Hailing from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Luisa Mandou um Beijo originally began as the solo project of one Fernando Valenca Paiva. He recorded a demo tape on a 4-track at home, and asked a jolly lass named Flávia to sing them for him. The tape, released in 1999, got good reviews and encouraged them to continue and form a band, and in 2001 they released an EP on Midsummer Madness, a brazilian indie label. This year saw the release of their first full album, which is distributed in England by Action Pop! Records.

Singing in their native portugese they have managed to win my heart completely with their blistering brass section, Flávias angel voice, flutes and catchy indiepop tunes which at times remind me of the wonderful Lush, especially in the song Bauhas Today.

The name Luisa Mandou um Beijo means "Greetings from Luisa" or literally "Luisa sent a kiss", and the lyrics are about love, art and Rio de Janeiro. Fernando, who is a great admirer of Dadaism, confesses to writing the lyrics accordingly, and that each person should freely interpret them as they like. It's all the same to me, I don't understand a word, but the music speaks to me regardless, and I hope it will catch the attention of you too, it certanly deserves an audience.

Luisa Mandou um Beijo - Amarelinha
Luisa Mandou um Beijo - Bauhaus Today
Luisa Mandou um Beijo - Anselmo

Anyone here remember Hefner? They were a great little pop group that operated out of the UK a few years back. They were firm favourites with the late John Peel. After they split, I lost track of what the band members did next. Earlier this year I saw a solo show from the bands former 'frontman' and songwriter. His name, Darren Hayman. He performed a one man solo show and quality of the song writing shone through.

So this past summer he has released two EPs - one called Cortinaland on CD. Containing 5 intimate and gentle songs. The other was a 7" called Static Caravan, which contained 4 more songs. Which were all recorded in lovingly lo-fi in a static caravan. Luckily for us, from both recording session there were a couple of songs left over that didn't seem to fit with the mood of each respective EP.

Darren Hayman - The Victim Song (left over from the Static Caravan EP).
Darren Hayman - She Wants To Be A Cowgirl (left over from the Cortinaland EP).

Darren also has a little micro site dedicated to both EPs - where you can hear samples and find out how to order the EPs. There are also a couple of home made videos that you can download - both clock in at about 20mb. Both the EPs remind me of what a great songwriter Darren Hayman is. It's good to have him back recording again.

Darren Hayman - Caravan Song (from Static Caravan)
Darren Hayman - Crissy M (From Cortinaland)

The Static Caravan micro site can be found here and the Cortinaland one here.

I know nothing about Lucky Misu aprt from it's a he and he is Swedish. I also know that Bobby Baby sings and plays synth on "Don't Hurt Anyone", one of the six tracks from the debut web EP "Fist Fight".

And what's it like? Well it's that lo-fi synth pop the Swedes do so well. It's a bit rough around the edges but hints at promise and potential.

Lucky Misu - Fist Fight
Lucky Misu - Don't Hurt Anyone

Download the four other tracks from the Lucky Misu site.

If I get some further info I will let you know!

From The Penelope Tree's website:

Following last weekend's super, soarway Sunday featuring Schla la la and solo star Piney Gir, ably assisted by the 'Broken Family Man' Steve, we've got another cracking evening lined up. This time we are looking forward to being entertained by 'Mr C86' - Tom IndieMP3.

We're not sure what he's going to play at this juncture, so howzabout some requests to get things moving? And it's probably fair to say that if HE ain't got it, and WE ain't got it, then it ain't worth having...

Sunday 13th November 2005 8pm-12am MAYBE 1AM - WILL CONFIRM SOON - SO KEEP AN EYE ON THE SITE...

BARTOK, 79-81 Chalk Farm Road, London NW1

Nearest tubes - Chalk Farm (5 minute walk)Camden Town - (9.23 minutes walk)or buses 29,134 or 24 from the West End

FREE ENTRY

The Penelope Tree plays:

The Would-Be-Goods, Delta 5, St Etienne, The Undertones, The Popinjays, Girls at our Best!, Ballboy, Felt, Piney Gir, Belle and Sebastian, Young Marble Giants, The Passions, Jilted John, Ruth Brown, Camera Obscura, Life Without Buildings, The The, Josef K, Comet Gain, Doris, Kicker, The Projects, Dexys, Microdisney, Wet Dog, The Schla la las, The Road Runners, Shangri-Las, Morrissey, Yum-Yums, Beach Boys:
Ska, French Pop, Northern Soul, 60's pop & garage and early Rough Trade and the like...

