Bloody Cookie

I've mentioned them earlier on this blog, but it's not until now, thanks to my favorite store owner mrkwang's connections to the band, that I am able to feature a downloadable mp3 of theirs.



The four Korean women of Bloody Cookie released their second mini album, A Curer, a couple of weeks ago. Their original gothic/grunge/nu metal style has softened a bit since their first release, The Immature Flower, but they're still awesome.

Down below is a promo mp3 for Bloody Cookie's latest release. I'm not particularily fond of promo mixes, but this one I even put on the playlist together with their real songs, so even you too don't like promo mixes I'd suggest you give this one a chance ^^ Also check out their MySpace where the three songs off their first release is available for streaming!

Bloody Cookie 2nd mini album sample version

Holiday Sampler & Paper Route

In case you've missed it, PureVolume has got a pretty nice Holiday Sampler available for free download right now. Check it out for twelve cosy Christmas songs to brighten your day ^^



My favorite out of the twelve is no doubt Paper Route's City Trucks. If it's to your liking as well, I would recommend a visit to Paper Route's MySpace to hear a few songs more and download their great original christmas songs EP A Thrill of Hope. Unfortunately, those are all in m4a, but even if you (like me) need to use another media player than your ordinary to play them, they're worth it ^^

...and everyone fell asleep

Ok, so I don't even know of a handful active local bands, but from what little I have heard and seen, these guys are definitly my favorites.



The four guys of ...and everyone fell asleep formed the band in 2005. With three of them having a background in jazz (they even use a double bass!), their quite melancholic songs often have a very nice jazzy feeling to them. And I really like the singer's voice.

Don't miss the song below and go visit their MySpace for more. A new song should be available there in not too long ^^

Body of Sand [left click]

If you happen to be in Linköping on Wednesday (Dec. 20), I'd suggest a visit to Passagen at 19.00 for an evening of young experimental sounds from ...and everyone fell asleep and Wildbirds & Peacedrums ^_^

The Knife

Most people into quriky electronic music probably know all about The Knife already. They're sister and brother, Swedish and have so far released three full albums and one soundtrack. Though I still haven't heard a single song from their most recent (and most praised) album, Silent Shout, I claim to really like The Knife - their first album, The Knife, was extraordinary to me.

Today is Lucia and The Knife are celebrating through once again sharing their 2000 Christmas version of Reindeer - one of my favorite The Knife songs. Make sure you get it and then go visit their homepage for cover art ^^

Christmas Reindeer

Greenwich Resident

Here's some people I'm really happy to be able to feature on this blog! I first heard them on Siamese Flowers and took a liking to their two songs on there instantly.



Liverpool based Greenwich Resident released their first EP, I Hid My Heroes, on Robot! Records a few weeks ago. The four members hail from Canada, Norway and England and have created a sound that, in their own words, is "distinctly un-British" and "entirely evolving". Their mellowness was one of the things that appealed to me at first, but as it turns out they're also really good with a lighter pop sound.

The song below is the title track from the EP and it'll stay up for a week or so. Make sure you visit Greenwich Resident's MySpace to hear more great songs of theirs ^^

I Hid My Heroes [no longer available]

SunRadio & Kim Doo Soo

This is something of a failure, sorry. Since I haven't written about anything originating from Korea for a while I had decided to make a post on indierockers SunRadio today. They've been playing at the venues that Korea's punk scene usually frequent and have recently been in the process of finishing their debut EP, Free Robot. I guess they're done now, since in the past 36 hours all four downloadable songs have been replaced with just one streamable song. I wanted all of you to hear Before your Eyes, but Hot Stuff will have to do for now.


And here's something that took me by surprise this morning: Said the Gramophone has made a post on the foremost of Korea's singer/songwriters, Kim Doo Soo! Damon & Naomi have apparently compiled songs for this intriguing compilation album called International Sad Hits, Volume One: Altaic Language Group, and upon it four songs (보헤미안/Bohemian, 산/Mountain, 해당화/Sweet Briar, 들꽃/Wild Flower) from the artist edition of Kim Doo Soo's 4th album, 自由魂/자유혼/Free Spirit, are featured.

Go here to read what the gramophone has said and download the "one-point-stereo live recording" of 들꽃. Also make a visit to Paper Thin Walls to hear the almost two minutes shorter (and in my opinion not as good) 4th album version of 3rd album song 보헤미안.

