News just in.. Jens Lekman has now added a London date to his previously announced UK tour in May. Lekman will appear with his full backing band at Scala on May 20th. The support for this very special date will be TLOBF favourite Bon Iver (!!!!). Talk about an awesome lineup! Whats more, tickets cost a meesly £11. What are you waiting for? Tickets on sale now via Live Nation. Need convincing? Check out performances from last weeks SXSW festival in Austin; Jens Lekman and Bon Iver.  Continue Reading

And there was much rejoicing. After Jens Lekman’s brief solo tour of the UK and Ireland in December last year, the Swedish crooner returns in May with his full band to play an eleven date tour.

Those dates for your diaries are: Continue Reading

A solo Jens Lekman show is always going to have a certain appeal, especially at a club so tiny as The Luminaire. Intimacy is what Jens does best after all and was obviously in his comfort zone as he performed a sterling greatest hits set last night. More on that later though. First up on the triple bill were The Fischers, a four piece from Blackburn. As you can usually expect from young bands from the north of England their music was filled with cynicism and a certain wit. Unfortunately though they failed to deliver the goods, and ended up sounding like a third rate Cast. Hardly inspiring stuff.

The Clientele’s latest album, God Save The Clientele has been a mainstay on my ipod now for almost a year. So needless to say I was looking forward to finally catching them live, especially as I only found out they playing two hours before the show. The smooth production, and wistful sixties psych-pop transfers flawlessly in a live setting. Alasdair Maclean’s vocal as Lennon-esque and inviting as it is on record. They are never going to blow you away live, the music is far too gentile for that. They were a welcome addition to the bill though, and a perfect hors d’oeuvre before the main event.

After a brief tour supporting Josh Rouse, Jens seems pretty happy to be playing his own show to his own people. After talking to a few fans beforehand it transpired that his set a few days before at Shepherds Bush Empire was spoiled slightly by talking audience members. Rude bastards. There’s none of that tonight though. As soon as a lone Jens appears on stage (albeit 20 minutes late) and begins “Into Eternity” from his current record Night Falls Over Kortedala you could literally hear a pin drop. The tropicala flavour of the song stripped back to reveal a heart and soul not necessarily found on the album version. After all, it was the only track on the album that didn’t sit quite right with me when I reviewed it back in September. Needless to say, Jens’ vocal is faultless. His dry Swedish croon washing over the audience, causing each and every member to raise a smile.

During “Sipping On The Sweet Nectar” Jens is joined by his drummer Tammy who slipped on stage half way through to add a spot of conga and tambourine to the mix. Following on with “Postcard To Nina”, which was always going to be a highlight for me. It’s perhaps one of my favourite songs from the past few years and tonight it’s extra special. In a prolonged introduction, Jens tells the tale of how the song came about. His German penpal Nina invites an unknowing Jens to dinner, only to tell him at the door of her parents that he is to pose as her fiance to cover up the fact that she is to flee the country with her lesbian lover. Needless to say it’s as charming and endearing as Jens gets. Continue Reading

Butlins here we come! The mighty Swedish troubadour Jens Lekman has been invited by both Pitchfork and Explosions In The Sky to play their All Tomorrow’s Parties festivals next year, which will take place on May 9-11 at Camber Sands and May 16-18 at Minehead respectively.

It hasn’t been confirmed whether Lekman will be joined by his backing band or not but it’s rather exciting all the same. Jens will join an already stellar line-up of acts lined up for the festivals, including The Hold Steady, Los Campesinos!, Broken Social Scene, Iron & Wine and Meat Puppets. I wonder if they have a bingo hall at either venue? Surely the obvious choice for a Lekman show..

For full line-ups, ticket information and availabilty head on over to the ATP site. We caught up with Jens a couple of months ago to chat about his new album Night Falls Over Kortedala, read the interview in full here.

No stranger to the odd collaboration, Jens Lekman has recently worked with the much lauded Swedish producer Kocky to produce, quite frankly, a ‘banging’ electro floor filler. Who’d have thought it? The track, entitled “Be Part” appears on Kocky’s most recent release Kingdom Come avaliable now via La Vida Locash records.

mp3:> Kocky ft Jens Lekman: Be Part

Josh Rouse heads out on the road in November and December in support of recent effort Country Mouse, City House. Support on all the UK dates comes from Jens Lekman. Nice double bill wouldn’t you say? There are plans for a handful of Lekman headline shows though only one has surfaced so far, which is at the Holy Trinity Church in Leeds on November 28th. The Rouse / Lekman dates in full are:

29/11 - Sheffield - Plug
30/11 - Manchester - Academy 2
1/12 - Glasgow - Queen Margaret Union
3/12 - Gateshead - the Sage
4/12 - Nottingham - Rescue Rooms
5/12 - Bristol Academy
7/12 - Oxford Academy
8/12 - Brighton - Concorde 2
9/12 - London - Shepherd Bush Empire

Get tickets here.

