Liam Murray is a poet from Malmö working on his debut album which will feature him reading his words over background music provided by an array of Swedish artists. First up, a cut with friend-of-the-site Johan Gustavsson aka Jonas G Winther of Scraps of Tape/Tsukimono/Thee Gutted String. Other contributors include Lotta Wenglén and Polar City, plus a few who apparently have yet to be asked. Wait and see!
Holy shit!! Even though it was released back in January, this is surprise of the year to these ears, right from the second it kicks off with its off-kilter intro, through its meandering journey across black metal's multifarious hatescape and into the epic dying seconds of "Universal miscreant". Musically, it's a damn technical affair, never resting for a second and constantly shifting tempo and style for its entirety. It is expertly crafted from start to finish, benefitting from a raw-yet-bludgeoning production that's clear enough to allow every nuance its fifteen minutes of fame while simultaneously offering an authentic, dirty old-school feel. If there's one gripe, it's that the IBM-blast on "Flagrum" doesn't -- at any point -- explode into a proper drum blast over the same riff that gets the electro-treatment. With that hefty production it would rip some serious face! You kind of expect it, but it never happens. And that really sucks! It's a minor point, though, given that "Terra ruina" does nothing but please otherwise. That there's passion evident on this album is quite an understatement. There's not a filler to be had, and no skull has been left unsmashed in the Umeå trio's quest for global oblivion. Man, oh fucking man! This is music to slay by! - John Norby
Check out a great coldwave/synthpop mix compiled by Thomas Ekelund of Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words/Soma Sema/Trepaneringsritualen: http://www.mixcloud.com/DreadWords/malignant-tumor-of-the-heart/
It's not all Scandinavian, but don't let that stop you from checking it out.
Serenades are coming to the US for a few shows in mid-December:
12/12 - Bardot School Night, Los Angeles, CA
12/13 - Bootleg, Los Angeles, CA
12/15 - Knitting Factory, Brooklyn, NY
12/16 - Mercury Lounge, New York, NY
Check out a new 3-song EP from Swedish indierock act Black Guillemot, a band featuring members from like-minded acts Jet Link and Since Our First Guitar
Falling way behind on all the music I want to post, but a promise is a promise and I'd be seriously remiss if I didn't talk up the new EL-SD because they are absolutely one of my favorite bands right now. I kid you not, I've been jamming their demo tracks on the regular for over a year now and it's well past due I had something to share so, at long last, here is the lead track from the band's new 7" EP "Repeating patterns", due out November 30 via /. So if you're like me and you dig so-called "angular" guitar rock with discordant leads and a sharp-edged rhythm section, you'll definitely dig this. And if you're in Stockholm, you should check out the record release show at Walla Scen in Årsta on December 3 with Estroboscorpio. I know I'd be there if I could.
One huge pet peeve I've had for years is bad band fonts. You'd think we've passed the era when people realised that distorted grunge fonts, or using the airbrush on photoshop to fuck up your logo looks god-fucking-awful. To top it off, bands pair it with a pixelated rock icon, skulls or flames or whatnot. Done in the right way, it's not bad, but more often then not, it reveals a band's minimal sense of creativity -- like they're just as maladjusted as the next office cretin when it comes to determining a "rock-look". Now that I've got that outta my system, onto the next order of business: what the fuck is wrong with this band's name? If they're attempting to use the word, "chilli" to suggest "hot, fiery, red" or whatever stereotypical rock-associated adjectives that went through their beer-fizzled brains, coupled with "hounds" it makes absolutely no sense. They might as well be thinking "Chillidogs".
I envision only two scenarios in which I'd affirm this band; a) if I were sitting in some backyard blues bar in the middle of Memphis -- wait-a-minnit, I forget that'd be demographically impossible seeing as these guys sing as white as turkeys -- ok, ok so in the middle of bumfuck Texas, and I was really, REALLY drunk on Bourbon and on a date with a super hot cowboy. If Chillihounds were the house band, I probably wouldn't mind. The second would be if Kenny Powers were their frontman, and they dressed like Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Unfortunately there's zero irony and zero invention. It's winter up in those northern parts, and picturing a surplus of dudes jamming and "kicking ass" kinda makes me wanna cry. It's as if they've lifted as many AC/DC, Kiss or Thin Lizzy riffs as possible and plastered it with your typical slick-back testosterone-fueled Swedishness. Even their song titles bleed of unoriginality. As much as I hate standing in the way of good ol' fashioned fun and laudable classic rock-throwbacks (AC/DC cover band Big Balls for example, rules) -- their sound emanates of beer bongs, ordering cowboy hats on eBay and fucking young girls that've stepped outta Paradise Hotel. Just as I think I might tip over in the way of nodding to a song, tracks like, "Back in the game" make me wallow in misery. I read somewhere that they're attempting to be "classic rock for a new generation." Please. It's harry as hell. - Ann Sung-an Lee
Ghamorean
Chillihounds
