It’s all red...

Wanted to write a blogpost yesterday, but spent the entire day listening to Röd (that’s the new album by Kent, in case you’ve somehow managed to miss that) and never got around writing anything. I’ve said a number of times before that I’m no fan of Kent experimenting (I’m still hoping it’s just an experiment) with an electronic sound, as I prefer thinking of them as a rock band rather than a synth pop ditto. But, as the band (understandably) doesn’t care about my thoughts, feelings, whatever on this topic and as indicated by first single Tönterna, they stuck to the formula used when they recorded Tillbaka Till Samtiden and ended up exploring the electronic world even further on the new album. Consequently my expectations where pretty modest, when I downloaded the album (from the official webpage of course and not some illegal copy), as a kind of precaution to prevent major disappointment. However I could have saved myself from all that, because this album would have no problems meeting any expectations I might have had, as songwriting and production melts beautifully together to create a rather overwhelming whole. And this despite I have yet to listen to it at home in quiet surroundings while checking out the lyrics, which makes me confident that the album will continue to grow on me. So perhaps time has come for me to finally accept that Kent is a rock band turned electro, though I seriously doubt that the journey is going to end here? Synth pop, disco, rock or whatever path they’ll choose to follow, something definitely has to go terribly wrong before they’ll be dethroned as best band on the planet.

Oh well – other bands do exist!

The albums by Danish Daycare and Digits are on my ever growing pending list. They have left good first impressions and I really ought to give both some serious listens!
+ Danish Daycare – A Story of Hurt
+ Digits - Monster

New single Days by Sambassadeur is spreading real fast in the blogosphere. No wonder really, as this, exactly as expected, is a short, sweet, uptempo and infectiously catchy pop tune. A yet untitled (?) album will be out in January...on Labrador of course!
+ Days

Danish band Mushi has announced that a new album will be released in late spring next year. A much more welcomed piece of news than the “Mushi has come to an end” announcement published six months ago!

Shorties...

Despite massive complaints blogger still hasn’t reinstated Music of the Moment. Instead Chris has reloaded the blog himself now using Wordpress.

A trio of news from glorious indie label Shelflife Records:

The CDEP+7" The Imperial School by Horse Shoes has now hit the stores. It's a limited edition release, so hurry up ordering your copy!
+ The Imperial School
+ Changing Winds

On October 27 the label will release the debut album It Hertz! by UK electro pop duo Katsen. The tracks on the album constantly switches back and forth between being catchy then playful, which immediately made me think of the OMD album Dazzle Ships.
+ Where Nobody Can Find Us

The last piece of news from Shelflife made my heart beat just a little bit faster of sheer excitement; “We're planning new releases for Days...”. Days! Hopefully you do recall this incomparable and totally ingenious indie pop quartet from Gothenburg? Anyway this is absolutely phenomenal news and something I’ve been eagerly awaiting for a long, long time! Rather unfathomably the band’s debut CDEP+7” Downhill hasn't been sold out(?).
+ Simple Thing
+ Downhill

UK newgazers Sennen has recorded a cover of the New Order track Bizarre Love Triangle. Obviously it’s not better than the original (I seriously doubt I’ll ever hear a New Order cover better than the original), but nonetheless the band’s rendition of the song is excellent and the noisy guitars add an extra dimension that suits the track just fine! Taken from the band's forthcoming EP Destroy Us.
+ Bizarre Love Triangle (New Order Cover)

Elise And The Guardian Angel by sadly overlooked Danish indie/americana/multi-inspired singer Mushi is track of the day at Bandbase.dk.
+ Elise And The Guardian Angel

Mushi and more...

