Daisy’s new album was released today. Check out the samples at myspace and then go and buy it. Unfortunately I can’t go to the record store yet, because I have a little bit of flu. I don’t think it’s THE flu though, because I haven’t felt that bad at all. Just some very mild fever yesterday and a sore throat today. I think it’s still best to take it slow for a couple of days.
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Flavour of the Month club at Pikku-Torre (Turku) on friday 6th of november. I’ll be there. Hopefully you will be there as well. Press release below.
Flavour Of The Monthin sydänklinikka
Turkulaisen indieklubi Flavour Of The Monthin sydän sanoo pum pum pum marraskuun livesessioissa. Perjantain 6.11. klubi-illassa kuullaan livenä laadukasta kotimaista indiekitarapoppia. Esiintymässä ovat harvakseltaan keikkaileva, legendaariselle amerikkalaiselle indiemerkille Shelflifelle levyttävä Cats On Fire- ja Le Futur Pompiste-yhteyksiä omaava Burning Hearts sekä lahtelainen nouseva powerpop-kyky Heartjet. Sydänklinikan kirurgeina äänilevyitä luennoivat Flavour Of The Monthin DJ:t.
FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH esittää:
Burning Hearts
Heartjet
+ FOTM DJ team
pe 6.11. 2009 klo 21-03
Pikku-Torre, Yliopistonkatu 30, Turku
liput 3€
Linkkejä:
http://www.myspace.com/burningheartsmusic
http://www.burningheartsmusic.blogspot.com/
http://www.myspace.com/heartjet
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Another pointless list of the month aka the things I’ve loved during the month. I didn’t really think about the order. I enjoeyd all of them. As you can see, I went a little “reissue crazy” and pick up a lot of stuff from the Rev-Ola and Now Sounds catalogs. Mostly sunshine pop / soft pop / psych pop stuff. And this isn’t the end of it. There’s more reissues like Dotti Holmberg, Love Generation, Jimmy Campbell’s solo stuff, Tommy Roe and The Rationals already coming my way. This is actually one of the reasons I haven’t updated this blog lately. I’ve spent all of my spare time searching music like this. I think the only new albums I bought were Monsters Of Folk and Kings Of Convenience. Both sound good, but I haven’t spent enough time with them yet.
TOP ALBUMS:
1. Big Star: Keep an Eye On The Sky (Box Set)
2. Curt Boettcher: Chicken Little Was Right
3. Tee and Cara: As They Are
4. Rockin’ Horse: Yes It Is
5. The Peppermint Trolley Company: Beautiful Sun
6. The Blades Of Grass: Are Smoking
7. The Lemon Pipers: Love Beads and Meditation
8. The Long Ryders: The Best Of The Long Ryders
9. Sandy Salisbury: Sandy
10. The Canterbury Music Festival: Rain & Shine
11. October Country: October Country
12. The Parade: Sunshine Girl: The Complete Recordings
13. The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band: Part One
14. The Family Tree: Miss Butters
15. The Gordian Knot: The Gordian Knot
16. The Deep Six: The Deep Six
17. Bobby Jameson: Color Him In
18. Chris Lucey: Songs of Protest and Anti-Protest
19. Lee Mallory: That’s The Way It’s Gonna Be
20. Where The Action Is? Los Angeles Nuggets (Box Set)
TOP SONGS:
1. The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band: If You Want This Love
2. Tee and Cara: Waiting List
3. The Lemon Pipers: Rice Is Nice
4. The Canterbury Music Festival: First Spring Rain
5. Curt Boettcher: Out Of The Dark Of The Night
6. The Blades Of Grass: The Way You’ll Never Be
7. The Deep Six: Paint It Black
8. October Country: End Of The Line
9. The Parade: Sunshine Girl
10. Rockin’ Horse: The Biggest Gossip In Town
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Koria Kitten Riot
Koria Kitten Riot’s self-titled debut album was released on 28th of october. A big thank you to Solmu Records for releasing it. I don’t have it yet, but I’m definitely going to buy it. You can listen to sound clips on his myspace.
Koria Kitten Riot photo by Aleksi Rinta-Kauppila
Flannelmouth
Flannelmouth is getting active again and have recorded a follow up to their debut album Rain Inside. You can hear the first single Make a Move from the upcoming album on their myspace. The album entitled The Heart Cannot Hold will be released in january by Jäänsärkijä Records.
Flannelmouth Website
Flannelmouth at myspace
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New Magenta Skycode vinyl single We’re Going To Climb / Escaping Outdoors should be out sometime soon. It has been delayed, but hopefully it will soon hit the stores. The songs are already available at Itunes though and you can also check out this excellent new music video We’re Going To Climb:
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EPILÄ:
Epilä’s debut single Ajatuspoliisi will be released today on 14th of october by Terra Recordings. I can’t say much about the music because up until now it’s been rather hard to hear their songs outside live concerts (they don’t have a myspace and don’t give any samples on their website either). However, the band contains lovely and talented people who have previously played in groups such as Guava, Cartoon Tree, Jadecroon, Aknestik etc so I suppose it’s safe to assume that it will be great stuff. The debut album will follow in january.
