Familjen’s Spinning in My Head

Findlay Brown’s Love You Will Find You

A former bare-knuckle boxer from Yorkshire, England (for real), Findlay Brown was heralded by many as the UK’s answer to Jose Gonzales when his debut album, Separated By The Sea, was released on Peacefrog Records in 2007. Love Will Find You moves beyond his earlier folk sound to a more ambitious — and soulful — place. Produced by Bernard Butler (Suede), the album features songs that are lush and intimate, influenced as much by Phil Spector and Ennio Morricone as by Roy Orbison or The Beatles. The album came together while Brown was stuck on his sister’s couch nursing a broken leg, having been run over by a cab driver: ‘I’d already started going back and listening to a lot of records I’d grown up on, like Elvis Presley, soul music, doo wop, Phil Spector, The Righteous Brothers and the like. I had an idea about making a modern record influenced by the songwriting of the late 50s and early 60s. I just started writing, trying to work out what made a universally great song, like Stand By Me. These new songs are the first part of that process’. You can download his new single, Holding Back The Night, for free in our Music Download section.

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John Butler Trio’s Oceans

This is a fantastic piece of guitar playing. The John Butler Trio have been tearing up the roots scene Down Under for years now, and you can see why. He looks like your average nu-age folk singer-songwriter, but his obvious deep-rooted connection to the guitar — as demonstrated by his staggering sense of rhythm and chord structure — are pretty exceptional.

Richard Swift

The Cold War Kids gave a heads-up to this guy in their My Secret Playlist last week. Without knowing anything about him, I headed to his Myspace page, plugged in, and let the trembling rhythm and howling vocals of Would You wash right over me. Plucked straight from the Motown textbook, the music cuts deep. There’s so much soul coming out of this guy it’s alarming, seemingly so many years carried on his shoulder you’d expect him to be old and wrinkled by now. But when you find out he’s far from that, the jauntiness and humour coming through in his writing suddenly falls into place. The lyrics are quirky, the music is mature yet so fresh and lively, and he has an almost unparalleled ability to glide across genres. His latest EP, Ground Trouble Jaw, can be downloaded for free at the Secret Canadian website. Listen to the Richard Swift track, Would You.

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Bear Hunter rug

Designed by artist Lise Lefebvre, this reformed vintage wool Persian style carpet gives you a once in a lifetime opportunity to walk all over a grizzly. Just don’t practice on the real deal.

Cake Pops

Hmmm, hmmm. Cake Pops are creative little vignettes of sweet, sweet goodness, and they’re springing up faster than all good mouths can eat them. Read more

Stop-motion tattoo art

Filmed over four hours, this stop-motion video shows Dabe Alan getting a tattoo from artist Tony Touch, all done in a way so it looks like the tattoo is being done itself.