New video: Mew - Beach

Mew's official music video for the track 'Beach', off their 2009 album No More Stories Are Told Today I'm Sorry They Washed Away No More Stories The World Is Grey I'm Tired Let's Wash Away, is finally out!

mp3: Mew - Beach(alternate download link)



The members of Danish dream pop / alternative rock band Mew first met each other in the early nineties, when the four founding members worked together on a 7th grade art project. Their project consisted of an art film combining self-composed music with self-recorded video, and was a strong hint of what to come - lead singer Jonas Bjerre still loves to combine video and music in interesting and artistic ways, something Mew fans all over the world know to appreciate.

In all their live shows, bizarre and fascinating backdrop videos always run behind the band for the entirety of the show. These are actually all made by Bjerre personally, who in the meantime between directing his 7th grade art video and breaking through internationally with Mew in 2003 actually for a period also worked professionally with post-production and special effects. For an example of Bjerre's work, check out the absolutely stunning backdrop video for 'Comforting Sounds' (if you're impatient, 4:20 is when the magic begins).

Although Bjerre doesn't produce the official music videos for the band himself, the world is always in for a treat when a new Mew music video is released nonetheless. Due to the band's love for interesting and experimental imagery, they always work with really interesting young up-and-coming directors. 'Beach' was directed by 29 year old Danish director Lasse Martinussen, who also did their last video (Repeaterbeater), and it's truly bizarre and unique - in that special Mew way.

While Beach arguably is the most straigthforward, sweet and bright song on the album, almost naive-sounding compared to other tracks such as the dark New Terrain or the complex and labyrinthian Introducing Palace Players (my absolute favorite track of 2009!), the video is far from naive and sweet. The cheerful song, compared with dark, perplexing and unnerving images, makes for a fantastic music video that makes me once again reconfirm my deep love for these Danish pop geniuses. Enjoy!

Christmas playlist

I hope everyone's enjoying the holidays. Here are some tracks I listen to a lot these days, to get into the christmas mood - my alternative/indie rock Christmas playlist!

Eels - Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas

Eels - Christmas Is Going to the Dogs

"Baby Jesus, born to rock." - "Get off your sled and go to bed - don't you ever tire?". Mr. E, of the US alternative rockers Eels, knows how to rock my Christmas!

Drawing Constellations - All I Want For Christmas Is You (Ooh Baby)

Drawing Constellations - Chestnuts Roasting

Canadian indie rockers Drawing Constellations do a couple of awesome and very fresh-feeling takes on two christmas classics.

Erlend Øye - Last Christmas

A track from one of Norwegian Erlend Øye's (of Kings of Convenience and Whitest Boy Alive) acoustic solo shows. He too does a cover of a Christmas song I'm quite tired of, but does a very sweet interpretation of the song. I'm honestly not very fond of WHAM at all, but Øye manages to turn this cheesy 80s hit into something completely different - something beautiful!

Mew - She Came Home For Christmas

Danish indie/prog rockers Mew wrote this gem in the mid-nineties, and it has been released as a Christmas single over and over again between 1997 and 2003 in Denmark and the rest of the world. Here's the 2003 version from their breakthrough album Frengers. A sweet ballad that will ensure Christmas mood!

of Montreal - Christmas isn't safe for animals

Psychedelic indie poppers of Montreal, from Athens, Georgia, just being their usual weird selves. This quirky Christmas song is really charming!

My favorite albums of the first half of 2009 (#5 - #3)

I'm going to continue spamming this blog with my "top ten favorite albums of the first half of 2009" project. Here's some more rambling, and some more mp3s for you all!

5. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Phoenix - 1901
Phoenix's new album managed to take a turn back to the very first, but not in the desperate "return to our roots" kind of way. More like finally acknowledging what the band does best. 2000's United was strutting with French coolness and funky synth-based dance tracks like "If I Ever Feel Better" and "Too Young" (the latter made famous as being that cool song they played at the hip Tokyo party in Lost In Translation). Their association with the French electronic music scene, notably artists like Air, was evident despite them being - at least in their live shows - quite guitar driven. For 2004's Alphabetical they slowed down, and polished the soundscape so much that many tracks gave stronger association of dull radio pop and 90s boyband ballads than with hip French party-floor fillers. 2006's It's never been like that saw a strong counter-reaction to this, exchanging the slow over-polished pop sound for a very rocked out, lo-fi and energetic guitar sound. For Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, they manage to combine the energic guitar pop of the last album with the first album's synth and electronica in the opening tracks and hit singles "Lisztomania" and "1901", and make deep turns into electronica in songs such as "Love Like A Sunset". Overall, the whole album feels like a band who's found their right place after being lost for a little while.

4. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero
The energetic, screaming, roaring, rough, sweaty and high-paced magic of Fever To Tell captivated every person who touched it in 2003. And thanks to the hit single "Maps" there weren't exactly few of those persons. Ironically, "Maps" is completely unrepresentative for the rest of the debut album, being a sweet ballad that stands in strong contrast to the rough guitar-driven neo-punk/garage of the rest of the album. While singer Karen O sings softly on "Maps", she spends the rest of the album shrieking, yelling and occasionally wheezing and moaning erotically. In 2006's follow-up Show Your Bones, YYYs returned with studio versions of live staples from the dirty and rough Fever to Tell tour, such as "Cheated Hearts", but also experimented with entirely new sounds and instruments, such as the piano in "Turn Into". While it was an above average second album, Show Your Bones lacked the instant danceability and moshpit-inducing beats of Fever to Tell, and also came off as somewhat stylistically inconsistent. Now another three years have passed, and It's Blitz! saw an ass-kicking YYY back on top of their game. From the awesome album cover (which has to be 2009's best cover artwork so far) to the instant energy from the opener "Zero" and on, the album is brimming with attitude. The punkish guitar-driven soundscape has been replaced with a dancefloor friendly synthesizer-enhanced sound, but thankfully it works. Karen O's vocals are less eccentric, screaming and erotic, but she shows maturity while still confirming she's no less filled with energy. The album manages to juggle perfectly between danceable and energetic floor-fillers and more quiet ballads (the beautiful "Skeletons" being my favorite), re-confirming what the already has known from all the way back in 2003: YYYs are talented enough to manage both, and still please the same crowd with every track. One of the biggest indie rock hypes of the start of the 00s proved themselves to have enough talent and longevity to still be just as hip at the decade's final year!

3. The Whitest Boy Alive - Rules
The Whitest Boy Alive - Timebomb
Erlend Øye, of Kings of Convenience and Röyksopp fame, sometime in 2002 decided to leave his beloved Bergen, Norway for the slightly more eventful Berlin, Germany, in order to - among other things - pursue his interest for electronic music. His new life in the clubbing and dance capital resulted in the nice electronic solo album Unrest (2003). Also, in a sequence of incidents unknown to me, it resulted in him forming a live band with his German DJ friends, dubbed Whitest Boy Alive, whose concept eventually became to play electronic music with "no programmed elements" (to quote the band). Initially, Whitest Boy Alive played live band versions of Unrest era b-sides such as "Don't Give Up", "All Ears", turning the somewhat sterile and cold electronic soundscape to guitar and synth based pop. The result was the 2006's Dreams, an album full of accessible, danceable guitar pop. This year's follow-up Rules no longer has the evolved Erlend Øye solo career tracks, but consists entirely of new material created by the band as a whole, and evolved form of the many improvised live jams and covers that characterized their Dreams tour. The funky "1517" especially is clearly an evolution of their many Daft Punk covers. In songs such as Timebomb, it's clearer than ever that this band mainly consists of DJs who picked up live instruments. And that's not meant as a bad thing - in contrary, the electronic DJs expressing themselves through a different set of instruments makes for a wonderful fusion of two worlds. The synthesizer is more prominent in Rules, which combined with the bass takes the lad, with Øye and his guitar taking a modest step back. Øye, while infamous for loving being the center of attention, is less prominent in this album, which allows the listener to appreciate the talents of the other band members as well, and enjoy an evolved and improved band. In other words, this is the perfect second album, and as a fan of the first, I couldn't have hoped for anything better.

My favorite albums of the first half of 2009 (#10 - #8)

This is way overdue, but here goes: My favorite ten albums from the first half of 2009! (January 1st to June 30th) I originally compiled my top ten list in July, and drafted this entry for Esoteric Mumblings, but I never got the time to finish and post it. It's still 4 months until I can post my "albums of the year" top list, though, so I guess it's still not too late to finally post this? I'll start at the bottom and post three albums for now:

10. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, and their entire debut album, sounds like it isn't from the turn of the first decade-change in the new millennium, but rather like something from the late 80s - early 90s decade turn. It's pleasant, sweet music that it's hard not to fall for for, and you can read more about them in tbomb's post.

