Rock music has always been associated with electric guitars. that's why I found Headlamp to be a very courageous and extremely interesting band. You see, Chuck Criss, the main man behind Headlamp, decided to make a rock album without the use of an electric guitar.

Instead he simply recorded banjo, acoustic guitar, piano, bass, and drums which sounds great altogether. Without the presence of an electric guitar, the tunes are much more piano driven, which is always a good thing for piano suckers like me.

Criss and the rest aren't signed yet, but that doesn't stop them from working hard and preforming all over Manhattan. Their upcoming show will take place this friday at Piano's. Here's a sample of what you should expect to:

If you follow our blog, you must be aware of our Swedish obsession. It's not that we are all happy people, and it's not because all Swedish girls are blond and hot, it's simply because Swedish indie pop rocks!

So, after having fun with Suburban Kids with Biblical Names and Irene, crying with El Perro Del Mar, Dancing with I'm from Barcelona and feeling proud of Jens Lekman, I am thrilled to share with you my latest Swedish discovery: A Smile and a Ribbon.

A Smile and a Ribbon have actually been out there for a while and released their debut album last September, but I figured that if I only just heard of them, surely some of you haven't been exposed to their magic as well.

This great combo is made up of Rebecca Mehlman and Martin Lindqvist, who took Rebecca's misfortunes in love and made an album out of it. On their MySpace page, they describe themselves as the musical equivalent of a lemon pie and I couldn't agree more - their music is sweet and yummy with a twist of sourness.

Usually, we don't post live shows videos. but it's dedicated to Darren Hayman, and we L-O-V-E him.

If this description is not enough for you, I can also say that their album, "The Boy I Wish I Never Met", derives its influences from 50's girl bands and 90's twee and contains 10 awesome songs that will probably make you fall in love with Rebecca Mehlman.

So go ahead, enjoy another Swedish wonder and thank me later.

Download: A Smile and a Ribbon - The Boy I Wish I Never Met

Download: A Smile and a Ribbon - Pebbles

Download: A Smile and a Ribbon - Book Cover

As technology moves forward, new lo-fi musicians pop up every other day. The three members of the iBand, seem to take the tech and music connection a bit too seriously.

For those of you who haven't heard, the iBand is the last word in today's DIY music scene; their musical instruments are solely comprised of 2 iPhones and an iPod touch.

The idea is amazing. What's more, the iPod and iPhone are the ultimate tools for creating great lo-fi music: they are accessible, not really expensive and can be easily self taught. The music you can produce is intimate and simple, making it ultimately extremely moving.

Marina, Seb and Roger from iBand, were the first to see and carry out the potential of the iPhone. On their website they seem to emphasize the fact that they chose these tools, not out of necessity, but out of beliefs and ideals:

"Although skilled in a range of conventional music instruments, we choose the iPhone and iPod touch to create our music" and they go on saying "you can use the technical development to realize yourself and use the life that is given to you to seek something higher".

These words, on the top of their website, make you wonder- does it really matter? If they would have used the iPhone because they couldn't find a real piano, would it make the music sound differently?

Seems like these guys knew they are onto something and thought they better have an agenda to support their innovation.

And this so called agenda doesn't end in their website. The second video and first mp3, "life is greater then the internet", sends out the clear message that life is what happens when you're not online.

These lyrics, if I may add, are not as witty or intelligent as you may expect from musical pioneers. In fact, the words sung above the beautiful iPhone sounds are as childish as the message they are trying to send out.

They sing lines like "a video can't help you when you cry" and "internet is a time killer". Hey, if the iBand are so tech-savvy, why are they such tech-haters? With lyrics like these, it gets very hard to take them seriously.

But even with these downfalls, their creativity is undeniable and they just might be the first iPhone musicians. If all else, they have opened a way for someone who'll execute this great idea in a better manner.

More iPhone musicians to follow or not, no one can't take from the iBand the magic in their music when they shut up. Perhaps it's way too early to judge them and they will learn and get better along the way, but as my favorite lo-fi musician once wrote, some things are best left unsaid ("Love connection", Casiotone For The Painfully Alone).

After Hefner broke up, Darren Haymen did a lot of forgetable things. But now he's back - sharp, witty and charming as ever. It’s probably because he is kinda doing Hefner songs again.

Let me start off with an off-topic explanation – I know that lately we haven’t been updating the music blog as much as we used to. I’m sorry about that. But let me assure you that soon enough we will be right back on track! What can we say? 8hands is growing, and you can expect a lot of surprises from us in the near future – site wise and app wise. Things will just get better round here! Now, let’s start talking about da man, Darren Hayman.

Most of you will probably know Darren Hayman from the astonishing work that he did while he was the lead singer of Hefner. If you ever heard anything by Hefner, you probably fell in love with Hayman’s endless geeky charm, his perfect voice, and of course, his way with words. He had this magical ability to deliver purely cynical thoughts, without a trace of anger or bitterness.

But not everything about Hefner was perfect. They had three brilliant pop-folk-rock studio albums and a ton of b-sides before they have decided, like the rest of the world in those 2001 days, to try their luck with synths and electronics. They brought us ‘Dead Media’ – one hell of a boring album, and probably the cause of the Hefner’s threesome going their separate and unknown ways. The only one I’ve tried to follow was Darren Hayman.

At first he went to a project called The French – another electronic outfit, which released a decent album, but didn’t leave any real marker except from that one “Wu-Tang Clan” song (can’t find it to put it here legally for ya, but look for it or buy it. It’s an amzing song). Sadly, it kinda went down the hill from there.

Hayman started to put out lots of solo releases: eps, 7 inches, even an album – alone, all by himself, recorded at home without a backing band. That’s when I got it! Apparently, Hayman isn’t the bedroom-singer-songwriter we thought he was. When he was alone, the songs didn’t sound right, too much was missing. Around the beginning of 2006, I’d lost hope and stopped trying. I thought to myself, “We will always have Hefner”, and popped ‘The Fidelity Wars’ in the stereo. Only god knows what made me google Hayman’s name a few weeks ago.

I found out that by the end of 2007, Hayman released a new album, with a band! The band's name is Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern and the album’s title is just the same. And how is the music? Awesome! Haymen is back to guitars, back to what he does best, back to… doing Hefner!

I mean… I love electronics, and I appreciate it when musicians try out new stuff. I really do. But when it comes to Hayman, I just want him to deliver those great lyrics over some beautiful catchy and melodically soft rockn’roll, and that is exactly what happens in Darren Hayman and the Secondary Modern. So, if you ever had a soft place in your heart for Hefner (and I assume you did, after all, you are not robots!) you will love this new album. Just trust me on this one.

Ok, I'm not gonna write a 10 million words post just to explain why Xiu Xiu is one of the best bands in the world. We all know that Jamie Stewart is a genius, we all remember the brilliant former album, "The Air Force".

All I'm about to do is to let you people know – the ones who somehow missed it – that Xiu Xiu will be back with a new album by the end of the month. The shiny album will be called "Women as Lovers" and the first single, "I Do What I Want When I Want" is already out there and as you probably assumed, is beautiful.

You can download the full song here or just watch the official video for it, which is just my idea of art. Spectacular!

Edit: The all-mighty Alice just told me that Xiu Xiu are letting us stream-listen their whole new album in their MySpace page. Double SWEEEET!