Good Shoes carry on in pretty much the same vein as they have done on their previous three single releases and whilst that is a good thing for the art of the punky pop single you would have thought that four singles in they would have expanded their sound somehow.

For anyone else The Photos On My Wall would have been a cracking single but the band seem to have a pressing need to match the giddy heights of their brilliant debut single Small Town Girl and elements of said single surface in this.

The b-sides are what you expect if you have seen the band live. I would hesitate to use the term filler tracks but to these ears the same effort does not go into any track that doesn't make the a-side.

To me it seems that the band are afraid of something but I cannot put my finger on what. At this point in time Good Shoes are a cracking singles band. Just don't expect anything else.

[My Space link]

Sweden's Afraid Of Stars have their sights fixed firmly on the shoegazing scene of England circa 1991. You can hear elements of My Bloody Valentine, Chapterhouse but most prominently Ride amongst the four tracks on their self titled EP on the new Lavender Recordings label.

Close your eyes and you will believe that you have gone back in time to shoegazing's golden age with shimmering, swirling guitars and vocals that drift in and out the length of the songs. Whilst not the most original EP of all time it certainly has it's moments especially on the stand out track They Aimed Bad. Once the band have consolidated their position I am sure that they will go on to bring something new to the shoegazing (nu-gaze?) genre in the future.

[My Space link]

Hurricane #1 wrote one of my favorite songs ever. Formed in 1997 they released their debut album the same year, and another in 1998. Unfortunately the band never properly got off the ground. Andy Bell quit to join Oasis and Alex Lowe recently formed The Garage Flowers.
I'd like to present you with their #29 hit, "Step into my world", half of which is a twirling cacophony of guitar solos.

Hurricane #1 - Step into my world

Visit Hurricane #1 on Myspace
Visit The Garage Flowers on Myspace
Get the 30 track compilation CD from amazon.co.uk

I mentioned The Like Young a while ago on this blog, a great band now sadly disbanded. Then today I finally got around to listening to some stuff I downloaded ages ago, including a compilation of Indiepop bands, out of which a band named Wolfie towered far above the rest, including Beat Happening, Talulah Gosh, Tullycraft and The Field Mice, nice as they are though.

So I looked around for information about Wolfie, and turns out that two of it's members, Joe and Amanda, went on to form The Like Young in 2002. Listening to Wolfie again, the likeness is unquestionable, although I never thought of one when listening to the other. And so, here's this unbeatable Wolfie song for you guys, and be sure to check out The Like Young also, especially their copious download section.

Wolfie - Hey It's Finally Yay

The song is from Wolfie's debut album Awful Mess Mistery, which can be bought here.

It's yuletide once again. Today it is a custom here in Iceland to stuff yourself silly with rotten food, more precicely skate. I can't stand the smell of it and never ever am I going to taste it myself. The thirteen Icelandic santas have all come to town to wreak havoc on unsuspecting civilians, the Yule-cat is lurking about, eating children who aren't dressed properly, and the santas' mother is similarily cooking naughty children. And here's a christmas song from Iceland, by the excellent band Lada Sport. I saw them live in august and they totally blew the socks of the 30 or so people who attended, a great live band, and one to watch for in the near future.

They've released an E.P. in 2004 which quickly sold out, and plan to release a full-length album in 2007.

So, very merry messy christmas to you all!

Lada Sport - A night in Christmastown

Say Hi! to Lada Sport on Myspace
Download a video for the song Royal Suits (43 MB .mp4 file)

Twigs 50 shades of red (myspace link)



Sally Shapiro Anorak Christmas (myspace link)

With Christmas around the corner I am taking the oppurtunity to post about two very fine Christmas songs.

Sally Shapiros song is a italoscenting cover of a brilliant song by the Swedish band Nixon. For those of you who haven´t heard of Nixon I believe that it is time for you now. That is if you are into bands like Field Mice, They Go Boom!! and other anorak pop. Unfortunately the cd-r with "Anorak Christmas" is presently unavailable at Popkonst.

But there is still time to pick up another cd-r with Nixon called Snow Day, and I guess that would also fit perfectly considering the present time of the year.

Concerning Twigs song there isn´t really much to say right now except from:

Listen, Enjoy and Happy Holidays to you all!

I am off to Dorset tomorrow for a Christmas break so there will be no posts from me again until the first week of January so I will just say have a good festive period one and all! And a thank you of course to Larryhag, Magnusuk and Lost Music for all their posts throughout the year and to Tom for moderating the indie mp3 yahoo group.

