Fever Ray, the solo project of Karin Dreijer Andersson from The Knife, is streaming a brand new instrumental track at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/feverray
Clever folks who know how to read code can also download the track from her official website: http://feverray.com/
Saturday night! Hello Saferide @ The Bell House in Brooklyn, NY with Blackstrap and The Seabellies! Doors @ 8pm, $10 cover. Be there!
Speaking of HS in the US, anyone got any pics from either the House of Sweden show on Monday or last night's performance at Bowery Electric to share?
PR company The Musebox is giving away a track from Norwegian act The Royalties as their "featured band of the week": http://www.themusebox.net/featured_artist/the_royalties/02_music%20_for_cooking_with_gass.mp3
Upcoming US dates:
10/25 - Spike Hill (CMJ), Brooklyn, NY
10/26 - DC9, Washington, DC
10/30 - Public Assembly, Brooklyn, NY
11/04 - Viper Room, West Hollywood, CA
11/05 - Tangiers, Los Angeles, CA
11/06 - On The Rox, Los Angeles, CA
MP3: Jonas Knutsson & Mats Öberg - Jagad i hissen
Yesterday I mentioned that my daily listening of late has been mostly crust and jazz and I posted an example of the former. Today, you get the latter.
I've expressed admiration for both Jonas Knutsson and Mats Öberg before on these pages, but I don't think I've ever heard the two old friends play together until receiving a copy of the new live duet album on Country & Eastern. According to the minimal liner notes, the two have known each other since 1981 when Jonas was 16 and doing a recording for the local radio station in Umeå. Mats, then 10 years old, was asked how he liked the music and he commented, "Fine, but the three-line E on the piano is out of tune..." For anyone already familiar with Mats' musical abilities, this should come as no surprise. He's a phenomenal talent, perfect pitch or not; it shines through even when I witnessed him performing casually at his brother's wedding this past summer. Get him on a record like this and it's even more obvious. Jonas is no slouch either, his "Horn please!" album from last year is a beautiful extension of Jan Johansson's folk-jazz tradition and consistently gets regular play in my household. Together, the best thing about Jonas and Mats playing together is how fun it sounds. That's one revelation of the duo format - it's much more a conversation between two friends than any sort of virtuostic showpiece. Especially on "Jagad i hissen" ("Fugitive in the elevator" so says Google). Even if bits of the music may seem a bit hard to follow, hopefully the laughter at the end will cue you in to the true intent. Sometimes it might seem like they're having a private conversation, but they really do want to let you in on the joke.
Reading comprehension time: provided you made it this far, I've got something extra to give you. Country & Eastern sent me an additional copy of the aforementioned "Horn please!" CD, so I'm going to give it away. Leave a comment on this post and you're eligible. The winner will be announced in a day or so.
Jonas Knutsson & Mats Öberg - Jagad i hissen
Gbg-based experimental pop artist Eric Ramsey has a colorful new website: http://www.ericramsey.se/
I'm always against pure-Flash designs, but at least it's functional.
Norma's forthcoming album "Book of Norma" is streaming at Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/Norma/Book%2Bof%2BNorma
Swedish act Nifters will be heading out on the road for a few dates in Northern Europe in late November:
11/28 - Kato, Berlin (GER)
11/29 - De Engel, Den Helde (GER)
12/01 - Subway to Peter, Chemnitz (GER)
12/02 - Kulturrampe, Krefeld (GER)
12/05 - 13eins, Ansbach (GER)
12/06 - Villa K, Bludenz (AUS)
The new Harry's Gym is now streaming in its entirety at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/harrysgym
The Silent Ballet finally gets around to reviewing Tobias Hellkvist's debut album "Transports": Mhttp://thesilentballet.com/dnn/Home/tabid/36/ctl/Details/mid/384/ItemID/1882/Default.aspx
Here's a full report with photos from last night's show at the House of Sweden in Washington DC with Theresa Andersson, Ane Brun and Tobias Fröberg: http://www.expressnightout.com/content/2008/10/swedish_sweets_tobias_froberg_ane_brun_t.php
Tiger Lou has a new website to coincide with the release of his new album "A partial print": http://www.tigerlou.net/
I've listened to it quite a few times already, but am not quite ready to pass final judgment yet. However, I can say this: long-standing fans will certainly not be disappointed.
Marybell Katastrophy, one of my current favorite artists - her most recent EP "You are the two" is a definite year-end top 10 contender, will finally unveil her debut full-length "The more" on November 24.
Discobelle has a new tracks from Dan Lissvik, probably better known for being half of Gbg-based duo Studio: http://www.discobelle.net/2008/10/22/dan-lissvik/
His solo debut 12" EP will be released via Information on November 24.