The Facebook experiment...part two...

74 likes in one week isn’t exactly earthshattering, but still 74 more likes than a week ago! So there’s yet no need to panic and definitely no need to spend some hard earned money on boosting, promoting or whatever buzzwords Facebook are throwing around to get their hands on my well-deserved pocket money. But needless to say there is still room for a few more likes, so please go ahead and throw some love in the direction of HITC. Some recent few highlights from the Facebook stream…

Oh yes…new single from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.


And this is perhaps even better. A new track from A Novel Resort (still has no "real" home on the web); the solo project of the drummer of Northern Portrait.


The video for the new and surprisingly brilliant James single Frozen Britain.

Holiday’s coming up...parte secunda...

Tomorrow it’s hello Italy!

And just like that…boxstr is suddenly working again. Obviously no explanation has been given for why the site was down for so long. Not that I really expected it.

Back when David of UK/Swedish trio Tender Objects was in a band called Candy Twins, he (or they - not quite sure what is the most correct) recorded the tribute The Next Big Thing to Northern Portrait. Up to recently it hasn't been possible to download the track, but it has finally been made available. And thank you, as I'd be hard pressed to think of something more gorgeous than one jangling pop group paying tribute to another! Tender Objects has other interesting stuff going on and a debut single is currently being mixed, and should hopefully be out some time later this year.

+ The Next Big Thing

Hopefully I'm not the only one thinking that it's been ages since we heard anything (ANYTHING) from the abovementioned Northern Portrait? Wish I had news to share, but sadly I don't...

+ Life Returns To Normal

My calendar for August is one big chaos, but hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in the The Pains of Being Pure at Heart concert at Amager Bio on August 19. Especially since it was announced yesterday that Flag White will be the supporting act.

+ Higher Than the Stars

When announcing the supporting job yesterday, Flag White also posted this new demo for streaming as well as revealing that he is working on a full length album.

Asunder by bjoernalexander

See you in a couple of weeks!

The Body...

The new video for the forthcoming The Pains of Being Pure at Heart single The Body...

Heart...

Brand new video by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart for the single Heart In Your Heartbreak. Certainly looks as if they had great fun shooting it!


The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Heart In Your Heartbreak

Psst…I’ve said this before, but it’s sure worth repeating. Belong is a bloody brilliant album!

Stream the new The Pains of Being Pure at Heart album...

Guess what I'll be doing today? Disappointing first singles or not!
 

Belong...

Check out new The Pains of Being Pure at Heart single Belong. It’s the title track from the band’s second album due March 9 and though I really should know better than posting this, I cannot help being a tiny bit anxious about the album, as (in my opinion) both Belong and Heart In You Heartbreak are among the weakest songs I’ve heard from the band to date. And by that I DON’T mean that the songs are bad. They are not ever remotely close to being that; but they just don’t quite seem to reach the glorious heights of almost every track on the debut. And if you try to be honest and stop being biased for a moment; weren’t the Higher Than The Stars EP and both tracks on the 7" single Say No To Love vastly better than these two album previews? Honestly? Oh well. Not much one can do about it anyway. Instead I plan to spend the next month biting my nails hoping there was nothing to worry about after all...

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart - Belong by Slumberland Records

Bits and pieces...

First a brief update on two of the bands mentioned in my recent “whatever happened to” post.

I did mention that Us With Millions split up, but has since learned that the main reason was the band members lacked the motivation to carry on with the project, when no label was prepared to release their debut album. I’ve (sort of) suggested that they should try to release it themselves on (e.g.) bandcamp, but I doubt if that’s ever going to happen, as I expect the project to be buried and forgotten. The band has mailed me their last recording or, in their own words, “swan song”, which has that very typical Us With Millions sound!
+ Phoenix

Yesterday I received a mail from The Holiday Show bringing the sad (but again, not so unexpected) news that they have split up as well. Apparently musical differences was the reason for the break-up, but all four band members are still involved in music, so we're probably going to hear more from the guys in various disguises at some later point!
+ Snookerstar

Check out this fine Twin Shadow remix of Oh Land's White Nights. Seems like the release of her US debut has been rescheduled and will be out March 15 instead!
White Nights - Twin Shadow Remix by Oh Land

Why hasn't Bright Eyes included Denmark on his upcoming tour? Doubt he'll have any problems selling out a venue here! Btw. Did you remember to download great new track Shell Games?

Since I've started whining; The Paings of Being Pure at Heart isn't coming to Denmark either. I've always said that this band can do nothing wrong, but not coming to Denmark is a major blunder (at least if you ask me)...
+ Higher Than The Stars

Various bits...

Champagne Riot writes that the track Moonstruck has been added to the P3 playlist. And indeed it’s true. In the same post they add that they (like the rest of us) have given up on Myspace!
Moonstruck

Anyone heard of (or perhaps remember) Kind of girl; a band I used to hype? If you haven’t, now is a good time to say hello as every track released by the band is free to download at last.fm. Come to think of it; the band has been awfully quiet for a long time.
+ Poetry Boy

More than once I’ve asked myself if The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is capable of doing anything wrong. Now that I’ve finally (as probably the last living soul on the planet) given new single Heart In Your Heartbreak a listen the question still rings true.
Heart In Your Heartbreak

The sophomore release (which conveniently will be titled just that) by Bubbegum Lemonade will be out on Matinée Recordings on Monday (November 29). Two intriguing promo tracks are available to sweeten the wait.
+ Caroline's Radio
+ You Only Leave Twice

If you scroll down you’ll see that I’ve (once again) added Google ads to the right column. I believe the deal is that I’m not allowed to encourage anyone to click the ads, so I won’t...

Check back for part II tomorrow.

On air...

"Look at me I’m"…sitting right here by the computer. Yes. I deliberately changed (removed) the colors, so prevent anyone from seeing how grey my beard is! Plans tonight include listening to some music, reading some mails, watch some music videos and of course check the score in the England vs. Algeria game.

Have read so much about the video for Say No To Love (the new single by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart in case you didn't know) that I have to watch it myself...just like the song itself the video is really lovely, and repeating myself is rather tempting as I'm once again wondering if the band can do anything wrong?
+ Say No To Love

A deluxe edition of Propaganda’s epic debut album A Secret Wish will be out on August 2 (according to the promo mail, though various online shops list the time of release as mid-July) including "the original album plus all of the cassette/vinyl-only mixes on Disc One, complete with guest appearances from David Sylvian, Steve Howe (Yes) and Glenn Gregory (Heaven 17). Disc Two adds a wealth of bonus material including the complete, unexpurgated 20-minute cassette mix of Duel, Trevor Horn's previously unreleased Thousand Eyes... remix of Dr. Mabuse, a works-in-progress version of The Chase and ten-minute 12" mixes of Frozen Faces and p:Machinery". This is really awesome news, as this was one of the albums of my teenage years and I simply cannot wait to get my hands on the double CD box.

As always I'm living in a world of my own, so I was completely unaware of that new single Sunset to Sunset by Spleen United is out on Monday (iTunes).

Not much happening really..........

Ginger, stars, pains and bubblegum...

Ginger Ninja will be in town on October 1 playing at Toldkammeret. This is great news of course, as this is one terrific live band, but they've picked a rather bad date, as my wife will be going out that evening. Thus making the honorable job of looking after the kiddos all mine. Guess this means that I’ll have to spend some hard earned cash on a babysitter, as I really don’t want to miss the opportunity to see the boys performing live again.
+ OnePlusOneIsThree

Chromewaves posted new track Fixed by Stars last week and my initial reaction when giving it a listen was disappointment. The problem is that I cannot help comparing every new song by the band to Elevator Love Letter, which really isn’t fair as most songs (not just ones by the band, but songs in general) pale in comparison. And Fixed is actually a pretty good song in its own right and should be judged as such.
+ Fixed

New 7” single Say No To Love by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is out today on Slumberland Records. This is yet another amazing release by the New Yorkers, which has sort of left me wondering if the band is actually capable of doing anything wrong?
+ Say No To Love

Sounding equally fuzzy and almost as great is the new single Caroline’s Radio by Bubblegum Lemonade, which is out now on Matinée Recordings as a 7” single.
+ Caroline’s Radio

x+x...

Patting (not padding - should have paid more attention in English class 25 years ago; dammit) my own shoulders! Remembered today what I forgot yesterday, so xx has been getting a few good listens today. Hype has to be one of my least favorite words and The xx has certainly been getting their fair share of attention the past few months. Normally this means that I wouldn’t even bother listen to them, just to be able to wave that banner saying “I’m no bandwagoner”. Nothing but stubbornness I know and more than a few times it has caused me to miss out on something pretty good. But luckily this time it hasn’t, and of course this amazing debut deserves all the hype, all the positive press and the zillion (now zillion + one) blog posts it has been getting so far.
+ Basic Space

Spreading faster than something that spreads really, really fast is news about the forthcoming album Bonfires on the Heath by The Clientele. Chromewaves shares his excitement and has more info as well as a few promo tracks.

