This girl is Lykke Li. She’s an indie singer from Sweden. Don’t ask me how to pronounce her name.
There isn’t much info that I could dig from my favourite Wikipedia, it seems like she’s still quite a well-kept secret from the virtual indie masses (for now). I haven’t heard too many of her songs yet (only “Little Bit”, “I’m Good, I’m Gone”, and “Tonight”), so it’s premature for me to compare her to other existing female indie artistes. From my early observations, her voice is breathy like Annie, with a bit of Robyn-like attitude. Her musical style isn’t completely electronic or pop like both aforementioned artistes. It possessed more of an indie Feist-like feel to it, but being Swedish, also had elements of Peter, Bjorn and John (Bjorn produces her album) as well as tinges of The Knife.

All I wish to share is that she sounds terrific live, as I discovered while browsing for ‘Later with Jools Holland’ videos on youtube.

If you have time on your hands, I suggest watching all three versions of her first single, “Little Bit” in the order I gave you.

There is something about the Jools Holland version that is so astounding. I suspect that it is due to their ability to use the simplest of musical instruments (hand claps, foot taps, toy piano both as melody and percussion, finger cymbals, tambourine) to create a stripped down yet mind-blowing performance. Minimal, lo-fi, yet groundbreaking- quintessentially Swedish. The street performance is slightly similar, only in a more open and therefore louder setting. Finally, try listening to the album version which I feel sounds so contrasting to the acoustic versions that it lends a markedly different mood to the song. I also linked to a website containing her mp3 downloads for good measure, in case anyone got hooked to the song (like me).

Little Bit
_live on ‘Later with Jools Holland [video]
_performing on the street in Närkesgatan, Södermalm i Stockholm. [video]
_official music video [video]
_unofficial artiste profile with mp3 [link]

But wait, there’s more! If you decided that you like her music and wanna check out her second single, “I’m Good, I’m Gone”, here are the links to her the song performed again in three different settings. Sorry, no mp3 links for this one (personally didn’t feel compelled to look up the mp3).

The first version is some sort of a collaborative effort between Swedish musicians for this acoustic version. This video is directed by Ted Malmros who directed the famed P,B&J “Young Folks” music video. This version is actually quite synergistic with all the different elements contributed by each artiste gelling coherently.
The second version is done in the toilet(!) with amazingly good results. A very original take, unusual is the usual, as again you see them utilizing unorthodox items as musical instruments: spoon, ceramic sink, water faucet, soap dispenser, and finally the flush(!).
The final version is the official video. No weird percussions this time, but a very well made video nonetheless.

I’m Good, I’m Gone
_acoustic version feat. Robyn, Shout Out Louds, Concretes, Laakso [video]
_bathroom version from soundvenue [video]
_original version [video]

Here’s hoping that she will achieve wider success. While I sadly doubt her songs would make it here, I still hope she gets heard in the US, Europe and maybe Japan. Meanwhile, we Malaysians have to contend to listening to US-based commercial pop female artistes on the radio, some of whom only need 5 musical notes to create a hit song (hint: She was recently in Malaysia).

Occasionally in conversation, a person may say something like, “Maybe he/she is just not cut out to be a _____(fill in the blank)”. Oft times, I would retort by defending that person, as I am an idealist who believes that anyone can achieve anything (varying only in terms of amount of time and effort put in). Today, I can set aside my beliefs and make an exception to the rule for the franchise holders of the above mentioned restaurant here in Kuala Terengganu.

Here’s why:

As my housemate and I were pretty sick and tired of what the so-called city of Kuala Terengganu had to offer in terms of epicurean pursuits, we decided to try out this place called Mama Chops Papa Grill (sic) for the first time. Undeterred by the fact that there was only one other table occupied on a weekend night (and that it was a WWF-certified mosquito breeding locale), we sat ourselves on one of the tables and someone took our order. Three of us had ordered the ice-blended chocolate, and we patiently waited for our food and drinks to arrive while chatting happily and swatting mosquitoes.

As we had some pretty good iced coffee drinks just the night before at the Heritage Bay Club, I was eager to see how today’s drinks would compare to yesterday. So I took the first sip and that got me thinking: ‘This isn’t ice blended chocolate, there’s too much ice in it.’ And then I took the second sip, and that got me thinking: ‘This isn’t ice blended chocolate, this is ice blended bloody COFFEE with too much ice in it!‘. So we called the guy who made the drinks over and told him about it.

