Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Normal Service Resumes

Right, everyone, quick - over to the quite wonderfully named Bricolage Fantasy*, where you can download one of the loveliest, shimmeriest, Finnish countrytronica songs ever, to wit, New Light Of Tomorrow by Husky Rescue.

The album remains highly recommended (not just for its splendid artwork), and I see they're even selling it in FOPP these days.

And this weekend I swear I am going to stop cheekily linking to other people's downloads and start posting up mp3s of my own, if only I could get my webspace working. Why is everything so difficult?


* Which is very similar to the name I would choose if I ever formed a band, viz. Formica Travesty.


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25 comments:

Anonymous said...

I await the first single from Fromica Travesty with eagerness!

rockmother said...

Mine's Electric Unicorn - we call ourselves Leccy Uni for short. I know. It's pathetic but we can't help it.

Anonymous said...

That is indeed a lovely, summery sound. I may need to buy the album now in order to boost my Finnish credentials, as the family Klein are headed Helsinki-wards on holiday in 11 days time (not that I'm counting!).
Actually, I have a sort of confession to make, regarding music. My friend's husband's taste in music is far, far less mainstream than my own generally is and, for sometime now, I've aspired to find music that we both liked. Have recently managed this thanks to a mutual liking for Arcade Fire (a little mainstream for him, admittedly!) whom I only went to see because James had mentioned them so often in his blog (I'm very easily swayed by celebrity opinion!) he's offered to make a compilation CD for me of other bands he thinks I might enjoy. Thanks to you I was able to at least, partially, keep my end up during a recent conversation by saying that I had indeed heard of Calexico and yes, I thought I would like to hear more of them.

So this is by way of a very (over)long thank-you for the service you provide for the musically unadventurous like me!

patroclus said...

Lorna/RM: Perhaps Formica Travesty could support Electric Unicorn at a legendary room-above-a-pub gig? Although it sounds like Electric Unicorn actually exists, whereas Formica Travesty undoubtedly never will.

Marsha: Ahhh, thanks! Glad to have been of service. I think that most of the songs I post links to are quite nice and listenable (apart from one or two notable exceptions); they just don't make it into the mainstream because they're on small record labels with tiny marketing budgets.

The great thing about the internet is that it gives people really easy access to music they wouldn't otherwise hear. Ahh, god bless the internet.

If you like that song (nobody could fail to like that song, surely?) you'll love the album, it's marvellous. Have a great time in Helsinki and do let me know how it was when you get back. I'm heading that way myself in September, so any tips for things to do and see would be much appreciated!

Billy said...

I have a friend who is half-Finnish and he once played me a tape of Finnish folk songs. One song I particuarly like and I asked him what the song was about. He translated the first few lines as "I was only 14 years old/ when I killed my parents with an axe/ now today I am free from prison / I have my knife back / and three more people are dead".

I was scared.

James Henry said...

Delighted to have introduced someone to the mighty Arcade Fire, Marsha.

My band will be called Bickland Water, after a nearby industrial estate.

Billy said...

Oooh and I forgot to mention my band are called Johnny Panic and the Pink Flamingoes, in tribute to Sylvia Plath and John Waters, who I left off my great americans list.

prolix said...

I hadn't considered it before but suddenly I am thinking my imaginary band should be called Ramshackle Motel, got room for an opening act on that Pub bill Patroclus?

patroclus said...

Now I'm thinking maybe a festival, Pro, so Bickland Water and Johnny Panic and the Pink Flamingoes can play too.

Ramshackle Motel sound very doomy Americana, marvellous. Whereas Formica Travesty is countryloungetronica, with gospel bits.

It's going to be great.

Anonymous said...

'Wink Murder' are available for bookings.


Think Radiohead but singing cheerful things about bunnies and how wonderful cheese is and such like.

Though the actual band I was going to be in (we got as far as "let us go to the pub to discuss this fine idea") was called Cinder Bank.

Dave said...

I don't have a band, but it seems I now manage a cricket team with a decidedly odd name.

BiB said...

I've only come up with a name for my never-to-be-opened café, where I would do no work but sit boozily at the counter and harangue the diners: Syktyvkar, a town in a Finno-Ugric part of Russia. I suppose it would be OK for my never-to-be-formed band too, though would be we be abbreviated to Syk? (Maybe we need to be Syktyvkar and the somethings. The samovars, maybe? Or the balalaikas?)

Right, got to go and download me some Finnish music. Värttinä do nice modern folky Finnish stuff, by the way.

rockmother said...

Now those sound like proper bands with cool names!

Patroclus - I like the sound of a mini festival - I can imagine seeing a sea of bemused faces from the stage - Finnish slasher folk meets countrylougetronicagospel meets 80's proglecdisco. Ha ha. Perhaps Robert Swipe could be the MC? OK enough of my wild imagination - back to work for me!

Spinsterella said...

A friend of mine used to have a punk band called 'I hate my wife'.

He was going through a not-very-amicable divorce at the time. I think it helped.

Betty said...

There's my imaginary, no-wave, Teenage Jesus And The Jerks inspired terrorist art middle aged wimmin collective, Low Breasts ... and my lovely choral group Three Hail Mary Jeveskys (rehearsals at St Jospeph's Church at six thirty tonight).

Sean McManus said...

My imaginery band used to be called Salvation Amy. Then, I discovered there really is a band using that name in the US. My imaginery band now spends more time wondering what to call itself than it does rehearsing. Which is just like quite a lot of real bands I've come into contact with.

Anonymous said...

I don't have an imaginary band, unfortunately, but I do contemplate writing a romantic novel borrowing the names of two of the Radio 4 continuity announcers. The hero will be the dashing, square-jawed Everton Fox (ex-Eton, naturally), and the villain will be the dastardly, opera cape-wearing, moustache-twirling Vaughan Savage ("Mwah, ha ha!"). No offence intended to the actual Everton Fox and Vaughan Savage, of course...

My Other Half has an embryonic autobiography with opening sentence, 'You see, Flanagan was always falling down holes', which has always tickled me.

Anonymous said...

My imaginary band is Bolshy Banshee a celtic feminist collective with a good line in ululating choruses and lots of hair.

patroclus said...

Cripes, I do some work for one afternoon, and when I come back there's twenty bands, three stages, a Finno-Ugric food stall and a foul-mouthed MC from Rothergavenny.

Ahhhh.

*settles into inflatable armchair, removes flowery wellies, sparks up Marlboro Light, beams contentedly at the world*

I could quite get to like these imaginary festivals.

Wyndham said...

I've often toyed with starting up a prog rock band called Soft Cargo. I'm not quite sure why because I've never liked prog rock. I think I'm just doing it so I can complain about my own taste in music along with everyone else.

Nice to hear Husky rescue finally. I shall check out the album when the long-gestating Fopp on Tottenham Court Road finally opens its doors.

cello said...

Mine is a hairy, tweedy jumper-wearing folk-rock band called Anal Fissures.

rockmother said...

Wynders: I agree Prog Rock is fairly appalling but has lots of mileage in the comedy stakes - more so than Spinal Tap - look at ELP antics for example. I've always wanted to write a prog rock comedy spoof. Just off to the Intuition tent to see Electric Gumbo and the Soft Eels. ;-))

James Henry said...

Oh cello.

Cello, cello, cello.

Anonymous said...

My friends and I once formed a christian rock band called "Love Jesus, Worship Satan"
we never wrote any songs though....

Anonymous said...

Oh and I was also in a band called "Wilson's Biscuits", not because of any particular like of biscuits you understand, mainly as having a band gave us an excuse to sit in the nice, warm music rooms at lunchtime when the weather was bad