MP3: Sir Eric Beyond and the Avant-garde - Democracy

Instead of our typical Göteborg-related post this week, we're taking an entirely different approach by asking an outsider to look in. Our guest: Sir Eric Beyond of Sir Eric Beyond and the Avant-garde.

For the record, what city do you call home?

We call Stockholm our home.

So, when was the last time you were in Gbg?

We were in Gbg in December and played at Preview festival. It was arranged by the great label Kning Disk.

What's your impression of the city, its people and its music?

It's a great city for underground music, and the audience seems much more interested in alternative pop music than the Stockholm music scene. That is probably not true, but they seem happier.

Do you think that there's a particular Gbg sound? If so, how would you describe it?

Yeah there is something in the way of singing that lots of Gbg bands have. Some perfect mixture of stupidity, "I dont give a fuck-attitude" and pure joy. Gbg bands are more "real". We, Sir Eric Beyond and the Avant-garde, the creme de la creme in Stockholm, take pride in being fake. Which is very real to us.

BUT, I think there are many more girls making interesting (and crap) music in Stockholm, I am more interested in listening to that. Damn, I wish that I was a girl...

When you think of bands/artists from Gbg, who is the first to come to mind?

The first Gbg artist that comes to my mind is Dishdishdance, she, Malin Dahlström had a brilliant performance with dancers at the festival where we played. She rocks. Don't know if she recorded anything. The two little songs on myspace wasn't even close to what I heard live. Totally different story.

Lastly, what exactly are you working on right now?

NOW I am building a four meter high catapult that I'm going to use for shooting crap on the parliament building in Stockholm in April, to protest against Swedish weapons export.

We are also makin new music that will be released maybe this year, maybe next.

Sir Eric Beyond and the Avant-garde - Democracy

Check out a gallery of visual artworks inspired by Stockholm-based postrockers Norma and their debut EP "1": http://www.theamazingnorma.com/gallery.swf

SuperTroels has posted his new TurboWeekend remix for free download: http://supertroels.dk/wp/?p=320

Music Is My Girlfriend is offering up a couple mp3s from the forthcoming Stars In Coma album "You're still frozen in time": http://musicismygirlfriend.com/index.php?id=93

New American dates for Lo-Fi-Fnk:

02/28 - Le Cabaret, Montreal w/Fluokids
02/29 - Circa, Toronto w/Fluokids
03/01 - Highline Ballroom, NYC, NY w/Finger On the Pulse
03/04 - UCLA Kerckhoff Grand Salon, LA, CA
03/05 - Mezannine, San Francisco, CA w/Junior Boys
03/06 - The Bourbon, Vancouver BC
03/07 - La Santa, Guadalajara (MEX)
03/08 - MX Beat Festival, Mexico City (MEX)

Flora & Fauna is offering the new Parken single " Åt Helvete med himlen" for free download: http://www.brilliant.nu/mp3/helvete%20med%20himlen.mp3

Danish pop act The Alpine has a new website: http://www.thealpine.dk/
It also happens to be a flash-heavy disaster, but at least you can preview a few more tracks from their forthcoming album.

The brand new Robert Svensson (Mixtapes & Cellmates) single "1987" is now available for free download from Nomethod: http://www.nomethod.se/
As mentioned before, the track features guest vocals from Adam Olenius of the Shout Out Louds plus a remix by labelmate Matts Katt.

Watch Thomas Dybdahl shill for Radio Shack: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yc2JfNFisnc

The Local reports that Swedish performance rights organization STIM is coming out in support of an ISP tax as a way to circumvent illegal downloading: http://www.thelocal.se/9925/20080208/

Det Gamla Landet's unreleased 2006 album is being offered for free download: http://dgl.a-double-a.com/
This is VERY highly recommended!

Dark Tranquility will head to Russia for the very first time in April:

04/23 - Nau, Kiev
04/24 - Tochka, Moscow
04/25 - Port, St Petersburg
04/26 - Premera, Krasnodar

PopMatters finds The Mary Onettes to be mediocre: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/music/reviews/53483/the-mary-onettes-the-mary-onettes/

Björn Kleinhenz has posted a few live tracks from his recent tour for free download: http://www.kleinhenz.se/
I haven't heard them all yet, but the show-closing version of "You are my sunshine" is superb!

Absolut Noise talks to Swedish postpunk act Paper: http://absolutnoise.blogspot.com/2008/02/robots-after-all.html