The full tracklist, songwriting credits and guestspots for the new Freddie Wadling album "Den mörka blomman/The dark flower" have been posted: http://www.freddiewadling.net/index.htm
As mentioned before, it's quite a star-studded affair.
Question: Is the "Popular Searches" list at the bottom of the page self-perpetuating or does it realistically reflect current artist popularity? Do people click out of curiosity or are the results more organic? I'm really not sure. I know Moto Boy rose through the ranks the day his music box was announced. And Anna Ternheim's recent Grammy wins are good reason to be popular. But what about some of the others? WE? Haven't heard much from them in quite some time. But I am stoked to see Cortex in the list, though a bit confused. Are people as into the band as me? Or are they curious about Freddie Wadling's forthcoming solo joint? What's the deal? But while we're on the subject, I might as well brag that I finally scored a copy of their 1986 LP "You can't kill the boogeyman". It's some weird Euro pressing and the sleeve is not in perfect shape, but the vinyl is good and that's really all that matters. Oh, and it wasn't that expensive either - another bonus. Now I just need some charitable soul to sell me an affordable copy of "Spinal injuries" and I'll be set. Help me out people! In the meantime, here's a track from "You can't kill...". Perhaps not their strongest work, but still quite good.
Cortex - Shark boys die hard
Freddie Wadling (Cortex, Blue for Two, etc.) is streaming a few sample tunes from his forthcoming double album "Den mörka blomman/The dark flower" at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/freddiewadling
Guests vocalists on said album include Stina Nordenstam, Peter LeMarc, Anna Ternheim and Tomas Andersson Wij and the song selection includes covers of "Jennifer" (Faust), "In heaven (Lady in the radiator song)" (David Lynch & Peter Ivers) and "Cafe Cosmopolite" (Imperiet). The official release date is January 28.
Freddie Wadling (Cortex, et al) will release his new double solo album "Den mörka blomman/The dark flower" on January 28 and will spend the following month touring Sweden. Dates:
02/18 - Mariestads Teater, Mariestad
02/19 - Sigurdsgatan 25, Västerås
02/20 - Garden, Linköping
02/21 - Spegeln, Gävle
02/23 - Reginateatern, Uppsala
02/24 - Reginateatern, Uppsala
02/25 - Sagateatern, Borås
02/26 - Växjö Teater, Växjö
02/27 - Mejeriet, Lund
02/28 - Konserthuset, Göteborg
03/01 - Rival, Stockholm
Magnus Carlson of Weeping Willows has been busy this summer recording various duets including a track with Freddie Wadling entitled "Isolation" and a song with Örnsberg called "Weekend lights". Listen to the latter here: http://www.myspace.com/ornsberg
Magnus also contributed guest vocals to a Trummor & Orgel track, their cover of Georgie Fame's "Somebody stole my thunder".
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show:
01. Midnight Choir - Will you carry me across the water?
02. TALK 1
03. Anna Maria Espinosa - Everyday
04. I Are Droid - Sevenfold
05. Paavoharju - Kevätrumpu
06. TALK 2
07. I'm From Barcelona - Music killed me
08. Marit Bergman - All that I ask of the morning
09. Ef - Thrills
10. TALK 3
11. Hello Saferide - Anna
12. Freddie Wadling - Running madly backwards
13. Tobias Hellkvist - Vintervarm
14. TALK 4
15. Scraps of Tape - Vibrancy
16. Oskar Schönning - Stoner
17. Elias and the Wizzkids - 24
18. TALK 5
19. Robert Svensson - Young enough (ft. Markus Krunegård)
Reminder: My show on Sirius Left of Center (channel 26) airs Sundays at 11pm ET with repeats on Monday at the same time.
Besides Broder Daniel, the one band I really would have wanted to see at Way Out West was Silverbullit. I've actually been fortunate enough to see them twice already, once when opening for The Soundtrack of Our Lives in SF and again at Umeå Open in 2005 when they so obviously blew away every other band. Even today, without a new album to support since 2004's "Arclight", I'd still rank them as one of Sweden's best bands. And now I read that they even got Freddie Wadling (Cortex, Blue for Two, etc.) to make a guest appearance? Gah! I should've been there! YouTube just ain't gonna cut it. Silverbullit's massive wall of sound simply doesn't translate to the small-screen format.
Still no word on whether there will ever be a new album, but at least we can still celebrate their back-catalog. Here is "Only gold" from the aforementioned "Arclight".
Silverbullit - Only gold
Saturdays in 2008 are devoted to the music of Göteborg. This week's guest: Patrik Bengtsson from The Kid. The band's new album "Transient blood" is out now on Hybris.
First off, the standard question: how long have you lived in Gbg, what brought you there and what keeps you around?
Johan is born here and the other three of us are from Småland and moved here to exchange the rich soil and the pine trees for education and nightlife. Then we found friends and love and decided to stay. Frida moved here in 1996 and me and Maja came in 2000.
