Glemte perler...

Barsler lidt med en playlist på Spotify, som jeg i al sin velklingende danskhed har døbt "forgotten gems from the blog". På forskellig vis blev jeg tidligere i dag inspireret til at kigge på lidt gamle blogindlæg (+3 år tilbage), hvor der muligvis kunne skjule sig en lille perle eller to, som aldrig helt fik den opmærksomhed, som den eller de så klart havde fortjent (hvilket jo er et mega subjektivt statement, men da det er min blog osv....behøver vi virkelig komme ind på det?). Kan være en smule anstrengende at gennemlæse sine gamle skriblerier, men musikken fejler da heldigvis ikke noget, så vi lader den tage ordet herfra.

Running...

While on the treadmill tonight, I listened to these 9 songs...



Cut Copy - Need You Now
 
Pallers - The Kiss

The Radio Dept – The New Improved Hypocrisy

CHA-CHA - The Fellowship

Muse - Map Of The Problematique

Kent - Taxmannen

White Lies - E.S.T.

Music, music, music...

Tonight’s agenda is pretty simple. Read some mails. Download some music and listen to it. Post whatever is worth our (that’s you and me) time. No words. Just music!

Some seriously bad stuff so far...

+ PJ Bond - You, Too

Not at all loyal to my own formula. Peter just mailed a link for this video of Kent performing new track Svarta Linjer. New album Röd will be out November 6.



Back on track...

+ Pants Yell! - Cold Hands
+ Ravens & Chimes - Hearts of Palm

Things are improving dramatically now! Nice!

+ White Rabbits - Percussion Gun
+ ArpLine - Fold Up Like a Piece of Paper

Must have deleted a hundred emails (at least) by now! And that will probably be all for tonight!

Oh well - that was one big lie. Here's one final one...

+ Lullwater - One More Time

BandBase...

As mentioned yesterday you no longer have to be a registered user at BandBase (formerly known as MyMusic.dk) to be able to download any songs, so I thought I should do my utmost to continue promoting this fine new initiative. Especially since Myspace sucks so bad these days and has (permanently?) closed the source to lots of free downloads. So if you're interested in Danish music or great music in general, BandBase works as a brilliant alternative. I know it's in Danish, but nonetheless it's fairly simple navigating your way through the site. Only complaint is that the tagging of the songs are pretty bad, so you might have to do a little work yourself following each download. Here's "mixtape" featuring just a few of the many, many great songs you can find there (left click to download or use the YourFileHost links).
+ Ehlers/Thejsen - Art of Loneliness (YourFileHost)
+ Entakt - Kunsten At Slippe Taget (YourFileHost)
+ Leisure Alaska - Present Yet Unseen (YourFileHost)
+ Skywriter - Craving Utopia (YourFileHost)
+ VETO - You Are A Knife (YourFileHost)
+ Windermere - Trailer Park (YourFileHost)

A budget and a mixtape...

As most of you probably know by now, I started my new job two weeks ago. And actually there’s plenty of work that needs to be done, as my chair has be vacant for nearly a year. My first bigger task is getting the budget for 2008 finished, which really should have been completed months ago, as you normally would have it ready by the start of a new year. So I’ve been around for 10 working days (plus a few hours this morning) and now I’m trying to predict the outcome of the year. Don't know if any of you are financial wizzes, but you certainly don’t need to be to understand that my chances of creating an accurate or even slightly trustworthy budget are rather small. So please let me know if any of you have a crystal ball (or somthing similar) to spare!!!!

The South By Southwest 2008 webpage has been updated with an alphabetic list of the showcasing artists including bios, links and mp3’s by some of the artists. If I was going I'd most likely make it top priority to attend the shows of these artists:
+ Canada - Beige Stationwagon
+ Paddy Casey - Fear
+ Delorean - As Time Breaks Off
+ The Hourly Radio - Crime Does Pay
+ Jens Lekman - The Opposite Of Hallelujah
+ Minipop - Like I Do

Boxstr. top 10...

I have a rather busy schedule ahead of me today, so all you'll get is this sorry excuse of a post...-...According to Boxstr. these are the 10 most downloaded/streamed/viewed/listened to tracks uploaded to this blog:

1. Andrew Boland - Bird On The Wire (Leonard Cohen cover) - 1,695 (+84)
2. Entakt - Kunsten At Slippe Taget - 1,414 (+52)
3. The Raveonettes - Aly, Walk With Me - 1,312 (+48)
4. Sunny Summer Day - Colours of Fantasy - 1,211 (+53)
5. Martin Sörensson - All Right - 1,199 (+41)
6. Indurain - The Moment - 1,079 (+47)
7. The Teenagers - Starlett Johansson - 1,037 (+45)
8. Magpie - Nightly Rain - 880 (+51)
9. Dear X - Must I Play This Game? - 868 (+57)
10. Sia - Electric Bird - 752 (+42)

UPDATE: 24 hours later and I have added the updated number of "views" as well as the growth since yesterday in brackets.

