Going to bed

I am a huge fan of this band and this is a particular favorite. I realise it's old by now, but I've loved it for too long not to post it... The song, "Heart of Chambers", is perfect for that time just before you fall asleep. A soothing and relaxing song with a great melody. Lovely.

... I also have a slight crush on Ms. Legrand, but that's another thing... and who wouldn't?

It's all about Money

This new one from Maskinen sounds a bit like MSTRKRFT and Justice - if they were Swedish... not bad at all. More money, less rapists.

SXSW '09 Coming Soon

The SXSW festival is just around the corner and final details about the line-up of bands playing official showcases has been released. Among the many fine artists and bands that will attend SXSW this year are The Sonics, GoldieLocks, Abe Vigoda, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Snake and Jet’s Amazing Bullit Band, Soft Pack, School of Seven Bells, Vetiver, Vivian Girls and many many more... heck, I don't even know half.

One of the coolthings about the SXSW festival is that every year, simultaneously with announcing the full list of performing artists and bands, they make a song available for download for many of the bands. It’s a great way of getting new and free songs for your collection as well discovering some of the many up and coming acts.

Here are a few of my select favorites of the available downloads... and since they're all free I don't see why you shouldn't give them all a listen.

GoldieLocks – Cold Sweat (here), Abe Vigoda – Don’t Lie (here), School of Seven Bells - Half Asleep (here), PowerSolo - Pirates of the Oblivion (here), Hatcham Social – So So Happy Making (here), Au Revoir Simone – A Violent Yet Flammable World (here), We Have Band – Hear It In Cans (here), The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Come Saturday (here), Port O’Brien – I Woke Up Today (here), Dananananaykroyd - Pink Sabbath (here), The Von Bondies - This Is Our Perfect Crime (here), Futurecop! - NASA (here), HEALTH - Crimewave (here), The Forms - Red Gun (here), Snake and Jet's Amazing Bullit Band - Ten Cities Beyond (here), and many many more (all here)… you should really check them all out. So much great music, so little time.

Feel Like Dancing?

Dance Area - AA/247 (feat. Austin Boston)



I love the fast and repetitive vocals on this one. The voice and the early '90s-ish electro work really well together. A really great track with an early-90's arcade game inspired video to match.

Filthy Dukes – This Rhythm (feat. Sam Eastgate)



Sam Eastgate from Late of the Pier fills in on vocals, which sort of makes it sound like a "simple" and danceable song LotP just made after hearing some Daft Punk... I like it.

Ra Ra Riot – Ghost Under Rocks (Passion Pit Remix)



By themselves Ra Ra Riot and Passion Pit are two very hyped up'n'coming indie bands. Put them together and you get an awesome synth-house indie anthem. Something for your next hipster-party DJ set. (You can get it at Stereogum.com)

Perfect match of song and video

Circlesquare - Fight Sounds Part 1

This is just one of those cases where the audio and the visual blend perfectly. The two compliment each other so well and just sets the mood excellently... It's redundant to say that I like it, right?

Drenched in fuzz and all good

Two current favorites are Salem and School of Seven Bells. They each represent a brand of electro-shoegaze meets distorted psych meets noisepop, but with very different results. For reasons unknow I see these two bands as related despite their obvious differences in sound. Then again, who cares when the music is this great?

School of Seven Bells features sisters and identical twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza and Benjamin Curtis of Secret Machines. They're by far the most accessible of the two and make lovely pop bliss (within the organic electro-shoegaze-whatchmacall it). Their songs fit all moods and should be a mandatory listen for these cold times.

Peek School of Seven Bells:



Salem on the other hand make evil and twisted electro-shoegaze that is far less accessible, but equally lovely. Distorted vocals over distorted bass with stabbing synths and southern hip hop style beats makes for something completely new and all great. It's definitely not for everyone, but in any case it should be checked out just so you know how evil music really sounds... that's "good" evil of course.

Peek Salem (NSFW by the way... slight nudity involved):

SALEM - DIRT from ACEPHALE on Vimeo.

Feel like dancing?

Filur - 20 Lashes (feat. Prins Nitram)



The guys in Filur have a great song here... awesome video too.

We Have Band - OH!



A bit of IDM- post-punk-what'chu'ma'call'it... it's great that's all.

