Here's the nominees for the Swedish Manifest awards:
Pop/Rock:
Hell on Wheels - Oh my God What have I done
Radio Dept. - Lesser matters
Concretes - Concretes
Franke - Optimismens hån
The Knife - Deep cuts
Hardrock/Punk:
Arch Enemy - Anthems of rebellion
Burst - Prey on life
Cult of Luna - The beyond
Katationa - Viva emptiness
Nasum - Helvete
Hip hop/R&B/Soul:
Chords - The garden around the mansion
Speech Defect - Freshcoast gettin' rowdy
Soul Supreme - The Saturday nite agenda
Advance Patrol - Utskrivna
Kaah - Jideblasko international
Postrock/electronica:
Namur - Conquer me
Sagor & Swing - Allt hänger samman
Sophie Rimheden - Hi-fi
Slagsmålsklubben - Den svenske disco
Tape - Milieu
Dance/house/techno:
Hundarna från Söder - Hundarna från Söder
Forss - Soulhack
Plej - Electronic music from the Swedish leftcoast
Stateless - Art of no state
Steve Angello - ...presents tracks
Folk/World music:
Lisa Rydberg - Östbjörka
Frifot - Sluring
Anders Nygårds & Magnus Stinnerbom - Dalahyl
Anders Norrudde, Leo Svensson and Göran Fredriksson - Med hull och hår
Cerro Esperanza Band - Nubes del alma
Singer/Songwriter:
Ane Brun - Spending time with Morgan
Ulf Stureson - Allt jag ville säga
Christian Kjellvander - Introducing the past
Johan Borgert - Johan Borgert
José Gonzàlez - Veneer
Best live artist:
Looptroop
Moneybrother
Randy
Timbuktu med Damn
Killers
Best newcomer:
Miss Universum
José Gonzàlez
Shout Out Louds
Radio Dept.
Paris
Winners are chosen by the SOM (Svenska Oberoende Musikproducenter) (Swedish Independent Musicproducers) and will be announced at an awards ceremony on January 29 at Debaser in Stockholm.
The masters for the upcoming KVLR album have been sent to the pressing facility and production is underway. I don't think I've mentioned it here yet, but the US version of the record will contain the same music as the Stickman-released European one, except it will be packaged in a fancy digipack. We're still on-track for a late March release and I expect that I should be able to start accepting pre-orders by the end of the month.
The new Broder Daniel single for the song "Shoreline" comes out January 21 on Dolores Recordings. View the cover art here. The b-side will be an acoustic version of the song "Dump For Broken Dreams".
The new Voice of a Generation album "The Final Oddition" is now confirmed for a February release on Burning Heart. Tracklist (and some samples):
01. Cause for alarm
02. Itching fingers
03. Decadent & confident
04. Democracy is dead
05. Bastard
06. The upbringing
07. Casulties of war
08. Verbal abuse
09. Baseballbat
10. Crap recieved
11. 450 days
12. Justice
They've also got a ton of live dates lined up, too:
01/31 - Releaseparty, Örebro (SWE)
02/13 - Kungen, Sandviken (SWE)
02/18 - Wild at heart, Berlin (GER)
02/19 - Conne Island, Leipzig (GER)
02/20 - Cafe Central, Weinheim (GER)
02/21 - Club Vaudeville, Lindau (GER)
02/22 - tba, tba (GER)
02/23 - Hellmut, Saarbrücken (GER)
02/24 - tba, tba (GER)
02/25 - Church, Dresden (GER)
02/26 - Circus Maximus, Koblenz (GER)
02/27 - Cafe Glocksee, Hannover (GER)
02/28 - Tower, Bremen (GER)
04/08 - Molotow, Hamburg (GER)
04/09 - East club, Bischofswerda (GER)
04/10 - K4, Nürnberg (GER)
04/11 - Universum, Stuttgart (GER)
04/12 - tba, tba (AUS)
04/13 - Kulturcafe Schlachthaus, Dornbirn (AUS)
04/14 - tba, tba (IT)
04/15 - ISC, Bern (CH)
04/16 - Kofmehl, Solothurn (CH)
04/17 - Merrker, Baden (CH)
04/18 - tba, tba (CH)
04/19 - tba, tba (FR)
04/20 - tba, tba (BEL)
04/21 - tba, tba (NL)
04/22 - Underground, Köln (GER)
04/23 - FZW, Dortmund (GER)
04/24 - AJZ, Bielefeld (GER)
Upcoming releases for Swedish twee indie label Labrador Records:
January:
Corduroy Utd - "Daddy's Boy" 7" single
February:
Laurel Music - "Dreams and Lies" ep
Tribeca - "Solitude" ep
March:
Corduroy Utd - "Oh Eira"
Laurel Music - "This Night and the Next"
April:
Tribeca - "Dragon Down"
Various Artists - "Kingsize"
They've also posted some new tourdates for The Legends and Laurel Music and you can check those out here: http://www.labrador.se/tours.php3
Gaffe's best of Denmark list for 2003:
Best album: Kashmir – "Zitilites"
Best band: Kashmir
Best songwriter: Dicte
Best singer: Tim Christensen
Best new act: Carpark North
Best song: Kashmir – "Rocket Brothers"
Best live act: Kashmir
Norway's Kaizers Orchestra won best foreign live act. More: http://gaffa.dk/nyheder/view.php/news_id=11487
Nicolai Dunger's unofficial website has revealed the tracklist for his new album, the long-windedly titled "Here's my song, you can have it... I don' want it anymore / Yours 4-ever Nicolai Dunger":
01. My time is now
02. Hunger
03. Slaves (we're together like)
04. Someone new
05. White wild horses
06. Tell me
07. Country lane
08. Way up high
09. The year of the love and hurt cycle
10. Harp's coming in
11. ...and falling out
As mentioned before, it was produced with the help of Mercury Rev and it'll be out on January 28. Check out the cover art here. In other news, Nicolai has lined up some Scandinavian live dates for February:
02/10 - Nalen, Stockholm (SWE)
02/11 - Storan, Göteborg (SWE)
02/12 - Herrgårn, Linköping (SWE)
02/18 - Garage, Oslo (NOR)
02/21 - KB, Malmö (SWE)
02/25 - Katalin, Uppsala (SWE)
NRK Upunkt has the new Gluecifer video for "A Call from the Other Side" up for streaming. Look under Musikkvideor. (free registration required, in Norweigan)
Japanese label Howling Bull will release Fireside's latest album over there next week with the videos for "All You Had" and "Follow Follow" added as bonus content.
Dead Frog Records artists April Tears have had their new album "Half-closed Eyes, Imperfect Kisses" delayed by three weeks. It will now be out on February 27, the day after they play Debaser in Stockholm. The band's second single "Eyes Cold Kisses" should be out the first week of February.
David & the Citizens will be doing a live radio session at SBN Radio, the UK's CMJ station on January 12 at 10pm GMT. Listen online at www.sbn.co.uk.
Here's some more top-ten radio and video charts for 2003 from MusikIndustrin: http://www.musikindustrin.nu/mi/smpage.fwx?page=198&NYHETER=3905
Vote for your favorite records of the year over at Dagensskiva: http://www.dagensskiva.com/tavling/skivor2003/tavling2003.asp
There's some new releases on the horizon from upstart Swedish hip-hop discount label Pay Per Bag. First up is the debut full-length "C.C.C." from Close Creative Comrads featuring scene vets Akem and Scoob Rock. 14 tracks, only 99 kr and already out. Next is "Gladiator" from the Göteborg-based Mi Casa. That one will also cost only 99 kr and will feature 12 tracks, 2 videos and guest appearances from Glaciuz The I.C.Y., Infy (Black Moses), Rico Wondahman, Sublime PH, and Clarq Kenz. There's also a comp album from Illstar called "El Segundo Plus" featuring two previously released studio works and a live show from last fall. Lastly, there's a new EP from Shufflas called "Enter The Theatre" which is somewhat of a preview for the groups next full-length "The Swedish Sin". Head to Streetzone for more details.
In Oslo on the day before the big Inferno Festival on April 7, Duplicate Records will present the Überthrashfest with Aura Noir, Nocturnal Breed, Infernö and Audiopain. The label will also be issuing a special limited edition 10" with exclusive tracks from all four bands to coincide with the festival. Preordering info for tickets and the vinyl should hopefully be coming soon.