I hear a strong lineage in The Kid's music that connects it to the Gbg post-punk scene of yore, bands such as Cortex (obviously), but it's more than that. Do you think that's an extension of living in the same city or is it more predetermined? Was that the sort of thing you grew up on or did you discover it later?
Freddie Wadling is an icon, all the things he has been involved in is great such as Blue for Two, Liket Lever, Lädernunnan, Rukorna and Fläskkvartetten, the original punkscene of Gbg was great with bands like Göteborg Sound and Slobobans Undergång. We were listening to punk and post-punk long before we moved to Gbg. The Swedish post-punk scene was great, with bands like Commando M Pigg, Brända Barn and Reeperbahn. As a new Gothenburger you become proud of Gbg when you understand what this town has giving the world in forms of music and bands, but our taste in music was already formed when we all moved here.
Do you think it's important to keep that musical heritage alive?
When it comes to pop music, no.
Putting aside nostalgia for the moment, how would you say The Kid looks toward the future? Are there any current movements/scenes/happenings in Gbg (or elsewhere) worth paying attention to, whether you are personally involved or not?
We will continue struggling with the band trying to combine the sound of the early 80-ies with the sound of the new new wave/the new new romantic. Make some shows and some new songs. No big plans, just nice to have the possibility to do this and get paid for it. We've been around for a couple of years now and we are quite bored playing for stiff students. It's time for the new Gbg-scene with people in their 20ies to do the studentclub-mayhem. I think the new Gbg pop-scene is some form of an antiscene. They frown at the old Service glory days. They spit on electronic stuff like laptops and iPods, they play instruments and wear hats and love Håkan Hellström instead of The Embassy and Claes Ohlson-stroboscope. And they've got authentic good self-esteem; that's good but it's the total opposite of the classic Gbg scene.
Don't think that I'm a silly old fart, I love changes. And some of these kid are guests at my monthly 77-punk club and they know the lyrics to all the old Gbg punk songs. So the future is saved. They know their heritage.
I understand that a number of you are involved in other art projects besides The Kid- what else are you currently working on?
We are constantly working with other art(y)/music projects.
You will find a couple of them on our myspace–site under top friends. Otherwise, we are still working as Artists and Architects, and when we run out of money we take care of old people, trees and flowers. You can also visit www.mermermer.com and click on Frida Sjöstam and www.patrikbengtsson.com for some aesthetic-experience.
Would you say that Gbg is an artist-friendly city?
I'm sure that Gbg is the best music-friendly town in Sweden. All the interesting bands from the last 10 years are from Gbg. And the mood between the bands is nice and friendly.
Lastly, have you got a song from the new album that you'd like to share?
I think "Let's go kid" or "Bloodmoon" are two nice songs, you could use one of them.
My personal preference is demonstrated below...
The Kid - Bloodmoon
As I've been saying, one of my main missions while in Sweden was to acquire old vinyl I wouldn't be able to find anywhere else, primarily Swedish postpunk from the 80s. The one act at the very top of my list: Cortex. For those already in the know, Cortex vinyl is rare and highly desirable, so I didn't have much luck, but I did score a copy of their final release, the "Animals (...looking at me)" 7" so I didn't have to come home completely empty handed. It's a killer record too, a claustrophobic, paranoid chant over stomping distorted drums and wailing guitar. Also note the particularly strong Freddie Krüger influence (he is credited for "useful inspiration"). As for the b-side "Tears in the rain", well, it's a ballad and it's pretty good, but it's definitely a b-side. It points more in the direction that Freddie Wadling was heading, not so much where he came from (goth/punk). Still though, without a doubt, one of Sweden's best artists. Well worth the money I paid for it, now I just need to score a copy of "Spinal injuries"...
Cortex - Animals (...looking at me)
Freddie Wadling has been a Göteborg mainstay for many, many years. I've covered Cortex before, but he also did time in early punk acts such as Liket Lever and Straightjackets and various other influential acts such as The Leather Nun (today's featured mp3), Blue for Two, Fläskkvartetten/Fleshquartet, not to mention his work as a solo artist and more recently, with the group Mother. And that doesn't even touch on his work in other arenas, such as the stage. So yeah, a busy guy with a vast discography. While I appreciate a huge swath of his work, I'm definitely drawn more to his earlier material. Naturally, Cortex is a huge favorite (easily my #1 Swedish postpunk band), but I also really like The Leather Nun, especially their debut record "Slow death". This is proto goth rock, stripped raw and angry. They do sometimes exhibit some of the theatrics inherit in the genre, but you'd never know it by hearing "No rule", a revved-up fury of a track. More Misfits than Bauhaus, if you know what I mean. The band would later polish up quite a bit on subsequent recordings though they never were able to top the debut in my mind. A certified classic, if you ask me.
The Leather Nun - No rule
If I had the time or money to put together a new compilation, chances are high it would look awfully similar to Fang Bomb's "Gothenburg 08". The particular scene it explores is one of big reasons I started this weekly Gbg-spotlight series, so naturally I'm very excited to have the opportunity to talk to label-head Peter Ottosson about the comp, among other relevant subjects. Read on!
