A new mp3 today from Last Days of April. Nice melancholic pop music.

The Sahara Hotnights are coming back to the US. The dates so far: (w/Ikara Colt and Washdown)

2/27, 2003 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
2/28, 2003 Hoboken, NJ Maxwells
3/01, 2003 Philadelphia, PA North Star
3/02, 2003 Washington, DC Black Cat
3/03, 2003 Richmond, VA Alley Katz
3/05, 2003 Atlanta, GA The Echo Lounge
3/06, 2003 Jacksonville, FL Jack Rabbits
3/07, 2003 Orlando, FL The Social
3/14, 2003 Austin, TX Stubb's (SXSW)
3/31, 2003 Detroit, MI The Shelter

And the winners of the Rockbjörnen are...

Best male: Håkan Hellström
Best female: Robyn
Best group: Kent
Best song: Kom igen Lena (Håkan Hellström)
Best album: Vapen och Ammunition (Kent)
Best newcomer: The Sounds

Also from Aftonbladet on occasion of the Rockbjörnen, a transcription of a live chat with The Cardigans. More here. (in Swedish)

Deathprod (Supersilent, ex-Motorpsycho) was interviewed on the BBC Radio 3 program Mixing It yesterday. Listen to an archive of the program here.

Lullacry's new album "Crucify My Heart" will hit North America on April 8from Century Media. The first single already went straight to #5 on the finnish charts right on its initial release.

The Hellacopters are going on a Scandinavian tour beginning in late February. The dates:

2/27 - Malmö, KB
2/28 - Helsingborg, Tivoli
3/01 - Lund, Blender@Tegnérs Matsalar
3/07 - Halmstad, Diezel
3/08 - Karlskoga, Wictoria
3/11 - Halden (N), Studenthuset
3/12 - Stavanger (N), Folken
3/13 - Oslo (N), Rockefeller
3/14 - Bergen (N), Hulen
3/15 - Trondheim (N), Studentersamfundet
3/26 - Åre, Bygget
3/27 - Sälen, HC
3/28 - Umeå, Umeå Open

Also from The Hellacopters is a new 4-colored, 52-page comicbook called "The Hellacopters - Beamed Into Deep-Space". Honest! Read more from the artist Dennis Eriksson:

You will get a close-up look at The Hellacopters backstage, see them fight and even follow them in space! The band will meet characters like Florinda Flames, Dawn Daggers and The Regulator. They are all featured in my web-comic - Francis Rove. I found the whole concept to fit very well together with The Hellacopters so all I had to do was to introduce the band into the world of Francis Rove!
Henke Walse, who does all of The Hellacopters' prints, thought it'd be a cool idea to do a Hella-comic. Since I've previously been involved with the making of an animated video for the band ("Move Right Outta Here") I felt pretty comfortable with making a Hella-comic. Nicke wanted it to feature a great deal of "rock, space and sci-fi". That was his only request. So keep an eye out for the sequel!!

Get a preview of it here, here, or here.

Check out a profile on the Norweigan singer Solveig Slettahjell right here. Judging from the 30-sec sample, she does that jazzy torch-song kinda thing.

Get a preview of the new single "Daydream Receiver" from Askil Holm.

The Cardigans filmed the video for the new single "For What It's Worth" in Africa under the direction of Amir Chamdin from Infinite Mass. Read more about it here. (in Swedish)

Launch.com has the new Sahara Hotnights for the song "Alright Alright" directed by Jeff Tremaine of 'Jackass' fame. The link is here. Personally, I think the live footage is cool, but the buffonery is pointless and unfunny. Why bother?

Check out samples of the new album from The Knife, "Deep Cuts". It comes out Friday.

Lots of new stuff happening with Logh. First of all, the new "Ghosts" 7" is now available from Bad Taste Records' webshop and will be in stores on the 20th. The a-side is the title track and the b-side is the unreleased song "White As Snow". Only 1000 copies pressed and 100 on white vinyl, so act fast. The vinyl version of the full-length has been delayed (yet again) because of a printing error, but should be ready soon. And just like the single, there will be limited edition white vinyl. The band is still hard at work on their new album, too. Look for a teaser mp3 on their website soon. And finally, you can hear the band's show from Emmabodafestivalen 2002 on P3 Radio January 29 at 9pm. That's 9pm local time in Sweden, noon Pacific.

