Stockholm Belongs To Us - A Labrador Records Compilation

Who says the best things in life aren't free? Labrador, one of my favourite indie labels, recently put out a free compilation album. Stockholm Belongs To Us - A Labrador Records Compilation is a collection of 22 brilliant tracks from their releases from 2008 to 2011, containing names like the The Radio Dept., Club 8 and Acid House Kings. You can get it here or download using my link below.

Tracklist
1. The Radio Dept. - "Heaven's On Fire"
2. Sambassadeur - "Subtle Changes"
3. Pallers - "The Kiss"
4. Club 8 - "Dancing with the mentally ill"
5. Det Vackra Livet - "Viljan"
6. Acid House Kings - "Would you say stop?"
7. The Legends - "Something strange will happen"
8. The Mary Onettes - "Puzzles"
9. Pelle Carlberg - "1983 (Pelle & Sebastian)"
10. The Radio Dept. - "Never Follow Suit"
11. Club 8 - "Western Hospitality"
12. Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - "1999"
13. Acid House Kings - "Are We Lovers Or Are We Friends?"
14. Club 8 - "Jesus, Walk With Me"
15. [Ingenting] - "Halleluja!"
16. Sambassadeur - "Days"
17. The Legends - "Seconds away"
18. Little Big Adventure - "Happiest Times"
19. Pallers - "Humdrum"
20. Pelle Carlberg - "I Love You, You Imbecile"
21. The Mary Onettes - "Once I Was Pretty"
22. Amanda Mair - "House"

Download:
Stockholm Belongs To Us - A Labrador Records Compilation [ZIP]

Feist unveils the cover of Metals (sort of)

Fancy some colouring?

Today, Feist invites fans to unveil the cover of her new album Metals. All you have to do is download the cover art through her Facebook page and fill the colours in. Use the colour key, or be creative and make your own. When you're done, post your artwork on her Facebook wall. Word is, the chosen ones will get something special from her. We wonder what that is.

Metals will be out October 4 on Cherrytree/Interscope. Watching the video below makes us all excited about the new album.

Maria Mena: "Mitt Lille Land"

Maria Mena released her version of "Mitt Lille Land", a nod to the devastating terror attack in Norway. She had this to say: "i'm devestated! i love my country and my heart breaks for everyone involved and affected by last night's tragic bombing and shooting in oslo and at utøya. please take good care of eachother! ♥ maria." [link]

Above is a video tribute with the song.

Our thoughts are with our Norwegian friends during this difficult time.

Stream:
Maria Mena - Mitt Lille Land

R.I.P. Amy Winehouse

Troubled singer Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her home in London. She was 27 [link].

While her passing is sad (and a great loss to the music industry), it's not entirely surprising, considering she has been battling alcohol and drugs for a while now.

I'm just going to miss this talented lady.



P.S. I was a fan after I heard her song, "Fuck Me Pumps".

Download:
Amy Winehouse - Rehab
Amy Winehouse - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

Daily Randomness

A look at what's happening right now:

Shortlist for Mercury Prize '2011 Albums of the Year' has been released. 12 albums gunning for the top prize include:

Adele - 21
Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi
Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys!
Everything Everything - Man Alive
Ghostpoet - Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam
Gwilym Simcock - Good Days At Schloss Elmau
James Blake - James Blake
Katy B - On A Mission
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine
Metronomy - The English Riviera
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Tinie Tempah - Disc-Overy

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Warpaint return to Singapore for a one-night only show at Powerhouse, St James Power Station on August 2. For $65, you get one free drink plus admission to all the St James Power Station Clubs after the show. Talk about killing 2 birds with one stone -- get your tickets via Sistic.

Download:
Warpaint [MP3]

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Fancy some Priscilla Ahn? On August 2, she will play at the Esplanade Recital Studio. Tickets at $98 via Sistic.

Download:
Priscilla Ahn - When You Grow Up [MP3]

Bright Light Bright Light: "Disco Moment" Video

Bright Light Bright Light's popularity has been on the rise since the last we spoke: He supported Ellie Goulding on her 2010 Lights UK tour, released his debut single "Love Part II" in September 2010, and played at SXSW 2011. And Rod Thomas shows no signs of stopping.

