The London Observer talks to Lykke Li: http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/story/0,,2283217,00.html
Tapete Records is offering up two new tracks from Swedish indierockers The Horror The Horror for free download: http://www.tapeterecords.de/index.php?id=178
The band's new album "Wired boy child" will be out soon.
Umeå-based psych/folk/pop artist Cocoanut Groove has a new track streaming at myspace called "Hummin'": http://www.myspace.com/cocoanutgroove
Said track will appear on the forthcoming full-length album "Madeleine Street", due out soon via Fridlyst.
Kid Down will be spending six weeks at IF Studios in Göteborg this summer with engineer Roberto Laghi recording their sophomore album.
Swedish 8-piece indiepop act Mockingbird, Wish Me Luck (nee Sibyl Vane) will finally release their debut album "Days come and go" on June 9 via UK-based label Blow Up Records. Listen to the lead single "Pictures (too big to fit in a sight)" (just released today, June 2) at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/mockingbirdwishmeluckswe
Songs I Wish I Had Written is giving away the new Moto Boy single "What is was like to be with you" as a free summer download: http://www.songsiwish.com/motoboy-whatitwas.mp3
Check out the new video too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5UgtJbOBXA
As In RebekkaMaria has posted two new remix tracks at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/asinrebekkamaria
Swedish alt-country act Hyacinth House are keeping a blog while on tour: http://blog.myspace.com/wwwhyacinthhousese
Caesars' most recent album "Strawberry weed" will finally get a US release on August 19 via Astralworks.
Envelopes are blogging while on tour: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=12478407&blogID=401204842
Swedish EBM act Lip Service (ahem) will release the new EP "Black cat" in Septmeber. Check out a live video of their Depeche Mode cover "Never let me down again", a track which will appear on said EP: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liTAPeJWv2o
Here is the It's a Trap! Last.fm listening group top 10 artists of the week:
01. Sigur Rós
02. Death Cab for Cutie
03. Radiohead
04. Håkan Hellström
05. The Radio Dept.
06. Belle and Sebastian
07. Coldplay
08. Kleerup
09. Jens Lekman
10. Sébastien Tellier
Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/
MP3: Svartbag - Black Capricorn
As I'm sure regular readers are aware by now, I absolutely love music when it's soaked in ominous dread. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, Ondo and Raison d'Être are three artists that come to mind when I consider the niche and now I can add the Danes Svartbag to the list. The Rump label has put out a bunch of interesting electronica - Badun, Karsten Pflum, Snöleoparden, etc - but Svartbag's self-titled debut is by far the best of the bunch. Opener "Black Capricorn" is all slow-creeping darkness, the kind of stuff that backs you in a corner before consuming you completely. That the track is so obviously guitar-based is kinda surprising too, especially since so much of this stuff seems to traffic in sounds so heavily processed they end up resembling vague dark shapes. The low-end buzz grumbles and moans as the drums endlessly cycle and taunt, all gradually building and eventually rumbling to a stop like a freight train. Call it dark-ambient, evil shoegaze, whatever you want, it's all good, I just know I like it a lot. Be aware, it's a mighty big download (15mb), but man oh man, is it worth it.
Svartbag - Black Capricorn
Pitchfork gives high marks to the Wildbirds & Peacedrums album "Heartcore": http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/50336-heartcore
The Ruling Class
Tour de force
Shelflife Records
Like C.S. Nielsen's pitch-perfect recreation of Johnny Cash's style of songwriting, the part-Scandinavian/part-British The Ruling Class similarly adopt a faultless Stone Roses style (with maybe more than a few nods to The Charlatans). The reason artists like this succeed is because they follow in exactly the same footprints as their influences -- not beating around the bush (because the songwriters can't quite find the vein they're attempting to replicate), or providing listeners with a karaoke-esque recreation, but deftly hitting every emotional chord that caused us to fall in the love with legends like Johnny Cash and renowned Manchurians The Stone Roses. Our parents have boundlessly assured us that "there will never be another group like The Beatles," and maybe they're right, but The Ruling Class have stepped into shoes that haven't moved quite like this in a long time. There's an art to what they have done that is beyond imitation; it's more like disproving the idea that lightning never strikes the same place twice.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
