Summer 2012 is officially here as Timoteij's new album, Tabu, drops today. And they also celebrate a new-and-improved website that's delightfully more-colorful, engaging and pleasing to the eye -and more intuitive!

Summer 2012 is officially here as Timoteij's new album, Tabu, drops today. And they also celebrate a new-and-improved website that's delightfully more-colorful, engaging and pleasing to the eye -and more intuitive!

The top of the new website, which changed slightly from the original template a few weeks before their participation in the 2012 Melodifestivalen two months ago, now sports new photos for both the website and the blog, and I must say that in the week since I first saw the photo of the new album over at Swedish Stereo blog in Damian's description of the songs and their order, http://swedishstereo.blogspot.com/2012/05/timoteij-tabu.html which seems to be fresher, more upbeat and dance-friendly but with all of the Timoteij folk and authenticity trademarks we love, I've been eager to see what it looks like in a new and improved online environment.


Well, in my opinion, the new features and photos really POP off your computer screen in a way that the old pinkish/purple ones really didn't after awhile because... well, we just got so used to them.  http://www.timoteij.se/


The new group photo for the website now is, left-to-right: Elina Thorsell, Johanna Pettersson, Cecilia Kallin and Bodil Bergström, and the photo is the same as the album but in the header photo, you don't see their instruments, while the header above the blog text 
http://www.timoteij.se/category/timoteij/ is a variation of that: Cecilia, Elina, Johanna and Bodil.


I also saw that last week's news also had this great teaser: Buy the new album and enter a contest to have Timoteij perform at your home/place of work -in Sweden: http://www.ginza.se/product/timoteij/tabu-2012/11863/


Correct, it's remarkably similar to what the amazing Full of Keys (Anni Bernhard) did on her tour in February for her winning fan, Victor: http://fullofkeys.com/blog/?p=228
I was so envious!


On Monday, the girls were still busy promoting the new album and swung by the Sveriges Radio (SR) studio in Skovde, and fortunately for us, the folks at P4 recorded a bit of what happened, which is how I can share it with you here now:



SverigesRadio P4 Skaraborg video: Nytt sound men ändå  som vanligt på Timoteijs nya. May 14, 2012. Related article at: 
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=97&artikel=5107583


I also came across this great SR photo from this past January which I hadn't seen before:
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=789&artikel=4312611


Here's the text of the interview:
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=399&artikel=4312609


Not to give away too many teasers about some future posts you'll be seeing here soon, but as some of you reading this particular post already know, I actually have hopes of seeing these talented ladies perform -as well as the fabulous Florrie, whose new album drops next week- in a few months in their native habitats, though I'm still working on exact dates and logistics.


My original killer post about Timoteij and Melodifestivalen 2012, scheduled to run the morning of the Second Chance competition, with a complete recap about what happened to them and other acts like Molly Sandén during the competition, was actually killed by a freak power outage one night when my electricity didn't come back on for quite a few minutes, and Blogger lost what I'd written.


Hours of work down the drain!
I was so beyond frustrated! 


Below are some odds and ends from that the draft of that post which I'd thought to save to an email draft before I started trying to finish up and the electricity went kaput, my post going adios! Obviously, there were lots of what I thought at the time were some well-chosen words, photos and videos that ought to be below but which aren't.


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Today is D-day for Timoteij and its fans: Clear sailing to next week's Melodifestivalen Finals in Stockholm, or, Stormy Seas? (Stormande Hav) 


It's the day we've all been waiting for... "Andra chansen." The second chance. 
One last chance to make the grade for the chance to represent Sweden at Eurovision.


Yesterday the band posted this short acapella version of them singing an excerpt of Stormande Hav in one of their hotel rooms onto their official YouTube Channel.



