Jens Lekman leaves Kortedala, tours the world :: Music News :: Articles

It's gonna be a sweet spring night on Capitol Hill "not to mention many other hills across the globe" when precocious Swedish songsmith Jens Lekman embarks upon a massive 2008 tour in support of last year's Night Falls Over Kortedala. Lekman's latest album popped up on roughly 4.3 bagillion year-end lists, including Paste's (#21) and the New York Times' (#7), and his boyish charm made enough Stereogum readers' hearts go "bum-ba-bum-ba-bum" that he claimed the top spot on the site's 2007 "Mr. Indie Rock Hottie" list.

The lengthy jaunt begins on Jan. 10 in Melbourne, Australia, where Lekman is currently staying in "a little room there in a house in the north." According to his engrossing, adorable blog, Smalltalk, he packed up and left his hometown of Gothenburg (and his former neighborhood, the titular Kortedala) for Melbourne on New Year's Day. A poor avocado slicer but ever the thoughtful gentleman, Lekman recently gave Smalltalk readers a Christmas present in the form of a dimly-lit yet awesome video of himself and Owen Pallett (a.k.a. violin virtuoso Final Fantasy) playing an impromptu version of "Your Arms Around Me" in Dublin, somewhere in an alley near Whelan's (where Lekman played a proper show earlier that night).

You can fulfill your yen for Jens inside or outside venues on both sides of the equator and the Prime Meridian, where he'll share bills with acts ranging from Spoon and Andrew Bird (on Jan. 21 at the Spunk! Records 10th anniversary party) to Of Montreal and Man Man (May 9-11 at ATP vs. Pitchfork) to a to-be-announced cadre of his Secretly Canadian/Jagjaguwar/Dead Oceans labelmates at South by Southwest (on March 13). Time to Priceline some plane tickets...

Non-U.S. Dates:

January
10 - Melbourne, Australia @ The Toff
15 - Sydney, Australia @ Vanguard
21 - Bangalow, Australia @ The A & I Hall

February
14 - Istanbul, Turkey @ Babylon
15 - Copenhagen, Denmark @ Vega
16 - Berlin, Germany @ Lido
18 - Turin, Italy @ El Barrio
19 - Ravenna, Italy @ Teatro Rasi
21 - St. Gallen, Switzerland @ Palace
22 - Florence, Italy @ Viper Club
23 - Munich, Germany @ Atomic Cafe
24 - Frankfurt, Germany @ Mousonturm
25 - Nijmegen, Netherlands @ Doornroosje
26 - Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
27 - Paris, France @ Nouveau Casino
28 - Brussels, Belgium @ AB Club
29 - Antwerp, Belgium @ Trix

March
01 - Cologne, Germany @ Gebeude 9
02 - Hamburg, Germany @ Molotow

May
09-11 - Rye, England @ Camber Sand Holiday Centre (ATP vs. Pitchfork)
16-18 - Minehead, England @ Butlin's Holiday Centre (Explosions in the Sky ATP)

U.S. Dates:

March
13 - Austin, TX @ Mohawk (Secretly Canadian SXSW showcase)
14 - Dallas, TX @ Granada
21 - Los Angeles, CA @ Henry Fonda Theater
22 - San Francisco, CA @ Bimbo's 365 Club
23 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
24 - Portland, OR @ Berbati's Pan
25 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos Crystal Ball Reading Room
29 - Milwaukee, WI @ Pabst Theater
30 - Madison, WI @ Music Hall
31 - Chicago, IL @ Logan Square