Göteborg and Party Joel

This past Thursday night was my last night in Göteborg, Sweden, and, even though I had an 8:50am flight out the next morning, I went out Thursday night.

The evening started with a pizza dinner with my relative, (see my previous post for more info. on this) Mark, and his stepson, Jack.


It had been warm that day, but cooled off considerably into the evening. Still, we decided to eat outside because there was a heater next to our table and because the restaurant provided its customers seated outside with blankets.


I've come to understand that this is a common practice in Scandinavia - providing blankets at restaurants to people wanting to sit outside - in part because it's so cold so much of the year that people just want to be outside, so blankets and heaters allows them to eat outside even when it's chilly.

Eventually Mark went back to his home in the suburbs and Jack's best friend, Joel, met up with us and helped convince Jack and I to go out for a few drinks. This only makes sense because Joel was recently named the #3 partier in all of Göteborg! I think you can see it in his eyes. (Also, see if you can find the party pic of Jack, Joel, and me on this page here.)


As the man himself tells it, he lost his job back in January. But he's is a-ok with that, because in Sweden if you lose your job you receive 80% of your salary for the next 200 days. Thus, in Joel's case, losing his job meant a two-week trip to Thailand, a new bicycle, and nothing to do in the morning! Apart from being the #3 party-man in all of Göteborg, Joel also enjoys minimal techno, MILFs, using the affirmation "For true!," and gets laid every night he goes out, which means he gets laid every night.

Family Ties

Greetings from Göteborg, Sweden! While I understand next to nothing of the language, I know that my roots (on my mother's side) are here in this country, with the last name of Lindeman. This has always been known to me, though not in great detail. Brother Jay had to do family tree projects a number of times in grade school, though I never did. Now things are known to me on a deeper level.

I've been staying with some e x t e n d e d family here in Göteborg: first with my mother's cousin, Mark Johnson, his wife, Kacka, their daughter, Ellen, and puppy dog, Twisty, in Göteborg's country suburb of Björsared, and now with Mark's stepson, Jack, in central Göteborg. (I was forced to make the move from the countryside to the city on Tuesday night - a move that was, perhaps, made for the best as I was thus able to see the city itself - as the Johnson family cat, Cartman, had my allergies in such a state that I had trouble breathing deeply at night and thus could not sleep soundly. Cats! On Saturday night I was the guest DJ at Club Function in Malmö (about a 3-hr drive South from Göteborg). It was a fun night and cool to have Mark come along and see me do my thingthing; I really enjoyed the other DJs, especially all the other excellent and RAER modern soul the other guest DJ, Johan, spun, though found the crowd kinda hard to read and maybe even uninspired. Was it me, my records, or is it just that Swedes don't necessarily go crazy and let it all hang loose in the sweet soul breeze of the smoke-free night? All I know for sure is that I accidentally used the ladies' toilet a few times before i realized my mistake, and that I also used all my free drink cards on Gin and Tonics and glasses of Estrella Dam.

Tuesday was the main event, though. Mark and I headed out for the Swedish midlands in his Prius in search of our common, Swedish roots. I was thoroughly groggy from the night before, however, since I was basically unable to sleep, so I myself was rather uninspired as we started off the day tagging along with a group of geology enthusiasts (Mark is a geology prof. at the University of Göteborg) on the lookout for natural springs. Still, we saw some interesting sites, and even came across an ancient Viking burial site in Dimbo, Sweden, before we started off in search of the rather ancient burial sites of our own kin.

Our roots tour started off at the cemetery of a church located in Frösve, where Mark showed me the grave of our oldest know relative on record, Påfvel Törsen, born 1682, died 17??.



In the same cemetery lies the grave of a man who married one of Påfvel's daughters, Sven Andersson, born 1729, died 1772, who was a one time a member of Parliament (or a Riksdagsmannen).

Only a few miles away is Herrekvarn (roughly translated as "Lordmill" or "Mastermill"), the farmland, stream, and mill that Påfvel owned way back when.



Apparently, the doorposts on this current house are the same ones Påfvel had built centuries earlier.

