Weekend cover #4 - Two cousins

Slow Club are most definitely a "best record of 2011" candidate with their new record Paradise. On the deluxe edition of Paradise you'll also find a great cover of their first single Two Cousins as well. A 1999 interpretation by Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton. Fabulous.

Support Jason Molina

The great Jason Molina, aka Songs Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co., seems to be in big personal troubles. This is taken from his website:

Where is Jason Molina? (September 19th, 2011)

Many of you have inquired as to Jason’s whereabouts and well-being since he canceled his tours with Will Johnson in 2009. Over the last two years Jason has been in and out of rehab facilities and hospitals in England, Chicago, Indianapolis, and New Orleans. It has been a very trying time for Jason, his friends, and his family. Although no one can be sure what the future holds, we feel very encouraged by the recent steps Jason has taken on the road towards becoming healthy and productive once again. Unfortunately, because he has no medical insurance, he has accrued substantial medical bills. We are asking all friends of Jason’s music to come together with a showing of financial support for him. Please consider a contribution to his medical fund. Feel free to forward this to any and all appropriate parties. We are hoping to raise whatever funds we possibly can for Jason. He is currently working on a farm in West Virginia raising goats and chickens for the next year or so, and is looking forward to making great music again. Please also show your support and well wishes by sending letters and postcards to:

Jason Molina
P.O. Box 423
Beaver, WV 25813

If you do not wish to use paypal, please make donations out to Ashley Lawson at the same address.

With our sincere thanks, The Molina Family

So all lovers of beautiful music - let's support Mr. Molina.

Björk in the past doing jazz

Björk's album/app is a whirl of innovation – and the music's beautiful. Listen to Björks new album. And listen to this performance on national icelandic tv from 1990. Björk is singing her jazz together with Tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar. These songs are found on Gling-Glo. Björk is trying out her jazz vocals here. At the same time she was still together with The Sugarcubes.

What's playing right now...

It´s a great autumn for musiclovers. First great albums from Stephen Malkmus and Wilco. Now I'm all into these new albums:

Feist - better than ever:


Blitzen Trapper - this times hit a truely organic 70's sound:


Ryan Adams - after making worse and worse albums he´s back on track

Listen to Low live with Mark Kozelek guest performance

I have earlier claimed that Low's C'mon album must be one of this years best albums. I missed them live when they visited Copenhagen but found this great two days old live-show from The Great American Music Hall. As a bonus the one and only Mark Kozelek guest-appears on two songs. Listen and download here.

Death Cab for Cutie - Cath... acoustic

Mick Jagger and Joss Stone ready to debut SuperHeavy

SuperHeavy is almost ready to pop their debut. They began the works of the album in 2009. In early 2009, A. R. Rahman, Mick Jagger, Dave Stewart, Joss Stone and Damian Marley experimented at a studio in Los Angeles, trying to "write songs which had meaning".

This group is gonna be superfamous. Joss Stone... wauw... Jagger in pink suits... wauw...

Worthy Mercury Price winners?

The Mercury Price winner is announced on Tuesday. And there are - in our humble opinion - some potential worthy winners and some less worthy (why the f*** Adele got shortlisted for Mercury price is incomprehendable).

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins for their collaborative Diamond Mind


P.J. Harvey for Let England shake


Gwilym Simcock for his Good days at Schloss Elmau


These are the ones that we find the most worthy. Some good potential winners that didn't make it to our list could be Ghostpoet, Elbow, Anna Calvi and James Blake. But no, we're betting on the three mentioned above. And for Adele...stfu

Sigur Rós new album 'Inni' and tour

Icelanders Sigur Rós is announcing new album 'Inni'. It will be out this autumn. Since we are friends of this beautiful band, we have heard the rumours that this album will be followed up by a one year world tour. It will be hardcore!

