Cry, laugh, shiver and smile :) (Weekend activity recommendation)

I said I was going to post some bits and pieces of my life on this blog, and there was at least one person (actually I think that might have been me) voting for more music stuff on the poll I had going :) So since it's Friday (an excuse I find usable in almost all situations), why don't I write a recommendation for one of my favourite artists? Yeah... why not?

I first heard of Beth Hart back in December 2010 when she played a concert in Trondheim, Norway. I met a friend of mine in a bar right next door to where the concert was, and he was on his way to this concert. I'd never heard of her before and I was pretty comfy where I was with some other friends so I didn't go. My friend came back after the concert and told us all it was friggin awesome. I didn't really think much about it back then, but I noted the name behind my ear and thought I'd check out her music later. And when I did I found out what a complete idiot I had been. I've never regretted missing a concert more in my life.

I remember the first song I ever heard was her cover of Led Zeppelins Whole lotta love on the Live in Paradiso DVD. I was at a friends house and he had borrowed the DVD and wanted to show me this awesome thing he said. So we sat down, guitar started playing and I'm thinking, oh cool... Zeppelin cover. And then she starts singing... It's not that often you get that feeling of every tiny hair both on your head and elsewhere on your body standing straight out, but that time, and every time I hear that song, this happens. I think that was the moment I realized what a huge mistake I had done not going to that concert. We started the DVD over and watched it twice with none of us saying a word. Since then I've been a huge fan of her fantastic blues, rock and ballad mix, with dead honest lyrics, much about her pretty rough life, that at times can make a grown man cry. Actually I gotta admit I had to leave my desk on the verge of crying at work today when I sat down to write this post during lunch. I tried to find that Whole lotta love cover on YouTube but I found this version of Leave the light on instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGQChwlN5XU

So, if you want a fantastic music experience this weekend that could make you cry, laugh, shiver and smile here is what you should do: Get hold of the Live in Paradiso DVD (shouldn't be that hard to get), turn off the lights, crank up the volume and enjoy. And when you're done with that, I don't think I'll need to tell you to go check out the rest of her stuff. And don't be afraid to leave a comment here with what you think.

And Beth... please come back to Trondheim some time soon :)

Album recommendation: Lightning Bolt by Pearl Jam

The vaping giraffe is a music addict as well. So today I'm taking a break from being frustrated with government officials that keeps on repeating what I find go be an incredibly bad line of arguments, and just give you an album recommendation instead.

Pearl Jam has always been one of my favourite bands, introduced to me back in '93 when VS was released. I instantly fell in love with their music ran of and bought TEN as soon as I had saved up enough money. I was 15 back then so I my income was limited. I remember using my birthday money buying a bootleg called The 5 musketeers, containing a studio recording of one of my live favourites Yellow Ledbetter. Found an ad on teletext (anyone remember that), had to call a guy in Stavanger, and he sent me a list of all the Pearl Jam bootlegs he could get me in the post, and I remember the feeling when I called him and placed the order. Aaahh... it was slow and checking the empty mailbox every day was a pain, but the feeling when it finally got there and I played the CD for the first time... magic. I mean I'm all for spotify and online music and having access to everything everywhere, but I kind of miss the feeling of putting a new CD in the player that I had been waiting a long time for and worked hard to be able to buy. So... I'm still go out and buy CD's from time to time :)

Anyway, this was supposed to be an album recommendation right? Well, one of my favourite 2013 albums has got to be Lightning Bolt by Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam has changed quite a lot over the years and their sound still keeps evolving, but one of the things I think they do best in the class is keeping a good mix of totally different songs in their albums but still making you feel they belong in the same album. I loved the 2009 album Backspacer, with loads of contrasts, with up tempo songs like The Fixer and the incredibly beautiful melancholy in Just Breathe, creating the contrasts in the album that for me makes Pearl Jam one of my absolute favourites. So, I had high hopes for the Lightning Bolt album that was released in October 2013, and I was not disappointed. In many ways I think that Lightning Bolt and Backspacer are two of the closest Pearl Jam albums when it comes to style. Lightning Bolt has many of the same contrast with uptempo rock and roll tracks like Mind your manners, the semi-acoustic Eddie Vedderism in Sleeping By Myself, that reminds me of Vedders solo soundtrack album Into the wild, and the melodic vocals in Sirens. Also gotta love the way Pearl Jam picks up traces from old albums, Mind your matters could easily also fit in on the Vitalogy album.

So, I can safely put the "Recommended by Vaping Giraffe"-stamp on Lightning Bolt. Now get your spotify up and give it a listen. And if you want to dig into Pearl Jam some more, check out their website pearljam.com which is pretty good as well.