Persil are a band whose music I have been listening to for a couple of years now but I had never manage to catch live until I finally got to see them at the Truck Festival last weekend.

The band are David and Martine who hail from Amsterdam. They have just released their second album in the UK entitled Comfort Noise and it's a mix of fuzzy indie pop tunes with a healthy dose of electronica thrown in.

You can stream tracks from the new album from My Space or you can download the best track from the new album called Light Up My Life from here. You can also download a track from each of their three Peel sessions from their music page. And if that has whetted your appetite head to Bailrigg FM where you can download a whole session the band recorded for that station last year. Actually why you are there do yourself a favour and download the session by Decoration too.

Buy Persil's music.

I have postings on other artists who appeared at Truck on my site. Well that's my last guest post for now so thanks to Laura for having me.

Hello all the lovely readers of Laura's blog. It's Tim from the face of today and the contrast podcast here sending you all a great big British hug.

Laura said that we could post whatever we wanted while she was away ... which is a bit risky if you ask me! Anywho, I thought I'd share something with you that I made myself.

I don't think that there is anything wrong with blowing your own trumpet!!

Hands up everyone who has heard of Victor Scott? Well, a couple of weeks ago I did my own acapella version of his hit 'gotta go' and I'm suspecting that you might like it.

tim young - gotta go (victor scott cover)

... and in case you haven't heard it ....

victor scott - gotta go

Thanks to Laura for inviting me to post here!

Hello. This is Tom from indie-mp3, one of many bloggers blogsitting for Laura whilst she is away in China. I thought I would write a quick piece on a band that is never far away from my stereo, pc or mp3 player!

The Acid House Kings have nothing to do with electro, techno or trance. They are without doubt Sweden's premier indie pop outfit and have been making luscious tunes for well over a decade. Inspired by the English 1980's independent music scene they have blended this with a love of Phil Spector inspired 60's girl bands. And if you were a mad professor you would shout "eureka" as this forumla works!

The band have released five albums and six singles since 1992's Play Pop! EP and members appear in other bands such as Club 8, Poprace and The Legends. I would recommend getting hold of Mondays are like Tuesdays and Tuesdays are like Wednesdays (2002) or Sing along with Acid House Kings (2005) for starters. Here is a track each from both albums:

Acid House Kings - Sunday Morning
Acid House Kings - Do What You Wanna Do

The band have also covered the Loveninjas' track Keep Your Love. It's taken from their last release Do What You Wanna Do EP which was released earlier this year.

Acid House Kings - Keep Your Love
Loveninjas - Keep Your Love

Sweden is a hot bed of indie-pop right now. If you want to find out more this is an introduction I wrote for the Take Your Medicine blog earlier this year.

Hey hey! My name is Kyle and I write a Madison, WI based music/art blog called I'm Just Sayin Is All... While I have control here at the beautiful Bubble Death, I'd like to dirty it up a bit by introducing a cast of favourite artists that frequent my blog.
An enigmatic UK guerrilla artist named Banksy is screaming with spray paint at the concrete walls that construct modern society, unfortunately standing more predominantly as sales mechanisms than as pillars of our communities. His unique stencil designs and confrontational messages often take the form of a sarcastic, street-roaming rat who becomes refreshingly artistic company on the daily corporate commute.

If you haven't yet been converted to the glistening church of Leslie Hall, let me be the overly-expressive evangelist that shows you the light. Adorned with the chubby wisdom of the proverbial Buddah and a mosaic of gemstones, Leslie's belly resonates with the beats of greatness and produces the stadium anthems that will unite the world at the modern Mecca of internet culture. Never without her trusty beatbox, the research-based jams of Dr. Laura, and a nationwide following of junior gems that puts the dusty disciples to shame (c'mon only 12?), Leslie is taking her traveling truth on a tour of the Western US deserts (for more than 40 days and certainly with more food). Check out the reverberating-rhinestoned-riot-rhythms on herspace or at a service near you. Internalize these beats and become henchmen of the gemmed word. Help reflect Leslie's dancing brilliance to enlighten the grey cashmere of the sinning populous.

