Swedesplease – The Swedish Music Blog

I’ve mentioned the new Billie The Vision & the Dancers record on a couple of separate occasions but as of yet I haven’t linked to any song from it. The band has just posted the entire album online as a free download and I’ll take that as my queue to write a little about the record.

First off it doesn’t break any new ground. But seeing as how the last two records were pop wonders (especially The World According To Pablo) they didn’t have to. Like Pablo this new record also has a recurring character and this time it’s Lily. I haven’t absorbed the whole record but the individual songs are spellbinding. In fact “Someday, Somehow” has already become a singalong anthem at their live shows. And of course Lily (below) is a favorite of mine and features such lively call and response it’s hard not to shout out the chorus.

Lily From The Middleway Street

What can I say except that I love this new header designed by Swedesplease fan and professional illustrator/artist Mike Lowery. Get in touch with him through his site for all your illustration needs.

Oh and btw that little phrase apparently translates into “my true love”, at least that’s what I hope it means.

One of the songs from yesterday’s post on the band Tada Tátá was screwed up for half of the day (I added one too many “w’s” to the “www” part of the url..ugh!). So I encourage you to return to that post to check out both songs by the band. I personally am nearing infatuation and easing toward a full blown obsession!

Also Knut from the mostly Nordic, sporadically Swedish site, Eardrums has put together a 2cd summer sampler. It’s available as two seperate .zip files and includes new songs/remixes/alternative takes from bands like Celestial, The LK, Slowmotion Club, The Charade, Club 8 and Ant. Oh did I mention these were free. They are. Here.

Finally, sister site Songs:Illinois has had two great posts up already this week (if I do say so myself!) with music from Embarrassed Fruits, Francois Virot and Forest Fire.

Ever since I got back from Sweden my email inbox has been inundated with music to write about. And while I don’t want to put it all down with one broad stroke, in general I haven’t felt compelled to write about any of it. This may be a function of its inherent poor quality or it may be more about the music discovery process. Doesn’t it just seem like it’s the music that you stumble upon that is most meaningful, rather than the music that is being delivered to you by radio, press campaigns and TV?

That brings me to Tada Tátá. A two girl indie pop group from Umeå that uses ukulele and melodica and simple synthy beats to create their poetic indie pop. As they say on their MySpace page they sound like: “when you had too many cakes and you feel like you have to barf but..the moment just before that when everything’s still tasty, delicious and really really sweet…sort of “.

Enjoy this for now and don’t expect something this great tomorrow…its just not going to happen!

(Update: There’s nothing I hate more than links that don’t work. Sorry that “Ebony” was fouled up it works now though. Thanks.)

Ebony
Sticky Dumb Gum

This here is an mp3 blog. Perhaps you’ve heard of them. Free mp3’s and music discussion. So where’s the mp3, you ask? Not available. But I’m not going to let that stop me from writing about what may be one of the coolest Swedish indie pop records in a long while. The record I’m referring to is the latest and seemingly last release from The Budgies. Cosy Den is putting it out and it’s called Teatercafeet.

The best thing about the record is that it has 8 new songs, as well as including everything the band has ever recorded including two previously unreleased tracks. While there’s no mp3; you can listen to a song or two at the label’s MySpace (”Boy On a Bike”). Pre-order this release though Cosy Den here.

The Budgies “Summer Come Back”

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Alright so here’s an mp3 since you complained so much. This is the song “At The Club” from Moofish Catfish. I wrote about them way back when here.

At The Club

As I alluded to in my post about Those dancing Days I was left a little cold by Lyke Li’s competent but otherwise uninspiring performance at Hultsfred. I think a lot of the blame can be placed on the fact that her music resides in the netherworld between pop, electronic, dance and indie rock. Combine that with her thin vocals and the occasional duds in her repertoire and you get an artist that may not be able to expand upon her hit “Little Bit”.

The show was not without a little excitement though. The aforementioned “Little Bit” got the crowd jumping and singing along and a background choir that consisted of fellow festival headline Robyn sent a stir throughout the crowd.

