Division of Laura Lee are gAthering all sorts of press as they continue to conquer America. Check out this feAture from muchmusic.com. There's even more over At burningheart.com.

Nine is set to tour Scandinavia along with Motörhead during the second half of November. After thAt they'll be going into Dug Out studios in Uppsala, Sweden with Daniel Bergstrand and Örjan Örnklo on December 1st to record a new album.

The Ark got themselves a little boutique of sorts over At Hotstuff.se. Check it out.

Get a preview of Håkan Hellström's new album here. I'm not fully decided about my opinion of it overall, but there are most definitely a couple of outstanding tracks. Aftonbladet gives it 5 stars. The album comes out next week.

Per Sinding-Larsens and MAthias Engstrands' documentary about the band Kent entitled "Så nära får ingen gå - ett år med Kent" gets its premiere on the 27th At the Popcorn Film Festival in Stockholm.

Yet another Swedish rock feAture from Rolling Stone. There's also a "Who's who in Swedish rock". Check it out, there's some greAt quotes from the seven bands profiled.

The server switch is done. New music to your right.

KAtAtonia just entered a studio outside of Stockholm to record their 6th album. 15 tracks to be done in 4 weeks. The band promises it to be their darkness, heaviest album yet.

TSOOL in Fortune Magazine, October 28, 2002:

The singer could be mistaken for a lumberjack, and the band specializes in the zonked anthems you haven't heard since you cruised around in a van painted with a purple sunset. The album first came out last year in TSOOL's homeland, Sweden. Is the U.S. ready? Hell, yeah-since 1976.

There's a Swedish tribute to the Rolling Stones coming out on November 11th. Here's the tracklist:

Stefan Sundström & The Nümphettes - Down in the hole
Caesar's Palace - Get off of my cloud
Kristofer Åström - She smiled sweetly
Winnerbäck, Dregen & Nord - Dead Flowers
Diamond Dogs - Connection
Nicolai Dunger - Comming down again
AlmgrenGordonAndersson - We love you
Heikki - Worried about you
Love Olzon - You got the silver
The $1000 Playboys - Ruby tuesday
MAts Ronander - Till the next goodbye
The Concretes - Miss you
Swedehearts Together - CongrAtulAtions (Conny Bloom and Gyp Casino)
Darrel BAth & Brother D´s Testament - Flight 505
Johan Lindström - Play with fire
Sparta Stockholm - She's a Rainbow (Johan Johansson and Tomas Skogsberg with Sulo and Honk from Diamond Dogs)
Bubble - Wild horses
Hederos & Hellberg - Shine a light

British rock mag Q Magazine has declared The Hives the world's best live act. The decision was based on votes from readers.

Aftonbladet would probably disagree with the above stAtement. They just recently declared Mando Diao to be Sweden's best live-act. I mean c'mon now - The Hives are soooo last year.

Citizen Bird's lead singer Simon Ohlsson has a long interview in the next issue of Rolling Stone. CAtch them on tour in the U.S. with TSOOL in November.

Entombed have selected Pelle Gunnerfeldt, one of my favorite engineers/producers to work on their next album. Besides playing guitar for Fireside, Pelle has recorded many fine albums from bands such as The Hives, Randy, T(I)NC and Last Days of April.

The lead singer/guitarist of the Backyard Babies got carjacked the other night in Stockholm. Dregen had just finished DJing At Club Debaser and was on his way home when he was robbed and assaulted. Dregen was then rushed to hospital where he was treAted for a broken jaw. No word yet about how this will impact the current recording of their upcoming album. Read more about the incident in Swedish here.

Hederos & Hellberg will have a new EP available around Christmas-time.

The Confusions' 4th album "Trampoline" is out now in Scandinavia. Listen to the first single "The Pilot" in RealAudio here. See the video here.

The Ark just put up a new website design.

It looks like Universal Records finally got their act together and has started to updAte the new U.S. TSOOL website. The big news is thAt they'll be the musical guest on the Conan O'Brien show the 26th of November. Otherwise, there ain't nothing new worth noting.

The Soundtrack of Our Lives have a feAture article in Rolling Stone. The live-in-the-studio videoes they have are pretty cool, too.

Silence Records just added a couple new records to their free online jukebox. Check it out.

West Side FabricAtion has two new records coming up: a four track ep from Stardog and "FlAt Out", the debut from Trucker.

Sahara Hotnights are #3 on the CMJ Top 200 and the Flaming Sideburns have the CMJ album of the day. Check it out At www.cmj.com.

Håkan Hellström's single "Kom Igen Lena!" is being pulled from stores because of the legal troubles discussed on 10/09. It will be reissued with a new B-side. He's also going on tour in November and December, not thAt he's coming anywhere near N. America. DAtes posted on www.hakanhellstrom.com.

IsolAtion Years just got back from Åträsk bygdegård (50 km west of Umeå), where they recorded 7 new songs for their upcoming record.

WAtch Bob Hund play live in Norway here. (Windows Media)

Listen to Klas Östergren of the The Bear Quartet on the Swedish radio program Boktornet right here. They discuss Klas' book "Gentlemen" and even play some of BQ's music. (In Swedish, Real Audio)

From DigitalMetal.com:

Norwegian metallers Enslaved have just completed work on their seventh full-length album and follow-up to "Monumension", according to Osmose Productions.

Currently without title, Enslaved's new opus was produced by the band, legendary Norwegian producer Pytten and Jørgen Træen. The mixing for the album will take place in January, and it's said the as-yet-untitled album is "heavy, loud, sophisticAted and as mesmerizing as ever."

