As if anyone cares...

I'm back from a great trip to the beautiful country of mountains, lakes, cows AND snow. Our hotel was perfect; child friendly and with a fabulous view of the mountains. And any hotel giving the guests free access to computer and internet is my kind of hotel! Highlights included meeting Chris again (he's still the nicest guy), a boat trip on the Vierwalstättersee, a visit to Luzern, taking Europe's longest Gondelbahn to Männlichen, enjoying the view from Jungfraujoch (Top of Europe), visiting the cities Thun and Bern, buying a new pair of hiking shoes in Grindelwald, trying the The Pfingstegg toboggan run and hearing the noise at Trümmelbach Waterfalls.

Off to Switzerland...

Tomorrow the 3 girls and I will pack the bags and head off to Switzerland for a week's holiday. Our (few) plans for the 7 days include breathing some fresh mountain air, eating (a lot of) chocolate, drinking beers, doing a bit of yodeling and (if my wife allows me to) buying a pair of lederhosen! Oh well - yodeling and lederhosen are longshots, but a much anticipated rendezvous with Chris on Sunday has been planned for some time now, and needless to say I'm very much looking forward to seeing him again (it's been almost 4 years since our last encounter)! Hopefully you all know by now that Chris (who is Swiss) is the author of the lovely blog Music Of The Moment and the recently published Music From Denmark? Especially his great knowledge on Danish music and fine list of Danish artists in the latter blog has made it painfully clear, that I don't even know a handful of Swiss bands. Shame on me or is it because there aren't any (or that many) good bands from the country of beautiful mountains and lakes? Hopefully it's my fault entirely, because recently I found this really fine one by Swiss duo Division Kent in my mailbox. So hopefully a little search will reveal that there are several other interesting Swiss bands worth checking out. Will add that to my "to-do list" upon my return...
+ She's Going Places

Snake and Jet’s Amazing Bullit Band...

The other day when I received a mail from the Danish label Crunchy Frog, I couldn't help thinking that it was the first time ever that I had been contacted by one of the established Danish labels asking me to post a track by one of their bands. Actually the label has contacted a few other Danish blogs as well, so hopefully this indicates that better and more interesting (perhaps even "cooperative") times are ahead?
The track in question is the recent (debut?) single X-Ray by duo Snake and Jet’s Amazing Bullit Band taken from the band's debut album X-Ray Spirit, which will be released on Monday. I've had the opportunity to listen to most of the album and have to admit that this is really fascinating stuff, though it's quite difficult to label (in the press material the close to perfect description "a merger of genres" is used). If you spend a few minutes listening to X-Ray you'll hear a song that at the same time is danceable, noisy, haunting and melodic with lots of pounding drums, distorted guitars and the never unfashionable 60's inspired hammond organ. I guess that a description like this only makes it all more intriguing, so why no stop reading and instead do yourself a favour and check it out? It's actually pretty damn cool! The track has been well-received by the radio listeners and entered the independent (and listener-voted) chart Det Elektriske Barometer at no. 2 last week. On a sidenote I thinks its' quite funny/peculiar that one of the band members (Thomas) used to be in El Video that I mentioned the other day.
+ X-Ray

Below the video created by Mary&Mary.

Ingenting on a Thursday...

2 days ago I couldn't think of anything to post. A day off yesterday certainly took care of that problem, so today there's a little more to tell!

First of all and most importantly; The video for the Kent single Ingenting is here and a weird one it is. The band does seem to have some kind of passion for animals?


