Atypical...

Something very, very unusual happened yesterday, as I honestly cannot recall the last time I went an entire day (holidays not included), without being on the Internet for just a couple of minutes. We probably have to go as far back as 1996, but as written I'm not really sure. But anyhow this is exactly what happened yesterday and I’m rather surprised how well I dealt with it. And it does look, as if the www did behave quite nicely in my absence, so no harm done really!

Working close to the city centre sure does have its advantages, as I just spent my lunch break rushing out and buying the new moi Caprice singles compilation All We Fear Is Love that was released this Monday.
+ The Art of Kissing Properly

Following shamelessly in the footsteps of Shallgrenzen and Music of the Moment and posting the new single 5 Steps / 7 Swords by Get Well Soon. New album Vexations will be out very early next year and hopefully it will equally diverse and interesting as the truly remarkable debut Rest Now, Weary Head! Jonas has just brought to my attention that the band will be playing at Loppen, Copenhagen on March 23 next year!
+ 5 Steps / 7 Swords

Brilliant Italian combo A Classic Education has a new free to download single named What My Life Could Have Been out on Holiday Records. The second track on the single is the band's wonderful cover of Toi.

Various...

Quite unusual this, but I've spent this morning listening to the radio. And DR Barometer is, hands down, by far the best radio station in Denmark. Go check the playlist if you don't believe what I'm telling you! Kent, Michael Møller, Bright Eyes, Morrissey, you name it. They've got it all covered! And while typing this beauty is on...
+ Chad VanGaalen - Willow Tree

Speaking of radio. Heard Bad Romance by Lady Gaga on DR P3 while having breakfast this morning and my ridiculously small brain simply refuse to understand how and why a song this awful is getting any airplay!

Been waiting for this and finally there is some news from Matinée Recordings! Tracks from the new releases can be streamed at Myspace. Time to start preordering!

Great music just can't be stopped! mp3hugger features Death Valley Sleepers.

I’ve tried getting into Efterklang a number of times, but so far without any luck. However new track Modern Drift, taken from the forthcoming album Magic Chairs, is pretty good, so perhaps this will be time? But apparently fans of the band think that the song is too mainstream, which probably explains why I like it? Blast! Life is complicated!
+ Modern Drift

New album Bear Life by NY indie pop band The Ballet is out now!

+ The House on Fire

Cover versions...

Having my recent rant (which hardly was a rant, but rather a quick comment) against cover versions in mind, one could understandably question my decision to post the following track. But trying to defend myself, I believe my complaint was against bands recording cover versions trying to help promoting their own music. Like when you receive a promo mail and the first thing mentioned is that “we recorded a cover of” (insert whatever) and then “oh by the way! We’ve recorded some of our own songs as well”. Can't help it, but those mails are deleted immediately. So basically I have no problems with cover versions, when they are record as some sort of novelty/part time/charity thing. And this cover recorded by Danes Under Byen definitely falls straight into the novelty category. The song Du Er Min Øjesten was originally recorded in two different versions by Danish actors Peter Malmberg and Ib Mossin, and both of them included in the 1956 movie Flintesønnerne. The Under Byen cover bears no resemblance to the original version whatsoever, as it has been through a complete makeover and sounds far more like a typical Under Byen track rather than anything like a 53 year old (and so-called) Danish “evergreen”. I’ll leave it up to you to judge, whether this is good or bad, but I do actually enjoy the new version as well as I had quite a laugh when reacquainting myself with the original. The track (the new version that is) is included on the free to download Paper Bag Records compilation The Seven Years Itch, which contains 12 different cover tracks.
+ Du Er Min Øjesten

One small step...

J.A. continues to be a useful and reliable source. This time he has mailed the info that you can get three new recordings by Glasslights for free if you sign up to the band’s mailing list. Plus this new version of old favorite Someone Like Me.
+ Someone Like Me

December is just around the corner and so is the annual flow of messages from bands wanting to share their Christmas recordings. The number of unread mails reached four digits some time ago, but I’m pretty certain that this track by Kate and After was the first of its kind to hit the mailbox this year and thus kicks off the Christmas season in this blog.
+ Snow Angel

Though just published earlier today it’s hardly news any longer that Interpol will release a new album in early 2010. It has (apparently) been revealed as well that the album will be a return to the sound of Turn on the Bright Lights, which makes the news even greater!
+ NYC

The album Three Fact Fader by Engineers has just been released and promo track Brighter As We Fall indicates that this is a must-hear for anyone who (just like me) is a fan of shoegaze.
+ Brighter As We Fall

A list of the 60 best albums of the decade (2000 – 2009) according to the Frekvens staff has been published.

Evening update:

Checking mails and downloading songs tonight. As written earlier today there's plenty to dig into.

First song to catch my attention and simply impossible not to post, is this ultra cool new wave/post-punk inspired track by Project:Komakino.
+ Civility

Have yet to decide if I actually enjoy the music of Morningbell or simply was intrigued by the description in the promo mail saying "...evokes everything from Curtis Mayfield to Tom Waits to African drumming and Brazilian folk music".
+ Marching Off To War
+ Stay In The Garden

Scrolling through the mails, I’m honestly surprised by the number of bands recording cover versions to help promoting their own music/releases.

Need to setup a filter to delete all remixes. Would reduce the number of mails by 50% (at least) in an instant!

When Danish bands write me in English is it because my English is super or because they haven't bothered reading anything in the blog except the mail address?

Fresh from the mailbox is this insisting dance floor anthem by Danish duo DATO. Disco, dance or whatever label you prefer attaching to this song, you simply cannot ignore that this is really, really catchy one.
+ I Don't Wanna (featuring Danny Andersen)

Death...

This is not well-written. It's rather depressing. But everything comes straight from the heart...For years I’ve had the (admittedly) rather odd habit of checking the obituaries/funeral notices, when reading the newspaper at lunchtime. Colleagues have often looked in disbelief and asked me why, but I doubt I’ve ever been able to come up with a convincing explanation. The closest I’ve come is probably something like, I do it to remind myself that life is something you “borrow” for a certain period of time and therefore should be treated with enormous respect. Not in any way meaning that I’m constantly forcing myself to be thinking of death, but especially those situations, where people my age (or younger) have died, have caused me to reflect on life. So far this has been nothing but this odd and rather neutral/anonymous habit, as I’ve never seen the name of anyone I’ve known. But that just changed Tuesday afternoon, when I recognized a name from a distant past. Not someone close. Not someone I believe I ever used to call a friend. But one of my classmates from nearly 20 years ago (when I was pretending to be studying at CBS), with whom I spent a lot of time during the three years and did all the usual stuff ranging from schoolwork to drinking beers. Actually I had lots of great classmates, but of all the people I’ve ever met at school (and life in general), I doubt I’ve ever respected anyone more than him. He was a few years older, very intelligent, sporty, a favorite with the girls and yet at the same time he was hard-working as well as having no problems at all being incredibly friendly and helpful. A truly rare combination! Looking back those three years went by extremely fast and since I’ve always been really terrible at keeping in touch, I quickly lost contact with my classmates (those were the days before mails and Facebook) following graduation. I’ve more than once thought about contacting him (as well as a few others), curious to hear the usual stuff about life, jobs, family etc. But this “hey it’s me from the past – remember?” thing has always made me feel awkward, so mails were never written (yes - I did actually find him “out there” in cyberspace). Do I regret it; of course I do, but not much I can do about it now, except perhaps write a few of those other mails I've been thinking of writing for a long time?
+ White Lies - Death (Crystal Castles Remix)

Held up by a banana...

Being the provincial nerd I am, I obviously know close to nothing about Copenhagen nightlife. Nonetheless I’ve always believed that it was all covered. This meaning that whatever music you were into, you could always find some bar or night club playing your favorite records. So when I learned about the Banana Hold-Up club night and their ambition of playing “a beautiful mix of indiepop, twee, c86, britpop, yé yé, sixties pop and northern soul”, I didn’t think it would bring anything new to the table. But apparently I was dead wrong, and judging from the number of people showing up Saturday evening at Jolene Bar, one could easily be convinced that Copenhagen has been in dire need of a club like this. From around midnight (I believe) and until we left at 1.30, people were queuing outside, which has to be the best stamp of approval anyone can think of? Knowing my taste in music, it can hardly surprise anyone that I enjoyed the evening immensely and when Slight Return was followed by Happy Hour, She Bangs The Drums and moments later Ready Or Not, I learned that drinking beer, while smiling from ear to ear, is virtually impossible! Add to this that I finally got to say hello to Tobias (Death Valley Sleepers), Caspar (Champagne Riot) and Danielle (one of the organizers), as well as being updated on Northern Portrait by Stefan, and the evening was pretty darn close to perfect. I’ve “borrowed” a picture taken by Danielle for the post (more pics), and if you look closely, you'll see yours truly on the right in the back with his back (lots of backs) turned to the camera, deeply engaged in a philosophical discussion with Mr. Champagne Riot. Or maybe we were just exchanging drunken thoughts? I honestly cannot remember! So you pick whatever scenario you think is the most likely.
+ Champagne Riot – The Champagne Anthem
+ Death Valley Sleepers – Seaside
+ Northern Portrait - Crazy

A mouthful of shorties...

