nuzzaci - an online journal

More than a handful of new (some new to the world, some new to me) music albums have found their way past me the last couple of weeks. Normally I stumble upon new stuff every other week, so this is a much higher rotation than normal. I haven’t given all of them justice yet, some of the albums have just gone through the wires of my headphones once, but I have gotten a good enough idea to share my highs and lows.

This is the line-up:

1. Favourite Worst Nightmare by Artic Monkeys
2. Volta by Bjork
3. Radiodread by Easy Star All Stars
4. New Moon by Elliott Smith
5. Giant by Herman Düne
6. Ego by Kristoffer Jonazon
7. Latest Version of the Truth by Mustasch
8. Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails
9. Pieces of the People We Love by The Rapture
10. Release the Stars by Rufus Wainwright
11. What if Leaving is a Loving Thing by Sahara Hotnights
12. Our Ill Wills by Shout Out Louds
13. World of it’s Own by Tingsek
14. Sky Blue Sky by Wilco

So, the majority of the albums are OK. Some are more promising (Easy Star All Stars, Wilco, Rufus Wainwright) than others (Sahara Hotnights, Bjork, Kristoffer Jonzon), but none of them are a waste of time.

The biggest disappointment comes naturally from the one with the highest expectations - Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails. Many people hated their previous album — With Teeth, which I had absolutely nothing against what-so-ever. But this one just doesn’t cut it. Trent Reznor is a genius. He has shown that album after album. This is not a work of a genius.

The actual campaign for the album has received quite a lot of press, offline as well as online. I prefer a good album above a good campaign.

But, as I said: the expectations on the album were high. Even if it was a huge disappointment, it still is one of the better albums so far this year. It’s just that the below image, is nothing I associate with a Nine Inch Nails’ album.

The play count clearly shows that the idea of listening to the album is greater then actually listening to the album. Many starts, few finishes.

It’s been almost 4 years since Elliott Smith took his life. So this is not a new album with new material, this is a new album with old unreleased material. Like many other people who have followed Elliott since his early days, I find the old Elliott Smith material is better than the new, and this album is a better last album from a genius as Elliott Smith than From a Basement on the Hill. New Moon is a must buy for everyone.

Joakim Jansson introduced me to Herman Düne a few month ago with a link to the music video ‘I Wish That I Could See You Soon‘. (I actually prefer the unfinished version full of green people before the finished version). It’s a lovely video to a lovely song on a lovely album. I can’t remember the last time an album made me as happy as Giant by Herman Düne.

On the 6th of November 2006 I ordered 4 Nine Inch Nails tickets for the Carling Academy Brixton concert in London on Thursday the 8th of March 2007 from Seetickets.

These tickets never arrived.

The tracking system said that they had been delivered and signed for. No one at my address had signed for any tickets.

Seetickets couldn’t do anything.
I missed the concert.

If I order or buy something from a store, retailer or service provider, and don’t receive the item(s) I ordered, I expect to get my money back. And I expect the procedure to be fairly quick and simple.

Bank details, bosh - job done.

But no, they said they have to start an investigation to see what has happened, once the investigation is finished I might get my money back.

This gig was 13 days ago.
I still haven’t heard anything from Seetickets. I called them a week ago; waited in a queue for an hour. They then said they would get in contact with me when they knew more.

Tomorrow is the the Nine Inch Nails concert I ordered tickets for back in November last year.

Unfortunately the tickets haven’t arrived… or — they have but not to me.

The odds are against me, but I truly hope that Seetickets can prevent bellow image, containing the signature from who ever signed for my special delivery letter, from being the only souvenir of my first ever live Nine Inch Nails experience.

So, we are now a few weeks into 2007 and it’s about time to look back at 2006 and see what actually happened. Since I have had this digital online journal for almost a year (1st of May), 80% of what I’m mentioning here have already been documented earlier.

2006 for me started with coming back from San Francisco (where I had celebrated Christmas (in Lake Tahoe) and New Years (San Francisco) with my girlfriend Willow and her family) and began moving in with Willow to her flat.

During 2006 we had done quite a few improvements to this flat. First we extended the loft so the bedroom got a bit bigger, then we changed the flooring and built a loft bed in one of the bedrooms. But 2006 has just been the beginning… If everything goes as planed, during 2007 I will tell you all about the new kitchen, the new bathroom and the new staircase up to the loft.