While he is busy putting the finishing touches to his album, we thought we would share his new single "Disco Moment" with you. It's a good ol' disco-pop song about love, loss and heartbreak. The single will be released on August 7.

SneakPeek

SneakPeek is one of those mysterious bands that you occasionally come across. They have no website, MySpace nor YouTube, just a Bandcamp page that tempts the listener to take a shot at their music.

Hailing from Echo Park, California, SneakPeak is a female-fronted lo-fi/garage/grunge/psych band partially made up of former members of The Willowz. If reverb-soaked guitar riffs and grungy sounds are right up your alley, visit the band's Bandcamp page for some goodies. Also, the band is currently recording a seven song EP that is set to release this summer, so keep them on your radar as well.

Stream:
SneakPeek

Washed Out: "Eyes Be Closed" Video

"Eyes Be Closed" is the first single off Washed Out's brilliant LP Within And Without. The video, which features model Coco Young riding a motorcycle around town, doesn't really do justice to the song (hands up if you thought it was meh).

Rilo Kiley's Breakin' Up

Anyone who thought that Rilo Kiley might be on hiatus can give up hope: The band is splitting up for good.

In an interview with Spinner, a surly Blake Sennett says:

I just felt like there was a lot of deception, disloyalty, greed and things I don't really want to submit myself to. I had related that frustration to music but I just thought, 'I'm not going to put myself in that position again,' so I said, 'Fuck that, I can't do this anymore.'

With the split, Sennett also adds that there might be a possibility of putting out some unreleased Rilo Kiley songs:

I think we're going to try and release a two-disc set of 40 songs, or something. I think that can be more considered like our last release, to me. But I don't know.

P.S. I suppose I will miss the band, for sentimental reasons. More Adventurous was one of the first few records that I listened to when I was moving away from sugary, manufactured pop songs. Even after 7 long years, "Portions For Foxes" still sounds superbly fresh to me.



Download:
Rilo Kiley - Science Vs. Romance [buy Take Offs & Landings]

Cults: "Go Outside" Video

Go Outside, by Cults from Boing Boing on Vimeo.

Cults captured everyone's attention when they posted their EP on their Bandcamp page last year. The duo swiftly rose to prominence with their lo-fi, indie-pop sound, especially the central track, "Go Outside".

Directed by Isaiah Seret, the video for "Go Outside" premiered today. The director talks about his inspiration below:

To tell the story of Cults' hauntingly beautiful track, "Go Outside", I was inspired to bring the band inside the world of Jim Jones' famous religious cult, Peoples Temple, and the eventual tragedy in Jonestown. Fortunately, when exploring the feasibility of this video I became acquainted with Fielding M. McGehee III, an expert on Peoples Temple history and the primary researcher for the Jonestown Archive. It is thanks to him and his encouragement that I was able to take on this project and through his support gained access to over two and half hours of home videos showing Peoples Temple in Jonestown. For this music video we didn't want to put a spin on the footage or the peoples lives—instead we wanted to re-tell and humanize their story. In order to achieve this we used a combination of stock footage, visual effects and other tricks to embed the band into the historical footage. This was achieved through my collaboration with my visual effects supervisor Bill Gillman and my cinematographer Matthew Lloyd. Lastly, I am moved to say when we completed the video we were able to preview it for some of the survivors of the Jonestown Massacre, who expressed their appreciation of our focus on the lives of the People's Temple members as opposed to exploiting the graphic images of the final tragedy [link].

Daily Randomness

A look at some recent and upcoming releases:

Virgin Records finally released the artwork and tracklist for Laura Marling's new album, A Creature I Don't Know. The album is due September 12, so in the interim, do yourself a favour and watch the lovely teaser if you haven't.

Tracklist
1. The Muse
2. I Was Just A Card
3. Don't Ask Me Why
4. Salinas
5. The Beast
6. Night After Night
7. My Friends
8. Rest In The Bed
9. Sophia
10. All My Rage

The album is the follow up to 2010's I Speak Because I Can.

