These are some of my absolute favourite blogs from my blogroll (see the left sidebar). The list is randomized from a larger list of my favourites, and it will change at every visit:
"Self-taught magic from a book" is the debut album from two Norwegian girls and two English boys in a band with a French name, Je Suis Animal. The album is released today, and I must say I’ve waited a long time for this record. in fact, I’ve waited for it for about as long as I’ve run this blog.
I think I heard Je Suis Animal for the first time in 2005, and their sound was so different from everything other Norwegian bands did at the time. Their sound is still different, and the album has become a wonderful collection of dreamy, sharp-edged pop songs with influences from several decades of alternative music.
Before we let the band tell us more about the album, and how it was to record in the middle of the woods with a bear lurking around, we just have to look at their new video for one of the songs on the new album. "The Mystery of Marie Roget" is directed by Amund Hesbøl, and obviously inspired by the Bunuel/Dali classic "Un Chien Andalou" from 1929.
Before you start reading our interview with the band, I advice you to open their myspace in a separate window and press play on the music player. Then come back here and read the rest while listening!
(Cryptacize: Chris, Nedelle and Michael. Photo by John Ringhofer)
Cryptacize is what happens when two of the people that have given me some of my best musical moments in the last couple of years join forces. Chris Cohen and Nedelle Torrisi . When they in addition get together with an amazing percussionist, Michael Carreira, incredible things must happen.
Their debut album is called "Dig That Treasure" and will be released through Asthmatic Kitty on February 19. The album includes 11 beautiful, playful, interesting, harmonic, weird, sweet and most of all unpredictable songs, and I must say it has become even better than I dared to hope for. It is so refreshing to hear pop music that can surprise you with its unexpected turns, key- and rhythm changes and unusual harmonies. Cryptacize is definitely unpredictable and unusual in their way of making music, but the result is not what some will call "difficult music". This is "interesting music", but also very friendly to the ears.
For those of you who are not familiar with these people, Chris Cohen has previously released several albums with The Curtains, and he was also a member of Deerhof for several years. The multiinstrumentalist Nedelle Torrisi has released several solo-albums as Nedelle, including last years wonderful "The Locksmith Cometh". She has also recorded an album called "Summerland" with The Moore Brothers’ Thom Moore as "Nedelle & Thom" in 2004. Michael Carreira is the third member of Cryptacize, - a percussionist Nedelle and Chris "found" via an amazing cowbell-video he had made on YouTube.
Chris and Nedelle has played together, lived together and been almost neighbours before they started Cryptacize. She joined The Curtains on their last album "Calamity", and he played on her latest album. The title track on "The Locksmith Cometh" is co-written by Chris Cohen.
I just HAD to send over some questions to Chris and Nedelle, and while you are reading their answers, you can have a listen to some songs from the new album + some of the things they have done before Cryptacize:
Part 2 of 2 of the Dublab interview series here at Eardrums: after chatting with beat wizard Nobody, I had the chance to ask Mr. Jimmy Tamborello a couple of questions on the occasion of his participation in the Sous La Plage festival on September 2. I don’t think I can list all the bands and projects he’s been involved with in the past decade, but let’s say that if you’ve ever seen Dntel, The Postal Service, Figurine, James Figurine, or Headset on a record cover, he was part of that. His latest album as Dntel, Dumb Luck, was released this spring; it is full of guest performances by high-profile indie artists from around the world (Lali Puna, Conor Oberst, Jenny Lewis, indie-folk newcomers Arthur & Yu, etc.)
Cameraphone pic, though "it’s hard to keep the dirt and grease off the lens"
In this interview, Jimmy talks about the highly anticipated new Postal Service record, his M.O. for live performances, and being on the road with the Dublab crew.
Taking advantage of the glorious Sous La Plage festival in downtown Paris, I spent my Sunday afternoon chilling to the sweet Pacific sounds of Dublab, the South California collective and webradio that regroups some of the most exciting artists America has to offer. Dublab were the special guests at this small free festival, and I had the opportunity to just walk up to two of my favourite artists and ask them questions (the interviews were reconstructed from notes, for lack of recording material; apologies to those concerned). In today’s installment, I talk with beatmaker-turned-songster Elvin Estela, who records under the name Nobody.
"Sous la Plage"? Well, the French say, "under the cobblestones, the beach"
Bristol-artist Nick Talbot has been making music as Gravenhurst for several years, and he is soon ready to release his fifth album, “The Western Lands” on Warp Records. Gravenhurst’s first two albums, “Internal Travels” and “Flashlight Seasons” were dark, acoustic based albums with a lot in common with songwriters like Nick Drake or Jeff Buckley. On his latest release, “Fires in distant buildings”, Gravenhust explored other sides of his music, and created a noisier, more electrified, maybe a bit shoegazey sound. Everything we knew as Gravenhurst were still present, - the feeling, the calm vocals, the acoustic guitars, but another, rougher dimension had been added. Where will Nick Talbot take us with his new album? We asked him.
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Their debut album is called "Dig That Treasure" and will be released through 
