Skipping Stones Records

Popfest Success!!!

2010-11-17T15:08:00.000-05:00

This Year's Popfest was a great success!
A BIG thank you to all the bands that played and all the wonderful people who attended.
xxoo William & Christine

Popfest New England featuring 14 Iced Bears Buzz!

2010-11-11T16:12:00.002-05:00

Advanced sales for DISCOUNTED Tickets for Popfest New England will end Friday, November 12 at 12am EST! Tickets are selling quickly for Saturday night featuring 14 Iced Bears from London, England ... catch the buzz:
The Valley Advocate
Brooklyn Vegan

Tickets can be purchased online through the Popfest New England website!

Schedule / Ticket Info!

2010-11-07T19:04:00.003-05:00

POPFEST! NEW ENGLAND is right around the corner! Get your REDUCED RATE tickets NOW before they sell out! Ticket sales will end Friday, November 12 @ MIDNIGHT! All 4 weekend shows are just $30!
Advanced tickets are here!

Some schedule changes include:
Swimsuit, featuring Fred Thomas / Saturday Looks Good to Me will be playing on Saturday night.
Sweet Bulbs cancelled, instead The Field Recordings will take their slot in the Sunday matinee bill.

Questions? Check out the Popfest New England website!

Cheers,
William + Christine

PS: Check out this funny video!

Popfest New England 2010!!!

2010-09-21T21:11:00.009-05:00

Popfest New England!
Saturday, November 13 & Sunday, November 14
Two shows both days at The Elevens, 140 Pleasant Street, Northampton MA!

Check out the Popfest New England website for the schedule.

14 Iced Bears from England will Headline Saturday Night!

Formed in 1985 by Rob Sekula, 14 Iced Bears blended jangle pop with a psychedelic edge that set them apart from their C86 contemporaries. Inspired by bands like the Stooges, Velvet Underground, and Echo & the Bunnymen, Sekula injected heartfelt lyrics with a dose of experimental noise. While still owing plenty to the Byrds/Ramones influences evident in the output of labels like Creation and Pink, it was this dark 60s flavor that always set the 14 Iced Bears apart.

The first single, Inside, appeared on TV Personality Mark Flunder's Frank label in late 1986 and was an instant success. BBC recording sessions for John Peel and fanzine/music weekly adulation quickly followed. A second single for Frank, Balloon Song, further consolidated their following. The band toured England and Europe and the press was ecstatic. The late 80s revival of classic guitar-based pop was kind to the 14 Iced Bears, and complimented Sekula's talent at penning catchy, sometimes off-kilter melodies. A third single sealed the deal, the catchy Come Get Me on Sarah Records.

The band went on the release their self-titled debut album in 1988; it was a masterpiece of psychedelic pop that turned a lot of heads with it's ambition and skilled songcraft. A raft of singles and a second album in 1991 followed, and the band quietly disbanded in 1992.

Singing Bridges Show Review March 25, 2010

2010-04-07T09:29:00.002-05:00

Show review in the New Haven Advocate

Pretty cool!

Singing Bridges show in Boston. March 15th

2010-03-01T16:35:00.002-05:00

Singing Bridges show in Boston
Start Time:
Monday, March 15, 2010 at 9:00pm
End Time:
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 1:00am
Location:
The Middle East (Upstairs)
Street:
472 Massachusetts Ave.
City/Town:
Cambridge, MA

Description
* Letting Up Despite Great Faults (fr. LA) Their Myspace
* The Brother Kite Their website
* Plumerai Their website
* Singing Bridges (Skipping Stones Records) Their website

18+ $9

This is our first show in Boston in quite a while, we hope you can make it.

Directions

Singing Bridges "Three Trains"

2010-02-22T17:18:00.002-05:00

Yeah, things have been a little quiet ... so what have we been up to? We've been focusing on our band, Singing Bridges! Our second ep was released last November ... you can purchase it here

We'll be playing at the Middle East in Boston, MA on Monday, March 15, with some great bands, including: Letting Up Despite Great Faults (fr. LA), The Brother Kite and Plumerai. The show is 18, $9 buy tix here

Here are some reviews of Singing Bridges' ep "Three Trains"

Das Klienicum
This trio offers five tracks, with William busy on drums, and Christine cheerfully handling the bass as well as sharing vocal duties with guitarist Tim. Something happened since the band’s debut release, “Sunny Day, Rainy Day.” The transformation, which consisted of more than just the band line-up, was worth it. Jangle pop … in its finest possible form.

CT Indie
Singing Bridges' Three Trains EP harkens back to the days of early 90s jangle pop. The 5-song CD is full of reverbed-out female vocals, jangly rhythm guitar, and a glimpse of sonic experimentation. Simple, straightforward songs like "Crazy Street" hammer the point home and show they definitely have an ear for the genre.

Tasty Fanzine
Simple melodies are layered on top of each other, simple chord progressions flow effortlessly and vocals are unaffected and sung as though by the pure of heart ... And if you don’t try to indulge in 7 minute guitar solos then you can put all your creative efforts into putting something together with love, something that might actually move someone - that my friends, is what it is all about.

Common Folk Meadow
There are lots of indie rock bands out there but I fell in love with just one of them and this is Yo La Tengo which I love with all my heart and soul. That’s it – ok, lots of other bands are good but not as great as Yo La Tengo. But now I’m in hope that Singing Bridges could be the second indie rock band in my life and I’m looking forward to great releases and beautiful music in the future.

What makes me sure of it? I think the whole musical style makes me sure because they remind me of Yo La Tengo and I don’t mean, that they copy them, but I think they really get the feeling for combining Indie Rock, a little punky attitude, noise elements and great singing.

Pennyblackmusic
…they mention Sonic Youth and The Wedding Present among others, and the opening track ('Bee') and the closing track ('Disappear') is not far away from the former of the those two bands. On the three songs in between, they mostly sound like a classic twee pop band, especially on 'Crazy Street'.

"GOSH, THIS MUSIC IS JUST KILLING ME! I LOVE IT." - KRAMER

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

POPFEST! New England Tickets

2007-09-20T07:47:00.000-05:00

Now On Sale!
here

Popfest additions!

2007-08-27T18:22:00.000-05:00

We've added some bands from nearby Boston area where apparently indiepop is alive and kicking!

One Happy Island just released their self-titled EP back in July. The Globe Herald writes, "low-key, unpretentious tunes heavily influenced by '60s garage rock and pop. Really, could a kazoo solo ever be pretentious?" One Happy Island will be opening for The Lucksmiths on September 27 in Boston!

We had to get The Toothaches because we love Zimmy when he played guitar with Colin Clary & The Magogs. After we tracked him down, pop is in the bag.

Popfest! New England November 9 - 11, Northampton, MA

2007-08-21T06:33:00.000-05:00

4th Annual POPFEST! NEW ENGLAND 2007
In year FOUR of Popfest! New England, Skipping Stones Records continues the Popfest tradition with a roster of international and quintessential indie pop gems.

Popfest! New England will descend upon Northampton, MA for its fourth year, every night from Friday, November 9 through Sunday, November 11, 2007, including a Sunday afternoon show. Dare to love music that is wrapped in a little bow, true to its feelings and not too shy to wear its heart on its sleeve. There’s still a need for homespun pop and twee in this world and there’s no shame in liking it.

The line-up to date + their myspace includes:
St. Christopher, York, UK

Bears, Cleveland, OH

Brown Recluse Sings, Philadelphia, PA

Bunnygrunt, St. Louis, MO

Colin Clary + a Magog, Burlington, VT

eula, New Haven, CT

My Teenage Stride, New York, NY

Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Brooklyn, NY

Pants Yell!, Cambridge, MA

Professor Pez, Bergen, Norway

Silly Piano Pillows, Friendsville, PA

Surefire Broadcast, Hammonton, NJ

The Baskervilles, New York, NY

The Besties, Brooklyn, NY

The Fawns, Northampton, MA

The Grade Grubbers, Buffalo, NY

All shows @ The Elevens, 140 Pleasant Street, Northampton, MA. A three day pass for Popfest! New England is $40 for all 4 shows and individual days are $13 if pre-ordered or $15 at the door ($6 for the Sunday afternoon show). All shows are 21+, please have proof of age. Advance ticket sales will be available online beginning September 15 at:

Popfest! New England Website

Popfest! New England Myspace

For more information, please call Skipping Stones Records at 203-558-1168
or email Popfest@SkippingStonesRecords.com.

The schedule is subject to change!

The Year Zero - "Think if My Bloody Valentine went pop and added the singer from Deerhoof."

2007-08-19T18:50:00.000-05:00

The Year Zero has been taking their ambient dreampop onto the streets for quite a while, but have now reached a plateau with some talented back-up players:

Read it here:
The Year Zero / LA Record Review

Or right here:
THURSDAY, AUGUST 2:

The Year Zero have been a band for a few years now, but with their newest line-up, I think they have hit their stride. I first came upon them when they had just added a bass player to a strictly drum-machine-and-guitar live act built around songs by vocalist Lili De La Mora and guitar player Rodney Sellars. At the time they seemed shy and timid—very dreamy, but a little dark. Their recordings didn’t quite translate live. Maybe the setting had a bit to do with it, but this show brought it all together. Lili first got up and sang two songs with only an acoustic guitar. She used to seem so shy, but now her beautiful voice commands your attention. After the rest of the band joined her, everyone just slipped into place like they’ve been doing this forever. And most of them have—all members are Long Beach music veterans who will probably be recognized from other bands, but they add a perfect element to the Year Zero that was missing before. The bass player smacks her gum to the beat, the drummer gives just enough effort to show that he cares (but not too much), and the keys are the perfect complement to the vocals. Think if My Bloody Valentine went pop and added the singer from Deerhoof. (KO)

Celestial - Interview with Andreas Hagman

2007-08-15T06:38:00.000-05:00

Celestial Interview

Amplifier Celestial Interview

The Besties Ain't Skeered Tour

2007-08-13T17:20:00.000-05:00

The Besties Ain't Skeered Tour continues!
Rikky, Marisa, Kelly and Frank are having a lovely time with labelmates Einar, Hafdis and Maggi and everyone from DYRDIN in Iceland. They'll be playing their second show in Iceland on:
Wednesday, August, 15 at Organ in Reykjavik, Iceland
with Dyrdin, Foreign Monkeys and Jan Mayen
Don't forget to check out DYRDIN's new website

Here's an Iceland report from Kelly:
Today, the besties were on a boat - in iceland - eating raw sea urchins that
had only seconds before been pulled out of the ocean and tomorrow morning
will be RIDING ICELANDIC HORSES and [watching the Athens Popfest] video STILL made us cry because we weren´t there to partake in the awesomeness!

MORE Besties shows:
Thursday, August 23, Union Pool, Brooklyn, NY
Friday, August 31, Tritone, Philadelphia, PA
more info on The Besties myspace

The Besties Tour Dates!

2007-06-17T15:21:00.000-05:00

BESTIES AIN'T SKEERED TOUR 2007

06-22 Jacksonville, FL - TSI
06-23 Orlando, FL Uncle Lou's w/ Summer Sprinklers
06-25 Tampa, FL Transitions Art Gallery
06-26 Tallahassee, FL The Beta Bar w/ Voxtrot
06-27 Pensacola, FL Sluggo's w/ Vena Cava, Tender Cobras
06-29 Birmingham, AL Cave 9
06-30 Knoxville, TN The Birdhouse
07-02 Lexington, KY The Icehouse
07-03 St. Louis, MO CBGB
07-05 Chicago, IL South Union Arts w/ the Fake Fictions
07-06 Grand Rapids, MI Juke's Bar
07-07 Grand Rapids, MI The DAAC w/ Posion Control Center
07-09 Dayton, OH Night Owl w/ Poison Control Center
07-11 Rochester, NY The Bug Jar w/ Gaybot
07-12 Boston, MA PA's Lounge w/ B for Brontosaurus, The Antiques, Sammies
07-13 Burlington, VT Club Metronome w/ The Smittens, Colin Clary & the Magogs
07-15 Portland, ME Soundpost w/ The 500's, The Rattlesnakes

07-20 Stockholm, SE Landet w/ Cats on Fire
07-26 Emmaboda, SE Emmaboda Festivalen w/ Dinosaur Jr, Spiritualized and a whole lot more
07-31 Nottingham, UK The Red Rooms at the Rescue Rooms w/ A Ribbon and a Smile
08-01 Brixton, UK The Brixton Windmill
08-02 Cardiff, WALES TBA

a stream of consciousness review....

