Yes, the title almost seems like a contradiction on its own… But, life is simply too short to look down your nose at the Eurovision. It is filled with clichés, people in too colourful clothes, singing more or less empty pop music. I know all this. But I still try to make sure that I have nothing on schedule when the time comes around for the Eurovision.
But, why, you may ask (and if you do not – then really you should)?
It is because the Eurovision do not mind what you make of it. If you sit through the whole thing sneering at the whole show, ironizing over the blatantly bad English conversions of the different songs etc. As longas you watch it.
It is one of those shows, that just is so fun and happy, that even if you just go along with the ride, then it’s bound to be fun. I spend way too many years looking down my nose, at something that is always a really fun night with my boyfriend (and sometimes his kids).
So, please, give it a go, if you have nothing better to do tomorrow night… watch the Eurovision.
So – let’s say I have convinced you, you need to watch the Eurovision. What do you need to do to make the experience the best possible?
Well for one, it is more fun if you are at least one other (it is still fun if you watch it alone, but it is one of those things that only gets better if you are more). So when you have found someone to watch it with, you need to do a bit of planning.
Firstly you need snacks. Snacks are important, they will keep you through the show (it is a pretty long show), so you do not go hungry 😉 What snacks you want are optional. You could go with anything you like, or maybe do some really old fashion tacky stuff, that fits with the theme (we have some years had what in Danish is called “Citron mane” (Citrus Moon), a basically very very sweet dryish cake that is usually served by really old people). This year since we are trying to be healthy-ish, it will be strawberries, muffins, carrot and cucumber sticks and maybe something we haven’t figured out yet. But whatever makes you happy will work.
Then you need drinks – if you drink alcohol, then go for anything that feels nice and silly – like fizzy wine, drinks, or anything of that ilk. This year we will be drinking elderflower, white wine and sparkling water mixed up – or something like that – but we have done fizzy wine, and elaborate drinks before that.
You also need a voting ballot. Usually you can print one out from the endless resources of the internet, but otherwise just make your own. Discuss in advance the criteria you use for ranking each song, and try to stick to them. You can make up any criterion you want, like best hair, nicest stage show, or even go with the oldie but goodie, least horrible music. Or mix them all up. But just do not take it too serious. It is not going to be some of the best music you have ever heard, so give them a break. Also remember to make a scale – in our house we mix the criteria with everything from – love the shirt, to never heard a musical instrument used like that, and we use a scale of 1-10.
You could also just arbitrary decide to root for some country, without having heard their song beforehand. I usually root just a little bit for Azerbaijan, if not for anything, then because it just sound fun and exciting to shout their country’s name out loud.
You might also want to do “Bingo”. If that is the case, either find some ideas from the net, or make you your own. It could be with things like “Really high hair”, “Guy with open shirt”, “Really LARGE discoball”, “Folksy instruments” or other stuff that you think you usually sees at Eurovision.
Second to last, you need to use twitter. Twitter will blow up with people and celebrities commenting on everything from the songs, to the clothes, to what the hosts are talking about – and it is really fun, to have Twitter as a sort of background noise on your Eurovision evening.
The last thing you need is an ability to have fun with it. It is okay to sneer a bit, and to have loads of hipster ironic distance to the whole thing, as long as you still enjoy the evening. So go with it – have fun.
Ohh, and as a last note, if you do not want to (or cannot) watch your countrys local broadcast, then the whole thing is streamed live, from Eurovisions own youtube channel – very hipster approved – and it means there is no excuse not to watch it.
My boyfriend asked me after I made my top ten board games: “What songs or soundtracks do you then think fits with the games?”. I had actually no clue, but I did try to find out, and now I am listing them here, as a top ten to go with my ten favourite games.
R.E.M. – It’s the end of the world as we know it (And I feel fine) for Pandemic Legacy
This one almost wrote it self. We often hummed the chorus while playing through Pandemic Legacy, so this was pretty much a given. Because every game feels like it is at the brink of the end of the world, and especially the end of the world, as we knew it, because everything we knew was constantly changing.
Blue Foundation – History (and the rest of the Sweep of Days album) for T.I.M.E Stories
This is the first song on the Sweep of Days album from Blue Foundation, and it is almost an introduction to the next song. The whole album has a nice feel for T.I.M.E Stories, but History makes an amazing introduction to playing the game, with the lines “History is just beginning”. This sets the theme nicely for playing through a scenario of T.I.M.E Stories.
