Back in November, I spent a magical evening at Portland's Aladdin Theater, seeing a wonderful pair of modern Swedish musical greats! Kicking things off was the lovely Victoria Bergsman, formerly of Concretes fame. Since 2006, Bergsman has focused primarily on her solo project, Taken By Trees. As she and her band took the stage, I was mesmerized by the mixture of fuzzy beats, twangy country guitars, calypso riffs, and of course Victoria's sweet voice. She melted the heart of my plus one in particular, a diehard Concretes fan. Matching the dreamy music were trippy projected visuals of dolphins jumping, baby birds, palm trees, surfers, a school of fish... it was almost easy to forget the frigid autumn air outside with all of the laid back tropical percussion. And then there was Jens Lekman. I'd first fallen in love with his music in high school. I became particularly smitten with his autumn anthem 'Maple Leaves' and other tunes after picking up his compilation of early EP material 'Oh You're So Silent, Jens' on a day-trip to Music Millenium from my hometown of McMinnville. He didn't disappoint, seamlessly weaving stories into songs onstage. Sometimes it was hard to tell where a story ended and a story began, because really, they were one and the same. In a lovely Swedish accent he recounted the time he and a friend essentially stalked Kirsten Dunst when he heard she was in his hometown of Gothenburg before launching into a beautiful rendition of 'Waiting for Kirsten'. He also prefaced his performance of 'A Postcard to Nina' by explaining the backstory; a lesbian friend of his from Germany convinced him to come to dinner with her family as her supposed boyfriend. In this way, a Jens Lekman show is the ultimate experience for a Jens Lekman nerd. He doesn't just play his songs, as so many artists do. He really speaks to the audience, sharing details about his life pertaining directly to the music. Every song is a story, so seamlessly realistic yet lovely. Plus, whether he was playing air xylophone high above his head or pretending to be an airplane, he looked like he truly loved what he was doing, as did his fellow musicians on strings, drums, keys, and guitars. All were dressed in crisp black and white, but weren't stiff in the least. The audience was receptive too! Before the end of the second song, those ambitious enough to possibly block the few of seated concertgoers began to migrate to either side of the stage, swaying side to side. Many of Jens' songs were almost surprisingly danceable, some were straight-up funky, while others were tropically influenced (much like the songs of Taken by Trees). Later on, the aisles and floor in front of the stage were filled with dancing and smiles, especially during tunes such as 'Into Eternity' and 'An Argument With Myself'. No one wanted him to leave, and he didn't seem to want to either. For a second encore, Victoria returned to the stage to join Jens for a cover. All in all, it was a magical evening. Tack så mycket Victoria och Jens!

