Various...

My weekend was quiet and uneventful, but it always puzzles me, why I find those weekends especially stressful and exhausting?

Two weeks ago I recommended that you should download the new single Whoa Billy by Lucky Soul. Now the single has finally hit my inbox and even though I expect most of you to have downloaded it by now, I thought I should post it as a wee service for the two or three of you, who missed out on it.
+ Whoa Billy

Another new single I mentioned a while back and was equally happy to find in the inbox is Dare by The Mary Onettes. Perhaps it’s just my ears playing tricks on me, but doesn’t it have Shout Out Louds written all over it? Not trying to take anything away from the band, because the song is damn good no matter what.
+ Dare

More stuff and more bands like this please. The Papertiger Sound will release a 7 track EP called the last days are taking forever on the Hungry Audio label on May 18. But since that’s more then a month and a half away, the band has decided to give away another EP for free. Tiny Robot Love, as it’s called, can be downloaded from the band’s webpage and all 5 tracks sound unmistakably like, well, The Papertiger Sound.
+ Words Escape Me

Just read this promo mail including a download link and the sentence “At this time we prefer that you don't make xxxxxx a free download”...dooh! A shame really, as the song is pretty good.

Cody...track of the day...

The beautiful Comfort and Rage by Cody is Bandbase.dk’s track of the day. The Danish singer-songwriter, who released his self-titled debut EP earlier this year on Slowshark Records, will spend a large part of April in New York playing several concerts. The entire gig-list can be studied at Myspace, and should some music-interested NY resident somehow read this or do you simply happen to be in NY around that time, I can only recommend that you check him out (read my thoughts on his performance at last year's Vesterbro Festival)!
+ Comfort and Rage
+ Just for You

Blogging...

My first intention was to name this post Live blogging (here we go again), but since some of the stuff I’m going to post was written earlier today, I thought this could be considered foul play. So instead I opted to go with the more neutral, rather anonymous, yet relatively accurate headline Blogging. But that doesn’t change that I’ll be sitting here for the next couple of hours reading, writing, searching, posting, listening and (most likely) deleting. You should be familiar with the disclaimer regarding grammar and spelling by now, and of course a picture will be uploaded in a few minutes!

Still terribly need a shave - don't I?

My Twitter experiment continues and I now have 123 followers. I’m becoming less and less skeptical, as I’m regularly stumbling upon something interesting.

Don’t believe I can think of band with a more devoted fanbase than Depeche Mode. That’s cool, as loyalty is a good thing. But at the same time I cannot think of band with a more biased fanbase than said band, stubbornly refusing to notice any flaws. Wrong, the new single (video), is the most recent example of this narrow-mindedness. Not original in any way, which is admittedly is absolutely irrelevant as long as the melody is just a little bit catchy. But the chorus, which I believe must be when Dave Gahan groans "Wrong" through his nose, resembles something that could have been recorded in a pig farm, and luckily is forgotten as soon as the song is over. Except that groan of course which certainly will cause lots of nightmares! And still I see people referring to this, as a "classic sounding" Depeche Mode track? You must be joking or are you telling me that this is what you’ve been fans of for 20+ years? To make sure that I know what that classic sound is exactly, I did listen to the epic Violator earlier today, and nothing (absolutely nothing) on that album is even close to being this bad. Nitpickers might object and will start uttering that you cannot make this comparison as Violator belongs in a completely different time and era. Fine! Point taken. But then don’t give me that “classic sounding” bullshit. And no matter what you say; Wrong still sucks!

I’ll never be a fan of remixes. Tracks with endless beats and little diversity doing their best to destroy the original melody line have rarely appealed to me. But the Kissy Sell Out remix of Give It Up taken from the forthcoming album Red (out in Denmark June 8) by Datarock is rather catchy and would even make me start glancing at the dancefloor.
+ Give It Up (Kissy Sell Out Remix)

The Blueflowers are giving away a Watercolor Ghost Town album track over a Last.fm. At $11 this fine album has to be the bargain of the year.
+ I Wasn't Her

Chromewaves voices his discontent with the lack of information regarding the Clinging to a Scheme album, which, if everything works out as planned, will be the third full-length release by The Radio Dept. A release sometime this fall (I assume he means THIS fall) is his best guess.
+ The Worst Taste In Music

This episode of my favorite TV series Waking The Dead has just started. I've seen it once before, but since TV doesn't get much better than this; I'm seriously tempted to watch it for a second time. I recall the episode as no being "very nice", but then again none of the episodes really are. The dark sides of the human race can rarely be considered "very nice".