The Williams Blakes is heading for Sweden (Hultsfred to be more specific) where the band will record their debut album. Seems like the album will be called Wayne Coyne, but it's obviously far too early to tell when it's going to be released and if it's actually going to be called just that. Whenever it's ready it will be released on new Danish label Speed Of Sound.
+ The Reality (link taken down)

The DAMPFBAHN! track All Is Swell is currently being remixed to pieces by various friends, DJs and other music freaks in general. I'm not sure how many different versions will be the final result of this project, but "rumours" tell that there will be some really weird, funny and interesting ones among them! I believe that the intention is that all the mixes will all be released/compiled on the same CD at some point (please correct me if I'm wrong!). The first appetizer - a mix done by Portuguese DJ Vitor Silveira - is now available to download for free. Another mix can be streamed here.
+ All Is Swell (All Is Indeed Swell Enough For A Remix)

I've just received the message that a promo of the Hot Springs album Volcano should arrive in my mailbox any day soon. If the rest of the album sounds like this first sample track, it could very well be a quite interesting rock thing!
+ Headrush

Division Day has recorded an excellent cover version of my favorite Depeche Mode track Enjoy The Silence. It's pretty impossible screwing this track up (not saying that the band is even close to doing that), and I really like this almost acoustic approach. Once a week the band's label Eenie Meenie Records is sending out remixes and cover songs, so hopefully more interesting stuff is on the way?
+ Enjoy The Silence

If you're tired of me constantly promoting the tracks Poetry Boy and Slave To Your Charms, it's now possible to stream a brand new one by Kind of girl over at the band's EPK.

Via fine Danish blog emodreng & indiepige comes word on the new Oliver North Boy Choir video for Baby Cool. Gotta love this band!

Posting for the sake of posting...

Have absolutely nothing to say, so instead here's a couple of songs for you...

+ Pay TV - Fashion Report
From the mailbox. The title track from the new EP by this Swedish all female electro/glam/pop/disco trio. Not groundbreaking, but pretty nice and absolutely harmless.

+ El Video - A Day Off
I'm taking a day off from work tomorrow, so I thought this was the perfect track to post! And a great one it is by this Danish alternative rock band.

Music From Denmark...

Read more about the great new initiative by Chris!

Monday Cleaning...

This morning I'm emptying the mailbox and listening my way through some of the MP3's that recently have been sent my way. Below I've posted some of the listenable ones (including a few words from the press material):

+ Pratique - Death For Blushing Rogue
"Formed this year, they set to creating the most melodic bass lines this side of disco, punchy, mathematical beats, and brilliant brit-pop inspired guitar work." Energetic. Very energetic!

+ Sick of Sarah - Bittersweet
"...an all-female band with catchy hooks, unique lyrics, and thoughtful, well-crafted music." Catchy hooks.....

+ Plushgun - Just Impolite
"...mix of indie rock sound with high-voltage electronic backbeats." I really like this one!

+ Nathan Holscher - Hard, High and Blue
"Working in the medium of acoustic Folk, yet transcending it within his smoky songwriting, Holscher paints vivid pictures within his songs, which are emotionally direct in their storytelling but spectral and airy in their sonic construction." Nice americana/rock folk track by US singer/songwriter.

+ Steve Goldberg And The Arch Enemies - Summer's Ending
"...is possibly the most elaborate, orchestrated indie-pop effort Pittsburgh has ever produced." Lovely pop tune.

Kent - Ingenting...

It's not a video, really...

Music is oxygen...

As mentioned in his blog yesterday, Jonas and I have recently been sending messages back and forth recommending various stuff and discussing music in general. One of the major conclusions (or mutual understandings if you like) has been that music IS oxygen, which I cannot help think would be the perfect tagline/phrase to headline the blog. So unless you've noticed it already the description at the top of the blog has changed!

I originally went to the concert in Helsingborg last night, because I couldn't resist the opportunity to see indie pop band DAYS playing live and I definitely wasn't disappointed. The four boys delivered a fine performance, though it certainly was on the short side (6 songs in 20 minutes). But then again - they only needed 3 minutes on stage to prove that they must be one of the most talented bands to come along in recent years. After the concert I had the pleasure of talking briefly to Fabian and ? (unfortunately I didn't get his name) from the band and news is that a 7 track EP will be out on Shelflife very soon.

Concerning Shout Out Louds (the second band playing yesterday) I have the following three things to say:
1. If you have already bought a ticket for a show, make sure that you go, because you'll be in for a treat.
2. If you haven't bought one - buy one (see the tour dates here)!
3. If there ever was any doubt in my mind, it has been erased now. Tonight I Have To Leave It is a killer track!

Lovely Aussie indiepop band The Lucksmiths will release a "double CD 45-song compilation of their non-album recordings of the past decade" called Spring a Leak on Matinée Recordings this week. Listen to the two samples below and then order it (or the other way round if you like)!
+ Once Again
+ Rushes Of Pure Spring

It was my impression that the mature sound of Danish youngsters Tetris = Therapy caught a few people by surprise when I wrote about the duo earlier this year. Now the boys have informed me that they'll soon start recording some new tracks and as an appetizer an older track from the previous EP is (after some persuasion) available as a free download. A band worth keeping an eye on and I'll keep you posted whenever there's something new to tell.
+ ...Bright

Tonight's the night...

Yep - tonight I'm going to see Shout Out Louds & DAYS at The Tivoli in Helsingborg. Despite being a hundred years old, it will be the first time ever that I attend a concert in Sweden. It could be/should be/will be freakin' awesome!
+ Shout Out Louds - Tonight I Have To Leave It
+ Days - Downhill

Yesterday I finally got my hands on the 4 year old demo CD/album Forsidestof til Eftertanke by ENTAKT. It took some begging, some waiting, some foul language and in the end some threats that I was going to send my domestic troops of young rascals into action, before something actually started to happen. But now I have my own copy and since every regular reader of this blog knows that I really love this band, I am obviously delighted to be able to add this small jewel to my music collection. And because I'm totally biased I won't even bother trying to explain how great the CD is!
+ Livets sang går i stå mol (wonderful track)

NY singer/songwriter Spencer Tricker is currently working on a small side project (seems like a lot of those projects are floating around these days) called The Kid Syndicate. He has mailed me two tracks that he describes like this: "One is sort of a cartoon noise-fest about nightclub people and the other one is more like ghosts in a haunted house singing about war." Think I prefer his more laid back solo tracks, though the new ones could be sleepers as they are not without a certain charm!
+ The War
+ Little Red Anorak
+ Altar Blue Boy (solo track)
+ Oblivion (solo track)

Danish weblog Frekvens has picked up the pace and posts news several times a day. And it has been redesigned as well!

It's not secret that I'd like my blog to become widely popular and I've touched this subject a few times before (cannot recall when really). So today I visited a few of the really, really popular music blogs to see what's happening there and maybe even find a few interesting topics I could "borrow" to post in this blog (and even more importantly try to understand WHY they are so popular). Now that I've finished my "tour" I've come to the conclusion that I have these two options:
1. I can change my strategy and start to post news, gossip and maybe even a few songs by useless artists like Jennifer Lopez, Britney Spears, Posh (just gossip), Paris Hilton (even more gossip), RW and JT, as well as every single artist and celebrity showing up at the MTV Video Music Awards.
2. Do absolutely nothing and continue blogging in obscurity!

Which option do you want me to pick?

Assasinated by Martin...

Phonovectra guitarist Allan is currently spending some time working on his side project called Assasin. The two instrumental tracks published so far are described as "some kind of post-rock", so if you expect another band with the rock sound of Phonovectra you'll be disappointed. According to Allan more tracks are in the making (they aren't necessarily going to sound like the first ones) and the two tracks recorded so far could very well end up being re-worked at some point as well (despite being considered finished works).
+ Black Pavement
+ Runway Satan

Yesterday I (finally) received some news from Danish electro/powerpop trio Ruined by Martin. New stuff has been in the making "for ages", but now two new tracks can be streamed at Myspace. Actually Somewhere is an updated version of an older track, which now is even better than before. Second and brand new track Kaiser Star is one of those typical Ruined by Martin songs, as it's immediately catchy and begging for repeated plays.

Some dude is mowing the lawn outside my office window. Once again I have the perfect excuse for not getting any work done...

J.A. recommends excellent US quartet Black Kids. I risk it all and call this 80' inspired electronic dance pop/rock with a very small twist of punk influence (and perhaps some 70's disco). Despite this "broad" description it is probably not even close to being accurate. Deservedly the band has already received plenty of bloggerlove. Great stuff! All tracks from the EP Wizard of Ahhhs.
+ I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You
+ I've Underestimated My Charm (Again)

Soft Amateurs...

Soft City is the new/the most recent "project" of Kicker songwriter Phil Sutton. Helped out by a few well-reputed colleagues like Laura Bridge (ex-Harper Lee) and Gareth "Jona" Jones (Wintergreen) he has recorded a 3 track demo EP called The Soft City. As one could expect this is nice indie pop with those jangly guitars and you can grab all three tracks for free over at IndiePages. Now relocated to NY and looking for new bandmates!
+ The Soft City

The debut album Hongu Kongu by Scottish 6 piece Amateurs is released today on Letterbox Records. The two tracks on the free download-only single that was released in January were nice indie pop tunes with lovely male/female vocals, so the album could very well be something I should check out!
+ Things You Only Know When You Don't Drive
+ Cool By Me

The friendly boys from Danish alternative rock trio Heartbreak Disco has a new EP out. The band will now start promoting their music and the up-tempo and quite catchy title track Tomorrow certainly will/should help the band gaining some attention.
+ Tomorrow

According to the band itself, the new track The Commonfield by Emerald Park "might need a few more minutes in the oven". Judge for yourself, but I think it's absolutely gorgeous as it is and really see no point in changing anything. It takes just a few seconds of listening before you realize that it must have been produced by Ola from Moonbabies. New (and superb) mixes of the older tracks Open and Lights of Sunday are available at Myspace as well.
+ The Commonfield

Photo from far away...

Florida indie/alternative trio The Monday Photo is currently recording ("lots of") new stuff and the band has posted a video to give us all some impression of what is happening. I have no idea what the track is called, but it certainly sounds promising! Download the band's entire (?) back catalogue here.


The other day I had to send a complaint to Danish duo BREUM, because the boys had uploaded a new track to Myspace without informing me. How exactly am I supposed to help spreading the words without knowing what's going on? Luckily I was able to dig up the news myself, so here it is - the new track called Langt Væk ("Far Away").
+ Langt Væk

Going steady in the 1900s...

This morning when driving to work I suddenly realized that the summer is (almost) over. The leafs have started to switch colors and soon yellow and red will be the new blacks. In some ways my mind is torn, because as much as I love the sun (we didn't see it that often this summer though) and the long summer nights (most of them were depressingly wet this year), I'm also a kind of nocturnal animal that seems to prosper the darker it gets. I've spent many days in my life yawning and waiting for it to end (so I finally could get some sleep), but as soon as nighttime fell all signs of sleepiness suddenly disappeared. So while most people are preparing themselves for their annual depression, I cannot help being a little bit excited.

Several tracks by terrific, wonderful, kind, talented (you probably understand by now that I really like this band) UK indie pop band The Steadies are now available as free downloads over at Last.fm. This is beautiful folk inspired indie pop songs with violins, flutes and stuff.
+ The Hopefuls
+ Two Times Champion

Chicago based band The 1900s is already big in the bloggerworld, but up till now completely unknown to me, as I always seem to shy away from bands being "over-hyped". But the other day I received a promotion mail containing a few songs, so I thought why not give them a listen? I did just that and so far I really like what I've heard. On the band's Myspace profile Fleetwood Mac and The Velvet Underground are listed as influences, and if you imagine an updated mix of the sound of those two classic acts, you're not that far away from the psychedelic pop sound of The 1900s. The band's debut album Cold & Kind will be released October 2 on Parasol Records.
+ When I Say Go
+ Two Ways

Still 3 more weeks to go before the new I Am Bones album The Greater Good will be released, but the band does its best to sweeten the waiting time, by giving away another album track for free.
+ Zeitgeist

Moon! What moon?...

