Shed likes: Eleni Mandell

Eleni Mandell has just joined the Shed playlist and we’re listening to her latest album, Artificial Fire, non-stop here in the Shed. You’ll see why…

A veteran of the LA rock scene, Eleni can be found in a number of musical guises, but it is here in her solo project that she really has developed. In fact, Artificial Fire is her most mature project yet. Gone is the angst and the anguish, and in its place is a much more well-adjusted album. In fact, Eleni Mandell is probably the artist Liz Phair could have become if she hadn’t got caught up in the hype.

She’s on V2 records over here in Europe, and you can get her latest album here: buy album

Watch Artificial Fire here:

30 minutes – rock/pop… introducing Next To Beluga

Back in the Paris Shed, Jonny Sly picked Next To Beluga out as his entry for 2007’s EuroVirtual competition, and while the Danes might not have won the competition overall, they won the hearts of many of our regular listeners.

Copenhagen’s finest are back, now on shed.fm, with the pop-tastic Love Composer, and remain the band that the Cardigans could – and should – have become instead of going off into out and out rock. Proper sugar-coated pop songs. Their latest album, Out of Place, is available through Digivision, and you can buy it here on iTunes - we recommend that you do.

Next To Beluga are: Sara Futtrup Lund (lead + backing vocals + songwriter),
Sidsel Storm: (backing vocals + glockenspiel),
Karen Bach: (Keys + backing vocals),
Ole Lindholm: (drums),
Thomas Marcussen: (bass)

Also in this 30 minutes, you’ll find the brilliant, but sadly no longer with us, Kimlico, along with Major Major, Drunksouls, Marie Tueje and the brilliant accapella of Ruby Wood.

• Kimlico – Superhero
• Next to Beluga – Love Composer
• Drunksouls – No More Fighting
• Major Major – No Rhyme
• Amelie – Do It Over
• Marie Tueje – Killer in the Road
• Ruby Wood – The Fact is I Need You

30 minutes: rock/pop… introducing Headphone

If you’ve ever been to Ghent, then you probably wouldn’t associate the city with rock music. With its canals, cafes and Flemish architecture, Ghent is a thriving student town, and home to the brilliant Headphone, whose latest single Yesmen kicks off our latest 30 Minutes.

Debut album Ghostwriter caught the imaginination locally, with Headphone topping the Studio Brussels charts for several weeks. A heady blend of pop, rock, electronica, Headphone’s music has been likened to Radiohead without the overdose.

Headphone are: Ian Marien (Lead Vocal / Guitar / Piano), Nico Steenkiste (Drums), Gerd Van Mulders (Keyboard / Guitar), Tom Barbier (Guitar / Keyboard) and Jan Goossens (Bass) and if they tickle your fancy, visit their official site and their myspace site.

Also in this 30 minutes, we’ve got the Balkan brilliance of the Penny Black Remedy, and a Paris-based singer-songwriter calling himself the Dada Weatherman whose latest album, The Green Waltz has been on our turntable all week. Links are available to all artists if you’re interested in finding out more about them or hearing more of their music. Ace or what?

• Headphone – Yesmen
• Show Without Punch – Wax and Coxcomb
• The Dada Weatherman – Song to Paris
• The Penny Black Remedy – 95 Charing Cross Road
• Moot – Dancing Nowhere
• Hedgehog Dilemma – Solitude
• Lea Velours – Want U
• A Jigsaw – Red Pony