I don't know about Mr C86! Pretty sure I will play a mix of C86 stuff and the Swedish music i'm into these days. I have not dj'ed before and am pretty nervous and excited at the same time. If you are in London come along and say hello. Or throw rotting vegetables at me!

The Sorayas have just released their latest EP titled "Hours To Days" which you can buy from CDON.com.

These are one of the bands I meant to follow up after hearing their contribution to Labrador's Sound Of Young Sweden Vol 4, "Easy Tune". The band consists of Soraya Mirgalou (drums), Annika Forsberg (Guitar and vocals) and Hanna Maurin (bass) forming in 2000. I think there have been a few line up changes but I think they are back to their original line-up.

The band play a punk influenced brand of power pop and have released one seven inch and one cassette release before this latest release and if you like your pop music noisey I can recommend them.

There are no mp3's available from the the new EP but there are a number from the earlier releases. Enjoy!

The Sorayas - Easy Tune
The Sorayas - Perfect Endings

More tracks can be downloaded from here.


Play the Video for Easy Tune.

Monkey Swallows The Universe are a two-piece acoustic band based in Sheffield. I am on a bit of a lo-fi trip these days but to be honest I would have described this, somewhat ignorantly, as "hippy shit" in my younger days which would have been somewhat wide of the mark now I have become a bit more educated about various different musical styles. I amazed how tolerant to music I have become in my older years - well apart from Jazz Funk...........and Franz Ferdinand.

Anyway back to the lo-fi trip and Monkey Swallows the Universe fits the bill perfectly.

Monkey Swallows the Universe - Down
Monkey Swallows the Universe - Beautiful Never
Monkey Swallows the Universe - Martin

Download many more tracks from their Soundclick page but you will need to register first or you can stream them without registering.

Stream songs via their My Space page.

I must confess to not yet having had the patience to sit and enjoy a whole sigur rós album, despite everybody else's intentions to wet themselves with excitement over them. I remember at first even being slightly bothered by the falsetto voice described by someone as "gently licking everyone's ears like a warm and drooly puppy", but mostly I've never found peace and quiet for long enough to just try to sit back and truly listen to their albums. However I've found time to be enthralled by their excellent videos, and it is this experience which I would now like to impart on all of you, regardless of wether you like their music or not. The videos are truly amazing, to say the least, all of them in slow motion of course, like the music.

"Svefn-g-englar" features a cast of amazing actors all of whom have Downs Syndrome. They have formed an acting troupe called "Perlan", and apparently perform regularily though I can't find anything about them online except in relations to this video, and they're amazing to watch in this video.

Another video is "Viðrar vel til Loftárása", which literally means "Nice Weather for an Air-raid", the title of which is taken from a comment from a weather reporter who, during the war in Kosovo remarked that this was nice weather for an air-raid, meaning sunny I presume. Neither the song nor the video is about war or weather though, but has raised a few eyebrows and caused some heated arguments even.

The latest video featured here is "Glósóli" which is on their latest album, "Takk". I have no idea what it's about, but Glósóli means something like "Glowing Sunshine", but put together to sound like a person's name. I can't find anyone by that name though, at first glance.

Funnily enough today when I logged into my computer there was this web page open, where you can buy tickets to sigur rós' concert in Reykjavik on 27th november. I thought to myself, "well, my girlfriend must have been thinking of buying tickets", and left the web page open, in case she needed it again to place an order. Then tonight we were discussing this possibility and it turns out she also noticed this web page open, thought I was going to buy tickets, and left it open for me in case I needed it. Since there's no-one else in our household who could possibly be interested in tickets to a sigur rós show, it must be our destiny to go there, and eventually we bought the tickets, but I must presume some elves opened the web page for us to discover.

sigur rós - Glósóli video (web page with embedded .mov file high res.)
sigur rós - Glósóli video (13.7 MB .wmv file)
sigur rós - Viðrar vel til Loftárása (13.6 MB .wmv file)
sigur rós - Svefn-g-englar video (26.7 MB .wmv file)
FAQ about the Glósóli video
Even more videos by sigur ros

Describing their music as "east European folk inspired punk-rock" Croisztans made a stunning appearance at the Iceland Airwaves festival this year. Most if not all the members are Icelanders but they live and work in Copenhagen, and have been scaring danes since 1997. Apparently they are recording their second album although I have yet to find any mention oftheir first album anywhere. They bear a resemblance to The Wedding Present's spin-off band The Ukrainians although at time their live performance bears more resemblance to a horde of gypsies, caravans and all, tumbling down a flight of stairs, which is even better. With their bongo drums, horns, harmonicas and the booming-voiced singer dancing like a madman in the crowd they put on a good sweaty show. Their songs can be dark and menacing, playful and careless, fast and furious, and you should head over to their Myspace Page for a better look. On a side-note the singer used to lead a silly and brilliant band in the mid ninetees called Texas Jesus, whom I will take a closer look at sometime soon.

