Review: Cats On Fire – Dealing in Antiques

Cats on Fire doesn’t seem to know fair play. Here they are releasing a compilation full of early tracks, rarities & b-sides and still manages to come up with such a stunning collection that most indie pop bands would struggle to make a career spanning best of album that could reach the same level of excellence. It’s lovely to notice that songs like My Friend in a Comfortable Chair haven’t lost their charm during the years and still sound amazing today. Than there’s of course Higher Grounds and The Smell Of An Artist from The Seelonce Mayday demo. Real classics and should be among the first choices if someone starts compiling hall of fame for indie pop songs. Melodically superb and lyrically aware pop songs I wrote back in the day and I can still agree with my past self. A new treat on the album is a wonderful White Town cover Your Woman. I can admit that they weren’t making perfect pop music right from the beginning (by the time of the second single they probably were) and there are some only good songs here as well. Nevertheless, I think the biggest reason not to give this full amount of hearts is the fact that they’ve gotten even better during the years and are nowadays pretty much the best finnish band and (one of) the best indie pop band(s) in general. So if these were already worth five hearts, what are they doing right now. Something pretty spectacular I would say.

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Listen to Your Woman:
[audio:http://www.onechord.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/cats_on_fire-your_woman.mp3]

Cats on Fire Website
Cats on Fire at myspace

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News: Jukka Ässä

Here’s some finnish tapes I’ve been meaning to mention for a while. Jukka Ässä is Jukka Salminen (aka Tapes) with some usual suspects from Tigerbombs and The Rollstons camps as his sidekicks and band compatriots. Sounds pretty damn good. This is a live video from thee garden. Check out some studio material on his myspace.

 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocUvYdLzxr4&w=480]

Jukka Ässä at myspace

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News: Viola

I don’t remember to mention Viola’s new song every month, but this time I do. Like you know, Viola stopped making physical releases in early 2009 and instead they give away one new song for free each and every month. Track for august is a great Red Carpet cover Traitor On The Inside. You might want to check out the earlier ones as well. Especially Heart Breaks Into a Song. That’s my 2010 Viola favourite.

Viola Music Club Website

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