This week's It's a trap! Last.fm/Audioscrobbler listening group most-played artist chart:
01. The Knife
02. Belle and Sebastian
03. Death Cab for Cutie
04. The Concretes
05. Radiohead
06. The Strokes
07. Morrissey
08. Tiger Lou
09. Håkan Hellström
10. Mew
Top 10 tracks for the week:
01. Morrissey - You Have Killed Me
02. José González - Heartbeats
03. The Postal Service - Such Great Heights
04. The Radio Dept. - The worst taste in music
05. The Strokes - Heart in a Cage
06. Morrissey - The Youngest Was The Most Loved
07. Le Sport - it's not the end of the world
08. The Concretes - Chosen One
09. The Strokes - You Only Live Once
10. José González - Crosses
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The Lionheart Brothers report that their new album is finished and will be released after the summer. More details to come.
José González will be on Conan O'Brien Wednesday night at approximately 12:20am. To which I say: thank goodness there's Tivo.
Swedish noiserockers Iisole have a new self-released EP out and are streaming a few songs on myspace: http://myspace.com/iisole
We're going to have ourselves a theme with this week's mp3 posts and that theme is folk music. I know some of you are probably rolling your eyes at the thought, but I think that learning to appreciate Nordic folk traditions is an important part of understanding what makes Scandinavian music unique. It's amazing how much of it is carried through to other genres too, both in the lyrics and the melodies.
Today's song comes to us from Värttinä, Finland's most well-known folk group. The band has existed in some form or another since 1983 and changed members and labels many times since, but has always retained the same musical vision. Finnish folk is often based on the poems and songs of the Kalevala, Finland's national epic. The music can be similar to a lot of other Eastern European folk, but it's the amazing vocal harmonies that make them special and that's what I'm going to spotlight today with the a capella piece "Eerama". The song is from the group's latest album "Miero", their first for Peter Gabriel's renown Real World label. Some of you might recognize that the sound isn't too far off from Bulgarian vocal music and you'd be right, but it's the incredibly dark and twisted lyrics that separate the Finns from the rest. Just check out the words for "Synti/The sin" in which the narrator wishes her enemies to be cursed with lizard-foetuses. See what I mean? Folk music can be cool.
The Alpine's new single is for the song "Trigger". I've said it before and I'll say it again: this band is totally my summer jam. Seriously fun, good-time music.
Swedish ambient artists Tape on tour, including a number of gigs as Andreas Mattson's backing band:
04/15 - Konserthuset/Stenhammarsalen, Gothenburg (SWE) (backing Andreas Mattsson)
04/19 - KB, Malmö (SWE) (backing Andreas Mattsson)
04/20 - Södra Teatern, Stockholm (SWE) w/The Tiny
04/26 - Triptych Festival, Mono, Glasgow (UK) w/Tarwater
04/29 - Triptych Festival, The Venue, Edinburgh, w/The Concretes
04/30 - Triptych Festival, The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen (UK) w/Arab Strap, etc
04/23 - Södra Teatern, Stockholm (SWE) (backing Andreas Mattsson)
05/20 - "Made in Umeå festival", Umeå (SWE)
05/30 - Luminaire, London (UK) w/Volcano!, Greg Davis, Sebastien Roux
06/03 - Venn festival, Bristol (UK)
06/10 - Teatro i, Milano (ITA)
Cat5 has left Service for the greener pastures of Stockholm Records and will be releasing the new single "Stretch and Bend" on April 26.
Norwegian troubled singer/songwriter Saint Thomas seems to be much healthier nowadays: http://www.stthomas.no/
Singer/songwriter Paperplane has posted two songs from his upcoming album "How to get to the sky" on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/paperplanemusic
Lilac Sky reports that they will have a hand in releasing the upcoming full-length album from Norwegian hardcore act Dominic. It should be out in time for the band's European tour this summer, but exact details are still tbc.
Kristofer Åström's upcoming "Black valley" EP has been confirmed for a May 10 release.
Jettie has posted a brand new track called "The lay up" on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/jettie