Don't Be Afraid to Cherish It

Quick tip on the Bejeezus zine comp I posted about down below. Go get it here.

And the zine looks great and appears to be an entertaining read (just got it yesterday). You can order it from their site.

Wings

Bejeezus is a zine out of Louisville, KY. They just released their new issue, which was lovingly put together by their artistic director and my good friend Jason Pierce of MPERFECT DESIGN. If you click that link you'll come to a number of shots of some pages. Jason designed my Adventure, Bless... album and the Respondent EP. I've always been a fan of his stylings.

So, to be honest, I haven't even seen this mag in person yet. But one's being shipped to good ol' New Lenox, IL and will hopefully be awaiting my arrival there this weekend. Rumor has it that the mag comes with a free compilation cd in which my song "Wings for the Money" is a part of. The song is exclusive to this compilation, was recorded in 2006 and I played it live a bunch of times. I've been told that the cds are "limited". Not sure how limited. But you can order up the zine and your free cd from the Bejeezus site.

What else, getting prepped to hop on the great bird in the sky headed for Chicago. I'm really looking forward to old friends, family, the CUBS, Aurelio's Pizza, 30, Chicago's fine bike shops, Old Style on the deck, PBR in the bar, boxes of my stuff that I've been itching to go through and etc...

What else, here's a quick list of what I've been listening to recently. This stuff has been the soundtrack to a really interesting time in my life while my creative process has eaten itself, been digested and birthed as a new lease on my music making and yet another chapter of reinvention.

List of what makes me possible:

+ E*Vax - Parking Lot Music (This is Evan Mast from Ratatat's side project. It's every noise your apartment ever made in melody. Beautiful)

+ Beats in Space - Weekly radio show and podcast by Tim Sweeney. He brings in guest DJs every week and has opened my eyes to plenty of stuff I wouldn't have otherwise known about. Put it on your iPod and let it decide which bus you take. You have no control any longer)

+ Apparat - Silizium EP (The first song "Komponent" is my favorite discovery of the last six months)

+ Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala (This album will make him even bigger than he alreay is. I listened to this for the first time on a train headed out of Stockholm's innercity into the suburbs. I had a smile on my face the entire ride)

+ The Field - From Here We Go Sublime (Representing Sweden on Germany's Kompakt imprint. The album was mixed live using a Finnish multitrack program from the mid-90's. That doesn't mean much, but it's a completely different take on "house" music and is refreshing and essential)

+ Commercial - s/t (This is Trevor hollAnd and Sean from Flowchart doing little instrumental pieces. I love the pop asthetic behind these songs. Sounds totally fresh and creative)

+ Sukpatch - Twenty-Three (The duo returns! After a long time of not hearing from them they popped back into my ears with their best record yet. More guitar on this record. Weird vocals. Love the beats and production)

+ Pinback - s/t (Yeah this is sort of old but I rediscovered it. They don't sound like anybody, not even close)

+ Matthew Dear - Asa Breed (Known about him for a bit but this album really did it for me. Check out the song "Deserter". I've also been way into his other project Audion and his recorded DJ sets)

+ The Lovekevins - VS. the Snow (Please check this out. I love this record in so many ways)


**End Transmission**

Last night a .jpg saved my life

This is possibly the most incredible image I've ever seen.

Stop that bike!

Ah, the debate on brakeless fixed gear riding came to the larger Swedish media over the weekend. One of the major newspapers here, Dagens Nyheterna, published an article (it's in Swedish, natch) in which the headline translates to "Illegal but popular to bike without brakes".

It just happens every now and again that a crack junior reporter finds him or herself at a party where the minimalistic-looking bikes piled in the corner catches their attention, a conversation with the bikes' owners ensues, knowledge base is passed and they show up to work Monday morning with a hot tip on what the kids of the city are really doing.

I'm not going to get into what people should do with their bikes and what they shouldn't. I ride brakeless and with brakes depending on how my bike happens to be set up. I also wear a helmet and ride slower than most of those spandexed carbon freaks. It's hard to say who's riding dangerously.

