Articles » recommendation
Sunglasses from Savannah, Georgia will be an exciting contribution to the music scene this year. Interestingly, this collaboration between Samuel Cooper and Brady Keehn started through a film production. Their sound is fresh and a good example of “out of this world” music, but is incredibly difficult to describe. The crossovers and style are not something I have heard much before but are something to appreciate as music should keep expanding and explore new areas.
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.
This is the second part of an article series. The first part can be found here.
Throughout your life there are certain albums and musicians that really strike you as different, special, otherworldly even. They mold and shape you and at the most extreme they might make you reconsider your whole way of life. The albums I’m featuring in this series of articles are the ones that did something like that to me, or at least the most prominent ones.
Being a non-religious person, these albums are probably the closest thing to a religion in my life. Some believe in God, some believe in Buddha, some even believe L. Ron Hubbard. I Believe in Professor Pez.
Jones Nielsen (or Jonas as his real name is) was a pleasant suprise amidst mediocre music at urørt. Apparently he was the first to secure himself a place in the urørt finale this year by seducing the jury with the song “TT”, which I’ve also shared here. He has also previously been featured at urørt with his band Kakkmaddafakka.
Throughout your life there are certain albums and musicians that really strike you as different, special, otherworldly even. They mold and shape you and at the most extreme they might make you reconsider your whole way of life. The albums I’m featuring in this series of articles are the ones that did something like that to me, or at least the most prominent ones.
Being a non-religious person, these albums are probably the closest thing to a religion in my life. Some believe in God, some believe in Buddha, some even believe L. Ron Hubbard. I Believe in Magnus Moriarty™.
Klak Tik comes from the Faroe Islands, which is quite a unique place. For those who don’t know, it’s an island group located between Scotland and Iceland. Even to this day it’s still part of the kingdom of Denmark. People might be familiar with the folk artist Teitur who is also native to the islands.
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.
Yoyoyo Acapulco are an indie pop band playing cute, quirky ukulele-based pop music with kind of naive and catchy lyrics. You’d think that “Heey, they’re probably from Oslo or Bergen, right?”, but no. These guys are from no other place than Vestre Gausdal. Not your first guess, huh? I can’t help but love their simple, yet extremely catchy tunes.
I play the ukulele a bit myself actually, and these guys are really my main inspiration and the true reason why I started playing. Thanks!
They played at the Øya Festival in 2008, I was there and, despite the fact that the bubble-machine sprayed bubbles in my face the whole time, it was definitely one of the best shows at Øya that year. They played in a tiny tent, without that stopping them from making it a big show. Rather, it was the fact that it was a small, crowded tent that really made the mood.
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.
