Det går jo aldeles fremragende (omtrent)...

Sidst jeg var på banen, nævnte jeg at arbejde fyldte en del, hvilket det beklageligvis har valgt stadig at gøre. Og det åbenbart i en sådan grad, at min hjerne i perioder demonstrativt vælger at køre på nedsat blus (og det er ikke ligefrem super smart, når man i forvejen er kapacitetsmæssigt udfordret). Som eksempelvis i dag, hvor jeg havde den klare overbevisning om, at vi skulle have aftenmøde på arbejde. Til min store gru har jeg så netop erfaret, at det skam ikke er i dag, men først i morgen. Som udgangspunkt jo ikke den største katastrofe, hvis altså ikke lige virkeligheden er skruet således sammen, at huset derhjemme i morgen vil være fyldt med unger til lege-/spisegruppe arrangement. Der sidder jeg så solidt bænket til møde, og må derfor overlade fouragering og underholdning af de kære små til min bedre (i morgendagens anledning ophævet til "fortræffelige") halvdel. Budskabet blev efter tøven og bæven viderebragt til den øverst kommanderende på hjemmefronten, der forbløffende nok modtog det uden alt for bebrejdelser eller trusler om dette og hint i øvrigt. Hvorvidt det så skyldes chokket, ventetid hos advokaten eller slet og ret bare er ok, må tiden så vise…

Lidt musikalsk opdateringer, når vi nu er her alligevel...

Det lykkedes ved fælles anstrengelser at få stemt Dags Dato Jonas Villumsen ind på Barometerlisten. En ny uge og en ny liste truer, så stem venligst på den gode herre nok en gang!


De meget fine og ganske så 80'er inspirerede UK elektropopper New Arcades er ved at køre deres debut EP i stilling, og åbningsnummeret, den instrumentale Dreamers, kan nu streames via SoundCloud.


Der forefindes endnu ingen smagsprøver (desværre), men den svenske popsnedker Tobias Isaksson (a.k.a. Azure Blue) skriver på projektets hjemmeside, at album nummer to er meget tæt på at være klar. Vi væbner os med tålmodighed og glæder os!

Mere svensk pop. Den fine nye single Hit the Waves med The Mary Onettes er allerede over det hele, men fortjener da også et lille pip her fra, med en velment opfordring til de få tilbageværende om at set at få givet den et lyt.


Smutter tilbage til arbejde...ses i næste uge...håber jeg!

Endnu mere løst og fast...

Endnu en slags rodepost uden hoved eller hale. Måske på tide at ændre bloggens titel?

Havnede et eller andet sted på nettet forleden (om jeg kan finde det i dag), hvoraf det fremgik, at alle musiknørder pt. lytter til Jake Bugg. Det har jeg så også gjort et par gange siden, for vil jo oh så gerne defineres som netop en sådan! Med risiko for at blive beskyldt for at hoppe med på en hypebølge, så lyder han – efter de første gennemlyt af debuten – faktisk rigtig interessant. Meget klassisk singer/songwriter-agtig (Bob Dylan kaninen hives atter op af hatten), men ikke desto mindre rigtig interessant.


Har vel omtrent tæt på en fantasilliard mails i min inbox. De mange mails var et tilbagevendende tema i ”them good ol’ English days” og bliver det givetvis også fremover. Man holder jo ikke så’n lige op med at være imponeret over den anseelige mængde bras, som dagligt distribueres...vel?

Den nye single med Stoffer & Maskinen udkom i går. Tjek den på Spotify (det gør jeg) eller vis dig som en sand supporter og brug et par lørdagskroner på at hive den ned fra iTunes. De skriver nogle imponerende fine og iørefaldende popsange (Kærestebrevet var/er en sand perle), og Byens Tage er ingen undtagelse, men de har desværre mistet lidt af både den elektroniske kølighed og støjende sound, som fandtes på debutalbummet. En video er på trapperne og den kommer jeg selvfølgelig tilbage til.

3 remixes af Android Orchestras Falling kan nu streames/downloades via SoundCloud. Som det altid er med den slags remix projekter, er det en noget blandet omgang, men det ændrer jo ikke på, at originalversionen er en fremragende popsang!


Skal også lige smide et par venlige ord efter den nye single Evil Coast fra The Mary Onettes, som er forløberen for bandets 3. album Hit The Waves. Albummet udkommer selvfølgelig på Labrador (ingen over, ingen ved siden af) og helt klicheagtigt (når man ikke kan finde på andet at skrive, fordi bandet nu engang lyder som det nu engang gør) så giver singlen os bestemt noget at se frem imod!

