Swedesplease – The Swedish Music Blog

Sometimes the stars align and a band that is little known, even within Sweden, comes up with a breakout song that should get them international recognition. I think “The Gun In God’s Hand” from their new ep Tiny Dots could be just that song for Slow Motion Club. The song is morbid and beautiful. And despite being a song ostensibly about death it’s surprisingly poppy.

The Gun In God’s Hand

Bonus from debut ep The Waltzes

Mika Song

Missing Toof (gotta love that name) brings us more Juvelen.

The Walrus has “New Wave Barbershop Rock” from Forest and Crispian.

Raven Sings The Blues has heavy prog rock from Witchcraft.

Pop N Cherries has The Dreamers.

This is one of the odder post I’ve ever done. It’s an attempt by a blogger based in Illinois to promote a show in Nashville by a band from Sweden. The Lancaster Orchestra is a band I discovered about two years back and that I have been following ever since. I think their atmospheric americana music is unmatched by anyone else. Add to that their slightly cosmopolitan musical tastes (see Smiths cover below) and their technical proficiency and even the quality of their videos and the fact that they’re now willing to travel internationally and I think you’ve got a band that needs to be picked up by a US based label for their next record.

The Lancaster Orchestra will be in Nashville this month at the Americana Music Associations annual party and conference. They’ll be the only European band in attendance. The band appears on October 31st at 8pm at Mercury Lounge. Other acts scheduled to appear during the fest are Guy Clark, Emmylou Harris and Lyle Lovett. I urge you to attend and I double dare you not to fall in love with these three songs.

Save Me From Myself
Newfound Friends (demo)
Please Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want (Smiths cover)

Video for “I Remember That Time So Well”

What is it that makes a bad song a good candidate for a remix. Are there some bones or structure to a song that lend it to the art of the remix. I’m not impressed with the new single from the Swedish band Torpedo but the remix of “From Russia With Love” by dj Jimmy O is something else entirely.

From Russia With Love

Anna Järvinen has a new record out on Hapna. Anna was a member of the great Swedish band Granada. Her solo material deserves more attention than I can give her in this small space (but check out reviews of the new album here). Jag fick feeling has only been out a few weeks in Sweden and is still not available throughout the world, but has already garnered 9 out of 10 or 4 out of 5 or simply the best album of the year by a number of international critics.

Because of the soaring vocals of “Gotgatan” and the incomprehensible (for me) Swedish lyrics I get a sense of the first time I heard the Cranberries or 10,000 Maniacs. Other song on the record have a more organic feel. But this one is as pop as you’ll ever get from Hapna. Enjoy.

Gotgatan

Video (.mov file) for Gotgatan

So much talk about Joy Division over the last couple of weeks. I love it, too, as Joy Division belong in the upper pantheon of bands. Bands who were simply on another level. It’s impossible to say how many bands toiling in the electronic realm owe nearly everything to Joy Division but I’m guessing it’s around 99.9%. Ostrich is no different and they acknowledge as much in their MySpace influences section (they also name drop Depeche Mode, Placebo, and Velvet Underground).

They’ve just released a new song and are currently recording their debut record.

Here’s “Icecold Kisses”:

Icecold Kisses

(“Veritas odium parit” by Loin)

I would have never written about the new record from Kent but lucky for you BBQChickenRobot did here.

More remixes from The Field via Transpotter.

Into The Groove is “addicted” to Strangers In Wonderland.

This set from Jens Lekman on Swedish Public Radio was all the rage this week on mp3 blogs. Here’s the whole set courtesy of Kwaya Na Kisser.

I’ve been kind of flying by the seat of my pants for the last couple of days, so apologies if these commentaries are lacking. Luckily the music’s been good, yes? One of the slightly unusual aspects of Swedinsh indie pop culture is the amount of bands/projects/side projects/solo projects one musician can get involved in.

Euphoria and the lazy boy is Anton Mattsson from the group The Elderly (and five other bands, no seriousely!). Although these demos from 2007 were probably recorded before the release of the film Once, I get that kind of vibe from these emotionally centered folk pop songs. These two songs, “Circles” and “Goodbye”, share the slightly epic nature of the songs from the soundtrack to that groundbreaking indie film Once.

Circles
Goodbye

(This is only the second non-Swedish band to ever appear on Swedesplease but since the band has a lot of friends in Sweden (and Norway), and a bunch of swedes helped record the new record in Stockholm I though it would be fitting. Plus I’m travelling and had to steal this post from Songs:Illinois.)

