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SINGLE’s long player keeps fascinating all kinds of listeners, and its charm has just crossed the pond to the other side of the Atlantic. The first, excellent videoclip by SINGLE was directed in Spain by Gabe Ibanez from Collective UserT38, and the chosen track was "Su recuerdo" (title track from her second EP). The new song chosen to be put to images is "Tu perrito librepensador", one of the catchiest and more danceable tunes on the album. The video has been directed by photographer and film-maker Patrick Trefz, a renown surf and skate photographer whose work has been exhibited all over California, as well as New York and Biarritz (France). Trefz, who has collaborated among others with skater and musician Tommy Guerrero, has also published a photography book: "Santa Cruz – Visions of Surf City". Filmed in San Francisco, the clip follows the story line of the song with a retro aesthetic, inspired in movies from the 60’s and 70’s. A world of luxury and high business, where the starring doggie patiently waits for his busy owner ("Your freethinker doggie" is the translation of the Spanish title).

From California, the footage flew to New York City to be edited by Josh Diamond and his company, MBS Productions, who have done videos for UNSANE and work regularly with MTV, VH1, Disney Channel, Fox, MCA Records, Universal, Epitaph, Island/Def Jam and many others. A deluxe production and a magnificent videoclip for a song [ Read more ]

On the new issue of highly influential magazine MOJO, on the section "The best thing I've heard all year" (where many of the best current artists choose their selections from this year), Richard Hawley doesn't hesitate and goes for CAMERA OBSCURA. Under an image of the cover of "Let's get out of this country", the Sheffield Sinatra (as they call him at the English mag) says: "I love that Camera Obscura record, "Let's get out this country". It's like they started where The Beatles did, with that love of girl groups, and they've done something else with it. They're very underrated; they deserve to be massive." Coming from Richard Hawley, THE BEATLES comparison and that sensation that CAMERA OBSCURA deserve to me more famous sounds even more credible and important for us. Step by step, the world is acknowledging the importance and quality level achieved by CAMERA OBSCURA, and with fans as PULP's ex guitarist and crooner of the new century Richard Hawley, that target is coming even closer. [ Read more ]

Last summer, CAMERA OBSCURA traveled all along the United States, singing the songs on "Let’s get out of this country", the album that’s getting them shows all over the world and helping them climb to become one of the most important bands in the current independent pop scene worldwide. During the twenty shows they played in the States they were with Blair Young, who we can already consider as the visual biographer of CAMERA OBSCURA (he’s recorded most of their videos, as well as having worked with TEENAGE FANCLUB, SONS AND DAUGHTERS or BELLE AND SEBASTIAN). Taking advantage of the bright summer colours and the many footage ideas you can get by travelling up and down the American states for a whole month, Young has edited a frenzy collection of images that go along with the uptempo beat of the song "If looks could kill" (the new single taken from an album that’s full of melodic gems). The story behind the video is simple, yet very effective: by using countless images of hotels, motels, vans, roads, parking lots, airports, venues and live band footage, in just three minutes we can get quite an idea of the whirlwind of sensations that is such a long tour. And in three minutes you don’t get so tired! [ Read more ]

Many followers of Spanish indie-pop were eagerly waiting for MIRAFIORI’s debut full-length, and now it’s here it’s for many more one of the best pop records of the year. Songs that are full of romanticism and eternal, classic melodies. "Agujeros en la arena" (Holes in the sand) is one of those melodies, and also the title of the song chosen for the first videoclip in MIRAFIORI’s career. The video has been directed by Paco Casado and Richard García from Producciones Entre Líneas (usual suspects when it comes to videos from our label: they have put to images in the past the music of CORAZÓN, ENTRE RÍOS, TREMBLING BLUE STARS, NIZA, LA MONJA ENANA, ME ENVENENO DE AZULES, IBON ERRAZKIN…). The costumes have been done by Rocabert, young and gifted upcoming Spanish fashion designer, and the female counterpart to Nacho Fernández is young actress and TV presenter Loreta Sáez (currently one of the freshest faces on Cuatro TV in Spain). On a short cameo we can see also Gonzalo Portellano (founder member of MIRAFIORI along with Nacho, who is now back in the live line-up of the band) and Guille Mostaza, producer of the album and also MIRAFIORI’s bass player live. They are the policemen who stop the car driven by Nacho through dreamy, autumnal landscapes, and let him follow his way when he shows them a French edition of Baudelaire‘s "Les fleurs du mal". A good passport to drive around a w [ Read more ]

