Posts Tagged ‘Niki & The Dove’

Friday, April 13th, 2012

White Rune

Iceage coming, Iceage coming / Throw him in the fire

Photo via FacebookFacebookOr perhaps that should read, “Vikings coming, Vikings coming”, seeing as how the last few days have seen a flurry of excellent concert announcements from Scandinavian bands.

Not the biggest but certainly of interest is the return of barely out of their teens if even that Danish post-punks Iceage. Their debut New Brigade was as intense as it was brief – not even 25 minutes to get through a dozen tracks – but with enough melodic sensibility to appeal to those who need a little melodicism to make this much angular aggression palatable. Like myself. In any case, their live shows are infamously raucous affairs so it’ll be interesting to see what they do to The Horseshoe when they roll in on July 18, part of a North American tour to get them to Pitchfork Fest; tickets for the show are $12.50 in advance.

MP3: Iceage – “White Rune”
MP3: Iceage – “Broken Bone”
MP3: Iceage – “New Brigade”

With the announcement of his second album There’s No Leaving Now, out June 12, Kristian Matsson – aka The Tallest Man On Earth – is back for a show at The Queen Elizabeth Theatre on June 15. Tickets for that one are $27.50 in advance, on sale today at 10AM and there’s a two-per-customer limit on those so if you’re travelling in a group, you probably won’t be sitting together. Sorry.

MP3: The Tallest Man On Earth – “King Of Spain”
MP3: The Tallest Man On Earth – “Burden Of Tomorrow”
MP3: The Tallest Man On Earth – “Like The Wheel”

And perhaps most excitingly, Sigur Rós make their first return to Toronto since September 2008, though surprisingly it will be their first show in a decade to not happen at Massey Hall; this time, they’ll take advantage of the fact that their show is being geared towards festival season and take things to the outdoors, playing at Echo Beach down at Ontario Place on August 1 before heading to Osheaga and Lollapalooza. Tickets are general admission and go on sale April 19 for $49.50 plus fees. Their new album Valtari is out on May 28.

MP3: Sigur Rós – “Starálfur”
MP3: Sigur Rós – “Svefn-G-Englar”
MP3: Sigur Rós – “Gobbledigook”
MP3: Sigur Rós – “Hoppípolla”

If only a Norwegian band could have announced some dates this week, I’d have had the full set. They’ll have to settle for representation from Ane Brun, who’s now based in Sweden, and has made a track from her new album It All Starts With One available to download; it’s out May 1 and she’s at The Great Hall on May 10. Contact Music also has an interview.

MP3: Ane Brun – “Do You Remember”

The Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, and Georgia Straight welcome First Aid Kit to the west coast with questions. So many questions.

Londonist interviews Amanda Mair, whose self-titled debut is out in North America on June 5.

Niki & The Dove’s debut album Instinct now has a North American release date and it’s three months after the European one – it will be out via Sub Pop on August 7 over here. Until then, you can hear five tracks from it via a YouTube stream.

Stream: Niki & The Dove / Instinct sampler

NPR welcomes Fanfarlo for a World Cafe session.

The Amelia Fletcher-fronted Tender Trap returns with Ten Songs About Girls, aka ten songs of indie-pop goodness, this July and the first single is now available to stream. Clash has more details on the release.

Stream: Tender Trap – “Love Is Hard Enough”

Also making a return – Neil Halstead with his third solo record Palindrome Hunches, due out in August.

The Joy Formidable may have wrapped up their North American tour and gone back to the UK, but they’ve left parting gifts in the form of a live mini-concert recorded for YouTube Presents.

Video: The Joy Formidable @ YouTube Presents

New Twilight Sad video.

Video: The Twilight Sad – “Dead City”

Summer Camp are put in front of the camera for video sessions with Gold Flake Paint and All Saints.

Charlotte Hatherley’s Sylver Tongue electro-pop persona has premiered a new video via The Guardian.

Video: Sylver Tongue – “Creatures”

Yuck has a new song; let them stream it for you.

Stream: Yuck – “Chew”

Justin Young of The Vaccines updates BBC on the recording of album number two.

Spin, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Wall Street Journal talk to Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce about their new record Sweet Heart Sweet Light, out next week. They’re at The Phoenix on May 5.

The Fly and Edinburgh Evening News chat with Graham Coxon.