The C86 All Stars! Club NME in Los Angeles is having a C86 20th anniversary tribute night on December 27th 2006. Appearing will be Dave Newton (Mighty Lemon Drops), members of Sarah Records popsters Aberdeen & LA’s Languis. It is also possible that special guests will appear in a tribute band for the night as well.



[My Space link]

Top 5 singles

01 Jesus Licks - Dalek Chorus

I was initially drawn to the single via a Norman Records weekly email where they review up coming releases (Damn, giving away the tricks of where to find out about great new stuff here!). They gave it their single of the week and the review was enough to pique my interest. The review, coupled with the Doctor Who reference meant I was soon online and at the bands My Space page to find out whether this band would be for me. They were. They are liken nothing else I have heard this year. The song was like something from another world. The voice of singer Dominic Golden had held me mesmerised ever since. So if you are a fan of quirky pop music I can not recommend this song enough. And I have since got a copy of the bands LP - 'Terrible Beauty', which is equally enthralling.

02 Jim Reid - Dead End Kids
03 We're From Barcelona - I'm From Barcelona
04 Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks
05 Lucky Soul - Lips Are Unhappy

Top 5 LPs

01 Freeheat - Back On The Water

An odd debut LP from the band fronted by Jim Reid (of The Jesus and Mary Chain). It's a mix of studio demos recorded back in 1997 and songs from a live set at The Paradiso in Amsterdam in 2002. The band are no longer a going concern. Which is a crying shame. As this collection of songs showcase what a great song writer Jim Reid is. He is ably backed by Ben Lurie (again from The Mary Chain), Nick Sanderson (Earl Brutus) and Romi Mori (the Gun Club). This showcases a band that were at their best on stage, knocking out fuzzed up rock n roll. I was a huge fan of Freeheat and this LP is something special. It has power. It has passion. But more than anything else it has great songs. A truly lost band. It was criminal the way they were ignored by the press during their four years together. The LP was released on the Planting Seeds label in America. Go and buy it. It's a great record.

02 Jesus Licks - Terrible Beauty
03 Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country
04 Audrey - Visible Forms
05 Mutt Ramon - Utterly Mutterly

Top 5 Compilations

01 Sarandon - The Completist Library

Sarandon were new to me. This release compiled their early EPs on to one CD. They came to my attention via Tom's mentioning of them on this here site. I duly bought the LP. It's ferocious. It's brilliant. When I reviewed the LP on my site, Lostmusic, I said this of it - "...like a breath of fresh air. The songs just leap out at you. This is like no frills guitar pop music". It's impact has not diminished since. This collection of songs will be with me for a long long time.

02 Various - The Kids at The Club
03 Various - CD86
04 The Delgados - Peel Sessions
05 Widdershins - Good Songs (1987-1989)

Top 5 bands

01 Sarandon
02 Butterfly Explosion
03 Jesus Licks
04 Audrey
05 Blood Red Shoes

Top 5 Live Acts

01 Jim Reid

It's been a Jim Reid year for me. Back in January I saw Jim play a solo gig assisted by Phil King (formerly of Lush) at the 12 Bar Club in London. Since then Jim has expanded his band to include Loz Colbert (from Ride) on Drums and Mark Crozer (on Bass). I managed to catch most of Jim's gigs this year. Highlights are numerous, Popadelica in Sweden being a great weekend. And a trip to see him perform in Dublin was fantastic. But Jim's best gig for me came at The Bar Academy in Islington back in July of this year. Jim's band knocked out great new songs (Dead End Kids, War On Peace), covers (The Saints' 'I'm Stranded' and Dylan's 'If You Gotta Go') along with Mary Chain songs (Never Understand, The Perfect Crime) - And the set highlight was a rendition of 'Vegetable Man' in tribute to the recently departed Syd Barrett. I am fairly sure this is the first Jim has played this song in over 20 years. Mind blowingly good.

02 The Butterfly Explosion
03 The Bobby McGees
04 The Loft
05 The Victorian English Gentlemen’s Club

(Posted on Lost Music's behalf)

This year has been a great year in many different ways.
But when it comes to lists it is always kind of hard.

What I do know is that I think that Matinée Recordings is the finest label around these days.

My categories are slightly different from the ones Tom posted, but I hope thats ok anyway.