Hem

I don't know what to tell you about Hem, except that they're American and make really cosy music. And that they released their latest album, Funnel Cloud, in September. Their bio on last.fm mentions "chamber-folk" and "countrypolitan" as some descriptions of their music.

It's really a little too early for Christmas imo, but after all it is the first Sunday of Advent today and with all the Advent lights showing up in the windows of my neighbours I can't help but feel some Christmas spirit anyway - so here's a cosy Christmas tune. Since I like it so much, here's also a live recording of a song from their Eveningland album. Check out their MySpace to listen to more cosy music ^^

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Carry Me Home (live radio broadcast)

Sleeping States

The past weekend, Grizzly Bear posted a bulletin on MySpace with the subject "3 bands/musicians I am LOVING right now & want peeps to hear". This is my favorite out of the 3 ^_^



British guy Sleeping States has this singer/songwriter thing going. There's a guitar, perhaps a keyboard and maybe a few sounds picked up by a vocal sampler. What I like the most, however, is the soft sound. Very calming.

Down below is my favorite among the songs I've found freely available. Check out Sleeping State's website and MySpace for more. If after visiting his MySpace you find yourself liking the beautiful Rivers, you should check out Grizzly Bear's blog too ^^

London Fields

Benoît Pioulard

Somehow, every profile I checked out on last.fm late yesterday evening seemed to have the same guy on the recently played chart. Of course I had to check him out!



American guy Benoît Pioulard (has been releasing his own music since 2001. However, his first "real" release, Précis, came out on kranky just one month ago and it seems things are going great for him. While using plenty of instruments with the guitar in focus, his bells and overall style makes me think of Shugo Tokumaru. Not exactly the same, but it gives me the same feeling. And it's all in English too :)

The first song below is a nice piece from the new album. The other one is a beautiful song from the 2005 vinyl EP Enge. Get them both. And make a visit to betterPropaganda for another song from the new album ^^

Palimend
Kids Are Getting Younger

New beta and comments

I just switched to the new blogger beta, since philly said it was good and I've been wanting the tag feature since I first came here. In the process I noticed I had somehow turned the comments moderation on and that there were plenty of comments awaiting my approval... Everybody that did comment, I really appreciate it and I'm so sorry for not getting back to you! Comments moderation is now gone and I'm happy to know that so many people come here. Thanks all of you!

Mono

I assume most people that find their way here already know Mono, but just in case: they're one of the best Japanese post rock bands there is. So far they've released four full albums, the lastest one, You Are There, in March/April this year. A vinyl 10" EP, Memorie dal Futuro, was released on Vinyl Films November 1st and they're currently touring Europe.

Here's the title track from the new EP. It's only a sample, but it's still 4:25 and nothing short of awesome so you can still get a good idea on what they sound like from it. Visit the "sound" section of their site for more ^^

Memorie dal Futuro (sample)

treqie

It doesn't happen often, but every time I find out that somebody I know is making music I get somewhat uncomfortable. By now though I should've learnt not to worry about not liking their music since they're all doing just fine. This last time I even had a good laugh because of the funny lyrics ^^



treqie is this Swedish guy making his own kind of retro style synthpop. It reminds me of the kind of instrumental electronic music I liked so much as a child, only now there's vocals. To be honest his vocals aren't that good (they're just charming *_^), but the lyrics are all simple and entertaining so if you can understand Swedish they're definitly worth your attention. Check out the entire album Ett at last.fm if you've got an account ^^

The song below is my favorite by far - an italo inspired track with lyrics in Swedish about hairlessness: "We're hairless, no more hair. We're hairless, no more threads on our bodies" - I just love it!

Hairless (feat. Dasse)
Hairless (instrumental)

aniDa =^.^=

Hongkong longtime "internet musician" aniDa finally took her music into the world of collectable plastic discs when releasing demo vol.1 and demo vol.2 on Iseed Entertainment this summer. Usually accompanied by nothing but an acoustic guitar, aniDa has a cute singer/songwriter style going. And every now and then she makes a pretty good rock song ^^

Plenty of free music is available on the music part of aniDa's site (don't miss the "Live Music" section!), though you might have to change part of the address to "www.anida.hk/..." to make them download. Since there's so much to choose from I couldn't select just one or two songs as I usually do... Here's my favorite song of hers, a live rock version of a song from the demos and an early version of one of my favorites from the demos, in that order :p

Nobody
3人煩 (demo version) (3 people are annoyed)
和你一起的幸福 (Be With U) (wma)

Vega4

I've been getting some e-mails from labels to promote their artists on this blog for a while now, but either they've come when I've been inactive or I just didn't like the artist. Today I got another one, but this time I do like the artist. A lot.



