"My Boots"

“My Boots” is the first single from LIGHTS’ as-yet-untitled sophomore album.

The String Quartet performing Lady Gaga

So amazing! Listen to it.

Arcade Fire's new album: The Suburbs

The Suburbs is the upcoming album by Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. The album was announced May 27, 2010, and is scheduled for release on August 2 in the United Kingdom and August 3, 2010 in North America.

The album has received positive reviews from critics. Writing for the BBC, Mike Diver wrote, "The Suburbs is [Arcade Fire's] most thrillingly engrossing chapter yet; a complex, captivating work that, several cycles down the line, retains the magic and mystery of that first tentative encounter." Referring to the critically acclaimed 1997 Radiohead album, Diver went on to say, "You could call it their OK Computer. But it’s arguably better than that." Rob Sheffield, in Rolling Stone, awarded the album four out of five stars and described The Suburbs as "their fantastic third album". Having awarded the album four and a half stars out of five, David Marchese's review in Spin describes the album as, "Radiant with apocalyptic tension and grasping to sustain real bonds, [it] extends hungrily outward, recalling the dystopic miasma of William Gibson's sci-fi novels and Sonic Youth's guitar odysseys. Desperate to elude its own corrosive dread, it keeps moving, asking, looking, and making the promise that hope isn't just another spiritual cul-de-sac."

I've had a listen to the album and can only say that in my opinion, The Suburbs is the best work Arcade Fire brought on so far. It's purely amazing.


I'm not longer posting new (read:leaked) music on here. So if you're interested to give it a listen, drop me a comment and I'll get back to you.

Sky Sailing

I told you about Adam Young's new project Sky Sailing a few entries back. Today at midnight their debut album "An Airplane Carried Me To Bed" was released.

Letter from Adam Young:

"Three and a half years ago, I recorded a collection of songs in my parent’s basement during the bleary-eyed hours of night when sleep and I could not bring ourselves to meet. I was a metalworker, working 6 AM to 4 PM at a warehouse in my little southern Minnesota town. I was writing, creating, thinking, imagining and breathing music with every second I had to spare. Music has always been my dream, but at that point in time, it was merely a feather tossed to the wind. Regardless, my spirits were far from dampened and I created music as fast and as furiously as I could. In my little basement bedroom, I had an old Dell computer, Reason 2.5, a friend’s borrowed Behringer C-1 condenser, a Behringer 8 channel analog mixer and my uncle’s old Alvarez. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing but I was a dreamer and music was my escape so I gave it everything I had. Never expecting my music to be heard anywhere but by my parents through the floorboards above, I wrote for my own ears. I was both artist and audience and I called myself Sky Sailing.

I’ve kept these recordings secret for a long time and they’ve never seen the light of day until now. Long before Owl City was ever a spark of a flame, a lot of blue-collared working days were spent absentmindedly daydreaming about what would ultimately become this collection of songs. From the perfectionist musician’s perspective, a song is never truly “finished” but rather “abandoned” and thus, after a lot of inspiration and reckless experimentation, I emerged from the basement with a 11 song record which I affectionately entitled, An Airplane Carried Me To Bed.

This album is a step into the past, the documented account of a shy boy from Minnesota with more hopes and dreams than he knew what to do with. When you listen to this record, you can hear naivety, innocence, inexperience and the wide-eyed imaginings of a wishful thinker. It’s both light and dark, optimistic and melancholy. Unpolished and dusty, it’s an antique and therefore holds a truly unique and graceful aesthetic within. Though there has always been just one artist behind the music, before there was Owl City there was Sky Sailing and I consider it a great honor to finally find this opportunity to share it with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it.

If by chance you ever feel as though you’ve come to know these songs or empathize with the emotions therein, please consider yourself a friend of mine because in a manner of speaking, you know me. As the saying goes, one can truly glimpse the artist through his/her art, and that expression certainly proves faithful in my case. This music is my heart and soul. This is who I am."