But the police like to stick their noses into what people should and shouldn't do with their bikes. There are laws against brakeless bikes in the US as well as here. And it's not just brakes in Sweden that the police are on the lookout for. Here's the list of what you need to coast through the fuzz:

+ at least one brake
+ front and back lights
+ reflectors on both wheels
+ and a fucking BELL

If you are stopped by the police in Sweden on your bike you will be fined 500 Swedish kronor (about $75) for every detail that's missing.

Here's what the police want us to ride:


Here's what a local Stockholm guy who organizes fixed gear events rides:


Whoops, get out your wallet.

Ring Ring! Is that a bell I hear? It must be my local post lady doing her daily rounds... Hej!

But all joking aside, I love the fact that people in Sweden and around Europe ride bikes instead of taking out the car. It's healthy and an all around good idea. But when the police get involved in what sort of bike I am allowed to ride it's a tough pill to swallow. And no thanks to Joe Blow down at the newspaper for bringing our little world to the attention of the masses and possibly authorities either.

What am I doing?

+ I'm over here on Twitter. I'm not going to use Twitter to its maximum advantage and update it from my fricking mobile, although I'm sure some people get a lot of enjoyment in telling people every time they duck into a store for a loaf of bread. However, I will update from home with semi-frequent (daily?) tidbits. It's called MIKEROBLOG (microblog, get it?) and it's located to your right and down a little bit.

+ I'm finished with the new heartphone site. It's one of those free wordpress templates where you can't change the colors or font or add/subtract any html from the css unless you pay a $15 upgrade once a year. But I love the functionality of wordpress and finally have an excuse to use it. Since I have plans on adding more releases to heartphone I thought it would be best to give it a proper site on its own domain that'll be easy to organize.

+ I'm a.k.a. Bubble Shield. This is a new project that I have been working diligently on for the past month or so. I'm talking 8 hour days of recording and mixing. This project is an extension of the remixes I've been doing in where I won't be singing all that much on it. I plan on having guest vocalists and will use some vocal samples here and there. For the most part it's about making my brain work in a different way. I've really given a lot of myself away in my lyrics over the past 11 years. It's time to shut up on that front. I will release either a Bubble Shield EP or full length by the end of the year on heartphone. You will be able to buy it.

+ I'm coming back to Chicago at the end of the month. If you are one of my Chicago buddies watch for details (myspace, your inbox, a little bird on your shoulder) on where we can all meet up. I'm turning 30 and will be having a gathering on Friday, Sept 28.

+ I'm employed, for real, finally. After nearly 2 years of assimilating into a new culture/country and working odd jobs and not working at all I have won the good fight. I don't talk about work online so this may be the last you hear of that. I start when I get back from Chicago.

+ I'm listening to my Bubble Shield mixes right now. I'm so excited about this.

+ I'm still Mike Downey and I will sing again. Time will tell.

Burn baby burn

If anti-Sweden protesters burn a flag but it's the wrong color, did they actually burn a Swedish flag?

Here's some demonstrators in Lahore, Pakistan burning the "Swedish flag" in protest against the recent publication of a "blasphemous caricature of Prophet Muhammad" in a Swedish newspaper.

From the Organization of the Islamic Conference

The Secretary General of the OIC, Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu strongly condemned the publishing of blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by Swedish artist Lars Vilks in the Nerikes Allehanda newspaper. He said that this was an irresponsible and despicable act with malafied and provocative intention in the name of so called freedom of expression and was intended to solely insult and arouse the sentiments of Muslims of the world.

The OIC Secretary General said that the international community was well aware of serious impact of such publications that were globally felt during the controversy that was created by the publication of similar cartoons by a Danish newspaper last year. The OIC Secretary General called on the Swedish Government to take immediate punitive actions against the artist and the publishers of the cartoon and asked for their unqualified apology. In this connection, he also called on the Muslims to remain calm and to exercise restraint.

Jeddah, August 30, 2007