Passenger – Fear of Fear (and the rest of the Whispers II album) Robinson Crusoe
It goes without saying that most of the songs on here, are songs I like, because why would I hear songs that I do not like, when playing my favourite games?
But I feel that Passengers Album Whispers II fits the bill really well. It has a certain melancholy to it, and feels like an album about feeling that things just keep going “not quite right”. And this is exactly how it feels to play Robinson Crusoe. And Fear of Fear impersonate this feeling, with lines like “Fill my nights with bad jokes, told by folk full of fear” – which is how it feels when you get to the night time in a game of Robinson Crusoe.
The Traits – Nobody loves the Hulk for Marvel Legendary
This was really a hard one. The only song I remembered that had even a thin superheroes theme was Three Doors Downs Kryptonite. And it seemed like a bit of a cheat, just using that one because that was the only one I could remember. So I started looking around, and finally found this little amazing piece of music. It has the right hectic feel for Marvel Legendary, and also because it is about how nobody loves the Hulk, it works pretty neatly, since Hulk is one of the few characters in Marvel Legendary, that will hurt other players, to make more damage.
Guns’n’Roses – Civil War for The Grizzled
“…What we got here – Is failure to communicate”. It just says it all. It is the reason most The Grizzled games are lost. Failure to communicate. And the whole song has this feel of its more about surviving than it is about winning. I know it is about a Civil War and not World War 1, but the feeling is just right. And it is one of the few Guns’n’Roses tracks I just love, even Axl’s normally annoying way to sing, just works with this song.
Outlandish – the Album Warrior/Worrier for Five Tribes
This album, this song, and the band in general; is just a perfect analogy for Five Tribes. Outlandish is great pop music, with a thin middle eastern flavour on top. Just the same as Five Tribes, a great popular game, with a thin middle eastern theme pasted on top. So these just pair really well together, both in theory, but also in reality, where the tones of Outlandish fits this light hearted board game really well.
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou soundtrack (Seu Jorges Life on Mars) for Dixit
Listening to The Life Aquatic soundtrack, and specially Seu Jorges different renditions of David Bowie songs, feels a bit like playing Dixit. You have a feeling that you know what picture fits the idea, but when you look closer, it really is just you playing a hunch, since the picture could mean anything. If you listen to Seu Jorges David Bowie songs, you sort of know you are listening to a David Bowie song, but if you try to sing along, the words just will not fit, and for non-Portuguese speakers, the songs is utter nonsense, as soon as you actually listen to the words. Ohh and have you not yet watched The Life Aquatic by Wes Anderson yet – go watch it – Now… I mean it, it is such a special movie, that you should not miss it.
Stevie Wonder/RHCP – Higher ground for Pandemic
This was a bit difficult, because I had already found a track for Pandemic Legacy, but then I remembered this old classic, that I have usually heard with Red Hot Chili Peppers, but you get here in the original Stevie Wonder version. If a song that has the lyrics:
“Powers keep on lyin’
While your people keep on dyin’
World keep on turnin’
Cause it won’t be too long”
Does not scream Pandemic, I do not know what does. And also it has a nice funky feel to it, that works well with playing a friendly game of Pandemic with the family.
Mew – Comforting Sounds (or the entire Half the World is Watching me album) for Onirim
To me Mew makes beautiful music, that has some of the weirdest lyrics I have ever encountered. In my head the lyrics sounds like weird dreams that makes no sense outside of a perhaps dark dream world. All this makes it a perfect fit for Onirim. A beautiful game with a theme about dreaming about doors, and sometimes encountering nightmares. And a song, with the lyric:”I don’t feel alright, despite all the comforting sounds you make…” just fits with how you often feel in a game of Onirim.
Imagine Dragons – Warriors for Xenoshyft: Onslaught
After choosing this song, I found out that this song apparently also has been adopted by League of Legends, but this actually just makes it even clearer why I chose this song.
Xenoshyft as a game is just hands on combat, with creatures just keeping on coming and coming, in a never ending journey towards doom. And it is up to you, the soldiers, to keep your base intact. And this song just hits the spot. With its lyrics about being warriors that built this town, and the heavy guitar riffs, it is a perfect match for Xenoshyfts feel and theme.
