Here's the playlist for this week's radio show:
01. Familjen - Nu händer det igen
02. TALK 1
03. Murmansk - Pale
04. KTMK - Valaistu risti
05. Lapko - Hugging the phone
06. Hebosagil - Big sun
07. TALK 2
08. Samuraj Cities - Washed up!
09. Sad Day for Puppets - Marble gods
10. Logh - An alliance of hearts
11. Epidemics - Never grow up
12. TALK 3
13. Simon Says No! - Shiver
14. Kornstad - Turkey, Texas
15. Spirits of the Dead - White lady/Black rave
16. TALK 4
17. Laakso - Hang me in the Christmas tree
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XM U. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and in my house, channel 831 on DirecTV.
The Knife are working on an opera with Danish group Hotel Pro Forma called "Tomorrow in a year" based on the works of Charles Darwin. The Knife will be responsible for the music and libretto while the actual work will be performed by a femlae mezzo-soprano, a female actress and a male pop artist. Japanese artist Hiroaki Umeda will choreograph the dancers and art directer Maja Ravn and lighting designer Jesper Kongshaug will work on the visuals. Apparently The Knife's Olof Dreijer is currently in the Amazon creating field recordings of exotic animals to incorporate into the work.
Expect a September 2009 premiere. See pics from the prep workshop last September here: http://rabidrecords.com/tiay.html
Pop-punk is the music of my adolescence. Growing up in the East Bay meant that the shadow of Lookout! Records hung heavy: Green Day, Mr. T Experience, Screeching Weasel, yadda yadda -- I was way deep into that stuff when I was 15/16. It's quite fitting then that a band like Epidemics out of Umeå have a song called "Never grow up" because to my ears, this is the music of youth and willful naivety. Naturally, it all goes back to the Ramones, whose semi-ironic bonehead stance personified/s the genre. Epidemics don't really do much to tinker with convention, but that's fine. Strong vocal harmonies and charming single-note guitar melodies seem like a bit of a lost art these days, so I'm glad to hear it done well. I'm sure 4th-rate pop-punk acts are still a plague, but since I don't play in that scene anymore, I'm blissfully insulated from hearing them. If there's more bands like Epidemics out there though, I'm all about it. It makes me feel like a kid again.
Epidemics - Never grow up
9
Nicklas Stenemo's (The Mo, Melody Club) voice, an instrument that functions like a fuller, more masculine translation of Karin Dreijer's vocal style, elevates this fine record, one that would be perfectly capable of garnering strong reviews without Stenemo's captivating utterances, to something well beyond the run-of-the-mill renditions of 80s electronica. Christian Berg's (Yvonne, Strip Music) love of authentic 80s synth sounds combined with Stenemo's pop sensibility and voice converge so fluidly, bringing to mind acts like New Order, but it's merely a reference point. Opener "Ways to dance" is a distinctly Scandinavian electronic pop song: driving, punctuated by oscillating drum fills à la The Knife; "Say it ain't so" relaxes its hold on the throttle, settling into a layered, paced rhythm; and closer "Learn to like it", a mesmerizing, melancholic track, puts on display much of the aptitude demonstrated on the EP: the intricate levels of synths and voices, the pitch-perfect structure of the songs - never meandering, never going on too long, and merging the measured step of "Say it ain't so" with the unhurried, ethereal expanse that is "My girl and I", my personal favorite. Kite have been fine company on long, cold walks home through streets lined with dying leaves, while reading Ellis' "Less Than Zero", and during the final hour before heading out into the city; the fact that Kite can offer so much in four songs gives the thought of a future full length effort enough weight to push me through what looks to be a bitter winter. I just hope it's not too long a wait.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
After a couple failed interview attempts with artists who shall go unnamed, our Göteborg Spotlight Series is back with this week's guest Mattias Hellberg. For those of you with your heads in the ground, Mattias has been around for many years performing with acts such as Nymphet Noodlers, The Hellacopters, Hederos & Hellberg, The Solution, Nationalteatern besides working under his own name and is now back with a new group, The White Moose. That group's debut album "Out of the frying pan, into the woods" came out earlier this month and so I tracked down Mattias for a few questions...
