Swedesplease – The Swedish Music Blog

The Chrysler are having their new record released in the US. Their Swedish label Flora and Fauna have licensed their music to the US label Galaxy Gramaphone who now fall under the larger distribution arm of Parasol. Confusing isn’t it? That’s ok at the end of the posts I’ll give you all the relevant links. In Sweden the band is considered country which is way off. In my original post on the band (here) I wrote that they sounded like an acoustic, folk-pop group but even that’s a stretch based on the new record.

Instead, with Failure and Sparks, The Chrysler have taken a gigantic step forward musically. Songs like “This Is Midnight” pay clear homage to the Velvet Underground and the Doors with it’s chorus of “I’m your man, your little white man, who thinks he can run faster than Jesus” while “Damn Staight Evil” features a recorder (?) that’s straight out of the Gorillaz’ first record. Influences are all over the map on this one but taken as a whole the record has an eerie, spooky life of it’s own. Search it out or click here, here, or here to buy it now.

This Is Midnight
Damn Straight Evil

One of 5 bonus cuts only available on the American release
While We’re Here

One of my most anticipated Swedish releases of the year is the new record from Thomas Denver Jonsson. This is in part because of his great earlier release, partly because of the special guests on this record and partially because this release has been repeatedly delayed. Now the release date is set in stone and you can pick up Barely Touching It on October 28 from Kite Recordings.

Thomas emailed with links to two of the new songs on the record and they each feature a special guest. “Dreams At The Film” comes complete with harmony vocals provided by Swedish pop star Nina Kinert (her own V2 new release is due out October 26) while Silverboy features Ned Oldham. “Silverboy” updates the classic Neil Young sound with just the right mix of feedback laden guitar solos and yearning mournfull vocals. While “Dreams…” has a more ethereal, dreamlike sound (natch) with Nina Kinart’s vocals shimmering and fluttering in and around Thomas’ quivering pinched vocals.

I wrote about Thomas Denver Jonsson way back here and linked to his songs from his first record (duets with Rosie Thomas (Sub Pop) and Damien Jurado). I don’t know of a way to buy Barely Touching It yet, we all have to wait until October 28th but bookmark this page this one or this one and return at the alloted time with cash in hand.

Silverboy
Dreams At The Film Club

Bonus mp3′s from Ned Oldham’s Anomoanom

From 2005′s Joji

Mr Train

From debut

Little Birdy

This time from the group Timbuktu and in Swedish. Timbuktu records for Juju Records. Hey I don’t know much, but this guy has a Wikipedia entry so that’s gotta count for something. For an English language speaker this is a little odd but may actually translate better than other genres since the rythym may be more important than the literal message. Perhaps that’s why The Streets have transended their London stomping grounds.

All I know for sure is this got my toe tappin’.

For Lange Sen remix
Pendelparanoia
Bla Bla Bla

Tom Levin is an unusual Swedish artist, in part because of the time he spent in Alaska and Australia and in part because of the sound of his music. Much like my upcoming post about Thomas Denver Johnson, Tom Levin’s music is as American sounding as anything coming out of the states. His mix of americana, country, bluegrass, pop and even gospel would fit on just about any AAA station in this country (compare to Josh Rouse, Robert Earl Keen or Joe Henry).

His new record, Me, My Band That I Alskar, Kasper And A Bunch Of Friends, is due out September 28 on Dead Frog Records but their website is a little out of date so best to buy it direct from Tom Levin here. Here’s “I Miss Her Missing Me” from the new record.

I Miss Her Missing Me

From 2002 debut – Saving Grandma
I Just Sing At The Ceremony

Andre Bergstrom’s got a great press quote on his website which would be a dream for any shoegazer band from the uk or any of the new generation Sub Pop bands. “`The Shape of Things’ is like a new slacker anthem” is what the Rough Trade said about this song off of his 2004 Tenant Ep on the tiny Swedish label Modesto Records.

