Music and life...

Not sure for how long those Roskilde “excursions” will continue. Yesterday was my fourth and last one of the year, but probably will have to go there once a week in January as well as in February (at least). What I’m doing there you ask? As written before it (unfortunately) has nothing to do with a well-known festival. Instead it's a tad more serious, as I’m the "stand-in" for a colleague, who underwent a rather complicated operation earlier this month. He’s doing fine now, but his recovery is going to take a while or longer (whatever that means exactly).

Enough about the challenges of real life and let’s shift our focus back to some music...

Two tracks by Crushed Stars are currently listed among my current favorite tracks (check the right column, if you don’t know what I’m talking about) and if I could I would add the entire Convalescing In Braille album to the list. But a) I’m not allowed to share more tracks than the two already shared and b) it would look pretty stupid; wouldn’t it? The album is dark, moody, melancholic and stunningly beautiful!
+ Eyeliner
+ Crushed Stars
+ 99 Red Ballons (Nena cover) (non-album track)

It’s been a long time coming (release party was held more than a year ago), but the debut album Australia by Tellus about the Moon is finally available for purchasing. Released by new indie label Dalahäst (Dalecarlian horse) Records, which I assume (but obviously don’t know) is the band’s own?
+ Golden Rule

Snacks...

Will one loose one’s street cred (if one has any) if one says that ones likes the new Snow Patrol single? Risking an eye and putting in writing that I think Just Say Yes is a terrific pop song. Watch the video if you need to be convinced that I haven’t lost it completely.

This has to be one of the best promo mails ever. Texas quartet Fate Lions has mailed this download link for their album Good Enough For You and adds "Please feel free to treat it however you like. Perhaps you know someone that might enjoy it or know someone that would hate it but whom you'd enjoy annoying, either way please feel free to share, etc. We play wannabe smarty pants fist pumping roller rink bubble gum downer pop.". Not a word about how fabulous they think they are. A short, intriguing and (just a little bit) funny message is really all it takes!
+ Seen It All

Swedish indie popsters Tellus About The Moon will be holding a release party for their album Australia tomorrow at the nightclub Svanen in Gothenburg. Clever as I am, I obviously understand that this means that the album will be released and thus available for purchase. How come then that I cannot find any info on how to buy it or even who is releasing it (though I do suspect that the band is releasing it themselves).

Interesting remix project mixtoverdener.dk (mix two worlds) has reached its final chapter and rounding out the experiment are these two recently published remixes by Carpark North and Nikolaj Nørlund. Samples were taken from cello concerto no. 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich.
+ Carpark North - The One
+ Nikolaj Nørlund - No Love Lost

Tellus about the Moon...

It’s been a while since we heard anything from great Swedish indiepoppers Tellus about the Moon, but for a good reason, as they have been busy recording their debut album. I had a short chat on the web with one of the band members Saturday night and he informed me that the band is now working intensively on finding an ”attractive” label to release their album, as the band remains unsigned. You might recall that the band released an EP on Letterbox Records last year, but their self-titled EP probably should be considered a “just this once” kind of thing? But the band remains confident that they’ll soon be signed to a label, and I’m definitely going to stay optimistic with the band. And why shouldn’t I, as the three new recordings recently uploaded to Myspace sound excellent? I’ll monitor the situation closely and will obviously keep you posted, when (hopefully soon) news on label signing, release and tour dates etc. will start popping up!
+ Nomore (from last year’s EP)

Shorties...

No more Majorian EP's left to give away.

The self-titled download-only debut EP by Tellus About The Moon is out now on Letterbox Records. This is Indie pop at its yummiest.
+ Nomore

The Christmas songs have started floating in, but I refuse to post a single word about Christmas before December 1. Well – I just did. Didn’t I?

If you have plenty of time and want a good read (in Swedish), I recommend the blog 50-listan. Several writers (including Tobias and Frans of Emerald Park) have compiled lists of their 50 favorite albums. The list has been in the making for more than 2½ years, but it’s almost completed now.

This week's track by One Weekly Gun track is dedicated to Nicolaus Copernicus. Inspired by this incident.
+ We love Copernicus

More later...

