Filed under: Introducing... | Tags: australia, camera obscura, hello saferide, sally seltmann
Note – This entry was cross-posted from Pretty New Songs. Enjoy!
I was first exposed to Sally Seltmann through a recent Paste sampler I picked up at this year’sSXSW. Her catchy “Harmony to My Heartbeat” instantly got stuck in my head and I had to hear more, so I downloaded her album, “Heart That’s Pounding,” last weekend. I was not disappointed, as it’s a wonderful collection of sunny, 70s-influenced pop that will likely go down as one of my fave releases of this year.
I’ve read reviews that compared Sally to Camera Obscura, which is definitely accurate, but some of her lyrics in particular remind me of one of my favorite unknown (at least in this country) bands, Hello Saferide. If you know me you know I’m a sucker for great lyrics; a catchy melody is tops, sure, but for something to really move me it has to bring it lyrically. “Heart That’s Pounding” definitely does this, as Sally has a great way of mixing just the right amount of lightheartedness (“Get yourself out of bed, this is a new day today”) with introspection (“I’m shy and I do not want you to see my thoughts because they’re tangled in a web”).
Sadly, I completely missed Sally at SXSW, and given that she’s Australian I can’t imagine another opportunity to catch her live will come up any time soon. Keeping an eye on her dates just in case though. In the meantime, you should check out “… Pounding,” and get lost in her lovely video below, which totally makes me want to ditch work, throw a pool party, eat cake, and listen to beautiful music.
Showstar is an indierock band from Belgium; their new single “Gold Mine” is a high energy, very catchy pop/rock song in the vein of Franz Ferdinand, Ra Ra Riot, and perhaps the more straightforward “rock” moments of Sigur Ros. I even hear a little bit of Los Campesinos! in the backing vocals and instrumentation. Good stuff. Enjoy the download below, and be sure to check out the video also!
Showstar’s upcoming album “Think Ringo” features “Gold Mine” and will be released in January on Vespasonic/Munich records.
Showstar – Gold Mine (radio edit) mp3
Perhaps it’s because it brings back memories of my childhood (or maybe because it’s just GOOD), but I love 70s pop music. The rich orchestration, the introspective lyrics, the smooth harmonies … dare I say it, but they just don’t write ‘em like that anymore. Although occasionally, they do. Take Warm Morning, an indiepop band of brothers from Italy, who wears its influences boldly, making you think for a moment that you’ve been transported back to the early 70s (or if you’re like me, to the dentist’s office … my childhood dentist always had the radio set to easy listening, so in that respect, it brings back some not-so-fond memories … but I digress).
Fans of artists such as Burt Bacharach (and who isn’t a fan of Bacharach, really?), Paul Williams, The Carpenters, Carol King, etc. will fall in love with Warm Morning’s mellow songwriting, adorned with strings and vocal harmonies aplenty. Their new 14-song release, “Too Far from the Stars,” which I was fortunate enough to obtain a 5-song promo copy of, is out now on 12″ vinyl (a format perfect for these songs, and something I’d really love to get my hands on!). Assuming that the promo contains the strongest songs from the LP, I’d say the album’s standouts are the upbeat “Sleepy Again,” with its nice piano and string interplay, “What a Nice Day,” which incorporates a banjo for an interesting touch that comes off like Mojave 3 channeling the Carpenters, and “Catch the Thrill,” which kicks off the promo with its tasteful, understated guitar lead and minimal drumming.
Certainly some of the best music to reach my PO box, Warm Morning is worthy of a wide audience here in the States. Shelflife Records, a fine indiepop label out of San Francisco, seems to have taken note of that and released the band’s “Silver Rain” CD/7″ combo back in 2007. Here’s hoping “Too Far from the Stars” can find a U.S. home as well. In the meantime, you can visit Shelflife for the band’s previous release, or purchase their EP “Edition 59″ (which appears to contain three songs from “Too Far…”) from Vollwert Records out of Berlin.
Filed under: Introducing...
I hate that I’ve neglected this blog so much as of late. Life’s been getting in the way, but I’m going to make a concerted effort to get back at it, as I feel this blog can not only be a good outlet for me, but can also serve a real purpose for people looking for new, undiscovered music.
With that said, I bring you Falkland Sound. I was introduced to the band just a few days ago via email, and I’ve since been digging on their techno/eletropop stylings. I’m typically not a huge fan of this sort of music … it has its place, but truthfully I can take it or leave it. But there’s something very interesting about the way Falkland Sound combine various influences—I hear bits of house, reggae, world music, and prog—that help them stand out above the standard techno fare.
Based solely on the songs on their Myspace, I’d say I’m a bigger fan of tunes where they let the electronics do the talking; at times the vocals, particularly on “Nubeluz” are a bit grating. But that aside, I’ve greatly enjoyed their tunes (especially the world music-influenced “Uh Reinho Du Ma”) and would be interested to hear more. Their Myspace cites references that span from Velvet Underground and Can to Sonic Youth and Pearl Jam. I’ll admit, I don’t hear much VU (or Pearl Jam, for that matter) in their music. But fans of off-the-beaten path techno will likely find much to appreciate.
As some who listens to a LOT of music (even when I’m not “listening” to music, I’ve usually got a song in my head), sometimes I get bored with my entire collection and need something new. I felt that way this morning, and as luck would have it, my eMusic credits had just refreshed. So I browsed, and browsed, and browsed… listened to a ton of stuff but nothing was grabbing me. I didn’t really know what I was looking for. But I knew I’d know once I found it.
A link from a link from a link (I think it was actually from a list of “quirky songwriters”) led me to Hello Saferide. And I instantly knew.
