SørenP's blog about Play/Rec and Private Life

It´s a sad sad day

2008-08-29 14:21:56

Today it has been made official that Lack is no more... I have known this for a few weeks now and been thinking a lot about it. I really thought I had come to terms with the fact that there will not be another album and that there will not be any more shows. But posting the news and sending it out really had a big effect on me. I have been working a lot on their to latest releases and I have spend a lot of time together with Lack in this respect. So in some respects it feels a bit like loosing a close friend. I know that we will still be friends and see each other so all is not lost... I have been listening to their albums almost constantly since I got the news and in my mind it´s some of the best music made.

But I´m lucky that I had planed to go out tonight and get some beers. That´s just what I need.

Short update

2008-02-27 14:34:27

Yesterday the Lack "Saturate Every Atom" vinyls arrived. Oh my F...... god they look great. The CD look good but compared to the Vinyl it doesn´t stand a chance ;o) Also we got the stickers for lack yesterday. Posters are still in the making :( I made an order for the posters 2 weeks ago. But my payment apparently didn´t go through and they didn´t inform me that my order had been canceled. So i was just waiting for it to arrive. When we had not heard anything after a week i started mailing them, but only got auto-replies.Monday this week i finally was informed that it was canceled and that i needed to make a new order. ARGH. So poster will arrive next week.

The Lack album is streaming at Lack´s MySpace and we are really thrilled about the number a streamings this has created. Around 4000 streams a day. That´s a lot. The video is also doing well with more than 1000 plays. Actually Lack was the 8th most popular danish band on a indie label at MySpace and the video has been featured as Video of the Week.

We have opened for Pre-sale of Lack. So go order it to receive it on the release date.

We are preparing tomorrows release party for the lack album... it´s going to be great. Hearing the album, seeing the video, having a beer and getting a chock when Sygdom plays some Lack covers etc. Hope to see you there!!

.... and remember to vote for Lack at "Det Elektriske Barometer"

Good intentions are not always enough

2008-02-13 09:47:09

It seems like all my blogs start with a "Sorry I haven´t been updating as frequently as I wish". But as always the problem is that there are so many tasks that needs to be done and somehow the blog always seems not to be prioritised. Hmmm seems like it will never change.

"Go Get Beat Up" is out and the reviews are fantastic. It feels so great that all the work we have done pays off in this way. Lets hope that a lot of people will buy it as well - we have a lot of money at stake. The band will start touring in few weeks time. In March they are going around Germany and in April it´s France, Germany etc.

"Saturate Every Atom" is being printed. We have had the promos for a few months now but are still missing the CD´s and Vinyl. The CD´s will arrive on Friday and Vinyl we don´t have a date on yet. But they will be here before the release :os. We just put the track "Watchmen" up for streaming at MySpace, FaceBook and Last.fm. Next week we hopefully have a video ready for you and later again more streams. So check back frequently.

I´ve also been working on getting another release ready for a late March release. It´s an CD EP with five great rock tracks. I´ve just passed that on to the pressing plant and waiting for an approval on that. Artist and title will be revealed shortly.

This weekend I was in our vacation house in Sweden. It was great. We haven´t been there since November. We have to go there more often... It´s a fantastic place and I feel fully recharged after just 2 days walking around in the woods, sitting in front of the stove drinking coffee, chopping woods and all those things that a normal weekend in Copenhagen does not hold.

And last but not least a recomendation. Listen to the new album by The Mars Volta "The Bedlam in Golliath". I have bought all of the albums by The Mars Volta but haven´t really got into the last few. But this time I´m hooked. Especially "Ouroborous" is fantastic. The Mars Volta newsletter just claimed that the album went straight to #3 in the US... that seems very strange (but fantastic) I wouldn´t say that it´s an album for the broad audience. It definitely takes a few listens before you hear the beauty of the songs.

We are getting closer

2008-01-17 11:02:16

Hey. All the hard work is really starting to pay off. The last couple of weeks the results have been showing. Some of the info we´ll save for later...

Barra Head has been tested on "Det Elektriske Barometer".... That is the alternative hit-list at national Danish radio P3. The show all Danish teenagers have been listening to. The track tested is "Common Groud". The song is about Ungdomshuset in Copenhagen and let´s hope we can make it to the list next week. Please remember to go vote for it.... The release show for the album are also getting closer. On the 30th we will be rocking Loppen in Copenhagen with a lot of cool bands that have some kind of connection to either Play/Rec or Barra Head (or in most cases - both). Show up for a night of short and intense concerts. Some free beer and "side vogn". Love that shit. On the 31st and 1st Barra Head will play release shows in Berlin and Hamburg as well.

