The Steadies are a London based band who play a brand of dreamy, wispy indie pop which will no doubt draw comparisons to Belle & Sebastian.

The band have posted their demo onto My Space and I can say that there is not a weak track amongst them. I was getting a bit tired of the indie folk sound that seems to be two a penny these days. Whilst the music is hardly original, and what is these days?, it has that special something that makes The Steadies stand out from the run of the mill.

The earlier mention of Belle & Sebastian gives some clues to the bands sound but this is no straight mimicking act. Through the course of the demos the band demonstrates their own originality and this shines through on tracks like Two Times Champion and Happier For Knowing. Trust me, these are tracks that should be permantly cemented into your play-list. Lovely!

The Steadies - Happier For Knowing

The Steadies are playing the Windmill on November 9th 2006 as part of How Does It Feel Presents night alongside Francois and The Darlings. Tickets are available here.

See See Rider were a band that existed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I believe they released a couple of EPs - their first was a self titled four track. The lead track was the wonderful 'She Sings Alone'. The other release was a single called 'Stolen Hearts'. The band featured Phil King (later of Lush, earlier of Felt) and Pete Tweedie (formerly of The Primitives) amongst their line up. And one of their EPs was part produced by Douglas Hart (former bassist with The Jesus and Mary Chain).

There music seemed to cross the divide between the then burgeoning shoegaze scene and waning indie scene. The EP I have is an absolute classic and I have trawled the internet for more info about the band and have come up with very little. I think the EP was released on Lazy Records (the original home of the Primitives) and seeing as I can not find much more information. Here are two songs I have uploaded from the EP.

I found this reply from Stephen (the singer with the band, apparently) "we were mucked about by Elektra for about a year and this just got to everyone and we eventually split - May Rock and I had a band called Disney Girls we formed with a guy from Cocteau Twins - being early 90's and recession in the music biz we found we were unable to get the stuff released but hey thats the way it goes" to an old post on Turquoise Days

See See Rider - She Sings Alone
See See Rider - Snowfall

If anyone has any more info on this lost band, please do let me know. And Stephen is still out there - I'd love to know what happened to that part recorded lost LP.

The latest podcast rounds up the best of the past month or so from indie mp3.

Plumerai - Linear [My Space link]
Pet Politics - The Spring [My Space link]
Irene - Little Things (That Tear Us Apart)[My Space link]
Pocketbooks - Cross The Line [My Space link]
Lucky Lucky Pigeons - Keep On Kingie [My Space link]
Voxtrot - Trouble [My Space link]
The Mary Onettes - Lost [My Space link]
The Briganties - How Was It For You? [My Space link]

Subscribe to the podcast here (paste the link into your podcast client) or download direct (19 mb)

I'm just interested in some feedback for these podcasts. What do people think? What would you like to hear on them? Or if it's not broke don't fix it?

Just noticed this on the Rosehips webpage.

On Saturday 18th November, the Rosehips will be organising a gig at the Glebe in Stoke-On-Trent, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of playing in Bristol and signing to the Subway Organisation. The Fucking Rosehips, (utterly ace Rosehips tribute/covers band) will be reforming for the occasion to play a set and Rocker (ex-Flatmates, ex-Rosehips) will be playing a dj set of records from the era.

Looks like a great night but sadly a bit to far (okay effort) for me to get to. Now if they promised not to play the later stuff.......

Rosehips - Room In Your Heart
Rosehips - Wastin' My Time

[My Space link]

Irene have released their debut album on Labrador titled Apple Bay this week. It features 12 tracks including the two earlier singles. You can stream the whole album here or buy it direct from the Labrador shop. If this album doesn't get your feet tapping nothing will.

Irene - Little Things (That Tear Us Apart)
Irene - Baby I Love Your Way

Larryhag interviewed Tobias Isaksson from Irene recently. Read it here.

[My Space link]

Voxtrot will be releasing a new single titled Your Biggest Fan. The line up for the three track EP is Your Biggest Fan, Trouble and Sway. The single, on 7" and CDEP, will be released on November 7th 2006 by Beggars Banquet. At the moment it's just a planned US release. Whether it will get a release elsewhere remains to be seen. Pre-order it here.

