The Bear Quartet guitarist Jari Haapalainen, singer/songwriter Nicolai Dunger and drummer extraordinaire morgan Ågren (mats/morgan Band, Fredrik Thorendal, etc.) have joined forces in a new fusion project called Vowles and they will be making their live debut on September 9 at Fasching in Stockholm. Entry includes a copy of the group's single "o i a å" and I have no idea what it sounds like, but I intend to find out.
Soundvenue is streaming The William Blakes' new album "The way of the warrior": m/artist/the-william-blakes2" target="_blank">https://www.soundvenue.com/artist/the-william-blakes2
Robyn is coming to North America for a string of dates in November:
11/05 - The Filmore, miami Beach, FL
11/06 - Club Firestone, Orlando, FL
11/07 - The Ritz Ybor, Tampa, FL
11/08 - Buckhead Theatre, Atlanta, GA
11/10 - Terminal 5, New York, NY
11/12 - The Sound Academy, Toronto, Ontario
11/13 - metro, Chicago, IL
11/14 - Fine Line, minneapolis, mN
11/17 - Club Nokia, Los Angeles, CA
11/19 - Venue, Vancouver, British Columbia
11/20 - Wonder Ballroonm, Portland, OR
11/21 - Neumos, Seattle, WA
Swedish blackened-death act Ghamorean has finished up work on their new album "Terra ruina", confirmed for a fall release via . Hear a sample tune at myspace: myspace.com/ghamorean" target="_blank">https://www.myspace.com/ghamorean
Pitchfork reports that there's a new EP from The Tallest man on Earth on the way called "Sometimes the blues is just a passing bird": m/news/39961-the-tallest-man-on-earth-releases-new-ep/" target="_blank">https://pitchfork.com/news/39961-the-tallest-man-on-earth-releases-new-ep/
It's already available digitially, but a physical version is on the way on November 9. Hit up the link for a sample tune.
Norrland crust/metal/prog act moloken, a 2009 favorite, are touring Scandinavia later this month and one of the bands they're playing a string of dates with is Finnish act Radar. Generally speaking, I'm not too crazy about their style of post-metal, but the new EP they recently sent me has a pretty cool 3D cover and the included glasses allowed me to properly view m/n/34506-robyn-dont-fucking-tell-me-what-to-do-video">Robyn's video for "Don't fucking tell me what to do", so that's gotta be worth something -- hence this post. It's kind of weird, in the space of a month of so I got a whole bunch of new music in a similar vein and, again -- while not being a huge fan of this stuff, was pleasantly surprised to find it all to be of above-average quality. I already m/n/34236-kausal-evac">covered Kausal who might just be the best of the lot, but Radar are pretty decent too despite one major piccadillo: I don't care if you want to sing cleanly or scream harshly, but please don't try to do both. 99% of the time it sucks and Radar are no exception. Individually, they do fine with each style... when performed together, it's way corny. That's why I'm posting a track with purely melodic vocals for fellow discerning listeners -- you get the heaviness and the glory and none of the distracting bullshit. RIYL Khoma!
Oh, and those moloken tourdates:
09/15 - L'Orient, Linköping (SWE) w/This Gift is a Curse
09/16 - Sugar Bar, Stockholm (SWE) w/This Gift is a Curse
09/17 - Ungdomens Hus, Uppsala (SWE) w/This Gift is a Curse
09/18 - Ungdomens Hus, Oskarshamn (SWE) w/This Gift is a Curse
09/19 - tba, Karlskrona (SWE) w/This Gift is a Curse
09/23 - Nuclear Nightclub, Oulu (FIN) w/Radar
09/24 - Lutakko, Jyväskylä (FIN) w/Radar
09/25 - S-Osis, Turku (FIN) w/Radar
09/26 - Kuudes Linja, Helsinki (FIN) w/Radar
09/29 - tba (NOR) w/manhattan Skyline
09/30 - tba (NOR) w/manhattan Skyline
10/01 - Garage, Oslo (NOR) w/manhattan Skyline
10/02 - Fru Lundgreen, Trondheim (NOR) w/manhattan Skyline
Radar - Where others were honest (I'm a lie)
The Embassy will apparently be back with a new single in October and an album to follow in 2011.
The Hype machine is streaming the new Röyksopp album "Senior": m.com/artist/royksopp" target="_blank">https://hypem.com/artist/royksopp
Finnish duo Villa Nah will be supporting OmD on tour in the UK:
10/29 - Brighton Dome, Brighton
10/31 - Bristol Colston Hall, Bristol
11/01 - Nottingham Royal Centre, Nottingham
11/02 - Glasgow Concert Hall, Glasgow
11/04 - Liverpool Arena, Liverpool
11/05 - Ipswich Regent, Ipswich
11/07 - London Hammersmith Odeon, London
11/08 - Birmingham Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Goodnight monsters shoegazey sideproject The New Tigers have a new CDr release out on and you can go there to preview it in full: https://www.boneshop.net/product_info.php?products_id=129
Finland's 22-Pistepirkko are doing a few Swiss dates before embarking on a 30th anniversary tour of their homeland:
10/01 - Dachstock Reitschule, Bern (CH)
10/02 - Drahtwerk, Biel/Bienne (CH)
10/03 - Viadukt, Zurich (CH)
10/09 - Tavastia, Helsinki (FIN)
10/15 - Henry’s, Kuopio (FIN)
10/16 - Tukkijätkä, Heinola (FIN)
10/21 - Bar Kino, Pori (FIN)
10/22 - Klubi, Turku (FIN)
10/23 - Rytmikorjaamo, Seinäjoki (FIN)
10/28 - 45special, Oulu (FIN)
10/29 - 45special, Oulu (FIN)
10/30 - Klubi, Tampere (FIN)
11/04 - Torvi, Lahti (FIN)
11/05 - Soho, Porvo (FIN)
11/06 - Lutakko, Jyväskylä (FIN)
MasshysteriI didn't really expect an album consisting of melodic political punk anthems sung in Swedish to be my favourite album of the year, especially not the second album from a band whose debut I wasn't really that into, but Sweden's masshysteri's "masshysteri" is the album I've kept on returning to continually in the last 4-5 months. Despite the album only being 10 songs and about 28 minutes long, repeated listenings don't seem to do it any harm, only the opposite -- the songs now feel like an extension of my spine. masshysteri are not doing anything new music- or lyric-wise, and there are a some similar Swedish bands (e.g. Pascal), but the frenetic energy and the heavenly melodies on this album are just mind-blowing. I'd rank this album alongside any of Swedish punk pioneers Ebba Grön, which is mighty high praise. It's just a great shame that more people haven't heard it!
- Stefan Nilsson
Serena-maneesh will be doing a co-headlining US tour with the excellent Wovenhand. Dates at myspace: myspace.com/serenamaneesh" target="_blank">https://www.myspace.com/serenamaneesh
Check out Finnish act On Volcano performing a brand new song live for Finnish radio: https://areena.yle.fi/video/1224300
Slightly odd and unexpected, but Buddyhead of all places has an overwhelmingly posi write-up on an Alarma man live show: m/show-review-alarma-man-get-some-corpse-paint-play-some-mathrock-and-start-a-revolution/" target="_blank">https://www.buddyhead.com/show-review-alarma-man-get-some-corpse-paint-play-some-mathrock-and-start-a-revolution/