Promo mails – a few guidelines...

UPDATED: Sick and tired of receiving mails in bunches promoting useless crap, so time to bump the post to the top as well as adding a few things. Updates in italics.

I love listening to new music, but before you send me a mail suggesting that I should listen to your (undoubtedly) wonderful tunes, here are a few lines I think you ought to read first. Otherwise you’ll probably end up wasting both our time.

1. This is an MP3 blog. MP3 in bold. So unless at least one MP3 is available for me to post and distribute as I please, I’m not going to write about (or even listen to) your stuff. Links for streaming, videos and pretty pictures simply won't do! Obvious exemptions are favorite bands whom I’ve featured in the blog numerous times before. Well things have changed a bit. A Soundcloud or bandcamp link will do fine. But please do not send a link for your entire album, because I do not have time to listen to it. Rather you should simply pick your stand-out track and mail that one to me with a short(!) introduction. If I like it, I'll definitely get back to you asking for more.

2. Personalize your mail and by that I don’t mean that stupid “I love your blog” comment. Any message including sentences like “I can see that you’ve previously written about xx or yy band” or “I fully agree/disagree with your thoughts on this/that/whatever” will always stand a fair chance of being read thoroughly. So read the goddamn blog, before mailing anything!

3. Don’t send any reminders. I receive 50-70 (the number just keeps growing) promo mails every single day as well as lots of brilliant recommendations from my 4 "compadres", Chris, Peter, J.A. and Rodolfo. I have a fulltime job plus a family, so listening to everything is simply not possible. Unless such a pill exists that will eliminate the need for sleep (I've been told that it does in fact exist, but I doubt it's a healthy option?)

4. If you check you'll see that I've never featured any metal, hip-hop, rap, soul, blues etc. acts, so once again I suggest you check the contents of the blog before mailing. And I'm really no fan of remixes and cover versions either, though I do feature a few every now and then. But only when it's real good and 99% of what I receive isn't.

5. I've always thought it was far more important to be unique rather than important/influential (or a copycat, which I think is the case for most blogs trying to become popular - write about the same stuff the big blogs write about), so if your songs has already been on Stereogum, Pitchfork etc., the chances of me posting it is probably less than 5% (it does happen from time to time).

Fairly simple guidelines, don’t you think? So please read, understand and stick to them. And remember. Pupils paying attention in class are always the ones getting the good grades!

So once again I'll be looking forward to NOT having to delete 30-50 useless mails jamming my inbox every day!

Election Day...

Today is Election Day in Denmark and as I wrote almost 4 years ago, I urge everyone to please go cast their vote. As always I don’t give a rat’s ass for who you decide to vote for; as long as you show our democracy the respect and turn up at the polling station to vote. Just never forget that everyday people are dying around the world trying to get the freedom and democracy that we take for granted.

And a video from the days before I was actually old enough to vote...

Recovering...

I’m still in the midst of the process of recovering from Sunday’s marathon challenge. The muscles remain a bit sore, but are feeling better by the day. A cold is threatening to come, but that’s probably a quite natural reaction? However one thing that is not getting any better is my left knee. In fact it made the race a rather painful experience, as it started hurting at 10 kilometers (6 miles) and at 17 kilometers (10.5 miles) it felt real bad. Actually it was so painful that I would definitely have stopped at 25 km had I been running in Copenhagen and not in Paris. So even though my finishing time ended up being more than 5 minutes better than the one I registered at my first marathon 13 years ago, I still cannot help being somewhat disappointed. But going to see a physio tomorrow, and once (not if – once) the fucking knee is feeling all right again, I’ll start planning my next marathon; because this is without doubt something I feel like doing again!

But otherwise it's the same old story. News, mails, stuff in general are piling up. Hopefully I'll be back posting tomorrow or no later than Monday!

Low profile...