Jacob Faurholt - Dark Ours

"He might be Danish by birth, but from the first dirgey guitar chords of the titular opener of his third album Dark Hours, Jacob Faurholt instantly transports the listener to the sort of gothic Americana hinterland that has been populated by the likes of Will Oldham and Sparklehorse." 


We at IndieLaundry couldn't agree more with the review in Drowned In Sound . You have to chef Jacob Faurholt out. It's a gem. 


"Creatures in the Sea" is from the album "Dark Hours" (out August 15th 2011 on Raw Onion Records). It features Sóley from the Icelandic band Seabear on vocals and piano.


Jacob Faurholt - Creatures in the Sea from Jacob Faurholt on Vimeo.

Foster The People / Pumped Up Kicks

Roskilde review

A week has passed since the most of the Indie Laundry crew was having a great evening with Portishead on The Orange Stage at Roskilde Festival 2011. The scene is criticized for being a big problem for Roskilde, because few bands can play such big a venue - especially today, where the genres and and bands has grown in numbers. And many has criticized that the festival did not book legends like Paul Simon, Bowie,Neil Young, Prince etc.. Few gives the festival credit for being brave to give some of the biggest bands on the rockscene of today the chance. And I think Portishead, Arctic Monkeys and especially The Strokes showed they could manage it. That said, it is a problem most of the time, and many bad concerts at Orange Stage every year is a fact. The solution could be to upgrade some of the small scenes where magic happens with names like Charles Bradley, The Walkmen, John Grant, Kurt Vile, Destroyer etc - and only use Orange Stage to evening-headlines a few times during the festival. All in all 2011 showed that Roskilde still have the touch, can make great bookings and create a great party. And this year the Indie Laundry favorites played all days and not for the most part on sunday, which has been a problem earlier. But if the festival wont end up in being pure party with clubbing go-large and extreme activities like the gigantic ropeway this year - it has to have more focus on the upcoming names on the small stages - and believe in these at bigger and better stages. The Indielaundry-crew had four fantastic days at Roskilde and are already counting days until Roskilde 2012 - hopefully with more indie with an edge.

In short:

Best concerts:
Strokes, PJ Harvey, Arctic Monkeys, The Walkmen, Portishead

Best scenes:
Arena, Odeon, Gloria

Best Food:
Meyers, Cofoco, Köttbullar(!)

Surprise:
No hangovers(?)

Disappointment:
To few drinks at The Gringo Bar... and the rain

Vibration. See the unseen: Cymbal at 1,000 frames per second.

Rave On Buddy Holly - full stream

Rave On Buddy Holly is an album-length compilation of Buddy Holly cover songs sung by the likes of Cee Lo Green, Fiona Apple, Lou Reed, and Paul McCartney. You can listen now on Soundcloud or via the embed below.
Rave On Buddy Holly by concordmusicgroup

Amy Winehouse totally wasted in Belgrade

Just in from our correspondent in Belgrade... Amy Winehouse performance from 18. june. Her performance sucks so much and I agree on the yelling at 5:20. Rehab! Now! What a pitty to look at.

Roskidle Diaries 4

23 days left....... C'mon - sing along!!!

The Sonics - Shot Down.

Louder, wilder, more raw! Pounding away. The Sonics are still frikkin' great.

GusGus in Harpa ('Within You' and 'Over')

Being friends of almost anything icelandic you have to watch this GusGus performance. GusGus is performing live at the opening ceremony of the Reykjavik Concert Hall "Harpa" on may 13th 2011.

I have been listening to a lot of GusGus but can never find my way around the line-up.Back in 1995 startet out as a quirky nine-piece co-ed band from Reykjavik, Iceland.

Guest appearance by Högni Egilsson of Icelandic pop group Hjaltalín. Both songs are featured on GusGus album "Arabian Horse", released in 2011. Check out GusGus

Eddie Vedder and his Ukulele Songs

Over at NPR you can listen to Eddie Vedders second full-length solo album. It's called Ukulele Songs!