The next stop was a brick factory. No relation to the family here, but Mark, being the curious geologist that he is, thought maybe there would be a clay pit around somewhere. There wasn't. But I still got in a few cool photos.

After that, we went on to see the first gravestone with the actual name of Lindeman on it in the cemetery at Värsås church. (Again, Lindeman is my mom's maiden name.)



Jonas was born with the surname of Andersson, but at some point he and his brother, Anders, took on the name of Lindeman. Jonas was a pastor at the Värsås church in the mid-1800s, and apparently developed a reputation as being quite a character. (More on this later...) Jonas lived with his wife, Johanna Regina Mebius, on the parish farm called Klockaretorp. Up until this past Tuesday, there had been no information recorded regarding this farm, save its name, but Mark had a hunch that we could find out something more if he started to ask around. Unlike in the States, in Sweden many farms have names and keep these names over the years. Thus, Mark asked about Klockaretorp at a local gas station, where the attendant told him that the name rang a bell and that it was the second farm over yonder. We arrived at this spot quite excited to have possibly found something new to add to the records and started taking pictures of the house after no one answered the door. We eventually noticed, however, a little old Swedish lady coming out of a nearby woodshed; upon speaking to her she informed us that the house in front of us was hers and had never belonged to a Lindeman. She did recall the name though, along with the farm name of Klockaretorp, and pointed to a different farm about 1/2 kilometer away in the gray distance.

The first house we came to on the land turned out to be a rented home, but the couple there told us that the farmland was indeed called Klockaretorp and that the current landowners lived in the next house over. As no one seemed to be home there, we started taking photos.



As we tooled around the plot a bit, a blond farmer dirtied by the land and animals came out of a storage shed. Mark asked him the relevant questions, and the man confirmed that we were in the right spot! He even knew an anecdote about ol' Jonas Lindeman, the kooky preacher, which he related to us in broken English about the time Jonas, also a blacksmith, was doing his blacksmithing and was so caught up in his work on a Sunday morn that he lost track of time and didn't realize that church had already started and that he wasn't there to deliver the sermon. Eventually, his wife notified him of his error, and Jonas, all covered in soot, ran to the church a few kilometers away, where he delivered the Sunday sermon, dripping sweat and soot. HAHA!!

Our new-found farmer friend told us that the original house on the parish farm, built at some point in the 1850s and where Jonas and his family used to live, was still standing, though now being used as more of a shed. This is it!



The first Lindeman who made it to Kansas, Johan Rickard Lindeman, most likely lived in this house as a child and struck out from here when he left for America. Johan died in Salina, Kansas - where my mom is from - on December 6, 1907: seventy-three years and ten months before I was born.

Interview with me in Russian (with terrible English translation as well)

Not kidding. This interview is in anticipation of my DJ dates in St. Petersburg, Russia, on April 30th and May 1st.

Here is a LOL translation of the interview provided by Babel Fish.

Full English text below.

HELLO ROBERT, LET US KNOW MORE ABOUT ANN ARBOR SOUL CLUB (WHEN DID YOU STARTED, ANYTHING CHANGED NOW, HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU HAVE) ?