One of the inspirations for the song "Un día de furia", featured on COOPER’s cinema-inspired "Días de cine" EP, was the Spanish translation of the movie "Falling down", starred by Michael Douglas in 1992. But for the videoclip of this song, directors Joel Rojas and Marc Molina (The Hands Collective, IT’S NOT NOT) have preferred to base their inspiration on another one of the explicit influences that Alex Diez likes so much: the "wild strawberry eclipse" he mentions in the lyrics, after the painting of the same name by American pop-art painter Robert Rauschenberg. The aesthetic of pop-art floats over the whole footage of the video, the texture of which looks like if it was a moving painting hanging on a wall. The story is divided in two (one of them is the band playing the song), going forward and backward symmetrically from opposite points, until they found each other when the last chord of this splendid video comes out from the amps. You will want to watch it again. [ Read more ]

It’s more than proved: the music by CAMERA OBSCURA is perfect to go along with the images of the best TV series around. We have already told you that their music has been played on TV series like "The O.C." or "The Gilmore Girls", and we have already seen the fourth episode off the third season from "Grey’s Anatomy", where the song "If looks could kill" is played during two entire minutes at the start of the episode (two minutes is such a long time on TV!).

Now we come to tell you about yet a new appearance of CAMERA OBSCURA’s music on TV. In this case it’s about a series on NBC that is among the most popular shows this fall: "Friday Night Lights" (about the life of a highschool football coach in small town in Texas). At the end of the fifth episode of the series we can hear, of course, a song by CAMERA OBSCURA: "Let’s get out of this country", again, for more than two minutes! [ Read more ]

It’s widely clear that 2006 is the best year in CAMERA OBSCURA’s career so far, and the expectations for 2007 are high and rising: the band hasn’t stopped touring around the world, their songs can be heard on TV series like "The Gilmore Girls" or "Grey’s Anatomy", and now we receive the great news that until december 17th you can vote for the video of the song "Lloyd, I’m ready to be heartbroken" on the list for best videos of the year on the TV show "Subterranean" on MTV2, the show that follows the legacy of the influential "120 Minutes". The best videoclips and the best artists of the year are featured on their list, and one of these artists is, of course, CAMERA OBSCURA.

Help us -and help the band!- to make their video climb steps on this list, hard as the fight might be, click on this link.

Where you can also watch the video, and once you’re there click on ‘vote’ and vote for CAMERA OBSCURA’s videoclip! You can tell your friends too!

CAMERA OBSCURA: [Vote!!!!] nominated as best video of the year on MTV2!!!picture: Nominados a mejor vídeo del año en MTV2!!!!11/12/2006 [ Read more ]

On this very successful year for the Glaswegian band, their hit record "Let’s get out of this country" has been released in many places: one of them was Singapore, where it’s been released by young indie label Fruit Records. To celebrate the event, the nice Fruit Records people organized a big party at BarbaaBlackChic, a two-storey building at the Little India district (Singapore) with a dancefloor downstairs and a cafeteria on the first floor.

There the new songs by CAMERA OBSCURA were played and danced in an allnight party where they also showed videoclips from Elefant Records bands and they played music by other bands on the label, as well as classic indiepop, northern soul, 60’s bubblegum or Scandinavian pop from fellow labels like Labrador. Even so far away from our country we can find great pop parties! [ Read more ]

After the good news that was receiving the songs and finally releasing "Días de cine" (four new excellent tracks by COOPER) we have more great news for their many fans: COOPER will be back on the road for a Spanish tour introducing the four tasty guitar pop songs featured on their recently released EP. During november and december, COOPER will play live songs like "El sur" or "Un día de furia" and "Rainman", as well as their fantastic version of "Where I find my heaven", originally by the GIGOLO AUNTS, that will add up to the magnificent repertoire of melodic power pop with which the band has built its well-deserved fame of being one of the best live acts around.