Compilation CD...

My youngest daughter isn't feeling all that well today, so while I'm home looking after the little one, I've made myself this nice compilation CD (must be the first one for ages) containing some of my favorite tracks of the past few months. Guess what will be on the carstereo tomorrow?

+ The Papertiger Sound - The Papertiger Sound Forever
+ The Electric Pop Group - My Only Inspiration
+ The Dance Inc. - Dont run to the Suburbs (Erobique Remix)
+ Sunny Summer Day - You're the one for me
+ 1 2 3 4 - Saddest
+ Purplespace - Pretty in Pink (The Psychedelic Furs cover) - Shoegaze
+ Penny Century - Nothing Burns Like Bridges
+ Oliver North Boy Choir - Enola Gay
+ Northern Portrait - What happens next?
+ Northern Portrait - I Give You Two Seconds To Entertain Me
+ Northern Portrait - Crazy
+ Munich - The Young Ones
+ Monomen - Drum Of Glass
+ Hari And Aino - Seasons
+ The Felt Tips - Treat Me Gently
+ Tower of Foil - Faster than your eye
+ Kristoffer August & The Red Apples - Desert Night Sky
+ Daylight - The Morning Call
+ Celestial - Somedays We Are
+ Amazonair - Because Tonight

Update: When I listened to the CD in the car this morning, it felt almost unbelievable that all these great songs are yours to grab, burn and listen to for free...

Weather update...

We went to visit some friends today and we had a really wonderful time. The weather was quite nice and we even went for a swim (not exactly the Mediterranean, so bloody cold it was). So when I read the news tonight I was quite surprised to learn that several roads in the Copenhagen area had been closed earlier today due to heavy rain?
+ Velour - Rain in the Summertime
+ Tower of Foil - Comedy of summer rain
+ Catch Me I'm Falling - Rain
+ Warm Morning - Silver Rain

Finally - if anyone know who The Legends are singing about - give him a call!
+ He Knows The Sun

Summer Saturday Mixtape...

Put on your sunglasses, enjoy the sun and listen to some cool music.....that's exactly what I plan to do!
+ Velour - Pam And The Important Man
+ CJ Palmer - 34
+ Moto boy - Blue Motobike
+ Charlie Don't Surf - Still No Signs
+ tWAMi - My Spanish Romance
+ Ronderlin - Wake Up
+ Tiger Baby - Sweetheart

A Saturday evening Last.fm mix tape...

(Almost) no words - just music:

+ The Greens - Found My People
+ Reflecting Skin - Soul Desert
+ Yo La Tengo - Upside-Down
+ The Icicles - Crazy
+ Tompaulin - Heard Your Whisper
+ The Exploding Boy - Shot Down
+ Stars - Ageless Beauty

Goodies...

I've lots of stuff that I'd like to post, but time is as always a very limited commodity these days (look at the burden I have to carry). So here are the songs and hopefully I'll be able to add a few comments during the day...

+ Tilde vs SuperTroels - Toss Away (SuperTroels Remix)
SuperTroels was rather pissed off yesterday (to say the least), because a Danish blog (which now has been deleted) had made the entire I Know That You Know album available for free. As a blogger I can only support free downloads of a few tracks, but the artists still have to make a living, so I can never support actions like that! Should add that his album is pretty good, so I can only recommend that you buy it!

+ Pete White - The Light & Friction Makes Fire
That UK singer/songwriter Pete White is one of my favorite artists is probably one of the world's worst kept secrets. He's been in the studio and re-recorded a couple of old tracks and in his own words: "finally got a dark version of friction makes fire and quite an up beat version of the light." As always highly enjoyable.

+ Buddy Akai - I'll Know
Rodolfo is a really busy man as well these days (hopefully I'll soon be able to tell you why), so we haven't heard from him for quite some time. But yesterday he sent a message recommending this catchy and danceable one by Californian electro/indie rock act Buddy Akai.

+ Tears Run Rings - A Question and an Answer
This wonderful dream pop track is taken from the band's debut EP released earlier this week on Lavender Recordings/Disaster Club Records.