If you're interested in the album, leave me a comment and I'll get back to you :)

Song of the Week

Is there a Ghost by Band of Horses

Faded Paper Figures

Faded Paper Figures began, like all great endeavors, as a side-project. Writing songs between dissertation chapters and frenetic bouts of southern California traffic, John (vocals/guitars) and Kael (guitars/keys/machines) were simply looking for an aesthetic and rigorous diversion. Two or three songs into the process, however, things started sounding incredible—much too good to have come from Kael’s apartment bedroom. Eventually Heather (additional vocals/keys) began adding some beautiful harmonies, and FPF became the brilliant blend of indie-tronica that dazzles and sizzles on every track in their debut album, “Dynamo. ”

Their latest album "New Medium" was released in May 2010.



Faded Paper Figures - New Medium

Song of the Week

Das Gezeichnete Ich was the supporting artist at one of the concerts I went to this year. He's amazing and I loved his music from the first second on. About a week ago he released his first album (self-titled). This week's song is my favourite on it so far.

Das Gezeichnete Ich - Beste Zeit

340ml

340ml (pronounced: three forty mil) is an African musical group who originate from Maputo, Mozambique, but are now based in Johannesburg, South Africa. They have therefore jokingly been described by some as being "Jozambican". The band incorporates many different elements into their music including Dub, Jazz, Ska, Afro-jazz and Reggae. It is therefore very difficult to attach the band to any specific music genre, as their style is rather unique. The music that 340ml produces is often described as having a very relaxed African-feel to it.

Four years after releasing their debut album, Moving, 340ml released a second album entitled Sorry for the Delay. The name of their second album is a result of the many delays the band experienced while producing it, mainly due to the fact that they had been victims of Johannesburg crime four times, twice having their cars filled with equipment stolen, and twice having their studios broken into and stripped down.




340ml - Sorry for the Delay

Before OWL CITY there was SKY SAILING

Sky Sailing is the new side project of Adam Young, lead singer of Owl City. The band’s first album, "An Airplane Carried Me To Bed", is due out July 13.

Song of the Week

I saw Marit Larsen live in November last year and have to say that I was impressed with all the instruments she played live. Her voice is amazing and she's a total sweetheart as I can say from meeting and talking to her afterwards.

The Song of the Week this time is:

Addicted - Marit Larsen

New Stars album "The Five Ghosts"

The Five Ghosts marks the inaugural release on Stars' own Soft Revolution label. Each of the band's five members participated in writing the new album, resulting in what singer Amy Millan calls "quintessential Stars." It's the band's first full-length album since 2007's In Our Bedroom After the War.

Notable about The Five Ghosts is the band's return to producer Tom McFall, who recorded their breakthrough, 2005's Set Yourself on Fire. Fellow Broken Social Scene member Andrew Whiteman also makes an appearance.

Accompanying the album's release is a summer 2010 U.S. tour. Stars will perform the album in its entirety -- and take audience requests, via its website.


Tracklist:

1 Dead Hearts
2 Wasted Daylight
3 I Died So I Could Haunt You
4 Fixed
5 We Don't Want Your Body
6 He Dreams He's Awake
7 Never Been Good With Change
8 The Passenger
9 The Last Song Ever Written
10 How Much More

Stars - The Five Ghosts

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is a rock band from San Francisco, United States now based in Los Angeles. The band formed in 1998, influenced by much classic rock music of the past six decades, particularly the Jesus and Mary Chain and Love and Rockets. Their style also encompassed slower-paced grooves influenced by shoegaze. With their third record Howl, they added blues, folk and gospel, a la Spiritualized.

B.R.M.C. - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Songs of the Week

This week is special since the FIFA World Cup started today! I'm cheering for Germany and of course South Africa. Therefore you get three different World Cup songs from me today:

1. Waka Waka- Shakira feat. FreshlyGround

2. The Vuvuzela Song - Salutations

3. I Am An African - FreshlyGround

Song of the Week

This week you get a Lady Gaga song from before she actually became Gaga ;) When I heard it for the first time, I was really impressed with her voice. With all the amplifier in her new songs one can't really tell how amazing her voice is. Enjoy listening :D

No Floods

Two Hours Traffic

Two Hours Traffic was initially conceived as a two-piece, lead singer Liam Corcoran and guitarist Alec O’Hanley recruited bassist Andrew MacDonald and drummer Derek Ellis while attending university in their hometown of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. After releasing their “April Storm” EP in 2003 a friendship was struck up with Halifax hero Joel Plaskett who offered to produce the band’s first proper album. They’ve been working together ever since. While their eponymous debut and their follow up “Isolator” EP were received warmly by critics, it wasn’t until 2007’s breakthrough “Little Jabs” that the world really took notice. Appearing on dozens of year-end best of lists, Little Jabs also garnered an ECMA for Best Pop Recording and was a finalist for the coveted Polaris Music Prize. Add to this, three coast to coast tours, appearances at festivals such as Hillside, CMJ and SXSW and shows across the Atlantic and you have one of the most visible and successful Canadian independent acts of the last two years.

