Skipping Stones Records

2008-12-28T13:41:00.005-05:00

We were so happy to finally meet Magnus from The Charade at Popfest last November. The best part of running our label is meeting great people from all over the world. Cheers to new friends, sing an Auld Lang Syne!

New Review Highlights of The Charade's 3rd album, "Keeping Up Appearances" - click on the links for a full review:

Erasing Clouds
"The Charade’s third LP continues their path of playing melodic/catchy pop songs filled with melancholy. But it also seems an especially cogent, compact expression of that. The songs are especially melodic and especially melancholy. The first, the title track, has a great hummed harmony tune, and sets up well the notion of putting a happy face forward for the sake of social graces, of not being judged, while feeling blue inside."

SoundsXP
"Keeping up Appearances is classic Scando pop, dripping cheery sunshine melodies from a track short of a full dozen golden eggs. With boy/girl shared vocals, keyboards and even a banjo on one number, there's plenty of variety too as the influences bounce from Saint Etienne, Simon & Garfunkel, New Order, the Housemartins to that old staple, 60s girl groups. One of the best indiepop albums of 2008."

Tasty Fanzine
"There is a phrase that crops up every now and again, in reviews of albums such as this one, a phrase that, for me, always evokes the sounds and images of some half-forgotten moment of actual pop genius. 'A Flawless Pop Gem, Polished to Perfection' is the phrase, and it's my turn to use it while reviewing 'Keeping Up Appearances'."

Take the Pills indie pop blog
Yeah, time has come for Take The Pills!'s best of compilation!
Top 10 of Best Albums:
1. Twig - Life After Ridge (Plastilina)
2. Minisnap - Bounce Around (Pocket Music)
3. Vivian Girls - Vivian Girls (In The Red)
4. The Charade - Keeping Up Appearances (Skipping Stones)
5. Je Suis Animal - Self-Taught Magic From a Book (Perfect Pop)
6. The Autumn Leaves - Long Lost Friend (April Dabbler)
7. Moscow Olympics - Cut The World (Lavender)
8. The Airfields - Up All Night (Humblebee)
9. The Junipers - Cut Your Key (San Remo)
10. The Botticellis - Old Home Movies (Antenna Farm)
Download the VA - Best Songs of 2008: A Take The Pills! Compilation

"Keeping Up Appearances" is now available on eMusic.

Popfest! New England - 2008 Memories!

2008-11-12T19:22:00.008-05:00

William and I are exhausted and invigorated by this year's 5th Annual Popfest! New England that took place in Northampton, MA last weekend. Thanks to everyone who attended and played - it was great!

I had some camera problems this weekend, thanks to contributors Matthew P. and Yoko from the Dream Bitches for filling in the empty spots!

Popfest! New England 2008 Memories:
K.B. from The Up Set is a totally nice guy and has a great sounding CDr release, so go buy it. Also, you should invite The Up Set to play at shows because nothing happens in Maryland.

Surefire Broadcast was awesome as usual.
Lisa and Dan in the background:

Rodney:

The technical difficulty award goes to mat pat, although the specific heats, or specific besties did sound really good when things were working!
Mat Pat / The Specific Heats

Kevin from The Lil’ Hospital plays much better without an Indian chief headdress on. It’s too bad there won’t be any more of that band, it was the best I’ve ever heard them play.

The Utah Rangers did not make it to the Friday show and sat in our driveway drinking a 30 pack of Budweiser from 10pm until we got home at 3:30am. Whew.

Utah Rangers - comfortable at the club on Sunday:

Mark Robinson and his wife, Evelyn Hurley, performed on Saturday as “Cotton Candy.” Everyone got a real treat with Mark’s signature guitar playing and the set was intermingled with spoken word by Evelyn, dramatic performance and television jingles harmonized between Mark and Evelyn, including a Chevrolet and a Lowenbrau commercial. Amazing. Teenbeat is still going strong and Mark has a new comp out which boldly states, “No. 1 RECORD LABEL.” Awesome.
Mark Robinson / Cotton Candy:

Evelyn Robinson / Cotton Candy:

The Smittens were adorable and charming as usual. We still miss Max, but Dana held up the Max doll during their set and he sang along.

The Smittens - dolls! Someone asked - OMG! How much are those? NFS. Dave should really think about mass producing these.

If you flash your popfest staff badge while passing out on the couch at the end of a show, the club manager will leave you alone (Courtney).

The Smittens with Max the doll:

It takes a ton of volunteers to cover the door / back door etc. and to be good Popfest ambassadors – thanks to you all!

Magnus Karlsson from The Charade / Happydeadmen was incredibly grateful to be there and told William that it was a dream come true to come to Popfest and to play. Hopefully he can seize more opportunities to play out live. It was truly wonderful to see him play and to hear The Charade songs acoustic, from his point of view. I have a new appreciation for his music and his lyrics, he really wears his heart on his sleeve.

Magnus with Christine and William:

Jason Bourgeois finished his performance by singing along to a cassette tape of the song “God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys. Everyone sang along with the harmonies at the end and it was one of the best moments of Popfest. One of his special guests was
Abby Barlow, Lou Barlow’s younger sister.
Jason Bourgeois and Tape Recorder:

Many Swedes fit into small spaces.

Lima Research Society

The other best moment goes out to Sean and Lima Research Society. They performed with a blacklight background, the keyboard / guitar player wore a white cat suit and I wasn’t sure if I was watching a band or attending a revivalists-for-peace prayer meeting. It was full-on participatory music with songs where we sang along “Don’t Give Up, Don’t Get Down” and everyone bent their knees down and stood back up along with the lyrics. It was like the indie pop hokie-pokie. They handed out Magic Juice, we tossed pink balloons everywhere and I felt like a child again.

Lima Research Society - Magic Pink Balloons (which came after the Magic Juice)

Lima Research Society - get up!

Lima Research has another show with Math the Band on November 22 at The Grist Mill Café in Andover, NJ. I guess they’re touring again in January, so you should have them in your town, too!

Math the Band completely blew William’s mind. Believe me, that’s a hard thing to do. They were fucking awesome. Period. Kevin told me how he got their name. He had a badge that said “Math” so when people asked him the name of his band, he just used “Math, the Band.” He had merch before he named his band! How brilliant.

Kevin broke several strings on his guitar and while he scrambled for another guitar, Justine entertained the audience by taking requests and speaking through a retro-sci-fi-robotic vocoder. She said “domo origato” and it was hilarious.

Never look into Christine and William’s microwave.

The Utah Rangers were totally terrific. It was like watching Dieter’s Dance Party.
“Now, we play guitars.”
“Now, we dance.”
Elim and Kristoffer had their friend Magnus join them and the songs sounded great live. Magnus was in the Salty Pirates and a band called "The Weather in Sweden."

They were awesome and I wished that we had set-up a DJ or a dance mix afterwards because everyone wanted to dance, but we were too tired to think about the logistics of doing this. At the end, Magnus said, “Do we have dance party now?” And I felt really bad that we did not! The Utah folks went next door to the meat market dance party, but quickly came back for fear of their lives (and rightly so, the scene in the club next door is scary).
Utah Rangers:

The 500s were blessed with no technical difficulties this year – yay Isaac! Sammie on the Farfisa has the best keyboard-playing moves ever and Jonathan is still amazing singing and playing drums at the same time. Their new song is fabulous. They still wear their custom 500s t-shirts, although they were not washed after the last show with the Besties and they had that not-so-fresh feeling.

More 500s:

bunnygrunt rocks, of course! We stayed up until 5am drinking a box of wine and discussing Turducken. Then we came up with new ones, like the Humachog, which is a human stuffed with a chicken stuffed with a frog.

They were going to wake up early and drive to Ohio. I got up at 9:30 and Matt was standing in the kitchen. Uh-oh. Their van wouldn’t start and had it towed to some godawful local corporate car fixing chain. Fortunately they got it fixed and were on their way, but they felt really bad about not making their show.
Ann from the Dream Bitches and Karen bunnygrunt:

bunnygrunt on stage:

The Toothaches sounded great this year. We listened to their new recordings in their gigantor van and they sound really nice. Rose is the greatest person ever and she cracks me up. We had another Turducken conversation that she raised to a higher level by thinking of endangered species, like a beluga whale stuffed with a wolf stuffed with a bald eagle. Wow. Zimmy and Johnny had expired licenses and could not get served inside so they sat in their van drinking PBR and Sparks and later discovered that they ran their battery down with an iPod. Luckily they got a jump and everything was okay. I walked up to them and some random guys were helping them jump their van. I asked who they were and Johnny turned around and whispered, “angels!”

