Astroburger, the old friends of Perfect Pop Records, are playing at John Dee December 26th. If you are in Oslo on Boxing Day wondering what to do, John Dee is the only place to be this evening. Rumours around the town says that they will play three brand new songs this day, of which one is a instrumental in classic brand of Astroburger.

Firefly Effect will play at John Dee December 9th together with Love:Fi from Kristiansand/Norway. Love:Fi describes their music as “A complex poporchestra that likes to experiments in both noisy and tender landscapes. Modified sounds from trumpet, guitar, bass and vocal gives a unique sound.”

So if you’re not attending the Conne Island in Leipzig to witness the fist concert of Je Suis Animal on German soil, John Dee is the place to be this Wednesday.

Angular Recording Corporation will release the debut album of Je Suis Animal – Self Taught Magic From a Book in Germany in December. In order to promote the release the band will go to Germany and have a small tour playing at the following venues:

09.12.2009 Leipzig – Conne Island (with Lighting Dust)
10.12.2009 Lüneburg – Kulturreferat
11.12.2009 Offenbach – Hafen2 (with Diverting Duo)
12.12.2009 Hamburg – Astra-Stube
13.12.2009 Berlin – Bang Bang Club

Some months ago Perfect Pop Records released the debut album of Firefly Effect: Everything is Beautiful and You are the Reason (POP62). You just can’t help but singing, dancing and smiling along to these great pop tunes, and even a sad song like “All the jokes” makes you feel good. This album is of course a must have, and our new friends in Firefly Effect are the family members Perfect Pop Records didn’t know we had –  but all of a sudden they came along with their

Vimsical
Charming
Playful
Heartfelt and
Clever pop songs!

We salute them, and we hope you do to. Among many great reviews, this is an excerpt of what Peter Krogholm of All Scandinavian writes:

“Underdogs. Or misfits. The lovable misfits. The very sympathetic anti heroes who succeed in spite of, with everybody rooting for them (except perhaps the jocks and their trophy girlfriends). Yes, I am talking feel good movies, especially the new generation of teen comedies represented by Juno and Superbad among many others.

And why do I talk about feel good comedies, you might rightfully ask? Because that’s what I think of when listening to Norwegian indiepoppers Firefly Effect’s debut album ‘Everything Is Beautiful And You Are The Reason’. As I’ve said before, it’s quirky, jangly and jingly, and infectiously imperfect, a musical misfit who’d be the perfect soundtrack to said movies. Underdog pop to put in two words.

Firefly Effect deserve success. Not in spite of, but because of… And I for one am rooting for them.”

Great ending. Read the complete review here. And if you will try to improve your Norwegian – you will find more reviews of the release in the review section.

During the last 12 months, Je Suis Animal has released three 7″ on as many labels.

Painted in My Face/Photograph was released on Cloudberry Records last fall. Cloudberry Records is a nice little label based in Miami, Florida and they releases 7″ vinyl and 3″ CDs only. To date they have released more than 100 titles, which is quite amazing.

The Mystery Of Marie Roget/Secret Place was released on Angular Recording Corporation in February this year. Angular is the English home of Je Suis Animal, and released the debut album Self-Taught Magic From a Book in December 2008. In mid December this year Angular will release this album in Germany with Je Suis Animal having a few concerts promoting the release. More about dates and venues later.

Fortune Map was released on Lucky Number Nine Records in April this year. The record label is based in Glasgow (is there any bands or labels elsewhere in Scotland?) and releases mostly 7″ with additional CDs for those without a record player. Like Cloudberry Records, Lucky Number Nine Records is a nice little label, so please visit them both.

Previously this year, New Grafitti, the latest album from The Loch Ness Mouse, was released on Forward Records. The album received enthusiastic reviews in the Norwegian press.

The band has, over a course of four albums, developed their sound from lo fi indie pop in the direction of west coast popsoul. So for lovers of this genre – you should for sure check out this release.

After 5 years of recording, our friends in American Suitcase have finally released their latest CD called Pillowsky. The release party was at John Dee yesterday Friday. Don Bingo of Astroburger started off the evening with a few songs solo – just him and a keyboard. He played 3 songs in a style he called Baroque pop. The last song was an semi-improvised instrumental – you could not tell, and he finished his small set with bravour.

Seven Doors Hotel was next in line. They played an inspiring set of their cocktail of country/rock/pop/blues – you can probably call it americana and get away with it.

The last act of the evening was of course American Suitcase. With two additional guys on keyboards and percussion, the foursome had their best concert in years. Some will say that, since the band for years just has been a duo (Egil and Anders) most of the time playing accoustic sets now and then, this was a small feature, but you know what we mean. Anyway – all smiles both at stage and in the audience.

Je Suis Animal have a consert at UKA Tuesday October 20th.

The student festival UKA (The Week) is settled in Trondheim and arranged every year. UKA claims to be the largest cultural festival in Norway, and it is also the longest week since it lasts 25 days.

Venue is Knaus at Studentersamfundet, and showtime is 22:00.

Bartleby (a.k.a Tore Sørensen), the former singer of The Tables, sent us an email a while ago which we duplicate here:

Hey, guys! I’ve spent the last years writing a non-fiction book, which was published in May 2009 by Andresen & Butenschøn. I thought you might like to post something about it on the Perfect Pop website to show that I haven’t “gone to the dogs” after the demise of The Tables. You can have a look of the cover here, made by Amund Hesbøl, who also made the cover for the last Tables album. Looks darned good, doesn’t it? It’s a popular history book about famous and infamous hoaxes and hoaxers, written in Norwegian, with a lot of illustrations. You’ll find chapters on the Cardiff Giant, the Great Moon Hoax in 1835, mermaids and jenny hanivers (featuring P.T. Barnum), the great sea serpent of Albert Koch, the origin of the Loch Ness monster (not the Mouse!), the myth of the Patagonian giants, literary forgeries (both humorous and bizarre), the story of Orson Welles and the “Invasion from Mars” radio broadcast, how the Louvre was fooled by the tiara of Saitaphernes, how the modern alchemist Franz Tausend made people think he could make gold in the 1920’s, and many other curious stories from the byways of history. Should be fun to read. The title “Bløffer og bløffmakere – episoder fra bedrageriets kulturhistorie” translates something like “Hoaxes and Hoaxers – Episodes in the Cultural History of Deceit”. The perfect gift for any occasion. (Hah, that was a clever phrase, eh?).

Keep on popping!