From the top of my head...

For the next two hours (10 a.m. CET - 12 a.m. CET) I'll be chit chatting with myself and post whatever interesting I stumble upon. If I stumble upon anything interesting that is!

Last week (May 12) Matinée Recordings promised to post previews from the forthcoming album by Northern Portrait and The Electric Pop Group within the next seven days. Not that I'm going to act like an impatient brat or anything, but guys; that was 10 days ago! Will you people please, please post something - NOW!

I have 764 unread mails in my mailbox. Even if this was a full time job, I'd never be able to read them all!

Anyone remember Max Vernon and his I Kissed a Girl cover? Whether or not you do remember, he is now giving away his new track Your Girlfriend for free.
+ Your Girlfriend

It’s been a while, since the last time I posted anything recommended by Rodolfo. But yesterday he sent a mail including the track Moving by Finnish band Delay Trees, which promptly made Peter response “very, very, VERY good”. So I simply had to give that track a listen and obviously Peter’s comment was spot on! Said track is not a free download, but luckily the equally excellent track About Brothers is. Both tracks are from the 7 track Self Construction EP, which was released last month (can be ordered directly from the band’s webpage).
+ About Brothers

Now here’s a real gem from the inbox. The infectious and energetic F.R.A.N.C.E. by London five piece them:youth. The band’s debut single Bows and Arrows will be out on Another Music = Another Kitchen Records on 25 May, so this is simply meant to be an appetizer. And such a brilliant starter it is that it has left me speculating how insanely fabulous the debut single has to be, since F.R.A.N.C.E. didn’t make the cut!
+ F.R.A.N.C.E.

Coffee break...

The official Ruined by Martin webpage has been revamped and it looks as if the band is currently firing on all cylinders and is working hard with recordings, trying to book live dates etc. 6 tracks have been uploaded and are free to grab for anyone interested. Among the tracks you'll find the band’s most recent recording Ex-believer.
+ Ex-believer

Thank you Jonas for reminding me that Among Relatives is a "must see" at Start! Festival.

I have a staggering 2,725 myspace "friends" and yet I have difficulties finding more than a handful of bulletin posts of even remote interest? A bit of cleaning up among those so-called friends is what I need to do!

I have yet to order the new Over and Over album by The Legends, but these two short and noisy (but still incredibly melodic) sample tracks certainly makes it very tempting.
+ Seconds Away
+ Always The Same

I just received an email promoting the Australian release of Crushing Digits (that’s the second album from VETO in case you don’t know). Don't know why, but I'm not all that sure that anyone checked my location before adding me to that mailing list? But what the heck! Hey you Australians! Buy the album. It’s good. Actually it’s better than that. It’s great!
+ You Are a Knife (from the There's A Beat In All Machines debut)

FIN!

Snotty nose...

I’ve received a little feed back on my previous blog post, and whether we call it live blogging or not; a few people seem to like reading those kinds of posts. And I quite enjoy writing them too, though they do require that you have a few undisturbed hours available.

This piece of Pitchfork news on the upcoming Mew album is probably old news by now. Sounds creative and innovative, but hopefully the boys saved some creativity for writing music as well? Should be interesting. Very interesting! But I'm also somewhat nervous that the album will be utter crap.

Wrote Saturday that I didn't know how to buy the Winding Stairs album Everything. I've since been informed that it should be available from record stores (if you live in Scandinavia) as well as digitally.
+ Shadow Stripes

Oliver North Boy Choir are no more, but the band's music lives on. So when watching the news Sunday evening, it was fun (and extremely cool) to hear a few seconds of Holy Wars being played during a documentary on cod farming in Norway!



Always worth mentioning a new release by fine label Shelflife, though I'll never be a fan of that CD/7" combo. Tactical POP! for Coffee Cadets by Socialist Leisure Party will be out tomorrow, and it will be a 300 copies only limited release.
+ Head in the Hay

Blogging...