2007-05-03T08:49:00.000-05:00

Trumpet Army Opposite Blog

Ok, we really had no idea the new Mary Onettes album looked like that. How similar to the new Celestial album! I believe in coincidence and synchronicity and similar things happening because the same people are thinking the same things and later you can look back on things and see a generation of symbols, colors, shapes and images that represent the universe working its magic.

The review:
Sunday, April 29, 2007

Celestial. Dream On. The album cover is somewhat reminiscent of the Mary Onettes album. Black trim mat and a vague artless photo in the center. Thankfully nothing else links the two bands. This is an astonishing record. I can steal some notes from other people who have compared it to early Creation bands. It does sound similar. It's got also a bit of Sunday records in it as well; I think I hear the Proctors or others. It's also a bit Galaxie 500. It's simple and basic. It's beautiful. It's melancholic without being morose or overbearing. First song is playing now Brighton Girls, it reminds me a bit of Bart from Cat's Miaow's side projects like Pencil Tin. It's fantastic. It's over. Now to song two. More high paced jangle on this one. It is called Horoscope. His voice is definitely similar to Bart Cummings which is high praise. Was I the only one who dreamed that Bart would take over all of the vocals from Kerrie in the Cat's Miaow? Maybe. There is a dissonance/feedback on most of these songs that adds a bit of the shambolic charm from the antipodean school of indiepop as well. Third song. The songs are short, or seem short at least; this one is more in the dreamy vein. Saving My Presence, it's got some similarities to Radio Dept. It would be amazing if Radio Dept. inspired a raft load of bands as fantastic as this. Is this really a band? I think I am working under the impression that it is mainly one person, well two; there is a female voice on most of the tracks. Looking at the CD case now and there are loads of people on the album, I was misinformed. Sounds like it should have been on Bus Stop circa 1996. It's terrific. I can't make out any of the words but the ache is palpable, it's a gentle sigh, a longing, desperation, it isn't anything like the Mary Onettes then. If all else fails add another guitar! That's my kind of philosophy. Here is a song now with some fuzzy association with the Jesus and Mary Chain with a twee title The Boy Who Never Says Goodbye. It has got those slow JAMC drums, it's too tender for a real comparison though, and maybe this is what JAMC demos sounded like in 1983. The vocals are well down in the mix, it works well for the music, and it gives a wayward feeling to the goings on. Even on this song which now seems a bit Mazzy Star with the prominent female voice it's still young and naive. Innocent. Now they just need to learn some buzz saw guitar ala Motorcycle Boy to become the greatest band in the history of the world ever. I'd only ever heard a few samples from Celestial before picking up the album. It's miles better than the Charade album that came out on Skipping Stones last year. Hey what do you know some here is some of that peppier guitar on the next one, it's a bit Motorcycle Boy-ish. Maybe not. Can barely make out the voice, it's really reminding me of the Proctors if they had ramped up the fuzz. Imagine the Proctors with peach fuzz on their chins; it would have been a dream. This is the title track; it races along, her voice and his hidden beneath the waves of distortion. There's an early Brighter feel on a lot of these songs as well, before they went all dilatory all the time. There is deep seated warmth in all of this, I think part of it is down to the mix, the voice and rhythm section are buried together in a comforting cover of opaqueness and the simple but pretty guitar riffs are standing off to the side in cool shades acting nonchalant and aloof. Next song now is Fragile Heart, vocals a bit more up front here, not much, seems to be more important to be heard. It's a love gone wrong song. All of the Mary Onettes songs were love gone wrong as well; they just don't have any human emotion within them at all. Maybe it is the homemade aspect of this record that is deceiving me causing me to mistake lo-fidelity for warmth and sunshine. I don't think so though. I am in a much sunnier disposition today then when I was writing the Mary Onettes record, part of that may be my distance from the Mary Onettes record itself. I watched The Devil's Backbone this weekend. It's magnificent. Guillermo Del Toro (sp?) is god-like. Now to another song, a bit speedier, maybe a bit like Early Ride or Chapterhouse. Before Alan Moulder made men out of them. There is a cathedral of sound effect. I've been listening to some Cat's Miaow recently because of this album and realize I don't mind Kerrie's voice either. What a brilliant band they were. Cannanes get much deserved love from most quarters but Cat's Miaow/Hydroplane seems to have cultivated a more selective appeal. Who knows why? Now to Lake Como, again it's fantastic, every song is. It's one of the best records of the year so far. I spent today driving a very large truck; I was a truck driver with an air horn and air brakes and 38,000 pounds of underpowered moxie beneath me. I needed an ironic Caterpillar ball cap to make the day perfect. Lake Como would have been a perfect trucking song, it rocks. Whew it's already over. Short songs, too short. Another one now that is less than two minutes. Bah. I spent the afternoon a few afternoons back throwing homemade water balloons (a plastic bag filled with Sunkist soda) off a roof of a five story building onto a handicapped parking spot trying to fill a pot hole full, we did not succeed. I was getting paid for it. No tunes on the roof. We could have played hockey though. Looks like the Red Wings are done. San Jose is tough, Patrick Marleau, when did he become a monster? Now to a slow, dreamy acoustic number and we are in the land of very nearly Matinee records. It is called Bluebell Meadow. Maybe this is where the Field Mice comparisons come in. It's somewhat similar to Willow or And Before the First Kiss and songs of that ilk, but the words are not nearly so precious, in that we can't quite make them out but they sound pretty deep. Ha. Next song now, starts off with a Mojave 3-ish piano intro. A bit like Yer Feet, I think, it's definitely second album Mojave 3 when they sounded like the Band. When will Martin Scorsese make a movie about Mojave 3? Vocals are somewhat reminiscent of Mazzy Star, lazy and slurred, pretty and smoky, a stirring, a ready to pounce acoustic strum hanging over everything. Nice. It's got the same name as a Velvet Underground song, doesn't stop this song from ruling even with that unfortunate coincidence. Celestial are probably huge fans of Velvet Underground but they get over it here but not being horrible, like most bands I love that Love the Velvet Underground and are influenced by them. V.U. influenced and are the favorite band of a ton of my favorite bands but they were one of the worst bands ever. Really. All of their clones are better than them, is there another band this influential where this is true? Maybe the Who. But who was really inspired by the Who? Last song now, sounds like a last song, short intro section where he's announcing his goodbyes and then the middle section where he's reminiscing about all of the fantastic times you had together at the taste freeze and how sad he is that he's going to Evergreen College with all of those girls who won't date him because his carbon footprint is too large. Get that tattoo of a chainsaw removed and name your goldfish Gaia and you are in. I love this album, it's amazing, buy ten copies and then give them all to your mother for Mother's Day and she'll soon stop telling everyone that your sister is her favorite.

Magnus likes to blog

2007-04-28T14:18:00.000-05:00

Magnus of DYRDIN is the prolific contributor of many sites online!

Here's one he just told me about, archiving all things DYRDIN:
DYRDIN BLOG

This blog gets fed to this blog (this is reading like an Icelandic saga...):
An Big Icelandic Blog

Although some of us may not be familiar with Icelandic (including me), it is fun to peruse around!

Thanks, Amplifier

2007-04-26T19:44:00.000-05:00

Recently Amplifier Magazine went to an web-only format. Although I will miss the glossy mags, the website is still great to "thumb through." I remember once when someone told me that they read The New York Times online. I thought, "Huh? How can you read a newspaper on a computer?"

A few years later, I peruse the Times and many other sites for news content, thanks to our famous laptop on the dining room table (now that deserves its own post, dudn't it?). Amplifier is no exception - bookmark this!

Amplifier Magazine - Celestial Review

Combining the distortion-drenched elegance of Chapterhouse with the fuzzy charm of The Legends, Celestial’s Dream On is a future shoegazing classic. Led by brain trust Andreas Hagman, this Swedish collective knows how to swoon and swerve its way through a pop song. “Brighton Girls” suggests a sun-kissed version of Ride, “Horoscope” jangles merrily over Hagman’s doleful vocals and “The Boy Who Never Says Goodbye” comes with a guitar that wistfully chimes as singer Malin Dahlberg joins Hagman for more downbeat beauty. Dream On may be a contemplative and self-probing album, but it’s not depressing at all. Filtering longing through blurry beauty (“Nothing Happens; Twice” and “Springtide Day”) and gently played acoustica (“Bluebell Meadow”) Hagman and his cohorts not only know their way around a pop song, they know how to roll it out in majestic bursts of crumbling loveliness. Elsewhere, Dahlberg’s “Pale Blue Eyes” is an exercise in spare and honest songwriting, while the closer “The Sunshine Of Your Smile”) suggests The Stone Roses, yet offers a new level of devastating beauty.

~ Alex Green

Look for an interview coming soon!

Upcoming Shows!

2007-04-23T07:32:00.000-05:00

THE BESTIES

Photo:Glynis Arban

Stay tuned to the The Besties Myspace for more info, including some exciting summer shows!
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
The Besties
Cake Shop 152 Ludlow St.
New York, NY
Description: Yay! The Besties return ... w/ The Icicles, Normandy and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

Saturday, April 28, 2007
The Besties
1222 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston, MA
Cost: $7
Description: Joe Finkel and the Wild Kindness and Lil Hospital. This is Part of a Boston Popfest thing.

Saturday, May 26, 2007
The Besties in NYC - Popfest
74 Leonard St.
New York, New York 10013
Description: Part of the NYC Popfest. Show is in the main space w/ Casiotone for the painfully Alone, The Ballet, Ballboy,Harvey Williams, My Teenage Stride, The Besties, Brown Recluse sings. Check out nyc popfest myspace for more info

Friday, June 22, 2007
The Besties
TSI
333 E. Bay Street
Jacksonville, Florida

Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The Besties
The Beta Bar
809 Railroad Ave.
Tallahassee, FL
with Voxtrot!

Tuesday, July 3, 2007
The Besties
CBGB
St. Louis, Missouri
with Walkie Talkie USA

Thursday, July 5, 2007
The Besties
South Union Arts, Chicago, Illinois
with The Fake Fictions

Friday, July 13, 2007
The Besties
Club Metronome
Burlington, Vermont
with pals The Smittens, Colin Clary & the Magogs - Moped Rally!

Sunday, July 15
The Besties
Sound Post, Portland, Maine

THE YEAR ZERO

Stay tuned to The Year Zero Myspace page for more info!

Friday, April 27, 2007
The Year Zero in Long Beach, CA
2300 East. 4th St. (at Junipero)
Long Beach, CA
Description: with Rain Dog & Co.

Friday, May 11, 2007
The Year Zero - Mission Creek Festival
406 Clement St
San Francisco, CA
Description: Mission Creek Festival with Astral LSD and Search for God, 3 Leafs, and Audio Out Send!

