Danish artist Jacob Faurholt (ex--Sweetie Pie Wilbur) has a new band called Why Write? who will be releasing their debut EP in November via Canadian and similarily titled with extraneous punctuation label What A Mess! Records. Hear a track at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/whywrite
Danish act January Jaunt is calling it quits. The band will play their final show on September 1 at Ridehuset in Aarhus and their forthcoming EP will come out later that month as planned. Read their full statement: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=64169468&blogId=507947625
Swedish label National has a bunch of debut albums coming out this fall:
09/30 - Val and the Bitches - s/t
09/30 - NEI - New agenda
10/07 - Gaby & The Guns - Rygg mot rygg
10/14 - Skilla - To our mums and dads, brothers and sisters, friends and lovers
Swedish indie act Shiloh has posted a new video preview for their forthcoming EP: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=62031359
Swedish gothic country act Isobel & November are currently in the studio working on their debut album to be released via Dither Music and Noise later on this coming fall.
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Elmo - Blind heart
02. TALK 1
03. Moritz von Oswald Trio - Pattern 3
04. Carpet People - All that ails must pass
05. Fronda - Andas
06. TALK 2
07. Siena Root - Time will tell
08. Cortex - No connections
09. Kornstad - Oslo
10. TALK 3
11. The Silent Section - In snow forever
12. Familjen - Huvudet i sanden
13. Band in Box - B33
14. TALK 4
15. The Bear Quartet - Northern
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.
Imperial Leather's new record "Unconditional conditions" is out now on Japanese label MCR Records and they're streaming three of the tracks at myspace: http://profile.myspace.com/soapmeup
Look below the player for Japanese tourdates too.
Swedish all-stars Brothers of End (see here) have added a new track called "FC vs Dynasty" to myspace: http://profile.myspace.com/brothersofend
Recommended!
Frida Hyvönen's cover of Judee Sill's "Jesus was a cross maker" is reviewed at Pitchfork: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/11466-jesus-was-a-cross-maker/
Rumraket has made the upcoming releases from Taxi Taxi! and Slaraffenland available for preorder and are also offering a couple new free mp3s to further entice buyers (click the "more info" links to get 'em): http://rumraket.com/shop/rumraket.html
Danish act Factory45 just released their debut album "Would you take the things off that you like the best?" and have added a whole bunch of the tracks to their myspace player: http://profile.myspace.com/factory45
A Perfect Friend (Thomas Denver Jonsson + Pacta/Ondo) has signed with Knoppar (Hajen, Tvärvägen) for the release of their sophomore album "Timber and modern ways". No date yet, but expect a release late this year.
Svarte Greiner, in addition to relocating to Berlin, will have his cassette release "Penpals forever" reissued on vinyl with an additional side of fresh music. Look for it in November via Digitalis under the name "Penpals forever and ever". In other news, a European tour is in the works for this fall and dates should be confirmed soon.
Chances are high this is probably the closest we'll get to Magnus Carlson revisiting the retro kitsch of early Weeping Willows and that's fine, I'll take it. As much as I love those first two albums, it's good that he moved on to try new things and isn't content to repeat himself. That's an admirable quality, as he could easily keep treading water and keep most of his fanbase contented. Admittedly, I'd probably be one of them. Instead, he keeps busy and keeps on trying new things -- sometimes it works (this), sometimes not. No surprise though really, as the idea of Magnus Carlson fronting a jazz-pop combo is not a stretch. Apart from the ridiculous Doors cover (listen here), the material is pure class and his take on the American folk tune "Sea lion woman" earns top marks. I still miss the melodrama, but I am not anti-fun. Enjoy!
Magnus Carlson & The Moon Ray Quintet - Sea lion woman
I Hate Records will be putting out a split 12" from Finnish doom act Spiritus Mortis and Fall of the Idols this coming fall. More details to come.