Voxtrot - Trouble

In the meantime Beggars are re-issuing the bands second EP (Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP) worldwide (except the US) at the end of September.

Voxtrot - Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives

My Space [link]

looks like the picture is taken in the lovely Bräkne-Hoby

INTERVIEW NUMBER 4

with Johan Hedberg of Suburban Kids With Biblical Names

1. If you would mention a handful of artists that has brought your music to where it is today, who would they be?

Tricky question but bands that have meant much to me over the past ten years: Bob Hund, Pavement, The Bear Quartet, The Avalanches, Jonathan Richman

2. What were your expectations when you first signed for Labrador ?

Getting the #1 EP distributed over Sweden in a proper way and maybe get to play live a little bit more.

3. I guess that lyrically "Rent a wreck" kind of summons your early days on tour with cheap accomodations and low travel expenses. Has that changed at all, and if not, would you want it to change?

Hmm... We just came home from a week of touring in the U.K and it was really fun because it basically was exactly as when we started up except we this time was going on train and buses instead of sweaty nine men vans. That made a really big difference and made it much easier. When we play in sweden we usually get accomondation on hotels but when we play abroad we are back on the floors. So i guess you could say alot of things have changed in sweden but outside it is like the beggining. Thats pretty nice. the best of two worlds.

4. Finally, what would be the greatest thing that could happen to your band, and what is the greatest thing that has happened so far?

The greatest thing for me would be if i could live of the music without bending over for anyone else. It´s a great feeling when you record and try out different thing but i guess the most shivering experiences are some of the live shows which can vary very much. Its a tricky question, the show at this years Arvikafestivalen is probably one of the best festival shows ive done. I like doing these strange shows too. We did a show in a youth squat in this really tiny bavarian village in the north of germany. We didnt think anyone would show up but the place was packed and we ended up playing for 1 and a half hour and playing the same songs twice.

My favorite:

Film: Sånger från andra våningen (Songs from the Second Floor, Roy Andersson)

Animal: cat

Festival: blow up a panda

Vehicle: waterbicycle

Bandname: the beach boys

Their blog: http://www.suburbankidswithbiblicalnames.com/

Listen at: http://www.myspace.com/suburbankidswithbiblicalnames

I was reading the news on the Labrador site and read that the label have signed a new band to the label called The Mary Onettes.

This lot are a new name on me but I found out that they were signed to Sony/BMG releasing one EP for that label before being dropped. Part of the press release states:

The Mary Onettes are as close to arenarock as you'll ever get on Labrador. Inspired by guitar pop from the 80's, indie bands from the 90's and the talent to make the best songs you'll ever hear in they 00's they sound like a Swedish relative to Echo & The Bunnymen, The Smiths och The Jesus and Mary Chain from the future.

They are releasing an EP titled Lost and Labrador have made the self titled lead track available for downloading. It's a loud, brash affair which reminds me of British Sea Power in many ways.

The Mary Onettes - Lost

[My Space link]

Panda Riot, like all proper bands, make use of a drum-machine, a Fender Jazzmaster and a death-metal pedal...for their keyboard! Sprinkle on top with a breathy soprano voice and you have a shoegaze band that could eat My Bloody Valentine for breakfast.

Brian Cook and Rebecca Scott formed the band in july 2005 while working on the soundtrack to a documentary on marine biology. I wish more documentaries had soundtracks like this.

Panda Riot - She dares all things
Panda Riot - Plateau

There's more music to be streamed from their Myspace page, and you can watch a video for "Paper Airplanes" on Youtube.

Pet Politics have released their second single for the small, but excellent none the less, Catbird Records. It's a four track EP titled The Spring EP and the label has made one of the tracks available as a free mp3 download. There is also another track from the EP available at My Space.

Pet Politics - Sunday Morning
Pet Politics - The Spring

[My Space link]
[previous indie mp3 article]
[Buy The Spring EP]

One of the few CD's that I managed to carry home with me unscathed from last Popfest was the excellent Snow Fairies' "Get Married". Alas, The Snow Fairies are no more and are hereby known as The Artists Formerly Known As The Snow Fairies. But fear ye not, they will make a last appearance at the New England Popfest come october. And furthermore, they have one more release forthcoming, to quote their Myspace blog:

We recorded our third and last album and we are pressing up 200 copies on black vinyl. The album is called "Voila!" and it has 8 amazing songs. We recorded them with Bill Moriarty (Friends of the Library, Dr. Dog). We did it on 2" analog tape. Yesterday we sent the masters off to RTI Pressing in California. They did some of the Slumberland and Touch and Go catalog, so you know it will look and sound great!