Lots of people seem thrilled about the Saint Etienne remix of the TPOBPAH track Higher Than The Stars. Quite frankly I’m bored stiff, so I’m really not sure whether people actually enjoy the remix itself, or simply has fallen in love with the thought of Saint Etienne doing the remix? However the original version of the track is simply fantastic and probably better than any song found on the debut album, which is a remarkable achievement as the debut was (and remains) nothing but marvelous. Download both versions at Polaroid (or the remix below).
+ Higher Than The Stars (Saint Etienne Visits Lord Spank Remix)

US electro pop combo Null Device is generously giving away an album worth of music for free via bandcamp. The collection has been named Recursions and features a total of 12 tracks; “six remixes, 2 remakes, one cover, 2 demos and a live recording”. I've quite enjoyed previous releases by Null Device, but I seriously doubt that I'll ever learn to truly appreciate remixes and remakes. Especially I see no point in the remaking of Footfalls, as the original is vastly superior to the new version.
+ Footfalls
+ Footfalls (2009 version)

Shorties...

The eagerly awaited Mew album No More Stories is out today. I’m probably one of the very few, who has yet to listen to it, but I’ll snap up a copy, as soon as the working day is over. Reviewers seem to adore the album and the average rating of the 7 reviews compiled by Gaffa is 5.6 stars out of 6.

Indicater Records has a new (download only) compilation out. 19 indie pop/rock tracks for €8 seem more than reasonable to me; especially if the other 18 songs are of the same caliber as this promo track by Irish trio Sweet Jane.
+ Sweet Jane – Blackboots and Blackhearts

You’ve probably already streamed the new The Pains of Being Pure at Heart track over at Pitchfork? It can be heard at Myspace as well, if you (just like me) happen to be no fan of Pitchfork. I’m really not a fan of streaming either! But the song is mighty fine though.

Californian electro pop duo Electric Valentine offers their new single Beat Drop as free download. It’s taken from the duo’s debut album Automatic (out tomorrow August 18) and is a fairly catchy yet rather harmless pop tune.
+ Beat Drop

My inbox is one big mess and I’m once again reading, downloading, listening, deleting etc. And yet once again I’m equally amazed and frustrated how much junk is mailed to me.

Is today’s BandBase.dk track of the day irresistibly catchy or simply one of the cheesiest pop songs you’ve ever heard?
+ The Chop Chop Family - You Used To Be So Indie

The pains of a northern riot (part II)...

Following up on yesterday’s post.

So far I’ve only been able to find two reviews of the concert. One by Soundvenue and one by Undertoner. Both reviewers are fairly positive and rate the concert 5 and 4 stars respectively. Unfortunately, only Undertoner thinks it’s worth mentioning the opening acts, but only waste two lines on that, which I doubt will excite either band?

Danielle has written her thoughts on the concert and has posted a few pictures as well (click the photo to see more). Her fine blog (love exists) has been added to the blog roll.

Another Danish blog On The Brightside has posted a few nice pictures, but the words are sparse.

Champagne Riot sort of verifies the speculations I posted yesterday, whether or not the one-man project has been put in the grave. The band has a new Myspace page and only new tracks are being streamed. The forthcoming single will be called A Friend of A Friend, so the title I suggested was a bit too extensive.

Indie MP3 interviews Stefan of Northern Portrait. Notice how he answers the question about the album in a fashion that would make any politician proud (revealing absolutely nothing).

According to Last.fm, Northern Portrait will be playing at Prinzenbar in Hamburg on October 2, but the concert has yet to be listed at the band’s Myspace.

Was introduced to fellow blogger Rikke (author of blaa vinyl) at the concert, but our chat was cut short by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart hitting the stage. Hopefully we'll be able to continue our talk some other time?

The pains of a northern riot...

This is not a review. Just some thoughts on last nights concert at Lille Vega. A blurry picture might be added later today.

