Now that Gibbard’s out of the picture…

This is far too adorable for words. Just look at those dimples! Gah.
I’m not really into She & Him, but this… I can’t say no, and I can’t turn away.

 

A new demo from The xx? Yes, please.

One for the wind and rain:

I was afraid they’d lose the sparse simplicity of their debut album with the follow-up, but it sounds like it will be just fine. Looking forward to hearing more.

Swedish artist alert

By this point, you may have figured out that I have a bit of an obsession with interest in Scandinavian music. Sure, the easy explanation would be that I spent a few months living in Denmark, but there’s no denying that there are some fantastic things going on over there. Maybe it’s all those cold, dark months. Who knows.

One of my biggest regrets at SXSW a few weeks ago was not seeing the Swedish band Fredrik. (They opened for the equally delightful Norwegian artist Silje Nes – double swoon.)

But luckily for me (and really, for everyone), you can stream the entirety of their upcoming album, Flora, which officially comes out April 12th. The video they made is pretty sweet – it follows Yiva the wolf around Fredrik’s hometown of Malmö (I’ve actually been there!).

Check it out. Seriously.

She’s not stopping.

The new tUnE-yArDs video for “Bizness” is pretty sweet – so sweet that on youtube, it currently has 100 likes and 0 dislikes. No haters.

 

And if someone ever breaks my heart, I still hope it is you.

Some sun from Sweden on a rainy, snowy day. Warning: this is some super twee stuff.

This video brought to you by the lovely people over at The Swede Beat. Check them out if you haven’t already!

This year’s Garden State?

I’ve seen the trailer for this movie a few times now, and each time, I seriously get the shivers when the Ida Maria song comes in at the end. I’m not even sure if I want to see it – the trailer is kind of too perfect (and I’m sure people will be quick to say it’s this year’s Garden State/Juno/(500) Days of Summer), but man. What good use of a song. [Apparently, The Virginity Hit also decided it was fitting.]

Check out the soundtrack for It’s Kind of a Funny Story here. I’m impressed that they got “Blood” by The Middle East. Love.

You can’t stop these kids from dancin’

OK Go’s video for “This Too Shall Pass” is pretty spectacular. Colorful, melodic chaos. 1:23 in particular rules. Check it.

Coming around to She & Him

Though I readily admit I have a bit of a crush on Zooey Deschanel, I didn’t really take to her foray into music with M. Ward in 2008. Her voice simply didn’t sound strong enough to pull off the sound she seemed to be going for. I was also never really a big M. Ward fan (his music was always a bit too dull for me), but I decided to head over to WNYC today to watch She & Him perform a few songs live in the studio. I came with an open mind, and let me just say that I was pleasantly surprised… not bowled over, but certainly not turned off either.

As the song title suggests, the video of their single “In the Sun” is summer-y and light… kind of the equivalent of a beach read. Sure, Zooey Deschanel is no Laura Marling, but we can’t all be Dostoevsky or Günter Grass either, can we?

So she’s no exactly loquacious (just take a listen to the interview from today’s episode of Soundcheck), but her singing voice was stronger than I thought it would be in a live setting. Oh yeah, and her defense of the grammatical integrity and complexity of their band name is pretty funny.

She & Him on Soundcheck

My big regret is that I didn’t get to ride on the elevator with Zooey. When I was walking out of the studio, for a second she was following me, and I thought we could maybe have a moment. It’s probably for the best though. I don’t think I could have resisted the urge to ask her if she liked the Smiths.

She & Him’s second album, Volume Two, came out last week on Merge.

Surrender to summers

I’m so used to hearing Sigur Rós vocalist Jónsi Birgisson sing in Icelandic that I didn’t even initially realize that this song is actually in English.

Take a listen to Jónsi’s new single “Go Do” from the upcoming album Go. The video is a bit weird, but there’s no denying that it is pretty.

Oh, the colors!

The days of watching music videos on TV may be long gone, but a well-made video still has the power to reach out and help expose music to a new set of ears… and eyes.

Take “Open Your Heart” by Mia Doi Todd:

It’s very possible that I would have never heard a Mia Doi Todd song in its entirety, but when I read about it and saw that it was directed by Michel Gondry, I knew I wanted to watch it. I love the playfulness of Gondry and the fact that he often relies on people and hand-made crafts instead of CGI.