Best songs:
1. Harper Lee "He Holds A Flame" (matinée)
2. Lovejoy "Made In England" (matinée)
3. Cats on Fire "Higher Grounds" (fraction dics)

Best liveacts:
1. The Lucksmiths (three cheers for our side, hamburg)
2. Cats On Fire (i´m from bräkne-hoby)
3. Language Of Flowers (debaser, stockholm)
4. Days (landet, stockholm)
5. Morrissey (nöjesfabriken, karlstad)

Best album:
1. Camera Obscura "Let´s Get Out Of This Country" (elefant)

Best Comp/Reissue Album:
1. Brighter "Out To Sea" (matinée)
2. Hey Paulette "Long Ball Into Nowhere" (firestation, clarendon)

I also think that the the following three compliations are very fine:
Various - Kids At The Club (how does it feel to be loved?)
Various - CD86 (castle music)
Various - Svensk Indie 1988-2006: En kärlekshistoria (nons)

The best of this year: (not depending on when it was released)
1. Lovejoy "I Dream Of Angels" (matinée) song
2. Brighter (sarah records/matinée) band
3. Afraid of Stairs "Not Today" (labrador) song

What can I say about the end of year lists apart from that I love 'em?! They differ from week to week and there have been several changes since my initial compiling began. I had better post it now as it will more than likely change tomorrow!

Best Albums:

Well I have to say 2006 was not that great a year for albums in my view. I was struggling whilst compiling this list and any more than 10 choices would have presented a right dilemma. Shorter albums seem to be back in vogue this year. I generally cannot stand albums over 50 minutes in length whilst those on 35 minutes or under feature quite highly when going through my choices. I plumped for Visible Forms by Audrey as my Number One for the simple reason that it bettered the songs on 2005's début EP, something I thought was impossible. It's a beautiful and timeless recording.

Before anyone comments I know The Electric Pop Group's album has just come out but I have been playing it to death at Last FM! In any case I wanted to pre-empt 2007 lists!

1) Audrey - Visible Forms
2) The Besties - Singer
3) The Electric Pop Group - The Electric Pop Group
4) Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
5) Irene - Apple Bay

Best Singles:

2006 was quite a year for the 7" single despite my trusty turntable finally breaking down. There were some pretty fine singles from Lucky Soul, Fanfarlo, Bridge Gang, Aberfeldy and Camera Obscura to name but a few.

Kids Records put out a string of fine 7" releases and one of them, in the shape of Mighty Six Ninety, would have made the top spot until Strange Idol's released their fantastic début release. C86 updated for the 21st century dance floor it's a simple but effective single.

1) Strange Idols - It's No Fun
2) Mighty Six Ninety - Keeping You In Mind
3) Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks
4) Pipettes - Pull Shapes
5) Santa Dog - Belle De Jour/
Envelopes - Free Jazz

Best Live Act:

No contest this year as I was simply blown away by Dressy Bessy at Pow To the People in April. A few old timers make an appearance in the shape of The Wedding Present and The Loft whilst I was pretty impressed by The Brakes. The Bridge Gang. Well they always appear because they are bloody good live. Hopefully next year they will play venues outside of London. Bands missing the list include Fonda 500, Santa Dog and Lucky Soul. Special mention should also be given to Chris TT who stirred the ol' socialist blood in my veins at the Truck Festival.

1) Dressy Bessy
2) The Wedding Present
3) The Bridge Gang
4) The Brakes
5) The Loft

Best Comp/Reissue Album

2006 was a pretty good year for the compilation with many failing to make the cut such as The Dog box, Dance To The Radio, Egg Records and Thee SPC compilations to say the least. Ian at How Does It Feel To Be Loved put together the album that could be classed as C06. CD86, despite my initial scepticism, is a pretty good and enjoyable album from years gone by. Cherry Red was the best re-issue label for me in 2006 and two of their releases appear (The Loft & Darling Buds).

1) Various - Kids At The Club
2) Various - CD86
3) The Loft - Magpie Eyes: 1982-85
4) Sarandon - The Completest Library
5) Darling Buds - Pop Said

Stereo Test Kit Records continue their rich vein of form with two more excellent releases from We Are Soldiers We have Guns and Boy Omega.

The formers release is an EP/Mini album titled To Meet Is Murder. It is full of songs containing the trademark melanconic but beautiful sound which exists on most, if not all, of the releases this year from the Stereo Test Kit Records label. The band contains Malin Dahlberg (also Douglas Heart/Laurel Music) and Jocke Rosén. Pick of a very impressive bunch fo songs is The Line Is A Dot To You which is much more upbeat and complete with trash metal guitar.