+ No Privacy - The Shadow
The animated video for this track is absolutely fantastic. Check it here. The song itself by this Danish quartet is quite OK.

+ Sir Salvatore - Public Key
Just a pretty good one from the mailbox. This band is beginning to make a splash in the blogger world.

+ The Paperhouse - Bright Life
Not really that high on this track by Aussie band The Paperhouse. But those opening jangling guitars are really, really great!

Monday evening Last.fm mix tape...

Some kind of (stupid) title, but it pretty much speaks for itself I guess? And as always it's quite a mixed bag of songs!
+ Alcian Blue - You Just Disappear
+ Spanky Darth Vaders - On The Radio
+ Tower of Foil - Strange Diversion
+ Friends - Every Summer

Shoegaze compilation...

This is a list of Shoegaze/Dreampop tracks found over at Last.fm. It's always quite a challenge searching for music by using the tags, as people seem to have quite different opinions on what Shoegaze/Dreampop actually is. I mean - I've never really thought of The Legends as shoegazers! But I hope these tracks meet this description. No matter what; this certainly is a mixed bag of songs. Some are good and some are - well - not so good. All bands have (some kind of) bios and several of them have more tracks available to download. So if you're a fan of this genre, there is lots and lots of stuff to check out!!!
+ Cosmicdust - Without You
+ The Telescopes - Another Sky
+ My Violent Ego - June La La's
+ Broken Robots - Broken Down Lonely
+ Molotov Elysian - Today a Mountain Has Been Moved
+ Delta Waves - Her Static Energy
+ Stellarscope - Spring
+ Kite Operations - A Wonder

Last.fm - Stuff

I'm still damn busy, but today I'll let the recommendations over at Last.fm guide me to some (hopefully) interesting music. I like the whole idea of recommending music to groups and people, though I do find it rather pointless recommending anything that you cannot download or at least stream. There's so much music out there, so don't expect anyone putting that much of an effort into searching for something that might be interesting. After all, the next band offering free music is just one "click" away! Below some of the songs I've found today thanks to the many recommendations and despite being quite a mixed bag, I enjoyed all of them....

+ Club 8 - Everlasting Love (typical and irresistible Swedish indie pop)
+ Acid House Kings - Do What You Wanna Do (Swedish 60's inspired indie pop)
+ Edson - Sunday, Lovely Sunday (happy Swedish indie pop)
+ Mount Eerie - I Hold Nothing (electronic lo-fi - does that make any sense?)
+ Thelittlesorryselfyouare - Designedly dissolved into nothingless (instrumental post-rock)
+ Dustin's Bar Mitzvah - To The Ramones (punk rock)
+ Tompaulin - Heard Your Whisper (label as indie pop - not quite sure if I agree)

Saturday Smorgasbord...

Volvoe are quite productive these days. Today the band has uploaded another new track (called Places) and (once again) it's a really great one!
+ Places (Myspace "quality)

Via the Myspace profile of Volvoe I came across another interesting Danish band called The Latitudes. The band is less than a year old, but apparently several band members used to be in another band called The Mayfairs. The band lists The The among the influences and it's probably not completely incorrect comparing the music of The Latitudes to this UK band!?
+ Any Given Night
+ Curtains Drawn

J.A. recommends the track Talk To Me by Norwegian electro pop 5-piece Melophonia. If you enjoy the electronic and danceable tunes of bands like Goldfrapp, Tiger Baby etc. (and I have to admit that I do) this is definitely something for you.
+ Talk To Me

I know that UK band Pete and The Pirates should be classified as old news, but the nice and charming (quoting Indie MP3, who mentioned the band a year ago) songs of this indie folk rock/pop band, probably can survive "another round in the spotlight"!
+ This Thyme
+ Ill Love

Lead singer Tom Sanders of Pete and The Pirates and a few musical friends has a side project (?) called Tap Tap and I personally find this band even more interesting. Several reviewers are really high on the band's debut album Lanzafame and more than once the band has been compared to Arcade Fire.
+ 100,000 Thoughts
+ Little Match (Big Fire)

The Last.fm free downloads chart...

has been updated, so this morning I've been busy listening to several artists/tracks tagged as "indie pop". Below some of the better or perhaps more interesting ones that (until this morning) were completely unknown to me:

+ The Eames Era - Could Be Anything & Listen for the Sun
It's probably a huge mistake that I haven't checked out this band before. Especially since Powerpopulist had a nice post on the band a month and a half ago! 2 wonderful and catchy songs that definitely make you forget these are cold and rainy days.

+ Strip Squad - Down And Out And Away & Unreliable Narrator
Don't know how serious this is meant to be, but this Swedish band reminds me of The Hidden Cameras.

