Look my way...

I posted the video for the new Doves single Kingdom Of Rust two weeks ago, and the song has been on permanent rotation ever since. Jetstream, the first track published from the forthcoming album, is still free to download from the official webpage, and the combination of the two tracks has increased my expectations for the upcoming album. I know I should be careful not expecting too much, at the band’s previous album Some Cities was a disappointing follow-up to the incredible The Last Broadcast, as it just never reached the epic heights of its predecessor. A month and half from now (April 6) we’ll all be much wiser, so until then I’m crossing everything possible and hoping that the band will hit another homerun. The band’s gig page has my constant attention, as new live dates are regularly being added. So far no European dates (plenty of UK/Ireland dates, but none on the continent) have been published and seeing Denmark being added to the list, would pretty much being a "dream come true". However I have a slight suspicion that the bands only visit to our small country will be for the Roskilde Festival, which will leave me discontented once again, as I definitely won't be attending the festival. So I’m crossing what’s left to cross, and hoping that a “real” Danish concert date will be published...soon!

The past few days have been scrapbook material for Brian Batz (a.k.a. Sleep Party People). Not only did he publish a brand new track by Sleep Party People, but perhaps even better his solo project was featured as New Band of the Day on this blog.

New track Press Hold by Swedish synth duo Ostrich is streaming at the band’s Myspace page. Been a while since we heard any news from the lads, but this one was worth waiting for!

US quartet The Respectables have been mailing a few tracks since the band was included in last week’s “mailbox” post. And the track Could It Be has actually been added to my current favorites (see the right column), without me even bothering commenting the band or the song. The band won’t be the runaway winners of any innovation contests, as the music is straightforward rock music with catchy hooks and riffs aplenty. But who will object and say that this is a bad thing? And since the band throws a lead singer sounding like a Kelly Jones/Rod Stewart clone into the mix, you know we're dealing will stuff that will never grow out of fashion.
+ Spark & Destiny
+ Could It Be

Shorties (one-liners)...

Work, work, work...

Really looking forward to hearing the promo copy of the Polly Scattergood debut, whenever I receive it!
+ Nitrogen Pink

For next week’s concert at Vega in Copenhagen White Lies will be supported by Wintersleep.
+ Weighty Ghost

I’m listening to the Plushgun debut album Pins & Panzers and it’s really, really good!
+ Just Impolite

Will soon starting making new Play People rumors up myself, as the band refuses to reveal anything about the future (insider joke).
+ Square One

One last goodbye from Oliver North Boy Choir.

The sophomore album Harmony Handgrenade by The Oxygen Ponies will (finally) be out on Hidden Target Records on May 19.
+ The War Is Over
+ Fevered Cyclone

This and That plus some That and This...

Been really busy at work the past couple of days, as I needed to prepare various materials for, what turned-out to be, a lengthy meeting yesterday. I’ve said it before and certainly don’t mind repeating it; I hate (H A T E) when the inferior things in life (work) start interfering with the important stuff (music and blogging). But work pays the bills, so I guess one has to give it top priority every now and then.

This is old news already, but I still believe it is worth mentioning that Green Day will finally follow-up American Idiot, as 21st Century Breakdown will be out in May. American Idiot was really nothing less than absolutely fantastic, but nonetheless I’ve decided to tone down my expectations to a very minimum, as those “risk of getting hugely disappointed” signs are out!
+ American Idiot (via Better Propaganda in case some nitpicker will argue that I'm not allowed to post it)

Jonas Jonsson, a.k.a. the man behind superb Swedish one-man project Bedroom Eyes, is currently spending lots of time in Norway recording a debut album. Apparently the location of the studio Ocean Sound Recordings is very scenic, so hopefully this will influence both the songwriting and the production. No words on when the album will be out or who’s expected to release it, though one could suspect that he plans to do it himself. The two previously released 4-track EP’s Valentine Vacancy and Embrace In Stereo are still free to download from the official webpage.
+ Motorcycle Daydream (Embrace In Stereo)
+ Norwegian Pop (Valentine Vacancy)