9. Röyksopp - Junior
Download: Röyksopp - Miss it So Much
With Junior, Norwegian electronica duo Röyksopp continue where they left off on their last (and second) LP, The Understanding (2005): vocal-intensive, radio and dancefloor friendly electronica-pop. Anyone dreaming of a return to the modest, café friendly chill-out style of their 2002 debut album and definite masterpiece Melody A.M. will be disappointed, but everyone else will be thrilled to hear another bouquet of innovative pop songs made by these very skilled song writers and producers. While the first track, "Happy Up Here", sounds a bit too much like a radio hit label executives ordered Röyksopp to write (with the plead "make another 'Eple', please!"), the rest of the album is quite innovative and full of gems, my personal favorites being "You Don't Have a Clue" and "Miss It So Much". The latter features vocals by Swedish Lykke Li, an artist I personally think made one of 2008's very best debut albums. Lykke Li on Röyksopp's Junior for the first time voluntarily adds her vocals to electronica music, after having had her debut album remixed by about every bloghouse/electro DJ in the world last year (including the excellent Fred Falke remix, one of my definitive favorite dance tracks of 2008). Good to see she realized herself how well her voice works for dance music - I hope she'll collaborate with Röyksopp again in the future!

8. Eels - Hombre Lobo (12 songs of desire)
Download: Eels - That Look You Give That Way
After his "epic" two-disc LP Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (2005), Mark Oliver "E" Everett wrote a autobiography and was involved in making a documentary film about his late father Hugh Everett, the hugely influential quantum physicist. Now, after four years, he's finally back in the world of rock, making music! Possibly as a reaction to "heaviness" of his two-disc emotionally loaded epic and the highly esoteric world of quantum physics, Hombre Lobo is a very straightforward rock and roll album. No heart-crushing piano numbers, so spilling out of his guts or his lifestory, just small down-to-earth songs about every day life, and about feeling alone and wanting a girlfriend. And about desire. E howls like a wolf, screams for "fresh blood" and tries to "rock out" in his desire-filled werewolf alter ego, but once again the geek icon is the best when he instead shows his introverted, shy side: the beautiful "That Look You Give That Guy" is in my opinion the album's best (it's also the quietest, by far). A cute little song about watching your secret love from a distance, as she's walking happy with her boyfriend, wishing you could "be that guy instead of me".

New Kings of Convenience material

Song recommendations:
Kings of Convenience - Boat Behind
Kings of Convenience - Mrs. Cold
(listen on Myspace)

Mellow and quiet Norwegian acoustic guitar duo Kings of Convenience became a surprise hit wide beyond Norway's borders with the beautiful debut album Quiet Is The New Loud in 2001. They are often compared to Simon & Garfunkel, but I personally believe their guitar technique exceeds the 60s duo by far, and their frank, melancholic and smart lyrics move me more than S&G's poetry manages to on its very best. The two Norwegians followed up their debut LP with another twelve amazing tracks in the outstanding Riot On An Empty Street in 2004, but since then there has been little news from the duo.

The perfectionists Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambæk Bøe didn't want to release anything together that they weren't a hundred per cent satisfied with, and have over the past five years several times mentioned that they have a bunch of new songs in the making, but not enough truly good material for a third album. While keeping us waiting for new KoC material, Erlend Øye has been working on his other band, Whitest Boy Alive, while Eirik has been been featured as a guest vocalist on albums such as Feist's The Reminder and Cornelius' Sensuous.

The Kings have now apparently finally recorded something they think is good enough for the world, and are set to release their third LP in their 8-year career, titled Declaration Of Dependence, in September this year. The first two singles have already been released, with "Boat Behind" as the Norwegian-market single and "Mrs. Cold" planned as the single for the rest of the world. Both songs are extremely promising, and my expectations for the album are currently sky-high. It's good to have you back, KoC!

Mew - Introducing Palace Players (from No More Stories...)

