News: Soliti – A new record label

The big news of the day was that Nick Triani launched a new label Soliti and signed Astrid Swan, Cats On Fire, The New Tigers, Black Twig and Big Wave Riders. Nick Triani did some excellent work as an A&R guy at Johanna Kustannus and I was far from pleased when I heard the news that Universal bought the label and made some big changes. Therefore it’s a wonderful thing that Nick Triani launched a new label and gave home to five indie bands that really deserved a record contract. Things will kick of with Astrid Swan’s Pavement cover album Hits (Pavement For Girls) late summer / autumn.

Soliti Website

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Album of the Month: Mummypowder – Centuries Later

Mummypowder: Centuries Later (Grandpop Records, 2011)

It’s soon time to select june’s album of the month and I still haven’t even written about the may’s album of the month, which is Mummypowder’s fourth album Centuries Later. Mummypowder is a huge favourite 0f mine, one of the best pop groups in the country and should be regarded as a national treasure.  They released three great albums between 1999 and 2004, but it took them a long while to get this fourth one done. Centuries Later is definitely worth the wait and another wonderful pop album.

Janne Lehtinen has been a magnificent songwriter since the debut ep and therefore it’s almost impossible to become any better at it, but I think Centuries Later contains the finest lyrics he has ever written. Of course Janne’s amazing voice & the band’s ability to create dazzlingly beautiful pop hooks and arrangements would make even the most typical “she loves you yeah-yeah” kind of lyric sound like the sweetest work of art, but it doesn’t hurt it if you can wrap the sentiments into a well-crafted a story. Timeless pop music is a probably a pretty lame way to describe music, but that’s what this is to me. Some songs take me to my own golden era of music, the late 90’s guitar pop scene, while other songs might take more influences from 60’s groups like The Left Banke and Honeybus. Everything sounded magical from the start, but somehow the album still finds the way to become even more and more moving and beautiful with each and every listening session. Therefore I encourage you to give it some time, if the often slow-paced melodic beauty of the album doesn’t instantly find the core of your heart. I guarantee it will find it in the end and then it’s time to forget all those worthless trendy indie bands and start shouting Mummypowder’s name from the rooftops.

Listen to Part Of The Fun:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/12978469″]
 

Mummypowder Website
Mummypowder at facebook

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News: Kim Curly Band

One of the finest Finnish americana bands Kim Curly Band just released the first single New York from the upcoming second album (due to be released in september). Oh and Passerby from the excellent debut album recently featured in a Hollywood movie 5th Quarter. Which is pretty cool even if you concider the fact that the movie itself probably isn’t a brilliant work of art like Zerkalo or Fletch and Kim Curly Band’s wonderful song is pretty much the only reason you might want to watch that film.

This is New York:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/15969848″]

 
This is Passerby:

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/11340940″]

 
Kim Curly Band Website

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