Leavin the chart: Cat5, Her Space Holiday, Mattias Alkberg BD, Maxïmo Park, Ms Dynamite, The Cardigans, Turbonegro and Weeping Willows.
Norwegian black-metal legends Emperor will reunite for next year's Inferno Festival in Oslo in April and the big Wacken Open Air festival in August after playing a surprise 3-song gig at the Scream Magazine 15-year anniversary party in Oslo on Friday. I know a lot of people will be very excited about this, but the truth is that the band was never all that exciting live. Get me news about a new album and then maybe I'll be interested.
In related news, Emperor guitarist Samoth and drummer Trym's other band Zyklon will record their third album in November and vocalist/guitarist Ihsahn has a solo album due early next year.
Aftonbladet has streaming previews for the entire new Cardigans album "Super extra gravity": https://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/noje/story/0,2789,708005,00.html
Both Aversionline and Dark Dose have posted tracks from the seasonably appropriate Katatonia sideproject October Tide.
This week's top artists for the Itsatrap Audioscrobbler/Last.fm listening group:
01. Mew
02. Sigur Rós
03. Franz Ferdinand
04. Death Cab for Cutie
05. Randy
06. Architecture in Helsinki
07. Of Montreal
08. M83
09. I'm from Barcelona
I'd like to encourage all regular readers of this site who listen to music on their computers to join up so we can get an even better idea of what everyone is listening to. Go here for more: https://www.last.fm/group/itsatrap/
The latest Scandinavian music reviews from the German webzine Sellfish:
Club Killers - Two nights with...
Randy - Randy the band
Satanic Surfers - Taste the poison
Madrid will host the "Swedish Rockdays" on November 30 at Sala Arena. The festival will feature a number of Swedish bands from a multitude of genres and besides the main showcase gig, there will also be in-stores and radio shows. Acts slated to perform include Ebon Tale, A Sudden Burst of Optimism, The Skiller, Les Issambres and The Gain. More info: https://www.swedishrockdays.tk/
Namur reports that his third album "Songs from the valley of Baca" will not be ready for release this fall as originally expected, but will instead be out sometime next spring.
Surrounded has posted a live video of them performing the new song ""Thousand color clash" from their recent show at the Palladium in Växjö , Sweden: https://www.surrounded.se/
The Carny has posted a full album's worth of organ-driven big-band pop for free download: https://www.thecarny.com/musik.htm
The 9-member group plans to release a new mp3-ep later on this fall, too. Fans of older Weeping Willows should check these guys out.
Renown electronic label Merck Records (Lackluster, etc.) is giving up the ghost and will close up show sometime around mid-2006. Read the full statement: https://www.m3rck.net/
MP3: Hello Saferide - Nothing like you (when you're gone)
The hype around Hello Saferide really surprises me. Truth be told, I really shouldn't be all that surprised: cute girl, good voice, clever songs - what's not to like? That's a fairly standard formula for success right there. Actually, what gets me about Hello Saferide is something that Simon touches upon in his review. Compared to the world of interesting female singer/songwriters out there, Annika Norlin is just a plain ol' folkie. Simon seems to find that disappointing, but I'm totally okay with it. To be perfectly frank, I think a lot of those so-called more "challenging" artists just aren't very good (I won't name names today, sorry). But why are the indie kids so excited? I don't get it. Next thing you know, everyone's gonna be moving beyond dabbling in semi-hip stuff like Suzanne Vega to digging through Christine Lavin's discography. Who knows?
Hello Saferide - Nothing like you (when you're gone)
Talking to Teapots
s/t
self-released
"Talking To Teapots" is one of the most twee names for a band that I have heard for a long time. However, in reality this band is more emo than twee. Imagine an angrier version of The Lucksmiths. Apparently Talking To Teapots started out as a "dreadful boy band," way back in 1989. If this isn't a random fact made up by a bored press officer, I'm very impressed at such a transition. They've really nailed that lo-fi rock thing on the head. This is perhaps best showcased in "Toadstool song", which features crunching guitars and sliding solos. This one is a definite grower. Robbie Williams could learn a thing or two from this lot.
- Nick Levine
Sibiria
Norrlands Inland
Hybris
There's been a lot of fantastic music released this year, and two tracks that really kept my passion for great music burning have been Sibiria's "Christian Olsson" and "Ljusdal". The first one is a funny and thought provoking diatribe against a Swedish athlete who's taken his money and moved to Monaco. The latter one is actually one of the absolute most astonishing songs of this year, and it's very brave of Sibiria and Hybris (Sibiria's record label) to exclude this hit from the album. Anyway, this album is entirely sung in Swedish, and I wish I could say that this doesn't matter, but it really does matter, since the lyrics play a very important part on "Norrlands Inland". The record is a lot about how it's like growing up in Norrland, which is the northern parts of Sweden and constitutes of 54% of Sweden's total area but only 13% of its population (who said It's a Trap! isn't informative in a non-musical context!?), i.e. it's a pretty lonely and ultimately boring place to live in (I was born way up north in Sweden so I'm allowed to say this). Also, as far as I know, Sibiria is pretty much the same band as Vapnet, so hopefully they'll deliver another fantastic album under that moniker.
- Simon Tagestam