Didn’t post anything last week and though Chris mailed and suggested otherwise, the hiatus had absolutely nothing to do with me recovering from Denmark qualifying for The World Cup. Instead week 42 means autumn holiday (is it really called that?) in Denmark, so to spend some time with the kids, I took the week off from work, which ended up being time off from blogging as well. But as usual the flow didn’t stop, and news and mails are piling up, so I've got plenty of catching up to do. Now I just need to get my brain going and then posting should (hopefully) resume tomorrow.

Holiday is over...

...and I’m back home (and at work) again. We took more than 700 photos, so expect some scenic snapshot to be added later today to accompany this post. As always the weather is a crucial topic, when opting to spend your holiday on the Danish west coast and it sure wasn’t as great as last year. But then again; it wasn’t nearly as bad as two years ago, where it pretty much rained for a fortnight. Summed up we had a good time and saw plenty and did lots and lots of stuff, and had very little time for relaxing and “doing nothing”, which to me is the perfect way of spending your holiday. I had brought a few CD’s with me, but found no spare moment to listen to any of those, though we did tune in on P3 when driving around. Especially cool hearing Sunshine by Ginger Ninja being aired a few times, and hysterically funny trying to teach the kids to pronounce the band name, which sounds rather close to gibberish, when uttered by a 3 year old.

Returning from two weeks absence is always quite stressful as the mailbox is jammed and all your favorite blogs have been updated 14 times or more. So far I’ve only checked a few of the mails and blogs, but have already found plenty of blogpost worthy stuff, so I imagine finding things to write about and music to post won’t cause any problems for the next week or two. Updating should resume tomorrow...I hope!

Water and more...

The heat has been almost unbearable in Denmark the past few days, and I cannot recall that I’ve been drinking this much water ever before. Hopefully the happy people attending this year’s Roskilde Festival are following my example and drink lots of water and not just beers. Beers are good and pretty fucking close to being the most essential fluid on the planet. Except on warm days like these where it’s dethroned by water on the top of that list of essentials. The last time I attended a festival (this one back in 1995) I had the greatest Thursday drinking (lots and lots of) beers in the sun, but paid the price and spent the entire Friday in the tent totally hung-over and dehydrated, which meant I was too exhausted to stay up to see Bon Jovi! Hang on! 14 years later I suddenly realize that this wasn’t the biggest sacrifice after all...

Stick around for more ramblings, tunes, news, mailbox findings etc...

Did you remember to download the Rikers EP I mentioned earlier today? It's awesome!

The William Blakes has announced that the band will be playing a couple of live dates at this year's Pop Montreal Festival. This has to be one of the most interesting new constellations (in this case prefer this term rather than "bands") coming out of Denmark the past few years and hopefully they'll be well received by the Canadians. I’m rather confident that the band's music, which I've previously described as something like "Arcade Fire meets Talking Heads", will appeal to the North Americans. Plans are that the trip should include one or more Toronto dates as well. So if I have any Canadian readers; go see them!
+ Violent God
+ Running Up That Hill (Kath Bush cover with Spleen United)

Paul Rijnders of Anything Box shares his remix of the track The Breakaway, which happens to be a song recorded by his own solo project Goodbye July.
+ The Breakaway (Kult Litre Remix)

I've just started to read a few promo mails and listen to some songs. There's plenty to choose from!

Here's something quite interesting. Liverpoolian trio Bagheera has sent out their promo mail to a large number of music blogs (remember to always use bcc), thus securing that it will be considered spam by most mail hosts. I always take a quick look at the spam mails before deleting, and somehow this caught my eyes. The band itself believes that their music will appeal to fans of Grizzly Bear and Yeasayer, but since (shame on me) I'm not all that familiar with either band, I cannot really say whether that's true or not. But the band's 4 track EP Hollow Home is really interesting and quite challenging, and definitely something I need to take further look at, sometime soon!
+ Old Machine

Have forgotten to mention that Boxstr.com seems to (finally) be working fine again! Getting a little value for my hard earned money!