He went back to check and returned to us, saying that he used the chocolate powder sachets and not the coffee ones. We argued that it tasted of coffee and nothing of chocolate, but still he insisted. At this point, our friend Medic Angel was already getting pretty agitated and snapped back, “I know what ice blended chocolate is, and this is not ice blended chocolate”. We left it at that, Medic Angel and I changed our orders to apple juice while Mr J stayed put with his coffee flavoured chocolate drink.

So they took away our ice blended, our juice came and we ate, we chatted, we scratched our mossie bites, we swotted mossies…bla bla bla.

Then comes the dramatic part, at the cashier counter. When it was my turn to pay and I was telling the cashier what I had, the cashier smilingly told me in BM,

“You do know that you still have to pay for the ice blended chocolate that you ordered right?”

“Yeah like totally, ‘cause you’s already drunk from the ice blended chocolate, so you’s gonna have to pay for it, little schmuck.” (Haha I exagerrate, she actually spoke very politely to me.)

I was too confused at this moment. So I went,

“But I already cancelled that, that’s why I changed it to apple juice.”

To that she replied,

“Since you ordered apple juice after your ice blended, you will have to pay for both. We are already charging you only half the price of the ice blended drinks.”

What in bloody hell?
I said,

“But I did not have the ice blended, how could you charge me for it?”

And then the coup de grace came from an older lady with authority, the lady boss I presume:

“But you had already taken a sip from it, hadn’t you? We can’t take it to sell it to others now. ”

And that’s my fault? By now, my face was flushed with fury and I raised my voice, saying:

“OF COURSE I had to taste it to know that what you served was coffee and not chocolate. I sent it back because it wasn’t chocolate. Why do I have to pay for something that wasn’t ice blended chocolate?”

You dumbf**k!
Idiotic lady boss went on,

“I am telling you that that was the chocolate flavour. The sachet has already been opened.”

Hello, the drink was RM3.00, so the cost price for the sachet was what? 50cents? And you are holding ME responsible for your shitty coffee masquerading as chocolate?

I was so furious that I could not think straight, all I knew was that I didn’t want to reason with retards who had an altered sense of business logic. So I paid for them stupid drinks and f’ked out of the restaurant for the first and last time.

It was only after we got into the car and started talking had I realised two things:
1. The idiotic waiter who made the drinks and got our apple juice order did not tell us that they would still charge us for the apple juice
2. The idiotic waiter who made the drinks also TOOK AWAY OUR SHITTY ICE BLENDED before our apple juice came!

At that point, I was ready to march back into the restaurant and demand for the shitty ice blended that we paid but never had, even if only to throw it back in their faces. But logic got the better of me, because to do so was solely to get even and vent out my frustrations. Trying to infiltrate one or two rules about customer service into that incompetent numbskull of hers would be a futile attempt.

If she did know a thing or two about business, it is that the customer is always right. If she wanted someone to take the blame for coffee flavoured chocolate, she should take it out on the supplier and not her customers.
And what a way to drive away customers, by asking them to pay for something they didn’t drink.

Who does she think her customers are? Weaklings who accept whatever crap you serve them, also handicapped with retarded taste sensors that cannot even differentiate between coffee and chocolate?
I don’t know how things work in this state, but over in the west coast there is such thing as consumer rights. I suggest this woman to read up on this topic at once, before she loses more customers.

The more I live in this place, the more I realise one thing. People here are too tolerant, so much so that they accept whatever ANYONE gives to them, be it a pile of gold or dog poo. They don’t complain when they have to wait in 1 hour queues, they don’t sue when medical professionals misconduct, they don’t even honk when a car approaches recklessly. As an effect, they themselves expect others to be tolerant of them. They park indiscriminately, they don’t flush the toilets, they cut queues. Since they can accept being inconvenienced, they feel that it is ok to inconvenience others too.
This woman must be mistaken to have thought that we were also one of those who would readily accept the dog poo she served us. One thing for sure is that I am never going back into that place in this lifetime.

So anyone reading this, if for any reason you happen to be in Kuala Terengganu for work or play, are hungry and see a franchise of MCPG by the roadside, please keep this unfortunate first-hand account in mind.