First Aid Kit, “Emmylou” get it on The Lion’s Roar (2012) We first heard about First Aid Kit (didn’t we?) when the Swedish teenage sisters popped up on YouTube singing Fleet Foxes’s “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song” smack dab in the middle of the forest. Four years later, and we realize that these sisters still love [...]

DJ Shadow, “Scale It Back (feat. Little Dragon)” (2011) find it on The Less You Know, The Better Remember back in the 90s when the ubiquitous guest vocalist was Michael Stipe? Then, around 1999, Stipe passed on his mantle to Thom Yorke, who seems to have passed it on to Little Dragon. Seriously, this band [...]

Peter Bjorn & John, “Second Chance” find it on Gimme Some If Peter Bjorn & John’s about-to-be released album was really stripped down, we could all use the headline, “PB&J with the crust cut off”. We’d all feel terrible about it, of course, but there’s no way of getting around using it. This is (was?) [...]

Acid House Kings, “Under Water” (2011) find it on Music Sounds Better With You Hm. Yup. Mm hm. Well, now what you have here is 100% pure Swedish indiepop. “Sweet hook gold”, they used to call it. Well, sir…I tell you what: you don’t see the likes of this around much anymore. Look at the [...]

Lykke Li, “Jerome” (2011) find it on Wounded Rhymes I’m pretty open about being a shuffler and about choosing songs over albums. It’s my preferred way of listening. But I still almost always add music to my library by dropping in the full album, and lately, I’ve been making an effort to listen to the [...]

Little Dragon, “Stå Upp” (2011) Fine Tune Friday almost didn’t make it to the presses this week due to an ongoing ski vacation that’s taking up the time of the FTF authors. But a little après-ski down time, we can bring you this little gem from Swedes Little Dragon, no stranger to Fine Tune Friday. [...]

Sambassadeur, “Sandy Dunes” (2010) find it on European If you’re on last.fm, have a decent-sized library on there and have never listened to your Recommendations radio station, you’re seriously missing out. Nowhere on the web is there a better spot for finding new music you’ve never heard that takes into account both the type of [...]

The Tallest Man On Earth, “You’re Going Back” (2010)find it on The Wild Hunt It’s easy to pick at the Tallest Man On Earth. The Dylan comparisons are as apt as they are lazy, though he’s Dylan with Donovan lyrics. His voice is affected and a little grating and likely to put a lot of [...]