The Toothaches are playing December 12 at the Middle East downstairs – Cambridge, MA.

Two Toothaches, serious as usual

Swedish people don’t understand that you can have a Christmas tree decorated with Tibetan prayers that is completely unrelated to Christmas.

The Dream Bitches were amazing guests and I taught them how to sew the Popfest Comp

I’m looking forward to listening to their CD, the vocal harmonies between Yoko and Ann are fabulous. Julie has an amazing bass that is clear Lucite. Karen bunnygrunt and I were jealous.

bunnygrunt / yoko

This year we had the most people in our house ever and the place is still packed with air mattresses and blankets. Everyone was a really great guest and the place doesn’t look too bad at all. Someone left a Humachog drawing and someone else drew a Hoboken, which I think is a Hobo stuffed with a chicken. Then Courtney said it was a ho stuffed with a bobcat stuffed with a chicken. The Utah Rangers left a little drawing. On Monday, Elim, Kristoffer and Magnus said they needed gas, so I sent them down the street while I went out for French toast fixin’s at the supermarket. They came back almost 45 minutes later looking completely forlorn. They said they wanted to buy us flowers, but got lost, ended up at the mall and in a bad neighborhood and couldn’t find flowers anywhere. I said, “Oh, no! Not the mall!” They were so cute and I gave them a big hug.

The air mattresses made fine hang-out places when you were exhausted and just needed to lie down. Courtney’s butt and a blanket makes a good pillow.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to putting together the 5th Anniversary Compilation booklet: Mat Pat, Keira, Courtney and Brechin.

The Inclined Plane

Boy Genius - is great live

One Happy Island
The new OHI 7" is fantastic and Colin Clary did a great job producing it.

Anorak Scrabble

The Hat Company - Chris Mac filled in on drums

Tasty Merch

A Great Popfest New England!

2008-10-08T22:15:00.007-05:00

We're excited to announce the schedule for this year's Popfest and some late-breaking news that Maybe It's Reno will be playing on Saturday! The band features the members of one of our favorite bands, Unrest, with Bridget Cross as the sole writer and singer. The debut came out in spring 2008 on Teenbeat records - you can read a review on Pop Matters.

Listen to the bands on the PFNE myspace.
Full Schedule:
Friday, November 7: doors @ 8pm
The Fawns
The Up Set
The Lil' Hospital
The Specific Heats
Surefire Broadcast
The Sterns
The Besties

Saturday, November 8: Doors @ 8pm
Dream Bitches
Magnus – The Charade / Happydeadmen
Bunnygrunt
Maybe It's Reno
The Smittens
Utah Rangers

Sunday, November 9: Doors @ 8pm
Math the Band
Lima Research Society
The Hat Company
The 500s
The Toothaches

Sunday Matinee: Doors @ 3pm
Jason Bourgeois (Bourgeois Heroes)
The Inclined Plane
Boy Genius
One Happy Island
*the schedule is subject to change!

All shows @ The Elevens, 140 Pleasant Street, Northampton, MA - USA.
Tickets and more information available on the Popfest! New England website HERE!

We look forward to seeing everyone soon!!!
christine + william

What's Christine Been Up To? Critters, Crafts 'n Cupcakes

2008-09-08T17:46:00.012-05:00

Lately our house has been surrounded by a species with quite a reputation. Recently a few dramatically marked spiders have set up existence on the back deck. First there was one and we were in awe of its size and ability to whip up a web in no time. It would build a web, then build another one somewhere else, going back and forth. Then one night I noticed that there were two spiders making webs. This is when it started to get creepy.

We took a flashlight and one night looked at them closely. The fake eyes on the underside of their bellies is enough to give anyone the frights. You can get the googley-eye effect in this picture:

Now I'm a personable Buddhist-type when it comes to little creatures, but these guys were starting to take over. Then I noticed one had set up camp in front of the house and it startled me. We have since decided to do a little "re-location" project. We enjoyed a little nature show for a while, but it started to feel as if these small arachnids were weaving webs all around us, with no way out. It was downright dangerous to step out the door.

