Oh, Lead Me To A Quiet Cell...

The first words I've uttered concerning Leicester's Mai 68s were on Anorak, and I believe it was something like "oh my god. oh my god. so good. so so so good." Yknow, something like that. I meant it, I really did – no hyperbole at all. Their new single on Cloudberry Records – and particularly the song "Lead Me To A Quiet Cell" – has been on endless repeat here since I first heard it. What The Mai 68s have got is a perfectly controlled mess of dreamy vocals and multiple waves of ringing guitars that seem to splill into a haze of feedback at all the right moments. There's also gotta be something quite great about the drums because they've been bouncing around in the back of my head for the past two days. Basically, how can anyone not love these guys(and girl)? The Mai 68s are 2008's Black Tambourine. There, I said it. Everyone else was thinking it, surely.

[MP3]: The Mai 68s :: Lead Me To A Quiet Cell (Super Recommended!!!)

Go get the single from Cloudberry Records while the getting's good!
The Mai 68s on MySpace!

Stumble It!

New Summer Cats Video!!!

A new video for The Summer Cats' Cloudberry single "Lonely Planet" has just finally seen the very light of day, TODAY! I've been in love with the song since the moment I heard and the video fits it just perfectly! It's a an interesting song, actually, I think, because it feels like a bit of a slow-burner (as slow-burning as indiepop can get), yet it's totally and 100% danceable! Everyone dancing and clapping! Isn't that what every music video should be, really?



You can/should grab the single from the ever-amazing Cloudberry Records
Summer Cats on MySpace!

Stumble It!

The Garlands EP!

I'm back! Hopefully! I've still got a little bit of the semester left, but I really miss posting and so I'm going to do my best to get back into the regular swing of things around here! As I've clearly mentioned before, I LOVE The Garlands. For those just now being introduced (and shame on you!), The Garlands are Roger Gunnarsson and Christin Wolderth – an indiepop match made in heaven – much like any other band Roger's ever been in. As expected, their debut EP is full of super sweet vocals and gloriously jangling melodies. My favorite of all, "David," might be one of the best pop songs I've heard all year and will bring more than a smile to anyone who, like me, has been desperately clinging onto their small batch of old Free Loan songs, hoping that one day they'd feel that same way again. Like I said, totally in love.

[MP3]: The Garlands :: David (Hiiiiiiiighly Recommended!)

The EP is out on both Cosy Recordings and Cloudberry Records, so I mean, you could buy two if you wanted or you just buy one from one place I guess. In other sort of unrelated news, I have some very exciting news to share with you guys in a day-ish or so... but it's really great I swear!

Stumble It!

All I Find Is Wasted Time

Hello gents and gentlies. I have a spare minute this morning, so I thought I'd try to do a quick post of things before I have to go paint for four hours! First of all, I hope everyone had a lovely holiday. Mine was spent finishing the pile of homework that built up over spring break, so that was a blast. Alright, first item of business would be... new Bridal Shop 7" on Cloudberry! They've got the a-side "Violation" streaming on their MySpace right now and it might just be their best tune yet. I love the way it just kind of explodes into a blast of guitar and drum machine at the beginning, it's so bright and beautiful! Order it over at Cloudberry Records. New Summer cats single coming up on Cloudberry, too, but more on that later...

Next, brand new – and excellent – EPs from both Northern Portrait and The Electric Pop Group are out now on Matinee. Northern Portrait's The Fallen Aristocracy EP is just perfect classic jangly pop songs. The lead track "Crazy," in particular, reminds me quite of The Smiths... could be the guitars, could be the vocals, maybe both?! The Electric Pop Group's Sunrise EP treads most of the same ground as their self-titled record from last year (very late 2006, rather), but, to me, that's quite alright because it's the type of ground that would have likely secured them a spot on Sarah Records in a different time. "This Is A Town" grabs me the same way "Walk Away" did just months ago, which means it wont be letting go for a while. They're both only five bucks each! Go get 'em!