Eddie Vedder has taken up one of the most useful creative tools available: limitation. It's embodied in a little finger-strummed thing that the Pearl Jam singer picked up during a beer run in Hawaii nearly 15 years ago, an instrument whose limits he never pushes, and which ends up refining and expanding his own range.Ukulele Songs isn't a novelty record; it's a statement of truth. Made calm and open by the ukulele's intimacy, Vedder sounds like someone getting out of his own way and discovering what really matters within his art.


Listen to Eddie Vedder Ukulele Songs here

Non-porn clip from porn movies in music video

This music video is about a whole bunch of girls who are about to have sex with someone else. Do you know these movies? :-D

Roskilde Diaries 3

Yes sir. The amazing and truely original Tv On The Radio has been announced on Roskilde 2011. It was one of my highest hopes for this year's festival, so I am getting more and more pleased with the line-up. Rumors say that one or two headliners still are missing. Very interesting..... While we wait - see this great movie which contains all the songs from the lates Tv On The Radio album - Nine Types of Light.

Roskilde Diaries 2

At Indielaundry we are still counting days to Roskilde 2011. This year the line-up has been subject to a lot of discussion and it is certainly a year with time for the new coming-up bands - but Roskilde is historically very good at spotting these, so we have high hopes. And there still misses around 25 artists. I really hope we will get a few more solid indie-acts. Today I really hope for Low, eventhough they play in Copenhagen in August. Their new album, C'mon, is a masterpiece - best album of the year so far, if you ask me.

River by Okkervil River - I am very far

The always-fantastic Okkervil River performing 'River' on Letterman. They have a new record  I Am Very Far and from this performance they  remind me that it’s been far too long since I have spun one of their records.

 I've seen this band in small venues in Copenhagen a couple of times and they are always great. The last year they have been acting as backingband for  psych-rock survivor Roky Erickson's backing band but are now ready to conquer the roads again. Something about their new album reminds me of Arcade Fire...

The Late Great Fitzcarraldos - mellow synth

I've been a The Late Great Fitzcarraldos fan since I can remember! The danish band released an EP earlier in april. I really love this sound and I hope these guys will meet international fame very soon. Check it out. And relax.

Nick Cave and Jesse James

I never saw the The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert but yesterday a good friend of mine run the intro sequence for me. It's so powerful and was written like the start of a good novel. What struck me the most was the score written by Nick Cave and Bad Seed Warren Ellis. The opening sequence has 'Song for Jesse' playing. It's a simple melody. A voice over tells the story of our charismatic anti-hero James, Brad Pitt, before his gunning down at the hands of a young acolyte, Robert Ford. It's like a dream.

The movie doesn't look anything like a conventional Western tale of righted wrong - more like an emotional drama. The music at least is really intense and emotionally fraught. Try listen to it. Not like Morricone at all.

This music is far from generic but this score can be used in lots of movie scenes for mood and ambience. It's haunting and really beautiful.

The Indielaundry Roskilde 2011 A-Z

Arctic Monkeys - the new single is dark and great

Bright Eyes... or Battles - I'll go for Bright Eyes

Chris Cunningham - VJ-set in the night?

Destroyer - compared to Bowie and Pavement!!

Ear Plugs - bring them to Iron Maiden!

Fast food - give me a slimy Ski-bruger, please!

Gringo Bar - see you there!

H&M Reboot Camp - home of Camp Indielaudry

Indielaundry- the blog of all blogs

Justin Townes Earle - Townes+Earl = must be good

Kuti Brothers - a sensation...they say...

Longdrinks - Roskilde mornings thy name is Daiquiri

M.I.A. - Paper Planes off course

Nordic Deli - find good food in Ovalen

Orange Stage - who will conquer the stage this year?

PJ Harvey - my generation's Patti Smith

Queen of Denmark - brilliant album of John Grant - click and see excellent video!

Roskilde Festival 2012 - see you there

Spids Nøgenhat - danish acid-rock - probably late at night!