Champagne Riot were three men (2 male and 1 female to be exact) on stage and since no songs from the Paris and I EP were performed, I assume that Champagne Riot as a one-man project has been put in the grave. But then again, they only played 4 songs (all of them new to me), so a more extensive set might have included a few of the older ones. 4 songs were definitely on the short side, but probably the deal the trio was able to cut, as frontman Caspar handles the bass for the second opening act Northern Portrait as well. But the set was even more on the short shirt as the trio gave a fine performance and didn’t sound anything like a brand new constellation. Forthcoming single A Friend of a Friend of a Friend (or something like that) sounded promising (somewhat Pet Shop Boyish) and should hopefully be out come September/October, though information is sparse.

Northern Portrait was every bit as fabulous as I’d been told (and hoping) they’d be. Almost seems unreal that the band’s live debut took place less than 4 months ago, because the band played its way through the set of 10 songs like seasoned veterans. I had been looking forward to the concert for ages, and had convinced a couple of friends to join me at the concert, so it was quite a relief that they didn’t disappoint. Several tracks from the forthcoming debut album Criminal Art Lovers were included in the setlist and the two that didn’t know beforehand sounded perhaps even better as some of the songs from the two EP’s. Now if they could only finish the damn thing and get the album released!

The performance of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart was pretty much like I thought it would be; a short and quite noisy set with hardly any variation, but still damn appealing. The noise and lack of variation sort of “killed” my compatriots, so I had to watch the second half of the Pains’ show on my own, though that didn’t make me enjoy it any less. The music aside I in particular enjoyed the band’s interaction with the fans and the chitchatting in between songs which really wasn’t something I had expected. Instead this left me with the impression that this is not only a band with great musical talents, but at the same time a friendly and utterly charming bunch of people. You can definitely count me in the next time they are visiting Denmark!
+ Champagne Riot - Scandinavian Warfare
+ Champagne Riot - Heroes of our Time
+ Northern Portrait - Crazy
+ Northern Portrait - I Give You Two Seconds To Entertain Me
+ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Everything With You
+ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Young Adult Friction
+ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Come Saturday
+ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Kurt Cobain's Cardigan

Remember...

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Northern Portrait and Champagne Riot are playing at Lille Vega on Sunday.
+ Champagne Riot - Scandinavian Warfare
+ Champagne Riot - Heroes of our Time
+ Northern Portrait - Crazy
+ Northern Portrait - I Give You Two Seconds To Entertain Me
+ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Everything With You
+ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Young Adult Friction
+ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Come Saturday
+ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Kurt Cobain's Cardigan

Yeah...

I’ve never been the sharpest tool in the shed or the fastest one out of the blocks. I’m certain that several older posts will reveal that I’ve “discovered” things long after it was discovered by just about everyone else. The most recent example is Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which I’ve passed over again and again, primarily because of the massive hype surrounding Karen O and her two compatriots. But the past weekend the band played at Roskilde Festival, and since numerous people (including various radio hosts) were literally going crazy while looking forward to the concert, I thought “what the heck”; let’s check it out. So I grabbed It’s Blitz from the pile of CD’s (you know; I did actually buy it a long time ago, but just never really listened to it) back home, and through the first 3 listens so far today it’s been a surprisingly positive and refreshing experience. Actually it’s been such an uplifting experience that I decided to order the band’s to other albums as well. And just to keep my credit card busy, I ordered the Florence And The Machine debut album too, in a weak attempt to (hopefully) keep myself somewhat up-to-date, by giving this over(?)-hyped name a listen, before it becomes old news.

Speaking of Roskilde. The reviews of The Pains of Being Pure At Heart concert at the Festival weren’t positive at all, giving the band 2 respectively 3 stars out 6. I hope they fix whatever was wrong, before the concert at Vega on 2 August.

It does seem like Jonas didn’t go see TPOBPAH after all, despite all my recommendations. Apparently the Elbow concert blew him away completely and drained him for whatever little energy he had left. But “luckily” it seems like he didn’t miss out on something fantastic anyway!

A New Order tribute album called Ceremony, where proceedings from the sales will benefit the Salford Foundation Trust’s Tony Wilson Award, will be out some time this fall on independent label 24 Hour Service Station. The album will include 2 discs with cover versions of several New Order classics plus a third disc dedicated to various cover versions of the band’s first single Ceremony. Two sample tracks are now free to download, and one can only dream that the rest will be equally great! And to keep the Roskilde string alive; I saw none other than New Order performing live at Roskilde in 1984(!).
+ POCKET feat. Shaun Robinson & Tracy Shedd - Sub-Culture
+ Kites With Lights - Dream Attack

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!