Brad Hales and I started Ann Arbor Soul Club in December 2006 at what is really a rock/live music venue called The Blind Pig (http://www.blindpigmusic.com/). Ann Arbor is a college town with a huge student population that attends the University of Michigan, so there are always lots of young people looking for fun things to do on the weekends. At the time - in 2006 - there really were not that many dance parties in Ann Arbor that took place at a club/bar/disco; and those that did exist were either CD or MP3 (Serato) based and focused more on hip hop, rock and powerpop, house/techno, and electronic music in general. Thus, the Soul Club filled a void, in my opinion, as it presented the town with an all vinyl-based (more specifically, all 45-based) dance party that focused on soul music. It also filled a personal void for Brad and myself, as we both wanted to put together a real soul party somewhere where we could spin our favorite records that expressed our true musical passion - namely, soul 45s, be they northern, motown, r&b, crossover, funky soul, or modern. Brad had been collecting soul 45s for years, and had done deals and trades privately with tons of different soul collectors that often came to visit Detroit from abroad (esp. "soulies" from England and other parts of Europe) for a good while as well, but he had yet to find a real outlet for his own soul 45s as a DJ. I was definitely a novice, but had always been a big fan of the classic Motown sound. To be sure, Brad introduced me to "northern soul" proper and always gave me great tips on what records to buy whenever I would go to his record store in Detroit, People's Records. He is my Northern Guru, no doubt, and I have learned a lot under his beneficent tutelage! I can remember, for example, one afternoon early in my Detroit digging days when I bought The Falcons "Standing ON Guard"/"I Can't Help It" on Big Wheel and The Superlatives "I Don't Know How To Say I Love You"/"Lonely in a Crowd" on Westbound from Brad. Both were maybe in VG condition (it's often very hard to find clean records in Detroit, perhaps because all the Brits and Japanese came and pillaged all the stock copies of 45s in the 70s and 80s!!) and together they cost less that $10. I now know that they're both relatively common 45s that have been on the "scene" for decades, but, at the time, I couldn't believe it! I was in love with the sound and started to make the 40-minute drive in to Detroit from Ann Arbor at least once a week to go to Brad's store and buy more and more soul 45s. Sometimes I'd go home with more than 30 45s at a time, sometimes I'd come home with only 2 or 3. As I started buying rarer and more expensive 45s (though Brad's prices are always more than reasonable), I'd come home with smaller stacks, but still feel like I was building up both my collection of soul 45s and the record knowledge that came along with the material objects themselves.

Back to the Soul Club...Brad and I had tried to put together soul nights in Detroit back in 2006 on a few occasions, but those attempts were not very successful (perhaps due to the popularity of Detroit's Funk Night...see below for more info on Funk Night), so we decided to give Ann Arbor a try. It's Michigan, after all: the home of soul music!! The Ann Arbor Soul Club has been very well received since it's inception. We do it the first Friday of every month, and for the first year or so we would have around 150-250 people dancing their legs off from 11pm till 2am (the party officially starts at 9:30, but the dancing crowd doesn't usually show up till a little later on in the evenings). Our numbers used to fluctuate considerably, especially when we first started doing the night, depending on the weather or the time of year - it snows a lot in Ann Arbor, which can keep people at home, and during holidays and the summertime most of the student population leaves town. I'd say, though, that starting this past fall ('08) our numbers started increasing to were we'd usually have 300+ people in attendance on the regular. As it stands now, the Soul Club has simply 'gone massive,' to the point at which we sell out every month, which means more than 400 people through the door, a long line out the door and around the block by 11pm, an absolutely packed dance floor, etc., and our overall attendance peaked this past February at 480. At this point we are one of, if not the, biggest rare/northern soul nights in the USA - the Emerald City Soul Club in Seattle might have us beat in terms of pure attendance numbers, but it's not by much! Our guests over the past 2+ years have included (from the US) Mr. Fine Wine (he's been our special guest at both our 1 and 2 year anniversary parties, Downtown Soulville, Bump Shop, etc. NYC), Andy Noble (The Get Down, North By Midwest, LotusLand Records, Milwaukee), Ben Pirani and Aret Sakalian (Windy City Soul Club, Chicago), Juddy and Gordy (Vipers Soul Club, Pittsburgh), Kevin Jones and Marc Mueller (Emerald City Soul Club), Ron Wade (Minneapolis), Breck T. Bunce (Detroit), Asaf Segal (NYC), Aaron Anderson (Grand Rapids, MI), Joe Moorehouse (Ann Arbor, MI) Jay Wells (my brother, Chicago), and Scott Harlow (http://www.midwest45s.org, Chicago)...and from the rest of the world Dave Thorley and Malayka (SoulShakers International), Rob Moss (UK), Jörg (can't remember his last name, unfortunately, from Germany).

