automotive

Shorties...

Will I ever learn to make up my mind? In April I wrote that I thought the Lykke Li album Youth Novels was plain boring. But before making my year-end list, I thought I should give it another listen and suddenly find myself completely in love with it! Apparently I can’t always tell the difference between boring and beautiful? D’oh!
+ Dance, Dance, Dance

Two tracks from the forthcoming Demons Are Real EP I mentioned yesterday can now be streamed at Myspace. I'm afraid that the jury is still out!

Completely forgot to mention in the same post yesterday that the excellent indie poppers No and the Maybes will be supporting moi Caprice tomorrow night. The band gave a really fine performance at this year’s Vesterbro Festival (now known as Start! Festival) and with plenty of gigs under their belt since the release of the self-titled album in October I expect them to (at least) match that one.
+ Mouth

Shorties...

Find information on how to pre-order the forthcoming Ether Aura album Watercolor Ghost Town. $12 seems like s a fairly reasonable price.

Danish New Order/Joy Division inspired indie rock trio Demons Are Real will release a 5 track EP named The Blessing Of Sorrow on February 2nd. They’ve previously promised that a new release would include more “evil sounding” guitars, so it will be quite interesting to hear if the band has moved in completely different direction. All 6 tracks of the band’s previous (and absolutely terrific) EP Hum Speed On/Off are free to download at BandBase.
+ Burning Oil

One Weekly Gun shares his thoughts on the threat of terrorism.
+ Tomorrow When it Comes

Sudd is dead.

Time to vote. The Matinée fanclub poll is open.

Looking forward to the moi Caprice concert at Toldkammeret Friday evening. One more band to wipe off that “bands I need to see” list.
+ Drama Queen

Støj på frekvensen...

New post is up!

It's (almost) Christmas...

If this post looks familiar, it's because I'm taking the easy road here and re-posting last year's post. Broken links have been removed and new comments, songs, links for other compilations etc. will continuously be added until the 24th.

You know it is December when you cannot open your mailbox or check the Myspace bulletins, without seeing the word "Christmas" in the headline of just about every second message. Not that I mind at all, as most of the Christmas tunes I've checked out so far this year have been rather good. But in an attempt to prevent the Christmas songs from dominating my other posts, I've set up this one which I intend to update throughout the month, whenever something interesting pops up.....

The always reliable J.A. recommends these two Christmas lovelies from Sweden...
+ The Garlands - Christmas Song
+ TIAC - It's Christmas But Not For You

+ Betty & the cavaleros - Hey! I'm Your Gift Today + Love Will Come Back To You
These two beauties by this Norwegian constellation could easily soundtrack the next Christmas flick from Disney.

+ The Raveonettes - Come on Santa
Already posted by numerous blogs. But it's probably my favorite of this year's Christmas tunes, so the post wouldn't really be complete without it.

+ Remington Super 60 - Here Comes Christmas
In a few seconds, this one will get you into the right Christmas mood. Can be found on the recently released An Indiecater Christmas compilation.

+ Foxes! - Christmas Songs
Have a lo-fi indie pop Christmas. Versions of 4 Christmas classics are free to download from Last.fm.

+ Carlas - Jul I Havanna
Translated to English the title means Christmas in Havana.

+ She Wants Revenge - Kidnap The Sandy Klaus
If we kidnap him; does that mean that we can have all the presents for ourselves?

+ Aberdeen City - Just Like Christmas
Another band dusts off last year's holiday single.

+ Modern Angels - December
From the free Electric Fantastic Xmas 2006 compilation. Download the Electric Fantastic Christmas 2007 compilation for free right here. Released by generous electronic record label Electric Fantastic Sound. Thanks to J.A. once again!

+ Fireflies - X-mas Song
A short but simply wonderful indie pop Christmas song. Thanks to J.A. for the heads up!

+ Sofia Talvik - Christmas
Christmas doesn't necessarily mean joy and happiness. Still this is a lovely tune by this equally lovely Swede.

+ Sofia Talvik - A Carol For The Lonely
And another lovely and quite melancholic one from the Swedish singer/songwriter.

+ Liam and Me - Winter Paradise (I Miss You This Christmas)
This is probably my favorite Christmas song.

+ Tiger Baby - This Christmas
And this is probably number two on that list.

+ Irene - Christmas on the Beach
Just imagine celebrating Christmas on the beach. This is probably what it would sound like!

