Swedesplease – The Swedish Music Blog

Lost Penguin is the umbrella by which Simon Stalenhag encompasses his music, art and writings. As well as being an actual persona that Simon has taken on. While Swedesplease is typically about just great Swedish music today’s post encapsulates several mediums and Simon is rather adept them all. Here’s an example of his art, a piece called Men At Work.

And here’s a couple links to his rather old school, techno pop tracks:

Cleveland Torso Killer
Poor Dullard

Here’s some writing with drawings. Link. The whole multimedia experience is rather troubling to tell you the truth. Visit his website Lost Penguin and explore the inner recesses of Simon’s mind.

Torr has the new Cardigans’ single up at his site, probably won’t last long so get over there. It’s called “I Need Some Fine Wine, And You Need To Be Nicer”.

I’ve been corrected on Pete Thompson’s web presence and he does indeed have one (thanks Avi). Visit his site here. Download another of his songs below, the beautiful guitar based ballad “Endless Nights”.

Endless Nights

Besides the fact that Pete Thompson recorded a record with Bjorn Kleinholz I know nothing of the man. He’s got no web presence to speak of. Johnny Bratton Records has a link to this song callede White Shoes but no other information. Enjoy this song…

White Shoes

There’s some music by Bjorn Kleinholz and Pete Thompson over at It’s A Trap. Early in 2005 they put out a record together called Pigbone 3000. Click here to visit It’s A Trap and download any/all of the songs off that record.

I’ve been doing this for awhile and I’ve received lots of emails with suggestions, I’ve surfed the web till I’m blue in the face and my eyes are watering, I’ve combed through pop and rock magazines and I’ve searched through bins of new and old music at the cd store. So I am still astounded when I discover more music from the rather small nation of Sweden, especially when it comes wrapped in my preferred musical genre – American roots music. The band that’s got me so excited this morning is Former Beauty Queen.

FBQ formed in the summer of 2004 and have two releases under their belt. It’s basically a duo comprised of Johan and Jimmy. Their two cd singles are untitled and a little rough which suits the music to a T. It’s nearly impossible not to hear Uncle Tupelo in some of these songs (esp. “Too Sweet A Heart” which sounds very similar to “Front Porch”). I’m tempted to put all 7 songs up for you but I think I’ll just put three of the best and then you can visit their site for the other 4.

Too Sweet A Heart
Our Private Mardi Gras

Web Exclusive
Goodbye, Good Ridance

Fellow Chicagoan’s Shake Your Fist has a comprehensive overview of Swedish band Mainliners. Comparing their garage rock to both The Hives and The Animals (links to songs from both- nice!) Go there to get 3 songs from their debut Bring On The Sweet Life.

I’ve been wanting to write about Anna Ternheim for quite a while. But I don’t have any of her music and she and her label were unresponsive to multiple email inquiries. So Womenfolk beat me to it. Visit Womenfolk now for the down low on AnnaTernheim and Sophie Zelmani.

I think he also bettered me with the name of his post – Swede Tooth.

Egad (I don’t know the Swedish translation for that one)! I blew it by leaving off this song from my recent Tokyo Eyes post (here).

Tori Spelling Wears Me Out

Taken from the Tokyo Eye ep on Yellow Mica Recordings called Fuck You, Idiot!

I’m told that Dungen are making a stir on the Swedish scene. In fact after playing Intonation Fest and some shows in New Jersey and Philadelphia they are making quite a little stir here in the states. Dungen is the brainchild of Gustav Ejstes and he is creating a sound called “folkrockpsych”.

They’ll have a new record out soon on Subliminal Sounds in Sweden and Kemado in the US. Here’s the link to one song off the new record.

Panda

The above was my first stab at this post, nothing revelatyory and nothing new as “Panda” has been posted on a quite a few blogs. But then today my luck changed when a copy of ta det lungt crossed my path. This is the US version to be released on August 2nd by Kemado Records.

So now we’ve got a couple more songs to add to the post and I’m actaually happy with the result. Here’s the title track and Bortglomd:

Ta Det Lungt
Bortglomd

Preorder your copy now through Amazon.

Some of the music from Sweden, like music from any other place, is influenced by the past. And some is an outright copy of the past. Montt Mardie is an example of the latter. And this is not a bad thing, if the copy is nearly as good as the original and in this case it is. Montt bases his music on equal parts Duran Duran and Motown. In fact he’s named his record label Monttown.

He grew up in Varmmdo just outside of Stockholm and is the grandson of the owner of two of the “greatest” fashion stores ever (puss och kram, pagelle). He also sites Joy Division and The Beatles but if you hear any Joy Division in these two songs I’d like to hear where. His cd-r is out now and his first live performance was July 22 (hope that went well!). I’m not sure where you’ll be able to buy the cd-r but if you must have it you can email Montt at monttmardie@hotmail.com.

If you’d like to learn more about Montt Mardie he was profiled in the excellent Swedish pop magazine Digfi. Click here to read more.

High School Drama
Changed

Tokyo Eye are the second band to have their release come out on Vapen & Godis. The first was My Enemy which garned some raves on the net among the Swedish music cognisanti. Tokyo Eyes’ sound is early Sonic Youth (think EVOL) even down to Kim and Thurston’s voices and guitars. It’s punk though through and through, don’t get me wrong. I mean it’s a 7″ for goodness sake called Vindictive and look at their hair. And they’re not a day over 17 by the looks of it.

Tokyo Eye’s Vindictive is out now. Buy it through the Vapis & Godis web shop here.

