Rigas Den Andre is pumping out skweee music quite similar to Rigas (here, here), is there some connection between the two? One in the same? (Just found out Rigas Den Andre is Rigas’ evil twin). And seriousely are swedes cranking out the best electronic music in the world or am I horribly biased?
Two videos by Rigas
Moron
Your Friend
New song from Rigas
I’m Weak
They say: “The Go-Go’s meet The Descendents, they go out for a few weeks and then decide it’s best to see other people.” I can see that. This is being release in 2007 on Wasted Sounds. It’ll be a 7″, oh how very punk of Hanna Hirsch.
Pernilla Andersson is a jazzy pop singer from Stockholm. Her parents were musicians in Sweden so she grew up with the whole toring, living in hotels and eating bad food thing nonetheless she’s staked out this path for herself as well. Clearly Pernilla is shooting for a very produced sound that could succeed on Swedish pop radio. Compare to Shawn Colvin, Sarah McLachlan or Kt Tunstall.
This is not something I would normally not post but being a simple red blooded American male basically I couldn’t resist posting this photo of her. Here’s “Alright” the first single from her forthcoming 2007 release Baby Blue.
Tor Bruce, from the looks of it, is a Gothenberg dj and mixmaster. The way the kids are glaring at his handiwork in the above photo it seems he’s somewhat of a god in Sweden. He’s only 19 for goodness sake. Here’s a couple tracks from his website including “Sequence Sunshine” which was included on a recent Djur and Mir compilation.
(It’s the day after a holiday in the US and I wasn’t going to post but I figure if you’re in Sweden you could care less that I’m full to the brim with turkey, stuffing and pies. Also I’m sitting on a couple of exclusives including this new song by Richard Reagh that I wanted to share and I couldn’t wait until Monday. Enjoy.)
I always feel a little guilty about writing about Richard Reagh. See he’s not Swedish, at least not yet. He’s a Canadian living in Stockholm but he has ingratiated himself with all the greats in Sweden (Montt Mardie and Sophie Rimheden). In fact Montt Mardie shows up on the first single, “Boo Backe” from the new record Is this the Blues I’m Singing? which is slated to hit the cold Swedish streets Dec. 12.
Richard’s a big proponent of remixes both of his songs by other artists and by him of other artists’ songs. In fact there’s already a remix of “Boo Backe” by the Swedish group Flow Flux Clan. And while it doesn’t improve on the original it does make it a bit more danceable. Here’s “Boo Backe” (what the hell does that mean anyways?).
Boo Backe (Remix by Flow Flux Clan)
Marit Bergman created a little stir a few weeks back with her take on the Justin Timberlake hit “My Love”. Of course we wrote about Marit here way back when. But anyway here’s a new version of her cover of “My Love”.
My Love (living room mix)
Also since I wrote that Consequences post a few weeks back Frida Hyvonen has blown up in the states. So here’s The Consequences new song with Marit Bergman and Frida Hyvonen on backing vocals.
Miss Li is a Swedish singer at a piano much like Ann Brun, Frida Hyvonen or Stina Nordenstam except for her lack of pretense. Her style is a mix of jazz, cabarert and blues. Her lyrics are naive and simple and full of life. There is little of the smotheringly coy twee sound or the ironic detachment of indie rock to be found here.
Miss Li’s debut record, Late Night Heartbroken Blues, is coming out November 22nd on National Records. I believe all of these songs will be on there in a more formal version. In fact “Oh Boy” is the first single.
Oh Boy (demo)
I’m So Poor (demo)
I Get High On You (demo)
english and scottish folksongs. ys by joanna newsom. iron man, electric funeral, the wizard, sabbath bloody sabbath. that’s reality w/ yumbo. modern times. love & theft. john dowland. some girls. fear and loathing in la. faun fables’ early song. marc bolan and tyrannusaurus rex. led zep III. II. houses of the holy. kjell hoglund – the great swedish witchmaster and philosopher. edgar allan poe’s stories and his novel about mr. pym at sea. the nocturnes of fryderyk chopin. gustav mahler. maher shalal hash baz. open field. osaka bridge. the movies by wes anderson. the music in wes anderson’s movies. sture dahlstrom. jonathan richman singing summer feeling. moby dick by herman melville. the adventures of huckleberry finn. markus hamnebo and sune. bob hund. john coltrane. evert taube. rikard wolff singing the songs of barbara. my friends in children come on. will oldham/bonny billy. little wings and kyle field’s drawings. almost saturday night by john fogerty. willie nelson. herman dune. david-ivar herman dune’s ya ya. smog. joanna newsom. billie holiday. louis armstrong’s hot five and seven. nick drake. the magnetic fields. frank sinatra. ron sexsmith’s whereabouts. tom waits. tom waits. tom waits. carpenters. karen c. bjorn olsson. tom waits and kathleen brennan. mark olson and victoria williams. the creekdippers. mick jagger and keith richards. butch hancock. vitalogy and no code. alf robertsson. sally timms. ac/dc. leonard cohen. famous blue raincoat. i’m your man! john prine. john prine! souvenirs. saddle in the rain. john zorn. hall and oates’ kiss on my list. lynrd skynrd. marc ribot. daniel johnston. nirvana. the beatles. the beach boys. dennis wilson’s pacific blue. the yodeling of faun fables. jimi hendrix. fire. jim o’rourke. loren connors. dire straits. the sultans o swing. miles davis. odetta. blind doc watson. leo kottke. linda ronstadt. heart like a wheel. ebba gron. the who. nicolai dunger. kevin coyne. lou reed. coney island. dracula. kevin rowland. mats gustafsson. erlend loe. john cougar american fool. womack & womack on the dance floor. buddy miles singing and drumming. vetiver at pustervik 06. one foot in the grave by beck. neil young. van morrison. the dweller on the threshold. you’re my woman. bob dylan… no auction block. world gone wrong. good as i been to you. new morning. john wesley harding. standing in the doorway. johnny cash. if you could read my mind. and the late great townes van zandt.
These are the MySpace influences listed by the Swedish band Rambling Nicholas Heron on the newly formed Gothenburg label Puppy Love Records. Couldn’t have put it better in a hundred years (although I was thinking Jonathan Richman).
(Detail from “The Girl untitled” by Stacy Novack.)
A secret artist by the name of “Sofia” has put up a wonderful little lo-fi thing on the Dig Your Own Grave site. Sung in Swedish and accompanied by a simple casio and a drum machine the song may be the stat of something bigger or the beginning of the end of an unknown.
I particularly like her Swedish pronounciation, reminds me of Laleh.
P.S. Congrats to Thomas of NY who won the Hello Saferide vinyl. If you didn’t win it, you can still buy it here from It’s A Trap.
Once We Were are a mostly instrument group whose recordings tend to lean toward free jazz mixed with electronically enhanced soundscapes. The sound borders on minimalistic ramblings but tends to stay on course long enough to make a statement. The band is releasing it’s latest record, a double cd entitled Contra, on the excellent Swedish label Tenderversion Recordings (Audrey).
With a release date of Nov. 20 you’ll have to come back here in a week or so to order it directly from Tenderversion.
PS The Hello Saferide contest is still on here. Just leave a comment for a chance to win.
Salty Pirates are some loveable tweeish Swedes. They don’t have a lot of business sense and only hope to release their music for free and make it available to the world. I’ve been writing about them for well over a year and they just got a song placed on a compilation which is the first time one of their songs has officially been released.
However their new song is availabel now online. It’s the lovely and quite upbeat and peppy song “Shark Attack”.
UPDATE – Sorry but you guys crashed their site and both the song and the homepage is down. If you downloaded the song and can email it (cbonnell@gmail.com) back to me that’d be great and I’ll host it myself and put it back up. Thanks.
UPDATE OF THE UPDATE – Thanks to Stephane for sending the mp3 of Shark Attack back to me. It’s up again now.
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Contest!
I don’t do many contests. The bulk of them being offered are through PR people who are just trying to pad the bottom line but a few weeks back It’s A Trap offered up the new vinyl-only U.S. release of Hello Saferide’s Introducing… Of course I couldn’t pass it up. I have one copy of this (it’ll be rare and collectible once It’s A Trap sells out some time next week!) which will go to a comment picked randomly. So add a comment and possibly win. Contest closes tomorrow at 5pm central time, I’ll pick one lucky winner. Chances are you’re not going to win right? So buy it here now.
I’m crazy for Ed Greene. I’m guessing he’s a simple, humble bloke and maybe doesn’t feel deserving of any special attention. But he’s got friends in high places that love his music and they’ll tell anyone who listens about his stuff. First off, if you missed the post I did with the video to the song “When The Sky Is About To Fall” you’re missing the single best song/video combination I have ever seen. So here it is again.
Buy it here.
Secondly, I ripped the mp3 of this song and an untitled demo from Ed’s Myspace page.
When The Sky Is About To Fall
Untitled
Plus I found this random little number on the Osaka Vs. Tokyo site
I was just emailed a link to a live performance of “Don’t Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds)” by the Cardigans. This is from a new cultural affairs show on Public Radio International here in the states called Fair Game. They have more music planned for the next couple shows including fellow swede Kristoffer Ragnstam.
