From the mailbox...

The laziness continues and this is another post with very little content. But I seriously need to clean out the mailbox (+2,600 mails in the inbox) and that’s exactly what I plan to do today. Interesting stuff will be posted, so check back for updates.

+ Sensual Harassment - Fever
Irresistible uptempo new-wave inspired pop tune that will (or least ought to) fill the dance floors everywhere!

Of course - don't forget to download the new track Lights by Interpol. Though it can hardly be called one of the band's more interesting outputs!

+ Simian Ghost - Star Receiver
Nice debut single from this electric pop project fronted by Sebastian of Aerial.

+ Virgo Rising - Upon a Kiss
Shoegaze band recommended by J.A.

As always some of the stuff is so ridiculously bad that I completely fail to understand why it is promoted...

Not exactly from the mailbox, but I just learned the tung_nem will be playing at this year's Start! Festival. And just like that the Festival became a lot more interesting!
+ New Perfection

More later…???

If only...

…I wasn’t such a lazy sod, I’d probably be writing something about:

Young Danish duo Forgotten Fields of Fire and their charming pop tunes.
+ Live By Heart

The excellent debut album (download only) Acquaintances by Tetris = Therapy.
+ A Lack of Concentration

The amazing 180 song Peace compilation published by Buffetlibre in support of Amnesty International.
+ Cartridge – Black Roads

The new interesting and free to download Between Two Waves Volume A compilation released by Eardrums Pop.

How Clinging To A Scheme is getting better and better for every listen and how much I'm looking forward to (finally) seeing The Radio Dept. performing live.
+ Heaven's On Fire

How I quite like the new Band of Horses album, but still not completely won over by High Violet.

The William Blakes releasing a new album in September called The Way Of The Warrior, which will be the band’s third album release in the span of just 2½ years.
+ Violent God

Plus ???

This and that...

Wanted to buy the new Cause & Effect EP Artificial Construct - Part One earlier today, but bandcamp wasn't exactly cooperative. Decided to post my frustrations about this at the band's Facebook page and a few hours later the band posted an update that the problem(s) had been fixed. So right away I headed over to bandcamp and bought the CD (including access to immediate download). What I didn't see before ordering was that the band had mailed and offered me a free download of the EP for my troubles! Not posting this to express any dissatisfaction about spending those $5.99 (as always I'm just glad to support independent music), but rather to state how incredibly cool I think the band is for actually getting back to me as well as showing their appreciation by offering a free download! Listening to the songs right now and only too happy to learn that they sound like vintage Cause & Effect!

The program for this summer's Start! Festival was published two weeks ago, but to be honest, I'm rather unimpressed. So I'm seriously considering not going this year...

Exactly a week ago Jonas posted a Geneva video, which made me start pondering what has happened to ex-Geneva frontman Andrew Montgomery's project st famous. Seems like it has now turned into a solo project, but new songs are in the making, which I believe is always a good sign? And not matter how you look at things and how things will develop; Mr. Montgomery still has one of the best voices in music.

Just found this new single by Trentemøller in the mailbox. Not sure what I expected (not a long to be truthful), but this is surprisingly enjoyable and pleasingly distant from the electronica universe I normally associate with Trentemøller.
+ Sycamore Feeling (Trentemøller Remix Edit)

chaotisch und charmant interviews Caspar of Champagne Riot and offers the track Ingrid Bergman as a free download. As previously mentioned it's Stefan of Northern Portrait, who does the singing and this is one track you simply "have" to download! UPDATE: Caspar just okayed that I post the track as well, so...
+ Ingrid Bergman

Aldrig Ensam...

Hybris has made the acoustic version of Aldrig Ensam (as performed at P3 Guld) available as a free download. No less than breathtakingly beautiful!
+ Aldrig Ensam (Acoustic Version)

Evening mixtape...

As you probably have guessed; I've been busy checking mails today! These are the best of the many, many, many songs I worked my way through!
+ Ash Reiter - Paper Diamonds
+ Night Driving in Small Towns - Barstool
+ Simon Fagan - Damn Honey
+ Mystery Roar - NYC Balloon
+ The Lodger - The Back of My Mind
+ Semi Precious Weapons - Semi Precious Weapons

Johan! Tellus about the Cats on Fire...

Cats on Fire are joined on stage by Tellus about the Moon and Johan Hedberg (forgot about him yesterday) to perform a cover of Genesarets Sjö at Copenhagen Popfest. The sound quality might not be the best, but that was one truly spectacular performance!

Copenhagen Popfest...some thoughts...

Copenhagen Popfest was mega. Mega, mega! Not even the damn volcano and the cancellations caused by its eruption could prevent that, as the organizers did a fantastic job despite all obstacles! I honestly can’t recall the last time I had such a truly fabulous time; a weekend spent listening to fabulous songs by fabulous bands and chatting along with fabulous people (simply far too many to list, though Chris, who took the train from Switzerland and back to be able to attend, deserves to be singled out!). Lots of fabulous’ there, but cannot come up with any better description of the Popfest. It started right off the bat when No More Heroes hit the stage Friday evening and surprised just about everyone with an excellent performance that was pretty close to being worth the entire entrance fee. And it continued right until Sunday afternoon when the utterly brilliant (and highly entertaining) Cats on Fire was joined on stage by parts of Tellus about the Moon for a tremendous (or should I perhaps say fabulous) encore (really would love to know the name of that song, but cannot figure it out). In between those two performances I also had the pleasure of witnessing the rather impressive debut concert of The Boombox Heart, finally seeing Death Valley Sleepers, Ampel and The Electric Pop Group performing live, once again being blown away by the sheer talent of Northern Portrait, as well as being amazed how the helpful Stars in Coma rushed to Copenhagen Saturday afternoon to fill one of the gaps created by the ash cloud. So people; fabulous is the word! Pictures and videos are popping up just about everywhere and hopefully I’ll be able to add a picture to this post tonight. Meanwhile enjoy this video…

VolcanoFest...?

