Firefox AK's brand new single "Boom boom boom", produced/co-written by Björn Yttling and Lasse Mårtén. Look for the new album "Color the trees" to be released on April 15, otherwise check out a whole bunch of b-side remixes by the likes of Martin Vogel and Boeoes Kaelstigen right here: http://soundcloud.com/razziarecords
Firefox AK has announced that her new album "Colour the trees", produced by Andreas Mattsson, Lasse Mårtén and Björn Yttling, will be released in April via . The first single "Boom, boom, boom" comes out February 4.
Hello SaferideLast weekend, Filter Magazine staged the Culture Collide Festival -- a veritable United Nations of indierock, and (if my opinion as one of their freelance writers is to be trusted) a freaking genius idea. Among the weekend's standout international sets (Might I suggest KAMP! and Casiokids for all your dance party needs?) was Hello Saferide (Annika Norlin to her friends) who, with Andrea Kellerman of Firefox AK, made her Los Angeles debut with three intimate shows.
While the size of the venue -- really the backroom of French restaurant Taix -- made it a bid difficult to call her Saturday night performance a case of taking the city by storm, those present were treated to an all-too-brief intimate performance an incredibly skilled storyteller. (Heck, she didn't name her sophomore album, "More modern stories from Hello Saferide" for nothing.) Replacing the album's electric guitars for an acoustic axe and a kick drum, Norlin breathed new life into the material -- most notably during "Anna", and the onomonopia-dense "Arjeplog" where the stripped-down version elevated Norlin's art of the broken heart.
From apologizing to an über fan parked in the front row for playing the same set three days in a row (he didn't seem to mind), to telling the audience about her wacky Los Angeles pen pal ("She slept with all these hockey players and then wrote to me about it. I was thirteen!") Norlin came across as an every-woman worth knowing. Here's hopping Los Angeles was listening.
- Laura Studarus
Swedish act Panter will be releasing a new EP this month entitled "Tulips & Six Flags" which is said to include a duet with Firefox AK. Preview here: http://panter.bandcamp.com/album/tulips-six-flags-ep
Firefox AK will be recording her third album with Andreas Matsson (Popsicle, etc.) sitting in the producer's chair. Expect a fall release via .
The more stuff I get rid of in my ongoing clearance sale, the more old stock I discover -- many titles once labelled out of stock from artists such as Firefox AK, Hello Saferide, The Je Ne Sais Quoi, David & the Citizens, Vapnet, El Perro Del Mar and others are now being relisted, some of them at new, lower prices. But! Bear in mind that many of these are limited to one or maybe two copies each, so you better act fast if you want one: [click here]
The video for the new Rupesh Cartel single "Kick me into action" (feat. Firefox AK) is now on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9mDLcV477g
Hello Saferide will be heading to Spain in November perform as a duo together with Andrea Kellerman aka Firefox AK as part of the Fikasound Voces Femininas festival tour. Dates:
11/18 - Fotomatón Bar, Madrid
11/19 - Teatro Principal, Orense
11/21 - Auditorio Caixanova, Vigo
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Jong Pang - Liar liar
02. TALK 1
03. The Bear Quartet - Least loved (of the unloved)
04. Tortyr - Jag faller
05. Pistol Disco - Evergreen
06. TALK 2
07. Magnus Carlson and The Moon Ray Quintet - Sea lion woman
08. Thåström - Kärlek är för dom
09. Okkultokrati - Hand of glory
10. Syster Lycklig - Djuret
11. TALK 3
12. Tredje Mannen - Cul-de-sac
13. The Psyke Project - Winter
14. Titiyo - Longing for lullabies
15. TALK 4
16. The Silent Section - Loss of consciousness
17. Firefox AK - Winter rose
18. [ingenting] - Dina händer är fulla av blommor
19. TALK 5
20. Marvins Revolt - New Year's in Warsaw
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
Watch Hello Saferide perform the oh-so-excellent track "Anna" at the P3 Guld Awards with backing from the equally amazing Detektivbyrån: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOM3KuF0R1s
And here's Markus Krunegård doing the same with his song "Jag är en vampyr": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVJBgWgaHrI
Note Annika and Firefox AK on backing vocals.
Here's the playlist for last week's radio show on 12/28, a special all-jazz program to close out the year:
01. TALK 1
02. Jan Johansson - Visa från Utanmyra
03. Saft - Marching for no. 1
04. Auton - El Dorado
05. TALK 2
06. The Splendor - Canary Islands
07. Kornstad/Opsvik - Happy house (live)
08. TALK 3
09. Yttling Jazz - Konstant krease
10. Jonas Knutsson - Glaciär
11. Moha! - Teknosangen
12. Oskar Schönning - Faustine
13. TALK 4
14. E.S.T. (Esbjörn Svensson Trio) - Leucocyte (ad initio)
And in case you happened to catch it, here also is my Sirius XMU top 10 most important albums of 2008 playlist:
#10 - Fucked Up - Days of last
#09 - Commando M Pigg - Baby doll
BEST COVER SONG - The Kid - Mayhem troopers (Cortex)
#08 - Katzenjammer - Le pop
#07 - Tobias Hellkvist - Wintervarm
#06 - The Goner - Field ceremony
BEST REMIX OF 2008 - Firefox AK vs Laid - Once I was like you
#05 - Haust - Ugly fucking Oslo
#04 - Eddy Current Suppression Ring - Which way to go
#03 - Sort Sol - White shirt
BEST LIVE ACT OF 2008 - Sex Vid - Cleansing
#02 - Montys Loco - Farewell Mr Happy
#01 - Lukestar - White shade
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
Baskery, Billy the Vision and the Dancers, Firefox AK, First Aid Kit, Marching Band, Nina Kinert, Pacific!, The Tallest Man on Earth and Zeigeist have been selected to represent Sweden at the new EuroSonic music conference in Groningen (NL) on January 15-17.
NormaI'll admit that I had a little difficulty at first with Norma's debut "1". I fell hard for "Love no other", but found it slightly demanding to be as powerfully drawn to the rest of the EP. As an English professor of mine would carefully say about a book he didn't appreciate to the extent his colleagues did: "I'm not ready for it yet." Still, something about Norma imbedded itself into me and I couldn't shake them. I can say now: I'm ready for Norma.
"Book of Norma" is overwhelming and disconcerting, yet it is precisely in this difficulty that Norma best profess their talents. No band attempting to provide a facile listening experience would start a record with "S.A.M", a track that starts off as though its been recorded from the backstage room of a club. Even in the most simple, driving moments of "S.A.M" or "Waste", there is a fullness that most bands lack - in "S.A.M" this comes from the dark amplitude of the production and in the bridging of Krautrock with indie rock; in "Waste", Norma separate themselves through attitude and approach alone, taking what could almost be a track from Tiger Lou's "The loyal" and saturating it with a dysphoria present not only in the song's pacing, but in the detached lyrics. "Book of Norma" is brilliant, be it in the near freak out of "Evelyn", the unsettlingly fast/slow pacing of "You go, we follow", or in the beautiful closer "Empty hands" which is only made more remarkable through Andrea Kellerman's (of Firefox AK) backing vocals. I've never given full marks to a band before, nor do I hesitate to do so with this - "Book of Norma" is the record to beat in 2008.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
