www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NlMTaI5FIY

We’d also like to introduce a new term into the English language. L.A. Record thanks Eli Stonberg for coining the official term, “mixtube,” a mixtape made of Youtube.

Joe Albanese’ mixtube even has a title. It’s called FROZEN WARNINGS.

John Cale -- Frozen Warnings

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFgqEb6v6Ow

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccu4EHwBdHE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNFoi2Lt_zk

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sftEYVYEoew

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE46D2e4BpE

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjvfgFYPOIU

www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS_NRR86Qnw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAbO87zDqx0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkripMvBTkc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGBV1WaQtQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7vX3s9Kd3I

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pJlmFyaLCk

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzcdNwIkmYA

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtlWrORwEoI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOgN_KmERY0

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrr9YPYJONo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEy3fhrDYNY

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pG_3jZxzlo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AAG4M6Yz_4

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Azui-cs9DQ

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CK8KPh167g

Check out more of Joe’s mixtubes

Well, sure! Maybe! Sort of! No! But I did get to come home and listen to Hearts and Bones and Graceland and remember warmly the time I taught my son about metaphors using “Bridge Over Troubled Water” as our text. Good times!

If I were Harper Simon, I would be very annoyed by this.

Simon, a cute fellow of 36, looked more like Harland Williams or David Arquette than like his father, though there was a strong similarity in the voice, if mostly in the phrasing. (He sounded most like him in the lower registers, and strained for his high notes.) His originals were charmingly written, especially “The Audit” (which I thought was a Neil Young song, and I was wrong) and “Berkeley Girl,” a pretty bit about roses and amethysts which any girl would like to have written for her own self. It was very “Only Living Boy in New York,” and there is nothing not to like about that.

But Simon, whether from humility or generosity, gave the show to his friends: he started with a Nick Drake cover and only played a few songs before inviting his friends up to sing their songs instead. The beautiful Inara George and Petra Haden were there, Haden both playing violin and singing two old standards, while Charlie Wadhams, David Rawlings, and Jon Brion offered up two songs each. The really charming part of the show, though, was Simon’s accompanists, Benmont Tench on piano and Sebastian Steinberg on upright bass. Every time Simon stopped to shyly retune his guitar—or one of his friends sitting in began to retune each other’s guitars to their own likings—Tench stepped in with entr’acte music from a classical take on “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead” to some Marx Brothers twinkles, punctuated with Steinberg’s thumps and Haden’s virtuosic bowing finishing his musical thought.

The show itself ended with a group sing-along of Jimmy Cliff’s thought: You can get it if you really want. It would have been nice if Simon had a little less humility and made us listen to his own thoughts instead.

Simon’s self-titled solo album comes out Oct. 13 on Tulsi Records.

—Rebecca Schoenkopf

(from Communion out now on Yep Roc)

The premiere psych-rockers of Scandinavia, Ebbot Lundberg (vocals), Mattias Bärjed (guitar), Kalle Gustafsson (bass), Martin Hederos (keys), Ian Person (guitar) and Fredrik Sandsten (drums) have redefined what it means to be influenced by ’70s psychedelia, prog pop and classic rock. Though Sweden’s economy is in as much trouble as ours, TSOOL wasn’t bashful about releasing their latest effort Communion—a discussion of the corporate mass psychosis that has slowly taken over the world—as an epic 90-minute double-CD. The band stopped by L.A. for the first time since opening for Robert Plant four years ago, having just enough time to do Leno, play a one-off at the Troubadour, and perform an acoustic set at a private party thrown by the Swedish Embassy in their honor. Just before sound check, Ebbot, Ian and Mattias strolled over to a nearby park to soak in some California sunshine, get trampled by frolicking dogs, and chat with Linda Rapka about their album.

Explain the cover art of your album Communion—a wealthy, middle-aged Caucasian couple drinking an ungodly concoction of fluorescent green alien juice.
Ian Person (guitar): We hired this guy to come up with some ideas about mass communication. So he came up with a few suggestions and this came up, and we kind of collaborated from there.
So what exactly is in that drink?
Ebbot Lundberg (vocals): Tomorrow we will find out, because they’re gonna have this party, and they’re gonna do these drinks. So I’m curious!
Ian: We’re going to a party at the Swedish Embassy.
Ebbot: There will be lots of them there…
The new album was based on a theme of modern mass psychosis—which I see happening here in the U.S. Was America a major source of inspiration?
Ebbot: It was a global thing. I don’t know if you’ve seen the whole [CD] package, but it’s not only Caucasians, but all people.
Ian: It’s like Noah’s Ark.
Ebbot: Yeah, it’s like an ark. It’s just pictures you see every day without even thinking about it. It can be plastic surgery, it can be like a life coach, or whatever. I’m curious about the people on the cover—they don’t really know they’re on the cover. So we’ll see what’s going to happen. We might get sued!
Releasing a double CD in today’s economy is pretty ballsy.
Ian: We didn’t go out and say, ‘Let’s do a double CD.’ It sort of evolved itself, really.
Mattias Bärjed (guitar): I guess we always wanted to do a double album as well and now it just felt natural to do that.
You recently got out of your contractual obligations from Warner. The last album you worked on—Origins: Vol. 1—they were pestering you about what was going to be the radio hit. That can be difficult when trying to create a work of art.
Ian: Especially when you’re in the studio and trying just to get everything going.
Ebbot: Well, I dunno. There’s a lot of singles on the new one, so we’re just gonna put out singles from the album and see what happens. Milk it as long as we can.
Ian: Basically Warner didn’t really have the money, ’cause we wanted a certain amount of money to do this album and they said no.
This album sounds a lot more energized than Origins.
Ian: We kind of had a lot more fun!
Mattias: We had some time off, actually like two years, before we started working on this album, so I guess that’s—you can hear that.
Ian: We had a lot of energy going in.
It sounds like it—which is probably why you ended up with so many songs.
Ian: For once it was quite easy to do the album. For once it was quite fun!
It always sounds like you guys are having fun.
Ian: But this time we actually had fun! We always had fun afterwards when the album is done. But now it was a nice process all the way.
I read that each of 24 tracks is supposed to symbolize each hour of the day.
Ebbot: It could be. It could be anything.
Were you trying to bring back the lost art of the concept album?
Ebbot: Yeah, why not? We grew up with it and we love it, so why not?
In today’s mp3 culture, is a concept album is a way to bring back listening to an entire album?
Ian: Absolutely. Take some time off and listen. That’s one thing to do. The vinyl is coming back. All the record stores back home now they carry as much CDs as vinyl these days. The kids are learning.
Ebbot: It’s more like you do something that you wish existed and then you do it. You kind of miss it, you miss idea of what this became.
Ian: Carry on with the old legacy.
You cover a Nick Drake song, which is an interesting choice—not many people are brave enough to take on Drake.
Ebbot: That was the reason. Nobody ever did it. Maybe it was the wrong idea, I don’t know! We kind of did it around the demo version, which is on ‘The Time of No Reply.’ The other one John Cale produced, and it doesn’t really sound that good.
Another track, ‘The Fan Who Wasn’t There,’ was based on a conversation that Ebbot had with Arthur Lee.
Ebbot: Yeah, some of it. He played in Gothenburg—his manager was there, who passed away like six months later, and then he passed away, sadly. It’s inspired by that conversation, having drinks for three hours. That was pretty fun. But it was sad…
It sounds like there were a lot of ’60s and ’70s influences going on.
Ebbot: Yes. And we DJed. It’s like all time is one time.
Ian: Squeeze them all in together. The best picks of raisins in the cookies.
I don’t like raisins.
Ian: Chocolate chips then.
Do you enjoy listening to your own records?
Ebbot: Yes. We’re warming up to it sometimes. Our own records. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s The Soundtrack of our Lives. We try to be what the name is. Sometimes it sucks. And sometimes it’s OK.
I stumbled upon a food blog where your bandmate Martin had posted his recipe for lamb tagine. Do any of you have any hidden surprises?
Ian: Martin and I are the chefs in the band. I’m into the Italian kitchen at the moment. A friend of mine had his wedding recently and I cooked for like 200 people.
Ebbot: Did you get paid?
Ian: No, I didn’t get paid. But the food was great. And I got to eat the food.
Mattias: When we come over here we try to eat as much Mexican food as possible because it’s really hard to find good Mexican food in Scandinavia—Sweden, Norway or Finland—it’s impossible.
Ebbot: There are no Mexicans. Just Finnish people.
You haven’t been to the U.S. since 2005.
Ebbot: We were actually here in 2007 in New York for a while.
Ian: And Austin last year, SXSW. We did a couple of hit and runs. Guerilla warfare.
But what about L.A.? We missed you.
Ian: We love L.A., so we’ve been sad.
Ebbot: We went to China last year.
Ian: But that’s not America.
Was that your first time in China? What was it like?
Ebbot: It was exactly like here. But it’s even more futuristic. It’s like beyond ‘Bladerunner.’
Ian: The director’s cut.
Ebbot: It’s happened. It’s really growing fast and scary.
Billions of people.
Ebbot: And they’re working all night. It’s like, ‘You’d better stop.’ They’re just like ants.
Mattias: We might go to Taiwan in a month.
Ian: And then South America in the fall.
Do you get time to actually enjoy the countries you visit?
Ian: We try and plan a couple of days. When we did those long tours we didn’t have much time, but now in China we had a few days off, Australia we had like five, six days to hang out.
Ebbot: We spent a lot of time in L.A. and had a lot of time off here.
If Obama’s stimulus package fails and I move to Sweden, whose couch can I stay on?
Ian: Kalle’s got a grand studio. It’s gigantic.
Mattias: My guitar tech is single.

THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES’ COMMUNION IS OUT NOW ON YEP ROC. VISIT THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES AT TSOOL.NET OR MYSPACE.COM/OFFICIALTSOOL.