Taken By Trees & White Hinterland

A few weeks ago I saw Taken By Trees And White Hinterland At The Great American Music hall. I would say it was a life changing experience. Seeing an Indie Pop Idol in Victoria Bergsman, And A band i didn't know of, but was really great. We came to the show around 6 pm waiting at the doors. Me, My brother, and My cousins Ryan And Dale were standing getting ready to go in. And Surprisingly we Saw Victoria Bergsman Come out side of the doors, We all were left speechless and too shy to say Hello. Once We Got in we took a seat and ordered some plates of food.




Then, White Hinterland began to play, playing quiet sounds of perfect for a Winter's day. Playing mellow songs, My favorite ones she played were "Vessels" and "Dreaming Of The Plum Trees" Where you can hear those songs on their Myspace Casey Dienel Blew us away with her Great piano playing and her strong voice.




After, Taken By Trees played songs like "Lost and Found" and their cover of "Sweet Child O' Mine" Which you can hear on their Myspace We All were blown away, Seeing Victoria At the Mic and Her baking band playing our favorite tunes. It was of the most intimate shows we've ever been too. It was a wonderful night.

RUMSKIB

Keith Canisius Baerken and Tine Louise Kortermand are the members of RUMSKIB. They have very great songs. My favorite song on their MySpace is 'Dreampoppers tribute'. With influences like Cocteautwins, My Bloody Valentine, The Smiths, The Cure, The Beach Boys, Ivy, and XTC. These Dream Poppers found their way to the "nu-gaze" scene. They have release on Darla Records. RUMSKIB is one of the best "nu-gaze" bands! soon they will get much bigger!



< Latest reviews >


Rumskib deubt (S/T)
"This record, I have to say, was the final straw for me.
It made me change my decision to stop writing and
publishing reviews, because this record is simply one
of the most amazing records I've heard this year, and
it's one of the best records of the shoegazing movement since...1991."

PRESS PLAY, RECORD




"I feel rather bad for the other CDs that have been
piling up on my desk over the past week or so,
because Rumskib’s self-titled debut has been taking
up way more than its fair share of time in the CD player.
But it’s not really my fault, I swear."

OPUSZINE




"Not to mention how striking Louise's voice is, even
within a storm of sound; how lush and romantic the
overall sound is; how wonderfully calm the music
can be in places, and how explosive overall; how
many attractive instrumental details there are…
guitars and layered voices, especially."

ERASING CLOUDS




"Rumskib is Denmark’s most significant contribution
to the ongoing dream-pop revival.."

NO RIPCORD 8 out of 10




"This is simply THE dream pop album of the year thus
far and I would assume I’ll be hard pressed to find
anything that comes close to dethroning it by years end."

BUILT ON A WEAK SPOT




"This luminous Danish duo recreates the sound of the ultimate shoegazer band better than anyone I've heard."




"This record is consistent and well-produced (Canisius and programmer/synthmeister Jonas Munk shared the honors in that department), and the spirit of the genre positively gleams throughout"

IT'S A TRAP- 9 out of 10




“chorus is warm again, syntheticly happy! re-evokes my lush dancing feet with the fragrance of liz fraser insanity there on top.. humm.. there' s some serious celebration going on in scandinavia now..” - EMIL NIKOLAJSEN

– Serena Maneesh




"This is great stuff indeed. Her voice sounds amazing
and it's such great melodies".

- ULRICH SCHNAUSS

"This is great stuff indeed. Her voice sounds ah great

The Smokey Pines

The Smokey Pines are easily one of my favorites! Jacob Sloan creates such breath taking songs. The Smokey Pines are from Brooklyn and many great bands like Au Revoir Simone come from the wonderful city. The bass, and the vocals stand out, They are the two best parts of The Smokey Pines! Very Rare to find a great band like this, I'm glad I heard about them! "Shoot Out" and "Bird in my Garden" are on Their Myspace Page two very great songs and he even includes a Saint Etienne cover, which is available for download! "A Fresh Waterfall" The Smokey Pines say. A Fresh Waterfall their music is!

here's an interview with The Smokey Pines!


Can you give us a short background of the The Smokey Pines?

