Existensminimum - OK Boys

What's up guys? Long time no post (funny, right?).
Yeah, so I've been real busy lately and haven't had the time to post anything, to be honest I haven't really felt like it either. But now I'm back, at least for this post. I just had to let you know about this awesome dude.

He's from the same country as me (Sweden), and he just makes amazing music. He seems to be pretty obscure (on last.fm at least, with less 3000 listeners).
OK Boys is his second album I believe and it was released last year. It's gotten lots of great reviews in Sweden, and I can really see why. His songs are melodic and catchy, yet complex and intricate. Like a mix between indie/dream pop and krautrock. And that's pretty much what it is. Lots of freaky synths, hard, driving rhythms, complex composition, psychedelic/progressive rock elements + melodic and upbeat catchiness of indie pop + a little bit of the ol' dream pop.
So that's why I thought krautpop would be an adequate name for this eclectic genre he plays.

This is the kind of album where every song is great. I love those kinds of albums.

I strongly recommend that you check this shit out, he deserves some more attention.
Premium super-awesome download below:

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If you wondered about the name, existensminimum is in Sweden, in layman's terms, the minimum amount of income a person should have to live a 'decent' life, so to speak.

Me - Lovebox

What's up people? Been a while since I posted anything; thought it was about time. I'm gonna try to post a little more often.

This album - Lovebox, by Me (not ME literally, the artist is called Me) - I found yesterday at one of my local record store's really cheap. They have this shelf where they put out all kinds of obscure, bad-selling albums really cheap, so you pretty often actually find quite a few gems.

And so yeah, I found this, bought it, got home, ripped it, and listened to it. I do not regret buying (partly because it was incredibly cheap for an entire album, a CD by the way, but mostly because it is GOOD).

Alright, so the album cover and the song titles kinda suggest that it should be a very gloomy, depressive album. But once you get listening to it, it's actually kind of upbeat and cheerful at times. I find that the man has a pretty nice and unique voice and the instrumentation (the actual music) is really nice too; kind of indie pop/folk with subtle influences from german folk music (which is not too surprising, considering he is from Germany).

I have some more stuff that's pretty underground/obscure in store for you - It's perfect for anyone looking to boost up their indie cred and brag about it to your hipster friends.

Oh and quality-wise, it will be some pretty premium shit, since I ripped it with EAC straight from the CD to 320 kbps mp3 (I'd do it in V0, but LAME is fucking with EAC, or vice versa, I don't know).

DAWNLAWD

Jenny Owen Youngs - Batten The Hatches

Why, hello everyone! Today I've got something completely different from what I posted yesterday, you know how I like to mix it up.
So, Jenny Owen Youngs is this young (unfunny pun intended) singer-songwriter I first heard when she was opening for Regina Spektor a few months back.
She's a lot better live, but her studio recordings are not by any means bad at all.
Later I found out that Jenny and Regina are in fact friends and that shows in her vocal style. At times it's so similar to Regina's that it's almost a bit scary. She's got the same jazzy, quirky kind of voice and a pretty big vocal range.
As for the rest of the music, the instrumentation, it's mostly her acoustic guitar that is the "center" of her music (besides her voice) with some additional instruments that vary from track to track.
Pretty, pretty, pretty good album, check it out.



Trivia: On the track "Voice On Tape", it's Regina Spektor talking on the voicemail message in the beginning.

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Regina Spektor - Far

Ah! Yes, yet another wonderful album from my all-time favorite artist, Regina Spektor.
Far is (in my incredibly biased, fanboy-opinion) an incredibly good album.
It's not nearly as good as her early work (pre-Begin To Hope), but it's still amazing.
The reason why it's not as good as her early work is that these new albums are over-produced.
She should just have stuck with her piano instead of incorporating cellos, drums and electronic elements into her music. She's gone from anti-folk to indie pop.
With that said, this is still one of my many favorite albums and Regina is still my favorite artist.

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Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

This is another "indie pop" masterpiece of 2009. Got a lot of hype, deserved most of it.
It's just insanely catchy and well-though out. Nice vocals, good instrumentation, just a great album really.
They're also a bit new weird america (and apparently quite experimental, according to all the indiefags over at last.fm), so they sound kinda like Grizzly Bear and other bands like that.
I'd write a bit more if I wasn't getting a bit tired of all this writing (I making all these AOTY posts today). Download it and fall in love.

FUGGEN WEBSHERIFF'D

(new megaupload is in the comment section below)

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

HOLY SHIT IT'S MOVING (the album cover). That was pretty much everyone's initial reaction to this album. It didn't really matter if the actual music was good or not; if the cover was some sort of awesome optical illusion, it was already AOTY.
No, but seriously this album is amazing but maybe not deserving of all the hype it got.
Animal Collective are one of time's most original and innovative artists (in my opinion) and they basically sound like a modern version of the Beach Boys mixed with a whole lot of neo-psychadelia.
This is not their greatest work, but it is damn good. But you've probably heard this already. Oh well.

