doctors & dealers ~ trouble ep (bluesong records, 2010)
doctors & dealers is sparrow, a girl from sweden blending indiepop, some jazzy/blues-ish feel and witty lyrics. this influences are very present on her new ep, due to be released next december, 10th.
she's been locked inside a studio with producer gordon raphael (the strokes and regina spektor) and together, they are playing every instrument to create the soundtrack for the movie 'chicago' if tim burton were the director. for what i've heard so far, mission accomplished!
(he's also producing her third album 'every sinner has a future' that'll come out in the spring of 2011)
here you can download the first track of the ep (my favourite): backstabber
the band in heaven is a storm coming and you can see it from your window. when arrives, it rains in slow motion and the time seems to be stretched.
the band in heaven is actually located in florida. it has layers (beautiful layers) of guitars and moody, echoey vocals. on their myspace they make their references quite clear and objective: it is 80’s, it is 90’s and it is today. and black tambourine. i would add to that the pop-ish side of jesus and mary chain.
‘high low’ is a song that you hear and know/feel that’s ready to be huge… it builds up – layer by layer – into a fuzzy and electric catharsis of distortion and voices. It is, I warn you, one of those addictive songs that stuck in your head. and most likely is the song you would play if you suddenly decided to run away in the middle of the night.
(don’t know why, but the first time I heard this song, it made me think about radiohead’s album ‘the bends’ and how tom yorke should take a listen to this band and try to give us (the good) radiohead back… remember ‘pablo honey’? ‘ok computer’? and the already mentioned ‘the bends’?)
‘high low’ is enough to make you fall for the band in heaven, but then you see that they have a cover for ‘dreams’, my favourite the cranberries song. and it’s not just a cover. while the cranberries version has dolores extremely evocative and dramatic vocals, this one has this inconsolable hopelessness that gives a completely different shade to the song. the fuzziness, spacey instrumental – i don’t have to mention – is there.
on their bandcamp you can download a live performance recorded on club sandwich. 6 songs (including ‘high low’ and ‘dreams’) awesomely performed in all their layered complexity and as powerful as the ‘studio’ ones. in fact, ‘dreams’ assumes some kind of angriness in a slightly more rapid version that’s pretty interesting.
if you live in a place where hurricanes, typhoons are frequently visiting and you are melancholic, this is your music.
i know this will sound extremely obvious (a bit tacky, also) but if I knew heaven had a band and it played music like this, I wouldn’t mind go to bed tonight and never wake up.
a few hours ago, burning hearts posted this arthur russell cover on their cloudsound. don't have to say much more, do i? (also, their new album is already on the making)
ferns is this 5 piece act from kuala lumpur (malaysia) that, back in 2007, left indiepoppers completely in love with their debut album 'on botany'.
fast forward three years and here we are: me, writing this article; you reading it and ferns preparing the release of their new album entitled 'fairweather friends'.
the album will feature 8 new songs:
01. missing lyrics
02. dismay
03. miss stormcloud
04. a funny feelin'
05. anti social scene
06. hey ok
07. i should be having more fun
08. when you fall sleep
before we talk with warren, check the preview of 'hey ok', one of the songs featured on their new album... the song is not yet finished.on warren's words: "that's a demo / work- in- progress yeah?".
interview with warren... 1. tell us a bit about your history... how it all began… and where the name ‘ferns’ comes from?
well, we're a bunch of long-time friends from kuala lumpur, malaysia who got together with the simple aim of making catchy, interesting pop music. we'd all been playing music for many years with a diverse background in loud sounds - metal, hardcore, indie-rock - you name it. in our slightly advanced ages, we decided that pop was the way to go for the sake of our eardrums and sanity :)
when we first started out, there was no scene or bands of a similar ilk to us at the time over here. indiepop, twee and whatnot were pretty much unheard of as well. so we pretty much did what we thought was cool and interesting and hoped that people would like it. some years down the line, the situation's different. due to the internet making everything more accessible, i believe the asian indiepop scene has been growing considerably. though I'd have to say that malaysia is still lagging behind, as we're still pretty much the sole representative :)
the name ferns came about because we looking for the most ubiquitous yet nondescript thing possible. and we dig one-word names, kinda like wilco - whom we love!
02. if your music were a planet, what would it look like?
a lovely green, verdant earth - a couple of million years ago before bi-pedal humanoids crawled out from the primordial muck and took to throwing their garbage all over the lawn.
03. name a few influences (music, film, comic book, historic figures… anything).
musically, we've always mentioned influences that nobody ever thinks we actually sound like - mercury rev, flaming lips, grandaddy, wilco, and of course any form non pre-fabricated pop music.
another visual moment accompanied by some beautiful tunes.
my heart belongs to cecilia winter is a band from switzerland. their album 'our love will cut through everything' is beautiful. consider this an introduction to their music because they'll appear here in the future.
