I’m not going to lie to you, I’m pissed that DoCopenhagen has the new single, “I Love You You Imbecile”, from Pelle Carlberg’s forthcoming record In A Nutshell. But as I’m listening to the song there’s a strange feeling of bliss and calm washing over me. Lovely.
Plus here’s Pelle covering “Rocket Man”
Plus Riverbank” live
Plus “Musikbryan makes me want to smoke crack”
Ane Brun’s new video of her cover of PJ Harvey’s “The Dancer”. It’s a pretty incredible vocal workout:
The Swedish label Friendly Noise emailed recently with a couple of announcements. Chief among them is their new plan to release a couple of songs a month as mp3’s. These are songs that don’t fit in the context of an album yet still deserve to be heard. I’ll link to a song or two of Jian (a solo project from Testbild!) but am more excited about the song “Leto” by the Moscow based band Malkovic.
Ivy Ivy (solo song from Testbild! member Douglas Holmquist)
“Leto” is by the Russian indie pop band Malkovic. The song is a low key, whispered indie pop thing. Of course it’s sung in Russian so I don’t understand a word of it, but the music and the way the vocals are delivered are cool; a little like some of the soft indie folk of Denison Witmer, Sufjan Stevens or Jose Gonzalez.
In the US the big news over the last 2 months are all the festival lineups, stange really because all the festivals are just duplicates of each other albeit in different parts of the states (except for SxSW I guess but that’s only because they simply invite every band that will pay the registration fee). So I imagine I should work up some enthusiasm for Emmaboda Festival that just released it’s first booked bands. I’ll probably be writing about as many of the bands playing this fest in the coming weeks. I’ll start with one I hadn’t heard of before.
64Revolt take the ping pong video game music of 047 and speed it up a couple notches and add a little furious electro-punk energy. They’ve posted a new song that’s unreleased recently.
C.A.P.I.P.
Neat Girl from their 2006 release Ballads of Malice And Disconnect
P.S. I’m looking for an occasional contributor for Swedesplease. You’ve got to live in Sweden and hopefully would attend some of these big fests and write them up. I’d be glad if you were to submit cd reviews or news from the ground in Malmo, Gothenburg or Stockholm. Email me at cbonnell@gmail.com if you’re interested.
Thanks to all those who submitted t-shirt designs. I got about 15 different designs and they were all great. I notified the winner but will also keep all the other submissions for future versions.
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(Editor’s note: this post got kind of lost in the shuffle, I wrote it several months ago and just now stumbled upon it.)
There’s been lots of chatter about Shoegaze on the net recently. I’m not sure exactly how you describe that genre besides the already descriptive term applied to it. In the 80’s it was easy to focus in on it because there were only a couple labels releasing that type of music so you knew if it was on Creation or Rough Trade then it was part of that genre.
Maybe now that Jesus and Mary Chain are reforming/reuniting there could be a resurgence and a new home for these bands. Fountainblue is leading the way in Sweden; their new release is out now on Luxury.
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P.S. Songs:Illinois has new stuff from “Scandinavian cult sensation?” Olav Larsen & The Alabama Rodeo Kings. This was something I nearly post on Swedesplease months ago despite the fact that Olav is from Norway.
The Makeouts new 7″ is titled Worst Band Ever. And that certainly opens them up to plenty of wisecracks from members of the press and drunken football fans in the pub. But I’m guessing the minute they take stage all bets are off and they make converts out of everyone in attendance.
Buy this Swedish garage band’s 7″ from their Austrian label’s site here.
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F***ing Fluxblog! Scooped again! I don’t care about the Robyn but I was really jonesin to write about Santa Maria. So while I hate to do it, why don’t you go there to check out this project from an ex-Concretes member.
I’ve written about Rigas before and will probably do so at every opportunity I get. I’m not a big fan of electronic music (and/or especially the house or dance music played in clubs) but the experimental electronic music (and remixes) of Rigas are another story. Rigas’ new project, Postkontoret, is a duo thing with Nya Sampen (of The Chrysler). This song is the a-side of the recently released 7″ single.
There’s a lot going on in the song, with plenty of distorted sounds, bleeps and whirs, but it’s the incessant beat that propels it forward, a little like something you’d expect from the soundtrack to say Run, Lola, Run or Risky Business.
If you listen real closely you might hear the buzz. It could be whisper between two girls at a high school in Gothenburg or an overheard converstion between the aisles at Pet Sounds or maybe a gleeful proclamation (complete with emoticons) on a message board at the Emmaboda Festival site. Who are they all talking about? Could it be the band Those Dancing Days?
I’ve heard the term wonky pop used to descibe these girls (yes, girls! they’re still in high school) also people hear a little Pipettes. The 5 girls romp through the suggestive retro pop of “Tasty Boy” and then they switch gears slightly to the more polished GoGo beats and Siousxie Sioux vocals of the song “Hitten”. Remember these are just demos and I believe the girls had to get back to class for finals after recording them, so take that all into account.
The Big Picture is pretty accurate title for this band whose new self produced ep, Songs For a Heavy Sleeper, was just released. Like many of the bands on Swedesplease TBP is really just one guy, Mikael Salomonosson (and a bunch of friends).
