(“Rock The Frog” by Heisuke Kitazawa)
The Australian blog Fat Planet has a couple new things from Friday Bridge (including a remix by Nicholas Makelberge).
Panda Toes rediscovers why he liked Lo-Fi-Fnk so much in the first place.
Womenfolk has a great writeup on the career and the upcoming debut US release by Anna Ternheim.
Carl Sandburg Visits Me In A Dream has the video for the song “Sipping On the Sweet Nectar” by Jens Lekman.
I’d like to post something new and daring. Like new Jens, some b-side or other. But the song that’s burning a hole in my brain is “If We Just Want To” by Juni Järvi. This is off his 2006 record Wherever Thou Art, which as far as I can tell was criminally overlooked when it was first released. The record is now available in the states through CD Baby here and the song above is a free download from his site. The band seems to be on a bit of hiatus (not much updated either on the homepage or MySpace) but it’ll be good to hear something new from Juni Järvi in the future.
“If We Wanted To” has that peepy Pelle Carlberg pop sound but the vocals are a beat behind and always trying to catch up. No matter how sunny the music appears there is still a maudlin undertone that seeps through.
“The Stars Above Indian Lake” video
Herman Dune may not be Swedish but they’re close enough for me. The brothers Dune had a Swedish mother (is one brother out of the band?) but think of themselves as a French band. Fine. But I still say they’re Swedish. The band has just released their new video for the single “1-2-3 Apple Tree”. It’s a veritable sequel to their “international hit” “I Wish That I Could See You Soon.”
“1-2-3 Apple Tree” (Directed by Toben Seymour)
“Not On Top”
“I Wish That I could See You Soon”
I haven’t been overwhelmed by countless Swedish compilations in the 3 years I’ve been doing this blog. In fact I can think of only a couple that have ever come across my desk. But the young American label Series Two has one out now and it combines two of my favorite bands with three unknowns. Each band (5 total) gets 4 songs on the disc. The song below by Oh Sweet Music! continues their amazing run of near perfect pop songs that even manage to tackle serious issues. This song, “Four More Years,” addresses the issue of increased privatization in Sweden and how to survive four more years of their present political leadership. Surely a song that many in the US can relate to.
Alright here’s the kicker, they’ve only made a 100 of these, so if you want to get your hands on a copy paypal $10 to seriestworecords@gmail.com. Here’s “Four More Years” plus Band In Box’s “A Spoon That You Can Bend” plus a great little video of Klas 1 performing with Vit Pals – the song is “I Was A Janitor”:
Oh Sweet Music! – Four More Years
Band In Box – A Spoon That You Can Bend
Klas 1′s “I Was A Janitor”
Delacroix is a seven plus piece band from Halsingland, Sweden. Perhaps because of such a large constellation of people in the band they are hard to pin down stylistically. They are polished (to a fault!?), professional and talented, so basically the opposite of many of the bands featured here at Swedesplease.
The band has just released their 5th ep titled Scenes. The songs on it are rich and complex set pieces with various instruments vying for top billing. The use of cello lends the band a romantic pop feel, as does the male/female duets found on most songs. While the flute on “The Stranger’s Night” veers dangerously towards 70′s soft rock cheese.
Sometimes it’s so easy running Swedesplease. That’s usually the case when bands that are right up my alley and that I’ve fawned over before send me their new song/video. And that’s exactly what happened when The San Marinos sent me their new song “Guess How Much I Love You”. This extremely lofi adaptation of one of my favorite children’s book titles (which I’ve read countless times to my two boys) is so cute it nearly catapults over the twee micro-genre and into some upper atmosphere of cuteness. The song is taken from a 3 song cdr the band has out now on Cloudberry Records.
B-side:
Can It Get Any Better Than This
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In other news Songs I Wish I’d Written released a new video from Moto Boy. The video is stark and extremely monochrome in style but the song is heavenly and very moving. Here’s the video for “Beat Heart”; it was shot in a tunnel in Malmo.
