The Charade have lineage in a number of well regarded Swedish bands of days past, including Happy Deadmen and Red Sleeping Beauty, so they can at least make some claim to innovating this kind of supertwee relaxed music that brings to mind big fluffy clouds, sunny days, cotton candy, and prozac. Like Club 8, Acid House Kings, or Sambassadeur, they have gorgeous etherial female vocals with some male backgrounds (and occassional leads). The Charade also throw in a lot of background harmonies reminiscent of girl groups of the 60s. If that much fluff weren't enough, they've got happy optimistic lyrics about things going right. There's not a trace of darkness to be found. Were there not so many songs that are catchy, pretty, or both, it'd be excruciating. Instead it's a fine gentle pop record with some strong highlights mixed with mediocre filler.s
- Nancy Baym
The UK's Stereo Test Kit Records is starting a new compilation series called "Records Make Great Pets" in which each edition will highlight the scene from a particular country. The focus on volume one? Why, Sweden of course. The tracklist:
01. El Perro Del Mar - Dog
02. Heikki - Former hero
03. Audrey - Triumphal arch
04. Britta Persson - Defrag my heart
05. Laurel Music - The way love goes
06. Caroline Soul - People I know (don't want me)
07. Melpo Mene - Don't save me
08. Club 8 - Cold hearts
09. Sambassadeur - Between the lines
10. Chasing Dorotea - The anchor song
11. Björn Kleinhenz - Out of style
12. Speedmarket Avenue - He's a rebel
13. we are soldiers we have guns - Tourists in our hometown
14. Iamuse - Dullcity (just in time)
15. Music 77 - Juniper Leo
It comes out on July 4. More details here: http://www.stereotestkit.com/pets.htm
Swedish twee act Club 8 will be doing two shows in China in November:
11/11 - HITEC Auditorium, Hong Kong
11/13 - New Get Lucky Pub, Beijing
Don't forget this Sunday's FTR show at Café String with Club 8's first Swedish performance in five years! Fellow Labrador Records act Wan Light will support.
It has been confirmed that internationally acclaimed twee band Club 8 will play their first Swedish gig in five years at the For the Record/Labrador Records Day Sunday afternoon show at Café String in Stockholm on August 22. Pretty exciting, eh? Definitely not to be missed.
Lake of Tears will enter the studio on February 13 to begin work on their new album, tentatively titled "Black Brick Road". An August release on Noise Records is expected.
German radio show "45 minutes", broadcast every second sunday at 7.30 pm on Radio Blau Leipzig, recently published their best-of-the-year lists and they contain a ton of Nordic acts. Here's some highlights:
Top 100 LPs 2003
01. The Bear Quartet "angry brigade" (A West Side Fabrication)
03. David & The Citizens "until the sadness is gone" (Adrian)
05. The Legends "up against the legends" (Labrador)
06. The Radio Dept. "lesser matters" (Labrador)
08. The Embassy "futile crimes" (Service)
10. Wan Light "let's wake up somewhere else" (Labrador)
12. Mew "frengers" (Sony)
13. Monastir "the modern sound for a loser generation" (A West Side Fabrication)
16. Peter Bjorn And John "s/t" (Beat That!)
17. The Crystal Committee "forever overhead" (Chalksound)
18. Dub Sweden "welcome to our world" (Silence)
21. Franke "optimismens hån" (Service)
22. Club 8 "strangely beautiful" (Labrador)
23. Komeda "kokomemedada" (Sonet)
32. The Concretes "s/t" (Licking Fingers)
42. Broder Daniel "cruel town" (Dolores)
50. The Cardigans "long gone before daylight" (Stockholm)
57. Laakso "miss you, i'm pregnant" (Adrian)
58. The Raveonettes "chain gang of love" (Dragnet)
73. Paola "stockcity girl" (Dolores)
83. Burek V "s/t" (A West Side Fabrication)
85. Carpet People "more bad weather coming out of the rain" (Chalksound)
88. Isolation Years "it's golden" (Stickman)
89. Douglas Heart "douglas heart" (Labrador)
93. Mando Diao "bring 'em in" (Majesty)
94. The Knife "deep cuts" (Rabid)
97. Ariel Kill Him "in the pyramid" (Kasual)
99. Edson "every day, ervery second" (Labrador)
For the rest of the list, as well as their singles chart, go here: http://www.pop-on-paper.de/
Here's the top 20 Swedish albums of the week, as reported by Aftonbladet:
