Swedesplease – The Swedish Music Blog

One of the things I like about Swedesplease is I can post anything I’d like as long as it’s Swedish. With my other blog Songs:Illinois I’m always trying to keep the music up to a certain quality level with some amount professionalism and a certain sound. With Swedesplease all bets are off. They’re Swedish and I like em then they’re up on the site.

Bare Knees are a great example of the above logic. The music they record is barely listeable, poorly produced (if at all) and generally not up to snuff and they know it. Still I love it. Here’s two songs from Bare Knees who you can see on New Years Eve in probably in Emily’s house. You can buy their cdr Bit My Daughter here.

Coming/Going
Sex and Communism (unreleased)

Laleh is another Swedish artist up for best new artist on P3 (a bit like Swedish Grammy’s). Like Jose Gonzalez, her background doesn’t seem purely European. Her music has a little bit of a gypsy sound or maybe middle eastern influences and her brown locks certainly don’t scream Swedish to me.

I’m afraid I can’t decipher much from her bio on the website but MTVe says she’s been making music since she was 14 and is well known on the Swedish club circuit. This new record is her debut and showcases her diverse musical background. No mp3′s but one very excellent video to the song “Storebror” below. Let me know if the video works for you guys. If anyone can convert it to mp3 and email it to me that’d be great.

Storbror

Mp3′s (See Comments)

Storbror
Invisible (My Song)

I wrote about The Second Band and their label Orange Grammofon back in May (here). At the time the band was working on their first ep I think. Anyway they’re back with a new song off their forthcoming 2006 release. The promise that their original work held is confirmed in this new song.

It’s called “Wild Is The Wind” and to me sounds a little like Ben Lee meets Ben Folds meets Billy Joel (Italien Restaurant era Joel) …stange huh!?

Wild Is The Wind

Bonus

Bellystings and Sunshowers
And We Always Fall In Love

David Fridlund of David and the Citizens is making a mark in the music world both with his band, with his solo project and with his new blog. I have written of all his various projects before. Sixeyes has been a big supporter of David’s work as well, with repeated posts and an in-depth interview. So I didn’t think I would come across anything new or unusual from David Fridlund today on my search of the web. But surprise, surprise here is an internet exclusive that to the best of my knowledge was not released on disc. You can download the song, artwork and everything as a zip file here.

The song is called “Stop” and it begins with a choppy drum beat and guitar strum and quickly becomes a singalong with plenty of yeah, yeah, yeah’s and uh, uh ,uh’s. It’s quintessential Swedish indie rock that’s not to be missed. Here’s “Stop” from David and the Citizens and Adrian Recordings.

Stop

Tias Carlson released What I Have Gathered from Coincidence on the “punk” label BlackStarFoundation on March 16th 2005. I’m a little behind the curve on this one but BSF is a small punk label that I was unfamiliar with, that I literally stumbled upon last night.

Tias Carlson is a mystery to me. Where did he come from? How can he suddenly produce such mature, beautiful music? There’s little biographical info on his site or the labels so if you know more about him please let me know in the comments. Buy Tias’ latest release What I Have… here through BSF’s online store.

Butterfly
Seasons I Must Play
Setting Sun
Chimas

I lied about the end of Christmas songs on Songs:Illinois and Swedesplease cause even though the day has past (although my kids are still opening their presents-spoiled brats!) the music keeps on coming. The Envelopes are some kind of two continent Swedish-French concoction, while members come from these two countries the band evidently resides in a third on a farm in York, GB.

Makes some sense then that their music is a mix of many styles with bits of electro-pop, XTC influenced trippiness and Swedish twee. Their “Christmas song” became available on the 25th so you’ve got to cut me some slack for only being one day late. “Pink Christmas” is a truly bizarre mix of modern electronics and traditional songcraft. I hear no mention of Christmas in the lyrics of “Pink Christmas” I only hear about the lack of spices and something about May 25!?

Pink Christmas

The Envelopes newish record Demon is available on Rough Trad while their most recent release is the single “Sister In Love” available through their site. Buy all their music here or in your better independent cd stores.

