First Listen: The Streets ‘Computers and Blues’ (Album Stream)

Click here to listen to The Street’s final album, ‘Computers and Blues’ in full before it’s release later in the month. It’s excellent. I’ll be sad to see the end of The Streets… until their gig in March!

A bit of shameless Swedish pop…

Click here to check out Lena Philipsson’s new single, ‘Idiot’. It’s a really classy bit of pop, very mellow but upbeat at the time. It’s not had great reactions but I like it. If anything, I just love the way she sings ‘Idioot’. I might start saying that now. Lena is a huge pop institution in Sweden by the way, she’s been around for a crazy amount of time, and she’s represented Sweden in Eurovision.

New Music: Fitz & The Tantrums

I saw this band on Perez Hilton this evening, I usually don’t agree with his music tastes but this band is awesome. Think Mayer Hawthorne, The Noisettes and some Paloma Faith mixed in a happy jar. Check out here. There’s also a free download of ‘Moneygrabber’ which is really good!

Live: Morning Parade at Monto Water Rats London

This is probably the most amazingly awesome gig I think I’ve been to since Robyn back in October last year. There’s nothing more exciting than going to see a band you hardly know much about and being blown away by just how powerful they are. Morning Parade are a rough mix between Delphic and Friendly Fires (in my view), but at the same time there’s some serious soul behind the beats. And they’re all hot in their own ways. They’re playing again in the much bigger Scala in June- I seriously recommend you go see them. Seriously.

Robyn wins bigtime at the Swedish Grammis!

The Grammis are the major Swedish music awards. Sweden makes a lot of good music so this is probably one of the more important music award shows. Is it any surprise Robyn won 4 gongs, seeing as she is just about the biggest export from Sweden right now (bar IKEA)? Full list of winners is:
Best album: Robyn – Body Talk
Best artist: Robyn
Best song: Robyn – Dancing On my Own
Best group: Johnossi – Mavericks
Best folk/visa: Blandade Artister – Sonja Åkesson Tolkad Av
Best hardrock/metal: Watain – Lawless Darkness
Best jazz: Dan Berglunds Tonbruket – Tonbruket
Best songwriter: Klas Åhlund & Robyn – Body Talk
Best female artist: Robyn – Body Talk
Best male artist: Håkan Hellström – 2 Steg Från Paradise
Best newcomer Oskar Linnros – Vilja Bli
Best producer: Red One
Best international success: Red One
Best lyrics: Håkan Hellström – 2 Steg Från Paradise
Best urban/dance: Familjen – Mänskligheten
Best Innovator: Iamamiwhoami

New Music: Itaal Shur

This is the dude who wrote the Grammy-winning “Smooth,” which has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and is the 2nd most successful song of all time on the Billboard Charts. “After years of success in servicing the needs of the pop music market, it was time to create a record that expresses the deeper essence of who I am right now.” Check out a couple of tracks below (Darkside is gorgeous) and go to his Myspace!

MP3: Itaal Shur – Darkside

MP3: Itaal Shur – 2 B Loved

New Music: TINA

Ringo Starr’s called TINA (I don’t know why it’s all in capitals…)  “THE TablaGirl!”. I think she’s pretty good. I’ve only heard one song from this poppy, urban, dance, bollywood, R&B siren but so far but I’m impressed. Check out her super sexy, polished song featuring Fat Joe below and go to the website!

MP3: TINA feat Fat Joe – So Good