So you're putting out this new compilation, "Gothenburg 08" - what's the inspiration? What is it about the current scene that merits this sort of documentation?
The idea of putting together a compilation with only Gothenburg based artists, was initially born from a feeling I had about what is going on in the city, the sense of something great happening, a unique scene that deserved to be compiled and documented. It's been growing for a number of years now, with a lot of great artists, labels such as iDEAL, Kning Disk, Release The Bats, and ourselves, galleries and vital concert bookers. It feels like Gothenburg has risen again, in a way. The cultural climate now quite similar to what was going on 20 or 25 years ago. Free, experimental, deep.
And that takes us to were I went to complete the concept. To 1984 to be specific, when Radium 226.05 released a compilation LP entitled "Gothenburg 84". This is now a legendary record, showcasing the fresh talent connected to the Radium organization at that time. CM von Hausswolff was on it, and so were Jean-Louis Huhta, Zbigniew Karkowski and Freddie Wadling - all of whom today are busy people, well respected and regarded as pioneers also from a worldwide perspective.
My conviction is that the Gothenburg scene once again allows for such a manifestation. And that is what "Gothenburg 08" is supposed to be.
Of the musicians you have selected, what is it that they have in common, beyond their chosen city of residence? A sound? An attitude? Can you put a label on it?
There is a sound and there is an attitude. But there is not only one style – rather, I think there is a kind of "anything is possible" approach going on here, and that can be heard in most of the recordings on "Gothenburg 08". For instance, when Anders Dahl mixes bird sounds with elements of noise, it fits! This attitude creates some unique artists. I guess we could call that attitude "punk", if the word hadn't already been used too much.
The thing is, many of the artists know each other well and have done so for a long time. They have collaborated, released records on each others labels, toured together, performed together. That binds it all together, that is what creates the "scene".
A number of the artists you are working with are active in other artistic endeavors, such as the visual arts- how much connection do you see between these various forms? Do you think that it's important for them to remain connected or can they each coexist on their own?
Man, you ask some tough questions ... No, I don't think that is necessary, even if they do feed off each other. But the same message can be encoded into either one of these media, and Thomas Ekelund of Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words, who is also a skilled art director and graphic artist, might be the perfect example. He does most of his own artwork (I think all of it, from now on) and he is incredibly stringent, faithful to his concept to the end. What you hear in his music, you can also see in his graphic art.
One thing that troubles me about the experimental/noise music scene, is that it tends to be very male dominated. Do you find this to be the case in Gbg? What do think can be done to address it?
It is, just as everywhere else. Right now, from the top of my head and keeping the local perspective, I can really only think of one female artist that would fit your genre description - Variam, the solo/side project of Mariam Wallentin of Wildbirds & Peacedrums. And if we want to go a little bit softer, there's always Midaircondo.
I'm not sure what to do about the situation. I guess men are generally more into the nerdier aspects of life, and at least one part of the experimental music scene is synonymous to stamp collecting– hunting for still sealed Industrial Recordings releases from 1979, and brand new releases limited to 8 copies that you buy but never play, that sort of thing... Not that there's anything wrong with that, I do it too.
Also, I suspect that for as long as there are no, or very few, women at concerts, the male-to-female artist ratio will remain virtually unchanged. If something can be done, I'm not sure what it is. Maybe as the industrial iconography develops, a lesser amount of skulls would be a good idea?
Is there a particular song you would like to share, either from 84 or 08? Tell me about it.
It's hard to pick one song to represent the entire "Gothenburg 08" CD - it develops from soft to loud, from noise to dense drones to tracks that are almost "modern classical" in nature - so I've decided to just go with the first one. The track, composed and performed by Viktor Sjöberg and Jonas Lindgren, is entitled "Guldheden", which is also the name of one of the burroughs of Gothenburg. It's a solemn, beautiful piece and unintentionally, at least I assume it is unintentionally, it manages to connect with the very start of electronic and experimental music in Gothenburg, the muffled voices in the background being a reminder of Rune Lindblad's "Party" from 1953, the first ever recording by the city's earliest shining star in the world experimental music. Enjoy!
Viktor Sjöberg and Jonas Lindgren - Guldheden
Check out the video for Freddie Wadling's (Cortex, Blue For Two, etc.) cover of "Let's dance" by David Bowie: http://youtube.com/watch?v=bTSztPm3D5s
Said track appears on the soundtrack to Pernille Fischer Christensen's film "Dansen".
Blue for Two, the synth/blues duo of Freddie Wadling and Henryk Lipp, will soon be releasing a new single called "Derailroaded", their first in 10 years.
Check out Mother, a new all-star acoustic project of sorts featuring contributions from Monika Törnell, Freddie Wadling (Cortex, Fläskkvartetten), Karin Wistrand (Lolita Pop) and others: http://www.myspace.com/mothersongs