Both Rolling Stone and Spin talk The Smiths with Johnny Marr.

Monday, April 2nd, 2012

Seamonsters

The Wedding Present, The Jet Age, Toquiwa and Zarigani $ at The Horseshoe in Toronto

Photo By Frank YangFrank YangSomewhere over the last few weeks Sunday night’s Wedding Present show at The Horseshoe got co-opted as the “closing party” for Canadian Musicfest, an appellation I personally refused to acknowledge. The 21st anniversary show for Seamonsters? Absolutely. The tour in support of their just-released new record Valentina? Certainly. Closing party for a festival that at no point acknowledged the band as part of their programme or acknowledged they were exponentially greater than most everyone else who played? Not so much. But I suppose if you got in for free on account of having a CMW wristband, then you probably weren’t complaining.

And if you got there in time to see the openers, you were probably a little confused. Which is fair. Of the two bands listed as accompanying The Wedding Present on this Spring tour – Washington D.C.’s Jet Age or Tokyo’s Pinky Piglets – it was never clear which was going to be at the Toronto show, which was right at the changeover point of the routing. As it turned out we were getting both but even so, there was some further confusion as Pinky Piglets no longer existed having opted to change their name to the more cryptic Toquiwa and even then, they weren’t the band that took the stage first – that was the drum and bass duo called Zarigani $, who were also Toquiwa’s rhythm section and completely unbilled; I wouldn’t have even known what they were called had it not been for the helpful sign hanging off a keyboard stand. Got all that? No? That’s okay. They played some cartoon version of punk-prog for about 15 minutes – far too short a set to try and bridge the cultural divide and understand it – and then brought out two more members and transformed, Voltron-style, into Toquiwa.

And though no less bizarre to behold, they were at least somewhat easier to get a handle on. The addition of a guitarist and lead singer solidified a kind of punk/rockabilliy aesthetic, though still totally cartoon-like. The quartet looked like they were plucked straight off the playground of the Tokyo chapter of The School Of Rock, though the ease with which singer Asuja pounded back a beer adorably solicited from the audience was a hint that they were a bit older than they looked. In any case, it was energetic, ridiculous, gobs of fun and the band thanked The Wedding Present for taking them out on tour by covering “Kennedy” in their own unique manner.

The Jet Age, on the other hand, were about as opposite a band as you were likely to find, comprised of three guys who appeared to have lived through and learned from the days of ’90s college rock. They were a pretty straight power trio playing pretty straight rock with hints of hardcore in their DNA, each player clearly proficient with their instrument but having a fair bit of trouble sounding like they were actually playing with one another instead of overtop, falling out of time with each other on more than few occasions. Their monitors may have had something to do with it – their timing seemed to improve after some adjustments to their mixes – but that didn’t do anything to address the fact that their songs were, at best, unmemorable.

It sounds a bit perverse, but I actually had to make every effort to avoid seeing The Wedding Present at SXSW. They were playing a number of shows there but only one was a Seamonsters recital – I was actually there right before they went on and fled – so I would have had to catch at least two of them to equal this one and festival burnout notwithstanding, seeing them back in Toronto seemed the most logical thing to do. And kudos to The Wedding Present for being clever enough to keep me coming back; this would be my seventh time seeing David Gedge and company in the past decade or so, most recently in April 2010 doing Bizarro. So you’d think that I could skip one, but not seeing/hearing them play Seamonsters wasn’t even on the table – it’s easily my favourite Wedding Present record, marking the point at which they really evolved beyond being a clever singles band with a distinctive sound to an outfit capable of creating complete albums that were both emotionally and sonically rich.

Which is not to say that just hearing them showcase Valentina wouldn’t have been sufficient draw. Whatever he’s called his project, Gedge has been a remarkably consistent songwriter over the past quarter-century and even with the four-year layoff from El Rey, he’s not lost a step. It doesn’t break new ground – at this point, that’s not something to be expected – but does prove that the failures and foibles of romance will always be fertile ground for someone like Gedge to till and Valentina confirms that his lyrical edge is sharp as ever and musically, well loud guitars really never go out of style.

Unlike the Bizarro show where they had no new record to push and were thus able to preface the main event with a random selection of material drawn from throughout their career, this night’s first act leaned heavily on Valentina but the back catalog sprinkles – particularly “Quick Before It Melts” from the Cinerama years and Take Fountain closer “Perfect Blue” – were unexpected but tasty. That’s an upside of a band with a signature sound – with nothing ever sounding out of place in the set, you never know what they’ll pull out of their hats.