Croisztans - Gnetza
Croisztans - Langsam
Croisztans - Kjöt
Croisztans - Flamengo
Croisztans - Buuther

Track List:

Dr Dog - East Beat
Sambassadeur - New Moon
Victorian English Gentlemen's Club - My Son Spells Backwards
The Lodger - You Got Me Wrong
And What Will Be Left of Them - Wendle No
Good Shoes - Never Meant To Hurt You
The Bridge Gang - Sarah's Brother
Surburban Kids With Biblical Names - Loop Duplicate My Heart

Download Here.

(file hosed by Rapidshare - see here on how to use this service)

We Are Soldiers We Have Guns are set to release their latest EP on Monday 24th October 2005. The EP is self titled and follows their contribution to the "Records Make Great Pets - Vol. 1" compilation. Their current label, Stereo Test Kit Records, has this to say about the band and the new EP:

We are soldiers we have guns consists of Malin Dahlberg (Douglas Heart, Laurel Music), with help from a few friends including Robert Tenevall (Royal Downfall, Knugen Faller) and Pontus Wallgren (Douglas Heart).

Already established as one of Sweden's finest indie-pop vocalists, the self-titled EP is a further testament to Malin's vocal and songwriting talents.

Recorded in the spring of 2005, with Jon F Kennedy (a.k.a. Jon Brännström) at the controls, the result is a collection of pure sounding songs that'll chill your spine, then melt your heart. Music rarely sounds this honest. (via)

These songs are taken from the new EP, Records Make Great Pets and their debut EP respectively and are all, well the best way to describe them is beautiful.

We Are Soldiers We Have Guns - Damn Those TV Shows, Damn Them Straight To Hell
We Are Soldiers We Have Guns - Tourists In Our Hometown
We Are Soldiers We Have Guns - Jodi's Noise


If you live in London you can catch We Are Soldiers We Have Guns on the 26th October 2005 at the Brixton Windmill playing with Au Revoir Simone and The Russian Futurists. They next return to London with a November date at the Social W1.


Stream tracks from their My Space page.

Buy We Are Soldiers We Have Guns

A Place To Bury Strangers are an America rock n roll band (Based in New York). From what little information I have managed to glean - they formed out of the ashes of Skywave. Skywave were one of the most criminally neglected bands of the last decade. They brewed up a heady mix of Jesus and Mary Chain motorbike pop and My Bloody Valentine sonic assaults. At some point in the last two/three years Skywave seem to have split into two separate bands. One being Ceremony (who I have yet to hear) and the other being A Place To Bury Strangers.

The tracks for download on the bands site were recently reviewed on my Lostmuisc site, not by me, I might add. A Place To Bury Strangers are a band that seem to make the kind of music that got me interested in music all those years ago. They use noise, distortion, echoed vocals and some thrusting bass lines to brew up a cocktail that recalls some indie/shoegaze heavy weights like Ride, My Bloody Valentine and to a lesser extent The Jesus and Mary Chain. Where as Skywave was more Mary Chain sounding - A Place To Bury Strangers seem ready to take the sound to a more an extreme conclusion, forgoing some of the pop hooks in search of that sonic thrill. That's not say the band don't have decent tunes, they do.

Download:

A Place To Bury Strangers - Don't Think Lover
A Place To Bury Strangers - She Dies
A Place To Bury Strangers - My Weakness

There are another five songs for download from the bands site - here - just click on the music link.

Pelle Carlberg, the former Edson frontman, has released his second single on Labrador. It features five tracks and the title track "Riverbank" is as infectious as anything you will hear this year.

Pelle Carlberg - Riverbank
Pelle Carlberg - Riverbank (Video)

Buy Riverbank

I went along to the Wolfgang Bopp night in New Cross last night. The club is situated in the Montague Arms, a pub I used to frequent many years ago in search of the best Sunday lunch in south London!

With two local bands playing, Roland Shanks and Larrikin Love, the venue was packed with students which made me feel very old indeed and was much busier than a couple of weeks ago when I caught the excellent Envelopes. The shame of it was that most of them had arrived after the Bridge Gang had played another excellent set although when I grabbed a quick chat with two of the band members afterwards they didn't seem to be too happy with their performance. This seemed down to monitor problems which we didn't notice until they changed kit!

