Jonas Lundqvist announces 2nd solo album

Jonas Lundqvist nee Jonas Game (ex-Bad Cash Quartet) will be releasing his sophomore solo album "Så e de me de" under his own proper name on March 21.

Jonas Game starts 2nd album, will sing in Swedish

PSL reports that Jonas Game has started work on his sophomore album and will be singing in Swedish: http://blogg.svt.se/psl/2009/09/09/extra-extra-jonas-game-spelar-in-skiva-pa-svenska-med-rasmus-hagg/
It's also worth noting that he will be recording with Rasmus Hägg (Studio) and his old Bad Cash Quartet bandmates Adam Bolméus och Martin Elisson will be joining him as well.

MP3: Kusowsky - Dansa

Does this mean Gbg-style indierock is back in full effect? There's so many bands embracing it now and a lot of them are actually doing it quite well. For Kusowsky, they lose me a bit when go all self-indulgent/Håkan Hellström on the ballads, but the upbeat numbers such as "Dansa" pull off that whole Bad Cash Quartet revival just fine. Give me a steady four-on-the-floor beat and a cheery wordless refrain and I'll take it with a smile. In summation: short, sweet and mindless in the best possible way. Summer will be here soon, right?

Kusowsky - Dansa

Göteborg-based indiepop-punk act Samtidigt Som will be releasing their debut LP "Flykt, kärlek och broderskap" on January 28 via Luxury Recordings. Said album was produced by Kalle von Hall of Bad Cash Quartet and they say it will sound similar to the EP (remember?), 'cept more dynamic. Keep an eye out for the first single "Vid min sida" to be released on January 14.

MP3: Alarma Man - Nightwolf

Our guest in this week's entry of our ongoing Göteborg Spotlight Series: the mighty Alarma Man! Not only were they kind enough to answer my questions, they also sent over the very first taste of what's to come on their new album. Read on...

It's been quite some time since we've heard anything new from you guys - why the long wait? What have you been doing these past few years?

Since the release of our 12" split "Duets" you mean? We continued working on songs for a full length album and got the chance to move from our old place to Dieter Schöön's Lablaza (the same place we recorded our debut album). Lablaza was both chaotic and a very creative environment for us. A couple of month passed by. In October 2007 we felt pretty close to start recording the album. December came up and our landlord got an offer he couldn't resist. We were threwn out of Lablaza and Bandidos moved in. So there we were. No rehearsal room, no studio.

A week went by and we found a new home. We moved in together with a bunch of other creative bands/people (URAN, Dieter Schöön, FBFOS).
We started building the studio, in which our album where going to be recorded.
During this 1,5 months we wrote a bunch of new songs.
At this time the idea of collaborate with Adam Magnusson as a producer/sound engineer came up and he became a part of the process.
In march we hit the studio. We all study or work so it took a bit longer than expected to get it done. Now when the album is done we're looking for a label that wants to release it.

Besides working on the album we've been on a couple of tours in Europe and we've helped friends on live gigs and studio albums. (C.Aarmé, Cut City, Uran, Boy Omega and Dieter Schöön).

How does Alarma Man fit into the "Gbg scene"? Does a cohesive scene even exist?

When I hear "Gbg scene" I think of Håkan Hellström and a bunch of bands started by ex-members from Bad Cash Quartet, but I'm not sure if that scene really exists. There are too many band in too many genres to say what would be a part of it. Alarma Man has never felt like we're a part of any scene... If you need to be a part of any, we choose the "good band" scene.

We do have the Koloni/iDEAL scene here in Gothenburg. It's really inspiring to live in the same town as Christian Pallin (Koloni) and Joachim Nordwall (iDEAL). They manage to bring us bands that I've never heard of before and those bands are always good or totally crazy. Either way I'm always satisfied when leaving the venue.

So do you think there's such a thing as a Gbg sound? Or would you say that bands in Gbg are brought together by other circumstances or ideas?

Nowadays you don't need a "real" studio and expensive equipment to make music. I guess the "Gbg sound" was killed by Cubase and ProTools. When comparing Cut City, Uran, Repoman and other great bands from Gbg, I find it hard to see any similarity except for that they make good music. Gothenburg is known in Sweden for it's "loose" and friendly attitude. Perhaps that's the thing with bands from here. Gbg bands focus on the music instead of looking good on stage... haha!

Okay, so tell us about the new album. How is it different/the same compared to what you've done before?

This album is the best music we've ever done (yes I know it's a cliche, but it's true).

Lots of people are asking if there will be vocals on this album. Yes. There will be. A lot!
Adding vocals wasn't a big decision for us. We made "Duets" as an experiment and liked the idea of working with vocals. It might seem a bit strange when you've been known as an instrumental mathpunk band, but we feel comfortable with it. We've never had a plan to be an instrumental band forever and we didn't have a plan to start singing on our second album. It's just the way it turned out.