Well with the Seamonsters set, I suppose you knew exactly what they were going to do, and even though this was far from the same band that recorded that record – all the non-Gedge members were long gone and even this 2012 lineup was different from the one here last time, longtime bassist Terry de Castro having retired at the end of 2010 – they still attacked the material with the intensity you might expect from those who originally crafted it. I’d heard many of the songs included in sets before – and they were usually highlights – but played end to end they were able to recreate that crucial dimension of its flow, with all the churn, drone and lurch of the recording. It didn’t reproduce the gut-punch I felt when I heard it the first time, but it recalled it and that’s really all you could ask for. And while the band stuck to their tradition of not playing encores, that they played two more songs after the final note of “Octopussy” died out – not the bonus tracks from the US edition, that’d have been too much to hope – felt just as good.

And so what’s next? It’s still a few years before the 20th anniversary of Watusi; maybe the band will have gotten the right back and the album back in print by then? Be kind of an odd anniversary show otherwise. Or maybe a return to Cinerama! I’d be there. And possibly the only one.

BlogTO also has a review of the show and The Japan Times talks to Toquiwa about how they ended up touring with The Wedding Present.

Photos: The Wedding Present, The Jet Age, Toquiwa, Zarigani$ @ The Horseshoe – March 25, 2012
MP3: The Wedding Present – “You’re Dead”
MP3: The Wedding Present – “The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girl Friend”
Video: The Wedding Present – “You Jane”
Video: The Wedding Present – “You’re Dead”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Don’t Take Me Home Until I’m Drunk”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Ringway To Seatac”
Video: The Wedding Present – “I’m From Further North Than You”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Don’t Touch That Dial”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Interstate 5”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family”
Video: The Wedding Present – “No Christmas”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Loveslave”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Boing!”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Come Play With Me”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Silver Shorts”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Three”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Go Go Dancer”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Blue Eyes”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Dalliance”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Crawl”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Brassneck”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?”
Video: The Wedding Present – “Nobody’s Twisting Your Arm”
Video: The Jet Age – “I Want You”
Video: The Jet Age – “I’m Starting To Wonder”
Video: Toquiwa – “Tokyo Merry Go Round”

Having taken an extended break following 2009’s disappointing Quicken The Heart, Maximo Park return on June 11 with album number four, The National Health. The title track is available to stream and initial impressions are that the time off has done them a world of good. Hope that’s the case.

Stream: Maximo Park – “The National Health”

DIY talks to The Futureheads about their new a capella record Rant, out this week, from which they’ve just released a video and there’s another “no instruments, please” video performance over at Digital Spy.

Video: The Futureheads – “The Old Dun Cow”

The Herald has a feature interview with Gerard Love, while The Guardian is streaming the whole of Electric Cables, the Teenage Fanclub songwriter’s gorgeous x1000 solo debut as Lightships, out this week.

Stream: Lightships / Electric Cables

The Fly check in with Hot Chip as they prepare for the June 12 release of In Our Heads and subsequent live date at The Sound Academy on July 15.

The Line Of Best Fit gets to know Fanfarlo.

Stereogum talks to Jason Pierce of Spiritualized about their new album Sweet Heart Sweet Light, out April 17. They play The Phoenix on May 5.

NPR talks to Noel Gallagher.

Clash interviews Graham Coxon.

The AV Club offers a Gateway To Geekery for Britpop, suggesting entry points for the works of Suede, Blur, and Pulp amongst others. I can offer a more concise guide: all of them. You’re welcome.

The Tallest Man On Earth has announced a new album entitled There’s No Leaving Now, due out June 12. Exclaim has details as well as some – not all – North American tour dates.

Niki & The Dove have released a new video from their forthcoming debut Instinct, out May 14 in Europe; a North American release date has not yet been confirmed.

Video: Niki & The Dove – “Tomorrow”

The Boston Globe and NOW talk to First Aid Kit while NPR puts them behind a Tiny Desk and makes them play a show. They do the same though from a regular old stage on April 4 at The Great Hall.

Daytrotter has posted a session with The Raveonettes.

MusicOmh chats with Pip Browne of Ladyhawke, whose new album Anxiety is out May 25.

