baby, I'm bad news

Another week is gone. If I have to tell what I have been up to this week well, I don't have to so I won't. You can't read that.

But my week's song is clearly "Date with Ikea" by Pavement. Reasons? Who needs reasons when you've got Pavement?. This is clearly becoming again a personal blog, though it wasn't my intention. At least I have a crush and a soundtrack for it.

Unfortunately, if you have a look at my record collection, it's going to be a bit difficult to find many female singers. I guess there are not as many as guys and I'm not one of those who gets crazy with girls' voices. But of course, there are exceptions. I can think of a few, but today I want to talk mainly about two of them. First, it's the band Rilo Kiley. I love the album "More Adventurous" and couldn't stop listening to it the week I bought it (in Oldham St, sigh) on one of my typical Saturdays. They say the album is "a tribute to instability as a virtue" and full of irony and contradictions. I love the story in "Does he love you?" and of course the brilliant "It's a hit" and "Portions for foxes" ("There's blood in my mouth 'cause I've been biting my tongue all week" -oh, so true!), and the harmonica on the album title's track. I saw them supporting Bright Eyes on their UK tour, and I enjoyed the gig a lot. I think they're quite good playing live. I like Jenny, I wish I was like her now that my hair has grown long -though I will get it cut very soon because I can't stand long hair and I could never let it grow that much, though I like hers- though I don't like how she dresses!. But here you have an example of a good voice. When I saw them in March, just next to me I had a group of old folks. They had Rilo Kiley t-shirts and AAA passes. They kept singing and shouting and I was puzzled. I was curious to know what were they doing there (well, apart from seeing the gig) and then I knew they were family of the band, uncles and that. They were a happy bunch, I can tell you. That concert -this band and the main act, of course- was amazing though the previous days were awful. Again, another proof that sometimes, music can heal. Once I was there, it was worth waiting, just to see them all and hear Conor's voice. Oh yes.

It's interesting to read that Jenny Lewis is going to release her first solo album in January next year to celebrate her 30th birthday. The record has a name, "Rabbit Fur Coat" (coming out on Team Love Records, Oberst's own label) and she's going to have Ben Gibbard and Conor singing on it. Now that I'm really into videos, you can watch a few here in this great site about the band.

Also in January, we will have a comeback. I can't write a post about female voices without mentioning Chan Marshall aka Cat Power and the good news are that she is back with a new record. You can have a first listening to the single "The Greatest" on Matador site.

And now to talk about the next artist, Hello Saferide, we move to lovely Sweden. It's been for a while in different indie blogs, especially those that talk about Swedish music, and as you can download a couple of songs off the website, you can try and decide if you like her voice. Her name is Annika Norlin and she writes a blog. I particularly fell for "Highschool stalker", a song about a teenage crush.

"And I was searching for your sweet name
Cause you never left my mind
I've been on the Altavista,
I went twice on the Yahoo
And everywhere I go,
there is always a clue,
always something about you
that may help me get my hands on you"

It's just a simple song but I never get tired of listening to new stuff from Sweden. They are only 9 million and how many bands do I like from there?.