Why Is The Bedroom So Cold?

I've said before, this is no mp3 blog. Cept, i was just chopping up vegetables in the kitchen, listening to Jose Gonzalez do a cover of Kylie Minogue's "Hand on Your Heart"...it may have been the onions making my eyes stream, but... He mentioned something about a Joy Division cover. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" no less. Yeh, yeh, Nouvelle Vague, U2+Arcade Fire. His version is haunting and powerful and it just made me stop. He said it could be found on some Swedish website, so I don't think he'll mind much if it can now also be found on this music blog.

So, here.

It's taken from a live show, it's a little scratchy, he speaks some Swedish and there's rapturous applause.

Jose Gonzalez seems to be the perfect anomaly. His parents fled Argentina and 2 years after their arrival in Sweden brought him into the world. He used to play bass in a shouty/jumpy-aroundy band. Um. Bands. That is, one punk/hardcore band Back Against the Wall and one indie rock affair, Only If You Call Me Johnathan. When the Knife released Deep Cuts nearly 3 years ago he picked up on "Heartbeats" immediately, including it in his set list at a show only three weeks later. Of the Kylie cover he says, "underneath the pop and happiness is a great song."

The picture is from last June, when he played in Whelans to a couple of hundred people as part of the Budweiser Rising Festival in Dublin, opening up for Buck 65. While he played, it was one of those gigs where nobody dared to move. Or talk. Or breathe. I'm not surprised that he says he prefers to play gigs in small spaces rather than large ones, though he still played support to the dalai lama in a football field this one time.

"Hearbeats" has been a huge "hit" for him in Ireland. People just totally fell for him. Swoon, Thud. Last night he played to a packed out 10,000 full crowd in Dublin, opening for Bell X1.