My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary

Today is spent on the couch, hungover, from a formidable evening out yesterday. We started with Eritrean food, with a couple of beers to wash it down. My hands still smell of sauce and injera. Then off to Strand for drinks. Then off to Mosebacke for more drinks. Spoke about beards and music and life. Watched two bands play, one was great, the other...not so much. Though I didn't really pay attention at that point.

Recently I haven't been paying much attention to music at all, save for one band. I bought an armful of CDs a few weeks back, and even though I was efficient enough to transfer them to my iPod right away, I haven't listened to two of them at all.

I've been too occupied with Wintersleep's third release, “Welcome to the Night Sky”. It's...I can't really describe it. Rock? Indie? I reserve a particular loathing for that last word, but it might be the only one that applies. I can hear traces of The Cure, QOTSA and Pearl Jam in what Wintersleep does, but without them actually sounding like those bands at all.

Some of their songs bring tears to my eyes if I'm in the wrong mood. Some of their songs plaster a big stupid grin across my face. Some of their songs should be five minutes longer than they are, so they could just keep going.

I don't think I've been this fascinated by a band since the mid 90s...

I have a list of bands I haven't seen but want to see. It's fairly short now, since I've managed to see most of my fave bands over the years. A part of that list is dedicated to bands that I won't ever get to see. They might be dead, they might have just quit, or, as is the case with Wintersleep, they never play anywhere closer than the UK.

So I had pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't get to see them live, ever. March 7th they're playing in Stockholm. I will be there when they open, hanging on the door handle. All fan boy, all the time.