You're still based in Gbg, right? What's kept you there all these years? Ever considering picking up and relocating somewhere else?
Yes I'm still here. Well one reason is I'm quite happy to have an apartment... some kind of safety thing I guess. I'd love to have a little shack in the Caribbean to go to in the wintertime though.
What makes the Gbg music scene special, if it's even special at all? The people, the geography, the weather... what are the primary characteristics that define the city and its artists?
I dunno if there is a special scene here. Think there's quite a good diversity of scenes/bands/clubs. People tend to say that the music from here is more working-class with a more "rough" touch. Maybe it used to be that way, but I don't think it's a general "tag" to put on the Gothenburg "sound" anymore. Maybe I'm wrong...
So you've started to do shows with Martin Hederos (The Soundtrack of Our Lives) again as Hederos & Hellberg -- why resurrect that project now? Why'd you even stop playing together in the first place?
Well, we were asked to close the Way Out West festival this summer in a big beautiful church. An offer we couldn't refuse. It was a bit scary but great fun at the same time and it was an amazing vibe in a packed church way after midnight. And of course nice to play together again. Then we did a weekend in our old hometown Karlstad and Oslo in November. But now we both got new albums to tour and promote (TSOOL & mine), so now there wont be much time for anymore reunions for a while...
Why we stopped playing together was because the project started to grow out of proportion, we had to say no to some quite good offers (tours) because it would interfere with TSOOL. So it was better to call it off and quit.
And now the new band The White Moose - how did this group come together? Do you see it as an extension of your solo career or it is more of a full band project?
I wrote the songs early this year and had already talked to Ludwig (Dahlberg, The (International) Noise Conspiracy) about him playing drums with me. Then I just asked Olle and Henke (Hagberg, Whyte Seeds and Lindén, Fox Machine respectively) to join in and the band was goin'.
I don't think I've had much of a "solo" career. This is something new. It can't really be a full-band project as I have to consider the other guys got other bands. We'll find a way to make it work though.
Obviously you keep yourself very busy with all sorts of musical adventures - got any more surprises we should look forward to? Anyone in particular you'd really like to worth with?
I'd love to learn how to play the Oud. I
also have a dream about going to some foreign country and making music with local musicians.
Lastly, got a song you'd like to share? Tell me about it.
Ok I choose "Why is it so?" from the new album "Out of the frying pan, into the woods". It's actually the first song I wrote after Nymphet Noodlers split up back in '96.
I think I had some plans for a solo album back then already, but I was not much of a songwriter, so it got put on hold for sometime... The original version was an acoustic Stooges kinda "ballad" with different lyrics, same refrain though. This new version is something else... Maximum White Moose Jazz.
Mattias Hellberg & The White Moose - Why is it so?
Finnish alt-country act The Latebirds report that they recently recorded a Kris Kristofferson composition with the man himself lending some guest vocals. Look for said track to appear on the band's next album, due out in 2009.
Trondheim, Norway's music underground is doing a month-long advent calendar giving away a new track every day for the month of December. Read more: http://www.musikknyheter.no/news/4639
For the Norwegian-impaired or anyone who doesn't have access to Google translate, simply email alternativjulekalender at gmail dot com to get on the list.
Zero reports that Swedish electropop duo Bobby is calling it quits: http://www.zeromagazine.nu/nyhet.asp?id=1579
The group's final show will be at Storan in Göteborg on December 12. Look for a solo album from member Julian Brandt in 2009.
Swedish pop act BWO has signed with Bonnier Amigo Music. Look for their Melodifestivalen entry "You're not alone" to be released as a single in March with a new album to follow in April.
MI reports that Kaine Taylor of indie label I Made This has moved on to Air Chrysalis Scandinavia AB: http://www.musikindustrin.se/140/nyheter.html
UPDATE: Kaine has informed me that he is still co-owner of I Made This and is working as an A&R manager for Air Chrysalis Scandinavia in addition to his duties at IMT.
Kite