Incidentally Robyn rode the train back to Stockholm with us, albeit in the 1st class compartment!!

Just got back from Billie the Vision & Dancers and Säkert! at Hultsfred Festival in Sweden. Both shows were great with Annika of Säkert (and Hello Saferide) playing songs from her debut on the main stage for the first time and Billie The Vision was so over the top that the kids in the audience went nuts. This was the first chance I’ve been able to hear either band and the shows were great but both a little weird.

Säkert! is Annika Norlin’s Swedish language band with members of Isolation Years Since all of her songs were in Swedish I couldn’t relate to any of the lyrics in any way. I’m very much a “lyric guy” so that was offputting. But still by the end I was singing along the best I could with all the other fans in the front row. I’m told that Annika is wrapping up a new album to be released in September by Razzia Records. That’s something we’ll all look forward to!

For Billie The Vision & Dancers I was surrounded by hordes of kids just out of their teen years and they sung along with every word. That was cool but a little surprising because even in Sweden Billie The Vision and Dancers is not a household name. Still it was great to hear all his personal songs and many of the concept numbers about Pablo.

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This is a picture of a great swing they have at the park in Stockholm. It’s just for Nate and Tucker. Everyone else please ignore.

Thanks to the efforts of Kristofer and STIM we’ve been getting some great press opportunities over here in Sweden. There’s an interview with photos and top 5 lists over at Metro here.

And we made it on to Swedish National TV the other night. And you can watch that piece here on SVT (scroll ahead to the 10 minute mark or a little over halfway through).

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(photo courtesy of RockParty)

Well you probably didn’t come for all that, so here’s a little nugget for you from Esther. It’s from their forthcoming lp Lie To Me I Love A Good Story. The album’s out in a month but you can order it directly from the band (esthermusic@hotmail.com) or at their myspace. I like the way they straddle the power pop, punk and the emo worlds and from the photo set up at RockParty they look to have a great live show.

I Can’t Promise

P.S. I met Rigas and Parken at Hultsfred which was a nice treat. Tomorrow I look forward to seeing Säkert!, Billie The Vision & The Dancers and Lissi Dancefloor Disaster.

The fruits of my hard labor (hardly!) in Stockholm are starting to pay off. At a record store called Fader I picked up a new record from the Malmoe based jazztronica group Imps. The record is the just released Bring Out The Imps on the Japanese label Mule Musiq. The record’s hard to figure out as it fits somewhere between chill out and experimental electronica. Meanwhil the band uses a lot of unusual electronic and acoustic instruments (Rhodes, upright bass, soprano sax) making them a bit unusual in this regard.

I like this track, “Second Track”, but there’s a bunch of others that would satiate your taste for experimental electronic music in the vein of Tape, Ass etc etc.

Second Track

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P.S. We just landed in Hultsfred and I caught the entire set by Little Marbles. They’re new and I feel are still working toward a final sound that I hope will be a mixture of MIA, Mystere De Voix Bulgare and The Budgies.

Little Melon

(Tom Levin)

OK. Here’s an update just in case you’re paying attention. We did Swedish TV this morning and that will air this evening at 7pm on SVT (notice the prominent Swedesplease T-shirt!). Also did a nice interview/photoshoot with Stockholm’s Metro newspaper. Both were pretty challenging with nearly impossible questions like: who’s you’re favorite Swedish artist of all time and what is it about Swedish music that is so appealing? I may have stammered through those two!

Tonight I’m off to the record release party for Tom Levin’s Unfair In My Favor (Cosmos Records, June 11) at Underbara Bar in Stockholm.

Here’s an older song from Tom plus two videos (1 and 2) of his new songs on TV4.

I Miss Her Missing Me

Here’s a couple of photo’s from today:

P.S. Hi Nate and Tucker. I miss you both. Lots of nice parks here with unusual swings. I’ll put pictures up tomorrow. No donuts here though so you’re not missing much.