We are happy to announce that the new Firefly Effect album – Try again, fail again, fail better (POP63), is ready and fresh from print! The great debut album, Everything is Beautiful and You are the Reason from 2009, received great critics, and we do believe pop lovers will enjoy the tasteful meal they serve us this time as well: Dance-alongs, sing-alongs, warm, happy songs with a touch of melancholy, blended together just as it has to be. Even a sad song as Heart of Gold makes you feel good.

Beware, beware! Saturday, March 5, is Perfect Pop Night at Union Scene in Drammen, and the following bands are going to please those who use this unique opportunity to be in the right place at the right time:

* An Ananas. Never heard about them? They consist of three members from The Jessica Fletchers. They sound very differently, though we’re still talking pop marked Q for Quality.

* The Southern Alps. It’s been a long time since we last wrote about them here. Now our favourite New Zealand mountains are back, sounding better than ever.

* Astroburger. Our heroes in Astroburger are still going strong, and they will once again please any pop heart with their timeless songs.

The doors to the concert venue will open at 21.00. A warning may be due: First band may go on stage as early as 21.15 hours.

Where: Union Scene, Drammen.
When: Saturday, March 5, 21.00 hours.
Admission: NOK 150,-

You get two chances to see Firefly Effect live at by:Larm;

Revolver Thursday 17.02 – stage time 00:30
Tilt             Saturday  19.02 – stage time 21:30

The band received great critics for their debutalbum “Everything is beautiful, and you are the reason”. In the beginning of April, poplovers will find Firefly Effects second album in store: “Try again, fail again, fail better”. A radiosingle is soon too be released, the very beautiful “Heart of gold”. Enjoy!

Are you having sleepless nights over the fact that you’re still missing Robert Birdeye’s second EP in your collection of ultracool vinyl artifacts from Perfect Pop Records? In that case, the joyous news is that this legendary release once again is available in our popshop. For aeons we suspected that Robert Birdeye himself had a secret warehouse somewhere, stacked to the ceiling with unsold copies. And now, the story can be told – it wasn’t far from the truth. One day, as we dropped by Birdye’s apartment while he was in Spendless for a drum recording on an as-yet-nameless band project, we made a quick search, and were astonished to find a stack of these rare EPs stashed away in a secret hiding place in the wall of his bedroom!

Firefly Effect is doing one of their rare shows on Wednesday this week. Since last time, they have put the finishing touches to their follow-up album, which has been titled Try Again, Fail Gain, Fail Better, due out early 2011. The band will use the opportunity to play a good part of the forthcoming album, garnered with a few hits from their debut Everything Is Beatiful And You Are The Reason.

Date: December 8
Place: Mir, Toftesgt 69
Admission: 50 kroner
Band starts playing no later than 22.00

As mentioned earlier there was a rumour floating around regarding The Loch Ness Mouse’s plan to play their entire debut album, Flair for Darjeeling in Oslo some time during August. Apparently this rumour appeared to be somewhat false, but do not despair, it’s gonna happen in September instead.

Date: September 15th 2010
Venue: Garage Oslo
Tickets: NOK 80,-

Since the event will take place on the small stage on the ground floor, concider the possibility that the gig may well be sold out in advance. If this is something you really don’t wanna miss out on, try to get hold of a ticket as soon as possible.

Je Suis Animal will play at the Green Man festival in Wales next Sunday, and will upfront do two shows in Bristol and London.

August 19th 2010 at The Croft in Bristol. The Hysterical Injury, Drunk Granny and Lonely Tourist will also play that evening. Doors open 8 PM.

August 20th 2010 at The Drop (downstairs at The Three Crowns pub, 175 Stoke Newington High St) in London. In addition Still Corners will be playing, and they will also launch their new 7″ single called Don’t Fall in Love. Hong Kong In The 60s will also be playing. Doors open 7 PM.

August 22nd 2010 at Green Man festival in Wales. Tickets are sold out long ago, so if you don’t have a ticket the only hope is that you are not older than the age of 12. If so – you will, according to the web page of the festival, come for free. Je Suis Animal will play 1.45 PM at the Far Out stage.

While most people spend their summers relaxing and claiming well earned vacations, our friends in The Loch Ness Mouse spent theirs on music. They released a luxury edition of their legendary debut album Flair for Darjeeling on Hype City Records in early July. CD1 contains the album in a remastered version, while CD2, called Flair for Skulerud, contains 11 tracks where 9 is carefully picked from a variety of vinyl releases, and the last two tracks is never heard before.

The first of the two tracks is No Flowers For Florine, and was supposed to be released on a Japanese tribute to The Bartlebees, but this release never saw the light of day. The other track, called Sotheby’s, was recorded during the same session as Ceylon Sailor.

The release was paired with a concert where the band played the entire Flair For Darjeeling at the Egersund Visefestival, and the latest rumours literally scream that this will occur again somewhere in Oslo sometime in August. Let’s just cross our fingers and hope there are some reality in these rumours. 

The Loch Ness Mouse have also released a split 7″ together with Mary Me Young on Sirkel Records. The song is called Small Scale  (3000ft high and still rising), and you can get it in our PoPstore now!

If you for some reason are in Estonia on Saturday July 3rd without anything to do, and wonder how Kilingi-Nõmme in the south of Estonia not far from Latvia looks like, you are in for a treat. You will discover that the Schilling festival of 2010 is held that day. The artists playing this day are mostly local ones, but our own Je Suis Animal are one of the few foreign acts together with Queen’s Head and Antarctica – both from Australia.

Firefly Effect will play at Landmark at Bergen Kunsthall Saturday 16th of January. The band will of course play some songs from the CD released last year, but also some new ones from the second album which will be released later this year. Brokedown Palace from Trondheim will also entertain you this evening, and Sarahs Postcard will do the DJ-ing.