She was one of our tips for 2009. However, last year seemed to be a period of mass inactivity for Swedish songstress Nottee.

Anyway, things now appear to be back on track.

With a few London gigs on the horizon, and a Popjustice Song Of The Day under her belt Nottee might just about nudge into the BBC Sound Of 2011 poll.

I’d Give You All The Best is a demo which recently surfaced. It is admittedly a bit lo fi but still includes the housey pianos and Stevie Nicks-esque vocal that made us fall in love with Nottee in the first place.

All we need to her to do now is sign a rekkid deal.

I’d Give You All The Best (demo) by Nottee

Such is the speed of popular culture these days we can’t tell if we our gushing is a tad premature.

Anyway, lets give you the spiel.

Kisses is a great name for a band.

They are a duo.

They come from L.A.

They remind us of Jens Lekman.

And The Whitest Boy Alive.

They have Air France in their Top Friends on Myspace. We like this.

There is currently only one song, Bermuda, featured on their MySpace page.

They have one seven inch single scheduled to come out very soon on Transparent Records.

Our words cannot describe the beauty of these two songs, and the emotions which they some up.

Basically, you need Kisses like totally in your life totally NOW.

Bermuda by Kisses

Kisses by Kisses

The Vanguard are resident in New York, but that masks the fact that the band members come variously from Virginia, Poland, Serbia and Argentina. It’d be lazy to suggest that it’s the geographical diversity that leads them to combine italo-synths, skyscraping Killers-esque tunes and chiming guitars in the way they do, and we’re nothing if not lazy so that’s exactly what we’ll say.

The band is putting in a good stint at SXSW if you’re heading out there, but if not then check out a low quality version of ‘Both Sides’ below, then head over to iTunes to contribute to their petrol money.

Both Sides by The Vanguard

The Vanguard on MySpace

Things move so quickly these days that Cajun, once the most feted unsigned band in the UK, never documented their break up. The world gave a collective shrug. Most odd.

Anyway, Yuck feature two of Cajun, notably Danny and Max, and a member of the shortlived Levelload (also recently disbanded).

Yuck’s sound is quite different from Cajun’s. The Dinosaur Jr comparisons are pretty obvious, and will no doubt continue to be picked upon by lazy journos. However, we can also hear some of the ghosts of some of the true twee pop ghosts, on the demos featured on the band’s MySpace – although that could just be due to the shambolic production quality of the “bedroom” demos.

Forthcoming single Georgia, maintains some of the euphoria of Cajun Dance Party but also brings to mind the Swindie sound of the mid 90s. This was Sweden’s take on the Britpop sound and featured a whole bunch of amazing bands who didn’t quite make it over to the UK. For reference points check Eggstone, Popsicle, Brainpool and the more widely well-known Cardigans and Wannadies.

The Wall by Yuck

Sunday by Yuck

Automatic by Yuck

In this case we definitely need another one, because Vita Chambers is really very good indeed. ‘Young Money’ sounds like a cross between Rihanna’s ‘Good Girl Gone Bad’ and Ke$ha’s ‘Tik Tok’, and the rest of her tracks are in the same vein – big pop tunes unencumbered by trying to be cool.

She’s also only 15, has been signed by the same team who signed En Vogue and Brandy, and talks in her biog about an interest in pediatric neurosurgery. Which is all either very admirable or a bit sickening depending on how bitter and twisted you happen to be feeling.

Young Money by Vita Chambers

Visit Vita Chambers’ MySpace page

Slinky and sauntering are the two immediate words that come to mind with the opening bars of Madeiline Peyroux’s ‘Dance Me To The End of Love’. The Billie Holiday voiced Peyroux’s cover of Cohens classic is all brushed drums, percussive pianos and slapped double-basses resulting in a delicious ’swing by numbers’ track that opens up an album (’Careless Love’) that oozes the authenticity that Peyroux’s nouveau swing peers lack. Her voice is effortless and the jazz sensibilities of her band mingle wonderfully in to a quintessential ‘best enjoyed when the suns gone down’ track.

Talking of which, for me, Matt Berninger et al of The National, although enjoyed immensely at any hour, are also best appreciated at night. ‘Santa Clara’, taken from “The Virginia EP’ (which features a short film, ‘A Skin, A Night’, about the band) is typical of the distinctive style employed by the band for their 4th studio album, ‘Boxer’. It’s a subtle song, with the fantastical lyrics that are never too far from the band’s operations. Berninger strolls through the words almost like they were just occurring to him and the composition is laid back, with clean guitars and bass underpinned by gently pounding drums that are only augmented by flailing trumpets at the conclusion. This track, merely a b-side of The National’s exceedingly impressive output, is symptomatic of the levels of inspiration they have at their disposal and only signals good things for the future.