The Smokey Pines formed in early 2007 and is based in Brooklyn. It's comprised of 23-year-old singer/songwriter Jacob Sloan and a rotating cast of supporting musicians. With its music, the band goes for the cinematic scope of 60s pop (The Beach Boys, Supremes, Mamas & Papas) injected with the jangle of the Smiths, the sleekness of New Order, and various twee-pop influences. The band is readying its debut E.P.


Is this your first music project?

No, I'm a member of the Brooklyn bands Levy (One Little Indian Records) and Surefire (Lizard King Records) among others groups here in the New York scene, but this is the first project I've fronted/written songs for.

Who were your biggest influences?

The Smiths, The Beach Boys, The Zombies, Phil Spector, The Supremes, New Order, The Field Mice


When did you start making music?

Listening to music in my room and learning the songs I love on guitar has been a big part of my life since early middle school.


Is there a record you love? which one?

I love Saint Etienne's 'So Tough.' The songs are gorgeous, there's walls of flute and harpsichord and strings all drenched in reverb, such a haunting sound. I also love Holly Beth Vicent's "Holly and the Italians"- it's kind of a lost great New Wave album that nobody knows about, it sounds like the Pretenders or Blondie with Phil Spector production and is absolutely fantastic.



Any current favorite things/bands/etc?

Swedish groups like El Perro Del Mar, Sally Shapiro, The Radio Dept, etc. Andy Gibb from the Bee Gees's solo material, Lesley Gore, the show 'Wifeswap,' really good hotdogs.


How do you spend your free time?

Living and loving in New York, I have a lowly day job at a publishing company, playing/writing/recording music with my friends/various people.



Your favorite songs of this year?

El Perro Del Mar - Dog
Jarvis Cocker - Don't Let Him Waste Your Time
Mary Weiss - My Heart Is Beating


Are you planning any releases?

We're in the process of recording our first E.P. at Newkirk Studios in Brooklyn. The E.P. will be comprised of a couple re-recorded songs from amongst our initial recordings, as well as a couple new ones.



Thanks a lot to The Smokey Pines

have a listen to Jacob's other bands Levy and Surefire

Also very poppy bands!

Clay Hips

The Clay Hips were 2 members of 'The Fairways' before, and The Fairways were a WONDERFUL band! They were very successful making Matinée Records with about 4 releases!
Now The Clay Hips (Kenji and Andrew) are still looking for a Label, i'm surprised they don't have one! Their music is too nice! My favorite song on their Myspace is "failure" it's a great song, hands down! Great tunes!

The School

The School is an Indie/Pop /Psychedelic band from Cardiff Wales, UK and was formed by Liz.
Liz - Keyboards / Vocals
Ryan - Bass
FilmRyan - Glock / Percussion
Rob - Drums (DFS)
Ceri - Guitar
Rosie - Guitar / Vocals
Steph - Violin
They remind me of a little Lucky Soul and Camera Obscura they are wonderful and I hope that they find their way to SF!

Current Favorite Songs:
Valentine
and
All I Wanna Do Is

find their songs here

LOVELY BAND

Soda Fountain Rag

Synth pop, pretty pop, whatever! This band is great! I love the music. I guess many people have heard of them but Soda Fountain Rag is as great as any other pop band! The voice is nice and the keyboards are so awesome!Ragnhild Hogstad Jordahl is the girl that makes it all happen! She's great, she plays all the instruments and is responsible for the wonderful vocals! She plays live with Anders Kaasen and Lars Jakob Stava, Anders Kaasen plays guitar and Lars Jakob Stava plays bass. I found them when i was browsing around Yes Boy Ice Creams Myspace page i saw them on their top friends and i was left in shock I soon downloaded the songs that were available on their page! I LOVE SODA FOUNTAIN RAG, AWESOME!

California Snow Story

After leaving Camera Obscura, the founder of the great band David Skirving, began a new band called "California Snow Story" a Scottish indie band. Then, he was joined by Sandra Martínez (a vocalist from Superété) after a short break by David, then began recording again, and still made very good music (Also was then joined by Madoka Fukushima on the keyboard and Alan Skirving on the drums) A release from Shelflife label and Letterbox Records, this band and will soon got to the tops of the "indie" world!

For info on the band and how to buy the records here's some site you might want to check:

California Snow Story
Letterbox, California Snow Story
Shelflife, California Snow Story