POD are taking fellow Christian rockers Blindside out on the road in the US and will be doing a meet-and-greet at every tour stop with 100 people one hour prior to showtime. The itinerary will cover some 40 dates, including five or six shows in Canada. As mentioned before, you can get a preview of Blindside's new album "About a Burning Fire" from Shoutweb: http://www.shoutweb.com/features/blindside.phtml
Some of the winners of the Finnish Emma awards (their equivilent to the Grammies):
Jazz: Juhani Aaltonen Trio
Hiphop/dance: Pikku G
Pop/rock newcomer: PMMP
Debut album: Pikku G - Räjähdysvaara
Hiphop/dance: Don Johnson Big Band - Breaking Daylight
Hard-rock/metal: Kotiteollisuus - Helvetistä itään
Pop/rock: Maija Vilkkumaa - Ei
Export prize: The Rasmus
MTV's Emma Award For Best Video - The Rasmus - In My Life
Finnish artist: The Rasmus
Read more (including the winners of the Femma Awards): http://www3.soneraplaza.fi/musiikki/artikkeli/0,3634,6211_197709,00.html (in Finnish)
The Dandelions will be returning to the UK in April. The first date confirmed is for April 22 at The London Barfly. More info soon.
Aftonbladet reports that Håkan Hellström and Lasse Berghagen are working together: http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/noje/story/0,2789,437303,00.html (in Swedish)
Via DJ Martian comes this rundown of new releases from Norway's Jazzland Records and the artists Sidsel Endresen & Christian Wallumrod, Bugge Wesseltoft, Eivind Aarset and Audun Kleive: http://djmartian.blogspot.com/2004_02_01_djmartian_archive.html#107749289875128929
The Screaming Timbermen have revealed their true identity as a side project of Finnish retro electronic act Desert Planet and posted two new mp3s from imaginary Soviet-style TV series: http://www.sunpoint.net/~zelda82/timbermen/
This is some sad stuff: Impaled Nazarene frontman Mika Luttinen comes clean about the death of guitarist Teemu "Somnium" Raimoranta: http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=19523
Download the free mp3 album "Pedon Varjo" from Finnish act Musti Laiton: http://www.mustilaiton.net/mp3.htm
New Scandinavian music reviews from German webzine Sellfish, including one for KVLR:
Facebreaker - Bloodred hell
KVLR - s/t
Mr. Kite - Box of fear
Silver - White diary
It was pretty obvious that something was up when Stratovarius webmaster Fred Derf left the following message on the band's website:
"Today I received a phone call from [Stratovarius mainman] Timo Tolkki.
He sounded like being in a very confused state of mind and was talking about red Kabbalah ribbons and how when he was reading Madonna's biography he felt warm waves all over his body and that the spirit of Jesus entered him and that now he really has found something he has been searching for all his life.
I am very worried about him, he sounded like completely crazy.
From this day onwards I will not take the responsibility of whatever is being released on this Website.
As long as my paycheck arrives, I will continue putting on the site whatever Tolkki asks me to put there.
But there is nothing I can do about it.
I just work here."
But that was a mere hint of what was to come! Timo followed up, as predicted, with this amazing message (as reprinted at Blabbermouth) in which he goes off about a recent panic attack, Jesus and Kabbalah. Totally out of control! Without even going into the details concerning his misconceptions of Jewish mysticism, it can probably simply be said that you don't get your spirituality from a Madonna book. And as a friend of mine pointed out, is it possible to study Kabbalah and still "eat metal and shit chains"? Is that kosher? And there's even more genius postings today!
Upcoming tourdates for Finnish humppa-metal band Finntroll:
02/28 - Piorno Rock, Granada (SP)
03/27 - Axefeast in Kåren, Göteborg (SWE)
04/14 - London, Underworld (UK)
04/15 - Weert, Bosuil (NL)
04/16 - Den Bosch, Willem II (NL)
04/17 - Vosselaar, Biebob (BEL)
04/18 - Melkweg, Amsterdam (NL)
04/19 - Zeche Carl, Essen (GER)
04/20 - Live Arena , Munster (Breitefeld) (GER)
04/21 - Marx, Hamburg (GER)
04/22 - Halford, Berlin (GER)
04/23 - Alte Spinerei, Glauchau (GER)
04/24 - Planete Music, Wien (AUS)
04/25 - Rockhouse, Salzburg (AUS)
04/26 - Hafen, Innsbruck (AUS)
04/27 - Megaclub, Budapest (HUN)
04/28 - Orto Club, Ljubljana (SLO)
04/29 - Transilvania, Milano (IT)
04/30 - Ox, Zofingen (SWI)
05/01 - Rock it, Aalen (DK)
06/19 - Burgum, Waldrock (NL)
07/31 - Gates Of Metal – Hultsfred (SWE)
Note: some of this information looks like it might be partially incorrect.
Tartare and Desire is reporting that the new Marduk vocalist Mortuus was previously involved with the bands Funeral Mist and Triumphator under the alias Arioch.
It took me a couple weeks, but I finally got the article part of the singer/songwriter playlist written and posted. Check it out. Part two coming soon! I swear!