The latter's effort is called The Grey Rainbow and is the second album release this year fromn Boy Omega (Martin Gustafsson) I found it much more accessible than The Black Tango which took several listens before finally growing on me. The first two tracks Burn This Flag and From Us To Eternity have been freely available on the net for a few months now but there is still something different to hear each time they are played back.

However Control is a song to listen out for and again the strings are provided by Karin Wilberg whose playing on the previous album made those tracks she appeared on as the highlights for me. Wilberg's violin playing appears on two further tracks but Gustafsson wrestles back control of my attention with his excellent lyrics as well as some pretty fine multi tasking on the instrument front.

For those new to Gustafsson's music The Grey Rainbow is a much better introduction to Boy Omega than The Black Tango. Existing fans will be delighted with the consistency and progress of his work.

Let's hope the label does not cheer up in 2007!

We Are Soldiers We Have Guns - Songs That No One Will Hear
Boy Omega - Burn This Flag

Buy direct from the label.

My Space Links

We Are Soldiers We have Guns
Boy Omega
Stereo Test Kit Records

The Carrots are the ideal band to write about after yesterday's post. I previously wrote about them here describing their sound as akin to the likes of The Pipettes whilst they describe themselves as 60's girl groups in love.

In August (and I have just got around to writing about in now - the shame) they made their demo CD available as a free digital download. Personally I think they should have released it as it's that good. Judge for yourself!

The Carrots - Secret Since '99

Download the whole EP from here.

The School is the side project of Liz who is also a member of The Loves. Her music sounds like twee mixed in a blender with the One Kiss Can Lead to Another compilation with the results sounding like bliss to my ears.

Lazy pointers would be the likes of Lucky Soul or Saint Etienne. This is pretty impressive music to say the least considering she is all on her own at present. How wonderful will it be when she gets a full band together we can only guess.


The School - Valentine
The School - All I Wanna Do Is

Now how do I get detention?

There seems to be an abundance of Christmas tunes this year. I am sure I did not write about this many last year.

The latest x-mas tune I have come across is by indie mp3 faves Mutt Ramon who have released a seasonal track titled ANOther Xmas complete with Sleigh Bells. The band have played their first gig and are planning to release an album in three parts next year!

Mutt Ramon - ANOther Xmas

[My Space link]

Schla La La’s – Manic Cough – Ninki V – The Red Lion London

If it takes me more than an hour to get to a venue in London, then the gig wants to be a bloody good one! When I leave the venue with a long slog of a journey back to civilisation (that’s West London to the uninitiated) I expect to either have a smile on my face or a skip to my step to carry me home. Maybe I set the bar to high, but tonight I thought this would be the case, but horror of horrors it wasn’t to be.

Firstly, the following reviews should be offset by a good 20% due to the frankly appalling sound of the venue. I may have been a bit more generous in what I say if I could have heard the bands properly, so don’t take my criticism as being black and white. On another night in another venue they may have got a more glowing report.

Opening act Ninki V is quirky with a capital Q. Take a couple of keyboards, sampler and a Theremin, set them up for tweeky noises, crank up the giggles and off you go. The second tune of the set is bordering on genius, with a Bontempi keyboard and cartoon animal noises combined with her acrobatic use of the Theremin. Grins are everywhere and it ends with probably the biggest cheer of the night. Marvellous! By the end of the third song though, the joke is already starting to wear a bit thin, and fortunately she realises it and calls it a night there. The brevity of her set doesn’t detract from its enjoyment.

Manic Cough follow, and the tone for the rest of the evening is set. It doesn’t take long for the deafening sound of the kick drum through the PA and the total absence of any guitar in the mix to turn my mood from good to bad. The only thing that can save the situation is a band that are on top of their game with a back catalogue to suit. Bugger! Manic Cough are trying to be clever and interesting in their song construction, but to be honest, as musicians they’re just not good enough at the moment to pull it off. I’ve got no problem if a band want to use an odd time signature for a song, but it helps if they can all carry it. The drummer over-plays way too often and hence drops too many clangers, and with the sound the way it was there was no way of missing them. On the whole their set sounded like a rehearsal room jam session, where quality control doesn’t matter and the ability to hear the vocals isn’t important.

