think small

Think Small is a blog to write home about: Martijn writes about pop songs, football and books, amongst other things. All three are very close to my heart, and it's a terrific blog, so please go have a read!

weePOP!

Occasionally, parcels arrive in the mail and sweep you away with smiles because of what's contained inside. It might be a parcel from StrawberryNet, with cosmetics wrapped in silver paper and tied with a purple ribbon, or it could be an ebay record win with extra goodies in it. Last Friday, a package from the lovely Camila and Thor at WeePOP! Records in London landed in my mailbox to slap a smile on my face for the long weekend.

Specialising in limited run 3" releases, I have to say, I've never seen more immaculately packaged releases in my life. The two EPs I received were so lovingly hand-crafted and carefully constructed that I felt as though I was destroying special works of craft when I went to listen to them. Look at how pretty they are!!


As I've said before, I have the oldest digital camera in the world, so this picture really doesn't do these releases justice. But, given the artistry in the packaging, how do they sound?

First up, The Darlings are, well, a darling five-piece from London, who write pretty songs about girls stealing boyfriends, stick homemade postcard pictures on their records and dedicate their releases to Grant McLennan. Ah, I can understand these sentiments. The "Photo" EP contains two cutesy originals - "Anything You Want" and "Emily" - which you should listen to over and over on their Myspace page, as well as a cover of AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long". This makes it two pop covers of the same AC/DC song in the one weekend - can somebody find me another so I can make it a trifecta? The guitars on "Anything You Want" sound kinda Spanish, and Elizabeth's vocals are just so warm and inviting, while "Emily" is a super twee track - again, the ukelele gives the song a summer holiday vibe. Oh, and judging by the liner notes, there's a Queensland connection, with Elizabeth's family owning a holiday house here. Yay!

Next, there's The Motifs, from Melbourne. It's sinful of me to admit that I knew nary a thing about The Motifs until a few weeks ago, but now that I have, I'm well and truly converted. Recorded in Japan, the "Matches" EP is full of shy, lo-fi pop songs that, admittedly, would be drowned out by your average pub crowd, but would sparkle with a receptive, captive audience. Soft harmonies stand out over a simple acoustic guitar and Casio drums - very pretty. It's a bit early Architecture in Helsinki, a bit Tenniscoats, and I love it to bits. I want them to take over the indie pop world in 2008!! Oh yes, and the sailboats on the cover of this EP are so adorable!

Lastly, there's the first weePOP! sampler, featuring tasty cuts from Roadside Poppies, Bunnygrunt and The Just Joans, amongst others. I could dance all night long to these songs! I'm going to find myself a little box to store all these 3"s in, because I'm sure there's a collection to be built from weePOP! this year.

live: the zebras, greg brady & the anchors, ladybird

It's been a busy few days - between work, pop shows and national days of celebration, I've barely had an opportunity to write about all my latest discoveries. Believe me, there's a lot I want to write about, but just not enough time to devote to writing about all of them! Hopefully I can catch up in the next couple of days.

Firstly, a review of Friday night's pop frenzy. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures because I have the worst digital camera in history. My words must suffice in this instance. I arrived just as Ladybird had begun - it was early in the night, and those who were in attendance were treated to an easygoing, charming set by three lovely French boys and a cellist from New Zealand. With a flagrant disregard for covered footwear and a penchant for silly sunglasses, they played simple folky pop songs, with the occasional harmonica and handclap a feature. Highlights included a song about The Vaselines (how can you not like a band who writes about one of Scotland's greatest ever bands??) and a cover of AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long", done in a splendid balladeering style. I bought their newest record, "Love Will Conquer All", but sadly I haven't been able to listen to it because I left it in my friend's bag, boooo. Oh yes, and those French accents - oh, I could listen to them all day. My heart skipped beats every time they opened their mouths.

I hadn't seen Brisbane's own Greg Brady & The Anchors play in a while, and it sounds as though he's decided to go a bit more rock of late. Still, his ensemble play a tight set of songs reminiscent of mid 90s indie rock - kinda shoegaze, kinda college rock, but with those underlying pop sensibilities showing that one doesn't betray those Flying Nun roots.

The Zebras were back, playing to an eager (and bloody full) Friday night crowd. Apart from the fact this creepy bearded man kept infringing on any personal space my friend Catherine and I could find for ourselves, it was a great set of their old songs and a couple of new ones. Since moving to Melbourne, they've recruited a couple of new members, and I did feel a bit sad not seeing a couple of old familiar faces on stage. Their sound was still as fun as ever, and I still have mega envy for Jeremy's Rickenbacker. Oh, and it was fun to watch one girl singing along to all the words, because it gives me hope there's still another generation of indie cats willing to fly the pop flag, instead of just hitching a lift on the bloody nu-rave/post-punk bandwagon.

Edit: almost forgot to mention the highlight for the evening was hearing The Mighty Boosh's soup song played between sets. Most inspired DJ choice ever!!

As an aside, might I just say how disappointed I was at how little indie pop featured in the 2007 Triple J Hottest 100. Architecture in Helsinki made it in at number 19, but "Heart It Races" just sounded like they'd been listening to too much Animal Collective. And here I was hoping bands like Klaxons and the Arctic Monkeys would make the top 10 just for the sheer novelty factor! Better than some of the other woeful stuff that made it in. I shake my fist at the Australian voting public, I really do.

boy genius

So Boy Genius are the talk of the internet at the moment, and I'm going to write about them too. Earlier tonight I looked like a silly inflexible buffoon by taking a yoga class, and afterwards all I wanted to do was listen to quiet, peaceful music, so I listened to The Field Mice, Felt and The Softies on my train ride home. Now I'm home, I'm ready for something more upbeat, but not too upbeat that I want to just turn my bedroom into a dancefloor. No, like Goldilocks, I need something that's just right, and Boy Genius's debut EP "Eureka" fits that bill very well.

Opening track "Fair Weather" has a bit of a mid-90s Matador guitar sound about it, but then the chorus changes the song from a crunchy Helium-esque track into a catchy pop chugger, with its trumpets and boy-girl harmonies. "Radio Silence" reminds me of something I'd have taped off the radio about ten years, listened to repeatedly then spent two hours calling up the radio station asking for a request. Even though they're from Brooklyn, it has a sound about it I've heard in a lot of Australian 90s indie - bands like Smudge and Drop City, who were both on Half a Cow, who I mentioned the other day. I guess that says something about how heavily influenced Australian bands were (and are) by American indie rock.

In all, "Eureka" channels the best parts of classic indie record labels of the late 80s and 90s to provide the kids of the 00s with a history lesson on how great indie pop songs can be made.

cat's miaow video clip

I don't generally like to share too many videos around, because I know I don't watch that many of them when other people share them with me. I'm terrible in that respect. However, I've been thinking about The Cat's Miaow a bit lately, particularly how much I love "Third Floor Fire Escape View". A better lo-fi pop charmer is hard to find.

A couple of years ago, I had a boyfriend who owned one of the "Munch" video compilations, which featured the film clip to this song, alongside Black Tambourine's "Throw Aggi Off The Bridge", Heavenly's "Our Love Is Heavenly" and Even As We Speak's "Drown". Suffice to say, it was very influential on me - I think that was the point I truly, truly fell in love with Heavenly, and haven't looked back since. I only wish I had stolen the video when we broke up! Anyway, some lovely technologically minded souls have put these video clips on Youtube for the world to share, so please enjoy this Cat's Miaow clip.

agnes kain

So do you love clickety-clacks, hand claps, plenty o' la-di-das and aaaah-aaaaahs? Pretty girl vocals humming and chanting and call-and-responsing to cute keyboard melodies, melodicas and xylophones? Yeah? Well, you're sure to love Sydney's Agnes Kain, a boy-girl duo who released their debut album "Keep Walking or I'll Kill You" last year on Half a Cow Records. I'll save my HaC exaltations for another day, I think, even though I am already having lusty thoughts about a young Nic Dalton...

These songs are so adorably cute - it's fun pop music, and unashamedly so. It's all so simple and unpretentious, brimming with charm and not an ounce of cloying twee-ness to be found. All home-recorded, too! Listen to "Puddles and Mud" and it will make any rainy, miserable day instantly happy, even though the lyrics aren't necessarily the chirpiest around.