Four guys from various English speaking countries met in London and formed a band by the name of Vega4. Albeit rockier they remind me of Coldplay, in a good way (that is before they snatched best new act of the year or something from Muse, leading me do dislike them since). A bunch of EPs and an album were released some years ago by Taste Media. Now they're signed to Columbia and have a new album, You & Others, coming out on October 30.

Below is the song I was provided for posting on here - I've been playing it on repeat for the past hour so it was definitly a clever choice of theirs. Do get it you too. Also, you can listen to clips from every song on the upcoming album here or just go visit their MySpace for some (non-downloadable) full samples.

Bullets

Kite Operations

I've been too lazy again.. Sorry. From now on I'll promise just one post/week. Though on occasion I'll probably post more. Yeah... Anyway, here's band I was introduced to through the Pastel Music 3th Anniversary Sampler of my favorite label.



While getting their album, Dandelion Day, distributed by Pastel Music in Korea, Kite Operations actually hail from New York and belong to the small K.O.A. Records label. They're playing some American style indie rock that sounds really good most of the time. The debut came out in 2005 so with three new songs not featured on it available on their MySpace perhaps a new album isn't too far away?

The song below is slow paced and beautiful with a shoegazer-guitar towards the end - I really like it. More downloadable mp3s available from their site and from their MySpace ^^

Effervescence

We vs. Death

Today I suddenly felt a really strong urge to hear Hey Frank of Marybell Katastrophy (that I wrote about here). Visiting her site for the first time in months I found that she has now released another demo, 5 Songs (check it out!), and I also managed to surf my way to today's best discovery of mine.



Despite releasing music since 2001, the Dutch guys that form We vs. Death did not release a full album of their own till May this year. We Too Are Concerned | We Are Too Concerned is the title and Zabel Muziek is the label. I'd like to describe their music as post rock with a trumpet, but then I'm not to good on genres. At least it's instrumental music. And the guy on trumpet gets to play a lot.

This song, the first track from their album, became a favorite as soon as I heard it. Many more songs are available to listen to or download from the band's "Songs" section - all released under a Creative Commons license ^^

And How To Translate It

Addio Dodo

"Oggi doveva iniziare

e invece...

Ti Amo Tanto

Addio Dodo"

Autumn's Grey Solace

I can't help but like the name of American duo Autumn's Grey Solace. I keep seeing their name together with words like "etheral" and "shoegazer". The dreamy female vocals definitly adds to the etheral feeling of their music, but to me the shoegazer part is more in the distance somewhere in the dark backgrounds. Three albums are released so far and a fourth, Shades of Grey, will be released on Projekt on September 19.

The song below is from their 2005 album, Riverine. More songs are available on their MySpace, where you should not miss getting the song Falling Sky, and excerpts from songs from the new album are available at the Projekt audio page.

The Unshakeable Demon

Itta

And that's how it goes when I think everything will work on out it's own... At least two times this week is better than no times at all, but I did say I would to 3-4/week. Anyway, here's more stuff from my favorite Korean site, millim.com



Korean Itta is another millim artist picked up by my favorite label, Pastel Music. Her first EP, 나는…있다, was released in 2002 and in mid-August this year her first full album, 11, was released. Itta's music is somewhat experimental and I've even seen some describe her as an avantgardist.

Unlike most millim artists that has released a "real" album, most of what Itta's had on millim is still on the site. The song below is the one I think is her most accessible, but don't be afraid to check out her other stuff - it just needs some getting used to. To hear what she sounds like nowadays - go check out the video for the title track off her new album at YouTube ^^

바람 (wind) [left click]

Slumber Party

Slumber Party is an all-girl band from Detroit. I can not describe their style myself, but it's some kind of pop/rock with keyboards. Actually I didn't like them much at the first listen, but the more I play those songs I can't help but like Aliccia's singing and this almost strange music. Three full albums have been released so far and a fourth, Musik, will be released September 12 on kill rock stars.

