Snipe yourself some Ja Ja Ja tickets

We at Snipe have teamed up with London’s monthly Nordic music showcase Ja Ja Ja to offer you readers the first of many opportunities to win yourself some free tickets.

After being ashed off by “the Icelandic volcano” in April, Ja Ja Ja’s organisers have fingers crossed for the safe passage of this month’s artists: Finnish songbird Manna, Danish indiepop trio No & The Maybes, and Icelandic folklord Snorri Helgason (pictured). The bands were hand picked by Music Week‘s Stuart Clark, and the night runs in partnership with music video hub MUZU and the freshly relaunched music site The Line Of Best Fit.

To enter, head down to our Twitter and retweet this post. Two winners will be chosen at random on Monday and contacted by Twitter direct message, so make sure you log in in case you won.

Cry, Cry Baby

Oui Love: Gallic invasion of the UK

Those crazy French from over the channel have announced another leg of the ongoing Oui Love project. Four of the best and brightest Gallic bands (this time The Shoes, Curry & Coco, Revolver and the intriguingly titled Bewitched Hands On The Tops Of Our Heads) will be shipped into the UK over the next few weeks to tour the length and breadth of the country. They’ll play the French Revolution night at The Macbeth in Shoreditch on May 14th, also stopping off at The Great Escape in Brighton and Sound City in Liverpool.

To examine the evidence, pop over to the Oui Love Myspace.

Future Islands In Evening Air

Twisted synth-pop trio Future Islands are set to release their new album “In Evening Air” this month on Thrill Jockey. With it’s cracked crooning over distorted, echoing backing, “Tin Man” is a pretty good example of what they’re all about. Part cabaret and part psychodrama, Future Islands are a fascinatingly weird bunch of pop deviants.

www.myspace.com/futureislands

Born Free

This is the new M.I.A. video everyone’s been talking about since YouTube pulled it last week. It’s by the same chap who made the censor-baiting “Stress” video for Justice, and it’s an equally unsafe for work mini-feature on state brutality. The song itself is a direct lift from Suicide‘s “Ghost Rider”, right down the the rewritten reverb-ridden vocals – and it’s great.

Daily MPfree: Standard Fare

I’ve been pretty hung up on Sheffield three-piece Standard Fare‘s heartfelt indie-pop lately. What initially seemed simplistic has been revealed as smart and engaging, via strikingly honest lyrics about relationship woe. Their debut record ‘The Noyelle Beat’ is out on TheeSPC, and they support Allo Darlin’ at the Lexington on June 15th.

www.myspace.com/standardfare

What Can The Matter Be?

Some days you really do just want to start worshiping the internets, and today is one of ‘em. For one of the best music blogs there is, Delicious Scopitone, has released another fantastic free compilation of hazy, dreamy lost-pop songs. It comes with the strangest feeling that we’ve heard these songs before, a kind of creeping, nostalgic, washed-out déjà-vu…

Get it here.

Whale Watching Cancelled; How Come That Blood?

MP3: How Come That Blood?

NYC-based proto-folk innovator Sam Amidon is one of the many with touring plans grounded by the volcano Eyjafjallajökull in recent weeks; but Amidon, unlike some English tabloids, could never see Iceland as a villain. Amidon is one of the key players in the Bedroom Community scene, led by esteemed producer Valgeir Sigurðsson. The label’s Whale Watching tour (also set to feature mercurial composer Nico Muhly, Ben Frost, and Sigurðsson himself) was due to arrive at London’s Barbican last week but has been ashed off after months of meticulous planning.

Lucky then that we have Amidon’s latest album “I See The Sign” to chase away the volcano blues. Another wonderfully natural combination of traditional folk music and striking contemporary arrangements, “I See A Sign” is one of the essential records of 2010 so far. Opening track “How Come That Blood?” is a dark tale of murder and confession told over shuffling rhythms and wandering string arrangements, and a perfect introduction to Amidon’s world.

Listen to works by the whole Bedroom Community on their MySpace.

Incoming Transmissions

The National Student Newspaper have released their second Incoming Transmissions MP3 compilation. It’s another survey of weird and wonderful bands from all over the world, and it’s the right price – yours today for £0.00.

Tonight: Mount Eerie

Phil Elverum of celebrated US cult act The Microphones plays London’s Scala tonight under the guise of Mount Eerie.