In related news, Hello Saferide will be playing the Absolut Swedish Music Festival at The Village in Dublin on March 3 along with Moneybrother and Taxi, Taxi!. Other artists set to appear at the festival include Zeigeist, Samuraj Cities, Consequences, Juvelen, I'm From Barcelona and Salem Al Fakir.

"The painter" and "Glasses", both previously released as EP-only tracks, have been tacked onto the tracklist of the US edition of I'm From Barcelona's album "Let me introduce my friends". As mentioned before, it comes out March 20 via Mute.

New European tourdates for Irene:

01/23 - Trabendo, Paris (FRA) w/I'm From Barcelona
01/24 - Academy 3, Manchester (UK) w/I'm From Barcelona
01/25 - ULU, London (UK) w/I'm From Barcelona
02/19 - Nachtcafe, Kiel (GER)
02/20 - Grüner Jäger, Hamburg (GER)
02/21 - Schocken, Stuttgart (GER)
02/22 - tba, Berlin (GER)
02/23 - Ilses Erika, Leipzig (GER)
02/24 - Atomino, Chemnitz (GER)

Look for Spanish tourdates in April to be confirmed soon.

New I'm From Barcelona live dates:

01/23 - La Maroquinerie, Paris (FRA)
01/24 - Academy 3, Manchester (UK)
01/25 - ULU, London (UK)
01/26 - De Nachten Festival, Antwerpen (BEL)
01/27 - The Grand Mix, Tourcoing (FRA)

Top 10s for 2006: It's a trap!

Top 10s for 2006: Staff picks

This week's It's a trap! Last.fm/Audioscrobbler listening group top 10 albums of the week:

01. The Knife – Silent Shout
02. The Pipettes – We Are the Pipettes
03. Death Cab for Cutie – Plans
04. The Arcade Fire – Funeral
05. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
06. Thom Yorke – The Eraser
07. Tiger Lou – The Loyal
08. The Radio Dept. – Pet Grief
09. Beirut – Gulag Orkestar
10. I'm from Barcelona – Let Me Introduce My Friends

And the top 10 artists of the week:

01. Radiohead
02. The Knife
03. Sufjan Stevens
04. The Shins
05. Moneybrother
06. Death Cab for Cutie
07. David Bowie
08. The Cure
09. The Beatles
10. Belle and Sebastian

Help us improve our chart by becoming a member of our group! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

The nominees for this year's Swedish Grammis have been announced:

Best album:
Anna Ternheim - "Separation Road"
BWO - "Halcyon Days"
Lisa Miskovsky - "Changes"
Marit Bergman - "I Think It's A Rainbow"
The Knife - "Silent Shout"

Best hiphop/soul:
Fattaru - "Mina drömmars stad"
Ison & Fille - "Stolthet"
Mange Schmidt - "Samtidigt, i Stockholm"
Promoe - "White Man's Burden"
Snook - "Är"

Best club/dance:
Basshunter - "LOL <(^^,)>"
Christian Falk - "People Say"
SUMO - "The Danceband"
Sunblock - "I'll Be Ready"
The Attic - "The One"

Best jazz:
Anna Christoffersson & Steve Dobrogosz - "It's Always You"
e.s.t. - "Tuesday Wonderland"
Jonas Kullhammar Quartet - "Son Of A Drummer"
Koop - "Koop Islands"
Oddjob - "Luma"

Best hardrock:
Backyard Babies - "People Like People Like People Like"
Europe - "Secret Society"
Hammerfall - "Threshold"
In Flames - "Come Clarity"
The Haunted - "The Dead Eye"

Best pop/rock female:
Anna Ternheim - "Separation Road"
Linda Sundblad - "Oh My God!"
Lisa Miskovsky - "Changes"
Marit Bergman - "I Think It's A Rainbow"
Veronica Maggio - "Vatten och bröd"

Best pop/rock male:
Andreas Johnson - "Mr Johnson, Your Room Is On Fire"
Darin - "Break The News"
Eric Gadd - "Eric Gadd"
Håkan Hellström - "Nåt gammalt, nåt nytt, nåt lånat, nåt blått"
Timo Räisänen - "I'm Indian"

Best pop group:
Bo Kaspers Orkester - "Hund"
BWO - "Halcyon Days"
Fibes, Oh Fibes! - "Emotional"
Melody Club - "Scream"
The Knife - "Silent Shout"

Best rock group:
Atomic Swing - "The Broken Habanas"
Johnossi - "Johnossi - With 3 Bonus Tracks"
Mando Diao - "Ode To Ochrasy"
The Refreshments - "24-7"
Whyte Seeds - "Bold As Love"

Best newcomer:
Asha Ali - "Asha Ali"
Basshunter - "Boten Anna"
I'm From Barcelona - "Let me introduce my friends"
Sebastian - Sebastian
Veronica Maggio - "Vatten och bröd"

Best producer:
Anders Hansson & Alexander Bard - "Halcyon days"
Christian Falk - "People say"
Jara Haapalainen - "Brott & Straff Sånger från ett kvinnofängelse"
Joakim Berg & Simon Nordberg - "Changes"
Karin Drejer Andersson/Olof Drejer - "Silent shout"

Read more: http://www.grammis.se/

The nominees for this year's P3 Gold awards have been announced:

Best female artist:
Marit Bergman - "I Think it's a Rainbow"
Veronica Maggio - "Vatten och bröd"
Lisa Miskovsky - "Changes"
Linda Sundblad - "Oh My God!"
Anna Ternheim - "Separation Road"

