A few choice words and a couple of songs...

My repost of those promo mails guidelines hasn't helped the slightest bit. So right now I'm seriously considering turning on the out-of-office-assistant with a reply saying "don't you ever dare sending me another useless remix or another shitty hip-hop track! IF you do I'll track you down a shove your computer up your..."...or something like that! Doubt it would help though and since I'm generally far too polite, I probably won't!

So while I'm feeling more and more drawn towards turning my back on promo mails, I luckily still receive some fantastic recommendations from old contributor J.A.. Amazing how he's able to dig out interesting yet little known artists over and over. Here are two of his most recent finds and as always this is seriously interesting and great stuff!

Taxes is a shoegaze act from Australia and here you'll get the full package of excellent songwriting and distorted guitars.


If you prefer guitar/synth driven pop songs that are quite 80's inspired, then check out the trio Toy Cities from Brooklyn instead.

And what do you know! Just saw that Mr. J.A. has mailed a few tracks...bet there will some interesting stuff among those as well, but will have to get back to those some other day!

Just kids...

Som jeg vist fik pjevset rigeligt over i sidste uge, har jeg pænt travlt på arbejde lige nu, så desværre er det så som så med tid til at opstøve nyt. Så yderst tilfredsstillende at konstatere at "fødekæden" fungerer upåklageligt og at J.A. som altid står klar i kulissen med en solid anbefaling. Og nok en gang rammer han den klokkerent til et suverænt homerun, for Just Kids med den engelske trio F.U.R.S er præcis et af de her energiske, melodiske, guitardrevne og let støjende numre, som man bare (jeg kan i hvert fald ikke) aldrig kan få nok af!

J.A. recommends...day III...

Here's the new track by New Zealand one-man project Junica. A super delicious uptempo electronic pop song and as expected it sticks to your brain like a piece of gum on the bottom of your shoe! If Facebook updates are to be trusted an album could be/should be out anytime soon...

J.A. recommends...day II...

Still busy (really have no time for this), so here's another little gem brought to you by J.A. Retro Oceans by Canadian quartet Facts is a catchy and sparkling pop song that probably will bring back a few memories of sun, summer and happy days...



 

J.A. recommends...

Since I'm still so ridiculously busy at work (and holiday coming up next week certainly isn't making things better), I've decided for the moment to dive into the pool of recommendations sent my way by the incomparable J.A. And rest assure; it's a well that won't dry out any time soon! Today's pick it this 80's sounding (and the video is quite 80's looking as well) electro pop track Isn't It by US band Yung Life. I'm currently streaming the self-titled debut album, which is available via bandcamp (as a name your price download) and SoundCloud (as a free with no strings attached download)...




Isn't This from Dylan Carver on Vimeo.

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!

No hablo español...

Or is the correct expression“no habla español”? J.A. can you please guide me?

Thanks to this post on the Shelflife blog and the irresistible enthusiasm oozing from the aforementioned J.A., I’m currently enjoying four brand new demo tracks by Spanish indie pop/shoegaze band Sundae. The band is not quite new to me, as J.A. recommended the quartet (?) to me exactly a year ago, which back then led to this post. Now the band is back again and sounding like The Radio Dept. singing in Spanish, which has to be one of the highest accolades imaginable. All four tracks are free to download and one can only recommend that you grab all of them before the band is signed and the tracks removed. And if there’s any justice in this world this could happen any day soon.
+ 92

Speaking of The Radio Dept., there’s still no news on the band’s third album. Last update indicated “an early 2009 release”, which unfortunately seems quite unlikely now.
+ Freddie and the trojan horse

Check the line-up for this year’s Indietracks Festival and start drooling!

Coming soon on German label afmusic is a digital release (EP or album?) by Swedish gothic/new wave quartet Diskoteket. Meanwhile enjoy the 2006 self-titled EP, which is free to download in its entirety.
+ Ge Mig Ljuset

Shorties...

New track by Sweden’s Bakers At Dawn has been posted at Myspace.
+ With these options nothing can really fail

From a Myspace bulletin: For a very short time Ether Aura are selling 3 CD’s for only $10. For this ridiculous sum you’ll get two excellent albums (Crash + Before We Could Sing) as well as the Semblance EP. Don’t know for how long this offer is valid, so act now!
+ Twist

J.A. has uploaded a string of photos from his visit to the Rip It Up festival to his Myspace account. Boy do I regret that I didn’t go!

