As you may or may not have heard, there's a new Union Carbide Productions compilation called "Union Carbide Productions - Remastered and Reinvented" coming out on September 22. Here's the tracklist:
01. Glad To Have You Back
02. Golden Age
03. Ring My Bell
04. Coda
05. How Do You Feel Today
06. SF Boogie
07. Off The Wall
08. Chameleon Ride
09. Be Myself Again
10. Down On The Farm
11. Baritone Street
12. Future Now (prev. unreleased MC5 cover)
13. Cartoon Animal
14. Down On The Beach
15. Anytime
16. Career Opportunities
17. Solution
18. Financial Declaration
19. Born In The 60s
This new collection effectively replaces the previously issued comp "The Golden Age of Union Carbide Productions" and is being released to hopefully raise some interest for the (still) upcoming box set, now due out "probably after Christmas", according to frontman Ebbot. Didn't we hear that exact same thing last year? Anyhow, for those of you who aren't aware, UCP was the band whose core membership later became the founders of The Soundtrack of Our Lives. In related news, keep an eye out for the relaunch of the UCP website over at ucp.se.
Finland's HIM has signed an international record deal with Sire Records for their next four albums with an option for a fifth. The band will still release their own records in Finland via Heartagram, but the new contract gets their releases out across Europe, the US, Japan and Australia. They are currently getting ready for a UK tour in October and will be returning to the US in November with Auf Der Maur and Monster Magnet.
Does this mean armageddon is nigh? The Planekonomi site has finally been updated: http://planekonomi.com
Dead Frog Records and Copenhagen Sound will be teaming up to release the new album from Wild Evil Entertainment Dept. The will be out in Sweden on September 17, Denmark on October 6.
The Norwegian jazz group Come Shine will be touring quite a few interesting places in the coming months. Here's an outline of what's happening:
09/10-11 - Jarasum Jazz Festival, South Korea
10/07 - Copenhagen Jazzhouse
10/08-?? - Spain promo tour
10/27-11/03 - Singapore and Vietnam
Finnish 8-bit rockers Desert Planet have posted an mp3 from their upcoming album "Turbo Tellytunes" that's coming out on September 28: http://personal.inet.fi/taide/junttila/desert/ani/turbo_tellytunes.htm
And whaddya know? It also happens to be the same track that'll be appearing on the "It's a trap! reader's companion volume one" compilation that I'm putting out, so of course it's highly recommended.
There's some signs of life over at the Hardcore Superstar webpage: http://www.hardcoresuperstar.com/
Maybe the band really is getting back together now that summer is just about over.
The Knife's excellent sophomore album "Deep Cuts" finally went gold in Sweden with sales of 30k copies. Rabid Records will be releasing a new version of the album on October 18 with three bonus tracks from the "Hannah med H" soundtrack and a DVD with five videos.
Belpid Records is presenting 'A very Belpid evening' on September 16 at Tantogården in Stockholm featuring art and music from Un Rodo Cora, Stellan Wahlström Drift Band, Mats Kempe, Anjum Hasan, Zac O'Yeah and Richard Dinter. Full details: http://www.belpid.com/party.shtml
Rockfoto.nu has pics from the recent In Flames show and DVD shoot at Sticky Fingers in Göteborg.
Some of the guys from Starmarket, Tiger Lou's band and Union City have a new project called Torpedo. Head over to their website to listen to a couple tunes: http://www.torpedo.se/
They are looking for a drummer, so if you think you might be interested, the website has all the relevant contact info as well.
Renown prolific Finnish post-rock act Circle has a brand new website: http://www.circlefinland.com/
Apparently Hurricane Frances is wreaking havoc in the vicinity of my web servers, so if you experience any problems with the site, that's most likely the cause. Oh, and yesterday was Labor Day over here in the US in case you didn't figure it out already. I spent the day relaxing and touring a chocolate factory.
Since they are currently spotlighted with the album of the month, I've added an mp3 from Logh for download. Be sure to check these guys out if you haven't already done so.
Swedish experimental label White Noise will be releasing a trio of 7"s in the near future, one of them from Thallein aka Marcus Fjellström. They describe his music as "mostly dark electric boogie/collage sound works." No word yet on release dates or anything else, but samples of his previous work can be found here: http://www.kafkagarden.com/