Timoteij - Videoblogg - Stormande Hav -acapella. March 2, 2012.
http://youtu.be/s7wk3p0Y8hg


Like many of you out there, I've wondered, too, why they and the record company still hadn't posted a HQ copy of their performance at the Second Heat as good as the one that uris1 posted two weeks ago, or done a series of occasional updates on their YouTube Channel since then on their preparations the past few weeks, a variation of what they've been writing on the blog.
But now at least, somebody finally decided to do something positive. 

uris1 video: Timoteij - Stormande Hav. Second Heat of Melodifestivalen 2012 in Göteborg, Sweden. February 11, 2012. http://youtu.be/Nw73WHckdNY


Meanwhile, over at SVT's Minimello, where Ylva Hällen and sidekick Skvallerbyttan have good seats to watch all the performers -and keep the laughter coming...
http://svt.se/2.140234/minimello
http://svt.se/2.140629/


SVT video: Jag är lik Timoteij!!!! 
Skvallerbyttan hittar likheter mellan henne och Timotej.
So funny!

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http://www.youtube.com/user/LionheartSweden
http://www.youtube.com/user/TimoteijOfficial


Fans of the band may want to start looking at this page to see what's also being written about them on Social Media: http://whotalking.com/flickr/Timoteij 

Florrie, our favorite British 'Next Big Thing,' is back in the studio recording -next Thursday she's flying to L.A. to work on her next project

Florrie - Begging Me (2011). Directed by Price James.

http://youtu.be/Pj8122XxqDA

"I won't lose the battle, not in love, not in war, cause I got something to fight for..."

Florrie Arnold, our favorite British 'Next Big Thing,' is back in the studio: reading, writing & recording. Hurrah!

The dynamic singer/drummer/guitar-player from Bristol is shown above performing "Begging Me," the infectious song that I've mentioned previously, here, which in these dog days of sweltering August, is STILL the number-one song I hum to myself in the car while stuck in South Florida traffic gridlock, of which we have so much, giving me so many more chances than a normal American to croon or hum it.

I've avoided a few chances this summer to mention what's new with Florrie because it hasn't really risen to the point of something worthwhile visually I could share, per se.

But early this morning, around 2 a.m., I received her latest blog post and it contained the news that I and her other fans have been waiting for, now that her six song Experiments EP has been out for a while. (Songs can STILL be listened to FREE on her website, bought on ITunes.)

http://florrie.com/home/2011/8/17/florrie-back-in-the-studio.html

After another few days of being in the studio, and then a photo shoot for the cover of her next album, she's flying out to L.A. next Thursday to work with some talented folks who are aiming to help her on her next project and, hopefully, get her the sort of attention she deserves on this side of the Atlantic.

Florrie - I Took A Little Something (2011). Directed by Justin Wu.

http://youtu.be/azrKHpCwvm0

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention two things that I've thought of a lot the past few months, starting with when I first watched Robyn perform and dazzle on ABC-TV's Jimmy Kimmel Live show, which I wrote about on April 14th in a post I titled

Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend & Dancing on My Own - ABC-TV's Jimmy Kimmel Live; 13-Year-Old Girls Ruining American Idol Vote -and U.S. film industry!

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/robyn-call-your-girlfriend-dancing-on.html

Florrie would absolutely KILL on that show, esp. dressed as she is in the video in Dolce & Gabbana.

She'd positively send some of the audience into orbit and leave the rest of them slack-jawed.

The second thing is, IF Florrie has the time and gets the chance -are you listening out there?- since I know that she will be back in L.A. from Skåne by then, could someone from her team please ring up Jennifer Åkerman and arrange to meet Jen somewhere so that she can show Florrie around the town she now knows so well?

It would do everyone involved some good, not least of all, music fans.

A couple of helpful introductions here and there, interspersed with a few hours devoted to bouncing creative ideas off of one another, some shared laughs and a few drinks over dinner to see if there's something these two talented songbirds could do together in the future...

I'd kill to hear a few duets from them somewhere on Sunset... table for four, up near the front if it's alright with you.

Just thinking out loud...

But just because I'm thinking out loud here, doesn't mean that it's still not a VERY GOOD idea!