Hello Saferide seem to be doing rather well for themselves, judging by their website, with frequent touring (including a recent visit to the States), a few videos, lots of very pretty t-shirts, and even winning two Swedish “Grammi”s for best lyrics as well as best female pop act. However, I had never heard of the band until this morning. Now, I can’t stop listening to them.
Fellow music fanatics know that feeling, when you listen to an artist and the music resonates so much with something inside you that you feel like you’re suddenly engaged in a very private conversation. That’s exactly the feeling I get when listening to Hello Saferide, and that’s exactly the reason I love their songs so much.
Hello Saferide are a Swedish indiepop band led by singer/journalist Annika Norlin. It’s instantly apparent that Annika’s deeply honest and raw lyricism is Hello Saferide’s strong suit; reminding me a bit of early Ben Folds (the piano tracks in particular), the singer has a very deliberate, unaffected delivery that is highlighted but never overshadowed by the capable, yet sometimes understated, musicianship of her bandmates. It’s hard to pick a fave track off Hello Saferide’s “More Modern Short Stories from Hello Saferide” (which apparently was only recently made available in the US as an import), but the track that had me searching out the lyrics the quickest was definitely “X Telling Me About the Loss of Something Dear, At Age 16″:
I looked up at the ceiling the entire time
Well it didn’t last for long
Like 15 minutes or so. They had said it would hurt, but it didn’t
His face all grumped up, veins were showing on his forehead
Closed my eyes and thought of dancers,
closed my eyes and thought of dancers
I thought of what my friends would say
I thought of how my life would change
I just laid real still there on the bed.
Afterwards I said, like I hear you’re supposed to:
“Was it good for you as well”
He was proud, said: “Ok we can do it again
But maybe this time, you can do it better than this
You can do it better than this.”
I faked to come, because I hear you’re supposed to
There was obviously something wrong with me and I didn’t want him to know
I was afraid he’d have a heartattack and die
I went to work at the shoestore and waved him goodbye
I felt sad, but I didn’t know why
Do you want those in red, I said
250 with laces, I said
Years later, I can still vision that forehead
Slow (photo from band's website)
Been wanting to blog about Slow for a couple of weeks now, but life kept getting in the way. I was introduced to the band by my friend Giuseppe and his Happy Days Are Here Again blog (actually from one of his tweets). He described them as sounding like Low and Ida. They do, and also remind me of other boy/girl bands such as Versus and Secret Stars.
Slow are from Bristol, UK, and the best way I can describe them is, well, slow. Also simple and deliberate. For the most part, the instrumentation on their songs is very minimalist, which helps the listener stay focused on their introspective lyrics and harmonies. I’m particularly intrigued by “Seeds,” the title track from their debut long player, and find myself attempting to analyze the lyrics each time I hear it. I still can’t really pinpoint exactly what it might be about, but it seems to address the topic of loss, which seems a bit dreary at its core; yet there’s also a hint of changing for the better and finding the light at the end of the tunnel. To me, anyway. Whatever the meaning, it’s my current favorite of the six sounds featured on the band’s Myspace page.
Sure, sometimes Slow sounds a little too close to the aforementioned Low and Ida. Take “Old Crow” for example (which is also the name of Slow’s label); you could have told me that song was either band and I would have believed it. But since those two bands are among my favorites, I let that slide and just enjoy the beautiful melodies.
A visit to Slow’s website had me liking them even more, just based on their intro statement (which could have easily been written by someone outside of the band, but still, it seemed to capture their music and the feelings it evoked in me perfectly):
“The general intention of Slow is to make beautiful and thoughtful music… We think on the whole that the world would benefit from people relaxing a bit more, contemplating their existence and purpose, chipping away all the useless crust we accumulate, and we like to remind ourselves to try do this too, and to share that experience with people when we play live… After all, there are plenty of opportunities in life to be overtaken by noise, stress and chaos, so we like to keep things mellow generally…”
I completely agree. Now doesn’t this make you want to go listen?
Filed under: Introducing... | Tags: indiepop, julian carax, montreal, paris, turnpike, twee
I came across Julian Carax via a MySpace friend request nearly a year ago, but was instantly taken by his modest indiepop. So much that it stuck with me and I knew I wanted to spread the word about him here on SFOC.
Julian’s music is of the bedroom pop variety, albeit with slightly higher production values. But regardless of their impressive production, his songs are still oozing with charm, simplicity and sincerity. He sings in English but with a heavy, charming accent, as he originally hailed from Paris (but relocated to Montreal in 2007). His love of Radiohead and Sigur Ros, who he notes as influences, definitely shows in his music (particularly Sigur Ros in his vocal stylings), but Carax seems to approach songwriting from more of a twee sensibility. Which isn’t too say that his music is only for softies in horn rimmed glasses and cardigan sweaters; quite the contrary, in fact. Judging simply from the tunes on his MySpace, Julian does seem to vary things up a bit. The very catchy, percussion and piano-driven “Turnpike” (which is also the title-track to his 2007 EP) is his most obvious “single”—and pulls at my heart strings when he sings “I was wrong” in a pleading voice that you can’t help but believe—but it’s worth mentioning that “Living in the Air” sounds a bit like an East River Pipe b-side, and “How High the Moon,” also off “Turnpike,” undoubtedly recalls Disintegration-era The Cure.
Comparisons aside, Julian has compiled a very likable set of indiepop tunes that are worthy of a larger audience. If you’re not affected by his sweet “To Lucie,” the homemade demo version of a very touching tune that seems to be encouraging a friend who’s down in the dumps to cheer up and look for the beauty in the everyday, then I think you might not have a heart. And I can’t help but think that everyday beauty is the most fitting of topics for Julian to tackle in his songwriting, as it’s also a fitting summation of his music.