Rejection and Vindication
Conversation

Olof Brostrom records for My Secret Garden. His website contains links to to much of his work. I’m intrigued by the electronic soundscapes and the industrial vocals. It certainly reminds me of all the electronic music I listened to back in the day (1000 Homo Dj’s, Foetus, etc) but with the rpm’s turned way down and the vocals heavily processed.

Olaf is certainly prolific with three releases from 2005 available on the label site – My Secret Garden. Sample his work here at his website and then visit My Secret Garden to buy.

Backdoors
In A Trailer Park
Now I Sit On A Porch Trying To Make Sense

Dorotea has a new record out on Smashing Time. I’ve found a couple new and old mp3′s from this catchy jangly punk band.

My Guilty Conscience
Decent (from their first ep)

On an unrelated note Anika of Hello Saferide takes the helms of the great blog Said The Gramaphone today. She uses her pedestal to shed some light on a US band I hadn’t heard of but now like, The Galactic Heroes. Visit Said The Gramaphone now and then hope on over to Songs:Illinois for a snippet from her new single “My Best Friend”.

The Legends have a new record out in August on Labrador. Relax I don’t have it yet. And Labrador hasn’t put up any new songs. But to tide you all over and I know you need it, here are two songs from The Legends.

Call It Ours
Make It all Right

PS On an unrelated note Nicolai Dunger is taking the U.S. by storm. He’s getting a lot of press on this tour and combined with the recent press on Dungen and David Fridlund it’s making the arguement for a new renaissance of Swedish music. Here’s a link to Nicolai’s appearance on the most loved public radio show in the country; KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic.

I don’t always have to have a story to tell about how I hear of a band but today I do. A friend of Dexter’s Moon emailed me with a link to their homepage just in case I might like it. He was being too modest and humble – it’d be hard not to like the music of Dexter’s Moon.

Consisting of five residents of Stockholm, the mastermind behind Dexter’s Moon is Jenny Kellerman (she’s the sister of yesterday’s post – Tiger Lou and also has a brother in the band
Statemachine). Her bio says that at some point she decided to make music instead of date guys in bands. This was a wise decision. Her music has been described as filmic lo-fi country. It’s got a little Cowboy Junkies and Over The Rhine but she list her other influences as Ben Gibbard, Colin Meloy and Joey Burns.

Here’s two songs from her debut record Come Rain. Buy it here from CombatDiscRecords.

(Fucked Up) Love Story
Voodoo Song

The Swedish label Groover Records is responsible for a lot of great music being on the planet. Aside from their releases by individual artists they also have a cover compilation project ongoing. The first was Jeans & Covers, then came Jeans & Summer 1 and 2. Now they’re working on Gene & Cover – A Tribute to Gene Clark. They’re actively looking for bands and requested that I get the word out. So email Christian here if you are interested – christian@grooverrecordings.com

Gene Clark – Ain’t Living Long Like This

Tiger Lou is a busy little feline. Besides his main band the staight up rock band (Tiger
Lou), he’s got a solo record out in October and a project with his wife (Andrea from Firefox) called Las Puertas out now. While the smoothed out sounds of Tiger Lou’s single “Sellout” actually lead me to think he has sold out, the sounds coming out of his other projects make me think he’s just compromised a little. Here’s “Sell Out” from Tiger Lou’s V2 release Is My Head Still On but the track was taken off of Riptide Records website who are releasing the vinyl only version (thanks Riptide).

Sellout

Las Puertas lets it all hang out. They are rough and tumble and it sounds like they are really having fun. Distortion abounds and Andrea’s vocals are more yelled than sung. This project is an attempt by both Andrea (Firefox) and Rasmus (Tiger Lou) to exorcize the demons of working on their main musical projects. So their new record was written one night and recorded the next. It’s available on their own label, CombatDiscRecords.

Here’s Their songs “Dedication”

Dedication

To Stream three songs off of Firefox’s first ep What’s That Sound click here.

The Help Me Please is Jonas Johnsson. He’s got a new limited edition 3 track single called A Little Love. It’s limited to 70 copies so get yours now.

Jonas creates a full pop sound playing all the instuments and adding his voice. I’ve written about his music before here. Here’ his new single, this is an internet exclusive and I thank Jonas for that. Buy it now here or here.

A Little Love

I’m a sucker for trumpet in pop music. So I like the song “New Day Of Everything” from This Morning Orchestra. This pop band from Sweden has a couple of releases since their debut in 2002. Their newest came out in February 2005 on Burning Hearts Records and features the song above. Visit their website for more information and mp3′s from all of their previous releases.

New Day Of Everything

Bonus track

Howard

Hollywoodland’s got The Shout Out Louds’ “Shut Your Eyes”. check out this post and then scour the rest of the site for fascinating glimpses of life in Hollywood (music, film, pop culture).

You think you’ve heard it all but then someone throws Apocalyptic Neo Folk at you and you have to start all over again. Apparently there are countless bands playing in this neo classical gothic folk style. Many of them Swedish (and German). Two such bands have combined to put out one of the most eagerly anticipated records of it’s kind (these are the labels word not mine).

To me I can’t get over the Spinal Tap aspects of this sound and lyrical content. But maybe you’ll think otherwise here’s a sampling from Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio and Spiritual Front’s new record, Somewhere Between Nihilism and Equilibrium. God I hope these guys aren’t Nazi’s or Fascist’s!!

Three Is An Orgy, Four Is Forever
Autopsy of Love