Starlet - St Pauls & Betania (unmastered)

Labrador Records act Starlet have a new track streaming called "St Pauls & Betania": http://screamingswifts.tumblr.com/post/201044481/st-pauls-betania-by-starlet-unmastered-version

Starflower
Moment in the sun
Music Is My Girlfriend

First the bad news about this Finnish quartet -- they only have one song of which 10 variations appear on this record. The good news is that it's a really good song, so even though I keep checking to see if I've inadvertently repeated a number I just heard a few minutes ago, it's nonetheless a thoroughly enjoyable listen. Their sound is (to quote their website) "mellow and cheerful" pop reminiscent of Starlet that foregrounds singer Antti's mediocre yet appropriately earnest vocal delivery and bright guitars. I'll hope for more variety on their next record, but this marks a bright debut from a young band with a lot of promise.
- Nancy Baym

MP3: Starlet - Sunshine

Happy Friday! Got another summery mp3 post for you today courtesy of contributor Nancy Baym:

To follow up on my last music-for-dumping-your-partner-with-a-smile-on-your-face contribution from the Caesars', here's another song likening breaking up to sun bursting through the clouds. "Let the sunshine in/Let the sunshine through/A brighter tomorrow/Cuz I'm through with you," sing Malmö's late-great Starlet in their inimitable pretty ever so askew lazy yet lovely way. This song is from their 2002 album "When sun falls on my feet". Starlet are somewhere between jangle and twee, melancholy and soothing. Enjoy.

Starlet - Sunshine

Okay, I think things here are pretty much back on track. After further discussion with my webhost it appears that yes, they bungled the switching of a hard drive this past weekend and lost about 5 days worth of database data. Luckily, Google had it cached and I've been able to recover most of it exactly as it was before. I'm still a bit peeved at the situation, but there's not much I can do. Anyhow, I only have one day's worth of data to recover and that ain't bad. Also, anyone who signed up for the newsletter after Monday needs to do so again, too. So yeah, now let's get back to your regular programming...

Magnus was kind enough to send me some pics from KVLR's recent show with Logh at Scharinska Villan in Umeå this past Saturday. Check 'em out.

Hardcore Superstar has posted a bunch of pictures and video clips from their recent video shoot for the track "Honey Tongue".

Morten from A-ha is thinking of going into the bakery business. No really! Read this.

Thearkworld.com has posted yet another live video from the band's Stockholm show on April 30, this time it's "Joy Surrender".

Backdraft has recruited Greg from Raging Slab to be their new singer. The band plans to concentrate on songwriting this summer and will enter the studio sometime in July to record an new album for an October release.

Parasol/Hidden Agenda Records will release Club 8's latest record "Strangely Beautiful" on June 17 in the US. It's the band's fifth album overall, the third to see a domestic stateside release. In care you didn't know, Parasol are the people who introduced The Soundtrack of Our Lives to the States along with other acts such as Thirdimension, Ronderlin, Acid House Kings, Starlet, Mans Wieslander, Permer, Lasse Lindh, and Waltz For Debbie.

IndieWorkshop lauds the US release of "C'mon Let's Pretend" from the Sahara Hotnights. If you thought the 2nd album (the first one released in the US) was good, you ain't heard nuttin.

PopMatters reviews the new retrospective comp from Division of Laura Lee.

Pitchforkmedia.com gives the thumbs-up to Junior Senior.

Sparks of Seven has confirmed their summer tour schedule:

07/04 - Fjällbacka, Mega Wakeboard Contest
07/10 - Arvika, Arvikafestivalen
07/23 - Stockholm, Fritz Corner, Kulturhuset w/José González
08/01 - Hässleholm, Sommarfesten
08/02 - Lindesberg, Augustibuller
08/07-09 - Rasslebygd, Emmabodafestivalen

Check out the entire program for the Stockholm Jazz Festival right here.

SVT has published the summer schedule for the program "Allsång på Skansen":

06/24 - After Shave, Buddaboys, Per Gessle and Jerry Williams & The Boppers
07/01 - GES (Glennmark, Eriksson and Strömstedt), Sanne Salomonsen and Staffan Scheja
07/08 - Alcazar, Håkan Hellström, Kalle Moraeus/Bengan Jansson, Robyn and Tommy Körberg
07/15 - The Ark, Björn Skifs, Jill Johnson and Micke Nord
07/22 - Charlotte Nilsson, Jeerk, Ludvig Andersson, Per Myrberg and Style
07/29 - Barbro "Lill-Babs" Svensson, Black Noise, Fame, Jörgen Mörnbäck and Rigmor Gustavsson
08/05 - Benny Anderssons orkester & Helen Sjöholm, Carola, Lasse Berghagen and Robert Gustafsson

The Knife has given two songs to Robyn for the American edition of her album "Don't Stop The Music"? Read more. (from Musikjournalen, in Swedish)

Randy, Nasum, The Haunted, Raised Fist, The Pricks, The Liptones, Sparks of Seven, Bowser, Misconduct, Orange Crunch and Alice in Videoland have all been added to the Augustibuller lineup.