Personally if I was in the Bridge Gang I would be wondering why they were playing first instead of the very dull Roland Skanks, whose lead singer looked embarrassed to be on the stage, and the entertaining but ultimately musically boring Larrikin Love who were just replicating the post Libertines "let's get drunk and play whilst falling all over the stage" style. Surely there are better bands out there or as we were commenting last night there is a severe shortage of decent London bands these days on the local gig circuit.

That said the night seemed to be a success and the Bopp DJ's know a good tune or two and it is now firmly entrenched on the calendar. It's worth going too especially if you live in South East London or if, like me, you are prepared to make the trek over the Thames.

Sounds XP's review of the gig.

The Bridge Gang will be playing the Deptford Albany Theatre on Saturday 22nd October.

Stream The Bridge Gang On My Space
Stream Larrikin Love on My Space

Jana, the lead singer of The Arrogants dropped indie-mp3 a line to mention the release of the band's new album "You've Always Known When Best To Say Goodbye".

The album contains 23 tracks with a DVD with extras. It's being sold online by Twee Kitten and can be yours for $7.50 (£4.30!)+ p & p and will be released next Monday 24th October.

I must put my hands up and say that I have not heard to much from the band. I remember downloading some of their tracks from mp3.com in days gone by, which included a cover of New Order's "Shellshock" if I recall, but after listening to some of the tracks from this album I have to say that's my loss.

In their slower moments, as demonstrated on "Antony & Cleopatra" The Arrogants reminds me very much of Melys, especially the vocals. You can hear the influences of say The Darling Buds or The Primitives when they step on the gas on songs such as "Cool Shoes" or the brilliant "Lovesick" which is an example of the perfect pop song running in at 1:37.

The band have made available three tracks from the album to download. "I Want You" and "Don't Be Cynical" head for the fey, twee folky inspired sound whilst "Wishing Well" heads for poppier territory dominated by the excellent perscussion this track features.

Download:

The Arrogants - I Want You
The Arrogants - Don't Be So Cynical
The Arrogants - Wishing Well

The Arrogants have also put their back catalogue online in mp3 format. Plenty of goodies there including the aforementioned Lovesick.

Stream tracks via their My Space page.

Buy from Twee Kitten

Æla (pronounced Aela) is an Icelandic punk band. Their songs are exploding with energy and joy, not anger...and sometimes comic desperation as in my favorite song, Magnarinn, where Halli Valli, the band's towering vocalist, sings about his loneliness and the need to get an amplifier to keep him company, "...even if it's just a...a...a....Yamaha!" The name Æla literally means "Puke", but don't let that throw you off as their songs are playful, fun and crazy, and Halli Valli's vocals are very reminiscent of Einar Örn from The Sugarcubes. They're currently recording and mixing an album which they promise to "puke out before christmas". Check out their artist profile for the Iceland Airwaves festival and their official homepage.

Æla - Magnarinn (The Amplifier)
Æla - Rockville
Æla - Jólalöggan (The Christmas Cop)
Æla - Egypskar 2 (Egyptian 2)
Æla - Ekki Snerta Mig (Don't Touch Me)
Æla - Fuglinn í Fjörunni (The Bird on the Shore)

Hailing from New Cross in deepest South East London. Anna Vincent and her band have a neat package of 8 songs for download on their website. I am trying to pin down the bands sound. It's not easy. It's guitar pop. Sometimes acoustic. It has a vibrant feel. Anna has a sweet voice. That's a good place to start. Add to this some clever lyrics and then mix in some quirky pop songs - and you have Anna Vincent.

As far as I can tell Anna Vincent has only one track 'The New Excess' released on 'I Love New Cross' compilation LP - that was released earlier this year to showcase the 'scene' that is currently going on in South East London.

Like I said, there are 8 songs for download from Anna Vincent's site. There are 4 new tracks from this year and four older ones recorded last year. I recommend you start with:

Anna Vincent - The New Excess
Anna Vincent - Words Escape Me

Headover to the Anna Vincent web page to download the other 6 songs that are available.

I have created my first podcast for Sounds XP. Okay then it's was just joining a few legally available mp3 tracks together but for a first attempt I don't think it's that bad.

The tracklisting is:

The Envelopes - Audrey In The Country
Sambassadeur - Between The Lines
The Broken Family Band - Walking Back To Jesus
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood
Jim Noir - I Me You I'm Your
The Bridge Gang - Pangs of Guilt
The Sequins - Dear Old Bill
The Envelopes - It is the Law

SoundsXP Podcast 16/10/2005 (22mb) 128 k/bits

Nixon have finished their One Track A Week EP. "Ocean Swimmer" is the final track. If you've been downloading the previous tracks then you know what it sounds like. If you haven't been downloading them then you should and this one is a bit harder than their normal fayre.

Nixon - Ocean Swimmer

And one last thing. I have been lined up for my DJ debut and i'm nervous thinking about it. More details nearer the time.

A band that was formed out of the ashes of The Undertones in 1984/85. It was always going to be tough for That Petrol Emotion to emerge from the shadow of The Undertones. To my ears they succeeded. They were a sonically more challenging band and by getting a less pop sound they seemed to shed the historical baggage that The Undertones had. Their debut LP - 'Manic Pop Thrill' was released in 1986. The band came to an end in the mid 1990's as a wave of indifference took over and the musical times changed . I have to say revisiting That Petrol Emotion is strange. The band were indie, but they didn't have a very 'indie' sound. They were like a weird cross of the pop end of Sonic Youth and something more shiny. More polished. Dare I say INXS?

I still think the band have a couple of LPs that stand the test of time relatively well. Those being their major label debut - "Babble" - which they were going to call Psycho Babble but feared comparison to then massive Jesus and Mary Chain. The other LP I really still enjoy was their 4th - Chemicrazy (which was released in 1990). I still need to revisit their first 'Manic Pop Thrill' and third LPs 'End of the Millennium Psychosis Blues' before passing judgment. As my old copies are now long lost. Either way. Here's a couple of downloads I found. These are rarer B sides / early single tracks.

That Petrol Emotion - V2 from 1985 .
That Petrol Emotion - Creeping To Your Cross (live) from 1987.

I found these tracks at the very comprehensive That Petrol Emotion fan site. The site seems to rotate some more of the obscure That Petrol Emotion's back catalogue.

I Hope You Are All Happy Now is a collection of photographs by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs Nicholas Zinner.

The photographs, taken between 2000 to 2004, charts the rise of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and I really like the audience photographs with the Karen O clones. It's not an essential book but it is neverless entertaining and some of the photos, especially of people, are very interesting indeed.

Buy I Hope You Are All Happy Now

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps

I wrote about The Walnut Dash previously and the band have contacted me to let me know that they have made their album "Titbits - The Singles So Far & Then Some..." available as a free download.

You can either download the tracks individually or download the album as one large zip file. Here is a taster:

The Walnut Dash - Going Straight
The Walnut Dash - Your Mum

Download the rest from their Listen page.

Further to my post earlier this week today is John Peel day. I was hoping to post the 1986 Festive 50 as tribute but it's a 215MB upload and I really didn't want to upload the various parts all over the net. Does anyone know how I can create a bit torrent file without the need for a tracker? If so I will post it in that way. This was a bit of bad planning on my part. The blog wouldn't have existed if I had not listened to Peelie when I was younger so I hope that the very existence of the indie-mp3 site is a tribute to the man anyway!

However I have decided to repost about the Cuban Boys again and their tribute to Peel titled "The Nation Needs You". As they explain on their site:

Being keenly aware of John Peel's appreciation of STATUS QUO's 'DOWN DOWN' as a tried and trusted floorfiller, the Cuban Boys have married it with some poignant samples of the great man himself to create 'The Nation Needs You'. As you would expect, it is an absurd clash of styles which teeters between chaos and insanity.

As the Cuban Boys explain 'We tried to capture the spirit of a John Peel Show within a three minute romp - 'The Nation Needs You' is just our way of saying thank you to a great friend, and we hope it will also work as lasting memory for some of his regular listeners'.

The Cuban Boys hope John Peel would have approved.


The Cuban Boys - The Nation Needs You

Head to the Cuban Boys site if you want to download the extended 12" mix.

John Peel Day on BBC Radio One

Lili de la Mora and Rodney Sellars make up the duo The Year Zero from Long Beach, CA. I find myself again and again returning to their Myspace page to listen to their songs. Lili's gentle vocals weave together with Rodney's layerings of guitars and keyboards to create futuristic dream pop, reminiscent of early shoegaze. They make me feel the same way Slowdive and Lush do, which in my opinion is very recommendable. This coupled with science fictional artwork does the trick for me, and I look forward to their first release on Skipping Stones Records early next year.

