by Moses Namkung
In the middle of his second consecutive sellout show at Bottom of the Hill on Tuesday, Jens Lekman gave his own "gentle response to all the Prop 8 bullshit going on": his standout song, "Postcard to Nina". Between verses, the Swede explained an anecdote relating to the song: a story about the time he was in Berlin and briefly became heterosexual for his lesbian friend Nina, who introduced him to her father as her boyfriend because, of course, she didn't want her father to know about her girlfriend. Got that?
Anyway, the song captured Jens in a nutshell; the awkwardness, deadpan wit, and odes to love. And he's able to thread all of this in with dreamy melodies that wax nostalgic while sampling seamlessly. By the way, Jens confessed that before he saw Milk and knew who Anita Bryant was, he bought one of her albums at a thrift store, then proceeded to "sample the shit out of that record."