Indiepop news blog

How brilliant would it be to have the newsletters from most labels you buy records from, bands you listen to and gigs you want to know about to all in one blog?

Trev (Lostmusic/ Indiemp3) had this simple, but pretty ingenious idea, and created a blog that is there for all indiepop/DIY labels/clubs/fanzines to use as a daily/weekly news resource to keep people abreast of what is going on in the indiepop world.

It's only been live for a week, but there's already a long list of labels and clubs on the contributors list and quite a few posts.

This is going to be amazing! Check it out on indiepopnews.com.

Santa is coming to town!

Christmas is just a few days away, there's been christmas parties, christmas gigs, and there is certainly a lot of christmas songs out there now.

Allo, darlin' has put out the most lovely christmas ep ever. It has 4 songs Elizabeth recorded during her trip to Australia a couple of months back and if you had the chance to see her play live in the past month or so, you know how good they are. You can stream a couple of them, and get a copy of the ep on her myspace.

The Mexican kids at home got a bunch of friends and bands they like to put some christmas songs together and the result is an excellent little compilation. It starts with their own track, which is probably my favourite of the bunch and goes on to lots of other good bands, including the Just Joans, One happy island, Allo darlin and David Gibb. You can get hold of a copy by contacting the mexican kids on myspace.

Eux Autres has an excellent animation for their single "Another christmas at home". Gotta love a banjo playing snowman!

If you're still hungry for more christmas pop, Marianthi posted an ace mix over at Hey hey honeypop!. I have already made some room in my ipod so i can have it with me for going away next week.

Hope you all have a nice time and happy holidays!!
x

Popcast #6 - Warm in the winter

As much as i love summertime and summer songs, i think winter is an underappreciated season. Winter's great! It's perfect for cuddles under the covers, mulled wine, snowball fights, snowmen, and any sort of snow fun, hot cholocate, and mittens.

Winter's great for playing pop songs, and dancing to them till you drop as well. This popcast is a tribute to wintertime and winter fun!

The tracklist is:
Dolly mixture - Winter seems fine
Aden - Snowy sidewalks
Horowitz - I need a blanket
The specefic heats - Winter fashions
The icicles - Snowman song
Aislers set Hit the snow
The Smittens - Jeans and mittens
The fairways - Winter song
Pas/cal - I wanna take you out on your holiday sweater
Land of ill earthquakes - Long winter
Spoilsport - Snowball
Snoozer - Winterclothes
Sambassadeur - Ice and snow
Tiny records - A picture of winter
Belle and sebastian - Winter wooskie
The Shermans - Snowsong
The Postmarks - Weather the weather
The grade grubbers - Snowman
Laura watling - Spend the winter with me
Your heart breaks - Warm in winter
Stiv Bators - It's cold outside
The tidy ups - Snow song
The mother z's - Sweater weather
Nixon - Snow day
Velcro stars - Another winter
The pinefox - Chocolate snow
Au revoir simone - Fallen snow

You can download the file here.

Enjoy! xx

Label of the week: Magic marker

Following that last popcast, which was entirely dedicated to weepop! records, I decided to start a "label of week" thing, and talk a bit about my favourite labels that are around at the moment.

I was mulling over which label i should start with, there's so many i love for different reasons, and i couldn't just choose a single one, but then tullycraft came on my ipod, and being one of my favourite bands ever, it settled the matter - I decided to start with the label that has been their home for a few years now - Magic marker records.

Magic marker started with a compilation callled "We can still be friends", almost 10 years ago. It featured tracks by kisswistle, tullycraft, the minders, lunchbox, ladybug transistor, kissing book and lots others, some of which released full lengths in the label later on.

Throughout the years, they put out stuff by lots of bands i love, like dear nora, the galactic heroes, benji cossa, kissing book, the best friends group, walker kong, the gazetteers, etc; and I can say it's certainly one of those labels I trust to the point I'd gladly buy anything they put out, even if i had never listened to it before, just because I know I can count on it being good.

Their latest additon to the family was Mexico's Hello seahorse!, with the ep "Hoy A Las Ocho" that had been released online only up to now + 3 bonus tracks. I have just ordered it, along with a big compilation of rare songs by dear nora, which should be a very nice christmas present to myself.

They have at least one mp3 available as a free download for each release, here's a collection of some of my favourites:

Boycrazy - Stark street
Galactic heroes - Coffee and pastries
The best friends group - The free man
The gazeteers - Bedroom community
All girl summer fun band - Grass skirt
Walker kong - Battleship of Thieves
Benji Cossa - Knock out
Tullycraft - The punks are writing love songs
Dear nora - Make you smile
Hello seahorse! - Won't say anything

Visit Magic Marker on magicmarkerrecords.com.