Podcast: Summer jam '07

This week's It's A Trap! Last.fm listening group top 10 artists of the week:

01. Shout Out Louds
02. Bright Eyes
03. Feist
04. Bloc Party
05. Arctic Monkeys
06. Björk
07. Radiohead
08. The Arcade Fire
09. Laakso
10. The Beatles

Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Join us! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

This week's It's A Trap! Last.fm listening group top 10 artists of the week:

01. The Arcade Fire
02. Feist
03. Shout Out Louds
04. Laakso
05. Björk
06. Bright Eyes
07. Of Montreal
08. Radiohead
09. The Shins
10. Bloc Party

Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Join us! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

Interview: Shout Out Louds

Friday's Sirius Blog Radio playlist:

01. The Alpine - Mondays look the same
02. TALK 1
03. Gravy - Back with the nerds
04. Giant Robot - Best match
05. Jomi Massage - A detail
06. TALK 2
07. Broder Daniel - Shoreline
08. The Grand Opening - Don't drop off
09. Moonbabies - Take me to the ballroom
10. Britta Persson - Oh how wrong
11. TALK 3
12. Lemonator - Would you die for me?
13. Trapdoor Fucking Exit - Short ends
14. Billie the Vision and the Dancers - Overdosing with you
15. TALK 4
16. Folie - Rocin
17. Robyn - Handle me
18. Laakso - Norrköping
19. TALK 5
20. Magnet - I walk the line
21. Isolation Years - Albino child
22. KVLR - Construction work
23. TALK 6
24. Anna Leong - 61
25. Tigerbombs - One giant leap
26. Motorpsycho - Hyena
27. TALK 7
28. Oskar Schönning - Other birds
29. Pan Sonic - Rähinä II / Mayhem II
30. Mercyful Fate - Evil
31. TALK 8
32. Ricochets - Come around over
33. Ghost Brigade - Based on you
34. Smalltown - The music
35. Popface - In the night
36. TALK 9
37. Circle Six - 1

Tonight! Don't forget to check out my show on Sirius Satellite Radio at 10pm ET on Channel 26/Left of Center! I'll be playing new stuff from Gravy, Billie the Vision and the Dancers, Laakso and Isolation Years as well as a bunch of other favorites. Got a Stiletto? Set it to record!

This week's It's A Trap! Last.fm listening group top 10 artists of the week:

01. Bloc Party
02. The Arcade Fire
03. Shout Out Louds
04. Modest Mouse
05. Bright Eyes
06. Arctic Monkeys
07. The Knife
08. Laakso
09. Björk
10. The Beatles

Again with The Beatles? Whatever. Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Join us! We've got 300 members now! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

Ironville will be recording a new album in May with Markus Krunegård from Laakso producing.

This week's top 20 Swedish album chart:

01. The Ark - Prayer for the weekend
02. Sahara Hotnights - What if leaving is a loving thing
03. Sofia Karlsson - Visor från vinden
04. Vikingarna - Bästa kramgoa låtarna 2
05. Eldkvarn - Svart blogg
06. Jerry Williams - I can jive - Det bästa med Jerry Williams
07. Nanne - Jag måste kyssa dig
08. Dark Tranquility - Fiction
09. Markoolio - Värsta Plattan
10. Salem Al Fakir - This is who I am
11. Marie Lindberg - Trying to recall
12. Timbuktu - Oberoendeframkallande
14. Pain - Psalms of extinction
15. Emilia - Små ord av kärlek
16. Kristofer Åström - RainawayTown
17. Laakso - Mother, am I good looking?
18. Björn Rosenström - Ett Jubileum som är sådär....10 1/2 år
19. Laleh - Prinsessor
20. Andreas Johnson - The collector

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.

