New music from Serena Maneesh
There's a couple new tracks from Serena Maneesh now streaming at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/serenamaneesh
Auktion annouce final show
Swedish crusties Auktion has announced that Punk Illegal in June 2010 will be the band's final show ever. They'll also play one last hometown farewell in Umeå sometime before that, but nothing's confirmed yet. Otherwise, the band says they still have a bunch of unreleased material, so if anyone is interested in releasing it they should get in touch.
Desert Planet to celebrate 10 year anniversary in February
Finnish bitpop masters and "Reader's companion" alums Desert Planet will celebrate their 10th anniversary on February 19 with a huge multimedia website unveiling that includes a free album. I've been lucky enough to see an early preview and yes, it is awesome. Mark your calendars!
Sirius playlist week #5
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. TALK 1
02. The Goner - Within the hour
03. Moto Boy - The heart is a rebel
04. Detektivbyrån - Hemvägen
05. TALK 2
06. Valkyrien Allstars - Hvis jeg var deg
07. Tobias Hellkvist - Patience
08. Scarred By Beauty - We swim
09. [ingenting] - Tack
10. TALK 3
11. I'm From Barcelona/Daviel Lindlöf - Lower my head
12. Monazno - Yes we can't
13. Silver - The white logic
14. Eskatol - Siste dans
15. TALK 5
16. Murmansk - The surgical assistant
17. Dyno - Destroy! Destroy!
18. Folkvang - Folkvangs första
19. C.Aarmé - Angola (Princess version)
20. TALK 5
21. Abhinanda - Junior
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
Mixtapes & Cellmates tour support
Mixtapes & Cellmates are seeking fan support to help them make it to SXSW: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mixtapesandcellmates/sxsw-2010-or-bust
Musik med Joel Alme
Live music with Joel Alme at PSL: http://blogg.svt.se/psl/2010/01/29/musik-med-joel-alme-2/
This week's top 20 Norwegian album chart
This week's top 20 Norwegian album chart:
01. Motorpsycho - Heavy Metal Fruit
02. Frøya - My American Dream
03. Bjørn Eidsvåg - De Beste
04. Donkeyboy - Caught in a Life
05. Stage Dolls - Always
06. Shining - Blackjazz
07. Vidar Johnsen & Peter Nordberg - Ild & Vatten
08. Claudia Scott/Casino Steel/Ottar Big Hand Johansen - Honky Tonk Night - The Best
09. Sivert Høyem - Moon Landing
10. John Olav Nilsen & Gjengen - For Sant Til Å Være Godt
11. Pony the Pirate - This is Our Psychopedia!
12. d'sound - Starts and Ends
13. WigWam - Non Stop Rock'N'Roll
14. Dum Dum Boys - Tidsmaskin
15. Jahn Teigen - Teigen - 40 Største Hits
16. Alf Prøysen - De kjente og kjære sangene
17. Jonas Fjeld feat Henning Kvitnes - Den Gamle Veien
18. Torbjørn Egner - Samlede CD-er
19. Lindstrøm and Christabelle - Real Life Is No Cool
20. Kråkesølv - Trådnøsting
Lasse Marhaug to tour US, Japan
Norwegian noise master Lasse Marhaug is doing a West Coast tour in a few weeks with John Wiese and dates can now be found at his website: http://www.lassemarhaug.no/
Dates for Japan in April are posted as well.
