Finnish electronic label Rikos Records has established a 24/7 shoutcast (mp3) radio stream. Listen here: http://radio.rikosrecords.com:8000/
Here's the nominees for the NRJ Radio Awards categories that are relevant to this site:
Best Nordic artist:
Per Gessle
Outlandish
The Rasmus
Lene Marlin
Jay-Kid
Best Nordic song:
The Rasmus - "In The Shadows"
Outlandish - "Aicha"
Per Gessle - "Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)"
Beats And Styles - "Dynamite"
Lene Marlin - "You Weren't There"
Best Swedish male artist:
Per Gessle
Timbuktu
Bosson
Dr Alban
Jamie Meyer
Best Swedish female artist:
Sahlene
Robyn
Lisa Miskovsky
September
Dilba
Best Swedish group:
Kent
Da Buzz
The Sounds
Alcazar
Antique
Best Swedish newcomer:
September
Miio
User
Fame
Ana
Best Swedish song:
Per Gessle - "Här kommer alla känslorna (på en och samma gång)"
Da Buzz - "Alive"
Alcazar - "Not A Sinner, Nor A Saint"
Timbuktu - "The botten is nådd"
Lisa Miskovsky - "Lady Stardust"
Winners will be announced during the live broadcast awards show on January 25 in Stockholm. Go here to cast your votes: www.nrjradioawards.com.
Royal Downfall is offering their entire new album "08.00 - 16.00" for free download on their website under the creative commons license agreement. "It's impossible to make money selling records these days unless you're Kent or Per Gessle," said drummer Janne Olofsson to And the Sound netzine, "We're only interested in having people hear us, come see us live, buy shirts, and so forth."
Has Stratovarius guitarist Timo Tolkki totally lost it? First he was ranting about firing most of his band last week and now he's saying he's received death threats and been forced to hire body guards? No, really. Read his full statement.
The Gathering has announced the tracklisting for their upcoming semi-acoustic live record "Sleep Buildings", recently recorded at the LUX theatre in Nijmegen, Holland on August 21-22:
01. Locked Away
02. Saturnine
03. Amity
04. The Mirror Waters
05. Red Is A Slow Colour
06. Sleepy Buildings
07. Travel
08. Shrink
09. In Motion Part II
10. Stonegarden
11. My Electricity
12. Marooned
13. Like Fountains
The band says that plans to include "The May Song" and "Nighttime Birds" fell through, as the latter didn't differ enough from the version on the "Superheat" live album and TMS simply didn't come out that great. Look for a January 26 release on Century Media. They will also be touring in support of the release and will hopefully playing some church venues along the way. Here's what they've got confirmed so far:
01/08 - Huize Maas (Eurosonic), Groningen (NL)
01/30 - De Groene Engel, Oss (NL)
03/02 – Paradiso, Amsterdam (NL)
03/04 – Bosuil, Weert (NL)
03/05 – Lux, Nijmegen (NL)
03/06 – Lux, Nijmegen (NL)
03/07 – Oosterpoort, Groningen (NL)
More details, including German dates, hopefully coming soon.
Impaled Nazarene will be teaming up with The Legion for a European tour beginning in late February. Exact dates coming soon.
Beezewax lead vocalist Kenneth Ishak will release his debut solo album "Northern Exposure" in Scandinavia on Sellout! Music in January, PopKid UK Records in the UK before Christmas and over in the US on plain ol' PopKid Records sometime next year. The music is described as "heart wrenching emo-pop" and can be said to appeal to fans of Dashboard Confessional and Buffalo Tom.
The new Sähko Recordings website is now online. Not only can you listen to samples from various releases on the Pan Sonic-associated label, but you can also download exclusive mixes, too.
The new Backyard Babies album "Stockholm Syndrome" has been confirmed for an international release on March 1, 2004.
Kinda off-topic, but still amusing: Sidetalkin' - Finnish style
Sad to say, but the time has come for those Randy live mp3s to go away. Sorry, but that's the way it goes. However, in it's place I've got a few more of those live Hederos & Hellberg tracks as well as a special new mp3 from KVLR. As some of you out there might've heard, It's a trap! is branching out into the record business and our first release will be the new self-titled album from these guys. "Slow Clapping" is the first single and Chalksounds will be putting it out as a 7" real soon. Stickman will be handling the release in Europe around January (I think) and I'll be getting it out in the US sometime around early March. Dates and more details coming soon!
Nine will support the US metalcore act Poison the Well at the Meanfiddler in London on December 17. I don't think I mentioned it here before, but PTW's most recent album was recorded in Umeå, Sweden at Tonteknik Studios.
Check out Junior Senior's tour diary from their recently-completed US tour: http://www.crunchy.dk/asp/default.asp?News_Id=95
In other JS news, the album "D-D-Don't Don't stop the Beat" made it to #11 on Blender Magazine's best-of-the-year list and the single "Move Your Feet" made it even higher, to #6. Not bad!
Gluecifer has just confirmed that they will support Monster Magnet on tour across Europe between the dates of February 20 and April 12. Details soon! The band will also be debuting new material from the album "Automatic Thrill" at a show at Carling Academy Islington in London on Saturday, December 6.
Elin Sigvardsson has added even more multimedia content to her website, including an mp3 of "Not for eternity" and video footage from her 2003 tour.
Smalltown Supersound reports that Jaga Jazzist songwriter Lars Horntveth has completed work on his debut solo album and it sounds "absolutely amazing." The Jørgen Træen (aka Sir Dupermann) produced record is called "Pooka" and will be released in Norway this coming February, March everywhere else. A 12"/CD single will be come out in February, too.