Still working on getting into the newly released Feel.Love.Thinking.Of. album by Faunts. I'll refrain from saying that I'm disappointed, as I'm not sure what my expectations really were. Though I probably didn't anticipate this to be something requiring time and work?
+ Feel.Love.Thinking.Of (Mexicans with Guns Remix)

Play People’s 7” vinyl single featuring the immensely catchy Goes Out will finally be out on Cloudberry Records on February 28. The band sorts of celebrate this by adding the brand new and equally catchy track Feel Good to their Myspace player. Streaming only I’m afraid.
+ Goes Out

More tonight... I hope!

Shorties (Danish edition)...

Blog favorites Entakt are giving away the track Orkestret med det blotlagte skelet, which didn’t make the final cut for the album På Bagsiden Af Europa. Not because it’s bad, which it certainly isn't, but simply because it didn’t fit in. A quite Tom Waits inspired tune sounding nothing like anything we've previous heard from the band.
+ Orkestret med det blotlagte skelet

Youngsters Avisitor will soon be recording new songs. When I mentioned it, the band claimed that the clear The Smiths inspiration on a few of their previous songs wasn’t intentional, so it will be fairly interesting to hear in what direction these new songs will take the band.
+ I Am The Visitor

It’s now official that Ruined by Martin live debut will take place at Lades in Copenhagen on April 3.

And it seems to be equally official that the new album by Mew will be released in June.

The 2006 debut album Stockholm Syndrome by acoustic/folk duo Murder was a thing of beauty and the band has now begun the recordings of the eagerly awaited follow-up.
+ Daughters of Heavy

The album Are You In The Mood For Love? by singer-songwriter Jacob Faurholt was released yesterday. Haven’t listened to the whole thing, but the two promo tracks are beautiful and reviews are in general quite positive (1, 2, 3, 4).
+ Love is sick (when no one laughs at all)
+ Our old neighbourhood

May 30...

Received the rather fantastic news yesterday that three of Denmark's finest; Entakt, Didium & the Black Bonnie Picture and The Holiday Show will be playing at Toldkammeret in Helsingør (my hometown) on May 30. Make sure to be there!
+ Entakt – Kunsten At Slippe Taget
+ Didium & the Black Bonnie Picture - No Drive (Crushed Revisited)
+ The Holiday Show – Always Something Missing

Is This The Way The Good World Will End...?

In hindsight that “from the mailbox” mixtape I posted the other day was pretty damn good. Certainly not from a writing point of view, as the words weren’t really there. But most of the songs were of surprisingly high quality and 7 of them have been on repeat this morning, with only the Pet Shop Boys cover being ignored. To be honest, and being that every now and then do make you feel a lot better, I only posted it to attract some visitors, though the number of visits it actually did cause most likely can be counted on one hand. But to cut a long story short (which I’ve been told means that the story is already too long) two of the songs ended up in my current favorite list (in the right column in case you don’t know what I’m talking about) and thus deserves a few words along the way.

At first I ignored the promo mail regarding young UK singer Polly Scattergood, but then I read this excellent write-up at Chromewaves and thought “what the heck”. And I do agree with the take that Nitrogen Pink is an intriguing first single from what one could suspect will be a fine debut album, as the other songs streaming at myspace do sound rather interesting. Though the best moments are the ones where the young lady abandons her quiet and natural (?) singer-songwriter background and instead follow a less obvious electronic pop path, as she seems to be quite a force in this field. Whether or not there’s anything about my fear of an album dominated by this high-pitched voice (as beautiful as it may be), could end up being a little too much, I will put to rest for now and instead wait for the release of the self-titled debut album. And it won’t last long as it will be out March 9 in her native UK and preordering is already possible from the HMV webshop (and several others as well I guess).
+ Nitrogen Pink

Dead Heart Bloom is one of those bands that every music fan should love. If for nothing else then at least for its generosity, as every single song recorded by the band is available for free download. And quite a productive band this is, as 3 5-tracks EP’s were recorded and released last year. Just like the brilliant Flash in a Battle it’s all beautiful folk pop/rock, but suddenly something ignite and on the track Is This The Way The Good World Will End? the band decides to go shoegazing/noise-rocking, which as well as being unsuspected is both fascinating and refreshing.
+ Flash in a Bottle
+ Is This The Way The Good World Will End?

A few bits and bobs since you’re here already!

Calling new Danish band The Olympics a “super-group” might be a little over the top, but lots of skills is gathered, as all 5 band members have experience from other bands (Feet Don’t Fail Me and Surf In Stereo) or have worked as producers/remixers (john the electrician and Zvook Mescalin). Two songs have been published so far and though they don't convince me completely I still suggest that we keep an eye on these lads.
+ Superheroes

The Burning Hearts album Aboa Sleeping is out now on Shelflife Records. A month and a half ago I wrote that the 9 tracks had all been imported from “the indie pop heaven”, and they still sound exactly like that! It costs $10, so don't give me any "financial crisis" bullshit for not buying it!
+ I Lost My Colour Vision
+ Sea Birds

The video for the stunning new Doves single Kingdom of Rust.

Updated...

I’ve spent several hours today re-installing and updating my computer at work. Strict orders from those in charge of business, to pave the way for the installation of some pointless (which "they" insist is crucial) document management/handling/scanning/whatever/who bloody cares anyway? program. And who am I to object? Though I didn’t waste this glorious opportunity and did of course deliver a really fine performance of my usual crybaby whining stunt (regular readers should know what I'm talking about), but to absolutely no prevail. So updated my computer is now, meaning that nothing looks like it used to. Hate it!

Germans Stereo Inn has mailed me the opening track Rockshow of the band’s 2008 EP Welcome To The Stereo Inn. I’ll stick to my original impression that they somehow messed up things in Geographic classes, as a band sounding indie pop charming like this has to come from Sweden. Yummy! The band’s self-titled 2006 EP, which needless to say is absolutely gorgeous, is yours to grab from free from Last.fm.
+ Rockshow

Judging from recent blog posts everything seems to be fine in the land of Mew. Though for my taste we’ve had a few too many of those “we’re almost there” messages. Comments definitely indicate that I’m not the only one impatiently waiting for detailed news (e.g. release date) and who would like to listen to even the shortest preview clip from the album. Kind of like postponing Christmas and telling the children that Christmas WILL come. Though we cannot tell exactly when! As a somewhat smaller consolation the band has published the first (of many I hope) concert date for this summer.

From the mailbox...

The mailbox flooding continues and the past few days I've been busy reading, deleting, downloading, deleting, listening and deleting. As always I have probably listened to 10 songs for every decent one I have found. So to be able to post these 8 songs I have listened to at least? Oh well, you do the math. Have a rather busy day ahead of me, so I'm afraid that the music will have to speak for itself today.

+ The Memories Attack - Peaks & Valleys
+ Dead Heart Bloom - Flash In A Bottle
+ Jadiid - Hallelujah
+ We Have Band - West End Girls (Pet Shop Boys cover)
+ Evening Magazine - 18 Wheels
+ De Rosa - Nocturne For An Absentee
+ Polly Scattergood - Nitrogen Pink
+ The Thermals - Now We Can See

Vadadi...

