"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side. " -HST
Boat Club are living the dream. Playing shows on a boat on a beautiful German summer’s day. Sure there is this underlying, pretentious Mansard Roof video vibe going on with the coupling of boat and preppy attire, but its the sort of imagery that is difficult to feel vehement about. Its pure bliss, sunshine and good times.
Boat Club hail from Gothenburg, SE. Their debut EP, Caught The Breeze is available from the Luxury label site
From The Vault #1
Cigarettes and Coffee by Otis Redding
Sure it might be a little cliché to pick a song like Cigarettes and Coffee for the inaugural From The Vault but its hard to ignore the utter pure emotion evoked by Otis’ amazing, famously powerful vocals. Funnily enough, it’s a perfectly appropriate song for melancholic cigarettes and coffee at 3am. It’s pleading and frank. You can almost believe from this track alone, that Otis’ felt more in his tragically short life than most of us ever will.
(13 plays)I’ve always been a huge fan of The Take-Away Shows from La Blogotheque and I’d have to say this relatively recent effort is my favourite.
No matter how many times I watch this video, It never fails to amaze me. It’s aesthetic quality is astounding. The golden light dances across the scene while Kristian Matsson (The Tallest Man on Earth) delivers an amazingly tight impromptu performance on an ancient guitar. It is a great place to film such a performance and I am jealous that such an atmospheric, shambled store does not preside in my home city.
David by The Radio Dept.
The Radio Dept. hail from Lund, SE. They make a brand of dreamy shoegaze pop that leaves one feeling fulfilled and content. It’s often washed out, but always beautifully measured in the degree of reverb, a carefree, relaxed sound. I especially enjoy this song, and I will shamelessly admit to boppin’ along with a smile (that probably makes me look a little simple) as I walk the city streets with David delivered to my phones. It’s pure enjoyment and since when has that been such a bad thing.
David is the second single from The Radio Dept.’s upcoming third album, Clinging to a Scheme, due for release in September.
(13 plays)Blood by The Middle East
The Middle East are close to, if not the most exciting thing to come out of Australia in a long time. Debut EP, The Recordings of the Middle East, offers many beautiful layered melodies, poignant lyricism and a serenely expansive sound. Hailing from Townsville in Northern Queensland, The Middle East are certainly a band to watch in the next twelve months.
This song is called Blood. Its emotive themes of nostalgia are joyous yet heartbreaking, resulting in a brilliantly emphatic anthem that begins gently before building to a raucous finale.
(32 plays)Air France launched this website a couple of months ago. It’s a homage to their city, Göteburg, SE.
There are three parts:
1) A guide to the beautiful things in Göteburg.
2) A new song, GBG belongs to us, available to download free.
3) A teaser video of things to come.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are a band from New York City. They make terribly catchy songs about unrequited love and such. This is the video for Young Adult Friction, a witty ditty whose simple innocence resonates far beyond most who try to compartmentalise love into more complex boxes.
Air France - No Way Down EP 
As we walk along cobbled stones, the thick rain is illuminated by the soft glow of yellow streetlights. My vision is a little blurred from cheap beer and I smile at nothing in particular as I reach into my coat for my wallet. The pocket is empty. My wallet is gone. And I have just spent the last three hours with Joel and Henrik of Air France, walking the streets of Gothenburg drinking cans of Heineken, stopping by two seedy yet friendly bars, a 7-Eleven and a medieval hill fort. My credit cards, identification and hostel key card are gone. The smile from my rain-drenched face has too.
No Way Down is a beautifully atmospheric record. From beginning to end it exudes a wrap-you-up-in-blanket warmth and comfort, as it conjures images of somewhere you’d rather be. It’s undoubtedly a positively feeling record, but its fragility is its making. Like living in a beautiful dream-like state, ever knowing that it can only last so long. Collapsing at Your Doorstep, a worthy contender for the best song of last year, has the greatest use of dialogue samples since The Avalanches’ Since I Left You. Its Balearic pop at its finest and I strongly urge you to listen to this EP so you can self-righteously claim you loved Air France before they released their debut.
I lie in warmth on a mattress placed on the living room floor of Joel’s apartment where much of No Way Down was mixed and produced. My cards are cancelled, my phone is dead and my backpack is locked in a dorm room on the other side of the city. I have €9.53 to my name. Joel’s kitten bounces playfully around my blanket-covered feet and my saturated clothes dry on a radiator nearby. I close my eyes, inhale deeply and smile at nothing in particular.
Air France are an incredibly nice electronic pop duo from Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden. No Way Down is available now on itunes or import from good record stores. Air France are currently working on their debut album.