And look! Chanelle, the lovely singer, makes lots of dinky craft creations, as exhibited in their photographs. Multitalented! Nobody seems to want to make the trek to play in Brisbane these days, but maybe these southern bands might reverse that trend this year by coming up here and playing some shows. I might have to begin begging, or travelling south more often.

minisnap

Do you love Flying Nun Records, the classic New Zealand label who brought the likes of The Clean, The Verlaines and The Chills to the world? Well, I sure do, and you sure will once you watch the film clip to one of my favourite, favourite songs - "Death and The Maiden" by The Verlaines.



Anyway, I am digressing in a big way. I mention Flying Nun because one of my favourite bands off said record label is The Bats, and now there's a side project to The Bats called Minisnap.

From what I can gather, this is effectively The Bats without Robert Scott, and it's the vehicle for bringing Bats guitarist Kaye Woodward's songs to the world. I've been listening to these songs all night and I'm just in love with them - they're literate, warm and jangly, which is everything that made Flying Nun bands so legendary back in the 80s. Kaye's vocals are lovely - so mature and self-confident, but never betraying her femininity. It's like those girls from Look Blue Go Purple, another bunch of Flying Nun stalwarts who embodied that classic NZ sound.

I've never been to New Zealand, but I believe Christchurch is about as close to being in the United Kingdom without actually going there. In listening to Minisnap, I feel as though I could be listening to any band that's stepped out of Glasgow in the past 15 years. I've said it repeatedly, but all these cold climates seem to produce the prettiest songs. Having never lived in a cold city, I wouldn't know what it's like or what triggers it, but please, keep the songs coming. I could drive down highways all day listening to "Innocent" or "In My Pocket" and wouldn't tire of it.

Minisnap's new album "Bounce Around" comes out on Monday - add it to your lists!

bits and pieces

Oh dear, two days away from the internet, and what happens? I accumulate a wealth of things to write about! Let's get started...


One
Last night I went to see Caribou play at the Gallery of Modern Art. I hadn't heard his stuff before - all I knew was the story of how he had to change his name because Handsome Dick Manitoba of the Dictators threatened to sue him. How punk rock! Anyway, I was extremely impressed with the way he merged perfect 60s Californian pop with almost metronomic, Krautrock elements. In many ways, it reminded me of early Stereolab - you know, "We're Not Adult Orientated" style - but my friend Victoria also described them as similar to the Go Team. Their twin drummers would have made Mark E. Smith proud, too. Oh yes, and the visuals were really great - part Windows Media Player, part Commodore 64, but just a perfect kaleidoscope of colours to match the swirling, dreamy psych-pop.

Two
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart EP is better than I ever expected. Oh, that fuzz takes me back to the best of Slumberland - Black Tambourine, Henry's Dress, etc. I am going to fall in love with these songs very, very quickly.

Three
The new Magnetic Fields record is also quite impressive, but I think it will take repeated listens to truly know whether I love it or not. Claudia Gonson's vocals are as lovely as ever, but, to be quite honest, I was expecting more feedback. That's not to say there's not a lot on there - it's just that when there's feedback, I love a lot of it. I'm also considering making a new cover for it, because I really can't bear to look at that atrocity for too long.

Four
I am going to miss out on the Jens Lekman show on Monday night. It's just too far away on a school night. However, I am excited about an international pop frenzy next Friday night, featuring The Zebras (ex-Brisbane, now in Melbourne), Greg Brady (Brisbane luminary through and through), and Ladybird (from France, how exotic!).Hooray for pop shows in Brisbane again!

lavender recordings

I am just full of love for Sweden right now: I'm still contemplating the long drive to see Jens Lekman on a school night, but aside from that, Sweden is just everywhere in my life right now. As I was driving home, my iPod kept playing Tough Alliance songs whilst on shuffle, and my faithful Swedish backpack accompanies me to work most days. Now, there's another Swedish pleasure to add to my ever-growing list - Lavender Recordings from Uppsala!