Here’s another nice little surprise from the mailbox. As usual I cannot really pinpoint what exactly made me check this particular mail out, instead of the +400 other unread ones in the mailbox, though it probably was the use of the label “shoegaze” that once again did the trick? So this morning I’ve been listen to Swedish one-man project Vadadi, which logically is named after the man behind the music; Robert Vadadi. He’s quite recently (late 2008 I believe) put out a self-titled album containing 9 tracks (and running for a little more than 34 minutes), which can be purchased (download only) for the nice little sum of $2.50. The album opens with Loveless, which I obviously guess is meant as a tribute to My Bloody Valentine? Maybe not quite sounding like anything by MBV (I'm no expert though), but with enough noisy guitars to make my suggestion plausible. And as the album pleasantly moves on, I certainly hear some Mojave 3 inspiration, there's plenty of straightforward indie rock, as well as more noisy guitars. And I'm almost prepared to claim that even fans of Loney, Dear will find some sweet indie pop sounds to enjoy. But that Mr. Vadadi has been listening to Mew is almost impossible to ignore, as the track Forgive Me would have been a nice fit on And the Glass Handed Kites. So plenty of ground is covered, and more listens will probably reveal plenty of other inspirational sources. But as always this is not what really matters the most to me. Far more important is that all of the songs are of great quality (songwriting especially) and that 34 minutes in company with this brilliant album is time well spent. As previously mentioned the album is available as download only, though the official webpage reveals that a limited edition CD is available for a whopping €399. But that should include personal delivery at your door anywhere in Scandinavia! Stream the whole thing at Last.fm, if you’re cash strapped and would like to listen before buying!
+ Loveless
+ New Favorite

This and that...

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, the new and final Oliver North Boy Choir EP Blackmail will be out February 22. As a small appetizer the band has decided to give away a so-called “synth version” of the lead track.
+ Blackmail (2nd version)

Danish electro-pop/rock act Volvoe has been awfully quiet for a long time, but news is that the recording of an album is progressing. Slowly, but progressing! The band’s 2007 EP Organized Faults was (and still is) a true, but sadly overlooked, gem.
+ Places
+ Organized Faults
+ Remedy
+ Snowscape
+ These Moments

1st single Miami off the forthcoming Green Concorde album Down The Corridor To The Exit Through The Gates Out Into Safety can now be streamed at Myspace. Does sound a little too much like previous stuff by the band, and I do think that Flowers Of Romance, which was the first track published off the album, is more interesting and better.
+ Flowers of Romance

Spinning off my post earlier today, one of my best and real-life friends hits 40 today. No party’s planned, so he’ll drop by for pizza and beers tonight. Unfortunately we cannot go out for pizza and beers, as I’ll have to stay home looking after the kids, because my wife is going to a…you guessed it…birthday party. Don’t know what is so special about February 6, but it seems like May is or was a great month for conceiving? My present for him will be a ticket for the White Lies concert as well as the band’s debut album.
+ Death

Happy birthday...

No no! It’s not my birthday today. But you probably were aware of this already; as I did celebrate it with drum rolls and fanfares last month, when hitting the big four-o. So I guess that one was hard pressed to miss? But to get back on track, I’ve recently turned into quite a Facebook geek, where you (among lots of stuff - most of it both stupid and pointless to be honest) get reminders on your friends’ birthdays. Friends should probably be “friends”, as several of them aren’t exactly the ones you’d invite over for tea or ask to help babysitting your children, since you’ve never met them face-to-face. So friends on a more superficial level or parts of my (blogger-)network would perhaps be the most accurate description. But in Facebook terms they ARE friends, and today happens to be the birthday of these two friends; the talented lads Jens Lekman and Rasmus Fynbo. Hopefully the first doesn’t require further introduction. If so, shame on you! The latter is probably not as well known, but releases his music under the alias Mushi, which I’ve featured a few times before in the blog. So no news on either really, just a perfect opportunity sending happy birthday wishes to the both of them!
+ Mushi – Elisa And The Guardian Angels
+ Mushi - The Nightcrawler
+ Jens Lekman - Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo
+ Jens Lekman - The Opposite of Hallelujah

Breaking up is...

I just don't like receiving news like this. I spend lots of time befriending a band and thanks to my skills in the art of sucking up, I get my reward by being listed as one of their Myspace top friends. And then, just like that, the band decides to split up! Ah well! As much as it hurts admitting it, this world isn’t (entirely) about yours truly, and I guess I'll have to accept that things like this will happen. On a more serious note, the band in question is the excellent Oliver North Boy Choir and all jokes aside; there obviously is a rational reason for this definitive decision and it can be found at the band’s official webpage. Fittingly one of the last songs recorded by the band was called Farvel (goodbye in Danish), though I do prefer the phrase “vi ses” (see you), as I hope we’ll meet the band members again some fine day as parts of other/new constellations. The final EP Blackmail and the 2008 (?) compilation Shameless Pop Songs will be out February 22 (download only I assume).
+ Farvel

It Hurts Me All The Time...

