Fabienne Delsol‘s new album “On My Mind” is officially released on Damaged Goods on October 4, but it’s already available in many digital shops. On the album, she continues her 60s inspired French pop theme, but this time it sounds a bit rougher and more psychedelic, which suits me fine.

These are perfect pop-songs, with a sound and a style that makes them sound like they were made 40 years ago. The album is quite varied, with a good mix between upbeat and downtempo, French and English vocals, and with some really nice and unexpected edgy riffs. Even the happiest popsongs on the album is veiled in melancholy, and I think this is one of the qualities I like the most about the album. It’s never too sugary or sweet, – there’s much more beneath the catchy melodies.

Listen to Fabienne Delsol’s “Pas Adieu” on Soundcloud:
Fabienne Delsol – Pas Adieu by eardrums

Belle & Sebastian – “I want the world to stop”

“Belle And Sebastian Write About Love” is out October 11 the UK and October 12 in North America.

No more words are needed.

(via skatterbrain!)

The Crayonettes are a new project from Kathryn Williams and Anna Spencer, where they make “songs for children and robots”. Readers of Eardrums should already know Kathryn Williams lovely folk-songs. Anna Spencer was unknown to me, but according to the press release, she has played in the punk band Delicate Vomit. Together, they will release “Playing Out – Songs for Children and Robots” on One Little Indian on September 6, with titles like “Robots in the rain”, “Disco Teeth” and “Pirates on the bus”.

The Crayonettes does not sound much like Williams or Spencer’s own music. It’s made for children, but it’s definitely worth listening to for grown-ups too. The two mothers “wanted songs that sounded like punk or disco or hip hop or country – The Small Faces brushing their teeth or The Velvet Underground asking questions about toads!”
I recently saw a comment about the album, saying “Wheels On the Bus for people who collect Warp CDs”, which is pretty accurate. If you have children aged between 3 and 8, the Crayonettes is a very good alternative to “hits for kids”.

The Crayonettes – Disco Teeth by olirecords

Plastic Flowers is the musical alias of Sean Earl Beard from Tallahassee, Florida. He creates beautiful popsongs at his home, with guitars, electronics, his voice and lots of reverb. His music is very “2010″, and could well have fitted in on labels like Captured Tracks etc, but it also has elements that remind me of older days. The basslines remind me of The Cure, the guitars remind me of The Cocteau Twins, the  trebled drum-machine hihats and the almost static beats remind me of  New Order or Joy Division, – but the overall sound of Plastic Flowers doesn’t sound like any of these artists. It’s really good popsongs with lovely vocals and melodies.

Plastic Flowers will release a free single on the fine netlabel BEKO DSL in October, but until then, you can enjoy these two songs from the project:

Plastic Flowers – Drive Me Home

Plastic Flowers – She Learn The Best Way

Smilelove is a 5-piece band from Japan who play irresistible indiepop with a wonderful combination of roughness, cuteness and attitude. They haven’t released or recorded anything properly yet, but have a really nice  live-set up on their bandcamp-page. If my info is correct, they are planning some proper recordings. I’m really looking forward to that!

You can listen and download a few live tracks from their bandcamp page:

There’s been a lot of indiepop on Eardrums lately, and it probably says a lot about my listening habits. However, – my musical heart beats for other genres too, and Les Shelleys from Los Angeles represent one of them.

Les Shelleys are a new project from FatCat records‘ Tom Brosseau and his singing partner Angela Correa. I really liked Brosseau’s album “Empty houses are lonely” from a couple of years back, and when I saw that he was working on a new project, I instantly got interested. The new duo Les Shelleys base their arrangements on the acoustic guitar and fine vocal-harmonies. The songs they play are folk traditionals and American standards from the last century.

Their self-titled album will be released on FatCat in November, but you can soon get their single  ‘Green Door’/ ’Rum And Coca-Cola’, which will be out on 13th September. You can order it directly from the FatCat store (both physical and mp3).

Here’s the lovely opening track from their album:

Les Shelleys – The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise

Les Shelleys are also the hosts on FatCat’s latest podcast, where they play soundtracks that have inspired them:

http://www.mixcloud.com/fatcatrecords/fatcat-records-podcast-les-shelleys-podcast/

The Hardy Boys‘ upcoming “Under the Piccadilly Clock EP” has been my dear companion the last days, – I’ve had it with me in my mp3 player everywhere I’ve been, on constant repeat. 3 lovely indiepop songs that have brightened my days.
The EP will be released on Bubblegum Records on September 3.

The Hardy Boys were formed back in 1985, and have been mentioned as “one of the great lost bands of the C86 era” and as “a Glaswegian The Smiths”. I was one of those who discovered the band far too late, in 2010, when I bought the wonderful 14 song retrospective collection “The Hardy Boys Play Songs From The Lenin And McCarthy Songbook”. The Hardy Boys split up in 1990 and reformed recently with one additional member, Kat King, and they sound so good in 2010! These are in fact the first new songs they have released in 20 years. I welcome you back, The Hardy Boys!

The EP starts with a classic upbeat indiepop song, “You’re just what I need right now”,with good lyrics and a great melody. It continues with my favourite, “Trains ran on time”, a really beautiful song which starts slow with the lovely vocals from Kat King,  builds up from verse to verse, and ends as a gorgeous duet between King and the original Hardy Boys vocalist Johnny White. If I had a hat, I would have taken it off in respect for this wonderful performance!
The EP ends with the acoustic “Dear Seamus Heaney”, – a perfect ending on an almost perfect EP. Please don’t let it be 20 years until next release from The Hardy Boys…

You can buy the album from Bubblegum Records webshop, and probably also from good digital shops as well.

