Band of the week: The sounds

"The Sounds are a New Wave group which formed in Helsingborg, Sweden in 1999. They consist of Maja Ivarsson (vocals) Felix Rodriguez (guitar), Johan Bengtsson (bass), Jesper Anderberg (keyboards) and Fredrik Nillson (drums). The band has released three albums to date: 2002’s Living in America, 2006’s Dying to Say This to You, and their most recent, Crossing the Rubicon on Original Signal Recordings."



The sounds

Tracks:
Dorchester Hotel
4 songs and a fight

Albums:
Dying to say this to you
Crossing the Rubicon

Band of the week: Friendly Foes

Friendly Foes

I hadn't heard of friendly foes until yesterday which is a damn shame, no idea why but we've found them now and they're amazing which is the most important thing.

The three tracks I've heard are full moon morning, couch surfing and get yr shit together; all of which got rated on my ipod. A huge rarity but these are worthy of even higher praise. The latter is heart breaking because they seem to remain criminally under rated. I'm hoping that they're just under the radar and their inclusion on the indie rock playlist next month and festivals in the summer will give them the notoriety they deserve.

Friendly Foes are Ryan Allen, Liz Wittman and Sean Sommer who together make up a self-proclaimed verse-chorus-verse FFM indie-pop band from Michigan. They're in sort of the same vein as The Subways if Subways had a good male singer and Ash if they were fun and still had Charlotte Hatherley.

Full moon morning
Couch surfing
Get yr shit together
My body (is a strange place to live)

Via Audio

They're the best band i've found in 2010 so far! I don't know if they count as I was just going through some unplayed tracks from the last time i synced my ipod in 2009 but either way, what a band!

I don't know how I found them. I've started making notes on where I did like I was in an internet cafe the other day and wrote down the band who some guy was looking at on myspace. They weren't good but still imagine if they had, what a find that would've been...



Via Audio

On face value Via Audio which is what V/A means in technical terms you doofus, are loveable and their music is just the same. They fill a very nice niche inbetween fun. and the dark side of los campesinos. They're a four piece from NYC and have been plugging away in various forms since forming at college in 2003.

Apparently Chris Walla of the cab also called them his favourite band a while back on the hall of justice, he does have good taste in music whatever else is said about him. I don't know if I'd have found destroyer or laura viers without his blog.

The tracks i've posted here are from their debut saysomethingsaysomethingsaysomething, which you can get most of on their last.fm but animalore is coming out in febrauary, the track listing and a free mp3 of "babies" can be found here.

Developing active people
Modern Day saint
Presents

Free Energy

Free Energy

I just read about these guys and got excited so felt I really better get on and post about them on here. They're from philli, representing americana and glam-rock, that's right.

Frontman Paul Sprangers describes a typical Free Energy gig as “Hot dancing girls everywhere. Sweat. Pulsing lights. Emotional Rescues. Fist pumps and rainbow disco lights. Eagle soaring solos. And really cute girls. And boys. And high-fives. Someone probably throws a beer at some point. There's definitely some heckling. And then a slew of fine ladies hanging out at the afterparty.”

Dream City and their title track are bound to be anthem's of 2010, check them out while they're cooool!!!

Dream City
Free Energy
Something in common

The Seedy Seeds- Change States/Count the days

The Seedy Seeds
Count the Days

1. Winter 04
2. Dandelion
3. The Push
4. Drive Me To The Center
5. My Roots Go Down
6. The Feeders
7. Oh, Cincinnati
8. August Eyes
9. On The Subject Of Our Past Selves
10. Count The Days
11. Losing Light
12. Asleep In All My Dreams

Download

Essential Downloads: 1,2,3,4 and 6

The Seedy Seeds
Changing States

1.the da-da song
2.Eponym
3.The Little Patton
4.Alberta
5.Rise to Receive
6.Calliope
7.Grace
8.The Weight of So Many Anchors
9.Listen to Changes Less the Moon by
10.Listen to Ides
11.Earned Average Dance America
12.Outro : of the lion

Download

Essential Downloads: 3, 6 and 11

My band of the week without a doubt! As fun as fun., and as meaningful as architecture in helsinki

Pomegranates- Everybody, come outside!

Pomegranates- Everybody, come outside! (2009)

Everbody Come Outside
Beachcomber
This Land Used To Be...
Southern Ocean
Piano
Corriander
384 BC
Svaatzi Uutsi
Jerusalem Had a Bad Day
Tesseract
Acoustic

Essential Downloads: 1, 2, 3, 6

I've started putting "band of the week" in the tags so you can click on it and see the other bands of the week! Now i'm not just randomly mentioning that, i'm saying it for a reason as pomegranates are just that- my band of the week!

I heard about them a long time ago but couldn't find anything on them until sure enough they were so good that their stuff was everywhere within a few months. You know when Isaac Brock or Frank Black are really fucking angry and vitriolic on tracks? That isn't this. This is when the Modest Mouse and Pixies frontmen lend their deathly gravel to more a more tender means.

This is the foursome from cin... cin... at... ti's second album and if you were to use a fruit to descrine them it would probably be their namesake... I think comparisons like that is why I don't get paid for this shit...

Jupiter One- Sunshower (2009)

You know sometimes you hear someone and you think they're amazing but you thihnk you better not get carried away? I don't feel that here, I just think these guys are AMAZING. They're not new so it's not on a par with finding fanfarlo, my band of this year without a doubt, but these guys are without a doubt my band of this month and it's only half way through. That's like a band of the week four weeks in a row so yes, it is quite the accolate. Just get this album it's mind blowing, Flaming arrow is the track that will get you hooked but you won't be going any where after that.

Jupiter One- Sunshower (2009)

Sunshower can be rare occurrence, but when these opposing forces meet, magic
and allure is in theair. This is exactly why the NYC-based rockers, Jupiter One, chose the title
(inspired by the Japanese short film Dreams by Akira Kurosawa) for their upcoming Ryko album. Their far-out freshness mixed with timeless musical inspirations mesh together in a bittersweet indie-pop rock concoction.

01. Volcano ( 3:53)
02. Lights Go Out ( 3:06)
03. Flaming Arrow ( 3:23)
04. Made In A Day ( 2:53)
05. Anna ( 3:21)
06. Simple Stones ( 4:32)
07. High Plains Drifter Finds The Oracle At Delphi ( 4:29)
08. Find Me A Place ( 3:34)
09. Come On ( 3:24)
10. Strange Teacher ( 4:04)
11. People In The Mountain, People Of The Ocean ( 1:49)

Hey Monday!

These are my new favourite band (of the week) I had their album on my ipod for some reason but I was hooked like a first time freebaser...

So yeah the lead singer's a bit of an emo hottie, you gotta love em right, so yeah there's the paramore comparison but you secretly love paramore anyway so get over it and check em out-

HOLD ON TIGHT!!!

1. Set Off
2. How You Love Me Now
3. Homecoming
4. Obvious
5. Candles
6. Run, Don't Walk
7. Josey
8. Hurricane Streets
9. Arizona
10. Should've Tried Harder
11. 6 Months

I also just found out i missed them playing live in oxford the other day and now want to shoot myself IN the face.