 

Work

I don’t talk much about work on this journal. And that’s not because I don’t do any work or that nothing exiting happens at work. No, the main reasons is when i’m not working, and sitting by the computer, I prefer not to talk, reflect or spend time on work related stuff.

I have been at POKE for over three years now, and during these three years a lot has happened e.g. we have grown 462.5% in size, changed offices twice, rolled out a lot of really nice work and won more awards than I can remember. So, as a big reward for our great achievements, about a month ago, we moved into 10000 sq. ft. of dedicated private space.

So 2007 surely kicks off big.
It’s a bit of a fresh start.
A new start.

Two of the bigger pieces of work I been involved in during 2006 was the new topshop.com and the GoodFood magazine website. Thanks to a brilliant team and exceptionally brilliant client, I can look at them both and be extremely satisfied.

 

Sport (F1 basically)

2006 brought me back to Formula One, and the 2006 season was amazing and it definitely made way for an exciting 2007!! The biggest news was of cause the creation of the new 10th of September tradition of German beer and spaghetti tomato sauce, a new tradition to salute and remember the announcement by Scuteria Ferrari of Micheal Schumacher’s retirement as a race driver.

 

Music

So what’s the best album 2006… well it turns out being quite hard… all the ones I’d thought of, turned out being released in 2005! Such as With Teeth by Nine Inch Nails, Go Down! by David Sandstrom and Potemkin City Limits by Propagandhi.

Don’t know, was 2006 a dry year for people with my kind of music taste? What have I missed…

Born In The U.K. by Badly Drawn Boy, 9 by Damien Rice and Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of The Mountain by Sparklehorse are OK, wouldn’t go so far and give them the title ‘Best Album of 2006. (they have done better).

The one album that took me by surprise was Comfort Of Strangers by Beth Orton. So, until further notice Comfort of Strangers can wear the crown of Album of the Year 2006.

 
During the end of 2005 i decided to ‘grab myself in the collar’ and take care of the concert opportunities that comes with living in London. So I ended 2005 strongly with seeing Anthony and the Johnsons, Eels, Unseen, Randy, Flogging Molly, Millencolin and Jeff Tweedy, and have followed through into 2006. Some concert reviews pre this blog can be found on my last.fm journal.

2005 I also left The Above. Which means that during 2006 I have been ‘bandless’. Think that’s one of the main reasons I have managed to get up to so much stuff. I do miss playing though, and might just pick it up again in 2007…

Below is a list of the gig’s I went to during 2006. The absolute highlights was the acoustic Foo Fighters concert and the Tindersticks concert.

1. Jason Mraz, warm up by Raul Midon

   The Mraz gig was probably this years biggest disappointment. Saw him preform an ‘absolute masterpiece’ two years prior, and this time he just managed to reach ‘average commercial ass-selling and record label selling shite’. He didn’t even get close to his potential and wasn’t even near to meet my expectations.

2. Nizlopi

   Willow almost passed out on this gig.

3. Iron & Wine and Calexico

   Saw Calexico back in 1998 in a small pub in Stockholm, Sweden. Calexico 2006 is definitely another band on stage (in a good way). For Iron & Wine the venue was a bit to big.

4. The Shins

   Read more here.

5. Foo Fighters

   One of the best concerts I’ve been to. Read more here.

6. Foo Fighters, warm up by Juliette & the Licks, Angels & Airwaves, Queens of the Stone Age, Motörhead

   The biggest concert I have ever been to. 85.000 people in Hyde Park. It was HUGE. Read more here.

7. Death Cab for Cutie

   Saw DCFC twice in 2006, first in March and then in June. Tom Hostler took me along to the March gig, and since they were so damn good, we booked tickets for June gig as well. Read more about the June concert here.

8. The Cult

   As Billy Duffy changed guitar a few songs into the set, I told Willow, “That’s probably the nicest guitar in the world”. Then, on my 28th birthday, Miss W gave me Miss G.

9. The Rolling Stones

   Read more here

10. The Veils

    Another suggestion by The Hoss, and again, another band I saw twice in 2006. Read more on Willows blog.

11. Tindersticks

    Tindersticks preforming their album Tindersticks II. Totally amazing. Read more here.

