Pitchfork reviews Säkert!, the Swedish-language project of Annika Norlin/Hello Saferide: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/42664-skert
If you are looking to purchase said CD, it's currently out of stock, but new copies should be on the way.

This week's playlist for my show on Sirius:

01. Kristofer Åström - The dark
02. TALK 1
03. Amandine - Better soil
04. Christel Alsos - What you gotta do
05. Tarantula - Two arrows
06. TALK 2
07. Kristin Asbjørnsen - I'm on my way
08. Thomas Denver Jonsson - Dreams at the film club
09. Tenderloud - Texas down
10. TALK 3
11. Hyacinth House - Ghost town
12. Strayfolk - I'll be a-goin'
13. The First Miles - Bottle, don't let me down
14. TALK 4
15. Hello Saferide - I was definitely made for these times
16. Hederos & Hellberg - I can't hold myself in line
17. Two Times the Trauma - I fell in love with an ocean
18. David Sandström Overdrive - The Fatville Treaty
19. HGH - Stupid song
20. TALK 5
21. Gorgoroth - Procreating Satan
22. Enslaved - The voices
23. Invocator - Breed of sin
24. TALK 6
25. Seance - Post mortem
26. Watain - Underneath the cenotaph
27. Dark Tranquility - Icipher
28. TALK 7
29. Eucharist - The Eucharist
30. At the Gates - Slaughter of the soul
31. Wolfbrigade - EU (European Union)
32. TALK 8
33. Katatonia - Had to (leave)
34. Bloodbath - Soul evisceration
35. Cult of Luna - The revelation embodied
36. TALK 9
37. Finntroll - Slaget vid blodsälv

Hello Saferide at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton:

05/17 - Corn Exchange (7pm)
05/17 - The Arc (10pm)

And don't forget her two shows next week at Water Rats too! Check the sidebar for details. In other news, look for the debut album "Introducing..." to get a proper UK release in August. Not that you care, right? You should already have it by now.

Regal is having a little Hello Saferide contest: http://www.regal.co.uk/hellosaferide/

The brand new Hello Saferide UK single "I was definitely made for these times" is streaming on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/regalrecordings
It comes out in mid-May to coincide with her upcoming UK dates - see the sidebar for details.

Mailorder news: re-stocks of Hello Saferide, Firefox AK and Maia Hirasawa should be arriving today along with new records from Thunder Express and They Live By Night. Check back soon! New CDs from Kristofer Åström and Laakso are ordered and supposedly on the way along with all the latest from Hybris - Montt Mardié, Vapnet, etc.

The lineup for this year's Great Escape Festival has been confirmed and will include a special Norwegian spotlight featuring the artists 120 Days, Adjagas and "Reader's companion" alums The Lionheart Brothers: http://www.xfm.co.uk/Article.asp?id=387899
Other Scandinavians include IAT artist Hello Saferide plus Consequences, Promise and Monster, Loney, Dear, Johnossi, Magenta Skycode, Oh No Ono, Rockettothesky, Kissaway Trail and probably a few others whose names I don't instantly recognize.

Säkert! (aka Annika Norlin/Hello Saferide) will release her new single "Allt som är ditt" on May 2. That might actually be my favorite song on the record - reminds me a lot of Johndoe. Look for her to play the Parklife tour in Sweden this summer.

Billie the Vision and the Dancers have two songs from their new album posted on myspace, including one featuring Annika Norlin aka Hello Saferide: http://www.myspace.com/billiethevisionandthedancers

Maia Hirasawa
Though, I'm just me
Razzia Records

And I found this girl. She took the stage alone, armed only with a great big acoustic guitar that seemed to dwarf her tiny frame. Then she opened her mouth and whispered out her first song, and the entire crowd went silent in awe. Her name was Maia Hirasawa, and until then she had been known to most as 'that other girl in Hello Saferide'. No longer. That November night in Glasgow she truly stepped out from the shadows and demanded attention. Hopefully this album will do the same to a much larger audience. Like her live performance, she eases us in slowly, with a breathy ballad that showcases her angelic voice superbly. She doesn't need a backing band or fancy production to massage her music – the girl sighs and boys swoon. It all seems so unbelievably effortless. And simple. Yet listen closely, and you'll hear the same type of smart, snappy lyrics that make her friend Annika Norlin so likeable. There are a lot of love songs on this album, but they're not old and schmaltzy. On the contrary, they're modern and moving, even featuring Myspace in the stellar "Mattis and Maia". Critics are already falling over themselves with praise for feel-good single "And I found this boy", and with good reason. Maia is possibly THE find of the year. Have a listen and you may soon find yourself rushing to join her swelling army of fans.
- Stacey Shackford

