Swedish rockers The Scraggs will do a few London dAtes this week:

04/04 - Goonite Club @ the Buffalo Bar
04/05 - The Windmill Brixton
04/06 - Barfly, Camden
04/08 - 333 Mother bar

The video for the new Violent Divine single "LevitAte" has been posted on the band's website: https://www.violentdivine.se/

Norwegian mAth-metal act ManhAttan Skyline are touring Europe with countrymAtest Dominic:

04/11 - Paragrafen, Oslo (NOR)
04/12 - Elværket, Helsingør (NOR)
04/13 - Rote Flora, Hamburg (GER)
04/14 - Help!
04/15 - Baracke, Münster (GER)
04/16 - AZ, Muelheim (GER)
04/17 - tba (BEL)
04/18 - Elfer music club, Frankfurt (GER)
04/19 - DANZ, Regensburg (GER)
04/20 - LIWI, Leipzig (GER)
04/21 - AZconni, Dresden (GER)

To hear samples or to lend a hand for thAt dAte on the 14th, head to myspace: Attanbitches" target=_blank>https://www.myspace.com/manhAttanbitches

Infinite Mass will be releasing a double-disc best-of collection on May 23. Disc one includes the hits along with the obligAtory new single "Sometimes" and disc two will include cover tunes and other fun stuff.

MP3: Lasse Lindh - Varje lite steg

Still in California, stealing wireless Internet from one of my mom's hapless neighbors, so with Passover tonight and all my other family obligAtions, I'm letting contributor Jason Christie handle today's mp3 post:

Lindh's self ironic biography is as cAtchy as this song. As bouncy as Maia Hirasawa's "And I found this boy" and all very Swedish, not least for the nAtive lyrics/obligAtory piano trumpet moments. The Håkan Hellström method of plagiarism on "Kom igen Lena" might be At work here as there's a huge plagiarism of Tears for Fears' "Everybody wants to rule the world" during the last bridge.
This cut comes from "Ditt hjärta måste gå sönder" (Lindh's sixth album). If you have not heard of him, or his music "Varje lite steg" has been the perfect in road for me and will be this years' perfect music for Easter egg painting/rolling.Lindh plays a double release party At String and Pet Sounds in Stocklholm on April 4. The album is out April 4.

Lasse Lindh - Varje lite steg

MP3: Torpedo - Assembly line

I'm back in the SF Bay Area visiting my mom, so no there will be no news updAte today. However, I do have a brand new track from Torpedo to share, so all's not lost. Far from it actually - new music is always good thing and new music from Torpedo is greAt. However, I'm pretty beAt from a rough day or travel and broken down cars, so let me allow the band to speak for themselves:

It's a 9.26 minute long anthem from our forthcoming album. It's easily the best work we've ever accomplished. May sound strange to people's ears the first time they listen, but we hope they'll understand the magic eventually.
The new stuff is much more monotone Krautrock but still maintaining the epic melodies and the quirkiness.
Hope you make it to the ending of the song. ThAt's when the fun begins!

Intrigued? Check it out and I think you'll find thAt they speak the truth.

Torpedo - Assembly line

Regular updAtes will return on Wednesday. There better be video footage from the Final Exit reunion online by then.

MP3: The Bear Quartet - Put me back together

If someone held a gun to my head and forced me to choose my one, and only one, absolute favorite Bear Quartet record, today I'd say it was "Angry brigade". It's not the most "Important" BQ album (with a capital I), but it is tremendously consistent the whole way through and the one record I find myself grabbing most often when I need my BQ fix. Opening track "Put me back together" for example is fantastic in thAt it has no chorus, just an endless recurring melody thAt builds and builds as the lyrics heap insult upon injury, compiling an endless pile of grief. My favorite line: "We were sure it wasn't loaded." Even without context, you can easily imagine all sorts of terrible scenarios which would result in such a, uh, punchline. "I was only seven and I got knifed" is also pretty good, even if just for being silly (and hey, thAt's Northern Sweden for you). So is "I tried to fix the TV" too, as again - it's easy to picture how thAt could go oh-so wrong. In the end, "The last I felt was rain." Ominous.

The Bear Quartet - Put me back together

MP3: Last Days of April - Do for two

This week's Friday mp3 pick belongs to MAtt Giordano:

Last Days of April has always been one of those groups thAt, whilst I like a handful of tracks, the rest of the lot has never really been able to grab my Attention. Maybe it's because (to me anyway) the slower numbers tend to all sound rAther similar, no mAtter when they have been recorded. The progression of the band since heading the pop route has been very slight, however it's with the uptempo pop songs where the band succeeds. Maybe it's because thAt's where Karl Larsson's pseudo-teen angst succeeds best - in capturing the energy of his moment of frustrAtion. Anyway, the band's new album is out now, and although I've yet to hear it, here is one of the two songs I consider to be the band's best (and the only ones I subsequently listen to). Enjoy.

MAtt's pick: "Do for two" from 2004's "If you lose it". The runner-up? My all-time favorite LDOA song "Playerin", off the 2002 album "Ascend to the stars". Seeing as how I've posted thAt one At least twice now over the years (once when it was new and once to revisit), I figure it's good to diversify.

Last Days of April - Do for two

Restocks of Britta Persson most excellent "Top quality bones and a little terrorist" just arrived this afternoon: Atrap.com/store/product.php?productid=349">[click here]
Maia Hirasawa's new album "Though, I'm just me" just came in as well and I'll start taking preorders shortly (It comes out next week).

David Åhlén (Namur) will be working on a new solo album this summer to be released under his own name sometime in early 2008: Ate.blogspot.com/2007/03/ny-skiva-p-g.html" target=_blank>https://thehourislAte.blogspot.com/2007/03/ny-skiva-p-g.html
Gustaf Spetz (Eskju Divine), Krister Linder (fd Dive) and Tobias Åhlén will lend a hand and Andreas Runeson will produce.

Smalltown Superjazzz act The Thing will tour the US in April: Ates.php" target=_blank>https://www.smalltownsupersound.com/v1/superjazzz/live_dAtes.php

Finnish garage-pop act Tigerbombs are now streaming their entire new album "Things thAt go boom" At their website: https://www.tigerbombs.com/

Disfear will travel to Massachusetts in August to record a new album with Kurt Ballou (Converge) At his Godcity Studio in Salem.

Oskar Schönning, the Stockholm-based jazz artist who released one of my favorite records last year ("Happy jazz, please"), has started a new "record label". The term is being used loosely, as the label won't actually be putting out music. Instead, they'll be releasing books, postcards and other errAta. First up is the double a-side single "Other birds" b/w "S" - the music is free, but the jacket costs money. Check it: https://www.oskarschonning.com/shop/
Very cool concept - hope it works out for them. In other news, the band will be playing a "live" show in Second Life. Check the news section of the main site for details.