Mails and such...

Think I’ve been quite disciplined recently and done my best deleting mails from the inbox. Still the number has now reached and rapidly surpassed 10,000! Ten-thousand (or 10,103 to be exact)! Suck on that for a moment. If I spent one minute on each, it would take me a little more than 168 hours or exactly a week checking them all. So if you’re still awaiting a reply; forget about it and move on…

As always one of the big challenges, when your mailbox is cluttered like this, is to spot the important ones from the “spam”. Experience does help though, as there are some “safe bets”. Like for instance news from Shelflife Records that (almost) always equals good news. And in this case it certainly is, as the label has just released (co-released with New Romantic) the Over the Bluffs EP by The Holiday Crowd containing 7 ace guitar pop songs.
+ Never Speak Of It Again

Not all too happy to write this, but I do think that the new single by The Mary Onettes is a slight disappointment. But as it says in the promo mail: “Gone are the echoing reverbs, the 80's guitars and the big, splashing drums...”. That might explain some, though hopefully I just need to listen to it some more?
+ Love's Taking Strange Ways

Should have but haven’t mentioned that Jonathan Johansson will be playing at Koncertkirken in Copenhagen on February 10. Have (of course) bought a ticket, but have yet to find out if I’ll actually be able to go, as both kids are going to parties that evening…
Jonathan Johansson - Blommorna by HYBRIS

The annual Matinée fanclub poll is always a good reader. Even though it’s a Christmas song, Leave The Trees Alone by Northern Portrait won the category “song of the year”. Of course it did!
Leave the Trees Alone by Northern Portrait

On February 2 Fraction Discs will release the sophomore album from Liechtenstein. Promo package has been downloaded and looking forward to giving the album a listen!
+ Ambitions

VolcanoFest...?

Who would have possibly thought that a volcano in Iceland could end up having an impact on Copenhagen Popfest? But the ash cloud created by the volcano eruption at Eyjafjallajökull has lead to a cancellation of all air traffic in and out of Denmark today (actually no one seems to have any idea, when the airspace over Denmark is going to re-open) and consequently forced a trio of bands to pull out of the event, because of those cancelled flights. Equally bad is the string of foreign visitors, who won’t be coming either for the exact same reason. Nature probably doesn’t care, but your timing really sucks!

But the Popfest will still take place, despite the pull-outs the line-up remains competent and there should be plenty of tickets available. So why not show up (if you happen to be in Copenhagen anyway)?

And now to something completely different....a few songs...

Labrador shares the brand new and really fine single The Night Before The Funeral by The Mary Onettes. The band sounds very much like itself on this one, which I guess is quite a quality stamp!
+ The Night Before The Funeral

Plus offers free download of yet another (the third) track from the very soon to be released Clinging to a Scheme album!
+ Never Follow Suit

New song Heart Stab by Champagne Riot is now streaming at Myspace. As well as a new version of The Champagne Anthem (old version posted below).
+ The Champagne Anthem (first version)

Recovering...

I’m still trying to recover from the weekend. Too much to drink combined with various physical activities (go-carting, playing basketball etc.) is a lethal cocktail. So the boys and I have come to the only obvious conclusion that although we are pretending to be, we are no longer 17 years old...or 35 for that matter! What’s my age again?

Did you read the comment posted by Adam Svanell the other day? Would be rather fantastic if a couple of “forgotten” Memoplay tracks suddenly popped up! Crossing my fingers...
+ Songs for no Ears

News found via It’s A Trap. At least another 5 months to go before the third album by The Radio Dept. will be out. My impatience and expectations have if possible reached new heights!
+ David
+ Freddie and the trojan horse

Speaking of expectations, I have to admit that I’m a bit underwhelmed by the new single Puzzles by The Mary Onettes. It’s really nice and all that, but I know it’s all my fault as I’m expecting each new song by the band to (at least) match Explosions. And of course I know it's a longshot, as it’s more than difficult to imagine how the band could possibly write a more perfect pop song than said Explosions (watch the video below and agree!).
+ Puzzles

Various...

My weekend was quiet and uneventful, but it always puzzles me, why I find those weekends especially stressful and exhausting?