Saturday, March 24th, 2012

SXSW 2012 Day One A/V

Photo By Frank YangFrank YangWords to go with the first afternoon spent in sunny Austin can be found over here.

Blouse
– Portland dream-pop outfit indebted to the ’80s who released their self-titled debut last Fall and will be at The Garrison on May 5 opening for Bear In Heaven.

Photos: Blouse @ Shangri-La – March 14, 2012
MP3: Blouse – “Into Black”
Video: Blouse – “Ghost Dream”
Video: Blouse – “Videotapes”
Video: Blouse – “Into Black”
Stream: Blouse / Blouse

Niki & The Dove
– After months of buzz-building, the Swedish electro-pop duo who echo any and all of Kate Bush, The Knife and Lykke Li are ready to release their debut album Instinct on May 14. Daytrotter just posted a session with the band and another of their SXSW performances at the Hype Hotel can be watched in full at Livestream.

Photos: Niki & The Dove @ Flamingo Cantina – March 14, 2012
MP3: Niki & The Dove – “The Fox”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “The Fox”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “DJ Ease My Mind”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “Mother Protect”
Video: Niki & The Dove – “The Drummer”
Stream: Niki & The Dove / The Drummer

La Sera
– Side-project from Vivian Girls bassist Kickball Katy – aka Katy Goodman – that treads the same real estate but gets out of the garage and cleans itself up a bit; their second album Sees The Light was just released. Austinist has an interview.

Photos: La Sera @ Red 7 Patio – March 14, 2012
MP3: La Sera – “Please Be My Third Eye”
MP3: La Sera – “Never Come Around”
MP3: La Sera – “Break My Heart”
Video: La Sera – “Real Boy/Drive On”
Video: La Sera – “Please Be My Third Eye”
Video: La Sera – “Never Come Around”
Video: La Sera – “Devil Hearts Grow Cold”

Widowspeak
– Country-gaze that melts in your ears thanks to the vocals of Molly Hamilton; their self-titled debut almost makes the return of Mazzy Star unneecssary.

Photos: Widowspeak @ Red 7 Patio – March 14, 2012
MP3: Widowspeak – “Harsh Realm”
MP3: Widowspeak – “Gun Shy”

Korallreven
Radio Dept. offshoot that proves via their debut album An Album By Korallreven that chillwave from Sweden doesn’t sound too different from chillwave made domestically, just with better guest vocalists. There’s interviews at Gapers Block, Prefix, We Love DC, and The Village Voice.

Photos: Korallreven @ Red 7 – March 14, 2012
MP3: Korallreven -“Sa Sa Samoa” (featuring Julianna Barwick)
MP3: Korallreven – “As Young As Yesterday” (featuring Victoria Bergsman)
MP3: Korallreven – “Honey Mine” (featuring Victoria Bergsman)
Video: Korallreven – “The Truest Faith”
Video: Korallreven – “Sa Sa Samoa”
video: Korallreven – “As Young As Yesterday”

Blood Orange
– Former Lightspeed Champion making bedroom funk-soul for the masses via his debut album Coastal Grooves.

Photos: Blood Orange @ The Mohawk Patio – March 14, 2012
MP3: Blood Orange – “Dinner”
MP3: Blood Orange – “Sutphin Boulevard”
MP3: Blood Orange – “Champagne Coast”
Video: Blood Orange – “Forget It”
Video: Blood Orange – “Sutphin Boulevard”
Video: Blood Orange – “Dinner”
Video: Blood Orange – “S’Cooled”
Video: Blood Orange – “I’m Sorry We Lied”

Clock Opera
– London-based quartet who’ve moved from doing remixes for others to making arena-sized electro-rock for themselves. Their debut full-length Ways To Forget comes out April 23.

Photos: Clock Opera @ The Mohawk – March 14, 2012
MP3: Clock Opera – “Once And For All”
MP3: Clock Opera – “Belongings” (live at Maida Vale)
Video: Clock Opera – “Man Made”
Video: Clock Opera – “Once And For All” (2012)
Video: Clock Opera – “Lesson No. 7”
Video: Clock Opera – “Belongings”
Video: Clock Opera – “Once And For All”
Video: Clock Opera – “White Noise”

Friday, March 16th, 2012

SXSW 2012 Day One

Niki & The Dove, Blood Orange, Widowspeak and more at SXSW

Photo By Frank YangFrank YangAs something of a SXSW veteran – eight years, now – one thing I try to explain to the newbs heading down to the big Texan throwdown is that there’s simply so much happening at any given time that it’s a mathematical certainty that you’re missing something great. So don’t sweat it, enjoy what you’re at and don’t try to do too much or it will cost you not far down the road. I think it’s good advice, and for the first proper day of the festival, it’s advice I probably should have taken.

