Summer in the city.

16 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Don't miss this wonderfully bright and cheerful new song by Memphis' up and coming Magic Kids, taken from their debut album Memphis, out August 24 on True Panther. Sunny pop for late summer evenings in the park. Go out, have a barbecue.


Magic Kids - Summer Read more →
Don't miss this wonderfully bright and cheerful new song by Memphis' up and coming Magic Kids, taken from their debut album Memphis, out August 24 on True Panther. Sunny pop for late summer evenings in the park. Go out, have a barbecue.


Magic Kids - Summer

The Fallout #1

16 Jun 2010 — NFOP

The biweekly NFOP Radio Show gets a little reboot this week. From today, it's not called "Radio Show" anymore - first, because of ongoing confusion about the designation (indeed, it never was a proper radio show, it's a playlist; I kinda liked the idea though), and second because now that posting has gone up a bit (a few of you have noticed), the concept with comments/liner notes for roughly twelve tracks is just too demanding considering the time I have available for writing this blog.

But there's still gonna be a new playlist on 8tracks.com every two weeks, but I'll limit myself to ten tracks that I haven't posted regularly because I was too slow or too lazy so that by now everyone else has written about them, and with tracks by artists I may have written about but think that you still don't listen to them enough (like Pearly Gate Music, for instance). Hence, The Fallout. As usual, I recommend listening via the player embedded above, but you're of course free to head over to the the amazing site 8tracks.com. Moreover, for some tracks there will be additional download links.

And lest I forget, please don't miss that awesome track by Porcelain Raft.

Listening note: The playlist is streamed via 8tracks. Their license requires a mix to be shuffled the second time someone listens to it. Moreover, the number of tracks the user can skip while listening to a mix is limited.
Read more →
The biweekly NFOP Radio Show gets a little reboot this week. From today, it's not called "Radio Show" anymore - first, because of ongoing confusion about the designation (indeed, it never was a proper radio show, it's a playlist; I kinda liked the idea though), and second because now that posting has gone up a bit (a few of you have noticed), the concept with comments/liner notes for roughly twelve tracks is just too demanding considering the time I have available for writing this blog.

But there's still gonna be a new playlist on 8tracks.com every two weeks, but I'll limit myself to ten tracks that I haven't posted regularly because I was too slow or too lazy so that by now everyone else has written about them, and with tracks by artists I may have written about but think that you still don't listen to them enough (like Pearly Gate Music, for instance). Hence, The Fallout. As usual, I recommend listening via the player embedded above, but you're of course free to head over to the the amazing site 8tracks.com. Moreover, for some tracks there will be additional download links.

And lest I forget, please don't miss that awesome track by Porcelain Raft.

Listening note: The playlist is streamed via 8tracks. Their license requires a mix to be shuffled the second time someone listens to it. Moreover, the number of tracks the user can skip while listening to a mix is limited.

Hidden agenda.

16 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Brooklyn outfit Translations has started making music to "bridge the gap between Manhattan bands like Velvet Underground, Suicide and Pussy Galore and the new, weird era in Brooklyn". Hence the above picture, I suppose. Apart from obvious symbolism, judge for yourself if they're successful. For what it's worth, Translations make fine, new wavey pop with indeed some rather experimental elements, and yes, the rhythm section and the vocals do have a certain Manhattan feel attached to them while the overall direction is very much contemporary Brooklyn, in particular considering The MO. The band did all the recording on their own, with some mixing help by their pal Jeff Curtin from NFOP favourites Small Black. Without doubt a band to watch.
Read more → Brooklyn outfit Translations has started making music to "bridge the gap between Manhattan bands like Velvet Underground, Suicide and Pussy Galore and the new, weird era in Brooklyn". Hence the above picture, I suppose. Apart from obvious symbolism, judge for yourself if they're successful. For what it's worth, Translations make fine, new wavey pop with indeed some rather experimental elements, and yes, the rhythm section and the vocals do have a certain Manhattan feel attached to them while the overall direction is very much contemporary Brooklyn, in particular considering The MO. The band did all the recording on their own, with some mixing help by their pal Jeff Curtin from NFOP favourites Small Black. Without doubt a band to watch.

Midwestern angst.

15 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Last night, this certain dude befriended me on all possible social networking platforms, probably including those where I don't even have an account, to guide my undivided attention to CVLTS, a project of which he apparently is one half. Their origin remains blurry, only their bandcamp site might give us a hint that the duo is based out of Kansas City.

What we do know though is that CVLTS produces high quality haunted psychedelia, oppressively distorted guitars with frantically humming voices in the background. Obviously, there's no hope in Kansas.

You can purchase their debut mini album LVST via their bandcamp, and make sure you get yourself hypnotized by watching the video for their nearly ten-minute opus Luck Surf.



CVLTS - Corpus Dei Read more →
Last night, this certain dude befriended me on all possible social networking platforms, probably including those where I don't even have an account, to guide my undivided attention to CVLTS, a project of which he apparently is one half. Their origin remains blurry, only their bandcamp site might give us a hint that the duo is based out of Kansas City.

What we do know though is that CVLTS produces high quality haunted psychedelia, oppressively distorted guitars with frantically humming voices in the background. Obviously, there's no hope in Kansas.

You can purchase their debut mini album LVST via their bandcamp, and make sure you get yourself hypnotized by watching the video for their nearly ten-minute opus Luck Surf.



CVLTS - Corpus Dei

I remember tomorrow just if I get hurt.

15 Jun 2010 — NFOP

Mon Insomnie will be in Berlin this month for a couple of shows, supporting his hero Ariel Pink at Lovelite on June 20, and playing three consecutive nights at the Future Gallery as a part of an art exhibition from June 25 to 27.


Update: I've just been informed by Martin Kohout, the artist at whose exhibition Tomas will perform at the Future Galaxy, that he is not going to play as Mon Insomnie there. What's really gonna happen is still a secret - according to Martin, Tomas "will be playing music, but it will not be a concert and the name Mon Insomnie will not participate in the whole". Anyway, still sounds worth attending.

Below, there are three songs available for download, along with the video for Barbed Wires which is for sure the simplest, saddest and loveliest piece of film in 2010. Mon Insomnie is desperate loneliness expressed in the most beautiful and intriguing way I've heard in a long time - with lines like "Kill me/I've no will to fight", the songs leave you alone, barely reassuring you that after all, happiness is a place somewhere else.



Mon Insomnie - Barbed Wires

Mon Insomnie - Missing Lust

Mon Insomnie - No Will

Read more →
Mon Insomnie will be in Berlin this month for a couple of shows, supporting his hero Ariel Pink at Lovelite on June 20, and playing three consecutive nights at the Future Gallery as a part of an art exhibition from June 25 to 27.


Update: I've just been informed by Martin Kohout, the artist at whose exhibition Tomas will perform at the Future Galaxy, that he is not going to play as Mon Insomnie there. What's really gonna happen is still a secret - according to Martin, Tomas "will be playing music, but it will not be a concert and the name Mon Insomnie will not participate in the whole". Anyway, still sounds worth attending.

Below, there are three songs available for download, along with the video for Barbed Wires which is for sure the simplest, saddest and loveliest piece of film in 2010. Mon Insomnie is desperate loneliness expressed in the most beautiful and intriguing way I've heard in a long time - with lines like "Kill me/I've no will to fight", the songs leave you alone, barely reassuring you that after all, happiness is a place somewhere else.



Mon Insomnie - Barbed Wires

Mon Insomnie - Missing Lust

Mon Insomnie - No Will

Eastwick.

14 Jun 2010 — NFOP

The wonderful and before introduced Mountain Man are up to put out their first ever vinyl record. The five-track Sun Dog EP will be released by our dear New Jersey friends at Underwater Peoples, home to everything lo-fi yet visionary, and it comes as a strictly limited marbled translucent sea-foam vinyl edition. Now wrap your mind around that and preorder it exclusively here. Below are two reasons why you should.



Mountain Man - Dog Song Read more →
The wonderful and before introduced Mountain Man are up to put out their first ever vinyl record. The five-track Sun Dog EP will be released by our dear New Jersey friends at Underwater Peoples, home to everything lo-fi yet visionary, and it comes as a strictly limited marbled translucent sea-foam vinyl edition. Now wrap your mind around that and preorder it exclusively here. Below are two reasons why you should.



Mountain Man - Dog Song

I’m still waiting.

14 Jun 2010 — NFOP

I know this might be considered a lame cliché, but there is something about these Swedes that has to with an apparently genetic disposition to write almost absurdly infectious pop melodies. Stockholm's Dance and Forget are the latest example for this as yet unrefuted theory, a septett (that once started as a rather huge collective of different musicians) that builds classic indie pop euphoria around lush ukulele harmonies.

Though the band is a dynamic ensemble that's basically devoted to being a live act, Dance and Forget are nonetheless about to record an album next month, despite being unsigned to date.

Below, listen to sweet Maybe, a song that splendidly sums up the band's optimistic sound.

Dance and Forget - Maybe

Read more →
I know this might be considered a lame cliché, but there is something about these Swedes that has to with an apparently genetic disposition to write almost absurdly infectious pop melodies. Stockholm's Dance and Forget are the latest example for this as yet unrefuted theory, a septett (that once started as a rather huge collective of different musicians) that builds classic indie pop euphoria around lush ukulele harmonies.

Though the band is a dynamic ensemble that's basically devoted to being a live act, Dance and Forget are nonetheless about to record an album next month, despite being unsigned to date.

Below, listen to sweet Maybe, a song that splendidly sums up the band's optimistic sound.

Dance and Forget - Maybe