Poulsen a red card, ejecting him from the game. The referee then signals that Sweden has been awarded with a penalty kick. About 5 seconds after this, as it if wasn't hectic enough, a Danish supporter storms out onto the field and attempts to attack the referee. The referee was saved by another Danish player who jumped in between the two to lessen the blow.

So, the crazy Danish supporter is led off the field. I'm thinking, "OK, now Sweden gets a chance to win this thing with a penalty kick. The game is ours!" Nah, the referees hold a pow wow and quickly decide that they don't want to risk their well-being by sticking around. So they leave. Yeah, the referees walked off the field with 2 minutes left to play in a tie game with a penalty kick in the wings.

By this point I've had a few beers and I'm screaming at the TV. I don't understand all of what's being said by the commentators but I was getting by good enough to realize how insane this sitch was.

All of the players and coaches also leave the field. What happens now? The referees go ahead and decide that Sweden has won the game with a score of 3-0, taking away all of the Danish goals. Poor Denmark. All they did was play a solid match (besides punching that guy in the stomach). Sucks one of their own fans ruined it for them. Good for Sweden though; now we're pretty much guaranteed into the next round.

As of right now, a UEFA committee is investigating the happenings from last night. They will make the final judgement call and have the power to override the referees if they see fit. My guess is that won't happen and the match will stand at 3-0, Sweden.

And you thought football/soccer was a boring sport without enough action. Twist your satellite dish over this way or go hang out at the Abbey Pub (Chicago folks!) at odd hours and take a peek. This stuff is too good to miss.

Sent for Clover

The National Splits: Sent for Clover is June's podcast and it's now available over on the podcasts page.

What was The National Splits? Follow the above link; I've explained everything. This particular podcast is a collection of my favorite songs I contributed to various EPs and compilations. I included all of the songs from both the Asaurus Records EP Club #2 and Frick Panther Park EPs. The Asaurus EP Club EP was limited to 100 copies and only available through a subscription. The Frick Panther Park EP was a little (literally) 3" CDR limited to like 50 copies or something on Jason Pierce's Elements of Obscurity imprint. I've always been very proud of both of these releases and it feels good to get them out to a wider audience. The other songs are equally as cool and probably equally as out of print.

Enjoy!