Danish indie act Figurines will be releasing the new 5-song EP "Lucky to love" next month as a precursor to their upcoming album, due out in the fall. The title track will serve as the forthcoming album's lead single and there will be one other track ("Poughkeepsie") that will appear on said album in a slightly different version. As for the rest of the songs, there's one unreleased track ("Drag the mood") from the "When the deer wore blue" sessions, a cover of fellow Danes The Mopeds ("Television time") and an REM cover ("New Orleans instrumental no. 1") which originally appeared on a Stereogum comp.
01. Rolandz - Jajamen
02. Mikael Wiehe - Ta det tillbaka!
03. Salem al Fakir - Ignore this
04. The Playtones - Rock'n roll dance party
05. Cookies n Beans - Beg, borrow and steal
06. Di Leva - Lovestar
07. Petter - En räddare i nöden
08. Melissa Horn - Säg ingenting till mig
09. Timo Räisänen - The anatomy of Timo Räisänen
10. Amanda Jenssen - Happyland
11. Totta Näslund - Totta's basement tapes
12. Björn Skifs - Da capo
13. Kent - Röd
14. Teddybears - Devil's music
15. Sophie Zelmani - I'm the rain
16. Rigmor Gustafsson & Radio String Quartet Vienna - Calling you
17. Svenne Hedlund - Sings Elvis in Memphis
18. Perikles - Var ska vi sova inatt - en samling
19. Erik Grönwall - Erik Grönwall
20. Magnus Lindberg + Basse Wickman - Vita lögner + svarta ballader volym 1
There are few opening tracks that spark so perfectly to life, coloring not only the album to follow, but drawing the listener into this creative work, as the aptly titled "First of all...". While the following track does dampen the energy momentarily, from that point on "Put it this way in headlines" unravels as an impressive addition to Aerial's catalogue. The heavier, Mogwai/Mono-inspired post-rock of "The sentinel" has been replaced by a much cleaner, almost pop-like approach -- imagine a strange amalgamation of The End Will Be Kicks and Yamon Yamon. The only serious failing of "Headlines" is that the band, after embracing a change to their sound, sometimes takes too long to hit all the right notes, and then doesn't hit those notes quite hard enough. "Zebra" should have been anthemic, but only briefly reaches that point in the closing minute of the song; it's still a damn fine track, I am just not sure why the building energy suddenly stops. A few more songs like "Vacant dreamers", a track that blurs the line between post-rock and angular garage rock, might have helped as well, though said track suffers in a similar way to "Zebra": these songs seem to be building somewhere, but they never get there; this was never a problem on "The sentinel". That said, with "Guitar ode to a sunny afternoon" and all the other gorgeous moments on the album, there is more than enough to "Headlines" to make Aerial's present and future look quite bright. - Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
A number of Norwegian artists have come together to pay tribute to singer/songwriter Egil Olsen (neé Uncle's Institution) on the occasion of his 30th birthday by putting together an album of them playing his songs. Contributors include Thom Hell, Side Brok, Robert Post, Rockettothesky and more and you can get the full tracklist here: http://www.groove.no/html/news/42239378.html (in Norwegian)
Egil, who is currently in LA working on his next album, replied in response to the news (according to Google Translate), "I feel old. Not just 30, but a tribute album? I feel really dead."
Oddly fitting: tonight's Ja Ja Ja metal showcase in London has been cancelled due to Iceland's volcano shutting down all air traffic. However, all is not lost -- Finnish act Thunderstone already made it to London and will be playing for free at The Lexington by themselves. Read more: http://www.jajajamusic.com/news.php?id=32
The Janitors posit themselves to be the 2nd coming of Silverbullit. They are not; they are, at best, yet another in a long line of mediocre Jesus and Mary Chain rips. I doubt I'd be so down on them if they didn't have such outlandish delusions of grandeur, but they should know better than to claim to be as good as one of Sweden's absolute best bands. Compare their song "Run" with Silverbullit's and it's no contest.
Norwegian artist Grande will release his new album "You are the night" on April 19. Said album was apparently inspired by the popular white American music scene of the early 20th century, as opposed to his last record "Uppers, downers, screamers and howlers" which was inspired by black music of the same time. Hear samples at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/kjetilgrande
Hell On Wheels report that they have finished mixing their new record. No details yet about what it's called or when it'll be released, but I'll keep you posted.
Aerial