Swedesplease – The Swedish Music Blog

The Mexico’s continue to try their hand at covers. I wrote about The Mexicos cover attempts of Brian Adams “Everything I Do” and Aaliyah’s “Try Again” here and here. This time they (really just Miguel Hallo) wonderfully butcher a cover of Mariah Caray’s “Hero” and “Out Of Touch by Hall & Oates.

Both songs have been put through The Mexicos’ template of lofi beats, lazy vocals and distorted disco effects. Maybe one day we’ll get a whole covers album in Miguel Hallo’s odd, inimitable and enticing style. Until then just put these in your iTunes wacky cover songs playlist.

Hero
Out Of Touch

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Sebastian Fors is keeping it real with his new video. It’s a diy affair recorded in Sebastian’s apartment. The song is called “Galaxies” from the upcoming 10″ ep These Songs Are About You on Nesna Records.

I read a complaint recently online that Swedesplease had been more “miss” than “hit” of late and while I take exception to that I’m sure this will improve my ratio. This song by Kasban was delivered to my inbox late last night. It instantly went to the top of the list of posts for the week. It’s clearly the most gorgeous thing you’ll hear, regardless of the language it’s sung in (Swedish).

Kasban’s MySpace page was created March 22 and at last check they had only 5 friends. So run on over and tell them how much you love this song and tell `em Swedesplease sent you.

Flyta Med

I’ve been holding off on posting about some of the new music I’ve been listening to to make sure it is still alright a week or two after the fact. The two songs posted by Music Is My Girlfriend from the new Stars In Coma record You’re Still Frozen In Time easily pass that test.

“Invisibility Trick” is the single and it’s blend of indie pop vocals with accelerated beats and synths is pretty catchy. The album track “People Put Up With A Lot Of Shit” is more of a dance track except with jangly guitar and more of those cheesy synths (but they work here!).

Invisibility Trick

People Put Up With A Lot Of Shit

Borderline from Soldiers EP

Video for “Invisibility Trick”

The excellent Swedish leaning blogs It’s A Trap and Indie Mp3 have been talking up the Swedish/Scottish (Swelandish?!) group The Social Services for a little while now. So not wanting to feel left out I’ve jumped on the bandwagon. I’m not sure exactly what it is about the band that is so captivating. It could be that for such a new band their sound is strong and confident. Their self-released recordings sound as good as any major label indie pop I’ve heard. And the clash (or melding) of the two cultures is an interesting sideshow that could really develop into a compelling sound.

“Folkan” is a great example of a couple of these ideas as the song has both English and Swedish language sections, as well as a diverse musical palate with traces of Scottish folk, gypsy music, and circus sounds. Miraculously the band still claims to be unsigned on their MySpace page!

Folkan

The band’s put together this MySpace video called “Touch The Swede” where they travel around Stockholm doing just that accompanied by snippets of their music. Watch for the Elias and The Wizz Kids cameo about halfway through and the “touch and run” at the very end…

Ah, the one day break did me some good. I’m excited to share with you the first single off of Mockingbird, wish me luck’s upcoming debut record. Mockingbird comes to us out of the ashes of the band Sibyl Vane. The lineup is loose, but contains brothers Niklas and Daniel Wennergreen. This is gorgeous indie pop with embellishments of flute, cello and lovely background vocals. The lyrics are sincere but not obvious. I have a feeling I could listen to this single for months and not tire of it.

The new record is out April 14 on London’s Blow Up Records.

Pictures (too big to fit in a sight)

I got a tiny little email from a band the other day and a link to their new song. Usually I’d ignore an email like that until I had time to review it properly. But this time there was a short note that this band, The Last Party, featured members of Florence Valentin (here), and then I remembered how much I liked their stuff. So here’s the new song from The Last Party. It’s called “Come Back To Stockholm”.

Come Back To Stockholm

Florence Valentin “Glömde Bort Att Va Rebell”

Florence Valentin “Pokerkväll i Vårby Gård”

Last year They Live By Night lost a band member but they gained a new sound. They lost their distortion-coated songs and tired, alt-rock leanings and gained a cleaner, simpler, indie-pop sound. They haven’t gone a 100% twee mind you, as they have kept a certain degree of muscularity and masculinity in their new music, but it nonetheless rings the indie-pop bell (riyl Montt Mardie).

The band’s new single, “Endless Summer”, from their upcoming Spring Release on Razzia Records is light and airy, catchy and sing-along-able. It’s quite a stretch from the music of their immediate past and a welcome change of pace.

Endless Summer

Bonus – here’s their previous single from 2007 release Art and Wealth:

Factory

Double bonus – Rambling Nicholas Heron with music critic Jerry Boman on Swedish Public Television (I’m interested in a quick translation of the interview particularly about halfway in when Nicholas mentions “mp3 blogs”).

I got an email late last night from a guy who goes by the name of Jam On Bread. He was born in Grimsby which sounds a bit Swedish but now lives in Manchester (Yes Manchester, Not Stockholm!). He wrote me with a song to share. It’s his ukelele strummed ode to Labrador.

