Panda gigante...

So after all I’ve ended up coming to terms with not going to NYC Popfest. Next in line is accepting that I won’t be going to Indietracks either. Although the Indietracks line-up doesn’t make me drool the way it's done previous years, there will still be plenty of interesting artists performing; and probably a few gems to unearth as well. Among the unknown acts to me (prior to checking the line-up) is Papa Topo, which is described as “nothing less than a phenomenon”. Apparently I'm the only one who had never heard of them, as I was surprised to learn that they have built up quite a fanbase (6,244 fans at Facebook is a rather decent number). And the one track I’ve heard so far, Oso Panda, is actually a nice little pop song. Make that 6,245 fans!
+ Papa Topo - Oso Panda

I’ve never jumped the Bon Iver bandwagon, but new track Calgary is bloody marvelous!
+ Calgary

Another track on heavy rotation when sitting behind the screen wasting my time at work is the perfect new single Skyll på mig by De Montevert.
+ Skyll på mig

In a Facebook update yesterday Blue Foundation revealed that the band has just finished recording and mixing a new song with Jonas Bjerre of Mew. I'll be hard pressed to think of a more perfect match, as the voice of Jonas should fit superbly in the musical universe of Blue Foundation.
+ Stuck In A Hard Place (Reworked)
+ Eyes On Fire (Zeds Dead Remix)

Shorties...

Stream the new (and rather dull) track Do You Love It by Mew over at Soundvenue. Included on the band’s forthcoming compilation album Eggs Are Funny.

The debut album Living and Growing by The Felt Tips will be out on Plastilina Records on November 15.
+ Dear Morrissey

Your truly was mentioned on last week’s Tuesday Podcast. Yay!!

Sounds as if the Death Valley Sleepers debut album is coming along nicely.

under electric light has “blend my love for The Beach Boys and my Shoegaze influences” on new track Waiting For The Rain To Fall.


Entakt frontman Jonas Villumsen has mailed that he'd like to share a track from his ongoing Greenland inspired solo-project. Expect that one to pop up here any time soon.

Here's the new video by Tears Run Rings for their beautiful track Divided.

Blah blah blah...

Wife's out, kids are sleeping, but no beer tonight as it is Tuesday evening. Mailbox is jammed and there are plenty of blogs to check out. Hopefully something interesting will pop up?

Ivan has written a rather entertaining post on his trip to All Tomorrow's Parties. My short term memory is a joke, as I had completely forgotten our talk about favorite Mew songs. But I do believe we came to the conclusion that Mica is by far their best?

Indie MP3 reviews Criminal Art Lovers. "...we surely need another Smiths to send us blazing into the next decade..."!!

Don't know how many times I've written about that jammed mailbox of mine. But it's true and sometimes means that I forget something I should have posted a long time ago! This includes this Live Foel Session version of Victoria by the Andrew Boland fronted Carnations. Tracks from The Union EP can be streamed at Myspace, but information on a possible release is sparse.
+ Victoria (Live Foel Session)

NY duo The Ropes will release their 3-track Love is a Chain Store EP on December 15 using the well-known "pay what you want" model. This is great stuff. Don't know what else to say!
+ Love is a Chain Store

Mail promoting Kylie Minogue...delete...

Soundpool (sort of) mixes disco and shoegaze on their forthcoming 7" single But It's So.
+ But It's So

No more...whining and rambling...

If you check my Last.fm profile today, you’ll see nothing but Mew. No More Stories is, pretty much as I expected, not an immediate winner, but neither was And The Glass Handed Kites, so I feel confident that sufficient listens will turn this into another masterpiece.
+ Repeaterbeater

Anyone remember this post? Obviously I remember it very well, as it was probably written with more heart blood than any other post in the history of this blog. Indirectly brought back to my attention yesterday, when I was checking older mails and found a link for yet another remix of a Doves track, as it was the Still Going remix of Kingdom of Rust that caused me getting increased heart pressure back then. But a remix I found yesterday and even though that Sasha's Subsubdubdub remix of Jetstream is pretty awful and does nothing for the song except ruining it, I’ve decided to post it; simply for no other reason than to see if the eyes of IFPI are still watching my every move. Just for the record. The remix has been okayed for posting; what did you expect? I’m not THAT brave!
+ Jetstream (Sasha's Subsubdubdub remix)

Be a sport and follow Hits In The Car on NetworkedBlogs. A big "Thank You" to those already following!

