Finnish act Disco Ensemble will be taking part in this summer's Warped Tour for a good portion of July. Dates:
07/09 - Lakewood Amphitheater, Atlanta, GA
07/10 - Central Florida Fairgrounds, Orlando, FL
07/11 - Vinoy Park, Tampa, FL
07/12 - Bicentennial Park, Miami, FL
07/13 - St. Johns County Fairgrounds, Jacksonville, FL
07/14 - Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, Charlotte, NC
07/15 - Virginia Beach, VA
07/16 - Merriweather Post Pavilion, Washington DC
07/23 - Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts, Boston, MA
07/24 - Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, Buffalo, NY
07/25 - Susquehanna Bank Center, Camden, NJ
07/26 - Uniondale, NY
07/27 - Toyota Pavilion, Scranton, PA
07/28 - Raceway Park, Englishtown, NJ
07/29 - Post Gazette Pavilion, Pittsburgh, PA
07/30 - Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH
This week's top 20 Norwegian album chart:
01. Diverse artister - Sorgen og gleden: Matte Marit
02. Madrugada - Madrugada
03. Ane Brun - Changing Of The Seasons
04. Kaizers Orchestra - Maskineri
05. Glenn Lyse - Come Closer
06. Secret Garden - Inside I'm singing
07. Sie Gubba - Sånn e livet
08. The National Bank - Come On Over To The Other Side
09. Madcon - So Dark the Con of Man
10. Hellbillies - Spissrotgang
11. Gaute Ormåsen - Drømmesang
12. Celine - Bæstevænna
13. Bertine Zetlitz - In my mind 1997-2007 Best of
14. Anne Nørdsti - Livli på låven
15. Vidar Johnsen & Peter Nordberg - Ord og Øgonblick
16. Something Sally - Familiar Strangers
17. CC Cowboys - På Svalbard uten strøm
18. Sahg - II
19. Beady Belle - Belvedere
20. Diverse artister - Melodi Grand Prix 2008
BSTBA imprint Workaholics on Holiday! will release a new EP from Danish act Body Lotion and the Bloody Hands on March 28 with a record release show to be held the previous evening at Din Nye Ven in Copenhagen. Hear samples: http://www.myspace.com/bodylotionandthebloodyhands
Norwegian/Swedish jazz act Atomic will soon release their new 2CD album "Retrograde" via Jazzland Records. The first disc is a new studio recording while the 2nd is a live show from Seattle last January. Expect it to be out in time for their next tour, kicking off on April 14. More details and samples: http://www.atomicjazz.com/
This week's top 20 Swedish album chart:
01. Linda Bengtzing - Vild & galen
02. Amy Diamond - Music in motion
03. Nordman - Djävul eller gud
04. Carola - Främling 25 år
05. Povel Ramel - Karameller - Det bästa med Povel Ramel
06. Cornelis Vreeswijk - CV - Det bästa med Cornelis Vreeswijk
07. Lars Winnerbäck - Daugava
08. Ane Brun - Changing of the seasons
09. Maia Hirasawa - Though, I'm just me (new edition)
10. Sibel - The diving belle
11. The Poodles - Sweet trade (new edition)
12. Benny Anderssons Orkester - Bao 3
14. Peter Lemarc - Kärlek i tystnadens tid
15. Björn Skifs - I2I
16. Christer Sjögren - Älskade andliga sanger
17. Monica Zetterlund - Sakta vi gå genom stan - Det bästa med Monica
18. Takida - Bury the lies
19. Kikki Danielsson - Kikkis bästa
20. Fernandoz - Anders & Git - En helt ny dag
There's a couple new Powersolo tracks up on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/powersolo
Expect a new album from the band this coming fall.
Antenna interviews Danish metal act Mercenary: http://www.antenna.nu/?p=51
I spent something like 10 hours yesterday banging my head against the wall, trying to get some code to work. Every time I'd fix one problem, it would cause something else to break. Just another day at the office, eh? To top it off, it started snowing in the late afternoon. I mean, c'mon- wtf is going on here? It's almost April for crissakes and I don't even live that far north. As for my soundtrack, I'm glad I had the new Bloodbath EP "Unblessing the purity" to keep me company. I know that listening to brutal death-metal might seem counterintuitive when you're having a stressful day, but it works for me and was exactly what I needed to make it through. Compared to that other all-star old-school Swedish death-metal act Death Breath, Bloodbath is bit more 2nd gen; think "Clandestine", not "Left hand path" if you catch my drift. Far less punk/thrash influence, way more blastbeats and overt techinicality. Unfortunately, I can't say that it's my favorite thing that Bloodbath has done, but it does hit the spot and there's more than a few stellar moments to make it worth your while. Listen for the brutal breakdown around 1:45 followed by the summoning of demons- I love that shit! Classic death-metal was often quite fun and far too many bands seem to forget about that. Yes, it's goofy, but that's fine. It's pure escapism, like a comic book or a Stephen King novel. Don't think too hard about it! That's why I can find it relaxing.
Bloodbath - Mouth of empty praise
Kaka (aka Richard Karlsson, ex-The Mo) will be playing a showcase in London this weekend on March 29 at the Plus One Club in Soho. Stream his self-titled debut album here: http://www.despotz.se/kaka_london/kaka.html
The new In Flames album "A sense of purpose" is streaming at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/inflames
5
Balancing itself somewhere between over-accessibility and kitschy electronica, "Overstaying the welcome" is an undeniably fun album, but it's hard to give a general impression of the record overall. "Catalogue of failures" is an overabundance of 80s clichés and synths, wonderfully wound around solid songwriting, but the following track "Piss on you" is rather disappointing, especially the lyrics. Imagine New Order on a drug binge (probably uppers) in Berlin deciding to record an album in a weekend... and you're somewhere in the realm of TIAC's "Overstaying the welcome". It's a lot of fun, like I said, but there's an obvious expiration date to this enjoyment.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
TIAC