Letters Have No Arms have packed their bags, put their travel hats on, and moved to a new land!
You should be automatically redirected to the post you were looking for (yes, the same one!) in 5 seconds. If not, visit http://www.lettershavenoarms.com and please don't forget to update your bookmarks.
All the images above are from the rather brilliant 30 Reasons website, which, over the past month has created 30 reasons why anyone who can vote, should vote. Each poster was designed by a different artist, and released on a daily basis. 4 more still remain (which I'll add to this post over these next few days, so keep checking back), as there are of course but 4 days left before this historic election. If you've already decided who you are going to vote for, make sure you indeed GO OUT AND VOTE on Tuesday. Also call up, email, text message and generally just harass all your friends into voting as well. If you are still undecided, why don't you take this weekend to think about it. Read up on the issues; come to a decision. Think about what's not only good for you, now, but for your country, your future, and the future of the entire world.
The world surely cannot survive a continuation of the past 8 years...
When you start off (around 1995), everyone loves you, you don't have that many fans, but the ones you have adore you. You're known for your incendiary (i.e. they often destroyed their instruments at the end of shows) live shows, and make a few incredible albums, culminating in (major label) Source Tags & Codes, famously awarded a 10 by Pitchfork.
And in truth, what the hell do you do after that?
Quit?
Blow it all on coke and strippers?
Play one final show in which you not only destroy your instruments, but burn and snort their ashes?
But instead of succumbing to inane rock clichés (and perhaps the easy way out), the Trail of Dead continued, forced to come down from their high pretty fast with their (significantly) less well received follow-up albums. That same Pitchfork now gives you a 5.5 and a 4, for So Divided and Worlds Apart respectively, and suddenly you've become Weezer. Your sound is now described as 'overblown', 'bloated', and you've apparently entered 'November Rain' territory.
So they started their own label, did some other stuff on the side and made another album (on their own label this time). Said album will probably be released towards the end of the year, but they just released a taster in the form of the Festival Thyme e.p.
If you visit the first you'll find the pretty illustrations that embellish this post and many more like them; so stop wasting time and right click-open new tab now!
The second website is the home of a small record label called Bicycle Records, where you can download the latest mp3s and buy the albums of artists such as: Anni Rossi, Polka Dot Dot Dot, Antsy Pants, Yes Please, Luke Temple, Your Heart Breaks, Ghost Mice, June Madrona, Jenny Jenkins, Agent Ribbons, etc.
To give you a small taste: June Madrona: Serious Baby "You'll only be a baby for a little while; you're gonna grow." Antsy Pants: Sleep "Please, little friend, get in your bed and let the adventures be dreams in your head Sleep little one, tomorrow's more fun; we'll dance in the rain and we'll sing in the sun" Luke Temple: You're Gonna Land "I know they're gonna land; they cannot stay up there forever in the air"
And: totally unrelated but I really really really really like the Dirty Mittens' cover of 'White Winter Hymnal'. Apart from the fact that it's probably my favorite Fleet Foxes song, they did a fabulous job on it. And I never get tired of those lyrics, they're so damn sweet.
"I was following the pack, all swallowed in their coats with scarves of red tied ’round their throats to keep their little heads from falling in the snow and I turned ’round and there you go And, Michael, you would fall and turn the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime..."
I'm leaving you because I don't love you? pic from Border Music
Dear Jens,
I don't know where you are, or where this might find you, yet I thought I'd write anyway...
See, we're a bit concerned. The last time we saw anything from you on your website, where you once semi-regularly updated your tour and, more interestingly, your 'smalltalk' section where you posted such beautiful little snapshots of yourself and that which surrounded you, dates back to June 30. Your Myspace also remains, as anyone who has paid it a visit over the last few years might already be familiar with, its usual inert self (Wanna add him as a friend? Ha! Just try!). One of the last things we heard was that you had left Kortedala, left Sweden altogether in fact, and were relocating to Australia. You said you were going to Melbourne, after which you'd 'head up north'.
You posted the following on one of your last posts:
Anyways, touring all spring was the worst idea I've ever been talked into. I think it was Joe Franklin who once said that the most important thing in showbusiness is sincerity and learning how to fake it. But I just can't pull it off. I just can't glue that fake smile to my face and go out there, it makes me feel like a fraud. I've really been struggling with tricking myself into being excited for every show.