The Strokes - welcome back - let's have a party

Underwear - remember to change, remember to change....

Violators and the Kurt Vile - very hyped rock dude with long hair

Weather - sun shine on us

X ..... who is the last acts? (Surprise us!)

You Tube - great place to be nostalgic after the festival

Zeitgeist - RF2011 is where you wanna be if you are not a wannabe:)

How could you not love Gwyneth Paltrow now?

They each have a personal brand web site -- Gwyneth has GOOP and Jay-Z has the recently launched Life + Times -- so they recently decided to interview each other about that. Here's Z Qing G:

GP: I first was exposed to hip-hop when I was about 16 (1988) by some boys who went to collegiate. The Beastie Boys were sort of the way in for us preppie kids. We were into Public Enemy, Run-DMC and LL Cool J. But then I went to LA the summer between my junior and senior year of high school and I discovered N.W.A which became my obsession. I was fascinated by lyrics as rythym and how Dre had a such different cadence and perspective from say, Eazy-E, who I thought was one of the most ironic and brilliant voices hip-hop has ever had. It was an accident that I learned every word of Straight Outta Compton and to love something that a.) I had no real understanding of in terms of the culture that it was emanating from and b.) to love something that my parents literally could not grasp. But I was hooked. I can't remember what I ate for dinner last night but I could sing to you every single word of N.W.A's "Fuck Tha Police" or [Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock's] "It Takes Two." Go figure.

And it goes on for a bit. Gotta love her. Jay Z is cool too.

Her experience with old skool south cali hiphop anno 1988 is a great excuse to post 'Outta Compton'. Eazy E and Ice Cube were original gangsters. No studio bad ass hiphop shit. Relive it!

Jon Graboff in a new Noel Gallagher solo album recording in LA

Fresh from the rumour-mill is a Facebook-update by former Ryan Adams & The Cardinals member, pedal steel player, Jon Graboff: "Heading back to NYC today after an awesome session yesterday with Noel Gallagher in LA."

At the moment Noel Gallagher is recording in Los Angeles, so why not? I don't really give that much shit about a new solo-effort from Noel Gallagher (though I luve Oasis), but it's interesting that he picked Jon Graboff. Maybe a new sound from the brother? A bit more interesting than Liam's Beady Eye?

Ryan Adams have for many years been praising Oasis. Bigger than Led Zeppelin! Bigger than Radiohead!

In fact Ryan Adams made so good friends with Noel Gallagher back in september 2008 over a dinner conversation. He wrote this on his old blog: "I left so inspired, so inspired, they are GREAT dinner company and such gentlemen. What an honour. I am just blown away they even know we exist at all. So awesome. Life is just full of surprises."

"Such Gentlemen"! Wauw!

Well. Let's celebrate this tiny news-filler with Ryan Adams & The Cardinals, including Jon Graboff, playing Wonderwall:

Fleet Foxes - Grown Ocean - Helplessness Blues

It's safe to say that having a big-great unorganized beard in 2011 is still very approved. Flannel shirts is also more than allowed. I know because the new Fleet Foxes album has leaked and nothing much has changed since their self-titled and much acclaimed album.

I've had the possibility to take a scant listen to Helplessness Blues and my impressions are living up to my expectations. Still a lot of melodic harmony-filled tunes. Changing tempos and folky. It's really nice, but I still havn't decided if it's better than their last album, which I really really loved.

But check out the video for the album’s closing track “Grown Ocean” - great footage. It's more upbeat Fleet Foxes than we are used to and that's pretty nice for a change. But still; it's the Fleet Foxes sound and my guess is that this dreamy insisting rhythm still will be in fashion when 2011 is over.

Thurston Moore co-op Beck - Benediction single

Was just listening violently to Beck's Sea Change earlier today and was once again loving his album of heartbreak and desolation. And now I notice that he is producing Thurston Moore's solo album Demolished Thoughts. It's out on Matador May 24. Courtesy of the great label download the poignant lead single 'Benediction' from Thurston Moore right here - click on it!