More whining. Last year I unsuccessfully tried to get press accreditation for Start! Festival (called Vesterbro Festival back then), and didn’t even bothered applying for it this year. Then yesterday I received a mail from the bigger and certainly more interesting, but in Germany located Reeperbahn Festival, in which they encourage me (and everyone else receiving the mail) to send an accreditation request. Hopefully Start! will be inspired next year and “start” looking at bloggers as an attractive way to help promoting their festival.

And even more whining (will this ever end?). lastbandalive has just informed me that copies of their EP are no longer available. I’m devastated.

Shorties...

The eagerly awaited Mew album No More Stories is out today. I’m probably one of the very few, who has yet to listen to it, but I’ll snap up a copy, as soon as the working day is over. Reviewers seem to adore the album and the average rating of the 7 reviews compiled by Gaffa is 5.6 stars out of 6.

Indicater Records has a new (download only) compilation out. 19 indie pop/rock tracks for €8 seem more than reasonable to me; especially if the other 18 songs are of the same caliber as this promo track by Irish trio Sweet Jane.
+ Sweet Jane – Blackboots and Blackhearts

You’ve probably already streamed the new The Pains of Being Pure at Heart track over at Pitchfork? It can be heard at Myspace as well, if you (just like me) happen to be no fan of Pitchfork. I’m really not a fan of streaming either! But the song is mighty fine though.

Californian electro pop duo Electric Valentine offers their new single Beat Drop as free download. It’s taken from the duo’s debut album Automatic (out tomorrow August 18) and is a fairly catchy yet rather harmless pop tune.
+ Beat Drop

My inbox is one big mess and I’m once again reading, downloading, listening, deleting etc. And yet once again I’m equally amazed and frustrated how much junk is mailed to me.

Is today’s BandBase.dk track of the day irresistibly catchy or simply one of the cheesiest pop songs you’ve ever heard?
+ The Chop Chop Family - You Used To Be So Indie

Various (once again)...

Everything that needs to be said has probably been said by now. R.I.P. Michael!

Every fan of Mew (and a few non-fans as well I guess) has most likely downloaded the new track Repeaterbeater via Spinner by now. Not quite sure what to think and it’s definitely a little too short for my liking. Danish blog Regnsky captures the problem pretty well or at least have an interesting take on the new track me thinks (roughly translated from Danish); “having the best drummer in Denmark doesn’t automatically save all plain tunes”. Nonetheless I still expect the new album to be nothing short of fabulous.

Follow Kashmir at Twitter and get (fairly) regular updates on how the recordings of the new album are progressing. So far there has been no relevant news on first single, release date etc.

J.A. recommends this one by Sweden's Girl Alliance for your summer soundtrack. Lovely Swedish indie tune taken from the recently released 3" CD-R split single (with The Librarians) on Cloudberry Records. As always I highly recommend that you spend a little time poking around the Cloudberry webpage, as there are plenty of gorgeous freebies to download.
+ Frances and the Dancing Fairies

Danish music site BandBase.dk has sent a number of bloggers to this year's Roskilde Festival, thus securing us non-attendees a steady and quite entertaining news flow from the festival.

And while you're visiting BandBase.dk, why not stream the new single Sunshine by Ginger Ninja? Definitely belongs on any decent summer soundtrack.

Still rather disappointed that Jonas, despite all my well-meaning efforts, didn't include The Pains of Being Pure At Heart in his recommendation list (for the festival). He did however include Get Well Soon, though this doesn't quite compensate for his TPOBPAH blunder (tongue in cheek).
+ Get Well Soon - If This Hat Is Missing (I Have Gone Hunting)
+ The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Young Adult Friction

NME writes that Richard Hawley announces UK tour. I'm still dreaming of a Danish date, but I'm afraid it will remain just that; a dream!

Mushi and more...

I like my hometown. I really do. It’s beautiful and historical, and enough things are happening here to make it a great place to live. Unfortunately its inhabitants don’t seem to appreciate music all that much. Unless of course some useless cover band is playing or one of our nation’s many dinosaurs (you know – those artists, who have been around for the past three our four decades) are paying us a visit. Then people show up in bunches. But when fairly unknown artists, who are trying to make a living playing their self-written music, are coming to town, you can bet the venue will be close to empty (or the whole thing will be cancelled). No more whining about this cancellation, but as mentioned in a previous post, Mushi was playing at Annexet Saturday evening, which at least offered a nice alternative. Around midnight (when the past Saturday became Sunday) a friend and I headed for the bar, paid the entrance fee, just to learn that a total of 5 (five!) persons were there. Later I found out that three of those were friends of the band, so a smashing total of 2 locals had shown up! In all fairness, more people showed up later, but a no point was there more than 20 people at the bar (including the 4 band members and the people working in the bar). Despite the lack of audience and atmosphere, the band nonetheless and quite impressively delivered a fine performance, which (to me at least) proved that Rasmus (the man behind the alias) is an excellent songwriter.
+ Elise and the Guardian Angel

