Spanish indie...

On the threshold of the weekend, the ever reliable J.A. sends an email recommending a bunch of new songs from two excellent Spanish indie pop bands. Both bands are singing in Spanish (don't be scared - ok!), but whereas Band a Part has taken the Belle & Sebastian/Camera Obscura approach writing short and sweet songs featuring brass, flute, vibraphone etc., Sundae from Sevilla has decided to walk down the path where various electronic elements are added to the genre (without abandoning it at all). But as always, I find it a lot more important (and so should you really) that the bands write stunningly beautiful songs that simply cannot be recommended enough.
Sundae:
+ Mil Canciones
+ Hacia Atras
+ El Cine
Band a Part:
+ Menorca
+ Souvenir de l'Avenir
+ Sputnik Mon Amour

Shorties...

A new track by One Weekly Gun is up.
+ There's a Glow

The new Karin Ström track Silent Night is everywhere. Here, here, here, here, here and here.
+ Silent Night

The Storm drops to no. 3 in the Danish album chart, but continues doing surprisingly well (who really cares about great reviews?)



Fine Danish blog emodreng & indiepige is back posting after taking most of February off.

Pop Tarts Suck Toasted has been added to the blogroll.

Forgot to mention yesterday that a brand new track by Northern Portrait is streaming at the band's Myspace profile. It's called The Operation Worked But The Patient Died and in their own words it's their most dramatic to date. Needless to say it's utterly brilliant.

Northern Portrait - EP release...

I was almost tempted to use the term "breaking news" in the headline, as it's finally possible to preorder one of the most anticipated EP's of the year. According to the Matinée Recordingss webpage, the debut EP The Fallen Aristocracy by Danish indie pop sensation Northern Portrait will be out in March, so hopefully YOUR order (!) will be ready for shipment very soon. And while you're ordering - why not pick up the new Sunrise EP by The Electric Pop Group as well? Stream songs from both EP's at the Matinée Recordings Myspace profile.
+ Crazy

Swedish shorties..

A few songs from the inbox.

Minneapolis-based quartet Love In October isn't really Swedish, but two of the band members are Swedish natives, so I believe it's OK to consider the band being at least half-Swedish. The album Pontus, The Devil and Me, was out last month and judging from the two promo tracks below, it could very well be an indie/alternative rock album worth checking out.
+ Circa 1969
+ I Dream Of Marie Antoinette

Jimahl's nearly 8 minutes long remix of Jesus, walk with me by Club 8 is simply superb. Close your eyes, chill-out and make the world stop. 8 minutes later I bet you'll be rejuvenated.
+ Jesus, walk with me (Remix by Jimahl)

The fine Moto Boy single Young Love (released on Songs I wish I has written) has been remixed by Chris Price, whose album Post Pop Parade I embarrassingly forgot to write about last year, despite all my promises and good intentions. As a small consolation I've re-posted the haunting and somewhat New Order inspired And She Was.
+ Young Love (Chris Price remix)
+ Young love
+ And She Was

Kent in Copenhagen...

Peter wrote a comment the other day that he was looking forward to reading my report on the Kent concert. As always I refrain from doing a review as other people are much better at doing this. So as usual I’ll stick to posting a few of my thoughts instead.

The concert was a lot better than the one in December thanks to a vastly improved setlist and the band no longer sticking to the “new” 80’s inspired sound from Tillbaka Till Samtiden.

The band’s “playfulness” somewhat surprised me. Hearing Dom Andra and Om Du Var Här in (what you could be tempted to call) disco arrangements was actually quite refreshing. And so was hearing “rock” versions of some of the new tracks like Berlin and Ingenting. And the thundering performance of Romeo Återvänder Ensam was just marvelous.

Following a rather weak start the sound improved throughout the set and was near to perfect towards the end. KB Hallen has a reputation of being a so-so venue, but I found no reason to complain about the sound Saturday evening. And as one of my companions pointed out afterwards; Joakim Berg had a great night and his singing was just excellent.

As always I can think of at least another 10 tracks I wish they had played. Not necessarily instead of the other songs, but had the concert been one hour longer (with the setlist of my dreams), it would have been an almost perfect evening!

Finally I strongly recommend that you ready Peter’s fine review of the concert – if you understand German that is!

Finally, finally - a video - not a live one, but a good one!

The William Blakes - now on video...

See if you can spot a few of the quite impressive number of well known Danish artists appearing in the video (or you could decide to be a lazy bastard and get all the answers by reading this post). This is the video for the rather brilliant Secrets of the State, which is the first single lifted from Wayne Coyne; the debut album by The William Blakes. The album will be out on April 7 and I'm already queuing. In the past weeks the band has gone from being a quintet, to a trio, to now a quartet, and since I've always dreamt of being a rock star, I could perhaps sneak in and bring the band back to quintet status without anyone noticing? Hand clapping will probably be my preferred instrument!

Kent...

Tonight I'm (once again) going to see Kent live...

"Du är min hjälte för du vågar vara rak
Du är min hjälte för du är precis så svag som jag
och hjälp mig jag behöver dig igen igen igen"

Windy Friday...

My first thought was to call this post Stormy Friday (the weather report explains why), but apparently this also happens to be the name of some adult actress/dancer/performer/whatever, so I thought changing the title was the better solution, as I really don’t want this blog to be associated with that kind of stuff. It could be tempting though, as I believe those pages have multiple times more visitors than a humble music blog like mine.

Ruined by Martin has finally released a new track and once again it’s a dark, melodic and (most importantly) absolutely brilliant electronic pop tune. The boys are currently rehearsing and will hopefully announce some live dates very soon. New material has been written, but with their usual speed of work in mind, we probably won’t hear anything new until late 2009 (OK - I'm just kidding guys).
+ Defy the Odds

This week's song by One Weekly Gun.
+ Through Me

Does such a word as "neonlagkage" exist? According to Google it doesn't, but I just read it right here. And what a fantastic word it is!

The Storm "storms" into the Danish album chart at no. 2. After listening to the album a few times, it really isn't as bad as some reviewers would want us to believe. Far more interesting is the news that the Yoav debut album Charmed And Strange debuts at no. 33!
+ Club Thing (Ghislain Poirier Remix)

Tower of Foil sent out the great news yesterday that they are currently recording new songs. Download the entire back catalogue (well almost) right here.
+ Faster Than Your Eye

Angmoh - a new and really fine Danish music blog written in English - has been added to the blogroll.

Download the OF ALL THE THINGS WE'VE MADE - A Cyberspace Tribute To OMD right here. Thanks to J.A. for the info!!

Peter has already posted this, but I too should inform you that the lovely indietronica, shoegaze act The Papertiger Sound has a new brilliant EP out called Lost Tapes EP. And of course it's free to download, but you can make a small donation if you like.
+ cold fingers, smiling

Champagne and pop music...

From a Dane currently residing in London comes these two pop jewels published under the name Champagne Riot. The man behind the project calling himself C. (for now I’ll have to stick to this description, as I don’t know his real name - yet!) contacted me last week and kindly asked me to give his songs a listen. So I did and as I’m a sucker for pure and catchy pop music, his songs immediately appealed to me. Currently he’s talking to a few labels and I wouldn’t be too surprised if Champagne Riot is signed to one of them very soon, as there will always be a market for charming and attractive music like this. But for now we’ll have to be content with these demo versions of his songs that he after a few convincing words (I hope) made available as free downloads.
+ Scandinavian Warfare
+ Heroes Of Our Time

Guess who...

In an interview in the recent edition of Soundvenue it's finally revealed who's hiding behind the aliases Eins, Zwei and (perhaps using "und" would be more correct from a grammatical point of view?) Fünf in the Danish band The William Blakes. Sorry no, but I'm not going to tell you who they are and instead I suggest you buy the magazine yourself! The eagerly awaited debut album Wayne Coyne will be out soon on new label Speed Of Sound.
+ Violent God