New Music: First Aid Kit - Fireworks (Video)

January used to be a very quiet month for new album releases but it seems that 2018 is going to be an exception to the rule. With forthcoming records from tUnE-yArDs, Django Django, Shame and Nils Frahm due this month January is shaping up very nicely. Over and above all of those releases is one that I'm looking forward to the most - Ruins - the new album from Sweden’s finest First Aid Kit, which was recorded in Portland, Oregon and features appearances from REM’s Peter Buck and Midlake’s McKenzie Smith.

Prior to the album release, Klara and Johanna have released a new video for their song Fireworks which finds them going full-on 80’s at a high school prom, their melancholy tune soundtracking the most vacant slow dancing you have ever seen. The song itself finds the band delving deep into classic vintage balladeering and is as gorgeous as anything else they’ve produced. Keep January 19th free in your diary for the release of Ruins.

First Aid Kit - Fireworks

New Music: First Aid Kit - It's A Shame

This one has already been all over the big sites, but just in case like me you’ve been busy and are playing catch up, here’s the new song from Sweden’s finest country band First Aid Kit. 

Klara and Johanna Söderberg know how to write a song don’t they?

It’s A Shame might sound like a breezily uplifting piece of Americana, but delve a little deeper and running through it you’ll find a vein of sadness as the sisters sing of being in sunny LA yet ‘the sun’s too bright, I cannot get it right, the emptiness I feel, and now none of it seems real.’ 

Following their glorious performance at Glastonbury earlier this year, which confirmed First Aid Kit as one of the most talented young bands you can possibly hear, the band return to the UK for a one-off show at Shoreditch town hall on November 1st, which has already sold out. It's A Shame paves the way for a new First Aid Kit album.

First Aid Kit - It's A Shame

First Aid Kit - My Silver Lining

Get your stetsons, neckties and cowboy boots on because we’re going for a ride with First Aid Kit. My Silver Lining is the first song to be taken from the sister-duo’s third album Stay Gold which is released on June 10th. It’s a mantra of perseverance and a message to all those who procrastinate about things without just getting on and doing something. “Gotta keep on going, looking straight out on the road, can't worry 'bout what's behind you or what's coming for you further up the road,” they sing. How can you get anywhere if at least you don’t set of on some sort of journey in the first place? To this philosophy they add Wild West meets country instrumentation, weaving in delightful orchestral strings to give the song further substance to Johanna and Klara’s ever perfect vocals. It’s good to have them back.

First Aid Kit - My Silver Lining

Albums of the Year 2012 - #3 First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

When Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Soderberg first came on the radar of music fans with their You Tube cover version of Fleet Foxes Tiger Mountain Pleasant Song aged just 18 and 15 and followed it up with the Drunken Trees EP in 2008 and The Big Black And The Blue album in 2009 the journalistic cliché of “a maturity beyond their years,” was rolled out over and over again. Yet it’s with The Lion’s Roar that First Aid Kit really come of age.

Recorded in Nebraska with Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes, Alessi’s Ark, M.Ward) The Lion’s Roar is an album of country tinged pop songs with perfectly balanced harmonies of the type that only two sisters can produce.  It’s a bigger, more confident record than either of their previous releases, but most importantly the wonderful songs contained therein are always gorgeous. Flecked with sadness and despair in the lyrics, the music is so charming that it never weighs the record down to the extent that it becomes over-heavy, in fact it’s almost the opposite, The Lion’s Roar sounds quite delightful. Add in some latino trumpets and Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes to help out with some guest vocals on the toe tapping and jubilant King Of The World plus the finest homage to country music stars to ever grace a stereo with Emmylou and what you have is a record that equals its older peer group in quality.

Over the last year a number of singing sisters (The Unthanks, The Staves) have taken traditional forms of music (folk, country) and delighted us by putting a youthful beauty to it, but it’s First Aid Kit who top the family pile with this delightful album in 2012.

First Aid Kit - Blue (Video)

First Aid Kit - Emmylou

First Aid Kit - Blue (Video)

Sweden may be producing some of the best pop music in the world, but it does a fine job with country and folk as well, via First Aid Kit. The Lion’s Roar, the duo’s second record was released at the start of the year but its American country sound has not been forgotten. From this record comes a new single - Blue.