I like my hometown. I really do. It’s beautiful and historical, and enough things are happening here to make it a great place to live. Unfortunately its inhabitants don’t seem to appreciate music all that much. Unless of course some useless cover band is playing or one of our nation’s many dinosaurs (you know – those artists, who have been around for the past three our four decades) are paying us a visit. Then people show up in bunches. But when fairly unknown artists, who are trying to make a living playing their self-written music, are coming to town, you can bet the venue will be close to empty (or the whole thing will be cancelled). No more whining about this cancellation, but as mentioned in a previous post, Mushi was playing at Annexet Saturday evening, which at least offered a nice alternative. Around midnight (when the past Saturday became Sunday) a friend and I headed for the bar, paid the entrance fee, just to learn that a total of 5 (five!) persons were there. Later I found out that three of those were friends of the band, so a smashing total of 2 locals had shown up! In all fairness, more people showed up later, but a no point was there more than 20 people at the bar (including the 4 band members and the people working in the bar). Despite the lack of audience and atmosphere, the band nonetheless and quite impressively delivered a fine performance, which (to me at least) proved that Rasmus (the man behind the alias) is an excellent songwriter.
+ Elise and the Guardian Angel

Start! Festival begins (simply refuse to use the word "starts") this afternoon. Tonight I'm planning to see Diefenbach, Among Relatives, Queens Garden and probably a few other names along the way as well. One funny (and very persistent) rumor is that the band The Descendants of King Canute (scheduled to play at 11 tonight) should actually be Nephew in disguise. Will be much wiser tonight!

No Blood In Bones is a brand new project (duo) featuring Green Concorde frontman Morten Espersen Dam. More pop, less rock and very interesting (and pretty darn good, too).
+ Safe Way Out

It really doesn't sound like anything from either Frengers or Glass Handed Kites. Still the new track Introducing Palace Players by Mew is bloody marvellous and expectations for No More Stories are sky high.

Danish 6-piece A Sunday Honeymoon jumped onto my radar yesterday and has pretty much stayed there every since. The band’s music is quite a mixed bag and if you check the influences the list includes the likes of Springsteen, The Strokes and Field Mice. And you could indeed say that the music sounds like a clone of all those three artists. The three track mini-EP Yuzo Citrus is free to download, which I strongly recommend you to do.
+ Feel It Now
+ Yuzo Citrus (EP)

Various...

I’m still pissed about that cancellation. I know grumping and whining in a blog isn’t comme il faut, but I just can’t help myself! Instead Mushi will be playing at another venue in Helsingoer, so perhaps I should try that one instead?
+ The Nightcrawler

Remember Danish shoegazers Dorias Baracca that I featured last year? 3 new tracks and 1 (what I believe must be a) re-recording is now streaming at Myspace. Plans (or hopes maybe?) are that all 4 tracks will be included on a future EP release. This is noisy, dreamy and still very good!
+ The Only Touch

One of my favorite bands covers another one of my favorites. No idea what I mean? Read this and you’ll (hopefully) understand!

The new single David by The Radio Dept. is absolutely fabulous and thankfully it's business as usual as Labrador is offering it as a free download.
+ David

Watch Green Concorde live at Rockpalast.

Those Northern Portrait live videos just keep on coming.

Happy birthday...

No no! It’s not my birthday today. But you probably were aware of this already; as I did celebrate it with drum rolls and fanfares last month, when hitting the big four-o. So I guess that one was hard pressed to miss? But to get back on track, I’ve recently turned into quite a Facebook geek, where you (among lots of stuff - most of it both stupid and pointless to be honest) get reminders on your friends’ birthdays. Friends should probably be “friends”, as several of them aren’t exactly the ones you’d invite over for tea or ask to help babysitting your children, since you’ve never met them face-to-face. So friends on a more superficial level or parts of my (blogger-)network would perhaps be the most accurate description. But in Facebook terms they ARE friends, and today happens to be the birthday of these two friends; the talented lads Jens Lekman and Rasmus Fynbo. Hopefully the first doesn’t require further introduction. If so, shame on you! The latter is probably not as well known, but releases his music under the alias Mushi, which I’ve featured a few times before in the blog. So no news on either really, just a perfect opportunity sending happy birthday wishes to the both of them!
+ Mushi – Elisa And The Guardian Angels
+ Mushi - The Nightcrawler
+ Jens Lekman - Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo
+ Jens Lekman - The Opposite of Hallelujah

Shorties...