The song below is the first track on the new album - I really like the rythmics of it! Also check out the kill rock stars factsheet to hear what they used to sound like ^^

10-9-8-7-6-5-4

Dive

Towards the end of 2005, alok's label Lona Records began releasing stuff in it's 3" cdr series exploring "the literary aspects of experimental sound". I've been buying them all and this is one of my favorites ^_^



There's plenty of people making music and calling themselves Dive at the same time. This particular one used to spell it "D:ve", works from the US and was born in Hong Kong. Unfortunately his own homepage (cliveleung.hk.st) is gone as is his MySpace. And my memory fails me, so unfortunately I can't tell you about his other works (although I think he had released some music stuff before, and perhaps there was some art/design too?). At least what was on that 3" release, Deconstructed Piano, were simple and enthralling electronic pieces.

Deconstructed Piano is sold out by now, but Lona Records still offers the first, though not the best, track as a full mp3 sample. It sounds pretty much like what the title says :p

Drop

Languis

Already when I read their description in this week's Monitor Records newsletter, I knew I would like these guys.



Californian Languis has since the start in 1992 evolved from a duo to a quartet. "Psychedelically-tinged shoegazing pop" - now how awesome does that sound? Their latest EP, Other Desert Cities, was released on Pehr in April this year and an experimental&ambient album, Monobloc vol.1, is scheduled for release on the same label in 2006-2007.

The song below is the first track on the Other Desert Cities EP and it's really nice. They've got some older stuff up on MySpace that you might wanna check out too, but though it's good I like this more :)

In the Field of (Lonely Fences)

BEIT

And here's another millim oldie, before I move onto something newer tomorrow ^^



While I know next to nothing about yesterday's artist, I know even less about BEIT. I think they aspire to make power metal. They have male vocals in Korean. I assume the few songs available on millim are from 2001. That's about it.

Well, I do like power metal, which their song The Murder is a pretty good sample of. And I love rock ballads like the song below. They too should've made it by now. I'm gonna have to ask mrkwang to see if he knows what happened...

비 (Rain) [left click]

Protein Puppet

Here's another old millim favorite of mine. I don't think anybody that asked me for recommendations on Korean music a couple of years ago got away without hearing them :p



Sadly, I know next to nothing about Protein Puppet or 단백질인형, which is the actual name in Korean. They've been on millim since at least 2002 and late 2004/early 2005 they were still active as the original "demo" suddenly was replaced by two "demos". What I like the best about Protein Puppet is their amazing shoegazer influenced rock songs, but their modern rock and trip hop stuff too is incredibly good for a band unsigned this long.

Unfortunately, again, my favorite song is no longer available at millim. In fact, Raining isn't even listed on the site anymore. Well, the songs below aren't that bad either. The first song is a great example of the Protein Puppet rock style while the second represents their more electronic side ^^

Cry [left click]
To heaven(추모곡) [left click]

Incubator

Whenever I should be studying for exams I get ideas on various projects I'd like to do. More often than not those are related to the more alternative side of Korean music, and usually nothing happens once exams are over. The last such idea I will, however, try a little harder to realize as it's not as time consuming as those ideas usually are - making notes on any good artist I come across on millim.com. Here's an old favorite of mine ^^



Kim Min Hyuk, aka Incubator, has been in various Korean indie bands since 1998. He makes som really nice rock songs and has good vocals - Picture an early Korean Hideki. I'm really surprised that despite having his material up on millim since 2001, he still hasn't gotten a record deal for this alias.

Unfortunately the link for my favorite, Good Day, isn't working anymore, but here's one of his newer songs that I also like a lot. And an interesting cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean, which isn't really representative for his other works :p

자유의감옥 (prison of freedom) [left click]
Billie Jean [left click]

Serenaide

Though they haven't released anything for a couple of years, five member band Serenaide of Singapore are still active playing live every now and then. Their first and so far only actual album, The Other End of the Reciever, was released by Fruit Action in 2004. Male vocals and a poppy sound - after listening to their songs a few times I was not surprised to learn that one of the members' main influence is Pulp ^^

Furry Animal Fury

Detektivbyrån

Sorry about not sticking to my write-every-day-for-a-couple-of-weeks plan, but I was not in any state to even sit up when I got home yesterday so it was probably for the better...