Last Wednesday I wrote how much I was looking forward to a release from st famous. A few days later it was announced that Keris Howard is no longer part of the project. Learn more.
+ Lazy Opera

Danish alternative/indie rock band Us With Millions has a new track We Are Sinking up and streaming at Myspace. That Band of Horses comparison is more valid than ever!

Death Valley Sleepers...

The new Death Valley Sleepers track Seaside I posted Saturday evening has turned out to be quite a success, and is currently doing terribly well over at Hypem. So inspired by this sudden (but much deserved) interest in the Danish one-man project, I’ve decided to (sort of) copy myself, and once again upload every Death Valley Sleepers track that I know of. Among the tracks are another two recently recorded tracks; the quite noisy Hit the Twilight Sleep and the more laid back and catchy Let Heaven Know, which Tobias himself describes as a "short summer flirt". So grab them all and make your collection of Death Valley Sleepers tracks complete. SORRY - but (almost) all download links have been disabled.
+ Black Pearl
+ Girl Got Lost
+ The Golden Mud
+ Heartbreaking Sound of Joy
+ Hit the Twilight Sleep
+ Hey Messy Queen
+ In The Valley
+ Into My Mind
+ Left Me High
+ Let Heaven Know
+ My Blue Underground
+ Seaside
+ She's in Control
+ Small Town Bells
+ Sweet End
+ Touch Stars
+ Turn Out The Light
+ Vice & Beauty
+ White Noise
+ Your Face In The Skies

Live blogging (once again)...

I quite enjoyed the live blogging Wednesday evening, and since the scenario is pretty much the same tonight (wife’s out and the kids are asleep), I thought why not do it again? I still have plenty of mails to read, stuff to comment and a few songs to post, so for the next couple of hours this post will slowly expand. A photo will be added in a few minutes. Finally; here's the usual disclaimer. There will be more focus on writing and posting than on spelling and grammar!

As promised a photo. Please notice the beer (yummy) and of course that my hair's been cut! Still badly need a shave though!

I now have a staggering 98 followers at Twitter. Still trying to figure out if this thing is of any use? Those with lots of followers also follow a lot of people. Seems like several "I follow you - you follow me" agreements are being made. But does anyone actually read what anyone else is writing?

Here’s that new track by Death Valley Sleepers I mentioned the other night. Have mailed a little bit back and forth with Tobias (the man behind the alias), and he seems rather frustrated that the download function at Myspace is no longer working. Especially, as he wants his music to be free to download to help spreading the word. The music still bridges from The Velvet Underground via JAMC to The Raveonettes, but this unusual lengthy track (+ 6 minutes) has to be their best effort yet. UPDATE: Loved by 14 other persons already at Hypem.
+ Seaside

Talking about Myspace. It used to be my favorite haunting ground, when tracking down new and interesting bands, but can't recall the last time I found anything worth mentioning there! The aforementioned killing of the download function certainly didn't make things better. The occasional blog posts by bands are still worth reading to get some updates, but the rest...

Dutch blog All That Ever Mattered interviews Northern Portrait frontman Stefan. Does look as if the album will be finished come May! All That Ever Mattered has of course been added to the blogroll.
+ Crazy

One Weekly Gun has posted a new track. It's quite a brave political statement and I cannot say that I disagree with him!
+ Downer

Start! Festival (formerly known as Vesterbro Festival) announced yesterday (or was it the day before?), that the line-up for this year's festival will be published on April 6. I believe that's one month earlier than last year? My wish list is long and (obviously) includes the abovementioned DVS and NP.