Mew - Introducing Palace Players

Danish art-rockers/prog-rockers Mew are finally back, and are in August set to release their first album in four years. Their pretentiousness, which they often joke about themselves, shines through in the album's absurdly long title. The next Mew album is called (*cleanses throat*):

No more stories
Are told today
I'm sorry
They washed away

No more stories
The world is grey
I'm tired
Let's wash away

Yup, that's the name of the album. The first song from No More More Stories... has leaked, and it's called Introducing Palace Players. The mp3 I posted for it is very likely to be a transcode, since the song only has been released on Mew's Myspace and on a Pitchfork stream so far, but I hope you all will be able to enjoy it nonetheless. It's a very promising sounding track, I can't wait to hear the whole album!

Bergen

There's something special about the music scene of Bergen, Norway. Apart from being famous for its beautiful scenery and its always extraordinary amount of rain, the city of Bergen also manages to again and again raise new and exciting bands that make people want to dance. Most of these artists are gathered in the local label Tellé, a label that unleashed international celebrities like Röyksopp, Annie and Kings of Convenience upon Norway and the world.

2005/2006 saw a lot of great releases from Bergen (and the extended Tellé family), including Whitest Boy Alive (picture above) and Datarock's debut albums.

Whitest Boy Alive - Burning
Datarock - Laurie

But since then, things were disappointingly quiet from Bergen for a while. Until now, that is! 2008 saw the release of California-based duo Rubies debut album Explode From The Center on the Tellé label. In includes guests appearances and help from some of my favorite artists - Feist and Kings of Convenience - and I've grown to love the Rubies just as much as I love these long-time favorites of mine.

March 2009 will see the release of the Whitest Boy Alive's second album, which follows up the funky minimalist pop of the debut, but adds a stronger influence of dance/house music (but still using live instruments). This new direction of sound is especially clear on Courage, listen for yourself. Röyksopp will also make a much-anticipated return later this year, and the new single Happy Up Here is sounding very fresh and promising.

Another Tellé release worth watching out for in 2009 is the debut album of the newcomers The New Wine. They sound like a Whitest Boy Alive gone electropop with chipcore Nintendo influences. The latter influence is something they hardly try to hide - the four geeks are spotted wearing Legend of Zelda t-shirts at live shows and credit Zelda and Super Mario soundtrack composer Kōji Kondō as one of their main influences. Check out their early demo "I Had To Tell You", it's funky as hell.

Rubies - Stand In A Line

The Whitest Boy Alive - Courage

Röyksopp - Happy Up Here

The New Wine - I Had To Tell You

I hope you'll enjoy some of these as much as I do. And hope they'll make you want to daaaaance!

A Triumph for Man (1997)

Being a new writer on this blog, I thought I could start out by writing about one of my all-time favorite albums.

Mew - Coffee Break

Mew - Panda

Mew - Web

Above, you can find my three favorite tracks from Danish indie rock / dream pop band Mew's 1997 debut album, A Triumph for Man. Today, Mew are arguably the most famous for the pompous and bombastic prog-rock influenced soundscape of their fourth studio album, And the Glass Handed Kites (which was also their definite international breakthrough). It is hard to imagine that this "indie stadium band" (jokingly dubbed so by guitarist Bo), who after their latest release opened for REM on their Europe tour, and Bloc Party on their US tour, started out with the mellow-sounding and introverted A Triumph For Man - a record release that saw no more than a mere 2000 CDs produced.

In this early album, the influences that shaped Mew to the band they are today, are much more easily recognizable. It is quite evident that the four Danes grew up listening to the likes of My Bloody Valentine and Swirlies. The distorted walls of guitars and the high-pitched vocals of these shoegaze bands were combined with smart pop songwriting to create the easily accessible, but still deep little masterpiece A Triumph for Man. The strutting confidence of the guitars combined with shy, eccentric frontman Jonas Bjerre's soft and modest voice and melancholic lyrics make for a true beauty of an album, by many Danish music journalists considered one of the 90s best records.

The influence from Swirlies is at times painfully obvious, but the similarity was by all means blessed from Swirlies themselves. Damon Tujian, guitarist and vocalist of the Boston shoegazer band, personally crossed the atlantic and endured many long and cold Danish winter weeks to co-produce this debut album of the four 20-year old boys. I personally prefer this classic to Mew's newest effort, and warmly recommend this best example of what Scandiavian rock music has to offer.