Who would have possibly thought that a volcano in Iceland could end up having an impact on Copenhagen Popfest? But the ash cloud created by the volcano eruption at Eyjafjallajökull has lead to a cancellation of all air traffic in and out of Denmark today (actually no one seems to have any idea, when the airspace over Denmark is going to re-open) and consequently forced a trio of bands to pull out of the event, because of those cancelled flights. Equally bad is the string of foreign visitors, who won’t be coming either for the exact same reason. Nature probably doesn’t care, but your timing really sucks!

But the Popfest will still take place, despite the pull-outs the line-up remains competent and there should be plenty of tickets available. So why not show up (if you happen to be in Copenhagen anyway)?

And now to something completely different....a few songs...

Labrador shares the brand new and really fine single The Night Before The Funeral by The Mary Onettes. The band sounds very much like itself on this one, which I guess is quite a quality stamp!
+ The Night Before The Funeral

Plus offers free download of yet another (the third) track from the very soon to be released Clinging to a Scheme album!
+ Never Follow Suit

New song Heart Stab by Champagne Riot is now streaming at Myspace. As well as a new version of The Champagne Anthem (old version posted below).
+ The Champagne Anthem (first version)

Recovering...

I’m still in the midst of the process of recovering from Sunday’s marathon challenge. The muscles remain a bit sore, but are feeling better by the day. A cold is threatening to come, but that’s probably a quite natural reaction? However one thing that is not getting any better is my left knee. In fact it made the race a rather painful experience, as it started hurting at 10 kilometers (6 miles) and at 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) it felt real bad. Actually it was so painful that I would definitely have stopped at 25 km had I been running in Copenhagen and not in Paris. So even though my finishing time ended up being more than 5 minutes better than the one I registered at my first marathon 13 years ago, I still cannot help being somewhat disappointed. But going to see a physio tomorrow, and once (not if – once) the fucking knee is feeling all right again, I’ll start planning my next marathon; because this is without doubt something I feel like doing again!

But otherwise it's the same old story. News, mails, stuff in general are piling up. Hopefully I'll be back posting tomorrow or no later than Monday!

Copenhagen Popfest...

The "official guide to" Copenhagen Popfest has been posted! See you on Friday?

Now that's a lovely new poster for the Popfest! Inspired by this classic. Guess this means that the lineup is set?

Tickets are still available from Billetlugen! Somewhat surprising that it's not sold out by now!

As previously mentioned a new festival named Copenhagen Popfest will take place at Råhuset in (you’ve probably guessed it) Copenhagen from April 16 to April 18. Finally some details have been revealed to the world as the first three bands were announced yesterday (January 20) and another three added today. As suggested by the inclusion of the term “Popfest” in the festival name, the indie pop acts will of course be dominating the line-up, which I suspect will be a highly intriguing one. As per today (January 21) it looks like this and whenever new names are announced (or any other relevant information) the post will be updated and bumped to the top of the page.
+ Rose Elinor Dougall – Start/Stop/Synchro
+ The Electric Pop Group – Not By Another
+ The Boombox Hearts - Everything
+ Northern Portrait – New Favourite Moment
+ Pocketbooks - Footsteps
+ Leaving Mornington Crescent - April Song

Next batch of bands added January 25!
+ Ampel - Stop The Bleeding Girl
+ Cats on Fire - Horoscope
+ Horowitz - Popkids of the World Unite!

One more band added February 1.
+ Liechtenstein - Roses in the Park

And two more added yesterday (February 3). Still awaiting ticket information. The Facebook group is growing (currently stands at 383 members).
+ Compute - I Thought One Kiss Couldn't Do Any Harm
+ NoMoreHeroes - Troubled Boy

Still no ticket information available, but some news on hours and after party DJ's has been posted. Another three names were announced yesterday (February 9), though the last name of the three will only play one song at the after party Sunday evening.
+ Labrador
+ Iiris Viljanen - Bloodline Together
+ Johan Hedberg - Galeria

New names keep being added and yesterday's trio put the biggest smile on my face.
+ Tellus About The Moon - Nomore
+ Death Valley Sleepers - Black Pearl
+ Roadside Poppies - Just Another Love Song

One name has yet to be published from the official Popfest blog, but since the band is listed on the poster, I assume it's ok to include it here?
+ Greg Webster - Promised Land

Paris calling...

Leaving for Paris tomorrow! What I’ll be doing there? Run the f*cking Paris Marathon on Sunday. That’s what I’ll be doing!

Leap of Faith...

More news from excellent Danish trio tung_nem. The track Leap of Faith has received a "slight makeover" and a video for the song has been shot. Do remember to check out the "entire" back catalogue.
+ Leap of Faith

The Kiss...

Labrador is sharing the new single by Pallers and it's absolutely stunning! Sorry about the lack of words, but unlike this song today was just awful...
+ The Kiss

On the radio this morning...

What a fantastic way to start the day!



+ Aldrig ensam (Boeoes Kaelstigen Remix)