Swedish Detektivbyrån (lit. The Detective Bureau) are just about to release their second EP, Hemvägen EP, and like Hedvika I am already completely in love with their music. Last year I was all about Yann Tiersen. This is the same kind of instrumental music, only with plenty of electronic instruments - how could it not be love?

Go check out Hedvika's first blogpost on Detektivbyrån for more download links and go visit their MySpace to hear a few songs more. The song below will be featured on the new EP ^^

E18

adultchild

While writing reviews for every CD I buy hasn't kept me from buying too many CDs, at least it's made me learn more about them. Here's what I found a couple of weeks ago when researching for a review I should have done in March..



The Korean trio adultchild has been around since 2004, but it wasn't till this year that they first appeared on album. Being signed by Pastel Music (my favorite Korean label right now ^^) they participated with their song Sad Thing on the Cracker soundtrack - one of my favorite releases so far this year. Their music is nice and mellow whith female vocals making it all sound beautiful.

Down below are two of my favorite songs of adultchild. I believe 상실 is a live recording with just kkasi, so make sure you also get Star to hear what they'll sound like when they release an album ^^ Go check them out on millim.com for more!

Star [left click]
상실 (loss) [left click]

gruppa.fm

And here's something else I decided to check out after reading some random journal at last.fm ^^



Since my Russian is limited to just reading, there's not much I can tell you about gruppa.fm. However, after surfing their site I've reached the conclusion that gruppa.fm is a duo. And since the site is only available in Russian, I'm pretty sure they hail from Russia and not one of the former Soviet republics. Anyway, they're making some pretty catchy pop/rock with occasional electronic elements and the woman is the one providing the vocals, kinda like a poppier Zemfira. I like this a lot!

Check under "музыка" at their homepage to download all of their Made in Russia album, track by track. You should definitly get them all if you like the song below ^_^

Караоке (karaoke)

Bettlare & lösfolk

Since I'll be heading to school for some beer & music in less than an hour, I decided to check out one the bands I hadn't heard of before ^^



Bettlare & lösfolk are five people making ballads from the poems of Swedish poet Nils Ferlin. I think the best expression in English to describe their music would be singer/songwriter, but it's really a "trubadur" singing "visor" (something like Swedish folk pop) accompanied by a band. The singer's voice is not perfect, but this goes pretty well with the "vistradition".

Check out their pages at YouSeekMusic (Swedish) and MySpace to learn more about them and listen to more of their works.

I stolta städer (in proud cities)

Panda & Angel

Panda & Angel is a Seattle based five member band. They play some kind of gloomy alternative rock with interesting female vocals that is very appealing to me. Their self titled EP was released on Jade Tree about a month ago.

Their homepage is under constuction right now, but you can check them out on MySpace where you should make sure to also get Ohio December 24th. If you have a last.fm account you could also listen to full samples of every song from their EP on it's last.fm page ^^

Dangerous

Tigarah

It seems she's already gotten a lot of attention on blogs all over, but I didn't hear about her till last week, when I was wasting time reading journals at last.fm.



Japanese Tigarah mixes Brazilian baile funk music with hip hop in a way that makes me wanna hit a dance floor - Even though I could never dance to this kind of music... Her rhymes are supposedly clever, so if you (unlike me) are knowledgeable in Japanese, checking the lyrics out could perhaps be interesting. So far she has released one EP and an album should come out this fall.

Go visit her homepage to listen to all of the songs from her EP and download all remixes made by MR.D. You could also take a look at her MySpace for a few downloadable tracks from her EP, including my favorite below ^^

Girl Fight! (Left click)

And I'm back!

After an awesome summer and some exams (last one today!), I'm finally back online for real! Now the plan is to make a new post here every day for a couple of weeks or so and then I'll try to keep it at 3-4 posts/week. Also I'll be a lot more active writing reviews in my last.fm journal since I happened to spend too much of my salary on CDs when I got back...

Absence note

Sorry about the long, unexpected hiatus. I got stuck working most of my awake time on a big project for a couple of weeks and then I had to spend the rest of the time catching up in all other courses. Now exams are here and I should try to focus on them so no finding new music for me...

And things won't get better. I'll be spending all of summer working in Dalarna, most likely without any internet access, and won't be back till some time in August. So no updates for quite some time... Sorry 'bout that too.

So, no updates till mid-August. But if I (for once) can succeed in transforming into a better person this summer, I shall return as a better blogger with plenty of kick ass music to promote ^_^

Christian Kiefer & Sharron Kraus

The collaboration between American singer/songwriter Christian Kiefer and British folk singer Sharron Kraus resulted in an album called The Black Dove, released in March. It was released on Tompkins Square Records and on the album page it says: "In creating The Black Dove, the two worked on songs and instrumentals based on the idea of love letters between two people, one the pursuer and one the pursued, one flesh and blood, the other a ghost."

The first song below is sung by Christian Kiefer while the second is sung by Sharron Kraus. Both are of the kind of mellowish alt-country music that I just want to hear more of.

Dearest
On The Chase

Dimbodius

Busy again, sorry. But I'll try not to let it affect my music listening as much this time.

I'm generally against just having samples up for listen on artist homepages. Ordinarily I'm no longer interested in an artist I've decided to look up when I find that there are no non-live, full versions of songs available for free download. The artist I decided to look up today was different.



Swedish guy Dimbodius has been compared to both New Order and The Cure. Apparently he's been around for a while and the first full length album, When We Fall, was released in 2004. Synthish and great.

The song below has a pretty piano in the background, all the way through. Unfortunately Dimbodius' voice doesn't sound as good as on record, but it's still a nice song. This is important though: Do not forget to go to his homepage and listen to the samples in the little player at the bottom! It is good music. The kind that makes you very glad there is something as wonderful as music.

Hands Let Go (acoustic) (live at off the record, Oct. 2005)

Red Carpet

Yes, it seems so many has already written about them, but I didn't even know these guys existed till I read the newsletter from my favorite alternative music store yesterday. So I wanted to make a post about them, in case anybody else has missed out as well :p



Finnish Red Carpet appears to have recieved plenty of praise since releasing their second album, The Noise of Red Carpet, in autumn last year. These four guys make some nice pop, more specificly "harmony pop" if one is to agree with Rumba Music Magazine. And while I'm not overly excited I still like it. A lot.

When You Sing is taken from their latest album, while Model, which reminds me of Nada Surf's Let Go that I liked so much, is taken from their 2003 debut, Halfway. Apart from those two songs, Red Carpet has plenty of short as well as a couple of full mp3 samples more available from their homepage. You can also visit their MySpace to hear some nice, though unfortunately non-downloadable, tracks more ^^

When You Sing
Model

Marybell Katastrophy

And here's something I heard from for the eardrums the day before leaving for Easter.



Danish Marybell Katastrophy, aka Marie Højlund, used to be a member of Tiger Tunes but now that they're on a hiatus, she's gone solo. I do hope she'll continue with this project long enough to release at least one album, if not more. I find it hard (more so than I usually do) to label her music, but I don't think I'm all wrong if I describe it as some kind of darkish electropop. I like it!

You can get all songs on her 4 Songs demo from her MySpace or just listen to them directly from her homepage. I like them all, but the song below has become my favorite :p

Hey Frank (left click)

pg.lost

A couple of weeks ago, a friend sent me a message that consisted of three elements: the word "listen" in Swedish, a set of (quite many) exclamation marks and a MySpace address. It took me a while, but eventually I got there and now I can totally understand why he used all of those exclamation marks.



Swedish four member band pg.lost makes some pretty awesome post rock. As influences, they mention Sigur Rós, Mogwai and Mono and I'm more than happy to say that they don't disappoint. Admittedly, it takes a while before the magic kicks in, but when it does it is oh so wonderful.

Siren (left click)
The Kind Heart of Lanigon (left click)

Bobby Baby

Yay! Not only does Bobby Baby have a new awesome song up for download, but she's also coming to where I live to play in a couple of weeks ^_^ Bobby Baby is the most recent alias of Swedish girl Ella under which she make some great pop music. She shares all her music for free on the internet so do not miss going to her homepage for more, should you enjoy the song below.

Lucky Moments

Munck//Johnson

And now for some more Danish music ^^



After collaborating as a duo for five years, Munck//Johnson debuted on PonyRec in summer 2005. From what I've heard their music is cautious, simple and beautiful. As it says on the label biography page: "By the third time through a song, you'll be in love."

The first song below is available on the new CD/LP, Count Your Blessings, while the second comes from the debut, Unlike You.

Ellis of Davenport (wma)
Ease Me

Under Byen

I've been meaning to write about Under Byen since they released their third album, Samme stof som stof, a month ago, but I wanted to wait till I could link to some samples from it first. It took me a while, but a couple of days ago I finally noticed they had relaunched their site with a fresh new look and two new songs.

Under Byen is a Danish octet formed already in 1995. Their music is generally speaking beautiful, even though their style varies from classical to mellowish alternative rock. One remarkable thing about Under Byen is that despite the eight people they have no guitarist! If you liked Lampshade you should definitly check these people out.

The song below is taken from the new album and it's a pretty good summary of everything that makes me like Under Byen. The title of it means "This songs is about getting the best out of it".

Den her sang handler om at få det bedste ud af det

Dorothy Band

Yes, I'm a bad person. I'll try to shape up and update more often again, though I doubt I'll be back to posting every day anytime soon...



Sadly, Dorothy Band is no more, but as I learnt that they have a MySpace page not too long ago and I really liked their only album, Dorothy in Wonderland, I wanted to make a short post about them anyway... Dorothy Band, or just Dorothy, was a Seoul based band playing some sweet and happy 60s influenced pop. While the four members are of different nationality as well as ethnicity, lyrics is mostly in Korean. They have four songs on their MySpace of which two are downloadable:

소풍 (Picnic) (left click)
Darling (left click)


And while you're at MySpace, listening to those Dorothy tracks not available for download, make sure to also visit Bloody Cookie's MySpace for some awesome goth rockish chick action.

Strawberry Sadness

I just noticed the name of these people on last.fm today ^^



Wihtout ever hearing their music you can tell already from their name that Strawberry Sadness makes sweet pop music. They started out as a duo but are now a quintet. No own releases available yet, but if you happen to be in China you could try locating the recently released Bergen Rock City vol.2 to hear more from Strawberry Sadness as well as other interesting Norwegian artists.

The song below is my favorite and it came second in last year's Urørt finale, but there's a couple of songs more on the Strawberry Sadness Urørt page

Taking My Breath Away (left click)

Lampshade

And so it happened again... Sorry to make anybody that still come here wait for another entry. I've been kind of busy lately, and I will be a while longer. But I'm slacking today. And on Thursday I'm gonna take the evening of and go see these people ^_^



Danish/Swedish group Lampshade released their second album, Let's Away, on February 24. Their style is soft rock, sometimes mellow and often pretty. At times they're even reminiscent of Efterklang. Lampshade are currently on tour in Sweden and will soon head for Germany.

The first song below comes from their new album, it's sung in Danish and if I'm not mistaken the title means "these birds". The other one is sung in English and appeared on their first album, Because Trees Can Fly. Also linked here just because it's pretty beyond words and I don't want you to miss it ^^ Still, do not forget to check out their site for additional information and a couple of songs more!

Disse Fugle
Plakka Plakka

Mellowdrone

I need to shape up... This is great stuff though. So I hope you'll think it was worth the wait...



I was told about Mellowdrone tonight from a friend. I checked out their homepage and there was this sample song from their soon-to-be-released first full length album Box. The song was awesome. Rock-ish. And absolutely awesome. I haven't found much info on them yet, but it seems some guy named Jonathan Bates is the leader :)

This song is supposedly Jonathan Bates personal favorite from the coming album and it's the only downloadable Mellowdrone song I've been able to find. Check it out! The album is released on March 7 :p

Fashionably Uninvited

Rosie Thomas

Here's an artist I can't seem to get enough of tonight...



Rosie Thomas is an amazing singer/songwriter from Seattle. There's often a piano in her mellow, beautiful songs and with that voice of hers everything sounds great.

If you haven't already heard this woman - Do not miss out! This song is one of her best and it's taken from her 2002 album: When We Were Small. Some more songs are available from her homepage, so go visit and get them right away!

Wedding Day

Professor Pez

Here's something that showed up among my last.fm recommendations this week ^^



Professor Pez is a five member, Norwegian indiepop band with that Scandinavian sound. Very easy to like ^^

So far they have released two albums and the song below is taken from their first, Let us follow the evil balloon. Check out their homepage for more samples from their albums as well as some demo songs!

Stealing Sneakers

Dexter's Moon

Tiger Lou yesterday was awesome. Today I've checked out the music created by his sister.


photo by Sara Appelgren

Dexter's Moon is a group of Swedes making what they call "Lo-fi Country Pop". They released their debut album, Come Rain, in 2005 and from what I've heard (half of it is available for free from their homepage ^^) it's all mellow, nice and beautiful, though perhaps not that much obvious difference between songs musicalwise.

The song below is a piano version of a song from their second demo, You Can Count On Me. It's very lovely.

Promise Piano

Tiger Lou

It's been longer then I thought since I last updated, but here's an entry on a guy I'm gonna go see live tonight ^_^



One of Sweden's best indie artists is no doubt Tiger Lou, aka Rasmus Kellerman. (If I'm not mistaken, he's the second guy from the left on the pic above, while the others makes up his touring band.) Indie pop? Indie rock? I'm not sure how to describe his music to make it justice, but I can agree with his German label, riptide recordings, that wrote "it is rare that a pop song has felt so important as when told by the Tiger!" He released his debut EP, Trouble and Desire, in 2003 and his second full album, The Loyal, came out in October 2005.

The song below is a single from Tiger Lou's first album, Is My Head Still On? Though released as a single I think it's far from his best song, but it was the only one for which I could find a full downloadable sample :p If you're on last.fm and want to hear more - go check out his last.fm artist page where most of his released songs are available.

Sell Out

Half Asleep

Here's a discovery made because of last.fm today ^^



Belgian duo Half Asleep makes some nice, slow, calming music with a piano, acoustic guitar and occasional drums. Their music is described as "a beautiful mixture of sadcore, dream pop and folk sounds" and Another Records says that "Half Asleep brings sensual songs for late-nights listeners, reminiscent of the soundtrack from a melancholy film scene".

You can get their latest album, (we are now) seated in profile, for free from Unique Records' Half Asleep page. From just one listen I think it's a very good album so if the song below appeals to you - don't miss it!

Fill The Turkey with Your Stupid Jokes


If, when you're done listening to Half Asleep, you're in the mood for more similiar music - check out the first tracks from this month's mp3 focus at sudd., which features a compilation from anal0g ^^

Harmonica

I first heard about this group from for the eardrum's no longer updated subsection norwegian eardrums. As I believe philly might still be in need of some high energetic music - here they are!



Harmonica is an eight member group hailing from Oslo, capital of Norway. Monica Johansen, featured on the pic above, writes music as well as lyrics for all of their songs and she does a great job creating happy, energetic rock'n roll/sambapop. If you like Marit Bergman (that has all of her songs up for listen at her homepage ^^), you'll love Harmonica!

The songs below is the only studio recorded material I've heard, but it was more than enough to convince me I have to hear more from them in the future.

Friday Night
Girls and Boys (They Kiss at Night)

Tias Carlson

Here's a guy I first heard of from swedesplease.



There's a lot of good singer/songwriters coming out of Sweden, and Tias Carlson is one of them. He released his debut album, What I have gathered from coincidence, in 2005 and hopefully he'll have a new album out early summer 2006. I could hardly find any info on him, but here's a quite nice interview from German sweet jane music

I really like the song below, so please take a listen. And if you like it too - of course you should go to his homepage for more ^^

Setting Sun

Calexico

As I was reading about DeVotchKa, I found plenty of references to these guys, so of course I had to check them out as well.



Like DeVotchKa, Calexico is a bunch of Americans blending folk with a portion of indie rock. They've been around for a decade and has released six albums so far.

They have plenty of live tracks available on their homepage, but this song is taken from their album Feast of Wire, available through Cityslang

Sunken Waltz

DeVotchKa

After reading about them in em lo's blog I couldn't not check them out.



Despite their obvious Eastern European influences, DeVotchKa actually hails from Colorado, USA. Their style is a blend of folk and indie-rock, but it's the varied ethnic part of folk that makes their music so interesting.

The song below is featured on their 2004 album, How it ends, that has recieved plenty of commending reviews.

Such a Lovely Thing