In January 2007, I travelled across Europe as the tour manager of two bands and we also performed in Stockholm. Seeing as it was the second-to-last concert of the tour and I was pretty much exhausted, I didn’t really pay a whole lot of attention as we visited the city. The cold was horrible too in January. Still, I liked the city and I decided I would return to Stockholm for a proper look.

So when my friend and I were looking for a place to visit for a few days, Stockholm seemed like a good option. We booked a holiday for five days in the Swedish capital. Here are my observations:

• The Vasa ship museum is awesome;
• All you want to do in an ice bar is take pictures for 30 minutes and then leave;
• In general, food is overpriced;
• Not only is it overpriced, the meals are also very small and not properly heated (seems this is normal?? Happened all the time!);
• Midsommar celebrations are really quiet;
• Public transport is great;
• Swedish restaurant/hotel staff do not know any hospitality;
• It is perfectly fine to work in a 4-star hotel and have tattoos in your neck/face;
• Lots of girls have really large tattoos;
• Swedish men spend more time on their looks than Dutch ones;
• Skansen is overrated. And boring;
• Bathroom queues are often longer for men than for women;
• Ballerina McFlurries are yummy;
• Pubs close at 10pm on Sunday;
• The Stockholm Archipelago looks pretty but isn’t too interesting;
• A child transportation card is much cheaper than an adult’s 8D;
• Metro men smell really bad;
• Changing of the guards at the Royal Palace looks unprofessional with the guards chatting;
• The same Vikings and trolls inhibit Sweden and Norway;
• There’s a cool drawing of Nils Holgersson on a 20 kronar note;
• Great views from the Kaknastornet tower;
• Karlsbergs slott is not a pretty castle at all. Actually it doesn’t even look like a castle at all;
• It’s perfectly fine to sunbathe in your bikini in a public park;
• Having herring for breakfast is not a good idea;
• Five days is enough time to see the most interesting sights.

Conclusion: I had an awesome time with my friend but overall most sights and the city in general are rather overrated. I wouldn’t quite recommend it as a holiday destination.

“Why?!” you wonder, “why would I spend my precious time on listening to these four Korean artists?”
Because I say so, that’s all. But if it helps any, none of these are K-pop artists.

On a more serious note though, what inspired me to make this post is the Korean music website KoME, which I work for once in a while. Basically the Korean music scene puzzles me but amuses me at the same time. For the last few years a lot of Japanese music fans turned to Korean music, but also the Japanese charts get attacked by countless cute K-pop artists that are the product of idol-manufactures that Hello!Project or Johnny’s Entertainment can’t live up to. I actually wonder why Japan loves Korean music so much lately, I think it was even banned a few years ago if I remember correctly? Seems an interesting topic to make an article about actually. But anyway, while I’ve been working on KoME and being curious about Korean music in general, I went to check out various artists and here are four artists (that was actually supposed to be five but I couldn’t find a good fifth one, lol) that are my favorites.

So without further ado, here we go:

Nell (넬)

I think for most K-rock lovers, Nell is pretty well known already and obviously they got me in their clutches as well. This quartet is named after the movie Nell featuring Jodie Foster, and they’re mostly known for their mellow rock sound.
For me they were one of the first K-rock acts I encountered. Unfortunately they currently appear to be on a break and they haven’t released anything since 2008.

Also, this is an awesome cover of Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares to You” by Nell.

Find out more about Nell at their official homepage.

The Black Skirts (검정치마)

The Black Skirts is an indie rock/pop band around vocalist Jo Hyu il (he’s the guy with the nerdy John Lennon-esque glasses on the picture. It seems the cuter the K-pop acts, the nerdier the rock ones…). He is from the states, which explains his perfect English. Their music is quite varied as you can find styles such as rock, pop, punk, electro, funk, reggae and ska in their songs.

Here are my favourite songs of them, the slow, brooding rock song “Tangled” and the more hyper and electronic “Antifreeze,” both from their 201 album, which I actually reviewed a few years ago. Recently they released their second (?) album, entitled “Don’t You Worry Baby (I’m Only Swimming).”

Check out the band’s MySpace page.

TOLL (톨)

I don’t know TOLL very well to be honest; it seems there’s very little English information available on them. Their name is pretty much un-google-able, even when you use their Korean name.

Anyway, these are two live videos from the band, the one on the left, “Stand by Me” from their release “The Toll” is my favorite song of them. The one on the right is the title-track from the single “Dot.”

For more info, attempt to check out their official homepage.

Zitten (짙은)

If I were to write a review for Zitten’s first album, I would probably use a corny metaphor such as “melt away in Zitten’s sweet embrace.” Way too cheesy, but still what pops up in my mind when listening to them, as a large part of their repertoire consists of gorgeous, acoustic ballads. Song Yong Guk is definitely one of my favourite vocalists as his voice is incredibly touching (even when I have no idea what he’s singing about). Zitten is officially a duo, but I believe one of them had to serve in the army for a few years, hence on half of their videos only one member is seen.

The song on the left is one of their characteristic acoustic ballads, the one on the right is a more upbeat, bluesy song.

More information on Zitten can be found at their official homepage, MySpace and the interview KoME held with the band.

Earlier this month I went to see Bruno Mars live in Amsterdam. I don’t usually go to pop concerts, so this was an interesting experience, to say the least. The opening act was the English singer-songwriter Natalia Kills.

Personally I don’t really get the concept of opening acts, some people say “it gives you something to do while you wait” but they just delay the main show and you have to wait even longer. In my experience it’s a horrible artist half of the time, but this time it was a pretty decent show.

According to Wikipedia, Natalia Kills is from the UK and released her debut-album “Perfectionist” in April. She wears shiny outfits and creates electro-pop music. Both the outfits and music are slightly reminiscent of Lady Gaga, but hey, it’s easy to call someone a Gaga-copycat these days.

Below is the song “Mirrors”, which she also performed in Amsterdam. Unlike many upcoming pop acts, Natalia Kills has actually a great voice and is able to sing on-key live.

I like to travel! Here’s my Dopplr profile with my past and future trips.

Here’s a list of the concerts I’ve been to since 2003 (or at least the ones I can remember 8D). The links lead to live reports I’ve written for JaME, 3voor12 Friesland (Dutch) or my blog.

I’m afraid my list of bands I want to see live is even longer…

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