Alpaca Sports is a Swedish indie pop band founded in Gothenburg (SE) in 2011 by Andreas Jonsson, Amanda Åkerman and Carl Jirestedt. Their music has a cheerful yet bittersweet vibe, with catchy melodies and romantic lyrics. Influenced by twee pop and C86, they’ve released a couple of EPs and two albums: Sealed with a Kiss in 2014, through Dufflecoat Records, and From Paris With Love in 2018, on Spanish label Elefant Records, and have gradually gained a lot of fans around the world. Portland, Oregon (US) based multi-instrumentalist Lisle Mitnik (Fireflies, Tiny Fireflies, Very Truly Yours) joined Alpaca Sports in 2014 for the release of the mini album When You Need Me The Most (their first release with the Spanish record label Elefant Records,) and has since then been writing the songs together with Andreas. The group has toured worldwide, including shows in New York, London, Paris, and Madrid, been on two tours of Japan, and played several popfests around the world. Now they’re back with their third album, Another Day, once again produced by Ian Catt (Saint Etienne, The Field Mice, Trembling Blue Stars) and released by Elefant. The album’s ten songs celebrate the hazy spaces and golden hours when the day turns into night, when summer becomes fall, and all the other in-betweens in our lives that are full of fears, doubts, hopes and dreams.

Rocky Lorelei represents the solo lo fi musical work of Rachel Taylor (also member of Slipper), who was born and raised beside Lake Ontario in Toronto, and is currently set up in Berlin. Her musical processes run parallel to her psychic processes; writing and recording songs is her most vital means of cultivating an understanding of her inner and outer life experiences, bringing a symmetry to her music and her sense of self. Began as just bedroom recordings in Toronto, when Rocky moved to Glasgow in 2016 -encouraged by Sean Armstrong (Spinning Coin, The Yawns, Slipper)- she also moved the project onto the stage. “Rocky Lorelei began as a bedroom recording project in around 2012 in Toronto; a dear friend gifted me a 4-track, and off I went into the strange and tiny world of recording onto cassette, a zone which I have remained in ever since. I figured out how to record and produce my songs on my own (with a little help from my friends) and then spent some time writing, recording, and releasing a couple of EP’s in my room, up until I moved from Toronto to the UK in 2015. I eventually landed in Glasgow (Scotland) and it was there that Rocky Lorelei became a live project as well. Since then I have moved to Berlin, where I continue to document aspects of my psychic life through songs, to record them onto tape, and to play them live. I have co-founded a cassette label here, called Rehberge Records, through which my collaborator Sean Armstrong and I release our work —our most recent release being my new album Bury My Face In A Flower“.

The Ladybug Transistor were a Brooklyn-based indie pop group associated with The Elephant Six Collective. Started in 1995 by Gary Olson, Edward Powers and Javier Villegas, the band quickly released Marlborough Farms on Park N’ Ride Records. With Jeff Baron and Jennifer Baron added to the lineup, they released Beverley Atonale in 1997, this time on Merge Records. Powers left the band, and the remaining members, with San Fadyl and Sasha Bell of The Essex Green, embarked on a United States tour. With a more stable lineup, the band released The Albemarle Sound in 1999, as well as added violinist Julia Rydholm, also of The Essex Green, to the lineup. In 2001, Argyle Heir was released, and the band released a self-titled album in 2003 which was recorded in their own Marlborough Farms studio. In April 2006, Fadyl began fighting serious asthma attacks that led to his death in 2007. The band released its sixth album, Can’t Wait Another Day, the same year. This line-up included Kyle Forester (Crystal Stilts) and Ben Crum of Great Lakes.For their seventh album, Clutching Stems, Olson, Forester and Rydholm gathered new recruits Mark Dzula (The Magic Caravan, Jukebox Radio), Eric Farber (The Lisps), and Michael O’Neill (MEN). The album, recorded once again at Marlborough Farms studio and Sunset Cottage, Poconos, was released in 2011 via Merge Records and was their last record.
The Ladybug Transistor are now back with an expanded 25th Anniversary reissue and tour for their timeless indiepop classic album The Albemarle Sound.