I'm very happy to announce that my last show this year will be at Hammarkulle Karnevalen
While in an interview with Pitchfork, given before Night Falls on Kortedala, you were quoted as saying:
So I was thinking of just trying to settle down. I think I need a new home and a new place and to see how that place and home and how the people who live there will influence my music
Now we have of course seen this before. You once exchanged your ukulele for bingo chips. Adoring fans for the elderly; change jingling in their corduroy pockets. Excited cheers no longer emitted by pretty young girls, but absorbed by wall-to-wall carpet.
But you came back, yes, you returned! That really was all that mattered at the time. Your bingo days consigned to song, you created another beautiful album. You even toured it around the world, though I never really understood why...
And yet this time feels different somehow. Perhaps you've woven such a large amount of final straws into something, a boat perhaps, and sailed away for good...
Have you finally left you fickle lover for good this time? Have you grown tired of touring and record labels, of sample clearing and tour bus toilets and fans and t-shirts and singing the same songs again and again?
Perhaps you've returned to the bingo halls, this time down under rather than, well, 'up on top'. Does carpet soften your step once more? Must you repeat loudly every word uttered?
Or have you perhaps taken up surfing, picking apples, or decorating your house?
While pondering all this, last week you suddenly appeared on a Black Cab session, performing 'Black Cab' in a, well, a black cab.
Anyone looking for clues here will not find any, nor does the very existence and release time of this video offer any further clue, given that it was in fact not filmed recently. I wrote to the brilliant people at the Black Cab Sessions, and asked them for the session's exact date, which they kindly told me was May 20th, at 4pm, before your show at the London Scala.
Again, no clue.
Further searching then brought me to The Whitest Boy Alive’s Myspace site, which informs us that you will be joining them on a date of their tour… in Jakarta, on November 29th of this year...
So, the plot thickens. Could this be a comeback of sorts? A testing toe stuck back into the murky waters from which you've twice before withdrawn?
So I wrote to The Whitest Boy Alive, asking them what the plan is for this planned gig, and they had this to say:
" "
They unfortunately have yet to reply. The story then surfaced that you were to perform at the Brooklyn Vegan CMJ Showcase as the 'Singing DJ Jens Lekman', which took place just a few days ago...
So here we are, it's October, the days have grown shorter, Halloween is but a few days away, and we still are none the wiser, or at least not much the wiser.
Jens, send us a postcard, drop us a line. And make sure you record, tape, write down, or simply remember whatever pretty melodies you find yourself humming, wherever it is you are.
UPDATE: Well, I didn't expect a reply that soon, but Jens has just announced he'll perform a benefit concert as well as a solo gig in November. One is in Northampton, MA, the other in Williamsburg, VA. Still no confirmation of the Jakarta gig though.
That movie is The Royal Tenenbaums. And at this point you might or might not ask - depending on how much time you have on your hands, how prepared your brain is to spot an inconsistency, and whether you think that curiosity killed the cat or helped it get a valuable after-life lesson - why the hell would someone waste a whole afternoon preparing a post about a movie they're not that crazy about. Well, because this post isn't about the movie per se; it's about two bands I do like that have this in common: despite the fact that I pointedly warned them not to, they both completely ignored me and went ahead and named themselves after characters in it.
Margot & The Nuclear So and So's were named after Margot Helen Tenenbaum and they have, as everyone should know by now, two new albums out. Two because they couldn't agree (*understatement*) with their record company on the songs that were to be included. So they decided to release one album ("Not Animal") of label-aproved songs, and another one ("Animal!") reflecting the band's selection. "Animal!", unfortunately, is only available on vinyl and online. And I say unfortunately because it contains two beautiful songs that are not to be found on the properly released Not Animal. Both are duets and they tell the story of one Mariel and one Martin: their relationship, their conflicts, and their imperfect life together.
Uzi & Ari are the sons of Chas Tenenbaum. Uzi & Ari is also the pseudonym that Ben Shepard chose to adopt in his solo career. Their last album, called Headworms, was released this month and their song "Wolf Eggs" has been much hyped throughout the blogosphere. Deservedly so.