So let me know what you listen to, when you play board games 😉
I love making top 10 lists (or the equivalent of that with differing numbers). So naturally after having tried (and bought) many board games the last couple of years, I think I have played just enough to try to make a coherent top 10 of my favourite ones.
I usually do not number my lists, because I cannot choose between the grouping, which one is the best, but I have tried this time to number them anyway, since I was able to at least know which two board games where in my top 2. Since I was able to do this, I thought I should “give it a go” in ranking all of them.
So without further ado (and it was not that much “ado about nothing“ this time) my list of my favourite board games as of the 30th of April, 2016:
I loved Pandemic Legacy. And yes it is in past tense, because the game has ended, and even if I buy a new copy it will never be the same again. For the people who might not know, Pandemic Legacy, is a well, legacy game. It means you open the box, and the through several playthroughs a story unfolds, where you have to make changes the gameboard (yes I have written on ours, and put on endless amount of stickers), gets new pieces, rips up cards that are no longer in use etc. And when you are done with the story, well the game is done – for good. Unless you buy a new copy and play it again, but this time you will know what is going to happen, and that will make it less exciting.
It was an amazing experience. It felt like any one move I made during a game, would have the potential to affect me later (and it did), so it made every game stressful (in a good way) and sometimes when you had to draw cards at the end of your turn, your hands shook, because you worried about what might come up – much more than I have ever experienced in regular Pandemic. I shared the whole experience with my boyfriend, in an amaxing two-player playthrough of Pandemic Legacy. Ohh, and it’s Co-op, so successes are shared, and so was the losses. And I really like Co-op games.
Time stories is also a game, where when you have finished playing it, you cannot play it again, with the same experience. And it’s yet another Co-op game. But Time stories comes out in modules, so you play one module until it is finished, and then you can buy a new one (if you have not played them all). Up until now I have played the first three modules, and I love all three of them, and are eagerly awaiting that the next one will be available in Denmark where I live.
***There might be something spoilerish here***
So far I have been part of a Lovecraftian mystery puzzle story, a zombiesque first person shooter like story and a part fantasy part sci-fi kind of story, and next up is “something to do with Egyptians”, as soon as The Mask comes out.
**End of spoilerish section***
Time stories is a game that lets you play time traveller, both in your own world, and in other dimensions, and both the idea and the execution of said idea is done brilliantly, as to suck you into the game and the theme, and push you to do the best you can, but also explore as much of this new world as you possible can. It is not as good as Pandemic Legacy, but it is the second best game I have played so far in my career as a board game hobbyist.
This was a game I got interested in not long after I discovered the vast amount of board games out there, but with its relatively high price point, it took until Christmas last year, before I finally got my hands on it. Yes, I love co-op games, and this was praised as one of the more involved and difficult on the market. And it is. It is amazing, and I love it to death every time I get my boyfriend convinced to play it with me, but I can see that it is quite a heavy game. I have already played several rules wrong, and forgotten to do this or that, but I does not really matter, because the game is just so intense and interesting none the less.
You are stranded on a (maybe) deserted island, and depending on the scenario you play you will have certain theme appropriate things you have to accomplish to win. Underneath this amazing theme, is a quite involved worker placement game, where the placement of you workers, and how many workers, depend on how you feel, and just how much you wish to push your luck. For me it just hits the right spot, between gameplay and theme. This of course also means that I am looking soooo forward to First Martian (from Portal Games) when it comes out this year. It should be a game build on the Robinson Crusoe gameplay, but set on Mars, and with some Legacy system implemented into it (the part where the game play matters later, not the actual opening of boxes and getting new pieces). I am so excited to see what Ignacy Trzewiczek (the designer of Robinson Crusoe, First Martian and owner of Portal Games) comes up with.
Okay, this might not objectively be one of the best games in world, based purely on game mechanics. But this is my list, and even though I acknowledge this, I still love this game to bits. It is one of the games one my shelf that I played the most. My boyfriend and me can almost always find the time (even with our 8 month old taken into account) to play a round of Marvel Legendary. I have lots of expansions for it, so there are many hours of gameplay still left in this game.
In short it is a game where you through deckbuilding, becomes some of Marvels best known (or not – I have had to buy a subscription to Marvel to try to figure out who half of them are) superheroes, and try to defeat both villains, henchmen, a master villain and disrupt their evil plot all in one game. We play it strictly Co-op, as most others do, since it, in my opinion, suits the game better. It is hard enough to beat with also to trying to beat out each other.