The new Buck CDEP "Rock Dream" is available for mailorder from Startracks or Kasual, but won't be in stores until February. The record contains five new exclusive tracks.

Soilwork and Children of Bodom are teaming up for a European tour. The dates so far:

4/18 - Stockholm, SWE at Arenan
4/19 - Oslo, NOR at Rockefeller
4/20 - Gothenburg, SWE at Kåren
4/21 - Lund, SWE at Mejeriet
4/22 - Hamburg, GER at Markthalle
4/23 - Halle, GER at Easy Schorre
4/25 - Berlin, GER at Columbia Fritz
4/26 - Hardenberg, NETH at Podium
4/27 - Bochum, GER at Zeche
4/28 - Nürnberg, GER at Hirsch
4/29 - Frankfurt, GER at Batschkapp
5/01 - Sheffield, UK at Corperation
5/02 - London, UK at Marquee
5/03 - Antwerpen, BEL at Hof Ter Loo
5/04 - Tilburg, NETH at 013
5/05 - Paris, FRA at Elysee Montmatre
5/06 - Bordeaux, FRA at Theatre Barbey
5/08 - Porto, POR at Hard Club
5/09 - Madrid, ESP at Aqualung
5/10 - Barcelona, ESP at Razzmatazz II
5/11 - Bergara, ESP at Sala Jam
5/13 - Lyon, FRA at Ninkasi
5/14 - Pratteln, SWI at Z7
5/15 - Innsbruck, AUT at Hafen
5/16 - Salzburg, AUT at Rockhaus
5/17 - Wien, AUT at Planet Music
5/18 - Ludwigsburg, GER at Rockfabrik
5/19 - Osnabrück, GER at Hyde Park

Mattias Hellberg, one half of the now-defunct duo Hederos and Hellberg, will be releasing a solo album. Details soon.

Dolores Recordings has a new website design. Some news from them:

The new Håkan Hellström will be for "Den Fulaste Flickan I Världen" with a double b-side of "Kom igen Lena!" (Blåser iväg dig-version/Blow you away version?) and "Gråsparven När Hon Sjunger" (Live from Mejeriet). It'll be out on February 17 with a video to come soon, too.
The next record from the Dolores Single Club is "Love Is All" by Josefin of the band Girlfrendo with "Cut City" from one of the members of Kid Commando. No date yet.
As usual, Broder Daniel is reportedly hard at work on a new record. Henrik supposedly has the thing written, they just need to record it. There will be a Single Club release, too.
Paola's next single will be for the song "Interstellar Love" and it comes out on February 17.

Nightwish are set to enter the studio late this year to record the follow up to "Century Child" for a release sometime before summer 2004. The band also plans to play just one finnish festival this summer with maybe a few other European ones in the works. In other news, the band will be releasing their second DVD on May 26 through Spinefarm Records. It will contain 12-14 songs along with various promo videos, behind-the-scenes footage, and some live clips.

Marduk has signed a licensing deal for the US with The End Records for release of their upcoming album "World Funeral". No date has been set yet.

Here's a short little article with some info concerning the next record from The Soundtrack of Our Lives. Drummer Fredrik makes comments. (in Swedish)

Beyond Dawn has had the new album "frysh" pushed back to March. In other news, a video is being made for the track "Among the Sedatives" by Vildensky featuring "clip-art animation of the band performing various heroic deeds."

I had no idea, but KEXP Seattle has a great archive of live-in-the-studio recordings of bands such as The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Sahara Hotnights, Kings of Convenience, Cato Salsa Experience and much much more. Check it.

Enter to win a $250 gift certificate for Ben Sherman from The Soundtrack of Our Lives and Filter mmm here.

