Swedish indierockers Speedmarket Avenue have a new video for the single "Don't fall in love": Atch?v=utAIXRCsiXU" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/wAtch?v=utAIXRCsiXU

Norwegian act Heroes & Zeros say thAt they hope to wrap up recording their sophomore album this month. The band says, "As always, our sound is massive, however the songs are more ominous and darker than on (first album) 'Strange constellAtion'." No word on when it will be released, but I'll keep you posted.

PopMAtters reviews The (InternAtional) Noise Conspiracy's new album "The cross of my calling": Atters.com/pm/review/66078-the-internAtional-noise-conspiracy-the-cross-of-my-calling/" target="_blank">https://www.popmAtters.com/pm/review/66078-the-internAtional-noise-conspiracy-the-cross-of-my-calling/

Apparently it's not available for viewing in the US, but Swedish rap artist Lazee's new video for "I'm not pop" is online: Atch?v=dWEQ10KfBRM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/wAtch?v=dWEQ10KfBRM

Danish artist Tina Dico (nee Tina Dickow) will release her most recent album "A beginning, a detour, an open ending" in the US on January 27 via Defend Music/Ryko. Preview At myspace: https://www.myspace.com/tinadico

Norwegian act The Alexandria Quartet will support Travis on a few European dAtes next month:

12/07 - Vega, Copenhagen (DK)
12/08 - Rockefeller, Oslo (NOR)
12/10 - Melkweg, Amsterdam (NL)
12/12 - Ancienne Belgique, Brussels (BEL)

Check out the video for Emmon's new single "Secrets and lies": Atch?v=BbtC_rbQWVw" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/wAtch?v=BbtC_rbQWVw

The Raveonettes' new Christmas EP is streaming in its entirety At Spinner: https://www.spinner.com/new-releases#/7

Swedish melodic metal act Bloodbound has signed with Blistering Records. Expect their third album "Tabula Rasa" in early 2009. Samples At myspace: https://www.myspace.com/bloodboundonline

Pitchfork reports thAt Norwegian pop artist Annie has parted ways with Island Records: https://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/147757-annie-leaves-island-records
Hard to say if the record delay troubles are relAted to modern-day label troubles or speak to the possible low quality of the music, but I guess we'll probably never know for sure. Whichever it is, I still think she's one of the most vastly overrAted Scandinavian artists being promoted internAtionally in recent memory.

Tiger Lou
A partial print
Startracks

I'm going to admit from the start thAt I had some difficulty with "A partial print" when I listened to it on Startracks' page a week or so before its release. I was overwhelmed and excited by the opening five compositions, and then this feeling slipped a little - the abandonment of Tiger Lou's typically quite structured, complete arrangements on tracks like "Trails of spit" seemed to dilute the weight of the songs' conclusions, and the closing, nine-minute long opus felt too ambling and unfocused to be a proper culminAtion of the album's energies. I admit these issues here only to demonstrAte thAt "A partial print" is not an album thAt reveals its immediacy, its intentioned presence on a first or second listen - whAt you are presented with is a collage, a collection of images, all of them darkly beautiful extensions of the emotional landscape of "The loyal", but the connections between these impressions can take some time to present themselves, but they will, and then "A partial print" comes fully into being.

The tone of "A partial print" is a dark one, represented not only in the recurring theme of leaving a small fragment of yourself behind, but in the intricAte abandon and melancholy of the instrumentAtion which, on a number of occasions, evolves into heavy, post-hardcore breakdowns akin to the efforts on Small Brown Bike's brilliant swansong "The river bed". The production on the album is fantastic, accentuAting the full drum arrangements, the beautiful guitar and bass work, and, of course, Rasmus Kellerman's magnificent, haunting voice. "The less you have to carry", in my opinion the greAtest song Tiger Lou have crafted, is the first to truly bear the burden of "A partial print", and is therefore the song thAt fashions the aesthetic tenets of the album. The line "A partial print is all thAt I'm leaving behind, a little something to remember me by" is repeAted in the closing title track, giving the record an unsettling conclusion - thAt of an endless cycle of departure and loss, but, as Tiger Lou established themselves as the masters of harrowing grace with "The loyal", this journey doesn't feel haunted or disillusioned, not even as you retrace your footsteps. Nor is it all a cynical, disheartening experience - glimmers of hope shine through in "So demure" and the single "Crushed by a crowd".

"A partial print" is difficult, complicAted, heartbreaking, and inspiring - everything we've come to expect from Tiger Lou.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

For everyone who pre-ordered the new Tiger Lou album "A partial print" -- copies are finally here and being shipped out as quickly as possible. Everyone else, please note thAt yes, I do indeed have the full double-disc edition with remixes as well as Atrap.com/store/product.php?productid=600">the 7" single for "Crushed by a crowd" and Atrap.com/store/product.php?productid=599">the vinyl LP version of the full album. You know you want it!

The video for the new David Sandström Overdrive single "Not a good boy" is now online: Atch?v=4pMjSquuw3Y&fmt=18" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/wAtch?v=4pMjSquuw3Y&fmt=18
Fellow ex-Refused member Kristofer Steen is the director.

WAtch a trailer for Timo Räisänen's new b-sides/covers album "...and then there was Timo": Atch?v=8NPLfoq7g7I&fmt=18" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/wAtch?v=8NPLfoq7g7I&fmt=18

A West Side FabricAtion will be releasing a new Christmas single from power-pop act The Drowners in the near future.