Continuing with these vacation crafts with another small round up posts of songs and albums that I love. Tonight the journey begins from Canada with the new Shotgun Jimmie album Transistor Sister 2 that was released by You’ve Changed Records on the 2nd of August. This follows up the original Transistor Sister eight years later and it is another super catchy and immensely charming collection of short pop treasures. Here’s a making of video and one (should-be) hit from the new record. Buy/listen to whole album by hitting the bandcamp links on that player below.

Shotgun Jimmie Website

Next we travel south to Philadelphia, USA. Strength is the new album from Bad Heaven Ltd and it came out on the 2nd of August. I’m not very familiar with John Galm’s earlier work (I know I probably should know the band Snowing), but better late than never and all the other cliches. Therefore I arrived into the arms of Strength without any expectations, but I’ve found it to be a good place to stay. Darkness and hope travel hand in hand as does beauty and distortion. It all cuts me through me in a good way. Here are my early favorites Cross and 100 from the album. Again hit those links in the bandcamp player to hear/buy the whole great album.

Bad Heaven Ltd at Facebook

Moving across the ocean to Glasgow, Scotland albeit the band name Wojtek the Bear might suggest that this is a Polish indie pop band. I had not heard anything about them before I saw this new video/single A Long Wait for Bad News on my twitter feed while searching new songs for the weekly playlist. I started listening and was in love in a split second. Partly because it reminded of the legendary Finnish indie band Sister Flo, but mostly because it’s such a fantastic pop song. The digital single in question is now out on Scottish Fiction and will appear on physical 10″ vinyl later in the year.

Wojtek the Bear Website

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Final destination tonight is Manchester, UK and the new Butcher the Bar album III that came out 14th of June on the most excellent Spanish pop label Bobo Integral. This is a real pop bliss right here. Beautiful melodies and sweet pop jangle. A must for Teenage Fanclub fans, because that’s where the mind drifts several times and that’s obviously never a bad thing. Joel Nicholson and Co have done really well. Here’s a couple of personal favorites. Rosa and the music video for Haunts. And same as above, follow the links on the player for the whole experience.

Butcher the Bar at Facebook

Four Arms to Hold You is an ongoing feature with a weird name. It might not contain a whole lot of words, but it does contain a whole lot of love towards the featured songs. Basicly this is just four albums / songs / artists that have done their part in holding me together and therefore I want to tell the world or the seven readers of this blog how much I love them. Not entirely sure do these kind of posts serve any kind of purpose and I do hope I manage to write longer posts too. Right now it just feels like the playlists and these kind of short posts are the only way to keep this dear hobby alive. Plus it’s really the music that matters, not my random ramblings and these posts will always contain magical music.

Tonight this little round up begins from California with the sweet sounds of the new Little Wings album People. Physical copies have been out for a while, but it’s now out in the digital world too. I bought my download just a while ago and I’m listening to it for the first time while I write this. So I don’t have a clear picture of what are my favorite songs or so forth, but I already know that I’m going to love this record. Here’s Kyle Field and co and Cliff’s Face from the new Little Wings album.

Little Wings Website

Traveling on to Catskill Mountains to experience something quietly monumental and absolutely mesmerizing. The new Florist album Emily Alone came out on the 26th of July on Double Double Whammy and it’s a very special record. It’s dark and vulnerable, but somehow still so soothing and beautiful. It’s difficult to describe the walk I had with this album. It’s like we carried each other out from the dark and for that I’m grateful.

Florist Website

Continuing with huge recent favorites. Jordan Moser is a singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas and his album Long Night came out on the 26th of July on Keeled Scales (who are putting some real pressure on Mama Bird Recording Co in the imaginary best record label in the world battle. Just joking of course. There’s no battle. Just hugs and kisses. I love both dearly). Anyway, this is a tremendous album full of gorgeous literate country folk and sang beautifully by Jordan Moser with more than a little help from Molly Burch who features on every song. A pure bliss from first note to last.