The Year Zero - Stranger
The Year Zero - Moon Viewing Parties
The Year Zero - The Truth about Stars

Double Dan are (you've guessed it) Dan Lindgren (guitar/voice) whilst Dan Eriksson (no relation to England's Sven I hope!) plays the bass. They are joined by Joakim Ödlund on the guitar.

The two Dans were in the band Ambassadeurs and the name changed when Joakim joined. All members have a fine pedigree in the Swedish music scene. Dan L (Alexis/September), Dan E (Starlet/September/Club 8) whilst Joakim , whose name you may recognise, is a member of The Acid House Kings.

August 2005 saw the release of the Emotions in Motion e.p, which was their debut release. Each and every track here is a winner. Inspired, like so much of the Swedish scene, by C86 and twee, this is one of the strongest EP's I have heard this year. See (hear) what you think.

Double Dan - Time Is On My Side
Double Dan - A Question Of Trust
Double Dan - Dead In December


Visit their site to download Ambassadeurs In The Air EP.

This Thursday, 13th October, is John Peel Day in the memory of the late disc jockey who's contribution to music cannot be underestimated. A series of events will be taking place around the country and London sees New Order in concert alongside The Fall, The Super Furry Animals amongst many others. Sadly I didn't get a ticket as they sold out within hours. Luckily I can catch it on Radio One who will be broadcasting a six hour special in his offer.

The late DJ's wife Sheila Ravenscroft has finished the work on his life Peelie was working on at the time of his death. Titled Margrave Of The Marshes it is published in the UK on Monday 17th October 2005. It has been serialised in the Sunday Telegraph but I couldn't bring myself to buy that rag to read any of it. What has been serialised is the shocking story that Peel was raped when at Public School. The fact that he was to go public with this sad tale of abuse was praised by Childrens Rights Campaigners as this story in yesterday's Guardian testifies.

You can read the first and second extracts online.

I have read both the biographies of John Peel this year. Written by Mick Wall and Michael Heatley respectively I have to say I prefer the latter as the former seems to be very drawn out towards the end of the story about Peelie's life.

Buy John Peel: A Life In Music by Michael Heatley
Buy John Peel by Mick Wall

I hope to post the Festive 50 for 1986 as part of my contribution to Peel day. That's if I can find them.

Read about John Peel Day on the BBC Website.

Net Label Beat Is Murder got in touch with me about a number of releases that they have out at the moment. The Beat Is Murder website is one of those that looks great, but I always find funky sites difficult to navigate around. Windows appear and the downloads are well hidden (well, for me, they were).

I finally managed to downloaded the Liger LP - "The Infra-Ordinary" as it was the one recommended to me in the email. It's a fractured folk electronica LP and is worth a spin(er, download) if you get off on light minimalistic indietronica that is. This is lo-fi music, gentle guitars, odd noises (doors closing amongst others) - all added together to make a strangely cohesive whole from these fragmented parts - Liger seemed to enjoy incorporating eerie noises into their songs - the LP as a whole may be a little lacking in the melody department to truly carry off it's odd ball ambitions.

You can download the whole LP in a zip file - or individual songs as straight MP3's - you'll have to dig around for the individual tracks - as I found it easier to link to the full LP in a zip file, including art work.

Liger - The Infra-Ordinary - full LP 33.5mb

Hello. My name is Magnus, I hail from Iceland and have recently joined this blog, intending to post my musings on various artists whom I'm busy discovering or want you to discover. I might tend to pull out of my bag various stuff relating to Icelandic alternative scene, old and new, but first off I'd like to mention a guy I met the other day who deserves notice.

Attending the New England Popfest last week I came a day too late and walked into the middle of The Smittens' program on the second evening. I can't say I noticed too much of it, I was too busy being overwhelmed by actually being there to notice much that was going on. What I did notice though was this immensely cheerful guy playing guitar whom I realized had to be Colin Clary wearing one of the sweaters he's famous for, or perhaps The Sweater. Everywhere I've looked for new Indie-pop to discover I have come across this name and sometimes mentions of sweaters, which he apparently refuses to take off. This evening and the next he was there, positively beaming with happiness pretty much all the time, obviously very much in love with listening to music, and playing it.

Colin plays in many bands, apart from playing with The Smittens on friday evening at the Popfest, he also had another project going on the third evening, and I had the pleasure of catching the whole set of Colin Clary and the Magogs on the saturday night. They did not dissapoint and if you haven't seen them playing that should be next on your schedule.

