Rough Trade has put together a 2xCD compilation called "Counter Culture 2003" to be released in conjunction with Mute on February 2 next year and it features quite a few Nordic acts such as The Concretes, Kaada, Mugison, and C.Aarmé. Full track list: http://www.nme.com/news/106909.htm
Europe, Lena Ph, Lasse Berghagen and E-Type are said to be confirmed for next year's Melodifestival.
Finland's Hanoi Rocks has slammed Mötley Crüe over the title of their new box set "Music To Crash Your Car To, Volume 1". And rightfully so, as Crüe frontman Vince Neil was arrested on drunk-driving and vehicular-manslaughter charges following a car accident that killed HR drummer Nicholas "Razzle" Dingley back in 1984. "The despicable title by the 'Motley Crude'… is the most tasteless and murderous gimmick to cash in on the past that we've ever heard of," they said, "There's nothing 'cool' or 'funny' about death… How low can you go?!?" Nikki Sixx so far has pleaded ignorance and says the title is a "sarcastic statement towards a lifestyle" and that he never made the connection until Neil brought up his reservations.
Swedish crustcore act Disfear will have their latest album "Misanthropic Generation" released on vinyl through Feral Ward Records, the label of Yannick from Portland, OR based band Tragedy. The new edition will feature a cover of the song "Hycklarfolket" from classic Swedish crust band No Security. Disfear also just put out a new 7" for the track "Powerload" through Spain's Throne Records. That release contains exclusive b-sides of "The Age of Conflict" as well as them covering "Med En Halsning Fran Helvete" from yet another classic Swedish crust band, Bombanfall.
As mentioned before, Disfear was recently joined by Entombed guitarist Uffe Cederlund on second guitar. He'll be doing double duty with both bands on the 'Close-Up Made Us Do It' tour which kicks off today in Sundsvall, Sweden.
And speaking of that Close-Up tour, Raised Fist has been forced to cancel due to sickness in the band. Nine will take their place and C.Aarmé will tag along for the ride.
That all-star Norweigan Kiss tribute I told you about on 11/10 with members from Satyricon, Amulet, Ralph Myerz, Turbonegro and Faith No More coming together to cover "Black Diamond", will get a release as a single on December 8. A video was filmed for the song at Rikshospiltalet and the full compilation album comes out in January.
Carnal Forge plans to record a show of theirs at the end of January for an eventual DVD release, the group's first. Otherwise, the band plans to enter Studio Underground in February to begin work on their fifth album, tentatively due out next summer on Century Media Records.
Zyklon has been forced to cancel their planned 3-day Mexican tour due to promotor negligence. The statement from guitarist Samoth:
"We were supposed to leave for Mexico today for a 3-show headline tour. The UK agent who dealt with this particular tour called us up at rehearsal on Monday saying it's not gonna happen, because the Mexican promoter Carlo Hernandez have failed to buy the plane tickets in time, and now refuses to buy any because they apparently are too expensive all of a sudden. I must say we are very disappointed and surprised in the lack of professionalism. It's not only unfortunate for us as we have turned down other interesting offers to do this tour, but most of all for all the die-hard Mexican fans who wanted to see us. All we can say is that this situation is totally beyond our control. We don't really wanna put any blame on anybody, but it just sucks that we have to deal with such incompetence. We hope we get another opportunity to come back to Mexico. A mighty hail to all the Mexican Metal brothers for supporting us!"
Seems that there's not gonna be a video for "Live and Learn", the latest single from The Cardigans. Bassplayer Magnus says that parent label Universal has shown no interesting in kicking down the funds, so there you go.
Those of you waiting for the vinyl edition of Logh's latest album "The Raging Sun" are just gonna have to keep on waiting. Seems that Conspiracy Records, the label that was going to take care of it, had a number companies they work with go bankrupt leaving them with quite a bit less income then they'd planned on. As they say themselves, it's sad, but "money makes the world go around."
Sweden's Laakso will head over to Denmark for a couple shows in January:
01/16 - tba, Ålborg (DK)
01/17 - tba, Århus (DK)
Emocore act The Spirit that Guides Us will be entering the studio on December 8 to begin recording their next full length album. Look for it in March from Sally Forth Records.
Long-running grindcore act General Surgery has posted an mp3 rough mix of the track "Necrodecontamination" from the forthcoming split 7" with Machetazo. They've also posted a bunch of other news about the band's current activities over at their website, so head over to check it out.
There's a new multi-national association with Sweden, Norway and Denmark called the 'Nordic Culture Network' that's purpose is to help cross-promote live music throughout Scandinavia. The current project is called "The Scandinavian Connection" and the first event they've got features a tour with Denmark's Under Byen and Norway's NUD touring together. Here's the dates:
12/03 - Markens, Kristiansand (NOR)
12/04 - Blå, Oslo (NOR)
12/11 - Voxhall, Århus (DK)
12/12 - Vega, Copenhagen (DK)
So far, the Network involves people from the Danish venue Gimle, Export Music Sweden, Dansk Rock Samråd (ROSA), Rytmisk Musik Danmark, Morningside Records, Cph-sound, Ant Nest Records, FriNgo - kultursamarbejde i Øresundsregionen, Kooljunk Communications, Entity Management and Little Label. More details: http://www.nordicculture.net/
(found via Supertanker.tk)