Don’t Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds)
Video for “Don’t Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds)
Stella Rocket is a little Stockholm based pop group. As I was writing this brief review I was struck by the similarities between Stella Rocket’s lead singer’s vocal inflections and the band’s song structure and those by the Smiths. Nothing new under the sun I guess but it is a little strange hearing that sound recreated by a female led group.
Bonus song
Keep On
I listened to the new Suburban Kids With Biblical names and it left me cold. It seemed tired and soulless. I could be wrong but somehow their energy seems to have been sucked out of them. If you’re in agreement and/or just looking for good new music and a great new Swedish label then check out the bands on Tomt Recordings and in particular the upcoming release by the band Leopold (wrote about them here first).
Their long awaited followup to their debut record Dreaming Is For Everyone will be released on Dec 6. It’s titled Friend of a Friend and features the two songs below. You can preorder this one now here. Their biggest goal seems to be to have their music playing in the background as Seth Cohen (of OC fame) watches the sun go down into the Pacific Ocean. The song “Work” with all of it’s latent insecurities and jaunty yet plush indie pop sound would be a ringer if the right people could hear it.
Bonus song
Johnny
Hans Appelqvist released the “Pop Record of the year” in 2004 according to the folks Swedish radio. This is more telling of how bad US radio is then how great Swedish radio can be. That record was called Bremort and was a conceptual piece in which you could follow around the characters of a fictious Swedish town and listen in on all their comings and goings. Can you imagine the boardroom discussions that would ensue to get something like this on American radio?
The new record revolves around the mythic beast pictured above (Naimi). This creature presents itself to the characters in the songs and is a godlike in it’s ability to solve human problems. Admittedly strange and pretenscious this is still an interesting concept. The song below is the actual online chat that one of the characters has with Naimi. I looked up that url (http://naimachat.se/) and it is an actual chat page where you can talk with Naimi. More info here at Hapna, release date is November 6.
Strange!
http://naimachat.se
Dewer is a guy who was active in the 90′s with the Swedish rock group Salt. He’s back now as a solo artist with a release scheduled for some time in early 2007. These are little acoustic lullabies, fitting really since these are the songs he sings to his children as they drift off to sleep.
A nice video of “Surprise Me Know”
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PS Hello Saferide’s new song, a cover from the Groover Recordings Gene Clark tribute, is up now on Songs:Illinois. It features Anika and Maia Hirasawa singing the Gene Clark song “He’s The Kind Of Boy”.
(Editors note: I usually try to have at least a couple posts ready in the Swedesplease queue. Sometimes it is so hard to pick which post (which songs) I love the most. Logically I know that what I don’t post today I can just put up tomorrow but still at times I’m torn between what to post. Obviouslly these minimalistic jazzy songs by Hederos/Rambsy won out today but stay tuned all week for some great new music from Sweden.)
I’ve tried to write about all of the musical projects helmed by Martin Hederos (The Soundtrack of Our Lives) but missed out on this ethereal jazz group he leads with Nina Ramsby. The new record is called Jazzen and has a certain unique take on both the sound of jazz and the usual, typical arrangements.
This is sparse but beautiful music for fans of Patricia Barber, Holly Cole and even Beth Gibbons (of Portishead). This will be pretty hard to find anywhere outside of Sweden but you can order it here and they will ship to the US. The release date for Jazzen in Sweden is sometime before the end of the year.
“Together In The Night” by Hederos and Hellberg
Alright I never do this but all existing channels have been tried and I can’t get my hands on mp3′s of these new songs from former Concretes lead singer (and contributor to that big hit “Young Folks”) Victoria Bergsman’s new project Taken By Trees (MS).
Here’s the 4 song demo track listing. Listen to all four tracks streaming here.
Tell Me
Too Young
Lost And Found
Hours Pass Like Centuries
The Concretes “You Can’t Hurry Love” on you Tube
The other day I threatened lots of new music from Hello Saferide. At the time I delivered a gem of a song she dueted on by the Swedish group Vapnet. But now the real serious stuff. Annika Norlin (Hello Saferide) has contributed a Christmas song to Razzia Records upcoming sampler Oh No…It’s Christmas.
“I-Pod X-mas” is a cute little “break-up-at-Christmas-you-just-ruined-my-holiday” song. It’s got lines like “As for presents, you fuck, I had an iPod Nano with your name written on it. It’s going to fit well into my new life listening to Gloria Ganor singing I Will Survive.”
The sampler 19 cuts by artists like Maia Hirasawa, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, The Consequences, Firefox AK and The Tiny. It’s just about the coolest thing you could get this Christmas. Preorder Oh No It’s Christmas here. Recent interview in Swedish with Hello Saferide.