In the post Wednesday evening I also mentioned the song by Napoleon with the insane title I Try To Despise The Ugly People (But The Beautiful Ones Keep Turning Me Down). I've been given the green light by Ruffa Lane Records to post it, so here we go. The single will be out April 27, so the timing is perfect, as the track should be a lock for any summer compilation.
+ I Try To Despise The Ugly People (But The Beautiful Ones Keep Turning Me Down)

Rasmus has found a way to put a little pressure on me. Twitter can be used for many purposes.

Two tracks from the forthcoming Dare EP by The Mary Onettes is now streaming at Myspace (quite a dilemma - think it sucks, but cannot live without it). Will go give them a listen now, but they can't be anywhere as fantastic as Explosions...can they? No - they are not. But they are very good indeed. On first listen Dare reminds me somewhat of Shout Out Louds.
+ Explosions

Please notice that I hadn't mentioned SXSW at all tonight. Right until now that was!

That will be it for tonight...I guess. The beer is almost finished and even though there are a few more songs left to post, I think I'll leave you here. Have a great Sunday!

Pure at heart...

One quick search at Hypem reveals that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has already been featured by just about every other indie pop loving blogger. So feel free to move on, as the next few lines will contain absolutely nothing that hasn’t been said or written numerous times before. But since this is my blog, where else would be a more appropriate place to share my 5 cents on the smashing debut album by the NY quartet, than this? I have vowed to never use that “album of the year” description again, but the rest of the year’s releases will have a rough time trying to make a bigger impression on me than this one. Not often does it happen that I listen to a debut, where I have nothing negative to say. Where there isn’t something that I would have changed, had I been in charge. Or at least one track I would have canned. But there’s nothing here. Nothing really! There’s simply not a bad track or even a weak moment on the album. Of course you could always have wished for a more diverse album, as each track more or less follows the same formula of mixing a perfect pop song with noisy guitars and pulsing drums. And if you’re a pedant you could of course argue that there are enough bands out there claiming to be inspired by MBV and JAMC. However I see no point in fixing something that’s not broken (and, luckily, neither does the band) or reinventing something that’s not in need of being reinvented. Listening to the album without question proves that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has a charming (and winning) formula on their hands, and if the band decides to stick to that one, then it’s just fine by me.
+ Come Saturday
+ Everything with You

Northern Portrait keeps adding new dates to their gig list. But we are still waiting for the band to announce their first Danish concert. Not that I’m impatient or anything. I just want news on this NOW!
+ I Give You Two Seconds To Entertain Me

As mentioned a few weeks ago, Swedish duo Ostrich has indeed been signed to a label. The band posted the great news yesterday and the debut EP Press Hold will be out in September on the Cynical Minds label.
+ Icecold Kisses

Folk-Rock band The Village Idiot is probably the best my hometown has to offer, when it comes to music. Tomorrow night Kenni (The Village Idiot himself) and his band will be playing at our local venue Toldkammeret, to celebrate the release of the new album Prima Materia, but unfortunately I won’t be able to go, as I’ll once again have to look after kids. Ridiculously I have yet to see the band in concert and that’s definitely something that needs to change very soon. A zip-file containing 13 selected tracks from various releases is currently free to download from the band’s homepage, which will offer you an excellent introduction to the band and its music.
+ Alcoholic deathride (Ponamero Sundown cover)
+ Secrecy

Live blogging...

Don’t think I’ve ever done anything quite like this before. But time to try something new I guess? The wife has gone to the cinema and the kiddos are sleeping, so for the next two hours I’ll try the fine art of live blogging. There'll be no specific agenda, but I do plan to spend some time listening to some of the stuff from the mailbox. And there will probably be lots of my usual babbling (nonsense if you like) stuff as well. I normally run my posts through several spell checks before posting, but there will be none of this tonight. So let’s see if anything interesting comes out of this?

Boy - do I need a shave and a haircut? A good thing that the picture is blurred.

Speaking of the mailbox. I currently have 161 mails (81 unread) in the inbox. Make that 155 mails and 78 unread ones. Things aren't exactly progressing as I hoped they would. Quite a leap - now standing at 110 and 48.

Do you Twitter? Why it has become so popular is beyond me, but everyone else seems to be doing it so…and I currently have a "whopping" 89 followers!

