More Swedish Indie Pop (Spotify playlist #4)

It seems that there'd been a slight glitch with my previous Spotify playlists (I'd not enabled some "Social" function button) which meant that some people had been unable to access them; but I'm happy to report that this is all fixed now. Anyway, given that the original Swedish Indiepop playlist has been the most popular so far (four subscribers! Count 'em!) I've cobbled together a sequel of sorts. Or a second one, if you like. Hopefully this should scrub up fairly well also.

The boys of summer

A recently-discovered Swedish indiepop earworm from 1993 today, Waiting For The Summer by Stevepops. Just when I think I've got this whole mid-90s Swindie thing covered, something exciting and new (or new to me) comes along to surprise and delight in equal measure. This are ace!



Stevepops - Waiting For The Summer mp3

Song of the Day

Amazing what treasures you can unearth when listening to compilation albums from your childhood which you'd stupidly thrown out years ago but had recently stumbled upon for 20p in a charity shop and couldn't wait to get back home and play (Hungry For Hits, since you ask). Anyway, this is very cheesy but Spike and me both like it a lot!

1991 (Spotify playlist #3)

With apologies to See See Rider, The Popguns, The Would Be's, Intastella, Curve, Bleach and Mega City Four - all of who would've made this list had the songs of theirs I was after been available - here's my playlist for the best bits of 1991; or at least the bits I liked the best. As ever, simply click on the Spotify link below to listen to the whole thing.

1 Easy Come Easy Go - Grant McLennan
2 Star Sign - Teenage Fanclub
3 Bed-In - Eugenius (Captain America)
4 Oh No Won't Do - Cud
5 Not Too Soon - Throwing Muses
6 Happy - Ned's Atomic Dustbin
7 Heaven Sent An Angel - Revolver
8 Vapour Trail - Ride
9 De-luxe - Lush
10 Suzanne - Moose
11 Mesmerise - Chapterhouse
12 Dreaming - The Lilac Time
13 Nothing Can Stop Us - Saint Etienne
14 It's Too Late - Quartz featuring Dina Carroll
15 Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack
16 Get The Message - Electronic
17 Beautiful Love - Julian Cope
18 Take 5 - Northside
19 Sheriff Fatman - Carter USM
20 One Way - The Levellers
21 Texarkana - R.E.M.
22 Chocolate Cake - Crowded House
23 The King Is Half-Undressed - Jellyfish
24 Sensitize - That Petrol Emotion
25 Dalliance - The Wedding Present
26 Unfamiliar - Ride
27 You Made Me Realise - Midway Still
28 Love Your Money - Daisy Chainsaw
29 Rave Down - Swervedriver
30 Monsters & Angels - Voice of the Beehive
31 Kinky Love - Pale Saints
32 Falling On A Bruise - Carter USM

Click to listen to 1991 Spotify playlist


What do you reckon, have I made any glaring errors? Let me know! I'm guessing there might be some Manic Street Preachers and My Bloody Valentine fans who won't be overimpressed with their omissions, for a start. (Although, in mitigation, I have at least included a version of a MBV song!)

Three of a Kind #110

OK, so as everyone knows, Valentine's Day is basically just an excuse for the greetings card industry and florists to make a killing blah blah blah. But regardless of its rather spurious nature, it does provide us music bloggers with the perfect excuse to post some songs on a theme; most pop songs are on the very subject of love, after all. Here are a few good ones, anyway - a mixture to highlight the ambivalent feelings Valentine's Day can bring about in people (or something). It's also the first Three of a Kind post for five months! Blimey. Anyway, happy Reg Valentine Day!

The Scaremongers - You Can Do Nothing Wrong In My Eyes mp3

Kissing Mirrors - Let's Kill Cupid mp3

Ted Chippington - She Loves You mp3

Song of the Day

Heaven alone knows what made me think of this particular song today...



The Go-Betweens - The Sound of Rain mp3

The Sound of Rain is from The Go-Betweens 78 'til 79 the lost album, which is currently out of print but well worth seeking out.

The Eighties Alternative (Spotify playlist #2)

With apologies to Xanthi, who's unable to access these things in her part of the world (have you seen her blog, by the way? It's brilliant), I have another Spotify playlist for you. This time I've gone for indie & alternative stuff from the 1980s. As ever with these things, I was at the mercy of the Spotify library so there were plenty of songs and artists that I wasn't able to include (which can be a tad frustrating at times). Hopefully the final selection scrubs up fairly well, though.