There’s something despairing but beautiful about the Söderberg sisters harmonies and they soundtrack this video of a wealthy lady who seemingly lives alone and lonely in an opulent mansion perfectly. “You’re just a shell of your former youth” they sing, the song both gentle, sad and soul-stirring at the same time. 

First Aid Kit - Blue

The Saturday Surf #26

It’s Saturday. This is the Saturday Surf. The lazy blog post where we just throw up a few tracks we hoped to feature during the week but ran out of time to include in a full post. Consider it the blogging equivalent of us tidying up our work desk at the end of the day before we leave the office.

Just 3 tunes for you this week, from 3 genres that we regularly cover; indie, folk and electronic pop.

Zulu Winter – We Should Be Swimming

We first featured Zulu Winter in our ‘New Waves’ feature back in September and now the group has released We Should Be Swimming, which on a feature called The Saturday Surf on a blog called Breaking More Waves would be a watery crime not to feature. Zane Lowe has already made it his Hottest Record in the World, our friends over at The Recommender blog have tweeted “They're gonna be so h.u.g.e,” and Esau blog posted “ Och det här är faktiskt catchy.” We can’t speak Swedish at all but with that last word we think we understand what they’re saying. There’s the ghost of Reverend & The Makers somewhere in the music, but don’t let that put you off.

First Aid Kit – Emmylou

Talking of Swedish (see what we did there?) here’s a band that are actually from Sweden. It’s the lovely First Aid Kit who with Emmylou fully immerse themselves into the world of country music. An irresistible tune with a swooning chorus that pays tribute to a host of whole host of other country singers (Johnny Cash, June Carter, Gram Parsons are all mentioned) and of course Emmylou Harris herself. Heavenly, absolutely heavenly.



Saturday Night Gym Club – How To Build A Life Raft

To continue our tenuous links between songs and commentary then why not try this; if you’ve listened to Zulu Winter’s We Should Be Swimming but can’t swim or won’t swim then maybe you should learn How To Build A Life Raft. It’s an introductory track from Saturday Night Gym Club, a half English half Irish quartet who met at university whilst studying science. Now their applying their boffin like ways to creating super smooth electro pop like this, How To Build A Life Raft will be featured on their debut EP released on 6 March. Fans of the likes of Delphic may be interested or even impressed.

First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

A conversation overheard at Bestival 2011 in September whilst watching The Secret Sisters. “They sound like First Aid Kit.”

A conversation at Breaking More Waves HQ yesterday. “Who are you listening to? That sounds like The Secret Sisters.” Answer “No, it’s First Aid Kit, but they are Swedish sisters.”

It’s time to welcome back Johanna and Klara Söderberg with the first output from their forthcoming album. It’s the title track and it’s called The Lion’s Roar. It’s very easy to stereotype the Swedish as being very good at pop music but little else. However, First Aid Kit dispel that lie with this rather sumptuous piece of country music that expands their repertoire from their solo acoustic beginnings into a bigger full blown production without ever losing the sense of intimacy and world-weariness that made their music so appealing in the first place. The Lion’s Roar sweeps, soars and strums in all the right places with deft production assistance from Mike Mogis who has previously worked with the likes of Rilo Kiley and Bright Eyes. The album itself has been recorded in Omaha, Nebraska and the band have blogged that they are using many different instruments and sounds for this new record that will make it interesting and surprising. The Lion’s Roar is a fine start.

The Lion's Roar by First Aid Kit

Lounge on the Farm 2010 - Review

There’s a very relaxed vibe to Lounge on the Farm festival, Merton Farm near Canterbury. The sun helps this atmosphere - it shines powerfully all day, but the new local authority licensing restriction that limits punters bringing their own alcohol onto site is also a significant factor. With the smell of cow pats not far away and a market area that retails only locally produced food (even the farm itself sells edibles made from its own livestock - a properly sustainable burger that hasn't travelled hundreds of miles in production) Lounge on the Farm has a welcoming local / village feel. Inflatable cows hang from the steel frame of the huge cowshed that forms the main stage and punters sit by the bandstand at picnic benches soaking up the rays and enjoying delicacies such as kipper in a bun and Russian stuffed vine leaves - not your typical festival food.

Whilst the majority were in attendance for the full three days, Breaking More Waves was at Lounge on the Farm 2010 for just one day; the motive being that Moshi Moshi and Wichita Records host the small Sheepdip Stage on the Saturday.