Fragile Me, Fragile You by Helena Arlock is a really cool and groovy track. But doesn't she sound a LOT like Nina Persson?
+ Fragile Me Fragile You

That was the first track the mailbox had to offer tonight. Always hoping that something mind-bobbling will pop up. Let's see...what's next?

@Merz. Thanks for the comment yesterday. You’ve been truly missed and it’s impossible to express how cool it is that you’re back!

Now here's a real infectious piece of electronic pop delivered by US duo UltraChorus and definitely one for my current favorites list (check the right column, if you don't know what I'm talking about). It has probably been posted by several other bloggers already, since the promo mail arrived two days ago.
+ Words Kept Talking

My favorite blog Chromewaves lists 6 acts to watch if you’re so lucky to be attending SXSW. And that, I promise, will be the first and last time mention of that particular festival in this post.

Kasper of Tetris = Therapy (and The Yellowing Leaves I featured in the blog yesterday) has just left me a message at Myspace promising that we'll hear something new from T = T this year.
+ The End of the Season

Equally interesting is a comment from UK duo st famous promising that they’ll release “something” this year. The duo is a highly interesting combo of Andrew Montgomery (ex-Geneva) and Keris Howard (Harper Lee and Brighter), so this is certainly something I’ll be impatiently looking out for.
+ Tired & Emotional

Still checking mails...time to get something to drink...

I've just received a mail featuring a track with the incredible title I Try To Despise The Ugly People (But The Beautiful Ones Keep Turning Me Down). It's the new single by Swedish multi-person band Napoleon and it will be out on Ruffa Lane Records on April 27. It's quite a pop charmer, but I'm not sure whether or not it will be OK posting for download. So for now streaming will have to do.

I hate when you have to enter you e-mail to get a free promo MP3. More and more common these day.

It's all uphill right now as WMP refuses to cooperate.

Death Valley Sleepers has published a new track Seaside at Myspace. Unfortunately it's not free to download and since the band remains unsigned, I have no idea if/when it will be possible getting your hands on this brilliant track. The outro is especially great.

That will be all for tonight. Maybe (no promises) I'll try this again some other time?

This and that...

Not sure how many mails I’ve received the past month regarding SXSW, but it has to be close to 500. Not the most interesting stuff to read through, when you’re not going and have very little interest in who’s playing where and when. The music part of the festival starts tomorrow, so hopefully this insane flow of mails is about to stop. Probably too much to ask, as I suspect that a stream of thank you/follow up/great meeting y’all etc. mails will begin once the festival is over?

I’ve previously mentioned that Ruined by Martin will be playing live for the first time ever at Lades in Copenhagen on April 3. The band will be supporting (or supported by) surf rock/punk trio El Ray, and the combination of these two rather different acts should make it quite an interesting evening.
+ El Ray - Jack The Samurai
+ El Ray - Casbah

If you haven’t done so already, I strongly urge you to visit Chromewaves to download the new single Whoa Billy by Lucky Soul. It’s simply too gorgeous to miss.

Tetris = Therapy has to be one of the most talented young Danish bands I’ve ever covered in the blog, but recently the duo has been awfully quiet. Apparently for a reason, as one half of the duo is busy travelling around Europe. So while on his own, Kasper, who makes up the second half of the duo, has launched a solo project named The Yellowing Leaves, and 5 new (and really interesting) recordings are free to download at BandBase.
+ Tetris = Therapy - Big Tasty
+ The Yellowing Leaves - Dreamt I Had Arrived (E45)
+ The Yellowing Leaves - In Memory of the Sun

Mars Needs Guitars is back!

Shorties...

Today has been absolutely awful. Dead tired from a little too much drinking Saturday evening combined with having to meet a reporting deadline at work today. And for a few hours every blog hosted by blogger was stopped by our IT security system, which more or less would have put an end to my blogging career. Whatever caused this has now been changed and things are pretty much back to normal.

Arriving in my mailbox this weekend were albums by Green Concorde, Didium & The Black Bonnie Picture and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Hopefully I’ll soon find the peace and quite needed to give them all the attention they deserve (?)!