Gothenburg keeps producing fine new bands and once again the city proves that it must be the indie pop Capital of the world. 5-piece Tellus About The Moon is the next one in the line of promising and absolutely gorgeous sounding Gothenburg bands and the first track available called Hate is nothing but a true indie pop gem. And in case you haven't guessed this already, this is just another one of J.A.'s many great finds.
+ Hate

Another young (average age of the 3 band members is around 16 and a half) and promising Swedish band - Tea For Three!!! - will release their debut single on the incomparable Cloudberry Records on September 15. Untypical the band is not from Gothenburg, but Stockholm shows that fine new bands can flourish there as well.
+ Nincompoops
+ Thngamajig

A Plague Of Angels has posted a few tracks by Richard Hawley. His new album Lady's Bridge is sweet - just sweet!
+ Coles Corner

Peculiar...

One of my colleagues was roaming around in Flickr and came across this photo. That guy on the left in light blue with the baby carriage looks oddly familiar!

Get behind the velvet curtain...

This must be a textbook example of how to write a promotion e-mail. The other day I received a mail from someone called Joe (I'm not making this up), who wrote that I might like new singer/songwriter Yoav. At first it looked like just another one of those 40-50 promotion mails I receive every day, but further down in his mail he adds "Hope you enjoyed your trip to London. There are still some record shops on Berwick St, just not as many as before!". And just like that I love this guy, as he's obviously been reading this post. So immediately my thoughts went something like "since he's been reading what I've been writing, I should at least give his recommendation a few spins".
And lucky me I did and a few moments later I found myself listening to a really cool and highly talented new artist. The music is almost impossible to label, though in his press material he suggests the description "Beck meets Buckley meets Bjork". But the more I listen to his songs (5 of them so far) the more I feel that something like "Justin Timberlake goes Jeff Buckley" would be an even better way to describe this. Not a word (please) on how much I hate Justin T, but especially the haunting, groovy, slow moving and completely irresistible Club Thing makes me think that this is one track he would be prepared to kill for to get his hands on, as this is so much better than anything he's ever recorded! The other 4 tracks are equally intriguing and Yoav's debut album Beautiful Lie will be released on October 22. I'm already queuing. CORRECTION! Beautiful Lie is the first single, while the debut album is called Charmed & Strange and will be released in January.
+ Club Thing

Music, Music, Music...

Beirut was one of the most popular artists in the bloggerworld last year and now the track A Sunday Smile from the forthcoming album The Flying Club Cup (to be released October 9) is available as a free download from his webpage. Time will tell if the world needs more Balkan inspired trumpets, mandolins, accordions etc., but for every listen I certainly like his music more and more (thanks Jonas!).
+ A Sunday Smile

Swedish 5-piece Radio LXMBRG definitely belongs to a completely different genre, but still the band's 80's inspired electro/pop sound is very appealing (I'm a sucker for that stuff). New track Score On The Floor is a freebie over at Myspace and is taken from the forthcoming album Trivial Matters (to be released September 12).
+ Score On The Floor

And of course you shouldn't miss (and of course you haven't) the new single by Club 8. Gorgeous indie pop!
+ Heaven

This week (and this week only) it's possible to stream the new Baby Cool EP by Oliver North Boy Choir over at Myspace. As always this is wonderful stuff and once again I cannot help hoping that the band will change its strategy, so we all get a chance to buy an album and to see them live.

Victor Silveira has remixed the DAMPFBAHN! track All Is Swell. Stream it here. Should add that it's pretty cool!

I'm back...

and then again, I'm not really 100% sure that I am, as quite a few of my (already limited) brain cells can be found scattered all around various pubs and night clubs in London.

No updates today, but hopefully "the upper department" will be up and running again tomorrow...