This is a “simple” co-op card game, and it is the simple part that is so deceptive. Just because it is simple, does not mean it is easy. It is one of the hardest co-op games I have tried, especially if you have many players involved. It revolves around trying to survive the 1. World war. You play as one of the guys in the trenches, trying you best through cooperatively card play, to stay alive. There is perhaps one positive card in the game, the rest you will just have to deal with, the best you can. And the more people you are, the more difficult it becomes, because unless everyone is on par with what everyone else is trying to do, then everything falls to pieces. Ohh by the way, you are not allowed to talk about what cards you have, so you have to try to show through your card play, what you have on your hand still. It is very clever, and really amazing. Only down side is that the two player variant (I mostly game with only my boyfriend, because have loads of game nights are exceedingly difficult when you have an 8-month old baby), is not amazing. It works, but it is not as good as playing with more people. But the expansion coming out soon, should rectify this problem, and give us a better 2-player variant.
This is, not at all a Co-op, so even though I love co-ops this game has sneaked its way in on my top 10. But, but, but – this game is by Bruno Cathala, and I have yet to play a game by him that I do not like. If you look at me and my boyfriend’s list of games on board game geek, it will tell you that the one designer I have the most games from is Bruno Cathala. And this is one of his finest. It looks aesthetically pleasing when it is sat up. When you start it, it seems like you could start doing anything to get points. And as you continue through the game you have to develop an almost new tactic every time it is your turn, to try to maximize your points in accordance with both what you have done earlier in the game, how the gameboard looks right now, and maybe also taking into account that you do not want to leave an obvious good move open to the next player. And despite all this, it is deceptively simple, as soon as you start playing. To me it is just the perfect combination of amazing looks (what did I expect, it’s a Days of Wonder game), strategy, tactics and luck.
This is a competive party game, where abstract thinking and knowing your other players well is key. Since I first played Dixit, I have absolutely loved it. It is simple, yet enticing. Almost everyone seems to like it, and it can replace more cumbersome and longer party games. People have fun, and at the same time enjoy the art work, and have to use their brain, to try to come up with clever enough words/sentences that only parts of the players will guess it, to maximize their points.
Yes, my number one is Pandemic Legacy. And this is the game Pandemic Legacy is built on. And I have not played it since I have played Pandemic Legacy. So what is this game doing on my list? Well, Pandemic was one of the first board games I got, after getting into the hobby, so it has a special place in my heart. I have played Pandemic many times, and I would never back down from playing yet another game of Pandemic. This is because I still find it fun, intriguing, and interesting to try to save the world from the evil deceases. And it is a 100% co-op. I have in the past struggled a bit with an alpha-gamer syndrome, when playing this game, but I have learned to be better at not interfering unwanted during other players turns, and still enjoys the game, even though my control is lesser this way. And I just could not make a top ten list without this game.
This is a game I would have liked to have played more. I have only played it as a 2-player game, even though it is originally a solitaire game. But the mechanics in the game is just rock solid, the art and theme weird and slightly creepy, as you try to navigate through coloured dream doors and try to avoid the nightmares. It is a small card game, with lots of expansions (which I have not played yet), and it is just so well made, that it draws you in with it mechanics, and the crushes you, as you yet another time finds out that the nightmares are too many for you.
I am not sure this game belongs on this list yet, since I have not played it that many times yet. But, it is a co-op deck builder with a “starship trooperesque” theme, that just hits on all cylinders. So far I am still very much enamoured with the game, and for that reason alone, it ends up getting the last spot on the list. It is a quite difficult game, that is beatable, if everything goes right, and you and the players you play with are very good at teamwork. Because in this game you need teamwork. You die pretty quick in this game, if the teamwork does not work. And I love that. That you have to work together no matter what, because otherwise the game will beat you faster than you can say, “but why”.
This was my top 10 for now, I am sure that it will change over the months and years as I get to play more and more board games.