THIS DOWNLOAD IS THE JAM OF A LIFETIME

Antony and the Johnsons - I Am A Bird Now

'Sup? As you may have noticed, I did not post anything yesterday, so I thought I'd post two albums today, starting with this one. So Antony and the Johnsons consist of this gay dude (you'd think his sexuality would be irrelevant, but this is not the case here as most of the lyrics have something to do with sexual confusion and violence) and the Johnsons(?). You've probably heard of these guys before, for a while they got lots of attention and suddenly all the bi-curious hipsters were sympathizing with him and loving his music. But it really is great, that's why I'm posting it now. So, the vocals are probably the most unique part; fragile, androgynous and just great.They might be hard to get used to at first, but eventually you'll love them. This is accompanied by beautiful piano, violins and other instruments that make it sound like chamber pop.
Very awesome album. Download it.

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Tegan and Sara - The Con

I saw Tegan and Sara live yesterday, so I really felt like posting one of their albums. Now, I don't which one of their albums I would call their best, but for me it stands between Sainthood and this one. The Con is an amazing album, it's a bit less poppy I guess, but it's still doesn't sound like their old stuff. Now, as I've said before: I love these girls and I adore everything they produce. So you may not like this as much as I do, but this is one awesome album. T&S are equally great live, if not better, but until you've bought tickets to one of their shows, listen to this album (and Sainthood and all their other stuff). Also, I should mention that I'm posting a second album by the guy who was T&S opening act, Astronautalis. Peace out!

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Karen O And The Kids - Where The Wild Things Are

Yeah, I have another album for y'all. This time it's an awesome soundtrack by Karen O (and "The Kids", but it's still basically just Karen O), the vocalist from The Yeah Yeah Yeah's. The soundtrack is for the movie "Where The Wild Things Are", if you haven't figured that out already. I haven't seen it yet, but hopefully it'll be as great as the soundtrack. If you're feeling like some nice, twee indie pop than you should give this a listen, for sure. Karen O's vocal performance on the soundtrack is splendid (obviously) and this is just great stuff. If you don't believe me, then well I don't see why, because I'm not the only one going nuts for it right now. Use the power of the internet to see for yourselves! And to download this ablum right now.

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Dananananaykroyd - Hey Everyone!

You feel like dancing? No? Well, you're going to very soon. This album is just awesome, and it makes you want to dance, but at the same time you want to sit down and just enjoy the music. Dananananaykroyd (yeah, I know) plays a genre called "fight pop". It may sound ridiculous, but once you start listening to it, it will suddenly make a lot more sense. If I were to define it I would say it's an perfect blend of really upbeat indie pop and (post-)hardcore. I guess it sounds kind of math poppy at times too, but mainly it sounds more indie pop influenced. So, yeah. Just fucking download it. You won't regret it, and after all we only live once, right?
DON'T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE ALBUM I POSTED EARLIER, GODDAMMIT!

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The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns

All right, today's album is an album that I actually listened to and loved about five or six months ago, but had almost forgot about it until today. It was released this summer, so I'd listened to a leak. Anyway, this is an absolutely fantastic album. Sounds a bit like a modernized Neutral Milk Hotel I guess you could say. I don't know what more to say than that it's simply brilliant from start to finish, the songs are catchy as hell with both male and female vocals and very well performed/produced. So, yeah, you should probably take some of your very valuable time and sit down and listen to this masterpiece. Also, these guys are from Canada (it just seems that almost all great music this decade has come from Canada).

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Tegan and Sara - Sainthood

Yay! It's the new Tegan and Sara album! Ok, I know this has been out for a while, and I should have posted it earlier, but I just haven't had time to listen to it. Now that I know how great it is I can post it. See? So if you're a huge Tegan and Sara fan (like me), YOU MUST GET THIS ALBUM. Seriously, it's amazing. The first time I listened to it I honestly didn't really like it that much but then it just got better and better with every listen. I just love these girls. They're great. You better get this album or I will be disappointed. But don't forget to check out the other album I posted earlier.

OH MY GOD! DOWNLOOOOAD

Cutting Pink With Knives - Populuxxe

Alright, fourth album. Don't forget to check out the other three great albums I've already posted! Cutting Pink With Knives is what people would call a "nintendocore" band I guess, but this isn't as gay. I would say that it's indie-/synthpop + cybergrind. Yes you heard me. I know it sounds crazy, and it is, but this is a pretty good album. Very catchy and nice melodies clash with the rawness and brutality of grindcore. This may not seem very great, but at least check it out. I think it's pretty cool. What've you got to lose?

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Best Friends Forever - Romance Conflict Adventure

You know, I was planning on posting something completely else today, but yesterday I gave this a listen not knowing what it was and found it to be amazingly good. It's twee as fuck too. So, basically it's really cute/awesome indie pop á la The Moldy Peaches, but with two chicks and one dude playing the bass, keyboard and drums instead. It's insanely catchy with great melodies and sort of anti-folkish lyrics, I strongly recommend this to any (indie) pop fan.

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Aloha - Sugar

Hey, back with the second album, I thought I'd try to post one (maybe even two albums) a day as a sort of routine. This time it's "Sugar" by Aloha, a great (actually I've only heard this one album, maybe the other ones suck?) "indie" rock/pop band. Anyway, all the songs are really catchy and well-written, so it's basically just a great album. Not much more to say. If you're fan of stuff like This Town Needs Guns, Joan Of Arc, Owen, etc. (they actually sound a bit like a mix of these guys) you should probably give it a listen.

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