This week's It's A Trap! Last.fm listening group top 10 artists of the week:

01. The Arcade Fire
02. Bloc Party
03. The Shins
04. Arctic Monkeys
05. Bright Eyes
06. Modest Mouse
07. Shout Out Louds
08. Laakso
09. The Radio Dept.
10. The Beatles

The Beatles? Sure, why not I guess. Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Join us! Go here to learn more: http://www.last.fm/help/

Last night's playlist for my show on Sirius Blog Radio:

01. Isolation Years - Yellow cross on blue
02. TALK 1
03. Johndoe - Nattskift
04. Montys Loco - Wasteland
05. Once We Were - Cut corners
06. TALK 2
07. [ingenting] - Mycket vasen for ingenting
08. Margaret Berger - Robot song
09. Namur - Marching
10. Lampshade - New legs
11. TALK 3
12. Maia Hirasawa - Gothenburg
13. Mixtapes & Cellmates - Quiet
14. Fattaru - 100:-
15. Juvelen - Hanna
16. TALK 4
17. Säkert! - Allt som är ditt
18. Sonores - 16th of June
19. Detektivbyrån - E18
20. TALK 5
21. At the Gates - The swarm
22. Barra Head - Kill the lights
23. TALK 6
24. The Tough Alliance - Leg 7
25. Torpedo - My evil twin
26. Alog - Catch that totem!
27. TALK 7
28. Valley Days - 10k angels
29. A-ha - Celice
30. Victims - Who the fuck are we?
31. TALK 8
32. The Vicious - Alienated
33. Viola - Unreal life
34. Zweizz - Nowadays the only boring everything is so frustrating
35. Viktor Sjöberg - Winter guitars
36. TALK 9
37. Closer - The talker
38. Aerial - My god, it's full of stars!
39. The Kissaway Trail - La la song
40. Laakso - Italy vs Helsinki
41. The Psyke Project - Panic
42. TALK 10
43. C.Aarmé - We are the world

Next week: expect lots more killer jams including totally a brand new track from Closer and maybe even a spotlight set on post-rock/ambient music. Good times!

The video for Laakso brilliant new single "Italy vs Helsinki" is now online in this e-card: http://www.animero.com/v2music/laakso
I never thought I'd say it, but they make The Ark look straight as arrows.

Laakso
Mother, am I good looking?
V2

I've been formualting this review for a the better part of a couple of weeks and now I think I've got something that makes a bit of sense. To start, the album is flawless - and is the work of a band fully realizing a vision and fully realizing their detachment. Laakso has always been a band slightly skewed, in what direction (or directions) I don't know, but it's always been prevalent in their music and part of their charm. This time around, the music is a bit sunnier, yet the lyrics are some of their darkest. "No one is completely faithful" is the acceptance of defeatist truth, yet sung with one of the band's prettiest melodies to date; "Norrköping" is one of the best coming-of-age songs to be written in a long, long time; and "Dropout" just stuns with its Freddy Mercury-esque wall of harmonies bridge. The lead single "Italy vs. Helsinki" is, just as Avi posted before, completely over the top in all aspects. In fact, one may view the whole album as being a bit over the top, but it works perfectly - in fact, if anything played or sung on this album was absent, the album would feel incomplete. Fans of Laakso with fall in love with the record, but its natural detachment may not be understood by all, but then again, not everyone gets the best albums.
- Matt Giordano

MP3: Laakso - Italy vs Helsinki

Peter Jöback: "Oh, let's go to Milano / it's fashion week and so am I / weak, in need of love / any love from anyone"

Markus Krunegård: "Oh no, come with me to Helsinki / where the streets are wide and so am I / wide open for love / any love from anyone"

And with that first verse, Laakso gives you their modern-day schlager classic. The innuendo is so fierce and the song so overwrought, over-the-top ridiculous and awesome, it's gotta be destined for evergreen status. I seriously cannot stop myself from listening to it over and over and over again. The fact that there's a video on the way makes me quiver with excitement.
Preorder Laakso's new album "Mother, am I good looking?": [click here]

Laakso - Italy vs Helsinki (ft. Peter Jöback)