The release of Lack´s album is also getting closer. We have now uploaded the cover and track list. That cover is so cool. It´s Lack´s good friend Jakob Prinzlau aka. Plastic Kid who is behind it. He is really the shit when it comes to this media and he is also working on the first video for the album. Last week they got most of the shots for the video... I haven´t seen it yet but both Lack and Jakob are exicted and therefore so am I. I´ve heard the ideas behind it and if they manage to get all their ideas to the screen ... then it will be a killer video. Check out the track list as well... I´ve been laughing my ass off reading those titles. And the lyrics reflect those titles... there will be a lot of great reading for you guys. Thomas really should start releasing some of his novels as well.... If you need more info then you can also check out the new bio´s we have uploaded... they might give you an indication of what the album is about....

When it comes to our distribution we are really glad that both Cargo in Germany and La Baleine in France are thrilled about the releases. When I was on tour with The Unit last year we played Wuppertall and the promoter (Felix) turned out to work at Cargo. Felix was a great guy and we talked a bit about how we could improve our cooperation. Felix is now our contact at Cargo and he is doing a fantastic job. He seems to have the same work-ethics as us. And no matter when you write him you have an answer within 5 minutes. Yiha - love that. Concerning France we have been a bit unsure what to do. We have been contacting some labels to see if they would be interested in doing the distribution. But most labels prefer having the release and not just distributing so it seemed like we didn´t get anywhere... But then suddenly all arrows seemed to point in the same direction. At the same time we contacted La Baleine through our french contact and friend Mylie - La Baleine contacted us with an offer to represent and distribute us. Fantastic. They seem to be the perfect match for us.

On the not so positive side the Digital sale is still a mess. Wasn´t the idea behind digital distribution that it would all be a lot easier? That is most definitely not the case. Now the Beta Satan tracks are up in some shops. But not all. ARRRGGGGHHH. We are working on solving this for the upcoming releases.

Back on track

2008-01-10 11:13:00

I´m back home from Mexico. We had a great time there. The weather was nice and the beer were cold. My daughter also enjoyed having us around all the time and playing with her cousin Anton from California, her uncle and aunt and grand parents. We didn´t do much else but playing, going to the beach, eating and having a good time.... but that was just what we needed. The most scary part for me was not being online all the time. I´m used to spending 10 hours a day online. The idea of huge piles of important mails waiting for a reply was really frightening. To solve this problem I ordered a Blackberry 8800 to be able to keep the contact. I ordered it from Germany because that was the only place I could find one without a price plan bundle. But those fuckers didn´t send it in time....and actually I have not received it yet. I have written mails every week to them and they just tell me it´s not in stock yet. ARGH. I solved the problem about the mails with going to the local "Starbucks-Copy" coffee shop with free Internet access. As a bonus they served the sweetest Caramello Frappuccino that sure did raise the sugar-level to the max.

But now I´m back with the battery re-charged and working my ass of. The Barra Head release is getting near and we still have a lot to do. On top of that we also have to deal with Lack release that is just around the corner. We have received the promos for Lack and they look fantastic. So now it´s time to print the CD´s and Vinyl. We have had some problems getting the 7" out in the digital shops and I have had a lot of correspondence with the distribution company (Basepoint). But they have insured me that before I can say "you are fired" they will be available. Just hope we won´t get the same shit with the upcoming releases. I promise to keep the updates more frequent from now on. Talk to you SOON.

I need vacation...

2007-12-20 09:51:22

First of all - Thanks to everybody who attended the "A Play/Rec kind of Christmas" concert. I had a great time and really enjoyed the concerts. I´ve been listening a LOT to both Lack and Barra Heads forthcoming albums... so to hear them come to life was really something. Those two bands are my favorite live bands. Tours are coming up in the spring with both bands so if they are playing somewhere around your place then don´t waste the chance to see them.

I´m off to La Paz, Mexico tomorrow. I will spend both Christmas and new years there with my family. I have been there a few times before. First time was with my Brother, his wife and some of their friends on a dive vacation at Club Cantamar. La Paz is a great place for diving. You can see whale sharks, hammerheads, tuna, marlin, sailfish, manta, morays, puffers, barracuda, crevalle, sea lions, dorado etc. and there are also a few good wrecks to dive. My favorite is diving with sea lions they are so playfull and there is always a lot of action going on - plus the dives are pretty shallow so you have a great bottom time.

