exploremusic

“Bourgeois Shangri-La” by Miss Li

A number of people tipped Alan off to this woman. Her name is Miss Li. Her actual name is Linda Carlson. She’s from Stockholm, Sweden. She’s done very well on Scandanavian radio and through iTunes in Europe—especially after she made it into an iPod commercial.

Her fourth studio album is called “Dancing The Whole Way Home” and there are a number of tracks worth attention, but we picked this one because it was the iPod commercial—and because it has the silliest title. It’s called “Bourgeois Shangri-La”. 

“Hollywood” by Marina and The Diamonds

Now we have Marina and The Diamonds. They’re one of five groups being hyped by the BBC as being Britain’s next big things. Think Gwen Stefani (but not as over the top) mixed with a much less trashy Britney Spears. Yes, that doesn’t sound terribly appetizing, but give a song called “Hollywood” a shot.

“Gold Rush” by Basia Bulat

Basia Bulat [bah-sha boo-lot] spends a lot of time going down the 401 between Toronto and London. She is a former Polaris Music Prize nominee—and the only one, to our knowledge, who plays an autoharp. She has a new album called “Heart of My Own”. The single is called “Gold Rush”.

“Kids” by Make Your Exit

Make Your Exit is from Toronto. Five guys. They have song number four on today’s list. They have a record called “Remind Me The Reason I Came” and it’s a mix of a bunch of different styles. Big harmonies fill out the sparse instrumentation. Wilco fans should like them. Start with a song called “Kids”.

“Natural One” by Folk Implosion

And speaking of Kids, Alan sat through that movie again. It was available on-demand on a Sunday afternoon, so he watched it.

It’s a very raw and serious movie from 1995 about teenagers doing dumb things. Alan says he’d forgotten how good the soundtrack was. There was actually a hit from the record called “Natural one” by a band called “Folk Implosion”. Here’s the video.