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The impact THE SCHOOL’s songs are making all over the world is amazing, considering that they haven’t even finished recording their first album, which is set to be released this year with Elefant. If we recently sent you news about their tour with THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO, and about their inclusion on the prestigious Rough Trade store’s compilation album with the year’s best songs, the Welsh band is news again because their song “Valentine” (one of the two songs included on last year’s debut single, “All I Wanna Do”), has been selected by LG as the soundtrack for their publicity campaign for Television and Internet. Curiously, the object of the campaign is a new and elegant refrigerator called “God”. Blessed be the songs of Liz and the rest of the band!

picture: LG

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This Monday, February 16th, the new single from Sweden’s SPEEDMARKET AVENUE, “Enlightenment And Left Wing Indeed”, is being released only in digital format on iTunes. The song has been wonderfully received by the British media. To begin with, it has been named single of the week on Q Radio, the radio station of the world renowned magazine, Q, based primarily online, where people from other important media, like the BBC or Xfm, work. But that’s not all – the song was also chosen, just a few weeks ago, by the prestigious radio DJ from the BBC1, BBC2 and BBC6, and previously a reporter for NME and the discoverer of ELASTICA, Steve Lamacq, to enter on the list of candidates for his Rebel Playlist, competing against bands like SAINT ETIENNE. The renowned journalist had already named “Way Better Now”, the advance single from their album on Elefant, single of the week on his program on the BBC. Definitively, the British radio sector, one of the most important in the whole world, is bowing at the feet of the authors of one of last year’s most addictively agile and exciting pop albums. 

picture: Q Radio

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At Elefant we are congratulating ourselves on the release, for the second time, of the exclusive 7” of one of the most vital and active groups of the Scottish pop scene. Duglas T. Stewart put together a handful of unreleased songs in this item that marks the sepia tinted memory of the most elegantly poppy seventies, led by the piano, evoking the halo of composers like Burt Bacharach or Henry Mancini and artists like Dusty Springfield or Françoise Hardy. From the new version of “Our Secret Life” in French, rebaptized here as “Quand il n’y a plus d’amour” (with the French adaptation by Nick Garrie) to the closing gem of the EP, a version of “Hopelessly Devoted to You” that Olivia Newton-John sang in “Grease”, on of our favorite films, which Duglas deliciously recreates with the collaboration of the Scottish band THE ATTIC LIGHTS. The single is completed with two very recent recordings, the unreleased “I Can Wait Forever”, intimate folk pop marked with elegant melodies and vocals, and a version of “You Don’t Want to Be My Girlfriend, Phoebe” by MY LITTLE AIRPORT. When Duglas received MY LITTLE AIRPORT’s album, published by Elefant, he fell instantly in love with the song. He played it live a few days later and soon after decided to record it in the studio, the magnificent result of which is here. A precious collection of songs with the indelible stamp of one of the most [ Read more ]

We’re in luck – HELEN LOVE are back! Our favorite Bubblegum-disco-punk group is better than ever and they have a splendid collection of new songs that half the planet is going to go crazy over. “Calm Down Dad” is the first advance single from the flaming new album, “Stick It”, that will soon be released on Elefant Records. While we’re waiting for that moment to arrive, and to ease the long wait, we have this appetizer with three great songs. “Calm Down Dad” is pure energy, catchy indie-punk-pop that talks about the differences between a father and his daughter. She wants to have fun, go out at night, sleep with a boy, dress up like a vampire without being looked at strangely at home, travel the world, try new things and even sing like Kate Nash, but with a more working class accent. Like a mix between Jilted John and THE WAITRESSES, on this limited edition, orange colored vinyl single HELEN LOVE jump from punk to pop to indie, with realist, sarcastic and fun lyrics. The melodies are as sweet as candy, but an orange flavored candy that’s as bittersweet as real life.

The single is finished off with two fast-beat, punk-pop songs. “John Peel Roadshow” talks about how to work up enough courage to give your demo to a radio show host. HELEN LOVE, loved and supported throughout the years by John Peel, recorded a “Peel session” in 1997, which was, for them, one of the high points of the group’s h [ Read more ]

“Guitarras y Tambores” is the long awaited new album by COLA JET SET, the second in their career and their first with Elefant Records. It is a disc of wide horizons, on which the group, lead by Felipe (LOS FRESONES REBELDES, LES TRÈS BIEN ENSEMBLE) and Ana (LA MONJA ENANA) have scrutinized other stylistic limits: here we find ye-ye, sixties pop, disco, soul, indie and touches of psychedelic pop, all done with renewed intentions, as we can see on the opening track, “El Sueño de Mi Vida”, when it says: “I dreamed of conquering / unexplored continents / and still I don’t know where I’m going to live”.