Tonight was my first exposure to all the bands currently on Lavender. Firstly, there's the bedroom karaoke pop of Gothenburg's We Are Soldiers We Have Guns, replete with handclaps, dinky Casios and extra-sweet homemade harmonies. I love her sentiments on "Wherever I Lay My Hat": I'm the type of girls who gives a guy the eye, everybody knows. Yeah for being mischievously flirtatious! Next up is Fireflies from Chicago, who offer that classic late-summer pop sound of hazy vocals and warm guitars. It's the type of sound you can put on at any time of the year and instantly be transported to that moment when summer turns to spring autumn (edit: summer turns to spring? i wish!) and it's time to farewell the late afternoon sunshine and herald in crisp evenings. Unimaginably pretty stuff. Lastly, there's Afraid of Stairs, who are also from Gothenburg, and who cover off the fuzzy, buzzy, guitar pedally aspects that any good pop label needs to include on its roster. "When Nothing" is part-shoegazer, part late 80s UK indie. I could easily listen to this alongside my Ride records and drown myself in all those pedal effects and dreamy lyrics.

Lavender is also releasing delicious sounds from Days, Moscow Olympics, The Sunny Street and Tears Run Rings. It's all so damn tempting - I'm going to savour every morsel!

(You can listen to lots of these songs for free on the Lavender myspace page!)

jens lekman show + lots of thanks!

Now, this is a bit out of character for me - two posts in a row! But I am just so terribly excited that I couldn't resist posting a second entry for the evening.

Firstly, because I am always ten steps behind, I have just found out that the glorious Jens Lekman is playing at the Spunk Records birthday party next Monday night! Now, Jens is a very attractive man, and little is going to stop me from attending this event, despite the fact it is:

a. on a Monday night, which is effectively a "school night" for the proletariat (that means me);
b. at Bangalow, which is a good two hours' drive from Brisbane.

Everything is working against me, but I really think Jens is worth the long drive and the super-tiredness I'm sure to suffer on Tuesday as I plod away at work.

Secondly, I want to say thank you to everyone who has linked my blog in the past couple of days! Indie MP3 is one of the best blogs in the world, and always manages to stay ten steps ahead, both in terms of "keeping C86 alive" (a noble cause that I wholly support) and uncovering all the best pop songs around. Also mentioned at the same time was Pop n Cherries, a Belgian blog about all the pop songs you could imagine and more. Honestly, both these blogs are a million times better than mine will ever be, so I am but honoured to be mentioned alongside them!

the soft city

Don't you love it when decent bands send friend requests your way on Myspace? If you're on there, you're probably about as sick as I am of r'n'b bootyshakers, hxc metal bands and the like wanting your digital acquaintance, then sending you nasty messages when you click the magic "DENY" button. Ah, but then a band like The Soft City comes along and makes your social networking experience all the more worthwhile.

The Soft City is masterminded by Phil Sutton, he who helped bring the extra-wonderful Velocette to the world, and also played in Comet Gain, amongst other bands. I could just write about Velocette all day long, but I'll resist on this occasion. His new project is half-Postcard Records, half Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, so you know it's bringing out its inner Scot in those hollow guitars, charming melodies and yearning vocals. "My Heart and I" has some bittersweet lyrics that don't sound so bad alongside the jangle and the "I wore my fringe like Roger McGuinn" vocals. Like all the best pop songs, though, it draws from its influences and manages to create something modern and relevant for today. I'm just wishing I was listening to this in the car on a Saturday afternoon, rather than a dreary Tuesday night at home.

Just to demonstrate how far behind the times I am, though, I have since read their first single was released by Cloudberry Records last November. I am sure all the discerning indie cats will have already procured their copy. Me? I might try to get my mitts on a copy very soon. Better late than never, eh?

Johan Hedberg

For those of you who don't know already, I love Sweden a whole lot. There's something magical in those Scandinavian waters that manages to produce some of the finest music on the planet, as well as some of my favourite people ever. I love Sweden so much that I'm going back there again later this year, but that's another story. Anyway, it's about time I mentioned Swedish pop music because, really, it can rarely be faulted and it's one of my one true pop obsessions.

If you haven't already heard Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, I suggest you stop reading this right now and head over to the Labrador Records website for the pop treat of the century. If you have, and you love them as much as I do, then you'll be pleased to know Johan Hedberg - the foppish, bespectacled, dark haired half of the duo - has gone and produced a terrific solo project! It's much more digital than standard SKWBN, and it's all sung in Swedish, but all those bleeps and the occasional English phrase about Morrissey and Woody Allen work so well. I really appreciate the fact he sings in his native tongue - why should these artists have to sing in English all the time? Have a listen to Bob Hund to understand how great the Swedish language can be in song.

