Days celebrated their very first US performance this last weekend at the NYC Popfest. The show was simply incredible. As a bonus, they were invited to do a live studio session and interview for Grey Skies at WNYU. Thanks Brian for setting that up. The entire session is available for download below. Enjoy!

Free Download

Burning Hearts debut the title track and video from their upcoming EP “Into The Wilderness”, out June 21 on Shelflife.

Preorder the EP now!

The Alaskan tundra and the wild bears
I am returning to that nightmare

Life and death are given a different meaning
in grizzly kingdom above the treeline where the permafrost’s growing deeper
I could never climb those mountains, I could never be
sleeping safely under the same stars as timothy
Into the wilderness away from the lonelyness

You walked with the foxes dancing ’round your feet they followed you to the last sleep
You walked with the foxes dancing ’round your feet they followed you into your dreams
and they followed you… Into the wilderness away from the lonelyness

The animal with the strongest paw
mixed friends with prey – it’s nature’s law
I could never climb those mountains, I could never be
sleeping safely under the same stars as timothy
Into the wilderness away from the lonelyness

Download Burning Hearts – Into The Wilderness

We’re now carrying two new cds from Fastcut Records Japan. The excellent new Kuryakin album “A New Day” and the Suede Crocodiles compilation “Stop The Rain” (previously available on vinyl only from Accident Records). Both are $16 each and available right now in the Shelflife shop.

I recently discovered this hidden gem of a band. They hail from Russia, you may recognize them from their main project Motorama. They are quite tricky though, they offer the album for free from their website, if you can find it of course ;)

I’m sure it’s no real surprise that Caribou is getting my top spot this year. It’s been on my highly recommended list ever since it came out in April. “Swim” is just brilliant and seeing them play it live twice this year just solidified my decision. I still joke with the idea that Daniel Snaith listened to a lot of Familjen records and decided to reinvent Swedish disco — but whatever really inspired him to go into this direction, I sincerely hope he continues.

As for the podcast, it was again definitely a challenge to pick 20 top songs, so I picked 25! There were also a lot of tracks that would have made the playlist six months ago (”I Just Want To See Your Face” by Serena Maneesh being one of them), but as usual I burn out on things quickly and at this moment in time, I can’t listen to them. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

Top 10 releases of 2010
1. Caribou – Swim (Merge)
2. The Radio Dept. – Clinging To A Scheme (Labrador)
3. Ceremony – Rocket Fire (Killer Pimp)
4. The European – In A Very Real Sense Now (Stolen)
5. The Chemical Brothers – Further (Astralwerks)
6. Blue Sky Black Death – Third Party (Fake Four)
7. Wild Nothing – Gemini (Captured Tracks)
8. Secret Shine – The Beginning and the End (self-released)
9. School of Seven Bells – Disconnect From Desire (Vagrant)
10. Bubblegum Leomonade – Sophomore Release (Matineé)

runners up:
The Cavalcade – Many Moons (Pebble)
The Depreciation Guild – Spirit Youth (Kanine)
A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Autumn, again (self-released)
Robyn – Body Talk (Cherrytree)
Germany Germany – Radiowave (THaF)
Phil Wilson – God Bless Jim Kennedy (Slumberland)
Allo Darlin’ – Allo Darlin’ (Fortuna Pop)
Benoît Piolard – Lasted (Kranky)

Podcast #4 – Top 25 songs of 2010
(in no particular order)
1. The Radio Dept. – This Time Around
2. Korallreven – The Truest Faith
3. Teen Daze – Four More Years
4. Silver Swans – Secrets
5. Wild Nothing – Golden Haze
6. Ceremony – Stars Fall
7. Secret Shine – No More Inside
8. Germany Germany – River
9. Familjen – När Planeterna Stannat
10. Blue Sky Black Death – Threads of Gold
11. Still Corners – Wish
12. Engineers – Subtober
13. Klaxons – Echoes
14. Bubblegum Lemonade – Caroline’s Radio
15. The Camerawalls (feat Sarah Gaugler) – The Sight of Love
16. The Chemical Brothers – Another Wold
17. Caribou – Found Out
18. The European – The Settler
19. Chiddy Bang – Pass Out
20. School Of Seven Bells – Babelonia
21. A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Fall In Love
22. Beach Fossils – Wide Awake
23. Girls Names – Graveyard
24. Foxes in Fiction – Ativan (Song for Erika)
25. Echodrone – Sway and Drown

Download

Listen to the Shelflife Records podcast: Subscribe using iTunes or subscribe to the feed.

p.s. As a rule I always exclude anything Shelflife from these lists.

Soda Shop – Farewell from Drew Diver on Vimeo.

In celebration of our first 7″ single here on Shelflife, I decided to put together a simple little music video for the A-side “Farewell.” This is my first ever video edit and both of us were  actually happy with how it turned out. We hope you enjoy it and that it brings a little more life to our first single.

Yours,

Drew & Maria

Long time, no post….

Drew (Horse Shoes) turned me onto Motorama.  This is track is from the album Alps. The band has generously the whole album for download here.

Download

Listen to Motorama – Ships: