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Olaf Jens

Plateprat med Olaf Jens

Musikkbibliotekar Olav Nilsen slår av en prat med Olaf Jens.

If someone buys you a drink, what do you drink? Beer, but I just now quit! (True!)

Photo: LIZZY LEE SAVAGE & OLAF JENS

Describe yourself in at least five words.
“I can’t live without music.”

If you were to choose a pseudonym/artist name?
The Vinyl Avenger

If you were to write an autobiography one day, what would it be called?
“Can You Play Something I Can Dance To?”

If you want to get people on the dance floor, what song do you play? Don Gardner, “My Baby Likes To Boogaloo”.

What is your relationship with libraries?
I never go, don’t have a subscription, but I love books and still buy them.

Five favorite albums?
Cramps “Psychedelic Jungle”

Gun Club “Fire Of Love”

Back From The Grave, Volume 1

Hasil Adkins “Moon Over Madison”

A Fortune Of Blues, Volume 1

Five favorite songs?
Howlin’ Wolf “Smokestack Lightning”

Lee Hazlewood “Pour Man”

Link Wray “Fat Back”

DMZ “Guilty Child”

Capt. Beefheart “Zig Zag Wanderer”

What have you been listening to in the past few days?

Desperate Rock N Roll, Vol. 3.

Cheater Slicks “Walk Into The Sea”

Garage punk Unknowns vol. 1

Scientists “A Place Called Bad”

Guitar Mood, Vol. 1

Underrated album? Speedball Baby “The Blackout”

A classic that you've never understood? Beatles “Abbey Road”

Three favorite album covers?

Yma Sumac “Legend Of The Sun Virgin”

Martin Denny “Primitiva”

Arthur Lyman “Taboo, Vol. 2”

Do you collect records? Why?
Since the early 80’s. I never saw a reason to stop. I love music and have something physical in my hands. I love album covers too. CDS not so much, but I stream a lot as well.

What is the most important difference from when you started collecting records and how it is now?
The internet changed how people connect. It used to be a record store, a bar or club, or someone’s apartment: back then important spots us music nerds people traded knowledge and taste.

Favorite physical record store?

Kicksville in Sacramento.

Last purchased record?

Art Blakey And His Jazz Messengers “Cu-Bop”

Your best record purchase ever? Ramones S/T

Three records at the top of your want list? Mel Smith “Pretty Plaid Skirt”

Queers “Kicked Out Of The Webelos” EP

Miles Davis “ Ascenseur Pour L’Echafaud”

The best guitar solo ever recorded? First Gear “Leave My Kitten Alone”

Favourite song in another language or dialect? Big Brown “Menin Aeide Thea”

The best lyricist? (Your favourite) Lux Interior

Favourite movie/TV series? Detour

Vinyl, CD, Cassette, or Streaming. What do you prefer? Vinyl

Are you an audio freak/audiophile? No

What do you play music on at home? Record player and streaming

A mixtape/Spotify playlist to celebrate love, what three songs must be included? Knight. Bros. “Love, Can’t You Hear Me”

Eddie Kirkland “I Love You”

Lulu “Love Loves To Love”

Which three records have influenced/inspired you the most in the past three years? Gabor Szabo “The Best Of Gabor Szabo”

Diggin’ For Gold “Vol. 11”

Blurt “Blurt + Singles”

A great playlist you want to share, why?
https://officenaps.com/ shares amazing 45s you never heard of, mainly lounge, exotica, weird country, beatnik jazz and what not.

Music books you would recommend and why?

Secret Life Of A Satanist” by Blanche Barton. Important biography of everybody’s favorite Satanist: Anton LaVey.

A novel that made an impression on you?

Journey To The End Of The Night”, Louis Ferdinand Celine.

Other you would recommend?

The Complete Tales And Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Favourite quote?
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -Hunter S Thompson

A Favourite musician?

Don Howland

A memorable music moment?

Hearing Howlin’ Wolf for the 1st time.

Which concertwill you never forget? Seeing ARTHUR LEE live in 2001.

Favourite festival? Not a festival fan. One or 2 bands is plenty.

Where would you like to travel to experience music?
A tiny unknown speakeasy in The South that nobody heard of that still has authentic electric blues.

Dream job now and when you were 13? Artist / Artist

Do you have any hobbies or interests besides music? No.

How do you think your friends perceive your taste in music? “Impeccable”

Is there a music genre you wish you spent more time on? Musique Concrete

Is there a genre of music that you would like to get to know better? See above

How old were you when you "discovered" music and what made you hooked?

4, hearing FRANCOISE HARDY, played by our baby sitter.