I believe that we have had so much success and so many DJs from across the States and the world guest at AASC because our parties are always packed with people of all ages, races, colors, and creeds who really just want to dance to soul music and have fun. It's not at all like it is in the UK or other parts of Europe where everyone knows all the words to all the northern classics and maybe some folks refuse to dance to certain songs that they don't recognize, find to be too funky, modern, disco-y, or whatever, or refuse to dance to songs they do in fact recognize but don't like. There's no social politics at work at AASC, nor any sense of elitism or militancy, and, overall, it's meant to be an inclusive party; this is a big part of why Brad and I often try to work our way through all the various soul genres throughout the course of the night.... as I said on the message board..."I think it ultimately helps our cause that we spin all types of soul - proper northern, r&b, Motown, modern (god forbid!), some funk (say it ain't so!!), etc. - and don't try to be something that we're not, i.e. British. As I see it, such attempts to rigidly recuperate or re-articulate a certain scene that never took off in the States in the first place tend to exclude the possible participation of good people who just want to go out and dance to good, soulful music and could really give a shit about talcum powder, Fred Perry, scooters, Wigan, etc. Of course these avatars are part of the Northern charm, but you shouldn't have to dress or dance a certain way to go out and have fun." We know we'll never be able to make AASC into something like Wigan Casino, Blackpool Mecca, or Stafford, but that's never been our intent. And while we certainly respect all that the British have done over the years to promote rare soul music and really provide it with an unbelievable forum for its manifestation and appreciation - indeed, there probably wouldn't be any soul clubs at all in the USA if it weren't for the British antecedents! - we've got our on scene going on now. It's a very strong scene that gets stronger every day, too, in Ann Arbor and other parts of the US.

1500 PEOPLE ON THE BIGGEST FUNK NIGHT IN DETROIT NOW IS THAT FOR REAL ? HAVE YOU BEEN DJED OVER THERE ?

Yes, they do now get around 1500 people at the Funk Night in Detroit. Crazy, right?! I think it is safe to say that it is the biggest funk party in the US - maybe the world, too, who knows? It's also an all-night party that starts at 11pm and goes to 6 or 7 am, which is pretty rare for the States, as most bars close between 2-3am, maybe 4am at the latest. Brad started doing the Funk Night around about 10 years ago with Scott Craig (he put together the "Searching for Soul" compilation a few years ago, now lives in L.A.), and he and his current DJ partner, Frank Raines, do the Funk Night the last Friday of every month. They have had to change venues for the party a fair amount over the last couple years, and it now usually includes a live soul/funk band as well, so it's gone through a few different permutations. I have been a guest DJ at Funk Night a couple of times, maybe 2 or 3. For a while they used to have a Soul Room at the Funk Night, and I'd spin in there w/ Brad, and Breck T. Bunce when that was going on.

ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE CAN YOU MENTION ANY SMALL SOUL/FUNK CLUB NIGHTS WITH GREAT ATMOSPHERE, NICE PEOPLE ETC (IN USA) ?

I've really enjoyed myself when I've been a guest DJ at Vipers Soul Club in Pittsburgh, Windy City Soul Club in Chicago, and Gold Label Soul in Lawrence, KS. They just celebrated their first year anniversary at Vipers, where they've got two excellent and fun-loving DJs in Juddy and Gordy, and a very dedicated following already established. The Windy City Soul Club just started a few months ago and is a real DJ collective - I think they have 7 resident DJs in all!! They have yet to find a permanent venue in Chicago, but still seem to pull an enthusiastic crowd everywhere they take the party. And it's high time they had a good soul night in Chicago, what with all the passionate DJs/collectors and, of course, all the soul music history that that city has! I'm originally from Kansas and went to college at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, so I always have a fantastic time whenever I get the opportunity to spin there at Gold Label Soul. It's a pretty small venue, but that makes it more intimate and they really pack the dancers in. Plus, they let me spin just about whatever I want at Gold Label Soul, so I don't have to limit my playlist to where it's only "proper northern," which I do appreciate!

TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR EMPLOYEE (PEOPLES RECORDS), IS THAT YOUR MAIN SOURCE TO FIND RECORDS ?
CAN YOU MENTION ANY GOOD LOCAL FINDS ? DO YOU DIG ALOT IN USA ?

Over the past few years most of my records have come from Brad at People's Records in Detroit, private deals with various sellers and collectors, and online purchases on Ebay and message boards. I don't go out and "dig" per se in Detroit too much, really. Apart from being a DJ, I'm also currently working on a PhD in Spanish Literature at the University of Michigan, and I'm in the final stages of writing my dissertation and about to enter the academic job market as well, so my record time is ultimately limited because of my commitment to my studies. Although, I'd like to think that records are a part of my" life studies" as well!

People's Records - People's is a vinyl-only record store that specializes primarily in rare soul and funk 45s, dance and disco 12"s, and jazz and gospel LPs, but really covers all genres. Brad is the owner, and has run the place for about 5 years or so. He routinely has record collectors and DJs from all over the globe stop by his store and spend hours going through boxes, piles, and stacks of dusty wax, often finding some real gems if patient enough. After being lost in a tragic fire in March of 2008, Brad had to move his store to a new location, one that was closer to downtown Detroit on Woodward Avenue. The transition to the new store was definitely a struggle, but I'm happy to say that it's doing well at its new location. I helped in the transition with the physical labor like moving records and record bins and such and then went to work at his store about once a week starting that summer. Mostly I'd help to organize 45s or do little odd jobs around the store that Brad really didn't have time to do himself - watering the plants, taking his dog, Irma, for walks, taking Ebay records to the post office to be sent off to the winning bidders. Since the money was tight, Brad had to pay me in store credit rather than dollars for my labor, but I was ok with that!

Some of my bigger recent finds include Silky Hargraves - Keep Loving Me (Like You Do) / You're Too Good (To Me) on Dearborn, Pearl Dowell - Good Things / It's All Over on Saadia, Deep Heat - Do It Again / She's a Junkie on Cu Wu, and Tyrone Thomas - You're Hardly Gone / No Good Man on Polydor. Without a doubt, my favorite cheapie these days is David Ruffin - You Can Right Back To Me on Motown. It's an absolute monster!

THANK YOU!


P.S. ROBERT WELLS TOP 10 45s:

1. Sea Shells - A Quiet Home
2. Andrea Henry - I Need You Like A Baby
3. Silky Hargraves - Keep Loving Me (Like You Do) / You're Too Good (To Me)
4. David Ruffin - You Can Come Right Back To Me
5. Pages - Heartaches & Pain
6. Nelson Sanders - This Love Is Here To Stay
7. Betty James - I'm A Little Mixed Up
8. Pearl Dowell - Good Things / It's All Over
9. Dave Hamilton - Pisces Pace / The Deacons
10. Deep Heat - Do It Again

April 25th in Helsinki b/w May Day in St. Petersburg

Thoughts that must (mustn't) pass through the minds of adolescents

"You know, tonight I kinda just feel like going downtown with my best girl and making out with her in front of the KFC for hours and hours."

The situation in Madrid

I live with seven other people here in Madrid at calle Gravina 14, right off the Plaza Chueca. We are eight: three Italians, two Americans (including myself), one Costa Rican, one Brit, and one German. I am the oldest by a good three or four years, but everyone is nice and responsible and clean enough. Still, I seem to get along best with the Italians, especially the sweet and terribly attractive young couple of Valentina and Paolo, who are also both wonderful cooks. I have made a tentative agreement with them that if they cook dinner for me on _ occasions, that I will take them out to dinner as a means of recompense.

Last night, while walking home from a bar in nearby Malasaña, Paolo, Marco (the third Italian), and myself got to talking*:

Paolo: Who was that playmaker** that used to play for Charlotte? Very short, but fast.
Robert: Muggsy Bogues.
P: Yes, right! Muggsy Bogues!
R: And if you're Gary Payton - "The Glove" - then Marco can be Muggsy Bogues.
P: Why is Marco Muggsy Bogues?
R: Because, like Muggsy, Marco is a short man.
P: OK, OK.
R: So, then who am I?
P: You? Let's see... You're Horace Grant!
R: Horace Grant!? That doesn't make any sense!
P: Sure it does - You wear glasses sometimes, don't you?

* Trans. from the Spanish by the author.
** Actual english word used by Paolo in the course of the conversation.

I'm in Spain, but does anyone speak Swedish?

I ask because I want to know what's being said about me here at the website for the first stop on my Scandinavian DJ tour: Malmoe, Sweden!

More on Madrid - possibly the gayest, smokiest city in the world - soon...