Contrary to popular belief, I really love the summertime (Yes, I could have started with excuses for why I have not written anything lately, but you probably do not care, so why bother?). And in contrast to spring, I do not feel ambivalent about this time of year. Why am I telling you this, well because I have made song countdowns before, and after me and my three fellow bloggers made our best of spring list, we agreed to make a “best of summer” list, when the summertime was here. And now; it is. So now it is time for the hipsters “A Hipsters Guide to… the perfect hipster summertime playlist (if you need the reasoning for me being allowed to pick the music on behalf of hipsters everywhere, go read the reason I give at the Springtime playlist blog post).
For me summer is a time for friends, and sitting outdoors drinking white wine or drinks, talking all through the night with blankets around you if it has gotten a bit chilly, and sitting around the campfire or somewhere else outdoors with people singing and playing the guitar. This is also obvious in my choices of song, since most of them is camp fire appropriate, and fewer of them are dancing hits. What they have in common is that they are hipster appropriate choices, and almost all of them can be played on a guitar, and they are not as “the world is doomed” mood wise, as the songs I usually present (some of them are genuinely happy). I have gone through much pain and trouble to choose these songs, and I have for one time sake, decided to include Danish songs, simply because half of my favorite summer songs are Danish. So, there is one list of English songs, and one list of Danish songs. Yes that is a lot of songs, and with around fifteen songs on each, there is a lot to listen to, but there is also much great summertime music, to be shared. So firstly is my list of English, and then follows a list of Danish songs, so if you do not speak Danish, just skip the Danish song part, or listen to them, some of them are pretty good, even if you do not understand the lyrics. As per usual, I do not want to rank the songs, so they are all an arbitrary number 7. And there is a lot of live versions of the songs, because, well nothing says summer than live music.
(Do I need to mention that this is challenge, and I am counting on Peter, Diana and Rikke in the least to follow up with their own versions of summer time playlists)
DISCLAIMER: Yes, I am well aware that I am cheating, so here is the card that allows me to cheat with both hands, and now quit your whining.
The perfect hipster summertime playlist – English edition
Any song that starts with the line: “Confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur of what is known as parklife”, should be on any good hipster playlist. And of course it is on mine. Blur were hipsters before it was hipster, and the English accent, the idea of park life as a thing, is just amazing. And it reminds me of my many summers in Birk, that was mostly spend outside sitting on a bench, “park lifing”, and saying hello to random people who dropped by.
7. Weezer – Island in the Sun/Buddy Holly
I tried so hard to find a weird medley where they played both songs, but youtube was just not my friend, so now I have just combined the two songs into one post. Ha! (btw. If you have never heard the songs before, the originals are probably preferable for a first time listen, but I really like the live versions).
Weezer is quintessential hipster, and both songs are perfect summer songs. Island in the sun, is just for the lazy summer afternoon, describing how to enjoy the summer in the sun, and Buddy Holly, is for jumping around and danicing like crazy, when you have gotten just enough white wine in your blood, that makes you feel like dancing.
Apropos getting in the mood for dancing and jumping around, well this is one of the best songs for acting crazy, and still being able to sing happily along, since it is a cover of a really well-known song. I am not a particular big fan of Danish Volbeat, but I must admit that this cover is brilliant and funny, and feels happy and unforced – Ohh and it is short for a Volbeat song.
Yes this song is actually that long, and that is the short version. It is one of the most incredibly beautiful pieces of guitar music that I have ever come across, and it is best played by the three gentlemen in the video. I have loved it since I was a child and my father introduced it to me. To me this is an amazing summer night tune, that even though it is without song, is still just perfect.
Yes, he is a comedian, but this is genuinely a good song, and even though it is funny, it is also strangely touching. And it is perfect for summer, because you can sing along to it after only a few listens, and it also has a very positive message. The lyrics are perfect, and the melody is beautiful as well. And it reflects quite well the philosophical discussions that will start during the summer evenings, where good food, good friends and plenty to drink has been perfectly balanced. And Tim Minchin is hipster, he has an ironic distance to himself, so he fits on the list – BASTA!
This is a placeholder song for my bad conscience. I cut quite a lot of blues/rock songs from back from the time, that my dad have taught me to love, but no summer without at least a little bit of blues, and for this we have Otis Redding singing sitting on the dock of the bay, because that song is just summer. If it is not summer to waste you time doing nothing, just because you are enjoying the weather and your surroundings, then I do not know what is.
Yes, this is a first, but the song is not on youtube, so I am providing a link where you can listen the song instead, on crunchy frog record labels homepage. I love this song. And to me, it is a summer song. When I was finishing secondary school, and the summer exams and parties was coming up I was a regular listener of a music radio program for youngsters (Called “Det elektriske barometer”) that thought themselves to be non-mainstream. This summer I wrote a letter, where I explained how this song made me feel, that it somehow enhanced my feeling of it being okay that I did not want to be as the rest of my class mates. The letter won me a very coveted t-shirt from the show, and I continued to vote for this song on the list, as long as I could. To this day it still makes me happy, and makes me think of summer. Furthermore, I still believe in the chorus, “I think I should have the right to be unfunky”.
7. Passenger – The wrong Direction
After haven finally gotten around to listening extensively to the latest passenger album (yes I am a hipster, it does not always imply first mover, do it?) I have fallen more and more in love with this song. Despite from the fact that I am in a very well-functioning relationship, and has been for many years, I really gets what he is talking about, and this ironic distance he keeps to himself, and how it ends up giving him all kinds of problems, is just brilliant phrased. Just look at lyrics like: “The first cut is the deepest, but the rest still flipping hurts” and “There’s fish in the sea for me to make a selection – I’d jump in if it wasn’t for my ear infection” is just amazing. And it is still so upbeat and positive in its melody, that is a nice summertune, and somehow the theme of the song is still very appropriate for summer, since even though everything looks nice on the outside, bad things can still happen in the summertime. Ohh and this live version is brilliant, because he also sings a bit of Haddaway. Ohh and if you need a summer album for lazy summer days in the sun, or evenings of philosophical discussion, the whole album that “The wrong direction” is taken from, is perfect for that as well.
This is old, and it is just so funny, it is almost as good as Tom Lehrers poisoning pigeons in the park. This is a summer camp song. It was my boyfriend that years ago directed my attention to this pearl of a summer song. Again, I know it’s old, but I just can help but get a smile on my face every time I hear it, and it is a song about summer, how appropriate, and so old that no one except a hipster would know it. So it is just right for this list.
One of the first individual choices of music I made in my life, was when I bought (What’s the story) morning glory, the Oasis hit album when it came out in the nineties. I love all the songs on that album, and would be sorely pressed to come up with a favorite, but this is one of the ones I would probably mention. The version from youtube, is with Noel singing, instead of Liam, because apparently Liam refuses to sing the song live (because he is an ass-hat), which just made me dead set on finding a live version of the song to use, because I really like it when Noel actually sing his own songs (most of Oasis songs are Noels, but Liam sings most of them, you have with all probability only heard Noel sing on Don’t Look Back in Anger, unless you are an Oasis fan)(But if you have never heard the song before, you may be better off with the original version). When all that is said, I think it is a very appropriate summer song, because it is happy, it’s got a text that most of all sounds like a nursery rhyme, and some nice guitar riffs as well. And it is fun, and makes me smile. Which for me is very summer.
Then it got old again. The song is really just a summer stable. It is fun, because it is not your typical song about summer and sun, but is about a man who has done seven kinds of wrong, but still really want to live the luxury life, and cannot really figure out what he have done wrong. Brilliant. And who does not like the Kinks.
7. R.E.M. – Nightswimming
This was very difficult, I am the kind of person that thinks REM has a song for every occasion( meaning in equal measures that I think REM has quite a diverse song catalogue, and that I think that every occasion is an occasion for listening to REM). So I had a lot of songs to chose from, but when it came to it, it could only be nightswiming. A song that is almost painfully beautiful (If I believed in angels, I would proclaim that Michael Stipe has the voice of an angel, but since I am an atheist, the methaphor becomes a bit garbled, as in Michael Stipe has the voice of a mythical being that does not exist). Nightswimming is about summer evenings, about doing stupid things, about being young and growing older, and how you look different at things when you look back. And about nightswimming, something that belongs in the summertime. This version is a live version, just to show that Michael Stipe sounds just as amazing live, as in studio recordings.
7. Axis of Awesome – Four Chords song
This is a weird placeholder song for all the popular music that belongs in the summer, that is not on this list, because it did not fit, and the list would become unbearably long. And it is a summer song in it’s own right. You can sing-a-long to all the tunes in it, and you are having fun while doing it, the definition of summer song right there. And the Axis of Awesome is just that – Awesome. Need I say more?
