Kort fortalt...

Den gode Jonas Villumsen fortsætter sin stilfærdige march mod toppen af barometerlisten. Han ligger nu nr. 3, så hvad dælen nøler i efter...stem, stem, stem da for pokker!


Det nye Helsinki Poetry album Transport er fedt. SUPER fedt. Gider ikke forklare hvorfor...så'n er det bare...nemlig! Tjek i øvrigt lige "køkken" udgaven af Saigon...


Far er ikke længere sur. Nu nøjes han bare med at være irriteret...og synes fortsat at de ansvarlige er nogle skvadderhoveder. De gør sig vel ikke de største forhåbninger om at fange "the real bad guys" på den måde?

Den trofaste bidragsyder J.A. er superbegejstret for det danske enmandsprojekt Flag White. Der arbejdes på nyt materiale og projektets nye SoundCloud side byder på adskillige interessante smagsprøver. Tænker uundgåeligt på OMD (omkring A&M + Dazzle Ships tiden) når jeg lytter til den smukt drømmende Uden Intet & Væren.


Hvad siger du til at opleve The Holiday Crowd og Northern Portrait live på samme aften? Desværre skal man lige et smut forbi Milano for at få den fornøjelse. Men det er vel ok (og helt naturligt), at være bare en lille smule misundelig?
+ The Holiday Crowd - Never Speak Of It Again
+ Northern Portrait - Crazy

Vil nok have overvejet at stikke ham keglen ved siden af en femmer for at holde sin kæft (medmindre det er keglen selv, som filmer), imens Acid House Kings spillede deres udgave af There Is A Light...nu må vi jo så nøjes med at forestille os, hvor fabelagtig det kunne have været!

Sick days...

Ny video fra The Holiday Crowd for singlen Sick Days, der udkom på Shelflife Records + New Romantic i november sidste år. Kan jo ikke just prale af at være den skarpeste, så tvivler kraftigt på, at jeg fanger (og forstår) alle metaforer og symboler i den øvrigt ganske smukke video...og sangen er  fortsat helt fænomenal!

Mere løst end fast...

Manner, manner! Er seriøst ved at være et gammelt røvhul! Mit teenage idol Howard Jones har via sin facebook side annonceret, at han skal spille på Esbjerg Rock Festival til sommer. En festival (hvis hjemmeside tilsyneladende ligger i ruiner), som efter min bedste og lettere arrogante overbevisning, til dato kun har været for kunstnere med dårlig økonomi og besøgende uden andet i livet end fjerne minder fra ”der var engang”. At jeg nu selv overvejer at besøge festivalen, kan vel kun betyde at jeg enten skal revurdere min holdning til festivalen eller med gru acceptere, at jeg selv lever i fortidens skygge?

Crunchy Frog bliver ved med at prikke til mig for at få mig til at skrive noget pænt om Crunchy Christmas i Pumpehuset d. 8. december. Sådan kan jeg vel næsten kun opfatte det, når jeg nu har modtaget en tredje mail om arrangementet? Da familien får et for længst annonceret besøg fra det kolde nord, har jeg desværre ikke mulighed for at møde op den dag, hvorfor jeg har været lidt tøvende med hensyn til omtale. Men line-uppet for hele dagen (fra matiné til dj’s) ser jo brillant ud, så hermed min varmeste anbefaling.

Den britiske sanglærke med det poetiske navn Polly Scattergood har lagt dette (aldeles glimrende) nye nummer op til streaming på SoundCloud, som en ”appetizer” for hendes andet album, der skulle være på gaden engang i starten af det nye år.


Den helt igennem fænomenale single Sick Days fra de ligeså helt igennem fænomenale The Holiday Crowd (hvor føles det stadig pisse åndssvagt, at jeg missede koncerten på Stengade i September) kan nu bestilles via Shelflife eller New Romantic. En single der bør give enhver elsker af 80’er inspireret britisk guitarpop (altså endnu en tur ned af den nostalgiske memory lane) våde øjne…

Det supertalentfulde Birmingham band Victories at Sea irriterer mig noget så grænseløst. Der kommer konstant mails og opdateringer fra bandet om nye koncerter, men (stort set) ingen nyheder om nye sange. Så på en eller anden måde da rigtig gerne, at det var omvendt...

Ramblings...

Just a few ramblings...

Sunday I ran a marathon (my 5th overall), setting a personal best of 3:30:17. Has (for fun) been thinking about starting a running blog instead of a music blog, but it won't happen...after all; having one shitty blog on my resume is already on too many!

Has pretty much lost interest in Spleen United, but learning that they've teamed up with Sharin Foo (of The Raveonettes) to record a new version of their track Euphoria from recent album School of Euphoria obviously made me curious. The end result is (luckily) a definite improvement compared to the album version.


Found via Börneblogger...here's the new track Memories by Sambassadeur from the limited edition and double A-sided single Memories/Hearts Away which will be out on Labrador next month. Something doesn't change and doesn't  have to. Sambassadeur sounding like Sambassadeur is certainly one of those things!


The Holiday Crowd will soon release (US only?) a new 7" single on Shelflife and preordering has started. Awaiting permission to post lead track Sick Days for streaming, which I assure will give every fan of 80's inspired guitar pop goose bumps!

Depeche Mode has just announced another album and another world tour. No one will give a toss about their new album (of course some will claim that it's their best work since Violator, but since they are always doing that, we all know it's not true), but the tour will sell out in an instant. It remains beyond me why people are prepared to pay small fortunes to hear Dave Gahan shout "reach out and touch faith" for what probably is the 117th in their lives! Oh well...

London Work Calling...

This and that...

Still busy...and lazy...

This sucks in a major sucking way. The utterly brilliant The Holiday Crowd will be at Stengade on September 7 and since months I have other and completely non-cancellable plans for that evening. If ever, now is the time to us the f-word!
+ Never Speak Of It Again

Check the line-up for this year's Indie Pop Days Berlin and let your heart be filled with envy...unless of course you're one of the lucky bastards who are going!
+ Azure Blue - Little Confusions

In a promo mail Victories At Sea promises that "there will be something new for your eyes and ears very soon". Future Gold was (and remain) one heck of a track, but can't live on that track forever, so new material is eagerly awaited!


On his Facebook page, Northern Portrait frontman Stefan confirms that the rumours about a new EP are in fact more than just rumours. Another rumour, started by Stefan himself, suggests that it will be released in September, though of course it doesn't say what year...!
+ Crazy

Painted like a forest...

Mentioned the new EP by The Holiday Crowd earlier today. Just found this (unreleased?) remix of standout track Painted Like A Forest over at SoundCloud that I “simply have” to post. And while you're at it, why not check out the video for Pennies Found as well; yet another brilliant track of the EP (actually they are all brilliant!).

The Holiday Crowd - Painted Like a Forest Brad Ketchen remix by Brad Ketchen

Mails and such...

Think I’ve been quite disciplined recently and done my best deleting mails from the inbox. Still the number has now reached and rapidly surpassed 10,000! Ten-thousand (or 10,103 to be exact)! Suck on that for a moment. If I spent one minute on each, it would take me a little more than 168 hours or exactly a week checking them all. So if you’re still awaiting a reply; forget about it and move on…

As always one of the big challenges, when your mailbox is cluttered like this, is to spot the important ones from the “spam”. Experience does help though, as there are some “safe bets”. Like for instance news from Shelflife Records that (almost) always equals good news. And in this case it certainly is, as the label has just released (co-released with New Romantic) the Over the Bluffs EP by The Holiday Crowd containing 7 ace guitar pop songs.
+ Never Speak Of It Again

Not all too happy to write this, but I do think that the new single by The Mary Onettes is a slight disappointment. But as it says in the promo mail: “Gone are the echoing reverbs, the 80's guitars and the big, splashing drums...”. That might explain some, though hopefully I just need to listen to it some more?
+ Love's Taking Strange Ways

Should have but haven’t mentioned that Jonathan Johansson will be playing at Koncertkirken in Copenhagen on February 10. Have (of course) bought a ticket, but have yet to find out if I’ll actually be able to go, as both kids are going to parties that evening…
Jonathan Johansson - Blommorna by HYBRIS

The annual Matinée fanclub poll is always a good reader. Even though it’s a Christmas song, Leave The Trees Alone by Northern Portrait won the category “song of the year”. Of course it did!
Leave the Trees Alone by Northern Portrait

On February 2 Fraction Discs will release the sophomore album from Liechtenstein. Promo package has been downloaded and looking forward to giving the album a listen!
+ Ambitions