Scraps of Tape touring Germany in November

Scraps of Tape will be doing a few German dates in November:

11/10 - AZ Conni, Dresden
11/11 - Schokoladen, Berlin
11/12 - Cairo, Würzburg
11/13 - Steinbruch, Duisburg

Sirius playlist week #31

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

01. Niels Nielsen - Dpend
02. TALK 1
03. Haleiwa - Pure vida dude
04. Óðmenn - Einn ég ræ
05. The Bear Quartet - Lovers goodbye
06. Night Minutes - Sweetheart at the funeral
07. TALK 2
08. A Swarm of the Sun - The worms are out
09. Logh - An alliance of hearts
10. Tomas Halberstad - I must be in love
11. TALK 3
12. Liechtenstein - On the tram
13. Scraps of Tape - Blindspot
14. Dear Euphoria - Coming down
15. Dyno - Emotional
16. TALK 4
17. Kvelertak - Ordsmedar av rang
18. The Social Services - Baltic Sea
19. Oriel Joans - Knuckles whiten
20. TALK 5
21. Ted Gärdestad - Oh, vilken härlig dag

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.

Listen to the sound of The Universe

Swedish instrumental act The Universe (ex-Iisole) are streaming their new album at Bandcamp, as well as offering it up as a paid download to raise money for an eventual vinyl release: http://theuniversemusic.bandcamp.com/
If you're into the kind of stuff that Tenderversion Recordings puts out (ie, Scraps of Tape, September Malevolence, etc.), you'll probably be into this as well.

Scraps of Tape add new member

Scraps of Tape have announced that Fredrik Gillhagen (Meleeh) has been added as a new permanent member, replacing Mikael Persson who left last fall. Keep an eye out for new tourdates this coming fall.

The Eight Arms Around You in album pre-production

Göteborg hardcore act The Eight Arms Around You (feat. members from Scraps of Tape, Anchor, The Smackdown etc.) are currently doing pre-production for their forthcoming full-length debut. The band plans to being actual recording in about two weeks.

Thee Gutted String - Christmastime In Hagarna EP

Thee Gutted String, the mellow solo alias of Johan Gustavsson (Scraps of Tape, Tsukimono), has an excellent new 3-song EP posted for free download: http://timecanvas.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/christmas-ep/
Definitely worth checking out!

Top 10s for 2009: Johan Gustavsson (Scraps of Tape, Tsukimono, Thee Gutted String)

New music from Thee Gutted String

Thee Gutted String, the pop/indie alias of Johan Gustavsson (Tsukimono, Scraps of Tape), has a bunch of new tracks at myspace including a Solander cover: http://www.myspace.com/theeguttedstring

Scraps of Tape
Grand letdown
A Tenderversion Recording

This band continues to evolve with every album and this, their third overall, finds them trying to incorporate more standard pop conventions into their particular brand of heavy postrock. There's still plenty of focus on long, interwoven guitar parts and complex arrangements, but there's also a lot more vocals than ever before and a renewed attempt at redefining and refining their sound. Bits of Fireside-esque post-hardcore gets intermingled with other, more contemporary post-indie/rock/whatever and the end result turns out to be a bit more schizophrenic and far less consistent than previous album "This is a copy is this a copy". However, at the same time, it's far more interesting to hear a band grow with each new release and that's certainly what SoT are doing and the tracks that do work well are easily their best material yet. For each misstep, such as two unnecessary and out of place cover tunes (A novelty slowcore version of Minor Threat's "Filler" plus "Eric" by the terminally underappreciated Carpet People), there is a stride forward. An inspired idea on paper, sure, and undoubtedly fun for the band to play, though not so hot in execution. I foresee "Grand letdown" as a transitional work, a bridge for things to come. It's worth noting too, that many of their peers are going through similar musical soul-searching (Aerial, Immanu El, etc.), all struggling to break free of expected genre trappings and all ending up in a slightly different place. So far, so good... let's see what happens next.
- Avi Roig

Mikael leaving Scraps of Tape, playing final Swedish show

Scraps of Tape will be playing their final Swedish gig with member Mikael Persson on Friday, October 23 at Debaser Malmö. The show will also serve as the kickoff for their European tour with Solander which begins on Saturday.

Scraps of Tape + Solander tour

Tenderversion Recording labelmates Scraps of Tape and Solander are heading out on the road together later this week:

10/24 - Reil 78, Halle (GER)
10/25 - Ponyhof, Frankfurt (GER)
10/26 - Immerhin, Würzburg (GER)
10/27 - Arena, Vienna (AUS)
10/28 - tba
10/29 - Grabenhalle, St. Gallen (CH)
10/30 - AMP, Münster (GER)
10/31 - Schokoladen, Berlin (GER)
11/01 - Astrastube, Hamburg (GER)

Scraps of Tape - Master blaster (live in Japan)

Check out video footage of Scraps of Tape playing live to 1500 people in Tokyo, Japan earlier tonight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBIAlHc1J5k

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.

Scraps of Tape in Japan

Swedish postrock act Scraps of Tape are heading to Japan in a few days for their 2nd tour in that part of the world:

09/19 - Club Quattro, Osaka
09/20 - Club Quattro, Nagoya
09/21 - O-East & Duo Music Exchange, Tokyo (Shibuya)
09/22 - O-Nest, Tokyo (Shibuya)

Tenderversion signs Solander

Tenderversion Recording (Scraps of Tape, September Malevolence, etc.) has announced the signing of Solander, the solo alias of Malmö resident Fredrik Karlsson (Fredrik, Vit Päls, Band In Box). Look for the debut album "Since we are pigeons" to be released this fall and a tour alongside labelmates Scraps of Tape in October. In the meantime, download a couple tracks including "Looking for gold" and their cover of Shellac's "Prayer to god".