After some difficult line-up changes, and certain instabilities created by musical situations (record label changes, parallel projects) as well as by personal situations (which has left the band with the definitive line-up of Felipe, Ana, Joan, Alicia and Cristina), “Guitarras y Tambores” is the album that reflects this period, these comings and goings, these triumphs and failures, the malaise and the happiness of a long period in which sometimes some people won the coin toss and other times other people won, and sometimes it wasn’t so clear who won. And all of those references, all of the music that has played during this period of time, have only helped solidify the result. Doesn’t that first “El sueño de mi vida” remind you of Jackie DeShannon, with that 12 string guitarc [ Read more ]

The good melodies are timeless. That’s why they must think at El Corte Inglés, because for the fourth consecutive season they’ve chosen LES TRÈS BIEN ENSEMBLE’s “À Hélene” for the soundtrack of their “Blancolor” publicity campaign, which will run from January 15th to March 1st. “À Hélène” (taken from their first album, “Doux-Amer”) will be playing, as in the previous years, repeatedly on the radio, television, and in all El Corte Inglés shopping centers. It’s a greater pleasure every time to see publicity on our friend the television. Meanwhile, the group finds themselves enjoyed the sweet results of the reception of their fantastic and recent second album, “Rougeole”, a disc that soberly places them as the heirs of their francophone influences. LES TRÈS BIEN ENSEMBLE will also be on tour for the next few months in various Spanish cities, playing their songs live.   [ Read more ]

The Welsh THE SCHOOL continue working out ways to make their debut disc one of the most anxiously awaited of 2009 (if it isn’t already). After having released two marvelous singles with Elefant last year, “All I Wanna Do” and “Let It Slip”, having toured incessantly in the United Kingdom, Spain and Sweden, having recently completed a successful tour of five dates in Italy, having done important radio sessions for some of the most important programs on the BBC and having appeared on innumerable lists as one of the most promising groups of the year, the present is knocking insistently on THE SCHOOL’s door. First, on behalf of the British group THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO (one of the most important pop bands in the United Kingdom, singled out by such important media as Pitchfork and Rough Trade), who, after including them on their Christmas compilation for the second time (the group releases a list of their favorite Christmas songs every year; last year THE SCHOOL was number 1 with “Kiss You in The Snow” and this year they were back on the list at number 9), THE BOY LEAST LIKELY TO invited them to open for the British tour of their second album, “The Law of The Playground”. Second, as soon as THE SCHOOL finish their tour, they will be going into the studio with Ian Catt (SAINT ETIENNE, TERMBLING BLUE STARS, NOSOTRÄSH) to record what will be their first album, which will be released on Elefant Records this year. Pay [ Read more ]

They haven’t even released their first full-length yet (it’ll be out this year on Elefant) and THE SCHOOL have still managed to build up enormous expectations. The prestigious chain of stores (and record label) Rough Trade, in their annual best of the year compilation, “Counter Culture ‘08”, released this past January 26th, includes “All I Wanna Do” among its chosen songs, highlighting the Welsh group as “one of the reinventors of indie-pop along with bands like THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART, CRYSTAL STILTS y THE VIVIAN GIRLS”. It’s still incredible the quantity of fans (including the media, other groups, critics…) who affix themselves to the passionate melodies, the precious arrangements and the exciting songs by Liz and the rest of the group, who have been compared to names as diverse as THE SUPREMES, THE SHIRELLES, SATURDAY LOOKS GOOD TO ME or CAMERA OBSCURA. We can’t wait for that full-length! 

