Presenting: The Violent Sea

At long last, brand new music out of Umeå featuring ex-KVLR frontman/guitarist Johan Sellman.

BCore to reissue Starmarket on vinyl for the first time

Spanish label BCore Disc is reissuing Starmarket's landmark "Five hours light" album on vinyl for the very first time in February, something that I suppose explains the reason the band will be performing said album down there on February 4. As with the folks at BCore, this record is a seminal piece of (Swedish) musical history to me, helping to bridge the gap between hardcore, post-hardcore and indie/noiserock -- it's the reason I discovered Kevlar/KVLR and subsequently took them on tour and put out their self-titled CD, which of course still stands as a crucial step in the evolution of this site. Read more/pre-order here: http://www.bcoredisc.com/ING/discoBD.php?id_disco=257

Presenting: The Violent Sea (ex-KVLR/Starmarket)

Check out The Violent Sea, a new Umeå-based act featuring ex-members of KVLR and Starmarket: http://www.myspace.com/violentseaswe

Musik med Nina Kinert, PSL i Umeå

Live music with Nina Kinert at PSL: http://blogg.svt.se/psl/2010/11/19/musik-med-nina-kinert/
Also! PSL has been spending time in Umeå and they stopped by the new shop run by friend and "former Starmarket superstar" Magnus Öberg (Nomethod/KVLR): http://blogg.svt.se/psl/2010/11/19/our-favourite-shop-nomethod-butiken/

Life Before Man @ Absolut Noise

Absolut Noise has a new track up from Life Before Man, a long-running/never-documented Swedish indie act featuring my friend Mattias from Culkin/KVLR: http://absolutnoise.blogspot.com/2010/11/internet-killed-tape-stars.html
If you dig noisy guitar-driven indie (such as Mattias' other/previous bands), you will dig this. I do.

MP3: Mindy Misty - Volcano sea

Yes, I am a total sucker for noisy indierock, especially if it has a distinct 90s bent, and Norway's Mindy Misty fit that bill to a tee. Not that I want to get all grumpy-old-man about it, but I like what I like and there's no getting around it and this stuff goes straight to the heart. Anyhow, they've apparently been kicking around for awhile already since the upcoming record "Generic communion" will be their 3rd release (due out September 6 via their own Handmade Records), but this is the first I've heard of them and I'm way, way into it. They've got tons of thick Sonic Youth-esque harmonies and when they combine it with that oh-so-Scandinavian sense of melody, they can't lose. Give me slightly buried vocals and a hard-driving rhythm section on top of that and I'm sold. Easy and done! So if you dig KVLR, early Motorpsycho, Unwound, Dinosaur Jr., etc etc... you will be into this. And you should.

Mindy Misty - Volcano sea

The Holy Ghost - Daggers

The first rough cut from The Holy Ghost, aka the solo endeavor of Jens Åker (ex-Trapdoor Fucking Exit, Java, etc.), is now streaming at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/theholyghoststhlm
RIYL Starmarket, KVLR, or any other Norrland indie.

MP3: Mixtapes & Cellmates - Soon

All hail the new indie rock'n'roll! I'm fine with their excursions into glitchy electronica, I really am, but Mixtapes & Cellmates sure sound best when they crank up their instruments and play as a band, complete with live drums and all the trimmings. "Soon" isn't exactly 90s Swindie revival, but it's got that spirit and takes me to that same place, the same same way bands like Starmarket and KVLR used to. Man, do I love those raucous drum fills and squeals of feedback! Haven't heard the full album yet (preview here), but if it's all like this, it's gonna be brilliant.

Mixtapes & Cellmates - Soon

MP3: Breach - Seven

Hard to believe, but It's a Trap! turns seven years old today, an age that could be considered near-ancient in the context of this whole interweb doo-hickey. Yep, I've been slogging away at this thing all those years, slowly improving my foreign language skills, refining my tastes, fighting burnout and maybe even becoming a better writer along the way (not really). I've sent out over 300 weekly newsletters, posted nearly 32,000 news items, visited Sweden three times (with a short sidetrip to CPH once), listened to countless albums and have also had the great pleasure of meeting a ton of lovely people along the way. So a huge thanks to you, my readers and also to all of the great artists who inspire me to keep this thing going -- without you, I am nothing.

Breach's final album "Kollapse" came out in 2001 towards the end of a period when I was intensely seeking out Norrland indie/hardcore. I don't remember my first connection, but that's how I got into KVLR, Fireside, Him Kerosene, Starmarket, Carpet People, Isolation Years and many other neighboring acts. Many of those bands remain favorites today and Breach is definitely near the top of the list, with their swansong record being an absolute classic. Nothing sounds like it, not even any of the band's other records. As for posting it today, it's mere luck they happen to have a song with a title fit for the occasion.