Remember to show up tomorrow night at Rust in Copenhagen to pay farewell to Velour. Supporting act will be indie rock/psychedelic/somewhat 60's inspired quartet Golden Green Tangerine, whom I (after streaming a few tracks) really am looking forward to get acquainted with.
+ American Dreaming

Idlewild guitarist Rod Jones is working on a solo album and so far two pretty fine demos can be stream at Myspace.

Play People released their 2-track debut CD single Oh What A Life on brand new label this almighty pop! yesterday. Costs a whopping £2.50 if you live in Europe – including postage!

Danish Americana/Alternative rock artist Mushi will release his third album End Of Faith come October (releaseparty is scheduled at October 14). Quality track Dusk didn’t make the cut, but is free to download as a small appetizer.
+ Dusk

Sweden’s Dungen is one of those bands that everyone always seems to be raving about, but to be honest I’ve never really bothered checking them out. Promo track Sätt Att Se of the band’s forthcoming album 4 (which apparently is their 5th album!), doesn’t really make me regret that.
+ Sätt Att Se

Myspace updates...

Here are some of the comments and news I have received over at Myspace the past week:

Song To The Siren will release their 3rd EP called A Machine Like Me tomorrow.
+ These Days

Bahnhof has shot a video for the first single Speed from the debut album Reverse. The band has also been so kind to send me a copy of the album, and so far I'm really enjoying it!



Mushi wants a little help picking his next single. Go there and leave your vote.

Excellent Florida band The Monday Photo promises to have some new songs ready very soon.
+ Fall

And so does equally great UK band Kni9hts.
+ Coastal

Port Largo has recorded a fine new version of Breakdown In Fiction produced by Carsten Heller (Nephew, Spleen United etc.). I'm unsuccessfully pushing for a free download, but will keep you posted if anything happens.

Mushi +++

My current favorite album is the recent release by Danish one-man project Mushi (in real life known as Rasmus Fynbo). The album (released March 19) is called Unfairytales and has received some pretty good reviews in the Danish media (you can read a few here if you understand Danish). The music varies quite a lot throughout the 12 tracks on the album, and sounds like he's done his best to mix as many musical genres as possible. Whether you want Balkan rhythms, western themes, cabaret, country or the straight forward pop/rock song begging for airplay; it's all there and it never gets boring. However the real strength of the album is that he never gets carried away (and turns the album into an experimental playground), but instead remembers that the great and catchy tune must always be present. I bought the album because I enjoyed his 2004 release Unbelonging (download it for free here) and hoped that the new album would be equally good. But it wasn't. It was even better!
+ Pieces of Nothing (posted with permission from the artist)
+ Stream 5 more tracks

The Joe Coffee Project from Stockholm sounds like a Swedish version of The Raveonettes (this is meant to be a compliment). The band has released 1 (or maybe 2) EP's, but neither the band's homepage nor the Myspace profile have been updated since October last year. So perhaps the band is no more, which would be quite a shame!
+ Things That We Never Received
+ The Winter Song

If you have a couple of minutes I recommend that you check out (stream) the new fine single Hey Girl by Figurines at the band's Myspace profile. Or download it here.

Danish rock band No end has been forced to change the adress of their Myspace profile, because the old one was "drowned" by spammers. One of the (many?) annoyances of Myspace I guess?
+ Beautiful Soul

Today I'm listening to...

The 2004 self-released album Unbelonging by Danish one-man project Mushi (though it was actually called Mushy back then). The list of influences is quite an interesting read and includes just about everything (and everyone) from Cabaret (genre) over Calexico to The Pixies. And it is indeed rather difficult fitting the music of Mushi into any specific category, but no matter what genres are being added to the mix, the fine melody lines are always present underneath it all, which makes listening to the album a pleasant and highly entertaining experience. And of course I should mention that the entire album is available for free right here.
+ Grease Monkey
+ Elise And The Guardian Angel
+ The Nightcrawler

A new album called Unfairytales was released last month, but no songs are currently available for free (but five new and really good ones can be streamed here). I'll get back to that album, if/whenever a track (or two) can be legally shared.