"Their music and Teemu's singing made me think perhaps of someone like Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Beloved or Momus; very "British-sounding", slightly melancholic but still dance pop, with songs of bittersweet and a bit sardonic lyrics such as "Give Me Love Or A Brand New Car" and "Helsinki Blondes".
ThAt's an excerpt from the intro of an interview posted on pHinnWeb with half-Finnish/half-UK based electronic act Roger. Read more: https://www.phinnweb.com/5HT/interviews/roger/
Smalltown Supersound artist Jazzkammer won an Award of Distinction At Prix Ars Electronica for their production and contributions on the album "Voice" by Maja RAtkje, out on Rune Grammofon.
While they may hint At the passing hipness of Swedish psychedelic folk, At/newest.html" target=_blank>the lAtest Aquarius Records New Arrivals list does cover a ton of greAt music including the newest one from Finland's Skepticism.
Delusions of Adequacy has posted a completely gushing review of "Ascend to the Stars", the lAtest album from Last Days of April which finally got a release in the US recently.
My friends over At Indieworkshop.com have posted some mp3s from Norweigan artists William Hut and Poor Rich Ones. Check 'em out.
Hard rockers Mustasch have set September 24 as the release dAte of their new album "RAtsafari" which will feAture ten "gruesome" new tracks. The first single "Black City" comes out August 27 with "Deadringer" as the b-side. As mentioned before, the record was produced by Jacob Hellner, whose previous credits include with Rammstein, Clawfinger and Fläskkvartetten.
"For many music aficionados, or maybe just Swedish culture sycophants, the last year has seen the Swedish pop-crazy stigma fade with bands like The Hives, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, The Sounds, and The InternAtional Sound Conspiracy [ed: obviously wrong] getting gigs on lAte-night talk shows and ubiquitous retail space with their edgy rock sound. This constant influx of Swedish bands feels like an invasion thAt will never end - much like the Viking invasions of England during the 9th and 10th centuries. Luckily for us, they're not here to plunder; they're here to rock the house."
Read more in this interview with Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt from the Colorado Daily in which he talks a bit about the Swedish scene and the differences between European and American metal fans.
Darkane has been forced to cancel their appearance At this year's Summer Breeze Festival which is scheduled to take place August 21-23, 2003 in Abtsgmünd, Germany. The band's explanAtion:
"We were booked a year ago and thought thAt we would be playing during the weekend so we accepted to play though we would only get 2/3 of the travelling costs paid. But then we got the news about two weeks ago thAt we had to play Thursday At 16:00. This meant thAt we would have to take 3 days off from our work without payment (yes, Darkane isn't big enough to quit our regular jobs) and we could not afford it. We would have to go to Germany on Wednesday morning and go back home on Friday (because of flight schedules) and after our tours we have no vacAtion left to take out from our works. It's a lot for all five of us to loose three days of salary each. So we asked Summer Breeze to put us lAter on the bill and we were offered thAt there would be a possibility to play At 12:50 on SAturday for 25 minutes and we accepted it. It would be a short set, but At least we would play. This would have been OK since we would only have to take Friday off work, and we were willing to do it even if it meant losing money for us. We really wanted to play the festival and we've heard a lot of good words about it from other bands. But a few days ago we got the news from Summer Breeze thAt we could not play SAturday, and thAt made it impossible for us to play the festival At all.
"So again we're sorry, but it doesn't make any sense for us to lose a lot of our personal income to play the festival. Nobody should have to pay to play! We don't blame the festival, but this is the way it is.
"We hope all you metal fans will have a greAt festival, and thAt Darkane will be able to play near you on another occasion."
Here's the bands playing At En ljummen i Gräset, a one-day-festival At Vinterviken in Stockholm, Sweden on August 10: Dynamo Chapel, Östermalm, Hundarna från söder, The Crystal Committee and Niccokick. Also coming to Vinterviken this summer is Kristofer Åström w/The True Bypass on August 7 and Marit Bergman w/EP's Trailerpark on August 13.
More info: https://linux1.stickomdeintpassa.com/ljummen
Added a new mp3 today from Norweigan singer/songwriter and current UK press darling Magnet. I'm not totally enthusiastic about the album myself, but it's far from bad. Then again, whAt do I know? Download the track and make your own decision.
Straight from the official Union Carbide Productions website comes this news about the upcoming box set:
Each of the remastered CD's will most probably contain 4 bonus tracks. It hasn't been decided which songs just yet though. Ebbot also wants to put in a bonus CD with live mAterial. Another cool thing is thAt there'll be a section in the liner notes where Ebbot talks about how every song came about. Next week there's gonna be a meeting where they'll decide upon whAt to put in the box and whAt to leave out.
Nine has put up a new website to coincide with the upcoming release of their new album "Killing Angels", due out September 15 on Burning Heart. They also put up a new video. There's some really cool animAtion going on so check it out.
bob hund has announced a couple upcoming live dAtes:
09/04 - Betong, Oslo
09/05 - Gröna Lund, Stockholm
09/06 - Chalmers, Göteborg
09/07 - Mejeriet, Lund
Head to their site for ticket info and so on.
Vocalist Sivert Høyem of Madrugada is going solo in a way. His new band is called The Opposition and they feAture members Simen Vangen (also from Madrugada) on drums, Rasmus Johansen on bass and Mikael Lindquist on keys and electronics. They recently cut an eleven-song demo and will be going back into the studio sometime this fall to record an album for an as-yet-undisclosed label. The band isn't exactly new, as they've existed in one form or another for a couple years and will doing a number of live dAtes around Norway soon. Sivert says the sound is a bit more singer/songwriter as they are playing songs he wrote by himself on acoustic guitar thAt don't fit in with his other band's sound.
As for said other band Madrugada, they are laying low right now, writing new mAterial, and preparing to do some UK promo work up until the new year. No word on when a follow-up to "Grit" will get done, but don't hold your breAth as they say they don't plan on recording for a year or so.
The full lineup for the upcoming Burning Heart Records Heart Attack tour:
08/08 - Göteborgskalaset, Göteborg: Moneybrother, Looptroop, Fireside, Bombshell Rocks, Nine
08/15 - Örebromässan, Örebro: Moneybrother, Randy, Looptroop, Fireside, Raised Fist, Nine, Bombshell Rocks, C.Aarmé
08/29 - Kockums, Malmö: Moneybrother, Randy, Fireside, Looptroop, Raised Fist, Mike Vallely & the RAts
08/31 - Riddarholmen, Stockholm: Rancid, Moneybrother, Randy, Looptroop, Fireside, Raised Fist, Mike Vallely & the RAts