No Shame to film live DVD
Finnish punks No Shame will be filming their upcoming gigs at Semifinal in Helsinki on April 8-9 for an eventual DVD release.
Juv: dark ambient brought to light
Coming out at the end of the month via , the self-titled debut 2xLP/CD from Juv aka Norwegian experimental/noise artists Are Mokkelbost and Marius von der Fehr, a collaboration finally seeing the light of day fourteen long years after it was initially conceived. Read more in this interview conducted by Erik Skodvin of Svarte Greiner: https://www.miasmah.com/recordings/juv/juv_interview.html
Ex-EST drummer Magnus Öström to release album
Ex-Esbjörn Svensson Trio drummer Magnus Öström will be releasing his first album as a bandleader on April 24, "Thread of life", which I guess puts it in direct competition with his old bandmate. Not that the two have beef, Dan Berglund guests on the tribute track "Ballad for E" along with renown guitarist Pat Metheny while the rest of the album features Andreas Hourdakis on guitars, Gustaf Karlöf on keyboards and Thobias Gabrielson on bass. Read more at Magnus' website: https://www.magnusostrom.com/
New Dan Berglund album in late April
has announced that Dan Berglund's new album "Allt är idioternas fel" will be released the week of Easter, which I presume means April 25?
PopMatters interviews The Concretes
PopMatters interviews The Concretes: https://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/131665-no-more-trouble-an-interview-with-the-concretes/
Atlas Losing Grip to Black Star Foundation
has signed the excellent Swedish melodic punk act Atlas Losing Grip and will be releasing the band's new album "State of unrest" on May 28. Listen to some tunes at Bandcamp: https://atlaslosinggrip.bandcamp.com/
Marcus Price & Carli - Bubbelgum (video)
"Bubbelgum" is the new single from Marcus Price and Carli (Savage Skulls) and it's officially released on March 1 via .
Lemonator - Superb (classic video)
Speaking again of 90s nostalgia, how 'bout this old Lemonator clip from 96? I seriously had no idea those dudes used to go off so hard! Pretty exciting to have stumbled across it over the weekend.
Momofoko - What you want to hear (video)
I started to write something about how disgruntled this sort of mundane indie/dance/disco-pop makes me, but I decided to delete it because it was getting far too mean-spirited compared to how innocuous the track really is. Momofoko's new single, "What you want to hear", is officially released on March 5 while the band's upcoming full-length "Momoism" follows on April 15. Direct link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-POKiGkGgs
Pacific! confirm new single
Swedish pop act Pacific! will be releasing the new single "Unspoken" (featuring Sarah Assbring/El Perro Del Mar) on April 18 along with the usual slew of probably-useless b-side remixes. Preview it at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyCX26pazdE
This week's Last.fm chart
Here is the It's a Trap! listening group top 10 artists of the week unique to our group:
01. Håkan Hellström
02. Familjen
03. Bright Eyes
04. Veronica Maggio
05. Those Dancing Days
06. The Radio Dept.
07. Cut Copy
08. Säkert!
09. James Blake
10. Broder Daniel
Do you listen to music on your computer or with an iPod? Please join us and make your playlist count! Go here to learn more: https://www.last.fm/help/
MP3: First Love, Last Rites - Always too late
mRa called it. Both that First Love, Last Rites made a killer, time-out-of-place indie record and also that opening cut "Always too late" is a stellar example of such. Like he says, great refrain, great emotional content. I concur completely. Love the false ending too. And yes, the kids are most definitely blowing it. Was just having a conversation with folks a few days ago about Swedish indiepop and they seemed shocked when I asserted that the scene is tiny despite the presence of many world-class bands. Are teenagers still forming bands 'round this stuff or are they just plugging away at their laptops, vying for a space on Altered Zones? If they are, I'm not hearing it. Prove me wrong, I welcome it.
New music on the way from Catridge
Danish act Cartidge will be releasing a new 6-song EP called "Liquid" this spring via . The first single, "Saint song", is out now and can be heard at the band's website: https://www.cartridge.dk/
Viktorious weekends
Viktorious, the solo act of Viktor Norén from Sugarplum Fairy, is giving away a new track every week for the next eight weeks at his website: https://viktorious.net/
First Love, Last Rites
s/t
Nomethod
I've been waiting for a band like this from Umeå for a long time. Seems like good indie bands were all over the place in Norrland about 15 years ago and then just disappeared. I like the emotional content here, the refrain for the first song, "Always too late", is sooo good. I knew they were gonna do something good after "Slow wind", I was surprised they were so quick to get an album out. Sundsvallstidsningen thought the record sounds like it's out of phase. I thought that was really funny. There was a lot of moments like that in the music press around the indie wave of the 90s. Some Lundell-nut at DN had to review the first Brick record and struggled to reference Sebadoh, and then struggled to reference 'country' when he has to review the new Sebadoh. As a teenage indie-geekasaurus, there was the sense that the adults were blowing it. Now the kids are blowing it instead. Anyway this is a brilliant pop-record which has a lot of great great moments, my particular faves being the opening track, "Slow wind" and the title track, a moody instrumental that builds. And no, the record is not out of phase. In fact, it sounds perfect.
- Mathias Rask-Andersen