12. Hello Saferide

    The most common ’search keyword’ that brings traffic to this site is ‘songs about ocd‘. The search brings me on place nr 8 on Google and points to the post I wrote about this concert. Read the post here.

13. Tom Mcrae, Joe Purdy, Steve Reynolds, Jim Bianco

    Read more here.

14. Robyn

    A weird 5 song mini gig at a small bar in Shoreditch.

15. David & the Citizens

    See photos from this gig on Willow’s flickr

 

Travels

I have never travelled as much during a year as I have done during 2006. The weird bit is that even if I have been around a bit, I manage to have 6 holidays left towards the end of the year, which leed to an extra week off in London. To prevent this from happaning in 2007 I have already booked off 15 days of my holidays, all 15 to be spend before the second week in March.

1. San Francisco, United States of America

   Even though the year stared in San Francisco: The Lake Tahoe and San Francisco trip belongs in an non-existing 2005 review and not in this. But it [the trip] was very very nice.

2. Paris, France

   We spent Easter in Paris. Which was a bit of a disappointment. Paris was not even close to what I expected it to be…

3. Rome, Italy

   In May we went down to Rome, Italy, to celebrate my dad and his 60th birthday. It was lovely. Think the Paris trip made me realise how much i like Rome. You can read more about the Rome trip here and here.

4. Rosili Bay, Whales

   In June we went to Rhossili Bay, Swansea, Wales, with David Marks. Read more here.

5. Skelleftea, Sweden

   As a tradition done every year since I moved to London, Middsummer was spent in Skelleftea. Read more about the trip here and here.

6. Hel, Poland

   Read more about the amazing week in Hel, Poland, here

7. Skelleftea, Sweden

   Went back to Skelleftea in the end of October to celebrate my sisters 30th birthday. Read more here.

8. Newcastle, United Kingdom

   Similar to the midsummer tradition in Skelleftea, Thanksgiving is a trip to Newcastle. This year I made something special.

9. Dover, United Kingdom

   This was just a one day trip down to the white rocks in Dover. I didn’t know that it was just an hours boat trip between Dover and Calais. The Freestyle song Dover-Calais make it seem like it is at least a few hours; since in the song they meet ’somewhere between’. Read misleading lyrics here.

10. Rome, Italy

    Anyone who ever meet or knew my uncle Antonio Nuzzaci will remember the end of 2006 as a very sad moment. During the early hours of Thursday 21st of December he passed away. This cast a shadow over the ending of 2006. Willow and I flew down to Rome to attend the funeral on the 22nd of December, and then we stayed in Rome over Christmas.

11. Taranto, Italy

    Last week of the year was spent in my parents house in the south of Italy. This might have been the last time we visited Viale Die Pini 18, since a few weeks back they sold the house and are planing to move up to Tuscany. Photos from the Italy trip can be found on Willow’s flickr.

Yeah, even if today was my first day back at work, I feel no need to complain, firstly because I purchased Nine Inch Nails tickets, then a trip to Florida and just a few minutes ago, a new computer.

Nine Inch Nails is one of those bands that I have always wanted to see. Ever since they (or should I say he?) converted my former skepticism towards music without traditional instruments (drum, bass, guitar) with the song ‘Closer’, I have been a huge admirer of the work of Trent Reznor.

The Florida trip was a bit unplanned. Willow’s grandpa is living his last, and opportunities to visit him is a race against time.
So Willow and I today booked tickets for January.

And… finally - I have ordered the computer I have been waiting for since 22nd of June 2006.
When I first was looking into buying a new laptop I had a hard time deciding which one to buy. The small (MacBook) The medium (MacBook Pro 15″) or The bad boy (MacBook Pro 17″). Felt a bit like, and reminded me of, how it was to select players on the 8 Bit Nintendo NES hockey game.

After a bit if research (asking around and thinking) I decided to go for The bad boy - the 17 inch MacBook Pro.
Should arrive in a week or so.

I just bought tickets to the Nine Inch Nails concert here in London on the 8th of Mars 2007!!

Lucky me ;)

i’m currently listening to Nine Inch Nails.

The ‘(deluxe)’ part is that it is a double cd (Live and Still).

I had totally forgotten how brilliant the Still cd is.
Nine Inch Nails are the shit (damn).