Saturday, May 12, 2007
The Year Zero in Long Beach
530 E. Broadway
Long Beach, CA
Cost: $5
Description: @ koo's art center in long beach 11hz robot, potar, and ghostship time: 8-11, 45 sets each bryan shnelle is showing new paintings that discuss the absurdity of celebrity. his opening reception will be this night from 5-8. second saturday artwalk, from 5-11

Celestial Reviews

2007-04-22T09:20:00.000-05:00

The Celestial album "Dream On" is officially released April 24! Buy direct from Skipping Stones Records HERE

Celestial Reviews
Hear what Don Yates from KEXP in Seattle has to say about “Dream On:” Swedish singer-songwriter Andreas Hagman (aka Celestial) follows up some self-released EPs with this excellent debut album of hazy guitar pop, combining soft vocals and a fair amount of reverb with melodic guitar lines that shimmer and jangle on a variety of sparkling pop songs.Don Yates, KEXP (US)

Re-recordings of Nothing Happens; Twice and Dream On shimmer in the afterglow … This is a great album and whilst it's too early to say if it will become a jangle pop classic it's pretty close to being so. indie-mp3 (UK)

Sparkling guitar pop Lost Music (UK)

The crème de la crème might be the amazing title track - all chiming guitars and purring vocals. Dagger (US)

Great swaths of dreamy pop melodies and reverbed, jangly electric guitars. Palebear (US)

Hagman combines shoegaze, twee pop, and jangle pop to create something that is at once new and fondly remembered at the same time. Soaring melodies rule here, and most songs echo a meeker Jesus and Mary Chain. Drenched in reverb, these songs certainly ascertain their namesake, melding together hazy songs that are easy to get lost in. Retrolofi (US)

News

2007-04-22T08:49:00.000-05:00

Spring is here!

Mother Nature threw us a curve ball at the end of Spring, with weeks and weeks of cold, raw and miserable rain. Us New Englanders know that Spring can be unpredictable and we weathered in through. Unfortunately, one member of our feline family did not make it. I think the cold just got to her bones and Dakini passed away last week. I will miss her.

Dakini, 1993 - 2007

Popfest! New England!

2007-03-31T11:23:00.000-05:00

Soon-to-be FOURTH Popfest! New England is coming up in November. We're working hard to bring you some fresh new bands this year, so stay tuned. We started a myspace page this year, William figured why not? So he'll be the Popfest MySpace go-to person!
Popfest! New England MySpace

and bookmark our Popfest! New England 2007 WEBSITE

DYRDIN

2007-03-31T10:37:00.001-05:00

Here's a treat! The video of "Mr. Spock" at the Dyrdin CD release party in Reykjavik, Iceland in December:

The band looked smashing, I love Einar's white suit. The light is a little low, but at the end someone flashes a picture and you can see Hafdis' lovely red and white polka dot dress.

The "Special Guest Star," which implied someone famous but turned out to be Toti's friend Þröstur, sang back-ups. And if you want to sing along, here are the words with translation!

DYRDIN - "Mr. Spock"
Nú er illt í efni
Now I’m in heaps of trouble
ekkert gengur upp hjá mér

Nothing seems to go my way
engin sól á himni
there’s no sun in the sky
því að þú ert ekki hér

Cause you’re not here with me
það er engin leið

There’s no way
ekkert hægt að gera
nothing can be done
staðan vonlaus, það er greinilegt
situation hopeless, it’s obvious
ég er búnað vera
I am totally done for

chorus:
úúúúúúÚÚÚÚ Mister Spock (self explanatory)
úúúúúúÚÚÚÚúúúúúúúúú Mister Spock
úúúúúúÚÚÚÚ Mister Spock
úúúúúúÚÚÚÚúúúúúúúúú Mister Spock

Ég vil fá þig aftur
I want you back
ég vil bímast burt með þér
I want to beam away with you
inní stjörnuþokur
into distant galaxies
eitthvað þar sem enginn sér
somewhere no one else can see
eignast fullt af börnum
have lot’s of children
skipt'um fóton bleyjur
change some photon diapers
fara fífldjörf
to go boldly
þar sem enginn hefur fæti stigið fyrr
where no one has ever gone before

úúúúúúÚÚÚÚ Mister Spock
úúúúúúÚÚÚÚúúúúúúúúú Mister Spock
úúúúúúÚÚÚÚ Mister Spock
úúúúúúÚÚÚÚúúúúúúúúú Mister Spock

If you'd like to have your very own copy of Dyrdin's debut, buy HERE

Swedes, Snow & Warm Sounds

2007-03-18T11:59:00.000-05:00

New England weather surprised us with another 10" of snow last Friday, followed by terrible freezing rain. That's why us Yankees are tough. And I don't mean the baseball team...

Skipping Stones Records is proud to offer pre-orders for our next release, the warm sounds of Celestial from Sweden and their debut "Dream On"
Pre-Order Celestial Here

Review copies are out and people are saying what we already know.
This album is just exquisite.

"People who regularly read Lostmusic will know that a while back Lostmusic Recordings released a couple of 'home made' EPs for download only from Celestial. Many of these songs appear here. But they're not the same songs, really, these have been re-recorded and re-invigorated. The potential on those early download EPs has been harnassed and improved. There is a richness to the guitar sound, that was previously missing. The drums are sharper. The whole LP sounds more rounded. Finished. 'Nothing Happens; Twice' has been reborn - sounding less twee now - it's become a wonderfully pounding beast of an indiepop song."
/Trev, Lost Music (UK)
Read the article here

celestial "dream on"

2007-02-04T10:32:00.000-05:00

The Celestial debut, "Dream On" will be Skipping Stones Records release #SKIP009, out April 24 - just in time for our third birthday! Pre-sales will go up in early April.

You may have heard some of these songs on Music is My Girlfriend or Lost Music eps - these are completely new recordings and sound amazing.

Here's a special treat:
a free, legal download of Dream
On from the upcoming album.

Tracklisting:
brighton girls
horoscope
saving my presence
the boy who never says goodbye
dream on
fragile heart
nothing happens; twice
lake como
springtide day
bluebell meadow
pale blue eyes
the sunshine of your smile

“Precious songs, in the Sarah Records vein, between a super romantic dreampop and a dreamy and tender melodies jangle pop” /Mira El Péndulo

“stay true to their roots and produce a completely wonderful indie, drenched in effects... nostalgia knows no limits.” /4 Lighthouses

”wanders from shoegaze via Field Mice to JAMC in five songs” /Groove

”effortless beauty that slide through the darkness and sink deep into your heart without a sound” /Friends of the Heroes

“reminds me of the early releases on Creation Records … and early 80s jangle pop” /Tom B at www.indie-mp3.co.uk

Podcast featuring The Charade

2007-01-29T12:50:00.000-05:00

You know, sometimes it's really hard to keep track of every single thing out there in the blog-o-sphere. Here's a neat little podcast put together by someone named Pete Cogle. Enjoy!
PC Podcast with Pete Cogle

Hafdis Special!

2007-01-29T12:33:00.000-05:00

More news from Magnus in Iceland:
Hafdis is in the newspaper! The feature is about her favorite songs, more presicely, what would she burn on a cd for herself, hence the feature is translated as "Brennslan" or "The Burn", or "The CD-R burn list."

Dýrðin Reviews!

2007-01-21T22:23:00.000-05:00

Enjoy these warm and fuzzy Dyrdin reviews that will make your January shine!

Grapevine - Iceland
January is a fucking grim month. After that, we get the even grimmer February. And after that, it does not really get any better for a long time. I am dreading it already. Dýrðin arrive to the rescue with the most sugarcoated summer feeling indie rock I have heard since I do not know when. It is almost like stepping into a time machine, back to the glory years of indie pop. Before the Strokes destroyed it all.

Bubbly-indie-pop that makes you want to drink cheap white wine and dance. This is what is needed in January.

Rave Magazine – Australia
Huh?: Pronounced ‘deerthin,’ Dyrdin are a five-piece, girl-fronted Icelandic band with pure POP replacing blood in the veins beneath their freckled cheeks.
What’s It Like?: Hyper-scandi-pop goodness in top gear, alternating between songs in English and Icelandic. Silly, catchy, well-crafted and twee as f**k. Like a bucket of sugar melted and spun into a CD.

Highlights?: Mr. Spock – an ode to the sexy love-starved Vulvan science officer. Brottnumin – one and a half minutes of what sounds like Japanese karaoke with added glockenspiel.

Sounds Like: The Concretes / The Cardigans / The Ramones

Pennyblackmusic - UK
. . .they choose to write most of their often very childish lyrics in their native tongue, Icelandic, which sounds almost like Japanese on some of the songs here. But as most people in the world aren't very fluent in that language, they have included a song-by-song description in English, so that you can get a clue about what they are singing about. Thank you!

If you are a fan of bands like the Icicles, All Girl Summer Fun Band and the Maybellines, I'm sure you will be delighted to know this band!

Tasty Fanzine - UK
One of the good points of reviewing CDs from bands you don't know is that you don't know what they look like. Dyrdin are a girlie lead Icelandic indie pop band and I think that, as a huge indie-pop fan, if I knew what they looked like I would have written this review before listening to the CD. The most of the songs on this CD are sung in Icelandic which is brilliant and respect to Skipping Stones for being brave enough to do this. Most of it is sung in Icelandic, all of it sounds like everything I ever hear from Swedish indie-pop.

. . .it is very sweet and I expect I will be prancing round my bedroom to it before I go out on Saturday night.

Amplifier - US
What makes great indie pop? Sensitive lyrics? Adorability? When you sing in Icelandic about dreamy ski instructors and mesh an infectious blend of girl-pop and C-86, there is no rubric for pop; there is just Dyrdin. Short and sweet, Dyrdin’s debut clocks in just over 27 minutes. “Prins I alogum” and “Mr Spock” dish out the album’s surprising brand of pop-punk, which succeeds in connecting Blondie to the Primitives.

On “Bubble Girl,” the line “I’m a bubble girl in a bubble world” reminds all of Madonna’s “I’m a material girl in a material world,” further exemplifying the group’s more pop-oriented roots and glistening girl band aesthetic. Like Sweden’s [ingenting], Dyrdin’s infectious pop is not hampered by language barriers. American audiences will delight in this off-kilter debut as they sing about Star Trek’s famed Vulcan philopher and love affairs with zipper eating extra-terrestrials.

indiepages - US
Myself and many others in the indiepop world have been eagerly awaiting this release ever since being teased by a few mp3s and a show-stealing set from this Icelandic group at the Popfest New England last year. Now the band have finally released their debut album (which includes all of the songs we'd already loved, as well as several more), and it's sure to win everyone's hearts!

The band plays pure indiepop, but with punky roots, similar to Talulah Gosh, Helen Love, All Girl Summer Fun Band and their labelmates, the Besties. Although the lyrics are mostly in Icelandic, the disc's liner notes describing each song proves that they're as fun and whimsical as the music itself suggests, including wild stories about a land where 18 billion bees eat honeydrops, being in love with a space alien and a grandpa who goes into orbit off his trampoline. Only a couple of the songs pass the three minute mark, and each of them is a sheer delight, making this a sure candidate for many top ten lists this year!

2006 ... 2007

2007-01-15T21:46:00.000-05:00

Today I discovered that 2007 is the Year of the Pig. I was born in the Year of the Pig. That's gotta be good. According to this site, I should use the color RED. "People born in the Year of the Pig should place red plants in the south part of their room, which will encourage them in their hard work." I need to find some red plants.

The year 2006 went out with a whirl, with Skipping Stones artists making some Top Ten Lists, including:
indiepages
#3 - Dýrðin - s/t
#10 – The Charade “A Real Life Drama”

I invited the indiepages cat over to say hi. Here she is:

indie mp3
Tom listed The Besties as his #3 Band of 2006.

Twee.net Poll!
The Besties:
#8 as Best Band
#6 as Best New Band in 2006
#8 as Best Album

Popfest! New England tied with The Pipettes as “the most amazing live experience” at #6.