Vote for your choices in the Swedish Alternative Music Awards (SAMA) right here. Vote for one of nominees or write in your own choice.

Joakim Thåström will be releasing a live EP on January 24. It's called "Thåström på Röda sten" and will feature six tracks from his Kalas tour performance in Göteborg last summer and the video for "Släpp aldrig in dom".

Here's the nominees for the P3 Guld awards:

Best female artist
Awa Manneh - "Sounds Like Me"
Frida Snell - "Black Trillium"
Marit Bergman - "3.00 A.M. Serenades"
Paola - "Stockcity Girl"
Robyn - "Don't Stop The Music"

Best male artist
Christian Kjellvander - "Songs from a Two Room Chapel"
Håkan Hellström - "Det är så jag säger det"
Stephen Simmonds - "For Father"
Thåström - "Mannen som blev en gris"
Timbuktu - "Wått´s Dö Madderfakking Diil"

Best group
Caesars Palace - "Love for the Streets"
The Hellacopters - "By the Grace of God"
Kent - "Vapen & ammunition"
Looptroop - "The Struggle Continues"
Mando Diao - "Bring ´Em In"

Best newcomer
The Sounds
Melody Club
Paola
Mando Diao
Marit Bergman

Best song
"Calleth You Cometh I" - The Ark
"Dom Andra" - Kent
"Keep This Fire Burning" - Robyn
"Kom igen, Lena!" - Håkan Hellström
"Someone New" - Eskobar feat Heather Nova

Best live artist
The Ark
Doktor Kosmos
The Hellacopters
Marit Bergman
Looptroop

More info and voting here.

The Hellacopters latest record "By the Grace of God" has gone gold in Sweden with sales of over 30k. It's their 2nd gold album, the first being "High Visibility".

Finland's Enternal Tears of Sorrow have broken up. The statement from the band:

With mixed feelings we have to announce that Eternal Tears of Sorrow have decided to split up. EToS have been on a break since March 2002. During the break, it has become obvious that it is time to quit.
This band started as a free-time activity about ten years ago. As we got more success, we also needed to give more and more of our time to the band. Day by day, we realised the band had become a full-time job for us. Now it's time to move on and do something different. This band achieved much more than we could imagine when we formed up this band.

However, we don't stop making and playing music. Check out the official EToS website regularly for information about the members and their other projects and bands. The site has been online for almost seven years now and will remain as it is. Only the address has changed: www.etos.tk.

We thank all our fans for support! A huge number of nice things happened to us between 1994 and today, thanks to you! On behalf of Eternal Tears of Sorrow in early January 2003, Jarmo Puolakanaho & Altti Veteläinen (the founding members)

Dave Lombardo (Slayer!) plays on four songs from the new upcoming Apocalyptica record "Reflections". If you didn't already know, Apocalyptica is the finnish cello trio made famous for their covers of Metallica songs.

Quite a few people seem to be coming here looking for that Christian Kjellvander mp3 I had up awhile ago, so what the heck - I put it back up. A lot of people say his album is one of the year's best, so check it out.

Here's a bunch of new videos from over at MTVE.com. Some of the featured artists: The Sounds, Mando Diao, Loop Troop and more.

Dub Sweden's new album "Welcome To Our World" will be out January 31 on Silence. The single "Walk Me Home" will be out January 13.

16 year-old blues guitarist Little Chris will have his debut record out December 27 on Stockholm Records. The first single will be "5:15".

Vote for your choices in the NRJ Radio awards right here. Categories include the best in Swedish, Nordic, finnish and Danish music plus a couple internation categories.

"We just believe in what we do," singer/bassist Jonas Gustavsson said matter-of-factly. "If I wasn't 100 percent sure that I'm in one of the best bands in the world, I wouldn't be here."