Climbing up that hill...

Back from a fantastic but extremely exhausting trip to Tallinn. I know I have a habit of forgetting things, but I seriously cannot recall being so completely worn out before. Ever! So today is one long uphill climb.

As an almost symbolic response to how I’m feeling today, The William Blakes and Spleen United teamed up at the recent Backstage show and performed an alternative (and by that I certainly don’t mean bad) version of Running Up That Hill. As a small treat a MP3 of the recording is now downloadable from the Speed Of Sound webpage.
+ Running Up That Hill (MP3)
+ Running Up That Hill (Video)

News of the day! The Pains of Being Pure at Heart will be playing at Lille Vega in Copenhagen on August 2. But the even better news of the day is that the supporting acts are Champagne Riot AND Northern Portrait! This is news I’ve been waiting impatiently for, for a long, long time and tickets were bought in an instant.
+ The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Everything With You
+ Northern Portrait - I Give You Two Seconds To Entertain Me
+ Champagne Riot - Scandinavian Warfare

The Twitter profile of Labrador Records is quite informative. Sign up, follow and you’ll soon be able to read a really interesting rumor about The Radio Dept.

Pure at heart...

One quick search at Hypem reveals that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has already been featured by just about every other indie pop loving blogger. So feel free to move on, as the next few lines will contain absolutely nothing that hasn’t been said or written numerous times before. But since this is my blog, where else would be a more appropriate place to share my 5 cents on the smashing debut album by the NY quartet, than this? I have vowed to never use that “album of the year” description again, but the rest of the year’s releases will have a rough time trying to make a bigger impression on me than this one. Not often does it happen that I listen to a debut, where I have nothing negative to say. Where there isn’t something that I would have changed, had I been in charge. Or at least one track I would have canned. But there’s nothing here. Nothing really! There’s simply not a bad track or even a weak moment on the album. Of course you could always have wished for a more diverse album, as each track more or less follows the same formula of mixing a perfect pop song with noisy guitars and pulsing drums. And if you’re a pedant you could of course argue that there are enough bands out there claiming to be inspired by MBV and JAMC. However I see no point in fixing something that’s not broken (and, luckily, neither does the band) or reinventing something that’s not in need of being reinvented. Listening to the album without question proves that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart has a charming (and winning) formula on their hands, and if the band decides to stick to that one, then it’s just fine by me.
+ Come Saturday
+ Everything with You

Northern Portrait keeps adding new dates to their gig list. But we are still waiting for the band to announce their first Danish concert. Not that I’m impatient or anything. I just want news on this NOW!
+ I Give You Two Seconds To Entertain Me

As mentioned a few weeks ago, Swedish duo Ostrich has indeed been signed to a label. The band posted the great news yesterday and the debut EP Press Hold will be out in September on the Cynical Minds label.
+ Icecold Kisses

Folk-Rock band The Village Idiot is probably the best my hometown has to offer, when it comes to music. Tomorrow night Kenni (The Village Idiot himself) and his band will be playing at our local venue Toldkammeret, to celebrate the release of the new album Prima Materia, but unfortunately I won’t be able to go, as I’ll once again have to look after kids. Ridiculously I have yet to see the band in concert and that’s definitely something that needs to change very soon. A zip-file containing 13 selected tracks from various releases is currently free to download from the band’s homepage, which will offer you an excellent introduction to the band and its music.
+ Alcoholic deathride (Ponamero Sundown cover)
+ Secrecy

Shorties...

Today has been absolutely awful. Dead tired from a little too much drinking Saturday evening combined with having to meet a reporting deadline at work today. And for a few hours every blog hosted by blogger was stopped by our IT security system, which more or less would have put an end to my blogging career. Whatever caused this has now been changed and things are pretty much back to normal.

Arriving in my mailbox this weekend were albums by Green Concorde, Didium & The Black Bonnie Picture and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Hopefully I’ll soon find the peace and quite needed to give them all the attention they deserve (?)!

One-man project Little Big Adventure has been signed by Labrador and a debut EP named The Hateful Eye will be out May 13.
+ The Hateful Eye

Don’t know how a promo copy of the self-titled Audrye Sessions debut album ended up in my mailbox, but I certainly don’t mind it did. This isn’t earth shattering original in any way, but just good decent indie rock. And you cannot really get enough of that; can you?
+ Turn Me Off