New download single Mouthful of Wasps by Kashmir is out today and is available (apparently for Danish residents only) for purchase from the official webpage. My initial thoughts; this is a pretty decent, surprisingly upbeat and almost indie pop inspired first single. So Kasper’s voice aside, this is hardly your typical Kashmir song. Not necessarily a bad thing. Not necessarily a good thing either! Hopefully we'll be much wiser February 1, when the new album is released. UPDATE: Stream the track (thank you! Jonas).

The Shelflife blog has posted a second of the three new Champagne Riot tracks for download.

Remember this post? Feeling so guilty for not having written anything proper about the A Purpose To My Sins album by Danish Daycare. If I never get around to posting anything take my word for it. The album is brilliant!
+ A Purpose To My Sins

I'm really terrible at checking emails. Just found a two week old one informing that Casiokids were playing in Denmark Monday evening. Check this blog and be updated...guess not! Here's the band's cover of Det Snurrar I Min Skalle.
+ Det Snurrar I Min Skalle (Familjen cover)

Almost forgot to mention...The Banana Hold-Up...tomorrow night at 10pm...Jolene Bar...Copenhagen...See you there!

Shorties...

Getting a haircut today and boy do I need it!

Chromewaves is (once again) my guiding star. Go stream the (utterly brilliant) new track White Russian Doll by Lucky Soul.

Play People will release the single Feel Good on November 23. Still amazed that Playmobil figures are capable of writing such great pop songs!

Picked as "ugens uundgåelige" (track of the week), the new single Hey My Love, Hey Love! by fast rising Danish act Lars And The Hands Of Light is getting massive exposure on national radio this week!

Emerald Park writes in a blog post that "there are great news soon to come". Hate messages like that. Just tell me what it is instead!
+ For Tomorrow

Anyone mailing me to promote Robbie Williams deserves to be shot at dawn!

more?

A Champagne update...

When Champagne Riot transformed into a duo earlier this year, it also marked the beginning of what was ambitiously defined as the making of “the perfect pop project”. The EP Paris and I, which was released by Shelflife Records last year, was basically a solo project by frontman Caspar Bock, but still gave plenty of indications that the ambition could be more than just some gimmick, as the electro pop dominated EP consisted of 6 rather catchy tunes. A few live dates aside, things had been somewhat quiet since their formation as a duo, though I did notice that the combo was a trio for a short while, but yesterday a first batch of demo recordings was finally publish, thus giving us the much welcomed chance to evaluate the development of the project. Not surprisingly it was easy to conclude that there is still plenty of work left, before the label “perfect” will be attached to the project. But at the same time it’s equally unsurprising that all three tracks are catchy and enjoyable pop tunes bringing back fond memories of the likes of Pet Shop Boys, The Lightning Seeds etc. Especially the infectious The Champagne Anthem, which I've been given the go ahead to share, sounds like something Pet Shop Boys might have come up with, had they been inspired by a track such as Losing Haringey. What will happen next has yet to be revealed (and to be quite frank I completely forgot to ask), but hopefully they'll soon be picked up by a label, as I don't imagine there will be another Shelflife release? Signed or not! I'm already looking forward to the next bunch of songs.
+ The Champagne Anthem

Lists...

I was somehow convinced/manipulated by Anders to compile a list of my 25 favorite albums of the past (or what will soon be the past) decade and submit it for a soon-to-be-published Frekvens Top 50. Having spent several hours on this project today, I now clearly recall why I hate making those lists. Be it a best of the year, decade, whatever, list, I still hate it. They are just so definitive and once you’ve published them, there’s always the risk that they’ll be used forever to question your taste, judgment and lack of knowledge. Especially the later, as I willingly admit that time has forced me to ignore far too many releases that I at least should have given a few listens. In my research I checked out some of my year end lists (I refuse to post links, so you’ll have to find them yourself) and was rather confounded by some of the picks. Actually by quite a few to be honest. Albums I rated so highly back then have been collecting dust ever since. Others barely sneaking into my top 10 (or 20) turned out to be real growers and in hindsight should have been ranked much higher. So being afraid of publicly contradicting myself, I more than once thought about canceling the whole thing, but decided to take the “lists are useless, but fun to make” approach instead and that way talked myself into finalizing and sending a list. What? You want to see the list? Forget it! No way, I’m going to publish it! Didn't you read the above? But I’ll reveal this much; The Last Broadcast by Doves was my top pick, while And The Glass Handed Kites by Mew was my clear-cut choice for the best album by a Danish artist.

Zzz...