This year I´m not sure if we will go diving since it´s more of a family thing. Maybe we will go on a snorkeling trip for some whale sharks or go catch the sea lions... we´ll see. After having spend a few holidays in La Paz my brother decided to buy a few connected apartments in the city of La Paz so that is where we will be staying. We also went there two years ago for new years. It´s going to be great having some vacation (and spicy Mexican food) it´s really been hectic this last year and it seems like this next year won´t be much less work with Play/Rec - but working on such great albums with such great people makes it all worth it. We´ll have some time in L.A. so i guess that I will just be able to go buy my own christmas gifts at Amoeba - Yiha. I don´t think i will be able to write any more blogs this year so.... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

..... the Wu-Tang album has arrived - Go check out a few of the songs here.

a word from the Glögg-master

2007-12-10 12:24:54

Hey. A lot of things have happened. Last week we put the Barra Head track "Common Ground" out for streaming. If you have not heard it yet then go listen now. On top of this we have also revealed the artwork of the album. It´s pretty damn cool. The album will be out January 28th 2008 so the work has really intensified on this release - getting all the press material ready and making sure that every body (distribution, promo, bookers) have everything they need.

This Saturday it´s time for our annual Christmas Concert "A Play/Rec Kind of Christmas". This year the line-up is Lack, Barra Head & Little Jimmy Reeves. They all have new material ready and will hopefully play a lot of this for us. Most of it will be "First time ever live". On top of that there will be some Play/Rec´ers DJ´ing and we will make carry on the fucked up concepts of getting the audience as drunk as possible with free booze: "Snup-En-Snaps" and "Verdens Stærkeste Glögg". I will once again be the one brewing "The strongest Glögg ever" Last year I couldn´t find my old 90% booze recipe so it wasn´t really that strong. But this year I have found it and will make a mixture of last years "tasty glögg" and the previous "burning glögg". Yiha. The raisins are already in the rum and tonight I will start cooking up the extract. It´s going to be a blast. If you have not attended this christmas concert before then try it this year - but remember to get there early since it has been sold out the last couple of times (Huset only holds 150 guests).

If you know who Danzig is then check this out.

A Lot to do...

2007-12-02 11:05:00

It´s been a while. It´s not because I don´t have any news or because I haven´t done any work on Play/Rec. The problem is the opposite - I´ve been to busy to write any blogs. Hopefully it will not continue like that. I will give you a quick wrap-up of what has been going down.

The Lack/Beta Satan 7" arrived on Friday and is now on sale. But before it came to that we had a lot of problems getting it here on time it didn´t arrive in time for the Beta Satan concerts at Store Vega. That was really a pity. I went to see the concert and Beta Satan delivered a great show. I only saw them play and didn´t have time to catch a beer with them since I was going to hang our with a lot of the guys from Play/Rec. Even though most of us live close by we haven´t been hanging out much lately. A lot of the guys have had kids this last year and on top of that a few have been writing their thesis . So this night actually was the first in a long time where we all sad down and drank a lot of beers, listened to some good music and solved all the problems of the world. It was great and it was late before i returned home even though we were having a bunch of kids/babies over next day to celebrate my daughters birthday.

Now we are working on the fifth annual "A Play/Rec Kind of Christmas". The program is not done yet but until now the deal is that Lack and Barra Head are playing and that we will be serving "the strongest Glögg ever". But this next week will add more surprises to this line-up.

We´ll that´s it for now.

It has been found

2007-11-20 15:57:49

Today it´s Isobel´s birthday. It´s her first birthday. Yiha!!!

I found the records. Seems like UPS have tried to deliver the package for the last week (without leaving a note or anything). Not until Handle With Care got the Track & Trace from Optimal(the manufacturer) was it clear that they had tried drooping the records of. Bastards. So yesterday evening I went out in the middle of nowhere (some deserted industrial city around Glostrup) to do the job that UPS could not handle. I got the package holding the 3 pieces of 7" test-prints. It felt great finally having it in my hands. But after having approved it the record still needs to be printed. So it won´t be ready for the Beta Satan concert. ARGHHH. So it seems like we have to wait another week :(

Where are they?

2007-11-19 14:51:46

Arvid got me into FaceBook. Thank you Arvid. Hopefully this is just a phase I have to get through. It´s so time-consuming and silly. I guess the original idea behind FaceBook was a bit more ambitious than what it ended up with. A big crowd of grown-ups spending their time doing Movie-Quiz, Music-Quiz etc. But the biggest problem of them all is that I´m hooked. Why am I not number one in the music-quiz in my crowd of friends? I have to try again and again and again. Hmmm. If I just hadn´t joined... then I wouldn´t know about all the great things I was missing out on.

