Finalized dates for the upcoming Moonbabies tour:
05/02 - Debaser, Malmö (SWE)
05/03 - Mau Club, Rostock (GER) w/Computer
05/06 - Club Stereo, Nürnberg (GER)
05/07 - Das Haus, Ludwigshafen (GER)
05/08 - Steinbruch, Duisburg (GER)
05/09 - Projekt 7, Magdeburg (GER) w/Computer
05/10 - Revolver Club @ Grüner Jäger, Hamburg (GER)
05/11 - Bassy, Berlin (GER)
For these dates the core duo of Ola and Carina will be augmented by drummer Per Nordborg and cellist Åsa Gjerstad.
I was told to hold off until Friday for an official announcement, but why wait? Florence Valentin's new single "Hellre blind", their Startracks debut, is now streaming in demo form at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/florencevalentin
Expect an official release sometime before summer. Otherwise, the band will go into the studio in June to record a new album for release this coming September.
MIC Norway previews the new Grand Island album "Boys and brutes", due out April 7: http://www.mic.no/mic.nsf/doc/art2008040315232057368276
Late 80s/early 90s Swedish punk act De Lyckliga Kompisarna aka DLK are doing a batch of reunion shows this summer: http://www.luger.se/_nyheter.asp?PK_Id=915
Expect a new album in 2009.
Word has it that the Lykke Li-Atlantic deal I mentioned yesterday is worldwide excluding Scandinavia. The "indie" moniker of imprint LL Recordings will be used as a front, just as it is in Sweden/Scandinavia with EMI.
AllAboutJazz talks to renown Norwegian jazz pianist/composter Tord Gustavsen: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=28796
Finnish indierock act Agent Kooper will have their self-titled debut album released in Sweden on May 30. Samples at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/agentkooper
Danish artist Asger Tarpgaard (ex-Superheroes, Private) is working on a solo album under the name Music For Modern Man. He'll be working with various collaborators on said project, including people from fellow Danish acts Oh No Ono, The Blue Van, Vincent Van Go Go, Superheroes. Hear the first single "Electric gtrs" at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/musicformodernman
Hi, my name is Avi and I'm an idiot. Here's the excellent new single from The Kid. It's a Cortex cover.
(yes, there was a different post here before, but it has been removed due to my embarrassment)
The Kid - Mayhem troopers
Tragic news: Anders Göthberg, guitarist in Broder Daniel (and Honey Is Cool), committed suicide last Sunday by jumping from the Västerbron bridge in Stockholm. He will be missed.
Astrid SwanLike a dizzying, drunken sprawl across the deck of a flailing sea vessel, "Spartan picnic" gives you little time to get your bearings before bombarding you with a varied range of genre choices and idiosyncratic deliveries. Astrid Swan seems just as comfortable in the 4/4, straight-forward chorus of the title track of her album as she does with the stuttering, shifting landscape of the rest of the song - and this extends throughout the record. "For those who drown" is a Billy Joel-esque anthem that was directed drastically off course, slipping through the electronica of the 80s and the kitsch of 70s rock ballads, and somehow coming out a winner... don't ask me how. The waltzing "Kinda joke" plays up the burlesque feel of "Spartan picnic", allying these theatrics with an almost "Sgt. Pepper's..." circus of oddities and the current trend towards quirky indie-rock. "What does the pink mean" has slowly become one of my favorite songs released this year: at first masquerading as a calmer, more accessible singer-songwriter's composition, but building itself up through so many torn shrouds of layered instrumentation that it becomes hard to call this track, or any of Astrid Swan's songs, a normal expedition. This album, rather obviously, is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. It is however, in this reviewer's humble opinion, a bizarre vehicle that is well worth its blessed confusion.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
Here's the new Figurines video for "Childhood verse": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4MOpXaDDDk
The Stålverk netlabel has a new release posted from bitpop act Plankton: http://www.stalverk.se/?p=rel&c1=Digital&c2=Stal-113%3A+Plankton+-+15+min
