Seems like Göteborg, Sweden is continuing it’s quest for world dominance this past week. First came the amazing video for jj’s “Let Go”, then an equally impressive DIY-style video from Love Is All’s “Kungen” premiered on Stereogum a day later. Before long, we will all be eating pickled herring…

Although the latest LP from San Fran folk band Vetiver was a bit of a disappointment for me, this acoustic rendition of “Farther On”, captured by French zine WOW Magazine, reminds me why I originally liked this group so much:

The next video is another amazing acoustic performance, this time by the Danish ensemble Efterklang. Put together by the wonderful Austrian site They Shoot Music, this recording of “Me Me Me The Brick House” shows this seven-member incarnation of the group at it’s most stripped down. A really great listen! (Also check out The Shoot Music’s video for “Alike” here).

Keeping it in Denmark, The Raveonettes put out my favorite music video of this week with this awesome animation accompanying the track “Heart of Stone” (Note, if the video get taken down, you can watch it here — DAMN VEVO AND THEIR NO EMBED!):

Another crazy video snippet from the mysterious iamamiwhoami surfaced this past week, and I think it’s the best one yet. Who do I think it is? I don’t really care — as long as the music on the LP is just as amazing as these viral vids, they can stay an unknown!

Not really a video per say, but this recording of Beach House performing a new track entitled “The Arrangement” on Sirius XM Radio was too good to pass up:

My apologies to whoever originally posted about this video of Wounded Lion’s track “Friendly?” (I didn’t write down the source). Anyways, behold the amazingness of this MS Powerpoint generated music video:

Finally, it was only a matter of time before the sparse arrangements of The xx got covered by their equally minimalistic Göteborg counterpart El Perro del Mar (see, I wasn’t lying about the Göteborg takeover!). Well Sarah Assbring and company brought their own twist to the beautiful “Shelter” this past week in Brooklyn:

If there is anything that Swedish singer/songwriter/humorist Jens Lekman knows best, it’s how to treat fans in the 21st century. In fact, it would be good for a lot of artists to take cues from what Lekman has done, infusing his self-run website with monthly open-dialogues and an endless supply of free mp3s. When it comes to the topic of filesharing, Lekman takes a practical point of view much to the chagrin of the RIAA: “you can download my entire records with filesharing programs, I don’t mind that but if you like my music please support me – buy my records, come to my shows or make a Paypal donation”. Lekman seems to be one of the few artists who can elicit a smidgen of sympathy from the pirate going rapidshare-crazy.

Well Jens has posted a lot more free material since the last time I checked his site. The first track, which you can download below, is from a 2005 split 7” with friend and fellow Swede El Perro del Mar, entitled “I Don’t Know If She’s Worth 900 Kroner”. The 7” is long since sold-out, so going digital is your best bet of hearing the record (the B-side is del Mar’s “Shake It Off” which is from her Look It’s El Perro del Mar! debut). The second recording posted below is a half hour live set Lekman did for the Kortedala Beauty Center — which may or may not be where “Shirin” works. Also meant to be a companion to his latest Night Falls Over Kortedala LP, the recording is very beautiful, even by Jens’s standards.

Check out the songs below and, if you want more, head over to his site:

Jens Lekman // I Don’t Know If She’s Worth 900 kr.

Jens Lekman // Kalendervägen 113.D

Starting off is a grainy video that I included more because of the music and the musicians than the image quality. On a summer European tour date in Göteborg, Sweden, Massachusetts chanteuse Marissa Nadler teamed up with local Sarah Assbring (better known as El Perro del Mar) for a beautiful rendition of the Don Gibson classic “Oh Lonesome Me”:

One of my favorite concerts in recent memory was the Best Coast show I caught about a week and half ago. Well the videographers at the San Fran based site Truly Yours brilliantly captured Bethany Constantino and Bobb Bruno’s performance of “Crazy”, along with some back story showing how cool Bruno is (which I can confirm):

The next video is from one of my most anticipated SXSW bands, The Good The Bad. This midly NSFW vid for their simply titled “026″ captures the sex, drugs, and rock & roll this Danish band is known for:

Although the next one is just an audio rip of Gnonnas Pedro et ses Dadjes excellent track “Dadje Von O Von Non” (and a poor one at that, with the final 90-or-so seconds completely silent), ever since Chocolate Bobka featured it on his Sunday morning radio show, I’ve dusted off my copy of Legends of Benin and have been playing it a lot this week:

The guys over at IGIF labeled this video as of their favorites they’ve seen in a while. I tend to agree with them. Here is Fang Island’s “Daisy”:

This final video is meant to get you pumped for the upcoming SXSW festival in Austin (only one more month!) Sit back, relax, and soak in the genius of Daniel Johnston as he performs “True Love Will Find You in the End”:

If you don’t have a good half hour of time, then I suggest you skip this first video. Temporary Copenhagen: An Experiment on a New Danish Scene is the work of videographer Vincent Moon. I’ll let him go ahead and describe it:

This is a 30min piece we created on the spot. 9 local bands, only 3 i knew, 2 hours to organise something before the audience arrives, and the objective to create a unique sound piece, a collaborative concert which would be moving in an intimate space. Only one take, no cuts, loads of tension, maybe an interesting talk between cinema and music where each one feeds the other one. And a certain idea of a document on a city and its creative life.

