The year goes by fast and we’re already in the middle of February, which means it’s time for By:Larm again. By:Larm is an annual festival and conference in Norway with the purpose of promoting new norwegian bands. I guess it’s quite similar to SXSW. Anyway, I thought I’d give you some tips on who I think is worth seeing.
Despite the lack of snow (at least here in Oslo), christmas is undoubtedly on it’s way. Many have probably bought themselves chocolate-filled advent calendars already or found some other way to try shortening the time until that fat dude dressed in red is supposed to squeeze down your chimney.
What I’m thinking though, is that some of you might feel that popping a piece of chocolate in your mouth or something each day is insufficient and would rather have the content of your advent calendars stuffed in your ears. Don’t worry, my friend. We’ve got something nice for you.
Hiawata! and their label SellOut! Music are feeling the christmas spirit extra early this year and wants to give something to you, so they’re releasing a Hiawata! single for free.
At the last day of October, I command every Beezewax fan to get down to Revolver to see Beezewax play an exclusive concert at their re-releaseparty for their first album, A Dozen Summits. For those not familiar with the band, I wrote an article about them not long ago.
After over ten years since it sold out, many still haven’t heard this fantastic record. The record is filled with hope, youthful indie spirit, great popsongs and much more. SellOut! Records decided to finally re-release the album so new young indie pop fans, like me (I was lucky enough to find it on the Internet though) can hear it.
Casa Murilo is an up and coming Oslo-based band led by two english lads; Chris Winfield and Dan Hesketh. I caught their gig at Mono the other day and was really impressed.
They’re great live, but they’re also quite good on record. I reviewed their EP a few days ago. The full EP is even free to listen to on their myspace page.
I recently met with Chris and Dan at a local café to ask them some questions about Brazil, the EP and the future.
Dave Mahler is a 17-year-old from Australia and he has just recently finished making a music video for the song “All The Jokes Are On Me” from the Norwegian band Firefly Effects. He’s also made videos for Le Corbeau and Koppen.
The video is made up of as much as 1640 hand drawn and water colored frames and it took him four months to make it. With pastel colors and a that hand drawn style, it looks really good. Most people will probably think of A-ha’s “Take on Me”, though I’d say this one has a lot more charm.
Beezewax shouldn’t need any presentation, but unfortunately, they do. They never had a real breakthrough in Norway, and that’s a shame. Beezewax is a great pop band from Østfold with great songs, great melodies, epic guitars and lovely noise. Although their albums have been well recieved by critics, they’ve never made any commercial success, even though they have made five fantastic albums, and a few EP’s as well.
The say that My Little Pony is the coziest band in Norway, but the coziest Singer-songwriter is definitely our very own superstar, Egil Olsen (not to be confused with the football coach with the same name). Egil writes dreamy and catchy pop songs about love and his hard life as a wannabe superstar.
He first started a band called Uncle’s Institution and released several albums (you can download them for free on his website), but after a trip to the states to find himself, he found the solo artist within. After releasing his beautiful debut album, I am a singer/songwriter in 2007, as well as a hip hop cover-album (freely available for download here), he’s releasing the album Nothing like the love I have for you, which will be out on CD, vinyl and mp3 download on 5. October.
No, this is not Pippi Longstocking’s monkey, but a band with the same name.
It all started a few years ago when I went in to a store that sells used CD’s. Flipping through shelf after shelf filled with CDs, I had no idea what I was looking for, but that’s when I saw it; an album called Downhill Thrill by some band named Herr Nilsson (or Mister Nilsson, if you will). I had barely heard about them, All I knew was that they’re from Bergen. Despite not knowing remotely what they sounded like, I just knew that I had to buy this album. That’s not something I would live to regret.
I want to recomend Kråkesølv, a fantastic band from a place far beyond the polar circle. Bodø to be precise. The first time I saw them was in the small Camp Indie-tent at the Øya festival in Oslo. It rained a bit that day and I wasn’t sure of what I should expect. They have been hyped a lot, and both Simen Herning (My Little Pony) and Øystein Greni (Bigbang) have endorsed them. As always, I’m a bit sceptical when it comes to hypes, but when they first started playing, I was sold. It was fantastic, and when they played the song “Skredder,” I understood that they were something special and something new.