The single Back Out On the Streets (Savages) by Americans The Armed Forces does sound somewhat like The Cars, so despite being infectiously catchy, it can hardly be labeled as highly original. But the band's album release strategy is definitely quite unlike something I've seen before!
+ Back Out On the Streets (Savages)

I've just downloaded the Liechtenstein debut album Survival Strategies In A Modern World and have found out that it's not even 23 minutes long? Blink and you'll miss it, but wouldn't be surprised if it's f*cking fabulous! Listening and yup! This is good stuff!
+ Roses in the Park

Meet You In The Rain...(an experimental post)...

Yes – I know some of you will disapprove, but today’s post is written in Danish. Let's call it an experiment, but hopefully it will once and for all be a proof (to myself at least) that creating a blog post in Danish is just as much trouble and hard work as writing one in English? Let’s see!

Engelske The Cavalcade har længe været en stadig voksende plet på min radar, men af ukendte årsager har jeg indtil nu ikke fået nævnt dem i disse spalter med et eneste ord. Kvartetten spiller en herlig omgang indie pop af den der klassiske slags, som tydeligvis henter inspirationen hos Sarah Records’ mange udgivelser. Bandets EP Meet You in the Rain indeholder 5 charmerende pop perler og EP’en er så rigelig de 4 pund værd, som den kan erhverves for fra bandets Myspace side. På mandag udgiver det suveræne indie label Cloudberry Records en ganske interessant 3” CD split single, hvor The Cavalcade bidrager med to numre (der begge findes på EP’en) og svenske Boa Constrictor med yderligere to. To af fire numre kan downloades kvit og frit, og disse bør så absolut give enhver indie pop fan appetit på mere.
+ The Cavalcade – Meet You in the Rain
+ Boa Constrictor – Out of Nothing

Husk lige at downloade den nye og ganske fremragende demo fra The Raveonettes. At bandet både løfter sløret for nye (ufærdige) indspilninger samt opfordrer til feedback fra deres fans er et herligt initiativ, som man kun kan ønske flere bands vil lade sig inspirere af. Hent demoen via det hastigt (?) voksende Twitter.

Den irske blog mp3hugger har fattet interesse for danske The Elephants. Det kan kun anbefales at man snarest stryger forbi og downloader Caroline Knows! Fandt så lige ud af, at Martine fra C'est Tout Martine (som jeg så på Start!, og som gjorde et særdeles fint indtryk) også er medlem af The Elephants. Helt igennem unyttig viden, men derfor meget pudsigt alligevel!

Via Coast is Clear (og min egen inbox) er jeg snublet over dette remix. Glem at bandnavnet Strandhotel Markus er komplet åndssvagt og at titlen Disco! Disco! ikke halter langt efter. Glem frem for alt at det hele synges på tysk af en schweizer. Det her er altså super fedt!
+ Disco! Disco! (Youth Back To Balearia Remix)

Jonas lufter sin mening om det nye Nephew album. Undertegnede er endnu ikke hoppet med på Nephew vognen, men måske tiden er moden til at vove pelsen?

Sand in the machinery...

Things aren’t running smoothly right now. At least not from a blogging point of view, as the updates are few and far between. There’s plenty of stuff to post and write about, so that shouldn’t be the reason for the inactivity. Perhaps it’s a logic reaction following four years of blogging, where I’ve been giving the blog a lot of (if not my full) attention? Perhaps with the consequence that it has suddenly turned into a burden rather than a pleasure? Perhaps the explanation is something completely different? Will not promise anything, but I’m taking a deep breath and hopefully regular posting will resume very soon!

Back to normal...?

This May is probably the worst ever from a blogging point of view, but I'm quite optimistic that this is soon about to change! Obviously “real life” has been somewhat responsible for the lack of updates, but quite frankly I haven’t been all that motivated recently and have found blogposts incredibly difficult to write. This has been somewhat baffling, as there has been plenty (and quite interesting stuff) to write about. However I’m of the impression that the light at the end of the tunnel is shining brighter again, which hopefully will mean that posting will resume at a more normal pace anytime soon. But I will not promise anything, though I do plan to post something this afternoon, as well as I expect to spend a couple of hours Saturday evening on that notorious reading-downloading-listening-listening again-deleting (often)-getting excited (unfortunately not that often)-routine, which normally would lead to some kind of blogpost. Later!

Was I lying...

...when I wrote last week that this blog is still very much alive? No, not really! Just far too many things going on right now (family, work, friends), so the blog is playing second-fiddle at the moment. As always this means that the mailbox is about to explode, so right now I’m doing that usual reading-downloading-listening-listening again-deleting (often)-getting excited (unfortunately not that often)-routine.

Among the stuff found which definitely is worth mentioning is that indie-mp3 will launch its own record label, which (no surprise really) will be called indie-mp3 Records. First release to see the light of day will be the 3 tracks Openness and Honesty EP by Leeds six-piece The Seven Inches, and if everything works out according to plans it should be out June 1. I suck at reviews, but the title track is a highly energetic, catchy, guitar-driven indie pop tune ending out in glorious fashion with trumpets galore. The final track on the EP, To Boldly Go, is shared with permission, and although it doesn’t quite reaches the wonderful heights of the title track, it works really well as an appetizer and should be enough to convince you that this is a must buy!
+ To Boldly Go

Beep...beep...beep...

Although one could be tempted to think otherwise this blog is still very much alive. As mentioned several times before, one of the most inferior things life has to offer (work) sometimes heavily interferes with the more superior things (family, music and blogging) and forces me to make priorities much against my will. And since work pays the bills and blogging certainly doesn’t, I happily confess to be prostituting myself and choosing the inferior over the superior. Not permanently though. Never! But the past few days this has been the case!

As always the mails and news keep coming, so right now I’m reading, listening and working my way through piles and piles...stay tuned!

Chris mailed the other day and informed that The Lightning Seeds will soon be releasing a new album. Four Winds will be out May 18, and it's the band’s first album since the release of Tilt in November 1999. No question that Ian Broudie was one of my musical heroes of the 1990’s, so I’m looking forward to the release with a mix of both excitement and nervousness.

I always seem to be weeks behind everyone else, and when it comes to the new Camera Obscura album things are no different, as it arrived in my mailbox just a few days ago. Why it took me so long to order, I cannot tell, but exactly as I expected My Maudlin Career is a simply wonderful piece of work containing an amazing string of infectious indie-pop tunes. The band will be touring throughout the summer, but for whatever reason a Danish show has yet to be announced.
+ My Maudlin Career

As soon as I’ve finished listening to My Maudlin Career (one more time), I’m going to give the new album Sisters by Stars in Coma a good listen. Released a couple of days ago on Music Is My Girlfriend and the album can be streamed in its entirety at Last.fm.
+ Underneath A Fallen Leaf

"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!

Blogging...

My first intention was to name this post Live blogging (here we go again), but since some of the stuff I’m going to post was written earlier today, I thought this could be considered foul play. So instead I opted to go with the more neutral, rather anonymous, yet relatively accurate headline Blogging. But that doesn’t change that I’ll be sitting here for the next couple of hours reading, writing, searching, posting, listening and (most likely) deleting. You should be familiar with the disclaimer regarding grammar and spelling by now, and of course a picture will be uploaded in a few minutes!

Still terribly need a shave - don't I?

My Twitter experiment continues and I now have 123 followers. I’m becoming less and less skeptical, as I’m regularly stumbling upon something interesting.

Don’t believe I can think of band with a more devoted fanbase than Depeche Mode. That’s cool, as loyalty is a good thing. But at the same time I cannot think of band with a more biased fanbase than said band, stubbornly refusing to notice any flaws. Wrong, the new single (video), is the most recent example of this narrow-mindedness. Not original in any way, which is admittedly is absolutely irrelevant as long as the melody is just a little bit catchy. But the chorus, which I believe must be when Dave Gahan groans "Wrong" through his nose, resembles something that could have been recorded in a pig farm, and luckily is forgotten as soon as the song is over. Except that groan of course which certainly will cause lots of nightmares! And still I see people referring to this, as a "classic sounding" Depeche Mode track? You must be joking or are you telling me that this is what you’ve been fans of for 20+ years? To make sure that I know what that classic sound is exactly, I did listen to the epic Violator earlier today, and nothing (absolutely nothing) on that album is even close to being this bad. Nitpickers might object and will start uttering that you cannot make this comparison as Violator belongs in a completely different time and era. Fine! Point taken. But then don’t give me that “classic sounding” bullshit. And no matter what you say; Wrong still sucks!