Then there's The Sound of Arrows. Don't know too much about them, but they're Swedish, and they've got an new EP on the way on Labrador, and apparently they're leading Swedish pop into the next decade... we'll see about that, bur for now, I'll definitely say that this is some pretty fun stuff! The EP's title track "Danger!" sounds like some brilliantly dancey blend of Jens Lekman and Saint Etienne... which as anyone could imagine, is an amazing combination! The EP will be out May 7th! For now, listen (and dance) to "Danger!"

[MP3]: The Sound of Arrows :: Danger! (Hiiiiighly Rec'd!!!)

Finally, in less recent news, I've been listening to "Sickening" by The Sweetest Ache almost completely on repeat since I woke up today. What an amazing song it is...

[MP3]: The Sweetest Ache :: Sickening (Very Highly Recommended!)

Have a lovely day!
xoxo

Stumble It!

Updates!

Hey! I mentioned I would be getting busiert lately, with less time to devote to the blog and that's exactly what's been happening. It's been about a week, so I've got a bit of housekeeping to do. First up, there's a few new Cloudberry releases to get excited about – well, at least that I'm excited about... though you should be, too. I'm speaking of Cloudberry 79 and 80, of course, both available March 1st. 79 is a single from The Vermont Sugar House, featuring ex-Desert Wolves David and Martin. One of the b-sides on the single, "Braveheart," comes from a 7" the band released on Firestation in 1999 and is an impecable slice of pop. In short, that song alone is worth buying th whole single. 80 comes from The Flowerbeds, who are totally new to me. The preview track on the Cloudberry site, "You Mean To Me," is completely fantastic – I never would have guessed these guys were from Chicago though, that caught me off guard. Not that there's anything wrong with Chicago... I just have never associated the city with pop music. Secondly, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart and Parallelograms split is finally available to order from Atomic Beat Records! Even if you don't like splits – and how could you? – this is still going to be a awesome awesome awesome piece of vinyl. So go order yours!! oh and plus there's a lovingly cheesy blurb in the insert by yours truly! So thats neat! Thirdly – and lastly for now because I've gotta get back to screenprinting – I got Slumberland's Searching For The Now One and Two in the mail on Monday and I've been playing the crap out of them. I do prefer number two a bit more than one, but that's probably just because I love everything Archie Moore does... and Bye! is no exception. Also, I was never a big fan of The Happy Couple, but their side of the split has been getting just as many spins as Bye!'s... so it would seem I'm now in love! If you have yet to, you should definitely go order One and Two before they're gone!!

Stumble It!

New Song from The Garlands!

For those of you already deeply smitten with The Garlands, you'll be just as excited as I was to know they've got a new song on their MySpace today! For those not as familiar, prepare to fall in love. The Garlands are Christin Wolderth and Roger Gunnarsson; yes, the same Roger from Free Loan Investments, Nixon, and The Happy Birthdays. So, yeah, The Garlands come from a long bloodline of P!O!P perfection, and so it's only fitting that they happen to be amazing. The new song, "Why Did I Trust You?" will be on forthcoming EP that will be co-released by Cosy Recordings and Cloudberry Records, so hopefully we'll be seeing a new download on Roque's site sometime soooon! For now, though, I'd highly recommend heading over to The Garlands' MySpace and listening to this over and over again!

Stumble It!