Territory is the follow up to the Charlottetown band’s Polaris Prize nominated and internationally acclaimed sophomore album, “Little Jabs”. Once again produced by Joel Plaskett, Territory builds on the promise of Little Jabs as the band continues to write and record sunny pop gems for the heart and head. Territory, however also finds Two Hours Traffic discovering the shadows at the side of the road.

Two Hours Traffic - Territory

Song of the Week

Of course, my song of the week this time is our ESC winning song.

Lena Meyer Landrut - Satellite

At the Indie Disco

Adding to last week's recommendation you can download The Divine Comedy's "At the Indie Disco" now. It was released 23rd May.


Tracklist:

1. At the Indie Disco
2. On the Barge
3. At the Indie Disco (Mk1)

At the Indie Disco

of Montreal

of Montreal is an indie pop band which formed in Athens, Georgia, United States in 1997. The band is fronted by Kevin Barnes, who writes, composes, and plays most of the music for his albums.

They were among the second wave of groups to emerge from The Elephant 6 Recording Company and the group has a style that is typical of many Elephant 6 bands due to their interest in combining musical experimentation with the basic tenets of pop i.e. catchy melodies and sing-along choruses. The band’s style has been influenced by conventional indie pop, psychedelic music, vaudeville and music hall on their earlier releases and by afrobeat, funk, krautrock and reggae on their recent releases.

of Montreal - The Gay Parade

Song of the Week

Regina Spektor - Blue Lips

The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy are a chamber pop band from Northern Ireland, fronted by Neil Hannon. Formed in 1989, Hannon has been the only constant member of the group, playing, in some instances, all of the non-orchestral instrumentation bar drums. To date, nine studio albums have been released under the Divine Comedy name. The group achieved their greatest commercial success in the years 1996-99, during which they had nine singles that made the UK Top 40, including the top ten hit National Express. The tenth Divine Comedy album, Bang Goes the Knighthood, is scheduled for release on 31 May 2010.
The first single to be released from Bang Goes the Knighthood will be Indie Disco on May 23rd.

Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens is an american musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Petoskey, Michigan. He is known for his lyrically focused and instrumentally rich songs that often relate to faith and family and has enjoyed wide critical success in the United States. He is considered part of the folk revival through indie pop, but his influences are very broad, including experimental electronic music, the jazz of Vince Guaraldi, and the academic minimalism of Steve Reich and Philip Glass.

Though Stevens had announced plans to make an album for each of the 50 U.S. states, beginning the series with the albums Michigan (2003) and Come On Feel The Illinoise! (2005, officially named Illinois), he has since then retracted the statement.

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

Sea Wolf

Sea Wolf is a band led by Alex Brown Church, an indie folk/ indie rock musician based in Los Angeles, California. Church attended film school at NYU and was a founding member of a group called Irving in 1998. Many of the songs he wrote as a member of Irving didn't fit the group's style, and so Church began performing as Sea Wolf with a rotating ensemble of backing musicians, playing locally in Los Angeles and recording demos in Seattle with producer Phil Ek (Band of Horses, The Shins, Fleet Foxes). Sea Wolf signed to Dangerbird Records in 2007 and released the Get To The River Before It Runs Too Low EP and a full-length titled Leaves In The River .

On September 22, 2009, Sea Wolf's sophomore album, White Water, White Bloom was released by Dangerbird Records. The album was produced by Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Monsters of Folk, M. Ward) at his studio in Omaha.

