Tiamat, Theatre of Tragedy, Pain and Sirenia will reportedly be teaming up for an European tour around December/January. Dates soon?
The "Independent Sweden" compilation from US/Spanish label Fork Series is finally done, almost a year after it was first announced. Here's the tracklist:
01. David & The Citizens - "New Direction"
02. Niccokick - "Wasted Love"
03. Björn Kleinhenz - "Let's Try"
04. Thomas Denver Jonsson & The September Sunrise - "24 Seven"
05. Ane Brun - "Humming One Of Your Songs"
06. Adria - "Your Shift" *
07. Studio - "Down By The River"
08. Now - "Chin Up" *
09. Kid Commando - "Urban Bushman"
10. CDOASS - "Autovision"
11. Menteroja - "Ho Chi Minh Style"
12. Dr Higgins - "Jag Dansade Ett Liv" *
13. Laakso - "Fight The Fight
14. Celestine - "Beneath Your Sight…" *
15. Sandy Mouche - "Carkeys" *
16. Homeland - "Flood" *
17. Boy Omega - "I Might Not Be Real" *
18. Lemko Hall - "Those Are The Sundogs"
19. The Flu - "Little Friend" *
20. Det Gamla Landet - "Tolv Under" *
* Previously unreleased
The first single for Emil Jensen's new album "Kom hem som nån annan" will be the song "Hela vägen ner". Emil was also the recent winner of the Berlin International Poetry Slam Festival.
The top Scandinavian videos streamed last week at on-demand video service Musicbrigade.com:
01. Nightwish - Wish I had An Angel
02. Ana - We Are
03. Annie - Chewing Gum
04. Aqua - Barbie Girl
05. Nightwish - Nemo
Requested Videos: 309,290
Total Streams: 455,847
The Independent interviews Stina Nordenstam: http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/interviews/story.jsp?story=572177
Some general site news...
A new batch of reviews are online. Read them all right here.
Copies of the brand new "La la love you" Pixies tribute compilation are now available for mailorder. Check it out!
It's not perfect, but the article archive is now searchable, too.
Marit Bergman
Can I keep him? CDS
RCA
Marit Bergman's second solo-album "Baby dry your eyes" is one of the finest records that has been released this year, thus me listening to an EP with four new songs by her will of course be nothing but a session of preaching to the already converted. The title track (with its, strangely enough, original title) is one of the best songs on her album, but it's the three other tracks that are of real interest. People like me who prefers Ms. Bergman when her songs are of the uptempo nature, can all rejoice in the ace "Please don't walk on red" that highlights one of the biggest downsides of being in love. "Boom Boom" with its regular Marit Bergman stomp inevitably stands in the shadow of the rest of the songs on this EP, and although it's a better song per se than "Highway for Hell" (the last track on this EP) it fails to interest the listener as much as the latter. Her rendition of this AC/DC number is in the same vein as Mark Kozelek's covers, and like Kozelek, Bergman manages to transform one of AC/DC's machismo anthems into something completely different, namely her own feminist manifesto (sort of) by making the song into a minimalistic number with her voice being accompanied by a lone piano.
- Simon Tagestam
Black Belt
First blood
Novoton
Not to be mistaken with the Sega Master System game of the same name, Black Belt play a brand of rock that is reminiscent of bands from the '70s (AC/DC, Cheap Trick, etc...) and which a lot of bands today are trying to do (I'm looking in your direction, Jet.) In this case, Black Belt manage to do a decent job of it.
The Swedish trio's debut, produced by Johan Gustafsson (the bassist from Randy, who also had a hand in the recording the latest albums from The Hives and the Sahara Hotnights), was something I really enjoyed. A lot of the songs, such as "Shoplift girl" and "Belly up", showed a lot of potential from this band. It's pretty good stuff to play in your Mopar-fueled Mustang while speeding down the street to. The balance between the guitar and bass complimented one another without overpowering each other. I found myself sinking into the guitar solos and trying to pinpoint what they reminded me of.
The only downside is that the lead singer's voice gets too warbly on the first track "Plastic angels" and the first minute or so of the last track "Hands Up!" He has a great voice that reminds me of the lead singer of The Cult but on those two tracks, he strains it too much and it loses its richness. The warbling spoils what is a good album overall. If you could just move past the first track, then you'll enjoy "First blood".
