Love Is All will be back in the US in June:
06/02 - Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ
06/05 - Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
06/08 - Neumo's, Seattle, WA
06/09 - Holocene, Portland, OR
06/11 - Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA
06/12 - Echoplex, Los Angeles, CA
06/13 - The Casbah, San Diego, CA
Halph is not like other guitar/drum duos. No garage-rock, no friend-rock, no empty spazzouts. "New money" presents them at their least subdued, but even then, they're still dark and drone-heavy with lots of loose open chords and a slightly atonal sense of melody. It's taken me while to warm to their peculiar sound, but now with album #3 "The world is as you are", I think we've come to a place where we can connect better. They've figured out what works for them without sacrificing any of their weird deadpan vibe and I've since learned a better appreciation of rock minimalism. It's a good meeting point, everyone's happy.
Halph - New money
Swedish noiseniks I Date a Wolf report that their new album is 100% complete and will be posted for free download/streaming on Friday, May 1.
Finnish shoegazers Murmansk are now streaming the video for their new single "Moth": http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=56365478
Ex-Amulet vocalist Torgny Amdam has a new solo act called Demagogues and is currently working on songs for what will be his debut album. Check out a demo at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/demagoguess
Jens Lekman will be touring South America in June as a duo with Viktor Sjöberg:
06/20 - tba, Santiago (CL)
06/19 - tba, Buenos Aires (AR)
06/17 - Era Só O Que Faltava, Curitiba (BR)
06/16 - UK Pub, Recife (BR)
06/14 - Santander Cultural, Porto Alegre (BR)
06/13 - Studio SP, Sao Paulo (BR)
Pitchfork goes Daytripping with Peter Bjorn and John: http://pitchfork.com/tv/#/episode/1821-peter-bjorn-and-john
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Rigas - It's a shame
02. TALK 1
03. Sonic Ritual - Take the edge off
04. Logh - Death to my hometown
05. Hanna Hirsch - Framtid och besvär
06. The Amazing - Dragon
07. TALK 2
08. Promoe - Growing up on the road
09. Robert Svensson - I was summer, you were
10. Thåström - Linnéa
11. TALK 3
12. Murmansk - Sumac
13. Röyksopp - This must be it
14. Fy Fan - Snick snack
15. We are the Storm - A song for our city
16. TALK 4
17. Truckfighters - Monte gargano
18. The Psyke Project - For us to see for us to help
19. Dear Euphoria - Tell me
20. TALK 5
21. Samuraj Cities - 2 close 2 yr hrt
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.
This week's top 20 Norwegian album chart:
01. Eriksen - De aller beste
02. Tone Damli Aaberge - I Know
03. Röyksopp - Junior
04. BigBang - Edendale
05. Steff Nevers - Closest to My Heart
06. CC Cowboys - Morgen & kveld
07. Lene Marlin - Twist the Truth
08. Diverse artister - Melodi Grand Prix 2009
09. Jonas Fjeld og Chatham County Line - Brother Of Song
10. Anita Skorgan - Hele veien - 47 utvalgte sanger
11. Kari Bremnes - Ly
12. Silje Nergaard - A Thousand True Stories
13. Pegasus - Min første natt
14. Sigvart Dagsland - Hymns
15. deLillos - Huskeglemme
16. Noora Noor - Soul Deep
17. Karpe Diem - Fire vegger
18. Marius Müllers Funhouse - Plugged 2 - Rett og slett
19. Sie Gubba - Hemafrå
20. Elisabeth Andreassen - Spellemann
Swedish hip-hop star Timbuktu will make his UK debut at the venue 229 in London on May 21.
Mange Schmidt is currently working on a new album to be entitled "Odenplan, Stockholm, 1988". Expect an August release via Razzia Records with the first single "Vet att du förstår" coming in May. Also look for new music from Theodor Jensen via Razzia including a new single this summer and an album in the fall.
Finnish electronic/multimedia artists Pink Twins are working on DVD entitled "Sketches of pain" which will include, in addition to the title work which "documents the Pink Twins/Zugeer L 2006 Mongolian concert spectacle", all of the group's recent video projects plus live footage. No set release date yet, but soon.
MyBestFriendIsMyGrind will be hanging out with Swedish rapper Adam Tensta in LA next week: http://www.mybestfriendismygrind.com/mybestfriendismygrindcom-in-los-angeles-pt1/
Danish DIY/indie label BSBTA (Bloated Sasquatch Beer Theatre Audio) has announced a bunch of new releases which will apparently be their last: http://www.bsbta.com/
Post-June 1 imprint A Beard of Snails will break away and become its own separate entity.
The new A-ha single "Foot of the mountain" is now streaming online: http://universalmusic.no/ecards/aha/