Ja Ja Ja will be holding two showcases in March, the first of which taking place on the 11th at Tabernacle as part of the International Music Conference (ILMC). Acts featured include Hjaltalín, Lucy Love, Husky Rescue and Megaphonic Thrift. As mentioned before, there will also be a showcase on the 18th at The Lexington with Bodebrixen being the first name confirmed.
Stereogum has the premiere of the new Love Is All video for the song "Kungen": http://stereogum.com/276942/love-is-all-kungen-video-stereogum-premiere/news/
Watch Peter Morén perform his new single "Esther" live for Göteborg Posten: http://www.gp.se/gptv?path=gptv.abcdn.net/TV-ARKIV/Noje&playfile=18870_LIVE_Peter_Morn_sjunger_pa_svenska_112106.pls
Nom de Guerre's new video for the song "Run run run" is now online: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=103184807
PopMatters reviews the new Shout Out Louds album "Work": http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/120516-shout-out-louds-work/
And Dusted weighs in here: http://dustedmagazine.com/reviews/5543
The Free Jazz blog reviews a few newish Peter Brötzmann releases on which he collaborates with a few Scandinavian artists (Paal Nilssen-Love on one, Mats Gustafsson on another): http://freejazz-stef.blogspot.com/2010/02/brotzmann.html
Swedish rock'n'rollers "Demons" have uploaded a bunch of old cover tunes to myspace, most of which I believe have never been released: http://www.myspace.com/demonssthlm
The Kissaway TrailLet's get this out of the way: Danish band The Kissaway Trail owes a good deal of their sound to Arcade Fire. No... make that a great deal. From lush orchestral movements, to their pendent for melodramatic swells punctuated with non-specific "ooohh ohh ohhs", Win Butler and the gang seep though the holes of nearly every track. It may come as a surprise then, that The Kissaway Trail's sophomore effort "Sleep mountain" comes off significantly more than a simple "Neon Bible"-retread. Marrying electronics to dense instrumentals, they've managed to create an album that timelessly reflects the intermingled sorrow and optimism of youth.
With vocal styles that sound not unlike Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips, co-lead men Thomas Fagerlund and Søren Corneliussen lead the charge though eleven tracks, their Bright Eyes-style emotive phrasing adding gravity to melancholic paean "New year" and helping transform Neil Young cover "Philadelphia" into a multi-layered, wandering daydream. Unafraid to un-ironically dip into Loney Dear-style sincerity on "Beat your heartbeat" and "New lipstick", it's difficult not to get swept up in their unabashed romanticism. Arcade Fire may have gotten there first, but The Kissaway Trail is here to stay.
- Laura Studarus
Go here for a full-size scan of the new Obliteration interview from Terrorizer: http://afistinthefaceofgod.blogspot.com/2010/02/interview-with-sindre-solem-of_23.html
Norwegian act Kaizers Orchestra are planning to spend the next three years working on an ambitious trilogy of records entitled "Violeta, Violeta" with the first volume due in November 2011 and the final arriving in November 2012. There will also be touring along the way, the bulk of it to transpire in spring of 2011. Read more: http://kaizers.no/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90%3Akaizers-due-to-play-oslo-spektrum-next-year&catid=12%3Anews&Itemid=7
I can't be bothered to look up the song title, but has posted a new video from jj: http://www.sincerelyyours.se/video/yours0131.html
will be pressing a limited run of Lake Heartbeat LPs which should hopefully be ready by mid-April, just in time for Record Store Day.
Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qslyq8CcXu0
Shining's older material never totally won me over, but their new album "Blackjazz" is the perfect culmination of everything they ever set out to do. Finally, their evil hybrid of jazz and metal makes sense! The video itself isn't terribly exciting, but the music is killer -- very recommended!
Swedish artist Elin Ruth Sigvardsson has a video for her new single "Bang": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oosf-_XK0yQ
Check out an e-card for the new Pascal album "Orkanen närmar sig", out now via : http://www.novoton.se/pascal/
