Adrian Recordings is giving away mp3s of the new The Fine Arts Showcase 12" EP "Friday on my knees": http://www.adrianrecordings.com/default.asp?newsid=206
You can pay for them too, if you like, or you can even upgrade to the vinyl edition. Either way, it's extremely recommended.
Danish artist Tina Dico (nee Tina Dickow) will release her most recent album "A beginning, a detour, an open ending" in the US on January 27 via Defend Music/Ryko. Preview at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/tinadico
Norwegian act The Alexandria Quartet will support Travis on a few European dates next month:
12/07 - Vega, Copenhagen (DK)
12/08 - Rockefeller, Oslo (NOR)
12/10 - Melkweg, Amsterdam (NL)
12/12 - Ancienne Belgique, Brussels (BEL)
Check out the video for Emmon's new single "Secrets and lies": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbtC_rbQWVw
Listen to Powersolo's new Christmas single "Beam mig op Jesus": http://www.myspace.com/powersolo
Said track will be available as a paid download via iTunes on December 1.
The nominees for 2008 Swedish Grammis have been announced: http://www.grammis.se/?page=126
No big surprises as far as I can see, but it does remind me to re-listen to quite a few records I feel like I didn't spend enough time with.
The Raveonettes' new Christmas EP is streaming in its entirety at Spinner: http://www.spinner.com/new-releases#/7
Swedish melodic metal act Bloodbound has signed with Blistering Records. Expect their third album "Tabula Rasa" in early 2009. Samples at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/bloodboundonline
Pitchfork reports that Norwegian pop artist Annie has parted ways with Island Records: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/147757-annie-leaves-island-records
Hard to say if the record delay troubles are related to modern-day label troubles or speak to the possible low quality of the music, but I guess we'll probably never know for sure. Whichever it is, I still think she's one of the most vastly overrated Scandinavian artists being promoted internationally in recent memory.
MP3: Sad Day For Puppets - Mother's tears
90s-style guitar-based indierock never fully went away, but I think we're finally ready for a proper resurgence. Hopefully all the retarded "rockism" talk has faded to the background enough for folks with loud guitars to emerge unashamed. And why should they be? I like rock music; rock music is good. I like plenty of other music too, but it's hard to compete with the classic distorted tones coming out of a cranked-up amplifier. It's not just a silly masculine thing either, just listen to Sad Day for Puppets or think back to all the other exceptions. It speaks to the hardcore/punk roots of indierock -- level the field, anyone can (and should) play. "Mother's tears" obviously hearkens to the blueprint set by My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain with even a bit of The Sundays tossed in for good measure, but they succeed with more than retro rehash. Yes, it strongly evokes the giants of bygone, but it sounds fresh in their hands. Digging deeper into the album "Unknown colors" offers even more variety and surprises, reminding me how much I love this stuff. I want MORE.
Sad Day For Puppets - Mother's tears
Tiger Lou
A partial print
Startracks
I'm going to admit from the start that I had some difficulty with "A partial print" when I listened to it on Startracks' page a week or so before its release. I was overwhelmed and excited by the opening five compositions, and then this feeling slipped a little - the abandonment of Tiger Lou's typically quite structured, complete arrangements on tracks like "Trails of spit" seemed to dilute the weight of the songs' conclusions, and the closing, nine-minute long opus felt too ambling and unfocused to be a proper culmination of the album's energies. I admit these issues here only to demonstrate that "A partial print" is not an album that reveals its immediacy, its intentioned presence on a first or second listen - what you are presented with is a collage, a collection of images, all of them darkly beautiful extensions of the emotional landscape of "The loyal", but the connections between these impressions can take some time to present themselves, but they will, and then "A partial print" comes fully into being.
The tone of "A partial print" is a dark one, represented not only in the recurring theme of leaving a small fragment of yourself behind, but in the intricate abandon and melancholy of the instrumentation which, on a number of occasions, evolves into heavy, post-hardcore breakdowns akin to the efforts on Small Brown Bike's brilliant swansong "The river bed". The production on the album is fantastic, accentuating the full drum arrangements, the beautiful guitar and bass work, and, of course, Rasmus Kellerman's magnificent, haunting voice. "The less you have to carry", in my opinion the greatest song Tiger Lou have crafted, is the first to truly bear the burden of "A partial print", and is therefore the song that fashions the aesthetic tenets of the album. The line "A partial print is all that I'm leaving behind, a little something to remember me by" is repeated in the closing title track, giving the record an unsettling conclusion - that of an endless cycle of departure and loss, but, as Tiger Lou established themselves as the masters of harrowing grace with "The loyal", this journey doesn't feel haunted or disillusioned, not even as you retrace your footsteps. Nor is it all a cynical, disheartening experience - glimmers of hope shine through in "So demure" and the single "Crushed by a crowd".
"A partial print" is difficult, complicated, heartbreaking, and inspiring - everything we've come to expect from Tiger Lou.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
Rune Grammofon's 10-year anniversary book + CD collection "Money will ruin everything 2" will be released on December 8. Full details here: http://www.runegrammofon.com/artists/various/rcd-2072---various_-money-will-ruin-everything-2
I have the first edition from five years ago and it was well worth the money.
Pfork has a new solo track from D. Lissvik of Studio: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/147654-new-music-d-lissvik-of-studio-track-6-mp3
For everyone who pre-ordered the new Tiger Lou album "A partial print" -- copies are finally here and being shipped out as quickly as possible. Everyone else, please note that yes, I do indeed have the full double-disc edition with remixes as well as the 7" single for "Crushed by a crowd" and the vinyl LP version of the full album. You know you want it!