I’ll never be a fan of remixes. Tracks with endless beats and little diversity doing their best to destroy the original melody line have rarely appealed to me. But the Kissy Sell Out remix of Give It Up taken from the forthcoming album Red (out in Denmark June 8) by Datarock is rather catchy and would even make me start glancing at the dancefloor.
+ Give It Up (Kissy Sell Out Remix)

The Blueflowers are giving away a Watercolor Ghost Town album track over a Last.fm. At $11 this fine album has to be the bargain of the year.
+ I Wasn't Her

Chromewaves voices his discontent with the lack of information regarding the Clinging to a Scheme album, which, if everything works out as planned, will be the third full-length release by The Radio Dept. A release sometime this fall (I assume he means THIS fall) is his best guess.
+ The Worst Taste In Music

This episode of my favorite TV series Waking The Dead has just started. I've seen it once before, but since TV doesn't get much better than this; I'm seriously tempted to watch it for a second time. I recall the episode as no being "very nice", but then again none of the episodes really are. The dark sides of the human race can rarely be considered "very nice".

Last Wednesday I wrote how much I was looking forward to a release from st famous. A few days later it was announced that Keris Howard is no longer part of the project. Learn more.
+ Lazy Opera

Danish alternative/indie rock band Us With Millions has a new track We Are Sinking up and streaming at Myspace. That Band of Horses comparison is more valid than ever!

Live blogging (once again)...

I quite enjoyed the live blogging Wednesday evening, and since the scenario is pretty much the same tonight (wife’s out and the kids are asleep), I thought why not do it again? I still have plenty of mails to read, stuff to comment and a few songs to post, so for the next couple of hours this post will slowly expand. A photo will be added in a few minutes. Finally; here's the usual disclaimer. There will be more focus on writing and posting than on spelling and grammar!

As promised a photo. Please notice the beer (yummy) and of course that my hair's been cut! Still badly need a shave though!

I now have a staggering 98 followers at Twitter. Still trying to figure out if this thing is of any use? Those with lots of followers also follow a lot of people. Seems like several "I follow you - you follow me" agreements are being made. But does anyone actually read what anyone else is writing?

Here’s that new track by Death Valley Sleepers I mentioned the other night. Have mailed a little bit back and forth with Tobias (the man behind the alias), and he seems rather frustrated that the download function at Myspace is no longer working. Especially, as he wants his music to be free to download to help spreading the word. The music still bridges from The Velvet Underground via JAMC to The Raveonettes, but this unusual lengthy track (+ 6 minutes) has to be their best effort yet. UPDATE: Loved by 14 other persons already at Hypem.
+ Seaside

Talking about Myspace. It used to be my favorite haunting ground, when tracking down new and interesting bands, but can't recall the last time I found anything worth mentioning there! The aforementioned killing of the download function certainly didn't make things better. The occasional blog posts by bands are still worth reading to get some updates, but the rest...

Dutch blog All That Ever Mattered interviews Northern Portrait frontman Stefan. Does look as if the album will be finished come May! All That Ever Mattered has of course been added to the blogroll.
+ Crazy

One Weekly Gun has posted a new track. It's quite a brave political statement and I cannot say that I disagree with him!
+ Downer

Start! Festival (formerly known as Vesterbro Festival) announced yesterday (or was it the day before?), that the line-up for this year's festival will be published on April 6. I believe that's one month earlier than last year? My wish list is long and (obviously) includes the abovementioned DVS and NP.

In the post Wednesday evening I also mentioned the song by Napoleon with the insane title I Try To Despise The Ugly People (But The Beautiful Ones Keep Turning Me Down). I've been given the green light by Ruffa Lane Records to post it, so here we go. The single will be out April 27, so the timing is perfect, as the track should be a lock for any summer compilation.
+ I Try To Despise The Ugly People (But The Beautiful Ones Keep Turning Me Down)

Rasmus has found a way to put a little pressure on me. Twitter can be used for many purposes.

Two tracks from the forthcoming Dare EP by The Mary Onettes is now streaming at Myspace (quite a dilemma - think it sucks, but cannot live without it). Will go give them a listen now, but they can't be anywhere as fantastic as Explosions...can they? No - they are not. But they are very good indeed. On first listen Dare reminds me somewhat of Shout Out Louds.
+ Explosions

Please notice that I hadn't mentioned SXSW at all tonight. Right until now that was!

That will be it for tonight...I guess. The beer is almost finished and even though there are a few more songs left to post, I think I'll leave you here. Have a great Sunday!

Here we go again...

Back again from a lovely 5 day-trip to The West Cost, but a new year has arrived since we left (in case you haven't noticed), so it’s time to look ahead. I sure am no fan of New Year’s resolutions, but I’ll risk my neck nonetheless and promise this:
- I’ll continue blogging (some of you might think of this as a thread?)
- I’ll continue posting stuff you’ve never heard of and that you’ll never hear of again
- I won’t re-design the blog (I wouldn’t know how to do it)
- I won’t move to another host (unless blogger collapses)
- I’ll continue to read less than half the emails I receive (but please continue mailing them anyway)
- At least once this year I’ll consider switching from writing in English to writing in Danish

Hangovers...

I really, really should have known better. Staying up until 3am Saturday night drinking red wine and sipping Strawberry Daiquiries as if is was lemonade. My age taken into consideration, my experience should have told me that this kind of behavior would lead to torture of my head and body for the entire Sunday. And of course I ended up being a complete mess yesterday, because those kinds of predictions just never fail to materialize. So age and knowledge don’t make you behave more wisely, but age sure means that hangovers take longer and longer getting over. I’m not a miserable wreck like yesterday…but darn close! However, in all honesty, I really hope that I’ll stay at the beginning of the learning curve, because I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have a jolly good time Saturday night!

So no updates today, but hopefully (hopefully) I’ll be back again tomorrow…

Emptying the mailbox (again)...

I really, really think that I've been good at cleaning the mailbox recently. In fact I think it would be fair to say that I've been damn efficient and today the number of mails in the inbox is only one third of what it used to be not too many nights ago. But one can never rest on the laurels, and the daily number of promo mails found in my mailbox equals the number of snotty noses every single child gets each winter. So never a quiet moment, and right now I'm once again busy downloading and listening. Check back later tonight, as something interesting might pop up..?

+ Björn Kleinhenz - At Night We Die
Always a pleasure hearing new stuff from popsmith Mr. Kleinhenz.

+ Fredrik - Black Fur
Lovely folk rock inspired tune by odd named Swedish six-piece.

+ Future Clouds and Radar - The Epcot View
"the eclectic art-pop ensemble"...hmmm...I seriously hate those descriptions. Especially since I cannot figure anyone out myself! But I really like the track, so I guess that will have to do?

+ Juliette Commagere - Overcome
So grandiose that it almost becomes conceited in a Meat Loaf kind of way. Still I'm spellbound.

+ The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Everything With You
Noise-pop and jangling guitars. And all in the same song...superb!

+ Modern Skirts - Soft Pedals
At first it sounded like another jangling indie pop tune and then it really did not.

+ Paper House - Empty House
Uptempo guitar pop tune of the infectious kind by this Nashville quartet (there's a slight twist of country inspiration).

Tonight has been surprisingly rewarding, as I’ve been listening to far more good than bad stuff. I cannot complaint, though this of course has prevented me from being my usual whining self.

On the road again...

