Well, I usually don’t post about tours and concerts, but this time, I have a hidden agenda. It gives me a great oportunity to post about this wonderful band. So, the news is that Finn Riggins will head out on a massive 3 month US tour, starting today and going on all the way to the 28th of May. You can find the full schedule on their myspace.

Here are a couple of songs from their very fine album “vs the wilderness”:

Finn Riggins – wake (keep this town alive)
Finn Riggins – dali

…and here’s the video for “Wake (keep this town alive)”

Finn Riggins will tour together with another interesting band, Boy Eats Drum Machine:

…and here’s the title track from B.E.D.M.’s album:

Boy Eats Drum Machine – Hoop and Wire

Photo by Kristine Hellemo

Three years ago, I stumbled over the Norwegian artist Solvor Vermeer‘s music.  I was amazed by the delicate and fragile beauty she managed to create with only her voice and the piano as her tools. Now, finally, Solvor Vermeer has plans for her debut-release,-  a four track ep that will be released in April as a digital download and limited edition cd and vinyl.

The EP will be out in the UK on the fine Lazy Acre records, and her own Bloksberg label will release it elsewhere. Vermeer’s new songs are really strong, and in my opinion, this girl deserves to be huge.

The songs on the EP will be the beautiful “pocketful of memories”, “hope”, “final hour”, and the song I first heard from her, ” the beaming light”. Some of these are available for streaming on myspace, but I’m not sure if these are the EP-versions.

Here is a live-video of her performing her song “Hope”  at the recent By:Larm festival in Oslo, only a couple of days ago:

…and here is the song that made my heart jump when I first heard it, “The Beaming Light”.
The EP version is probably different than this one:

Solvor Vermeer – The Beaming Light (from NRK Urört)

Isn’t this wonderful? I love this band and this song in particular. This is the second song in Left With Pictures “In time” project, where they plan to release one song and one video every month in 2010. The songs will be sent to mailinglist members, and the videos are available on their website.
You can find more info about “in time” and find their mailinglist address here: http://www.leftwithpictures.com

Here’s the latest, “St Dominic”:

Sweden’s Club 8 will release a new album “The People’s Record” on Labrador March 18. According to the press-release “The band has travelled to Brazil for inspiration, bought records made in the 70′s in Western Africa, used a percussion player from Cuba and hooked up with producer Jari Haapalainen (The Concretes, Camera Obscura, Ed Harcourt). The result is unique mix of Swedish pop melodies and African rhythms”.

The mp3 I’ve received from the promo agency definitely sounds different than Club 8 used to sound. I need to listen some more times before I can say if I like it or not… What do you think?

Club 8 – Western Hospitality (update: the link is now from pitchfork, since the pr-company’s site seems to have been hacked. Thanks for the update, Brigitte!)

Tracklisting:
1. Western hospitality
2. Isn’t that great?
3. Shape up!
4. Dancing with the mentally ill
5. My pessimistic heart
6. Back to A
7. Like me
8. Be mad, get ill, be still
9. We’re all going to die
10. The people speak

Very Truly Yours announced yesterday that their debut album “Things You Used To Say” is ready and available for pre-order through their label Skywriting Records. The album will be released on March 23. The band has made the title track from the album available for download, and it’s a really nice one.

Lisle (Fireflies) and Kristine (Tiny Microphone) of Very Truly Yours will be one of the +/-30 collaboration projects on our label EardrumsPop‘s upcoming, free collaboration compilation “Between Two Waves” (release in March). They will participate with the project Tiny Fireflies (!).

Here’s the free song from Very Truly Yours:

Very Truly Yours – Things You Used To Say