HeyHiHello!

HeyHiHello is an indie pop group taking inspiration from the postal service. They bring a sense of electropop into their music and the song’s revolve around a number of topics, most with a positive attitude.

They released their new EP "Goodnight Moon" in March 2011. The song that introduced them to me was "Right Here". I can really recommend this band if you like powerpop.

Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue

If you're looking for perfect instrumental skills, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue are your band.

Troy Andrews (born January 2, 1986) is a trombone and trumpet player from New Orleans,Louisiana, United States. He goes by the stage name "Trombone Shorty" and is the younger brother of trumpeter and bandleader James Andrews as well as the grandson of singer and songwriter Jessie Hill. Andrews began playing trombone at age six, and since 2009 has played in the band Orleans Avenue.

Yesterday, I saw them play at Kulturzelt (transl. Culture Tent) in Kassel, Germany.

They performed their latest album “Backatown” and played hits like “Backatown”, “Hurricane Season” and “Something Beautiful”. Impressive was how perfectly they mastered their instruments and how some songs were spontaneously altered right their on stage. The fun all musicians had on stage was obvious to the audience and the feeling was transported into the whole room.

Every musician got a solo to play during the concert. Close to the end the instruments were switched between the musicians. A fun game to amuse the audience and let us think at first that hey, they are just joking but then prove to everyone that no, they can actually play other instruments too.

After two hours of great music the concert ended and left a more than happy audience.

Lenka - Roll With The Punches (Album Two)

The Pigeon Detectives

The Pigeon Detectives are a five piece indie rock band from Rothwell, Leeds with influences such as The Beatles, The Kinks and The Velvet Underground. Pigeon Detectives, who formed in 2002, found acclaim among DJs and the musical press when they performed at 2006 Reading and Leeds festivals, being tagged as the “band most likely to leap to the main stage in 2007”.

They supported Dirty Pretty Things whilst they toured in spring 2006. In early November 2006 they supported fellow West Yorkshire band Kaiser Chiefs, who are known to be fans of the band, on a number of occasions around Europe. On 8 July 2007, they played on the Radio 1 NME Stage in front of thousands at T in the Park. The performance was televised and shown later that day on BBC3.

I Blame Coco

I Blame Coco (stylised I Blåme Coco) are a UK band, led by Eliot Pauline Styler Sumner (aka Coco Sumner), supported by Joy Joseph (drums) and Raphael Mann (bass), both of Mr Hudson.

Sumner is the daughter of The Police frontman Sting and actress Trudie Styler. In 2008, she signed with Island Records, and after spending time writing and recording in Sweden, the band released their debut single “Caesar” on 31 January 2010, which features Swedish singer Robyn. Their debut album The Constant followed on 1 October 2010.

The Wombats

The Wombats are a three-piece indie band from Liverpool, England. They are composed of two native Liverpudlians; front man Matthew Murphy, provider of voice, guitar and keyboards, drummer and b-vocalist Dan Haggis and bass and additional vocalist Tord Øverland-Knudsen, a Norwegian who has made his home in the city. The three met at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. The school gave them the chance to play gigs to over 20,000 people in China. This was one of the band’s first trips to play outside the UK.

Their latest album "This Modern Glitch" was released today. Go check it out!













--indierock, britpop

"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