7 posts tagged “labrador records”
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Free Downloads
The Hateful Eye EP is available now in Sweden (May 13th), will be available physically in the USA on June 16th.
Download the B-Side, "The Hateful Eye", as well as other songs at Little Big Adventure Free MP3s Section
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In the “About” section of Little Big Adventure’s website, sole member, Magnus Sätterström, explains that the majority of his songs are about “low self esteem” and “hate.” Pretty common stuff, but considering that these topics are being interpreted through the meticulous scope of Swedish indie pop, things are bound to get interesting.
The Hateful Eye EP features four Casio-centric songs about upset stomachs, fishermen, and uncomfortable situations. Opening track “Happiest Times” lives up to its name, as it is the most upbeat song on the EP – despite the predictably depressing set up (I remember you were once my love…). The repetitive but beautiful tinkling piano provides a lovely contrast to Sätterström’s mumbled vocals, and the melancholy lyrics strike a perfect balance between humorous and heartbreaking.
Sätterström readily admits to not being a “skilled keyboard player” and acknowledges the use of a noise filter to hide technical flaws and noise glitches. His Labrador labelmates, such as Acid House Kings and Sambassadeur, are known for their flawless production, but I can’t help but wonder if Sätterström would actually benefit from letting a few of those flaws and glitches seep into his sound. The lo-fi feel to his songs are definitely apparent, but on a monotone track like “Any Questions?” a little sign of human life behind the robotic production would be quite welcome.
The last track, “Son of St. Jacob’s,” is a fitting end to the EP, as it evokes the same earnest feeling of the opener. Sätterström’s self-deprecating and dry humor adds a layer of warmth to the electronic pulse, and I found myself listening to the EP on repeat, allowing the songs to blend together seamlessly. With such quietly infectious melodies, it’s easy to overlook the two themes of hate and low self esteem and simply enjoy it for what it is: a guy and his keyboard.
05/17/2009 12:32:06 ♥ kateg (
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♥ littlebigadventure.se
♥ myspace.com/littlebigadventure
♥ labrador
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26 Nov 2008 Landet Stockholm Discography
01 Dec 2008 Blauer Engel KIEL 02 Dec 2008 Admiralspalast BERLIN 03 Dec 2008 Subway KÖLN 04 Dec 2008 Feinkost Lampe HANNOVER 05 Dec 2008 Unikeller OSNABRüCK 06 Dec 2008 Sparte 4 SAARBRüCKEN 08 Dec 2008 tbc KASSEL 09 Dec 2008 Asta Wohnzimmer LüNEBURG
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I was surprised to find out that all his songs are based on true events, which leads me to wonder about his taxi ride in "Tired of Being PC" or his car problems on "Metal to Metal" or his hatred for a certain airline on "Fly Me to the Moon" (you get the impression Pelle travels quite a bit).
My favorite fun song on this album is "51, 3", which tells the story about Pelle taking a facebook quiz that tells him his mental age is 51. Just the opening line is well worth hearing.
Fans of Club 8 should take note of Karolina Komstedt's appearance on "Nicknames." He was apparently touring with Club 8 and had asked her to sing on the song with him. The song is quite upbeat and punchy, about reminiscing in their teenage years - going out to see old friends and drinking.
If you like indiepop and don't already own The Lilac Time, you can get it via Darla Records or Labrador. I will have to mention that I have bought things from Darla, and with the more obscure indie bands they may list it but it doesn't mean they have it in stock. This was very annoying when several packages I have ordered in the past end up missing one or two items. To be fair, they did not charge me for the missing items, but still, don't list CDs that you do not have in stock! I haven't ordered from them recently, so they might have changed the way they display what you can or cannot buy. Also, I'm sure with recent products, such as The Lilac Time, they should have them in stock - not to discourage you from ordering, of course.
As a bonus, here are our previous Pelle Carlberg songs we've used in the past:
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Links: pellecarlberg.se myspace.com/pellecarlberg darla.com labrador.se
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We Heart Music Radio #28, special thanks goes to G Tom Mac, Christina of Ariel Publicity, Paul Waclawsky, Ryan of The Loyalty Firm, Pelle Carlberg, and Christian of Labrador Records. Music used in the show includes G Tom Mac, The Boxing Lesson, People in Plane, Pelle Carlberg, and Hello Saferide. If you would like to appear on a future We Heart Music Radio show, please contact
. Thank you for listening.
Subscribe to our show at podcast.weheartmusic.com, via RSS Feed.
Download excerpts of our shows at W♥M Excerpts.