Disclaimer: I spent 2012 listening to mostly French punk and synth wave from the '70s and '80s, so I'm not exactly an authority on '2012 in Music'. But I did listen to some of this year's releases, and even loved some of them. Not in any particular order! Mac DeMarco - Rock and Roll Night Club - Captured Tracks Montreal-based slacker rocker released this gem of a debut full-length early this year. I dig the fake radio DJ snippets sprinkled throughout. Check out the title track and 'She's Really All I Need'. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Mature Themes - 4AD While I admit I regret shelling almost 20 bucks to see Ariel & co for the third time in September, as I don't believe he'll ever surpass the first performance of his I saw back in 2010, I like this album, because, duh, Ariel is a genius. On the bright side, Dam-Funk was a great, great opener that night. Warning: includes mature themes. Listen to 'Symphony of the Nymph' and 'Live It Up'. John Maus - A Collection of Rarities and Previously Unreleased Material - Ribbon Music My favorite Minnesotan decided to make life as a John Maus snob more difficult with this album of tunes recorded from 1999-2010. Thanks man. At least you recorded a drop for my show, Haircut Meganomics, during MFNW this year. I'm sure my listeners have grown tired of it by now. Peep 'No Title (Molly)' and 'Fish with Broken Dreams'. Daughn Gibson - All Hell - White Denim Former trucker from Pennsylvania turned broody crooner. This is a darkly great solo debut complete with dope beats and a spooky monologue about a baby with an incurable disease screaming for their Grandma to tell them about Jesus. Listen to 'Ray' and 'Lookin' Back on '99'. Chris Cohen - Overgrown Path - Captured Tracks Former Deerhoof guitarist released this 9 tracker of chill, sunny jams. His voice is sweet, like melted butter you'd pour over a nice toasted waffle. When I saw him live at Holocene in October he sang all of his songs while drumming, a skill which never fails to impress me. Check out 'Rollercoaster Rider' and 'Don't Look Today'. Weed - Gun Control EP - Cruising USA / Green Burrito 4 tracks of raw garage sludge pop from Vancouver, BC's Will Anderson, released on cassette and vinyl. Weed plays exclusively all ages shows, usually in PDX at houses or at Reed college, so keep an eye out for their next tour down the coast! Because they're great. Listen to all the songs. There are only four. But especially 'Ben's Tour'. http://weed.bandcamp.com/ Death Grips - The Money Store - Epic Before going rogue and subsequently being dropped by Epic, Death Grips released this crazy album. Is No Love Deep Web good as well? Probably! But The Money Store is the one I listened to. I'VE SEEN FOOTAGE. Listen to 'Hacker' and 'Get Got'. Onuinu - Mirror Gazer - Bladen County Records I have seen Onuinu live this year more times than I can count. Probably because Dorian Duvall is my housemate (#namedropping) but also because I love his funky music. 'Always Awkward' is my absolutely favorite tune to get psyched to on the bus to school. Try not to dance or smile, or both. 'A Step In The Right Direction' is another gem. FAVORITE FAVORITES Merchandise - Children of Desire - Katorga Works I can't remember how I heard about Merchandise, sometime in early 2012, but I'm so glad I did. These Tampa, Florida rockers don't have a drummer, and they don't need one. Their pretty guitar and vocal melodies cut brightly through the noisy fuzz, resulting in 6 dreamy tracks (2 of which are over 10 minutes long) which combine the best elements of shoegaze, post-punk and krautrock. They offer this album FREE to download from their website, along with most of the rest of their discography. GO NOW. Listen to 'Roser Park' if you're in the mood for 12 minutes of epic or 'Time' if you can't afford to zone out. http://merchandisetheband.wordpress.com/ Nomen Novum - If You Look For It, It's There - Broad Beauty Tapes Nomen Novum is another band I can't remember discovering, but am so grateful to have done so. Atlanta's David Norbery is the man behind the eclectic, poppy magic of Nomen Novum, and his latest full-length is his most polished and shimmering to date. Listen to 'Anita, Korea' and 'I Tore Your Wall Down'. http://nomennovum.bandcamp.com/

Last Tuesday, I had the pleasure of seeing not only one of my old favorites, Xiu Xiu, but a new favorite, openers Yamantaka // Sonic Titan at the Doug Fir! Their self-proclaimed "psychedelic noh-wave opera" tunes were long and sweepingly haunting. All band members' faces were painted white with various black details, which brought to mind both Kiss and maybe... Japanese dolls? These details and effects such as traditional Asian fans and the soft ringing of bells made it easy to get lost in their performance, in the best possible way. Their set was fascinating to watch, as it was more like a continuous wall of sound closing us in, with few breaks between songs and even fewer words spoken to the audience. When they left the stage, my friend Austin and I just stared at each other, not yet ready to come out of the trance they’d put us in. In his words, their music sounded “like a big storm reaching an apex, and then going back into hiding.” Personally, I couldn’t have imagined a better way to prepare to see Jamie Stewart, whose performances don’t exactly lack emotion and passion themselves, as anyone who’s seen Xiu Xiu can attest (he performed Suicide’s epic “Frankie Teardrop” as an encore, and well.) While I enjoyed seeing tUnE-yArDs open for Xiu Xiu a couple of years ago in San Francisco, the transition with respect to style was much smoother this time around. The Montreal band, who considers themselves more of a performance arts collective, was truly theatrical and unforgettable. The members stoicism was interesting considering their music got very heavy at times. Along with traditional Japanese and Chinese influences, metal and drone are in there as well. Sounds funky, right? To hear for yourself, check out their LP “YT//ST” on the group's bandcamp here: http://yamantakasonictitan.bandcamp.com/.

On Haircut Meganomics this lovely afternoon, at 5 p.m., I will have the pleasure of being joined in-studio by Jorge from Oviedo, Spain's Discos Humeantes record label, who is celebrating their third anniversary. Fans of garage rock, post-punk, lo-fi stuff will wanna tune in! This stuff is awesome, and lots of the albums can be downloaded on the label's bandcamp page, found here: http://discoshumeantes.bandcamp.com/.