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...

A northern forest...

Two years ago Tender Objects (or The Candy Twins as they were called back then...or was that a completely different band...I'm not sure) recorded a brilliant tribute song to Northern Portrait called The Next Big Thing. Now the band has been inspired once again and in a Facebook message yesterday, David of the band wrote that he has written this new track after listening to the Sambassadeur track Kate. If that is what it takes to inspire people to write fine new pop songs, people should certainly listen more the Sambassadeur! Will be streaming for a short time only (whatever that means exactly?)...

A Northern Forest by Tender Objects

Sambassadeur - Kate by Labrador Records

+ The Next Big Thing

Various...

Wasn’t able to keep my promise and post something yesterday, as we had a server breakdown at work. Therefore I couldn’t access any files and since all my music files are stored there, I was handcuffed. But since I couldn’t access any work files either, the situation was bearable.

I’m currently giving the song of Irish indie rock 5 piece Elspeth some good listens. Lots of potential and the influences ranging from Jeff Buckley over Radiohead to Manic Street Preachers really shines through. Definitely have to keep an eye out for this band. 6 songs are free to download at Soundcloud.
+ Old Age

In late December The William Blakes frontman Kristian Leth wrote at his Facebook profile that he was going to celebrate New Year’s in Sweden as well as record a new The William Blakes album while being there. Unable to find any official information on this, but knowing the band’s rapid work pace, a new release is probably no more than a few months away? Admittedly this belongs to the category “rumors”, but since it “came directly from the horse’s mouth” there has to be some truth to it?
+ Violent God
+ Like a Dream

Have you streamed the 4 new tracks by Sambassadeur? Pretty good ones, but compared to the band’s own standards they are somewhat underwhelming. First single Days of the forthcoming album European is certainly the best of the bunch.
+ Days

Check the track Loved-Up by Korallreven posted by the Shelfllife blog. Besides being a real fine track, I do think it’s quite interesting that the project includes one (or two?) member(s) of The Radio Dept.

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 my initial disappointment with the new Kent single, I’m still planning to buy tickets for the band’s concert on March 13 next year at Copenhagen’s new venue Tap1. Tickets go on sale on Monday.

Four new tracks by The Electric Pop Group are now streaming at Myspace. Seems like the band’s second album Seconds will be out come November, but as usual the Matinée Recordings webpage hasn’t been updated for a while.

The soon to be released Whatsinsidewhatsoutside album by Danish indie-popsters Bodebrixen can be streamed in its entirety at Bandbase.dk.
+ Keychain

Now that the Turboweekend album Ghost of a Chance is being released abroad, the promo mails suddenly start arriving. I hate the way music is promoted in Denmark, because why didn’t I hear anything in March, when the album was released here?
+ After Hours
+ Something or Nothing

7" single How To Look Imploring by Horowitz will be out some time late November on Cloudberry Records.
+ How To Look Imploring

From the Labrador Records twitter account: "Sambassadeur just finished their upcoming single "Days". It definitely different from their previous work, but I'm sure you'll love it.". This is awesome news!

Murder the (S)ambassadeur...

Last year I posted a few words on the EP by NY quartet Murder Mystery and now that the band has released their debut album, it's time to post a few more. The name of the 12 track album is Are You Ready for the Heartache Cause Here it Comes and perhaps it's a bit on the short side with a running time of just 33 minutes. But all 12 tracks are little pop gems (I used that description the first time round as well) and certainly no time is wasted on unnecessary fillers, which makes those few minutes very well spent. The band uses the term "Television-esque guitar arrangements" in the press material, and this is actually a fine way to describe the sound of the band (a bit more "popish" perhaps, but listen to Marquee Moon and I'm sure you'll agree). Now if only the band hadn't removed the picture of Peter Lorre from their webpage!
+ Love Astronaut
+ Honey Come Home
+ Grab one more track over at You Ain't No Picasso

Peter wrote in his post yesterday about how convenient it is to receive music in your mailbox. I fully agree - especially when the music is great, as this makes your life as a music blogger a lot easier. The fine new single I Am History by Swedish trio The Bell is just a perfect example of why some promo mails are worth checking out!
+ I Am History

The new single by Sambassadeur is already all over the bloggerworld, but I thought I should mention it as well, as it's exactly as sweet and catchy as you expected it to be.
+ Subtle Changes

Snow Fell.......

Every time it's snowing I cannot help posting this fabulous track by The Consultants! I guess the song will forever remain a classic even though the band split up shortly after the release of the (excellent) debut album Work from Home.
+ Snow Fell (It's Night)

I've always been quite slow, so it's completely new to me that the lead singer Marisha Chinsky of the aforementioned The Consultants went on to join (or form?) a band called Polar Bear Parade. In a post nearly 6 months ago Indie MP3 described the sound of the band "like a poppier version of early Sonic Youth", which I think is spot on.
+ Baby Bohemian
+ Firehouse
+ Mountain Lion

And the rest of the members of The Consultants went on to join My Teenage Stride. I've been familiar with this band for quite some time, but haven't really bothered listening to them at all. Once you've listened to Live and Die in.. you'll probably agree that this was quite a mistake!
+ To Live And Die In The Airport Lounge

And finally....3 more songs about snow - I haven't listened to the lyrics, so I damn hope that it's not THAT kind of "snow"!
+ Kuryakin - Snow
+ Tower of Foil - Silent Stream of Snow
+ Sambassadeur - Ice & Snow