The dates and cities to be hit by the "Días de cine" tour are as follows:

NovemberFriday 24th- Valladolid (Bagur)Saturday 25th – Bilbao (Azkena)

DecemberFriday 1st – La Coruña (Playa Club)Saturday 2nd – Vigo (La Fábrica de Chocolate)Friday 15th – Alicante (Stereo)Saturday 16th – Valencia (Loco Club)Wednesday 27th- Santander (Paraninfo de la universidad)

JanuaryFriday 26th – Pamplona (Tótem)Saturday 27th – Zaragoza (CC Universidad)

FebruaryFriday 2nd – Madrid (Sala El Sol)Saturday 3rd – Madrid (Sala El sol)

COOPER: back on the roadpicture: Cooper vuelve a la carretera19/10/2006 [ Read more ]

Since we released "Let’s get out of this country", third album by CAMERA OBSCURA, the Scottish band hasn’t stopped touring the world performing their songs live onstage: shows all over Britain, the States from coast to coast, Canada, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands… So many concerts have made the band’s live act a solid one, which gives the perfect backing to the beauty of the songs on their repertoire. The next two months will see the band touring Spain, and the Spanish fans will be able to check this out for themselves. These are the dates:

Thursday November 16th – MADRID (El Sol) Friday November 17th – MADRID (El Sol) Saturday November 18th – ALBACETE (Divino) Sunday November 19th – VALENCIA (Loco Club)

Tuesday November 21st – LOS CONCIERTOS DE RADIO 3 (Radio session)

Thursday November 23rd – GRANADA (Planta Baja)Friday November 24th – MALAGA (Teatro Cervantes / Sala Gades) Saturday November 25th – SANTA POLA (ALICANTE) (Camelot) Sunday November 26th – LERIDA (Cafè-Teatre Escorxador)Friday December 15th – MALLORCA (Teatre de Lloseta)Saturday December 16th – BARCELONA (Laboratori Musical de Les Basses)

The Barcelona show is part of the eighth edition of a festival called "Los Reyes son Rockeros" ("The three Kings are Rockers"), a festival where the crowd doesn’t pay a ticket to get in; their contribution is a new toy, with the aim to devel [ Read more ]

A few months ago, when we released the exclusive single "Junk shop discotheque", we ranted and shouted around our joy and our pride because we were releasing a world exclusive 3-track single by one of our all-time favest bands; now you can imagine the enormous happiness we feel when we tell you that we’re multiplying that and have just signed HELEN LOVE to our label!

As hardcore HELEN LOVE fans that we are, this is for us one of the best news ever: the best bubblegum-punk, new wave and pop band in the world is now an Elefant Records recording artist! A dream come true, indeed.

Since late August you can get the single "Junk shop discotheque", a glam-rock, punk-pop bomb with a disco flavour and vocoder vocals, and whilst you’re reading this a new album is being recorded. The title will be "It’s my club and I’ll play what I want to". We’re sure many of you can’t wait until then! And we among them, you can bet… [ Read more ]

After the release of the debut album "No podemos volver a casa", we can at least announce that MIRAFIORI will play live with a full band line-up the songs of this wonderful record. The line-up formed around Nacho Fernandez (vocals and guitar) features the comeback of Gonzalo Portellano (former member of MIRAFIORI during the demo years and the first EP) on guitar, plus Guille Mostaza (from Spanish pop band ELLOS and producer of the album on bass; Ana Gonzalez (ex VACACIONES) on keyboards; and Anton Suarez (ex PURE, among others) on drums.

MIRAFIORI will premiere this live line-up on November 1st at the venue SIROCO in Madrid, and we will also enjoy the songs from "No podemos volver a casa" with a full band sound on November 16th at the venue El Sol in Madrid, where MIRAFIORI will play support for CAMERA OBSCURA.

November – Wednesday, 1MirafioriMadridtime: 21:00 / price: 6€ Without CD / 12€ with CD [No podemos volver a casa]Sala SirocoSan Dimas 3

November – Thursday, 16Camera Obscura + MirafioriMadridtime: 23:00 price: 12€ ant / 15 tqEl SolJardines 3 [ Read more ]