Somehow I “re-discovered” Swedish one-man project Twinkling Streams today. These two tracks just jangle along so perfectly that they make me want to grab a beer, put on my sunglasses and dance right into the sunshine.
+ Relations Failure
+ Things We Never Had

Friday Evening Mix Tape...

5 great ones recommended to all of us by the incomparable J.A.

+ Play People - Oh What A Life

+ Funny Little Dream - It Must Been You

+ Sellafield Three - Lesson Never Learned

+ The Strike Nineteens - Empty Faces (At Closing Time)

+ Thirst For Treasures - Downsize My Path To Everything

Click on the band names and there'll be more songs waiting to be downloaded for free (except Play People).

Dies und Das...

Forgot yesterday to recommend the recent Flashback Friday post. I'm old enough to remember when those songs were released, so bear with me!

It's Saturday, so there might be a good chance that some of you are going out dancing tonight? If so, I suggest that you listen to this one by Home Video. Should get your feet started.
+ I Can Make You Feel It

If that one doesn't work, maybe this one by Electric Valentine does?
+ A Night With You

Thanks to J.A. I've received a message from French indie pop band My Raining Stars, who asks me to listen to their songs. All This Time certainly leaves me starving for more!
+ All This Time

And J.A. pulls another fine indie pop band from his sleeve. This time it's the Swedish (of course) six-piece Plain Good.
+ Wasted Things

I've been listening to a few more of those songs I downloaded yesterday. Sadly most of them are just garbage.

Shorties...

Check the new blog of Late Night Venture front man Søren Hartvig. Seems like he's also been to a Blue Foundation concert recently.

11 weeks old and the project is still running. One Weekly Gun has posted a new track. This is one of the best ones so far.
+ Open up Your Eyes

Chris is back! Check out those fantastic pictures!

J.A. pops in and recommends the catchy Seaside by US new wave/electronic act The Echoing Green.
+ Seaside

Stream the new VETO single Built To Fail at Myspace. Still have no speakers, so I'll have to wait until tonight!

the finest kiss writes about Northern Portrait.

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

J.A. recommends – Swedish edition...

In these busy days J.A. provides a much needed helping hand, by sending updates on this trio of fine Swedish bands.

Indie poppers Japan Air have made two lovely new tracks available for download.
+ Claire
+ Stars

Biker Boy is working on a project called “Calendar 2008 – One Year, Twelve Songs”. First output is appropriately named January Song and this instantly catchy pop song immediately raised the expectations for the rest of the year!
+ January Song
+ January Song (Sporty Fred remix)

Depeche Mode inspired electro pop duo Ostrich gives away another new track. I've mentioned the duo a few times before, and I'd really love to hear a full length release from these super cool guys!
+ Passion For Slaves

More shorties...

It really IS very nice of you to ask! My back is feeling much better today, thank you!

This is the way it should always be. Yesterday I posted about bakers at dawn and last night they sent me a short message saying thank you. This is how my oldest daughter would explain it: “Dad! It's a perfect example of a symbiosis! You need them and they need you.” Amazing what she picks up while watching Stanley and she's probably right I guess?
+ still not looking for (what i haven't found)

Last night I spent a little of my hard earned cash to upgrade my file host. So hopefully we'll experience no more of those dreaded “bandwidth limit exceeded” error messages. Now if only someone would click those ads to help me finance the upgrade (OK – in all honesty it wasn’t really that expensive).

In the car this morning (after all – this blog IS called Hits In The Car) I heard Dream Catch Me by Newton Faulkner for the first time. As one of the radio hosts described it: “that was one sensitive guy with a guitar”. It's absolutely lovely and you can download the track over at Wongie's Music World.

Now this is an international collaboration worth talking about! Spaniard J.A. recommends Danish 80's synth-pop inspired band Antilles to Swiss blogger Chris. Infectious stuff!
+A Different Place

Flashing my ignorance for the second time today. Peter has a nice post on the brilliant Danish The Raveonettes inspired band Death Valley Sleepers.
+ Black Pearl
+ White Noise

You gotta be kidding...

not another Christmas post? Well sort of I guess. My lengthy Christmas post has become just that – too long, so I’ve decided that future stuff concerning Christmas will be featured in new posts. But since we are only a few days away from Christmas trees, presents in the stockings, carols and belly aches, I have a suspicion that this will be one of the last ones (if not the last) you’ll see in the blog this year!

J.A. once again joins in and recommends a short and lovely indie/twee popish kind of Christmas tune by UK multi-person band The School.
+ Kiss You In The Snow

Venice Is Sinking has mailed a copy of their Christmas tune The Grey Line. Originally released on the Kindercore Christmas Compilation, but apparently the band members have decided to play Santa Clauses and joyfully share it with everyone. To prevent the post from being completely Christmassy, I thought it would be a good idea to add the band’s live version of Jolene.
+ The Grey Line
+ Jolene

Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten lists their 20 favorite Christmas tunes. I personally am missing Do They Know It’s Christmas? on the list!

I doubt that you'll hear a more beautiful song this year than Valentine by Richard Hawley. To be released on January 28 it will be the next single from Lady's Bridge.



It does seem like J.A. isn't quite ready for the Christmas "truce", so here's another Christmas track recommended by my Spanish "connection". This time it's a lovely one called A Silent Night (no - it's not a cover of THAT classic) by Swedish trio Lowe.
+ A Silent Night

Until December 25 Glasgow band The Martial Arts will be giving away their album Your Sinclair as a free download. I believe this must be a reaction (out of frustration) to the fact that the band remains unsigned in the UK, despite being signed by Groover Recordings in Sweden and getting some really nice reviews. My first impression of the album is quite positive, so why not head over to Myspace and grab it for free?
+ Finale

Quiet around these parts...

It’s unusual quiet today. Not even a single Christmas track has hit my mailbox making it possible to update the Christmas post! Perhaps everyone’s out Christmas shopping and remain stuck in one of those lengthy queues at the toy stores? Whatever happens to be the real explanation it is still far too quiet for my liking. So what should I do then? Hmmm. Guess I could always check out one of the mails from J.A. to see if he has something interesting up his sleeves (he normally has)? Scroll, scroll, scroll…yep there is one!

Dear X from Spain being compared to Budapest! Yes - this track sounds really great! The band mentions Radiohead, Supertramp etc. as influences, though this sounds more like Coldplay/Keane inspired stuff to me! What do you think?
+ Must I Play This Game?

Oh - a couple of new tracks by Anything Box are available and he recommends the remixes of Living in Oblivion. OK I'll try those as I quite like this band! Hmm...not too bad either!
+ Living in Oblivion - Chicago haus edit
+ Living in Oblivion - Elektrode Mix

I know he (still talking about J.A.) is impatiently awaiting the Gentle Touch debut album. Hopefully this solo track by lead singer Michael makes the waiting just a little more bearable?
+ 1

Saturday night’s alright for blogging…

The girls are sleeping and the wife is at some girl’s party, so the computer is all mine, mine, mine….!

I did some extensive music shopping today and spent my weekly pocket money on 5 CD’s. One of them was the debut solo album Every Streetcar’s Got A Name by Michael Møller (the voice of moi Caprice). As the reviews have been very positive, my expectations were pretty high and luckily I wasn’t disappointed as the 16 songs are heartfelt and stunningly beautiful. But also a bit (actually a lot) more minimalistic than you'd expect, so it's certainly not an attempt to continue the sound of moi Caprice in his own name. I’ve asked for permission to post a track of the album, though I’m not all that optimistic that I’ll get it.

Yesterday Exitfare posted two demo tracks by Concerto for Constantine; the new band of Mark Greaney of JJ72. Really hate to say that I'm not impressed as perhaps every JJ72 song was better than any of these. It's as if he's trying to change direction and want his new music to be a bit "tougher"?

Some of you might have noticed that I’ve abandoned my no ads principles and added some Google ads at the bottom of the right column. So far I’ve earned a strikingly US$ 1.55, so no reason to change the household budget just yet! Obviously chances of someone clicking the ads would be better if I posted them at the top of the page, but after all I don’t want this to look like just another blog that only exists for the ads. But on the other hand I wouldn't mind earning a little money. What a dilemma....not really!

Far too many words already, so here's a recent recommendation by J.A.. Clive from Sweden plays straight forward, rather uncomplicated, but very catchy electronic pop music. And there's really nothing wrong with that - is there?
+ Emotions

Indie MP3 writes a few thoughts on The Matinée Hitparade. After I've listened to this one by Bubblegum Lemonade I really should order that album, which is released to celebrate that the label turns 10 years old.
+ Tyler

Yesterday Absolut Noise did something quite unusual. The excellent French blog normally dedicated to Swedish music posted a track by a Danish artist. Click right here if you want to know who that lucky artist was.