The Animal Collective boys made their way to our fair city last night, playing a rather brilliant set before catching a plane to Tel Aviv. Highlights included a stunning 15 minute version of Fireworks (which most of the audience were still singing on their journeys home, and probably woke up still singing) and closer My Girls.
I need A solid soul and the blood I bleed With a little girl, and by my spouse I only want a proper house>
Je Reve De Toi - Janeiro The coolest Brazilian band no one knows about. You won't understand a word, but you'll enjoy the song and absolutely love the 'Eoeoeoeoeo' 2:00 into the song.
Fredrik - Black Fur I know this curse has been uttered ad nauseam by every indie kid on the planet but here goes: Damn you Swedish people. Now and forever. Amen.
I still remember where I was when I heard that Elliott Smith had died. I had woken up that morning in a bunk bed in a youth hostel in Lausanne, looking out over Lake Geneva, on a cloudy and dark day. I got the news on a communal computer in the lounge. I was drinking coffee.
I spent the afternoon of that day in the Collection de l'Art Brut. Looking at works from Henry Darger and Willem van Genk in a deserted gallery felt somehow appropriate on that rainy and sad day... Lonely, solitary and often tormented figures, who created magic from just that...yet were either unaware of what they were doing, what beauty they were creating, or were simply unable to derive any sense of joy, or peace from it themselves.
I had seen Elliott play at the Reading Festival a few years before, when his Figure 8 album had just been released, and he played to a very full and very enthusiastic tent. By that point he had become bigger than he probably ever thought he would become, bigger probably than he ever wanted to become. He didn't seem all too comfortable with the adoration.
Drink up, baby, stay up all night
The things you could do, you won't but you might
The potential you'll be that you'll never see
The promises you'll only make
Drink up with me now and forget all about
The pressure of days, do what I say
And I'll make you okay and drive them away
The images stuck in your head
People you've been before that you don't want around anymore
That push and shove and won't bend to your will
I'll keep them still
Drink up, baby, look at the stars
I'll kiss you again between the bars
Where I'm seeing you there with your hands in the air
Waiting to finally be caught
Drink up one more time and I'll make you mine
Keep you apart, deep in my heart
Separate from the rest, where I like you the best
And keep the things you forgot
The people you've been before that you don't want around anymore
That push and shove and won't bend to your will
I'll keep them still
The spin of the earth impaled a silhouette
Of the sun on the steeple
And I got to hear the same sermon
All the time now from you people
Why are you staring into outer space, crying?
Just because you came across it, and lost it
Everything reminds me of her
I'm not what's missing from your life now
I could never be the puzzle pieces
They say that God makes problems
Just to see what you can stand
Before you do as the devil pleases
And give up the thing you love
But no one deserves it
The first time I saw you
I knew it would never last
I'm not half what I wish I was
I'm so angry, I don't think it'll ever pass
And I was bad news for you, just because
I never meant to hurt you
But I knew that he'd never forget her
While her memory worked in reverse
To keep her safe from herself
And, oh my, nothing else could've been done
She made her life a lie
So she might never have to know anyone
Made her life the lie you know
What I used to be will pass away and then you'll see
That all I want now is happiness for you and me
Sunshine
Been keeping me up for days
There is no nightime
It's only a passing phase
And I feel pretty
Pretty enough for you
I felt so ugly before
I didn't know what to do
Letters have no Arms! loves music, art, film, books and trains, and is based in a large dusty city at the end of Europe. We'll soon be moving to another. We post things we like.
Our blog is best viewed in Firefox. Other browsers may make it look odd/incomplete/confusing/badly designed/just plain bad.
The content provided on this site is for promotional purposes only. If you like the mp3s, please support the artists by purchasing their CDs, going to their concerts, adding their lyrics to your status updates, buying their t-shirts, sleeping with their drummers, and telling all your friends about them. If you own the rights to any of the music found on this site and do not wish it to appear there, please contact us at letterarms[at]gmail[dot]com
Unless otherwise indicated, all photographs and artwork included in the posts are our own.
.jpg)
