Swedesplease – The Swedish Music Blog

The Higher Elevations record for one of my favorite labels, the German indie/twee label Little Teddy. It seems like they’ve also been picked up by But Is It Art?.

The new Christmas single is released by But Is It Art?.

All These Winter Nights

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Shade Tree continues to evolve into an r `n’ b disco band. Their new Christmas single has just been released.

Christmas Peace

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I love the 60′s-circus-soundtrack The Carny creates. Nick Cave meets Wim Wenders I guess. They have a new ep and sequel to last years Christmas song “This Christmas”. The new song is up for best new Christmas song on Swedish national radio. Enjoy these three songs.

This Christmas (If You Come Back)

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And just in case you missed it here’s the best Christmas song of the season regardless of country of origin. Hello Saferide’s “I-Pod X-Mas”.

I-Pod X-Mas

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I had a choice between multiple posts queued up for this morning’s post but an email that arrived from Flora & Fauna changed all that. The Chrysler (here and here) have just released the first single from their upcoming April 2007 album The Benelux Years. This will be their third release out in Sweden. The Chrysler’s 2nd album, Cold War Classic, is due out in the states on Parasol in Feb. 2007.

“Keep It Spartan” is the new song and perhaps a clue to the new sound. At least on this song all hints of folk pop and alt-country are gone leaving a simple modern sound that’s most prominent feature is how the vocals of Pelle and Anders best serve the lyrics of the song.

Keep It Spartan

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Sara Lunden’s new record on Lobotom Records is a noiry thing…Raymond Chandler et al. Think a cold dark wet street, a screeching car, a horrible scream and a mysterious death. Sara is involved in many artistic endeavors including film. Sweet Sweet Sweet The Beat brings this film noir ethos to the new record which comes out on Dec. 12 in Sweden. Her live shows appear to be an intriquing mix of film, still images and her experimental soundscapes. You can buy it here now.

The View

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The new ep from Familjen is too big for just one label. It’s taken the work of both Hybris and Adrian Recordings to release this to the world. This ep is a precursor to a new Familjen lp to be released in the first quarter of 2007. Interestingly the marketing plan asks you to download the songs, and them burn them onto a “disc of plastic” and then find the artwork for the album cover in cafe’s, stores and boutiques in and around Gothenburg, Malmo and Stockholm.

Here’s two songs from the free ep, the rest are hidden somewhere in the Familjen homepage. This is a perfect compliment to yesterday’s Gadden & Braxen tracks. No?

Hog Luft
The Field (remix)

Video for “Hon Ar Fin”

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Dc Coppenhagen has just put up their first “video podcast” which is a performance by Bjorn Kleinhenz. I’m watching it as we speak. I look forward to more in this series. This may very well be the future of mp3 blogs.

Subscribe to the feed here
Download it here

You Tube clip

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If music can be said to percolate then Gadden & Braxen may be the leading proponent of such a sound. This Swedish conglomerate defies the typical size constraints of electronic dj combos with at least 8 members at last count. Can we rename this genre “bleeps & blips” please?

I’m getting thirsty for some Folgers!?

Lilla Kaskelottbarn

Bonus
Bingo For Helvete

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Montt Mardie video

The Budgies video

Juni Jarvi video

Rough Bunnies video

Bear Quartet

David Fridlund Video

Gustav and the Seasick Sailers

Billie The Vision and Dancers

Nixon “Hospital”

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It’s interesting to see Swedish artists being influenced by music that is just out in the US. You can see it in their Myspace profiles naming bands like Destroyer, Joanna Newsome and Grizzly Bear. With the internet and specifically MySpace the world music scene is one big brotherhood (or in this case sisterhood).

Promise And The Monster is female singer-songwriter Billie Landhal. The track “Antarktis” has an spooky, ethereal quality that is enhanced by the processed vocals and the reverb drenched instrumentation.

Antarktis

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Last week Copy, Right? sent a virtual shout-out to Swedesplease. Now I will return the favor. Copy, Right? is a trendsetting blog that’s been around since the beginning of time (2004 or so) that only puts up amazing cover songs. This relates to today’s post of the Gothenburg band Dreams End cover of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”.

Boys Just Wanna Have Fun

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