Andrev has a number of mp3 on his site and it’s interesting to track his developemnet from a nervous young kid playing layered acoustic pop to a more polished indie stalwart of the Swedish scene. Here’s the song “The Shape Of Things” that caused a stir, plus back catalog in chronological order so you can see how his sound has progressed. Buy Tenant here.

The Shape of Things

From 2001′s Son Of Taxi Driver

My Friend Vincent

From 2002′s You Either Get It Or You Don’t

Wrapped In Your Mouth

From 2003

Where Families Come to Die

I don’t normally do this but I’ve been loving some of the songs lately on SI and Swedesplease. So here’s a mix of the latest/greates songs from the past couple of weeks.

Living The Dream – Chris Mills
Sunday Morning – Los Diablos
Somewhere There Is A Girl (Or Boy) – Bobby Baby
Froggy Went A Courting – Cankickers
Louden Up Pretty – The Sonnets
Last Night When I Was Jimmy White – Don Agbai
Good Company – Martha Berner
Skywriters – Nicole Atkins
Oil In The Fields Paul Duncan
We’re From Barcelona – I’m From Barcelona
Harness and Wheel – Kingsbury Manx
Get Sick Soon – Hello Saferide
1972 – Porchsleepers
Gimme Indie – The Hartmans
The Stupidest Thing – Shade Tree
Soul – A Healthy White Baby

I wrote about Vit Pals awhile back here (August 25). At the time I didn’t know he had a song on a Canarie Records compilation. Well now I do and as any good completist will tell you too much of anything is so much better than too few something. So here’s Vit Pals “Loving You Was Crazy Shit” off of the Ut ur garderoben och in i skogen EP.

Loving You Was Crazy Shit

Ask me what I don’t like about the Swedish label Hybrism and it’ll be a very short conversation indeed. I just got an email update on the second single from Sibiria and when I got to the site I see they took the time/energy to encode it at 192 kpbs. As a highly educated and astute audiophile I know that that means it’ll sound damn fine.

I’ve written about this new Sibiria record or the band a couple of times (here and here) but their music deserves it it and I’ve got no space, editorial or bureaucratic concerns so here goes: the new song from Sibiria from their soon to be released full length record on Hybrism titled Norrlands Inland (Sept 28).

Vem Som Helst
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To catch up on my email inbox I’m going to add a couple more songs from new Swedish bands (I hope you don’t mind!).

The Bombhappies

This band, based in Stockholm, got in touch with me about a 3 months ago. The music has been percolating for that long in my head and it got a little ripe so I will share it with you now. Here’s two new songs from The Bombhappies:

Madness
Heidi
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Second Language

Second Language is getting much better service from Swedesplease as they just emailed me last week. Second Language is Erik Sunbring and Jacok Lind, they are university students in Linkoping, Se. They have an 8 song ep you can purchase from them through their site. You can also check out their MySpace page. Here’s two songs from that ep.

Travel In Time
Southern Hemisphere

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Bobby Bay

Bobby Baby emailed the other day with news of two new songs. I’ve written about her dreamy pop before here. The two new songs just confirm what I wrote about her previousely and that is that she is making some of the most beautiful and fufilling pop in the world, it’s that simple! I can’t decide which of the two songs below I like more so make sure you download both.

Somewhere There Is a Girl (Or A Boy)
Later (Recorded Sept 17…yes that Sept 17…3 days ago)

Electro-pop and twee are fighting tooth and nail to be the winning genre in Sweden as far as I can tell. Sure, straight up indie rock (with a certain garagy feel), has gained the most success but in terms of sheer volume and quality these two other genre’s are head and shoulders above the rest.

Vapen and Goodis are lining up their autumn releases and a split 7″ with Cyndi Lee Hulko and Don Agbai looks promising and may tilt the scales in favor of electro-pop. Don Agbai may or may not be Johan Lennart and he is a mystery man with more information about his three cats than about himself on his webpage.