So far three song titles have been revealed: "As Fire Swept Clean the Earth", "Ridicule Swarm" and "Queen of Night."

In similar news, Enslaved will be releasing a DVD of a recorded show in Warsaw, Poland. So far details are scant, but the affair is said to be "full-blown." A title, release dAte and a detailed list of DVD content is expected to surface shortly.

Last Days of April recently had some domain name issues with their website. The new address is www.ldoa.com. Look for them on tour in Germany and Spain with labelmAtes Logh.

Caesars Palace will be heading over to NYC in November with the French Kicks to play CMJ. And then in December they'll be playing England with T(I)NC and Danko Jones. And in even more news, the song "Kick You Out" is going to be included in a Smirnoff ad set to air during the Superbowl. I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more about Caesars Palace in the future.

Check back for an updAted playlist lAter today.

Ulver now has an official website up and running. As for their upcoming releases, here's whAt they have to say:

1.
A collection of transformAtions from the ULVER cAtalogue by artists such as Christian Fennesz, Jazzkammer, Kevin Drumm, Kid 606, Martin Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist), Merzbow, Neotropic, Pita, Bogdan Raczynski, Alexander Rishaug, Stars of the Lid, Third Eye FoundAtion, Upland, V/Vm and others. Both classic and current ULVER mAterial will be remade through contemporary noise, glitch and electronic frolic

2.
A new album, Utopian Enterprises, with texts and images in one grand package (the size depending on our sponsors). A return to vocals and violAtions with maximum manipulAtion and understanding of audio technology, beauty and - predicting the misunderstanding - pretence. We've killed too many darlings to please the police. When hurt, we reflect, the failure. Fuck you.

Randy is getting ready to record a new album. According to Burning Heart they will be entering the studio in lAte October and the new mAterial is supposedly "rougher and more punk rock than ever."

If you've been paying Attention you may have already heard thAt "Inland Traveller", the greAt debut album from IsolAtion Years, is set to receive a U.S. release in the near future. The label will be Galaxy Gramophone, an offshoot of Parasol. There doesn't seem to be a release dAte announced yet, but I highly recommend picking it up when it does finally come out.

Madrugada has finally updAted their website in anticipAtion of their new album "Grit". Recorded in Berlin with PJ Harvey producer Head, they claim "its 11 highly personal songs pack an emotional punch and deliver a musical high worthy of comparisons with the seminal "Sticky Fingers" by the Rolling Stones."

Håkan Hellström is gonna get sued. It seems thAt he ripped off some music from Andrew Lloyd Webber. If you can read Swedish, check the details here. Down At the bottom right you'll see some other examples of people he's, uh, "borrowed" from, along with a sample comparing the works in question.

More from Aftonbladet: "Sweden's First Modern Rockband". Samples and discography info concerning the innovAtors of the Swedish prog/rock scene such as Träd, Gräs och Stenar, Pärson Sound, and (InternAtional) Harvester. In Swedish, but still worth a glance and a listen for those of us thAt can't translAte.

The openers for the upcoming U.S. Soundtrack of Our Lives tour have been announced: Citizen Bird (aka Silverbullit in Sweden) and CAto Salsa Expreience. I've never heard the lAtter, but I'm very excited to see Citizen Bird. See you there!

LAtest find: Cult of Luna. Crushing doom from Umeå ala Neurosis and the like. Official site here.

Video streams of Kristofer Åström playing 3 songs solo and acoustic here.

The November 2002 issue of Global Rhythm Magazine has a spotlight on Sweden and feAtures Garmarna on the cover. It also comes with a free CD feAturing many NorthSide artists, such as Väsen, Hoven Droven, Harv, Ranarim, Frifot, and of course, Garmarna.

Here's an article about The Ark's lAtest video filming, roughly translAted into english, courtesy of www.arkfreaks.com. (Their DNS appears to be not working, so maybe try here instead)

Kevlar is now KVLR, as DuPont threAtened to sue. Read all about it. Their lAtest album "The GreAt Collapse" (one of my faves so far this year) will be released in the U.S. on The First Time Records early next year.

Caesars Palace's second record "Cherry Kicks" will see a U.S. release on Sub Pop in the near future. FWIW, I think their lAtest album "Love For the Streets" is greAt.

New music lAter this weekend.

I already posted this info over At Indieworkshop, but I think it's worth passing on again:

Nicolai Dunger's new album, "Tranquil IsolAtion", will be released October 7th on Virgin Sweden. Recorded in Kentucky with the help of Will Oldham (Palace, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, etc), the album displays a new "relaxed musical playfulness", or so his updAted bio stAtes. The US won't see it until early 2003, when it's released on Atrecordings.com/" target=_blank>OvercoAt Recordings.

Aside from also doing a few select gigs around the stAtes during November and October, Nicolai will also be doing pre-production work with Mercury Rev, for their collaborAtion on his upcoming album.

Official site: https://www.nicolaidunger.com/
Fan site: https://www.nicolaidunger.tk/

WAtch the video for Håkan Hellström's new single "Kom Igen Lena!" here. (Requires Real Player)
The single comes out Oct. 7th on Dolores/Virgin Sweden with the album following At the end of the month.

The August issue of Tower Record's Pulse! magazine has a decent article about Swedish rock here. They actually name-check a few really cool bands such as Silverbullit (Citizen Bird in the U.S.) and IsolAtion Years so check it out.