And thanks to everyone who posted on blogs, forums, lists, etc! Here's to 2007!

Food for the Ears Part II

2006-12-30T12:59:00.000-05:00

Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Our last night with Locas in Love - we were glad to host them at SSR/HQ for a relaxing dinner - more food! They finished up the mixing of the Karpatenhund album on Tuesday, allowing some time to do some favorite things. Wednesday involved driving to New York City just so that they could have a walk in Central Park. Isn't that cute? I warned them about the traffic back to Connecticut - it took them almost 4 hours to reach our house. Luckily they were right on time and arrived a little before 8pm. Aileen and Ryan also came over to say goodbye.

We had margaritas and sat down for a feast of burritos with roasted butternut squash, leeks and carrots, refried beans, olives, salsas galore, homemade guacamole and the whole spread. I had made some tomato salsa, but unfortunately I forgot about it! For the grande finale American dessert I made brownies, which was topped with homemade fudge sauce and ice cream.

Unfortunately I do not have a lot of pictures. It was a sad evening to see our friends go, but we hope to see them again in the coming year.

Food for the Ears - Part I....

2006-12-30T10:41:00.000-05:00

I'm thinking that maybe I should start a foodie blog. This past month hanging out with Locas in Love from Germany has been a combination of fantastic vegetarian meals and some great shows. We had the chance to hang out two more times after The Evens show.

Friday, December 15
We ventured south to Bridgeport and Tarquin Studios (just google it - you'll get some good stories), where Niklas and Bjorn had created an amazing pot of vegetarian chili. Their secret? They flamed whiskey in the pot - I think when the onions were cooking. I got home a little early that afternoon, so I had the time to make Edensoy Cornbread. It's a really great recipe, try it sometime! It went perfect with the chili. In my quest to feed Locas in Love all things American, I also made classic Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies. Yum!

We had a little tour of the studios, which were totally amazing, had some wine, some food and then off to the Fairfield Theatre.

The theatre was an intimate affair. And they had a bar, which proved to be the beginning of many libations. Big Fat Combo played first, a classic bar band with songs about Sam the Clam and the Halle-Bop Comet. The guy on the stand-up bass was great.

Philistines Jr. went on next. Later I learned that Peter went to UVM at the same time I had a radio show on WRUV in high school. I miss that place! I had many friends in the "Ceramics Suite" at UVM, in the classic "Living and Learning" dorms. I also knew drummer Adam from back in the Port Chester days, when The Beat was the place to go to see shows (and also where I met William).

The Zambonis are a total riot and so much fun to watch. There were a ton of kids down in front and I had an urge to go make them dance. They bopped around enough, though. The Hockey Monkey is the best part and the accompanying song is a lot of fun. Listen to "Hockey Monkey" on the Zambonis Myspace. And while you're at it, add the Hockey Monkey as your friend!

If you think this is really a joke, it's not. Yes, there is a hockey band from Connecticut that travels all over the world to bring the enjoyment of hockey to the masses. Even NBC found the inner meaning, watch the video of The Zambonis on NBC Sports - filmed at the December 15th show!

Mark Mulcahy went on next and performed a really great show. I can't really do it justice with words. He played a long time, performed some great songs (like from The Backyard) and the audience was thrilled.

The rest of the evening involved returning to Tarquin studios and staying up past 3am drinking really good whiskey. Thanks everyone!

2006-12-12T20:31:00.000-05:00

Celestial has a Christmas song! Go to the Music is My Girlfriend website to download.

The Evens Show

2006-12-11T23:56:00.000-05:00

Tonight we went to see The Evens with the Locas folks and friends Aileen and Katie. Luckily Ian MacKaye requested that everyone sit on the floor, it was nice. It's hard to see bands when they're playing at The Space, so it was all cozy, but our asses fell asleep. There was a lot of great banter from Ian, a sing-a-long and some whistling from the audience. The Evens were really dynamic, Ian had a nice Danelectro baritone guitar that he played amazingly. I enjoyed it when he played "bass-y" parts. The drummer Amy is exceptionally talented and is a wonderful singer, even though she said afterwards that she was in a total fog from being really sick. You couldn't even tell.

Here's an intimate pic of us peeps on the floor:

After we hung out to say hi to Ian. William knows him from way back when playing in CIA and 76% Uncertain. Bjorn was very shy, but he gave Ian some Locas in Love CDs and I managed to snap this pic:

Pie Party!

2006-12-10T18:32:00.000-05:00

Skipping Stones Records hosted a Pie Party for Niklas, Bjorn & Stefanie, visiting from Germany to mix their album for Karpatenhund. They love a good American pie and I was obliged to make an apple pie from scratch. It's been many years since I've made a pie crust, but I did some research and I dare say everything came back to me in a snap!

Here is Stefanie, Bjorn and Locas with many pies! Our friend Karen brought no less than THREE pies, shown in the photo. They included; pumpkin pie, cherry pie and a yummy rum cream concoction.

I made quite a mess, but it was a lot of fun. Here's a pic of the pie operation. I love to cook, so I got pretty ambitious and made several other kinds of pie, too, including a Greek spinach pie with phyllo dough and an amazing leek tart. I found a beautiful website with some great recipes at Simply Recipes. This is where I got the great pie crust recipe! The leek tart had a homemade crust with roasted leeks in olive oil, mushrooms, shallots and fresh sage. I wish I had made more!

Here's my stove with good things:

We had our guests overnight and today was a wonderful day of nothingness. Waking up to fresh coffee, bagels, sitting around and talking, reading magazines (when do I ever have the time to do that?) and ... more pie!

Locas in the US & New Release coming!

2006-12-08T00:31:00.000-05:00

We're pleased to see Locas in Love back in the US! They're mixing an album at Tarquin Studios, which happens to be very close to SSR / HQ.

Tonight we hosted Bjorn, Stefanie and Nikals from Locas and went on to Danbury to see friends Schwervon play - it was a great show! Matt plays guitar, Nan plays drums, a lot of rock and roll with some nice melodies thrown in. Nan played a very touching song on keyboard and sang vocals while Matt had to change a string on his guitar.

We're looking forward to more Locas time in the next two weeks....

The next Skipping Stones Records release will be Celestial from Sweden. We're not sure of the release date yet, but it will probably be in late February. Andreas has re-recorded many songs that were released via the internet on Lost Music.

"precious songs, on the Sarah Records vein, between a super romantic dreampop and a dreamy and tender melodies jangle pop" Mira el Pendulo

"That feeling of hearing My Bloody Valentine for the first time, seeing Ride at a community centre in Jönköping and at the Cue Club. When I listen to Celestial it all comes back, and that possibly means that I, in effect, give a mark a grade higher than this really deserves." /Daniel Claeson

"wanders from shoegaze via Field Mice to JAMC in five songs" Groove

Read Andreas' posts at the Celestial website

Popfest Video

2006-11-05T15:59:00.000-05:00

Thanks to the many people who took video at Popfest - here they are!

Most of these were shot by Leigh, except the last two Locas in Love, shot by Benny - thank you!

Secret Shine playing "Loveblind"

Locas in Love Banter about Snails

Locas in Love - The Vaselines / Nirvana / Art Brut Cover

Locas in Love "Die Apokalypse erreicht Mühlacker"

Locas in Love "How I Wrote) I Get Lonesome"

More Locas in Love videos on their YouTube.

The Smittens Theme Song

The Smittens "Sapphire"

My Teenage Stride playing Belle & Sebastian's "Lazy Line Painter Jane"

The Specific Heats laptop remix:

The Brother Kite "Out of Sight"

The Brother Kite "Coat of Arms"

The Besties end their set:

Video shot by Maggi of Dyrdin:
The Besties

Popfest Mixes

2006-11-05T15:55:00.000-05:00

Many thanks to Chris Mac from indiepages, not only for doing merch so well, but bringing along these great mixes that we played throughout the weekend (see below).

Matthew from Otter Pop Radio also gave us some great mixes, thanks!

Scotland
Orange Juice - Blue Boy
Josef K - Pictures (Of Cindy)
Fire Engines - Meat Whiplash
Aztec Camera - The Boy Wonders
Jasmine Minks - Think!
Primal Scream - It Happens
Jesus And Mary Chain - You Trip Me Up
Shop Assistants - Safety Net
Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes - The Rain Fell Down
Pastels - Comin' Through
This Poison! - Poised Over The Pause Button
Fun Patrol - No Concern Of Mine
Vaselines - Molly's Lips
Baby Lemonade - All Down To You
Close Lobsters - What Is There To Smile About
Orchids - Caveman
18 Wheeler - Nature Girl
Bis - Kandy Pop
Adventures In Stereo - Waves On
Belle & Sebastian - Seeing Other People
Teenage Fanclub - I Don't Want Control Of You
Delgados - Big Business In Europe
Pearlfishers - We're Gonna Save The Summer
Speedboat - Truckin' Back To You
Cosmic Rough Riders - Melanie
Camera Obscura - I Don't Do Crowds
Nice Man & The Bad Boys - Tambourine

Mod/power pop
Boyfriends - I'm In Love Today
Distractions - It Doesn't Bother Me
Shivvers - Teen Line
Seventeen - Bank Holiday Weekend
BTP Folders - All Of A Sudden
Speedies - Let Me Take Your Foto
Strand - One More Ring
Babijar - Ice Age
Strangeways - Show Her You Care
Jags - Back Of My Hand
Tours - Language School
Monroes - What Do All The People Know
Regular Guys - Too Dumb
Andy Arthurs - I Can Detect You For 100,000 Miles
Leyton Buzzards - I'm Hanging Around
Moondogs - Who's Gonna Tell Mary
Sex Clark Five - Neita Grew Up Last Night
Stiv Bators - It's Cold Outside
Princess Of Peace - X-Ray Proved
Donkeys - Don't Go
Gas - Ignore Me
Puppet Rulers - Complicated Girl
Kick! - Let's Get Back Together
Gangsters - Best Friend
Keys - I Don't Wanna Cry
Rockers - Don't Leave Me Tonight
Times - I Helped Patrick McGoohan Escape

Indie rock
Glossary - Fast Walkin' Shit Talkin'
Silver Scooter - Regret Sets In
Super Friendz - Stop Start
Track Star - Lifestyles
Ciao Bella - Another Pill
Thrush Hermit - On The Sneak
Sloan - Losing California
Sekiden - Autumn Glass
Moped - Turkey
Pee - IHOP
Flake - Mieke
Eric's Trip - Anytime You Want
Seam - Grain
Bear Quartet - Carsick
Butterglory - Demons And Avalanches
Polvo - Tragic Carpet Ride
Bob Hund - Istället För Musik Förvirring
Juniper - Think And Die Thinking
Swirlies - Sarah Sitting
Superdrag - Some Kind Of Tragedy
Mendoza Line - Dollars To Donuts
Spraydog - Lemonade
Beatnik Filmstars - Revolt Into Style
Henry's Dress - (You're My) Radio One
Plastic Mastery - Why Can't You Breathe Again
Deathray Davies - Is This On
Ropers - I Don't Mind
David & The Citizens - Song Against Life
Versus - Astronaut

indiepop
Allen Clapp - Why Sting Is Such An Idiot
Aislers Set - Hit The Snow
Wolfie - Hey It's Finally Yay
Barcelona - Sunshine Delay
Frenchmen - Hey Amelia
Holiday - You've Got Nothing
True Love Always - Buried Treasure
Bearsuit - Itsuko Got Married
Galactic Heroes - Neat Street
Lilys - A Nanny In Manhattan
Black Tambourine - Throw Aggi Off The Bridge
I Live The Life Of A Movie Star Secret Hideout - Figure Eights
Honeybunch - Endure Me
White Town - Bewitched
Birdie - Such A Sound
Eggplant - Often I Lie
Bartlebees - You're Still Beautiful
Push Kings - Pop Phenomenon
Rondelles - TV Zombie
Poundsign - Disaster
Haywains - Bye Bye Boyfriend
Madison Electric - Heavy Petal
Cat's Miaow - Third Floor Fire Escape View
Eggstone - My Trumpets
Papas Fritas - Words To Sing
Red Sleeping Beauty - You're The Kind
Monograph - Holding On In Colour
Winter Vacation - An Arsonist
Masters Of The Hemisphere - Anything, Anything
Hang Ups - Top Of Morning
Rocketship - I'm Lost Without You Here
Pencil Tin - Poignant
Waves - Bombarded
Wimp Factor XIV - Rebuilding Europe

dancepop
Acid House Kings - The Boy Still Dreams
Barcelona - Studio Hair Gel
Le Sport - Your Brother Is My Only Hope
Happy Couple - Another Sunny Day
They Go Boom!! - World At Our Feet
Even As We Speak - Drown
La Casa Azul - Cerca De Shibuya
White Town - Another Lover
Magnetic Fields - Rats In The Garbage Of The Western World
New Order - Mesh
Purelove - Ascendancy
Saint Etienne - You're In A Bad Way
Tender Trap - ¿Como Te Llamas (Tell Me Your Name)
Club 8 - Missing You
Pipas - Rock And Or Roll
Waltz For Debbie - He Loves Anna
Action Biker - Sandy Edwards
Slomo Rabbit Kick - Yr Not Gothic
Le Chevre - Everything Reminds Me
Vitesse - A Way To My Redemption
Family - Carlos Baila
Orchids - Striving For The Lazy Perfection
A Shrine - Silent
Wake - Talk About The Past
Famous Boyfriend - I Can't See My Way Out Of This

covers
Lenola - Catch
Salteens - Motor Away
Teenage Fanclub - Here Comes Your Man
Drawbacks - Teenage Kicks
Comas - Radio
Polvo - Mexican Radio
Smudge - Make All Our Dreams Come True
Heavenly - Art School
Lush - Outdoor Miner
Lucksmiths - I've Got It And It's Not Worth Having
Boyracer - Stop Killing Me
Rondelles - I Melt With You
J Church - Girlfriend In A Coma
Milky Wimpshake - This Old Heart Of Mine (Is Weak For You)
Redd Kross - How Much More
Wedding Present - It's Not Unusual
Pansy Division - Jackson
Kind Of Like Spitting - Now I Can Smile
Bunnygrunt - Repulsion
Bartlebees - World Of Pauline Lewis
Fitz Of Depression - Glad All Over
Belle & Sebastian - The Boys Are Back In Town
Cat's Miaow - Born On A Train
Even As We Speak - Bizarre Love Triangle
Of Montreal - She's My Best Friend
Frank And Walters - Funky Cold Medina
Future Bible Heroes - Don't You Want Me
Mirafiori - No Te Necesito (I Don't Need You)
Softies - Hey Hey Girl
Pastels - Different Drum

c86
Primal Scream - Velocity Girl
McCarthy - Should The Bible Be Banned
Shop Assistants - All Day Long
Wolfhounds - Cruelty
Mighty Mighty - Throwaway
Razorcuts - Jade
Bodines - Therese
Wedding Present - Once More
June Brides - We Belong
Brilliant Corners - Meet Me On Tuesdays
Loft - Why Does The Rain
Chesterfields - Completely & Utterly
Pastels - Crawl Babies
Biff Bang Pow! - Fifty Years Of Fun
Church Grims - Seen It All
Flatmates - Tell Me Why
Groove Farm - The Best Part Of Being With You
Magic Shop - It's True
James Dean Driving Experience - Dean's Eleventh Dream
1000 Violins - You Ungrateful Bastard
Felt - Ballad Of The Band
Clouds - Get Out Of My Dream
Talulah Gosh - The Girl With The Strawberry Hair
14 Iced Bears - Balloon Song
My Bloody Valentine - Sunny Sundae Smile
Primitives - Really Stupid
Siddeleys - Wherever You Go
Weather Prophets - Almost Prayed
Holidaymakers - Everyday
Nivens - Let Loose Of My Knee
Pooh Sticks - Indiepop Ain't Noise Pollution

australia
Summer Suns - Girl In A Mexican Restaurant
Zebras - The Forces Of Light (Preloading)
Mid-State Orange - Losing Time
Darren Hanlon - (There's Not Enough Songs About) Squash
Ashtray Boy - The Tourist Living In A World Of Pain
Ripe - We're All Trying To Get There
Plunderers - Christo
Smudge - The Outdoor Type
Cat's Miaow - Stay
Singing Bush - Do What You Say (Richard Richard)
Crabstick - Cardboard Keg
The Go-Betweens - Cattle and Cane
Sugargliders - Another Faux Pas In The Cathedral Of Love
Rainyard - Hell Bent Suicidal Over You, Baby
Stems - Never Be Friends
Even - Stupid Dream
Lucksmiths - Synchronised Sinking
Architecture In Helsinki - The Owls Go
Showbag - East Or West
Sekiden - Autumn Glass
Godstar - Everything You Give Me Breaks
Richies - Little Petty Things
P76 - Headed Straight For The Sun
Pencil Tin - Poignant
Her Name In Lights - Against The Blue
Marigolds - Shame On You
Someloves - Know You Now
Cannanes - I Think The Weathers Affected Your Brain

2006
Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken
Bears - When You're Away
Cats On Fire - Draw In The Reins
Beatnik Filmstars - The Greatest Of Minds
Kristallin - My Godchild (Is Franka)
Capstan Shafts - Defenstration Makes Good Neighbors
Lake Holiday - Press Record Then Play
Casper & The Cookies - Sid From Central Park
Charade - My Song To You
Minor Leagues - Different Planet
Boat - Last Cans Of Paint
Boyracer - Kids Don't Follow
Dýrðin - Brottnuminn
Pants Yell! - Don't Take It
Channel - Olden Days
Central Services - She Was My Ride
Electric Soft Parade - A Cold World
Love Is All - Ageing Had Never Been His Friend
Five Mod Four - The Sound Of My Own Wheels Has Driven Me Crazy
Voxtrot - Fast Asleep
Russian Spy Camera - Chance
Human Television - Tonight's The Night
Tender Trap - Talking Backwards
Harper Lee - I Could Be Wrong
Ivy League - London Bridges
Golden Bear - A Reason To Be Proud
Sex Robots - Knives
Tidy Ups - Dizzy Heights
Airfields - Lonely Halls
Patience Please - Unpublished

Sandwich And A Sweater
MacGuffins - Rich Together
Calloways - Kalamazoo
Windmills - The Day Dawned On Me
Prayers - Puppet Clouds
Men Of Westenesse - The Coldest Water
Chefs - 24 Hours
Gangway - Out On The Rebound From Love
Moss Poles - One Summer
Lovenotes And Lithium - When Love (Gets In The Way)
River Roses - Innocent June
April Showers - Abandon Ship
Room - One Hundred Years
Would Be's - I'm Hardly Ever Wrong
Big Gun - Heard About Love
Dislocation Dance - You'll Never Never Know
Apple Moths - Kymri
Servants - The Sun A Small Star
Buba & The Shop Assistants - Something To Do
French Impressionists - Castles In The Air
Spinning Jennys - I'd Laugh If Your Head Exploded
Wallflowers - Blushing Girl, Nervous Smile
Trixie's Big Red Motorbike - Norman And Narcissus
Laugh - Paul McCartney
Dubious Brothers - Don't Laugh At Me
Passmore Sisters - June In The Water

Sarah
14 Iced Bears - Come Get Me
Poppyheads - Cremation Town
Another Sunny Day - I'm In Love With A Girl Who Doesn't Know I Exist
Sea Urchins - You're So Much
Golden Dawn - My Secret World
Springfields - Sunflower
St. Christopher - All Of A Tremble
Orchids - It's Only Obvious
Wake - Crush The Flowers
Brighter - I Don't Think It Matters
Action Painting! - These Things Happen
Eternal - Breathe
Even As We Speak - Goes So Slow
Heavenly - Our Love Is Heavenly
Tramway - Maritime City
Field Mice - September's Not So Far Away
Forever People - Sometimes
Hit Parade - In Gunnersbury Park
Secret Shine - Loveblind
Boyracer - I've Got It And It's Not Worth Having
East River Pipe - Make A Deal With The City
Sugargliders - Will We Ever Learn
Blueboy - Cosmopolitan
Aberdeen - Byron
Northern Picture Library - Paris

Chicks on Bass

2006-11-05T15:36:00.000-05:00

This post is dedicated to the highest concentration of women on bass I have ever seen. Rock it!

Emily from The Icicles

Sarah from Palomar

This is not a good bass pic, but here's Jenny from My Teenage Stride

Beauty Sleep

Stefanie from Locas in Love with her new vintage Rick

Andrea from The Brother Kite

Lisa from Surefire Broadcast

Jen from The Specific Heats

Marta from Polar Bear Parade

Carina from Hands and Knees

Karen from Bunnygrunt

My Chicks on Bass Myspace

Popfest Peeps

2006-11-05T14:46:00.000-05:00

We'd like to thank the support of the indiepop list! Many peeps came out, and although we've heard it said before, we didn't get out the name tags for Popfest!

We dedicate this post to you, the Popfest Peeps. I made a concerted effort to take as many peep pix as possible. Interspersed are some comments from the indiepop list. Enjoy!

"Thanks to William and Christine and Chris Mac and everyone else. MTS had a great time, I had a great time, and even though I was actually in a trance-like state during our set due to lack of sleep and overindulgence of Red Bull, the enthusiam of the pop kids kept me awake through the whole thing.

Locas in Love were a wonderful surprise as I hadn't seen them before. The Smittens axis delivered the goods as usual, with the Besties providing excellent guest work. I tried to take a picture of the french horn player's horn, but it came out badly. I wish I had been able to stay for the Sunday shows. I also wish I had been able to come to the Sat show before 10. I also wish I had cool horns, like satan, or the guy from Judas Priest.

Also, I liked Spouse, but as a former Northamptonite, I knew that already."
/Jed

Most of the band Dyrdin from Iceland:
Maggi, Einar, Maggi's girlfriend Anna and Sigrun:

"We're back from US, where we had an amazing time with lots of cool people! We got to play with The Besties, The Smittens, The Icicles, Locas in Love, Bunnygrunt, The Leader, Peter Dizozza the singing lawyer, The Metric Mile, Secret Shine and then some. We got to see the New England fall foilage which people travel from all over the world to see, got some real McDonalds that taste exactly like here in Iceland, got some small coffees that were huge, inched our way up Broadway on a shopping spree, met some crazy taxi drivers and battled angry german girls in hotel rooms. All in all a very nice time was had by all of us"
/Dyrdin

Colin signing everything for MichaelZ:

"1. Locas In Love are awesome. It is always fun when someone of whom you've never even heard turns out to be great. The wonderfully-maned lead singer also had the best line of the weekend: " asked if we were planning to engage in any terrorism or espionage. We ticked the 'no' box." His delivery was perfect. We talked briefly about how hard it was for German-only groups to come over here, and he was surprised that I knew who Die Sterne was. You could tell how happy he was to be there.

2. According to Magnus, there was some discussion about whether printing the descriptions of the songs on Dyrdin's CD would be a good idea or not. I assured him they made the right choice. He also told me Dyrdin translates as "The Glory," which unfortunately sounds like a bad Christian rock act. So I'm going to pretend I didn't learn that, and tell everyone it means "Puffins with Guitars."

3. Chris Mac runs a tight merch ship. And he seemingly knows every song on every release ever.

4. It seems a great number of list people were there. Perhaps if I posted more than once every two years, I would've known who some of you were. No matter, I'm normally pretty quiet and had a perfectly good time drinking my beers and absorbing the music.

5. William and Christine have put on a great event three years running and I hope they have the desire and ability to keep it going for many more. They deserve all the kudos I can muster. My only complaint...

6. Next time, Popfest should be in Easthampton, so I can get home to bed quicker. It took me at least twenty minutes to get home, brush my teeth, and climb into bed. Twenty minutes!"
/Matt

Sherri, Joe Weincis, Marta / Polar Bear Parade, Kevin / L'il Hospital, Ellen, James, Gus & Marisha / Polar Bear Parade:

"Musical highlights for me were Locas in Love, Butterflies of Love, My Teenage Stride, The Icicles and Palomar. I am an old school fan of the Butterflies of Love and it was a treat to see them again with Mark Mulcahy. Locas in Love are total sweethearts and fuckin rock to boot -- love the hair-do and attitude and polar bear badges (step off the polar bears, man!). We all enjoyed playing as well last night and wished we had worked out more songs, like our surprise Neil Young cover that we will pull out one day soon for all of you. Everyone sounded just fantastic, the sound quality in the room was very good. Christine and William do an amazing job with putting together the popfest NE. The two of them are such sweet, thoughtful, fun people." /Marisha

MichaelZ, Dave, Holly & Colin / Smittens, Kevin, Matt / Specific Heats:

"Highlights of the Popfest:
Locus in Love stage presence and banter, getting to playing a song with William, Rikky, Marissa and Kelly, the Snow Fairies, actually seeing all of my friend's AMAZING bands (I don’t need to list you all, you know you were all great), The New to Me bands (Locus in Love, Panda Riot, Polar Bear Parade, etc), Matpat's reverb and wardrobe, Bunnygrunt playing "Freak Scene", Kev, Mat and Frank chilaxing before the Lil Hospital set on stage, watching people trying to eat the giant slices of pizza from Meimio’s (sp) Pizza, and the fact the their wasn’t a bad band at the fest.

Lowlights:
If there was a lowlight, I guess it would have to be the bit about Kev killing and eating the Snow Fairies. That kind of bums me out, they were nice kids."
/DavidZ

Jen / Specific Heats, Christine / Skipping Stones Records, Kevin, Leigh & Patrick / Brother Kite:

"what everyone said: LOCAS IN LOVE were fucking great. it's the same
with la buena vida, even though i don't know german, i just really
seized hold of their sound. i guess i should say that i also loved
seeing the besties for the first time. lalalala, they're the besties!
also seeing songs from the brother kite's new album played live was
awesome ... secret shine played loveblind and that pretty much made the
whole trip worth it alone.

sooo..as you guys can see, I too had an amazing time and it was such a
treat to put faces to names. I met a lot of new popsters, but it was
super great to see old friends from all over the place." /Leigh

Matthew from CA, Brian & Rebecca / Panda Riot, Dave, Holly and Kevin:

"I probably would have driven there just for the merch table." /Nick

Soulseek tweefolks, including Tim from Alberta, Canada

"1) William and Christine deserve a massive round of applause for putting on a stellar show and Chris Mac for yeoman efforts at the merch table
2) maybe we should make nametags for the next one so first timers will know who everybody is. or maybe just get Neal Snow Fairies or Colin to do the intros, since they were so darn nice about it
3) Kardyhm got attacked by a giant moth (not confirmed)
4) it's really nice to be at a show where everybody is there for the music, not just as the "oh I have to be there to be seen for the hipster quotient points" so the people talking don't drown out the band
5) it takes a lot longer to get dressed in the AM if you're listening to the Besties' "Prison Song" at the time
6) driving back to the motel with the stereo blasting and everyone in the car singing along to "Gin and Platonic" "Forever And A Day" and "George Romero" rules
7) everybody that I met was totally sweet, and thanks to Joe Wiencis for hooking us up with some great sushi on Sunday." /MichaelZ

This is the ultimate pic! This was taken on Saturday night.
From the left - Colin / Smittens, Kate / Smittens guest french horn player, Annabel / Beauty Sleep, Rob Christiansen in the back, Aileen Popfest helper, and Locas in Love: Mauri, Stephanie, Benny, Bjoern and Nicholas:

"By the time the beautiful Besties we were scared straight of playing ourselves. Everybody was so great and well received that we were quite scared of failing. Utterly. All that couldn't prevent us from enjoying the Besties, however. The way the voices of Marisa and Kelly interacted reminded us of all that was great about that dog. and Rikky had his great rock-star-frontman looks to keep us from worrying about his guitar that kept cutting out. It was impossible not to have a good time while they played. Next up were The Smittens. Before we saw them we didn't know anyone or anything from Vermont, now we think it must be the coolest place ever. They had the Besties on stage for a couple of songs adding further prove to the assumption that they're just about infallible.
We were next and when Mauri started to play all fear evaporated. This was fun! You can see a video of our first song on a foreign continent here and a bit of in-between song banter here. We could see all the bands in our audience and everyone seemed to be having a good time and that was about the most enjoyable experience ever. We played a bit longer than previous bands because one of the later bands hadn't been able to make it in time and, even though we sung in a language that hardly anyone in attendance understood, people stuck around and cheered us on.

After the show we got about as many compliments as we gave to the other bands and all in all we've hardly ever felt as much part of a scene. People we'd never met before suddenly felt like friends and for everyone involved it was one of those nights that reassures you you're doing the right thing. Sometimes it's pretty hard to understand why some people don't play in bands, or write fanzines or release records or plan shows or any of those things that gets you in touch with the awesome people of this world.

After us Dyrdin from Iceland played a set that saw some ecstatic crowd dancing and some happily exhausted onlookers from Germany smiling at them from the back rows. At the end of the night it seems like everybody had bought some of everybody else's stuff and only knowing we'd meet a lot of these people a couple of days later in New York made it possible for us to even think of leaving.

And, admittedly, all the superlatives in the world could do justice to the great time we had in Northampton. So let's all hope there's another Popfest next year, because if there is we can all just meet there and let the good times roll."
/Locas in Love myspace blog

Neal & Jayme Snow Fairie with MichaelZ looking proudly on his signed album:

"... j mascis has really long grey hair and a cool looking dog ...
everyone in northampton is sexy ... everyone loves the german language
... chris mac can organize a merch table like nobody's business ...
indiepopsters are too shy but when it's so dark in bars you can't see
anybody anyway so what's it matter? ... playing a show with your new
drummer when the old drummer is in the audience is just wrong ...
everyone has an iPod ... shots of tequila are always a good idea ...
veracruza's burrito is better than bueno y sano's burrito ...
haymarket cafe has great coffee ... math and physics club are the best
band in america ... you will miss your picnic date if you stay in the
woods and there's no cell phone reception ... i'm stupid for
forgetting to drink at ye olde watering hole AKA the beer can museum
... locas in love looks just as good as they sound ... mat pat's
reverb is fucking unreal ... there is no answer to the question,
what's a better song "zombie song" or "saphire?" ... even though i
missed both surefire broadcast and lil' hospital's sets, I secretly
wish they would release a split 7" and end war, poverty, global
warming and bigotry forever ... rainbow vests make people happy ...
limited edition vinyl makes them happier ... last shows are almost --
but not quite -- as cool as first shows ... next year, someone should
really cover that jonathan richman song "new england" ... i still like
to dance ... THANKS EVERYONE! xo, neal"

Colin and Christine

Colin and William / Skipping Stones Records:

"I just had a fight with a rude crazy woman at the supermarket, I wasn't ready for that after such a great weekend." /Joe

Chris Mac, Christine & Matthew:

"the popfest was swell.

the weather was great and i got Night Of The Living Dead on DVD for $5
and Texas Chainsaw Massacre for $8.00, at that used record store.

dyrdin were especially ace.

i had decent burritos two days in a row and the elevens sold ENORMOUS
red bull and vodkas for only $5, so you can imagine who only slept
like seven minutes all w/e.

joe and i got to talk about prog rock without worrying about boring
the marchlist to tears, and he even tied my cape for me.

oh, and ellen gave me pumpkin spice pop rocks."
/brett

Charles / Math & Physics Club and William:

"Thanks a million times over to William & Christine for putting on such a fantastic weekend. It was incredible to see so much wonderful music and people in one place at one time. Being only "virtually present" for the most part, It's reassuring to know that the live indiepopscene is flourishing (and it's a tremendous personal treat to be able to get it in such big doses!).

For me, there were a number of new & lovely discoveries hidden among the treats I knew were coming. Some of the unanticipated gems that made my weekend even better than I could have imagined:
My Teenage Stride (I know, for my NYC peeps it is crazy that I never got to actually see them play before!)
Locas in Love (yay for German pop!)
Polar Bear Parade
Surefire Broadcast
The Specific Heats
Math & Physics Club
And, of course, a big shout-out to all the tremendously sweet and funny people who make going to pop shows such a nice experience. I miss you guys already." /k.

Matt / Specific Heats with Farfisa:

"What I learned at Popfest:
1. 2 dollar PBR is wonderful, but Jameson's and Ginger Ale is even better.
2. Making up is far easier when there is Pop involved.
3. I shall never tire of the Smittens.
4. Chris Mac is my hero.
5. Polar Bear Parade are my new fave band.
6. Less debauchery than last year = more fun ( at least for me).
7. How Kardyhm got her name.
8 Who needs sleep?
9. Locas in Love made me feel proud to be American
10. One word: Wiencis" /MichaelM

Kevin, all packed up and ready to go:

"my fave bands:
- Bunnygrunt
- Hands & Knees
- My Teenage Stride
- Math & Physics Club
- the Icicles
and of course, i really liked the Snow Fairies + the Besties + the
Specific Heats + the Smittens; but those guys are my friends........

and weren't the new Icicles songs so good? they seemed heavy.

further, I was pissed that the Snow Fairies didn't play "Spleens,"
which is probably the most inspired swan song ever. i was so angry
that i was compelled to find them. and kill them. and then eat their
body parts. like Jeffrey Dahmer.

and it was nice to meet people i haven't seen in ages or ever: Sherri,
Marisha, Joe, Michael Murphy, Zakes, Math & physics club (the team),
Sarah Gentile, Brett, Jed, Ghandi, William, Christine, Keira, Adolf,
Jess....
god, shut me up."
/Kevin

View all of our pix Here

The Backline!

2006-11-05T14:28:00.000-05:00

The backline served us well this year, and nothing blew up! I took some pictures for posterity, thank you tube and equipment gods! We are very proud of you:

William's drum kit (and his shoes): 1964 Rogers Holiday

Bass amp:* 1981 Peavy 400 Mark IV 300 head, Ashdown MAG 410T cabinet, guitar amp 1:* Fender combo FM 212R 100 watt, 2x12 w/spring reverb, great clean jangly sound, guitar amp 2:* 1974 Ampeg V4 100 watt head, 4x12 Peavy cabinet with Black Widow speakers.

Popfest! New England - Sunday night

2006-11-05T12:36:00.000-05:00

The afternoon show finished about 6pm and we were able to keep the Club open in between the shows. We enjoyed some nice "down time" and a lot of people banded together to go invade some restaurant, while others went to get giant slices of pizza. I had some deliciously evil fries and a sandwich from the bar next door.

We started the show a little earlier so that there would be plenty of time for everyone to play. Hands and Knees from Boston played first, featuring yet another female bass player (and singer), Carina. Next up was The Specific Heats. They played a great set and even brought the Farfisa! There were a few "guest appearances," including Marissa from The Besties and Colin Clary / The Smittens on guitar. There was even a laptop-super-dance-mix!

Colin on guitar with his signature striped sweater:

The Brother Kite came on next and they put on a great performance. Their label, Claire and tonevendor also helped us to promote the Popfest - thanks Dan & Heather (and congrats on the new baby)!
The Brother Kite:

Bunnygrunt from St. Louis, MO were their usual rockin' selves. We've seen them every year at Athens Popfest, so we really appreciated that they made the trip out east! They were in a car for a real long time, but you wouldn't really know it.

Bunnygrunt rocks. End of story.

The Snow Fairies from Philadelphia were on next and everyone in the audience were just thrilled! They had copies of their new album available, Voila!

Clap along to The Snow Fairies:

Math & Physics Club gets the award for furthest distance traveled within the United States, hailing from Seattle, WA. They played their wonderfully beautiful music and it was bliss. I had some great conversations with Charles, but I didn't really get to meet the others.

Here is Charles and Saundrah from Math & Physics Club:

The end is near!

Secret Shine ended the night and Popfest. The performance was just incredible and amazing. They played quieter than I expected, but there were plenty of driving moments. The show ended the whole Popfest with a feeling that something monumental just happened. And it did.

I was so exhausted and had to sit down, but when Secret Shine started to play "Loveblind" I just had to get up and dance.

It was over! But everyone didn't want to leave! Everyone said their long goodbye's, bought and traded merch and were finally kicked out of the club. We had to pack up the backline and drive back home to CT, Secret Shine came with us. I wasn't sure how we packed a mini-van and a '90 volvo wagon with all our stuff, but we did it. I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture when we got home, but I was so tired.

Although there was room in the mini-van for more people, Richie, Dean, Rob and Jamie piled into the Volvo, which I drove home. William was ahead of me and when I got onto the highway, it was dark. I couldn't believe I had most of Secret Shine in my car and I almost panicked! But I reached for the iPod and put on some tunes and drove, very carefully, home. At one point Yo La Tengo came on - "Spec Bebop" - one of those monumental, droning, ten-minute songs. It was a sadistic attempt to fight it out on my part, me vs. yo la tengo - who will win???? The highway was empty, I was following the lights of the mini-van, the highway lines' monotony just making the music even more lulling. I won. I made it to the end of the song. When we pulled into the driveway all me mates woke up and gave me a hearty English thank you, "Cheers, right!"

The next day we had the classic Skipping Stones Records' band breakfast: lots and lots and lots of coffee, bagels and cream cheese. There was a slight problem with getting Secret Shine on a train to Washington, DC. They hadn't made reservations and the price had gone up significantly. They almost didn't make it, but instead they took a bus and got to see the country (albeit much cheaper!).

Secret Shine at SSR HQ, all refreshed!
Dean, Katherine, Richie, Jamie, guest Rob & Scott:

Huge Thank You's!!!!!

2006-11-03T18:23:00.000-05:00

At this point in my story, I’d like to stop a moment to give thanks to all of the people who helped us, some of them unexpectedly. Steph and Joe are good friends, and they may not necessarily dig all of the music, but they stood by that back door for several nights in a row. Thanks! At least on Friday and Saturday night they got to watch the dance party next door, which, I may say, is very interesting. Steph said about the Popfest:

“Even if you don't like the style of music, even if you don't like most of the bands... it's a good time.
You meet lots of people from ALL OVER, and everyone is nice to each other, there's no big attitude problems, and by the end of the weekend it's like a big happy family .
Although musically this one was a LOT better than the first one. I really dug dyrdin, the locas, and my teenage stride (they got a lot better/different than the last time i saw them.)”

Thanks, Steph & Joe!

Next up is Aileen, who we met be chance last summer at a BBQ and now she plays keyboards in our band, Singing Bridges. Aileen stuck by the front door all weekend, rocked out in the back and kept me company amidst all the chaos. We even convinced her to come up for Saturday night, begging and pleading via text messages all afternoon. Thanks Aileen!!!!!

Chris Mac needs no explanation, he is the merch king. Look at this pic!

Doing merch ain’t so bad. I covered for Chris Mac from time to time when he had to make an obligatory Slurpie run at the Athens Popfest. No matter. We love Chris! We must get him another pin that says “I *heart* customers.” He lost his. If you ever see one, please send it to: po box 24, oakville, ct, 06779 usa. Thanks.

And the unexpected helper comes in the form of Matthew from California, who stood by the door ready and willing to go fetch pizza or look threatening. The best part was the t-shirt he was wearing that said "INSECURITY." People would look at it quickly and assume that he was the bouncer! Here's Matthew on the left with Panda Riot, Smittens & Kevin from L'il Hospital:

We miss you, Matthew!

Popfest! New England - Sunday afternoon

2006-10-20T19:59:00.000-05:00

Sunday was quite a hectic day, as there was an early show at The Elevens and we had to pick up Secret Shine at the train station. We hadn’t heard from them at all, so we were quite nervous. We didn't sleep well worrying and the next morning we woke up somewhat early. I found their phone number in England and left them a message – I figured that it was their cell phone number. Luckily one of them sent me a text message to let us know that they were arriving in Stratford, CT at about 11am. William went to go pick them up in our rental mini-van while I made sure there were enough places for everyone to sleep.

They arrived back at about 11:45am and we gave everyone tea and coffee. They were all tired, but at least we had a few moments to relax in the living room before heading out. Secret Shine is Scott, Dean, Jamie, Katherine and their new drummer, Ritchie. Also along for the ride was Rob. We had a chance to listen to our second sneak preview of an upcoming release, this time Secret Shine’s next EP, “Beyond, Sea and Sky.” It sounded great. Although I was in the other room, I heard string arrangements in the background!

The early show started at 4pm, so we left at about 2:30pm. It was a beautiful day and we had a lovely ride through New England on our way to Northampton. Katherine came with Chris Mac and I in the Volvo and “the guys” went with William. We didn’t really talk about much, we just enjoyed the beautiful sunshine bouncing off the golden autumn leaves.

As far as the schedule goes, Sunday went perfect. The Sawtelles from CT played first. If there's one thing we can say about The Sawtelles, it's that they'll play anywhere, anyplace, anytime. Gotta love that spirit! Peter had an amazing guitar with an amazing story. I can’t remember where he got it, maybe somewhere local, like a tag sale, but the entire guitar is made out of metal and it was from the 1930s. On the back was artwork like palm trees, because the culture of Hawaii was in fashion at the time. The guitar was probably fabricated by metal workers, giving it an industrial quality, but it was really beautiful.

Polar Bear Parade were up next and we were really surprised about how great they sounded. They just found a new bass player, Marta, who represented one of the several bands at Popfest who had female bass players. The concentration of women playing bass was extraordinary, deserving its own post in the Skipping Stones Blog (Christine also being a bass player). We also used this very cute quote as Polar Bear Parade's band description:

From: Marisha Chinsky
Subject: Re: Message from San Diego Zoo Web site user to Visitor/Guest Inquiries

Please get the polar bears on the camera. The view is only water. I have not seen the bears on camera in a long time. You should consider getting the moving camera that tracks movement like the Panda Cam at the National Zoo.

Thank you,
Marisha

From: PublicRelations
To: Marisha ChinskyBR> Sent: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 13:00:29 -0800
Subject: Re: Message from San Diego Zoo Web site user to Visitor/Guest Inquiries

Thank you for your suggestion. Please understand that our cam does not cover all of the areas where the polar bears may choose to go.

Here's a pic of Polar Bear Parade:

Polar Bear Parade were followed by Panda Riot - ha ha! They were totally cute - what else can I say? Girl on vocals / keyboards, guy on guitar. We really liked Surefire Broadcast. We're not sure where Hammonton, New Jersey is, but we sure hope that we'll get invited to a pool party!!! *hint hint* All the band members supported the other bands and were really enthusiast - look at this shakin' goin' on! Lisa was also representin' on the bass.

Here's a pic of Rodney on guitar:

Popfest! New England - Saturday

2006-10-15T18:02:00.000-05:00

I’m writing this a week later, so things are starting to become fuzzy. It took a while to come down from the “Popfest euphoria” and now it seems so far away.

There were very few errands, etc. involved on Saturday, just a quick trip in the afternoon to the store (Stop & Shop, of course) and then off to Northampton. Luckily the trip was a breeze and we didn’t need to be there early to set-up the backline.

Saturday’s show went very smoothly. The Antiques from Washington, DC cancelled and we didn't fill the spot, so there was plenty of room for in-between band set-up/break downs. We run the Popfest like a train schedule with barely any time in between. Saturday's schedule went something like this:
8:30pm - 9pm: The Lil' Hospital
9:10 - 9:40pm: School for the Dead
9:50 - 10:20pm: The Besties
10:30 - 11:00pm: The Smittens
11:10 - 11:40pm: Locas in Love
11:50 - 12:10am: Dyrdin
12:20am - close: Human Television

First up was Kevin from The Lil' Hospital, from Washington, DC, with guests MatPat on bass and Frank on drums. Our dear friend Bob K is also in the band, but a family emergency kept him at home. We were very sorry that he could not be there! Kevin is just too cute and the performance was really great. We hadn't seen them play since Athens Popfest 2004, put on by our friends at Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records in Athens, GA. I got a great pic of Kevin leaving at the end of the night on Sunday. He still looks cute, even when he's tired!

Next up was locals School for the Dead. Bassist Max said that they were a little "off" that night, but I thought they sounded swell! Many, many kudos to Henning, who also runs Rubwrongways Records who I sent many, many flyers to. The Besties had a tough time on stage, as Rikky's guitar suddenly went kaput in the middle of their set. Things were a little hairy, Rikky borrowed someone else's guitar and the strap was too high, but they were as fun as always. Here's a pic before his guitar went whack:

Here's another pic of bassist DaveZ from The Smittens and his favorite hand-sign. Is this indiepop or Budokan?

Look! Here he is again during Locas in Love!

Our pals The Smittens from Burlington, VT came on next. If you have a minute, go read their "fresh" and "exciting" website, featuring some great art by Dave. The Smittens were without the booming voice of Max this year, who is in South Africa at the moment. Special guest Kate added some french horn, which was marvelous:

The Smittens also had a few songs with guest musicians, including our very own William who played drums and most of The Besties; Rikky on guitar and Marisa & Kelly doing back-up vocals. Rikky also did a bad-ass version of "Gin & Platonic" on vocals. There was absolutely no practice involved, just exchanging emails, mp3s and people "doing their homework!" as Colin said. Here's William on drums and part of Marisa from The Besties on the left:

Next up was Locas in Love from Köln (or the anglo-sized "Cologne"), Germany. I started to love Locas when I first heard their track on the Stromundgitarre comp that also featured The Charade. Stephanie is also an accomplished artist and does all of the artwork for the band, including the cute shirts and bags with a screenprinted polar bear. We had never seen them play before, except in our basement, so it was a real treat to see this band live. I made sure that everything was cool before I got a spot up close to watch them. Bassist Stephanie had just bought a vintage Rickenbacker and it sounded great. At one point I yelled, "Nice Rickenbacker!" which Benny, their tour manager, got on the video. I guess I also yelled, "We get it!" - but I'm not sure of the context!

