Featured, International music, News

Barna Howard – Indiana Rose

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barnaquite

Lately I’ve been extremely excited about two albums. John Moreland’s High On Tulsa Heat and Quite a Feelin’ by Barna Howard. There might be a few more soon, because I bought the latest by Simon Joyner, Hayden and Ryley Walker yesterday during Record Store Day. I don’t really care much for those limited RSD releases myself and I prefer just buying good new full-lengths instead. I don’t have anything against those RSD releases and if and when they do help keeping the record stores alive, those are a damn good thing (luckily we still have a really great store here in Turku called 8raita).

Barna Howard from Portland, Oregon is one of my favorite singer-songwriters. The debut was #2 on my albums of the year list and this new one Quite A Feelin’ has been one of my most anticipated releases of the year. Even though I had almost unfairly high expectations, it certainly seems like this manages to live up to them. Wonderful UK-based label Loose Music just recently signed Barna Howard and therefore the new album will also be released in Europe. The always great Mama Bird Recording Co will take care of the North American release once again. Quite A Feelin’ is out in late May and I try to make an Album of the Month post about it around the time of the release. Meanwhile you can listen to this excellent first single Indiana Rose.

Oh and Barna is currently on an European tour. Unfortunately not in Finland, but if you live in France or UK, check out the dates on his Facebook.

Barna Howard at Facebook

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Featured, Headline, International music, News

Small Houses (US) Finland Tour 17.4. – 25.4.2015 (with Ochre Room)

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Still-Talk-Small-Houses

Major news event on the One Chord To Another scale. Small Houses aka Jeremy Quentin will be touring in Finland very soon. This is his second Finland tour. Last time Jeremy played here in 2013 and I loved the Turku concerts that I saw back then. Therefore it’s easy to say that these concerts are going to be fabulous and well worth attending. There was some talk of an Helsinki concert, but perhaps that didn’t work out, because it’s not on the schedule. So if you want to book a marvellous singer-songwriter to play in Helsinki or somewhere else in Finland between 18th and 23rd of April that actually might be possible. Just like last time, one of Finland’s finest bands Ochre Room will share the stage with Small Houses on these Finland dates.

Small Houses also have a great new album out called Still Talk; Second City, which has been sitting on that album of the month spot in the right column for couple of months now. Partly because I’ve been too lazy, busy, ill to change it and partly because it’s so damn good that it could just as well stay there for the rest of the year. Here are couple of tunes from the new album. Seventeen In Roselore and Staggers and Rise.

And here’s the whole euro tour schedule as it currently stands on the FB event. I’m not sure are additions possible, so better follow Small Houses at Facebook to make sure you don’t miss anything.

April 17 – Bar Kuka – Turku, Finland
April 18 – 8raita – Turku, Finland
April 24 – Hometown – Salo, Finland
April 25 – Herwood – Tampere, Finland

April 29 – Landet – Stockholm, Sweden
May 2 – Holy Moly – Gothenberg, Sweden
May 5 – freundlich+kompetent Bar – Hamburg, Germany
May 6 – TBA – Berlin, Germany
May 7 – House Concert – Nuremberg, Germany
May 9 – Hauskonzerte.com – Munich, Germany
May 13 – Die Schneiderei – Zuerich, Switzerland
May 14 – House Concert – Zuerich, Switzerland
May 18 – Monotonag – Winterthur, Switzerland
May 20 – House Concert – Utrecht, Netherlands
May 21 – Radio – Rotterdam, Netherlands
May 22 – PX – Volendam, Netherlands
May 23 – Wishful Music – Groningen, Netherlands
May 24 – InDeBuurt – Zwolle, Switzerland
May 25 – Prive HKC – Klazienaveen, Netherlands
May 28 – Karton – Bremen, Germany
May 29 – Hasenschaukel – Hamburg, Germany
May 30 – Songwriters@Heart – Copenhagen, Denmark
June 4 – The Green Note – London, England

Small Houses Website

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Featured, International music, News

Ryan Allen and His Extra Arms – Heart String Soul & Taylor Knox – Lines EP

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ryannall

Getting back to the basics. Which means getting back to power pop or melodic pop music in general. No matter how far in the country zone I have traveled, this will always be the foundation of my music taste.

First we have Ryan Allen and His Extra Arms and their new album Heart String Soul. I’ve had this one on my playlist for several weeks and I’ve been enjoying it a whole lot. Heart String Soul is such a damn fine rockin’ pop record. Unlike some others, Ryan hasn’t forgotten that there’s a word “power” in the name of the genre. I also love the fact that the album keeps on reminding me of all those fairly unknown, but magnificent pop bands that I found from the Not Lame catalogs. It makes me want to pick up those records and keep on spinning them for the first time in several years. However, first I’ll play this new Ryan Allen and His Extra Arms album as loud as the neighbors can tolerate. This is the album opener Should Be Me.

Ryan Allen & His Extra Arms Website

taylorknox

I’ve been following Canadian Taylor Knox for a few years and I’ve been waiting for a full-length album. Unfortunately I still don’t get that full-length, but he will release a new Lines EP later in March. Taylor Knox has played with a lot of great Canadian bands/artists like Sloan and Hayden. Mostly drums if I’m not mistaken. It would be a good time to step up front and sing his own tunes. I think this guy has a lot of talent and does that Sloan-ish melodic power pop rather perfectly. I’ve pretty much loved everything I’ve heard so far. I haven’t heard the EP yet (unless the songs are the same he has released by himself before, I know some are at least), but I’m fairly confident that it’s going to a really good one. This is a live video of I See Lines from the forthcoming release out 31st of March on Maple Music Recordings.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoRmKIuPtlw]

Taylor Knox Website

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Featured, Finnish music, International music, News

Simon Joyner, A Grave With No Name & The Rollstons

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simonjoyners

This is a quick post of three songs I fell in love with today.

Simon Joyner – Nostalgia Blues

First we have singer-songwriter Simon Joyner and his song Nostalgia Blues from his forthcoming album Grass, Branch & Bone (out 31st of March). I pretty much forgot to breath while listening to this work of art. The big question is why the hell I haven’t I been paying attention to Simon Joyner for years? I think the last one I bought is Hotel Lives, but that beautiful thing came out ages ago. Somehow I just lost track of him. I have some catching up to do, if he has been this amazing throughout the years. This is the awesome Nostalgia Blues.

Simon Joyner Website

A Grave With No Name – Onion

A Grave With No Name is something completely new to me, but I instantly fell in love with his music when I somehow saw his label’s tweet and went to listen to his songs. He is about to release his fourth album (so yeah, I’m really late to this party) in May. It will be produced by Mark Nevers and called Feathers Wet, Under the Moon. There’s a couple of songs out there already and both are absolutely gorgeous. My favourite one is Orion mostly because it does remind me a lot of one of my all-time favourite bands Sparklehorse. I’m very eager to hear the whole album in the spring. This is Orion by A Grave With No Name.

A Grave With No Name at Facebook

The Rollstons – A Silent Film

And last but not least. The Rollstons just posted a new song from their forthcoming album. A Silent Film is another future classic and I still love listening to the blissfully twisted pop music of The Rollstons. They are even playing a concert here in Turku (at Bar Kuka) next friday and I’m obviously extremely excited about that. The only downside is that I probably have 4am wake up on Friday morning and therefore I might be a bit sleepy when the evening comes. However, I’m fairly confident that The Rollstons can kick me awake with their live concert. This is The Rollstons and their new song A Silent Film.

The Rollstons at Facebook

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