4 Guys From The Future - Nothing to say...

Check out new single Nothing to Say (as well as the rather psychedelic video for the song) by Danish quartet 4 Guys From The Future, which can be found on the band's forthcoming album Adagio. The track has been topping Danish (listener voted) radio chart Barometerlisten the past two weeks and quite deservedly so, as it's a really beautiful, catchy and dreamy pop piece.

Promo mails – a few guidelines...

UPDATED: Sick and tired of receiving mails in bunches promoting useless crap, so time to bump the post to the top as well as adding a few things. Updates in italics.

I love listening to new music, but before you send me a mail suggesting that I should listen to your (undoubtedly) wonderful tunes, here are a few lines I think you ought to read first. Otherwise you’ll probably end up wasting both our time.

1. This is an MP3 blog. MP3 in bold. So unless at least one MP3 is available for me to post and distribute as I please, I’m not going to write about (or even listen to) your stuff. Links for streaming, videos and pretty pictures simply won't do! Obvious exemptions are favorite bands whom I’ve featured in the blog numerous times before. Well things have changed a bit. A Soundcloud or bandcamp link will do fine. But please do not send a link for your entire album, because I do not have time to listen to it. Rather you should simply pick your stand-out track and mail that one to me with a short(!) introduction. If I like it, I'll definitely get back to you asking for more.

2. Personalize your mail and by that I don’t mean that stupid “I love your blog” comment. Any message including sentences like “I can see that you’ve previously written about xx or yy band” or “I fully agree/disagree with your thoughts on this/that/whatever” will always stand a fair chance of being read thoroughly. So read the goddamn blog, before mailing anything!

3. Don’t send any reminders. I receive 50-70 (the number just keeps growing) promo mails every single day as well as lots of brilliant recommendations from my 4 "compadres", Chris, Peter, J.A. and Rodolfo. I have a fulltime job plus a family, so listening to everything is simply not possible. Unless such a pill exists that will eliminate the need for sleep (I've been told that it does in fact exist, but I doubt it's a healthy option?)

4. If you check you'll see that I've never featured any metal, hip-hop, rap, soul, blues etc. acts, so once again I suggest you check the contents of the blog before mailing. And I'm really no fan of remixes and cover versions either, though I do feature a few every now and then. But only when it's real good and 99% of what I receive isn't.

5. I've always thought it was far more important to be unique rather than important/influential (or a copycat, which I think is the case for most blogs trying to become popular - write about the same stuff the big blogs write about), so if your songs has already been on Stereogum, Pitchfork etc., the chances of me posting it is probably less than 5% (it does happen from time to time).

Fairly simple guidelines, don’t you think? So please read, understand and stick to them. And remember. Pupils paying attention in class are always the ones getting the good grades!

So once again I'll be looking forward to NOT having to delete 30-50 useless mails jamming my inbox every day!

Windsurfing on Azure Blue waters with the Prince of Spain...

A switch back to English means the revival of an old annoying habit; the creation of post titles that make no sense whatsoever.

This is probably my most anticipated release of the year; The full length (if you can actually call an 8 track release "full length") debut His Majesty from Prince of Spain will be out next week (on October 1). Digitally only I assume, though information do continue to remain sparse?


Actually I'm really, really looking forward to the new Azure Blue album Beyond The Dreams There's Infinite Doubt as well. Actually I've received a download link from the label, so perhaps I should just go for it and give it a listen (since it's bound to be fantastic, what exactly is stopping me?)?


Shame on me for completely forgetting to tell that Danish duo Windsurfing (which I briefly mentioned in a post last year) has released their debut 7" through Spanish label Discos Garibaldi. Lead track Never Too Late is a gorgeous pop tune oozing of summer and should the voice sound vaguely familiar, it's probably because the singing is provided by Caspar Bock, who used to front old blog favorites Champagne Riot.

Never wanna know...

I don't get that many comments, but I dare ask the question nonetheless. What do you people think of this new track by Danish singer MØ? People over at Twitter seem to absolutely adore it, but after a number of listens, I still cannot make up my mind...but then again...Pilgrim took forever to grow on me, so perhaps Never Wanna Know will do the same...obviously I hope so! 

Oneliners...

Having a rather busy day ahead of me, so will keep this short.

Don't know if I should risk an eye, but my back is steadily improving and is feeling better by the day.

Quite as expected, the new Azure Blue single Sunset is a yummy and delicious piece of pop.


A new track by Prince of Spain has popped up at SoundCloud and Brothers is of course a thing of beauty.


Frank's words on the new Arcade Fire single Reflektor is the funniest stuff I've "read" in a long time.

Harmonics is an interesting new Danish band, which I do recommend you check out (even though they are singing in Danish).

Kill me...