Hailing from Philadelphia and formed in 2000, they leave behind a wealth of catchy tunes, and here are a few of them:

The Snow Fairies - April Showers (Highly recommended)
The Snow Fairies - The Life of a Total Square
The Snow Fairies - The Place where I like to Read
The Snow Fairies - Baja California

Back To The Planet were one of those bands who took their inspiration from the alternative lifesytyle/traveller scene in the early 1990's and were similar in outlook to the likes of Senser and Radical Dance Fraction.

They played a mix of pop, reggae and dub. They were regulars on the festival circuit and they also appeared at the infamous Castlemorton rave which later saw the then Conservative Governnment implement parts of the Criminal Justice Act. This act was designed to prevent raves and discriminated against anyone with an alternative lifestyle. It also speeded up the decline of the then UK rave culture which now seems to be making a comeback judging by recent news stories.

Whilst sympathising with the bands views I wasn't a great fan of their music and only picked up Daydream (1993) because it had a remix by Orbital who were and remain so, one of my all time favourite acts. It's not all jangle pop around here you know!

Back To The Planet did not have much success despite their large festival following and soon joined the pile of forgotten bands up in the sky. Sadly there is very little about them on the net which really sums up the impact they had.

Back To The Planet - Daydream
Back To The Planet - Daydream (Orbital remix)

This is the first in an irregular series about my favourite remixes that have a home in my music collection.

After listening to Plumerai the first thing that struck me was how much like The Sundays they sounded. Judging by the reviews I have read I'm not the only one but I can also hear hints of The Cocteau Twins and Sneakster in there as well. Sadly there are no mp3's for downloading (tut, tut) but you can stream the bands song from their homepage. Linear is far and away the best track and it may well be worth picking up their Res Cogitans for it alone. [My Space link]

After the bands I've seen recently I was sure I wasn't ready for more acoustic indie and I think that's prejudiced my opinion about Princeton. To be honest it's not much different to what another 100 plus bands seem to be producing at the moment and whilst it's pleasant enough it hardly sticks in my memory. [My Space link]

Princeton - Tokyo Japan

I wrote about The Shade Tree back in October 2005 and since then the band have moved away from their folky indie-ish roots and have got a bit of a , erm, groove on with their latest tracks. Whilst i'm not grabbed by some of the new recordings they are nicely done especially the ones that hark back to their earlier recordings. [My Space link]

Shade Tree - The Stupidest Thing

Mesh (see here for a previous indie mp3 piece) have finally got a My Space page and as it states the music is like nothing you've heard before. It's not normally the type of music you would find written about on indie mp3 but at least Mesh is producing something a bit different which is far removed from the norm.

Mesh - This Was New York

There seem to be an abundance of bands fronted by females with shouty vocals at present who seem to take their inspiration from the NYC scene, The Ramones and Blondie. Two I have come across recently are both Los Angeles based being Killola and Ragsy. Killola have a frontwoman with a unique vocal style which I guess could grate after a while but at least it's different if the music isn't. Ragsy go for the more melodic approach but the end result is same and there seems to be a lack of a cutting edge which may be recified by seeing the band live. However Los Angles is a bit to far for me to find out!

If you like your music accompanied by visuals then Telemusicvision might be up your street with a number of video's for downloading free of charge including The Postal District, Cat Power and The Pipettes. However check out video for Aphex Twin's Come to Daddy for a master lesson in the art of the music video. These are large quality files and you will need Bit Torrent to download them.

Also on the bill at the FortunaPOP night were Pocketbooks who have grown since I last wrote about them and the excellent Proofreading album earlier this year.