All I Ever Wanted Was A Happy Happy Heart

*EDIT: THE PERSON CLAIMING TO BE DAVID NEWFELD
IS INFACT AN IMPOSTER–BUT STILL A JERK*

You might recognize the title of this post from the current "subtitle" of this blog, which can probably be seen right up there at the top of your browser window! Well, as some of you may be aware of, that line comes from the song "Popkids of the World Unite!" by Horowitz – surely one of the finest pop songs of the past year. The song appeared on the band's Tracyanne single on Cloudberry in early 2007, which has long been sold out. So, the band have decided to reissue "Tracyanne" b/w "Popkids of the World Unite!" (the two best songs from the Cloudberry single) on a nice thick slab of transparent yellow 7" vinyl! You should probably make very sure that you own this immediately, because Horowitz are amazing amazing amazing! And, yknow, since they are so amazing, if you're just not into 7" records you can just download both songs on their MySpace. However, if you do like 7" records, then their MySpace is also where you want to be, because thats where you can order it! Did I mention there's only 200 of them?

If you never have, now's a good time:
[MP3]: Horowitz :: Popkids of the World Unite (Most Surely Recommended!)

Horowitz have also just put together a virtual box set available for download, through Thee SPC. Apart from I Need a Blanket and It's Better To Eat Twinkies...(both from the Frosty Cat Songs LP) there is Animal Soup from the sold out Cloudberry single. There's also the video for "Blanket", which is completely fantastic, virtual badges, a postcard and an online Humbug Special zine, containing interviews by Kieron from In Love With These Times and Roque from Cloudberry Records. And it's all FREE!!

You can get it all HERE!

Stumble It!

Sunny Summer Day: "Emma's House" (Field Mice cover)

I found this earlier tonight – this morning, I suppose – and I loved it so much that I just had to share it. Looks like Roque Cloudberry put it on YouTube back in September... don't know how it's taken me this long to find it! Anyway, Sunny Summer Day are a fantastic band from Indonesia and this cover is excellent!



They also put out a nice EP on Cloudberry Records earlier this year, which I believe is still available if you find yourself interested!

Stumble It!

I think he's good at friends, I think he has got the knack

The Deirdres are the cutest!

As you may recall, The Deidres' Dinosaurs That Can Swim EP was one of my favorite Cloudberry releases of the last year. I just love it, the seven of them make some of funnest indiepop out there right now. Bubbly keyboards, bells, 3+ person vocal harmonies! – it's all very great stuff! Anyway, they've just put up a new song streaming on their MySpace today called "Ball In A Cup." After just a few listens, I'm already in love with it; make sure you go check it out!

Go listen to "Ball In A Cup"!

Bye!

Stumble It!

Cloudberry Contest Winners

Drum Roll! Thanks to everyone who entered the Cloudberry contest. Some of you who enetered didn't leave full names or actual names at all, so I'm just going to announce by first name. If you won, you should be receiving an email sometime this week from Roque. Okay, so, the five winners of the Cloudberry contest are:

Nadav (IndieMP3 winner)
David (IndieMP3 winner)
Danny (Skatterbrain winner)
Herbie (Skatterbrain winner)
Apl (Skatterbrain winner)

I wish everyone could've won, but hopefully we'll be doing something like this again sometime, and who knows, maybe you'll win then! We're still in the process of trying to think of a good name for the podcast, but I'm hoping to maybe get the first one out by February! Exciting!

Stumble It!

Cloudberry contest closed

Attention! Attention! The Cloudberry contest is closed now, sorry. The winners will be announced Monday or some time around that time. I hope you all have a super great weekend. Bye!

Stumble It!

Our Favorite Free Cloudberry MPthrees!

Check below for contest details!

As I think I've said on several occasions here, Cloudberry Records has been the biggest, strongest, and most consistant driving force for indiepop this year. What Roque did with Cloudberry was just unbelievable – over 70 singles in one year! – it's just amazing. Myself and Tom over at IndieMP3 decided to get together and make a toast to Cloudberry for everything they did this year, and to hope it only continues to get better and better in 2008!

As anyone who's visited the Cloudberry website would know, Roque's got an MP3 from every single release up for download. That means there's over 70 MP3s to listen to on that website – an indiepop dreamland! We decided we would each choose our 10 favorite and compile them into two volumes of what we consider to be the very best of Cloudberry Records. My 10 (Volume One) features some of the best pop songs of the year, with a little fuzz and distortion thrown in for good measure. Tom's picks (Volume Two) can downloaded over at IndieMP3.