We were exposed to David Lynch’s surreal and cult television series upon its first airing back in 1990 (first time round, hipster alert).

At the time we were still in short shorts, didn’t have a clue what was going on and was scared shitless. Some things never change.

The main cause of our anguish was from a character in the series called “The man from another place.” He was quite possibly the scariest midget of all time.

Anyway, we digress. The Man From Another Place is also a one man music project based out of Edinburgh. He is fast gaining search engine optimization juice from the other man from another place. What a bizarre parallel universe we inhabit.

Our discovery of him was on one of those beautifully serendipitous moments of discovery, which if used effecitvely the internet can provide.

His music has a beautiful Bacharach-esque quality, is mostly instrumental and brings to mind some of the High Llamas and Field Music’s finest moments. Even better, parts resemble Alan Price’s soundtrack of O Lucky Man – one of Popgeist’s favourite ever films and soundtracks.

The O Lucky Man-esque quality is best displayed on The Loneliest Cowboy.

The Man From Another Place’s Another Debut EP is available to buy now. We highly recommend that you buy it. It’s probably going to end up being one of those oddities that slips people by first time round and ends up selling for a few hundred quid on ebay when the artist reaches greater acclaims.

The Loneliest Cowboy by A Man From Another Place

The track is typical of their shoegazey, indie pop sound. As they say, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

The band’s forthcoming album Clinging To A Scheme was slated to come out a year ago but has constantly been put back in the release schedule by their label Labrador Records. There still appears to be some dispute about its actual release as the band’s site and record label are promoting different release dates. Don’t hold your breath.

Their debut album, Lesser Matters, was released in Sweden back in 2003 and eventually got picked up by XL Recordings for a UK release in 2004. At the time the band seemed to be on the cusp of a breakthrough of a new Swedish indie music invasion.

Notoriously shoddy live, the band made infrequent live outings and instead preferred to rely on their studio output. Alas, mainstream success eluded the band possibly in part to record label politics and distribution issues. The Radio Dept were lapped in the UK by the likes of The Concretes, The Knife, Jose Gonzalez et al.

However, for those in the know Lesser Matters is frequently held up as being one of the greatest indie pop albums, standing should to shoulder alongside the output of Sarah Records.

It is unlikely that the band will match the heights of Lesser Matters again but for a group of devotees, it really is one of the greatest records of the Millennium thus far.

Alongside Heaven’s On Fire we are also sharing I Don’t Need Love, I’ve Got My Band (the most indie title of all time?), which is taken from one of the band’s early EP’s.

Heaven’s On Fire by The Radio Dept

I Don’t Need Love, I’ve Got My Band by The Radio Dept

We were therefore very happy when she came second in the BBC’s Sound of 2010 poll, and even happier to discover that her forthcoming album ‘The Family Jewels’ is very good indeed. It’s debatable whether or not it will prove too quirky for mainstream success, but it’s a strong set of songs and hints at even greater things in the future.

Here’s opening track ‘Are You Satisfied?:
Download

The music biz and media at large are putting on the perception of selling in “new artists” to the general public. However, we’re out to reveal what they are. Basically, second hand cars sprayed down and resold as new.

Our first case study, who have a few more miles on their clock than they would care to admit are the New Romantic and film noir stylized Manchester duo Hurts.

Seeing as they have not one but two former incarnations, Popgeist feels that it is only fair that their records are sold at knock down Woolies bargain bin prices. If not then feel free to steal them. If you get in trouble just tell the police that Popgeist told you to do it.

Incarnation one of the band was called Bureau and released a pretty sub standard Killers-esque single on High Voltage Recordings, whilst they then changed their name to Daggers and released a 7″ on the Club Fandango label called Money.

If the press photos from the Daggers era are anything to go by, it seems that the band are willing to change their style at the drop of a hat.

Hurts are the sound of youth culture xerox’d to infinity. A cheap imitation of a cheap imitation.

If you are in a failed indie band and are thinking of changing your name, image and/or sound, we know where you live. We’ll find you. You can’t hide on the internet. Don’t even think about it.

To thine own self be true.

Money by Daggers

After Midnight by Bureau