Choir of Young Believers is Jannis Noya Makrigiannis, who used to be in the band Lake Placid and has moved around the Danish indie music community for years. His new project sounds like Cold War Kids, José Gonzalez and Sondre Lerche all got together on a fjord and jammed out until the morning light. Though the music is upbeat and light, it’s not fluffy and meaningless—you can tell that deep things are going on it Jannis’ head and are manifesting themselves with soft guitars, bongos, drum machines and echo boxes. We just got a few tracks for download off of Choir of Young Believers’ record Burn the Flag, so have fun checking those out and of course, seeing them perform live if you are at the Spot Festival!
Sounds like: Junip, Cold War Kids
Download: Choir of Young Believers - Burn The Flag
Download: Choir of Young Believers - Sharpen your Knife
Download: Choir of Young Believers - Roit
OK, seriously are you ready for the best band name of all time? The Floor is Made of Lava (we told you) are going to tear up Spot Fest this week with their acerbic mix of punk, indie and straight up guitar pop. We actually been into them for a while, when we randomly downloaded “Told Her I’m From Compton” (once again, the name!) from the Hype Machine, and it blew us away. The Copenhagen-based band of Ace, SimonVisti and Thobay K only formed in 2006, but “Told Her I’m From Compton” has already gone top 3 on Denmark’s indie charts and the band are blowing up in their native land. Check out a download for “Told Her…” and their track “Do Your Sister” off of their album All Juice No Fruit, as well as a couple sick remixes.
Sounds like: Mission of Burma, Queens of the Stone Age, The Hives
Download: The Floor Is Made of Lava - Do Your Sister
Download: The Floor Is Made of Lava - Told Her I'm From Compton
Download: The Floor Is Made of Lava - Do Your Sister (James Braun Does Your Mama Too Mix)
Download: The Floor Is Made of Lava - Told Her I'm From Compton (Electrojuice Remix)
Anders Rhedin lives in Copenhagen and records dark pop songs under the name Jong Pang. Part M83, part Echo and the Bunnymen, part Interpol, his songs inspire both dance and introspection, like the best of the ‘80s mopers he channels. Of course, Jong Pang is playing the Spot Music Festival this week, thus we’re giving away a few of his ethereal creations for download: “New Order” (noisy dream pop), “Small Cut Sensations” (bouncy, uplifting indie rock) and “To White Light” (droning space rock). All the songs are off of Jong Pang’s awesome new album Bright White Light. Enjoy!
Sounds like: M83, Interpol
Download: Jong Pang - New Order
Download: Jong Pang - Small Cut Sensations
Download: Jong Pang - To White Light
Copenhagen-based band Blue Foundation have come a long way since releasing their debut single on Moshi Moshi in 2000. They’ve played all over Europe, performed at major festivals and saw tracks from their critically acclaimed second album Sweep of Days featured in Michael Mann’s Miami Vice movie—though it should be said, Blue Foundation’s music is more Scandinavian dream-pop than Floridian pastels and bad facial hair. We have four tracks from their latest release Life of a Ghost today: “Stuck in a Hard Place” and “Enemy” for download, and streams of the tracks “Stained” and “Watch You Sleeping”. The tracks have a certain ethereal quality to them, like what Nina Persson from the Cardigans and Victoria Bergman would make if they were in a side project. Also for some reason we find ourselves hearing a lot about “Disarm” by the Smashing Pumpkins in the mix, but that could just be our fetishism for all things '90s. Anyway, Blue Foundation are ace, check out the links below for the MP3s and make sure to catch them live if you’re attending Spot Fest!
Sounds like: The Cardigans, The Concretes, The Cocteau Twins
Download: Blue Foundation - Stuck in a Hard Place
Download: Blue Foundation - Enemy
Stream: Blue Foundation - Stained
Stream: Blue Foundation - Watch You Sleeping (feat. Mark Kozelek)
Seems like the ‘80s pop/rock revival didn’t miss Denmark—their chart-topping band VETO are, as well as playing the Spot Festival this year, doing the whole The Cure-meets-electro-rock thing to a T, which duh, is always great. We have quite a few VETO tracks for you guys today, first some streams from their new album Crushing Digits (“Built to Fail” and “You Say Yes, I Say Yes”), which was just released in Denmark and is dropping this fall in the rest of Europe, then we have some club remixes of those tracks by Tomboy and James Braun to segue into the early hours. Their lyrics are tight, their guitars are angular and their synth lines are HUGE—what more is there really?
Sounds like: The Cure, The Faint, Blacklist
Stream: VETO - Built to Fail
Stream: VETO - You Say Yes, I Say Yes
Download: VETO - Built to Fail (Tomboy Remix)
Download: VETO - You Say Yes, I say Yes (James Braun Remix)
.jpg)
The first Spot Festival band we’re posting about is one we’ve raved about already on the pages of RCRD LBL—Swedish alt. jazz duo Wildbirds & Peacrdrums. Their new single “Doubt/Hope” is taken off their debut album Heartcore, and it’s propelled by a completely wild drumbeat, and singer Mariam Wallentin’s Kate Bushian vocals. WB&PD are poised to be the crossover jazz band for this year and are passing through the States this month, so make sure to check them out.
Sounds like: The Bird and The Bee, Grace Slick
Download: Wildbirds & Peacedrums - Doubt/Hope
Download: Wildbirds & Peacedrums - I Can Tell in His Eyes
Today kicks off the Spot Festival, a three-day extravaganza in Aarhus, Denmark, celebrating contemporary Nordic bands. From Sigur Ros to Junior Senior to The Raveonettes to Under Byen, the most acclaimed Scandinavian acts have graced the festival’s stage over the years. This year is no different with Efterklang and Figurines playing slots at the fest. Not to mention that our very own Creative Director Elliot Aronow will be speaking on one of the fest’s many panels for music industry representatives. Yeah, basically awesome.
To guide you guys through the festivals, for those attending, we’ll be posting MP3s from various bands performing during the next couple of days, so make sure to keep an eye peeled for those. As the Danish say, Nyde musikken! (That’s “enjoy the music”, courtesy of Google Translator).
Spot Festival 2008