He does have two eps that you can buy, plus three of the four songs from his most recent ep available for free on his site. Here’s the songs and here’s the link to buy. The standout track is the elusive “Last Night, When I Was Jimmy White”, which once I googled Jimmy White, made a little more sense. Jimmy White is the world’s most popular Snooker player, his popularity rests in part on his loosing streak in the World Finals. Anyway the song repeats the chorus of being “Jimmy White but just for one night”. It’s got a lot of odd electronic textures which is just what I’m always looking for.

Last Night, When I Was Jimmy White
Dream Scenario
Das Kleinste schiff der welt

The new Hello Saferide is out in a couple of days in Sweden (Razzia, Sept 28). The new record, her debut, is called Introducing…Hello Saferide. It features the single (with a video…woo-hoo!) “If I don’t write this song, someone I know will die”. In general, from the little I’ve heard, the production has been raised a notch with overdubbed backing vocals, horns, and an all around fuller sound. But her by now trademark vocals and offbeat pop lyrics are still very much in eveidence making this my most anticpated record of the year. Her last few songs were an internet sensation written about here, here, here, here, and here. Said The Gramaphone featured her as a guest blogger as well here. Annika will be touring with a full band to recreate the sound on this record.

Razzia Records was kind enough to send me two of the songs on the record so I will share them with you. Of course show `em that you care by pre-ordering the record here.

Get Sick Soon
If I don’t write this song, someone I love will die

I started to write about the Hartman’s 4 months ago. Something happened and the post never went up. In the meantime The Hartman’s have been busy posting lots of cool music to their website. You can listen and download enough of their lo-fi songs to fill a nice mixtape.

I wouldn’t care about this Kate Moss story one iota if it wasn’t for the fact that she has a daughter. Like Courtney Love, I guarantee you Kate Moss is destroying this child’s life. She was recently quoted (before the coke videos surfaced) that she only thinks about her daughter Lola; if this is the way she thinks about her she needs some serious parenting lessons. How does this releate to today’s Swedish post you ask? The Hartmans have an appropriate song to download called “Addict”, here it is along with some of my other favorites from this promising lofi diy duo.

Addicts
Gimme Indie
Pop Music
Love that Song

And here’s a couple of their newest songs from the ep I Can Take It Cause It Won’t Make Me Fall (summer 2005).

Apathy
Productivity

Check out their website’s music section for lots more songs – enough to fill a mix cd with – you will not be disappointed.

The Swedish (at least I hope they’re Swedish) band Kin record for Yellow Mica Records. They’ve got a bunch of eps avaialable on the Yellow Mica page. But their newest song is called “Second Take” and is on the brand new 15 song compilation cd Our Hearts Beat Out Of Tune. Buy it here and make these guys happy.

Second Take

Bonus tracks from assorted Kin ep’s

The Nervous System
Another Stain On Your Shirt
Shadows
I’m Your Kin

The Horror The Horror are a band based in and around Stockholm. Mattias and Joel formed the band in 2001 and recorded demos in 2004, they have now been signed to a German label, Tapete Records.

A teaser vinyl single is expected in September and the album to follow soon after.

Twice In A Lifetime

I thought I’d covered just about every swedish genre but I guess I hadn’t. Appartently I’d missed the earnest, swedish, female singer-songwriters. Probably influenced by Michelle Shocked, Edie Brickell and Sheryl Crow; Ellenor Borgrren is well suited to this style with a big voice and a well produced sound.

Give the World To Me
Take My Hand
Big In Japan

Shade Tree wrote to me a while back and I either ignored or lost their info. What a mistake! Well they persevered and contacted me again with a new website and new music. Their new demos were recorded in May 2005. I’m liking the song “The Stupidest Thing”. And also “The Beekeeper” in which the female vocals remind me of the haunting voice of Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs.

The Stupidest Thing
The Beekeeper

Update on yesterdays post of Stars In Coma. The band has contacted me to tell you that the link to the zip file for My Sunshine Years was just temporary but that now there are three songs up from that unreleased album and one song from an ep available on Popkonst here. Here’s that one song I mentioned from the ep.

