The website for Swedish supergroup Hets is now open: http://www.hets.se/
As mentioned before, the band features Markus Krunegård (Laakso), Per Nordmark (Fireside), Henrik Svensson (Moneybrother) and Christoffer Roth (Monster).

Atomic Swing are back and working with producer/engineer Pelle Gunnerfeldt (Fireside, etc.) on a new album to be released on National later this year.

The Soft Eyes
Let's dance to our own beats
Instant Feelings/Massproduktion

The Idle Hands. The Soft Eyes. I see a pattern here (that might have started with the The Talking Heads). Anyhow, The Soft Eyes are more my cup of tea than The Idle Hands, and they haven't got that much in common with The Idle Hands except their body parts band name. These fellows play alt-country that reminds me a bit of Elliott Smith. It also sounds like Kristofer Åström, although it never reaches the same levels as Mr. Fireside's songs do. Despite that, I like this, and I'm looking forward to listen to this album without having to think about it in 'reviewing terms'. Nevertheless, what a boring name!
- Simon Tagestam

New Swedish supergroup Hets will make their live debut at Popaganda this year. The band features Markus Krunegård (Laakso), Per Normark (Fireside), Henrik Svensson (Moneybrother) and Christoffer Roth (Monster) and you can hear some samples at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/hetshts
Look for the band's debut album "Etikett: HETS" on March 29.

Fireside will play a one-off date in Japan at the Independence-D Festival in Tokyo on March 4, co-headlining the second stage with Akaline Trio. Japanese label Howling Bull recently released Fireside's back-catalogue over there to an enormous response, hence the special show. In other news, Fireside is currently working on new material for a brand new record due out this fall.

Fireside is coming back in 2006? http://www.firesidemusic.com/news.asp?ID=186

Podcast: Build it up, break it down, mess it up

Today's oldie classic comes from Him Kerosene, one of my all-time favorites. Seriously, this is the kind of stuff I live for: huge walls of discordant guitars, dissonant melodies and a heavy rhythm section. What more do you need? This is the post-hardcore/indierock sound that got me hooked on the Norrland scene. From early Fireside, Starmarket and Brick to other bands like KVLR, Breach, Convoj and Seven Feet Four (not from the North, I know), Him Kerosene helped define and establish what I consider to be my favorite sound. And let's not forget HK frontman Niklas Quintana's newest band The End Will Be Kicks, also featuring ex-HK drummer Tomas Turunen. Today's selection comes from the sadly out-of-print magnum opus "Start.Stop", first released back in 1997 on Telegram/Warner, but it must be said that all of their releases are brilliant and worth tracking down even if they aren't quite so readily available. It's worth it, trust me. You want to start a band that I'm enthusiastically endorse, here's your blueprint.

I figure I might as well keep with the theme of the most recent podcast and post another fine track from Starmarket. I was considering trying to track down some Shredhead mp3s, but I get the feeling that those dudes probably don't want that stuff distributed online so prominently. Anyhow- Starmarket, as you can probably infer, are another fine band from Umeå in Northern Sweden. Their sound is part mid-90s noisepop mixed with a bit of post-hardcore, kinda like Fireside who I featured on a Friday classic post two weeks ago. This track happens to be one of the more tender numbers from the band's early period. It's incredibly melodic, but rhythm section keeps things heavy and powerful. The band is still kicking around nowadays, but they've gone through quite a few member changes over the years. Magnus and Johan went on to form KVLR (one of my absolute favorite bands), Patrik plays with Family Music and Fredrik also does The Crystal Committee. There's probably tons more too, but really - who needs to read through their entire incestous musical family tree? Not gonna happen. Just download the track whydoncha?

Today's Friday classic tune comes from Fireside, one of my long-time favorite bands. They're one of the main reasons I got excited about Scandinavian rock in the first place - I knew from the very first time I heard them that I needed to track down their entire discography and have been following them ever since. I bought all of Kristofer's solo albums. I started tracking down all of the albums that guitarist PMA recorded that I could find and got introduced to even more great stuff. And so on and so forth, right? My level of infatuation has calmed down quite a bit since then, but I still love the music. I even adore the much-maligned "Elite" record, but I'll save that for a different post some later day. Today's track first appeared on the 1996 EP "Left rustle" which I believe is long out of print, but it can still be found on the "Hello kids" EP and b-sides comp. Check it out.