He also has a solo album out on Asarus Records, clothed in a sweater and a shirt, complete with a little breast pocket on the shirt for stuffing the sleeve notes in, and a badge.

Colin Clary and the Magogs - The Shape Of This Town mp3
Colin Clary and the Magogs - The Shape Of This Town video - .mov file 17,1 MB
The Smittens' cheerful song about their native homeland - I Hate Vermont
Colin Clary - The Engine Light's Always On

Archer hail from Frösön, Jämtland, Sweden. According to their website they consist of four guys and one girl, are still in their late teens but in their music they display maturity far above their years.

I downloaded four tracks from Hello Surprise because there seems to be problems in downloading tracks from their site. I've left a message on their guestbook and I will fix the link if there is any change.

"October 16" is a real melodic rocker of a track, far and away the best of the ones I downloaded. I bet it is a stormer when they play live. "A Tuesdays Child" was very sixties influenced and in part reminded me of The La's, especially the vocals. There was also a hint of The Monkees in their too. "Necropol" was an epic, slower track that provided much variety and showcased the bands use of meldies again to great effect. The organ sounded great too! It reminded me of the Liverpool scene but I couldn't make up my mind if that was the Liverpool of the Beatles or the Teardrop Explodes. "God Damn Pressure" was definitely a return to the Cavern Club so what are you waiting for, download some Archer and let them shoot some arrows into your heart, or at least into your ears! (That's enough. Bad Pun Ed)

Archer - Necropol
Archer - A Tuesdays Child
Archer - October 16
Archer - God Damn Pressure

If the links to the tracks do not work head for the Archer page on Hello Surprise to download them.

Well i've finally fixed the problems that have been bugging the blog for IE users. The main problem was the referrers script from True Fresco which kept pushing the side menu down to the bottom of the blog because IE, not recognising web standards, is not intelligent enough to adjust table width correctly which the likes of Firefox and Opera can easily do. This occurred if the referring page had a long url.

I also had to fix the CSS on the main site as for some reason IE was not adjusting the font colours correctly as per the CSS file. And they think IE 7 is going to solve anything?

It's a shame as I will no longer be able to see the referrers to the page which I enjoyed doing. Or should I say stuff it to the IE users and put it back?

If you didn't know the excellent Opera Browser is now free although i'm wondering if they are gunning for Firefox rather than IE. Which would be a shame.

The Playwrights are a Bristol based band who have been around since 2002.. I picked up their single on I Wish I Was Unpopular titled “Dislocated” earlier this year and was struck on the similarities in sound between them and The Wolfhounds, a pivotal C86 band who recently reformed for their 20th Anniversary.  There were also more than a few hints of The Fall about them as well and that statement can cover both bands. Anyway back to “Dislocated”. It was an excellent track full of fight and passion and it was backed by “The Middle Ages” an incredibly short and furious track.

Sadly like all things I forgot about them until, courtesy of their Guitarists’ label Sink & Stove, the promo of their new mini-album dropped through the door.  Titled English Self Storage” it’s due for release in January 2006 and was a stark reminder of what I’ve been missing. As their label has provided high quality downloads of three of the tracks (which is bloody nice of them), rather than review the album (that will be for a Sounds XP piece) I will concentrate on those three tracks instead.

It’s quite noticeable that the Wolfhounds and Fall influences have seemed to have worn off and in the case of “Dislocated”, not for the better on first listen with the track heading for Bloc Party or even worse Franz Ferdinand territory in it’s London Version guise.

It sounded very over produced compared to the version I’ve grown to love but when reflecting on the track as if it was a first time listen I soon realised how good and how unintentionally poppy it sounded despite the despairing lyrics. The changes were also understandable as the band has expanded and developed their sound. It was the same with the other two tracks with the militaristic “21st Century Kaspar Hauser” edging it with the early 80’s influences via the likes of XTC coming to the fore. Get the Grenadier Uniform out or better still borrow Andy Partridges’!

Summing up The Playwrights are now where the Futureheads should be!!! By expanding on that post punk sound, retaining that oh so essential Englishness and demonstrating that you are not a one trick pony the band should now get the exposure they deserve and based on these tracks that shouldn’t be too far away.

The Playwrights – 21st Century Kaspar Hauser
The Playwrights – Dislocated (London Version)
The Playwrights – Fear Of Open Spaces

Alternatively stream some tracks direct from their My Space page.

The band, who have toured with The National and Mission Of Burma will be playing a free show today (Saturday 8th) at the Sink & Stove Records afternoon at Notting Hill Arts Club. It’s also free entry with the doors opening at 4pm.

