Boy Omega will support Christian Kjellvander on tour in Northern Europe:
02/21 - Weltruf, Kiel
02/22 - Mau Club, Rostock
02/23 - Tonenburg, Höxter / Albaxen
02/24 - Beatpol, Dresden
02/25 - Babylon, Berlin
02/26 - Knust, Hamburg
02/27 - E-Werk, Erlangen
02/28 - Karlstorbahnhof, Heidelberg
02/29 - 59to1, München
03/01 - Bierstindl, Innsbruck
03/02 - Chelsea, Wien
03/06 - ISC Bern, Bern
03/07 - White Rabbit Club, Freiburg
03/08 - Schlachthof, Wiesbaden
03/09 - Kulturkeller, Fulda
Swedish rockers Dollhouse are taking an extended break and pushing back the release of their next album to August 29.
Park Hotell is in Stockholm this week recording an album with fellow Luleå native Jari Haapalainen (The Bear Quartet, Laakso, etc.).
Sudd's first release of 2008 is Fujisaki's "ReMixtape", a collection of eight various remixes he's done for artists such as Familjen, Dibaba, Lacrosse and more. Download here: http://www.sudd.org/ReMixtape.htm
Also keep an eye out for the new album "The breakfast" to be released on February 1.
Swedish indie act Sibyl Vane has changed their name to Mockingbird, Wish Me Luck. The band's debut album "Days come and go" will be out April 14 and you can hear samples here: http://www.myspace.com/mockingbirdwishmeluckswe
Swedish hardrockers Ammotrack have signed with Gain Music and will be releasing their debut album this coming spring. Listen to the first single "Scream for your mother" right here: http://www.ammotrack.org/master/scream.mp3
Swedish industrial/metal act Misery Loves Company has a new myspace fansite that's doing a great job of compiling old videos, interviews and so on: http://www.myspace.com/miserystillspeaks
Pitchfork has a new DiskJokke track in the Forkcast: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/forkcast/48100-diskjokke-some-signs-are-good-mp3stream
Popjustice talks to Basshunter about his UK #1 single "Now you're gone" and his recently circulated porn tape: http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2073&Itemid=266
The appeal of Petter's new single "Logiskt" depends almost entirely on whether or not you can get down with the Säkert! sample that anchors the song. It's a time honored cheap tactic, whether you're Puff Daddy or the KLF, but at least in this case the sampled track ("Någon gång måste du bli själv") wasn't already a hit. That makes it marginally more acceptable to my ears. However, the dealbreaker for me is that Petter simply isn't all that compelling as an MC. Obviously, I'm a big Annika Norlin fan, but that only goes so far.
Petter - Logiskt (ft. Säkert!)
Adam TenstaThis debut album from Adam Tensta won a Swedish Grammy the other day for best "dance/hip-hop/soul" album. Not sure if it was the best dance album, but it was definitely the best hip-hop album to come out of Sweden in 2007. That said, it's not that great, but quite average to be honest (even though there is hope for it, Swedish hiphop is currently a poor state of affairs). There are a handful of great tracks on here, the rest are fillers. By avoiding gangster rap lyrics (he wore a "close Guantanamo bay" t-shirt when picking up his Grammy), having quite dance orientated beats together with soulful hooks, and having a soft spot for neon colours, Adam Tensta comes across a bit like a Swedish Kanye West or Lupe Fiasco. "It's a Tensta thing" can be scaled down to a fantastic 6-track EP, but the 14 songs as a whole are quite derivative and not all that fresh. Also, if I listen to him too much I quite quickly tire of Tensta's über-American vernacular. Still, it's a very promising debut and it'll be interesting to see what he'll come up with for his second album. Hopefully his quick rise to fame won't affect him too much in a negative manner (like it did to Kanye).
- Simon Tagestam
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show:
01. Timo Räisänen - Sixteen
02. TALK 1
03. Dreamboy - What have I done
04. Echo Is Your Love - Three ropes
05. The Raveonettes - Dead sound
06. TALK 2
07. Connny Nimmersjö - Dum i huvudet
08. Holiday Fun Club - Hamburg in the night
09. Elin Ruth Sigvardsson - Antidote
10. TALK 3
11. Christian Kjellvander - Two souls
12. Heroes & Zeros - The foolproof
13. Gåte - Sjå attende
14. TALK 4
15. Repoman - Chemically obsessed
16. The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Instant Repeater '99
17. Petter - Logiskt (ft. Säkert)
18. TALK 5
19. Dieter Schöön - Warm hearts
20. Springfactory - Stingy Friday afternoon
21. Sivert Høyem - Don't pass me by
22. TALK 6
23. Sweatmaster - Song with no words
24. Enslaved - Enemy I
25. The Concretes - Kids
26. TALK 7
27. Broder Daniel - Cruel town
28. September - Cry for you
29. Britta Persson - Cliffhanger
30. TALK 8
31. TLS - A song left for you
32. The End Will Be Kicks - Ass of a friend
33. Immanu El - Kosmonaut
34. TALK 9
35. Fare You Well - Deceiving eyes
36. Weeping Willows - So it's over
37. Firefox AK - Winter rose (ft. Tiger Lou)
38. TALK 10
39. Scraps of Tape - Death as it should be
When people talk about the Göteborg sound, if they aren't talking about metal, then they are probably talking about two bands. Bad Cash Quartet is one and I'm sure I'll get to them eventually, the other is Broder Daniel. It's a sound of alienation and yearning with broad, anthemic melodies and anchored by pounding, garage-rock beats. No other band embodies the sound of teen angst better than Broder Daniel. There's a certain sophisticated simplicity to them as well, a feeling that's readily apparent when you hear something like Anna Ternheim's emotionally devastating cover of "Shoreline". It's evocative of a certain place and time, but translates easily. "Cruel town" is about Gbg, but it could be about anywhere.
Broder Daniel - Cruel town
Jennie AbrahamsonI have a soft spot for talented pop singers. A decent amount of my time is spent enjoying the works of artists like Imogen Heap, Lily Allen, Annie, Gwen Stefani, Robyn, and others, some guilty pleasures, others with no guilt whatsoever. Jennie Abrahamson, a Norrland girl from the same part of Sweden that birthed the Refused and The Perishers (whose singer, Ola Klüft, is featured on "Wasted heart"), has crafted a solidly produced, though somewhat lacking pop record. The melancholy sounds okay, but it doesn't always feel quite right. Title track "Lights" begins to feel like a meandering and lost expedition when it could easily have bore direction and teeth, and that can be said for a number of tracks. On "Songs we sing", Abrahamson's gorgeous voice sits comfortably alongside a song that has a sense of forward motion. "Lights" could have been so much more, and I hope Jennie Abrahamson's future recordings are - it would be a shame that such a talented vocalist should be overlooked because of lukewarm songwriting.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
