Pearl Fiction - Insomnia

Pearl Fiction's new single "Insomnia" (available at the icky iTunes ... not even the fact that it's Swedish iTunes can save it!) has a lovely corresponding video!! I love the dancing girl in her New Order tank top...I will dance with her tonight in my state of anti-insomnia! I do also quite love Pearl's ace flagmanship!
If my Zeigeist was born in the 80's, this is what they would surely sound like! I love the little ELO, rock opera chorus!
His debut album is due early 2011 (I've now read March).
Enjoy...

Come on, Let's Go

Simply one of the greatest songs of all time! Also, a long time personal anthem.

Regina

Finnish synthpop perfection...
Nice trippy, sometimes freaky video. I particularly love the little egg man popping out of the band members' mouths...



I highly recommend ALL of their albums, especially their most shimmery debut "Katso maisemaa". I mean, how can you go wrong with a cover like this:

Let's get juxtaposed...

I remember discovering this song on a VHS video compilation I got from my old job after college. It had Massive Attack's "Teardrop" on there too! 

Still an awesome song, always an awesome message. Thank you Super Furry Animals! 

Enjoy and love...

"It's easy when you know how 

To get along without Biff! Bang! Pow! 

And if I see that you're fed up 

I'll stop and give you a leg up 

 Over-priced unreal estate, surreal estate 

The highest price they've hit to date 

Creating new divides and tension 

You've got to tolerate 

All those people that you hate 

I'm not in love with you 

But I won't hold that against you 

You've got to tolerate 

Some of those people that you hate 

I'm not in love with you 

But I won't hold that against you 

This is a tale of two situations 

Mutual appreciation 

Away from narrow preconception 

Avoiding conflict hypertension 

Non-phobic word aerobic 

This was my domain 

'Til someone stole my name 

You've got to tolerate 

All those people that you hate 

I'm not in love with you 

But I won't hold that against you 

You've got to tolerate 

Some of those people that you hate 

I'm not in love with you 

But I won't hold that against you 

Let's get juxtaposed, juxtaposed 

Just suppose I'm juxtaposed with you 

(I wanna get juxtaposed with you) 

(I wanna get juxtaposed with you) 

(I wanna get juxtaposed with you)

(I wanna get juxtaposed with you) 

You've got to tolerate 

All those people that you hate 

I'm not in love with you

But I won't hold that against you 

You've got to tolerate 

Some of those people that you hate 

I'm not in love with you 

But I won't hold that against you 

Let's get juxtaposed"

Klaus & Kinski - Forma, sentido y realidad

Very weird and very awesome and beautiful new video from one of 2010's best releases (and definitely the best Spanish release), Klaus & Kinski's "Tierra, trágalos". Enjoy!



You can buy the album directly from the lovely Spanish label Jabalina or be very lucky and find it at Amoeba!!

Komeda - It's Alright Baby

One of my favourite pop songs ever, with one of my favourite lyrics ever: "...but sure that love existed long before the first word was pronounced."

Come back Komeda!!



Love.

Theoretical Girl

In honor of the beloved "Divided" being released on vinyl this month via Soft Power Recordings, I present you with a flurry of Theoretical Girl videos! AWESOMENESS!!!!






Oh, what the hell...and a Cut-Out Theoretical Girl picture!!







Love.

Dakar & Grinser - Stay With Me

On the way to work the other day, this song popped up on random and I still obsessed about this certain lyric I could never quite catch. Well now, thanks to youtube and the original mix (which I'd never heard), I finally got it! I love this song! Dakar and Grinser are a German duo of DJs (I believe) and they obviously make very interesting videos...

 

 

iamamiwhoami - y

iamamiwhoami! "y"! As per usual, AMAZING!

Darren Hanlon - All These Things

*CUTE OVERLOAD ALERT* Darren Hanlon is Australian. He writes precious folk-pop (for the most part) ditties. He has a handful of albums. His new album "I Will Love You at All" is set for release this week in his homeland (via Flippin Yeah Industries), and due out stateside in September (via Yep Roc).

He's quite the clever fellow, with plenty of wordplay to keep your mind aflutter. I've seen him open for The Magnetic Fields a couple times and even playing by himself, he's quite the pleasure. His first video off the album for the superb little duet "All These Things" is sheer bliss. I have not seen a video this cute or heartwarming in a very long time. I love everything about it, the song, the scenery, the super cute girl, the sentiment, etc etc etc. Behold the preciousness...

We Are the World - Fight Song

I do quite love creepy, demented videos especially when the music is so sinister like pretty much all of We Are the World's music. As the song reaches climax, the video shows some great, wild energy!!

Their debut album "Clay Stones" was released on Manimal Vinyl back in April. Pretty good stuff.

 

Paisley and Charlie

English duo Paisley and Charlie make such nice sophisticated pop music, very Saint Etienne if I do say so myself (and which I will likely get shot for saying, but whatever...lighten up people)! They have a more pop-pop bent with their original band Detox Cute & The Beauty Junkies but I must say I do quite prefer the smooth sounds of Paisley and Charlie. They have self-released two EPs already and both are gorgeous, "Bedsit Songs One" & "Bedsit Songs Two", which are both available for purchase directly from the band here. 

