Swedelife!

The Alexanders - Pluto Is A Planet

Download: Pluto Is A Planet by The Alexanders

First let me say that I agree wholeheartedly! Fuck this binary dwarf planet bullshit! Pluto Is A Planet!

The Alexanders is the solo band from Alexander Benway from the great white north of the Swedelife Collective. I remember when Alexander was born. He was the largest baby ever born to the smallest parents. Now he's tall and thin and making records. Go figure? And go visit Brøderham Records to hear more from our lovely family.

Pluto Is A Planet

I took all the science they offered in high school
I studied all the time and nobody thought that I was cool
I wanted to be the first man to walk on Pluto
But now they say it’s not a planet; there’s nowhere I can go
If Pluto’s not a planet
What on Earth am I gonna do?
I’ll go there myself and I’ll bring back everyone some proof
Yeah, that’s what I’ll do
I’m getting all my stuff together to blast off from my front yard
There’s no one here to see me off on my grand departure
So if Pluto’s not a planet
What on Earth am I gonna do?
I’ll go there myself and I’ll bring back everyone some proof
Yeah, that’s what I’ll do
I’m gonna see this through

Baby - Summer

Download: Summer by Baby

It's finally heating up here in North California. It feels like Summer. This track is off of Baby's Silverdog album. It's sort of an old school take on a slow groove thing. But the heat waves resonate from the electric piano like baked asphalt.

photo by Mareen Fischinger

A Western Front - I Am Free

Download: I Am Free by A Western Front

IAMfree was the Internet Arts Museum for FREE. It was established in 1994. The Swedelife people made it. It was the first online museum, if there is such a thing. If there was there is. It presented art that was meant to be reproduced. In other words art that works in a digital format. Music, film, photography, text, and mixed multimedia. It was a cool thing. It was a museum that lets you steal the art. It never lived up to its potential, but it was still worth the effort.

This song was recorded for the A.D. album. After Dale.

The Slowest Train In The World - Caroline

Download: Caroline by The Slowest Train In The World

This is one of my favorite songs from the train. I began to make a video for it years ago, but I don't know what happened. There was footage that was shot on Super8, I know that... Caroline is from their Quagmire release "765" which came out in 1991 or something. I forget. I'm in the process of digging through a bunch of video and much of it is of the Train. There could be an interesting outcome. It all depends on the future.

Take a listen to Caroline. It's a nice song.

Camper Van Beethoven - Live in Santa Cruz 2007

Download: Camper Van Beethoven - Live in Santa Cruz, 2007

We don't normally do this, but I thought that since I tried out my new M-Audio Microtrack recorder last week at the CVB show, I'd go ahead and post what I got. It's about 30 minutes or so of the show they put on at the Attic in Santa Cruz. It was fucking great! It's strange to realize that one of your favorite bands, no matter what, happens to be from your home town and you saw them at house parties and shit clubs as they were just starting out.

I'm still trying to figure out the recorder so the sound is a tad distorted. I need a better stereo mic and need to play with the levels. But I think it came out okay. And what do you care??

(photo by wertzateria)

Cara de Nada - Live 4/14/1994

The vault is deeper than I could have thought. Just a reminder to all of you out there... film everything, you never know when you'll perform in a nun's habit again!

April 14, 1994 we had a show in San Jose at the Oasis. A Western Front and Cara de Nada played. It was sort of a coming out party for Quagmire, the label. It was also the last thing we ever did in physical form. From then on, we put everything online even our live shows.

It's interesting going back and looking at this, more than 13 years later. I hate to be nostalgic, but I wish I could go back in time and relive some of this stuff. Or at least be able to do those things again. Ignorance is a beautiful thing sometimes. It's so much easier to be in the moment.

Notice that Pat is wearing white framed sunglasses 13 years before they were popular... what a trend setter!

I found this snippet on an old VHS tape and I decided to share it. Two forms... YouTube and download for your iPod or Apple TV... I wish there was more, but this is all I could find. I give you Cara de Nada... live.

Download: Live 4/14/94 by Cara de Nada

A Western Front - Go

Here's another twofer. You might have guessed that I'm encoding a bunch of old video from the Quagmire days. That'd be about right. I've been handed a giant green garbage bag filled with VHS tapes of music videos, live shows, tv appearances, and the like.

This was the first video we made with some production value. It's got everything! 16mm film, a steadycam, underwater guitar solos, and lip syncing. Just like the real thing.

It was filmed on the prior Brentwood estate of the legendary Gregory Peck. We spent three days there shooting Go and a video for The Problem from the album Full Blown Dave. So just think about that for a sec. That's Gregory Peck's backyard in which we're running around. That's his pool that we defiled with our rock and roll. There was even a tiny train that went around the grounds but it was over grown and broken down. We kept thinking about lines from To Kill a Mockingbird... "Scout! We need to drain the pool!"

Download: Go by A Western Front

A Western Front - Burn The Pop Star Down

Hola and Howdy. It sure has been awhile. I truly apologize for taking so freaking long to post something. We're working on building out a whole new site, but we shouldn't neglect this one in the stead. Shame on us! Dirty dirty Swedelife!

This is A Western Front's Burn The Pop Star Down. It's about Bono back in the day. Before he was doing all that nice shit for the world and whatever, before the air was let out of his head like a sad balloon. It's not really just about bono. You could apply it to anyone really. Hows about that chick/dude person singer from that show/song/movie/video?

This is the first music video I ever made for AWF. It was 1990. This is a bonus post. It has the video and the track.

Download: Burn The Pop Star Down by A Western Front