Members of the Norwegian indie acts Mylittlepony, The Little Hands of Asphalt, Monzano and Einar Stray are joining forces to record a Christmas album as the band Sunturns. Said album, which is simply titled "Christmas", will include new tunes, covers of songs from the various member's individual catalogs, as well as covers of Low's "Just like Christmas" and Swearing At Motorists' "Losing mine" and will be released on November 25 via .
interviews Norway's Monzano as part of their week-long takeover of the site The 405: http://thefourohfive.com/articles/4844
Monzano's new "Apple handsome EP" is now streaming at Bandcamp: http://lazyacrerecords.bandcamp.com/album/monzano-apple-handsome-ep
Shame that half the tracks are previously released, but whatever -- still a great band.
Episode #6 of Norwegian music podcast "99 Minutes" is now online: http://www.listento.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2010100410432464509498
Featured artists include Dimmu Borgir, Alog, Monzano, Supersilent, Hanne Hukkelberg, Jenny Hval, Motorpsycho and more.
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. TALK 1
02. Dear Euphoria - Coming down
03. Magnus Pelander - A sinner's child
04. Monzano - Grand siblings
05. TALK 2
06. Haust - Pointing and laughing
07. Pets - A good day for telling lies
08. Adventure Of - Time will tell
09. Swedish House Mafia - One
10. TALK 3
11. Supersci - Snap out of it
12. Pearl Fiction - The ruby fever
13. Britta Persson - Meet a bear
14. TALK 4
15. Nidingr - Reginsmol
16. The Bear Quartet - You you you you you you
17. Grande - You are the night
18. Rasmus Kellerman - The greatness & me
19. TALK 5
20. Susanne Sundfør - The brothel
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
It never occurred to me until my wife mentioned it last night, but Monzano sounds a heckuva lot like Hello Saferide. It's true: same wistful tone, same literate lyrics, even the same vocal range. Similar instrumentation and production too, though that's far less striking in the vast ocean of guitar-based indierock. Guess it's no surprise then that I consider their album "By this time last year everything will seem younger" to be one of 2010's best releases. Six months later and I've still got it on regular rotation.
Monzano - Know your velocity
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. TALK 1
02. Robyn - Fembot
03. Monty - Orden
04. The Je Ne Sais Quoi - Bye bye pianotie
05. Palpitation - What if
06. TALK 2
07. The Tallest Man on Earth - Burden of tomorrow
08. Dyno - Don't speak love
09. Margaret Berger - Will you remember me tomorrow?
10. Holiday for Strings - Shelter Island
11. TALK 3
12. Tutankamon - Have you ever been in love?
13. Kråkesølv - Skredder
14. The Tiny - Last weekend
15. Asha Ali - The time is now
16. TALK 4
17. Monzano - Yes, we can't
18. Donkeyboy - Ambitions
19. Kite - Ways to dance
20. Bertine Zetlitz - 500
21. TALK 5
22. Makthaverskan - German boy
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
Watch Monzano perform their new single "Yes we can't" acoustically for Groove.no: http://vimeo.com/9573507
I love the line "I never thought it would come to this / I read every page of The Economist".
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Agent Side Grinder - The screams
02. TALK 1
03. Susanne Sundfør - The brothel
04. The Skull Defekts - Millions
05. Torpedo - Accelerate
06. TALK 2
07. Donkeyboy - Ambitions
08. Haust - Skate rock
09. Ikons - The hawk
10. Dyno - Deliverance
11. TALK 3
12. Monzano - Waterways and altitude
13. Moto Boy - The heart is a rebel
14. The Graviators - Back to the sabbath
15. Sonic Ritual - (Don't wanna) Feel alright
16. TALK 4
17. Oskar Schönning - Farsan
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
Norwegian label has posted a spring sampler comp in time for by:Larm: http://spoontrain.no/blog/audio/2010/02/spoon-train-sampler-spring-2010
It's worth grabbing for the Monzano tracks alone.
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Komeda - Elvira Madigan
02. TALK 1
03. Joensuu 1685 - I'm on fire
04. Haust - Skate rock
05. Sambassadeur - Sandy dunes
06. Erik de Vahl - Got it all
07. TALK 2
08. The Confusions - Boys will be boys
09. The Knife - Heartbeats
10. Francis - I was never bored at all
11. Monzano - Cold waters
12. TALK 3
13. Ave - The load of human kind
14. Trapdoor Fucking Exit - Cardiac arrest
15. Håkan Hellström - Tro och tvivel
16. Karin Ström - Hackney Downs
17. TALK 4
18. Mr. Death - Misery's womb
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
Monzano never made much of an impression on me in the past, but their new record "By this time last year every thing will seem younger" (due out February 15 via ) is easily the best new thing I've heard so far in 2010. "Cold waters" was previously featured on volume 2 of the "Oslo" comp series and is the first song the band recorded for said album, an obvious example of leading with your best foot forward. I hear it as a toned-down take on the same sort of indie/rock territory covered by countrymates Lukestar -- similar androgynous vocals, similar twisting melodies and interweaving guitar lines, but with everything notched down a smidge. They never truly "rock out" per se, but they don't really need to (like the mandolin wasn't an immediate tip-off). As for the "Islands in the stream" references, this is definitely not anything close that duet's adult contemporary/soft-rock vibe, but I think they do emulate a bit of those Barry Gibb harmonies and a touch of his melodic lilt here. Say what you will about the Bee Gees, I think that's a good thing; this is a good song. Oh and good thing I picked up a Dolly Parton 7xLP boxset last weekend, or I might not have been able to cross-reference. I can't hang with most of her 80s output (cocaine sure did bad things to country back then), but there's more than enough good stuff in there to make it worthwhile.
Monzano - Cold waters
Norwegian indie act Monzano has announced that their 2nd album is done and confirmed for a February 8 release via . Hear a sample cut at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/monzano
As promised, the new Hiawata single "Valley boys" is now available as a free download along with b-side covers by Harrys Gym/I Was a King, Monzano, Dylan Mondegreen, My Little Pony and more. Get it right here: http://sellout-music.net/hiawata-valley_boys.zip