The tracklist for Montt Mardié's forthcoming double album "Clocks/Pretender":

Clocks:
01. In which we meet the clocks and a song is reveled (Too many songs unwritten)
02. Set sail tomorrow
03. Birthday boy (drama)
04. I will write a book
05. Let's get away from it all
06. 1969
07. Travelers
08. The windmill turns all the same
09. How I won the war
10. In which a sailor returns and we say good-bye for now (Set sail tomorrow)

Pretender:
01. Surprised (with Andreas Mattsson)
02. Metropolis (with Fredrik Hellström of Le Sport)
03. Once I was so in love that I followed (with Bobby Baby)
04. Castle in the sky (with Jens Lekman)
05. Hurry home (with The Legends)
06. Daughters (with Peder Stenberg of Deportees)
07. Hacienda (with Christian Zellinger)
08. När vi gett dom våld ska vi ge er kärlek (with Vapnet)
09. Grand Prix finals (with Mr Suitcase)
10. Pretenders (with Hello Saferide)

As mentioned before, it comes out April 18 via Hybris. Buy the first single "The windmill turns all the same" and download a free track here: http://tinyurl.com/yoo7nl

New Japan tourdates for Hello Saferide and Maia Hirasawa:

04/14 - Village Vanguard Shimokitazawa, Tokyo w/Clay Allison
04/15 - JZ Brat, Tokyo w/Cloudberry Jam, Clay Allison
04/18 - Shinsaibashi Club, Quattro w/Cloudberry Jam, Clay Allison
04/19 - Star Pine's Café, Tokyo

MP3: Maia Hirasawa - Gothenburg

Maia Hirasawa's debut single "And I found this boy" is classic indiepop through and through, right on down to the big dance number in the video. A little sugary sweet perhaps, but perfect for that transition from winter to spring. But what of the rest of the record? Thankfully, it's more than cutesy girlpop and songs about boys. There are moments of that, sure, but it's all very well-done and balanced with other, more introspective and contemplative material. In the same way that I suspect some people were turned off from Hello Saferide because of "the lesbian song" ("My best friend"), understand that there's much more to it. It's the non-single tracks that elevate the album as a whole. Take "Gothenburg" for example - a song about a very specific place and time. The music is totally different, but I can't help but be reminded of Jawbreaker's "West Bay invitational". That's a song that is even more time/place specific, but its essence - the power of capturing that singular moment - is what's important and what makes it so strong and memorable. This will be a song to revisit in years to come.

Maia Hirasawa - Gothenburg

Säkert!
s/t
Razzia Records

As you might already know, this is Annika (Hello Saferide) Norlin's new project sung entirely in Swedish. I've listened to it quite a lot, and I must say I hold pure unconditional love for this album. It's quite odd, since I'm not the biggest Hello Saferide fan. The songs here are extremely peppy, and Annika's vocal delivery and lyrics are quite often undoubtedly inspired by Jakob Hellman (e.g. the "Jag vill inte gå på återträff och återträffa dig" line in "Sanningsdan"), which is fine since there's nothing wrong with sounding like the man who released the best ever album sung in the Swedish language, is there? The best song on the album is actually (as previously posted by Avi) "Sanningsdan" - a duet with Martin Hanberg from Vapnet (there's also another fine duet with Markus from Laakso). The rest of the songs are also fantastic, even the slow songs are great. I never expected I'd like this album this much, but I do! I do!
- Simon Tagestam

More Hello Saferide-related news: Not only will she play two gigs at Water Rats in May (see the concert listings on the bottom-right) and at The Great Escape Festival, but she's also releasing a single on Regal/Parlophone on May 14 featuring "The quiz" b/w "I was definitely made for these times". It will be available on both 7" vinyl and CD. The album "Introducing..." is also getting a Japanese release on March 14.