I've previously called English Electric "surprise of the year" and brand new track Kill Me (included on the Night Café single as b-side/extra track) once again shows OMD returning to early 80's form. Almost more Dazzle Ships-ish than anything you'll find on that album. Somewhat morbid titled, but according to the band the song is about "sloughing off an old skin (killing the past or ones former self) and starting again". And having my recent struggles in mind, I can easily relate to this...

Catching up (sort of), whining, etc. etc. etc...

The important stuff first. Perhaps not important to you, but to me it sure is. And since this is my blog, I make the rules around here. My back is feeling better. Not fantastic. Not great. Not even good. Just better. But better is definitely a whole lot easier to cope with than the mother-f!"#¤%g pain, I experienced only a few days ago.

My unintentional break unfortunately paused my "clean out the mailbox" project, so I'm back at square one with plenty of stuff to delete go through. I don't count the numbers of mails I receive, but it sure exceeds the number of hits to the blog. Amazing thought really!

One band I've been monitoring real close for exactly a year now is UK quartet HUSH! and two weeks ago the band finally doubled the numbers of published tracks...from one to two! New track Cruel is not a world beater like the stunning debut track There's Something In The Stars Tonight, but still a wonderful melodic and catchy pop piece with a fair share of 80's sound added to the mix. The band is currently shooting a video for a forthcoming single (called Blush), so hopefully we won't have to go through another 12 months of wait, before we'll hear new songs!


Rather brilliant Danish singer-songwriter Stærosaurus has a new track out called Under Stranden (translates into "under the beach"), which, being mostly electronic, really doesn't sound that singer-songwriter-like at all. But the track is thoughtful, laid-back, dreamy and pretty, so somehow I do think that it does fit that category pretty well...after all...though who cares anyway? What matters is, whether or not the track is any good. And it most certainly is!


Anyone remember EPO-555? I hope you do! If not, you've either forgotten about or managed to completely miss out on arguably the most interesting Danish indie band of the mid-zeroes. The band split-up following the release of their second album Mafia (or was it later?) and since then the band members have been involved in various other projects (Helsinki Poetry, Oliver North Boy Choir, The Boombox Hearts und so weiter). But recently there has been increased activity on the band's Facebook page and answering the question (not asked by me though) "should one start hoping for news/new stuff", the band replied "don't expect too much, but a little news and some great news as well". Again; not stirring up rumors, just passing on observations...


Still a few things left to write and share, but real life is once again catching up with me, so I better start turning my attention to work. Rounding out today's post with the hilarious tennis themed video for the new Yuck single Middle Sea, which I've previously (in them old, but not so memorable "writing-in-Danish" days) described as simply excellent (and without any doubt, it remains absolutely glorious)...

A catching up post? Not quite...

Know I promised a catching up post, but guess it will have to wait at least until tomorrow. Was simply too tired yesterday to write, work, anything and today my schedule is simply impossible. Manning the phones at work this morning and later I'm off to Funen for a meeting. But busy or not, I thought I'd post the two tracks that by far are my favorite songs of the moment...and as always I hope you'll enjoy them as well!

No question that Prince of Spain is rapidly becoming one of my new favorite band. Away We Go is the band's third single and possibly their best effort so far; which humbly said is quite a feat, as the previous ones were, well, just brilliant. Perhaps not quite as folk popish as Rising Sun/Finding Love, but instead a slightly more straight forward pop song with one of those chorus that will stick in your head for hours and hours after just one listen. The purest of gems!
One thing has struck me though. I've read that the band is based in Nashville, but that's about all the information I can find. So starting to wonder if someone more "established" could be hiding behind the alias? No stirring up rumors; just wondering...


The timing is completely off when it comes to my second favorite track of the moment. Sports by The Eclectic Moniker is all summer, summer, summer, but it just gives me a boost of energy every time I listen to it...and boy do I need those boosts more than ever these days...

Stay positive...

It’s tough these days. Really, really tough. Just when I was finally starting to believe that I could see the light at the end of the tunnel and foolishly hoped that my back was close to healing, I suffered setbacks. At first it was just the minor one following the “opera marathon”, but then a little more than two weeks ago, things got pretty bad. What happened I cannot explain (because I really don’t know what went wrong), but for a few days I was barely able to walk and what little hope and energy I had left disappeared completely. I was drained, high on pain killers and cried my fair share of tears. Since then I’ve been consulting a specialist a number of times and things have luckily improved, so I am now able to walk (though not without some pain), go to work etc. I do my best to stay positive, but as impatient I may be, things seem to have slightly stalled. Frustrating as hell, as “state of normal”, where I can walk, run, sit down etc. without pain, feels like light-years away.



Pains and frustrations aside…look out for some kind of catching up post later today or tomorrow…