Bicycle Records. Bobi Illustrations.

There are two sites we want to recommend to you today.

This.
And this.

If you visit the first you'll find the pretty illustrations that embellish this post and many more like them; so stop wasting time and right click-open new tab now!

The second website is the home of a small record label called Bicycle Records, where you can download the latest mp3s and buy the albums of artists such as: Anni Rossi, Polka Dot Dot Dot, Antsy Pants, Yes Please, Luke Temple, Your Heart Breaks, Ghost Mice, June Madrona, Jenny Jenkins, Agent Ribbons, etc.

To give you a small taste:

June Madrona: Serious Baby
"You'll only be a baby for a little while; you're gonna grow."
Antsy Pants: Sleep
"Please, little friend, get in your bed and let the adventures be dreams in your head
Sleep little one, tomorrow's more fun; we'll dance in the rain and we'll sing in the sun"
Luke Temple: You're Gonna Land
"I know they're gonna land; they cannot stay up there forever in the air"

And: totally unrelated but I really really really really like the Dirty Mittens' cover of 'White Winter Hymnal'. Apart from the fact that it's probably my favorite Fleet Foxes song, they did a fabulous job on it. And I never get tired of those lyrics, they're so damn sweet.

"I was following the pack, all swallowed in their coats
with scarves of red tied ’round their throats
to keep their little heads from falling in the snow
and I turned ’round and there you go
And, Michael, you would fall
and turn the white snow red as strawberries in the summertime..."

Head over to Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good for more great covers that were released this year.

Let's go sunwards!

Pathetic. Really pathetic. Our blog hasn't even had its 3-month anniversary and I'm already experiencing what I believe is called writer's block. It's not fair. I was supposed to have one of those man-that's-beautiful-I-wish-I-had-written-that sort of posts. I had an idea for it... Well, if you must know, I was gonna talk about my summers and how I feel they will be getting a lot warmer from now on because of the Occasional Flickers. But for the life of me I can't find anything remotely interesting to say about them. Which is really a shame, because they feel like the sunniest and sweetest of summer days hiding in the shadow of an old apple-tree; because they sound so fragile you really believe that they would melt and disappear altogether from this planet if ever a drop of rain should touch their skin; because they smell like sea-salt and they taste sparkly and yellow - real sunshine-yellow, not the ugly nicotine-yellow of autumn bands; because they come from Greece and really, have you ever heard of a good Greek band,let alone a good Twee Greek band that, to cap it all, is also signed to Cloudberry? Because of all these reasons it's a shame I had to pick today for my writer's block. What I'll do is I think I'll leave them for another time instead of offering them this excuse of a post. They don't deserve this. I should make a list of songs I've been listening to this week, stop whining and post some Santogold for the masses. There.

The Occasional Flickers - When the Skies Look So Gray*
The Occasional Flickers - Sunwards*

And speaking of... well... I could justify the song choice by saying its title is the name of a Greek island, but the truth is I just really really wanted to post this song.

Fleet Foxes - Mykonos (Sun Giant EP)

*If you don't enjoy twee don't bother with The Occasional Flickers