Some of the Danish groups participating in the project range from the widely popular Efterklang and Slaraffenland to up-and-comers Choir of Young Believers and Murder. Check it out below:

One of my favorite live videos from this past week was a Vivian Girls a cappella rendition of “He’s Gone”. Although the video isn’t particularly great, the audio is what makes it worth it:

I don’t know where the people at Delicious Scopitone find some of their stuff! Their latest post on Seams’ video for the track “Glytch” is sure to rile up the geek inside you:

The folks at Sup’ Magazine just recently posted a couple of videos from French music princess Charlotte Gainsbourg’s set in Brooklyn a couple of days back. Here’s one of her covering Bob Dylan’s “Just Like a Women”.

Alex Bleeker & The Freaks’s self-titled album on Underwater Peoples had to be one of my top five favorite debuts of 2009. Courtesy of the Pelly Twins‘ flip-cam, here is a video of them performing two new tracks (jump to about 30 seconds in):

Finally, my favorite video of the week belongs to the rooftop collab of El Perro del Mar and Lykke Li on del Mar’s song “Change of Heart”:

We’ve all had those moments waking up late on a Saturday morning after a long night of partying where the only plans for the day is laying on the couch, mindlessly surfing the net, and drifting in and out of sleep. Well my new mix Laid & Paid: Weak ‘n Mixxx is the soundtrack for these times — keeping it nice and chill so not to exacerbate the hungover headaches.

You can download the mix directly from here (EDIT: rapidshare seems to be having problems this morning, so here’s a more direct link) and after which sit back, relax, and enjoy the 75+ of smooth tunes while drinking your Bloody Marys and downing your Ibuprofen. There’s a good blend of foreign/domestic, popular/obscure, full-band/instrumentals, so you’re sure to be able to pick up a couple of new favorites while revisiting some classic songs you might not have heard in a while. Here’s the tracklist:

Jóvenes y Sexys // El Reloj
Mountain Man // Animal Tracks
jj // Let Go
Jens Lekman // Jag Tyckte Hon Sa Lönnlöv
Broken Bells // The High Road
Acid House Kings // The Heart Is a Stone
Cryin’ Sam Collins // Lonesome Road
Sara Lov // My Body Is a Cage (Arcade Fire Cover)
El Perro del Mar // From the Valley to the Stars
The Wave Pictures // Just Like a Drummer
Woods // The Dark
Beach House // Gila
Chromatic Flights // I Am a Rock (Simon & Garfunkel Cover)
Man Man // Doo Right
Bassekou Kouyaté & Ngoni Ba // Bambugu Blues
The Knife // Vegetarian Restaurant
A Studio // Self Service (Short Version)
Run DMT // St. James
Cass McCombs // Don’t Vote
Moonface // Marimba and Shit-Drums (Excerpt)
Ducktails // On the Boardwalk
jj // My Way

If you like the mix, check out the Pre-Party one I did a month ago.

When I was surfing the internet the other day, I came across a post on Nordic music blog It’s A Trap detailing the nominees for the 2010 Swedish Grammies. Hidden beneath the layers of umlauts and obscure sounding band names (at least seen through an American perspective) housed four nominations for El Perro del Mar’s (née Sarah Assbring) stellar 2009 album Love Is Not Pop: “Best Pop Album”, “Best Producer”, “Best Composer”, and the oddball but entirely appropriate “Best Lyrics” category.

Now I’ve seen little press for this 34 minute too-long-to-be-an-EP too-short-to-be-an-LP composition compared to her other, more popular albums (like her extraordinary sophomore S/T), however I believe Love Is Not Pop to be some of Assbring’s best work. Sung in her patented monotonously restrained style (Andrew Bird’s female counterpart), Assbring is able to conjure up highly involved emotions — everything from utter heartbreak to euphoric love — with just simple sentences. With her sparse instrumentation and emotionless lyrics providing scant cover to hide behind, it’s no wonder she was nominated for “Best Lyrics” since her whole act pretty much relies on her words. She was doing The xx when The xx was in elementary school.

Easily the most interesting track out of the group and the one that best shows the growth of Assbring as a composer is the Sue Grafton titled “L is for Love.” Opening with the repeated haunting line “When the night is near / you can lean on…” sung over fading piano flickers and austere drum beats, the dark mood is set right off the bat. Similar to The Raveonettes “Aly Walk With Me”, you are unsure whether to take the mysteriously referenced lover up on her offer of aid, as she is most likely going to lead you through dark alleys and grimy passageways. There is no light either at the chorus, with the repeated “L is for Love”s making the scene more creepy than comforting.

Regardless if this is your first time listening to Assbring or your an avid El Perro del Mar fan, Love is Not Pop is a worthwhile album to own and one of the best of the year, even if it is only getting the recognition it deserves from her home country of Sweden. Here’s an mp3 of “L is for Love” to hopefully whet your appetite:

El Perro del Mar // L is for Love