Poppish Plot: American Suitcase, The Color Wheels, Jonathan Rundman, Roadside Poppies, Fjord Rowboat

As I've said more times than you care to remember, I love bloggal archives. So the other night I was prowling around the early days' of one of my favorite blogs, Milk Milk Lemonade, and found "Lloyd Christmas," a pure little number by Oslovians, American Suitcase. I was so intrigued that a simple click took me to AS's website, where I unpacked the first two songs below. Wowser (if I might wax eloquent--and someday I might)! Anyway go see Casey and Michelle here to get "Lloyd Christmas"and do the usual below to hear the ones I found.

American Suitcase

Change mp3

Buffalo Bill mp3

The plot thickens with a few recent finds:

The Color Wheels – Green Means Go mp3

Jonathan Rundman – Carol of the Bells mp3

Roadside Poppies - A bit donnish perhaps, but hey, they're Cantabrigians!

Wed-nes-day mp3 - Good song, but I will certainly ignore their absurd stricture. Viva Frosted Minis Forever, and till my teeth rot! Hooah! Sheesh.

The Evil Vegan mp3

Just Another Love Song mp3

Let's polish off this strange little conspiracy with a bit of the old newgaze. Thanks to another favorite blogger, Peter at Coast is Clear, who has more.

Fjord Rowboat - Paragon mp3 - Speaking of Norway (even though these guys are from Toronto), this group's name makes me hope the MST3K box set my son's "surprising" me with at Christmas has the Scandi episode with the classic reference to "The Adventures of Fjord Fairlane." Any MST3K fans among my visitors?

Click artists' names for more.

Blue Monday Vanquished

You call this doleful? Sheesh.

They call it Blue Monday over here because of the day's high suicide rate. Christmas cheer is dead, its bills are coming due, weather sucks, etc. I, however, see it as an opportunity, so here're seven bands to give us luck and hope and stuff.

The Black Hollies – Paisley Pattern Ground mp3 – I've seen this and the next one at several blogs but initially found both at the always excellent Some Velvet Blog. Abstemious I (also the name of the legendary founder of a self-abnegating dynasty) left one song from each group at SVB, here and here.

The Billionaires – The End Of Summer Song mp3 – In case you're just clicking down the list, there's another by The Billionaires at Some Velvet Blog.

Sykosonics – Ultralite mp3 – Okay, thanks again to Milk Milk Lemonade for the headsup on this. I waited a discreet interval before posting, as promised. Same with the next one, even without the promise.

American Suitcase – Lloyd Christmas mp3 – And besides, I'm already getting in the mood for Christmas 2008. Not. For a good song, though? Always. BTW, there's more by these excellent Norsemen here, plus other fun stuff.

Doleful Lions – The Warriors End Table wma – Have you ever been on the way to the store and as soon as you turn on the key, a great song you'd only heard once before when buying it at eMusic comes on and accompanies you all the way and you walk through the store humming the wonderful thing over and over and then drive an extra couple of miles on the way home so you can hear it a couple more times? Am I being too personal? Anyway, that happened with me and this song a couple of weeks ago. And it was cold and rainy and wonderful, too. And I'm really digging these Oswegians these days, and they make me feel exactly opposite of their first name and exactly like their second. Like, roarrrrrr, ya know?

Thirdimension – Other Side Of Town wma – I loved this next one by these same Malmovians when I posted it back in May.

100 Miles An Hour mp3

Sorry if I'm not being Hyper Enough, or maybe too. Just riding the crest of the rave. I'll hurry shoreward.

Chairs in the Arno – Winter Song mp3 – Some of these musicians threw chairs in the Arno and decided to name themselves accordingly. It's paying off musically. In case you missed it, I recently posted a link to the song named after what they had to do after rescuing the chairs. (Poetic license alert.)

Jason Dove and the Magic Whip – Stoned on Beer mp3 – I don't know if this had anything to do with the chair-throwing. It's the only segue I'm coming up with at the moment.

Yeh, I know, it's really eight bands, but I like to walk the knife's edge of danger.