Pitchfork

Turns out Jens isn't so silent. Recently, the Swedish singer/songwriter posted four minutes and twenty-eight seconds of spoken audio recordings to his MySpace page.

Lekman's first post, "hello", was added on October 11. The Swede explains his dislike of MySpace (it "is just making me dizzy with all the blinking ads and 'click here' or 'click there'"), his progress on his new record ("Will it come out soonish? Well, I have all the songs written, so now I'm just working on the recordings...If things go well, it might come out before the winter snow has melted"), what type of winter snow he was referring to ("not...the snow on the top of the mountain, nor...the snowflake that accidentally made its way across the Texas border, but...the Gothenburg snow, falling thick and thin over the pine trees"), and most importantly, his love of badminton. He explains his affinity for the sport, saying, "I like it because it's a graceful sport...if you want it to be. It's a world of slow motion and hyper-speed at the same time," before going on to explain its history.

Finally, he ends his audio post by commenting on the frequency of his dreams and promising to get back to his MySpace community about them, signing off, "Yours Truly, Jens Lekman."

And, being the honorable man he is, Jens kept his vow, posting another track, "a dream", early this month. So what does the musician see during REM? Doorbells, gymnastics class, beer, relatives and ancestors, a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and cinnamon rolls. Of course.

As previously reported, the former bingo hall worker has recorded a slew of songs with fellow Swedish P4K fave El Perro del Mar. And that ukulele contest we were telling you about? Well, Lekman found out about our article and extended the competition an extra week, through this Sunday (November 19).

In case you missed it: Jens is giving his ukulele away to a lucky fan-- all you must do is go on a vacation ("doesn't have to be far away") and send him a postcard (no long letters, he asks), and you might win.

He also vents a little bit about his neighborhood, off the #7 train's Kortedala stop...and rightfully so; the place sounds pretty depressing according to his account. He writes, "In Kortedala everyone's minding their own business. And I'm slowly turning into one of them so as soon as I've finished this record I will get the hell out of here."

Lekman also has plans to head to Brazil next month for three shows. In addition, he will introduce Hirokazu Kore-eda's film After Life at Gothenburg, Sweden's Cinemateket on December 7. Of course, he won't be singing there, just running that mouth of his. Jens!

Dates:

12-11 Curitiba, Brazil - Era Só O Que Faltava
12-13 São Paulo, Brazil - Studio SP
12-14 Rio de Janeiro - Teatro Odisséia (Algumas Pessoas Festival)