Kurt Vile - In my time

Kurt Vile is performing around Europe this summer. His album Smoke Ring For My Halo is really worth putting a bird on - to quote Portlandia. It's Viles fourth LP and I havn't really dug him before. But this new stuff is super super good. A haunting psych-folk record.

12 european music festivals guide line up 2011 - Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds, Bestival, Pukkepop, Roskilde, T in the park, Dour, Rock Werchter, Benicassim, Sziget Festival

It's interesting to follow how differently festivals are when it comes to strategies for announcing artists for this years summer festivals. Some festivals simply line up their artists when signed, leaving a line or two blank for last-minute announcement, others doesn't reveal a thing and some just reveals something. 

In Denmark, the well-known Roskilde Festival, has their own approach. Inspired by Glastonbury I guess. They play the gigantic guess-which-artist--we-have-in-the-pipeline-for-you-we-won't-tell game. The strategy is simply to release new artists on wednesdays - not the headliners though - and bigger names around the first day of each month beginning around 8-9 month before the festival. (At Roskilde that is) Why? To stay interesting to the media and the potential crowd. And attracting people to buy their tickets when their bankaccounts had an injection. The most annoying thing about this game right now is that Roskilde is nowhere as interesting to the public right now as any of their counter-festivals in Europe.   

But okay, let's play the game. I've been surfing around making the lists from this years festivals so far. Click through to the festivals to view full programme. I've taken an excerpt of what I think can be described as headliners and interesting names.

So by looking at the artists at the other festival we can make some guesses of what is to be revealed at Roskilde - where I'm going. My guesses are (from the genres I know a little about!): 

1. Almost for sure: Primal Scream, Pulp, The Strokes
2. A good chance - solid names and newcomers:  The Cure, Death Cab for Cutie, Beady Eye, Mumford & Sons, Elbow, Bright Eyes, Arcade Fire, Two Door Cinema Club, Fleet Foxes,  Portishead, Calvin Harris, Flaming Lips, Alice Cooper (he plays Sweden from monday 4. of july!)
3. Wild shots - but not just high hopes: Eagles, U2, Brian Wilson, Radiohead

At Roskilde Festival we have so far Big Boi, PJ Harvey, Iron Maiden, Kings of Leon, M.I.A., Kurt Vile.

Benicassim in Barcelona - which is later than Roskilde - has already lined up names like Arctic Monkeys, Portishead, Elbow, The Go! Team, The Strokes, Mumford & Sons, Primal Scream, Arcade Fire. Interesting names indeed. 

Rock am Ring in Germany - early june - has some heavy stuff in their programme, but a lot in common with other festivals. The programme for Rock am Ring is here and includes Coldplay, Mando Diao, Interpol, Wolfmother, Danzig, Deadmau5, System of a Down. 

The big festival in England - Reading and Leeds festival has announced that the newly reformed Pulp and New York garage-rockers the Strokes – whose seminal album Is This It was released in 2001 – will share top billing. Also on these festivals are My Chemical Romance and prog-rock outfit Muse.  Reading has also hired Madness, The National, Muse, Interpol, Elbow, Friendly Fires, White Lies, Beady Eyes.

Bestival, which takes place on the Isle of Wight, 80s pop-rock band The Cure will top the bill on Saturday 10 September and Primal Scream will also here perform their lauded 1991 album Screamdelica in its entirety. Bestival has also signed Public Enemy, The Drums, Brian Wilson, Fatboy Slim, Grandmaster Flash


Hop Farm Festival ( 1. / 2. july) in Kent has some interesting headliners: Eagles, Lou Reed and Morrissey. Also on is Brian Ferry, Iggy & the Stooges, Patti Smith, The Walkmen, Ocean Color Scene, Death Cab for Cutie, 