What kind of music did you listen to in your teenage years?
Post Punk (Wire, Pere Ubu, Magazine, etc.) and Neue Deutsche Welle (Palais Schaumburg, DAF, etc.)

Has your taste in music changed?
Yes, after discovering older music in the early 80’s.

Which record can you still put on when you're tired of music? Lou ReedMetal Machine Music

A musical decade you would travel to if you had a time machine? 1950’s

Are you nostalgic? No

Is there something you want to learn?
No, I’d rather un-learn a lot of things and become more intuitive.

The best-dressed musician? 50’s Elvis

Are you vain?

Yes

Will you show us a tattoo?

Yep

Are you a maximalist or minimalist? Mini

Are you introverted or extroverted? Both

Are you a Type A or Type B person? Both

Mental age? 21

What excites you?

Seeing a box of sleeveless 45s at a flea market

What are you afraid of? Fascist authority

Have you had an interesting dream lately? About what? I forget them

Which plant, tree, or animal would you like to be reincarnated as? A BRA

Is there a sound you strongly dislike? Cars with loud techno passing by

Do you have a favorite word? DISCOMBOBULATED

Is there a word you hate? “NO BIGGIE”

Favorite food? Tomates Farcies (Stuffed Tomatoes)

Favorite sport?

Wrestling

Favorite vehicle/means of transportation? Bicycle

If you were to define yourself as a car, which model are you?

1965 Dodge Dart (also my year of birth)

Your life philosophy? None

Do you have a relationship with religion?
Organized religion will be the end the world as we know it.

If there is a God, what do you think he would say to you when you meet?

Jesus resurrects and says “Love that Back From The Grave album cover you did!

What would you want him to say? Him? Why not “her”?

Is there something that annoys you? Long goodbyes

Something you regret? Not making art for almost 20 years.

What is your relationship with music journalism? How do you update yourself on music?

There’s a few good writers. Nick Tosches being the best.
Other than that I get updated via social media.

Do you have any relationship with the record industry?
Yes: Sympathy For The Record Industry.

Are there people who have been important to your taste in music?

Yes: My 1st babysitter, my first crush in high school, my first girlfriend: all women with impeccable taste.

Your role model, or a mentor from whom you have learned something special?
Hasil Adkins. True DIY R&R attitude who didn’t care about other people’s opinions.

What inspires you? Rock ’N’ Roll

Favorite instrument? Nose flute

Favorite producer? Joe Meek

Favorite studio? Fortune

Favorite record label? Same

Best/most beautiful song for a funeral?

Link Wray “Genocide”

Is there a musician or band that has received far too little attention?

Morty Shann And The Morticians

Do you have something you want to ask yourself?
Yes. When will this interview be over with?

Who should I have the next record chat with?
Mark Lee Allen

Lån på Biblå:

Bok

Looking to get lost : adventures in music and writing

Bok

Five Years Ahead of My Time : Garage Rock from the 1950s to the Present

Bok

The despair of monkeys and other trifles

Bok

The Cramps, beast and beyond : a book about Bryan Gregory

CD

Keb Darge and Cut Chemist presents the Darkside : 30 sixties garage, punk and psych monsters

CD

Back From The Grave : Volume 7

Bok

Journey to the Centre of the Cramps

Bok

Jeg, René Tardi, krigsfange i Stalag II B

Bok

Lee, Myself & I : inside the very special world of Lee Hazlewood

CD

Back from the grave : volume 9

Bok

Sugar skull

Bok

Judgment Day and other stories

Bok

Mannen fra mengden og andre noveller

CD

The LHI years : singles, nudes & backsides (1968-71)

Bok

In search of a concrete music

Bok

Skyttergravskrigen : 1914-1918

CD

File Under Sacred Music : Early Singles 1978-1981

Bok

Hell's Angels : den ville og voldsomme historien om de lovløse motorsykkelgjengene

Bok

Save the last dance for satan

Blu-Ray

Fear and loathing in Las Vegas

CD

The Cramps jukebox

Bok

Gonzo : a graphic biography of Hunter S. Thompson

Bok

We never learn : the gunk punk undergut, 1988-2001

Bok

Forever changes : Arthur Lee and the book of Love

Bok

Beefheart : through the eyes of magic

CD

Bad Music For Bad People - Songs The Cramps Taught Us

Bok

Bryting

CD

Miami

CD

Shout! : the complete Decca recordings

DVD

Hasil Adkins rock & roll party

Bok

Trout mask replica

CD

Swampland : birth of the Scientists

CD

Yet more mellow cats and kittens : hot R&B and cool blues 1945-1951

Bok

Crime suspenstories. Vol. 1 : issues 1-6.