Back in March Pocketbooks were just one chap called Andy and he has now assembled a full band recruiting Ben, Dan, Emma and Mark to join him. I must admit that I did not pay too much attention to the early part of the set because myself and Lost Music were busy demolishing the venues pinball machine but from what I heard there didn't seem to be that much difference in sound from a solo to a full line up with the exception of Emma's vocals. To be honest the Buffalo Bar's sound isn't that great and that more than played apart as did the bands somewhat nervous approach on stage. However they played some excellent songs none the less and I enjoyed what I caught of the set even if some of my companions didn't thinking that the bands sound was too indie schmindie!

Pocketbooks also appear on the Kids At The Club compilation and their brand of twee pop certainly doesn't sound out of place when compared on other artists on the same disc. Next time they play I hope to give them my undivided attention. Unless there is a pinball machine tucked around the corner of course!

Pocketbooks - Cross The Line

[My Space Link]
[Download the Proofreading album]

I caught Fanfarlo at the Fortuna Pop Night at the Buffalo Bar last night. It's the first time I have seen the band and they were superb playing a set consisting of simple and effective indie pop tunes. The only track of theirs of which I was aware was their contribution to The Kids At The Club compilation called Elephant Graveyard but I have been streaming their tracks all morning and i'm more than impressed.

The band were established when Simon Aurell left his native Sweden (well it had to be didn't it!) which saw him move to London. He quickly set up a band with Justin Finch (bass) and multi-instrumentalist Leon Beckenham (Keys, Trumpet) with both gigs and high praise following in a short space of time. The band are releasing their debut single Talking Backwards on October 9th 2006 (FortunaPOP) and an album is planned for the end of the year.

Sadly their are no mp3's for downloading and in this age why not? However you can stream five tracks including the new single from the bands site.

[My Space link]
[FortunaPOP]
[Kids At The Club]

I don't normally do this sort of thing but following two e-mails today from readers I have decided to enter indie mp3 into the Best Music blog category at the Digital Music Awards. So vote for us (me, Magnusuk, Larryhag and Lost Music) via the button below - apparently you can vote daily so long as you use a different e-mail address which seems to be a little like cheating to me!

The Tamborines released their new single Sally O'Gannon b/w Be Around on the new Sonic Cathedral label earlier this week according to their website. The band, originally from Brazil are now London based.

I have not heard the single version but I am familiar with the demo versions which can be downloaded from the bands site. The bands sound is like Spacemen Three clashing with the Jesus and Mary Chain in a garage bar. Seriously! Sally O'Gannon has been a favourite of mine since getting hold of their demo late last year. It's a fantastic song and I hope the single release does it justice.

The bad news is that I cannot find it on sale anywhere so I presume the release has been set back. I will keep you posted.

The Tamborines - Sally O'Gannon
The Tamborines - Be Around

[My Space link]
[Previous indie mp3 post]

Lucky Lucky Pigeons are three Swedish lasses (Amna Maksumic/Hanna Olsson/Elin Parsson) who are not yet out of their teens. The band hail from Dalarna, Sweden and formed in late 2005.

They released their debut Happy Birds Day EP earlier this year and in August it got a UK release on Freedom Road Records . The band have made two of the tracks available for downloading.

Both tracks are like early BIS clashing with the jangle pop brigades. I guess it is the sweet theme of Who Smells Marshmallows? which evokes the BIS comparisons. Amna's voice also has a part to play in that alongside the playful keyboard beats. N To The Ice is yet another example of a fine, simple pop song. However their best track for me is one that does not appear on the EP and you can stream it via My Space. Titled Keep On Kingie it's extremely catchy and addictive but sadly the download feature has packed up and I am reduced to streaming it continuously.

Extremely good fun and I cannot wait for the EP to drop through the door!

Lucky Lucky Pigeons - Who Smells Marshmallows?

Visit the bands music page to download N To The Ice.

[My Space link]
[Buy the EP]

It amazes me that things I feel like happened maybe 10 years ago, actually happened 20 years ago. In november 1986 The Sugarcubes released their first single, "Birthday", in Iceland. When it was later released in the UK it went straight to the top of some indiependent top list whose name I can't remember, but it opened wide opportunities for Icelandic bands to promote themselves outside of Iceland, and eventually shot Björk to stardom after the band disbanded in 1992.

I always looked very much up to The Sugarcubes, and for me and tons of Icelandic musicians they became a role-model in that they did not accept labels bossing them around, and telling them what to do, and thus refused offer upon offer from all kinds of labels, eventually to be signed by the only label that accepted their artistic indiependence, One Little Indian, which later went on to release Björk's hugely popular solo albums.

