Yun Jakjun

When reading Kite Operation's Korea Tour Diary over at koreanpop.org, this intriguing MySpace message I got from Yun Jakjun in early December suddenly made a lot more sense: you might already have heard of us before... ;)

I don't really keep track of my MySpace account, but I do log in every few months to see if there's anything interesting hiding among my friends requests. Upon encountering the one from Yun Jakjun I had headed over to the band page and had a listen right away - the one song there, Ichasun Dari was great! It's a cover of a trot inspired Cha Tae Hyun song, but with the fuzzy guitars and the almost desperate sentiment in the vocals I'd say this version is far better.

So what did I want to say with this? Not much really, I'm just spending time while waiting for other people so I can continue on my thesis work... But the song is good so you might very well want to hear it too. And as a lover of trot (and other corny music intended for people my parents' age) I'll hope that next time new stuff is added to Yun Jakjun's MySpace it will be another cover and not that noise stuff added recently.

Hiatus and Random Updates

First of all, I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates the past month. I'd love to say it's because I've focused on my studies for the exams I've had to take recently, but unfortunately it's just life that has come in between both blogging and studying so I'm gonna have to deal with those exams again later on...

Second, just like last year I'll be going offline over the summer. That means this will probably be my last post till mid-August, so here's some random updates on some favorite artists I've posted on before.

Detektivbyrån should have released their new single, Lyckans undulat (~ the budgie of luck), yesterday. I have had the pleasure of seeing them live three times since I first wrote something on them and can now state that they are my favorite Swedish band. When I saw them a couple of months ago, I was told the single should be available from their site at release so let's hope that it'll show up soon. Also, let's hope that Om du möter varg too, my favorite out of their new tunes, will be available for purchase and/or download in not too long ^^

Greenwich Resident posted a demo track called Eastwards on their MySpace a few days ago and have obviously added another new track, A low Hum, since then too. In case you do not remember them, I first wrote about these guys here after loving them on Siamese Flowers.

Paper Route now offers most of their songs from last year's self titled EP (my very favorite release of 2006, all categories) as well as some songs from the A Thrill of Hope as full streamable samples on last.fm. The song that got me, City Trucks, is unfortunately not available, but if you didn't get it when I mentioned it a first time you can get it now as it seems it's still possible to download the PureVolume's Holiday Sampler.

나의머리카락뭉치 uploaded another demo to millim a week ago. If you liked what you heard last time you should get this as well.

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 ^^

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)

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

Sera Cahoone

And a bonus post right away since there were no posts during the weekend ^^



A couple of days ago I was introduced to Sera Cahoone through songs:illinois. Her style of music is acoustic country/folk and though I'm no fan of country the one song I've heard still appeals to me. She hasn't released anything yet, but hopefully there'll be a full album next year.

Listen to this song a couple of times if you don't like it at first. It grows on you. And the title is cute :p

Couch Song

Grizzly Bear

Now to the guys following Efterklang on tour through Scandinavia!



American Grizzly Bear started out as a duo, but I think they might be a quartet now... Unable to decide if they're freak-folk or new-folk they suggest the terms wood-tempo or comp-core to describe their genre of music. Their music is generarlly slow paced with an electronic touch ^^

You can listen to several songs and remixes and also find some more downloads from Grizzly Bear's debut album, Horn of Plenty, on their homepage.

Deep Sea Diver