Listen to the EP on Soundcloud:
Under The Piccadilly Clock by bubblegumrecords

The duo Elizabeth Sankey and Jeremy Warmsley, Summer Camp, will release an EP (Young EP) and a single (Round The Moon) on Moshi Moshi  in September. The six song EP will be released on Sept. 6 and the single (two songs) on Sept 13.  I’ve been a fan of Jeremy Warmsley’s music for several years, but in Summer Camp, I prefer the songs where Elizabeth Sankey sings. She’s got a lovely voice, and it fits this music perfectly.

All the songs on Summer Camp’s new EP are really good, and the single “Round the moon” is the only song I wouldn’t put on the top on my playlist, – and I guess that says a lot. My favourites are “Why don’t you stay”, “Ghost Train” and “Was it worth it”. The chorus on “Ghost Train” is so incredibly catchy in all its simplicity.
Both the single and the ep can be pre-ordered from Moshi Moshi’s webshop. Highly recommended!

Summer Camp’s album is planned for release in the spring of 2011. The duo will be touring Europe this autumn and winter together with Frankie & The Heartstrings, and next year they plan to tour North America in support of their album-release.

You can download the song “Jake Ryan” from NME here:
Summer Camp – Jake Ryan

Here are some videos for the singles “Round the Moon” and “Ghost Train”:

Young EP – Track Listing

1. Round the Moon
2. Was It Worth It?
3. Veronica Sawyer
4. Why Don’t You Stay?
5. Ghost Train
6. Jake Ryan

The fine WIAIWYA-label has a new free single ready for you, and this time it’s the first single from The Vatican Cellars debut album. The single has two lovely folky indiepop songs on it, where one of them in fact is a cover of a Van Halen-song! The Vatican Cellars’ album “the same crooked worm” will be released on wiaiwya in November.

You can download the single from here:

http://www.wiaiwya.com/

Have a listen to “Bitter Plans”:

Vatican Cellars – Bitter Plans by eardrums

Cold Mailman has released their new single “Time is of the essence” today on Kråkesølv records. Those of you who have followed Eardrums for a while, may have heard a demo version of the song earlier, but this is the finished and final version of the song. This is the last single the band drops before the release of their second album “Relax; the mountain will come to you” on October 4.

You can buy the single on iTunes or on Platekompaniet.
Highly recommended!

Odd Box Records will be doing a single club in 2011, with exclusive split-singles on 7″ vinyl. There will be 6 singles with 12 bands, all with exclusive songs that only can be found on these limited edition singles (400 hand numbered copies). The singles will be available for pre-order in October from the Odd box-website, and that’s the only place you can buy these ones.

The first single will feature The Blanche Hudson Weekend and Horowitz, and the next ones will include wonderful bands like Gold-Bears, The Hairs, Bracelettes, Santa Monica Swim and Dive Club, One Fathom Down, Radians, The Vignettes, The Give it ups, The Medusa Snare and The Humms.

Last post before I shut down the Eardrums-office for the weekend:
Shelflife Records has a new indie-pop-gem ready for release on the 14th of September: Brideshead is back after 8 years with an EP called “Comeback”, and what a comeback it is! 4 beautiful popsongs full of summer and sunshine, just as I remember them from years back. Lovely!

The EP is up for preorder on Shelflife’s website, and if you preorder the vinyl 10″, you will get the mp3s at once. It’s also possible to buy the digital version of the EP right now from the Shelflife shop. Highly recommended!

Here’s a taster from the EP:

Brideshead – The World Stopped Turning

The Hit Parade are back with their 10th single in their 22-year long career, “I like Bubblegum”, with “Zennor Mermaid” on the B-side. The single will be released on 13 September on 7″, and available to download from 4 October.
This time, Cath Carroll is back in the band for the first time since the 1990s. Her first group Miaow was on NME’s C86 cassette, and she later recorded as a solo artist for Factory Records.

The lead track on the single, ‘I Like Bubblegum’ is a boy/girl duet with 80s synths and a catchy radio-friendly melody. My favourite is however the B-side ‘Zennor Mermaid’. which is much more laid-back and dreamy.

This single was recorded with Saint Etienne producer Ian Catt. All proceeds from sales will go towards the restoration of Porthmeor Studios in St. Ives, Cornwall. The Hit Parade’s fifth album Cornish Folk Songs is set for release in 2011.

Listen to “Zennor Mermaid” on Soundcloud:

The Hit Parade – Zennor Mermaid by eardrums

One of the bands you can expect a free single with on our netlabel EardrumsPop’s upcoming single-series, is the Finnish project Paperfangs. They will release their single on October 20, as our second single in the series, and it will feature 3 tracks, – two original songs by the band + a cover of Kiss Kiss Fantastic‘s lovely song “Violet”.  We’re very excited about their music, and hope you like it too!

Paperfangs have just made a video for their song “Books”, which you can view on the top of this post.  You can download two songs by the band on Soundcloud:

Books by Paperfangs

Oh I Wandered by Paperfangs

Still Corners have received a lot of positive reviews for their song “Endless Summer” from the Fierce Panda compilation “Gruff Trade”, and I couldn’t be happier for that! They really deserve every positive word they get.  I’ve loved this band since they released their debut ep “Remember Pepper” in June 2008. The band also participated on our own “Summer’s Here!” compilation the same year.

Now Still Corners have a new single out, the lovely double A-side “Don’t Fall in Love”/”Wish”. It’s available to buy from bandcamp (where you can get all their releases) or from shops like Pure Groove. Both songs are wonderful, and I’m already waiting in excitement for an album from this London-band. Highly recommended!

Listen and/or buy from Bandcamp: