MOG best of by:Larm mix
MOG has created a Best of by:Larm-themed Scandinavian music mix for download/streaming: http://mog.com/MOG_Features/blog/1884075
Country: Finland
Cats on Fire to Cali, China
Finnish indiepoppers Cats on Fire have lined up a few international dates:
05/29 - HungryBeat, Los Angeles, CA
05/30 - Rickshaw Shop (San Fransisco Popfest), San Fransisco, CA
06/12 - Songs for Children, Hong Kong, China
I Walk the Line video interview
Stalker Music interviews Finnish punkrockers I Walk the Line: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDEETAXyjFc (in Finnish w/English subtitles)
Viola - Chaos shall reign!
Finnish synthpop act Viola are celebrating the 1st anniversary of their free singles club with something completely different: http://www.violamusicclub.com/2010-04-chaos-shall-reign
Cobra Records to release new Presley Bastards album
will be releasing the new album "Lifelines" from Finnish punk/hardcore act Presley Bastards (ex-Endstand) either late this month or in early May. Read all about it: http://cobrarecords.fi/?n=15
New Disco Ensemble album gets release date
has confirmed May 26 as the release date for the new Disco Ensemble album "The island of Disco Ensemble".
Electric butt? Really?
Finnish music site on the clever marketing schemes of Wedding Crashers: http://www.glue.fi/2010/03/30/wedding-crashers-electric-butt/
Despite the embarassing title, I actually do think it's an okay track.
Pitchfork: What's the matter with Sweden
Pitchfork covers the topic of government/public support for the arts in Sweden/Scandinavia and beyond: http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7776-whats-the-matter-with-sweden/
Sirius playlist week #13
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. Brothers of End - Beats for you (Rasmus Hägg remix)
02. TALK 1
03. Haust - A final effort
04. Rasmus Kellerman - Five years from now
05. Echo Is Your Love - Playlist song
06. EL-SD - Walking sideways
07. TALK 2
08. Axe - Harm
09. Khoma - From the hands of sinners
10. Zeigeist - Bunny
11. C.Aarmé - Assuan
12. TALK 3
13. The Fine Arts Showcase - This is the day
14. Sonic Ritual - Early graves
15. Death By Kite - Pills
16. Susanne Sundfør - O master
17. TALK 4
18. Simian Ghost - Star receiver
19. Moloken - Untitled III
20. Darkthrone - I am the graves of the 80s
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.
Moshi Moshi to release single from Villa Nah
Finnish act Villa Nah will be releasing a 7" via 's famed singles club featuring the track "Running on" b/w "Ways to be". Official release date is May 3, listen to the flipside at myspace: http://www.myspace.com/villanah
The duo's new full-length album "Origin" comes out on May 17 via /
Rubik
Dada bandits
Fullsteam Records/Paper Tiger AV
Critics are apt to hear "Dada bandits" opener "Goji berries" and label Rubik as frenzied pop auteurs, a sort of Scandinavian Animal Collective. And "Goji berries" does go from screamo-addled Beatles to punchy-drunk keys punctuated by Sufjan flutes, to a Dan Bejar saloon romp that segues into a typically eastern Beirut horn jam. While "Goji"'s schizoid scheme is certainly noteworthy -- it seamlessly switches gears and genres while never betraying its Nordic pop sensibility -- it's hardly metonymical of the album at large. Yes, Rubik's "Bandits" lifts considerably from all of the best in blog-ready sounds, but they do so with the canvases of entire songs. What results is not, strangely, a sugar-coated Scando take on guitar indie, but a rolodex of an album with a virtuoso aesthetic. Rarely is a musical contact called upon twice, and even after repeated listens, you're left reeling at the incredible scope of an album that's stacked like the Yankees.
"Goji berries" phantom-tempo midsection precedes the Canadian guitar battalion of "Radiants", "Wasteland" borrows Idioteque percussion before settling for an anthemic power pop chorus. "Fire Age" and "Richard Branson's crash landing" are album highlights, the former plotting Stars' vocals around a ska-synth breakdown, the latter a glimpse of Scandinavian twee perfection. Its swirling synths wash beneath upbeat melodies and falsetto-and-horns chorus to convince you that this is what Loney Dear's "Dear John" should have been. Rubik reloads and refires, each song an impressive foray into new sonic territory, strung together by catchy hooks and wiry guitars, underpinned by the astonishing depth of the arrangements. It's only on the fifth or six listen that you even hear the complex synth arpeggios buried under "Karhu junassa", or the jaunty riffs beneath "Fire age".
There's little bad to be said about this album. The mix occasionally favors layered instrumentation over Artturi Taira's vocals -- much of the album finds Taira swimming in his own arrangements. While that's likely a tactic to secure more Finnish listeners in their native country, it obscures the beauty of Taira's lyrics. His voice can adequately be characterized as "British Effeminate" indicative of all of those post-Radiohead mope-and-hope rockers that plagued the aughts in Western Europe. But Taira's falsetto exchanges their currency of faux-pathos for a well-placed sense of urgency, his yelps best on "Karhu junassa" and "Radiants" when buttressed by instrumental imitation.
So where is this album? It's tailored for the blogs in almost every way, it has registered heaps of e-praise, yet Rubik has no plans to return to North . Maybe this album will be saved from obscurity by a forward-thinking movie director or cell-phone marketing exec, and maybe it won't. I might just like it better if it remains a diamond in the rough -- quietly pretending to 2010's indie throne.
- Nathan Keegan
Disco Ensemble to work with Despotz abroad
have picked up Finnish hardcore/indie act Disco Ensemble for their roster.
Combat Rock to reissue Endstand and Manifesto Jukebox LPs in May
is expanding their Finnish punk + hardcore vinyl reissue business and will be releasing two old LPs from a pair of the label's more recent acts: Endstand - "Never fall into silence (, 2002) and Manifesto Jukebox - "Desire" (, 2000). No exact release date yet, but they should both be available in May.
New Cats on Fire collection in May
Finnish indie act Cats on Fire will be releasing the new odds'n'ends collection "Dealing in antiques" on May 12 via , compiling together much of the band's old EP and single material along with two new tracks including recent download-only single "The Hague" and a cover of "Your woman" by White Town.
Moto Boy live in a Finnish garage (video)
Watch Moto Boy perform a couple songs in a Helsinki parking garage: http://vimeo.com/10287852
I tend to prefer the live versions of his songs, so this is definitely worth checking out as far as I'm concerned.