Locas was just amazing live and one of the high points of the Popfest. I don't know what it is about this band and the people in the band, but they are truly wonderful people and just thinking about them makes me teary-eyed. I think I almost did cry at one point during their set. It was just so wonderful to bring a band over from another country and introduce them to a new audience. Very little music from Germany "gets out" of the country, so it was great to give them this opportunity, which they certainly relished. Here's a pic of Stephanie (bass), Maurizio (drums) and Björn (guitar) a little earlier in the evening:

And this pic proves that Maurizio does smile:

From right to left, that's Niklas, Björn, Benny, Stephanie, Maurizio, Aileen, Rob in the back, Annabel/Beauty Sleep, Kate/Smittens & Colin Clary/Smittens

And here are some great pix during the show:

At this point something bad was starting to happen, namely that headliners Human Television wasn't there yet. William & I figured that Locas and Dyrdin could play longer, but we gave HT until about 12am to show up, which they didn't. Then I stood near the stage and tried to get the attention of Björn, but it didn't work. They finished their set with a dramatic exit and then I had to tell them to play for a little while longer. I felt so bad because they had put on such an amazing performance and built up to this wonderful finale and then I said, "Play some more!" It all worked out in the end, though, and they played a few more songs and the crowd was just elated. One of their final songs ended with a cover of "Molly's Lips" by The Vaselines --> Nirvana --> Art Brut. Watch the video here:
Locas in Love Video

Dýrðin were even more tired than Locas in Love, but they were okay with starting a little later. Here's a pic of Maggi, Einar(guitar), Anna (Maggi's girlfriend & mother of their two children) and Sue (keyboards/vocals/guitar):

We were so happy that they made the trip from Iceland - with Hafdis' new baby! We didn't get to see the little boy, but we heard that he made quite an impression on the plane with all of the Icelandair staff! Here's a pic of Kari:

Hafdis was also recovering from a slight cold, but they put on a wonderful show. Nick Karpowicz took some amazing photos, accessible here. I think the most enthusiastic people in the crowd were the Besties, who were taking photos like mad and dancing like crazy!

Here's one of my favorite pictures of Hafdis:

And here's Maggi & Einar looking like rock stars:

All in all, it was a good thing that we had a bit more time at the end of the night, as everyone got to hang out afterwards and chat and relax a bit before heading home.

Popfest! New England - Friday

2006-10-12T21:52:00.000-05:00

Ahhh. Day off.

ACK! Popfest first day!!!!

I think I was pretty set as far as getting things ready. We probably should have packed up the backline earlier, but it didn’t take that long. The car rental place called us about the mini-van that we rented. I had forgotten that I had said that we would pick it up at 12 noon. We went over to pick up the van and had some difficulty figuring out our insurance coverage. The staff person was really nice and we had a pretty pleasant experience at the Enterprise in Waterbury, CT. Luckily we got a big van, not a Dodge Caravan, but a Ford “Freestar,” which we immediately nicknamed the “Threestar.” It was red. Damn I wish I got a picture of that! Here’s a fake pic:

I made the obligatory stop at Connecticut's fine chain of supermarkets, Stop & Shop, to obtain the obligatory snacks that Chris Mac had requested. Hey, it worked out great, as I will outline later (about the snacks, I mean). Locas in Love has an excellent interpretation of the Stop & Shop experience on their Locas in Love myspace page.

We packed everything up into ONE VEHICLE and left at 4pm. The drive was hell, with Columbus Day weekend traffic and everything, but we dealt with it and got there just in time at 6:30pm. It usually takes just a little over an hour. We drove home every night after the Popfest. Last year we stayed at the Motel 6 in Chicopee, which is nothing to write home about, and it took us almost 45 minutes to get there. So we saved a little dough and drove home. Although I didn’t sleep much, even in our own bed, it was nice to wake up to good coffee every morning.

The staff were already there at The Elevens in Northampton, MA. Bruce was behind the bar and he let us in. Bruce is an amazing soundman and a generally great guy. More kudos go to Don & Lisa.

William and Chris loaded in the stuff and I proceeded to organize myself for the night. Our helpers were Aileen, Stephanie and Joe. We had to take cash at the front and watch the back for weirdness (stay tuned).

A week earlier, Ponies in the Surf let us know that they couldn’t get there in time to play first on Friday. We replaced them with a guy who goes by the name of The Juliet Kilo. Unfortunately he was stuck in traffic and did not arrive until 9pm. We had already let people in and a steady stream of 3-day-passers were there, as well as the other bands. David from The Juliet Kilo promised to set up quick, but he had a DVD projector and had a lot to set up. He didn’t go on until 9:20pm which made our entire night’s schedule completely off. We probably should have told him that he couldn’t play, but would that have been right, after he had endured several hours of traffic from Boston?

Beauty Sleep had a nice set and played pretty well, considering that they were playing with a new bass player. Palomar really rocked and Rachel got in quite a bit of bantering. At one point someone in the audience yelled, “YOU ROCK!” She said, “Great, you just jinxed us.” So out came the reply, “YOU SUCK!” to which she endearingly replied, “Thanks!” Three girls on guitars, one guy drummer. That oughtta be interesting. The definitely gave Dale a hard time when he didn’t start some songs soon enough! Palomar:

Local band Spouse came up next. We’ve known lead singer Jose Ayerve for many years and he’s such a nice person. He made it to the show, even though he was on crutches! Jose also runs Pigeon Records and in the past, has been the tour manager for the Pernice Brothers. At about that moment, William, who basically spends the entire night setting up bands and frantically getting people on and off the stage, told me that we were way behind and had to cut back. We didn’t want to cut any bands that had come from far away, so we made the decision to cut Spouse a little. The repercussions were felt later when local flag-wavers from masslive.com wrote a scathing review about how bad we are as organizers. I guess they didn’t get the big picture that it’s not about Massachusetts bands, or New England bands, but bringing bands from all over the world to a little town called Northampton. Yeah, the local band took a punch for the greater good and Jose said he would've done the same thing.

Jedediah Smith and his brother Dakkan played the most amazing guitars in My Teenage Stride. Every year this band keeps getting better and better. Their new bass player, Marta, began a Popfest trend of 1) bands with female bass players and 2) bands with female bass players who play Rickenbackers! Marisha Chinsky, formerly of The Consultants, sang on their last song, a Belle & Sebastian cover. Marisha joined her former bandmate, Brett Whitmoyer, who plays drums in MTS. Jed is a really swell guy. Later he told me that he enjoyed the fact that his band only had a very short time to play. It made the whole set “count” that much more. It goes to show, some people can work better under pressure!

The Icicles (Joleen singing, above) were as charming as ever. Tonight they had on their matching swirly-pink fabric outfits, all in different styles. Joleen on keys and Gretchen on guitar are just so sweet. I think that someone on the indiepop list called their new songs “heavy,” which they are, but in a wonderful spaced-out kind of way, like twee Stereolab! Hey, check out their new website, too, it's way cute!

Butterflies of Love featured Mark Mulcahy on second vocals. They had just come back from playing the Fortuna Pop festival in London. They were totally rocking!

Popfest! New England Thursday, October 5

2006-10-12T21:42:00.000-05:00

Our good friend and the man behind indiepages, Chris Mac from Seattle, WA, came over on Thursday. William went to pick him up at the airport in the afternoon. Not sure what to do, they went to the local record shop, Brass City Records in Waterbury, CT, where Chris proceeded to find tons of great stuff. Personally, I don’t have the patience to wade through piles and piles of $1 bins, but Chris found some really excellent CDs, and lots of cool presents for people! He gave us a copy of Red Sleeping Beauty on Siesta Records. Red Sleeping Beauty is a Swedish pop band that Mikael Matsson was in. Mikael is now in the Skipping Stones Records band The Charade. This is the same CD that someone on The Charade forum was looking for! I’m not sure if I should say that we found a copy!

I had to work late and I was really bummed. But I was able to get home by 8:30pm with a pizza in tow. Little did I know how much pizza we would consume over the weekend! When I came in, Chris was playing my bass guitar and the boys were having fun. We also had a little musical play in the practice space later on. I was itching to play bass and we had talked about it, so finally I said “Let’s Go!” at about 9pm. Actually, I had said, “Let’s practice!” and they looked at me weird. So I said, “What am I supposed to say, LET’S JAM???”

Ha ha. We don’t “jam.”

William and Chris switched a little, but I stuck with bass most of the time. Chris is exceptionally talented and could play almost anything on the guitar. Then William switched to keys and Chris played the drums, although it was set up awkwardly for him. Chris tried to teach me a New Order bass riff, but I kept getting the timing wrong. Ah, well, I’ll practice and next time it will be even more awesome!

Later we found some strings and Chris changed the crappy rusty strings on my guitar.

Locas in Love at SSR HQ

2006-10-12T21:19:00.000-05:00

Our first pre-Popfest meet-up occurred on Wednesday, October 4th at the Skipping Stones Records HQ. We had invited the band Locas in Love from Köln, Germany to come over for dinner and to practice. After we invited them to play at the Popfest (and they accepted!), they decided to mix their record over here, too. They stayed at the hospitable abode of Tarquin Studios in Bridgeport, CT, a mere 40 minutes from our house.

We invited some friends over, but only Aileen and her boyfriend Ryan could make it (it being a school night and all). Aileen plays keyboards in our band Singing Bridges (with William on drums, me on bass). Aileen came over at about 6:30pm and we proceeded to drink all of the red wine. I was a little stressed because I had ambitious plans to make homemade pesto from the basil that was in my garden. I rocked the Cuisinart, boiled Barilla Farfalle and whipped up dinner rather quickly.

We invited them to come over at 7:00pm.

We waited.

Drank some more wine.

And waited.

And waited.

They finally arrived at about 7:45pm. I guess they had gotten a little lost.

It was a little awkward when they came in! How do you greet people that you’ve only spoken to on the phone once and have had some emails back and forth? We met Björn (guitar / vocals), Stefanie (bass / vocals), Niklas (guitar / vocals) and Maurizio (drums and some vocals). Benny was also along as their tour manager. Everyone dug in to the giant bowl of pasta. Unfortunately I did not take a picture because I didn’t want be obnoxious and I was self-conscious. Stefanie took some photos of us at the dinner table, so hopefully we will see them!

They had promised to bring cheap wine and beer, but unfortunately this is Connecticut, a truly Puritan state, and of course they never found a place on the way. Luckily I had bought another bottle of red, so we proceeded to drink that. I gave Niklas, Benny and Maurizio our favorite cheap beer, Pabst. Then of course they requested coffee and we had dessert! We had classic American fare: Aileen brought chocolate chip cookies from Stop & Shop and I bought an apple pie. Everyone had pie and Stefanie made the best face when she tasted it (even though it was store-bought!). “Hmmm! I like pie!” She said in her German accent.

The basement practice went okay. Björn played my guitar, but here goes another “unfortunately” in my story. Someone else had been using it for several months and apparently the strings were completely rusted out. Björn couldn’t even tune it. I felt completely awful and embarrassed. But he made do. I couldn’t believe that I was finally hearing their songs live for the first time. The band was really tight and you could tell that they really enjoy playing together. The songs are dynamic, with highs and lows, quiet parts and loud parts. I don’t mind at all that I cannot understand what they are singing! I did email Björn at one point and he said something about bad people, but more on that later for their final show at the Cake Shop on Monday!

They finished their set and we went back upstairs for more cheap beer. Alas, the red wine was gone. We had the privilege of hearing some of the first mixes from their upcoming album. It sounded great. Niklas talked a lot about the studio and technical stuff. They were glad to hear it on a stereo, even though we were not in the same room.

We exchanged presents, too! Björn gave us a Locas in Love bag with Stephanie’s artwork screenprinted on it – a polar bear. We received tons of great stuff, like some Locas in Love records:

Björn also gave us some CDs from his label, WUWTON. He doesn’t release stuff anymore, he said it took too much of his time – we understand this! We especially liked his release by the band Sternbuschweg.

We gave the band Popfest shirts from our very first festival and our releases by The Charade, The Besties, Dyrdin and The Year Zero!

What else did we talk about? Big things, America, record labels, music and music and music. It gently started to rain outside and it was finally late enough to end our conversations and the flickering candlelight. Awkwardness turned into hugs and we said goodbye until the Locas show at the Saturday night Popfest.

New Blog!

2006-07-25T16:29:00.000-05:00

Hello and welcome to our new blog. This is the new-and-improved blog which replaces our old blog AND replaces our now-dead forum.

Check here for Skipping Stones Records news!