We still haven´t received that Lack/Beta Satan split 7"... Where are they? The test-print was supposed to be here last week. Hmmm It really irritates me. I have tried getting some delivery date from the company that we are using (Handle With Care) - But until now I´ve only got the information that it´s going to be hard to make it this week. But the idea was to release them when Beta Satan hits Copenhagen on MTV´s Spanking New Music Tour on friday. If they are not there by then I will get a depression.... or at least get really pissed. The dropcards (download cards) have arrived for the split. They are really nice. I think we are going to use that for the upcoming releases as well.

Tomorrow it my daughter Isobel´s first Birthday. We have bought a billion presents already and are trying to figure out what is for the Birthday, Christmas and the Christmas calendar (with 24 small packages). It´s a real mess right now - but we´ll sort it out tonight. Tomorrow we have some family over for dinner and then Isobel will have here "friends" over on Saturday.

Ups...

2007-11-12 15:29:00

Seems like I was a bit fast with the news on Wu-Tang Clan´s next album. The version I mentioned was a version released by their old label Loud the featured unreleased tracks. It´s called 8 Diagrams Mixtape and not just 8 Diagrams as the new album(released by SRC). Loud is by the way a subsidiary of SRC on was supposed to be closed down in 2002. But now they have released a Wu-Tang mixtape. Strange. It´s still worth a listen though.

Cold, Election and Wu-Tang Clan

2007-11-12 15:05:08

This weekend has mainly been about spending time with my girlfriend and daughter. We have been out visiting friends and have had friends over. Just chilling and trying to learn my daughter new tricks - like whistling and saying Oh-Oh. It sounds really funny and I have been laughing a lot this weekend. It´s gotten a lot colder in Denmark these last days and yesterday evening it even snowed. But since i live in the city the snow melted even before reaching the ground. But the cold also means that everybody gets sick. My daughter has been sick for the last few days. She has some kind of cold and is coughing a lot. And therefore she doesn´t get much sleep and med nether..... so I´m really tired right now and have been drinking coffee like a madman all day. If it doesn´t get better I´ll stay home with her tomorrow. Yiha.

Tonight we have a meeting with Lack. We are trying to make some kind of plan of activities up until the release and a bit after. It´s all about strategy. When do we get the best results of our work. When to release singles, plays shows. What about release shows. Do we won´t to have different release dates in different countries or one European release date. etc.? It´s gonna be a lot of fun and hopefully we will end with a result that everybody can agree on.

As Daniel mentions in his blog from yesterday it´s time to vote for a new government. I agree with him in most of his points and the most important thing is that you don´t waste your chance of voting. If you want change then you have to get up and go down and give your vote. So go...

The last point on today´s blog is a recommendation. It´s definitely not for some new unknown band. It´s about Wu-Tang Clan. That clan really knows how to throw a beat. I discovered Wu-Tang Clan way to late only a few years ago. I´ve seen them once live at Roskilde and seen both RZA and GZA doing their own shit. Especially the RZA concert in Malmö was fantastic. My favorite Wu album is Wu-Tang Forever. I Know a lot you thinks that Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) is the best one. And it sure is raw and fresh... but in my book they have perfected the expression of 36 Chambers on Wu-Tang Forever. I´ve listened to it a lot and it still sounds as great as the first time I heard it. On top of that there are also a lot of sole releases by the members. RZA is my favorite... I´ve collected everything I could find. The first records from RZA - Bobby Digital in Stereo is a master piece in my mind. It´s hypnotic and once you get into it you don´t let go. But actually all his albums are great. But all the Wu-tang members have released cool stuff. Don´t miss out on that. Check them out. There has been a lot of talks about the upcoming Wu-Tang album 8 Diagrams. Release dates, singles and clearance on samples etc. has been thrown around. I really don´t know what to expect. I never really got into Iron Flag. But I´m really looking forward to December 12th(or when it´s going to come out).... Oh my god. going around finding links i found the album in a stream-able version from their label Loud. Haven´t got time for more of this blogging... need to listen to the album. Check it out yourself.

I hate this F...... crap.

2007-11-10 11:25:00

Argggghhhhh. It´s time to do the quarterly bookkeeping-crap. We have to pay for VAT now and I´m the one doing the bookkeeping. Crap that sucks. All other tasks that you can possible think of are more entertaining than this. Therefore I´m doing what ever I can at this point in time to work on other tasks instead of what I was supposed to. On Wednesday I managed to take a big chunk in the pile of invoices(that has been payed and stuff - but not been put into the books yet.) But I still have some time to go. Every time I tell my self that next quarter I will be doing the work on a frequent basis so it won´t end up with me working 24/7 when the deadline is approaching. But it never seems to end this way.

