Why has no-one ever told me about Neva Dinova? Anyone? Anyway. They're from Omaha and play very nice soft, folksy indie country. That's the best description I can offer. People who are into the late Bright Eyes are definitely going to like these guys.

Also, you should check out The Moth & The Mirror from Glasgow, they play incredibly warm indie pop. Listen to the song Soft Insides, it was instantly my new favourite song. Their live cover version of MGMT's Kids is cute!

Buy Nena Dinova — You May Already Be Dreaming and/or The Moth & The Mirror — Say That It's Summer/Soft Inside.

There's a hot tip from my girlfriend. She says she listened to these guys a while ago, then forgot about them and then found the link somewhere on her computer. I'm talking about Portland, Oregon-based quartet Botanist. It's very mellow indie pop with electronic beats and a soft voice. They've got some nice arrangements there and a new, selftitled album out. You can check out three of their new songs on their Myspace.

Another band whose awesomeness I had no idea about is indie rock band The Good Life from Omaha, and being on Saddle Creek they're probably pretty well-known. Anyway. The other day I came across an acoustic version of October Leaves and fell in love with it. There is actually a limited edition of their third album Album Of The Year which features very pretty acoustic versions of the same songs on a second CD. If you can, get your hands on a copy of this one because these versions are brilliant.

• Botanist — Rifles Shoot Hearts
  from Botanist
• Botanist — Fluorescent Microwave
  from Botanist
• Botanist — Motor
  from Botanist
• The Good Life — Heartbroke
  from Help Wanted Nights
• The Good Life — You Don't Feel Like Home To Me
  from Help Wanted Nights
• The Good Life — A New Friend
  from Album Of The Year
• The Good Life — Always A Bridesmaid
  from Lovers Need Lawyers
• The Good Life — I Am An Island
  from Black Out

Buy Botanist — Botanist and/or The Good Life — Album Of The Year (Limited Edition).

Au Revoir Simone are a bunch of girls from Brooklyn who play pretty and pretty sad keyboard pop.

There's a band that would have definitely worth checking out when they were still around: Neutral Milk Hotel. But one would have had to live in Denver in the 90s. Two Headed Boy has an intensity that peels off your skin.

Attention, download:

• Neutral Milk Hotel — Holland, 1945

And listen to this:

• Neutral Milk Hotel — Two Headed Boy

Everyone who likes Tegan And Sara should give An Horse's glorious album Rearrange Beds a listen. And similarly wicked are indie-pop-fetishist-happy-making Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin from Springfield, Missouri. Their song Glue Girls is such a nice reminder of Built To Spill's 90s sound. Also, please listen to Grand Archives, especially their song Index Moon will be stuck in your head forever.

• An Horse — Camp Out
• Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin — Glue Girls
• Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin — Think I Wanna Die
• Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin — Oregon Girl
• Grand Archives — Miniature Birds
• Grand Archives — Torn Blue Foam Couch

Silversun Pickups have a new album out. Enough said.

Over at beatcast.tv there are videotaped concerts of Pennines, of Dartz, of Cats And Cats And Cats and other english bands. The video and sound quality is extraordinary!

The Beauty Shop was a band from Champaign, Illinois. One of the members now plays in Golden Quality whose recordings sound like they must be massive live. I should fly over to check them out. There is another really awesome band who is from there, New Ruins. And I also just found out about Califone, a wicked dreamy acoustic kinda band from Chicago.

• New Ruins — Ships
• Califone — Spider's House
• Califone — The Orchids

I went into your house and stole all the pictures from the wall.

The last couple of weekends I didn't get around to write "Highly commended" posts because I was just too busy attending shows of wicked bands in England. Here is a band I kinda saw by accident because they played a show with Cats And Cats And Cats: they are called A Genuine Freakshow. They were indescribably good. After the show the band gave away CDs for free, containing the three songs they urrently have on their Myspace page . Listen to them, they're really nice songs.

Talking about England: Last night I finally got to watch Control, the film about the rather short life of Ian Curtis, singer of Joy Division. I actually didn't know any of their music before, but watching the film instantly turns you into a fan. So yea, you have to watch it. Watching actual live footage of Joy Division shows made me realise how accurately the acting of the guys playing the band in Control is. It's such a good film. Go to the video shop now.

I found a good band I didn't know called Via Audio, there were amongst Chris Walla's Myspace friends. And they had friends on Myspace called Headlights who are really great.

• Headlights - Cherry Tulips

Have a nice, snowy weekend!

This weekend's post is a little early because we will be recording the whole weekend. Check out the solo project of Amy Millan who is one of the singers of the band Stars. Skinny Boy is probably one of the best songs of all times. I also really like her cover version of Death Cab For Cutie's I Will Follow You Into The Dark.

I don't actually remember how I came across Ester Drang and if they're any good, but check them out anyway cos they might be.

Plenty of Bands, England's going mad!

Dance rock band Dartz will be playing a little Europe tour in April. The other day someone said, Kopenhagen is beautiful, so go there and check them out:

• 12.Apr.2009, NBI, Berlin
• 14.Apr.2009, Lades, Kopenhagen
• 15.Apr.2009, Shadrak, Groningen

There's other cool bands touring soon, too: Colour are going to tour with Data.Select.Party in England.

Another recommendation of mine is the band Secondsmile, whose music constantly switches from silent singer-songwriter music to noisy harcore. I also like a band that sound like autumn light, they're called Pennines and the 90s emo revival band Look I'm A Ghost.

This week I fell in love with the band Scholars. One of their members, Tom Woodstock, (who also has an awesome project called Elevens) has a small studio in a shack where they record all this cool stuff.

There's a review on Scholars' Myspace saying they sound like Hell Is For Heroes, which isn't exactly true, but they were great as well. Their Myspace says they broke up one or two months ago. Too bad.

Wenn Sie an mathematischer Indie-Musik interessiert sind, hören Sie bitte Foals. Sinnlos geil:

• Foals - Balloons

Frohes Noise.

PS:
Broken Social Scene - 7/4 (Shoreline)
Oh my *gawd* :)

WIE GEIL: Sportsday Megaphone. Und fast vergessen: Cajun Dance Party und Data.Select.Party.

Wenn London nach vorne losgeht.

Es gibt eine recht lebendige und ziemlich abgefahrene Indie-Szene in Mexiko. Wenn ihr mal da sein solltet, fahrt auf jeden Fall für ein Wochenende nach Cholula und geht ins Pulque Para Dos. Das geht so ab wenn da Bands spielen, die Leute rasten aus wie Sau. Bisschen anders als in Hamburg, wo ja bei Lokalbandkonzerten meist eher überheblich-cool bis peinlich berührt betreten rumgestanden und shoegegazet wird.

Also hier: Indie aus Mexiko. Hört Euch erstmal Holiday, eine der besten Bands der Welt an. Riege: Sigur Rós, Mogwai und Konsorten. Die gibt's auch auf Myspace, aber da ist keine Musik drauf. Dann vom Feinsten zelebrierten Synthesizer/Gitarren-Instrumentalindie von Austin TV und die neue Band vom Ex-Schlagzeuger der damals großartigen Band Mostache aus Puebla, die da heißt: Lissa und fast noch großartiger ist. Traumhafter Hardcore von Kollegen von The Locust: Conspiración Alfa Cinco. Und für sinnlosen Elektropop: Quiero Club.

Arelys Tipp für dieses Wochenende sind Hello Seahorse aus Mexiko Stadt.

Kostenlos einkaufen im Runter-Laden:

• Holiday - Dias Soleados

Also schönes WE! Macht weniger Internet und mehr draußen.