Sister In Love

Music For Robots has news of David And The Citizens and their new US label Friendly Fire. Apparently there is a compilation EP being released in the US and then a new 2006 release called Until The Sadness Is Gone. Go visit MFR here for “Now She Sleeps In A Box In The good Soil Of Denmark”.

Alright this may be a stretch. Ana Laan was born in Madrid but raised in Sweden (she’s a blond so that’s something right?). Her mother is American, her father a Spanish professor of literature. Her debut disc was 2004′s Oregano admittedly she’s more Spanish than Swedish as she sings in her native language and is now also a resident of Madrid. But I can’t ignore the fact that her music is in debt to the Swedish pop sound…underneath the spanish guitars and percussion their is an ever so slight electronic undercurrent so common in Swedish music over the last 25 years.

Oregano was produced by Leo Sidran and the three songs below run the gamut from loungy electronica to pure spanish inflected folk. Although this disc came out on Nardis, it seems they are selling it through Cd Baby…click here to purchase.

Oregano
Para El Dolor
Si Te Quedos Conmigo

Oh shit (how do you say shit in Swedish)! Here’s another holiday song, this time from one of the best pop bands in Sweden Canarie Records’ Oh Sweet Music. This is an anti-commercial, let’s get away to a deserted island type holiday song.

It’s a beauty enjoy!

(Fly Away For) Christmas

Bonus check out the song “Let’s Got To War”.

Let’s Go To War

More of the best Swedish music from 2005…

The LoveNinjas have created one of the sexiest most explicit songs I’ve heard in awhile in “Meet Me Here”. The song is the b-side of a cd-r release on Humblebee Records out of Edmonton. The ep is called I’m Really Sorry (That I Kiled You) and the sound of the one track is a guazzy, lo-fi pop. From the song titles of the other the theme of the record is definately lost love and breakup (“I Want To Be Your Man”, “My Lust Is Dead”).

Buy it here from Humblebee.

Meet Me Here

A few more songs have been posted to the Songs I Wish Euromax Christmas EP. Montt Mardie channeling Michael Jackson circa Jackson 5 with the song “Bon Jovis Jullat” and the band 1 2 Many breaks from tradition with the decidely un-Christmas-like song “Thursday Night/Friday Morning (Euro X-Mas edit)”.

Bon Jovis Jullat

Thursday Night/Friday Morning

another in my series of reposts of some of my favorite Swedish music of 2005 or so.

There have been lapses in my coverage of the Swedish music scene but none bigger than not writing about Stina Nordenstam until now. Stina has been a constant presence in Sweden since her debut in 1991 even during her self imposed exile to an island off Sweden in the late 90′s. I don’t have a long history with Stina but I am presently listening to and enjoying her 2004 release The World Is Saved. This album has never been released in the US although it seems as though V2 has plans to release it soon (I have the US advance but no street date is listed).

For many Stina may have come to their attention first when one of her songs (“Little Star”) appeared on the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack. Comparisons are hard for an artist of this stature solely for the reason that her music may have inspired those I compare her to but if I must I hear equal parts Bjork, Polly Paulusma, and especially Emiliani Torrini. Her sound is characterised by soaring vocals over a bed of jazz and classical influenced loungy trip-hop.

Here’s a couple from the impending US release of The World Is Saved. If you have to have this now and money is no object pick it up as an import from Amazon here.

Get On With Your Life
The Morning Belongs To The Night

The End Of A Love Affair (Faultline Remix)

The Concretes share some things in common with The Cardigans like being from Sweden, female band members, 9 letters in each name and both have gained as much notoriety and fame outside of Sweden as they have within. The Concretes formed 10 years ago as a trio of three young women from Stockholm but only recently began to take the US by storm as their proper debut release came out just last year.

The band is now referred to as a collective as it’s membership has grown to 8 members. The sound has grown as well, becoming fuller and more orchestrated (strings, woodwinds and electronics) while not leaving behind their basic VU/Mazzy Star origins. Lay Your Battle Axe Down comes out on Astralwerks in the US on July 26. There is very little info online yet about this record all I can say is that it will only grow the band’s already stellar reputation. Preorder Lay Your Battle Axe Down through Amazon now. Here’s a couple from the new record including their ethereal cover of The Rolling Stones “Miss You”.