Start! Festival begins (simply refuse to use the word "starts") this afternoon. Tonight I'm planning to see Diefenbach, Among Relatives, Queens Garden and probably a few other names along the way as well. One funny (and very persistent) rumor is that the band The Descendants of King Canute (scheduled to play at 11 tonight) should actually be Nephew in disguise. Will be much wiser tonight!

No Blood In Bones is a brand new project (duo) featuring Green Concorde frontman Morten Espersen Dam. More pop, less rock and very interesting (and pretty darn good, too).
+ Safe Way Out

It really doesn't sound like anything from either Frengers or Glass Handed Kites. Still the new track Introducing Palace Players by Mew is bloody marvellous and expectations for No More Stories are sky high.

Danish 6-piece A Sunday Honeymoon jumped onto my radar yesterday and has pretty much stayed there every since. The band’s music is quite a mixed bag and if you check the influences the list includes the likes of Springsteen, The Strokes and Field Mice. And you could indeed say that the music sounds like a clone of all those three artists. The three track mini-EP Yuzo Citrus is free to download, which I strongly recommend you to do.
+ Feel It Now
+ Yuzo Citrus (EP)

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

"Live blogging"...

No, no. This is not a case of déjà vu though it probably feels like you’ve seen this before. But the scenario tonight is pretty much the same as it’s been a few times recently. The wife’s out, the kids are sleeping, there’s a beer in the fridge and lots of music (and some music related stuff) that needs to be checked out. Oh and some stuff that has very little to do with music as well. Since I quite enjoyed the last few times I did this “live” blogging thing, I didn’t take much to convince myself to do it again. The disclaimer is the usual; grammar and spelling are secondary or you could say; tonight it’s quantity over quality. The compulsory picture will be up in a few minutes, though I do refuse wearing a Viking helmet, as suggested by this fellow blogger.

Now that IS one red hoodie.

Why the f*ck isn't Boxstr.com working? Since I'm actually paying for their services, this sucks. Will have to use Fileden.com instead I suppose?

Come Monday Night by God Help The Girl, the new project of Stuart Murdoch of Belle & Sebastian, is already quite popular at Hypem. And since it's an indie pop tune of the purest and most lovely kind, it really is impossible (and in a way absolutely pointless) to pretend I'm surprised.
+ Come Monday Night

Are Mew teasing their fans (that includes me) or have they actually just revealed the title of their forthcoming album?

Quoting a promo mail from Nomethod Records; "Also we are giving away a brand new prev unreleased track from Robert Svensson called "I was summer, you were". A perfect song for dizzy summernights. Listen to it, blog it, twitter it, spread it! Enjoy!". Your wish is my...so here it is. Now hopefully IFPI won't mind me posting this (can you sense the sarcasm?)? It really is quite lovely btw.
+ I was summer, you were

Thirsty, thirsty. Time for that beer! Aaaaah - cheers!

Did anyone notice? I didn't swear (or used any other foul language for that matter) when I mentioned IFPI. I didn't. I really didn't!

@Liana who asked about Moto Boy songs the other day. 4 tracks are free to download from the Songs I Wish I Had Written (the band's label) website. Haven't listened to this stuff for quite some time, so thanks for reminding me!
+ What it was like to be with you

Fed up reading about bands that are going to play at Start! Festival? Then read no further or you'll probably be tempted to use those foul words I refrained from using a few minutes ago. Queens Garden sings in Danish, lists bands such as Mew and Kent among their top Myspace "friends" and do indeed write songs that are somewhat influenced by those. And that's definitely not a bad thing. Especially when the songs are this good!
+ Carolina
+ Et Glimt
+ Illusion

Twitter update. I currently have 154 followers, though I know for (an almost proven) fact that quite a few will stop following me, once they realize that I'm not returning the favor.

OK I agree that Susan Boyle must be the "feel good" story of the year. But why is it that the world has to go completely bananas when things like this happens? Suddenly she's the talk of the town, exactly the way Paul Potts was some years ago. Of course it's funny to watch the reaction of those three jerks (sorry judges or whatever they are called), but not THAT funny or interesting. And TV programs like that are still the worst!