Rough Tradepicture: Rough Trade

Rough Tradepicture: Rough Trade

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FITNESS FOREVER is a surprising Italian quartet that is making its full-length debut with "Personal Train", a marvelous pop album that draws together an immense quantity of influences with marvelous taste, the work of musicians who have an extraordinary ability with the fibers of the most precious and elegant pop: from modern points of reference like LA CASA AZUL (Guille is one of their most unconditional fans), CINERAMA, THE HIGH LLAMAS, Richard Hawley, BELLE & SEBASTIAN, THE POLYPHONIC SPREE or even LE MANS, to other classics like Bacharach, Michel Legrand, THE BEACH BOYS, THE COWSILLS, THE FREE DESIGN or Gladys Knight, and last but not least, the Italians: Rita Pavone, Ennio Morricone, Nico Fidenco, Gino Paoli, Piero Umiliani or Mina. All of this comes together in a huge album whose composition (in the style of the songwriters of the sixties, after hours in the studio) kept them locked in the studio for more than a year putting it all together, achieving an album that is full of life, full of grand pop melodies and marvelous arrangements with the utmost care in every detail. It’s one of those albums that each time you listen you discover new shades and sounds, and that introduces us to Carlos Valderrama, a name that we will probably be hearing a lot in the coming years, who is capable of bringing together classic sounds with vision. And as you know, exercise: it’s highly recommendable for the pop spirits. Here you have your personal trainers. [ Read more ]

ER-1140 CD Digipak / LP

“49 Arlington Gardens” is the album that musical history uses to pay its dues to Nick Garrie. There are many reasons for it to be so. The marvelous recording sessions in Scotland, sponsored by Ally Kerr and that included such great names as Norman Blake (TEENAGE FANCLUB), Francis McDonald (NICE MAN, TEENAGE FANCLUB, BMX BANDITS), Duglas T. Stewart (BMX BANDITS) producing, and Duncan Cameron (DELGADOS, TRAVIS, TRASHCAN SINATRAS) as sound engineer, with the still less famous DOGHOUSE ROSES, Spain’s Sandra Belda Martínez (CALIFORNIA SNOW STORY, SUPERÉTÉ), Rachel Allison, Iona McDonald and many other musicians from the Scottish indie pop scene. An astonishing collection of great compositions, with gems like “Twilight,” “Le pont Mirabeau,” “When Evening Comes” and “When the Child in You,” and a deeply romantic song like “Lovers,” written with Francis Lai (responsible for such historic soundtracks as “A Man and A Woman” and “Love Story”). The fact that “The Nightmare of J.B. Stanislas,” the cursed disc released in 1969 that barely saw the light of day and that today has become a collector’s item, is receiving this small moment of glory that it was robbed of by chance when it was first released.. And above all, a singer-songwriter, Nick Garrie, with a precious voice full of solemnity and a classic pop feeling, in the be [ Read more ]

Last week we all worked together to make the new single from HELEN LOVE the winner of Steve Lamacq’s Rebel Playlist. This week one of the candidates for the list are Sweden’s SPEEKMARKET AVENUE. We hope you’ll do you part again!!!

VOTE HERE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/steve_lamacq/

Thanks so much!

SPEEDMARKET AVENUE: vote [6 Music’s Rebel Playlist! BBC RADIO]picture: Vota a Speedmarket Avenue para que entre en la lista oficial de 6 music Playlist! [BBC RADIO / Steve Lamacq] 16/01/2009 [ Read more ]

Great news as we won the Rebel Playlist on Steve Lamacq's 6 Music show this week! That means a play from each of the daytime shows this week beginning with Steve's own show tonight!

Thanks so much!

SPEEDMARKET AVENUE: vote [6 Music's Rebel Playlist! BBC RADIO]picture: Vota a Speedmarket Avenue para que entre en la lista oficial de 6 music Playlist! [BBC RADIO / Steve Lamacq]16/01/2009  [ Read more ]

So much time gazing out over the Atlantic, observing Salvador de Bahia from the other side of the ocean, when it turns out that the most exotic sun shines on this side of the Mediterranean, in Italy, where Giorgio Tuma has just released his second, marvelous album, “My Vocalese Fun Fair”.

Starting with fibers as solid as the delicacy of Caetano Veloso at his most Bahian, the elegance of Burt Bacharach, the jazzy approximations of Antonio Carlos Jobim, the circus-like psychedelia of the BEATLES at their highest, the Californian soft pop and a touch of sweet soul in the style of Terry Callier or Marvin Gaye, Giorgio Tuma builds a source of imagination with “My Vocalese Fun Fair” that makes his inseparable band mates, OS TUMANTES (as a tribute to the Brazilian psychedelic pop group OS TUMANTES), reach their highest level. This album is able to bring together the different influences of all these artists and fit them together with their own personality. Sunny melodies, bright arrangements, a production with echoes of the sixties, deep Brazilian influences, and above all, a highly inspired artist with clear colorful inclinations, as the album cover, designed by the internationally renowned artist, Davide Zucco, perfectly portrays. And the lysergic aspect, the one required by music with so many tonalities, the one which painted the submarine yellow, is found in lyrics that are authentic space voyages, a spirit that is perfectly defined in the lyrics of &ld [ Read more ]