At too many points I thought I was watching a disorganised Fuzzbox gig (Fuzzbox having never actually managed to do a gig that looked organised should give you an idea where I’m coming from here). Where Fuzzbox knew they couldn’t really play very well and had a don’t give an monkeys arse whether we’re any good or not charm, Manic Cough have ideas above their station. They do have some interesting stuff and could be quite good given time and a more forgiving venue, but on this evenings evidence there’s still a lot of spade work to be done.

No worries I thought, the Schla La La’s will save the day with their pop song concealing acidic wit. They do charm the audience with their warmth and humour but fall victim to the vicious plague of shocking sound. I’ve seen the Schla’s before and always been entertained by their songs and attitude, but even they can’t make a silk purse from this sow’s ear. A band with four vocalists and close harmonies need four microphones. Give them three and most of the set ends up in being a game of mic related musical chairs where at any point there is somebody looking around for one to sing into, and as each is set to a different level depending on the singer using them you get a mish-mash of different sounds where one moment somebody is booming and the next you can hear nothing. It is painful to say the least. To say much more about this gig would be a waste as to draw any conclusions from it would be so badly coloured that it wouldn’t be fair.

One thing that still bothers me about them though is their use (or lack of use) of their two bass guitar line-up. They’re no Ned’s that’s for sure, but they could utilise them much more than they do. From my observation one plays the bass line on the bottom two strings, whilst the other place the same notes two octaves higher. Why? It does nothing to enhance their sound (their music doesn’t lead itself to the monstrous bass rumbles of late Pumpkins songs for example) and makes the listener scratch their heads in a “what’s that all about?” kind of way. They could do so much more with them than they do, allow one to lead or play chords possibly, which would make their sound so much more dynamic. Alternatively, they could ditch one, free up stage space and allow one of them to concentrate on vocal duties. The Schla’s are fun, and have carved a small musical niche of their own, but need a much better venue than this to get the best out of them. Disappointing.

So it was a depressing journey home this evening, no smiles and my spring had been sprung. Was there anything positive to take from this show? Nicki V entertained briefly, Manic Cough promised much but failed to deliver, and The Schla’s tried but was hindered by things outside their control, so in a nutshell no. It’s been a while since the tube journey home seemed so long as it was tonight.

Ninki V on My Space
Manic Cough on My Space
The Schla La La's On My Space

(Thanks to Bananas for the review)

If you have any gig reviews you want to contribute feel free and e-mail the site via the link in the menu.

I have not been by Bradley's Almanac for a while now and I am glad I stopped by again last week as I found in the archives complete concerts by The Legends, Acid House Kings and Camera Obscura. Go and grab them from here.

On another note Labrador have released the [ingenting] EP Punkdrömmar as a free download to celebrate the fact that it was the label's first ever entry into the Swedish charts. Which was mighty generous of them! It can be downloaded via the label's news pages.

Celestial have released a free to download Christmas digital single titled Saving Up Her Wishes (For Another Christmas)

You can download the track and artwork from the bands label, Music Is My Girlfriend.

Don't forget that Celestial's first two EP's are still available as a free download from Lost Music Recordings.

[My Space link]

Familiar Trees is a duo from California, composed of Ken Negrete and Fabiola Sanchez (pictured here). They recently released an E.P with 6 songs which I was lucky enough to get my hands on. I'm usually not too keen on this kind of ethereal fairy-like dream pop, but then again I do love f.e. Slowdive, and this is kinda like them without the fuzz and distortion. So I popped it into the car stereo on my way to work, where it's been keeping me warm most mornings in the past few weeks, while I dangerously skate through the frost on my summer tires.

The E.P obviously has a lot of love and care put into it, not only are the songs beautiful and carefully constructed, but the packaging is a hand-made felt pouch, and it comes with a badge.

So, when I started googling for information, I quickly found them to be released by Time Release Records, whose website was oddly familiar. Turns out that amongst Ken Negrete's other music projects is Sidecar, whose other half is Lili de la Mora, who again is half of The Year Zero, which happens to be on that very fine label which gave us NE Popfest which I covered in many a post some months ago.

Familiar Trees are also collaborating with Ryan Francesconi and Lili de la Mora on a CD that will be released in January 2007, which will also feature one Joanna Newsom on harp.

They are also working on a full length record, entitled Inner Course, which will be released in early 2007. Boy, these people sure have a lot to do.

Familiar Trees - Discreet Robots
Buy here
Download Discreet Robots at download.com music in case that link doesn't work

________________________________________________

INTERVIEW NUMBER 5

with Johan Angergård
of The Legends, Club 8 and Acid House Kings

________________________________________________


1. If you were given free hands to change the Swedish
music-scene what would your priorities be?

I'd use the resources to force my musical taste onto all other people.


