I’m From Barcelona is a disgustingly cute 30-person pop band from Sweden. Although I don’t really understand what all these people do, it sure makes for an awesome pop album. Since Columbus has been super sunny lately and all the snow is melting, I’ve been listening to this album a ton. It’s been making every day much better for me. I went kinda crazy today, and this album seriously made me feel much better. I highly suggest getting it and then singing along to it with all your friends. There’s absolutely no deep, introspective lyrics here, just Swedish pop fun!

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–McKenna

After dropping two phenomenal albums in 2008, Wales indie pop ensemble Los Campeinos! spent the first half of 2009 playing shows in the U.S. and recording their third full length with John Goodmanson. Guest appearances are made by Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu and Zach Pennington of Parenthetical Girls. The latter half of the year saw them playing at some incredible festivals, most notably their appearance at Lollapalooza to a large crowd of sweaty, but generally cheery and upbeat fans. After some minor some line-up changes, Los Campesinos! made it to the end of the year, just in time for their new album to leak a month early. I feel bad for bands like LC! and Yeasayer, but at the same time, it’s a great and unexpected non-denominational holiday gift.

Here’s a haiku I wrote for the occasion:

MPP deja vu

Where did you go 2k9?

Internet Christmas.

This album is scheduled to be released on January 26, 2010.

Myspace

Pre-order/Buy

- James

Second LP from Nana Grizol, and my favourite. To be released in January 2010 on Oranage Twin Records.

There is definitely something in the water in Athens, and it would seem their front man Theo Hilton has fallen in the well. Boasting past members of Neutral Milk Hotel you know this is not going to suck.

Some songs sound remotely like James Mercer singing over a Bright Eyes Lifted or The Story tune, and I would even say the lyrics are not too dissimilar from a Oberst scrapbook, but don’t let that put you off…it did me for a few weeks and I wholeheartedly regret it.

Myspace

You can pre order the new LP here

- Lewis

So, I have received a unanimous, permanent ban from posting Get Up Kids album for the next while, so here’s something different. Seeing the Faux Pas album Max posted a few days ago got me to thinking about this band, Eux Autres. I’ve had their album for a while, and used to listen to it quite regularly, but it kind of fell on the wayside, unfortunately. I’m not really sure how that happened, because this album is actually quite good. 1/3 indie pop, 1/3 being French, and 1/3 handclaps, Hell is Eux Autres is definitely a fun, catchy band. Even though the brother/sister duo is based out of Oregon, a fair amount of the songs are either sung entirely in French or partly in French. The siblings switch vocal duties multiple times over the course of a song, all while keeping the drum beats and guitar riffs tight. The handclaps are also spread everywhere around the album without being overbearing or annoying. Basically, this is a solid indie pop/modern twee album that is definitely worth checking out if you’re into that type of stuff.

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-McKenna

When The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart released their self titled debut album in February, it took the internet by storm. In fact, it’s still hard to find a blog that isn’t writing about the Shoegaze band from New York City. Not to be outdone, the band are set to release this EP on September 22nd. There is definitely a more electronic feel to the sound, which isn’t a surprise to anyone privy to their side project The Depreciation Guild. I’ve been looking forward to this EP ever since first hearing the songs live at Pitchfork Music Festival this summer.

This EP is set to be released on September 22, 2009.

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- James

Well, this has been a great year for anticipated albums. After Animal Collective’s outstanding Merriweather Post Pavilion, this album from the Modern Electric was what I was most looking forward to. Becoming a sort of Chinese Democracy of the local-artist crowd, The Modern Electric had been working on it for about 3 years. Hailing from wonderful Willoughby, Ohio, I was first exposed to the group during their days as Dr. Salt and the Brown Sugar Blues Band, where they played organ-heavy blues-y carnival romps, with songs titled “Electric Grease Boogie”. Everyone I know from the area is crazy about this band, who have since adopted what they call “cinematic pop”, and their love is much deserved. Drawing influence from acts such as David Bowie (subject of one of the album’s best songs “David Bowie (Save Us All)”), the Arcade Fire and Spoon, these four young men (barely out of high school) create passionate indie pop reminiscent of vintage blazers, antique lamps, tinkling pianos, the warmth of a small fire and grainy 8mm film. Sporadically playing shows, anytime one can catch the band live, they are in for a treat. Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to see the band twice in the CD-release weekend celebration. Friday night, they performed an outstanding set in a roller rink, while Sunday evening found them rocking the Beachland Tavern. It might only be May, but I can assure you that this album from the piano-led group will rank highly on my end-of-the-year favorites list. They are easily one of my three favorite Cleveland bands, especially one that deserves more love. This is easily the most excited I’ve been about posting an album here and to put it bluntly, if you have ever enjoyed anything posted here, DOWNLOAD THIS ALBUM, its worth it.

*Note: this is not the official album artwork

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-Max

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT. While reading about Beat Happening on Wikipedia earlier today, I read a brief mention of a live split, released with The Vaselines on cassette, but since everything on Wikipedia is “made up”, I figured I would search for it. Upon finding the link (via Vombie Zomit Blog), my day was made. Over the last 6 months or so, both Beat Happening and The Vaselines have become two of my favorite bands, so seeing these two pioneers of twee together on the same release was like Christmas. For those who aren’t familiar, Beat Happening is an Olympia, WA based twee band, fronted by Calvin Johnson, the man behind pretty much any music coming out of the northwestern US in the late 80s-mid 90s. Founder of K Records, Calvin Johnson has also been connected to Modest Mouse, Built To Spill, Beck and Tiger Trap. The Vaselines are a Scottish twee band who, much like the Velvet Underground, didn’t record much material during their time, but everyone who heard it went on to form a band. In fact, there are so few recordings of The Vaselines, all 19 of their songs were released on one compliation. Say what you will about Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, but he had incredible taste in music as these were 2 of his favorite bands. I highly recommend this incredible artifact for fans of either band, or anyone who enjoys fucking awesome music. This seriously made my day. And today was already a great day.

Beat Happening MySpace

The Vaselines MySpace

-Max