The good thing though is that I really get a lot of work done tring to avoid working on the bookkeeping. We have just made a deal with Basepoint Media (former Phonofile) who are covering pretty much all digital-sale in DK. Up until now we have had a deal with them through our distributor VME but it seemed that the process of getting thinks out in the shops had one to many companies involved. So now we are doing it directly with Basepoint and hopefully this will increase the speed of getting things online and getting the money back from what has been sold. But it also meant that I had to spend some time getting used to the new process. Filling out huge spreadsheets, uploading cover artwork and sending CD´s. The test artist for this is Beta Satan. Two tracks are being sold digitally. One track from the 7" split with Lack and another track as well. When we have seen if everything is running smooth we will be uploading some older albums that has not been put online yet. Barra Head 7", Greg MacPherson, Five Years, The Unit/Gunpoint etc. But we´ll inform you when that happens.

Have a nice weekend.

New promo agency and Dropcards

2007-11-06 12:27:25

I’ve been rather busy the last week. First off I was at my grandfather’s birthday. That was a really nice thing. Lots of people I haven’t seen for years and my daughter Isobel who loves social life was charming the hell out of everybody. So that was rather entertaining.

Thursday I had to go to Oslo with my “ordinary job”. I work as a Data Miner at an insurance company. We were going by the ferry from Copenhagen to Oslo (5pm – 9am) and I seems to be the place to get totally piss drunk and start a fist fight. I did get a bit wasted, but luckily didn’t get any fists in my direction.

I returned to Copenhagen on Saturday and spend the weekend outside in the beautiful autumn sun - going to the Zoo and some different parks.

When it comes to Play/Rec we found a new promo agency for Germany last week. They are really cool guys. We meet up with them last year at Popkomm in Berlin. But at that point in time we didn’t need any promo work done right away. But now the releases of Barra Head and Lack are approaching fast and after having contacted a few different agencies we decided to go with Starkult. What made them stand out was the fact that they had a very detailed plan of activities, some very good reporting, but most important of all they had some great results with the artists of our office-sharing friends at Quartermain. So we are really looking forward to working with them.

I also send of the Barra Head record to the printer (both promo and digi). The artwork looks really cool. It´s going to be great to have the finished products in a few weeks time.

The digital download cards for the Lack & Beta Satan 7" we have ordered through Dropcards are also being printed at the moment. It´s like a credit card with a link to website and a unique code for download. The cards will be included in the 7" and sold as digital downloads at concerts etc. We are also going to use this solution for the upcoming releases by Lack and Barra Head. I initially heard about the solution when i bought the Joan As Police Woman vinyl and the card was included. The good thing is that they are hosting the solution and that you get this credit card with the information. It almost feels like a physical product ;o) By the way I think the Joan As Police Woman has some really great tracks on it. Especially the track "I defy" with Anthony. I really love that track. The start reminds me a bit of the Talk Talk track "Life´s What You Make it" one of my all time favorite tracks and bands. And if you haven´t had the chance to catch Anthony live yet... then don´t miss the opportunity next time you get it. It´s a really big experience with plenty of goosebumps and laughs involved.

Getting ready for the pressing plant and a 90 years birthday.

2007-10-29 13:55:05

Hey there. I had a great weekend in Sweden. The weather was crap but we still had a great time and got some work done as well.

At the moment pretty much everything is about getting things ready for print. Last week the Lack and Beta Satan split 7” was shipped to the pressing plant and this week it’s the forthcoming albums by Lack and Barra Head that are getting ready to be printed. The Lack artwork is done by Plastic Kid and the Barra Head artwork is done by Sarah Bodil Hansen. They are both really cool artists that have talents expanding way wider than just designing record covers. If you have not checked them out yet, then please do now. They have styles that are very different – but both are really cool. Both Barra Head and Lack will be released as both CD and Vinyl so there is lots of work to be done and from what I´ve seen it´s going to be two really fantastic covers.