Popfest! New England 5th Anniversary Comp CD

The webs may have gotten me feeling that I should start on some projects of my own, particularly one of my overly-ambitious, utterly inconceivable, but not impossible, Christine projects. One of my favorite classes at good 'ole Purchase College was bookbinding. It's actually something that I did in art school that I still do today, and at one time I did a bunch of craft fairs way before they got punk.

The project is a Popfest 5th anniversary comp CD. This may sound mundane, but I am actually making 100 of these by hand. It will be a 2-CD cover in a digipack style, utilizing bookbinding methods to put it together. I was thinking of making the inside of the CD covers the same, but "to hell with it," I thought. "Dammit, I'm making all of these one-of-a-kind!" Why not? I'm 90% there already. I've got the blisters to prove it. I wanted to document this crazy project to make sure that everyone out there understands the actual time and energy involved. Yeah, it was a crazy idea, but I'm starting to have fun.

I was inspired by all of the people who have traveled from all over to come to Popfest New England over the past 5 years. People have attended or played in a band from the UK, Iceland, Germany, Sweden, Seattle, St. Louis, MO, San Francisco. Philadelphia, NYC, Vermont, Maine . . .

I'm also inspired by vintage suitcases, and my own in particular which I use for merch. I drew the suitcase above based on this:

I went to triple-A with our dear friend Matthew and got a bunch of FREE maps. That's the cover:

Then I collected all of the memorabilia that I've saved for the past 5 years and asked people to submit their own little snippets of nostalgia. Now I've got a huge collage basket to do the inside of the CD, which will be a 2 CD set. Here's my sample, which includes Matthew's airline itinerary, some mailed-in submissions and buttons:

Now to back up a little bit, every cover is cut out by hand from Davey Red Label Binders Board. This is somewhat difficult, considering that I have a cutting board and an xacto knife. At Purchase we had gigantor cutting machines. Once I get the big sheets cut down, they go through my paper cutter, but the spine is the hardest and has to be done by hand. In my latest cutting spree, I developed quite an attractive blister on the top of my hand, go figure:

In more less-than-reasonable expectations for myself, I'm also designing and making (by hand) a box for the CD, in a clam-shell type design, as well as a booklet to go inside. I'm not sure if I will get this far, as just getting the songs from all the bands is a giant hurdle. Wish me luck and hopefully this will all come together. I just ordered more board!

In my latest idealistic-feat-of-creative-ideas, I've also decided to bake for Popfest New England in November. Dumb, huh? But what could be more cute than cupcakes? Or I was even thinking of making cookies to spell
"P - O - P"!!!!!!!!! How cute would that be?!?!

The image you see above looks impressive, but I have shunned my puritan ways in favor of 21st century cooking:

I am downright obstinate when it comes to packaged baked-goods, I rarely buy them. But I gotta give myself some slack here. William said that he's never seen me bake anything from a box - evah. I should be proud. At least I got to use my mixer.

The fun part was going to the Candy Store in the mall and picking out all sorts of decorations, thus the result below:

And my favorite:

The Charade "Keeping Up Appearances"

2008-09-02T19:37:00.003-05:00

Skipping Stones Records is proud to announce the 3rd release by The Charade - "Keeping Up Appearances" out on November 18, 2008!

Track Listing:
Keeping Up Appearances
The World is Going Under
I Used to Live in the 80s
What’s a Normal Person?
Ballad of Uneasy Rider (I’m a Loaded Gun)
Heroes and Villains
The Perfect Shade of Grey
You Don’t Wanna Know
Springtime Fever
140 bpm Misery Love Song
Stockholm April 2007

Magnus Karlsson will be traveling to the US to promote the release at Popfest! New England on November 8 in Northampton, MA with a solo performance.You can get the CD there, pre-sales and digital sales will be available soon!

Magnus will also be performing at Debaser on September 26 in Stockholm, Sweden, opening for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

Popfest! New England tickets on sale!

2008-09-01T18:06:00.004-05:00

This year's Popfest! New England promises to bring more new and old favorite indie pop bands to New England from November 7 - 9 in Northampton, MA. Tickets and more information available on the Popfest! New England website HERE!

HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
Magnus Karlsson of The Charade and Happydeadmen – Sweden

Playing Popfest New England to promote The Charade's 3rd album with Skipping Stones Records - Keeping Up Appearances.

AND
Utah Rangers - Sweden

The line-up to date includes:

The 500's - Portland, ME

Boy Genius - Brooklyn, NY

The Bright Lights - Brooklyn, NY

Bunnygrunt - St. Louis, MO

Dream Bitches - NYC

The Fawns - Northampton, MA

Lima Research Society - NJ

One Happy Island - Boston, MA

Math the Band - Rhode Island / Boston, MA

Singing Bridges - Oakville, CT

The Smittens - Burlington, VT

Surefire Broadcast - Hammonton, NJ

The Hat Company - Ohio

Todd Newman - Minneapolis, MN

The Toothaches - Cambridge, MA

The Up Set - Middle River, MD

Skipping Stones News!

2008-06-08T12:24:00.005-05:00

The Charade has a track on the summer comp from ear drums music blog.
It's an alternative mix of Ballad Of Uneasy Rider with a "Simon & Garfunkel chorus."

And two new reviews!
Singing Bridges on Pennyblackmusic.

It all depends on how miserable and curmudgeonly you are, and your take on girly, charmingly wibbly, on-off-.. vocals and 60's-ish song-writing.

If you're a true romantic, this harmony-drenched,breezily strummed four-song confection will have you smiling as you picture a young Brigitte Bardot freewheeling down a sun-dappled French country lane on her bicycle, blonde locks billowing out behind her.

The heartless misery guts, however, will envision a drippy trainee infant school teacher, staring out of her bedsit window and still yearning over a boyfriend who dumped her three years ago.

We laugh in the face of cynicism, so we're demanding you go for the the former. In between wondering, that is, what mood stabilizers a band needs to be on to make their happy tunes sound so pleasingly wistful and the sad stuff so candyfloss sweet? And can you get them on the internet?

The Morning Paper on Burning World
By Kris Waaah
Everything that was so good about Sarah Records can be heard here. I really can't recommend this album enough. It's called "It's Getting Clearer" and is avaliable now through Skipping Stones Records. . .

The Charade presents Euro 2008 Beatfanatic Remix

2008-05-25T21:07:00.004-05:00

The Charade are cheering the Swedish football team with their release of "Dressed in Yellow & Blue," the Euro 2008 Beatfanatic Remix!

Listen Here!

Here's what Tom has to say on Indie MP3
"Dressed In Yellow & Blue by The Charade was the unofficial Swedish World Cup Song for Germany 2006. Now with the European Championships almost upon us it has been given a Beatfanactic remix for 2008. It is the sound of the band going disco!"

Copper Press Ad + The Morning Paper digital links

2008-05-14T22:43:00.002-05:00

Look for our ad in the next issue of Copper Press Magazine. This cute little glossy mag has lots for everyone - buy a copy today!

The Morning Paper full-length, digital-only buy links are now available!
on e-music and iTunes and all your favorite digital retailers!

DYRDIN dance music re-mix

2008-05-08T05:54:00.002-05:00

We're just loving this awesome remix of "Popp og Co" by AUFA!FIKRI! in Germany!

Listen on the myspace above or DYRDIN's myspace here.

Dyrdin will be playing with Eliza and Hraun at Organ in Reykjavik on May 8!

The Morning Paper Review!

2008-05-07T19:00:00.000-05:00

The Morning Paper drips with so much reverb, guitar feedback, echoey vocals, and thick string arrangements that it's sometimes a little difficult to find the hook or melody in their tunes! That being said, the songs -- whether hyper melodious or not -- wrap you up tight like a warm blanket, a sensation that most groups can't replicate, no matter how hard they try.

The Swedish trio's hyper-ambient, shoegaze is really appealing -- don't get me wrong! The song below -- "Fingers Crossed" -- is like what would happen if the Tough Alliance did Cocteau Twins covers and then rerecorded them as though they were in Slowdive. The Morning Paper selectively pulls shoegaze and dream pop influences from all across the board, but melds it all into one modern and catchy entity that I can't get enough of.

BIBABIDI

2008-05-05T17:49:00.001-05:00

The Charade at a rare live performance at the Sugar Bar, Stockholm, Sweden, May 3, 2008:

The songlist:
THE WORLD IS GOING UNDER
MY SONG TO YOU
A TOUGH DECISION
SEPTEMBER
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
WHAT’S A NORMAL PERSON
WHAT DO YOU SEE IN ME?
STORIES REMAIN UNTOLD
DRESSED IN YELLOW AND BLUE
MONDAY MORNING
STOCKHOLM APRIL 2007

Skipping Stones Digital + Free MP3

2008-03-29T18:02:00.009-05:00

The Morning Paper, Stockholm, Sweden

Skipping Stones Records goes digital in 2008 with exclusive digital-only releases with an accompanying CDr release. The Morning Paper of Stockholm, Sweden will be the first digital release for 2008, available on April 15 ... stay tuned for buy links. In the meantime, enjoy this free and legal mp3 download of Fingers Crossed

Being in the same room as The Morning Paper means being a part of a gentle-colored scenery - memories, hopes, failures, suns rising up and suns falling down – all these things gather up in a gallery of sentiments, a gallery of heartfelt musical maps. The Morning Paper takes inspiration from the daily life, from daydreams, longing and summer haze.

“a must if dreamy melodies are your cup of tea” sonic

“fuzzy and absolutely amazing pop music” louder than bombs

The music was mastered by William of Skipping Stones Records. Artwork by Gustaf Engström.

The Morning Paper Myspace

Enjoy.

Singing Bridges Review!

2008-02-22T10:22:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Indie MP3 for this kind review!
Indie MP3 Singing Bridges Review

The Besties on the road!

2008-02-17T09:31:00.002-05:00

The Besties on Tour! Let's wish the best for the Besties, check The Besties Myspace often for more shows & more info!

Feb 21
The Pat Duncan Radio Show-WFMU Jersey City, New Jersey
Feb 22
Cakeshop-7" Release Party!! New York, New York
Feb 23
The North Star Bar Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Feb 26
Rumors Boutique Richmond, Virginia
Feb 27
The Spazzatorium Galleria Greenville, North Carolina
Feb 28
The Cave Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Feb 29
Craig’s House Durham, North Carolina
Mar 1 2008
Flicker Theatre and Bar Athens, Georgia
Mar 3
The E.A.R.L Atlanta, Georgia
Mar 7
Krank It Up!- Railroad Sqaure Tallahassee, Florida
Mar 14
SXSW Austin, Texas
Mar 17
The Red Rooms @ Grill Tucson, Arizona
Mar 22
The Tomorrow Show Los Angeles
Mar 31
TBA Rapid City, South Dakota
Apr 6
IOWA IOWA, Iowa
Apr 7 2008 8:00P
IOWA IOWA, Iowa
Apr 8
Vaudville Mews Des Moines, Iowa
Apr 10
Big V’s St. Paul, Minnesota
Apr 11
The Note Chicago, Illinois
Apr 12
Lemmon’s St. Louis, Missouri

Vote for The Charade on Swedish Radio!

2008-02-07T17:17:00.000-05:00

The Charade were on Swedish Radio last week and the single, "The World Is Going Under" is now among the top 10 most requested songs on the program website!

Click on the REAL or WIN button to keep it there and make it number one!

P3Lab Swedish Radio

Scroll down to: P3 LAB - MEST EFTERFRÅGADE

Popfest New England! Were you there?

2008-02-05T19:49:00.000-05:00

Well, folks, the fall of 2008 marks the 5th anniversary of Popfest! New England!!!!

To celebrate, we're going to release a Popfest! New England suitcase box set featuring a collage booklet with photos, quotes, memorabilia and songs representing bands from years past. The release will be a handmade clamshell box, in a limited edition of 100, hand-numbered, with an accompanying booklet of your pix, quotes and stuff!

We're looking for submissions!

The theme is travel and all of the people who have traveled a collective thousands of miles from all around the world to come to Popfest New England.

"Submissions should be scanned (hi-res, 300dpi tifs) of any travel memorabilia" incurred while coming to Popfest New England, including, but not limited to:
quotes and anecdotes:
"why popfests are so great "
... and any other harrowing, interesting and synchronic travel experiences incurred while trying to get here
maps
hotel receipts
train / plane / bus tickets, baggage claim tickets, etc.
matchbooks
cryptic messages on napkins
itinerary
posters
any kind of weird travel paraphernalia
pix

Please email me: christine[at]skippingstonesrecords.com with "Popfest Comp ART" in the subject if you've got some awesome pix or whatever. Very soon we'll be setting up an FTP for artwork, or you can "yousendit"

Popfest Myspace!

:)
christine

DYRDIN rocks the UK!

2008-01-08T13:36:00.000-05:00

DYRDIN will be crossing the pond from Iceland to play in the UK for 2 shows in February:

So this is the new year ...

2008-01-08T13:18:00.000-05:00

... Christine will be giving up her addiction to doing too many things at once
... William will be paying more attention to being healthy and posi
... William and Christine also support widespread making-out, it's really good for your soul.

Speaking of making-out, what else have we been up to? Well, our band Singing Bridges is recording an ep that will be out on CDr on January 11. We signed ourselves! Hey, why not?

We have a song called "The Makeout Song," (the a-hem, segue). Songs on the ep will be:
on y va
disappear
the makeout song
permanent ink
We'll post an mp3 as soon as William finishes mixing!

We'll be playing at Cafe Nine in New Haven, CT on Friday, January 11 with eula (who played Popfest! New England), Horsefeathers and Puzzle People.

Popfest New England 07 Day ONE!

2007-11-10T16:15:00.000-05:00

If you weren't there last night - you missed out! Awesome bands, great people, lots of fun. Buy tickets at the door - all shows at The Elevens, 140 Pleasant Street, Northampton, MA.

More pix here!

DYRDIN Airwaves Review in Pitchfork

2007-10-23T19:31:00.000-05:00

Live: Iceland Airwaves
by Douglas Wolk

"I feel a little odd cutting out of !!!'s packed, stellar gig--at the same time as Bloc Party and Chromeo are both playing a few hundred yards away--to check out a band I know only through a couple of MP3s. Fortunately, Dýrđin, playing upstairs at the tiny Grand Rokk to about 30 people, are the discovery of the festival for me-- a gloriously pithy, pogo-worthy sha-la-la band in the Pipettes/Heavenly vein. ("No no no no no no no," in Icelandic, turns out to be "nei nei nei nei nei nei nei.") They've got a keyboardist in what looks like a Marimekko sweater, a bassist with an Iron Maiden T-shirt, and a pair of harmonizing singers with Swinging London haircuts; their set-closer, "Bubble Girl", is so familiar and perfectly formed that I figure it has to be a cover. (It's actually one of the songs I'd heard on the Iceland Airwaves site, but they play it about twice as fast."

Read the whole review here. We wish we were there!

DYRDIN website
DYRDIN myspace
BUY Dyrdin's debut album

Free Popfest CDs!

2007-10-20T15:12:00.000-05:00

We made some extra Popfest promo CDs and decided to give them away! The next TEN lucky ticket-buyers will get one in the mail!
BUY POPFEST TICKETS HERE

Although he didn't want credit, we're going to anyway - Chris Mac from indiepages made the mix for us. We find that it's a nice accompaniment to dinner!

Popfest New England
s o n g s a m p l e r
The Grade Grubbers, Buffalo, NY | 01. Candy Land
Colin Clary & The Magogs, Burlington, VT | 02. Moped Rally
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, NYC | 03. Doing All the Things That Wouldn’t Make Your Parents Proud
Brown Recluse Sings, Philadelphia, PA | 04. Night Train
My Teenage Stride, NYC | 05. To Live and Die in the Airport Lounge
Pants Yell!, Cambridge, MA | 06. Kids Are The Same
Professor Pez, Bergen, Norway | 07. Looking At Stars
Toothaches, Jamaica Plain, MA | 08. Sophia
The Besties, Brooklyn, NY | 09. Zombie Song
Bunnygrunt, St. Louis, MO | 10. Faster Pussycat, Phil! Phil!
The Lil’ Hospital, Brooklyn, NY | 11. The Floods
The Fawns, Northampton, MA | 12. Lived Without It
Silly Piano Pillows, Friendsville, PA | 13. Idyllica
Nils Folke Valdemar Sings, Gothenburg, Sweden| 14. Mystery Beach
The Capstan Shafts, Lyndonville, VT | 15. Drop Dead Innocuous
Surefire Broadcast, Hammonton, NJ | 16. Stars Hang Bright
The Smittens, Burlington, VT | 17. Sapphire
Scary Monster, Philadelphia, PA | 18. True Love Good Morning
St. Christopher, York, UK | 19. The Devil from Nowhere
The 500s, Portland, ME | 20. Hole in My Pocket
eula, New Haven, CT | 21. Rosie the Riveter
One Happy Island, Boston, MA | 22. Happiest in History