Another big difference is that we worked with a producer. We needed an outside persons thoughts and vibes in the recording process. Adam has a big part in the arrangements and how the songs turned out.

Our first album was a lot of high speed craziness and big guitar riffs. 4 years has passed by and our new songs are slower, darker and colder. I think a held back fever is a good way to describe the album.

Got a song you'd like to share?

Here's a song from the upcoming album. Its a three-faced song about being chased, therefore the name "Nightwolf". Look out for the saxophones in the chorus, played by our friend Joel Westberg!

Alarma Man - Nightwolf

MP3: Bad Cash Quartet - Put me back together

Worlds collide! Besides Broder Daniel and maybe Håkan Hellström, Bad Cash Quartet is the preeminent band that defines the classic Göteborg sound with their slightly shambolic yet anthemic pop music and snotty, out-of-key vocals. They became a bit more polished (and boring) towards the end, but I'll always hold their sophomore album "Outcast" as a classic. I strongly considered posting from that album, but in the end decided to say screw it and went with this, their cover of The Bear Quartet's "Put me back together". Besides, I've already talked about "Too bored to die" more than once. Anyhow, this song is from BCQ's later, more lackluster period and it really doesn't stand a chance at competing with the original, but at least they try to put their own spin on it. I just don't think that sucking all the energy out of it was the best way to go about it. Mattias Alkberg's vocals on the original get more and more manic as the calamities pile on, Martin Elisson plays it closer to the chest. And no one can compete with Jari Haapalainen's explosive leads. Still, it remains a great song. There's not much shame in admitting defeat before the mighty BQ.

Semi-related to this whole weekly Gbg nonsense: who's going to Way Out West? What bands are you looking forward to seeing?

Bad Cash Quartet - Put me back together

Svart
Älskade, älskade du EP
self-released

The other day while chatting with my friend about Håkan Hellström, she became frustrated with me when I described the artist as a symbol of Gothenburg, sitting on an icon throne. She laughed when I gave him a simile Halo thing. She contended that we need something in addition than Hellström in this town. The curious coincidence about this; the same day I stumbled on a band that made me say, a new Håkan sound! Is this his little brother that isn't supposed to be like him? (Swedes you get it). No it's not, I am talking about the band Svart, with their EP "Älskade älskade du". These guys are delivering Swedish indiepop, from the generation that grew up with Broder Daniel, Melody Club, The Ark and was influenced by my halo guy above, but also by Bad Cash Quartet and Hello Saferide. A fascinating blend isn't it? And it serves, it serves, it serves! This is as a rowdy popsicle that all of us may want to taste, infinitely, this summer. This EP consists of 5 songs, all good, my favorites is for sure "Elin när hon dansar and Tåget", which makes me think of Per Gessle's "Här kommer alla känslorna på en och samma gång" and Kristian Anttila's "Paul Weller", a great combo. I will bring this EP to the summer evenings with barbecuing and give Svart applause since they are giving us something extra and something original that can be described as Student-life music. Finally, People! We have something more to listen to than "För sent för edelweiss" this summer. This is a sunny-romance, spreading love and delight. 5 songs could be more, I want more! However... my friend told me she likes it. Is this something we asked for? What do you think?
- Therese Buxfäldt

Somehow I almost forgot to post this week's radio show playlist:

01. Bloodbath - Blasting the virginborn
02. TALK 1
03. Håkan Hellström - Långa vägar
04. Montys Loco - Farewell Mr. Happy
05. Victims - Bomben har fallit
06. TALK 2
07. Death By Kite - Sweet M
08. Ef - Thrills
09. The Bombhappies - Nothing at all
10. TALK 3
11. Motorpsycho - The alchemyst
12. Marybell Katastrophy - Hidden agenda
13. TALK 4
14. In Flames - Moonshield
15. Maskinen - Alla som inte dansar (100dirty remix)
16. The Social Services - Baltic Sea
17. TALK 5
18. Peter Morén - Social competence
19. Lack - Bombing the moon
20. Dmitry Fydorov - Signal
21. TALK 6
22. Looptroop Rockers - The building
23. Six Guns - Think positive
24. Nybakat! - Limu limu lima
25. TALK 7
26. Saft - Sizzling
27. Electric Retard - Greenvalley High
28. Lukestar - The shade you hide
29. Samtidigt Som - Constant in motion
30. TALK 8
31. Bad Cash Quartet - Monday morning
32. Monkeystrikes - I'm sorry, but I'm very dramatic
33. Commando M Pigg - Shoeshine boy
34. Weeping Willows - Touch me
35. TALK 9
36. Pistol Disco - Beat of the tune

Check out Djembefitta, a new thrash-punk/crossover act from Göteborg that prides themselves on being anti-everything usually associated with Gbg music: http://www.myspace.com/djembefitta
Their manifesto: "Our aim is to kill pop music from Gothenburg where every band has a singer that sings out of tune. Håkan Hellström/Bad Cash Quartet/Hästpojken/Broder Daniel/Jens Lekman/Niccokick (well they live close enough to Gothenburg to count) et al are so terrible but everybody loves them... Isn't that strange?"