BUT WAIT! Before I get to my picks – we decided, hey what's an end of the year toast without some prizes?! So, we've got a bit of a contest to go along with the posts. We will be giving away a total of FIVE copies of the Nothing Matters When We're Dancing EP (Cloud502), which will be available only at a few Pop Nights in the UK and Sweden. So, dear readers from the U.S., this might be your only chance to get a copy! Just leave a comment on this post with your name, email, and maybe your 10 favorite Cloudberry songs if you'd like, and you will be entered into the random drawing! I will be choosing THREE winners from Skatterbrain and Tom will be choosing TWO over at IndieMP3, so leave a comment here and there to increase yor chances! The contest will close on January 4th, so get entering!

Okay, so I must admit, I cheated a bit on my picks; Oh! Custer's "Your Name" and Slow Down Tallahassee's "U R Grace U R" weren't the free ones on the site, but I just HAD TO include them, they were two of my very favorite songs of the year! Okay, so anyway, these are my picks, I hope you enjoy!

Tracklist and Links:
01. Oh! Custer :: Your Name (from Cloud009)
02. Slow Down Tallahassee :: U R Grace U R (from Cloud010)
03. The Airfields :: Yr So Wonderful (from Cloud047)
04. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart :: Orchard of My Eye (from Cloud013)
05. Signed Papercuts :: Only Fools Rush In (from Cloud027)
06. Blind Terry :: The Subtle Art of How to Break A Heart (from Cloud058)
07. The Deirdres :: Hopeless Is The Venue (from Cloud055)
08. Stars In Coma :: Revanche (from Cloud008)
09. Strawberry Story :: Boys (From the Story) (from Cloud065)
10. The Manhattan Love Suicides :: Last Stand (from Cloud062)

DOWNLOAD IT! (.ZIP, 10 MP3s with cover art, 31mb)

Well, I think that's it. It's truly been an incredible year – for indiepop and otherwise – and 2008 seems to be looking even brighter! Happy New Year, everybody!!!

Also, Lost Music, the gig promotion partner of indie mp3 will be putting on a Cloudberry Records gig on at the end of February 2008. Confirmed to date are Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Strawberry Story, Manhattan Love Suicides and one more to be confirmed. DJ's will be spinning Cloudberry releases only. More details will be posted once the line up is confirmed.

Stumble It!

The Manhattan Love Suicides: "Last Stand"

I'm just gonna go ahead and say it – The Manhattan Love Suicides are my number one favorite band of the year. Everything this band does is flawless, and they are just really, really COOL, in every single aspect of the word. Their string of flawlessness continues on November 21st when they release their Sycamore Peripheral single on Roque's indiepop powerhouse, Cloudberry Records. "Sycamore Peripheral" will be back by two other tracks – "Last Stand" and "Autumn Fades In." I think we all know what you need to do come November 21st, so make sure you do it!!! For now, check out "Last Stand." The jury is still out on whether or not it could beat out "Head Over Heels" as the best MLS song of the year, but it's definitely possible – I can't wait to hear the rest of the single!

[MP3]: The Manhattan Love Suicides :: Last Stand (Enormously Recommended!!!*)

Manhattan Love Suicides on MySpace
Cloudberry Records dot com

*In fact, if you download one song on the front page, make it this one.

Stumble It!

New November 1st Cloudberry Releases!

Four new singles in one day!

It feels like the last batch of Cloudberry singles came out just yesterday, and now here comes four more, out today, November 1st! Today's releases include singles from Komon, The Jealous Sea, Blind Terry, and The Pristines. As with all Cloudberry singles, you could buy all of these on a whim and be totally sure you'll end up loving them – but here's a taste of each single anyway, just to make that decision a little bit easier!