(My grandfather is second from the right and my great grandfather is the third from the left)

Tonight I’m going to Rødby/Lolland. That’s the part of Denmark where my parents grew up and where they now have a vacation house that we are going to tonight. The reason for this visit is that my grandfather (on my fathers side) is celebrating his 90 years birthday tomorrow. My grandfather is a really cool guy. He founded “Peersons Redningskorps” in Sakskøbing. It was a local Ambulance/fire fighting company. Later on they joined Falck. My grandfather has 4 sons of which 3 are working in Falck(Including my father). They all used to hang out and help at the company and my father was very young when he was at his first assignments. The commitment to this industry started with my great grandfather(Marius Persson) who had his own Zone Station in Maribo from back in the 20’s. I loved visiting my grandfather and grandmother as a kid. They had a house where the back garden had an entrance to the garage of the company. Me and my brother used to go there and imagine that we were out on an important rescue mission – sitting in the ambulance with helmets on etc. That was great fun. My grandfather’s house was almost like a museum with pictures of some the big fires he had fought or train or car crashes he had attended. On top of the ordinary tasks they also helped the wild animal park in the area (Knuthenborg) when they needed to transport new animals. So there were funny pictures of my grandfather with giraffes, rhinos, monkeys, snakes etc. His engagement in Knuthenborg also meant that we were visiting the park a few times every year. I loved those trips. Now he turns 90 and we are going to celebrate him tomorrow.

Weekend in Sweden

2007-10-26 13:23:00

This weekend I’m off to my vacation house in Sweden. It’s been a while since I was there last, so I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a nice red wooden house in the forest surrounded by an old diabase(Black Granite) mine. Since our house is only 5 meters from the big piles of junk stones and used to house some of the workers who lived there a 100 years ago I got a bit interested in how life must have been in these mines. So I went to a place called Svarta Bergen where they have a similar Diabase mine that is still equipped with the old cranes, black smiths etc. It was super cool and you felt like you were working around in one of the hardworking chapters of industrial history. Now the big craters are filled with water and some of them are more than 50 meters deep. Some of these deep “lakes” are used by free divers now. When we bought the place we were all eager to swim them as well… but nobody has yet. They are cold, dark and stories about dead mine workers on the bottom seem to hold us away from a nice relaxing swim. On the other hand we have a perfect lake for swimming only 2 km away so why bother risking your life in our backyard?

We don’t have any plans for the weekend yet. But we are going with the couple we are sharing the house with so it will probably be equal amounts of practical stuff and relaxation….and that sounds good to me.

Have a nice weekend and if you are around Copenhagen on Saturday then go check out Beta Satan at Templet(Lyngby).

Beta Satan

2007-10-25 13:05:04

Finally we got the word out about our next release and the new Play/Rec band. We have been talking with Beta Satan about releasing music with them for more than a year. In my opinion they are the best new band to come out in a long time. The mixture of thrashy, rocking riffs and pop-songs is deadly. Originally we tried convincing them to release their debut album…but they are hard to get and we weren’t the only label with that intention… so we have to see how that turns out. The next best thing must be to mix them with their playmates of Lack on a 7”. Event though they are from different genres they are a great match. The track that Lack is bringing along is absolutely perfect for the 7” format - Up-beat and intense.

Yesterday I was at the Club Play/Rec gig with Daniel Higgs and Kiss The Anus of a Black Cat. That was two rather strange concerts and not really my kind of music. But I was entertained anyway. Plus I had the chance to get a few beers and meet up with some Play/Rec’ers and usual suspects….That is always great fun.

Baby Woodrose

2007-10-23 10:39:00

Last night I was at the office. Every Monday evening we have a Play/Rec meeting where we run through tasks etc. On this meeting it was only me and Daniel attending. It’s been like that for quite some time now. Arvid has never attended the meetings since he is more focused on developing IT-geeky stuff and Mikkel has been on paternity leave for some time now. While we were at the office Lars of Bad Afro Records showed up and reminded us that he had a record release party this evening. It was for the new Baby Woodrose album “Chasing Rainbows”. I’ve listened to Baby Woodrose since their debut album “Blows You Mind”. This album is still my favourite by Baby Woodrose. The main man of Baby Woodrose is Lorenzo Woodrose or Guf as he is also called. On the debut he plays pretty much all instruments and has written all songs. That guy is extremely talented. He has a fantastic ear for pop-songs, plays one hell of a guitar and has a great voice. I had the pleasure to work with him when my band The Unit had a record release party last year. We had invited a lot of guest musicians including Guf. So we played two cover tracks with him (“Graveyard” by Dead Moon and “You Must be a Witch” by The Lollipop Shoppe). It was great playing with him.

Since the last Baby Woodrose (“Love Comes Down” that in my mind is quite a step back for the band. Since It seems to lack the psych parts and variations that made the other albums so charming) Guf has released two other albums that you ought to check out. First came the Dragontears project. With a lot of long repetitive psych songs that really takes you on a journey into the grooves. I really like that record. Next up came The Setting Son that is produced by Guf and holds a lot of great pop-songs with a cool garage sound.

