... That was until I discovered Busdriver.
Just checked out his newest record, Jhellie Beam and my first impression was his impressing word count. Must be something like a 500 words per minute... After giving it a few more tracks I also realized that this guy has got i going on on a whole new level.
Weird fast-paced "lyrics" mixed up with beats and rhytms closer to electro-pop then the commerce hip-hop bullshit you hear on the radio every fucking day. This is how rap music should have sounded like... Fresh and interesting.

Follow Sebastian through his visit and preperations for a gig at Lindøy festival 7. June 2009. Lindøy is a small island just outside of Stavanger, which every year opens it´s green grass fields for a day of music and fun, hopefully in the sun... Unfourtunately the sun decided to cut it´s visit short this year, resulting in a few problems for Sebastian.

It´s always hard to do a full live set with rain getting all over your guitar...

4 stages, 40 bands, 8 hours.
Musikkfest was a marathon showcase of local talent in Stavanger.

I spent a whole day in the sun, with music surrounding me at every corner. I´m happy to say it´s one of the better days I´ve ever spent in the city of Stavanger. Great event guys, keep the fire burning next year as well.

Featured in this video: Jackman, Pål Asle Pettersen / Anders Gjerde, Christer Wulff and Jakob Håkon Band.

This edition of Gerilja is featuring one of Stavanger´s up and comming poprock singersongwriter duos. The brothers Kristian and Martin Rinde of Poor Edward gives you a little preview of what´s to come this Friday at the bands release concert of the EP titled "Soldiers and Sundays".

"Soldier on" was shot in a very intimate, yet elevating setting with lots of Poor Edward memorobilia.

Gerilja #5 - Poor Edward from Kai Arne Soot on Vimeo.

For this weeks edition I thought I´d try something a little different from the first three postings.

Stavanger Vocal Ensemble is chamber choir founded in 1993. The choir consists of around 30 experienced vocal artists performing material in a wide range of genres, everything from classical to folk and jazz. The group participated in several large scale productions during Stavanger, European Capital of Culture 2008.

For this special performance in the streets of old Stavanger 21 singers presented the song "Vogel".

Gerilja #4 - Stavanger Vocal Ensemble from Kai Arne Soot on Vimeo.

Grey Filastine is a musician/producer based in Barcelona but rarely found there. Among his 60+ gigs last year you might have caught him at a club in London, on a junk raft floating down the Mississippi river, at Shambhala festival in Canada, at a tiny breakcore party in Osaka, or in front of forty thousand at the hiphop festival Boulevards in Casablanca.

In any context it gets riotous- Filastine bangs out his music, jumping between a tangle of electronics, acoustic percussion, and an amplified shopping cart, firing off riddims and synchronized live video.

The video for his newest release, Singularities, clearly shows that anyone turning up to this years Numusic is in for quite a treat, both visually and musically...

It seems keeping a weekly update on the Gerilja-project has proven to be a challenge.

But no matter.. This weeks video features the raw power that is the sound of Phat. A trio of guitar, drums and an agressive screamo-vocal pushing you to the ground. The song is entitled "Kid on the Barbie".

I just stumbled across another contribution to the M83 contest a few weeks back. I really appreciate the way this video looks. An elegant hand-held style, letting the multi-colored lights from an urban night light up four hipster-kids hanging out.

I just love the grainy strong-colored look that´s been created by shooting it at night only using the light sources available at the location.


M83 We own the sky from Matei-Alexandru Mocanu on Vimeo.

This is one of the funniest clips I´ve seen in a long time. Let´s face it people; Pacman is far from dead, and he´s always been french.



Why not check out Rèmi Gaillards website as well to see more of your favourite videogame-characters facing the real world.

Sorry for the long wait of the enticipated second edition of Gerilja.

This week Stavanger bright and shiny new singer-songwriter hope Sebastian Waldejer is featuring his new song "On a Wedneday".

Gerilja #2 - Sebastian Waldejer from Kai Arne Soot on Vimeo.

For those of you who missed Malajubes previous album in 2006, make sure you dont miss out on this one as well. Labyrinths, their third album, was released a few weeks ago.

Malajube is a Canadian alternative powerpop band from Montreal. All lyrics are in french, so I have no idea what they´re singing. But who cares... When I heard Trompe-l’œil back in 2006 it was some of the most fresh guitar-based music I´d heard in years.. Wonderful to see that they still keep that amazing vibe going.

What I´ve heard of Labyrinth tells me that allthough the band has not moved far from the sound of Trompe-l’œil, the recipe still seems fresh. When something is working, why fix it? Portè Disparu was released as the albums first "single" with it´s very own video. The title roughly translates "reported missing". The video fits nicely by killing off the bands members one at a time:


MALAJUBE || PORTÉ DISPARU from Dare To Care Records on Vimeo.

Just found this two wheat-paste images on a wall right outside Checkpoint Charlie here in Stavanger. Nice to see some active artists on the streets of this otherwise uneventful city...

Great news for Young Replicant, a teenage director's label and design collective hailing from Los Angeles... Yesterday the french band M83 announced the collective as winners of the "We own the sky" music video competition.

For months directors from all over the world has posted contributions to the competition, but director Alex Takacs and Young Replicants drew the longest straw with their beatutifully shot video centering around young love, lens flares, and a confetti party!

Watch the video that according to M83´s Anthony Gonzalez... "perfectly fits to the music and the lyrics. It's exactly what I had in mind when I wrote the song."

Swedish animator/graphic designer Kristofer Ström is behind this cute semi-animated video for "Animals" by Minilogue. I find the way the bizarre little characters fit into to the video-material quite fascinating. Kudos for great characters!
PS: Make sure you catch the little ones beating each other with clubs:


Minilogue - Animals from ljudbilden on Vimeo.

Ok... So here wo go!
This is my first edition of what will be a weekly addition to this blog; the GERILJA project. Once a week I will post a new artist performing live on the streets, first out:
feddownorchestra

This January my girlfriends band, Braving the Glacier, did an amazing show at local venue Checkpoint Charlie. The concert was part of the Norwegian battle-of-the-bands like competition "Zoom 09". Though they did´nt make it to the finales, they were hailed as one of the most supprising new acts in the city and played for their largest audience so far..

Me and my friend Martin Arneberg did a simple two-camera production with a direct audio feed from the PA-mixer. Martins cam on a tripod, mine free-hand.

Talented Japanese singer-sonwriter shot in a beautiful way by Vincent Moon.


Fiume Nights _ Osaka _ Nikaido Kazumi, february 2009 from vincent moon / temporary areas on Vimeo.