"The rest":
+ Regina - Näinä mustina iltoina
+ The Swimmers - The Christmas Sound
+ Celestial - saving up her wishes (for another christmas)
+ The Ten Thousand Dollar Tattoo – My First Santa
+ Factory Kids - Father Christmas Still
+ Richard Hawley - Silent Night
+ Soda Fountain Rag - The Christmas Where It Ends
+ Manic Street Preachers - Christmas Ghost
+ Summer Cats - Plastic Christmas Trees

Santas Working Overtime is a great place to find more Christmas related stuff.

Entakt/Jonas Breum...

Some thoughts on the Entakt/Jonas Breum concert last night (photo is used without any permission whatsoever).

Don’t know exactly what I expected, but probably that a little more than 50 people would be attending. Especially with a venue so close to Copenhagen and a location right next to the Metro.

Warm-up Jonas Breum showed the witty side of himself as well as delivering a charming acoustic set. Some of you are probably familiar with the debut album Det Perfekte Spild Af Tid released earlier this year and it being quite an electronic production. So excellent to hear that the songs easily hold their own when performed in stripped down versions. He played a few new songs as well, but I was surprised that he opted to include several songs by his long-ago disbanded group Coolsville. And judging from the gossip I heard afterwards, we should expect the second release from Breumm to be more of a rock/guitar driven album. He clearly showed last night that this is where his heart belongs!

The past 18 months I’ve been going on and on about how I much I've wanted to see an Entakt concert. So obviously expectations were sky high last night, but the band certainly didn’t let me down (or anyone else for that matter). The band gave a simply brilliant performance, where it quickly became rather obvious to anyone, that the band sees itself as a rock rather than a pop band. As I feared a few favorites were missing (sadly including Mandagens Vægt, Den Blinde Vinkel, Intet Rør´mig Nu (ctrl+alt+del)), and only one song from the band’s two full length demos found its way into the set. But you cannot really blame the band for trying to promote their new album På Bagsiden Af Europa, and the opening message was that they hoped that a few people would buy the album after the show. Especially since “no one else has”. And I did indeed buy a copy (signed by Jonas) for my daughter and a few others secured themselves signed copies as well. Hopefully the band will carry on despite the lack of recognition the band is getting from radio, audience and record buyers. Symbolically manifested through this quote by Jonas when he introduced Kunsten At Slippe Taget. “We’d like to play a hit, which never was a hit”. So you can say that neither the band nor I understand why this song didn’t become just that, as it was one of my favorite tracks of last year. Still this didn’t ruin the night and summed up this was probably my concert highlight of the year. And one can only feel so sorry for all of those, who decided to stay at home and missed out on this great one!
+ Kunsten At Slippe Taget

Tonight, tonight, tonight...

Entakt live at Vanløse Kulturhus supported by an acoustic solo performance by Jonas Breum (of Breumm). Finally getting the chance to see a full length Entakt concert!
+ Entakt - Livets sang går i stå mol

Watch Jonas Breum perform an acoustic version of Ingen Verdens Ting.

Taking a break...

No, no. Not from blogging, but from posting anything even remotely related to Christmas. There are still another 3 weeks left until we reach those glory days of stomachaches and credit card debts, so let’s focus on something completely different instead.

But since we have now reached December, bloggers, magazines etc. are beginning to post their year-end lists. Still ridiculously early if you ask me, and like previous years I’m going to spend December on catching up on the many releases I’ve missed/ignored. As an example; had I compiled my list two days ago, the debut album Tu hoguera está ardiendo by Spanish band Klaus & Kinski would not have been on my list. But yesterday I finally started listening to the album, and now it will definitely end up in my Top 10 (and probably even higher). An amazing album on which the band blends pop, electronica and shoegaze in the most charming and contagious way, and my year-end list would have been ever so incomplete without it.
+ Nunca estás a la altura

One album I’m impatiently waiting for is the third release from fabulous Detroit band Ether Aura. Scheduled for a release in February next year and pre-ordering (to help the band out with production costs) should be possible anytime soon. If the band’s blog is to be trusted the band is working on a transformation from shoegaze towards a more gothic-americana-folk sound. Two new tracks are streamable at Myspace and they do somewhat verify that such a transformation is in progress. The two first albums were nothing but fantastic, and despite the aforementioned changes in the musical direction, I expect the third one to be equally great, thus foolishly ignoring the obvious risk of a major disappointment.
+ Twist (standout track of Before We Could Sing)