I heard this band several weeks ago, and had this terrible experience, of having not quite caught the name...

They're a great band. I have no idea which track I heard first, it sounded a bit like Television. But this track (their single) is an altogether more swaggering affair...

Sometimes a track simply leaps out in 3D from your speakers, and the following is one of those special tracks.

If you like Regina Spektor, Joan As Police Woman, Fiona Apple... then you will absolutely love the song "Dream On Girl" by Rita Redshoes. It's a pop gem and I think will get a much-deserved breakout, very soon.

Rita Redshoes currently plays piano with the Peter Fonseca band, but she's a talented vocalist in her own right, with a voice like molten honey, and she plays drums and bass as well. Her profile in Portugal (for she is based in Lisbon) has been hotting up with a showcase gig for FNAC, just performed; she's been featured as part of a FNAC-produced CD compilation highlighting "FNAC New Talent 2007".

She keeps a personal weblog here.

... but the best place to visit is her MySpace.

This Lisbon band have only been around since 2003, but already Feromona have managed to push several singles into airplay on Radar and Antena 3, the big commercial stations in Portugal.

Angular and funky to the extreme, they call themselves a "power trio" and they cite the Pixies and Sebadoh as influences. They really are just your straight-ahead band of drums, guitar, bass and vocals, but they make so much, out of so little, the songwriting carries the day.

Here it is, Friday rolled round again, who am I going to go home with this weekend?

Well, just in time to save me, come Spartak! These fine gentlemen have a 5-song EP available for your listening pleasure, have a peek down their official site.

"King Tubby" is the airplay track, and a jovial cut of Spoon-like friendliness it is. But I particularly like "SpartakOne": it has a strong hook and reminds me of the Scissors For Lefty track "Ghetto Ways", one of my favourite tracks from last year.

In their press clippings their EP is roughly described (pardon my very bad translation):

"Spartak! have distinguished, with their EP, the best debut moment in pop we’ve heard of its kind since 2004. It’s a cocktail of good references to discover in a collection of five songs, that demonstrates why it’s continually a good reason to be attentive to the center of the country [Portugal]." Fine praise indeed!

MySpace here.

My Iberian trawl continues apace, with this delightful slice of C86-style pop from the Porto-based Weatherman. I instantly thought "is it the Weathermen?" before I realized it was not. I then thought of the Weather Prophets "Almost Prayed", mixed with a bit of Beck and the Bees.

"About Harmony" is the most perfect track on their MySpace, so good I listened to it three times in a row! They've also posted a new video there too. Luckily for those of us with rubbish Portuguese, there's lots of English news on the official website.

Update: new single is located here.

Give me a new vein of musical gold to mine, and I'm at my happiest. I've discovered a few Portuguese bands over the past few weeks, which have been making my musical life very pleasant.

Stowaways formed in 2001 in Matosinhos, Portugal and had a bit of a minor local hit with the splendid track "Amputated Leg" in 2002. Their second record was released in October of 2006.

Their music is a concoction of what I'd call "junk shop vintage," a truly unique music hall blend of tinkly piano, close vocals, bluegrass guitar, and most of all a sense of humour! But their music isn't difficult or twee at all; it's very cutting edge and like nothing I've ever heard. Get yourself over to their MySpace and have a listen.

Here's a video for "Charity Fucker", featuring some very clever lyrics and even more clever card tricks:

Charity Fucker

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As I freely admitted in a previous post, I am open to re-considering just about any band, if they put out music which stands on its own merits.

Radar have been playing the single "Down By Flow" and I've been quite pleasantly surprised by it, in a background way. "I really have to give Scissor Sisters much more credit than I have in the past," I thought.

Well, duh, it's not Scissor Sisters! It's Micro Audio Waves. They are ten times, no, twenty times better than Scissor Sisters. They are from Portugal and make bleepy electronica fit around a perfect pop structure. Occassional falsetto singing included. Their new album Odd Size Baggage is out now.

MySpace here.