Swedish girl glam-rockers Crucified Barbara on tour in Europe:
01/19 - First Floor Rock, Pescara (ITA)
01/20 - Jailbreak, Rome (ITA)
01/21 - Sonar, Colle val'de Elsa (ITA)
01/22 - Rock Club, Gorizia (ITA)
01/24 - Factory 04, Padova (ITA)
01/26 - Ginhea, Ravenna (ITA)
01/27 - Superrock, Torino (ITA)
01/28 - Transilvania Live, Milan (ITA)
01/29 - Capanonne Soziale, Vicenza (ITA)
02/04 - Norrlands Nation, Uppsala (SWE)
04/14 - tba (FRA)
04/15 - Bolegason, Castres (FRA)
04/16 - Centre Culturel Lennon, Limoges (FRA)
04/18 - Sur Mer-Les Pipots, Boulogne (FRA)
04/19 - La Luciole, Alencon (FRA)
04/20 - Le Floride, Nantes (FRA)
04/21 - Le Normandy, St. Lo (FRA)
04/22 - 24h, Le Mans (FRA)
04/23 - Le Forum, Vaureal (FRA)
Upated European tour schedule for Burst:
12/21 - Die Röhre, Stuttgart (GER) w/Opeth
12/22 - Boerderij, Zoetermeer (NL) w/Opeth
12/29 - Trädgårn, Gothenburg (SWE) w/Dark Tranquility
02/14 - Barfly, Glasgow (UK)
02/15 - Bar Academy, Birmingham (UK)
02/16 - Carvern Club, Exeter (UK)
02/17 - Barfly, London (UK)
02/18 - Rock City, Nottingham (UK)
02/19 - Star & Garter, Manchester (UK)
02/21 - Logo, Hamburg (GER)
02/22 - Knaack, Berlin (GER)
02/23 - Underground, Köln (GER)
02/24 - Patronaat, Haarlem (NL)
02/25 - Waterfront, Rotterdam (NL)
02/26 - 13, Tilburg (NL)
02/27 - La Boule Noire, Paris (FRA)
02/28 - Kab-Usine, Geneva (SWI)
03/01 - Orpheum, Graz (AUS)
03/02 - Arena, Vienna (AUS)
03/04 - Backstage, Munchen (GER)
03/05 - AB, Brussels (BEL)
Splendid reviews the latest from ex-Soundtrack of Our Lives/UCP guitarist Björn Olsson: http://www.splendidmagazine.com/review.html?reviewid=113413362931605
The good people at the Luger booking agency list their top picks for 2005: http://www.luger.se/_nyheter.asp?PK_Id=479
Look for Oskar's extended list to be published here soon!
Indieworkshop reviews the new Alog collection "Catch that totem!": http://indieworkshop.com/music/2180/
As mentioned with my mp3 post on Friday, this is a very recommended release.
Head Control System, the new project from Daniel Cardoso (ex-Sirius, Re:aktor) and Kristoffer Garm Rygg (Ulver, ex-Arcturus, Borknagar) that used to be called Sindrome has officially signed with The End Records and will be releasing their debut album "Murder nature" on April 4. Read the full press release: http://www.theendrecords.com/label_new/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=237&Itemid=49
Adrian Recordings has announced that the upcoming David & the Citizens DVD will be released on March 1. For a taste of what to expect, check out the microsite: http://www.recycled.se/citizens/dvd.htm
Every week for the next 10 weeks, ex-drummer/current guitarist Mikael Carlsson will also be posting old tales from his band journals to the aforementioned site and his first one about how the band came to be is already online.
Check out the video for "Splitting duckheads" from Karlsmark: http://www.karlsmark.se/agaton/Copy%20of%20videotest.htm
The clip was directed by Ernst Billgren who I understand is one of Sweden's most famous post-modern artists.
New mp3 today from Closer, an up-and-coming Stockholm-based act that I think sounds like a darker, more melodic version of At the Drive In. Or maybe imagine a prog-ier version of Khoma/Koma. It's heavy, but not exactly what I'd consider metal. I immediately knew these guys were something special when I downloaded a song from their website and listening to all four tracks from their as-yet-unreleased "Tokpela" EP only confirms my gut feeling was 100% on-point. The band has a very clear intent and vision to what they want to do and it's surprising that no label has snapped them up yet, but I can't imagine that the situation will last too much longer. The world needs more intelligent rock bands like Closer and they're simply too good to ignore. Heck, if I wasn't so strapped for cash I'd pony up the money myself. Spread the word: this is a band to watch.
Closer - Open casket
Sorry about the downtime. Apparently an errant script decided to shut down the site, but it should be fixed now. Hopefully it won't happen again either.
Today's top 10 comes to use from Daggan Stamenkovic, the head of Novoton Records and the mp3 download service Klicktrack. Check it.
On January 24 Rune Grammofon will present their first two releases for 2006: First up is the debut album from MoHa!, a duo comprised of guitarist Anders Hana and drummer Morten Olsen. Head over to The Wire website to watch documentary footage from the album recording. The second album being released that day is the solo debut "Pohlitz" from drummer/composer Thomas Strønen (Food, Humcrush) which is described as "a beautiful mix of gamelan inspiried percussion and electronic textures." In the not-too-distant future (springtime), the label will also be putting out a 5x10" box containing tracks from 19 RG releases to celebrate their 50th overall release. A 10" of Deathprod remixes should be released around te same time as well. After that, look for a reissue of Phonophani's OOP album originally released via Biosphere's Biophon label as well as new stuff from Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, Supersilent, Shining and maybe In The Country this coming fall.
Boba aka Anders Lindström of The Hellacopters will be doing a new project with Sulo from Diamond Dogs called The Bitter Twins and the Last of the Lovers to mark the occasion of 20 years playing together. Rounding out the band will be Anders Härnestam (Weeping Willows) on drums, Mattias Bärjed (The Soundtrack of Our Lives) on guitar and Stefan Björk (ex-Wilmer X) on the bass. The plan is record at the end of January with an eventual album release sometime around early Summer.