Things open at the Cowshed Stage with a sample from Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped. As the words “I ain’t gonna take it no more,” boom out Liverpool’s Kids On Bridges plough through a short set of booming chest vibrating electro-pop. The band seem totally out of place with the general organic vibe of the event with members sporting a blue metallic hoody, bleached blonde hair, sportswear and shades. The skewered slabs of disco synth on Check Your Head add a sprinkle of gold dust, but it’s just too damn early for most. A case of wrong place wrong time.

Alice Gold fares a little better - flicking her golden locks backwards and forwards in a demented fashion to her blend of adult friendly FM rock - although her strong passionate voice loses something in the empty echoing heights of the cowshed.

A walk past the farms flag lined sweet corn fields leads to the sunflower covered bandstand where The Momeraths are giving a gentle lesson in everything twee and lower case. Xylophones, quietly cute vocals and summery girl-boy melodies, they’re like the long lost cousins of Belle and Sebastian circa Tigermilk, and go down rather well with the sun-kissed crowd who are busy consuming Kent ice cream and cider.

Heading under canvas, The Sheepdip Stage is where the too cool for school fashionista’s can be found. In sweltering and rising temperatures of 30 degrees centigrade there are kids here wearing retro jumpers - they’ve either left their brain in another field or have a very good deodorant. Veronica Falls try to bring the temperatures down by adding icy attitude with their lo-fi early 80’s U.S styled indie garage rock, complete with shambling guitars, flatly sung female vocals and pouting red lips. There’s a significant number of bands mining the C86 gone stateside genre right now, and Veronica falls are digging with the rest of them. One for the old-school indie elite.

“You’re such an attractive festival crowd - I thought you were all going to mingers,” announces the leopard print clad Elizabeth Sankey of Summer Camp with a smile as the band begin their experimental pop. No doubt after three days of sun and cider by Sunday evening there will be less beauty and more mingers. Summer Camp get only moments in before the sound cuts out. A few minutes of frantic action by sound technicians sort the problem and the band recommence their woozy Beach Boys influenced synth-layered pop. The band are motionless verging on invisible and it's left to Elizabeth to be the star of the show, her voice clean with an almost country-esque twang. There’s a charm to what Summer Camp do, even though occasionally they let muso cleverness get in the way of pop sensibility. If they can keep the shackles on they could be as beautiful as the audience.

Swedish sister duo First Aid Kit draw the biggest audience of the day so far -albeit it’s still bums on grass at this point - and are incredible. Johanna and Klara have a raw, enchanting quality in their live performance that as yet they have not fully replicated in recorded form. Using just delicately picked acoustic guitar, autoharp, keyboard and drums their sound is quietly romantic - their mournful harmonies sounding agedly ghostlike. When they sing acappella “I don’t know what I’ve done, but I’m turning myself into a demon,” on Tiger Mountain Pleasant Song it’s breathtakingly moving. Ending with rich majesty of I Met Up With The King, their voices in turn gravely and lullaby smooth, it’s no wonder that the crowd applaud for an encore.

Besides the pullover wearing indie boys Australia’s Sarah Blasko has also arrived in the Cow Shed from the school of inappropriate festival attire. Wearing a blue tartan dress and leggings she announces “I didn’t realise it could get this hot in England.” Despite her fashion fail she is quirkily engaging with her puppet-like dancing, unselfconscious marching and note perfect songs - the spectral wail on All I Want is particularly affecting, a snow capped misty mountain romance, even on this sweltering day.

It’s inevitable when the weather is this warm that this is going to be the main talking point of the day, and so it continues. “Has anyone got sunburn?” questions Rebecca from Slow Club as a packed Sheepdip tent slowly melts. Slow Club are never going to be a slick pop band - their ramshackle unpolished country-rock-folk -skiffle style is part of their charm. Today at least they manage to get through their set of both old and new songs without any of them breaking down halfway - that in itself is a result for them. From yelling gang hollers to sweet harmonies Slow Club have it easy - most of the crowd are ready to lap it up, even if Rebecca notices that one man in the crowd is screwing up his eyes and shaking his head negatively - she suggests he’s right though - “essentially, we’re shit,” she mocks. Songs such as Trophy Room with it’s acoustic thrash and pensive “Oh oh oh,” sighs oppose this argument -the single man in the crowd was wrong.