But then it’s just so easy to see stuff. Wednesday started out on the east end at Shangri-La for Portland’s Blouse, even though their electro-pop was probably better suited to post-midnight moods rather than the bright noontime sun, they made it work. The four-piece actually sounded better than I’d have expected based on some live performance videos I’d seen – tighter and more precise. They were as icy as you’d want but smooth and deliberate, and seemed more comfortable live than their origins as a studio project might have led you to expect.

With Swedes Niki & The Dove being one of the hotter and busier acts going into SXSW, I thought I might have some trouble getting in to see them. But the nice thing about 1:30PM is that a lot of people are still asleep and/or hung over, which made getting into their Under The Radar showcase much easier than I expected. As was evident from the abbreviated set I saw in Iceland, the duo had star quality in spades and within the first three songs, demonstrated their command of pop, dance and balladry all while maintaining a consistent sound reminiscent of a bedazzled, electro-pop Kate Bush. Their debut album Instinct, out May 14, should be big.

I know that set times are no sure thing – particularly for day shows – but it’s always annoying when someone gets bumped on the order of hours. So upon getting to The Mohawk and seeing that Blood Orange got moved back two hours, plan B went into effect and doubled back to Red 7’s patio. Seeing La Sera wasn’t part of that plan but was a pretty good bit of luck as it turns out I like them more than Vivian Girls. Having never been a real Vivian Girls fan, I probably needed the reminding that Katy Goodman can sing and she can write and – as turned out to be necessary – she can recover from an self-immolating bass amp. Good, light-hearted pop songs and big smiles.

But they were just a warm-up for Widowspeak, whom I had come to regret missing on their visit to Toronto last Fall. The sweet shyness of their self-titled debut came across with much more coyly, even playfully, in the live setting thanks to Molly Hamilton’s magnetic presence and glowing smile. It was quite a contrast to their labelmates Blouse whom I started the day with; warmth versus detachment, honey versus ice. Both delicious in their way but Widowspeak really hit the spot.

Korallreven was on my schedule by virtue of being a Radio Dept. offshoot – they share keyboardist Daniel Tjäder on their rosters – but I didn’t really plan on making an effort to see them, they were more of a safety. But when they’re starting to play the moment you enter the room – I had to cut through the Red 7 inside room to leave – you may as well check them out. The presence of live instrumentation and a singer made me hope the live show would be more focused than their An Album By Korallreven, which I filed largely under pretty but hazy chillwave. And while it sounded alright – there was definitely more immediacy to it all – it was still pretty low key in delivery. I stuck around for a bit then headed back to re-engage plan A at The Mohawk.

When Dev Hynes – aka Blood Orange – started his set, just singing overtop pre-recorded backing tracks – I kind of hoped that there were some in the audience who were unfamiliar with him ready to dismiss him as some kind of karaoke act; that would have make their inevitable jaw drop when he picked up his guitar that much more delicious. As demonstrated when he came through Toronto last October, Hynes makes the one-man show far more dynamic and engaging than anyone could expect, ripping guitar solo after guitar solo between crooning funk-soul verses be it from the stage or in the audience. Blood Orange may have begun as a bedroom studio project, but rather than abandon that aesthetic to bring Coastal Grooves to the stage, he’s instead brought the stage into his bedroom – with sexy results.

I’d meant to save London’s Clock Opera – one of last year’s discoveries – for later in the week, but they were playing the inside room of The Mohawk right then and there so… yeah. May as well. And if there was any acts that I’d be fine with seeing multiple time over the festival, they were one. It turned out to not be quite then and there as their set was delayed with soundchecking – their electro-rock , but when they got underway it was mostly all good. Mostly, because the material they opened with – presumably new songs from Ways To Forget, out April 23 – wasn’t as immediate as the singles that had built their buzz over the past year, but by the time their set wrapped with the trio of “Once And For All”, “Belongings” and “Lesson No. 7” the energy was definitely there. Net terms, it wasn’t as anthemically triumphant as past shows I’d seen but that made a good excuse to see them again later in the week – maybe they’d have found their groove or maybe they’d be burnt out. We would see. Though with seven bands in the first afternoon, odds were that I’d be the one burnt out.

Friday, February 24th, 2012

Hook You Up

Charlotte Hatherley reveals herself as Sylver Tongue devil

Photo via GuardianThe GuardianWith her tenure in Ash, as sidewoman to the likes of KT Tunstall and Bat For Lashes and a solo career that’s yielded three good albums, Charlotte Hatherley has pretty well established herself as a purveyor of sharp, smart power-pop and more than a bit of a guitar heroine. But apparently she’s been hiding another side of herself that worships at the altar of ’80s-vintage electro-pop and that side has now surfaced under the guise of Sylver Tongue.

So far there’s just the one single to represent her first work since 2009’s New Worlds, but it comes with an accompanying video that demonstrates in no uncertain terms what the aesthetic of the project is, which is to say happily neon and glammy. The track itself is far from a club floor banger, its dreamy pace probably better suited for slow dances at proms and if you traded some synths for guits, it wouldn’t have been out of place on her second album The Deep Blue. In any case, it’s good to know that Hatherley remains a solid songwriter, whatever the genre or identity.

Album information is still forthcoming, but the “New band of the day” feature at The Guardian implies they’ve heard more from her and they like it. Which bodes well.

MP3: Sylver Tongue – “Hook You Up”
Video: Sylver Tongue – “Hook You Up”

The Independent and The Fly have interviews with Beth Jeans Houghton.

Pitchfork has got the… interesting cover art from the new Spiritualized record Sweet Heart Sweet Light, due out April 17, and a stream of the first single. They’re at The Phoenix on May 5.

Stream: Spiritualized – “Hey Jane”

SXSW chats with We Were Promised Jetpacks, who will be at Lee’s Palace on April 15.

Mystery Jets have given their fourth album a title of Radlands and a release date of April 30; some details on the release and a trailer for the album can be found at Exclaim.

Charles Watson of Slow Club talks to The Vinyl District.

The Fly chats with the Brewis brothers of Field Music.

NPR has a World Cafe session with Los Campesinos!.

DIY interviews Fanfarlo, whose Rooms Filled With Light comes out on Tuesday, February 28. They play The Mod Club on March 25.

The April 17 Kaiser Chiefs show at The Phoenix has been moved to The Opera House due to “scheduling conflicts”, so don’t read the downgrade in venue as indicative of their popularity. No, seriously.

English DJ-type guy Star Slinger is back for a show at Lee’s Palace on May 14 as part of a Spring tour.

MP3: Star Slinger – “Mornin'”
MP3: Star Slinger – “Minted”

James Blake talks to Spinner about where he wants to head, musically-speaking, next.

Under The Radar has got videos of Blur’s comeback performance at The Brits earlier this week, and The Quietus examines the merits of some of their lesser-known, non-album tracks. Oh, and they’re now headlining the Way Out West festival in Gothenburg, Sweden in August – anyone want to go?

Holy Moly has a sit-down with Niki & The Dove. Their debut Instinct is out May 14.

The Line Of Best Fit has posted a video session with The Mary Onettes.

Denmark’s Alcoholic Faith Mission, whom I believe impressed a lot of people when they were here for NXNE last year, are coming back for a date at The Drake on May 2, tickets $13.50 in advance. They’re giving away their last album Daylight From Above until February 29 over here and their new one Ask Me This comes out March 27.

MP3: Alcoholic Faith Mission – “Running With Insanity”

Paste has an interview with Icelandic composer Ólufar Arnalds about his two new releases: Living Room Songs, which collects tracks that were recorded and released one a day last October and Another Happy Day, which is a soundtrack to the film of the same name and out next week. One of the Living Room Songs tracks also has a video, even though clips of the actual recording sessions for each song are also out there. Arnalds was one of the highlights at Iceland Airwaves last year, and has been soundtracking a lot of my time lately. Recommended if you like pretty things.

MP3: Ólufar Arnalds – “Near Light”
Video: Ólufar Arnalds – “Near Light”
Stream: Ólufar Arnalds / Another Happy Day original soundtrack and Living Room Songs