Blue choir...

The Brythoniad Male Voice Choir has recorded this cover of Blue Monday as a tribute to New Order and to help promoting Welsh festival Festival No. 6. Stunning cover ...just stunning! And the festival sight seems to be equally stunning!

On the iPod this morning...

I listened to Low-Life; one of my all-time favorite albums. In Roskilde (again) today, so no more updates...

CONTEST – win Ceremony...A New Order tribute...

Ceremony - A New Order Tribute to benefit the Salford Foundation Trust's Tony Wilson Awards was released last month on February 20 (on what would have been Mr. Wilson’s 60th birthday) as a digital download and today the double CD version containing 32 tracks is available. The double CD costs the affordable amount of $19.95, is packed with interesting cover versions of New Order classics and proceeds will benefit talented young people, so I definitely think you should head straight to the New Order tribute page and pick up your copy. If winning the CD sounds more appealing and 24 Hour Service Station has been so kind to ship me a copy of the CD to give away. Interested? Then mail me, write Ceremony in the subject line plus your name and address in the mail body. And do this no later than Tuesday, March 16. To prevent accusations of cheating I promise that I’ll blindfold myself before picking the winner!
+ Kites With Light – Dream Attack

Remix me...

Danish legends Laid Back has remixed the Lars and The Hands of Light track Me Me Me. The remix features vocals from John Guldberg and has that classic Laid Back feel to it. Even I, who’s a notorious non-fan of remixes, cannot ignore how utterly cool this one is.
+ Me Me Me (Laid Back remix)

No Blood in Bones and Fontän will be playing at Studenterhuset in Copenhagen Friday evening. The No Blood in Bones set will only consist of 5 songs, but since Fontän sounds pretty cool as well (today is the first time I’ve ever listened to them), I’m seriously considering going!
+ No Blood In Bones – Headphones
+ Fontän – Early Morning

RCRD LBL shares a The Juan MacLean remix of the Spleen United track Suburbia. Great seeing the band getting some well deserved exposure on a prominent website, though, I cannot honestly say that I like the remix!

Since this has more or less turned into a remix themed post, this remix of the Animal Collective track My Girls is surprisingly listenable. 2 fine remixes in the same post has to be a personal best!
+ My Girls (Mike Monday Unofficial Remix)

Indie label 24 Hour Service Station will release a 32 track double CD named Ceremony - a New Order tribute - on February 20. The release is dedicated to the late Tony Wilson and contains 31 cover versions of various New Order tracks (by various artists) as well as “a sonically enhanced spoken word dedication to Tony Wilson to introduce the record” by Peter Hook.

Yeah...

I’ve never been the sharpest tool in the shed or the fastest one out of the blocks. I’m certain that several older posts will reveal that I’ve “discovered” things long after it was discovered by just about everyone else. The most recent example is Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which I’ve passed over again and again, primarily because of the massive hype surrounding Karen O and her two compatriots. But the past weekend the band played at Roskilde Festival, and since numerous people (including various radio hosts) were literally going crazy while looking forward to the concert, I thought “what the heck”; let’s check it out. So I grabbed It’s Blitz from the pile of CD’s (you know; I did actually buy it a long time ago, but just never really listened to it) back home, and through the first 3 listens so far today it’s been a surprisingly positive and refreshing experience. Actually it’s been such an uplifting experience that I decided to order the band’s to other albums as well. And just to keep my credit card busy, I ordered the Florence And The Machine debut album too, in a weak attempt to (hopefully) keep myself somewhat up-to-date, by giving this over(?)-hyped name a listen, before it becomes old news.

Speaking of Roskilde. The reviews of The Pains of Being Pure At Heart concert at the Festival weren’t positive at all, giving the band 2 respectively 3 stars out 6. I hope they fix whatever was wrong, before the concert at Vega on 2 August.

It does seem like Jonas didn’t go see TPOBPAH after all, despite all my recommendations. Apparently the Elbow concert blew him away completely and drained him for whatever little energy he had left. But “luckily” it seems like he didn’t miss out on something fantastic anyway!

A New Order tribute album called Ceremony, where proceedings from the sales will benefit the Salford Foundation Trust’s Tony Wilson Award, will be out some time this fall on independent label 24 Hour Service Station. The album will include 2 discs with cover versions of several New Order classics plus a third disc dedicated to various cover versions of the band’s first single Ceremony. Two sample tracks are now free to download, and one can only dream that the rest will be equally great! And to keep the Roskilde string alive; I saw none other than New Order performing live at Roskilde in 1984(!).
+ POCKET feat. Shaun Robinson & Tracy Shedd - Sub-Culture
+ Kites With Lights - Dream Attack

Du-du-du-du-du-du-du-du

The new single from Swedish band Irene called Little Things (That Tear Us Apart) is available from the Labrador webpage. Described as "Bob Dylan on a Surpremes diet"! 2 minutes long (or short) and very catchy!!
+ Little Things (That Tear Us Apart)

Last weekend Danish band The New Brand finished second in the Emergenza Music Festival (ending a measly 2 points behind the winner), but their song Highly Addictive was voted best original song.
+ Highly Addictive

Peter over at Schallgrenzen is pretty high on Irish band alternative rock band Suddyn. If you listen to Drowning Souls by the band, who in their own words sound like a blend of Muse, Radiohead and Foo Fighters, it's not that difficult to understand why!
+ Drowning Souls

Said the Gramophone has a fantastic post on Temptation by New Order. That song is at least a thousand years old, but still one of the very best!

I've just added a link in the right column to Hello! Surprise! a guide to Swedish pop music.