Popfest Band Profile - Professor Pez!

2007-10-02T20:47:00.000-05:00

Professor Pez is a band from the rainy town of Bergen on the west coast of Norway. Formed around 2001 they play cheerful, upbeat indiepop allthough they are a bunch of bitter and hateful people in their mid to late twenties. They wil release their third album “Hordaland” this fall on the on the worlds laziest label Galant Records in Norway. Hordaland is also the name of the part of Norway where Professor Pez live, and the songs are about different people, places and events taking place here.

Although Hordaland is a very strange place, they firmly believe that a separation from the rest of the country would be in order as everything in Norway is run by dodgy businessmen with sunglasses in the capital Oslo. In connection with the release of their latest record, they will try to tour as much as they can and that involves a two week tour of the northeastern part of the US, including Popfest! New England and a short trip to Iceland. They will of course tour the far corners of their own Hordaland, and maybe even Oslo and some other Norwegian cities get a visit. They have also made a video for the song “Papillon (Escape from Ulfsnes Island)” on the record which trancends all other videos in musicvideohistory. It includes the band wearing green tights, a horse, trained ninjas, a castle, a lot of fighting and a strange ending. And even some high quality crossbowshooting. It doesn`t get any better than this until 2009.

Popfest Line-Up Complete!

2007-10-02T18:15:00.000-05:00

Here it is, folks, the final Popfest line-up! Subject to change, as always, but we've confirmed and re-confirmed and everyone is in!

Buy tickets here!

Links to bands, music and more on the Popfest! New England 2007 Myspace

Friday, November 9 Doors @ 8pm
eula, New Haven, CT
The Toothaches, Jamaica Plain, MA
The Fawns, Northampton, MA
One Happy Island, Boston, MA
The Besties, Brooklyn, NY
My Teenage Stride, NYC
bunnygrunt, St. Louis, MO

Saturday, November 10 Doors @ 8pm
Silly Piano Pillows, Friendsville, PA
The Grade Grubbers, Buffalo, NY
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, NYC
Brown Recluse Sings, Philadelphia, PA
Pants Yell!, Cambridge, MA
St. Christopher, York, UK

Sunday, November 11 Doors @ 8pm
The 500s, Portland, ME
Nils Folke Valdemar Sings, Gothenburg, Sweden
Surefire Broadcast, Hammonton, NJ
The Smittens, Burlington, VT
Professor Pez, Bergen, Norway

Sunday Matinee 3pm
Singing Bridges, Oakville, CT
Scary Monster, Philadelphia, PA
Colin Clary + a Magog, Burlington, VT
The Capstan Shafts, Lyndonville, VT

Government Issue / John Stabb Benefit

2007-09-22T12:49:00.000-05:00

Today we drive to Washington DC to attend the John Stabb benefit at the Rock and Roll Hotel on Sunday, September 23. Stabb, who was the lead singer in Government Issue, was brutally assaulted last July while walking home. This senseless act of violence left him with a huge pile of medical bills and a bunch of metal in his face.

Government Issue was a part of the DC hardcore scene in the early 1980s, with releases on Dischord, among other labels. The band continued to play, with Stabb as the only continuing member, until 1989.

On Sunday, William will be playing drums behind Stabb for "Government Re-Issue," along with Tom Lyle, and Brian Baker.

Info about John Stabb and other benefit shows HERE

Read an article in the Washington City Paper HERE