Download individual segment (expires in 7 days):
PART ONE: G TOM MAC
gtommac.com ♥ myspace.com/gtommac
G Tom Mac, aka Gerard McMann, answer some of these questions:
- His involvement with The Lost Boys (both movie!)
- Embarrassing moment: thinking the "Thou Shall Not Fall" part was sung by a woman
- "Cry Little Sister" song and "Thou Shall Not Fall" album
- Fan reactions to live tour, new 2009 tour dates coming soon
01 Nov 2008 Draculas Ball / Shampoo Nightclub Philadelphia, PA
PART TWO: THE BOXING LESSON
myspace.com/theboxinglesson ♥ myspace.com/loyaltyfirm
Paul of the Boxing Lesson talks about:
- His band, including their drummer in Federal prison (yikes!)
- Video of "Brighter", 6000 photographs! Read more at rockpark.com
- new sound vs old sound
- Possible brand new EP?
- "Dark Side of the Moog" to be next video
01 Nov 2008 House Party w/ Belaire! Lubbock, Texas
02 Nov 2008 Trunk Space w/ Belaire Phoenix, Arizona
03 Nov 2008 Luxury Wafers Recording Session Van Nuys, California
04 Nov 2008 Beauty Bar San Diego w/ Belaire San Diego, California
05 Nov 2008 Silverlake Lounge w/ Belaire Silverlake, California
06 Nov 2008 The Copper Rhino Modesto, California
07 Nov 2008 The Cellar Door Visalia, California
08 Nov 2008 Partisan Merced, California
10 Nov 2008 Spaceland Silverlake, California
11 Nov 2008 Plush w/ Dead Confederate & Mostly Bears Tucson, AZ
13 Nov 2008 The Percolator El Paso, Texas
12 Dec 2008 Emo’s w/ Girl in a Coma Austin, Texas
13 Dec 2008 The Mink Houston, Texas
pellecarlberg.se ♥ myspace.com/pellecarlberg
Talking to us from Stockholm, Sweden, Pelle let us know about:
- Edson, his original band
- Lilac Times nodd to Stephen Duffy's band and his garden at his home
- Secrets of 1983 (Pelle & Sebastian) explained
- The story behind his duets, Ida Maria with "I Love You, You Imbecile" and Karolina Komstedt (Club 8) on "Nicknames"
01 Nov 2008 Westgarth Social Club MIDDLESBROUGH
02 Nov 2008 NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE Head of Steam NEWCASTLE
03 Nov 2008 Deaf Institute MANCHESTER tbc
04 Nov 2008 UWIC Howard Gardens CARDIFF
05 Nov 2008 Bristol Cooler BRISTOL
06 Nov 2008 Brixton Windmill LONDON
26 Nov 2008 Landet Stockholm
01 Dec 2008 Blauer Engel KIEL
02 Dec 2008 Admiralspalast BERLIN
03 Dec 2008 Subway KÖLN
04 Dec 2008 Feinkost Lampe HANNOVER
05 Dec 2008 Unikeller OSNABRüCK
06 Dec 2008 Sparte 4 SAARBRüCKEN
08 Dec 2008 tbc KASSEL
09 Dec 2008 Asta Wohnzimmer LüNEBURG
Labrador Records (labrador.se) once again turned to Pirate Bay to help distribute their Labrador Summer Sampler 2008. If you remember, they did the same thing last year after their servers crashed due to a high volume of demand.
If you already use BitTorrent, then downloading it from Pirate Bay is easy enough, but unlike most people, I don't use the torrents. Instead, I had to get the files from a friend. If you're in the same boat, regarding not using bittorrent, I have made the free sampler available for download: sendspace.com/file/2yaj76 (154 mb).
Please note: I am acting under the assumption that Labrador wants as many people to download their sampler as possible. So please share this with your friends.
Although compared to last year's massive 68-track-sampler, this year's new 30 tracks is smaller... but it is still a lot of music to listen to. Since we've covered many of these bands (see corresponding links to previous W♥M articles), I was more interested in the bands I hadn't heard of: Leslies, Caroline Soul, and Johan Hedberg. Although Leslies previously appeared on their 2007 Sampler ("Dear Friend"), this is the first time I paid attention to them due to their poppy "Take a Look" song.
01 [Ingenting] - Här Kommer Solen |
11 Chasing Dorotea - Dark Angel |
21 The Radio Dept. - Pet Grief |
In other news for this past week, we find Devo asking "Are We Not Toys?" after suing McDonald's for using their likeness in one of their McToys. CNN reports that "Kid Rock Was Only Kidding" when he told people to "steal everything". This tells me a lot about Kid Rock fans if he had to EXPLAIN that it was only a joke. Duh?
DMX is arrested (again), "Fly - The Musical", Adele won some awards and people seem to be happy she doesn't want to kill herself like Amy Winehouse, and you also found out that Kanye West LIKES TO TYPE IN ALL CAPS, DUDE! His defense blog on the whole Bonnaroo fiasco comes down to the venue's ability to setup the stage and that Pearl Jam was an hour late. That's right, Vedder is a slowpoke.
See links below for news source:
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There is no one named Irene in the band Irene. In fact, until recently, the band was just one guy: Tobias Isaksson, a.k.a. Bobby. But in 2005, when Isaksson wanted to play some of the songs he'd written live, he recruited some of his pub-friends from Göteborg, Sweden and what do you know? Shortly thereafter they were signed to Labrador Records and put out their first album, Apple Bay, in 2006. Now they have a new album out, Long Gone Since Last Summer, and listening to it has once again affirmed an opinion that I've long held: nothing bad ever comes out of Sweden. Seriously. I've never heard a Swedish band I didn't love...and Irene is very easy to love.
Irene write '60s beach-bum music a lá The Beach Boys, the Dave Clark Five, the Buckinghams, and so on. Their songs are short (rarely long than 3 minutes), delicious little Sweet-tarts of sound that do not mess around with long introductions or instrumental wizardry or fancy studio production (most of the instruments are recorded live, much as bands were recorded in the early days of rock). Apple Bay is only 24 minutes long but packs more weight and musical mastery than most overblown pop-rock records recorded since 1990. The songs are all catchy sing-a-long numbers featuring jangly guitars and--get this--a horn section backing up Isaksson's mellow, Elvis-esque voice. How often do you hear a horn section in any music these days?! Long Gone is simply more of the same. Irene aren't trying to break new ground here, folks: they've found a type of music that they love playing, and they do it well. You can practically hear the sunshine in the music and feel sand gritting between your toes as you listen to it.
There really isn't much to say about Irene's music other than that it's great pop music that will make you feel younger no matter how old you are, and will take you back to your youth if you're old enough to remember "Surfin' Safari." I for one will have these two albums bumpin' in my stereo when I go the Atlantic City later this summer!(The band has numerous tour dates posted on their website, but, unfortunately, the last one was on June 26--my birthday, oddly enough!)
Links:
www.irene.nu
myspace.com/ireneswe
A couple of months ago I saw an announcement that my favorite record label, Labrador Records, had signed a new band called The Sound Of Arrows. Since I love just about every band on their roster, I was quite excited about this. At the time, Labrador released an mp3 for the track called "Danger!", which I immediately put into heavy rotation in my playlist.
A few weeks ago the debut release from The Sound Of Arrows was finally made available. They are touting this as an E.P. but it's basically the title track, "Danger!", plus two b-sides, four remixes, and "intro" and "outro" tracks. I'm normally not a fan of remixes, but the ones on this E.P. are not too shabby. Also, the b-sides, "A Very Sad Song" and "Winding Roads" are really quite good.
The Sound Of Arrows is a duo comprised of two Swedish lads, Stefan Storm and Oskar Gullstrand, who now live in Stockholm. Together they have differing backgrounds: house music and classical. I think a bit of each comes across in their music. In Labrador's original press release they said "The Sound of Arrows treat their own songs like remixes and will present their releases almost like mixtapes. Their approach to music bare some similarity to Saint Etienne around 'Foxbase Alpha' or The Avalanches, but they never end up sounding like either." I can't wait to get their full-length album, which is due out later this year.
May
29, 2008 4:50 AM Randy my♥posts
thesoundofarrows.com myspace
They are a Swedish band that first got together in 2000. After being dropped by their first two record labels and having released only one E.P. (entitled "Make Me Last"), they've landed a contract with Labrador Records. Since then, they've released the "Lost" E.P., and just recently the "Void" E.P. A full album is in the works, but I haven't heard of a release date as of yet.
Their influences include "modern rock" bands from the 80's and 90's such as The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and The Stone Roses. Check out their website and their page on myspace for more songs and info.
>randy<
P.S. - This song also appears on the recently-released Labrador 100 compilation from Labrador Records. It's a 100-song, 4-CD box set commemorating 10 years of music from Labrador. This box set is the 100th release from the Swedish indiepop label, and contains one song from each of their past single, E.P., and album releases (plus one new song thrown in to make it an even "100"). If you're interested in buying yourself a copy, I suggest you order it directly from Labrador. It's only 200SEK (approx. 22EU or just under US$30), which includes shipping, even to the USA!. It's quite a deal for 4 CDs of fabulous tunes. My copy arrived a few days ago. =)
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