OMSK:
Omsk is a finnish folk act I found an hour ago (thanks to Antti) and since then I’ve been listening to their debut album on spotify. No final conclusions yet, but it is quite convincing stuff and I really like it. In case you don’t have spotify, a lot of Omsk’s material is also available on the Omsk website and on their myspace.
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COSMOBILE:
New album Making Do will be released on 14th of october by Fullsteam Records. There’s two songs from the album on their myspace player. Pretty damn good songs too.
Cosmobile live:
DAISY:
Daisy’s album was postponed to november 11th, but the first single Rude Awakening has hit the radio waves. You can also listen to the single on their myspace.
Daisy Website
Daisy at myspace
BEACON ST. RADIANTS:
Beacon Street Radiants have been busy making their debut album. You can listen to some of the excellent new songs now on their myspace.
Beacon Street Radiants at myspace
KORIA KITTEN RIOT:
Koria Kitten Riot has signed a record deal with Solmu Records and the album will hit the stores on the 28th of october. More about this during the week of the release.
Koria Kitten Riot at myspace
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Langhorne Slim: Be Set Free (Kemado, 2009)
I almost hate myself because I don’t love this album. I became a big Langhorne Slim fan last year and that Langhorne Slim & The War Eagles album was the album of the year for me. Therefore it hurts that I have to admit that Be Set Free is a big dissapointment to me. Langhorne Slim can still write great songs and he can still sing perfectly. There’s nothing wrong with the core of the songs, but why the hell there are tons of instruments in the background. If Marty McFly and Doc would lend me their DeLorean I would change two things. A) I would sack the producer and throw all these strings, organs, trumpets and all the other instruments whose name I don’t even know out of the window B) I would lock Mr Langhorne Slim to the studio with just a guitar and told him to just play the songs live and sing his heart out. Fourty minutes later a great record would have seen the light of the day.
I know this is totally unfair critizism, but for me the arrangements just kill the songs. I’m sure they are genuinely excited about this more ambitious direction and they didn’t do it in order to appeal to larger audiences. Hopefully Langhorne Slim will do just that though and become much more popular. Despite the fact that his music sounds a lot lamer than before he is still a great folk songwriter and most likely a wonderful live performer. What does it really matter if some finnish prick on the other side of the globe prefers those old records. He can just keep on watching that youtube video of I Love You, But Goodbye over and over again because the song sounds so much better there than on the record.
Song material
Production / Arrangements
Overall
If it would only sound like this on a record:
The same song (with a really horrible ending) is also on his myspace if you want to compare. For me this youtube version with just an acoustic guitar is million times better.
Posted in Reviews | Tagged Langhorne Slim | 1 Comment »
Vetiver: Tight Knit (Bella Union, 2009)
Last year I fell in love with Vetiver after hearing their wonderful cover album Thing Of The Past. It’s like the finest cover album ever and it introduced a lot of brilliant music to me. I’ve bought albums like Loudon Wainwright III’s Attempted Mustache and Bobby Charles self-titled album because of that record. And well obviously the older Vetiver albums too.
This new album Tight Knit arrived in february 2009 and now the band is back making their own music. It still sounds a lot like a thing of the past and that’s only a great thing. Andy Cabic has such an amazing gentle voice and the songs sound oh so subtle and heartwarming. The first trio of songs Rolling Sea, Sister and Everyday is just pure magic. Beautifully arranged and carefully played folk music that is so rich and simple at the same time. Vetiver takes you on a trip to the seventies west coast where some guys are playing folk and country rock songs on the back porch of an abandoned building and the audience is lying on the ground eight miles high. Unlike a lot of my favourite bands that play slow folk and country music, Vetiver’s music isn’t depressive at all. Warm is the best adjective to describe the music. This is the music that will keep my heart warm when the long winter gives its coldest shots. The second half of the album don’t reach the same level as the first one though and that’s why I have to settle for four hearts.
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Today you can start voting for Bääbs. YLE have chosen 30 songs for this first stage of selecting the finnish entry to the next eurovision song contest. Only 3 of them will make it to the next round where they are companied by those lame invited acts.
Bääbs is Päivi Kankaro from TV-Resistori and the song You Don’t Know Tomorrow was written by Viola’s Riku Kärkkäinen and Tommi Forsström. It would be great to see such a lovely people make it all the way to Oslo. And obviously I don’t need to vote them just because they are good people. The song is really good as well.
Oh and there’s actually more good people in the contest. Jussi Petäjä has two songs in the competition. One with his great band Captain Cougar and one with his new project Blackbird. Marcus Granfors (aka Frankie Magnum) from Vaasa is also in the game.
You’ll find the songs and the voting info by hitting the link below:
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