Simon Says No! to play NYC, CA

Simon Says No! will be doing a few extra US dates around SXSW before they head out to LA to record:

03/13 - Pianos, New York, NY
03/14 - Trash Bar, Brooklyn, NY
03/16 - Fontana's, Mew York, NY
03/18-03/22 - SXSW
03/24 - Starline, Fresno, CA
04/01 - The Harlot, San Francisco, CA
04/02 - 3 of Clubs, Los Angeles, CA

'The Sweptaways show' revealed!

Yesterday I told you there was a new Sweptaways album on the way, today I give you full details. Once again, the release date is April 15 and here now is the tracklist with full guest + songwriter details:

01. Democracy – The Sweptaways and Sir Eric Beyond [Erik Aalto]
02. Sign your name – The Sweptaways and Nina Ramsby [Terence Trent D'Arby]
03. They don't know about us – The Sweptaways and Anders Wendin aka Moneybrother [Kirsty MacColl]
04. Electric – The Sweptaways [Dag Volle, Martin Sandberg, Herbert Crichlow, Leila K]
05. Time of the season – The Sweptaways and Pelle Almqvist (The Hives) [Rod Argent, originally performed by The Zombies]
06. Happiness will be my revenge – The Sweptaways and Jens Lekman [Jens Lekman]
07. I've got your man – The Sweptaways and Robyn [Marion Hall, Richard Martin, Rickardo Ducent, originally performed by Lady Saw]
08. With every heartbeat – The Sweptaways and Simone Rubi (Rubies) [Robin Carlsson, Andreas Kleerup]
09. Vintersaga – The Sweptaways and Uje Brandelius [Ted Ström]
10. The world's greatest – The Sweptaways [R Kelly]
11. Something special – The Sweptaways and Asha Ali [Dolly Parton]
12. Tjörn – The Sweptaways and Björn Olsson [Björn Olsson]

Expect the first single (tbd) in mid-March.

New Montt Mardié album in April

The new Montt Mardié album "Skaizerkite" will be released on April 8 via Hybris. In the meantime, download the free all-covers EP "Direkt till svenska" right here: http://www.box.net/shared/vvjd89jk9e

MP3: The Low Frequency in Stereo - Texas fox

Yesterday's featured artist Livaventura was founded by a member of The Low Frequency in Stereo; too bad they tend towards the aforementioned school of good ideas/weak execution rather than pure excellence. Not that I'm one to find fault with good ideas though, many bands would be blessed to have any and the driving Kraut-skronk of "Texas fox" is plenty good enough to carry four minutes of music. It's a friendly familiar blues progression lined up, quantized and made alien though rigid repetition and an intriguing soulessness. That's a slight exaggeration of course, The Low Frequency in Stereo aren't really without soul or feeling, they just happen to play to the straight and narrow. Like Devo. Less mechanical, more awkward and lumbering. Like a gangly teen.

The Low Frequency in Stereo - Texas fox

First rookie artists confirmed for Hultsfred

Here's the first batch of artists confirmed for this year's Rookiescenen at Hultsfred: Twiggy Frostbite, Meleeh, Pretty Whores, The Koo Koo's, Walking With Strangers and The Sacred Sailors.

Wildbirds and Peacedrums, Hjaltalin and Marching Band team up for Euro tour

Wildbirds and Peacedrums, Hjaltalin and Marching Band will be touring Europe together in April:

04/12 - Paradiso, Amsterdam (NL)
04/13 - Molotow, Hamburg (GER)
04/14 - Centraltheater, Leipzig (GER)
04/15 - Prater, Berlin (GER)
04/16 - Chelsea, Vienna (AUS)
04/17 - E-werk, Erlangen (GER)
04/18 - Karlstorbahnhof, Heidelberg (GER)
04/19 - Jugendheim, Haldern (GER)

Dikta - Let go

Icelandic act Dikta is streaming their new single "Let go" at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dikta
Kinda reminds me of Lapko.

Interview: The High Hats

Supersilent now a drum-less trio

According to Supersilent's fansite, the Norwegian avant/freejazz group is now a trio as drummer Jarle Vespestad has left the band. A new album featuring the pared-down lineup has already been recorded.

New Sweptaways album in mid-April

That other Swedish indie-choir The Sweptaways will release their second album "The Sweptaways show" on April 15. I'm not sure what material they'll be covering or who will be making a guest appearance, but I'll keep you posted.

New Superfamily album in August

The new Superfamily album will be out in August: http://www.superfamily.no/

Shining to play the UK in May

Shining will do a couple UK dates in May:

05/13 - Corsica Studios, London
05/16 - The Great Escape Festival, Brighton

Hypocrisy run rampant in the Swedish music industry, by way of Bad Taste Records

I've seen a few mentions of this here and there, but this is the first place I've found the full reprint: http://www.musikindustrin.se/artikel/565/tbc_090227.html (in Swedish)

Moneybrother confirms US dates

As promised, here are West Coast tourdates for Moneybrother:

04/21 - Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA
04/23 - Ike Box, Salem, OR
04/24 - The High Dive, Seattle, WA
04/25 - East End, Portland, OR
04/27 - Press Club, Sacramento, CA
04/28 - The Cellar Door, Visalia, CA
04/29 - Spaceland, Los Angeles, CA

Goto80 goes to the UK

Swedish bitpop artist Goto80 will be doing a few UK dates later this month:

03/14 - tba, Sheffield (UK)
03/15 - Makerfaire @ The Other Rooms, Newcastle (UK)
03/16 - Chipfest 3 @ Korova Basement, Liverpool (UK)
03/18 - Crawdaddy, Dublin (IRL)
03/19 - tbc, Galway (IRL)