Check out this MTV.com 'You Hear it First' feature on Division of Laura Lee. The band will also be back in America for a new tour starting in mid-January. The confirmed dates so far:

01/15/2003 Brooklyn, NY Southpaw
01/18/2003 Boston, MA TT Bears
01/23/2003 Detroit, MI Small's
01/25/2003 Minneapolis, MN 400 Bar
01/27/2003 Boulder, CO Tulagi
01/31/2003 Portland, OR Satyricon
02/01/2003 Seattle, WA Crocodile Cafe
02/03/2003 San Francisco, CA Bottom of the Hill
02/05/2003 Los Angeles, CA Troubadour

I encoded Kristofer Åström's performance from the Crossing Borders fest (see 12/03) into mp3s. They sound pretty darn good, too. Check it out on the right.

Cult of Luna's new album "The Beyond" will be released February 10 on Earache Records. Fans of bands such as Breach or Neurosis should take note.

Opeth has an audio feature on the New York Times website. It requires you register before listening, but it's free and a good listen. Check it.

Listen to some mp3s from Philemon Arthur & the Dung, er "and the Vic", that were done using a Commodore 64 right here.

Lars Winnerbäck is working on a new album. The tentative tile is "Söndermarken" and it should be out March 3. He's also confirmed to do some touring around Scandinavia beginning late March and I do believe that tickets will be on sale soon.

The finnish black metal/folk band Finntroll is in the process of recording a new EP for release in the spring next year. The music is apparently more "acoustic/experimental" and they describe one of the already-completed tracks as "a bit like what happens if you crossbreed Midgårds Söner, Bal-Sagoth and Danny Elfman's various works." They go on further to say that there are "some surprises coming up, maybe some Oi!-influences and more evil and more 'disturbed' stuff." As for the search to replace their departed vocalist Katla, they added:

Whatever happens concerning the studio, one thing is for sure: Katla will take care of every single lyric and song title on the album. We are trying some new fellows, and may actually have already decided who it will be, but I can't give any proper information until we all have agreed about it. Most likely Katla won't sing in the album, and thus we have two alternatives left: Either we find a suitable, non-compromising (no second-rate trolls approved!) brutal, trollish and evil vocalist.....or then we do the screeching and roaring by all of the members left. How we do that on stage then, is another and a very good question indeed. However, most likely a new vocalist will step in."

Dan Swanö will be holding a listening party and online chat for his band Nightingale on December 8 from 6 to 8pm Eastern Time. They will be playing the entire new album "Alive Again" along with various selections from Swanö's vast ouvere. To listen go to https://www.seismicradio.com/ and click the 'listen' tab. To join the chat, either click the 'chat' button on the site or log onto IRC using server irc.forestnet.org, port 6667, room #seismic.

Guess what I found? Check out The Soundtrack of Our Lives playing live on Conan O'Brien: Real / Windows
Look for em on Late Night with David Letterman January 16!

The Swedish jazz trio Esbjörn Svensson Trio (as heard backing Nicolai Dunger on "Soul Rush") recently won the German Jazz Critic Award for Best Album and the German Jazz Award for sales of 10,000 copies for their album "Strange Place for Snow". They also won the Choc L'Annee, an award from France's Jazzmagazine for making one of year's 12 best albums and the Guinness Jazz In Europe Award 2002 from Ireland.

The finnish band HIM reports that they have been signed by Universal Records for distribution in the US. The band's upcoming album "Love Metal" will be out early next year and they plan on concentrating on touring Europe for awhile. They are also shooting two new videos coming up, one with Bam Margera of Jackass in LA and another with director Stefan Lindfors to be filmed in finnish Lapland.

Looks like I neglected to note what songs Kristofer Åström recorded in yesterday's update. They are as follows:

One good moment
If you really wanna know
Satan (new version)
You are my sunshine (cover song, orignally written by Jimmy Davis and Charles Mitchell)
One more drink

There's also some new live music from Kristofer Åström and Hidden Truck available. Watch them play "Leaving Song" right here or check out part of their performance from the Crossing Border Fest in Amsterdam here. (Requires RealPlayer)

Whaddya know? Found time to update today anyway. Fixed some bad links, too. People should tell me about these things.

