Teeny Grownups from Stavanger, Norway is ready with their second album, and for some reason I was not surprised when I saw the title, “Epic Rock”. I am sure the band had a laugh when they decided the title, but in many ways I would seriously call this epic rock, – or maybe epic pop?

Their new album is full of fine, playful pop songs with just the right amount of cute-ugliness. Think c86, the pastels, bmx bandits, television personalities, the wedding present, but also newer bands like Art Brut are easy to compare them with.    

This is such a loveable band, – everything about them, – the jangly pop-songs, the attitude, the nice people, the lyrics about everything from libraries, ferries, campfires and substitute teachers to girls kissing backstage. Per Ebbe Helberg is a wonderful storyteller, and he manages to tell full stories over just a few textlines. The rest happens in the listeners head. The repeating line “I’m so sorry I forgot your wedding day, I’m so sorry I forgot the day you went to church, of course I should know, I should have known, I should have remembered your wedding day” in the song “Wedding day” is so simple and naive, but at the same time, it includes so much more than just the simple text-lines. It might just be me and my strange head, but I instantly start to wonder about things like “what’s the story behind this” and “what happened after” and “what’s the relationship between the persons mentioned in the song”. A whole new story starts to emerge, and the simple song  suddenly gets a whole new dimension. It is something with Helberg’s lyrics that gives me a feeling that the whole story isn’t told yet.  All the songs are focussed on everyday life, sometimes naive, sometimes strange, but always very enjoyable.

The first time I heard this band was quite some time ago when I heard their lovely, superjangly song “Belle and Sebastian”, and since then I have kept my eyes and ears on the Stavanger group. 

I just have to mention an example of the band’s wonderful, subtle, nerdy humour: On their myspace, you will find a live-photo in their pictures section. On the photo, the band is on a quite big stage, they really seem to be intensely rocking, and the audience has their hands in the air. A typical rock festival photo. The only problem is that there are only 5 people watching the concert in front of the stage. Not exactly crowded. The band has tagged the photo, like you usually see on the new social media sites. Usually peope tag the important persons/things in the picture, – like “this is me”, “this is my brother”, “cool guitar” and things like that, but try to go to their myspace, mouse over the live-photo and see who Teeny Grownups has tagged with names…  At least I found it quite charming!

Here’s a song from “Epic Rock”, – “Merry Ferry” + a song from the band’s first album, the before mentioned “belle and sebastian”.

Teeny Grownups – Merry Ferry

Teeny Grownups – Belle and Sebastian

Robert Post is a Norwegian artist I just like, no matter what he do and how he does it, – I just like him and his music. It has something to do with the way he writes his songs, – both intuitive, accessible and at the same time quite challenging. It also has something to do with his personality. I don’t know the man personally, but he seems very down to earth and at the same time a pure artist.

When he released his debut album a couple of years ago, he got a lot of positive press coverage in the largest newspapers in Norway. The album was a good one, it got him several hits, and he got some attention also outside of Norway. He has spent the last years touring and writing songs, and parts of this time, he has been living in London. Around 2006, he was trying to find inspiration for new songs,  and the war against the Hezbollah and the bombing of Beirut dominated the newspapers. Post especially found interest in a blog called “Beirut Update” that had been printed in The Guardian, and wrote a lyric directly inspired by words from the blog. He contacted the writer, Zena el Khalil, and she approved of the lyrics. Robert finally decided to release the song as his new single, and it is dedicated to Zena and her writings. Her painting “Hope” is also the cover art of his new release.

I really like this one, and it’s a song you just HAVE to listen to from beginning till end, – wonderful things are happening late in the song.

Here is an acoustic version of the song. 

You are in love
you are in love
they drop bombs
they sail their sons home in caskets
she’s in love with a god from above
the same god that’s in love with war
who wants to bear a baby into this world?
into the streets of Beirut
she’s in love with a god from above
the same god that’s in love with war
in Beirut

Human Heat is a fairly new norwegian band from Oslo. But the members have played in bands and with artists like Tommy Tokyo, Beezewax, Karen Jo Fields etc. Human Heat have allready finished their debut album before doing any live performances. Their album is produced by Kenneth Ishak (Beezewax). Their first live performances will be in April and May in Oslo.

Check it out their song “Thinking Heart”, it’s quite catchy!

Human Heat – Thinking Heart

(from NRK)

Hiawata! is one of the Norwegian bands I have high hopes for in 2009. I am finally starting to be proud of the pop-music from my own country, and I can thank among others the bands who feature on this free release from the SellOut! Music label for that. ‘These boys and this band is all i know’ is the title of Hiawata!’s upcoming album, and after having the chance to pre-listen to an early version of the album, I can tell you it is filled with melodic pop-gems. Great music!

Now the band and their label has released a free single from the album with 9 (!) b-sides. The b-sides are other bands’ remakes/covers of some of Hiawata!’s songs, and some of them are absolutely brilliant!

The whole thing is free, and you can get it from here.

Here are a couple of my own favourites:

(The Dylan Mondegreen-song is available in its original version on the new Hiawata! album)

If you go to Hiawata!’s myspace, you can listen to some of the original songs from the new album.

Team Me is a one man-project, with Marius Drogsås Hagen as the only member. His main band is Jaqueline, where he plays the bass and sings backing vocals, and he also has a very interesting project called SIN together with his mate Tord Øverland-Knudsen from The Wombats.

Both Jaqueline and SIN will soon release albums, – Jaqueline are ready with their third, and SIN will release their debut in 2009. Team Me is the place where Marius performs the songs he makes that won’t fit in either the alternative rock style of Jaqueline or the electronica/folk/pop of SIN. This song is an acoustic gem, and I hope you’ll like it as much as I do!

Team Me – Fool (from NRK Urört)