Lukewarm...

Over the past year or so, Swedish synth-pop duo Ostrich has slowly developed into a blog favorite and recent output Lukewarm only helps reinforcing that trend. Like most of the previous tracks (you can download all of them for free over at Myspace), the new baby is dark and melodic, and continues to draw heavily on the Depeche Mode influences. Isn't it about time that some label somewhere signs this duo to some kind of record/publishing deal?
+ Lukewarm

Two new tracks by Swedish indie poppers Tellus About The Moon can be streamed at Myspace. Looks as if the band has been signed to Letterbox Records, but no words on if/when anything will be released.

Danish one-man project choir of young believers will release its/his debut album this is for the white in your eyes on Monday, and the advanced single, the grand and absolutely gorgeous Next Summer, has already received massive airplay. The band/act has been getting quite a lot of press as well since the debut EP was released last year, so one could say that hype has slowly been building up. Soundvenue has just published a review of the album, and a 5 out of 6 rating certainly indicates that there could very well be more to this than just “hot air”.
+ Next Summer

Bad news of the day is that Danish sixties inspired surf/pop quartet Velour has decided to split up. Why the band's appealing pop songs never reached a wider audience is simply beyond me. They'll be missed and the band will be playing their last ever concert on September 19 at Rust in Copenhagen.
+ If You Really Want Me

Red Box - Lean on Me

I just watched this video from 1985 and suddenly I feel very, very old. Those were the days of cassettes and many nights were spent taping one song after another from the radio.

Somewhere in Europe...

First single – Europa – of the forthcoming ENTAKT album is now streamable from the band’s Myspace page. Took me a little while getting into, but the lyrics are brilliant (as always and I feel so sorry for all of you, who don't understand Danish) and the song itself grows for every listen.

Did you remember to visit Music of the Moment yesterday and wish Chris happy 40th birthday?

New track Tonight I’m Cutting by One Weekly Gun was written with fabulous sprinter Usain Bolt in mind.
+ Tonight I’m Cutting

I’m still frustrated about that Larsen & Furious Jane album, but as a small consolation a third track of the album is now free to download at Myspace.
+ Dancing Bear

Kevin from mp3hugger has released a second indiecater compilation. €4.50 for 10 excellent tracks by some uniquely talented artists must be one of the best deals you’ll ever find.
+ Venice is Sinking – Pulaski Heights

Matinée Recordings - New releases...

Two new and eagerly awaited releases from Matinée Recordings are finally available to order from the label's website. I actually ordered both of them a few days ago and since we're talking about the new EP's by Danish jangling guitar pop trio Northern Portrait (Napoleon Sweetheart) and Scottish C86 inspired pop band Bubblegum Lemonade (Susan's In The Sky) you're probably not at all surprised, why I wasted very little time before placing my orders. Will post a few thoughts, once I've received the EP's.

+ Northern Portrait - I Give You Two Seconds To Entertain Me
+ Bubblegum Lemonade - Susan's In The Sky

Time to do some listening...

Or call it "emptying the mailbox" if you like. Reading/working/deleting my way through numerous promo messages seems to be a permanent occupation and the mountain I'm currently facing is build by 1,681 mails of which 383 are unread. In all naivety my hopes are that among this insane number of mails are something worth wasting a few of our precious minutes on. So time to put on the working gloves, a.k.a. my headphones and start listening!

Will comment every song I listen to and post the best (better) ones.

Broken Machine (from the EP of the same name) by The New Up is a surprisingly decent psychedelic pop/rock track. This does remind me of a bit of Concrete Blonde and Garbage (before they became useless). Not a bad start.
+ Broken Machine
+ Top of the Stairs (equally fine track of the EP)

Acoustic track 5:19 by Matt Wertz could probably be mistaken for a Yoav track, but not anywhere near as interesting. It is quite likeable, but you'll have forgotten all about it in less than 5:19 (sorry!).

Let Them Dance by Rainbow Arabia is (probably meant to be) a Middle East inspired dance track and really, really awful. Deleted - next please!

Night Shot by Ruby Isle is almost as bad as the one above. Oh please let the next one by a tiny bit better! Almost anything will do!

Aah yeah! New single Broken Record Day by Scottish indie rock act AirSpiel was exactly what I needed. Catchy and uptempo with driving guitars!
+ Broken Record Day

Understanding Orange by BM Linx seems to be an older track, but came to my attention as part of the mail promoting their Sept. 9th live gig at The Mercury Lounge. There is something irresistible about this electronic rock track, which clearly was made for the dance floor.
+ Understanding Orange

Didn't really expect to like anything by a band or an artist named Tha Pumpsta and the track Octopus Armed is just a bad as I thought (rather feared) it would be.

Lean back and close your eyes and there's a fine chance that Weighty Ghost by Wintersleep will put a smile on your face. At least this dreamy pop and somewhat folk inspired track did that to me!
+ Weighty Ghost

The final status - still 1,612 mails in the inbox of which 351 remain unread. Plenty of work left I guess?

Busy, busy days...

The past few days have been terrible, but the weekend is approaching and brighter days are ahead. Guess it’s time for another round of “catching up”.

ENTAKT will release their yet untitled sophomore album on October 6. The two tracks (premixes) I’ve heard so far sound absolutely phenomenal, so I boldly predict that this will be my favorite album of 2008.

Diefenbach will release Dark Spinner, their 4th album, on October 27.

We Are Popular, the much anticipated debut album by The Holiday Show, will be out October 20.

October could end up being quite interesting, as moi Caprice (I’ve mentioned this previously) will release a new album as well.

One Weekly Gun is back writing songs, including this one inspired by the hoopla surrounding Paris Hilton's recent visit to Denmark.
+ Oh, Paris!

Thanks to Ivan for introducing me to Swedish duo The Argument, which is believed to be the new project of Marcus from Bakers at Dawn.
+ Forget All About The Politics

I've just purchased a copy of the This Is How It Ends EP by The Papertiger Sound. Stream the 4 tracks at Myspace.

One of the Danish radio journalists got so fed up with the Olympics that he decided to do something completely different and instead explore the Beijing indie rock scene. That way I (and hopefully a few others) got introduced to Carsick Cars, which we have been told are highly popular in their native country. The trio has been the opening act for Sonic Youth a few times and once you listen it becomes pretty obvious that the legendary US act has been a great source of inspiration.
+ Guang Chang

Hits In The Car favorite Andrew Boland will be giving away free copies of his forthcoming release, the four-track How The West Was Won 7" EP. Read more at Myspace.
+ Baptist's Lullaby

48 hours in a New Found Land...

Swedish indie pop duo New Found Land consists of vocalist Anna Roxenholt (who also happens to be a jazz educated saxophonist) and guitarist (banjo enthusiast?) Karl Krook and once you’ve listened to their music, you instantly know that the duo has to origin from Gothenburg. The duo has been so kind to give me permission to make the track Leave It Behind available for download for 48 hours, and the track is an uptempo and catchy piece with irresistible female vocals and a haunting melody that threatens to stay in your brain for the rest of the day. The track is taken from the band's debut album, which so far is untitled and with no release date or label information available. So grab it while you can and get introduced to yet another charming act from the “the indie pop capital”.
+ Leave It Behind (file deleted)

On the radio this morning...

I didn't blog about the Coldplay album when it was released (everyone else was, so the world didn't exactly "miss" my opinion), but back then I thought (and still think) that it was much better than I ever expected it to be.



Every morning when eating breakfast the radio is on, and from time to time it does happen that some really fine stuff is aired, thus helping to make the start of the day a good one. The “On the radio this morning” posts are an attempt to make your start a good one as well!

Feeling better...

though not as great as I hoped I would. But still fine enough to continue the catching up I began last week.

I have a really soft spot for Swedish quartet (one-man project?) Tower of Foil and new freebie single Everlasting is yet another quiet and lovely piano dominated piece. And if you don’t know this already, the entire back catalogue (well almost) is free to download from the band's webpage as well!
+ Everlasting

UK quartet Kni9hts is (in my humble opinion of course) one of the best unsigned bands in the world and new track Abyss does nothing to change my opinion. This is another band giving away the back catalogue for free and one band that should have been signed ages ago!
+ Abyss

Those music playing Playmobil figures calling themselves Play People have recorded a new track and like the ones before it's a infectious little pop tune. And after all it does seem like that there were some truth to those Cloudberry Records rumors I started a while back.
+ Square One

Ola of Moonbabies has produced the excellent new track Istanbul by Emerald Park and at times one can be lead to believe that it's a new track by Moonbabies rather than an Emerald Park track. But does it really matter when it's this great? Free to download as it's featured on the afmusic Various Artists - 25 sampler.
+ Istanbul

I've caught something...

Probably the flu as I'm not feeling well at all. Listening to music and writing blog posts aren't top priorities, when your head is about to explode (at least that's the way it feels right now). But hopefully it won't be too long, before I'm back in "action".

News from Leisure Alaska...

Hey There Mr. by Leisure Alaska (you probably remember the amazing video accompanying the track?) was one of my favorite songs of 2005 and now the band has finally started recording new songs for a sophomore album. First output named Present Yet Unseen is a short, but incredibly catchy 60’s inspired piece that bodes really well for the "soon to be released album". Hopefully it will be a wee bit better than the debut, which (to be quite frank) was somewhat of a disappointment.
+ Present Yet Unseen
+ Hey There Mr. (Radio Rip)

Catching up...

Has someone been messing around with my keyboard? I have plenty of stuff to post, but constructing sentences is virtually impossible today!

Let’s starts with this piece of useless information. New single Holy Wars by Oliver North Boy Choir was free to download until Sunday August 10th, so if you didn’t grab it by then, I’m afraid it’s too late now. But bonus track Nest of Terror and the remix of previous single Weekender are still free to download. I was a bit surprised to hear Ivan singing on the new single to which he replied that he’s been singing backing vox on several other tracks. I’m really not that good at paying attention – am I? The video is pretty cool so check it out.
+ Nest of Terror
+ Weekender (I Like Where I Live Remix)



No news on when the second Northern Portrait EP (Napoleon Sweetheart) will be out (though it is available for preorder), but brilliant new track Sporting a Scar is now streamable via the Matinée Recordings myspace page. Guitar pop just doesn’t get any better than this!

Perhaps some of you recall that the 2005 track Scene I - Just Like You Don't by Danish synth pop duo Blue Swan spent a substantial number of weeks on my current favorite list earlier this year? The duo is now recording new songs and first output is named Chief of The Tribe and is a vocal version of the eXorb track Hatchback Harmony. Pretty catchy I’d say.
+ Chief of The Tribe
+ Scene I - Just Like You Don't
+ Hatchback Harmony

That will be it for today and I'm really afraid that the rest of the week will be dominated by posts like this one...

Homesick...

Back again from two lovely weeks in Jutland, but despite the great time we had, I just couldn’t help missing the blog. I’ve been missing the words, the listening to new music and the dynamic it brings to my everyday life. Now I just need to check out all the mails, updates, bulletins etc. posted while I was away, but you’ve probably already guessed by now that I’m really looking forward to doing that?