Best male artist:
Darin - "Break the News"
Håkan Hellström - "Nåt gammalt, nåt nytt, nåt lånat, nåt blått"
Max Peezay - "Discokommittén"
Petter - "P"
Timo Räisänen - "I'm Indian"

Best live (Guldmicken):
In Flames
The Knife
Mando Diao
Snook
Anna Ternheim

Best song:
Basshunter - Boten Anna
I'm From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona
Veronica Maggio - Dumpa mig
Mando Diao - Long Before Rock'n'Roll
Snook - Längst fram i taxin

Best newcomer:
Asha Ali
Salem Al Fakir
I'm From Barcelona
Veronica Maggio
Sebastian

Best group:
Fibes, Oh Fibes! - "Emotional"
The Knife - "Silent Shout"
Mando Diao - "Ode to Ochrasy"
Snook - "Är"
The Sounds - "Dying to Say This to You"

Best rock/metal:
C.Aarmé - "Vita"
Cult of Luna - "Somewhere Along the Highway"
The Haunted - "The Dead Eye"
In Flames - "Come Clarity"
Snuffed By the Yakuza - "Everybody's Gonna Die Tonight"

Best hip-hop/soul:
Fattaru - "Mina drömmars stad"
Max Peezay - "Discokommittén"
Promoe - "White Man's Burden"
Ramjac - "Transfusions"
Up Hygh - "The Venus Album"

Best pop:
Sir Eric Beyond and the Avant-Garde - "Sir Eric Beyond and the Avant-Garde"
Love is All - "Nine Times That Same Song"
Nicolas Makelberge - "Dying in Africa"
The Radio Dept. - "Pet Grief"
Studio - "West Coast"

Best dance:
John Dahlbäck - Collected works
The Knife - "Silent Shout"
Minilogue - Collected works
Studio - "West Coast"
SUMO - "The Danceband"

Go here to vote: http://www.sr.se/p3/p3guld/

MP3: Miss Li - Miss Li

Miss Li embodies the antithesis of what most people consider Swedish girls to be like. Vivacious, risqué and devilish - not to mention, as she says herself, "pathetic... vain and wicked, self-loving and ridiculously naive," not to mention endowed with "a big mouth and heart full of shit." Not exactly the kind of girl you bring home to mom, y'know? As to whether Miss Li's boasts are applicable to Linda Carlsson, her offstage alter-ego, I couldn't say.
As for the album "Late night heartbroken blues" as a whole, it has its moments, but is a little tiresome to listen to straight through. Both the recording and the songwriting are dynamically flat. However, it's easy to understand the hype as many individual tracks sound fresh and exciting on their own. I imagine that, like in the case of I'm From Barcelona and their debut album, the release got rushed to capitalize on the ongoing buzz and suffered a bit as a result. Both IFB and Miss Li are very talented, there's no doubt, but they could've used more time to get it right the first time out.

Miss Li - Miss Li

Video mix: Minilogue, I'm From Barcelona, Breach, Nicolai Dunger, Anja Garbarek, more...

This week's It's a trap! Last.fm/Audioscrobbler listening group top 10 albums of the week:

01. The Postal Service – Give Up
02. The Arcade Fire – Funeral
02. Death Cab for Cutie – Plans
04. The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow
04. Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary
06. The Radio Dept. – Pet Grief
07. I'm from Barcelona – Let Me Introduce My Friends
08. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
09. Tiger Lou – The Loyal
10. The Knife – Deep Cuts

And the top 10 artists of the week:

01. The Shins
02. Sufjan Stevens
03. Bloc Party
04. Belle and Sebastian
05. Death Cab for Cutie
06. The Beatles
07. Radiohead
08. The Radio Dept.
09. Hello Saferide
10. The Decemberists

Does this list seem as ho-hum ing to you as it does me? Help fight the tedium by becoming a member of our group! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

Updated live dates for I'm From Barcelona:

12/07 - Transmusicales Festival of Rennes, France
12/08 - Tivoli, Utrecht (NL)
12/09 - Gloria, Köln (GER)

This week's It's a trap! Last.fm/Audioscrobbler listening group top 10 tracks of the week:

01. The Shins – Australia
02. The Shins – Pam Berry
03. The Shins – Sea Legs
04. The Postal Service – Such Great Heights
05. I'm from Barcelona – We're From Barcelona
06. The Pipettes – Pull Shapes
07. Bloc Party – Uniform
08. Bloc Party – Hunting For Witches
09. Bloc Party – The Prayer
10. The Plan – Walk for gold

And the top 10 albums of the week:

01. Death Cab for Cutie – Plans
02. Radiohead – OK Computer
03. The Arcade Fire – Funeral
04. The Postal Service – Give Up
05. The Pipettes – We Are the Pipettes
06. The Knife – Silent Shout
07. The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow
08. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
09. Håkan Hellström – Känn ingen sorg för mig Göteborg
10. The Radio Dept. – Pet Grief

Does this seem as boring to you as it does me? Help fight tedium by becoming a member of our group! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

Pitchfork finally gets around to reporting that I'm From Barcelona's album "Let me introduce my friends" will be released in the US next year via Mute: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/news/Im_From_Barcelona_Sign_to_Mute_Introduce_#39712
I first mentioned it two weeks ago, for what it's worth. The official release date is March 20.