The extremely cool and very Interpol inspired track Fade Away by French alternative rock band Joy Disaster was added to my current favorites yesterday. Originally recommended by J.A. (yep - him again) and posted by Peter ages ago!
+ Fade Away

In case you're curious the other 4 CD's I bought today were:
Iron And Wine - The Shephard's Dog
+ Boy With a Coin

The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust
+ Dead Sound

I Am Bones - The Greater Good
+ The Main Thing Is To Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing

I Got You On Tape - 2

The Dead Sound of an Electric Bird...

These days I'm listening quite a lot to the new album Lust Lust Lust by The Raveonettes. In my contribution to the weekly "Frekvens lytter til…" post, I described it as the perfect mix of catchy 60'ies pop, scathing 80'ies noise and the soundtrack of a spaghetti western directed by Mr. Tarantino. It might not be as good as Pretty In Black, but it still manages to live up to my expectations.
+ Dead Sound

Found the new single Electric Bird by Sia in the mailbox this morning. Perhaps it's a little to quiet and a little too boring for my taste, but I really like that brass featured throughout the song. Taken from the album Some People Have REAL Problems that will be out in January next year.
+ Electric Bird

Did a bit of catching up this morning and checked an old recommendation sent to me by J.A. a long time ago. Actually it was so old that Chris wrote about the band in question; Public Symphony; 5 months ago. But better late than never I guess and since the band has published a new mix of the track Rise & Shine, it's probably ok mentioning them again. The music is described as a mix between Pink Floyd and Coldplay, and the band does indeed manage to sound like an unusual (but still highly enjoyable) mix of complexness and straightforwardness.
+ Rise & Shine (2007 mix)

Myspace Monday Mix...

I’ve understood that Facebook is growing a whole lot faster than Myspace these days, but Myspace still remains my favorite networking and "finding-new-music" tool. Below some of the stuff I’ve learned about in (what seems to be) the "old-fashioned" way.

Anyone remember God Is Going To Get Sick Of Me by Aberdeen City? If so, you might be interested in listening to the new demo track Whose Blood Is It? I know I was!
+ Whose Blood Is It

The Imaginary Orchestra of Mr. Kite keeps recording and giving away new songs, and so does The Papertiger Sound. If you enjoyed the previous works of these two bands, the new tracks certainly won't a disappointment!
+ The Imaginary Orchestra of Mr. Kite – Mind The Gap
+ The Papertiger Sound – A Chorus

Swedish indie pop band Bye bye bicycle shares a new track from the forthcoming EP This Is West. Of course the band hails from Gothenburg!
+ Footsteps

Finally J.A. recommends Spanish shoegazers Then (3 more freebies there). Always great being introduced to a new shoegaze inspired band!
+ Freefall

J.A. Recommends...

The human search engine (a.k.a. J.A.) is still running smoothly and is keeping us all (Chris and Peter included) busy with his many fine recommendations. It's virtually impossible keeping up with his torrid pace, but today's post will be devoted some of the stuff he suggests we should all read, watch or listen to (lots of love for Sweden here).

Swedish label Lavender Recordings now also has a weblog. Hopefully more will be posted soon. The blog is written by label "owner" Andreas, who's probably better known for his involvement in Celestial and Northern Fields. His recent project is called my lily of the valley.

One of the bands signed to the label is Swedish indie pop sensations Days. Watch the video of the band performing Simple Thing at the Rip It Up festival. Hopefully the band's debut single/EP will be released in September.


+ Simple Thing

Expectations are high for the debut album by Gentle Touch (no release date available) and Expectations is the very appropriate title of the band's new track (stream it).

Download the 4 track Summer EP 2007 by Swedish Electro Pop trio Joy Serene.
+ Summer EP 2007 (zip)
+ Possible (best track)

The Hourly Radio covers Say Something by James.
+ Say Something

You Never Notice Me by Swedish indie pop duo The Garlands is one of those typical catchy "Swedish ones". The cover version of the Wham! classic Freedom is perhaps best described as "peculiar".
+ You Never Notice Me
+ Freedom (Wham! cover)

The Animation from Sweden released their 3-track debut EP The Grass Is Greener On The Other Side earlier this year. Opening track It's Late inspired by Coldplay, The Killers etc. sounds rather promising.
+ It's Late

Tomorrow could very well end up being a busy one, but hopefully I'll be able to find enough time to post "part II" of this thread!!