Watch The William Blakes performing a really decent version of Secrets of the State live at Backstage.



That will be all for tonight. There's a good chance (risk if you like) that I'll be back right here behind the screen tomorrow night!

Shorties (Danish edition)...

Blog favorites Entakt are giving away the track Orkestret med det blotlagte skelet, which didn’t make the final cut for the album På Bagsiden Af Europa. Not because it’s bad, which it certainly isn't, but simply because it didn’t fit in. A quite Tom Waits inspired tune sounding nothing like anything we've previous heard from the band.
+ Orkestret med det blotlagte skelet

Youngsters Avisitor will soon be recording new songs. When I mentioned it, the band claimed that the clear The Smiths inspiration on a few of their previous songs wasn’t intentional, so it will be fairly interesting to hear in what direction these new songs will take the band.
+ I Am The Visitor

It’s now official that Ruined by Martin live debut will take place at Lades in Copenhagen on April 3.

And it seems to be equally official that the new album by Mew will be released in June.

The 2006 debut album Stockholm Syndrome by acoustic/folk duo Murder was a thing of beauty and the band has now begun the recordings of the eagerly awaited follow-up.
+ Daughters of Heavy

The album Are You In The Mood For Love? by singer-songwriter Jacob Faurholt was released yesterday. Haven’t listened to the whole thing, but the two promo tracks are beautiful and reviews are in general quite positive (1, 2, 3, 4).
+ Love is sick (when no one laughs at all)
+ Our old neighbourhood

Updated...

I’ve spent several hours today re-installing and updating my computer at work. Strict orders from those in charge of business, to pave the way for the installation of some pointless (which "they" insist is crucial) document management/handling/scanning/whatever/who bloody cares anyway? program. And who am I to object? Though I didn’t waste this glorious opportunity and did of course deliver a really fine performance of my usual crybaby whining stunt (regular readers should know what I'm talking about), but to absolutely no prevail. So updated my computer is now, meaning that nothing looks like it used to. Hate it!

Germans Stereo Inn has mailed me the opening track Rockshow of the band’s 2008 EP Welcome To The Stereo Inn. I’ll stick to my original impression that they somehow messed up things in Geographic classes, as a band sounding indie pop charming like this has to come from Sweden. Yummy! The band’s self-titled 2006 EP, which needless to say is absolutely gorgeous, is yours to grab from free from Last.fm.
+ Rockshow

Judging from recent blog posts everything seems to be fine in the land of Mew. Though for my taste we’ve had a few too many of those “we’re almost there” messages. Comments definitely indicate that I’m not the only one impatiently waiting for detailed news (e.g. release date) and who would like to listen to even the shortest preview clip from the album. Kind of like postponing Christmas and telling the children that Christmas WILL come. Though we cannot tell exactly when! As a somewhat smaller consolation the band has published the first (of many I hope) concert date for this summer.

Shorties (longer version)...

As it was played on the radio this morning, I wanted to post the video for Zookeeper’s Boy by Mew, but all I got was the “embedding disabled by request” message! I’m tempted to post multiple question marks here, because what exactly is the motivation behind this decision? I’m truly sorry that I wanted to promote one of your songs. Sorry, sorry, sorry and I promise that I’ll never do it again! My big problem is that I absolutely adore Mew, so hopefully it’s just some label jerk showing his complete lack of judgment.

The lovely Someone You Replaced by Kind of girl was played on the radio as well. The debut album Lonely in a modern way will (finally) be digitally released August 11. What a long, long journey this has been.

Also on the radio this morning was the annoying Don’t Get Me Wrong by The Pretenders (video) and I seriously believe it must be one of the worst songs ever written.

Swedish male/female duo New Found Land has just finished recording their first release (?) and the track Leave It All Behind once again leaves me in complete awe how the stream of charming and catchy pop tunes by Swedish bands never seems to dry out.

Hits In The Car favorites Ether Aura are giving away an unreleased version of the album track Our Favorite Song. These guys deserve a major breakthrough, so they can go on a world tour, as I believe this will be my only chance to ever see them in concert.
+ Our Favorite Song

Another favorite act The Papertiger Sound will soon be releasing/publishing a new EP. It's to be called This Is How It Ends and hopefully there's no deeper meaning to the title? Every single track recorded by this amazing band is available as a free download.

