PHOTO: Days

Shelflife Records have news for us, and all news from this label is usually good news. On their release plans, we can find new releases from Sweden’s brilliant pop-orchestra Days and also new music from Burning Hearts. Both of these excite me hugely! Some of the songs on Days’ “Downhill” 7”/cd-ep (also on Shelflife) are among my most loved songs ever (esp. “Downhill” and “Simple Thing”), and Burning Hearts’ debutalbum “Aboa Sleeping” is one of my top 5 albums of 2009. I’ll get back to you with the release-dates for these two later.

MP3: Days – Downhill

MP3: Burning Hearts – I lost my color vision

The UK electro-pop duo Katsen will release their album “It Hertz!” on Shelflife on October 22. The SPC released this album some weeks ago in the UK/Europe, but the Shelflife version has another tracklisting plus some different songs on it.

MP3: Katsen – Where nobody can find us

The latest release from Shelflife is the brilliant “The Imperial School” 7”/CD-EP from Horse Shoes (8 tracks), a record I warmly recommend.It’s full of sweet, wonderful popsongs from the Brooklyn duo Drew Diver and Jacob Graham. You might remember their song “I can’t decide” in a harvest mix from our “A Good Crop” compilation.

Horse Shoes’ sound reminds me of something between classic Sarah Records indiepop, modern Swedish pop and Pet Shop Boys-ballads… and it is good! Jacob Graham is also in The Drums, another band I like a lot these days, and the boys from Horse Shoes also run their own net-label, Holiday Records (where you can get both Horse Shoes- and The Drums-songs for free).

MP3: Horse Shoes – Changing winds

In related news, I can tell you that Shelflife band Socialist Leisure Party will play a gig together with a reformed THE PRIMITIVES (!!!) at Buffalo Bar in London (Twee as fuck) on the 9th of October. Tickets can be bought here.

I’m so far away, but would love to be there… Here are a couple of videos that show two very different sides of the band, and I love both. I first found The Primitives this way, on a single called “Really Stupid” from 86. I loved it, and loved the b-side even more, “Stop killing me”. Enjoy!

…and here’s an even more pop-oriented song, “Thru the flowers”: