Rock n' rollers King were just awarded a 8000 SEK scolarship from Köping, Sweden's municipality committee "Kultur & Fritid". Congrats guys! Read more: http://www.koping.nu/shownews.jsp?id=1175 (in Swedish)
Johndoe is putting out a new 7" on January 5 for the song "Gi gass" from their most recent album "Ja takk trøbbel". The b-side will be the exclusive track "Ja takk til trøbbel".
Denmark's The Raveonettes are part of an all-star tribute concert at Cleveland, Ohio's Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame on December 6 being put on to celebrate a new exhibit on legendary rocker Buddy Holly. They'll be covering two of Holly's songs and John Mellencamp, Marshall Crenshaw, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Nancy Griffith, Bill Pinkney and the Drifters, Wanda Jackson, Lenny Kaye, John Mueller and Kevin Montgomery will also play. Ticket info is here. Other upcoming dates for The Raveonettes:
11/21 - Pyramid Centre, Portsmouth (UK)
11/22 - Shepherds Bush Empire, London (UK)
11/23 - Academy, Birmingham (UK)
11/24 - Metropolitan University , Leeds (UK)
12/05 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland, OH
12/06 - Drury Theatre, Cleveland, OH
12/07 - Continental, Buffalo, NY
12/09 - Club Metronome , Burlington, VT
12/10 - Century Lounge , Providence, RI
12/11 - Pearl Street , Northampton, MA
12/12 - Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY
12/13 - Fletchers, Baltimore, MD
Switchblade will be touring Europe beginning in January. Dates so far:
01/14 - Fundbureau, Hamburg (GER)
01/15 - Mikrokosmos, Magdeburg (GER)
01/16 - Scheune, Dresden (GER)
01/17 - Café Nexus, Braunschweig (GER)
01/18 - Alhambra, Oldenburg (GER)
01/19 - Bla (tbc), Bonn (GER)
01/20 - tba
01/21 - Clubkeller, Frankfurt (GER)
01/22 - tba
01/23 - Le Marignan, Athus (BEL)
01/24 - Textilhuis, Kortrijk (BEL) @ w/Amenra
01/25 - JuZe, Saarlouis (GER)
01/26 - tba
01/27 - Les Brasseurs , Nancy (FR)
01/28 - KTS, Freiburg (GER)
01/29 - Hirscheneck, Basel (CH)
01/30 - Juze Degerloch, Stuttgart (GER)
01/31 - Kafé Kult, Munchen (GER)
02/01 - B.A.C.H., Wien (AUS)
02/02 - day off
02/03 - Prague (tbc)
02/04 - tba
02/05 - Immerhin, Wurzburg (GER)
02/06 - Rote Zora, Altenburg (GER)
02/07 - Berlin (tbc)
Voice of a Generation has finished recording their new album "The Final Oddition", due out February 2 on Burning Heart. They'll be supporting the release with two European tours and one Scandinavian tour this coming spring. They also have two 7"s in the works. The first one will be on Germany's Green Hell Records and will feature a single from the album along with two exclusive tracks. The second one will be on Red Angel and is a split with Falköping-based punkrockers Blisterhead, with each band contributing two songs apiece.
Norway's Jim Stärk is the band of the week over at MTVE.com. I've only just begun to explore their newest record "No Time Wasted", but I like what I've heard so far. Quality mellow rock that's quiet without being too schmaltzy or adult-contemporary.
Help celebrate TONO's (Norway's Performing Rights Society) 75th birthday by downloading free music! I kid you not! Between the dates of November 24 and 29 you can head over to www.vg.no/musikkextra for free sound and pictures from live concerts of artists such as Thomas Dybdahl, BIT 20 Percussion, and Morten Abel. Pretty darn cool if you ask me.
There's a brand new picture disc out featuring Randy Bachman's live guest appearance with Soundtrack of Our Lives from the latter's show in Vancouver, Canada last year. The tracks played include "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet", "Rock is My Life And This is My Song" and "Takin Care of Business" and you can order it here.
The Finnish Music Information Centre FIMIC just celebrated their 40th birthday. Read more.
The B2 Club in Moscow is hosting a Finnish Independence Day celebration concert on December 6 with performances by The Flaming Sideburns, Don Johnson Big Band, Puola, Huoratron, DJ Erkko, Kimmo Pohjonen Kluster, Cleaning Women, Eläkeläiset, and Alamaailman Vasarat. Eight hours and three stages!
The Information Wants to Be Free "spoken word, video-art, performances and experimental electronica musique" festival has announced more details of their lineup today. The international event takes place in three separate locations (Berlin, London and Stockholm) and features a myriad of speakers and performers. As mentioned before, representing Sweden in Berlin on December 6 is Sanctum sideproject Mago. They'll also be playing at one of the Stockholm shows which will take place December 4-6. A ton of other artists are also scheduled to appear, including Chicken el Diablo, Krister Linder, 4 x 3 Stockholms Saxofon Kvartett, and Memo. Full details: http://www.iwtbf.org/
Meshuggah guitarist Fredrik Thordendal has recorded a solo on the song "Asphyxiate" from Scarve's upcoming CD "Irradiant". The record comes out January 26 on Listenable Records and you can hear a sample of track "Mirthless Perspectives" right here.
Amorphis has issued a statement explaining the cancellation of their November 18 with Paradise Lost at the Astoria in London:
"The band was forced to cancel the London show due to the reason that there was supposed to be more shows at the time that didn't happen. The band is very sorry about what happened and is looking for possibilities to do compensating shows in the near future."
Remaining upcoming dates for the group:
12/13 - Ydrogios, Thessaloniki (GRE)
12/14 - Gagarin205, Athens (GRE)
Fonal Records has put up a streaming version of a Finnish radio interview that Kemialliset Ystävät did. Listen here: http://www.fonal.com/radio/fonalradio001.html