NPR.org -All Songs Considered - A couple of weeks ago, on the All Songs Considered blog, we asked listeners to tell us about their favorite bands, especially lesser-known groups. The response was overwhelming. We got hundreds of band and artist names and the vast majority of them were ones we'd never even heard of. On this edition of All Songs Considered we play some of the standouts, including music from the London-based rock group Fanfarlo, lo-fi singer-songwriter The Blow, the Australian dream pop group Augie March and more.
NPR.org -It's hard to visualize anything but spring while listening to Sweden's Marching Band. The group's debut album, Spark Large, is full of sunny pop songs that blush and sigh like a teenager in love, especially in "Make No Plans."
The song's pure power-pop melodies, nervously chiming guitars and tender vocal counterpoints all grow together like a garden in full, ecstatic bloom. There's a wonderfully earnest, wide-eyed quality to the chorus — "I'll call you on the phone / Make no plans tomorrow" — that adds to the swoonworthiness of the song and helps make it soar. Imagine Teenage Fanclub's fragile pop purism crossed with a little of The Shins' quirkiness, and the picture grows clearer.
November 20, 2008
Hollywood Music Awards - The HOLLYWOOD MUSIC AWARDS awarded MARCHING BAND for 'Best Original Song - Film' for their song "Trust Your Stomach" that appears in the Sony Pictures Film Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist.
To celebrate their win, MARCHING BAND has also been invited to perform live at the Hollywood Music Awards, to be held at the Hollywood Highlands in Los Angeles on Thursday, November 20.
October 16, 2008
Music Connection - Urband & Lazar was featured in October’s "Music Connection":
"You have likely heard Sweden-based indie-pop duo Marching Band even if you haven't been aware of it. Their publisher and record company have been having much success with film and TV placements including Gold Circle Film's My Sassy Girl, Story Film's Play the Game, and CW's Aliens in America.
The newest addition to U&L Records, a label that Urband and Lazar founded specifically to release Marching Band's debut Spark Large. 'The label is fun,' explains Lazar, 'though the meat of the company comes through the publishing side.
'Our niche is doing outside-the-box placements," he adds, a practice put to good work with some 10 TV shows weekly and 10-12 films every two months.'"
September 18, 2008
NPR – Second Stage - If The Shins played music after popping Prozac, they might come up with something similar to Spark Large, the full-length debut from the Swedish duo Marching Band. Musicians Erik Sunberg and Jacob Lind have created an album that is brimming with breezy pop songs, perfect for a rise-and-shine playlist or one final summer road trip.
September 5, 2008
RCRD LBL - Whenever I hear Swedish pop, the lo-fi sun-blissed kind, it reminds me to visit Sweden. It would only be from a little island utopia with socialized healthcare and strongly aquatic culture that such happy, ethereal music could be made. Sweden's got Greta Garbo, meatballs, the Baltic Sea, hoards of fluted instruments, bikes, boats, lingonberries, sleek minimalistic design, schnapps, some of the world's strongest coffee, and a whole lotta blondes. Musically, it's also churned out ABBA and Peter, Bjorn and John, and Lykke Li. Up next? Marching Band reminds me of Fleetfoxes with more glockenspiels and Simon & Garfunkel beat. It's enough to coerce you to move to Sweden to make smörgås sandwiches with gravalax ontop by day and I-Pod DJ by night. Click Here For The Full Review
August 30, 2008
Billboard Review – For a band that rarely tours outside of its native Sweden, Marching Band has done rather well for itself in the United States.
Urband & Lazar Music founder Jonathan Lazar signed the duo of co-songwriters Erik Sunbring and Jacob Lind to a publishing deal after he saw the group perform a random show in South Africa. "In fact," Lind says, "I think Jonathan was the only other person there."
Now, Marching Band is winning over several hundred new fans per day. Within the last two weeks, the band's MySpace page averaged 25,000-plus listens per day. Its debut full-length, "Spark Large," is the No. 2 top seller on Insound (behind the Walkmen), and the group is a featured artist on iTunes' August 2008 Indie Rock/Alternative playlist. Click Here For Full Review
"The Band: Marching Band
The Buzz: Swedish duo crafts pillowy pop, brightened with bands of psychedelia
Listen If: You spend Saturdays eating mushrooms and listening to the Shins
Key Track: "Gorgeous Behavior," which is full of twinkling guitars and cascading AM radio harmonies"
World Café - Swedish group Marching Band is comprised of the simple guitar and drum pairing of Erik Sunbring and Jacob Lind — both of whom contribute vocals on their first full length album entitled Spark Large.
Formerly known as Second Language, the duo realized their musical affinity while attending college. It was at that creatively fertile time that they began to stray from the guitars and drum and embarked on recordings which experimented with an array of atypical indie-pop instruments. The result is found in their eclectic 12 track albumSpark Large, where xylophones, banjos, marimbas and vibraphones are all freely put to work.