CD

Strung out on something new : the Reprise recordings

CD

Vindicator

CD

Don't back down

CD

Sedition

CD

Dreams

DVD

Captain Beefheart under review : an independent critical analysis

CD

Rockin' bones : 1950s punk & rockabilly

Bok

Sort hull

CD

Quiet village : the exotic sounds of Martin Denny

CD

Love songs for the retarded

CD

Early recordings

CD

Static Disaster : the UK In The Red Records sampler

CD

Moon over Madison : the lonesome and blue sounds of Hasil Adkins

CD

Wildweed

CD

Spellbinder

Bok

Fear and loathing in Las Vegas : a savage journey to the heart of the American dream

CD

Wray's three track shack

DVD

Hard knocks : the Chris Benoit story

Bok

Captain Beefheart

CD

The Fish Needs A Bike : The Best Of Blurt - Volume 1

Bok

Moanin' at midnight : the life and times of Howlin' Wolf

DVD

Link Wray : the rumble man

DVD

The Howlin' Wolf story : the secret history of rock & roll

CD

Fiends Of Dope Island

CD

High contrast

DVD

Detour

Do the Pop! : the Australian garage-rock sound 1976-87

CD

For every solution there's a problem : a collection of previously unreleased recordings from the Lee Hazlewood archives

Bok

The pope's daughter : his fantasy life with Nancy and other Sinatra's

CD

Stay sick!

Bok

Arthur Lee : alone again or

Bok

Where dead voices gather

CD

Back from the grave : volume eight. 8.

Bok

Riding some kind of unusual skull sleigh : on the arts of Don Van Vliet

Bok

Tin teardrop

Bok

Songs in the Key of Z : the curious universe of outsider music

Bok

Mannen fra mengden og andre noveller

CD

Metal machine music : an electronic instrumental composition

Bok

The Nick Tosches reader

CD

Songs The Cramps Taught Us Volume 1 : 30 original versions of songs the Cramps cover

CD

Blood red river : 1982-1984

CD

Radio cramps : the purple knif show

Bok

Feel like going home : portraits in blues & rock'n' roll

CD

Cowboy in Sweden

CD

Requiem for an almost lady

CD

Trouble is a lonesome town

Bok

Dino : living high in the dirty business of dreams

Bok

Unsung heroes of rock 'n' roll : the birth of rock in the wild years before Elvis

Bok

Love story : the words and music of Arthur Lee

CD

...Off The Bone

Bok

Lunar notes : Zoot Horn Rollo's Captain Beefheart experience

CD

Leis of jazz

Bok

Go tell the mountain : the stories and lyrics of Jeffrey Lee Pierce

DVD

R.I.P. : Rest in pieces ; a portrait of Joe Coleman

CD

Songs The Cramps Taught Us : Volume 3

CD

Songs The Cramps Taught Us : Volume Two

CD

What the hell was I thinking

CD

Blue roots

CD

Love and other crimes

CD

The sorcerer

CD

Big city after dark

CD

Hillbilly wolf

CD

Shadowman

CD

Some kinda nut

CD

Streets of Chicago

CD

Exotica I & II : the exiting sounds of Martin Denny

CD

Voice of the xtabay

Bok

Country : the twisted roots of rock 'n' roll

CD

Don't like you

CD

The "Yeh-Yeh" girl from Paris!

CD

Mr. Guitar

CD

Flame job

Bok

Død på kreditt : roman

CD

Memphis sol today!

CD

Fire of love

CD

Rumble : the best of Link Wray

Bok

The secret life of a satanist : the authorized biography of Anton LaVey

CD

Safe as milk

Bok

Reisen til nattens ende

Bok

The collected tales and poems of Edgar Allan Poe

CD

The man who loved couch dancing

CD

Born bad. Vol. 2.

CD

Rockabilly Psychosis And The Garage Disease

CD

Psychedelic Jungle / Gravest Hits

CD

Fairy tales and fantasies : the best of Nancy and Lee

CD

Songs the lord taught us

CD

Ascenseur pour l'echafaud = : Lift to the scaffold : original soundtrack = Lift to the scaffold : original soundtrack

CD

Bad music for bad people

CD

Out to hunch

Bok

Country : living legends and dying metaphors in America's biggestmusic

The Las Vegas Story

Bok

The complete tales and poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Bok

Hellfire : the Jerry Lee Lewis story

Songs the lord taught us

Clear Spot

CD

When I get off:the classic Bomp recordings

CD

La question

Detroit Blues

CD

The Mambo

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