Jalankulkuämpäri cover Blondie

Finnish act Jalankulkuämpäri have posted their acoustic Suomi cover of Blondie's "Hanging on the telephone" on their blog: http://jalankulkuampari.blogspot.com/2010/02/roikkumaan-langoille-hanging-on_11.html

Oriel Joans album out, preview available

Oriel Joans (remember?) have just released their self-titled debut album and are streaming it in its entirety at their website: http://www.orieljoans.com/

Pintandwefall interview at Bloginity

Bloginity interviews Pintandwefall: http://www.bloginity.com/categories/daniel-haim/pintandwefall-exclusive-interview/11650/

New Magyar Posse album on the way?

Finnish postrock act Magyar Posse report that they are finally working on a new album and have posted a (very) rough demo tune at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/magyarposse

Fenriz' "Band of the Week" goes big

Many folks have abandoned myspace, but Fenriz of Darkthrone still uses it to highlight his favorite underground acts with his "Band of the Week" feature and now, after doing it continually for a long while, it's led to some bigger/better things besides just hipping many folks to lots of great music (myself included). First up, there will be a "Live Evil Fest" happening in Camden, UK in late October featuring a number of previous "Band of the Week" recipients including Obliteration and Sonic Ritual, two IAT favorites. Go here for more on that: http://www.myspace.com/liveevilfestival
Secondly, both Nocturno Culto and Fenriz will be co-editing the March issue of Terrorizer where they will be running features and interviews on many other bands they dig. Should be great for anyone into true underground metal + punk, so yeah, keep an eye out!

22-Pistepirkko - 3 rocks from the lake

There's a 22-Pistepirkko tour doc posted at Finnish mag site Rumba, complete with English subtitles: http://www.rumba.fi/katso-uusi-puolituntinen-22-pistepirkko-leffa-2998/

More, better Twitter integration

For the few of you out there who might be interested, I've added Twitter integration to label pages (see Adrian Recordings for example) and I've also updated it so I'm pulling profile pictures and am doing a better job at parsing links, including those @whoever tags and so on. Want more? Give me ideas, make requests. That goes for any/all site features -- I've got the content, now I'm looking for better ways to leverage it to suit your needs.

New Disco Ensemble single in late February

Finland's Disco Ensemble will release the new single "White flag for peace" on February 24, both on 7" vinyl and as a digital download. In addition to the a-side and a demo version of the same, the single will also include the track "Get some sleep".

2010 watchlist

One of the main reasons I created the site's new custom filter feature is to create lists, both for my own good but also for you, the reader's benefit. Instead of keeping my own private list of my most anticipated releases of 2010, along with tracking all the excellent albums I've already heard and rank highly, I've created a custom filter to do it for me: http://www.itsatrap.com/filter/2010-watchlist
Keep track of my favorites and follow what I say about them; create your own list and do the same!

Viola - Heart breaks into a song

A new month means a new song for free download from Viola and their latest is called "Heart breaks into a song": http://www.violamusicclub.com/

Lords of Metal interview Opium Warlords

The Lords of Metal webzine talks to Sami Albert Hynninnen of bizarro Finnish doom/black metal act Opium Warlords: http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showinterview.php?id=3091&lang=en
More new interviews here: http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/interviews.php?lang=en

New Kiki Pau album confirmed

Kiki Pau's new album "White mountain" is officially confirmed for release on March 3.

Desert Planet to celebrate 10 year anniversary in February

Finnish bitpop masters and "Reader's companion" alums Desert Planet will celebrate their 10th anniversary on February 19 with a huge multimedia website unveiling that includes a free album. I've been lucky enough to see an early preview and yes, it is awesome. Mark your calendars!

Sirius playlist week #5

Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:

01. TALK 1
02. The Goner - Within the hour
03. Moto Boy - The heart is a rebel
04. Detektivbyrån - Hemvägen
05. TALK 2
06. Valkyrien Allstars - Hvis jeg var deg
07. Tobias Hellkvist - Patience
08. Scarred By Beauty - We swim
09. [ingenting] - Tack
10. TALK 3
11. I'm From Barcelona/Daviel Lindlöf - Lower my head
12. Monazno - Yes we can't
13. Silver - The white logic
14. Eskatol - Siste dans
15. TALK 5
16. Murmansk - The surgical assistant
17. Dyno - Destroy! Destroy!
18. Folkvang - Folkvangs första
19. C.Aarmé - Angola (Princess version)
20. TALK 5
21. Abhinanda - Junior

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.

Starflower - You king (video)

Finnish act Starflower have a new video for the song "You king": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAB20zz-aDI