New Hidden Cameras

The Hidden Cameras return! First, at the end of next week, there'll be the In The NA EP, and the new album Origin:Orphan is set for a September 22 release, both on Arts&Crafts.

Listening to the new song posted below (Walk on), a heavily orchestrated and dark piece of music, it would seem that the Cameras take on a new direction. They call the album their "...most spirited sounding record to date."

I can't help but hope there'll be still plenty of good old uptempo tunes as well, because an album full with this sound would give the happiest man a nasty headache. It's not bad, just damn depressing.

The Hidden Cameras website
The Hidden Cameras myspace
Arts&Crafts

Download (Mediafire)
1. The Hidden Cameras - Walk on

Eux Autres: You're alight 7"

One release I was really excited about finding in my mailbox after coming home from the USA was this, the new Eux Autres single. It'd be my first time to to hear the band with added members Yoshi Nakamoto (The Aislers Set, Still Flyin') on drums and Nevada on keys. After two addictive albums, my expectations were quite high.

And is it good to hear these New Autres! Both songs are lovely. Only 250 copies were available, and that was a little while ago, so be quick to order this pretty see-through 7" at Bon Mots Records if you want to get your hands on one.

For more info on the band read my interview with Heather from last year.

About a boy

Our Sam is exactly one week old today.
He sleeps, he eats and he poops;
he's fantastic.

My time here in the USA is hectic to say the least. I'll take time for the post that he deserves once I get home and got some rest.

To love someone so much that you've only met one week ago, isn't that crazy?

Download (right click, save as)
1. Moofish Catfish - Are you a boy?

It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)

There's absolutely nothing extraordinary about today. The weather is a bit grey. Work is busy as usual. Still, there are only a couple of days like this one in your life.

I woke up this morning, alone, in my bed in our new house. I had breakfast and coffee, alone, and checked my e-mail. I tripped over my suitcase on my way to the bathroom, got ready and hopped on my bike to work. A morning like every morning for most of the past few years. What's different about today is purely in my knowledge that I will never again have a morning like this in my life.

Tonight I'm on my way, suitcase in hand. I'll have an early flight tomorrow morning, destination New York City. Destination fatherhood. In a couple of weeks time, when I return to the Netherlands, this house will be a home for me, my girlfriend, our son, and a dog. Nervous? Me? But it's all good, of course.

Wish me luck.

Download (Mediafire)
1. Parker Lewis - The only loving boy in New York
2. Let's Whisper - All happy endings
3. Frank Wilson - Do I love you (Indeed I do)
4. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - 103

Undercover poplover, part 14

"Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
Travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something"

Download (Mediafire)
1. Yo La Tengo - Sweet Dreams (Are made of this)
2. Evan Dando - How will I know?
3. BMX Bandits - Edelweiss

Liechtenstein: Survival strategies in a modern world

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart? Northern Portrait? Yes, I'm excited about those debut albums this year. But nothing beats my excitement for this: Liechtenstein's Survival strategies in a modern world.

The CD will be out at Fraction Discs at the end of this month. To make things even better, the album will also be released as a 10", together with Slumberland Records. All 9 songs are brand new and previously unreleased. You can download Roses in the park below, but don't forget to listen to All at once, the album's opener, on the band's myspace.

New to Liechtenstein? Read my interview with the band here.

Liechtenstein website
Liechtenstein myspace
Fraction Discs
Slumberland Records

Download (Right click, save as)
1. Liechtenstein - Roses in the park

Interview: Cheap Red

Three weeks ago I first wrote about this great new band Cheap Red. Of course everyone knew quite a bit about Boyracer, and to most Kanda was also not unknown. The information on Cheap Red itself was quite limited though. I decided to find out more, and who'd be a better source of information than Stewart Anderson himself?

Hello Stewart! First, to get it out of the way: on your myspace it says Cheap Red is Akina and Arland formerly from Kanda and Stewart and Jen formerly from Boyracer. Does this mean those bands have really completely stopped existing now? Is Cheap Red intended as a long-term project, or a one off thing?