The top end of the site pays host to the Farm Folk stage, where a mellow crowd rests on hay bales under pink drapes. Looking like a younger David Bowie or James Dean, Alan Pownall and his band play a set of fine well crafted songs that are perfect for this near sunset moment. His sound is warm and mature, laced with violin and gentle percussion. Occasionally there’s a reggae lilt to his tunes, elsewhere they’re of the more heartfelt singer songwriter style. Explaining to the audience that he was late getting here due to traffic, it seems his journey was worthwhile.

As night falls the Sheepdip stage alters its musical direction from indie / folk / pop to vibrant electronic geekiness. The numbers in the tent dwindle, but it leaves more room for dancing. “At least my nails had time to dry,” jokes a member of Silver Columns after a late start due to the dreaded technical hitches. With flashing lights all over their microphones and kit, their relentless electronic burbles sound a lot like a humorous high energy Hot Chip, and on Brow Beaten -a song which really deserves a shot at the charts re-release -a modern day Bronski Beat. Bridging the gap between audience and stage, one of their number hauls a drum into the crowd and plays from the floor to the bemused faces of onlookers.

Gold Panda continues the geek-core dance revolution wearing a T shirt emblazoned with a Tampax logo. Waves of ambient noise give way to gentle electronic chimes, crackles and then stuttering jerky beats of brilliance. His futuristic flow gets the crowd dancing spaz-like - by the time he wraps things up with Quitters Raga the temperature has been cranked up a notch again.

It’s left to James Yuill to finish the small crowd who remain off. We’ve called James the thinking mans Calvin Harris before, and this seems to be truer than ever. The bespectacled high priest of geek electronica rolls out electro-pop / folktronica bangers by the bagful under a beautiful vision of kaleidoscopic slides. It may now be midnight, the temperatures may have cooled outside, but Yuill ensures that Lounge on the Farm continues to sweat it’s head off until the very end of the day.

Lounge on the Farm 2010 - what an absolute scorcher.

You can see more photos from Lounge On The Farm 2010 by clicking here.

First Aid Kit - I Met Up With The King

This week we’re taking a short break to surf some real waves rather than internet based ones. We will therefore be nowhere near any sort of IT device for almost seven days.

However to keep you entertained / educated / informed / interested we will still be posting blogs here. We like to think of it as some kind of internet magic, but the reality is that these posts are simply pre-written pieces, posted up each day by the wonders of blog scheduling.

So whilst we’re sitting overlooking the sea drinking sangria, enjoy this video from First Aid Kit. I Met Up With The King is the second single to be taken from the duo’s album The Big Black & The Blue and is released on March 8th. Klara and Johanna make a warm weary county folk sound filled with soul and depth. They sound more like a couple of seasoned early 70’s American songstress types than two young Swedish girls, but then life is full of surprises. I Met Up With The King is a charming harmonious piece with melodies plucked from the stars. It may not be anything strikingly original, but it’s lovely nonetheless.

Right, we’re off for paella now.

Summer Sundae 2009 - Part 3

Day three of Summer Sundae continued where the other two left off. More good weather and more diverse music. The highlight of the day, if not the whole festival, was the Israeli band Monotonix. Yet we have to admit we weren’t there. We missed them, instead choosing to watch indie rockers Flashguns. So how do we know they were the highlight ? Quite simply after they had played, everyone who saw them was talking about them. There was a complete buzz around the festival about their performance. Yet hardly anybody mentioned the music. You need to read about Monotonix first hand, so please check out Rullsenbergrules Blog and the Safe Concerts review and watch the video clips of the balcony escapades here to get an idea of what went on. There, see what we mean ?

So what of the acts we experienced ? Well, under spinning glitter ball lighting Woodpigeon bring softly sung acoustic bliss with loving delicate organ and keyboard sounds. The highlight of their set was a gorgeously idyllic and emotive cover of the Abba song Lay All Your Love On Me with Beth Jeans Houghton providing additional backing vocals whilst dressed in a frightful blonde afro wig and tiny mini dress. The band made the song their own, but unfortunately their self penned compositions can’t compare with the cover, although they are gracious and charming enough.

