After their 2008 debut album Does You Inspire You, the Brooklyn-based duo (Caroline Polachek and Patrick Wimberly) with a penchant for fresh fruit & veg (see pic above – actually, I have no idea if they are healthy eaters, but by Jove, they look pretty fit, don’t they?) have further perfected the art of making crisply polished electro-pop. Similar to St. Vincent’s vocal dexterity and range, and synth-y electric guitar, Chairlift manage to be both elegantly uplifting and charmingly poppy at the same time.

Something album sampler:

Chairlift play @ Abart, ZH, Sunday 26.02.12. Tix here.

Something is out now on Columbia Records/Young Turks.

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• Album: Chairlift, Something (Young Turks) (independent.co.uk)
• Chairlift headlining Webster Hall (updated dates) (brooklynvegan.com)
• See Chairlift and Das Racist’s Awesome Beyonce Cover (spin.com)

Now they’ve released their second album The Lion’s Roar, featuring a maturing of their voices and sound. The second single, ‘Emmylou’, a tribute of sorts to the Gram Parsons, was filmed at Joshua Tree in the Calfornian desert where Parsons died 36 years ago:

Bonus: grab a free download of ‘The Lion’s Roar’:

First Aid Kit play @ Mascotte, ZH, Monday 20.02.12, supported by the magnificently-bearded Reza Dinally. Tix here.

First Aid Kit’s second album The Lion’s Roar is out now on Wichita Recordings, and is currently sitting right at the very top of the Swedish charts – go girls!

Related articles

• First Aid Kit – ‘Emmylou’ (informalflickthru.com)
• review | First Aid Kit :: The Lion’s Roar (darcydubh.wordpress.com)
• First Aid Kit (dickthespic.org)
• Song of the Day: First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar (kexp.org)
• Watch First Aid Kit’s Gorgeous ‘Emmylou’ Video (spin.com)

Last week I trekked out to Baden for the last three nights of the One Of A Million Festival, Baden 2012, wherein I had the very great pleasure of seeing a host of wonderfully surprising, exciting and new (to me, at least) musicians in an endearingly casual, unpretentious and relaxed atmosphere. And wow, that was three nights of some of the best music I’ve heard in a long time. I wanted it to go on forever.

Belgian band Isbells and American Radical Face (aka Ben Cooper + band) played on Thursday night at the Royal (the old Kino Royale, saved from the wrecking ball in 2010 by a public outcry), a lovely old Art Deco building full of nooks and crannies. Numerous people had picked Isbells as one of the highlights of the festival, and had had a few cursory listens to their self-titled debut album, but I wasn’t prepared for the sheer richness of their delicate, wistful acoustic folk melodies. Singer Gaëtan Vandewoude’s sparse arrangements and melancholy vocals carried an emotional weight that was subtly underscored by Chantal Acda’s lucid harmonies. They ended with a singalong that warmed up even the (usually reticent) Swiss crowd – the room was literally aglow with warm fuzzy feelings afterwards.

Radical Face was funny, talkative and all-out American friendly. On this, the last night of the tour, Cooper was playing in a chair because he’d injured his back the day before the tour started, and evidently relishing the prospect of going home to recuperate. Cooper’s morbid tales of murder, revenge, train hopping and family genealogy were masterful examples of lyrical storytelling, told with a melancholy, evocative air. Pretty wonderful stuff. Special mention must also be made of drummer Jack Ringca’s epic waxed moustache – a true star in its own right.

Check out more festival photos here.

Next up: Part 2 – Sóley, The Lonesome Southern Comfort Company, Tommigun and Lanterns on the Lake

Isbells’ eponymous debut album is out now on Zealrecords.

Radical Face’s new album Family Tree: The Roots is out now.

Stay tuned for the 2013 edition of the One Of A Million Festival Baden - don’t miss it!

Having weathered the sensationalism of the internet hype machine, and emerged blinking into the light of the sometime-normality of indie rock fame, the band have released their third album, Hysterical, after a five-year hiatus. A welcome return to form, Hysterical sees Alec Ounsworth and co. as self-assured and confidently idiosyncratic as ever, with some unexpectedly introspective and melancholy moments:

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah play @ Plaza, ZH, Friday 17.02.12. Tickets here.

Hysterical is out now on V2.

Related articles

• Upcoming gigs (highrotation.ch)
• Seattlest’s Chat With Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (seattlest.com)
• CONTEST – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah @ The Opera House – December 9, 2011 (chromewaves.net)

I’ve never seen Sigur Rós, but they’ve always been on my list of must-see bands. I saw Jonsi at Zurich Openair 2010 and he was just…dazzling (in a feathered, appliqued kind of way). So I’m thinking that the lovely little cobbled main square of the Wintherthur Old Town is a perfect place for my inaugural Sigur Rós experience.

I also saw Get Well Soon in 2010 at Zurich Openair (that festival, for all its faults, had an amazing line-up). Singer and multi-instrumentalist Konstantin Gropper’s beautifully atmospheric, semi-classical pieces (inspired by philosophers like Sartre and Seneca The Younger, no less) were instantly compelling, even though I was a Get Well Soon novice. Ever since then I’ve bene waiting for another chance to see him. Even better, Get Well Soon will release a new album shortly before the festival – I can’t wait to hear it.

Swiss prog rock band Leech complete the bill on the headline day, and will also have a shiny new album to present. Other confirmed acts for the festival include German indie pop/rock band Kettcar, who will headline the free programme of the festival – the free programme of the Winterthurer Musikfestwochen is usually great (last year Anna Calvi, The Hillbilly Moon Explosion and Iron & Wine played for free). Stay tuned for more announcements, because knowing the Musikfestwochen people, they’ve got something good hidden up their sleeves.

The 2012 summer festival season is shaping up to be very, very good…

Sigur Rós, Get Well Soon and Leech play @ Winterthurer Musikfestwochen 2012 (15 – 26th August 2012) on 25.08.12. Tickets here.

Kettcar headline the free programme of the festival, on 15.08.12. The remaining free acts will be announced later in the year.  

Related articles

• The xx and Sigur Rós to appear (guardian.co.uk)
• Sigur Rós announced they will be touring again in 2012 (blueskyandhardrock.wordpress.com)
• Sigur Ros – Inni (jimmyblake92.wordpress.com)

With charismatic lead singer Maja Ivarsson chanelling Blondie, Pat Benatar and Roxette’s Marie Fredriksson, The Sounds’ catchy dance-rock has seen them through a decade of success in both Sweden and abroad.

‘Dance With The Devil’:

(Now check out some of the behind-the-scenes action as they made the video in sub-zero temperatures in Sweden)

The Sounds play @ Abart, ZH, 14.02.12. Tickets here.

Something To Die For is out now on Arnioki Records/SideOneDummy/Warner Scandinavia

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Now, however, I’ve moved beyond Kenny, Dolly, Tammy and Patsy, and onto country realms with a slightly less hyperbolic bent. Son Volt and Will Oldham had a lot to do with it (in Will’s various incarnations as Palace Music, Palace Brothers, and Bonnie Prince Billy – I saw him play in Sydney, barefoot, randy and bearded, and utterly wonderful). The first album of The National drew me in precisely because of its booze-soaked, alt-country roots.

But it’s been a long time since I listened to much alt-country, having been distracted by glam rock, indie-whatever, and even *gasp* intelligent dance (read here for a list of awful genres). But when I was figuring out what I wanted to see at the One Of A Million Festival in Baden, I came across Lugano/Zurich band The Lonesome Southern Comfort Company:

…and I remembered how much I love that alt-country, indie-folk tradition. The poignancy of Boris’s viola and the timbre of John’s voice is an incredibly eloquent combination. Wonderful.  Needless to say, I can’t wait to see them live now.

The Lonesome Southern Comfort Company play @ One Of A Million Festival, Baden, Friday 10.02.12. Tickets here. 

Charles The Bold is out now on On The Camper Records.

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• One Of A Million Festival 2012 – Nils Frahm, Lanterns on the Lake, Isbells, The Black Atlantic + more (highrotation.ch)

Plus, I’m immensely cheered by the humble promo taglines: ‘Just one of a million festivals’, and ‘No stars. No hype. It’s music only. It’s only music.’ What a welcome relief from the excesses and bombastic hype of the summer festivals.

My top picks: Lanterns on the Lake, Nils Frahm, The Black Atlantic, Lambs & Wolves, The Legendary Lightness, and The Lonesome Southern Comfort Company.

One Of A Million Festival, Baden, 04-11 February 2012. See the full programme here. Festival passes and individual day passes here.

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• Piano man – Nils Frahm (highrotation.ch)
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And what’s a birthday without a party? Eclectic Finnish French duo The Dø will be playing on the night, and I’m sure they’ll be properly celebratory.

The Dø released their second album Both Ways, Open Jaws last year, the follow-up to 2008′s wildly diverse Open Mouth, a surprise chart topper in France. Sometime-actress and chanteuse Olivia Merilahti and film composer Dan Levy are whizzes at radically jumping genres, with styling and music ranging from Björk to blues to experimental jazz, rock, hip-hop and folk. I saw them last year at Komplex 457 where, if I recall correctly, their live set-up included a veritable kitchen sink of miscellaneous instrumentation (which might come in useful for birthday cake eating).

Watch ‘Too Insistent’, one of my favourite tracks from Both Ways, Open Jaws:

Here’s to another 8 years of brilliant live music from Mascotte. Thanks for all the good times!

The Dø play at Mascotte, ZH, on 12.02.12. Tix here.

Both Ways, Open Jaws is out now on Get Down!/Cinq 7/Wagram Music

Having survived their brush with teenage obsession (the band were featured on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack and got their fair share of ‘Team Edward‘ T-shirts appearing at gigs for a time), the trio have stayed true to their roots, with Sweet Sour bringing more of the band’s signature bass-heavy, moody rock, tempered with some tracks of almost folk-like sweetness and melody.

Live, Russell Marsden (guitar, vocals) does wonderful things with his Fender guitars and Matthew Hayward does a sterling job on drums, but I’d be remiss in my fanly duties if I didn’t make special mention of my girl crush, bass player/singer Emma Richardson, who is spectacularly at ease on stage, languidly playing bass and looking like the coolest girl you ever wanted to meet behind the bike shed at school, the kind of rock chick who wears her studded belt like she really means it.

So you know I’m really looking forward to the trio’s special pre-tour gig at Mascotte, ZH, Saturday 28.01.12. I’ll be there with belts on…

‘Bruises’, from Sweet Sour:

Band of Skulls play @ Mascotte, ZH, 28.01.12. Tickets here.

Sweet Sour is released in Europe on 20.02.12 on Electric Blues.

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