I’m unbelievable tired today. Had a night (which was more like an evening) out with the boys Saturday, and even though I wasn’t terribly drunk, went to bed before 2 am, slept rather well, had a fairly quiet Sunday and another good nights sleep, I’m still absolutely worn out today. But as I’ve said times and times before; “I’m definitely not 35 anymore”. There’s a photo on Facebook taken some time during our small get-together, though I’m not sure if anyone’s actually allowed to see it? If so, I’m the dude on the right, who (more than ever) needs a haircut!

Superb Danish quartet Ginger Ninja are releasing a second single from their forthcoming debut album today. The single is called Bone Will Break Metal and is a surprisingly synth dominated track; still bloody excellent though!

Speaking of Danish excellence. 5 “new” tracks by moi Caprice are now streaming at Myspace. “New” as three of the tracks are alternative versions of previously recorded songs, and as always I’m not quite sure if that’s such a splendid idea. I certainly need to listen to those a few more times, and yet I doubt that they’ll ever be rated higher than the original versions. But the two brand new tracks The Sorrow of War and Tell That Girl (especially the later) are absolutely brilliant and proves that the band still knows how to write those catching pop tunes that to some extent were missing on the previous album We Had Faces Then. The 5 tracks are included on the singles compilation All We Feat Is Love (including a bonus disc called The Past Is a Foreign Country), which will be out two weeks from now on November 23.

Thought that Sweden's Kamera had split up (and they probably have), but nonetheless I've just found their recent single Friday Night in the mailbox...
+ Friday Night

It’s all red...

Wanted to write a blogpost yesterday, but spent the entire day listening to Röd (that’s the new album by Kent, in case you’ve somehow managed to miss that) and never got around writing anything. I’ve said a number of times before that I’m no fan of Kent experimenting (I’m still hoping it’s just an experiment) with an electronic sound, as I prefer thinking of them as a rock band rather than a synth pop ditto. But, as the band (understandably) doesn’t care about my thoughts, feelings, whatever on this topic and as indicated by first single Tönterna, they stuck to the formula used when they recorded Tillbaka Till Samtiden and ended up exploring the electronic world even further on the new album. Consequently my expectations where pretty modest, when I downloaded the album (from the official webpage of course and not some illegal copy), as a kind of precaution to prevent major disappointment. However I could have saved myself from all that, because this album would have no problems meeting any expectations I might have had, as songwriting and production melts beautifully together to create a rather overwhelming whole. And this despite I have yet to listen to it at home in quiet surroundings while checking out the lyrics, which makes me confident that the album will continue to grow on me. So perhaps time has come for me to finally accept that Kent is a rock band turned electro, though I seriously doubt that the journey is going to end here? Synth pop, disco, rock or whatever path they’ll choose to follow, something definitely has to go terribly wrong before they’ll be dethroned as best band on the planet.

Oh well – other bands do exist!

The albums by Danish Daycare and Digits are on my ever growing pending list. They have left good first impressions and I really ought to give both some serious listens!
+ Danish Daycare – A Story of Hurt
+ Digits - Monster

New single Days by Sambassadeur is spreading real fast in the blogosphere. No wonder really, as this, exactly as expected, is a short, sweet, uptempo and infectiously catchy pop tune. A yet untitled (?) album will be out in January...on Labrador of course!
+ Days

Danish band Mushi has announced that a new album will be released in late spring next year. A much more welcomed piece of news than the “Mushi has come to an end” announcement published six months ago!

Snacks...

Will one loose one’s street cred (if one has any) if one says that ones likes the new Snow Patrol single? Risking an eye and putting in writing that I think Just Say Yes is a terrific pop song. Watch the video if you need to be convinced that I haven’t lost it completely.

This has to be one of the best promo mails ever. Texas quartet Fate Lions has mailed this download link for their album Good Enough For You and adds "Please feel free to treat it however you like. Perhaps you know someone that might enjoy it or know someone that would hate it but whom you'd enjoy annoying, either way please feel free to share, etc. We play wannabe smarty pants fist pumping roller rink bubble gum downer pop.". Not a word about how fabulous they think they are. A short, intriguing and (just a little bit) funny message is really all it takes!
+ Seen It All

Swedish indie popsters Tellus About The Moon will be holding a release party for their album Australia tomorrow at the nightclub Svanen in Gothenburg. Clever as I am, I obviously understand that this means that the album will be released and thus available for purchase. How come then that I cannot find any info on how to buy it or even who is releasing it (though I do suspect that the band is releasing it themselves).

Interesting remix project mixtoverdener.dk (mix two worlds) has reached its final chapter and rounding out the experiment are these two recently published remixes by Carpark North and Nikolaj Nørlund. Samples were taken from cello concerto no. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich.
+ Carpark North - The One
+ Nikolaj Nørlund - No Love Lost