Sea Wolf - White Water, White Bloom

Biffy Clyro

Biffy Clyro is a three-piece pop band which formed in Kilmarnock, Scotland in 1995. The band consists of Simon Neil (vocals, guitar), James Johnston (bass, vocals) and his twin brother Ben (drums, vocals). The band spent most of their career in obscurity (although supported by a small and loyal cult following) until the release of 2007’s Puzzle and its singles “Saturday Superhouse” and “Living is a Problem Because Everything Dies”. Their fifth album “Only Revolutions” has proved successful, making the band one of the biggest players on the British rock scene.

Biffy, as they are often referred to, utilise a quiet/loud dynamic, constructing songs that can range from a whisper-quiet pick on the guitar, to huge walls of noise with massive distortion and crashing drums. Their sound has simplified somewhat in recent times yet still occasionally contains complex time signatures and heavy riffs. While Simon Neil sings lead, all three members provide vocals.

Only Revolutions is the fifth studio album by Scottish alternative rock band Biffy Clyro, released 9 November 2009 on 14th Floor Records. As with its predecessor, Puzzle, the album was produced by Garth Richardson. Upon release, Only Revolutions was a critical and commercial success. The album peaked at #8 on the UK Album Chart and was then certified gold by the BPI shortly afterwards.

Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions

fun.

fun. is an indie pop band from New York formed in 2008 by Nate Ruess, formerly of The Format. He formed the band with Andrew Dost from Anathallo and Jack Antonoff from Steel Train, and they started recording their debut album, Aim and Ignite, which was released August 25, 2009.

In February of 2010, fun. was supporting Jack's Mannequin's headline tour, along with Vedera. Their current touring band also includes Rob Kroehler, Emily Moore, Nate Harold, and Jon Goldstein.

In April of 2010, Fun was supporting Paramore's headline tour. Other support for the tour includes Relient K.

If you're looking for music that gets you in a good mood, fun. is your band to choose.

fun. - Aim and Ignite

Good Shoes

Good Shoes are an indie rock band which formed in Morden, London, England in 2004. They consist of Rhys Jones (vocals, guitar), Steve Leach (guitar), William Church (bass) and Tom Jones (drums). Founding bassist Joel Cox left in 2008.

Their debut album “Think Before You Speak” was released on Monday the 26th of March 2007. “Think Before You Speak” is a 14 track of pure British Indie meets Pop Culture, it includes all four of their previously released singles (“Never Meant To Hurt You”, “The Photos On My Wall”, "All In My Head” and “We Are Not The Same”).

They have just released a free download of “The Way My Heart Beats” .

Good Shoes - Think Before You Speak

Good Shoes - The Way My Heart Beats

Song of the Week

Since I heard the song for the first time on Wednesday I can't stop listening to it. So this week's

Song of the Week

is:

Hot Air Balloon - Owl City

Matthew P + A Fine Frenzy + Owl City

I went to my second concert this year yesterday and it was amazing. I saw Owl City as the main act and surprisingly they had two supports. I expected only "A Fine Frenzy" because that's what it read on the tickets and online. So it was even more awesome to already find another act playing when we arrived at the venue at 7:30pm. It was Matthew P, who I never heard of before but I now definitely have to check out. I recommend you do the same.



A Fine Frenzy entered the stage at a little after 8pm. I can say I have her two albums but haven't actively been listening to the music. Will do that now too. Her voice is amazing and with her fire-ly red hair she did remind me a little of Florence Welsh. Also A Fine Frenzy aka Alison Sudol is one of the few artist who can pull off a live show that is sound-wise even better than her studio records. I was so impressed with her singing.



Then after another break Owl City finally entered the stage. Mr Adam Young was accompanied by 3 ladies, playing the violin, cello and keyboards, as well as two other guys, being the drummer and what seems to be the allround guy. As most of you I expected Adam to mostly play the keyboards, which are kind of his trademark. He already surprised my here when he appeared behind the drum kid for the first song. Following the evening he then switched between acoustic guitar, e-guitar and keyboards for the rest of the songs. Joking around between songs made him even more sympathetic. This way we also learned that he had climbed the Cologne Dom during the day when suddenly someone's cell phone went off and the ring tone was "fireflies" he thought that was "sweet".


All in all it was an amazing night and fun to see the artists enjoying themselves - even after 9 month of touring the globe.