Featured, Finnish music, Headline, News

NT’s White Trash

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Some great news. NT’s White Trash’s debut album Mourning Becomes Electric will be released on 18th of may by Stupido Records. What the hell is NT’s White Trash you might ask. Well I didn’t know either before I got the e-mail. It’s ex-Treeball & ex-Supermodel Nick Triani’s new group. The band also features other finnish indie heroes Janne Lehtinen, Heikki Tikka and Henrik Domingo. It’s pretty hard to make final conclusions about their sound based on one song so let’s steal Nick’s words from their soundcloud page:

“NT’s White Trash is loose and ragged by choice, and an opportunity to bridge the gap between my old band Supermodel’s lo-fi thrash and Treeball’s more considered pop. The album title refers to this new opportunity to turn things up!”

Listen to the first outtake The Whistle from the upcoming album below. Sounds great if you ask me.

04 Whistle by NT’s White Trash

NT’s White Trash Website
NT’s White Trash at facebook

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International music, Reviews

Review: Malcolm Holcombe – To Drink The Rain

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Malcolm Holcombe: To Drink The Rain (Music Road Records, 2011)

To Drink The Rain is Malcolm Holcombe’s eight album, but the first one that I’ve heard. Well better late than never (if we start to celebrate the cliche), because this is pretty amazing stuff. Some of the rawest country-blues of the record might slide out of pop fan’s comfort zone, but this is only an issue with a couple of the songs. On most parts, To Drink The Rain easily floats into the core of my heart and songs like Becky’s Blessed (Backporch Flowers) and One Man Singin’ also finds a place to stay there. Especially Becky’s Blessed is one of the best songs of the year so far. This man is definitely a hardcore troubadour and able to write extremely captivating country, folk & blues songs and the album is full of down-to-earth & rough beauty. Maybe the album is not stylewise my closest companion, but Malcolm sounds so convincing all the time that I just have to throw all the prejudices away and just listen to one man singing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYifln4Gyuc]

Malcolm Holcombe Website
To Drink The Rain at Spotify

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Featured, Finnish music, Headline

Review: Heartjet – Goodbye, Stan EP

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Heartjet: Goodbye, Stan EP (2010)

I’ve written about this finnish power pop duo a few times, but Heartjet deserves another push. After all, onechord.net exists because of bands like Heartjet. Nowadays there just aren’t too many bands around that are influenced by the greatest bands/artists ever like The Posies, Jason Falkner, Brendan Benson, Matthew Sweet and Nada Surf. Therefore when new one enters the picture and shows that they can also write great songs themselves, it is a huge deal here at the onechord headquarters.

Goodbye, Stan EP is only available as a digital download, but it’s definitely worth buying even for those old bastards like myself who still prefer those round thingies. Sure it’s not the greatest power pop release you’ll ever hear, but they are pretty damn good already. If you have any interest towards 90’s power pop scene etc, I’m sure you will enjoy this. The songs are great and the harmonies are beautiful. It ranges from The Posies-influenced rockin’ power pop towards almost folky alternative pop and everything sounds really good. My favourite is still the powerpoppin’ greatness of Do You Doubt It?. The influences clearly shine through, but who cares when the influences couldn’t be any better and the song is marvellous. Goodbye, Stan is a really good debut EP. I’m looking forward for more.

Heartjet at facebook
Heartjet at myspace

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International music, Reviews

Review: Daniel Romano – Sleep Beneath The Willow

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Daniel Romano: Sleep Beneath The Willow (You’ve Changed Records, 2011)

I got Daniel Romano’s new album Sleep Beneath The Willow through reviewshine, but it’s such a fabulous album that I really should buy a physical copy as well. Daniel Romano is a country singer-songwriter from Welland, ON, Canada and he has written a wonderful traditional country & folk album. Press release namedrops Glen Campbell and Lee Hazlewood, but it should have mentioned solo Gram Parsons as well, because some of the songs like Lost (For As Long As I Live) sounds a lot like Gram’s solo country balladry. While the focus seem to be on the 60’s and early 70’s influenced old-fashioned country songs, there’s definitely some variation. For example the opening track Time Forgot (To Change My Heart) throws some darker (and almost gothic) americana sounds into the picture.

This is really good stuff altogether and the greatest moments like Hard On You and Lost (For As Long As I Live) are just brilliant. Daniel should tour with another amazing troubadour Pete Molinari. They are both so wonderful at updating old country & folk sounds and making them sound as fresh and beautiful as they did back in the day. Plus they both have a fantastic song about a girl named Louise.

Listen to Time Forgot (To Change My Heart)
[audio:http://onechord.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/01-time-forgot-to-change-my-heart.mp3]

Daniel Romano at myspace

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