Now, in 2006, the band has decided to regroup for one big anniversary concert, in Reykjavik, november 17th. Icelandair will be offering travel packages to the concert, and all profit made by the concert will go directly to the Bad Taste Label which was formed by The Sugarcubes and friends in 1986. At the risk of severely reducing my own chances at getting a ticket to the show, I nevertheless want to tell everybody about this. Also, I believe that Björk with The Sugarcubes far surpasses Björk the solo-artist in quality. And it gives me an opportunity to mention two DVD's that Tom sent me a while ago for review:

Aptly named "The DVD", the first dvd disc is a collection of all of The Sugarcubes' videos, namely the original low budget "Birthday", the higher budget version in english, "Cold Sweat", "Deus", "Motorcrash", "Luftgitar", "Regina", "Planet" and 4 others from a later period where i'd stopped being interested. It brings back a whole lot of good memories, is nicely packaged and has no-nonsense menus. I wonder though why there are three more videos labelled as "extras", it's like the producer had to have some "bonus material" so those three we're unnecessarily labelled thus.

Live Zabor

features The Sugarcubes live in 1988 and 1989, at the peak of their creativity, I believe. It is also interspersed with very strange interviews with band members, talking about planets, ice cream, cats and limestone, Björk dismantling a TV, and in generally nothing about the music or the band. The concerts are a pleasure to watch, and this will be looping for a while now until I fail to get a ticket to the concert. The interaction between Björk, the beautiful elfish pixie, and Einar Örn, the screaming nonsensical maniac, is a delight to watch. The Sugarcubes were indie-poppers from hell, with a lot of experience and a lot of talent. And it's 20 years since they formed? They must be old geezers now with crutches or in wheelchairs. Like me.

So stay tuned and grab your tickets when they become available. And drop me a line if you're coming and we could grab a beer together! In the meantime check out Deus and more sugarcubes goodies at YouTube. And because this is an mp3 blog here are a few goodies:

Bogomil Font & Flís (drummer Sigtryggur's calypso alter-ego with the band Flís) - Eat your car
Þór Eldon - (guitarist's solo project) - Dauðaskammtur
Ghostigital - (Einar Örn's experimental band) - Dream of sleep
The Sugarcubes - Ammæli

Sugarcubes on Myspace
Bad Taste on Myspace
Ghostigital on Myspace
Björk on Myspace
Einar Örn on Myspace

Update september 24th: Thanks to Dr. Gunni, here's a Live recording of The Sugarcubes in Hard Rock Cafe, Reykjavik, october 21st 1987:

The Sugarcubes - Köttur

Bobby Baby posted some new songs at the end of August. I was pretty sure I posted about it but I think it was the latest remix EP I wrote about instead! She is quite prolific so it is easy to get a simpleton like me to get lost.

The songs are In Ten Years From Now and But How. There is also an acoustic version of the former.

Bobby Baby - In Ten Years From Now

[My Space link]

Dogbox Records, the label run by members of Luxembourg, have released their latest free download single. It's by H Bird and follows free mp3 singles from the likes of The Sweethearts, Bib, Piranha Deathray and The Bridge Gang.

The single is called Pink Lights & Champagne and is backed by Dear Dead Days. The single shows that Lucky Soul are not the only band this year to hark back to the sixties with good effect. H Bird do it with more subtlety than the former but you can still hear the influences. Kate Dornan's vocal is also reminiscent of Sarah Cracknell's softer and quieter moments with Saint Etienne. Beautiful stuff.

Visit Dogbox to download the single and/or visit the H Bird My Space page.

The man is going to lug his suitcase about once more!

See this piece on the Frankosonic blog for some tracks to download. For those who do not known the work of Ted the man was and hopefully still is a comic genius. Hopefully there will be some London dates soon.

I am sitting here playing records on a late summers Sunday morning and I have a question. Is it me or are Mighty Six Ninety fantastically good?

[My Space link]
[Review Link 1]
[Review Link 2]

The Acutes are Leeds based David Kitchen (guitar/vocals) & Matthew Shallcross (drums). When I Left Work Today, which is their debut single, packs a fine punch dispatching the listener to the canvas.