Manifest 2010 winners
Here are the winners of the 2010 Manifest Awards, Sweden's alternative Grammy:
Punk/Hardcore: Troublemakers - Made in Sweden ()
Dance: Samuel L Session - The man with the case ()
Jazz: The Opposite - Intertwined ()
Dansband: Blender - Välkommen in ()
Rhythm: Jaqee - Kokoo Girl ()
Composer: Lisa Nordström and Lisen Rylander Löve (Midaircondo)
Lyrics: Ken Ring
Rock: Makeouts - In A Strange Land ()
Pop: El Perro Del Mar - Love Is Not Pop ()
Hårdrock/Metal: Abandon - The Dead End ()
Synth: Arvid - Andetag ()
Singer/songwriter: Kristofer Åström And The Rainaways - Sinkadus ()
Folk/ballad: Tore Berger - I huset långt på landet ()
Hip-hop: Mohammed Ali - Processen ()
Best poplabel:
Best live: Fever Ray ()
Best unsigned: Fulmakten
Read more: http://www.manifestgalan.se/125.aspx
Petter Seander to release solo album in March
Petter Seander (Kristian Anttila, Sleeping Beauty) will release his debut solo album "The denial of me, myself & I" on March 3. More info: http://www.petterseander.com/
CMI to reissue Apatheia
is reissuing "Lifethesis", an early album from Swedish apocolyptic folk act Apatheia, the solo alias of Linus Andersson (Coph Nia, Svartenbrandt, Reign of Bombs). Read all about it: http://www.coldmeat.se/mailorderitem.asp?id=3090
This week's top 20 Swedish album chart
This week's top 20 Swedish album chart:
01. Erik Grönwall - Erik Grönwall
02. Amanda Jenssen - Happyland
03. Calle Kristiansson - Calle Kristiansson
04. Nordman - Korsväg
05. Kent - Röd
06. Lars Winnerbäck - Tänk om jag ångrar mig och sen ångrar mig igen
07. Thåström - Be-bop-a-lula hela jävla dan (1989-2009)
08. Joel Alme - Waiting for the bells
09. Melissa Horn - Säg ingenting till mig
10. Andreas Grega - En sak i taget
11. Dan Berglund - Tonbruket
12. Gentlemen - Awaken me
13. Malena Ernman - La voix du nord
14. Caroline Af Ugglas - Så gör jag det igen
15. Bo Kaspers Orkester - Samling
16. Hästpojken - Från där jag ropar
17. Jill Johnson - Music row II
18. Martin Stenmarck - Septemberland
19. The Refreshments - 8 cd collection
20. Thåström - Kärlek är för dom
FM Belfast album to get US release
Icelandic artist FM Belfast will finally have their debut album "How to make friends" given a proper US release this spring via . Download the single "Par avion": http://www.pluseinn.com/mp3/howtomakefriends/Par_Avion_Master.mp3
MP3: Valkyrien Allstars - Å gjev du batt meg
The good folks at MIC Norway sent me a big box of CDs earlier this week as part of their "Listen to Norway" music promotion program, so to oblige them I will attempt to do some sort of weekly feature on one of the contents therein. I'm planning on listening to most of it anyway, so why not give it focus? Now as for the types of discs they sent me, there's a good selection of pop, rock, indie and metal stuff that I've either heard before or at least somewhat familiar with, so I decided to jump into the other stuff first. I know some Norwegian jazz, mostly through artists affiliated with or , and we'll get to those in coming weeks, but it's definitely the folk music that intrigued me the most. As regular readers should know by now, I love traditional Scandinavian folk, especially when it's done in contemporary fashion ala Detektivbyrån, but I'm also quite fond of the trad stuff, it's just that I barely know where to start with it so let us consider this to be a mutual exploration. There's a lot of folk music out there and I've listened to a damn lot of Hardanger fiddle this week and while I couldn't begin to tell you the history of the style or anything about the various regional variations, I know what I like and Valkyrien Allstars are a group I definitely can get into. According to the liner notes of their self-titled debut (2007), the trio got their start as the house band at The Valkyrien Restaurant in Oslo though they definitely seemed to have moved beyond that now, having been nominated for a Norwegian Grammy and toured Japan (and released a new album "To måner", which I do not have yet). Musically speaking, they are at their essence, a Hardanger fiddle trio, though they do mix it up by adding a few extra instruments and vocals. But what I like best about them is their energy and enthusiasm, a similar trait I heard in Swedish act Hedningarna, the band that first got me interested in Nordic folk. "Å gjev du batt meg" is one of the group's mellower tracks, but I just love the vocal on it, especially frontwoman Tuva Livsdatter Syvertsen's rough-edged tone. It reminds me of Hajen/Jaw Lesson a bit, in fact they even kinda look similar as far as hairstyle is concerned. Anyhow, it's those little cracks at the edges that make it, and that's why I'm sharing this song today.
Expect more folk discoveries and other new (to me) tunage in weeks to come.
Valkyrien Allstars - Å gjev du batt meg
Apparatjik to play live, release album
Soundvenue is reporting that Apparatjik, the all-star project featuring Jonas Bjerre (Mew), Guy Berryman (Coldplay) and Magne Furuholmen (A-ha), will be making their live debut on February 1 at the CTM Festival in Berlin where they will perform inside of a glass cube. Or something like that. And they'll be releasing their full-length debut that day too. Read more: http://www.soundvenue.com/nyheder/2010/01/29/albumdebut-fra-apparatjik-paa-vej (in Danish)
More in English: http://www.twentyfourbit.com/post/358746952/apparatjik-to-perform-in-glass-cube-drop-debut-album