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My first post on Florrie was back on March 5th, 2011, titled, Say hello to Florrie - She's musically ship-shape in Bristol fashion, always equipped with a beat & melody -and has a voice & face you won't forget, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/say-hello-to-florrie-shes-musically.html

http://florrie.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/florriemusic

http://www.nme.com/artists/florrie

Begging Me -First song from Florrie's new six-track EP out two weeks from today, June 14th

Florrie - Begging Me (2011)

http://youtu.be/Pj8122XxqDA

Some of you who come to the blog fairly regularly -and esp. those of you who have a highly-tuned pop sensibility that more closely mirrors my own than your friends' or that of the town you live in- have already dropped me an email or two (or ten) asking why I've been so slow to post this first song video from the second Florrie Arnold EP -six-tracks!- which drops two weeks from today, June 14th, when it's been on so many other websites already. Good question.

Mostly, it's because I wanted to wait 'till this weekend since my intuition has always been that the original release date announced, in late May, would not prove practical for one reason or another.

I guessed right, too, since the news about the release date change came a week ago today in a post by Florrie herself at her website, ending

There will be more news coming over the next few days as it gets closer to the new deadline :) Sorry that you guys have to wait a bit longer, but I promise it'll be worth it!

http://florrie.com/home/2011/5/23/florrie-ep-good-news-ep-bad-news.html

Since I last posted on her back on March 5th, 2011 in a post titled, Say hello to Florrie - She's musically ship-shape in Bristol fashion, always equipped with a beat & melody -and has a voice & face you won't forget, I've come across her very useful BBC artist page, which has links to all of her various appearances on the myriad channels of the BBC mother-ship, national and local.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/9ef62999-43b9-408f-9bc8-434b005c388c

Earlier this month Florrie was the cover subject of the Sunday Times Style supplement and someone, perhaps one of the perceptive management consultants she uses, even was smart enough to see the wisdom and humor of snapping a photo of her reading the magazine with just one eye peering above the magazine.

http://oohbrilliant.com/tagged/Florrie

http://xenomania.net/post/5362986883/florrie-is-in-the-sunday-times-style-magazine

Check out that March post of mine out and then check the following for more info on this amazing dynamo:

Florrie's official website, where you listen to her introductory EP, with FREE downloads:

http://florrie.com/

Florrie's official YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/florriemusic

And we'll now end this post with her song from last year that still pops into my head every week at the strangest of times. Where was this song when I was at IU and could've used it?

Florrie - Give Me Your Love (2010)

http://youtu.be/5z_lxO14xcs

Say hello to Florrie - She's musically ship-shape in Bristol fashion, always equipped with a beat & melody -and has a voice & face you won't forget @Florrie

Channel 4's T4: Introducing Florrie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf4bu1O0HKs

Say hello to Florrie - She's musically ship-shape in Bristol fashion, always equipped with a beat & melody -and has a voice and face you won't forget. She's sort of like a fabulous Julie Christie-inspired musical Pied Piper for the 21st Century that you take an instant liking to.
And Florrie Arnold, she's a charmer, this one!

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Dolce & Gabana Channel: Their online magazine, SWIDE, scores an EXCLUSIVE interview with Florrie Arnold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKN4CWr_UeA



Florrie - Give Me Your Love (Nottingham Rock City, September 2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z_lxO14xcs
I just love this song and the way they perform it!
This is what LIVE performances ought to be like!




Florrie - Sunday Girl -Recorded in Paris, 2011 (Blondie cover)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaTu3yH8wKA


Florrie's official website, where you listen to her introductory EP, with FREE Downloads: http://florrie.com/

Florrie's official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/florriemusic
Florrie's Twitter feed,  @Florrie https://twitter.com/Florrie

ii
T4's official YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/T4

Dolce & Gabana's official YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/dolcegabbanachannel

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Florrie Arnold - Sunday Girl (Blondie Cover)
Musique de la publicité Nina Ricci "Nina L'Elixir"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bljxxfe8AsY




Blondie - Sunday Girl (1979)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obwanhb6kww