STRICTLY GLOBAL

How's this for a new theme?  I go on Wikipedia, hit random, and whatever country the article takes place in, I blog about their music scene.  And lookie lookie, this week I landed on Bergen, Norway (on an article about the Bergen International Festival to be exact) thus enabling me to blab on about either traditional Norse music, the ever amazing genre of black metal, or the struggle of Ida Maria's recent dibacle on the Perez Hilton tour in the U.S.  Spare you on that last bit, as I did get a chance to catch her at her DC performance (touring with New Zealand's Ladyhawke!!!) and though she was as sloshy as your average Shane MacGowan (the Pogues), she didn't lack in entertaining the crowd.  So kudos Ida, we <3 you.

Now, the first band that pops into my mind when I think Norwegian black metal is Darkthrone.  {Wow.  I never thought I'd blog about Darkthrone and Ida Maria in the same span of sentence spacedom.}  Not actually from Bergen, but the Oslo area, these dudes originally formed as a death metal band in 1986 under the name Black Death, and then went full on black metal back in 1991, donning the signature corpsepaint seen amongst all the faces of black metal bands.  Not familiar?  Imagine KISS make-up, but wicked eviler.  Heck yes.  Anyway, they are still around, and though their roots are still with black metal, some of their latest stuff has teetered on crust. 

But let's get back to Bergen, proclaimed cultural capital of Norway, cause that was the whole point of the random country music blog...  Every year, the city holds a two-week long event called the Bergen International Festival, and within that hundreds of Norwegian and international musicians from various genres perform throughout the city.  Oddly enough, from the 2008 roster of artists, I only recognized one band; Matmos.  Check out the list and see if you can beat that. ;P  We missed this year's fest, but the next  is slated for May 26th-June 9th of 2010.

Since Summit Entertainment has released the news that Death Cab For Cutie has created an exclusive song for the New Moon soundtrack, (of the Twilight series), I'd thought I'd throw it out there what other artists would make a truly glorious soundtrack.  It's not like I'm jumping on the vampy bandwagon that's ruled the media over the past year; I've been a fan of the fangs for like 26 years now.  And as much as it may kill the dreams of tweens, Evanescence and Linkin Park absolutely do not cut it.  So I'll keep it strictly global...

First off, Bella's lullaby (a song written by main vamp Edward for his human gf Bella) should have been something like Aphex Twin's "Avril 14th" in my personal opinion.  This British dude's been creating sick music since 1985, ranging from the piano to drum machines, and rumor has it that there is another album in the works and will hopefully be out by the end of the year.

More from the foggy land of the UK, (much like the foggy town of Forks,WA where the Twilight series takes place), and not to mention on repeat on my car stereo at the moment, are the Horrors.  Their most recent album, Primary Colours, was nominated for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize, and is full of spectacular shoegaze garage rock, any track would be great for New Moon.  But I'll go with "Scarlet Fields", a track that is pummeled with ambient gloom, and would totally set the tone for a depressive break-up.  Whoops, spoiler alert?

Yeah, Edward totally dumps Bella.  What music should she be sulking too whilst locked in her bedroom for months on end?  None other than Canada's ambient glitcher Tim Hecker, with tracks like "Chimeras" and "Ghost Writing."  Hey, if Paramore can get two songs on the Twilight soundtrack, this guy could too with New Moon- if not compose the entire score actually!  Of Hecker's work, the New York Times has described it as  "foreboding, abstract pieces in which static and sub-bass rumbles open up around slow moving notes and chords, like fissures in the earth waiting to swallow them whole."  Totally depressing, yet so awesome.

During Bella's rebellious "I'll pretend to be over it" stage with werewolf pal Jacob, a slew of anthems could be rocked alongside her obsession with motorcycle crashes and cliff-diving.  You were spoiler alerted paragraphs ago... Anyway, let's delve old school with Ireland's  My Bloody Valentine "Only Shallow," one of the loudest bands in the world, guaranteed to make your ears bleed, which may in turn drive Jasper (Edward's "bro") mad.  And while I'm on a UK shoegaze streak, let's throw in some good ol' Slowdive with "Souvlaki Space Station", a track most befitting to underwater hallucinations. Wink.

Lastly, Italy plays a huge role in the movie, and one prominent Italian musician's name that stands out is Elisa (check out the interview I did with her now up on Youtube!)  Her song "Dancing" perfectly wraps up the drama that is Bella and Edward, I mean check out this lyric: "The depth of life will dim my temptation to live for you."  I mean, hello, omg.

Those are just some of my personal picks for an awesome New Moon soundtrack.  All of those, plus more, are now playing on our blip.fm playlist.  Word.

Are you familiar with that dude Erik Mongrain at all?  You know, he was that Montreal-ite guy that was always popping up with his acoustic guitar at random subway stops in Canada, New York, and Spain.  Remember?  He like totally perfected the technique of "lap-tapping" where he literally plays his guitar like a piano, I mean, omg check this out...

Yeah so anyway, when he was in Spain, some journalist totally "discovered" him and made a prediction in the Granada newspaper that he would go from the streets to recording  on world class major labels, and it like totally happened.  He ended up putting out a couple albums, working with Paul Reed Smith (PRS Guitars), who actually made him a custom acoustic guitar, and even showed the "Airtap!" youtube video to Paul McCartney who totally grooved along.  That single youtube video even scored him some contracts to literally score some films!

So yeah, take it from a kid who grew up loving sports and Nirvana, and never giving up on a dream to live musically.  With dedication to entertaining the populous of public transport, as well as use of the modern phenom of internet uploadage, musical fairy tales may come true.

More about Erik Mongrain.