Britta Persson
Found at home
Startracks

I got goose-pimples when I heard Britta perform at Vinterviken in '04, and still do every time "I search in you, you search in me" from "Demo 2" is played. So with great anticipation "Found at home" was initially welcomed here at review HQ. So lest not beat about the bush: much of Persson's attraction is her relationship to the KÅ/Hidden Truck/Fireside/Startracks family, and the natural interest which that brings. This is singer/songwriter Persson's first a "real" release. It has a fuller more complete sound, thanks perhaps largely to bedfellow Kristoffer Åström's backing vocals, production, and guitar playing. Åström guests from on "A dad for you" and again on track 4 "The past is not for real". This is a predominately two chord, slightly folkesque song (in her voice there is a Irish lilt, sometime shrill, in his a gruff hung over tone!). Neither a bad thing, because I want to rave about this release. But it is hard. Persson sounds like Cranberries singer O'Rioden or Sinead O'Conner (read again: Irish lilt) just a bit too often for my tastes. Sad, it would seem because Persson is definitely doing something... although the songs are lyrically naive. This EP somehow falls short of the virgin feeling created on her own self released EPs from 2004. The positive effect of considered production seems, in my ears, to detract from the former urgency held on the DIY demos. Next question: When will this singer try out a backing band? It might be the progressive step she needs.
- Troy Convers

Before there was The Knife, before Håkan Hellström embarked on a solo career or joined Broder Daniel, there was Honey Is Cool. Today's Flashback Friday mp3 is a Swedish indierock classic from the year 1999 off of HIC's second and final album "Early morning are you working?". Love it or hate it, Karin Dreijer's voice is unmistakable, no matter what band she's singing with. I had a bear of a time trying to decide what track to post today as the band's sound is all over the place, often within the same song. I figured I might as well go with the second album's lead single since it's a good introduction to band seeing as how it's probably the most polished thing they ever did, for better or worse. Well, they did have Pelle Gunnerfelt (Fireside) and Jari Haapalainen (Bear Quartet) working on the album, both producing and playing a little guitar. As always, very recommended. Especially if you're interested in hearing the roots of The Knife.

David Fridlund
Amaterasu
Adrian Recordings

If you like David & the Citizens I shall hereby save you a minute or two by informing you that David Fridlund's solo album sounds like David & the Citizens and it's as good. So stop reading and go and buy it now, thank you very much. For all you other people who have never heard David & the Citizens, here you go:

It seems to be quite a trend to release solo albums lately in Sweden, but whereas usually these solo outings take on a completely different form than how the artist's band sounds like (e.g. Fireside's Kristofer Åström, International Noise Conspiracy's Dennis Lyxzen's Last Patrol, or Millencolin's Nikola Sarcevic), David's solo album sounds in fact quite a lot like a D&tC's first album (only a bit slower and less energetic). Even though it would have been interesting with an album that sounded completely different from D&tC, "Amaterasu" is so good that one quickly forget the initial disappointment and such before mentioned speculations, because by calling this just "another D&tC album" what that really equals is "another excellent album."

Another expectation on solo albums is of course for the lyrical content to deal with more personal issues, but if you've heard D&tC you know that their lyrics hardly can be any more personal and intimate. It should also be said that David Fridlund writes excellent lyrics and often manages to come up with lines that cunningly drill themselves into your brain, set root, and refuse to leave (such as "Rub your allergic eyes and look at me" from "Satellite", which is one of the best songs on the album). In the beginning of their career numerous people compared D&tC to Bright Eyes, and that comparison is still valid although "Amaterasu" is not as angst-driven as most of Bright Eyes' material. It's also a quite long album, but it's so varied it hardly ever becomes repetitive, but it's not really amazingly accessible either and it took quite a few listenings before I really got into it.
- Simon Tagestam

Hey everyone, I'm back and I've got an mp3 of the brand new Kristofer Åström single "The good you bring". To say that this is one of my most anticipated new releases would be an understatement - I've been a fan of Kristofer both solo and with Fireside for a long time and he has yet to disappoint me. Of course, this song and the new album are no exception. I've yet to listen to "So much for staying alive" more than a few times since getting back into town, but this track really jumps out. It may be the second song in, but it's so obviously single-worthy material from the get-go. I must say I was also quite surprised how country it is. Just listen to that phaser-heavy rhythm guitar and the insistent drums pushing the beat. Then there's that clanky piano line chasing the guitar melody! So, so great. Very recommended of course.

New live pics of Fireside and The Change up at Rockfoto.nu.