Get that image out your head that a duo consisting of a drummer and guitarist are going to be yet another White Stripe's clone. This is certainly not the case with The Acutes and their spunky brand of indie pop. This is highly driven stuff with fast, frantic guitar melodies accompanied by quick fire vocals with lyrics to match. Then there is the serious drumming that marches into your senses before you have the chance to blink. They slow things down a notch or two on the b-side Man In Me but that's no bad thing especially as it gives Kitchen to demonstrate another angle to his vocals. One of the better singles I have heard this past week.

When I Left Work Today is out on 25th September 2005 on Bad Sneakers.

[My Space link]
[Freedom Costs Money link]
[Video link]

Germany certainly isn't the first country to pop up in one's mind when thinking about indie-pop. Locas in Love, which hail from Germany's 4th largest city, Köln, threaten to change this, and they're delightful popsongs are furthermore sung in their delightful language. I really love it when bands sing in their native language rather than try to fullfill some marketing requirements about singing in english, more often than not they fail miserably at that while the original language shines like a gem. It also makes me want to learn more german than the few lines I picked up while watching Derrick in my youth.

Wanting to learn more about the band I sent Björn Sonnenberg a few questions which he answered with great gusto:

When was the band formed?

Stefanie (plays bass, sings & does the artwork) and me, Björn (guitar, singing) started the band as a duo in 2001 and played very quietly because I was a little bored with my rock band back then and felt a little stuck. So our goal was being as far away from rock songs as possible. I'll cut the story a little short: we added a drummer, then Niklas as a guitarist (he's also taken up production duties), changed drummers now & then to settle with Maurizio in 2004 and have been through very many happy & some tough moments. The band that we are now started out recording & touring in2004. And on the way we gradually allowed loudness and rock to be allowed as team members again.

Why the name?

Basically it's the name of a comic series by Los Bros Hernandez. Stefanie and me are veeery fond of comics and especially the Hernandez bros. There are no limits to what they do, their art is an ever-growing and ever-changing universe without restrictions and it's growing more and more brillant, interesting and impressive. We feel that's the way the band wants & tries to approach playing music and being a band in general. Also it's a great name, we love the sound of it and the fact that it's half Spanish, half English and we sing in German most of the time. Makes sense to us. (The fact that the name actually means 'crazy girls in love' has brought us many, many stupid introductions on stage and even more stupid jokes in articles and interviews... "they are crazy - they are lovers - they are crazy lovers... pleeeease welcome: LOCAS IN LOVE" - urgh.)

What have you released?

Between November 2001 and November 2002 we released 3 EPs on different indie labels, one 7" single in 2003, our first album in 2004, another EP in May 2006 and our second album (completely self-produced) which will also mark our major label debut will be out December 2006.

What are your influences?

Really everything (like it is with almost everybody)... we love VelvetUnderground, My Bloody Valentine, The Fall, Decemberists, Nick Drake, Lambchop, Byrds, Kinks, Beatles, Pulp, Beach Boys, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Okkervil River, Long Winters, Pixies, Eels, Ramones, Leonard Cohen, Sonic Youth... we love melodies as well as noise, pretty little folky pop songs as well as ten minute feedback orgies. We were told that a special quality of our band is the feeling of momentarily being 'lost in music'.

Have the albums been released just in germany or worldwide?

Sadly they've only been available widely in germany, austria and switzerland. It's a little hard for us because of the german lyrics. but myspace has really opened up something for us. A lot of people from pretty much everywhere (mostly girls & women from the usa) listen toour songs and relate to them despite the language thing.we're toying with the idea of releasing our new album as an international version with english lyrics if we can find someone who's up for it (and if it eventually sounds as cool as it does in our heads). But for a start, we're more than psyched that we were invited to play the popfest and some more shows.

Add whatever you feel like mentioning.

Hm... we're also totally excited to be able to mix our new album in America and with Peter Katis. When we got the invitation to the Popfest we were like: ok, let's do this. And what else is there we'd like to do once we're over? Meeting people, buying comics, visiting boston and new york city, hunting vintage guitars and equipment... and why not mix the album over there. So we looked on album sleeves which record was done where and Peter's studio is not far from the Popfest. We love the stuff he did withThe National and Clem Snide, called him up, and very smoothly this became the second half of our big adventure field trip. As of now we still can't believe that we are really going to do this. It's very unusual for German bands (besides Kraftwerk & Rammstein) to ever get out of the country.

Locas in Love will be playing on october 7th at Popfest in New England, october 8th in Club Midway in NYC, and on october 9th in Cake Shop, also in NYC.

Locas in Love - Zum Beispiel Ein Unfall
Locas in Love - Wir Fangen Von Vorne An
Locas in Love - Wartezimmer

There is an article in this months Word Magazine where writer Andrew Collins asks is indie dead?

It's a well written piece and Ian from HDIFTBL also contributes to the debate and there is a thread about it on his message boards. Whilst I agree with much of what Collin's writes - take a look at Tescos indie chart for instance - he does not give any credence to the DIY ethos to what I call bedroom recording artists who, to me anyway, maintain a spirt of what indie was about in the mid 1980's and dare I say it around the time of the C86 tape.

Maybe Collins should take a look at some of the bands on My Space who maintain this indie ethic. Most of these bands hail from Scotland which is, in my book, the home of indie pop - you only have to look at those artists who come from that country in order to back up my theory, many of which have featured previously on these pages.

I like the way these bands have seemed to have taken parts of old bands named and then joined them together. These include Strawberry Whiplash (Switchblade Meat doesn't have the same ring to it!!!) and Bubblegum Lemonade (Splash Baby! Now that sounds good).

Strawberry Whiplash - Falling Through [My Space link]
Bubblegum Lemonade - The Tomorrow People [My Space link]
The Search Engines - Lost Summer Days [My Space link
Tesco Chainstore Mascara - Just The Weight You Are [My Space link]

Finally on the death of indie you had better not tell the Swedes.

The Curse of Sunshine is the first EP proper from Canadian based Lake Holiday. Taking their cue from a range of influences this EP has gradually grown on me despite my initial rejection. The band are certainly in their element when playing in a "rockier" mode as In Whispers and Press Record Then Play testify.

The change of pace on the slower tracks threw me but once I adjusted myself the songs made perfect sense and an ideal soundtrack for the late summer. It's not an essential release but it's certainly a change of scenery if nothing else.

On a side note the band have released their first two EP's under the creative commons license. Both are available in mp3 and the lossless format FLAC. You can get the first EP End Of Summer here and the second, American Summer, here.

Lake Holiday - In Whispers

[My Space link]

Bodixa, pronounced bo-di-kuh to you and me, are a female fronted five piece from Leeds. They are obviously aiming for the bigtime as per the rise of Coldplay, Travis, Idlewild or, to be frankly honest, any other band the major labels try to sell us as "alternative" on their hastily packaged compilations available in all good supermarkets!

Unfortunately for the band, who have been around since 1997 and have already released one album, The Way Back Home EP does not live up to the expectations as laid out in their press release which boasted "...indie-pop with a nod to Beth Orton and The Cardigans". A few listens later tells a much different story. This is deadly dull with a pulse barely registering for much of the EP. No doubt Bodixa's sound will be descibed as "epic" in some quarters but music such as this, which lacks any sort of conviction, just makes me angry and I find myself asking is it me? Am I missing something? However I will say this with some certainty - I doubt it.

[My Space link]

I'm not sure why Architecture In Helsinki have never been mentioned on indie mp3 before and I cannot really give you an answer on that score!

Anyway I was surfing late at night as you do and stumbled across an article about a remixer or remixers called YACHT who has remixed a couple of AIH tracks for a new CD of remixes he/they are producing. Two have been made available. One of Nevereverdid and one of Do The Whirlwind which is my favourite of the two.

Architecture In Helsinki - Do The Whirlwind

Visit the yacht pages and download the other remix from here. He has also done some pretty good remixes of someone called Bobby Birdman which are also available.

A concise history of AIH is on wikipedia. You can stream some more tracks and mixes via their My Space page.

The latest podcast rounds up the best of the past month or so from indie mp3.