But yesterday it was time to celebrate the arrival of the new Baby Woodrose album. The party was at Café Svejk - a small bar that really couldn’t fit the crowd. So I spend most of the evening outside in the cold talking to Lars and Thomas from The Unit. The band played some songs from the album but it was almost impossible to get in, so we had to hear the concert from outside. I’ve had the chance to listen to the album a few times now and it sounds fantastic. Like a mixture of the first album and the Dragontears album. So this is my recommendation to buy the album. If you hurry up you can still listen to the full album at their MySpace page.

I´ve been sick

2007-10-22 14:39:55

I’ve been in sick for the last couple of days. Of cause nobody likes being sick and I’m no exception. I had high fever and a constant head-ache for 4 days. That meant a lot of sleeping and not much else. So I’m a bit behind now. But I also think that this “break” has been good to me. I have been working pretty hard on the upcoming releases and probably needed some time to regain an overview of the projects. I’ve got that now as well as a lot of energy to work on. So now it’s time to work and keep you posted on this blog ;o)

While I was sick we did the final adjustments to the mastering of the upcoming Lack album. Bob Weston really had done a fantastic job. We only had some minor changes and he fixed them very fast. So now we are just waiting for the music to cross the Atlantic. Once again I have to warn you. This sounds so great that you will be blown away.

Radioshow: KCRW

2007-10-16 14:09:00

I just have time for a recommendation today. If you have not heard any of the shows on.KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic then go check it out. Every weekday they have a new band in the studio playing some songs from a recently released album. Some of my favourites are Sonic Youth playing songs from Sonic Nurse, The Shins playing songs from Chutes to Narrow. They have shows with a lot of other artists like Radiohead, The Flaming Lips, Elvis Costello, Bright Eyes, Interpol etc.

No one got out alive

2007-10-14 21:00:00

Denmark didn’t get out alive in yesterdays soccer match. It really was a rather poor performance they put on. Especially two of the guys in the defence(Nicklas Jensen and Thomas Helveg) had a really bad day. Hopefully we don’t have to put up with them on the national team in the future. Spain didn’t play a good game eather...but in my opinion they deserved to win. So it’s gonna be another play-off without Denmark´s participation.

The Fashion played a great show yesterday. They sure know how to throw a party. For me it was especially entertaining watching Jakob from Lack playing with them. When playing with Lack he has his custom headbanging style. That really doesn’t fit The Fashions music(and I think he would have scared some of the kids in the rather young audience yesterday). But he had nicely transformed his style into a rather rocking, bend over, boogie style. If you get the chance to catch them live, then don’t miss that opportunity.

I really wan’t to hear the new Radiohead album - In Rainbows. But it’s a bit of a dilemma to me. I’ve never bought a digital album(I’m a vinyl kind of guy) and now, on top of convincing myself that buying a digital album is ok, I also have to consider what price I’m willing to pay for the album. It’s not an easy task. That’s probably why I have not downloaded the album yet. Have any of you downloaded the album and what did you decide to pay and why? Hmmm hope to get some answers on this one. But just to make it clear... I think it’s a great idea they came up with. I’m not sure if it’s out of idealistic purposes or just a pr-stunt. But on the other hand I really don’t care either. Because the important part is that it has made a lot of people think about how they value digital music and that’s rather important in a time where sales on physical albums is decreasing and digital sales is not really filling the gap. Just to finish this one off I will recommend you to read this article about Rick Rubin´s views on the music business. It’s rather interesting reading.

The Fashion and Soccer

2007-10-13 17:25:00

Hey. I´m going to see The Fashion playing at Loppen tonight. They are really cool guys. At the moment two of the guys from Lack are playing with them. Jacob is a regular member playing drums and Jakob is stand in on guitar on this tour. Their tunes are very catchy and live they are packed with energy and the concerts usually ends up as a big party. The singer in The Fashion is also called Jakob and he is doing the artwork on the forthcoming Lack Album. He is very talented. Check out the artwork he did for The Fashion and the video he made for Solo Impala it´s really fantastic.

Besides from that I´m of cause going to watch the soccer game between Denmark and Spain. It´s rather nerve wrecking. It´s seems like Fernando Tores is out so hopefully that will increase the chances of Denmark getting out of that game alive.

New songs, Artistic freedom and Wii

2007-10-12 15:01:00

I had yet another thrilling morning. Since the two tracks Bob Weston had worked on were similar we had requested to hear another song mastered with what could be described as regular drumming. The full drum-kit if you please. He returned this morning with a mastered version of the song “I Want You To Call Me Peter North”(hehe - that title is so fucked). This track sounded absolutely fantastic and none of us had any thing to add. So we have given the “Go Ahead” signal and are eagerly waiting to hear the rest of the songs.