Lukewarm...

Over the past year or so, Swedish synth-pop duo Ostrich has slowly developed into a blog favorite and recent output Lukewarm only helps reinforcing that trend. Like most of the previous tracks (you can download all of them for free over at Myspace), the new baby is dark and melodic, and continues to draw heavily on the Depeche Mode influences. Isn't it about time that some label somewhere signs this duo to some kind of record/publishing deal?
+ Lukewarm

Two new tracks by Swedish indie poppers Tellus About The Moon can be streamed at Myspace. Looks as if the band has been signed to Letterbox Records, but no words on if/when anything will be released.

Danish one-man project choir of young believers will release its/his debut album this is for the white in your eyes on Monday, and the advanced single, the grand and absolutely gorgeous Next Summer, has already received massive airplay. The band/act has been getting quite a lot of press as well since the debut EP was released last year, so one could say that hype has slowly been building up. Soundvenue has just published a review of the album, and a 5 out of 6 rating certainly indicates that there could very well be more to this than just “hot air”.
+ Next Summer

Bad news of the day is that Danish sixties inspired surf/pop quartet Velour has decided to split up. Why the band's appealing pop songs never reached a wider audience is simply beyond me. They'll be missed and the band will be playing their last ever concert on September 19 at Rust in Copenhagen.
+ If You Really Want Me

More shorties (evening edition)...

Indie MP3 "discovers" Tellus about the Moon.
+ Wwwm

From March 24 the new single Seventh Heaven by Scottsmen AirSpiel will be available as a free download from the band's webpage. And what a mighty fine new baby it is.

One of the sad stories of last year was the split up of the talented trio Port Largo. Now Caspar of the band has created his own solo project called A Graceless Phrase and already has 3 fine tunes to offer as free downloads.
+ Everything is All We Need

The Sound of Arrows has just been signed by Labrador, and you really need to look no further than the new track Danger! to understand why!
+ Danger!

A step forward…

I’ve been whining about those missing speakers for too long now, so the other day I finally was a bit proactive and went out and bought myself a CD player. Not a big one, but nonetheless a CD player. So after 40 days of musical starvation I can finally listen to some music at work again. Still cannot stream and download stuff (oh well – I can, but I cannot hear a thing), but since I belong to the last 10% of the population, who insist on buying CD’s, I have no shortage of music to choose from.

So far Night Falls Over Kortedala is my new office "darling" and I fully understand why that album by Jens Lekman was widely popular among a large number of bloggers last year. This lovely album contains 12 fine pop songs finding inspiration in various genres and from several other artists.
+ The Opposite of Hallelujah
+ Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo

For the 10th week in a row One Weekly Gun delivers as promised and posts a new track. This time it’s a tribute (ups sorry – wrong word) sarcastic comment to Mr. Tap Dance himself a.k.a. The President of the U.S.A.
+ Yessir, I Can Boogie

Excellent Swedish indie pop band Tellus About The Moon has posted two new tracks for streaming. Lovely stuff as always and I’m currently “negotiating” hard for the songs to be made available as free downloads.

Wwwm...

Brilliant new (and odd titled) track by lovely Swedish indie pop 5-piece Tellus About The Moon. As well as a rather poor quality video of the band performing the track live at On Our Honeymoon.
+ Wwwm

Moon! What moon?...

Gothenburg keeps producing fine new bands and once again the city proves that it must be the indie pop Capital of the world. 5-piece Tellus About The Moon is the next one in the line of promising and absolutely gorgeous sounding Gothenburg bands and the first track available called Hate is nothing but a true indie pop gem. And in case you haven't guessed this already, this is just another one of J.A.'s many great finds.
+ Hate

Another young (average age of the 3 band members is around 16 and a half) and promising Swedish band - Tea For Three!!! - will release their debut single on the incomparable Cloudberry Records on September 15. Untypical the band is not from Gothenburg, but Stockholm shows that fine new bands can flourish there as well.
+ Nincompoops
+ Thngamajig

A Plague Of Angels has posted a few tracks by Richard Hawley. His new album Lady's Bridge is sweet - just sweet!
+ Coles Corner