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.
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.
