Kashmir - No Balance Palace

Continuing the Danish trend, this band is one of my recent hang-ups. 

They produce the kind of understated intensity that I've been craving lately.  I'd recommend the tracks "Kalifornia" and "She's Made Of Chalk" as samples.

Donna The Buffalo - Positive Friction. Rockin' In the Weary Land - Positive Friction, Family Picture

Not your (grand)father's country. This is country-rock with smart lyrics.

Jenny Owen Youngs - The Take Off All Your Clothes EP

So, I've been listening to the first song, "Fuck Was I," pretty much exclusively for the last day or so. Also, "Hot in Here" is a fantastic cover of Nelly.  Both these videos are on YouTube.  I have a new rock-girl crush.

Figurines - Skeleton

I'll also recommend my second favorite Danish band, which I only discovered yesterday. So far, so good. Also, the opening track is in 3, which helps my lifelong quest to find the Top 5 Track 1s in 3 of all time. I have three spots pretty well shored up, but the other spots are open, as is the order overall.

Hey, I just noticed that the '1 in 3' thing could be a Trinitarian reference. Heh. I guess that qualifies this post as 'work' for me. No wonder it's my arbitrary musical lifelong quest.

The Raveonettes - Pretty In Black

Since I'm going to Denmark next week, I figured I should recommend my favorite Danish band. I saw them live at the Mets' AAA affiliate stadium at Coney Island in NY. They were an early band, and I could hear them all the way from the subway to the stadium. The first song I caught that way was their cover of "My Boyfriend's Back," which I thought was hilarious and curiously awesome.

Acid House Kings

So I found this Swedish indie band on last.fm. I have like 6 of their songs, and I like 'em, particularly This Heart Is a Stone. The ABBA influence is somewhat clear, and I suppose I like that too.

Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson in Crime

One of my students works at the campus coffee shop at Unnamed Midwestern Private University, and he was playing these guys one day while he was working there and I was holding some sort of extra office hour there.  I mentioned that this was a good choice

The Lord Henry - Zoo Palace

This album just gets better every time I listen to it.  Of course, I discovered this band about a week after I was in Austin for work... fabulous timing.

STAR - Devastator

Run, don't walk!  Scott Cortez's other projects, Astrobrite and Loveliescrushing, are worth checking out as well if you like weird shoegaze.  This album is much poppier than those- which are more derivative of the Japanese shoegaze school - but solidly les

Bottomless Pit - Hammer of the Gods

Some Joy Division/Interpol-esque moments, although something about it hinted the Pixies to me as well.  Who says I'm a sucker for bass lines?