Musical Recommendation: Week 16

Jeez, Sweden! What’s up with you and making awesome folksy music?! Honestly, if I come across just one more great Swedish band, I’m going to have to pack up and move there.



Let me introduce you to Johanna and Klara Söderberg, sisters from Stockholm, who together, form the lovely band known as First Aid Kit. I’ve chosen three songs of theirs today, the first being ‘Tangerine’, which was the first demo they sent away to a radio station a few days ago. It’s a live SXSW recording, and it’s pretty good. The next is another live recording of Fever Ray’s song ‘When I Grow Up’, which the sisters covered for a Triple J Like A Version performance. The last song is titled ‘Hard Believer’ and has a great film clip. So I hope you enjoy these lovely folk ladies, and have a grand day!

A Film - June 2011

A short film that I shot yesterday with my friend Nat, accompanied by Danger Beach's song 'Apollo'. Enjoy.

Musical Recommendation: The Swinging 60's

Since I've been unbelievably slack with my posting these last couple weeks, I've prepared something a little special to make up for it. After speaking to my grandparents about the music they listened to when they were younger, I discovered that we had more in common musically than I had once thought. While these songs I have for you today aren't all the one's that they told me about, they come from the musical era that they liked best; the 60's.

The Kinks - All Day and All of The Night

The Animals - Gotta Get Out of This Place

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Purple Haze

The Beatles - Helter Skelter

Voyage: Sweden

Sweden, I adore you.

Peter Bjorn And John - Norrlands Riviera

The Swedish language makes me feel so at peace. Listening to this track makes me instantly relax. It's as though it transports me to a tiny coffee shop, down a poky street, somewhere in Sweden. It's freezing cold and I sip hot drinks all day long. These fellows Peter Bjorn and John are kind of like the essential listening of the Swedish music world, and so I couldn't bear to leave them out.

Vera Vinter – Drömde Om Dig

This is a lovely song by a relatively unknown artist, a lady named Vera Vinter. She comes from a tiny town in Northern Sweden, and this song features some beautiful guitar and wonderful vocals. However, keep in mind that this is an amateur recorded, live clip, and so quality of sound is not excellent.

The Tallest Man On Earth – Where Do My Bluebird Fly

A beautiful live recording of singer-songwriter Kristian Mattson performing live for a Seattle radio station. Becoming more well-known on an international level, The Tallest Man On Earth has released two studio albums and two EP’s over the last four or five years. Mattson has been an opening act for UK band Mumford & Sons, and shares a similar sound. He has also been compared to Bob Dylan, and is a skilled multi-instrumentalist.

 

Fever Ray – When I Grow Up

I love this song’s film clip, and its sound and lyrics. Karin Dreijer Andersson, otherwise known as Fever Ray, seems like such a peaceful and gentle person in this song. She is also the lead vocalist for Swedish brother-sister duo The Knife, whose song Heartbeats was covered by fellow Swede José González, both of which are fantastic.

Lykke Li - I Know Places

A Live performance ‘From the Moon’, Lykke Li releases yet another beautiful song. She always sings with such raw emotion, yet her voice sounds so strong and powerful. I can’t say much else about this incredible musician, except for that I love her.

Fanny Whale - Tim and His Love

Lastly, an unsigned artist, who I so hope makes it big. She's got such a lovely voice, kind of reminiscent of Soko, and some awfully cute lyrics. Also, she plays the ukulele, and that's pretty great. This is such a lovely little song!

The Winter Time

Top o' the mornin' to ya, readers and followers! Well, I kind of dropped the ball didn't I, with all my grand blog plans. I've been busy. It's no real excuse, but I'll use it anyway. The only thing I've really kept regular are my weekly musical recommendations. The rest of my little 'segments' I suppose you could call them, kind of vanished. But! I will continue! I have a lovely long holiday coming up soon in which I plan to create all sorts of wonderful things. I'm working on a little film, too. I really want to post some of my writing up here, since the results of the poll I held pointed towards that, but I'm a wee bit nervous! Never have I allowed for a whole audience of people to look over a story I've written. Maybe soon I will work up the courage...

In other news, it's winter in Brisbane... And Australia too... Anyways, it's sitting at a frosty average of 22˚C for the month of June. A few days ago, it even hailed! As you might be able to tell from the above picture, I got pretty excited. I've never seen so much hail, or heard anything so loud. But the days are quite lovely at the moment, albeit, freezing. They are beautiful and sunny, and it's a shame that I'm stuck inside studying for my end of semester exams. It makes me look forward to summer again, when I will have all the time in the world to hang around outside, and ride my bike around the place in the sun.

Until next time, stay awesome!

Musical Recommendation: Week 15

Augie March are my new musical obsession. I've always liked them, now, I love them. You'd most probably know them from this song, One Crowded Hour. But I'll also recommend Vernoona, Heartbeat And Sails, and The Slant. Also, a great song of theirs called Bottle Baby, which I can't find a video for.
So enjoy!