01. Per Gessle - Mazarin
02. Carola - Guld platina & passion - det bästa
03. Anders Johansson - If it's all I ever do
04. Tomas Ledin - I sommarnattens ljus
05. Pugh Rogefeldt - Pughs bästa
06. Robert Wells - Rhapsody in rock the complete collection
07. The Cardigans - Long gone before daylight
08. Kent - Vapen & ammunition
09. Glenmark Eriksson Strömstedt - Den andra skivan
10. Tommy Körberg - Gränslös - det bästa med
11. Style, Sandelin & Ekman, Freestyle - Samlade hits
12. Lisa Nilsson - Samlade sånger 1992-2003
13. Moneybrother - Blood panic
14. Anna-Lotta Larson - Tidlöst
15. Da Buzz - More than alive
16. Lars Winnerbäck och hovet - Söndermarken
17. Timbuktu - The botten is nådd!
18. Alcazar - Alcazarized
19. Per Myrberg - Sommarnatt Per Myrberg sjunger Taube
20. Cornelis Vreeswijk - Cornelis Vreeswijks bästa
This week's MTV Up North Nordic video chart:
01. The Cardigans - You´re The Storm
02. Killer - Naughty Boy
03. Outlandish - Guantanamo
04. C21 - She Cries
05. Mando Diao - Sheepdog
06. Kashmir - Rocket Brothers
07. Timbuktu - The Botten Is Nådd
08. Da Buzz - Alive
09. The Sounds - Rock n´ Roll
10. Turbonegro - Fuck The World
11. User - Do You
12. Ingrid Marguerite - Everything I Need
13. Darude - Music
14. Remedeeh - Give That Dog A Bone
15. Superheroes - Someone Else
16. Her Majesty - F.U.N.E.R.A.L
17. Equicez - Live From Pass It
18. Melody Club - Cover Girl
19. Prominent - Regrets
20. Bad Cash Quartet - Dirty Days
Challengers:
01. Club 8 - Saturday Night Engine
02. Amulet - Breaking News
03. Röyksopp - Sparks
04. Christian Kjellvander - Homeward Rolling Soldier
05. HIM - The Sacrament
Go to the MTVE.com site to watch and vote for your favorite.
Okay, I think things here are pretty much back on track. After further discussion with my webhost it appears that yes, they bungled the switching of a hard drive this past weekend and lost about 5 days worth of database data. Luckily, Google had it cached and I've been able to recover most of it exactly as it was before. I'm still a bit peeved at the situation, but there's not much I can do. Anyhow, I only have one day's worth of data to recover and that ain't bad. Also, anyone who signed up for the newsletter after Monday needs to do so again, too. So yeah, now let's get back to your regular programming...
Magnus was kind enough to send me some pics from KVLR's recent show with Logh at Scharinska Villan in Umeå this past Saturday. Check 'em out.
Hardcore Superstar has posted a bunch of pictures and video clips from their recent video shoot for the track "Honey Tongue".
Morten from A-ha is thinking of going into the bakery business. No really! Read this.
Thearkworld.com has posted yet another live video from the band's Stockholm show on April 30, this time it's "Joy Surrender".
Backdraft has recruited Greg from Raging Slab to be their new singer. The band plans to concentrate on songwriting this summer and will enter the studio sometime in July to record an new album for an October release.
Parasol/Hidden Agenda Records will release Club 8's latest record "Strangely Beautiful" on June 17 in the US. It's the band's fifth album overall, the third to see a domestic stateside release. In care you didn't know, Parasol are the people who introduced The Soundtrack of Our Lives to the States along with other acts such as Thirdimension, Ronderlin, Acid House Kings, Starlet, Mans Wieslander, Permer, Lasse Lindh, and Waltz For Debbie.
IndieWorkshop lauds the US release of "C'mon Let's Pretend" from the Sahara Hotnights. If you thought the 2nd album (the first one released in the US) was good, you ain't heard nuttin.
PopMatters reviews the new retrospective comp from Division of Laura Lee.
Pitchforkmedia.com gives the thumbs-up to Junior Senior.
Sparks of Seven has confirmed their summer tour schedule:
07/04 - Fjällbacka, Mega Wakeboard Contest
07/10 - Arvika, Arvikafestivalen
07/23 - Stockholm, Fritz Corner, Kulturhuset w/José González
08/01 - Hässleholm, Sommarfesten
08/02 - Lindesberg, Augustibuller
08/07-09 - Rasslebygd, Emmabodafestivalen
Check out the entire program for the Stockholm Jazz Festival right here.
SVT has published the summer schedule for the program "Allsång på Skansen":
06/24 - After Shave, Buddaboys, Per Gessle and Jerry Williams & The Boppers
07/01 - GES (Glennmark, Eriksson and Strömstedt), Sanne Salomonsen and Staffan Scheja
07/08 - Alcazar, Håkan Hellström, Kalle Moraeus/Bengan Jansson, Robyn and Tommy Körberg
07/15 - The Ark, Björn Skifs, Jill Johnson and Micke Nord
07/22 - Charlotte Nilsson, Jeerk, Ludvig Andersson, Per Myrberg and Style
07/29 - Barbro "Lill-Babs" Svensson, Black Noise, Fame, Jörgen Mörnbäck and Rigmor Gustavsson
08/05 - Benny Anderssons orkester & Helen Sjöholm, Carola, Lasse Berghagen and Robert Gustafsson
The Knife has given two songs to Robyn for the American edition of her album "Don't Stop The Music"? Read more. (from Musikjournalen, in Swedish)
Randy, Nasum, The Haunted, Raised Fist, The Pricks, The Liptones, Sparks of Seven, Bowser, Misconduct, Orange Crunch and Alice in Videoland have all been added to the Augustibuller lineup.