First Times – First Times 7″ EP

Whenever there’s a new Finnish power pop band/release, you can count me interested. I’ve heard good things about Helsinki-based First Times for a year or two and now there’s finally a debut release. Their self-titled seven inch EP came out in late july on Combat Rock Industry and I finally picked up my copy from the local 8raita record store. If your idea of power pop is something sugary and sweet (like Matthew Sweet for example), this might not be your slice of cheese cake. If you prefer to inhale your power pop with a fair share of rock’n’roll and punk rock (like Bomp! Records catalog for example), then you are in for a treat. This is damn good stuff for sure. You can listen to 2 out of the 4 songs below.

First Times at Bandcamp
First Times at Facebook

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Album of the Month: Greater Pacific – Incandescent

Time for new album of the month. I’m a bit early with this one, because Yer Bird will officially release this in the beginning of september. I just couldn’t resist, because I love everything about this one. Greater Pacific from Southern California are masters of laid-back americana and their debut full-length is amazingly beautiful. Even though it is very far-fetched to compare folk band to an indie pop band, Greater Pacific somehow reminds me of Trembling Blue Stars. Maybe Greater Pacific’s Kyle Kersten and Bobby Wratten from TBS are just both able to create same kind of little bit melancholic, but extremely comfortable atmosphere. If you need more pointless namedropping, Norfolk & Western’s masterpiece Dusk at Cold Parlours could be located around the same neighbourhood. Anyway, the thing that matters is that Incandescent is a magnificent record. Wonderful vocals, beautifully crafted and arranged songs and a pedal steel. Who could ask for more? This is certainly in my top 10 for 2012 and maybe even in top 3. This is the marvellous opening track And You All Remain With Me.

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Greater Pacific at Facebook

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Ochre Room release a new single. Album to follow in october

Ochre Room is a folk rock, americana group from Tampere, Finland and their debut full-length Evening Coming In is due to be released by Lumpeela Julkaisut in the early stages of october. The first single and outtake from the forthcoming album is entitled My Summer and it is now available on iTunes. A music video will follow shortly, but that’s another story and another good reason for a blog post about this band that I find very special.

Ochre Room Website

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New songs from Robin Pahlman

Robin Pahlman has featured here several times as a half of the country duo Carmen & The Devil. The other half is his wife Heli Pahlman and together they create beautiful old-fashioned country songs. Nowadays Robin & Heli are exploring the Austrian country & folk scene and Robin is also working on his upcoming solo debut in his home studio in Vienna. A few of his demos recently surfaced and it proves that the solo material is equally amazing. I can only hope that he finds a label that will release the solo debut, because this stuff is just too damn brilliant and captivating to be left unreleased. This one below is Miss Lonelyhearts. Hit that soundcloud link to find the songs Waves and Man Overboard, which are just as great.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/51870347″ iframe=”true” /]
 

Robin Pahlman at Soundcloud

Carmen & The Devil at Facebook

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