The band’s name is apt since some of these songs do look at the big picture. In particular, the pop song “A Good Start” looks at the end of a relationship with rose colored glasses. Instead of pouting and moping, the main character is encouraged to move on, figuaratively and literally by way of a train trip.
The Big Picture is not just a bedroom pop project, the band actually plays out with three dates in Stockholm in the coming months. Check them out here.
I’ve listened to a lot of Swedish music over the past couple of years but I can’t recall another band with a tuba, a horn section and just such a marching band meets the waltz kinda sound. Thus Eve and the Last Waltz is about as perfect a name as you coould get for this band. Their third cd, Straight Up To The Sky, has just been released in Sweden on Rhythm Ace Records.
I’m almost convinced The Second Band is one of the best in Sweden. This is without even hearing their last record in its entirety. The band has placed another song from it’s latest record, Your Dark Side Is On The Phone, onto it’s website.
The band seems to harness all of the naked feeling of emo (think Bright Eyes) and all of the tunefulness of indie rock (think Decemberists) as well as adding a touch of folksy strumming.
I’m thinking of making a Swedesplease t-shirt. What do you think? Would you want one if it were cheap? I have no artistic/graphic skills, so would like throw a contest to help design the shirt. The winner of the t-shirt design would get a big old stack of cool new cd’s (from all countries) and acknowledgement on the site.
The only design element I’d definitely like the shirt to have is the word “swedesplease” (I think in all lower case letters might be the best). If the graphic is a jpeg it should be fairly high resolution. Any ideas? Email me at cbonnell@gmail.com in the next week or so to be considered. Thanks
Sometimes you get a special song that you want to scream about from the rooftops. But you can’t. I wish there was some way to take a regular blog post and somehow broadcast it to the wortld, instead of just to one a little corner of it. I hope other bloggers pick up on this song and this artist. You probably think I’m going to go off the deep end about Hello Saferide again but you’re wrong. Oh, ok you’re partly right. The artist I’d like to spread the word about is Maia Hirasawa. Maia is one of the members of Annika Norlin’s band Hello Saferide but her solo music has always stood on it’s on.
“And I Found This Boy” is the first single from her debut lp for Razzia entitled though, i’m just me. The single is the story of a one-night-stand love affair gone wrong between members of two Swedish bands. “And I Found This Boy” is a refreshing look at desire and it’s consequences from a female perspective. The fact that the song plays out on a musical bed of horns, piano and drums that sounds like a classic tune by The Jam is a very nice bonus. The single will be available March 7 with the album to follow in Scandanavia on April 4. More info at Maia’s label Razzia Records. Spread the word!
It’s A Trap has Maia’s song “Roselin” while the fine site Getecho has “My New Friend” both songs are from her first self released (sold out) ep. Here’s my favorite from that ep:
Oh alright here’s Hello Saferide’s “Valentine’s Day”
The band Models Inc. (here) has spewed out several spinoffs and side projects, which is funny since the main band is practially unheard of (except for within the very small pocket of Swedish twee afficionados). I guess the lead singer’s solo project goes by the name of JSSFRK. His MySpace page has a new song that’s intended for release some time in 2007. Like all good twee or indiepop it has many simple pop culture references, as well as your basic escapism subplot. Name drops = The Goonies, Robert Deniro, Kafka etc.
Bonus song from Model’s Inc. spinoff Kindergaten Kisses
Everytime You Smile, I Die (Evil Twin)
Bonus track from Models, Inc. 2006 release
Bonus country cover of The Pixies Hey by JSSFRK
I’ve heard Thirdimension’s previous electricified garage rock and frankly was unimpressed, even though I know I should have liked it I didn’t. It didn’t help that the band’s name is godawful and their cover art has been pretty bland. Well two out of three ain’t bad – the band has a new record (with a gorgeous cover), and equally impressive new sound (captured live in a chruch). The delay on this recording and the minimalistic sound combine to give the song “The Only Healer” just the right early 60’s folk combined with gospel sound
You can buy the new record, Before The End Begins, now from Parasol here.
As an experiment in the speed of world communications here’s a video of The Tallest Man On Earth performing at Klubb Springfield last night. I wrote about TTMOE back in July and since then he’s been signed to Gravitation in Sweden and picked up for distribution in the US through Parasol. I’m guessing this is the only known video of this reclusive creature. (Thanks Jimmy)
Nowadays truth in advertising has become somewhat of a foreign concept. But for Abraham and the Ditsy Blondes and their song, “My Best Song”, that’s exactly what you get. Stories of Abraham is the new record from this band that is led by Jonas Abrahamsson. “My Best Song will oddly appeal to fans of both Josh Rouse and Antony and the Johnstons. Safe to say it’s my new favorite song and possibly a contender for best Swedish pop cd of this new year (I haven’t heard the whole thing yet).
My Best Song
Excellent bonus song from the band’s self-titled debut
Racinpaperplanes are Gothenburg’s answer to Will Oldham et al. The band is signed to Tract Records in the US and will be releasing their full length Made of Broken Pieces soon. Here’s the first single plus a b-side web exclusive.
City Lights (new version)
