Swedesplease – The Swedish Music Blog

Montt Mardie isn’t the only swede obsessed with the past. Today we get two songs from Peter Nilsson someone as caught up in the past as Montt. Here’s his own account of the meaning behind these songs:

Sometimes I make stuff on my own. Sometimes I hear something so good I want to incorporate it with my compositions. Sometimes I feel a little lost in my music and need to sense the presence of someone or something else in there. Sounds from the 70s, words from the 60s, machines from the 80s, things I’ve done and places I want to go. Roughly sketched out in these two songs.

Get Nowhere
Song For Stina

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Speaking of Montt Mardie there’s a nice making of the (impending) video for “Metropolis” blog here. See all the behind the scenes machinations on the making of a low budget, but highly stylized, Swedish music video. Montt’s regular every day blog is pretty cool too.

Homemade video for “1969″

Montt covering “Fuck Forever” by Babyshambles

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(photo by Lorne Thomson)

The reason this post came to fruition was a MySpace message from a photographer from London who’d captured some great pictures of Maia Hirasawa in London.

I’ve also been sent this link to photos of Pelle Carlberg’s NYC show courtest of Punk Photo.

Maia’s new record is chock full of great songs, never ending really. Here’s another, this time about the bad side of gossip.

You and Me and Everyone We Know

Live YouTube videos of Maia’s performances have started to appear and they’re fantastic, here’s an assortment:

“Gothenberg”

“And I Found This Boy”

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(“Untitled 5″ by Yoon Chung)

For better or worse Obscure Sound ponders the fat of The Sacred Sailors.

#1 Hits From Another Planet discover an electronic/dance trio from Gothenberg called The Touch

Swedish dance music is all the rage over at De:Bug.

A site I’ve never heard of, but that’s been around since 2004, discovers all the great music that the Swedish label Slottet is putting out. In particular two projects featuring ex-Concretes member Maria Eriksson. Read more and explore the archives at BiBaBiDi.

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(love this photo, wonder if it was staged?)

If I had to predict which Swedish band will break big in either the states or back in Sweden I’d have a tough time deciding. But I know that Ida Maria would be on my short list (Finest List seems to agree). She was born in Norway, but now resides in Stockholm. So like Richard Reagh I’m going to nominate her an honorary Swede.

She recently popped up on my radar as the female singer on Pelle Carlberg’s new song “I Love You, You Imbecile”. But it’s on her own demo of her song “Louie” that she really shines. I generally try to avoid hyperbole but if this is not the best song you’ve heard in a long while…well feel free to let me know about it in the comments.

Louie

Bonus: What’s even more impressive is the way Ida Maria works her way through the acoustic guitar and voice ode to God on “See Me Though”. Anyway things seem to be going pretty well for Ida Maria as she is currently recording her debut record holed up somewhere in Goteborg with producers Timo Raisanen and Hans Olsen. Enjoy these songs!

See Me Through
Queen Of The World

“Louie” live

Pelle Carlberg and Ida Maria sing “I Love You, You Imbecile” (plus Pelle live in a TV Studio doing the same song)

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My Darling YOU! is back with a new 5 song ep/single out now on Luxxury. And it looks like they were either given an actual production budget or they’ve decided to leave their twee pop roots behind. Either way the song “Bad Times Are On” is pretty darn catchy (if you’re a fan of Green Dayish pop-punk) and they’ve managed to retain some of the dark cynisism of previous songs. You can buy the 5 song release here.

Bad Times Are On

Bonus:

Please Don’t Talk To Me I Fall In Love Too Easily

In other news:

Erik De Vahl has made his new record (which sold out of it’s limited edition release in a month) available for free download here.

Emil Jensen’s new single is also available free below.

Ghana Mot Italien

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I think I’m going to like Folke and the new label that has signed him – Found You Recordings.

“Stuck On A Dirty Sole” by Folke, hopefully off his forthcoming debut due out sometime in September. Stay tuned I hope to have more from him in the coming days.

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Surrounded’s new release on One Little Indian is called The Nautilus Years and is due out on June 5th. Normally I wouldn’t write about well produced atmospheric rock like this. However it’s hard to pass this kind of stuff up when it appears in your inbox all wrapped and bowed and ready to post. Buy it here.

Safe Tomorrow Sun

Bonus:

On Top Of the World (Remix)

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Pelle Carlberg is coming to America for the first time ever and skipping Chicago. How harsh is that? Anyway if you’re in any of these markets I expect a full written report. His new record coming out stateside is called In A Nutshell and arrives July 3 on Twenty Seven Records. I’ve written about Pelle so much there’s little left to say. His pop music is quite simply of a higher order than anything else being released.

May 27 @ Luna Lounge in Brooklyn, New York
May 29 @ The Supermarket in Toronto, Ontario
May 30 @ Small’s in Detroit, Michigan
May 31 @ The Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio
June 2 @ The Delancey in New York, New York

Clever Girls Like Clever Boys Much More Than Clever Boys Like Clever Girls

Video for “I love You, You Imbecile”

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This is a lazy ass post as both of these songs arrived in my mailbox over the past couple of days. But one is on a label that is unnervingly great (Songs I Wish I Had Written) and the other is from a band that has a consistently high (and free) output. So truthfully I don’t feel that bad.

Moto Boy’s “Blue Motorbike” features his angelic vocals and mildly synthy-electronic dance pop. Moto Boy has appeared with the Ark so I suspect his live shows (2 next week in Sweden) will be theatrically over-the-top but musically right on target.

Blue Motorbike
Karki

Pinto (otherwise known as Hanif) has a new two song single out. I’ve been pretty captivated by their easy going pop in the past. I’m sure this song will grow on me as well.