Here are a couple nice videos for you. 

First, "Stone Lions" takes me back to the early Saint Etienne videos...I especially love her hopscotch over those yummy vinyls! Scrumptious!

This second video weaves their song "My Secret Life" with a partial cover of Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy" together perfectly!

The Bronson Brothers

The Bronson Brothers are a delicious new band from Silkeborg, Denmark. Rather dark pop, I'll say in the vein of Echo & The Bunnymen. Their album "The Melody Bronson" (released February 2010) is full of hits and I suggest you check it out! I share with you their video for one of the album highlights "Mirror Mirror". Great song and great video...The moment in this video that starts at 2:18 is so perfectly done and really makes the video transcend! Enjoy!

Katsen - Where Nobody Can Find Us

One of my Top 10 Songs of 2009, I just had to share because it's still perfect!



love.

NEW iamamiwhoami

This may well be my favourite of their songs!!!

The Deserted Treasure Island Discs - Volume 1

This is the beginning of a new series I will attempt to incorporate into the blog where I talk about my 5-star, perfect, most-bestest-super-raddest-coolest-ever albums…These being the albums you’d find with me on my Deserted Treasure Island…aptly titled The Deserted Treasure Island Discs!!

It’s gay pride weekend here in LA and since this band is the only one to have TWO albums with me here on the island, first up we have…

“Erasure” by Erasure

This, to me, is their masterpiece. An album so completely put together, lyrically poignant, full of emotions in the words, vocals, music & even the artwork…Erasure at their finest.
The album tells a love story of sorts, songs full of self-realization, desire, confusion, devotion, loss, love’s discovery, heartbreak, spirituality…a lot of universal topics tackled in a very grand (and electronic) way. Note, there is only one song on this album that is under the 5 ½ minute mark, that being “Intro: Guess I’m Into Feeling”, obviously Track 1. And still, none of these songs seem to drag. The presentation makes each song so cohesive and necessary.
The album flows perfectly, each song blending into the next, genre hopping between what Erasure does best: dance pop, balladry, churchy hymnals, all held together through an electronic over-current.
Song-wise, it’s hard to separate and discuss the songs individually. There were two completely different “singles” taken from the album, the dance-pop “Fingers & Thumbs (Cold Summer’s Day)" and the epic 10-minute ballad “Rock Me Gently”, both fantastic in their own right, the latter having a full choir backing & a Diamanda Galas solo. If I had to pick an Erasure song as my personal favourite, I always jump to this album’s closer “A Long Goodbye”…it culminates so much of what has happened throughout the album, bringing it all to a fitting close. Here’s a sample of Andy’s fine lyrics from the closer:

“I just don’t know what to believe in, if the truth be known
Suffering from soul fatigue, weathering the storm
What we say and what we do are entirely different things
The whisperings dissolve the room well it’s not how it should be
Swaying like a tree I feel the sky somebody calling

You’re so ordinary, be my sanctuary in the morning darling
New sensation, love vibrations, heart to heart & a dumb goodbye
Then you go your way, I’ll go my way, life is truer than fiction in this
Crazy mixed up world of honey, life is just an illusion darling