EDIT: Two more Jens Lekman solo shows have just been announced.
11th December @ The Luminaire, London / 12th December @ Whelans, Dublin.
I’m now going to run off and bag myself a Luminaire ticket. Thanks for the heads up DiS.

Childhood innocence is a marvelous thing. I can look back almost twelve years ago at what I thought was my first love. The tender moments of holding hands, love letters, a kiss behind the bike shed. These feelings obviously stay with you in adulthood, but the naivety is stripped away and replaced with reality. Jens Lekman has always had a knack of accessing these thoughts and distilling them into real life tales of love and loss, all with a simple, almost childlike innocence. He continues to do so on Night Falls Over Kortedala but with an added sense of confidence and greater studio prose. What follows is a marvelous journey.

Beginning with a timpani roll and lush strings And I Remember Every Kiss kicks off proceedings in grandiose style with Jens’ trademark baritone crooning over the lines “there will be no kisses tonight / no there will be no holding hands tonight”. It is a grand entrance that is suitably followed by the disco infused Sipping On The Sweet Nectar, a slice of pop so intentionally cheesy that only Jens could pull off. The transition between these two songs is seamless, with the first kiss theme continuing throughout, as Lekman takes a trip down memory lane and is “still shaking from the very thought of it”. These two tracks alone are enough to make you realise that this is going to be a very special record. The meticulous use of samples intertwining with the irresistible melodies is genuinely enthralling.

Live favourite The Opposite Of Hallelujah is a welcome inclusion here. It’s sixties-esque strings and doo-wop feel leads me to imagine a girl band covering the track and having an instant hit with it. Though, more The Pipettes than Girls Aloud I hasten to add.

Can this guy do no wrong? It appears not. A Postcard To Nina is one of his finest moments to date and certainly qualifies to stand against past classics such as Black Cab and Maple Leaves. It’s no secret that the majority of the Jens Lekman back catalogue is penned from personal experiences, with very little hidden meanings. This is no more apparent than on this track which finds Jens pretending to be his lesbian friend’s boyfriend to hide her sexuality from her strict father. The troublesome tale unfolds at the dinner table as Jens squeals “Hey! You! Stop kicking my legs, I’m doing my best can you pass the eggs..” as he tries to read Nina’s cryptic facial expressions. It ends with a climatic outro with the reassuring “don’t let anyone stand in your way”. Humour, sincerity and soul, this song has it all.

Quality control dips slightly for Into Eternity. The only song here that, even after countless listens doesn’t seem to stick. Things resume though when fellow Gothenburg resident Sarah Assbring (aka El Perro Del Mar) lends her bewitching vocals to a couple of tracks; I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You and If I Could Cry (It Would Feel Like This). The latter uses Jen’s deft skills as an arranger to full effect. As he explains sonically how it would feel if he could cry: Cue Donna Summer sample. Genius. And where in the past he’s sampled the likes of Arab Strap and Belle & Sebastian, Your Arms Around Me takes the riff from R.E.M’s Near Wild Heaven and gives it a Scandinavian makeover.

Brian Wilson has always been a present force in Lekman’s past offerings and this is no more apparent than in Shirin. A tender story of a barber who fled Iraq to set up a “beauty salon in her own apartment”. The Beach Boys infused melodies offer a perfect accompaniment as he tosses out swooning lyrics like the perfect “when Shirin cuts my hair it’s like a love affair” / “your hands are soft just like silk”. Only Lekman can turn a simple act of having a hair cut into something that could appear in a romantic novel.

It’s obvious that during the recording of this album Lekman has become more studio savvy and comfortable in his own skin, as a performer he’s improved phenomenally. But the major area in which he’s streets ahead of everyone else is his lyrics. He has taken his usual tales of self deprecation, romantic encounters and down-right silly one liners that have always been there on previous releases, but with the greater and more adventurous instrumentation on display, they’re transformed into something bigger, bolder and better than ever before.
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Links
Jens Lekman [official site] [tlobf interview]

Photograph by Andri Örn.