Strange Idols - Berlin.
Existensminimum - One Day I Shall Die
EPO-555 - Le Beats On Fire
Sky Larkin - One Of Two
The Legends - Play It For Today
The Bridge Gang - Blue Sky Grey
The Positions - Back To Me
Strawberry Whiplash - Falling Through
YAME - Open Space

Subscribe to the podcast here (paste the link into your podcast client) or download direct (21mb)

Someone has posted some clips of The Bridge Gang's recent Metro gig up on You Tube. This is all the evidence you need to see how good and exciting they are live. If you live in London you really do not have an excuse not to see them. This song is called "The Gallery" and there are more clips available.

The band release their new single Blue Skies Grey later this month. You can hear it here. List of upcoming gigs can be found here. I have seen them around six or seven times now and I am still blown away by each performance.

INTERVIEW NUMBER 3
with Tobias Isaksson (aka Bobby) of the Swedish band Irene
Irenes debutalbum "Apple Bay" is released at Labrador the 27th of September


___________________________________________________

1. What is the story, if there is one, behind the choice of naming the band Irene? and when, where and why did it all start?

Irene was originally a bunch of songs in my head. They were neither recorded nor played live. But eight friends from the local pub changed all that and had so much fun we had to do it again. And again. And again. Irene is a small town in USA. It is also the name of my mother. So all is pretty personal although we're now a whole bunch of people that are Irene.

2. I read on your homepage that you are the only set member of Irene. On the recordings and liveperformaces you are far from alone. What are the advantages and disadvantages with having that many people when you play live?

I started off alone, but that was long ago! Now we're all more or less permanent members in a big lovely mosh pit of beach loving bums! The advantage is the full sound and the disadvantage is that sometimes we don't fit on stage! But it's mainly great to be eight or nine friends travelling around! We have loads of fun!



3. Irene will release their debutalbum this fall at Labrador. What other future plans do you have, like liveperformaces and such?

We plan on playing live as much as possible wherever we can afford to go as (at least) an octet! We've already visited London twice and we'd like to travel as much as we have time to. But since we're all pretty stuck with our jobs we won't be able to do the full popstar-try. Unless some super-rich label should try to convince us otherwise. :) We're a happy bunch of bums either way! And hopefully the kind nature of these bums will make people like the Irene thing. Celebrating the romantic dream of endless summer days and nights is still our main ambition! And who doesn't like the summer?


My favorite:

Vehicle: Surf board. I wish I knew how to use it, though.

Song: California Dreamin'. It's the perfect mix between happy and sad

Animal: Party animals. I'm allergic to fur.

Instrument: Guitar. But sometimes piano is more beautiful.

Weather: Duh... Sunshine!


Check out their blog at http://www.irene.nu/
Homepage at and listen at http://www.myspace.com/ireneswe

Hailing from Sweden the all female quartet Audrey have made one of the most beautiful and thought provoking albums of 2006 to date. Visible Forms is the follow up to last years self titled debut EP which hinted at such but I did not expect it to be as hypnotising as this.

From the poignant vocals to the accompanying melodies it's easy to get lost within it all. The orchestratic arrangements see the songs blend into each other just like the seasons of year. This is helped, in part, by the bands use of the violin, trumpet and flugelhorn which gives a haunting quality to the songs.

At this stage of a review pointers to other bands are made so you can gain a reference to the reviewed bands sound. However that presents a problem here. The nearest I can suggest is Low but, because Audrey are unique, this may just be an illusion on my part.

Visible Forms alludes to the melancholic, darker side of pop music. Come on over. (8/10)

Visible Forms is out now on Stereo Test Kit Records. You can buy it direct from them here. You can stream tracks via their My Space page.

Audrey - Mecklenburg
Audrey - Views

Do you want to win a copy of this album? If so answer this simple question. What year did Audrey form? Answers should be submitted here no later than Friday 29th September. The winner will be first correct answer drawn from the hat.

Sweden's Existensminimum have released their second single from the Last Night My Head Tried To Explode And I Wrote Everything Down album in the shape of a free download. It's called One Day I Shall Die and it is a fine piece of experimental noise encompassing different sounds and shapes. It is well worthy of a download and serves as a taster for the aforementioned album.

I have also noticed that there is a remix of the previous mp3 single also available and it is a fine example of what a remix can do. Luckily the original is also available so you compare the two versions.

Existensminimum - One Day I Shall Die
Existensminimum -