Black Feather, the solo project of ex-Jaga Jazzist guitarist Harald Frøland, has finally found a label home at Portland, OR-based Other Electricities following two years of various harddrive meltdowns, label collapses and other industry ailments. His debut album "Silhouette" will finally be released on September 15 and you can get a bit of a preview at this link: http://www.other-electricities.com/eCards/BlackFeather/
Confirmed for the next It's a Trap! Clubnight at Debaser Malmö on June 20th: Bruket. Listen to their debut single "Stockholm kallar" and you won't be surprised to learn that it was produced by The Hives' Almqvist brothers (that's Pelle and Niklas), especially considering the Fagersta connection (The Hives' hometown), but I think they're less inspired by slashing garage-pop-punk than classic Svensk punk. Think Ebba Grön or Docent Död with echoes of The Clash and other similar-era acts -- heavy on the pop with huge anthemic choruses. They throw in a dubby breakdown, too. 2009, 1979, whatever. I'm sure it'll be a great show.
Bruket - Stockholm kallar
Pitchfork on the new album from Seabear alter-ego Sin Fang Bous: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12889-clangour/
Moonbabies posted a recent 25-minute live clip for viewing at their website: http://moon-babies.blogspot.com/2009/06/streaming-live-video.html
No new material to preview unfortunately, but the songs featured are all hits as far as I'm concerned.
The excellent Norwegian pop/folk act Katzenjammer just released a new single called "Demon kitty rag". Listen at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/katzenjammerne
Finnish artist Astrid Swan has a new song called "Your bitches" streaming at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/astridswan
Swedish rockers Robert Johnson and Punchdrunks will release the new album "100% pot success" on August 18. The first single "Tired of Thurston" will be out on August 4.
The new album "Sikter på månen og lander på taket" from Norwegian rappers Jester & Don Martin is getting caught up in a distributor boycott war and as such will not be carried by Platekompaniet, Norway's #1 music retailer. In response and in order to drum up more publicity, the act has posted four songs from said album for free -- go to Kingsize to download and to read more: http://kingsize.no/News.aspx?ArtNo=8184
Swedish female-fronted indie/roots act Francis has a new video for the song "Ten thousand times": http://vimeo.com/5014501
Swedish melodic hard-rock act Enter the Hunt has a new single called "Fighters" and you can stream it at their new website along with a bunch of b-side remixes: http://www.enterthehunt.com
Live music at PSL with Christopher Sander, frontman for Labrador Records act [ingenting]: http://blogg.svt.se/psl/2009/06/08/musik-med-christopher-sander/
Listen to more music from his debut solo album "Hej hå!" at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/csdemoner
No surprise- it sounds fantastic.
Björn Kleinhenz will release his new album "Head held high on fearsome pride" on June 15. It will first be available as a paid download, but there will also be a CD edition later this summer. You should buy it too because all proceeds to to pay for his rabbit Humle's recent medical care, a worthy cause if I ever heard one.
Here is the It's a Trap! listening group top 10 artists of the week, unique to our group:
01. The Radio Dept.
02. Deportees
03. Loney, Dear
04. Jens Lekman
05. Phoenix
06. Tiger Lou
07. The Bear Quartet
08. Grizzly Bear
09. Passion Pit
10. Kent
Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/
Swedish all-star old-school death metal act Bloodbath (feat. members from Katatonia, Opeth and Nocturnal Rites) now has a video for the song "Hades rising": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OfUVmfNk4E&fmt=18
DeathMetal.org talks the history of Norwegian death metal with Fenriz (Darkthrone), Anders Odden (Cadaver) and Kjetil Manheim (Mayhem): http://www.deathmetal.org/death_metal/music/norwayDM.html