Fagget Fairies - Feed the Horse



A hit if I've ever heard any... and it's dirty too. Mmmmmmm.

Big in 2009

Having covered the best of 2008 it's time to look forward to what will be big in 2009. Trying to guess what will be big in music is one of my favourite things to do, and when you get it right then it's even more fun. BBC does a brilliant list at the beginning of each year, where they manage to spot those who will make an impact each and every year (if you don't believe me then check out the one they did for 2008 here... impressive, eh?). What do I hope to get out of this? Well, nothing really. Just a bit of fun... however, I am of course hoping that I hit five or more from the coming BBC list (knew all but one, but only got three last year... hoping for more this time!) and vicariously then that the mentioned bands also actually make it.

Enough talking... Let's get to it!

The bands I think will be big in '09:

1. Empire of the sun
2. Little Boots
3. Florence and the Machine
4. White Lies
5. La Roux
6. Boy Crisis
7. We Have Band
8. Chairlift
9. Amazing Baby
10. Passion Pit

And in no particular order the "rest":

Fan Death
Asher Roth
Vivian Girls
Tame Impala
FM Belfast
Micachu
The Soft Pack (formerly The Muslims - why change such an awesome name in the first place?!)

Now all that's left to do is wait!

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UPDATE (20-12-08): Sooo... just saw that the Beeb's 2009 list is up. The good thing is that I got 6 out of 15! Whoop whoop and yay for me!... bad thing is that the list was up a whole five days before I posted (so yay for me and my brilliant research!)... Anywho, despite my inability to be up to date I still got 6 of 15, which is something. It is... Check out the BBC's list for 2009 here.

2008's Best Singles

International Singles:
1. Yeasayer - 2080
2. Seawolf - You're A Wolf
3. Portishead - The Rip
4. MGMT - Time to pretend
5. The Dodos - Fools
6. Beach House - Gila
7. Little Boots - Stuck on Repeat
8. Late of the Pier - The Bears are coming
9. Torche - Healer
10. Ponytail - Celebrate the Body Electric

Honourable Mentions: The Foals - Red Socks Pugie, Crystal Castles - Crimewave, Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream (2009 material), Amadou & Mariam - Sabali, These New Puritans - Elvis, Late of the Pier - Focker, Micachu - Golden Phone, No Age - Eraser, Hot Chip - Ready for the floor, Midnight Juggernaughts - Into the Galaxy, Vivian Girls - I Believe in Nothing, White Denim - Let's Talk About It, Vampire Weekend - A-Punk, Beyoncé - Single Ladies (Put a ring on it)

Danish Singles:
1. Beta Satan - 666
2. Spleen United - Suburbia
3. Veto - You Say Yes, I Say Yes
4. Choir of Young Believers - Riot
5. William Blakes - Secrets of state

Honourable mentions: Wong Boys - GIT UR FUK ON, The Raveonettes - Dead Sound, Lucy Love - No VIP, 18th Dye - Soft the Hard Way

2008's Best Albums

As always it's really hard to pick the best of a whole year, but after several changes and re-thinks I think this is about as close as I'll get to having a final list (it will always change according to time, place and mood). Here we go...

International Albums:
1. The Dodos - Visiter
2. Why? - Alopecia
3. Portishead - Third
4. Mystery Jets - 21
5. The Foals - Antidotes
6. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
7. No Age - Nouns
8. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
9. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
10. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
11. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
12. Yeasayer - Yeasayer
13. Late of the Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
14. Beach House - Devotion
15. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
16. Deerhunter - Microcastle
17. Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls
18. Shearwater - Rook
19. Jeffrey Lewis - 12 Crass Songs
20. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles

Honourable mentions: Torche, TV on the Radio, Wild Beasts, Jay Reatard, Cadence Weapon, Midnight Juggernaughts, Blood Red Shoes, Ponytail

Danish Albums:
1. Beta Satan - Girls
2. Veto - Crushing Digits
3.Choir of Young Believers - Burn the flag EP
4. Spleen United - Neanderthal
5. 18th Dye - Amorine Queen

Honourable mentions: Messy Shelters (came out too late to add to top 5), Kim and the Cinders - S/T, Lily Electric - You're In the Painting You Saw