2. Concerning one of your projects, called The Legends, the songs as well as the production feels very different from album to album. Is the final outcome something that you have in mind before you even write the songs, or something that you figure out along the way?

Yes, I decide that before I write the songs. The album work starts when I've written a new song which I feels, well, really new for me. A great song with a sound that inspires me and that can lead the direction of all the other songs. Those songs were "Everything you say" (Up against the Legends), "Air" (Public Radio") and "Play it for today" (Facts and figures). After I finished the two first albums I felt there was not more to do in that particular musical style and felt I needed to change style all completely to keep it fun and inspiring. I want to keep that nice beginners feeling when I make music. Professionalism is music's worst enemy. I'm new at electronic music though so I don't think I'm finished with this quite yet.


3. This year it is 20 years since NMEs C86 was given away for free with an issue of their magazine. What is your relation to the music on this cassette and what to you put into the term C86?

The cassette was important because it defined a musical style for me. I discovered bands like McCarthy, Wolfhounds and Shop Assistants before I heard about C-86, loving them all of course, but C86 reference made it easy to discover more bands in the same style. The cassette itself really wasn't that good though.

4. Finally, please feel free to update us a little bit about on what you are working with right now.

I'm working on a new Club 8 album now. It's been a long time since we last released something so it's a bit of a comeback album it feels like. We've recorded 5 songs so far and I think it's the best stuff we've ever done.


My Favorite:

band on the c86tape: McCarthy

song ever: The Smiths "I know it's over"

instrument: Juno 106, Tambourine or Rickenbacker 330. Depends on my mood!

film: Manhattan (Woody Allen)

Listen at: Labrador

Whilst trawling through my e-mails and My Space I came across Eux Autres who have just released their Christmas single titled Another Christmas At Home. The band are based in Portland, Oregon and consist of brother and sister, Heather and Nicholas Larimer, who share lead vocals with Heather on drums and Nicholas on guitar.

The band, who have seen their debut 2004 album Hell Is Eux Autres re-released this year, could lazily be compared to The White Stripes, The Kills or indeed any other duo playing garage influenced music. The truth is further away than any of that and their sound is much more indie pop leaning towards the likes Of The Pipas mixed with the love of all things French! What I have heard so far has been pretty impressive and this includes my normal aversion to any Christmas related singles with their above standard effort.

One to add to the I must discover more pile.......

Eux Autres - Ecoutez Bein
Eux Autres - Another Christmas At Home

[My Space link]

Jaime Cristobal is a Spanish singer/songwriter. When his record label commissioned him to write and record a song for it's forthcoming Christmas compilation he decided to write a song in tribute to the late Grant McLennan.

Titled Christmas Without Grant it is a short and poignant song about one of the sadder events to occur in the world of music this past year.

J'aime - Christmas Without Grant

New Ears Day is a sort of a musical advent calendar. Between 01 and 23 December the site will be giving away mp3's from a range of labels including Stereo Test Kit Records, Bella Union, Fat Cat and many more. Tracks from the likes of Pajo and Audrey are already available.

Check it out!

The Organ, a band I have just started getting into in a big way has called it quits.

[My Space link]

The nicest thing that's happened to me so far today is the sudden online give-away of The Snow Fairies' latest, and probably last, album "Voila!". In fact it made me grin so much that my co-workers commented on my unusual cheerfulness. It's likely to put a grin on your face also.

The album is released in a limited edition of 200 copies, with a hand-made silkscreened cover, and will not be released on CD. If you'd like to have the actual LP, you might want to hurry up and check the distributors here.

My favorites so far are the songs "The Love Affairs of a Southern Belle" and "Spleens", in which the punk band The Spleens brutally murders the happy little Snow Fairies!

Download the album here.
Listen to an mp3 of Spleens.

Irene - Christmas On The Beach
Tiger Baby - This Christmas
Bobby Baby - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

(Do you know of any others on the net, Scandanavian or not? - If so drop me a line and I will add them to the post)

Santa Dog are playing London Town on Saturday night (Luminaire 09/12/2006) with support from fellow Bristol band First Of The Giants and London's own Tacticians. I will also be dj'ing for the band at this gig although under the Sounds XP guise and not the indie mp3 one.

It should be a cracking gig and all three bands have featured on indie mp3 before. Tickets available from here although there should be some on the door.