Easy like a bird I ride the breeze my mind falling…”

~~~~~~~~~~~

I could go on and on with these quotes that make me tingle. The album is full of these beautiful, emotional moments…pretty much in every song. It's like we are getting these special glimpses into the life of these amazing subjects.
There is a very personal, autobiographical feel to these songs and I feel such a personal connection of my own…I have had my own similar storylines in life. Ultimately, that is why “Erasure” is joining me here on the island, so we can continue to get lost, discover, question, divide, become one, wonder, love and in the end, say goodbye.

Pearl Fiction - The Ruby Fever

Since I mentioned Zeigeist yesterday, it is only appropriate to follow up today with their delightful offspring Pearl Fiction who is in fact the lovely Per Störby (aka The Man Responsible for All of Zeigeist's Music). It's great to have him still making nice electropop for us all by his lonesome. The debut single "The Ruby Fever" was just released digitally this past Monday and here is the ummmm...strange video for the song. It's quite obvious this guy belonged with Zeigeist. Not sure what I think about the video yet, but I do know I quite enjoy the song! Sexy snails...that's all I'll say!

enjoy!!



Pearl Fiction's debut album is set for release sometime later this year. I've read October but hope for sooner. Now go buy "The Ruby Fever".

iamamiwhoami

Viral campaigns are usually filled with something horrible (see: Rick Rolling), but often we get something magical and fantastic and beautiful and superb and out of this world. Such is the case with iamamiwhoami, a currently anonymous music/video project which we've gotta be pretty certain is from Sweden! All signs are pointing to Jonna Lee for the female vocalist. They remind me (a little) of another Swedish band, the horribly missed Zeigeist, who also began their minor success through a mini-viral campaign.

This video for "u-2" is electronic pop at its finest:



And their latest "n" is just haunting and beautiful and WEIRD:



I LOVE!
(THANK YOU Mr. Steven for pointing me in their direction!)

Little Majorette

Kick ass song, kick ass song, that whistle doot doot doot doot is off da chain! Formed in Sweden, based in London...oh yes...heaven either way you look at it! I present, Little Majorette "Bite the Bullet"...let's dance!!

 

And here is a completely different, but still lovely sound in "London". A few remixes are available for free download at Discobelle. I highly recommend "Let's Get Drunk (Demure Remix)". Their "Bite the Bullet EP" is currently available only at Swedish iTunes, bleh...hopefully it finds its way out soon!

Sweet Pussy Pauline

A little over a year ago I fell madly in love with Sweet Pussy Pauline. She just came up on a random play of my library and I had to look up any videos. I found this remix/video mash-up on youtube and it's amazing. No clue where I can find this song but I want it! The photos/"Trick" footage used in the video make it so hilarious! Just listen to the amazingness that is Sweet Pussy Pauline... "How many of you out there got big ol' hateful anteaters? Let me hear ya scream! Woooo shit, that's what I'm looking for this evening... I put one leg on the microwave and the other one just across the blender, wooo shit, I didn't think I could take no more... this mothafucka started heating and mixing shit up in this pussy..." HAHAHAHAHA!! 

Brilliantly mashed/mixed/whatever with Madison Avenue's "Who the Hell Are You": Who the Hell is Sweet Pussy Pauline? (Nitrogen-E Mash Up)

Death and Vanilla

Hailing from my favourite musical country, Sweden (Malmö, more specifically), I give you Death and Vanilla. There isn't much info at all to be found on this group. I must say, the mystery suits the music well. They have a free "EP" available for download (provided below for your listening pleasure) and a pretty much blank myspace page. Their sound is hypnotic, druggy hazes of clouds & space and haunting mesmerizing magical puffs..."Ghosts in the Machine" is absolutely perfect. "Godspeed" is wonderfully creepy. "Run Rabbit Run" picks up the pace with a nice bass. "The Colour of Space" has a very Broadcast feel. All lovely, all recommended!

I discovered them through the rather ace BEKO Digital Single Label out of France, where Death and Vanilla has the proud honor of being beko_01! BEKO offers a new, free digital single EVERY Monday. There is some horrible stuff there, but also plenty of gems. Ask and I'll enlighten, or be like me: download the entire catalog and have fun with it! Yay!

Seeland

Land ahoy!! That's right, I Seeland! Brilliant space-age pop, as they like to call it, from a former Broadcast member and some guy from a band called Plone who I should probably look into. Oh this music is awesome. So space-age, so pop! I'm sad it's taken me over a year to discover this brilliance! I'm glad to see Tim ditched the Broadcast ship to make this! So much better than anything Broadcast is doing nowadays! (Sorry Broadcast, I'm still bitter about that 20+ minute experimental opening to your last show). "Tomorrow Today" is the album and you must get it, it's absolutely fantastic! I love the pop numbers, I love the mellow chill out ones too, I love the swank!

Sample away:

Turnaround

Captured

Hang on Lucifer


Plus a pretty video!

New Young Pony Club - We Want To

New single from New Young Pony Club! "We Want To" is certainly my favourite song off their new album "The Optimist" which was released everywhere last week. Further delving into cheesy 80s awesomeness, here's the video with an edited version of the song:

Chinawoman

Today I give you Chinawoman who vamps us into submission with her gorgeous torch ballads. Chinawoman is a mysterious Russian woman who lives in Canada. Yes, mysterious. Her real name is Michelle but I much prefer Chinawoman. She's got a new album out, "Show Me the Face" which I must say is one of my favourite albums of the year so far. It's a vast improvement over her debut "Party Girl" and sees Chinawoman's sound (mostly music-wise) evolving. There are more instruments and a much more diverse selection of musical styles. Like the artist herself, the music is very mysterious and drags you into its foggy, dark world. I personally can't help but become engrossed every time I play it. Through it all, her voice remains the focal point with its same deep self...I loooove her deeeeep voice. 

Sample away... 

Lovers Are Strangers (from Party Girl) 

Russian Ballerina (from Russian Ballerina EP)

Go & It's No Compliment (both from Show Me the Face) 

The fantastic video for "Lovers Are Strangers":

You can purchase all her releases digitally here: http://bazaar.chinawoman.ca "Party Girl" was also released on CD which you can buy at CDbaby. According to the Chinawoman herself, "Show Me the Face" should be seeing a physical release in the near future. Yay!

Hunx and His Punx

Today I present the very great Hunx & His Punx and three of his fantastic videos! Hunx is of Gravy Train!!!! fame. I have no clue if they're still together (BUT, you should watch a cheap unofficial video of their hit song "You Made Me Gay" here just to hear the awesomeness). No biggie because Hunx solo is what it's all about! An extra campy gay Ramones is my best description. His videos are hilarious and he's quite scrumptious himself. His 7" (though from what I've seen he's a tad bigger) singles have been compiled on the "Gay Singles" comp via True Panther Sounds. It's great fun!

"Gimmie Gimmie Back Your Love"


"Cruising"


"Teardrops on My Telephone"