The ginger-haired 9-year-old feels as relevant today as she did when she made her first fictional appearance in 1945 – not to mention during her heyday in the 1970s, when gender equality in Sweden was heavily debated. Pippi broke and revolted against many norms, for instance related to gender, age and class. What to buy: Hero Anthem is released by Racing Junior on April 30, with Dizzy Kiss to follow in May.As for the awe-inspiring Pippi Långstrump, she’s a thoroughly independent orphan who is strong enough to lift a horse above her head.

Least likely to: Petition for the Beach Boys to reform for a performance of Kokomo.įile next to: My Bloody Valentine, Stereolab, Phoenix, Neutral Milk Hotel. Most likely to: Petition for Brian Wilson to perform Mount Vernon And Fairway (A Fairy Tale) in its entirety, live, complete with original narration by Jack Rieley. The truth: The bridge between Camden and California, basically. The buzz: 'A widescreen, psychedelic colossus juxtaposing the serenity of Slowdive with the blissful chamber pop of Brian Wilson, all swirling organs and dreamy hooks.'

Elsewhere, there are echoes of My Bloody Valentine's steep-gradient dreampop and the lo-fi loveliness of the Elephant 6 collective. 50 Souls And A Discobowl, from the forthcoming album Dizzy Kiss, nods to the slickly exuberant studio productions of French cousins Phoenix and Tahiti 80, while single Hero Anthem, with its Smile organ sound and relentless pace, recalls the melodic motorik of Stereolab, and Blue Wedding sounds like Brian Wilson at his croakily damaged solo extreme.

(Huh? We thought you went to Bluewater, especially if you're bad.) Growing up, schoolfriends Forsgren and Storset shared an intense love for the movie, partly because they identified with the poignant plight of the chronically-ill 10-year-old, and partly because they wanted the actors' Monkees (as opposed to Monkeys, or monkeys) haircuts.Ĭomprising two members of Serena Maneesh, the Lionheart Brothers are one of those bands who use mid-60s Beach Boys and Byrds as a launch-pad for their experiments in space-pop. The background: There's a big blog buzz surrounding this Norwegian quintet named after the boys in Astrid Lindgren's enchanting The Brothers Lionheart, a 1973 book (and a 1977 film) about Nangijala, a fantasy land beyond the stars where you go after you die.

The brothers lionheart