I don't know much about Boo Radley Bruises Badly, but I do know that this song has been on near-constant repeat in my work-computer since I got back from the states in october, where a friend of mine played for me a Compound 440r compilation CD featuring this track.

I'm not quite sure if Boo Radley Bruises Badly is the artist's name, or the name of Boo Radley's debut album. In any case it has no relation to Boo Radleys of britpop fame. It's rap, and I have never, ever listened to a whole rap song before. And it's very addictive.

Boo Radley Bruises Badly - Breathing Room

Whilst nosing around The Electric Pop Group page (see yesterday's post) I came across a link to the Swedish band Days and was I simply blown away by what I heard.

This is music from another era namely in the shadows of 1980's England. These songs, especially Simple Thing, are hypnotising to say the least and jangle pop at it's finest. Any other words will not do them justice.

The band have just signed to Lavender and while there are no releases as of yet something may appear on Shelflife in 2007.

Play these songs - now!

Days - Simple Thing

[My Space link]

I thought I would do a poll with a difference this year.

Instead of nominating your favourite albums, singles, live acts etc. I thought it would be a good idea to collate your favourite legal download of 2006. I don't mean from any commercial stores but from artist/label sites or the likes of My Space or Last FM as examples.

If you could send in your nominations for your top three that would be grand. A link to the mp3's themselves would be nice as I plan to make up a download compilation of nominated tracks.

The deadline for nominations is Thursday 28th December in order to post on New Years Eve. All entries will be put into a hat and the first one drawn will win a spiffing compilation from Fortuna Pop and some other goodies I have laying around. What an incentive!

The Electric Pop Group were formed in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2005. They consist of brothers Erik and Martin Aamot who are joined by keyboard player Linnéa Nilsson. In 2006 Jimmi Thunholm and Gustaf Murman joined to complete the line up. The band release their début album on December 15th and four tracks from it are currently available as free mp3 downloads.

If you want comparisons as a pointer then the Razorcuts were the first thing that sprang to my mind with more than a respectful nod to the early Creation bands but like so many of their fellow Swedes the band eventually stamp their own imprint onto the music that overwrites any obvious influences.

It's a pity the album is being released so late in the year. Listening to The Electric Pop Group I feel that if it was put back to the first week of the new year it would set the standard for the rest of 2007.

The Electric Pop Group - Popgirly
The Electric Pop Group - She's Playing With Your Heart

You can also stream the whole album from Last FM.

[My Space link]

Thanks to Stytzer for the tip off.

A few weeks back one of this blogs regular readers got in touch wanting to find out any information on the band Toad. I had never heard of them so I suggested he supply me with some tracks to see if they would jog anyone's memory. So what do we know? We think they came from the Henley area but that's it. The tracks here came from a demo tape called Hang On! which was released in 1989.

Who were Toad? Does anyone know the names of the band members and did they go on to be members of other bands? If anyone knows please contact me and I will forward the info onto readers of this blog and of course the person who supplied me with the tracks (tapes on their way back soon).

The tracks themselves are pretty good. They were recorded during the period where UK was changing it's musical culture, moving from guitar orientated bands to electronic ones in the aftermath of rave culture and "baggy". Maybe that's why the band remain unknown?

Toad - Show Me
Toad - Astra

Tracklist:

LADO A - SIDE A
01. The Madeleines - Safety Net
02. Slow Down Tallahasse - U R Grace U R
03. Tesco Chainstore Mascara - The Sun’s Shinin’ For You
04. Amida - Class of 2000
05. Liechtenstein - Stalking Skills
06. Cats on Fire - Higher Grounds
07. Bye Bye Bicycle - Say My Name
08. Big White Monkees - Wherever
09. Je Suis Animal - Labyrinth
10. Los Punsetes - Fondo de Armario
11. The Mare - Sad Affair

LADO B - SIDE B
01. Belmondo Beat - Leave This City
02. House of Mexico - Suitable
03. Dub Noir - Disco Lights
04. The April Skies - Rise & Rise Again
05. Strawberry Whiplash - Falling Through
06. The Sorayas - Hours to Days
07. Foxglove - Something Wrong
08. Rosemary - Suburban Kings
09. The Hi-Life Companion - Times Table
10. The Lodger - My Advice is on Loan
11. Bubblegum Lemonade - Unsafe at Any Speed

This compilation was released yesterday and I have been told that it was only made in 50 homecrafted copies. I guess that number will be 0 by the end of tomorrow. As for the price, you only have to pay for post and packaging and another penny or two.