Your own Freewheel

Despite being a bona fide pop classic, the video for Starfriend by Freewheel has only been viewed a paltry 752 times on YouTube since December 2009. That's barely twice a day. Pitiful. Meanwhile the presumably autobiographical Baby by Justin Bieber has been viewed in excess of four hundred and fifty six million times, despite the fact that he's only about seven, probably. Anyway, a ridiculous state of affairs, I'm sure you'll agree.

So what do you say, let's redress the balance a bit, shall we? Simply by clicking on the video below you'll be ensuring that the difference between the number of times these respective videos of Freewheel & Bieber have been viewed, will have been reduced by one; and if just four hundred and fifty six million, eight hundred and fifty three hundred thousand, seven hundred and sixty five of us do the same, we can make that disparity a thing of the past! (Except for the fact that another three hundred million or so people will doubtless have watched the Bieber vid by that time. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.)



Freewheel - Starfriend mp3

I can't go back to savoury now

The spirit of Kenickie lives on in Don't Look At Me (I Don't Like It), the fantastic new single from Lancaster's own The Lovely Eggs. Singer Holly previously fronted all-girl punk combo Angelica, and this new Lovely Eggs single is, for me, right up there with the Angelica classic Why Did You Let My Kitten Die (which, I was startled to realise, is now over a decade old).

But yes, Don't Look At Me (I Don't Like It) is one of those rare songs that make you remember why you fell in love with pop music in the first place. Ooph! And look - the video features Mr John Shuttleworth!



The Lovely Eggs' second album, Cob Dominos, is released on February 14th through Cherryade Records

Pirate Aggro

Eric Idle and chums spoof Bob Harris and The Old Grey Whistle Test in this clip from the largely forgotten mid-seventies sketch show Rutland Weekend Television. The comedy is very much of its era (i.e. it's a bit un-PC at times) but from what little I've seen of seventies Whistle Tests it seems to hit its target pretty accurately. There's a song from the ever-excellent Neil Innes too.



Also from Rutland Weekend TV, here's George Harrison as you've never seen him before (unless you happened to watch the RWT Christmas Special on Boxing day 1975, in which case here's George Harrison as you've rarely seen him before!).



If you enjoyed those clips, why not do as I am and make your way through the entire series of Rutland Weekend Television, which is, rather thrillingly, available to stream on YouTube via the MontyPyhoNET channel. Hurrah.

A second helping of Swedes

As a postscript to my Swedish Spotify playlist from the other day, here are some additional songs that were omitted but really ought to have made the original list. Some of them weren't included because they weren't available from Spotify, while others missed out because, basically, I forgot all about them until later. Anyway, I'll try and keep the list of additions as brief as possible, but apologies if it goes on a bit - basically, there are far too many great Swedish songs to choose from!















Agent Simple - Make A Right At Jordfallsmotet mp3

Girlfrendo - Heartbreakers mp3

Ronderlin - Reflected mp3

Lucky Lucky Pigeons - Who Smells Marshmallows? mp3

Action Biker - ICA Lappis mp3

Special mention also to Freewheel's Starfriend, Tonight I Have To Leave It by Shout Out Louds, Airport by Like Honey, We're From Barcelona by I'm From Barcelona, Peter, Bjorn & John's Young Folks, Eggstone's Water, 2006 by Hello Saferide, Let's Kill Cupid by Kissing Mirrors and scores of others that'll doubtless come to me about five seconds after I submit this post!

Song of the Day

A cursory blog search has revealed that I haven't linked to today's featured song on here since November 2007. Long overdue for an encore then. From 1987, it's the Brilliant Corners with the utterly fantastic Delilah Sands. And look, there's a video!



Brilliant Corners - Delilah Sands mp3

Definitely made for these times (Spotify playlist #1)

I've just put together a Spotify playlist featuring 32 of my favourite Swedish pop songs from the past two decades. You're very welcome to have a listen if you've got the time, the inclination and, crucially, access to Spotify.

Sharks patrol these waters

Newcastle's Sharks Took The Rest's sound is an eclectic one, embracing many different genres from jazz to folk and trip-hop to classical. Add to this singer Beccy Owen's haunting Kathyrn Williams-esque vocals and the band's mellow, baroque-pop stylings and you've got a recipe for musical success that's already caught the collective ear of the more discerning DJs on our nation's airwaves, including Steve Lamacq, Tom Robinson and Radcliffe & Maconie.

Sharks Took The Rest release their debut five-song EP, Grounds for Hearts to Swell on February 14th through Bandcamp from where, naturally, you can pre-order it and listen to it in its entirety (although perhaps not in that order).

The tracks are all gorgeous but my absolute favourite is probably Ancestors, a live version of which you can watch right here.