Swedish death/grind legends General Surgery are doing a short West Coast jaunt after they play LA Murderfest:
05/09 - LA Murderfest @ Knitting Factory, Los Angeles, CA
05/10 - The PHiX, Phoenix, AZ
05/11 - Blue Lagoon, Santa Cruz, CA
05/12 - DNA Lounge, San Francisco, CA
05/13 - Satyricon, Portland, OR
05/14 - Old School Pizza, Olympia, WA
A show here in smalltown Olympia? Hell yes! You know where to find me...
Gaffa reports that Danish rock act The Sandmen have cancelled all upcoming live dates and are going on indefinite hiatus: http://gaffa.dk/nyhed/32179
Norwegian avant-metal weirdos Virus have a new demo track on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/czral
Watch The Fine Arts Showcase performing live on Swedish TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJn7t2vBc1M&fmt=18
Check under "More from Adrian Recordings" for another song and interview (på Svenska).
Smalltown's new album "Implosion" is finally done and available from Deranged in North America, Combat Rock in Europe. Check out their myspace page for a preview of a few tracks and keep an eye out for US dates this fall: http://www.myspace.com/smalltownsweden
Norwegian indiepop act Je Suis Animal has two new 7" singles out this month, first "The mystery of Marie Roget" b/w "Secret place" on UK label Angular Records and also a split with Glaswegian at Wake the President featuring the song "Fortune map". That one's a corelease between Lucky Number Nine and Electric Honey Records.
Nutid is the duo of Åsa Jacobsson and Alf Håkan Åkesson and together they make beautiful instrumental music. Which is odd in a way because Åsa is well-known as Marit Bergman's favorite songwriting collaborator and she has also worked with quite a few other Stockholm-based pop projects (Consequences, Peter Bjorn and John, etc.). Alf is no slouch either, he's released a few well-received folksy singer/songwriter albums under his first name. So for the two of them to come together to do something completely different is a surprise; unexpected but welcome. "Pianoflikkan" is one of the longer tracks on the record (they typically average out to 2:30-3:00, owing very much to the duo's pop-oriented roots) and is quite reminiscent of classic Swedish progg. The melodies are very Jan Johansson in their elegant melancholy, especially when the piano takes the lead, but the piece wouldn't sound out of place on a Björn Olsson album either. The cinematic and the pastoral, together as one; a bit of twang and timpani. Spring has finally arrived and the flowers are slowing opening just like the smiles on people's faces as they enjoy a bit of hard-earned sunshine. This is the soundtrack for such a morning.
Nutid - Pianoflikkan
Swedish music mailorder/distro Dotshop is closing: http://www.dotshop.se/ds/news.php?nid=322
Is file sharing really the culprit or is it just the economy?
Post-rock site The Silent Ballet has two new comps available for free download: Vol 10 / Vol 11
Featured Scandinavian artists include Library Tapes, Bluebridge Quartet and Jasper TX.
Antenna talks to Amorphis guitarist Esa Holopainen about the band's new album "Skyforger": http://www.antenna.nu/?p=1022
David Åhlén's video for the title track of his new record "We sprout in thy soil" is now on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yur2PszQ26I&fmt=18
It's an absolutely gorgeous record - expect to hear more about it very soon.
Swedish rapper Porno now has a video for his stupid new single "Ugly girls": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IzMIxyuxcU&fmt=18
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Sonic Ritual - Take the edge off
02. TALK 1
03. Thåström - Kärlek är för dom
04. Elenette - Att göra en hit
05. Maskinen - Bränner
06. TALK 2
07. The Skull Defekts - Habit
08. Grave - Into the grave
09. Murmansk - Moth
10. TALK 3
11. Kite - My girl and I
12. Laakso - Worst case scenario
13. Samtidigt Som - Denna sida mot fienden
14. TALK 4
15. David Åhlén - We sprout in thy soil
16. Knife and Ape - Buck teeth
17. Existensminimum - 1993
18. Cut City - Departure in particular
19. TALK 5
20. Masquer - Hanging garden
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.
Here is the It's a Trap! listening group top 10 artists of the week, unique to our group:
01. Loney, Dear
02. A Camp
03. Jens Lekman
04. Bob Hund
05. Maia Hirasawa
06. Jenny Wilson
07. Frida Hyvönen
08. Sahara Hotnights
09. The Hidden Cameras
10. Fever Ray
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/
Vendlus will be handling the US release of Monolithic's debut album "Black science": http://www.vendlus.com/?p=64
The Norwegian free-jazz/metal combo's album was originally released earlier this month via Roggbif.