Swedish electro pop seems to be going so well at the moment - what, with the likes of Sally Shapiro and The Tough Alliance, it's as though the Swedes know how to make the best of English and American music even better than the originals. I really think Johan's solo songs mix the best of all his listed influences into something very special. And, if Myspace can be believed, we're also in for "some nice shit coming up", courtesy of SKWBN. Can't wait!

antarctica takes it!

Even though it's quite late on a Saturday night and I'm just about ready to collapse into bed, I just had to write about Antarctica Takes It! Yes, yes, I've done the "how twee are you?" quiz, and subsequently receive all those fantastically jealous email updates from How Does It Feel To Be Loved? each week, which is how I found out about these guys. You see, their record "The Penguin League" was originally released in 2006, but the lovely Ian in London is making their record known to the masses by releasing it on his own HDIF label. Nice chap, eh?

So apart from looking all hip and cute and whimsical by posing with white tights and cellos and trumpets and scarves and such, they sound hip and cute and whimsical to boot. Have a listen to "Circuits" - it's so sparkly, with its boy-girl harmonies, handclaps and xylophones, that it's hard not to love it, despite my description making it sound like your twee nightmare. I can envisage a film clip to this made on super 8, with sprinkles of snowflakes on suburban trees, with everyone rugged up in mittens, woollen hats and black-rimmed glasses. Okay, enough of the extreme twee descriptors. They've managed to use about as many instruments as they can to produce "Circuits", and, to their credit, they've made it all sound honest, unpretentious and just very very good.

At first I was worried they would fall into the same league as Los Campesinos!, what with their shared exclamation marks and comparisons to Belle & Sebastian and Sufjan Stevens, but Antarctica Takes It! have won me over, for sure. Now, where's my scarf and winter coat?

p.s. many thanks to Skatterbrain! for linking my blog - if you haven't already read it, go have a read because it's such a terrific blog!!

summer cats

I hate it when really great bands sit right under my nose, yet I'm too oblivious or caught up in my own reflection whatever's spinning on my ipod to notice them. Take Summer Cats - they're from Melbourne, they've released a split 7" with Eux Autres, and I used to write messages to one of the guys on Last.fm. So how come it's taken so long for me to find them? Sadly, I must shake my head at this one.

Summer Cats definitely have that Australian charm about them - they're almost power pop, but not in a blowin' the fuse type of way, and I can hear the Melbourne suburban sound in their songs. It's something so subtle that it's quite difficult to describe but there's something in their guitars which I also hear in the likes of The Cat's Miaow and even The Lucksmiths. Perhaps there's some scratchy guitar sound which has been trademarked as "North Carlton" or something. Whatever it is, it's working because bloody Melbourne has been stealing all of the best bands and creating the best sounds for years and years. However, Brisbane did produce The Go-Betweens and Perth produced The Triffids, so that's certainly a success for the smaller cities of Australia.

I don't think they've been to Brisbane yet but next time Summer Cats are in town, I'll definitely be up front dancing away!

the pains of being pure at heart

I did a Tonevendor order the other night - it's the first time I've done a big internet record order in quite a while. I've stocked up on records I've been meaning to buy for quite a while (Heavenly, Pants Yell!'s "Recent Drama"), missed out on others which were out of stock (Voxtrot, boo, but luckily I spied it at JB Hi-Fi the other day) but I also bought the first EP by NY band The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.


When a band knows how to wear cardigans as well as this, I know I'm onto a winner. Plus, when I listen to a song like "A Teenager In Love", it not only conjures up the best thoughts of jangly late eighties English guitars, but all those wistful Sarah Records moments. And "Come Saturday" sounds so very C86 - all that fuzz over the 14 Iced Bears melody. Love it, love it, love it. I love how their Myspace page reads:

"Imagine if The Ramones traded in their leather jackets for anoraks, or Stephen Pastel actually threw Aggi off the bridge and married Black Tambourine's Pam Berry and had four babies that formed a pop band in 2007."