One-man project Little Big Adventure has been signed by Labrador and a debut EP named The Hateful Eye will be out May 13.
+ The Hateful Eye

Don’t know how a promo copy of the self-titled Audrye Sessions debut album ended up in my mailbox, but I certainly don’t mind it did. This isn’t earth shattering original in any way, but just good decent indie rock. And you cannot really get enough of that; can you?
+ Turn Me Off

Dear Unknown Friend...

Spent, I don’t know how many, hours yesterday trying to come up with something clever to write about the sophomore album Dear Unknown Friend from The William Blakes, and came up with exactly nothing. Some wise ass might feel tempted to ask, why this suddenly stops me from posting anything, but trust me when I tell you that the writings yesterday were the worst ever (EVER!). But it’s time to move on, and my summed up thoughts are that this is a surprisingly brilliant album. Surprised because the debut was released less than 11 months ago, which makes you wonder if the band’s fountain of creativity will ever run dry? Focus is still on writing catchy pop songs and they remain really damn good at just that. But at the same time the band is not afraid of constantly exploring new options, which sort of verifies the “playfulness” you sense underneath it all. Probably perfectly illustrated by the last two tracks on the album, which, with dreamy and lengthy instrumental parts, are more experimental (or different at least) than anything on the debut. Perhaps partially influenced by Bo Rande (of Blue Foundation) being added as the fourth band member? One can only guess, and hopefully the third album (which we all expect will be due around this time next year) will be an equally interesting combination of the proven and unproven.
+ Like a Dream (promo track suggested by the band)

Didn’t pay much attention to last year's debut album Bright White Light by Danish solo artist Jong Pang, but the promo track Liar Liar from his forthcoming album Love is definitely worth a listening. It’s pounding, insisting, haunting and so very irresistible.
+ Liar Liar

A Classic Education has recorded a lovely English version of Toi; a track originally sung by French singer Gilbert Bécaud and featured in the 1965 Italian movie lo la conoscevo bene. I’m a sucker for black and white movies, so please do check out the clip below of the original scene. Truly wonderful and genuine, and so absolutely different from the overblown Hollywood garbage we see these days. The new version by A Classic Education superbly catches the charm and atmosphere of the original and the small details at the very end is pure genius (another reason to watch the clip, if you're interested in knowing what I’m talking about).
+ Toi (Gilbert Bécaud cover)

Watercolors...

Re-post - Promo track added! The Blueflowers debut album Watercolor Ghost Town was released this Saturday (buy), and even though I received my copy a while back, I hadn’t really listened to it. But today I pulled my act together and showed more initiative than almost ever before, when I ripped the album onto my computer at work, so I can give more thorough listens. Don’t expect this sudden energy level to sustain, but nice for at change to actually getting something done and feeling that things are progressing. As some of you probably know already, The Blueflowers is a fairly new constellation featuring Kate and Tony of now split up Detroit shoegazers Ether Aura. And when you listen to the album it makes perfect sense that the duo decided that a change was needed, at they are heading in a new musical direction. The songwriting skills remain intact, so nothing to fear on this front, but the dreamy shoegazing sounds have been put to rest for now, and alt-country/americana influences seem to be the new black. I know I really shouldn’t complain about this switch, as my first impression of Watercolor Ghost Town is that we’re dealing with an excellent album, but I know parts of me will forever hope that Ether Aura (or as a minimum, their sound in whatever band constellation possible) will return some day. No promo MP3’s are (yet?) available, but I will soon start lobbying for permission to post a sample of the album.
+ Watercolor Ghost Town

Danish blog Emodreng & Indiepige was back up and running earlier today following a lengthy hiatus, but all I get right now is an error message? Update: It's back again!

Danish trio Us With Millions has announced that they will be playing at Rust in Copenhagen on March 19 and I can only recommend that you go and see them! The band has finished recording their debut album and is currently working on the business side of things (release, distribution etc.). A “take a look inside the studio” video has been posted at Bandbase.dk.