Well someone corrected me a while back, so I’m not going to name this post ”live blogging”. Though in my small world “live blogging” is what I’m going to do for the next couple of hours. Once again the wife is out and the kids are (almost) sleeping. And once again there are lots of new stuff to listen to and things to write about. So between 9 pm CET and 11. pm CET I’ll be right here behind the screen and if you leave a comment, send a mail or twitter me, there might even be an outside chance (or perhaps even better than that) of getting a reply. As always when it comes to these kind of posts; quantity is far more important than quality, though I do promise that I will run the occasional spelling/grammar check to exclude the worst errors. Maybe I should stick to tradition and have a beer as well?

The past week I’ve been giving the forthcoming debut album Everything by Swedish duo Winding Stairs a number of listens. Especially the album opener Shadow Stripes has left quite an impression. I mean; when you wake up in the middle of the night and without really knowing it start humming the song, they must be doing something right? According to the band’s myspace the album was released yesterday, but not sure how you buy it.
+ Shadow Stripes

Time for a beer! Didn't take long getting thirsty! Once again it's a Dunkel Bock from our local brewery, and it has to be one of the best beers in the world! Obviously I'm biased, but I've spent a rather small fortune on imported beers the past ten years, so I know a great beer, when I see one. Oh - make that "taste one".

That The Lucksmiths are breaking up is old news already. But despite the splitting up thing, they’ll continue their ongoing tour, which will bring the band to Debaser in Malmø on June 27. Since Malmø is less than an hour and a half away by train from where I live, I really should go and bade them a last farewell. Shouldn’t I?
+ Up With The Sun

No way that I’m watching the Eurovision Song Contest tonight. The Danish entry was co-written by Ronan Keating. Nuff’ said!

Strange...Just checked the Debaser calendar, and it doesn't seem like there will be any concert there June 27. However both the band's myspace and webpage list the concert, so I guess we'll have to wait and see what will happen?

Still absorbing the news of The Lucksmiths breaking up the release of the second album Our Temperance Movement by Cats on Fire couldn’t have been timed much better! So far I’ve only listened to these two sampler tracks, but in a way it’s very tempting to start proclaiming “the king is dead; long live the king”.
+ Horoscope
+ Letters From a Voyage to Sweden

Currently uploading a few files, which gives me the chance getting this off my chest. Boxstr.com really, really pisses me off big time! The message “Boxstr.com is currently being updated and will be back online soon” has been up for the past 36 hours, which isn’t exactly the kind of service I expected to be paying for!

Hopefully you have already checked the Northern Portrait videos I posted earlier today! I’ve always suspected that this band would be an excellent live act, and today my assumption was verified by Indie MP3.

I’m really enjoying the new and very soon to be released Four Winds album by Lightning Seeds. But I just cannot understand why he (they) decided to release it as a Lightning Seeds album instead of a follow-up to the Ian Broudie solo album Tales Told. Four Winds is in every aspect far more related to Tales Told than anything ever released by Lightning Seeds. Suspect that it has something to do with the fact that selling an album under the Lightning Seeds alias is a whole lot easier than as Ian Broudie solo. But why didn’t they include Three Lions as a bonus track then? Four Winds is still a fine album no matter the name of the artist!

2nd album Modest Sensation by Sweden's Forest & Crispian will be out on Slow Shark Records on Monday (May 18). If you happen to be in Copenhagen the release party will take place at Jolene's on Wednesday (May 20), and if you show up at 6 pm there will be free beers. The band will hit the stage at 9 pm and I'd definitely be there if family obligations weren't holding me back. Opening track Benzair (assume it's named after this lady) sounds really, really promising!
+ Benazir

New fine track Collecteur Solaire by Swedish synthpop duo Ostrich is streaming at Myspace. No other news, so I assume that Press Hold will still be the first official release by the band!

Not quite 11 pm CET yet. But that'll be all for tonight!