Leslie & The Lys - Gold Pants (mp3)


Next, checkout a rising phenomena from Madison, WI and pioneer of danceable neuro-core Giddings Love for Who. The band's intriguing structures, ambient-laced complexity, and dynamic lead vocals (Timothy Oyen) amazingly inspires both thought and dance... a deadly combination. They are my current favourite and my blog's New Band to Watch.

Giddings Love for Who - Step to Stream to Rivulet (mp3)


Giddings Love for Who - The Inevitable Pseudo Boy (mp3)

The Prototypes-Ici Ou Peut-Etre Demain

I don't speak French at all, but I can recognize the snippets of English in that chorus, and I can most definitely recognize the shaking, dancing energetic beat and the twisting tempo, the insistent catchy bounce, the non-stop shimmering of instruments, and the clapping, snapping, stomping that reminds me of such English speaking, dancing happy artists like The Go! Team. Pure, foreign fun from The Prototypes (and yeah, I know, they've been loved by other bloggers. But again, never+better=late.)

Annoncement #2:

I will be leaving this Sunday for China, for a whole three weeks! I think, to make the trip even more interesting than it will be, I will attempt to write about things, David Sedaris style. But, of course, I won't be mp3 blogging while away! So, lucky you guys, some of my favorite bloggers will be guest posting! Give them lots of love. I know I'm very excited to see a little variety on my own blog!

The novel: A Dirty Job-Christopher Moore

Okay, that's it, Christopher Moore is officially my new favorite fiction humor writer. Sorry, Terry Pratchett and Carl Hiaasen, but this was too great not to jump him up way up on my internal "favorites" list.

Here are some reasons why this book is so great:
*I finished it in two days. Yes, two days. And it's not really a short book.
*It's about death.
*It's about death.
*It has the most adorable cover art ever.
*It features squirrels and other animals dressed up in high fashion.
*It features a tall, black man named Minty Fresh, who is also a Death Merchant.
*It features hellhounds who plays with a baby girl.
*It features mythology refrences that all blend in.
*It's hilarious, charming, and also has that trace of saddness within the storyline.
*It's about death.
*It features wacky characters that are part stereotype, but more part hysterical.
*Everything is "like bear."
*It features an illustrated guide to being Death.
*Oh, for God's sake, isn't that reason enough?

Brilliant. Christopher Moore is now utterly amazing in my book (uh, no pun intended...)

Oh, and also, I was trying to find a song that has to do with Death that has some of the wonderful qualities of this book, and that was all sorts of challenging, because they are generally sad, or just off topic. So, if you know of any crazy, funny, charming, good songs about death, do tell me about it. Death is such a fun subject to tackle, and musicians really ought to embrace it more. Love is so boring now, isn't it?

Camera Obscura-Books Written for Girls (Synonym remix)

Camera Obscura had this exclusive remix by Synonym up on their website, but I got really frustrated with the wma format and the non existant tagging and took the liberty of converting it to mp3 and correcting the info, and hopefully making life a little easier/better for you with the song.

The original version of this song is one of those few pieces of music that can reach that delicate place, that point wavering between beauty and saddness, art and heart, that moment where the music is all you can hear--it's all you want to hear--and it chases after, haunting, and powerful, and that amazing. While this remix does not reach the emotional heights of that song, the beauty and charm is not lost, and there is this space, this hallowed air that suits the song within the dreamy, detached electronic beats and quivers. "A poor man's Belle & Sebastian?" That's definitely not Camera Obscura. And somehow, this remix seems to make the point even better than they can. A wonderful hallway of the now, not so twee, love.

Feist-Secret Heart (New U.S. Version)

I'm not sure what the story is with this so called "New USA Secret Heart" that Feist put on her Myspace, but whatever it is, I'm super happy about it. The original version of the song is already one amazing piece of music, but on this one, the hesitation, the apprehension, the ever so detectable taunting in Feist's voice is brushed and stripped to tinted, fragile, beauty in the verses. And the chorus? The crashing of full instruments? A whole rush to contrast the tender quivers of the verses? This is why we love Feist so much, guys.

The Sky Drops-Now Would Be

There is a crash. This is tension. There are vaguely metal sounding riffs. There is a roar, a step, waves swallowing. There is ambience and fuzzy guitars. There is "adult alternative" like lyrics. There is scattering. Drifting. There is a squeezing of muscles and darkening of tone. There is a general sense of goodness.