The email questioned whether I would post it since he’s not from Sweden, but come on it’s a lo-fi, pop gem that name-drops Sambassadeur, Irene, Radio Dept., Ronderlin, Acid House Kings, and SKWBN all while lovingly performed on a ukelele (perhaps Jam on Bread hasn’t read all my lo-fi ukelele posts over on my other blog Songs:Illinois).

Are you kidding? How can I not post it?! Not only will I post it, but it went right to the top of the queue. See how clever I am? I used the English word queue because Jam on Bread are from England.

“I Heart Labrador Records” is beyond cute with lyrics questioning why there are so many Swedish pop bands (perhaps it’s the “magic indie-pop hands” each Swedish child is born with), and why a guy from Grimsby can’t be signed to Labrador (if only he could bribe some Swedish Government official).

There are more jangly indie-pop songs on the Jam On Bread MySpace page, check em out and leave a comment. Here’s a Swedesplease exclusive:

I Heart Labrador Records

This is one of those “any friend of yours is a friend of mine” type posts. Emma Hasselblad is a virtual and perhaps real life friend of Oh No Miriam! (they appear together in Stockholm on Feb. 9).

Emma’s music is the epitome of the term handcrafted, with the piano being the prominent acoustic instrument augmented by simple electronics and occasional beats and percussion. On the song “Fall” she loops her own vocals creating a duet with herself. The song begins with jaunty piano chords, then sets up the scenario of a relationship gone bad and then concludes with a simple (enjoyable, catchy) chorus of “all I want is to fall back into your arms”.

This is just a beginning for Emma Hasselblad (and Oh No Miriam!) but it’s an auspicious start.

Fall

Birds On Holiday has just released their debut record, In Foreign Countries, possibly a reference to the fact that the band was previously scattered throughout the globe. They are now all living in Sweden.

In an increasingly common arrangement this release is being put out by a label in the US. So that means you can get this import for only $10 here courtesy of Sandbox Tree Records.

Keep What you Got

Moofish Catfish is the latest signing from the up and came Swedish label Cosy Den. The band’s name is a complete mystery (is translation even helpful; it seems to be in English!?). The group came together recently when the duo known as Rastlös added a drummer to form Moofish Catfish.

“At The Club” is a song about a getting picked up at a club while “Are You A Boy” is a gender bender song that questions one’s sex and sexuality. Both songs hint at the awkwardness of life’s uncertainties.

At The Club

Check out this video: are you a boy

On his newest record Rambling James Heron (wrote about him first here) places himself firmly in the center of the Swedish indie-pop movement. His song “As If I Didn’t Know It” from his US debut, Here In Dreamland, has all the hallmarks of perfect indie-pop a la Herman Dune, I’m From Barcelona and Billie The Vision and Dancers. This is an autobiographical ditty about postering gigs, visiting the music shop and being befuddled by a girl. Musically it’s got that jangly guitar we all love, some whistling and what sounds like a flute. The laughter at the end is the clincher for me!

The new records out on Valiant Death in the US so let’s all thank them by purchasing this 15 track 53 minute dynamo for only $5 here.

As If I Didn’t Know It

“Only This And Nothing More”

This is a test of the emergency mp3 blog notification system. This is only a test, don’t freak out. I just added an email subscription box to the right and I’m not sure what exactly it will do. Please sign up though if you’re interested in getting an email notification each time Swedesplease is updated.

Anyway here’s the new video from Swedesplease favorites Pinto.

“Iron And Rust”

We’re back from break and rearing to go. There’s already a ton of great new Swedish music I’m excited to be writing about. These two artists are a tremendous way top start 2008.

The LK’s blend of sugary pop and electronic beats rang a bell with me. I guess it shouldn’t have taken a genius to figure out that this new Swedish duo is just The Lovekevins (here, here) re-branded. In fact the US release on Kora Records is actually just a re-release of 2007′s Vs. The Snow. Still, and all, it’s nice for this Swedish band to have a shot in the US.

One of the best songs on the US release is called “Stop Being Perfect” and although I linked to a version of this song back in 2005 this version was not on the 2007 Swedish release. You can hear “Stop Being Perfect” on the band’s MySpace.

Here’s a couple from the Swedish release:

Tamagotchi Freestyle (via Songs I Wish I Had Written;buy Swedish version of new cd here)
Private Life Of A Cat

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The new single from Moto Boy is a perfect compliment to The LK. They share a love of pop inflected with electronic beats (and they share a label as well). Listen to how this song builds and how Oskar’s vocals soar to dangerous heights. This is great stuff to start the new year off with. Songs I Wish I Had Written will be releasing the debut record from Moto Boy on January 16, more info .

Young Love

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Finally Swedesplease was selected (along with iTunes and Pitchfork) by the Guardian as one of the 20 best places to get music online for free. Pretty cool in and of itself but they also sent a ton of new Swedish music fans my way – welcome!