On another branch we are working on the “not yet announced” project. In this case the artists were given absolutely free hands with the cover artwork. And let’s just say that it does not look like a normal Play/Rec release. I think we will be able to announce this release within the next two weeks and then you will have a chance to see for yourself what I’m talking about.

Tonight I’m going to play some Wii with a couple of friends. If you have not had the chance to try this consol yet, then you better go ahead. It came with the game “Wii Sports” where you can play different kinds of sports (Tennis, Golf, Bowling, Boxing etc.) It’s one of the best game experiences I’ve had. The good part is of cause the controller. It’s very intuitive how to use it witch makes it perfect as a party game consol. Enough about that. I’m really looking forward to some beers and a few games of Tennis (it’s good exercise as well). Have a nice weekend.

Mastering by Bob Weston

2007-10-11 15:00:00

This morning I stumbled out of bed and headed straight for the laptop. We uploaded the material to Bob Weston Monday night and hopefully he would have something ready for us. My girlfriend had started some kind of conversation concerning what clothes our daughter needed since it was cold outside…but everything was blocked out when another mail from Bob Weston popped up with the first line starting “Uploading 2 songs for you guys to check out…” Yiha. After having read the mail and downloaded the file I came back to reality and replied the “are you listening at all” with a “Sorry I just received a really important mail. The work on this Lack album started a long time ago and it is a big relief to finally receive some songs that are done. Not just "mix5.2 less voc plus bass" But a final version.

Bob is mastering the forthcoming Lack album and another not yet announced release. The two tracks he had worked on were “Hund” that also appear on the Mock 7” and has been a live track for years and “Naked” a brand new track. Bob has opened the Chicago Mastering Service with Jason Ward. They have some clear opinions about how to master and how not to master an album. Basically you can cut it down to: Keep the dynamics of the music and don’t go for Loudness. They have a rather entertaining illustration about how mixing and mastering of music has changed historically. Also if you need some guidelines about vinyl, then check out their section about this. Back to the important part – “Hund” and “Naked” sounded fantastic. Not that you could hear major differences compared to the mix… but It just sounded better. It was a mastering that was very respectful to the dynamics and that was just what we were looking for. So be patient about the album there is something stunningly good coming you way… Not only does it sound fantastic it is also a lot of really great songs.

Opening statement

2007-10-11 10:00:00

Just to get this ball rolling I’m going to tell you a bit about what my intentions are with this blog and what you can expect to read at this place.

First of all my intention is to keep this as honest as possible. We have plenty of other pages where we can write a good story partially based on the truth. This one will be 100% based on the truth. At times there might be things I just don’t mention on this blog. But those cases will be few and only in cases where I can get a lawsuit on my neck for telling what an asshole or how incompetent some people are. I probably won’t be able to keep my mouth closed anyway… so you will get some of the juicy stuff as well..

At this point I’m working as a madman to make sure that Play/Rec’s next few releases will be ready in time and that we have done all the necessary preparations to make them successful. So much of the attention on this blog will be on my work on these releases.

I also have a private life and some information will also be about what goes on in that part of my life. So this is a short introduction to my friends and family:

I live in Copenhagen N or Nørrebro as it is called. I live in an apartment with my girlfriend Berit Lea, my daughter Isobel(11 months old) and our cat Elton. My parents live 100 km from Copenhagen in a small town called Skælskør. Pretty much everybody involved in Play/Rec are from this area. We grew up together or meet in high-school. So Play/Rec started as us putting up shows, doing recordings and getting drunk. Not much has changed in this aspect… except that we don’t get drunk together as often as we used to.

When not in Copenhagen I’m most likely at my vacation house/ødegård/torp in Värestorp, Sweden. It’s only a two hour drive but it is a very different world up there. To get out of the city once in a while really is the best way for me to recharge my batteries. You ought to try it!!! I have this house together with my childhood friend Tue, his girlfriend Maria and son Hector.

Another place I love to go is California. My only brother Michael lives in Laguna Beach with his Wife Maja and son Anton. He is studio head for the computer game developers Shiny and The Collective (part of Foundation 9). We just went to visit them a few weeks ago and had a great time. I’ve been there many times since he has lived in the L.A. area for more than 10 years.

Apart from this most of the people I spend time with are related to Play/Rec some way or the other. Either bands, labels, journalists, venues etc. The other guys running Play/Rec are all living close by (on Nørrebro) and we have just moved our office from the city center to Nørrebro. So much of my life is lived around this area.

That’s it. Enjoy, I know I will