Fans who pre-ordered Jens Lekmans new album Night Falls Over Kortedala from his webshop or Swedish label are in for a bit of a treat in the form of a bonus CD entitled Kalendervägen 113.D. Jens explains the limited edition release over on his official website:

I’m slowly moving out of my old apartment to be homeless for a few months, and for the bonus cd I recorded a handful of songs as a last concert for these old brick walls. This is the cd you get if you’ve pre-ordered the album. It’s called Kalendervägen 113.D and it has two unreleased songs on it “The Rain Has Got To Fall” and “Our Last Swim In The Ocean” as well as a couple of songs from Night Falls… and a Paul Simon song from Graceland I thought was suitable. It’s me, a guitar and a loop pedal, nothing else. For those of you who prefer it more au naturale.

Night Falls gets its Swedish release tomorrow (Sept 5th) so get in there and order today and you’ll still be in with a chance of getting the bonus material! Secretly Canadian will be dealing with the rest of the world when they release the album on 9th October. If you pre-order the album from them, you will be able to download the bonus material that Jens describes as “some very exclusive content. Not exactly sure what will be on it but I can tell you it won’t be horseshit.” It’s all getting very confusing…

In other Jens related news; last month we interviewed the great man and asked him to explain the decision to take down his myspace page. A couple of days after the interview he posted an official statement on his online journal:

Jens Lekman is now 23 years old and lives in the United States, he’s single and his starsign is Taurus. I finally cancelled my MySpace account some time ago and someone grabbed it instantly. Get to know the younger American me: www.myspace.com/jenslekman

I abandoned MySpace back in February, or rather kidnapped it to my own domains. I felt it was an insult to everything I loved about popmusic. Everything that is unique and personal. I really tried to do something with it, I tried an audio diary, I tried communicating with people, but in the end the communication just felt so stupid and meaningless. And I can’t help but feel like it’s really designed for this purpose. I mean you don’t sell cellphone signals to people who are discussing something creative or intelligent. I started feeling like a stock trader rather than a human, watching strange faces flicker by and clicking on the add button, add, add, add…. I have 12.442 friends how many friends do you have ?

Maybe I was aiming a bit too high, maybe MySpace simply is what it is - a giant billboard where you can write your name in the corner. I’m not too concerned with it, the whole Rupert Murdoch deal and all that, I just decided it was the opposite of Jens Lekman and so I left, I didn’t even slam the door behind me. But something so uncontroversial turned out to be extremely controversial as my inbox filled up with angry e-mails. The site was still up there but it was empty, I didn’t wanna give it up cause I thought someone would take the address and make it a fake Jens Lekman. Like they’ve done on Facebook and Friendster etc. And people kept clicking the add button, add, add, add… why the hell don’t you add me ? What is this anti-effort you’re engaging in ?

As soon as I had cancelled the account and been replaced by the 23 year old me I realised how lovely it was to have all these replicas of me wandering around the internet. Just like I’ve lately embraced all the misinterpretations in media, all the misquotings, the rumours and misunderstandings. It’s beautiful. It’s out of my control and it’s such a central point in me and my music. She said it was make-believe, I thought she said Mapleleaves… Actually I would like to encourage you all to create as many fake Jens Lekmans as you want. But don’t send them to me, send them off in a new direction.

I’m here, always. If you want me to add you, send me an e-mail and I’ll write your name on the back of my hand.

With flavour of passionfruit,
Jens Lekman

So now you know. He told us pretty much the same thing, but you can read the interview in full here.

Photograph by Dani.

Jens Lekman is back after a two year break with new album Night Falls Over Kortedala. The twelve tracks see Jens tread on the familiar ground of his previous work. Tales of heartbreak, first kisses and love affairs interweave against a backdrop of the most joyous pop that would crack even the hardest of hearts. As the release date looms ever closer we caught up with Jens to discuss the new album, how he nearly gave up music altogether and why a game of badminton holds the key to the future of pop music.

Hello Jens! You took a break from music last year to work in a Bingo hall. What made you get away from it all and why, in the end, did you want to come back?
Hello, yes, that was two years ago. I just became obsessed with controlling everything. There was this girl I was seeing who gave up on me cause there were so many rumours circulating and I couldn’t handle them. So I decided to take a break. Eventually I made a half-hearted comeback even though I didn’t really want to. I just felt I couldn’t work in that bingo hall. So I went to England for a tour and everything was just miserable. The shows were great but the tour was really poorly booked and I just lost money for every night until I was almost broke. But after doing some shows in Japan I met Maher Shalal Hash Baz and one night they did a cover of Black Cab. I had never heard such beautiful music ever. Continue Reading

Photograph by Dani

Well, today’s the day. Jens Lekman returns with the digital release of his brand new single Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo. What better way to mark this rather exciting occasion, than to invite the great man to sit down and get a big, oversized marker pen, and shout “BINGO!” at the top of his voice whilst answering our full-house inducing 20 Questions.