The website of excellent UK duo The Papertiger Sound has been beautifully redesigned. Words on new music would be welcomed, but on this topic the band is awfully quiet. So check out some of the glorious older stuff instead, which the band generously is giving away for free.
+ Magnetic North
+ Coast is Clear

One Weekly Gun continues producing new songs. And last year’s song about Heath Ledger has for obvious reasons been reposted.
+ Heath Ledger
+ People on Drugs can say the Craziest Things

Shorties (busy edition)...

Reality is once again showing its ugly face, as both work and life in general are demanding a lot from me. So those thoughts on The William Blakes album I promised to post today will have to wait.
+ Violent God (promo track off the debut)

The self-titled Polly Scattergood debut is out in the UK today, but I have yet to receive my promo copy. Hopefully it’s worth the wait?
+ Nitrogen Pink

Danish youngsters The Imaginary Orchestra of Mr. Kite are giving away two brand new demo tracks. And the second one is indeed named after the band itself.
+ Higher Society
+ The Imaginary Orchestra of Mr. Kite

Want you to know...

Every blogger probably knows what it feels like finding a song that you cannot wait for the rest of the world to hear? If so, you should completely understand the feeling I’ve had for the past 24 hours since I stumbled upon Broken Satellite by Dennis Mejdal, as I cannot recall the last time I heard a song so truly gorgeous and loveable as this one. No chance that the world will be reading this, but those of you who actually do, make sure you don’t miss out on it. Just don’t!
+ Broken Satellite

Despite being a fairly new constellation, Danish trio The Minor Collective is off to a rapid start. Three new tracks were published yesterday, to go along with the three published less than two months ago. At first I was a bit unimpressed, but these songs just grow for every listen, and this is the kind of stuff I feel certain will work really, really well if/when performed live some day.
+ Want You To Know
+ Endless Lane
+ Denial

The LP edition of the debut album Play Music by Thieves Like Us will be released by amazing indie label Shelflife Records on Tuesday, March 10. I’ve been listening to the album a couple of times today, and I’m still trying to digest what I heard. More dark and electronic than anything I can recall being released on this label, and right now I'm in need of a few more listens before making a verdict. Eardrums has written a fine review.
+ Drugs In My Body

The Green Concorde sophomore album Down the Corridor to the Exit Through the Gates Out into Safety is out in the German speaking countries today and drops in Denmark on Monday.
+ Flowers of Romance

One Weekly Gun comments the return of “the King of pop”.
+ Hail the King

This has sort of turned into an ongoing feature, so here’s another fine rocker from Detroit 5-piece The Respectables.
+ Where You Are

Plan to post my comments on the Dear Unknown Friend album by The William Blakes on Monday, as well as a promo track from the excellent debut by The Blueflowers.

White Lies, Wintersleep and Mr. Mejdal...

As usual I won't even try to pretend that this is a review, so check this fine one instead if you want a review of last night’s White Lies concert. Though it’s probably rather pointless unless you understand Danish, but the 5 stars should make it rather obvious to anyone that Kristian (of the Frekvens team) was more than happy with what he saw and heard. And I fully agree with his 5 star rating and just about everything else he writes, except that I thought Harry McVeigh had a few occasional problems with his vocals. But on the other hand he’s a charming frontman with lots of poster-boy potential, and more than once he looked genuinely overwhelmed by the reception the band was getting from the enthusiastic crowd. Another reviewer, who hands out 4 stars, is of the opinion that the live sound pretty much resembled that of the album, which confuses me to some extent, as I pretty much thought the exact opposite. Maybe the earplugs played a few tricks on me, but I heard a tight and powerful performance with more guitar and less synths than on the somewhat overproduced debut. This could probably be discussed forever, but who really cares as long as everyone had a good time? The length of the concert (approx 40 minutes) was obviously on the short side, but since the band opted not to play any covers or new tracks, there was nothing left in the tank once they had worked their way through every song of the album (except Nothing To Give). And honestly this was exactly what I expected when I bought my ticket! Finally I brought my camera and a (anything but professional looking) snapshot will be added sooner than later!
+ Death

Perhaps Canadians Wintersleep wasn’t the most rational choice as a warm-up, as the crowd wasn't overly interested. Despite the rather poor sound the band's performance was more than enough to convince me to pick up a copy of their Welcome to the Night Sky album following the concert.
+ Weighty Ghost