Breach - Seven

Sirius playlist week #38

Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU featuring special guest Mathias Rask-Andersen from the band Culkin:

01. Culkin - Payperfist
02. TALK 1
03. Him Kerosene - Raceday
04. Park Hotell - Happy love
05. Neil Halstead - Paint a face
06. TALK 2
07. Culkin - Glow
08. Scraps of Tape - Drink forever
09. The Bear Quartet - Northern
10. KVLR - Capitol city child
11. TALK 3
12. Brick - I
13. Blithe - Allegiance
14. Giant Boar - Jessica Hell
15. Suburban Kids with Biblical Names - Marry me
16. Popsicle - Not forever
17. TALK 4
18. Culkin - Insomniac

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.

Sirius playlist week #10

Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:

01. KVLR - All there is to hiding out
02. TALK 1
03. The Rollstons - Defender of the frown
04. Turboweekend - Sweet Jezebel
05. Midaircondo - Serenade
06. TALK 2
07. Promoe - The logic of dreams
08. The Kissaway Trail - La la song
09. Karjalan Sissit - Kuolema tuiloo
10. Montt Mardié - Paraply
11. TALK 3
12. Mikko Singh - Laodi majra
13. Jonathan Johansson - All vill ha hela världen
14. My Darling You! - Dressed4success
15. Paris - Another Saturday night
16. TALK 4
17. Heroin and Your Veins - Intoxication
18. Quagmire - We know we don't know
19. Totalitär - Mer skit att välja
20. The Setting Son - Spring of hate
21. TALK 5

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.

Swedish noiserockers Giant Boar (ex-Seven Feet Four) have new music posted at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/giantboar
If you dig KVLR, you'll love this. I know I do.

Culkin
Demo
self-released

The evidence of members of KVLR in Culkin is obvious as "Pay per fist" bursts alive in a chaotic display of Scandinavian indierock. And, as with many outstanding records, the lo-fi production adds a wonderfully human element to the compositions. This demo release almost perfectly encapsulates what has been left out of many of the recent advances into the rock genre: thick, jangled guitar lines blurring over one another to form a wall of melody; vocal lines that don't attempt to set themselves above the instrumental fray, but impose themselves directly into this skirmish; an undulating framework that allows the compositions to easily, seamlessly shift between bouts of melancholy into sections of outright triumph. Imagine elements of shoegaze and post-rock, a healthy study of 90s acts like Sonic Youth, and an outright appreciation for the Scandinavian bands who helped reshape this bastard brand of indierock (see: The End Will Be Kicks) and you get a pretty good idea of what Culkin's all about. If this demo is any indication of what's in store, Culkin have quite a future in front of them -- one that I'll be watching very closely.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

MP3: Shredhead - Dork

For as much as I love to extol the virtues of 90s-era indierock, truth be told, it wasn't always golden. I should know, having grown up in the SF Bay Area, the epicenter of the thrash-funk scene. We had a lot of the big names, from Primus, Mr. Bungle and Faith No More to less well-known acts like Fungo Mungo, Psychefunkapus and so on. Slap-bass was everywhere, it permeated every genre, every scene. Sweden was of course, not immune. Before there was KVLR, there was Shredhead. Before there was Ray Wonder, there was Shredhead (but after Step Forward). Yep, top-secret Umeå all-stars playing thrash-funk. Or maybe not so secret? I'll mention no names myself, after all, I have my own thrash-funk past to keep buried. And honestly, this stuff really isn't all that embarrassing. It's merely a product of its time, a relic of an age since passed. Just wait until the inevitable revival, it's bound to happen someday.

Shredhead - Dork

Here's the playlist for this week's radio show:

01. Pascal - Längtar efter dig
02. TALK 1
03. Division of Laura Lee - Central Park
04. New Decade - While tonight still is
05. Abduktio - Uutisia rintamalta
06. TALK 2
07. Echo Is Your Love - Lion tamer vs tigers
08. Fireside - Silver muscle car
09. Him Kerosene - Ladybugs
10. TALK 3
11. NEI - New morning
12. The Bear Quartet - All your life
13. Park Hotell - Dead ringers
14. KVLR - Spit
15. Electric Retard - Skate girl
16. TALK 4
17. Samuraj Cities - Ugly kids are alright
18. Barra Head - Iron to skin
19. Death By Kite - Himmelfahrtskommando
20. TALK 5
21. Blithe - Haven
22. Starmarket - You can't come
23. Lukestar - White shade
24. Monkeystrikes - Tahonga take away
25. TALK 6
26. Voices Break the Silence - This awful friend

Reminder: My show on Sirius Left of Center (channel 26) airs Sundays at 11pm ET with repeats on Monday at the same time.