MP3: Samtidigt Som - För jag tror att ingen annan kan känna såhär för dig

This week's guests in our ongoing Göteborg spotlight series is Samtidigt Som.

How long have you lived in Gbg? What brought you there and what's keeping you from relocating elsewhere?

We're all from the GBG area and all of us has always lived in or really close to the city. We really love GBG and as a band who sings in Swedish, there's really no place else. GBG has been the major city for music in Sweden for several years and still is. It's a city with a strong identity and legacy music wise. The alternative in Sweden would be Stockholm (Malmö doesn't have a music scene worth mention) and it's no point to relocate since Stockholm is cold and soulless. And they have the worst football teams.

Your music reminds me a lot of classic Gbg indierock- is this something that you are aware of? Do you think there's an important legacy of Gbg music to live up to? What other influences do you draw from?

There is no doubt that we are strongly influenced by GBG indierock. For instance, our debut-EP are recorded and produced by old Bad Cash Quartet guitarist Kalle Von Hall. The thing was, when me (Erik Grahn, guitar) and bassist Erik Weiman were beginning to talk about forming a new band together again, things that came up was that we shouldn't try to complicate things, keep it simple and pure and don't be embarrassed of our influences. I think that both me and Erik have strong sense for melodies and even if you can hear that we're from GBG, which we're very proud of, I think you can hear that it is Samtidigt Som. Basically we just want to play fast and loud because it's more fun that way.

How friendly is the local scene? Is it easy for a new band such as yourselves to get noticed?

I think that it's probably friendlier than many other places. There are a few really good clubs where most of the scene hang out. In a way you can see that a new generation is growing and taking more space, it's about time that a new generation steps forward.

With bands like us, Almedal, Boat Club and My Darling You!, I think that our small label Luxury done a great job, and it is, togheter with the club "Svanen" at Jazzhuset, the two most important things for having the good scene we have.

I think that it's quite easy to get noticed in GBG if you're good. I know loads of bands that been playing for ages without getting anywhere simply because they're not good enough, but in contrast, you have us who got a record deal after our first gig. Of course, I'm quite sure playing the way we do helps us, we give 110% when we play live and we do really catchy songs. But that is what we want to do and if people like it, I wont have some pretentious idiot telling me that we get everything for free and that we do brainless music (which we do, but we like it brainless).

Are there any rivalries or are other bands generally happy to help eachother out?

I'm a strong believer in helping each other out. I don't believe you can compete in music and I hate when I hear people trash talk other bands just because they doing better then them. GBG is to small for rivalry and to keep our position as Sweden's music city number one, we should all just try to promote other good bands.

What are the advantages of being an artist in Gbg? Disadvantages? Is there anything that the city is lacking?

The good thing about GBG is that it's small. The bad thing about GBG is that it's small. It's good in that sense that it never gets too elitist, but bad that sometimes it feels like a small group of people have way too much power over the scene. If it was bigger, it would be easier to fight that. But as I said before, a new generation is on its way and it's inevitable for us not to take over.

Got a song you'd like to share?

If it should be a song of ours, I would say our new single "Constant in motion". That one sounds really GBG. And a song from another GBG band would be "No time for us" by Broder Daniel. It's one of my favourite songs ever and still gives me the shivers.

Unfortunately, "Constant in motion" was not available to me at press time, but since I strongly feel that Samtidigt Som is worth hearing, here's "För jag tror att ingen annan kan känna såhär för dig" instead.

Samtidigt Som - För jag tror att ingen annan kan känna såhär för dig

Ex-Bad Cash Quartet band Hästpojken is streaming their entire new album "Caligula" on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/hastpojken

MP3: Broder Daniel - Cruel town

When people talk about the Göteborg sound, if they aren't talking about metal, then they are probably talking about two bands. Bad Cash Quartet is one and I'm sure I'll get to them eventually, the other is Broder Daniel. It's a sound of alienation and yearning with broad, anthemic melodies and anchored by pounding, garage-rock beats. No other band embodies the sound of teen angst better than Broder Daniel. There's a certain sophisticated simplicity to them as well, a feeling that's readily apparent when you hear something like Anna Ternheim's emotionally devastating cover of "Shoreline". It's evocative of a certain place and time, but translates easily. "Cruel town" is about Gbg, but it could be about anywhere.

Broder Daniel - Cruel town

Ex-Bad Cash Quartet act Hästpojken will release their debut album "Caligula" on January 30 via Roxy Recordings.

Top 10s for 2007: Absolut Noise

Top 10s for 2007: It's a Trap!