MOVITS! The Best Swedish Hip Hop You've Never Heard

The boys from Luleå, Sweden have figured it out. If you make great music, and put on an engaging, high-energy live show, people will love it. Even if the type of music you're making has never really been done before. The two brothers, Johan (lead vocals, frontman) and Anders Rensfeldt (DJ, drums, guitar, vocals) are joined by their buddy Jocke Nilsson (saxophone, vocals) and the trio combines swing with hip hop so smoothly, it's as if they would be unnatural apart.

An exerpt from Wikipedia: On 27 July 2009, Movits! was featured on the American satirical news show The Colbert Report. The band was interviewed and performed their song "Fel del av gården". Colbert mentioned on his show on 30 July 2009, that the band's album Äppelknyckarjazz recently had gained significant popularity on Amazon.com and claimed that their appearance on his program was significantly responsible for their newfound popularity (referred to as "The Colbert Bump").

I shot this video last night. The sound quality isn't that great, but you can clearly see that they put on an incredibly entertaining show.

Download one of their more 'Rappy' songs here:

MOVITS! (feat Zacke) - Spela Mig Pa Radion

St. Vincent is Actually a Woman

Her album, Actor, came out late last year. "Marrow" blew my mind, and still does every time I listen to it. St. Vincent is the moniker under which Annie Clark (American singer-songriter, multi-instrumentalist) performs. She was a member of The Polyphonic Spree, that epic band with almost 25 members (practically an orchestra) and has now gone solo. Clark has opened shows for such acts as The National, Television, Arcade Fire, Briertone, Andrew Bird, Jolie Holland, John Vanderslice, Midlake, Tracy + the Plastics, Tuck & Patti, Xiu Xiu, Death Cab for Cutie, Cristina Donà and Grizzly Bear. She now lives in Brooklyn, along with every other hipster musician on Earth.

Her production is so ingenious and cinematic that I can't help but dig it, big time.

How 'bout this video? When the beat drops?!?! Whoa...

Here are some MP3's for your listening pleasure: (just follow the prompt to download)

St. Vincent - Paris Is Burning

St. Vincent - Black Rainbow

St. Vincent - Marrow

POLAND in Seattle

Poland is a Seattle band on Series Two Records. Mark Bombara - (Guitar), Mark Romanowski - (Guitar, Vocals), Shane Peck - (Drums), Janet Utterback-Peck - (Violin), Karen Halliburton - (Violin), Brianna Atwell - (Viola), Noah Wilson - (Bass).

I discovered them on a CD I picked up at a band showcase in Ballard. The CD featured 1-to-2 minute singles from 45 local bands, and Poland was perhaps my favorite of them all. Checking out their myspace page I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had an upcoming show, which happens to be tonight, at The Jewelbox Theater at Rendezvous in Belltown, 7pm.

One blogger wrote: "This Seattle artist is on the cusp of becoming a force in the local scene. Keep an eye out for Poland, Seattle – if you’re just hearing about them now, be assured that you’ll hear more in the near future. And it won’t necessarily be from me."



They were recently featured on BBC Radio 6's Music Podcast (being one of 12 bands selected from every weekend's shows to be on a podcast) available for download here: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9wb2RjYXN0cy9zZXJpZXMvdHJpbnRyby8= . The new Poland cd, "Please Interstellar Policeman" is now available at Apple Crumble records, JAPAN. Here is their website: http://www.apple-crumble.com/.

Try 'em out, I think you'll like what you hear:

Poland - Mundo Fine

Poland - Living With Victoria

Poland - Almost Metropolis

Local Natives

One of the best new bands I've heard in a LONG time, Local Natives delivers a classic sound, free of synthesizers, laptops and drum machines. Granted, that's the stuff I get really into... yet these guys leave me wanting more and more and more.


I caught them at the CMJ festival in New York in October, and their set solidified them as a force to be reckoned with in 2010.



Four singers flanked the stage, each manning his own instrument, with the drummer anchoring the rear. What ensued was a barrage of rich harmonies and catchy melodies that lingered in the air long after they left the stage.

Local Natives - Wolrd News

Local Natives - Airplanes

Local Natives - Sunhands (this was the track that first hooked me, big time)

Little Dragon (my first mp3 posting!)

I finally figured out how to post mp3's in my blog entries. It took a couple hours of several failed attempts. Now, you can just click the link and download the file once it opens. It's on!

So, for my first song, I'm sharing Little Dragon. I was lucky enough to catch this group a couple months ago at the Nectar Lounge (of all places). These guys are based in Sweden and Yukimi Nagano, the Swedish-Japanese singer/dancer/style-maven, knows how to keep the party going. Their musical styles are hard to label, but range from standard electronic to funk to indie.

Little Dragon - Runabout

Pomegranates - Accessible Indie Jams

On To The Next One

It could be the fact that I've 'come up' with Jigga since I first began listening to Hip Hop, but I just never get tired of him. His new stuff is better than most of the rap I'm hearing from younger guys, and he looks better than ever. 30's the new 20, most definitely.

Also, it's nice to see that Swizz Beatz can still drop tracks that are as edgy and fresh as when they first came out, albeit more polished.

Golden Silvers

Not the freshest news on Earth, but hey, they're still a great band worth checking out!

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/a-fairytale-beginning-for-golden-silvers-864753.html