Two weeks ago I recommended that you should download the new single Whoa Billy by Lucky Soul. Now the single has finally hit my inbox and even though I expect most of you to have downloaded it by now, I thought I should post it as a wee service for the two or three of you, who missed out on it.
+ Whoa Billy

Another new single I mentioned a while back and was equally happy to find in the inbox is Dare by The Mary Onettes. Perhaps it’s just my ears playing tricks on me, but doesn’t it have Shout Out Louds written all over it? Not trying to take anything away from the band, because the song is damn good no matter what.
+ Dare

More stuff and more bands like this please. The Papertiger Sound will release a 7 track EP called the last days are taking forever on the Hungry Audio label on May 18. But since that’s more then a month and a half away, the band has decided to give away another EP for free. Tiny Robot Love, as it’s called, can be downloaded from the band’s webpage and all 5 tracks sound unmistakably like, well, The Papertiger Sound.
+ Words Escape Me

Just read this promo mail including a download link and the sentence “At this time we prefer that you don't make xxxxxx a free download”...dooh! A shame really, as the song is pretty good.

Live blogging (once again)...

I quite enjoyed the live blogging Wednesday evening, and since the scenario is pretty much the same tonight (wife’s out and the kids are asleep), I thought why not do it again? I still have plenty of mails to read, stuff to comment and a few songs to post, so for the next couple of hours this post will slowly expand. A photo will be added in a few minutes. Finally; here's the usual disclaimer. There will be more focus on writing and posting than on spelling and grammar!

As promised a photo. Please notice the beer (yummy) and of course that my hair's been cut! Still badly need a shave though!

I now have a staggering 98 followers at Twitter. Still trying to figure out if this thing is of any use? Those with lots of followers also follow a lot of people. Seems like several "I follow you - you follow me" agreements are being made. But does anyone actually read what anyone else is writing?

Here’s that new track by Death Valley Sleepers I mentioned the other night. Have mailed a little bit back and forth with Tobias (the man behind the alias), and he seems rather frustrated that the download function at Myspace is no longer working. Especially, as he wants his music to be free to download to help spreading the word. The music still bridges from The Velvet Underground via JAMC to The Raveonettes, but this unusual lengthy track (+ 6 minutes) has to be their best effort yet. UPDATE: Loved by 14 other persons already at Hypem.
+ Seaside

Talking about Myspace. It used to be my favorite haunting ground, when tracking down new and interesting bands, but can't recall the last time I found anything worth mentioning there! The aforementioned killing of the download function certainly didn't make things better. The occasional blog posts by bands are still worth reading to get some updates, but the rest...

Dutch blog All That Ever Mattered interviews Northern Portrait frontman Stefan. Does look as if the album will be finished come May! All That Ever Mattered has of course been added to the blogroll.
+ Crazy

One Weekly Gun has posted a new track. It's quite a brave political statement and I cannot say that I disagree with him!
+ Downer

Start! Festival (formerly known as Vesterbro Festival) announced yesterday (or was it the day before?), that the line-up for this year's festival will be published on April 6. I believe that's one month earlier than last year? My wish list is long and (obviously) includes the abovementioned DVS and NP.

In the post Wednesday evening I also mentioned the song by Napoleon with the insane title I Try To Despise The Ugly People (But The Beautiful Ones Keep Turning Me Down). I've been given the green light by Ruffa Lane Records to post it, so here we go. The single will be out April 27, so the timing is perfect, as the track should be a lock for any summer compilation.
+ I Try To Despise The Ugly People (But The Beautiful Ones Keep Turning Me Down)

Rasmus has found a way to put a little pressure on me. Twitter can be used for many purposes.

Two tracks from the forthcoming Dare EP by The Mary Onettes is now streaming at Myspace (quite a dilemma - think it sucks, but cannot live without it). Will go give them a listen now, but they can't be anywhere as fantastic as Explosions...can they? No - they are not. But they are very good indeed. On first listen Dare reminds me somewhat of Shout Out Louds.
+ Explosions

Please notice that I hadn't mentioned SXSW at all tonight. Right until now that was!

That will be it for tonight...I guess. The beer is almost finished and even though there are a few more songs left to post, I think I'll leave you here. Have a great Sunday!

Election Day...

Today is Election Day in Denmark and even though this is not a political blog, I really urge everyone to cast their vote. I honestly don't care what party you vote for, as long as you remember to vote and thus show your appreciation for our democratic rights. There are still far too many countries in the world where people are not allowed to vote or where the outcome of the election has already been "fixed". So even if you are tired of politicians and think they are all crashing bores (thank you Morrissey), things could easily be a whole lot worse! So please support our democracy and waste 5 of your precious minutes today, to go to the polling station!

Before you leave I suggest that you download this wonderful cover version of an old The Jesus and Mary Chain track by The Mary Onettes...wait...it's not a cover you say? Are you sure? Oh well! It's still very nice!
+ Explosions