Jordan Moser Website

And let’s wrap tonight’s little blog entry in Oxford, Mississippi with a song from an album that’s not out yet, but it’s definitely one I’m waiting eagerly. Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster’s (from Water Liars) new album Take Heart, Take Care will be released on the 30th of August by Big Legal Mess. The stunning title track has been out for a while. Check it out below and then join me in counting the days until the release. I’ll need some, because I’m horrible at math.

Justin Peter Kinkel-Schuster Website

Four Arms to Hold You is an ongoing feature with a weird name. It might not contain a whole lot of words, but it does contain a whole lot of love towards the featured songs. Basicly this is just four albums / songs / artists that have done their part in holding me together and therefore I want to tell the world or the seven readers of this blog how much I love them. Not entirely sure do these kind of posts serve any kind of purpose and I do hope I manage to write longer posts too. Right now it just feels like the playlists and these kind of short posts are the only way to keep this dear hobby alive. Plus it’s really the music that matters, not my random ramblings and these posts will always contain magical music.

Hey let’s do another of these round-up posts tonight, because I’m way behind. This one is a bit of a country video special.

We shall begin from Dallas, TX with some honky-tonkin rock’n’roll fun. Ottoman Turks is getting ready to release their self-titled debut album that will come out on 23rd of August on State Fair Records. A couple of singles are already out and available and both are excellent. I’ll pick the first one Glass Bottles for this little blog entry, because John Patrick Hughes made a lovely music video for the song. If you scored high marks on your country music exam, you might recognize Mr Joshua Ray Walker on lead guitar. If not, fill the hole in your education by listening to the awesome record Wish You Were Here he released early in the year. This band is still a whole another story though, so it’s time to raise glass bottles with Ottoman Turks.

Ottoman Turks Website

Staying in Texas, but moving to Austin and taking the substance abuse to a new level with the new Paul Cauthen single Cocaine Country Dancing. It’s an outtake from the forthcoming album Room 41 that is due out on the 6th of September on Lightning Rod Records. I’ll never do a hit of cocaine, but I sure can hit this crazy country groove with Paul Cauthen. There’s also another single and music video that you can check out here.

Paul Cauthen Website

Time to dust Texas off our boots, but cocaine is still hanging over our heads (at least on the song title). Brooklyn-based songwriter Ana Egge also has a new album shining in the horizon. The album titled Is it The Kiss will be released by Storysound Records on the 6th of September. Expectations are sky high, because both advance singles have been wonderful. Here’s the beautiful first single Cocaine Cowboys that came with a lovely music video and features Iris DeMent on harmonies and Buck Meek on guitar.

Ana Egge Website

Tonight this story ends in Stockholm, Sweden with the perfect closer of David Ritschard’s album Brobrännaren. Unlike the earlier entries, this record is already out and available. Brobrännaren came out on Rootsy Music on the 14th of June and it’s an extremely enjoyable collision between classic country music and nordic songwriting tradition. If Swedish language is not a dealbreaker, I highly recommend spending an afternoon (or well several) with this swedish honky tonk maestro. The album is a whole lot of fun and also very moving. Kanske kunna leva med mig själv (now there’s a perfect song title. I need a moment to collect myself after only reading it), Inte här (när jag är här) and this album closer Som en Hank Williams refräng are personal favorites. This video below is a must watch too. Fredrik Wågensand has done a brilliant job and I really love the style of the video. Plus my family had the same car (same color too) when I was a child so there’s some extra personal nostalgic vibes too.

David Ritschard Website

Four Arms to Hold You is an ongoing feature with a weird name. It might not contain a whole lot of words, but it does contain a whole lot of love towards the featured songs. Basicly this is just four albums / songs / artists that have done their part in holding me together and therefore I want to tell the world or the seven readers of this blog how much I love them. Not entirely sure do these kind of posts serve any kind of purpose and I do hope I manage to write longer posts too. Right now it just feels like the playlists and these kind of short posts are the only way to keep this dear hobby alive. Plus it’s really the music that matters, not my random ramblings and these posts will always contain magical music.