This is just the best description for a band EVER. More bands should purport to be the progeny of Stephen Pastel and Pam Berry - in particular, more boys in Brisbane should suggest this as their own lineage, so I can fall head over heels for cute pop boys. But, like my dream last night about Pam Berry being my friend on Facebook, I can but dream.

new magnetic fields album!

The Magnetic Fields release their new album "Distortion" next week. Apparently Stephin Merritt is channelling the Jesus and Mary Chain by having all his grand songs covered in a gloriously fuzzy sheen of distortion. Now, I love feedback in pop songs, and I also love all those 18-carat gold gilted songs Mr Merritt concocts. But the two together? I really hope it works. The one song I've heard so far, "Three-Way", sounds like a Phil Spector track if it was taped onto an old C90 cassette off another cassette which had been taped off a crackly AM radio station. Well, maybe it's not that crackly and distorted, but the distortion certainly blankets the song in just the way feedback should. AND this song features the occasional shout of, "THREE-WAY!" which is just so endearing.

The only downside to this record? The cover. Oh my god, the cover. If I had never heard the Magnetic Fields before, I would avoid this like some, I don't know, family planning pink plague. Have a look:


Now, compare this to, say, the best Magnetic Fields album EVER:


Which one would you choose? Please, please go back to the wonderful illustrations of yore and ditch the crimson toilet sign. He looks like he made the cover in Microsoft Word with Times New Roman and Wingdings.

However, I shan't be too critical because I know it's going to be a cracker of an album. It's a Magnetic Fields album - how could it not be?

bubblegum lemonade

Here in Brisbane, it's been raining quite a bit of late, and as romantic as the rain can be when one can stay in bed and snuggle up with books and records, it's not much fun after two weeks of grey skies and a few days back at work. Normally when the weather's like this, all I want to do is listen to shoegaze or Leonard Cohen and ponder, "when's the sun coming back?" But then, just like magic, I'll listen to something and it'll instantly lift me out of the wet and rainy doldrums.

Take Bubblegum Lemonade - he's from Glasgow, so he must know a thing or two about grey skies, yet he's managed to craft some splendid songs that hark back to the glorious days of C86 and 53rd & 3rd. There's the definite Jesus & Mary Chain influence in the feedback-laden harmonies and echoed drums of "Ten Years Younger", while his cover of "That Thing You Do" is just dreamy. You know, Fountains of Wayne used to write killer pop songs like that, but I digress. Anyway, Caledonian jangles are just what I need after dreary days, and I tend to think that if grey skies can produce such melodies, then I might just be able to tolerate a few more of them.

Buy his record from Matinee!

lucky soul

Elefant Records has long been one of my favourite continental labels, and they seem to have a knack for releasing the best English pop songs to the world. Not content with the likes of Camera Obscura, Helen Love and the Trembling Blue Stars in their ranks, these lovely Spaniards have released Lucky Soul to the world! They're from London and unite orchestral songs with northern soul and that sixties heartbreak that just makes you want to dance your sorrows away.

I read a review that described Lucky Soul's sound as a combination of Saturday Looks Good To Me, Belle & Sebastian and Camera Obscura, and it's pretty well spot on. 'Add Your Light To Mine, Baby' has a real swagger about it, and Ali Howard's silky vocals and sylphish looks are just so enticing. And anyway, when a band looks like a 60s version of Brideshead Revisited if The Hives frequented Evelyn Waugh's upper-class circles, how can you go wrong?

introductions

...and thus heralds the return of miss alex to the world of internet blogging. after previous stints on diaryland and livejournal, as well as brief forays into myspace blogs and facebook notes, i am endeavouring to make a new start in 2008 by commencing a blog focused largely on one of my primary loves - pop songs!

one of my new years' resolutions is to listen to more new music, so my intention is to profile bands i'm discovering, as well as bands i've loved for years and years. no doubt i will digress and discuss other exciting pursuits (films, cute clothes, travel, maybe boys if some decide to show up and be decent), but predominantly i want to talk about all those pop bands and pop songs that brighten the saddest days and bring even more cheer to those best days. oh, i could have quoted a million silly song lyrics just then, but there's plenty of time for that.

without further ado, i will bring you my first - well, technically second - post...

x