1. Describe your sound in 3 words.
“One Two Three”. I think most of my songs should be in 3/4 time, with the strings and all that. But I’m not very good at waltz and they usually end up in something more conventional
2. What would be your ideal holiday?
Something arctic.
3. Whats the best cure for a hangover?
I rarely have hangovers. I’m not much of a drinker.
4. What’s on your rider?
I’ve given up on that. They usually come back crossed over with the note “bottled water ok”
5. How do you get ready for a live show?
I take off my shoes.
6. Favourite song to play live?
I’ve always enjoyed playing Black Cab. Because it’s a classic.
7. When was the last time you told a lie?
I never lie.
8. Who would win in a fight, a stoat or a goat and why?
This is a silly question. You people are silly.
9. What was the last album you bought?
Kim Ki O - “En Az Iki, En Fazla Sekiz”.
10. If you could rid the world of one song - what would it be?
All songs have a purpose. Even the bad songs.
11. Who would play you in a film based upon your life?
Kirsten Dunst.
12. Dead or alive. What 5 acts would you have play with you at a festival.
I hate festivals generally. So I would gather up Mozart (just for that “Quintet For Clarinet and Strings K.581″ that they play in the last episode of MASH), Maher Shalal hash Baz (to perform the just mentioned piece), Bhundu Boys, TTA and El Perro Del Mar and take them to a nice restaurant.
13. Desert Island Disc? Pick only one.
Anything on vinyl so I could use it as a frisbee.
14. What’s your most memorable on the road story?
Three guys in a park in Paris who wanted to sell me drugs. When I said no they offered to sing me a song instead. “Do you like Kiss?” they asked me. Then they sang “I was made for lovin you” in an almost perfect acapella version. I had to pay for it though!
15. If your life flashed before your eyes, what would be the highlights?
Being a teenager was fun.
16. Do you read your own reviews?
Nope.
17. Are you a morning bird or a night fox?
Night fox for sure.
18. If you could travel back in time where would you set the dial?
The summer of 1993.
19. What three things could you not live without?
I would probably say my friends, my family and my music and then put on the dork hat. Which suits me fine.
20. Tell us a fact about yourself we probably don’t already know.
Hey, now I’m just doing your job!

Look out for a full scale TLOBF interview coming very very soon where we talk to Jens about his highly anticipated new album Night Falls Over Kortedela which hits stores on September 5th in Sweden and October 9th everywhere else.

Links
Jens Lekman [official site]
Service Records [official site]
Secretly Canadian [official site]

In relation to yesterdays news on the new Jens Lekman album Night Falls Over Kortedala we can now confirm that the full traclisting is:

“And I Remember Every Kiss”
“Sipping On the Sweet Nectar”
“The Opposite of Hallelujah”
“A Postcard to Nina”
“Into Eternity”
“I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You”
“If I Could Cry (it would feel like this)”
“Your Arms Around Me”
“Shirin”
“It Was a Strange Time in My Life”
“Kanske Är Jag Kär i Dig”
“Friday Night at the Drive-in Bingo”

Jens arduously labored over the songs on Night Falls Over Kortedala over the last three years between relentless tours (which ranged from full blown 8-piece ensembles to just Jens alone with a ukelele at the mic). Kortedala refers to a neighborhood in Jens’ hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden, where his studio Koredala Beauty Center is located. It also refers to a vague musical pop sound with hints of tropicalia that has been coming out of Gothenburg’s clubs over the last few years. Having more in common with Paul Simon’s Graceland, Jens’ latest is a response to more than an engagement in today’s Kortedala music of his Swedish peers. An exercise in insularity, Night Falls Over Kortedala has achieved its specific sound not from going out but from Jens staying in and coming to grips with the sounds he had in his head, or as he said, “from the sound of my own voice reverberating off my home’s old ’50s brick walls, from the ghosts of everyone who’s lived here before me clapping along with their little ecto-plasm hands. My record basically never leaves the 30 square meters that I live on until the very last song when i take a short bus ride to the countryside in Friday Night at the Drive-in Bingo.”

Night Falls Over Kortedala is released on 9th October via Secretly Canadian, preceeded by single Friday Night at the Drive-in Bingo which is digitally released on July 31st. Though you can download the track courtesy of the fine folks at Stereogum. Get it here.

Links
Jens Lekman [official site]
Secretly Canadian [jens' page]

TLOBF fav Jens Lekman has announced details of a new album which will be released on Secretly Canadian in the US on October 9th. Entitled Night Falls Over Kortedala, it will be preceded by the single Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo, previously reported here.

The Secretly Canadian website has a brief piece by Jens describing the new album and the mysterious city Kortedala of the title:

“What a depressing suburban hell this place is. Everyone goes to bed at nine, after that you can’t see one single window lit up. You can walk for hours without meeting one single person. I used to like that, ’cause it meant I could go for endless walks and pretend the world was my own and I was the only one in it. But after a while I found out the hard way that there were others who couldn’t sleep at night. “On my way into town I got beat up and mugged one night three years ago. Since then it’s happened so many times I’ve lost count. It’s never been that bad, I’ve never ended up in the hospital or lost anything too valuable really. But it’s the atmosphere and the small incidents that scare me. The guys who yell ’faggot’ at me when I pass their balcony, the nazis hanging out in a nearby open garage, the old men with their binoculars who sit in their windows looking for anything suspicious to report, the dead cats that show up on the lawn outside my kitchen, the knock on my window at four a.m. this summer followed by a whispered ’when he opens you hit him in the head,’ the neighbour I constantly find passed out in the staircase, the flicker of a million tv screens against the livingroom walls, the smoke from a million chainsmoking moms, the fact that the guy who lived in my apartment before me lay dead in the bathtub for three months before they found him.

“In Kortedala everyone’s minding their own business. And I’m slowly turning into one of them so as soon as I’ve finished this record I will get the hell out of here.”

No details of a UK release yet. However, Rough Trade will be releasing the Four Songs by Arthur Russell EP, featuring Arthur Russell covers by Lekman, Vera November (Verity Sussman of Electrelane), Taken by Trees (Victoria Bergsman) and Joel Gibb.

Links
Jens Lekman [official site] [myspace]

As previously reported Jens Lekman will release new single Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo on July 14th. News reaches us today that not only will it be available on strictly limited edition vinyl, from July 31st the single will also be available digitally world-wide at your favorite e-tailer. So everyone can benefit from the glory of Jens! How wonderful.

If, like myself you happen to prefer a more tactile experience, you can still order a copy of the limited 7″ pressing of via Jens’ website and his Swedish home at Service. The 7″ will feature an exclusive B-side entitled “Radio NRJ”. With postage to the UK it works out at around a fiver. Bargain.

Downloads
Jens Lekman - Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo [stream mp3 ♫]
Skip to track 3 to hear the song.
Jens Lekman - You Are The Light [download mp3 ♫]
Jens Lekman - Someone To Share My Life With (live) [download mp3 ♫]
Jens Lekman - Live At Emmaboda Festival 2003 [link ♫]

Jens Lekman will release a highly anticipated new single on July 14th through Swedish label Service. Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo will be released as a limited vinyl pressing of 800 copies, so act fast if you want to snap one up. The label offers a little teaser about the track; “Ever wandered what it would be like to leave city life and start a new country side community with your friends, playing bingo and watch the rabbits copulate?”. It made me want to part with my hard earned £5 anyway! The single will be backed by B-side Radio NRJ. Jens’ US label Secretly Canadian have confirmed that Friday Night will in fact also appear on the as yet untitled follow up to When I Said I Wanted To Be Your Dog due for release this autumn.

Click here to order the single.

Meanwhile, Jens will be playing a handful of summer festivals over the coming months including a date at the very fine End Of The Road Festival in Salisbury. Dates are as follows:
29th June: Barcelona, Spain - Faraday Festival
30th June: Stockholm, Sweden - Accelerator Festival
20th July: Tonsberg, Norway - Slottsfjellsfestivalen
18th August: Arhus, Denmark - Pop Revo 07
14th September: Bergen, Norway - Phonofestivalen
15th September: Olso, Norway - John Dee
16th September: Salisbury, England - End of the Road Festival

[video] Jens Lekman - Black Cab (Live)

Photograph by Tommy Gunnarsson

This is as intimate as you can get. Jens Lekman playing a spontaneous and totally unofficial gig at a camping site in the middle of a forest in Sweden to about 30 people on a tiny amplifier. By the sound of things - everyone had a bloody good time and luckily, the 25 minute show was taped on a cassette recorder by Patrik Lindgren, organiser of several Swedish indie festivals.

Jens Lekman - Live at Emmaboda, Sweden 2003
1. Innan Spelningen [download mp3 ♫]
2. Someone To Share My Life With [download mp3 ♫]
3. You Are The Light [download mp3 ♫]
4. Concrete And Clay [download mp3 ♫]
5. Support Marriage [download mp3 ♫]
6. Eureka [download mp3 ♫]
7. Bom Babom [download mp3 ♫]
8. A Higher Power [download mp3 ♫]
9. Black Cab [download mp3 ♫]
Bitrate: 192kbps