- Navy Keophan
Coarpnc
CRP002
self-released
Instrumental trio in the vein of Les Angles Morts, Shellac (but less violent) or maybe Fly Pan Am, without the electronics, create here three songs for 15 minutes of groovy progressive rock. Each of the three offerings here showcases the bands songwriting excellence and more than reasonable musicianship. Coarpnc do a reasonable job at working their way around the usual traps of the genre and keep things flowing at all time. Pretty good.
- Simon Thibaudeau
Thomas Dybdahl
A love story CDS
EMI
Thomas Dybdahl is a 24 years old singer/songwriter from Norway who looks like a pretentious hipster on his websites. His work can placed within the same category of music that has utterly swamped the Nordic countries the last few years (nowadays, for every Kristofer Åström you get twenty lousy impersonators). These facts alone (combined with the title of the actual song that this review is about) inflamed the prejudices buried deep within me to such a degree that if I hadn't taken a deep breath, sat down, and listened to the song, this review would have been nothing but a deep sigh full of cynic remarks. Now instead it'll read like this: This first single of Thomas Dybdahl's forthcoming album is a lush and gentle affair, with nothing subversive about it, that lulls along nice and quietly. Yes, it's singer/songwriter stuff in the usual way, but it's stuff done in a much better fashion than what I'm used to hear.
- Simon Tagestam
Jens Lekman
Live @ Water Rats, London, 10/14/04
Beautiful - a often rather cheesy adjective that I don't like to, bust must, use to describe Jens Lekman's live show. Magic - another word that's far too bombastic for my taste, but keeps popping up when I think of Lekman's fantastic performance. Honestly, what is there not to like about this guy, really?! He's got an angelic voice, marvelous melodies, appears to be a very charming and witty man, and on top of all this he somehow manages to pull off singing crazy and weird rhymes rhymes that never were meant to be sung. Although Lekman's backing band were fabulous my favourite parts of the gig were the two songs Lekman did a cappella. Time Out predicted that this gig would be "one of those 'I was there moments'" and as far as I'm concerned it sure was (shame on you Dave who didn't come along!).
- Simon Tagestam
Mando Diao
Hurricane bar
Majesty/EMI
Considering the reputation these guys have for being total assholes, my initial impulse is to rip them apart completely. However, as tempting as that may sound, I'm going to try and stick to the moral high road and tell it like it is. Look - while Mando Diao is obviously nowhere near as good as they think they are, they really aren't all that bad either. "Hurricane bar" is simply a straight-up sophomore slump in just about every way. They've ditched most of the soul and garage-rock trend-chasing and delivered an album that's totally safe and unremarkable, not to mention about 15 minutes too long and desperately lacking in energy. It's pleasant and inoffensive enough that I wouldn't switch the channel if it came on the radio, but at the same time, it's definitely not worth spending money on.
- Avi Roig
Thirdimension
Permanent holiday
Hidden Agenda
Since the band exists since 1995 and I have known them for about a day I will not delve in my apparent lack of knowledge or their history. All I can say is that this record runs the gamut in terms influences, from early Soft Machine to Joy Division through some pretty strong Smiths tints. Thirdimension manages to all make it work and shows plenty of room for improvement, and that’s scary.
- Simon Thibaudeau
Ultranoir
But they all can't be loved
self-released
These Finnish goths do a great job at emulating the songwriting of Joy Divison and classic Cure, but lose me with the out-of-tune, marble-mouth vocals. Their press materials and general all-around musical competence proves that they know what they're doing, but they still need to work on it to get it right. All in all, it's really not all that bad for what's essentially a three-song demo. There's potential, for sure. Lord knows I've heard plenty of other bands attempt similar stuff in this genre and have it be thousands of times worse.
- Avi Roig
Swedish rock n' roll label Wild Kingdom has announced that they will release the brand new album "Constant Reminder" from The Sewergrooves on October 20. They'll also be putting out The Wonderfools' new album "Future Classic" the very same day. As for the future, look for something new from The Doits who are currently in the studio working with Nicke Andersson (The Hellacopters) behind the board.