Wish it would happen more often, but this is one of those rare occasions, where a random pick from the inbox turns out to be the soundtrack of my working day. Glancing through the mails this morning, one subject line saying something about a synth- shoegazing band releasing a new album caught my attention. It’s probably my bad that I hadn’t heard about Canadian 5-piece Faunts until I read that mail, but I won’t try to pretend that I had. So instead I’ll just be happy that I decided to read on, and that way got introduced to a quite interesting band. My experience with the band so far is the 7 tracks, which are free to download from the Friendly Fire Recordings webpage, and they are somewhat of a mixed bag. Primarily because the band is flirting with far more genres (dance, indie, electro, you name it) than just the aforementioned synth/shoegaze, and a few remixes help clouding the picture even further. But essentially there’s not a week track among these tracks, and the forthcoming album Feel.Love.Thinking.Of, which will be out on February 17, has suddenly found its way onto my radar.

High Expectations/Low Results (album 2005)
+ Instantly Loved
+ Memories of Places We've Never Been
M4 Digital EP (2007)
+ M4 (Part 1)
Faunts Remixed (remix album 2008)
+ Memories of Places We've Never Been (T.H. White Remix)
+ M4 (Part II) (The Paronomasiac Remix)
Feel.Love.Thinking.Of. (album 2009)
+ Feel.Love.Thinking.Of.
+ It Hurts Me All The Time

At the beginning of the learning curve...

Wonder if I’ll ever learn. Spending Saturday night drinking and dancing, and not going to bed until 3 AM takes it toll on an old man like me. Problem is that once I have completely recovered; only the fond memories and the funny picture (I do look goofy I know) will remain. Long forgotten are the hangovers and the way I felt the following Monday morning when going to work. So I guess I can answer the question myself; NO; I will never learn. And a fun time we had Saturday night going to a birthday party. The jukebox was really crappy. It took ages in-between songs, you never knew if the songs you had ordered would ever be played and the selection of CD’s was downright horrible. But somehow the dancefloor was packed all night, so something tells me that it wasn’t that bad after all? Or maybe people aren’t that picky about music, when partying? I even spent an interesting half hour discussing music with some poor soul, who didn’t knew what was coming, when I asked him about music he’s playing (he’s a musician). Hopefully he didn’t feel that much under siege, and I actually thought it was quite an interesting talk, where among topics we discussed the local venue, the future of the music business, promotion, concerts vs. CD sales and of course my favorite "is music tangible or intangible?". But there’ll be no parties for the next few weeks, which should give me plenty of time to recover!

More than once have I labeled Mancunian quartet Kni9hts "the best unsigned band in the world". Now the band is no more! Instead say hello to The Number, which is the new name for the exact same constellation. I’ve always thought that Kni9hts was a pretty cool and (more importantly) rather unique band name, which made google searches etc. much easier. The Number definitely will generate a slightly different “number” of google matches. Haven’t seen any explanations for this sudden change of name, so your guess is as good as any. The back catalogue, which consists of 16 terrific demo tracks, is still free to download from (what once was) the official webpage.
+ Coastal
+ Jolan District
+ Golden Triangle

Probably had nothing to do with my whining, but it seems like that the Ruined by Martin debut concert won’t happen on April 25 after all. A new date has been mentioned, but I’ll refrain from posting anything until it has been verified. But at least chances are better that I’ll be able to make it on that new date.
+ Burn The Sun

As soon as I had mentioned that Tower of Foil was recording a full length album, the band announced that it has been signed by Series Two Records. The debut album is scheduled for release sometime during 2009.
+ Faster Than You Eye

One Weekly Gun has published his second song of 2009.
+ This Mean Tweeter