They try to find the Milky Way

I've talked about the Eurovision song contest before. It was way back when I first moved to this continent and found myself watching Finnish Gwar wannabes taking home the coveted title to a contest in which groups like Abba (read: mainstream hits) are supposed to win. I loved the weirdness aspect to it. Unfortunately moments like that are far and few between.

Last night was no different. I watched for the whole 3 or so hours. I dozed off at least twice. No worries; only missed a little bit of the Serbian cabaret jug band. Russia won. Cool, who cares. There was one main reason I watched this year. That was Sébastien Tellier from France. It didn't seem like he fit in because he was too cool and his song was too good. But this contest confuses me. Maybe he fit in just perfectly. He didn't come close to winning.

But when you take a drum beat and a synth and some vocals (kids, I have tried this haven't I?) and try to make a song there's a whole lot of places you can go wrong. This song is the opposite of wrong. It's so right and, simply, divine.

I give you Sébastien Tellier:

I like when good people get to good places

Actually, I LOVE when good people get to good places. And by good places I mean INTO a violent, but from what I hear really great, video game!

My long time pal, former New Constitution, National Splits and Mathlete bandmate Dan Marsden plays in a group from Chicago called The Prairie Cartel. Get stupid to it. Dance through it.

They've been included in the Grand Theft Auto 4 soundtrack. You'll find them on the Radio Broker channel. That's some good company to be in, wouldn't you say?

All too cool. Keep up the great work Dan.

I live in Högdalen

I have been meaning to take a picture of this building for months now. Because I haven't I will borrow this photo courtesy of Kim Eriksson's Flickr page.

Anyways, I live in Högdalen where this apartment building is located. I live in a different, less illuminated, building. I'm very close to Bandhagen and that's what my address says; but I get off at the Högdalen station so that's what I say. It's nothing really special but I'm comfortable here. I'm about a 20 minute subway ride into the center of Stockholm. There are birds that sing, dogs that don't bark and children that play here.

There is also a newly-remodeled building in Högdalen which is white with orange balconies. I will take a picture of that and post it here as it also deserves a little attention.

UPDATE: The building with the orange balconies is this building (I think). Who cares.

Today (yesterday) I said this

Let me get some news out of the way here. This has been on my mind and it's important. Ok, so I've been putting out music in one way or another since 1995. Do the math. Times are a'changin. I haven't played a live show since November 2006 and that was due to my own decision. I can't say I got burned out on it or didn't enjoy it anymore; I just didn't feel that urge deep down inside that I used to. So I stopped booking shows and started concentrating on other stuff (like my job, buying an apartment, now starting a family and in general getting my act together). But the recording never stopped. I have "albums" done. One is called Kicking Gas for Laughs and it is a collection of songs that didn't make Hold Horses. It'll see a release when the time is right.

So because I don't play shows there isn't a need for physical CDs for me. And that means I'm 100% into the digital realm. But guess what kids, I could care less about getting a paypal transfer for x amount of dollars. Note: the x is a pretty small number. I'd rather have more of you download the music for free. This isn't my job, never was and never will be. I should be paying you to listen. If I wanted to sell records I'd find a booking agent again and get my ass in a car and go play out. Even then, it would still be for fun. Any money made would go into the gas tank.

So, for the most part my music is going to be free. When it comes, take it. The stuff I've released thus far that is for sale will remain so. But from what I can see a majority of the future releases will not be.

And then to complicate matters, I'm going to take a nice long break from releasing music as Mike Downey. I have given a lot and now I'm tired and am going to shut up. The Podcasts last year pretty much emptied out the quality side of my archives. That's like 12 free albums already. So I've already been doing this before I even realized I was.

But the recording won't stop. Myself and my pal Simon are collaborating on not only a new project, but a new free MP3 label. The plan is to release anything "electronic" the two of us are involved in and anyone we come across that we might want to involve. Heartphone will live on for my Mike Downey releases and any collabs I do that fit into that style.

The set up time will be long. Nothing really has a name yet and most of the songs are half baked. Sounds promising huh?

Ok, that's enough for now. I'm going to see Sebadoh tonight. Orginal lineup, Stockholm, this doens't happen very often.

xo,
Mike