In the pillory...

Friday I was joking (and being a little bit serious as well) about posting a list of “the worst songs from the mailbox”. But having given it serious considerations this weekend I’ve come to the conclusion that it just ain’t going to happen. After all, who am I to ridicule musicians or artists in general? You see! I have no talent for writing music, know absolutely nothing about recording it and cannot even play an instrument (failed miserably when trying to learn to play the piano 30 years ago). Instead shouldn’t my approach always be that even though I don’t like the music, I should at least look at their skills with some envy? Or let’s turn it around! Would I enjoy seeing one my blogposts (or the blog in its entirety) listed among “the worst stuff found on the internet”? It probably wouldn’t be quite unreasonable, but still? Though I promise that nothing will change in the sense that I will continue my whining (when given the opportunity) about all the bad stuff I receive. But I’m definitely not going to put anyone in the pillory!

So let’s move on to some music instead (some good stuff of course!)…

Irish indie rock 5-piece Elspeth has mailed a new track named Mob Journalism. More electronic less rock! Puzzled about Roy Keane being listed among the influences? He’s Irish I know, but…?
+ Mob Journalism

The debut album We Are… by London trio Cha-Cha is released today. I’ve previously praised first single The Fellowship for being a “seriously infectious pop song”, and though the rest of the album never quite reaches the same glorious heights, it’s still a highly enjoyable affair!
+ The Fellowship

Check my Last.fm profile and you’ll see that The Bailing by Inu is my “top track” of the past 6 months. So obviously I was pretty excited to find the band’s forthcoming debut album (to be released June 29) Not For Anyone in the mailbox this morning. Am tempted to cite myself and use parts of the above sentence; “though the rest of the album never quite reaches the same glorious heights, it’s still a highly enjoyable affair”.
+ The Bailing

Drought...

Drought might not be the best word to use today, as snow is, if not pouring then at least, falling in large enough quantities to make roads and pavements both slippery and slushy. However from a blogging point of view, it certainly is more than fair to use the term, as the flow of interesting news seems to have dried up completely. And this despite getting 50+ promo mails and reading lots and lots of tweets and Myspace updates every day, but apparently my favorite bands and labels have decided that 2009 is over and instead sit back and wait for 2010 to kick off? So today I’ve come to the only obvious conclusion (still it took me hours to come up with) that it's time to be proactive rather than reactive and give some of the new artists introduced to me everyday a listen and that way (hopefully) find a couple of new favorite ones?

Sometimes a little whining is all it takes and just moments after posting the above, I had one of those experiences, I wish would occur every day, as I was swept off my feet completely by this track (randomly picked from the inbox). The Bailing is a gorgeously beautiful (electro-indie-rock-somewhat-shoegazy) song, which immediately took me on a dreamy trip well above the clouds, where I’ve been floating around ever since! Back on earth Inu is a trio from the US west cost consisting of experienced and rather diverse musicians (check out their rather comprehensive CV’s), who have just recently finished recording a debut EP named Monster (“available for download at the price of your choice”). A debut album, videos, live shows etc. will follow in 2010.
+ The Bailing

More from the promo pile;

Every time this happens I cannot help thinking of it as a joke, because why is it that when an album is released in Denmark (by a Danish artist) it's virtually impossible getting a single promo track to post? But as soon as the album is about to be released abroad (in the US especially) the promo mails start arriving. The most recent example is the US release of the Oh No Ono album Eggs that will be out January 26 next year on Friendly Fire Recordings.
+ Helplessly Young

Swedish label Nomethod is giving away the new singles by Mixtapes & Cellmates and Aerial. Excellent stuff as always!!
+ Mixtapes & Cellmates - Soft Eyes
+ Aerial - Velvet Light Trap