7. Bon Jovi – Blood Money
This is the best campfire song that I have never heard at a campfire (probably because I do not know any musicians that are also Bon Jovi fans), and it is really a shame because it is just perfect for that (I might take up playing the guitar at some point in my life, just to be able to play this song at a campfire at least once).
It is my boyfriend that has introduced me to the song, and I just love it. It is a bit sad, but sad in the “melancholy songs for around the campfire” kind of sad, and it has a feel of summer, evening and campfire, that is unmistakable, and for that reason it needs to be on this list.
7. Kenneth Bager – Fragment Eight (Sound of Swing)
This was the first number I was certain that I wanted on the list, despite the fact that it fits with nothing else on the list, and is both an (almost) instrumental number, and a number that is dance genre inspired. But Fragment eight is the sound of summer. Of walking down the street, in sandals and a short dress, and almost burning the tips of your toes that are sticking out of the sandals on the asphalt. For that reason, it needs to be on this list.
Extra 7. Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication
No summer list is complete without Red Hot Chili Peppers Californication. It is beautiful, it has lots of pop culture references from the millennia. It is a nice tune for a hot day, driving in a car with the window open and just enjoying life. And singing along way too loud. And the music video is still awesome.
The perfect hipster summertime playlist – Danish (and a bit Norwegian) edition
7. Kashmir – Svinget i Solrød
This one is without a song, because the internet will not let me find a version to listen to. It is a Gasolin cover by Kashmir, and it needs to be the Kashmir version, because frankly the Gasolin version is just not very good. To me this is summer. I sing it with my childhood friends, and we dance and act out to this song, every summer, making this a perfect summer song.
Yes I know I am not right in the head, a song about death, on a summer playlist? Yes, but it is a very summerlike song about death? I think it is actually very life-affirming (Can you say that? Google translate says that you can, but are they to be trusted?) song, that covers trying to cope with loss, in a way that is fitting, especially for summer. And it is just beautiful. So there it is, and it is the only Kim Larsen song on my summer playlist.
Yes, Rasmus Nøhr is the Danish equivalent of Weezer, so he was allowed two songs. Alderspræsident might just be my favorite Danish summer song, encompassing how Danish summer makes everyone feel younger and happier, because the winter has been tough, and now it is finally over. Øl på Bryggen encompasses summer in Copenhagen, something that I still remember fondly, and actually, besides from what Rasmus would proclaim himself, it also encompasses somehow how much of summer is everywhere else in Denmark, just without all the namedropping of places at Christiania.
This was the only version I could find on youtube, but the song deserves better, so please go on Spotify and search for Klondyke and find the album Guld (And it has to be that album,because that is the one with the best version on), and hear the song there, it is better in that version. But in a tight spot this version will do. I love Klondyke. It is an obscure Danish band that the fewest have heard of, and even fewer have heard any music from, but there are great anyway. And this song is one of the songs that is closely connected with summer, and my relationship with my boyfriend as well, so especially this song just says summer romance and summer and happiness to me.
When I was a kid my dad only knew very few child appropriate songs in Danish (Long story short, my dad is german, he came to Denmark when he was in his twenties, got together with my mom and had me and my sister). But this song, that I have later learned is from Lasse og Mathilde, he did know. And it is almost child appropriate. It is about children playing outside in the summer and having fun with each other. It has the sentence from a song that was my favorite when I was a child – “Børge har en blodtud, for han si’r jeg tror på gud”. Nuff said. A song that is here because it means singing songs with my dad playing on the guitar in the long summer nights.
I rediscovered this band (and how it is to be teenagedrunk) last summer, when they held reunion concert in Herning. One of the few things that stands clearly out (and that is not many things) from that night is this song, that I had totally forgotten. It is brilliant. And it is a perfect hook up summer tune. If not very sentimental.
This was a band I discovered last year while writing my master thesis. I absolutely adore how they have gone back to the style of Danish bands of the 60-70’es, and makes the style work for them today. And it just says summer to me, because it is prototypical the sort of nonsense philosophical discussions that you will have, when drunk a summer night. I had never seen the video before though.
7. Ufo Yepha, BliGlad & Natasja – Hængekøjen
This should have been Løven kommer with BliGlad, but it was not to be, so instead I found hængekøjen, which may also be one of the great summer anthems in Denmark, or if it is not, it should be. Nothing says summer, like chill out music, and lyrics about barbequing and drinking beer and maybe smoking a bit.
