Third week in this series, wow, I’m good! During a week, I post a lot of news and finds on my twitter @eardrums and I get a lot of email that never gets published on the blog. I’ll try to post some of it here + give you some recommendations to new releases you should buy. Let’s start with some “VERY SHORTIES” and below this, you will find a lot of free goodies and music recommendations:

- Sweden’s Heart-Sick Groans have made a free Halloween single. Scary stuff!

- Blue Roses posted this on twitter a couple of days ago: “Releasing an E.P. in December…it’s got two new songs on it that I recorded and produced in my “studio” (bedroom).”

- Hypertext‘s new album “Astronaut-Kraut” is now finished and mixed. They have added 3 new songs to their myspace, featuring  the amazing Susanne Sundfør , and the rest remains a secret until the album is released early 2010.

- The Norwegian indiepop-band I Was A King and folk-pop’er Tønes have made a sideproject together, called Skjelvekommode. According to Tønes, it sounds like Tønes mixed with I was a king…. Article in Norwegian: http://bit.ly/3oiJol

- Iceland’s Rökkurró started pre-production for their new album this week, and will hopefully release it early 2010.

- Listen to the Swedish label SERVICE‘s new signing. FOREST here. Debut album coming this winter. http://bit.ly/47HdWe

- Norwegian noise-pop’ers Simon Says No! has said no for the last time.

- Quit Myspace Day: http://bit.ly/WiX11

- You can download the excellent debut album from Timber Timbre for free until tomorrow, Saturday! http://www.timbertimbre.com

- It’s a trap tells us that Shout Out Louds are almost done with their new record: http://bit.ly/494LDy

- The Lovely Eggs has made a spooky horror short-film for Artrocker TV: http://www.artrocker.tv/

- Midlake announce third album details http://bit.ly/1QraY7

- Wild Honey has finally released his debut album, – yesterday, actually. It’s available to buy on cd/vinyl + you can download the digital version for free on his bandcamp-site. I’ve had it for a few days already and it’s an amazing album, – very, very good. Highly recommended! Get it here: http://wildhoney.bandcamp.com/

- Henrik Öhberg, who you may know as the man who makes beautiful, almost ambient songs in Tvärvägen, is also the man behind Spunk, an  alternative hiphop-project. Now you can download an album, “Spunk Selected Work Vol 1″ for free on his myspace page. If you hate hiphop, you should try to have a listen, because Mr. Öhberg may convince you that hiphop is not always what you think it is. Check out the wonderful track “Vi drar” feat Susanne Cermenius, – beautiful! Download the album from his myspace: http://www.myspace.com/spunkproductions
(Öhberg is also a part of the folk pop band Ironville. Creative guy! )

- Wisdom Tooth has a couple of free releases on CLLCT.com. I believe that “Lake Fort Phantom” EP is fairly new, and it’s also very good. Her album Cathedral park is fantastic, and should be downloaded by everyone. Style: Beautiful lo-fi folk-pop. http://cllct.com/art/wisdomtooth

- Fanfarlo does a lovely version of Neutral Milk Hotel’s “in an aeroplane over the sea”:

- The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, NRK, have been excellent on podcasts the last year, after being able to make an agreement with copyright organizations TONO/IFPI allowing them to use 70% music in their podcasts. Now, the new discussions between NRK and TONO/IFPI have failed, and they are now only allowed to use 50% music. Many of their good music shows will now be radio only, and disappear from the list of NRK’s podcasts. Several independent record labels in Norway have suggested a way to solve the problem: NRK can use 49% of the ifpi-members music and 21% of THEIR music in the podcasts, since these labels are not members of ifpi. The labels Spoon Train Audio, How Is Annie and Boliboompa have written an open letter to NRK (in Norwegian) and if you want to read it in another language, I suggest using Google Translate.

- Holiday Records has released another good and free ep, this time from The Bonfire Kids, “We will do everything”. Very good! They usually release a new one every friday, and according to their plans, today will see the release of  the new comers: CASPER. Get it from here: http://www.holidayrecords.net/

SOME RECOMMENDED RELEASES I HAVE BOUGHT LATELY

Most of these should be available in digital format on either iTunes, 7digital, eMusic, AmieStreet, Klicktrack or from the labels/artists websites.
Scary Mansion – Make me cry
Small Color – In Light
Left With Pictures – Beyond our means
The Sleeping Years – Into Sunlight
Broadcast & The Focus Group investigate witch cults of the radio age
Kid Canaveral – Left and right ep
Lulu & The Lampshades – Feet to sky ep
The Voluntary Butler Scheme – Trading things in (ep)
Little Comets – Adultery (single)
Morrissey – Swords (b side compilation)
Beat The Radar – To the city from the sea
Katsen – It Hertz
The Woodlands – The Woodlands

more shorties next week!
(…and please tell me what you think of this feature, – should it have been done another way?)

I am not going to say much, but I just had to make a post about this today. WILD HONEY’s debut album is now available for free download on his Bandcamp-page, where you can also get his wonderful EP from last year, also this for free. I’ve had the chance to listen to this album for almost a week, and it has become a favourite of my whole family.

Beautiful harmonies, excellent melodies and although my hopes were high after listening to his EP and the “Hal Blaine’s Beat”-single, this is better than I dared to hope for. Love the artwork too!

Listen:

Photo by James Wilson

This morning I’ve played two songs over and over again, both from the indie folk-pop band The Woodlands, who sent them over to me late yesterday evening. These two songs have stolen all my attention, – like nothing else matters right now. Rare…

Their music fills me with a nice, calm feeling, – it leaves a tiny smile on my face and plants seeds for small thoughts in my head. It sounds optimistic and hopeful, but with a flavour of meloancholy. “The music is like the light of innocence that does not seek isolation or hibernation. It dances with gloom, not upon it. It does not intrude, it intervenes”, the press release says, and for once, a press release gives a good definition of a band’s music. Because this is just how The Woodlands’ music is.

The Woodlands are Hannah and Samuel Robertson, wife and husband, from Portland, USA. Her hushed vocals remind me of another favourite of mine, Kathryn Williams, and that’s a good thing.

You can buy their music via cdbaby, both on cd and mp3, or via iTunes or emusic. After listening through the whole album a couple of times now, I can tell you it’s just as good as the two songs I first heard. You can also listen to it on Spotify. Wonderful music!

The Woodlands – Can We Stay

“Feet to the sky” is the debut-single from UK indie/folk/pop-band Lulu & The Lampshades, and the wonderful cover-art made by Kate Slater is as colourful as the music on this single is. Some of you may remember that we have presented this band earlier here on Eardrums, and I was quite excited when I got my hands on their first single. The single is out today on the new London label Voga Parochia, a label I have high hopes for.

The girls and the boy in Lulu & The Lampshades seem to be playful people, and it’s also easy to hear in their music. Unexpected tempo-shifts, bottle-percussion (?), glockenspiel,  fun arrangement details and lots of handclaps colour their music. Although I love the other musical elements, it’s the warm and soulful vocals of Lulu and Heloise that gets most of my attention. Beautiful! I suspect that all members in the band take part in the backing vocals, and on “Rose Tint” we can also hear some nice male vocals in one part of the song (is this their drummer, Dan?).

Both songs on this single are very good, and they show two sides of the band; – “Feet to the sky” is upbeat with lots of things happening in the background, while “Rose Tint” moves more slowly and manages to say a lot with very few elements. This little two track taster leaves me wanting more, much more, so please Lulu & The Lampshades, can we get an album, – soon?

The 7″ is only available in 200 copies, but there is also a download option, and you can find links to where you can buy it on their myspace page and  their label-page.

Here are a couple of live-videos from Bandstand Busking:

This is the second time I’m doing this kind of shorties post, and it may show that I’m better than I thought on consistency… During a week, I post a lot of news and finds on my twitter @eardrums and I get a lot of email that never gets published on the blog. I’ll try to post some of it here + give you some recommendations to new releases you should buy. Let’s start with some “VERY SHORTIES” and below this, you will find a lot of free goodies and music recommendations:

- Today, one of my favourite unsigned bands, Spaghetti Anywhere, has put several acoustic versions of their songs up on myspace for free download. Check it out here: http://www.last.fm/music/Spaghetti+Anywhere/……%27-__-%27……
- Hybris records is streaming the upcoming album from Sweden’s Kommun on Soundcloud. Sounds very good! Kommun features members of Sibiria, but this time they sing in English.  http://soundcloud.com/hybris/
- The fine 12k label gives away an incredibly beautiful song from Small Color, “Hikari No Hana”, – but it’s only free until October 31. Get it now! – Rough Trade is releasing an indiepop compilation. Indie-Mp3 gives us the tracklisting, and it looks brilliant!
- Tender Trap released a very good free indiepop-single on Fortuna Pop early this week. Download it from here.
- New free song from The Magic Numbers, “Hurt so good”, available from here in exchange of your email address.
- Bearsuit is recording their new album at the moment, and are posting reports from their studio-sessions on twitter.
- Victoria and Jacob are preparing a new  single for the fine Yoga.Parochia label, who will also soon release the debut single from Lulu and the Lampshades.
- According to their twitter @iwasaking, I Was A King have recorded 3 songs with Gary Olson (The Ladybug Transistor), that will be released on a 7″ in January.
- Myspace is getting more useful for musicians with their new Artist Dashboard, – a handy feature!

EARDRUMS (that’s us) is working hard on the making of our new free, digital compilation at the moment. You can read all about it here: http://www.eardrumspop.com.  It will be a collaboration-project in all parts of the process, and it’s really fun working on it. Contact us if you want to be a part of it, either as an artist or as an illustrator. info @ eardrumspop.com .

“The Norwegian SXSW”, By:Larm, will be held in Oslo in February 2010, and the first list of performing bands have now been published on the by:larm website.  Our favourites are especially The Little Hands of Asphalt, Pica Pica, Julie Stokkendal, Kathinka, I see horses, Denga Denga, Therese Aune, Masselys, CCTV, Pow Pow and The Pink Robots.

Beautiful Star – The songs of Odetta is a new benefit compilation curated by Wears the trousers magazine. It features artists like Linda Draper, Ane Brun, Marissa Nadler, Liz Durrett, Sandy Dillon and many more, and it raises money for The Fawcett Society, working for equality between men and women. It’s released on November 30. http://www.myspace.com/songsofodetta

Spoon Train Audio will release a follow up to their Oslo-compilation, called “Oslo2″ . The album will be released 16th November, and it has a tracklisting that makes me happy! Look:
1. Cold Mailman – Time Is Of Essence
2. Hiawata! – Valley Boys
3. Children And Corpse Playing In The Streets – France
4. The Little Hands Of Asphalt – The Next Time We Meet
5. Einar Stray – Arrows
6. Therese Aune – Chamelon
7. Firetop Mountain – How Can You Dance At A Time Like This
8. Go Fandango – End Credits
9. Norma Sass – Born In The 80′s
10. Monzano – Cold Waters
11. Casa Murilo – Murilo I Love You
12. Like Spinning – Crush (And Naivety)
13. Seppuku Zephyr Dance – Carousel
14. Yoyoyo Acapulco – Facial
15. My Little Pony – Capital Of Norway
16. Nomber 5s – Dancing To The Oslo Beat

BEKO is a small French netlabel who I have completely fallen in love with the recent week. They release new digital singles every Monday, and the 3 they have released now are super-good! The first is from Swedens Death & Vanilla, – soothing dream pop in the veins of Broadcast and Stereolab, the second is from USA’s Jamie Long, – dreamy electronica with very nice vocals, and the third is from Woven Tales, instrumental electronics of the good kind. Highly recommended! Upcoming: nude beach, bilinda butchers, million young, tan dollar, procedure club,moscow olympics….http://www.beko-dsl.com/

Lloyd Cole is an old hero of mine, and I am really impressed with the way he uses the web. His site is built by him and his son, and he interacts with his fans actively, answers questions and is really creative with the possibilities this “new” medium gives him. His new idea is this: http://shop.lloydcole.com/products/my-next-album-limited-edition-2-cd-set . I might be one of those 2500 people he needs to finish the project…

Inch Chua is an artist from Singapore who was featured in the October edition of our Music Alliance Pact. I really liked her MAP-song and searched for her on the internet, where I found out that she has released a free download EP on her website. It’s really good, so you should check it out. Acoustic pop, blended with some electronic elements. http://www.inchchua.com/Main/The_Bedroom.html

Race Horses is a Welsh band I have written about here on Eardrums earlier, and their single “Cake” is one of the best singles I have heard this year. Check out this video from Spin Earth featuring the band:

SOME RECOMMENDED RELEASES I HAVE BOUGHT LATELY
Most of these should be available in digital format on either iTunes, 7digital, eMusic, AmieStreet, Klicktrack or from the labels/artists websites.

Piroth – Safe Haven
Nat Johnson and the figureheads – Roman Radio
Local Natives – Camera Talk (single)
Atlas Sound – Logos
The Drums – Summertime EP
Clare & The Reasons – Arrow
The Candle Thieves – Sunshine ep
Sufjan Stevens – The BQE
Jay Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard – One Fast Move or I’m Gone – Music from Kerouac’s Big Sur
Spiral Stairs – Real Feel
I might be wrong – circle the yes
A Perfect Friend – Timber and modern ways

more shorties next week!
(…and please tell me what you think of this feature, – should it have been done another way?)