Swedesplease – The Swedish Music Blog

I can always relate to a good cover. Besides being a great way to hear a familiar song in a new way, a cover also tells you more about a band than any bio or press release can. The band The Streetwaves claim to have what it takes to be the next big Swedish band. And while I wouldn’t go that far, this cover of The Replacements “Bastard of Young” as well as the first single (“Void of Charms”) from their new record The Pleasure To End All Pleasures proves that this band at least has the energy and rock `n’ roll balls to make such a claim.

Buy it here.

Void Of Charms
Bastards of Young

Theres even a video of Void of Charms

Void of Charms (video)

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I’ve noticed a real lack of instrumental prog rock on Swedespleas. So today I give you Gosta Berlings Saga from Stockholm. If you miss Rush or Genesis and can do without the cheesy vocals about ufo’s, the third dimension or space exploration but really like the music then it’s your lucky day.

Here’s a couple from GBS:

Heldamartz
Aniarasviten

P.S. The art above is courtesy of Naoshi whose medium for this picture and others on her My Space page is sand. (wow!)

Imperial Records has a new label compilation out on April 5. I asked for a couple tracks and lo and behold here are the two tracks Imperial supplied. “Hello Benjamin” by Melpo Men and “Train” by Martin McFaul. Other artists represented include Jose Gonzalez, Paperplane and Eskju Divine.

Order Lesson #1

Hello Benjamin
Train

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Vapnet’s debut record is out now on Hybrism called Jag vet hur man väntar. The single is the song “Thomeegrand”.

The song is a beautiful slice of pop; look at the band on the left and the assortment of instruments. How could you go wrong?

Thomeegrand

I wrote about Lancaster Orchestra about a month ago here. Their record, With Help From Absent Friends, was released last year on a tiny Swedish label called Nonofan. But this music deserves to be heard. The band has a song on a Fargo c0mpilation called Cowboys In Scandinavia: The New Folk Sounds From Northern Europe.

Anyway at the time I’d mentioned a a cover of the Smiths “Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want” luckily someone was paying attention and sent me the song today which is a complete reworking of one of the great Morrissey songs. You can buy the record that these two songs appear on here from Rootsy.nu.

Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want

Bonus: Here’s the song that peaked my interest in this band. The poorly recorded, expertly presented song “New Found Friends”. Check out the caustic self-loathing line “Cause I’m such a fucking joke” about halfway through NFF.

New Found Friend

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The two essential nordic reads are Hello Surprise and It’s A Trap. Hello Surprise may have It’s a Trap beat on the sheer number of Swedish bands listed on it’s site but It’s A Trap is in the lead in the Scandinavian compilation race. They have just issued their second titled Readers Companion Volume Two. It features 17 tracks with seven unreleased songs.

One of the unreleased songs is by Swedesplease favorite and massively underrated singer-songwriter Bjorn Kleinhenz. The song is called “Pocket of Gold” and I’m betting it’ll show up on Bjorn’s upcoming record quietly happy deep inside that should be out some time this summer. Bjorn is currently touring Europe as part of Boy Omega’s band. Buy Readers Companion Volume Two here for only $6 (songs by Hello Saferide, Bear Quartet, Moon Babies and Tiger Lou).

Pocket Of Gold

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