Am going to Jutland tomorrow morning in a work related matter and the fact that I will have to spend 6 hours alone in the car (3 hours back and forth) isn't exactly the most encouraging thing I can think of. At least I should have plenty of time to listen to some of the CD's I've bought recently and if the weather is fine the view from the bridge is always fantastic.

Is it possible to eat the words you've written? My judgment of the new moi Caprice album was premature to say the least. The album still lacks those catchy tunes of its predecessors, but according to an interview with the band found in the recent edition of Soundvenue all the catchy tunes were deliberately left off the album. Instead the band focused on producing a more "complete" album and now that I've spent substantial time listening to We Had Faces Then, I think they've accomplished just that.

The first review of the debut album by The Holiday Show has surfaced. The album certainly isn't the most groundbreaking you'll ever lay ears on, but the rating (two out of six) is downright ridiculous.

An English and a German version of BandBase has now been launched.

New track by One Weekly Gun.
+ That One

Typewriting...

I’ve always wondered why I find it so difficult to resume blogging, whenever I’ve been away from the blog for more than 48 hours. Wouldn’t it instead be more logic if one were highly motivated and jammed with ideas just waiting to be put on paper? Cannot say which scenario makes the most sense, but yesterday I found myself staring haplessly at the keyboard unable to type anything even remotely worth posting in the blog. Instead I wrote a short post for Bandbase (previously known as Mymusic.dk), but I’m not sure when/if it will be published (update: it's been published). Not exactly Pulitzer Prize material. Finally, just to build the illusion that this is a kind of thematic post, I thought posting a track containing the word typewriter would be appropriate.
+ Larsen & Furious Jane – Tourist With A Typewriter

And then – in a (long) blink of an eye, this post will turn into another one of those shorties ones!

Ivan of Oliver North Boy Choir writes that the band will travel to Malmø today to record their next single with Bakers at Dawn. I know I'm a blue-eyed optimist, but I do expect it to be nothing short of fantastic. Meanwhile enjoy this cover of the older Oliver North Boy Choir track Something New by none other than said Bakers at Dawn.
+ Something New

Sophomore album Holiday by Alaska In Winter will be out November 18 and first promo track Berlin suggests quite a musical turnaround. Those Balkan influences can still be heard, but the track is heavily inspired by its title (at least so we're told), so it's far more electronic than anything found on the debut. Good or bad?
+ Berlin

Sweden's Those Dancing Days shares their live cover of Britney Spears' Toxic. It is far more enjoyable than the original (which was about as terrible as music can possibly get).
+ Toxic (Live Britney Spears Cover)

Was just browsing the Labrador webpage when I came across this piece of bad news: "The Radio Dept. album is not finished. Well, this isn't really news, but we get a lot of questions. So... we really don't have a release date for The Radio Dept. album. Sorry! We will however set a release date as soon as they've finished the recordings. And don't worry friends, it's well worth the wait!". Hope so!
+ Freddie and the Trojan horse

Speaking of Labrador. The new single Seconds Away by The Legends is now free to download (via).
+ Seconds Away

I've just pre-ordered the forthcoming Crystal Heights album by Celestial. Have you? October will be busy as hell!
+ Crystal Heights

Babbling...

The promo mail guidelines posted yesterday have yet to prove their effect, though I do think more of it as a “long-term investment”.

In November last year this blog averaged 591 visitors a day. Since then the number has been dropping like a stone thrown from a skyscraper and the average this month is currently 411 visitors a day. When I look back I'm not really that surprised, as my posts back then were far more inspirational.

Thanks to Chris for helping with the filehost test yesterday. Interesting to see how long it will take before the firewall will block those alternatives as well.

This Friday I'm planning to visit/participate in the European Beer Festival 2008 in Valby, Copenhagen. Hopefully I can convince my friend or friends (not sure how many of us are going) that we should drop by Lades afterwards to hear Gaffa’s demo band of September; The Worn-Out Virgins. The band temptingly describes their music as (roughly translated) “the sound of 1967: weed, attitude, free love, lots of acid and rock ‘n’ roll galore”, so this could easily end up being an interesting evening!
+ Keep It Down