The (International) Noise Conspiracy have cancelled their upcoming UK tour with Danko Jones and Caesars Palace citing a back injury suffered by lead singer Dennis Lyxzen. The statement from the band:

Unfortunately The (International) Noise Conspiracy have been forced to cancel their upcoming UK tour due to serious back problems for the singer Dennis Lyxzén.

The problems arose during last weekend, but didn´t seem very serious in the beginning. However, as it only got worse and to a point where Dennis had problems walking he went to a doctor yesterday morning who said that there´s no way he can perform on stage for at least the next two weeks.

Dennis has a serious muscle inflammation, and will be having tests done later this week.

The band wants to apologise to everyone involved in this tour and to their fans, but hopes for everyone´s understanding of the situation.

As it is unclear if and when the dates will be re-scheduled, check back for further information or tickets can be refunded at point of purchase

Of course, that's all fine and dandy, but the skeptic in me sees more trouble a-brewing on the horizon. Thing is, the rumor mill has been going on about possible complications in the long term relationship between Dennis and keyboardist Sara. Is the "back injury" simply a red herring? Is this really just the beginning of the end? Time will tell I suppose, but I don't think the future's all that bright.

Kent and ZTV seem to be having a little bit of a public feud. What gives?

Sweden student radio top 20:

Leaving the chart:
(14) The Klerks "She She She"
(15) Noir Désir "Le Vent Nous Portera"
(16) Swizz Beats "Bigger Business"
(17) Spotrunnaz ft. Timbuktu "Mr Mista"
(18) The Venue "What's In His Head?"
(19) The Streets "Don't Mug Yourself"

The latest issue of Denim Zine will be out November 29. It includes interviews with bands such as Hanoi Rocks, Backyard Babies, The Maggots, 69 Hard and more. Instructions on how to get yourself a copy are on their site.

Entombed got themselves into a bit of a pickle with a finnish promoter and had to cancel their Rock at Sea show. Read all about it. In other Entombed news, the band has entered the studio yet again and you read their daily reports right here. 3 days in, there's not too much of substance to report, but things do seem to be going quite well.

I didn't see it myself, but apparently TSOOL did a great job playing on Conan the other night. Keyboardist Martin was flown in special for the event, as he was being filled in for by Olle of the Whyte Seeds during the just-ended US tour. Martin opted out so he could spend time with his new baby and family, but he should be back around with the band next time. Anyway, the song they played was "Sister Surround" and I'll try and find a video of it if I can.

New music today: Motorpsycho and Ulver from Norway plus super-hype band of the moment, The Sounds. Look to your right.

Believe it or not, but The Haunted are set to appear on the MTV show "Cribs". Apparently MTV newsman Iann Robinson is a big fan of the band. So yeah, if you want to see a tour of the band's homes, check out the show on December 4.

finnish doom band Shape of Despair has a new bassist, Sami Uusitalo. The band is scheduled to enter the studio early next year to record their next album. Expect a late 2003 release on Spinefarm Records.

Crystal Committee (ex-Starmarket) will have their debut album out in February on Chalksounds Records. Entitled "Forever Overhead", it was recorded at Studio Gröndal. I'm not positive, but I assume it was produced and engineered by studio owner Pelle Gunnerfeldt of Fireside.

Also out on Chalksounds in the near future is the new album from Moonbabies. The band is still working hard in the studio, so a release isn't expected until around March.

Export Music Sweden (ExMS) reports that net earnings for exports from the Swedish music industry grew 37% in 2001 from the year previous for a total of 500M euros. And that wasn't even all that great, they say as sales weren't quite as good as hoped for. 2002 looks to be better though. with good sales coming from TSOOL, In Flames and others.

The Ark, Håkan Hellström, Robyn, and The Sounds will be performing on the Swedish TV show Faddergalan on December 9th.

See the new Madrugada video for the song "Majesty" here: High or Low. The band has also put up a tour diary on their website. Check it out.

Rumor has it that The Soundtrack of Our Lives will be back to tour the U.S. in February and March with a stop at South by Southwest along with Citizen Bird/Silverbullit and Isolation Years. Look for them on Late Night With David Letterman in late January, too.