This is the song they had on youtube, and it is a great summer song, but I first wanted Louises mavedans with Carlas, and then På Kanten af sommer with Carlas, and only when I could not get those two, I ended with Kaptajn Amerika. But despite this fact, this song is a nice summer song. Carlas is a band that few heard, and fewer remember. But Kaptajn Amerika is a nice song, that is still relevant today, and the melody is nice and has a summerly feel to it.
I love this song, it is funny, it is bitter, but it is still in the style of summer and fun. Thomas Buttenschøn is definitely best when he is a bit bitter. And this song is the perfect example of this. If you like Thomas Buttenschøn you will love this song. It is not exactly summer, but it makes me happy, and I love singing along to it, and it is perfect for summer evenings of fun and talking and pretending to be clever.
This is one of the few tunes on my list that is really good to dance to. I have loved it since it came out, and can hardly sit still when it is played, which is high praise coming from me. It is just a perfect song for dancing the whole night long.
This might take a bit of explaination. This song is from a concept album, where different artists was told to try and make a song that fitted with something H.C. Andersen had written. This is the Teiturs take on H.C. Andersen. And Teiturs rendition is basically so over-pretentious in such an over the top way that we both in my household, finds this song so immensely funny, that we will dance and sing to it all the time, because it is just so involuntarily funny. This makes this a perfect summer tune, since it is good to sing along to, laugh along to, act out like hell to, and dance funny to.
I am a sucker for old Danish rocker Peter Belli, I love almost everything he has done through the years, and I always hear a lot of Peter Belli in the summertime, because I like it, and most of my family likes it as well. The reason I have choosen this song is because this is one of my favorite songs to sing. It is just such a nice and easy blues tune, that renders itself perfectly to a bit of over the top singing.
I love everything Bik Stok Røgsystem has made, especially for summer. Dancehall just fits summer, like milk fits coffee. And this song like all the other, are just funny, cleverly made, and this one talks about drinking great amounts of beer, which is a very summer type of activity.
7. Eaggerstunn & Blæs Bukki – Armagedion
This is two of the guys from Bik Stok Røgsystem, so it is not exactly hard to understand why I like this as well. This is even more weird in the text, and a bit more reggae than dancehall, but it is still fastpaced, fun to sing along to, and just at it’s core, a typical summer song.
Extra 7. Kaizers Orchestra – Resistansen
Talking about weird texts. This is an extra song, and it is not in Danish – welcome to Norwegian polka rockers singing a song about Norwegian mafia that tries to be more Italian like. This is a song that I love. I can sing along to the entire text, knowing it by heart. I am not sure it is very summer like, but it is up beat, it is fun, and if people gives it a try it lends it self quite well to sing-along. And I will not have a summer list without Kaizers Orchestra.
Well that’s all folks, see you around to hipster some more
-The Hipster
– I am having some trouble with the embbeded video, in my preview it looks like only some of the youtube videos are embedded, if this is the case, then I am sorry…
I started the project of finding silver linings last week, and after kicking it off with two posts I went silent. Well done that lady. But, at last I have come back, and I bring excuses, they might even have dragons in them. Well no, but some of my dreams the last few days with all probability had. So the main excuse. I have been sick, so sick that the idea of even looking at, not even talking about typing on, a computer seemed like an almost impossible assignment. Now with the fever almost gone, and my throat only mildly sore, it is time to gather up my Easter project where I last left it, and continue down the road of documenting and sharing the silver linings in my life. And this is where the pop culture part of the headlines enters the show.
Because, since I have been sick, much of the silver linings I have been able to gather has been pop cultural ones. Since those are achievable while lying down with a cup of tea on my couch, and that is roughly what I have been able to manage to do for the last few days.
So I thought I would combine my usual hipster blog of discussing the hipsterness (word is currently trying with red colours and maybe even with big flags if it could, to make me aware that hipsterness is not in fact a word. But then again this is from a program that also tries to convince me every time I write Silver Linings that I should write “Unseen Benefits” instead, so I do not think it can be trusted) of different cultural products, with my silver lining project. Voila, Silver Linings in Pop culture (Yes I am proud, but then again, considering that the fever is not entirely gone, it is unsure whether that is why I am proud of it).
A Hipster's Guide to the Galaxy... 