The winners of Norway's Alarm Awards:
Pop: Magnet
Rock: Turbonegro
Jazz: Supersilent
Lydverketprisen: Karin Park
Metal: Dimmu Borgir
Video: Paperboys - Hey Man
Live: Turbonegro
Hip Hop/Rap: Equicez
Petreprisen: Ephemera
Electronica: Ralph Myerz & The Jack Herren Band
SonordicA is sponsoring a special two nights of concerts in Denmark on February 26 and 27 with Finnish avant-rock act Cleaning Women, Malmö-based one-man circus pop project Le Bombe and Denmark's own Marie Key Band. The first show will be at Huset in Copenhagen and the second will take place at Gimle is Roskilde. More info: http://www.sonordica.com/
Dead Frog Records is branching out with Dead Frog Distribution. At the end of the month they'll be leaving Bonnier Amigo and doing it on their own. That means you should still be able to find stuff in your local stores in Sweden, but they'll be concentrating a bit more on Internet sales and will be hooking up with Grammotex.
The Virtues are hard at work on their new EP, the follow-up to the "Ruminate" album. It should be out around April or May. Otherwise, you can check the band out when they play their next show at Klubb Kaiser at Mondo in Stockholm on February 19. Sharing the bill will be up-and-coming melodic rockers Filled and My Orchard.
Holland's Malkovich will be doing a new EP for Coalition Records in June. The repressing of the "Foundation Rocks" MCD is still in the works, too.
Johan Bergqvist has a new website design: http://www.johanbergqvist.com
He's still working on his debut full-length and says that the basic rhythm tracks are done. Assuming all goes well, it's on track for an April release.
New reviews of Scandinavian music from German webzine Sellfish:
C.Aarmé - s/t
Laakso - i miss you, i'm pregnant
Last Days of April - if you lose it
Pain of Salvation - 12:5
Internet label Race Will Begin has a new release with Tomas Nordstrom aka TSR covering two huge radio hits, "Milkshake" and "Slow" featuring Chill. Check it: http://www.racewillbegin.com
Up next from the label: a re-release of Go! Team's "Junior Kickstart" EP on March 15.
Finnish electronic artist Jimi Tenor has got a new album in the works for May. The skinny:
"According to Jimi, it's probably even more laid-back than "Higher Planes". For a couple of tracks Jimi hooked up with a Ghanan-Nigerian combo called Rhythm Taxi, and Aventur Choir provides vocal harmony on three tracks. The opening track features spoken word from Allonymous, and of course many of the "regular" guys, including Mikey Wilson, Chris Dawkins, Jukka Eskola, Jay Kortehisto, Maurice Fulton, Ilkka Mattila, Tuomo Puranen, Terry Edwards, Hilary Jeffery, Timo Lassy, Tero Lindberg, Niko Kokko and Mongo Aaltonen, are also there. This time there's also real strings played by Maija Linkola and Elina Lehto."
Okay, first off let me announce the winners of the KVLR CD giveaway. Congrats go out to Charlie Moats of Washington, DC, Thomas Ruetti of Switzerland and Gerda Adelgren of Sweden. Your CDs will be in the mail shortly.
I went and saw Randy last night and, in typical San Francisco fashion, the band ruled and the crowd sucked. I guess it's hard to motivate a lackluster audience when you're the opening act. Anyhow, I said hi to the guys quickly before the show and they told me that they spent the day in studio with Fat Mike of NOFX/Fat Wreck Chords recording a song for a comp due out later this year. I didn't press for specifics, but I assume it was Mike's own in-house studio Toast. As for the song, they said they were gonna play it, but I didn't hear anything new. More details later?
Lastly, Monday is a holiday in the US. I probably won't be updating.
Sahara Hotnights have been added to this summer's Warped tour in the US and Canada. Exact dates soon.
Here's this week's top 20 Swedish albums from Aftonbladet:
01. Sara Löfgren - Starkare
02. Per Gessle - Mazarin
03. Lisa Miskovsky - Fallingwater
04. Sophie Zelmani - Love Affair
05. Patrik Isaksson - Vi som aldrig landat
06. José González - Veneer
07. Arns rike - Arn the gothia
08. Peter LeMarc - Det som håller oss vid liv
09. Alice Babs - Alice babs bästa
10. Jill Johnson - Roots and wings
11. Moneybrother - Blood panic
12. Backyard Babies - Stockholm Syndrome
13. Nicolai Dunger - Here's my song you can have it....
14. Cornelis Vreeswijk - Cornelis Vreeswijks bästa
15. The Latin Kings - Omerta
16. Broder Daniel - Cruel Town
17. Viktoria Tolstoy - Shining on you
18. Miio - På vårt sätt
19. Tomas Andersson Wij - Stjärnorna i oss
20. Mauro Scooco - La dolce vita
Here's this week's MTV Up North Nordic video chart:
01. Outlandish - Walou
02. Grand Avenue - Take It As It Comes
03. Safri Duo feat. Clark Anderson - All The People In The World
04. Eskobar - Love Strikes
05. The Crash - Still Alive
06. Winta & Anton Gordon - Hot Romance (Rok With You)
07. The Rasmus - First Day Of My Life
08. Elin Sigvardsson - Paper Cup Words
09. Erik Faber - Century
10. Redrama - Hang It Up
11. Maria Mena - You´re The Only One
12. Backyard Babies - Minus Celsius
13. September - We Can Do It
14. Lisa Miskovsky - Lady Stardust
15. Shout Out Louds - Please Please Please
16. Pauline - Babylon
17. Learning From Las Vegas - The Only One
18. Jokeren - Havnen
19. Morten Abel - Birmingham Ho
20. The Perishers - Let There Be Morning
Challengers:
01. Alice In Videoland - Got To Go
02. Gaute - Miss you when you´re gone
03. Barbi Esco - Fairy Tale
04. Her Majesty - You and me against the world
05. William Hut - It´s the breeze
06. Kamera - Suburban boy
07. Velcra - Can´t stop fighting
Go to the MTVE.com site to watch and vote for your favorite.
Some new livedates for Logh:
02/18 - Debaser, Stockholm (SWE) w/Death Cab for Cutie
02/19 - Garage, Oslo (NOR) w/Death Cab for Cutie
02/20 - Inkonst, Malmö (SWE) w/Death Cab for Cutie
02/24 - Kafé 44, Stockholm (SWE)
03/25 - Café Dwaze Zaken, Amsterdam (NL)
03/26 - Nighttown, Rotterdam (NL)
03/27 - Conspiracy Festival @ Hof Ter Lo, Antwerpen (BEL) w/Isis, Trans Am and White Crime Circle Club
They also report that the long awaited "The Bones of Generations (lvg version)/War Ensemble (Slayer!)" 7"s are on their way.