+ The Mendoza Line - Catch a Collapsing Star & Mysterious in Black
No! It's not Bob Dylan singing on Collapsing Star!

+ The Zebras - Car of Idiots
Probably the same aussie band as Peter mentioned a while back!!

I found a few more bands worth checking out, but work is calling, so I won't add to the list. Instead I strongly suggest that you visit Last.fm and do a little search yourself, because there certainly is a lot of great stuff to find there.

Last.fm - Free Downloads chart

I mentioned the Free Downloads chart over at last.fm in my post yesterday, but I thought I should put a little more focus on the chart in today's post. Why? Several reasons why? First of all! Wouldn't it be great if this chart became really popular? Then bands and labels would be even more motivated to make their music available for free at last.fm. Furthermore you don't have to be a registered member or login to be able to download the songs, which mean that bloggers can link directly to the songs (which is really, really great). The sound quality of the songs is fairly decent (128 Kbps) and the tags are working properly (thus showing up correctly at The Hype Machine). So if you happen to be a blogger I (with these obvious reasons in mind) strongly urge you to "hype" this chart! Currently there aren't that many interesting songs available, but the number of songs seems to be growing every day. And I guess it's no surprise that artists signed by fab Swedish label Labrador are well represented? I've posted links to a few tracks below, to give you an idea of what you can find there...........
+ The Joint Conspiracy - Tomorrow
+ Ciao Transizta – Take Time
+ My Chemical Romance - Vampires Will Never Hurt You
+ Basshunter - Boten Anna (Silver Nikan Radio mix)
+ The Radio Dept. - The Worst Taste In Music (Extended)
+ Elf Power - Never Believe
+ Johann Sebastian Bach - Air
+ Micah P. Hinson - Jackeyed
+ Cordero - Close Your House Down

"Top friends"

A few bands/artists have been so kind to list me among their "top friends" at Myspace and needless to say I'm more than grateful. So this post is just my lame way to say "thank you all" and I really hope that some of you will pay them a visit, listen to their music (they are all very good), become their friends (they are all very friendly), leave a comment etc............

+ Anamia - Waiting For Moonlight
+ Anubia - Goodbye Now
+ Bordeaux - No free song available :-(
+ Citrus - Into My Head
+ The Cupids - Tonight
+ DAYS - Downhill
+ Girl Alliance - What Can I Do
+ The Holiday Show - I love the light coming out from a closed door
+ Kind of girl - Slave To Your Charms
+ The Knight In Plaster - A Nasty Piece Of Work
+ Neon Zoo - Monster
+ Oscillating Brushhead - Room Service
+ Purplespace - Rosemary Gold
+ Ruined By Martin - Perfect Sense
+ Starring Me - Umbrella
+ tWAMi - Peak Roller
+ The Whetherkings? - No free song available :-(
+ Pete White - When You Go From My Door

Rodolfo's Myspace Compilation

Frequent contributor Rodolfo had a little time on his hands and made this great (and at times very interesting) compilation of free tracks found at Myspace.

1. The Alones - Silver (this band seems to be growing into a blogger favorite)
2. Kid Captain - The end is hard to swallow
3. Hayze - Lost myself again (this is one great band!)
4. Protocol - Sorry
5. The Bright Space - Wrongstar
6. Right On Dynamite - Pull the wool
7. Ultranoir - Petals
8. Shake My Hand (formerly Yossarian) - Invincible
9. Performance - Live a little rave
10. My Passion - Make me butterfly
11. Dulcesky - Half moon (don't miss this one!)
12. Francis 7 - I can't feel my heart
13. The Sound Movement - This summer in black
14. The Frank and Walters - Colours

Danish Mixtape - Part III

I posted a couple of Danish Mixtapes a few weeks back and here's a third one to keep you entertained tonight. That is if you have absolutely nothing better to do! As always the songs are very good, free and legal!

+ Made Of Buildings - The Previews At The Movies
+ Tiger Baby - Girlfriend
+ Portland - Let Me Get What I Want
+ I Am Bones - Building Hospitals
+ Figurines - The Wonder
+ Gravy - Meltdown
+ Carpark North - Transparent And Glasslike
+ Sparklin June - The Warning Sign
+ Larsen & Furious Jane - Tourist With A Typewriter
+ Neon Machine - On What Deserted Island With No Hope Of Rescue Is This?
+ Anubia - Goodbye Now
+ Swimm TV is TV - Crush
+ Heartbreak Disco - Ice Floes
+ Sepiamusic - Stone