I Hope I Always Hear Your Footsteps With Me

Pocketbooks!

"Footsteps" is the new single from Pocketbooks' smashing debut LP Flight Paths! It will be available officially on June 15 on iTunes, as well as Pocketbooks' website, but we're doing an early giveaway of the MP3 right here on Skatterbrain! "Footsteps" is an obvious highlight of the album – a perfect album opener, and a perfect single.

[MP3]: Pocketbooks :: Footsteps (Highly Rec'd!)
As the single's artwork hints, "Footsteps" is indiepop written for the dancefloor. The song's innocent storyline follows a couple through the streets and into the clubs and onto the dancefloor over again and again as Emma Pocketbooks sings "I just hope I always hear your footsteps with me" during each chorus, before culminating in a fantastic overlapping boy/girl harmony right at the end! A simple enough sentiment, but implemented beautifully by indiepop's most sparkling of contemporaries.

Flight Paths will be out officially on July 13, but you can order yours now from HDIF's online shop, HERE!

Pocketbooks on MySpace!

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Years went by and I never heard you cry

Cats On Fire

My copy of the new Cats On Fire record Our Temperance Movement hasn't arrived in the mail yet (it should be showing up soon, along with Pocketbooks' Flight Paths!), but between listening to "Horoscope" over and over and now watching this new video for "Tears In Your Cup", I'll be very surprised if Our Temperance Movement doesn't end up being one of my most loved records of 2009. I'm not sure what to say about it at the moment as I have yet to hear it all, but I imagine I'll be at a loss for words then, too. Now if I could only get a chance to see them play live!



Our Temperance Movement is out now on the HDIF label! Order it here!
Cats On Fire on MySpace!

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I'm romantic by design

Pocketbooks

"I'm overwhelmed sometimes, by all the rational types who just dismiss coincidence and instinct and perception, as a trick of the mind" sings Emma Pocketbooks on "Fleeting Moments" – the second track on the London pop group's debut LP, Flight Paths. I just ordered my copy this past weekend, so I haven't gotten a chance to hear the whole thing yet, but I've heard wonderful things from all corners of the world and the one new song I have heard is a gem, so my expectations are pretty high right now! I have a good feeling that they'll be more than met though. Ian's fast-paced guitarwork is quite a lovely surprise on "Fleeting Moments" and my feeling is that had Stuart Murdoch been singing vocals for the track, it wouldn't feel a bit out of place on The Boy With The Arab Strap. Of course, Stuart isn't actually singing, but Andy and Emma are – and as usual, harmonizing beautifully. Pocketbooks' songwriting has always been above the top notch and Flight Paths is likely to only further their reputation as some of the finest songwriters in indiepop today.

[MP3]: Pocketbooks :: Fleeting Moments

You can order Flight Paths now from the How Does It Feel To Be Loved? label! I would highly suggest that you do so or you might end up missing out on what could be some of the year's best indiepop!

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You shouldn't be kissing with your eyes closed

Butcher Boy's second LP React or Die, out in April.

Over two years ago, I described Glasgow's Butcher Boy as very "Felt-y" – hardly an incorrect assessment of their sound at that time. However their new single "Carve A Pattern", for me, feels like something different. The whirring organ still manages to peek through the mix from time to time with that tone that is just SO Forever Breathes The Lonely Word, but the backbone of the song is in the bouncing piano melody, which is neither Felt nor the Butcher Boy that I recall – not at all a bad thing, mind you! Not sure what the new LP has in store for us, but assuming "Carve A Pattern" is any indication, it sounds like Butcher Boy has become a Butcher Man.

[MP3]: Butcher Boy :: Carve A Pattern

React Or Die will be out on the How Does It Feel To Be Loved? label in April, but you can preorder right now!
Butcher Boy on MySpace!

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