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