I love small indie labels like Shelflife, matinée etc., but at the same time I do find it a bit frustrating when the “coming soon” signs are up for months. When will Shelflife release that Paris and I EP by Champagne Riot and it probably comes as no surprise to anyone that I cannot sleep at night, because I’m impatiently awaiting the Napoleon Sweetheart EP by Northern Portrait (hopefully out on matinée very, very soon)?
+ Champagne Riot – Heroes Of Our Time

Midweek shorties...

The Band of Horses concert last night was just brilliant (though at least this reviewer begs to differ) and I can only recommend that you check them out the next time they visit a venue near you. Someday soon I hope! Oh – and having a couple of beers and pizza with three of the Frekvens boys was pretty cool as well.
+ The Great Salt Lake

The new single Someone you replaced by Kind of girl is now streaming at Myspace. And a mighty lovely one it is! Hopes are that the debut album will be out in August...

According to the band's Myspace blog, Rich Costey, who produced Frengers, will also produce the next/new/forthcoming Mew album. So it's time for all of you who didn't like And The Glass Handed Kites, to start hoping that this means a return to the "old sound". Recordings are scheduled to take place somewhere in NY in May...

Excellent Italian trio A Classic Education informs us in a Myspace bulletin, that new songs have been mixed and should be up in a few days (hopefully). Will the new ones be as good as these?
+ Victories At Night
+ Stay, Son

In another Myspace bulletin The Monday Photo does a little advertising for a live concert tomorrow. Guys – when will you announce the release of an album? We are quite a few impatiently awaiting exactly that piece of information! As much as I’d love to see you live, Miami Beach is simply too far away – especially on a Thursday night!

A few more Loop a Loop remixes are now available.

Another episode of Desperate Housewives (yikes) will be aired on Danish TV tonight, which hopefully gives me 50 minutes of quality time without untimely interruptions, where I can check out some new music.

Mew surfing in Canada????

Today is your last chance to enter the Charlie Don't Surf contest. I've only received a few entries so far, so the chances of winning should be pretty decent.

Someone left a comment asking if I know where A Triumph For Man by Mew can be purchased online. If you live in Scandinavia or EU you can buy it here. Cannot find it on Amazon, so I don't know if it's possible to buy it if you live in the States?
+ Saliva (From Half The World Is Watching Me)

In the mailbox this morning, I found a mail recommending US indie pop band Canada (!). Canada is/are a 7 piece from Michigan, who released their full length debut album This Cursed House in June this year. The band sure deserves to be recommended to as many people as possible. Not just because the music is very good (should appeal to anyone who enjoy the music of Sufjan, The Arcade Fire, My Latest Novel etc.), but also because the band has made 3 songs from the album available as free downloads. I still think that every band should do this, because it definitely is the very best way for any band/artist to promote their music!
+ Record Function
+ Beige Stationwagon
+ Hexenhaus

Not sure what to think of this cover version of Cemetery Gates by The Very Most. Nice acoustic feel, but I guess it's difficult to cover any song by The Smiths?
+ Cemetery Gates

Monday, Monday, Monday...

Remember to enter the Charlie Don't Surf contest and you might win "the best cd you’ll ever get!" (quote)
+ Right/Wrong

Kind Of Girl is announcing a few concert dates in October/November. Don't miss the opportunity to see them live!!
+ Watch In Wonder

Torr is surprised to learn that Kent released The Hjärta & Smärta EP in October last year. Since it won't be released in the US, he offers all 5 tracks of the EP as free downloads.

Peter is back from his trip to Denmark. Read his report right here, if you understand German.

In the mailbox this morning I found these two nice ones from NY powerpop band Bridges and Powerlines. Seems like every second new band these days are listing Interpol among their influences. Nothing wrong with that though!
+ Carmen
+ Mumbles

Mew's debut album A Triumph For Man is re-released today. To "celebrate" that I've re-posted two tracks from Half The World Is Watching Me, which hopefully will be re-released soon?
+ King Christian
+ Mica

Mew - A Triumph For Man

Before you spend your weekly allowance at Ebay in an attempt to acquire Mew's 1997 debut A Triumph For Man, I have (good?) news for you. The band has decided to re-release the album on September 18 including a bonus CD with demos and acoustic tracks. If you understand Danish you can read more and see the track list here or here.
+ She Came Home For Christmas

Before going to sleep last night I couldn't help thinking that I should hurry up and sell my copy of Half The World Is Watching Me, before the boys decide to re-release that one as well!!