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.