Sweden's Satantic Surfers will be heading over to Japan to play the Independence-d Festival in Tokyo on March 12. Other Scandinavian acts heading over include Impious who will be playing on Day 3. More info here: http://www.independence-d.com/
Here's this week's top 20 Swedish album chart:
01. The Ark - State of the Ark
02. Daniel Lindström - Daniel Lindström
03. Lars Winnerbäck - Vatten under broarna
04. Lena Philipsson - Det gör ont en stund på natten men inget på dan
05. Lasse Stefanz - Röd Chevrolet
06. Anna Ternheim - Somebody Outside
07. Magnus Uggla - Den tatuerade generationen
08. Christian Walz - Paint by Numbers
09. Björn Afzelius & Mikael Wiehe - 1993 - Malmöinspelningarna
10. Uno Svenningsson - Ett andetag från dig
11. Totta Näslund - Totta 7: Soul!/På drift
12. Benny Anderssons Orkester - Bao!
13. Marie Fredriksson - The Change
14. Arne Domnérus - Best of Dompan
15. Lambretta - The Fight
16. Blacknuss - Gold
17. Gyllene Tider - GT 25 live!
18. Soundtrack of Our Lives - Origin vol. 1
19. Melody Club - Face the Music
20. Ulf Lundell - OK Baby OK
Bassist Timpa has left Finnish rockers Hanoi Rocks in order to spend more time with his family. The band's new album "Another Hostile Takeover" is due out April 30 and the group will be touring internationally throughout 2005.
Legendary Swedish doom act Candlemass has signed with Nuclear Blast Records. The band is currently recording at Polar Studios and hopes to have everything done for a May 2 release.
Aftonbladet is hosting the new Hammerfall video "Blood bound": http://www.aftonbladet.se/atv/player.html?catID=29&clipID=51
Norwegian punkrock act Johndoe will be doing a week's worth of dates in southwest Norway at the end of the month:
01/24 - Tribute, Sandnes
01/25 - Møllesekkelageret, Bryne
01/26 - Corner, Egersund
01/27 - Folkets Hus, Jørpeland
01/28 - Checkpoint Charlie, Stavanger
01/29 - Slakthuset, Haugesund
Look for a video for the new single "Ord mot ord" to be airing soon.
Swedish singer/songwriter Racingpaperplanes aka Richard Wilson has signed with Realease Records, home of B.U.C.K. and others. The album "Self sleep service" will soon be available through the label's mailorder and will eventually be getting a proper Swedish release. In other news, look for Racingpaperplanes to tour with Hanif in the near future. Dates soon.
Another new mp3 posted today from the Norwegian Johnny Cash tribute "We walk the line". This song from Karen Jo Fields is quite a bit different than the Magnet track I posted on Monday. It's still very much a classic Cash tune, but it's far more lighthearted and truer to the original version. Now, I don't know much about Karen Jo besides what's written in her official bio, but she's got a great voice and good feel for the material. I also really like the way this song sounds when sung from a female perspective - I think it even works a bit better in that regards. I'm not quite as enthused that they switched the classic Luther Perkins guitar melody to the acoustic, but it works.
I could go on and on about almost every song on this comp, but I'm going to stop here. I really had trouble picking just two. Hopefully my choices served you well enough that you'll seek out the rest - it's definitely worth it.
Rockadillo Records will be releasing the new album "Transit" from Finnish jazz duo Lang & Luolajan-Mikkola this coming February. "What makes the album interesting," they say, "is that the female singer Reija Lang has written new original lyrics to selected Wayne Shorter, Eric Dolphy and Mal Waldron jazz instrumentals in addition to some original compositions by violin player Mikko-Ville Luolajan-Mikkola, who has been elected as the best jazz violinist in Finland in 2004, 2003, 2002 and beyond." Read more: http://www.rockadillo.fi/news.html
Norway's The Ricochets have added drummer Glenn Vidar Solheim to their lineup, replacing long-time member Paul Alexander George who left at the beginning of December. The band is currently doing preproduction on their new album "Isolation" and hopes to enter the studio sometime around March to record. Expect a late summer release.
José González will be playing some shows in Denmark and the UK in February:
02/17 - Lille Vega, København (DK)
02/18 - Studenterhuset, Odense (DK)
02/22 - The Croft, Bristol (UK)
02/23 - The Old Blue Last, London (UK)
02/24 - Britons Protection, Manchester (UK)
02/25 - Nice n Sleazy, Glasgow (UK)
Eläkeläiset is bringing their humppa madness to Northern Europe this coming May:
05/06 - Schlachthof, Wiesbaden (GER)
05/07 - Treibsand Festival, Lübeck (GER)
05/08 - Bei Chez Heinz, Hannover (GER)
05/09 - Klub Neue Mensa, Dresden (GER)
05/10 - Werk II, Leipzig (GER)
05/11 - Bozak Klub, Teplice (CH)
05/12 - Kitchen Club, Nabburg (GER)
05/13 - Kulturhaus Röda, Steyr (AUS)
05/14 - Szene, Wien (AUS)
05/15 - Backstage, München (GER)
05/16 - Hirsch, Nürnberg (GER)
05/17 - Zeche Carl, Essen (GER)
05/18 - Konzerthaus Schüür, Luzern (SWI)
05/19 - ISC, Bern (SWI)
05/20 - Substage, Karlsruhe (GER)
05/21 - Rock It, Aalen (GER)
No new Scandinavian music at Fat Planet this week, but there is an important message about the future of mp3 blogs: http://www.fatplanet.com.au/
On the way from Dolores Recordings is the brand single "Got to go" from Caesars Palace/The Caesars. It comes out February 16, the new full-length "Paper tigers" follows on February 23.
Dolores will also be putting out a new Broder Daniel retrospective collection entitled "No time for us" on March 16. It will include two discs, the first being a best-of comp in chronological order, the second being demos, live tracks and more.