If I Could Describe

Another great Swedish band contacted me this week; Andre Brorsson and his Stars In Comas project. Instead of just one or two songs SIC is offering their latest 9 song ep, My Sunshine Years, free as a .Zip file from their site. If you like electronic textures over homespun pop than it’s your lucky day. Click here to download the .Zip file or click on a couple songs below to sample full length individual tracks.

We Grew Apart
Give Up
I Hope You Never Get Enough Of Me **Standout Track**

Well I had a whole bunch of great posts (humble, right?) lined up but then last night I came across the new one and the debut from the Swedish band The Sonnets. They’re on Dead Frog Records a growing enterprise based in Johanneshov. The band (formerly Lazy Painter Jane) is led by songwriter Per Magnussen. Their goal is to create music that will reach as many people as possible but still play the music “they wish they could find in a record shop” namely soulful pop.

They’ve done it with the 1st single “Louden Up Pretty” off of their debut long player, The Sea Storm Blows, due out on Dead Frog sometime in September (Quince Records in Japan and Darla in the States (only 12.60 not bad for an import).

Louden Up Pretty

Bonus song from debut ep

City Spark Fire

Once again I’ve got to delay today’s regularly scheduled post, this time Bedroom Records has once again thrown a wrench into all my plans. Out of the blue (and on a Sunday no less) they announce that they will be releasing the 2nd record from All My Brother’s Girlfriends‘ titled The Second Album On Cassette (re-issue) as well as putting out the new album from All My Brother’s Girlfriends and the last in his “seasons series” titled Spring/Summer.

AOMBG is Pontus Tenggren’s band but it also features Frida from The Rough Bunnies on drums and vocals. They like bands like The Vaselines, Beat Happening, The Pastels and Jonathan Richman. “Give Him A Great Big Kiss” is on the Spring side of things and is a funny take on all those 50′s girlfriend/boyfriend talking songs (by Jan and Dean et al). It’s got a certain Jonathan Richman quality despite the lead vocals being sung by Frida.

Give Him A Great Big Kiss

From the Summer half of the record here’s the little throwaway ditty called “We’re Through (And I’m Pretty Happy About It)”.

We’re Through (And I’m Pretty Happy About It)

Here’s a couple from 2004′s The Second Album On Cassette

Sunscreen Pt. 2
A Song About Tigers Revisited

Buy `em all here through Bedroom Records.

Ok as you can see from the graphic above there’s news from the Hello Saferide camp. The new record will be available in a number of days. The single is “If I Don’t Write This Song Someone I love Will Die”. “Get Sick Soon”and “Long Lost Penpal” are two other new songs that from their title alone seem intriguing. But there are also old favorites like “High School Stalker” and “My Best Friend”.

In one of her recent posts in her journal blog thingy Annika from Hello Saferide also introduced me to the Swedish band I’m From Barcelona. It’s quite an amazing find and reminds me of a Swedish version of Arcade Fire or maybe Polyphonic Spree (hey I didn’t say Radiohead or Coldplay so that’s something). From the photo alone there are certainly plenty of simialrities. I’m guessing this band is an amazing, sweaty orgy of fun.

Here’s three of the songs off of their 6 song ep called Sing! with I’m From Barcelona. I don’t see a way to buy this but try emailing the band here – info@imfrombarcelona.com.

We’re From Barcelona **Standout Track**
Treehouse
Chicken Pox

Elias Akesson is the guy behind Elias and the Wizz Kids. It appears he also records and tours as Elias One Man Band. As Elias and the Wizz Kids he creates music that would fit right in with the crooners of the jazz age like Frank Sinatra, I learned of the band through their split 7″ they put out with David and the Citizens, so despite the music being a little retro and odd in this modern age, the band appears to have all the indie credentials to make it big.

Here’s a couple jazzy songs from Elias and the Wizzkids.

Do You Love Me Baby
Save A Place In Your Heart For Me

Here’s an example of the band playing a satanic-retro, stray cats rave-up.

I Wish