[MP3]: Komon :: A Good Start
Excellent Pipas-esque drum machine pop from Sweden!

[MP3]: The Jealous Sea :: Past The Grey
Shimmering, dreamy indiepop from Florida! Think early Sarah Records.

[MP3]: Blind Terry :: The Subtle Art of How to Break a Heart
60s-tinged pop sort of in the vein of Saturday Looks Good To Me.

[MP3]: The Pristines :: Good Things Never Come Despite The Wait
Sunday Records veterans still making some great jangly noise.

I'm not particularly good at picking favorites, but I have to say I'm extremely impressed – and in love – with that Blind Terry song. I'm sure you'll be seeing more of them here in the coming weeks and months, perhaps along with some of the others! Please visit Cloudberry Records to grab one or two or all of these! I couldn't think of a better way to spend your money.

Stumble It!

The Bridal Shop: "Bay The Moon"

The Bridal Shop

It's so hard to stay on top of everything Cloudberry Records puts out, because of the super-fast rate at which they release records. One such example of this is that I totally missed that they recently put out a new Bridal Shop single, Bay The Moon, back in September. Anyone familiar with their From Seas EP will find more of the band's excellent characteristic, almost calypso-flavored, dreamy indiepop – complete with breathy male and female vocals, breezy synths, and the always reliable drum machine. Definitely recommended for fans of The Radio Dept., Boat Club, Brighter, et al. Check out the title track, "Bay The Moon."

[MP3]: The Bridal Shop :: Bay The Moon (Highly Rec'd!)

Order Bay The Moon direct from Cloudberry Records, HERE.
The Bridal Shop on MySpace!

Stumble It!

The Airfields: "Yr So Wonderful"

The Airfields

The Airfields are pretty much incredible – basically one of the best bands out there right now, really. Their Laneways EP is one of my very favorite records of the past two years, and with the new album currently being mixed, hopefully we'll see it by the end of the year or possibly early 2008.

Until then, though, they've just released a new single titled "Yr So Wonderful" on the also wonderful Cloudberry Records. "Yr So Wonderful" proves again my theory that The Airfelds cannot write a bad song. The new single packs a bit more of a punch than most of what we saw on Laneways, churning away right from the start with squalls of feedback, rapid-fire snare rolls, and dense Farfisa organ coating everything in a thick icy haze. Every Airfields song I've heard makes me feel like I'm caught in some kind of snow storm, but "Yr So Wonderful" feels like an full-blown blizzard.

[MP3]: The Airfields :: Yr So Wonderful (Enormously Recommended!!!)

Buy Yr So Wonderful from Cloudberry Records!
The Airfields on MySpace!

Stumble It!

Summer Cats

When I got a sampler from Cloudberry Records a month or two ago, I threw it the computer and listened to it pretty much nonstop for a while; then I guess I got distracted, because up until a few days ago I had completely forgotten about it. Revisiting it I realized that there's a lot on it that should be mentioned; in due time of course.

The cause for going back to the sampler was Victoria, Australia's Summer Cats. The Summer Cats are a wonderful three boy, two girl indiepop band that love The Cat's Miaow and sound a good bit like the Acid House Kings – all good things. Their songs melodies are soaked in acoustic/electric sunshine and full to the brim with some really brilliant boy/girl vocal harmonies. They released an EP on Cloudberry Records earlier this year, and they've also put out a split 7" with Portland's Eux Autres. I've been listening to their song "Wild Rice," from their Cloudberry EP, over and over again, and I still think it's just completely excellent; and I also still think the beginning reminds me of the beginning of The Orchids' song "Apologies," too. Anyway, definitely give this song a listen.

[MP3]: Summer Cats :: Wild Rice (Really Highly Recommended!!!)

Cloudberry still has a few copies of the EP left.
If you want one, you can grab it HERE.
The split can be ordered from the Summer Cats' MySpace, HERE.

Stumble It!