Whilst Monotonix are tearing up the De Montfort Hall four young men from Brighton step up to the Rising stage. “The name of this band is Flashguns,” lead singer Samuel Felix Johnston states confidently. With a Weller / Bragg type lad look, dressed in denim, Johnston is blessed with a strong voice, competent indie guitarmanship, a neat line in twitchy bent leg dancing and the sweat and passion of a man who utterly believes in what he is doing. The band have yet to write any distinguishing songs but their snarling indie growl certainly has some promise if they can continue to develop. St George is one of their best moments, it finds an atmospheric misty broodiness amongst the spunky indie rock.

Next up is Micachu And The Shapes. The newly blonded up Micachu has received some critical acclaim, but on this performance we see no justification for it. Her scuffed experimental tunes and droaning vocal lack any sort of charisma. There are moments when a riff or a rhythm will jump out for a nano second, but then scuttle away back into a hole. We applaud Mica Levi’s attempt to be innovative, but the messy random nature of her songs sits too far to the left for Breaking More Waves to enjoy.

The sister duo of First Aid Kit are much better. They are from Sweden but their music sounds like it has come from Kentucky. With just simple acoustic instrumentation, warm mesmerising harmonies and some of the most beautiful songs we hear all weekend, they prove that Swedes can do far more than the upbeat pop of Abba and Alphabeat. It’s almost worrying how two girls who are still in their teens are singing such world weary and heavy songs at such a young age, we wonder what their parents are like. Tangerine is the sad tale of an affair told from the perspective of the person left behind at home “Another business trip, another reason to stay away,” they gasp mournfully. They show that they haven’t lost all of their young innocence yet though, dedicating their cover version of Fleet Foxes Tiger Mountain Pleasant Song to “the blonde boy sitting on the barrel,” with a cheeky mischievous grin. Towards the end of their set another cover comes in the form of Donovans Universal Soldier, which as the girls explain was written by Buffy Sainte-Marie. Its theme of individual responsibility for war is as relevant today as it was when it was originally written, and First Aid Kit give it a more modern context by changing some of the words to suit the year we find ourselves in. It hushes the whole audience and receives rapturous applause at the end.

The haunting and slow folk vibe continues on the main stage with Bon Iver. Justin Vernon has been pedalling his trademark falsetto vocal and simple acoustic instrumention across the world for some time now, and as wonderful as Breaking More Waves favourite For Emma, Forever Ago is, his set is just starting to become a little bit tired now, being not that different from when we were first astounded by its performance a year ago at the End Of The Road Festival. The treble drumming Skinny Love, engrossed beauty of Re:Stacks and the gently rocking Blood Bank with its lyrics of “As the moon waned to crescent, we started to kiss,” are all wonderful, but the announcement that this is their last show in Britain for some time seems well timed. Not everyone seems hugely impressed with Bon Iver however, a significant number of the audience disappearing halfway through the set to go and watch The Lightning Seeds.

It’s left to headliners The Zutons to close Summer Sundae 2009. Its been a difficult time for the Liverpool band having been dropped by the record label following the poor sales performance of their last album, and at first it’s easy to see why the record didn’t sell. Songs such as Always Right Behind You sound like a horrible mix of Status Quo and ZZ Top; swine flu seems almost preferable. But as their set progresses memories are jogged as to why The Zutons were once the toast of the town and picked up a Mercury nomination for Who Killed The Zutons? Songs such as You Will You Won’t and the much extended crowd pleasing Zuton Fever are expert pop tunes with a hint of soul, and sometimes we need reminding that Valerie is actually a Zutons song and does not belong to Ms Winehouse. The band are also cheesy enough to give the audience plenty of fun, from encouraging them to wave their arms side to side Take That style to shouts to “get involved,” over their old school grooviness. “Can you understand a word I’m saying?” Dave McCabe asks the audience in his broad accent. It doesn’t matter if they can’t, The Zutons do their job well.

So Summer Sundae 2009 was a success. It’s a very well run and organised festival, with good infrastructure, and the most friendly and helpful stewards / security that Breaking More Waves has experienced at such an event. With its well planned running times enabling punters to skip between the main stage and smaller stages without missing anything on the main stage and a huge range of diverse music that mixes older established bands with bright young new things and more obscure acts, its claims of being ‘a musical treat’ are exactly right. Breaking More Waves highly recommends it as excellent value for all discerning music fans.

This chap seemed to be enjoying himself as well......