Friday Bridge
by Bradley Stern
filed under: Friday Bridge, Nicolas Makelberge, Sally Shapiro, Ylva Lindberg

Dying in Africa with Sally Shapiro and Nicolas Makelberge.

Image courtesy of YlvaLindberg.com.

Today, Paper Bag Records celebrates its Sweet 7 in the industry (as a certain bunch of ‘Babes might say) with the release of a free cover album, featuring many of its recording artists. Among the tracks? Sally Shapiro‘s “Dying in Africa.” Yep–it’s a cover!

“Dying in Africa” was originally recorded by Nicolas Makelberge, a Swedish synth-pop artist. As far as I can tell, he’s only released one album–Dying in Africa, back in August of 2006.

If you want, you can hear many of the album tracks on his label’s site, which I strongly recommend. The entire record is well-done; a highly stylized, slightly darker collection of throbbing, ’80′s-inspired pop tunes.

Not only did I fall for the original artist and album, but the artwork as well.  There was something about the cover’s clean lines and sophisticated style (see above) that really stuck a chord with me. After some more digging around on the label’s website, I found that the album layout was conceived by Ylva Lindberg, the same artist behind Friday Bridge‘s Bite My Tongue.

With that, I effectively discovered an artist, an album, and a graphic designer of my liking all in one go.

Très neat.


by Bradley Stern
filed under: Colin Munroe, Diplo, Friday Bridge, Julian Casablancas, Laidback Luke, MSTRKRFT, Patrick Wolf, Pony Pony Run Run

d7d18e9abb5e7c15569539edf2cebe3b MuuMix Friday!
It’s disgusting outside. Absolutely. Disgusting. So why not put up a few streamers ’round the house, strew some condoms and beer cans around, and make your own home the scene to beat tonight?

I think that’s the best course of action for night skies as grim as these…

As usual, take what you’d like, leave what you don’t. I HIGHLY recommend the Friday Bridge track especially…goes down exxxtra smooth.

DL: Laidback Luke & Diplo – Hey (Sonic Truth Remix)
DL: Friday Bridge РThis Case Is Closed (Johan Agebj̦rn Remix)
DL: Patrick Wolf – Who Will (Buffetlibre Remix)
DL: Pony Pony Run Run – Hey You (Stereoheroes Remix)
DL: Julia – Cocaine (The Knocks Remix)
DL: MSTRKRFT – So Deep (Colin Munroe Freestyle)


by Bradley Stern
filed under: Dumb Dan, Friday Bridge, Introduucing..., Single Review

9ceca01b514abe87f05ec72cebd11fa1 Introducing...Friday Bridge!

Now here’s a find long overdue.

Ylva Lindberg and Niklas Gustafsson are better known as Friday Bridge. Combined, the two have been holding true to their native country’s promise of perfection with buoyant, bouncy electro-fied indie-pop since 2004.

As evidenced in their latest single, “Shanghai Shipping,” the group’s sound can be likened to laying fellow Swede Lykke Li‘s vocals atop Cut Copy‘s bouncy debut, Bright Like Neon Love. This particular track evokes elements of Li’s “Until We Bleed,” though replacing the poignant, stringed background with a big, bright synthesizer.

The group will be releasing their second album, Bite My Tongue, in February ’09. And yes, you can consider this a MuuMuse approved “One to Watch” for the new year.

Make sure to grab their single, as well as the nu-disco mix by Dumb Dan, guaranteed to have you prompting your peers with “Can’t you even be afraid?” over and over again.

DL: Friday Bridge – Shanghai Shipping (Mediafire)
DL: Friday Bridge – Shanghai Shipping (Dumb Dan Remix Radio Edit) (Mediafire)

Oh, and do make sure to mosey over to their Musical MySpace to hear more sensational cuts.