I'll have a 'P' please

Labrador favourites who seem to have fallen off the radar singing about European cities beginning with the letter 'P' is the slightly tenuous theme linking our songs today. Acid House Kings have been in the studio laying down some new tracks (man) for what seems like an eternity now; while the previously fairly prolific ex-Edson frontman Pelle Carlberg's website hasn't had an update for getting on for a year and a half. I wish they'd hurry up and come back, anyway. I miss these guys.

Geographical themes aside, the following are up there among my favourite two or three songs by each of these acts. Absolutely chuffing brilliant from start to finish.

Pelle Carlberg - Pamplona mp3

Acid House Kings - Paris mp3

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Carlberg: Probably the best ad music in the world

It's always disappointing when your favourite music is appropriated by The Man (whoever he is) for the purposes of hawking tat on TV commercials; but I was more surprised than anything else when Riverbank by Pelle Carlberg popped up as the music on the latest Kellogg's Special K advert in the UK. It's even more surprising when you bear in mind that the song is actually about unquestioning consumer consumption and opportunistic advertisers shoving their products down our throats. Oh the irony!



Pelle Carlberg - Riverbank mp3

"Have you got room for me?"

Sometimes you come across a band or artist and you wonder why the hell they aren't signed to a label. At this point it's easy to become depressed at the lack of music taste in the world, but if you are me, you blog about it and hope that more people will take an interest and like them too.

This brings me to Ida Maria. She's a 23 year old Norwegian (from a tiny place called Nesna) who is now living in Sweden - ah, those Scandinavians again! Ida Maria and her band, Johannes Lindberg, Olle Lundin and Stefan Törnby, make (mainly) punky pop music. Excellent punky pop music. There's something about her vocal style that sounds really familiar, but I wouldn't compare her directly to anyone due to the variety of her style, although there's more than a hint of Björk in there.

If you decide you like her style (and why wouldn't you?!), the good news is that she's coming to the UK next month and has gigs scheduled at The Roadhouse in Manchester on 12th September and Old Blue Last in London (Shoreditch) on 20th September.

Ida Maria duetted with Pelle Carlberg on the brilliantly titled 'I Love You, You Imbecile', as mentioned in passing by John in this blog. The video is below.


Here are two Ida Maria mp3s for you to download. The first, Louie, is a melodious track that moves along apace and almost cries out for handclaps! Oh My God features Timo Räisänen and is a much more raucous affair - ace! Both are right click and 'save as' jobbies.

Ida Maria - Louie mp3

Ida Maria - Oh My God mp3

These are great songs but I would strongly recommend that you go to Ida Maria's myspace page and listen to the songs there. They are possibly even better. My favourite is 'Better When You're Naked'.
Also head over to the NRK Urørt site where there are more songs to download. I have nowhere to send you to buy her music as of yet but you will know the moment that I do. (Come on, Ida Maria, hurry up and sell us stuff!)

Below you can watch her doing a jazzy song, Pleasure, and looking incredibly cool with a bass guitar.

Carlberg: probably the longest song title in the world

Good news for fans of ex-Edson lead singers everywhere comes today with Labrador's announcement that Pelle Carlberg's new single, the (ahem) pithily-titled Clever Girls Like Clever Boys Much More Than Clever Boys Like Clever Girls has been made available as a free download on the Swedish label's website. Woo and indeed hoo.

Clever Girls is the second single from Pelle's In A Nutshell album, following on from the even-more-catchy, and sublimely-titled, duet (with Ida Maria) I Love You, You Imbecile. Now, much as I like both these songs, I'm wondering why on earth the album's stand-out track, Pamplona, hasn't been released as a single yet*. (Or is that just me?)

Did I mention that I'm a huge fan of the man Carlberg, by the way? He just has to be one of the top singer-songwriters around at the moment, combining winning melodies with some fantastically witty lyrics. His previous solo album, Everything, Now! is even better than the latest one, in my opinion, and would be the ideal starting point for anyone just discovering his music.

Respect is also due to Pelle's previous combo, the sublimely twee Edson, who are well worth checking out also. As well as Mr Carlberg's latest, I've also included Edson's classic single, Sunday, Lovely Sunday as an mp3 here. This is truly one of the greats of the genre and should by rights be number one in pop charts everywhere all year round! (Is that really too much to ask??)

*Actually, now I think about it, I seem to recall Pamplona was released as an MP3 single, before the album came out! Oops...

Edson - Sunday, Lovely Sunday mp3 (right click and "Save Target As" to download)

Pelle Carlberg -
Clever Girls... mp3 (right click and "Save Target As" to download)

Buy Pelle Carlberg & Edson stuff at the Labrador shop