At Glastonbury they havn't revealed a full programme yet. But enough candy to satisfy. They hired U2 to take the Pyramid Stage. Also on that stage you find Coldplay (didn't they promise to stop making music for a while?).  Beyoncé is also on Glaston. Other great names are Anna Calvi, BB King, Big Boi, The Chemical Brothers, Crystal Castles, Elbow, Everything Everything, Friendly Fires,Fleet Foxes, Gruff Rhys, Janelle Monae, Mumford & Sons, Primal Scream, Warpaint

Big belgian festival Pukkelpop is not exactly crazy about sharing information on their event in august. No names have yet been revealed. 

T in The Park, which is the greatest festival in Scotland - and was sold out in an hour has a almost full programme revealed. It include Blink 182, Foo Fighters, Pulp, Primal Scream, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Bright Eyes, Ocean Color Scene, Tom Jones, Leftfield, Noah and the Whale

Sziget Festival in Hungary in august has a lot of names ready already. Including: Dizee Rascal, Gogol Bordello, Interpol, Pulp, Skunk Anansie, The Chemical Brothers, The National 

The great little festival Dour Festival has shopped around and done a quite good job. And go here to the full line-up at Dour Festival which include the best electronic acts as well. Pulp /

• Suede /
• Cypress Hill /
• Pendulum live /
• House Of Pain /

At Rock Werchter in Belgium (30. june - 3. july) the line-up is almost done and the names are here:
ARCTIC MONKEYS, THE NATIONAL, WHITE LIES,  COLDPLAY, PORTISHEAD, PJ HARVEY, ELBOW, BRUNO MARS, THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM, THE BLACK EYED PEAS, IRON MAIDEN, GRINDERMAN, KAISER CHIEFS, ROBYN, FLEET FOXES, TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB

Also check Primavera Sound Festival in Spain. Also amazing line-up: Ty Segall, Flaming Lips, The Album leaf, Pulp, Gonjasufi, Grinderman, Lindstrom, Mercury Rev, M. Ward, Girl Talk, Fleet Foxes, Belle & Sebastian, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Animal Collective. Thx, @italienskepen

Roskilde Diaries 1

Yesterday we agreed on our camp-detalis for Roskilde 2011. New camp area with better conditions - it's gonna be perfect. And now we can start dreaming, counting and hoping that time will pass fast, that Roskilde will anounce some more good bands and that the weathers gonna be as good as the last couple of years. So far the most interesting artists are PJ Harvey and Kurt Vile - but there must be a lot coming up if you compare to other festivals.
I just saw that to of my absolute favorite bands are going to play the norweigian festival Øyafestivalen - the reunited Grant Lee Buffalo and The Jayhawks. Please Roskilde - it would be amazing. Here's some sweet memories:

Old Calf :: Bonnie Cuckoo

Old Calf is Ned Oldham (brother of Will) who we last featured in December of 2008 with the Anomoanon recording.  Old Calf have their debut out on No Quarter Records April 12th.This is not bad! 

Listen: Old Calf :: Bonnie Cuckoo

The people's key - Bright Eyes mp3

In the spring 2011 Bright Eyes is back with a new album. Here is a little teaser from the forthcoming album by Bright Eyes entitled The people's key. It's promising, but I'll refrain from making any judgement yet - because I'm still sceptic.
.

(If you) keep me in your heart - Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat

The first single from Aidan Moffat & Bill Wells really stunned me when first listening to it.

Bill Wells always tickled a place in my heart, when I now and again were to stumple upon some of his unconventional jazz founded music. And I've always been a fan of Arab Strap.

On the other hand. Aidan Moffats projects since Arab Strap have been of a minor quality. Well, at least in my opinion. They've not been bad, just average.

That might be changing now. The change began with the concept album Ten short songs for modern lovers from 2010, where Mr. Moffat seemed to have found a grain of something great within his creative abilities towards dark humour and social sensibility. And now, with the collaboration with Bill Wells, it is not just a growing - it seems like the coming of a blooming.

The video below is the first single from Bill Wells and Aidan Moffats collaborative album Everything's getting older, entitled (If you) keep my in your heart. Brilliant

Hercules and Love Affair - "Blue songs" for free (well, almost)

In a review on BBC Music Ian Wade is almost over the moon by Hercules and Love Affairs follow up to their 2008 self titled debut. Wade sums up the review as follows:

"Blue Songs has the ability to sound great whether you’re cleaning the flat, swinging in a hammock or heading down the rave-up. Smashing stuff."

So it is definitely worth a mention, that right now the new album by Hercules and Love Affair entitled Blue Songs is streaming for free at The Guardian. So go on, go to The Guardian and listen to this great new album by clicking here.

The weekend cover #2 - Transmission

In no. 2 of The weekend cover series we're getting Hot Chips take on the post-punk icons Joy Divisions Transmissions. In itself a really unique trace from the post-punk era. The cover was done on a request from the former members of New Order in 2008 (which, as you all know, includes the former members of Joy Division). I've heard that it to some people brings reminiscenes to Pink Floyd.

The cover: Hot Chip - Transmission


The original: Joy Division - Transmission

Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean

As a dad of two lovely daughters I'm fascinated and weired out by Sam Beam of Iron & Wine. How can that dude grow such a strong beard, be only 36 years old and have a family of five (5!) daughters and a wife? At the same time he has released four albums, produced a flood of songs, a lot of EP's and been touring consistently since 2002? He has definitely earned his beard!

Sam Beam is back on the road with his new album Kiss Each Other Clean, his first album for Warner Bros. after leaving Sub Pop.

Since releasing The Creek Drank the Craddle - which were a stunning debut - in 2002 Sam Beam has taken Iron & Wine step-by-step away from the lo-fi, one-dude-in-a-bedroom, towards a broader sound with a larger cast of musicians. That goes for Kiss Each Other Clean.

On his 2007 album Sheperd's Dog he toyed around with African pop music and dub production. And this new stuff is even fuller and friskier than before. Almost funky?

I'm not sure how much I love this new path he is taking, but somehow it still sounds as if his not far from home. Home is of course the storytelling quality of his music. Check it out.

Interview with Sam Beam and producer Brian Deck - click.

You can listen to the entire new album (with a full backing band) below. Recorded for NPR’s “Music First Listen” series.


Sam Beam performs Tree By The River acoustic guitar

Shouting at wildlife - an absolute joy

Mentioned as indie-pop at its purest and seen as a modern form of powerpop. No doubt pop, but precisely so much more. Musically similar to an unmentionable number of indie-pop bands, but still quite unique - a romantic sphere that only sets naturally in the grey and windy parts of western Scotland. And absolute joy. What are you talking about? Oh, sorry, I thought it was obvious. It's Kid Canaveral.

The weekend cover #1 - Hotelounge (be the death of me)

This is the first in our new series "The weekend cover". The series will be featured here regularly, but not necessarily every weekend. This week we have Adem making a beautiful cover of Deus' Hotellounge (be the death of me).

The cover: Adem - Hotellounge (be the death of me)


The original: Deus - Hotellounge (be the death of me)

RM Hubbert to support Mogwai

On our Facebook we mentioned that Mogwai were going on tour in the spring of 2011. For their european leg of the tour they will be supported by the mighty talented RM Hubbert.

RM Hubbert is drawing a lot on flamenco guitar (toque), but is still a whole lot different than flamenco. In a combination with other elements of folk and jazz he creates a very interesting univers of guitar playing. It is not a univers that is in your face and happy go lucky. And it is not necessarily easy to get around at first. But it grows on you. And if you can't get enough, then you might even be able to get him to play in your living room.

The Mynabirds - Let the record go

The new year begun. New on Indie Laundry: The Mynabirds. Our judgement: Like, a lot.