Rubies, the California electro folk trio, are huge in Sweden (and Norway and Japan). They have friends among the highest level of Swedish pop cognoscenti including Karl Jonas Winqvist of Blood Music, Maria from The Concretes, and the up and coming electronic duo Studio. All these artists as well as members of Kings Of Convenience, Dan Judd and Leslie Feist helped out with the new record. Their new record, Explode From Center, was partially recorded in Stockholm and the bands website is peppered with live photos from their time in Sweden.

If you’re wondering what the band sounds like think Mama and The Papas (sans Papas) powered by cheap casios and electric guitars. For now there is no US release date, although the record should be available from Telle Records (Norway) and a single is supposed to be released through Rallye (Japan) in October.

Diamonds On Fire

“Diamonds On Fire” (w/Blood Music) performing acoustically outside a cafe in Stockholm:

So you say you’re a fan of Swedish bands that can whistle. Have you heard Erik Enocksson? Eric’s new record, Farval Falkenberg, is a companion piece to the film of the same name. It’s been released by the critically adored Gothenberg label Kning Disc. Kning specializes in limited run cd’s by composers of modern Swedish experimental music.
Farval Falkenberg has been called a soundtrack to the desolate places and realms of Sweden (or did I just make that up?), either way the music has an eerie beauty made all the more compelling by it’s use of minimalism and large swaths of sound. You can buy one of the 999 copies here through Kning Disc.

The State The Sea Left Me In

The Joy Of DH Lawrence

P.S. Thanks to Jason at One Flower Media the Swedesplease t-shirt is back up on the sidebar and available to order. In fact One Flower Media is responsible for my smooth move from Blogger to WordPress, check `em out for all your webby needs.

Winter Took His Life (here) has a new record out on Bless This Press. You Know What It’s Like To Be Alone And Shut Down will be her (Susanna Brandin from Gothemberg) most produced and complete recording to date. On the song “Your Side” she brings her whispy vocals and fingerpicked guitar to this sentimental ballad. For WTHL it’s not the lyrics or song structure that put her firmly in the indie music camp but more her ambiguous delivery. To compete on the radio in any country, especially Sweden, you’ve got to belt out repetitive chorus and be propelled by a nasty beat. WTHL, as the band name and record title partly imply, seems willing to take a different, more lonely, path with her music.

Ordering info is here.

Your Side

Bridging The Atlantic (and a few others) beat me to the punch on Rigas’ new song from his upcoming record The Hardest Pocket To Pick.

Waved Rumor has details on the upcoming Swedish music seminar being held in conjunction with the CMJ Festival.

LunaPark6 has the new song from Sambassadeur and news of how to get autographed copies of their upcoming disc.

The Milk Lounge has something pretty astoundingly great from the new record from Mojib.

Chemical Goo is in Greek (really it’s Greek) but there’s tons of great Swedish music on there.

Hello Saferide and Maia Hirasawa are touring Brazil together. Musica de Bolso captured these La Blogotheque style impromptu videos of these two great Swedish singer-songwriters. “I Wonder Who Is Like This One” was recorded in an elevator and compares people with songs. Anika’s voice is beautiful in such a small space (wouldn’t it have been heaven to get in on that elevator on the first floor?) and somehow she keeps her composure as people get in and out of the elevator.

Hello Saferide’s “I Wonder Who Is Like This One”

Maia Hirasawa’s “Cracker”

SKWBN “Middleclass Life”

If you read more than one Swedish pop music blog be prepared for a barrage of words like atmospheric, stunning, gorgeous, etc etc. That’s because Dear Euphoria has had their debut cd re-released in the UK on Stereo Test Kit Records. Blogs that write about this strange creature known as Swedish Indie Pop have been singing her praises for a year and a half now. And despite being a gigantic Kate Bush fan, a rabid Cocteau Twins fan and a fairly large My Brightest Diamond fan I don’t get all the fuss.

The songs are gorgeous but I miss the lyrical depth and occasional dynamic shifts of say a Regina Spektor, or the full out Diva moments of My Brightest Diamond or the incomprehensible stream of consciousness ramblings of the Cocteau Twins. Still, you make up your own mind about Dear Euphoria and leave it in the comments.

Pre-order this Oct. 22nd release here.

Snow
Falling Behind

——-

Now to the really good stuff: a new video of the recently released 2nd single, “Young And Hairy”, from Elias and the Wizzkids. Buy it here.

The one other post about Japan Air in the annals of mp3 blogdom is by the fine site Scatterbrain but you’ll learn as much about the band on that site than on the band’s homepage or here at Swedespelase. And that’s very little.

The bands influences are pretty clear though as they tread water somewhere between Joy Division, Felt and My Bloody Valentine. The few songs they’ve released have been instrumentals but today I have a short new song called “Takes 1 To Know 1″ that features heavily distorted and inaudible vocals. However once again it’s the instrumental track “Eat Me” that is truly special.

Eat Me

Takes 1 To Know 1