Swedesplease – The Swedish Music Blog

I just watched this piece on human sex trafficking between the Czech Republic and England. It’s pretty depressing. There are elements in the song “Easy Heart” from Sebastian Fors that remind me of that piece. For instance the line…..”if the price is right, can I be yours tonight” delivered in a very Wilcoesque way seems to hint at this very idea (even if its unintentional).

I’ve been a booster of Sebastian Fors since I first wrote about him back in 2006 (here and here) but it’s been months since I’ve heard from him. The good news is he’s just back from a trip to Egypt and he has just released his new EP.

“Easy Heart” is the centerpiece with its dynamic shifts and its at times warbled vocals and at times screamed vocals. The story of a man with a whole lot of shit in his life hoping to escape his troubles and flee with the girl he loves is fairly rote, but here, with Sebastian’s emotive vocals and lyrics, it works wonders.

There are more songs from the new EP online at Sebastian’s MySpace and news of the EP’s official release should come soon.

Easy Heart

Baby Blond And The Downs have made the difficult move from a netlabel to an actual label. They have just released their new CD, Hope Is Dope, on the Spanish label Moonpalace Records and it’s a limited run of 100 copies. I’m hard-pressed to give you an accurate description of the band’s music as they mix electronics with brooding vocals and organic instrumentation and distorted stray guitar riffs. The key element in the band’s future success is the quality of the duets between the two lead vocalists – Anders and Erica. The band is based in the musical hotbed of Malmö.

RIYL Nick Cave, Cocteau Twins, and moody krautrock. Buy the new ep here.

Amish

In case you missed it, the new video from Ida Maria for the song “Drive Away My Heart”. Plus a preview of her next video for “Stella”.

To me the video for “Drive Away…” is too linear, I’d rather have something more along the lines of a live concert or something more abstract. The song too seems over-written as well. But it’s Ida Maria for God’s sake!

“Drive Away My Heart”

“Stella”

I’ve been a pretty vocal, adamant and unrelenting proponent of Ida Maria’s music since the first time I heard it. But this takes the cake. To share with you her new video for her “hit” song “Oh My God” I had to create a You Tube account and upload it myself. Problem was the .mov file I had of the single wouldn’t upload so I’ve been checking You Tube off and on for two weeks waiting for the video for “Oh My God!” to pop and it finally has. The video’s pretty simple but certainly hints at the raw live energy Ida Maria is said to deliver live. Enjoy below!

But first, the original demo version of “Forgive Me”

Forgive Me

“Oh My God!”

How’s this for rather innocuous indie rock from Sweden. Will these guys light the world on fire with this insipid, generic, indie-rock light? The BlueKicks are a 4 piece from Gothenberg, these two songs are from their brand new single. Although it may seem like I don’t like them from that introductory sentence, after several listens I’ve found the single to be quite catchy.

Louise
Deep In The Snow

Do they surf in Sweden? Apparently they do, but it sure looks cold. Anyway they do have surf music and for my 2 cents Maeds Dominos may be the pre-eminent Swedish surf rock band. Maybe that’s not saying much, but from the number of surfy bands listed in their MySpace friends section it may be a surprising compliment.

These two instrumentals capture the cascading wave action of the ocean as well as any I’ve heard from Dick Dale and company. Enjoy these two and hang ten!

La Strada de Muerte
Puto Camello de Mierde

Surfing In Sweden – A Dramadocumentary

If all else fails click here.

Every Music blogger has his or her own pet projects. These are the artists you want to see succeed, but at the same time you don’t want them to become too popular and eclipse your tiny little site. Pet Politics was a pet project of Swedesplease and remains one to this date.

Any lack of fame for Pet Politics is directly related to the scarceness and the format of his recordings not the quality of the limited number of songs he’s recorded. For example, his new record, is just that, a vinyl record. It’s a 7″ released on the small English label The Great Pop Supplement and on top of all that it’s limited to only 300 numbered copies. Like all of Pet Politics’ (aka Magnus) other releases this one is bedroom lofi rock. Sometimes when you see “bedroom” and “lofi” in the same sentence you might think of a sort of charming-yet-coy-Bright-Eyes-twee-pop, but this is not the case with Pet Politics. Instead what you get is a forthright and strong record that hints of Lou Reed and Velvet Underground.

“Taken Away By Aliens” is pretty self-explanatory story of an alien abduction except with the twist that the couple who are taken away are overjoyed by the experience. It’s a catchy and clever song and may be one of the best Pet Politics has produced. You can buy the 7″ here or Pet Politics early ep on Catbird Records here (there’s only two left!).

Taken Away By Aliens