Stewart: No, not a one off - we have a few shows planned. And we already recorded a new single. Boyracer is done though. It just got too frustrating to continue to release records I thought were the greatest I have ever made that no-one would ever hear. We don't have any distro for 555 recs as of 2003, and can't even sell 100 copies of anything at this point. I can't speak for Kanda, but I think they are done too.

Influences: Judas Priest and the Marine Girls. Ehm, really?

Stewart: Yes. Absolutely two of our favourite bands. We cover Breaking The Law as Cheap Red and have covered several Marine Girls songs as Boyracer.

Do you see Cheap Red also a bit as a mix of your previous bands, or did you try to aim for something completely different?

Stewart: It started with us recording 4 cover versions whilst Akina and Arland were visiting, with each of the 4 of us singing lead vocal on one track. We then quickly wrote and recorded another 8 or 9 songs in the following 2 days that became the full length. The intention was everyone gets to sing some, but musically there wasn't a fixed idea or direction as such. It just happened. Of course some of it will sound like our previous efforts but I think overall it's quite different due to the combination. Certainly gentler than Boyracer, but a bit grittier than Kanda.

Your debut cd will be a double, no less than 27 songs. The second disc will consist of 13 remixes. By whom? What can we expect to hear there?

Stewart: Well, I dont want to give too much away, but the remixes are pretty swell featuring: Bracken (Hood), Kid606, Sisterhood Of Convoluted Thinkers, DJ Downfall, Teamforest, The Declining Winter (Hood), James Earthenware, Patrick Vidro, Steward, King Prussia, Simpatico, Fingernail, and Jib Kidder.

Two married couples, how very rock & roll! Do you still feel punk, whatever that may mean? What does a day 'on the road' look like for you? Is cheap red wine involved at all?

Stewart: Well we don't tour anymore but I certainly still drink alot. We gave up touring in 2005 - we just lost too much money trying to do it, so we decided to have a baby instead. But we're still very punk. How more punk can you get running a record label that hasn't broken even on anything for 5 years? Well, actually, that isn't punk, just stupid... but I do believe in the DIY ethic and have firmly adhered to it over the years. I don't think we'll ever manage to tour as Cheap Red unless suddenly we become well known, but I don't think will happen, which I'm completely fine with. I've been releasing records since 1991 so I'm very realistic at this point. I'm very proud of the Cheap Red songs though. And we've been asked to do shows, so if the circumstance allows us we're up for it. Myself and Jen run a cattle ranch out here in the painted desert, so its hard to find time inbetween cattle works to make music.

Any chance you'll come over to play in Europe one day?

Stewart: If anyone wants to fly us over, sure.

Thanks Stewart! First the lucky people at the San Fransisco Popfest will have a chance to see Stewart & co play. If you're around, don't miss it.

Cheap Red myspace
555 Recordings

Download (Mediafire)
1. Cheap Red - Let's start a riot

Stop your sobbing

Work. I don't write about that often, do I? That's probably because it's so unimportant to me. Work to live, not live to work and all that, you know what I mean. I suppose that goes for most of us. But here I am, another Monday at work.

I don't mind the work itself so much. It's quite a bit below my level of eduction so it's often somewhat mind numbing, but I knew that when I accepted this job. I won't complain about that. But the people! There's not a lot more tiring than listening to people complaining, is there? So complaining about people complaining might be even worse. I apologize in advance. But.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARHHHHHHHHHHHHHG!
Shut up, shut up, shut up! Shut. Up.
Shut up? Please?
Shhhhh.

You know, I never say that. So that felt nice.
Actually, I've tried in the past - in a much more diplomatic way - but people do not necessarily like you better for it. Strange, I know.

Isn't it amazing what people can complain about? If you find the energy to complain about what so and so did on a Friday night, you must be among the luckiest persons on earth. If you can't stop nagging everyone about how a certain piece of clothing was not as good as you expected, you should go out and celebrate. You obviously don't have any real problems.

That's probably not true though, is it?
And that's what fascinates me.

Download (Mediafire)
1. How Many Beans Make Five - Learning to keep my mouth shut
2. The Housemartins - I bit my lip