GO CATCH!!! Mira el Péndulo

I've written about Magic Marker Records before here. I just received a promotional email from them, and am sufficiently impressed by their releases to be willing to pass the information on here. So here goes:

The Manhattan Love Suicides.
From the front page of the Rough Trade Records website:

For anyone who loves fuzzed up guitar assaults, feedback, hit and run 10 minute gigs, female vocals, melodic pop, ear splitting minimalist noise...and hates a hell of a lot of other things - we give you the Manhattan Love Suicides debut album. Not since Juniper Moon have we been this excited about an indie pop band. Think The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Shop Assistants, Galaxie 500, The Velvet Underground, The Rosehips, The Golden Dawn and Meat Whiplash. the album is full of fuzzed up noisy pop music with a pounding beat and heart breaking female vocals combined with slower, less raucous sounding tunes. Every song is a indie pop nugget and we cannot praise this album enough. CD version on Magic Marker and the vinyl will follow soon on Squirrel Records.

The Manhattan Love Suicides - Suzy Jones

The Faintest Ideas - "What Goes Up Must Come Down"

The Faintest Ideas are what happens when you find four guys that lived on a steady diet of The Fall, Television Personalities, Fugazi, Beat Happening, The Ramones, Buzzcocks added with the pop friendly country of Sweden and other Gothenburg acts like Love is All, Jens Lekman, El Perro Del Mar. Just to throw off the balance add in The Lucksmiths, Dear Nora, The Wedding Present and British C86 bands. It is what record store clerks and music snobs will be slobbering over. After self releasing several cd-rs and a single they started to release other bands under their DIY label Yellow Mica Recordings. Following in the footsteps of punk rock and indie pop has brought us the simple and exciting "What Goes Up Must CalmDown". While most of the band is nearing the age of 30 the songs and attitudes contain a youthful enthusiasm and most fall below the 2 minute mark. The break neck speed of the songs mixed in with the blue collar themes and references to the kids has an authenticity of absolute charm. The band was known as Javelins and changed their name before this their debut album to avoid confusion of a U.S. band by the same name.

The Faintest Ideas - Nosebleeders on the Track

Sounds pretty cool, eh?

There are a number of bands I have come across and want to write about and I have plenty of CD's to listen to for reviewing but it's simply a question of finding the time. So if there is a UK based reader out there who wants to review some CD's for this site please contact me as soon as possible.EDIT: Thanks for the interest - there will be two new writers joining indie mp3 to assist with CD and other reviews.

This list is of bands and links to their My Space pages that I meant to write about but they have fallen to the back of the queue. That's not to say they are not worth a listen, no not at all!

Penny Century Swedish indie band whose singer provided the backing vocals to some of The Bedroom Eyes tracks I linked to recently.

One More Grain - Nothing to do with C86 or indie. This reminds me of Can going up against Steve Hillage's System 7. It's bonkers!

The Violet Pets A band that I think made up by one or two members of the How Does It Feel To Be Loved message boards. Two pretty decent tunes to stream and/or download.

Tiny Dancers I saw this lot last week and they were pretty entertaining. Pity they were named after an Elton John track. They have three singles to their name now and are going to go from strength to strength.

Poppy and the Jezebels I have been meaning to write about this bunch of Brummie Schoolgirls for a while now but the NME has beaten me to it this week. Nice to see them supporting some new music for a change rather than arse licking Muse and Carl Barat. Again.

The Motifs The Motifs is one single Aussie lass who is influenced by most things from the 1980's UK indie scene as well as bands influenced by that time. Her first release has just sold out. Had to buy mine from Sweden! Wonderful stuff.

Snow Faries Magnus has written about them before but I wanted to say a few words about their new (and now the last) album Voila. There said it....

Pocketbooks I wrote about the Pocketbooks at the beginning of the year when it was just the solo project of Andy. Now they are a fully fledged band but I still haven't managed to write a piece about them again despite finally catching them live. One of the best new bands "twee" bands to appear in 2006.

Mark Gardener The ex- Ride frontman has a new single out on Sonic Cathedral on December 11th. It is surprisingly his first ever UK solo single release. It is a double A side 7" vinyl limited edition single called These Beautiful Ghosts backed with a remix by Ulrich Schnauss.

I was also going to write the demo from Westfield Mining Disaster. However indie mp3 contributor Lost Music has written about them on his site here.