This Picture Needs A Frame

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(”Extinction” by Ronald Kurniawan)

if:mv has the new video from Loney, Dear.

Green Clothes Music continues to mine Maia Hirasawa’s debut album. How can one album have so many great songs?

Raven Sings The Blues is back again this week with a bunch of garage music from the 60’s.

Swedish punk by Jonstrom courtesy of Killed By Death.

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The Swedish group OBand has the big band feel of I’m From Barcelona or Billie The Vision & Dancers but none of the dance pop beats or twee fervor. Instead they replace that with a rollicking, good-time, horn-laden sound hinting at jazz, blues, and early rock `n’ roll of the likes of The Band, Dylan or The Beach Boys. So of course I love it!

Barely Breath

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There’s a group of Swedish mod-rockers called The Women who have three “amazing” covers up on their site. I can’t decide if I should submit this to NPR’s “The Annoying Music Show” or if I should send it on to Phil Spector to see if he can do anything with these guys from behind bars.

Either way, you decide:

I’m A Believer
Donna
Hippy Hippy Shake

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Someone had to do an ode to Swedish women eventually. Turns out it’s going to be the band Swiss Boarding School and their song “She’s So Nice, She’s Swedish”. “Disco/Soul” is their new single. Despite the Death Before Disco t-shirt Swiss Boarding School certainly are working the fringes of the disco dance sound.

Disco/Soul

Video for “She’s So Nice, She’s Swedish”

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Pacific! is a electronica duo from Gothenburg who have a wind-swept, west coast kinda vibe. It’s no surprise they’re named after that warm body of water. The new single, “Sunset Blvd”, even has the multi-part, excessively high-pitched, Beach Boy’s vocal harmonies. This sound, also taken up in part by Montt Mardie, seems to be sweeping Sweden. Check out “Sunset Blvd.” on the band’s MySpace page and as well as their new 7″ single out on Moshi Moshi below.

Runway To Elsewhere

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Brotherhood of Broken Hearts started out as one of these Swedish duo’s that I’ve covered so many times before on Swedesplease but it turns out neither of the the two guys could sing, so they signed up a friend and became a trio. Besides the demos on their page the band is also part of the new Yellow Mica compilation Wearing Our Punk Rock Hearts On Our Sleeves.

The band does a nice cover of The Dils punk rock classic “I Hate The Rich” from 1977. Here’ s a demo and a song from the new Yellow Mica compilation, buy it here.

Wrong Laundry

From Wearing Our Punk Rock Hearts On Our Sleeves:

I Hate The Rich

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This is becoming an annoying weekly habit. Reporting that Fluxblog has the new such and such or the new somebody and the somebodies. But yes, once again, Fluxblog has the new single from Differnet. It’s bleak but he and I both like it.

Keytars & Violins has unsigned electro-pop from Artymove.

Getecho discovers a new duo that features Bobby Baby and some dude from Germany. They’re calling themselves It’s A Musical.

Ederblog has some nice Swedicana from the self-titled debut by Yonder.

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It seems fitting that I write about the US label Cloudberry Records this week. Hot on the heels of my post about the cassette-only Italian label, Best Kept Secret, comes this post about a 3 inch cdr-only indie pop label. Peace In Our Time is the solo project of Johan Regner from Uppsala Sweden. I’ve written about his music on countless occasions (here or here). “That Same Old Phrase” is the b-side to the new single, it’s a sad little song. More songs available for download at Peace In Our Time’s website.

That Same Old Phrase
Bonus songs from Cloudberry

Revanche – Stars In Comas
Post – Oh! Custer

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It takes a lot of work to run this little site, I’ve got to sift through a lot of bad music to come across something that I would be proud to have on Swedesplease. I’m not complaining, just stating the obvious, that I hope you like what you hear on here.

It’s always exciting to find that nugett in an otherwise vast wasteland. I think the new ep by Joueur Noir is something to get excited about. The songs on With Love From are beautiful orchestrated acoustic pop. The four song ep, cover art and links to all the various sites is all available here.

The Cause Of You

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With all of the changes taking place in the recorded music industry it’d be crazy to start a new venture based solely on releasing cds. So what would you call a record label that only releases cassettes? Is there a word for crazier than crazy?

Best Kept Secret is the Italian cassette-only label I’m referring too, and they just happen to have a penchant for some really sweet sounding Swedish indie pop. I wrote about one of these bands a little over two years ago (here), while the other is completely new (and damn impressive) to me. I proclaim Robert Church & the Holy Community’s “Low At The Disco” to be the Swedish Pop Song of the Month. You got a problem with that!?

The Girl With The Mountain Fox Bag (38 sec) – Valentine Academy
Low At The Disco – Robert Church

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Here’s the video for the second single from Annika Norlin’s (Hello Saferide) Swedish language musical project – Sakert. Anyone want to translate/explain the video for non-Swedish speakers?

Plus Samuraj Cities “All Along The Shoreline”

Bonus mp3s from Samuraj Cities from their new record Cheap Deluxe:

Thxa 1000000
Saturday Is Never Fair To Anyone
All Along The Shorline

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I’m not the first to jump on the Mr. Suitcase’s new single from Guideline for An Emerging Century on Kitty Litter Records (Parker Lewis). But I also won’t be the last. Mr Suitcase has been remixing songs by some of Sweden’s best artists for a couple of years but he hadn’t released a full length of his own…until now. The first single is called “You Don’t Smile Anymore” and as is his custom he’s also provided two remixes.

You Don’t Smile Anymore

Bonus: here’s his remix of the Sophie Rimheden track “Can You Save Me”

Can You Save Me (Remix)

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