Prior to the concert we spent 20 minutes at Vega’s Ideal Bar, unaware that it was Klub Mini Vega night. So while having a beer, we had the pleasure of listening to local artists Dennis Mejdal and Fallulah performing a few songs. Even though his performance (at this point of the evening at least) was limited to just one song, Mr. Mejdal immediately caught my interest, so I’ve been doing a bit of checking up on him today. Seems like this singer-songwriter released an album named Grow Little Acorn, Grow! a little more than a year ago, and the rather phenomenal promo track Broken Satellite indicates that I’ve once again missed out on a great, great artist. But not for long anymore, as the album has been added to the “must have” list.
+ Broken Satellite

Shorties...

Tonight a friend and I will be going to our nation’s lovely capital to see White Lies (supported by Wintersleep) at a sold out Lille Vega. Am really curious to hear/see/experience if the band can meet the hype!
+ Death

I mentioned the new Ostrich track Press Hold in a post the other day. I’ve been mailing back and forth with the duo asking if the track will be downloadable (for free of course) at some point. But apparently the band has been signed by some (still unrevealed) label, and the plan is to use Press Hold as the first single. So no freebie I’m afraid.

This is great news for the North Americans fans, but hopefully the next bunch of concert announcements from Doves will include a rendezvous with the Danish fans.

supertroels shares his thoughts on the new The William Blakes album Dear Unknown Friend. Will soon post my thoughts as well including a promo track

Did the bravest of things the other day, as I deleted all mails from my inbox. With SXSW coming up in two weeks time, promo mails are entering my inbox at a frenetic pace.

About bloody time I know, but today I finally ordered The Pains of Being Pure At Heart album.
+ Come Saturday

The Respectables have mailed me another straightforward rocker (caught it before deleting those mails).
+ Charged By The Minute

Balloon Magic...

Balloon Magic is a quartet of youngsters hailing from Funen and until this morning the band was completely unknown to me. But a friendly soul was so kind to make me aware of the band’s existence, and for that I’m incredibly grateful. It’s always refreshing when Danish bands seek more untraditional sources of inspiration, and the ones listing The Field Mice and Television among the influences are pretty rare. And those bands are indeed listed for a good reason. I Remember It All, the noisiest of the 3 demo tracks available, owes a lot, if not everything, to Marquee Moon, while the instantly likeable Blue Dawn sounds like one of those catchy indie pop tunes that Sarah Records released 15-20 years ago. Obviously these are still demos and, despite my sparse knowledge regarding the production side of things, there’s still plenty of work left both musically and vocally (especially). But at the same time the 3 tracks reveal a band with lots and lots of potential and the capability of writing fascinating songs, and therefore one can only hope (beg if you like) that the band members will give Balloon Magic their full attention (I've seen too many bands splitting up, before reaching one-tenth of their potential), as I’m already looking forward to hearing more from these lads.
+ Blue Dawn
+ Fell
+ I Remember It All

No hablo español...

Or is the correct expression“no habla español”? J.A. can you please guide me?

Thanks to this post on the Shelflife blog and the irresistible enthusiasm oozing from the aforementioned J.A., I’m currently enjoying four brand new demo tracks by Spanish indie pop/shoegaze band Sundae. The band is not quite new to me, as J.A. recommended the quartet (?) to me exactly a year ago, which back then led to this post. Now the band is back again and sounding like The Radio Dept. singing in Spanish, which has to be one of the highest accolades imaginable. All four tracks are free to download and one can only recommend that you grab all of them before the band is signed and the tracks removed. And if there’s any justice in this world this could happen any day soon.
+ 92

Speaking of The Radio Dept., there’s still no news on the band’s third album. Last update indicated “an early 2009 release”, which unfortunately seems quite unlikely now.
+ Freddie and the trojan horse

Check the line-up for this year’s Indietracks Festival and start drooling!

Coming soon on German label afmusic is a digital release (EP or album?) by Swedish gothic/new wave quartet Diskoteket. Meanwhile enjoy the 2006 self-titled EP, which is free to download in its entirety.
+ Ge Mig Ljuset