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Blonde Redhead offers a collection of remixes of tracks taken from their last album, Penny Sparkle. They will kick off their European tour in August.

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Los Angeles-based band Snow & Voices take on The Cure's "Disintegration".

The band covered Red House Painters' "Mistress" in their third album, Anything That Moves (read my review of the album), and the recording inspired many conversations between Lauri Kranz and Jebin Bruni about the different ways a song could be interpreted or reinterpreted. The duo decided to record a series of cover songs and release them one at a time. "Disintegration" is the second installment in their covers project, with the first being Tir Na Nog's "So Freely" (released fall 2010).

Download:
Snow & Voices - Disintegration [MP3]

Sleeping In Airports - If the Bombs Start Dropping

Established in 2009, Sleeping In Airports is the Finnish collective of Tapio Ahola, Laura Ahonen and Pekka Vanajas.

Tapio and Pekka were initially part of an alternative rock group called Dawn Delayed, before they ventured out and roped in vocalist Laura to start their own band. While Tapio pens most of the lyrics, they write the songs together and have flexible roles.

Their debut, If the Bombs Start Dropping, is a 3 song digital EP released in February 2011. Their sound has been described as 'electronic, melancholic indie-pop with a certain Northern European flavour'. It feels raw to me, so they could well do with a bit more pizazz and take a cue from contemporaries like indie-electro duo Röyksopp.

What's reassuring though is the fact that the band is really in it for the music. They are not hunting for a record label at the moment and they intend to keep it that way. As Tapio proclaims, "To express ourselves through music and to have fun while doing it is enough for us."

Download:
Sleeping In Airports [MP3]

Album Review: Goodtimes Goodtimes - Goodtimes Goodtimes

Franc Cinelli aka Goodtimes Goodtimes is a purveyor of good music. This, perhaps, can be attributed to his musical background. He grew up with his mother's vinyl collection of Bruce Springsteen, The Police, Dire Straits, Pink Floyd and Bob Marley. As an adult, he plied his trade at countless shows in the UK before he made enough songs to release his first record, Glue.

Released last November, Franc's second, self-titled record sees him doling out a solid collection of folk, country and blues, drawing comparison to the legendary Bob Dylan. The album emanates a warm feel, just the kind of music you'd like to put on when you are reminiscing about the past or just shooting the breeze. I love how the harmonica and guitar-strumming builds up in "Point One", and the vocals in the background just lend a breezy and carefree feel. "Fortune Teller Song" is another song of note: It's a perky, straight-up character-driven song, a nod to 'the man who tells stories at the fairground'.

P.S. At the time of this posting, Franc just announced that he won't be playing under the Goodtimes Goodtimes moniker anymore.

Stream:
Goodtimes Goodtimes - Goodtimes Goodtimes

Album Review: Amy Regan - Gonna Get Better EP

In a market saturated with singer-songwriter types, how do you separate the wheat from the chaff?

Amy Regan, one of New York's rising talents, stands out from the crowd. All of 25, she got her break when she was discovered by a DDB-NY art director, who subsequently featured her in a Hertz commercial along with her song, "Carry On".

Gonna Get Better is a showcase of her musical leanings. The 4 track EP, released last July, contains pop songs with a dose of lyrical sensitivity. My favourite cut is the upbeat "Crazy", which is reminiscent of fellow singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles. If you like radio-friendly fare without the cheesy lyrics, Regan is definitely one artist worth checking out.

Her full-length album is due out this October.

Daily Randomness

A look at what's happening right now:

Back after an extended hiatus.

My favourite indie music festival Baybeats is back in town again! From August 19 to 21, catch local and foreign bands like Caracal, Moscow Olympics and Reza Salleh in action at the Esplanade.

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Coincidentally, government-sanctioned event SingaPop! - 50 years of pop music in Singapore will be held at the Promontory @ Marina Bay on August 20. Conceptualised by Dick Lee, this concert is held in conjunction with Economic Development Board's (EDB) 50th anniversary. 5,000 free tickets to be given away through balloting (à la NDP and HDB style). Strictly for fans of Dick Lee, Taufik Batisah, Douglas Oliverio and John Molina only.