They will play at the London Luminaire on the 25th October returning to their native Bristol on the 28th (The Croft). They will also be playing in Manchester but check their site for more details.

The blog, Shake Your Fist, also wrote about The Playwrights in September and yesterday Take Your Medicine also ran an article.


Now, just a word about sensible pricing on the digital download front. The band also have their own music store in association with Simbiotic where you can pick up downloads of their previous singles and album. The prices of the singles which can include up to 4 tracks are £1.50 and you can download them as lossless FLAC files! I mean four FLAC files for £1.50. Good on ‘em I thought and brought the lot. Of course the option to download as mp3 or Ogg Vorbis is also available at the same price but isn’t this a sensible fee to pay with no DRM involved and for lossless files as well! You know where i-tunes, Napster and all the others can stick it don’t you.       

Essential tracks to buy: Dislocated (Bristol Version) Guy Debord Is Really Dead      

First up, Hello, my name is Trev and I run lostmusic.co.uk. I would like to thank Tom for the chance to share my musical opinions on stuff I find exciting and vital. Anyways, the first band I want to write about are The Bats. Here goes.

I am a recent convert to The Bats. Their greatest 'hits' collection 'Thousands of Tiny Luminous Spheres' - caught my eye recently and I wasn't disappointed as my review on lost music attests. The Bats manage to meld melody and subtle guitar noise better than most.

The Bats hail from New Zealand and they have been around since 1982. Their last studio LP 'Couchmaster' came out in 1995. So, it's great news to here that The Bats have a new LP due for release on 17th Oct. 'At The National Grid' is released on Egg Records in UK/Europe and Magic Marker Records in the US and New Zealand.

The Magic Marker site has the single 'Bells' available for download as a preview to new LP. It's a gentle guitar track and bodes well for the new LP. Ten years away and the band still sound as good as their 'greatest hits'. Some bands I guess just have it. I have also uploaded 'Watch The Walls' from 1991's 'Fear of God' LP. Why they aren't lauded as a seminal band by all and sundry - I really have no idea.

The Bats - Bells
The Bats - Watch The Walls

Whilst trawling the web for more information on The Bats - I came across the fine Shake Your Fist MP3 blog - which has a potted history of the band and 3 other songs from The Bats to download.

I first wrote about Shade Tree in November 2004 for Sounds XP enthusing over their single "Murder Inside". Always had my finger on the pulse me. The band now have finally added some English words to their site and i'm glad to say they have reproduced the aforementioned review.

Shade Tree have got some good reviews mainly from English sites (the country not language!) and following an e-mail from them i'm glad to see they have several tracks available in both mp3 and wma formats.

These include the track "Undertow" from 'Murder Tree' which I described as "The whole EP has an unashamedly alt-country feel about it and is dominated by Jonsson’s fine Americana style singing supplemented by standout female backing vocals. “Undertow”, a track as good as anything else you will hear this year..."

Since that release the band have seemed to have grown larger and released two more EP's recorded in 2004 and 2005. These include the wonderful tracks "The Sweetness Left Behind" and "Stupidest Thing" which are two more excellent examples of alternative Americana despite hailing from Gothenburg!

Shade Tree - Undertow
Shade Tree - The Sweetness Left Behind
Shade Tree - Stupidest Thing

Head to their site to download even more tracks.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Nixon's latest project which was titled "Pictures Of Patty - the one track a week EP".

Since I mentioned the first track two more have been placed on the bands site. Week two saw "Crippled Clown" a new version of a track that I featured previously and I described it as " a bittersweet melodic foray into their alt country roots, is certainly their best track so far" and this week see's the posting of "To make Victoria Smile" which band member Albert describes as "a very autumnesque one.." and in a Byrd-ish way you can imagine the golden leaves of autumn (fall) hitting the ground.

Nixon - Crippled Clown
Nixon - To Make Victoria Smile

The debut album from Suburban Kids With Biblical Names will be out on the 12th October 2005. Titled #3 (the two EP's were #1 & #2 respectively) it will feature twelve tracks including the sublime "Rent A Wreck" from #1. I can't wait!

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - Loop Duplicate My Heart
Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - Rent A Wreck

You can pre-order the album here.

Leading on from the last weeks tracks of the week the Perfumed Garden has made available two Heartthrobs BBC sessions for downloading recorded for Simon Mayo and John Peel.

These are essential listening as is visiting the Perfumed Garden site itself.