Miss You
Forces

This lo-fi, singer-songwriter sound is really what I’m on the lookout for whether it’s for Swedesplease or Songs:Illinois. It’s the type of music I’ve been gravitating towards for awhile now. Bjorn Norestig is a great example of the genre (if one exists). He has no history to speak of, he’s not been in another band or is famous in any way. But nonetheless all by himself (probably locked up in his room) he has created a stunning debut record titled Come Take A Shine and has had it released on one of Sweden’s premier labels (Cabal/West Side Fabrication).

Come Take A Shine is that debut; it’s a seven song ep and Bjorn’s released two songs (including the title track) in the mp3 format on his own site.

Come Take A Shine
Slow Down

I try not to judge a band by it’s sound and I try not to stack this site with just one type of music. But in general it’s the more lo fi bands in the pop/twee genre who are both prolific and willing to share thier music. A band that sees itse;f being the next Pulp, Oasis or THe Killers is less likely to post their mp3′s to their web page or to their MySpace page.

An exception to this rule seems to be in order though. The band Consequences has posted it’s entire 2005 ep as well as a live version of their song “Birds Are Singing”. Influences may be obvious but the skill and feeling that went into these songs is fairly rare. Click here to download the rest of the ep.

Please Wait
Pieces

Birds Are Singing

PS This will be my last new post for a couple of days but don’t worry I’ll be putting up reposts of some of the best Swedish music from 2005 so check back early and often over the holidays.

I’m glad to say that some of the unsigned Swedish bands I have been writing about for the last 8 months or so are being snapped up by labels in Sweden and in the States. Chief among them are Pet Politics (Catbird Records), Lets Be Honeys (Asaurus Records) and The Bent Pen Project (Melodrama).

I wrote first about Bent Pen Project here. Now he is part of the brand new Swedish label Melodrama, in fact it’s their first release. These seven songs cover a lot of ground from pure eloectronic pop to lofi noise pop and even some experimental sounds. The warm analog sound is what ties these songs together into a cohesive, enjoyable package. Buy it here.

Your Jacket Is Just Fine
Dead Birds

Plus here’s an exclusive for the blogging world from Sweden’s Marilyn Records. This is the b-side off of Shooting John’s single Beggar.

Drunk and Astray

The Hartmans have released their new 4 song ep, Svenska Mordare, as well a couple of Christmas songs from last year. I’d like to tell you more about these four songs but I’m stumped by their song titles and meaning of some of the lyrics but I just got these yesterday so I hope to listen to them more over the holidays.

tommy zethraeus & guillermo marquez jara
wolfgang alexsander zaugg

The Christmas songs I can get a grasp on however as each song has a different take on this often hurried, harried commercial holiday.

Christmas 1
Christmas 2
Christmas 3

The new song is up from the Songs I Wish Christmas sampler. It’s the always disturbing Xmas classic “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” by Unarmed Enemies.

Can’t wait for the song by Cat5 and Montt Mardie, should be up any day.

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

I’ve written about Strip Squad a couple of times. I like their electro twee. I like their shocking lyrics and their boy/girl duets. Their new debut record, The Adventures of Strip Squad, came out December 15 and is available from all the regular places. Some of the songs I’ve linked to in the past but not this one. Buy here now.

If You Don’t Take Me Now You Might As Well Fuck Off

Stop bugging me already!

Hello Saferide – Introducing… (Valentine’s Day)
Pelle Carleberg – Everything Now (Go To Hell Miss Rydell)
Montt Mardie – Drama (High School Drama)
Thomas Denver Jonsson – Barely Touching It (Silver Boy)
Amandine – This Is Where Our Hearts Collide (Halo)
David Fridlund – Amaretasu (Me Against You) (April and May)
Let’s Be Honeys – debut cdr (Lionheart)
Herman Dune – Not On Top (True Love Is Not Nice)
Blood Music – Sing A Song Fighter! (There Is A War In Almost Every Country)
Karl Larsson – Pale As Milk (Off The Cliff)