Stereo Test Kit have uploaded a nifty Muxtape here.
———
I love the experimental instrumental music of Tape. The new record Luminaire is out now on Hapna. Here’s a song off it:
———
New video for the first single from Sophie Rimheden’s record Traveller - “Go Away”
Tell me, what’s better than indie laptop pop? Swedish indie laptop pop, of course. Kuryakin have been perfecting their songs since they formed in 2003. Now through a series of ep’s and singles they are ready to unleash their perfect pop unto the world. Their debut ep, Still Here, is out now on Shelflife, they also have a two song ep called Fought A War out on the Japanese label Fast Cut here.
The title track encompasses all that Kuryakin strive for with it’s moody beats, floating synths and laid back vocals. Other songs from the ep incorporate shoegazey guitar solos and a bit of noise. But this is pure sugary pop at it’s best.
Buy the new EP/7″ combo here through Shelflife.
I know this is a crazy thing to say but from the first few interactions I’ve had with the quasi label, half-booking agency and sometime promotion house YAA! it seems that this Gothenburg upstart - with all it’s positive mojo and web 2.0 know how - will single handedly change the Swedish indie music scene.
They just get it! What is “it” you ask? Well try this on for size - they have a Muxtape page, a Last.FM site, an imeem page, a VIRB page and of course the now nearly passe MySpace page.
They’re streaming.
They’re downloading.
They’re blogging.
They’re partnering.
They’re hitting up bloggers.
Where did these guys come from? Seriously.
One of their new artists is Bjorn Kleinhenz. I’ve written often about Bjorn and it’s about time he’s got some good folks behind him. Through the label Tomt and now the promo company YAA! they are releasing several singles that will one day make up the album Quietly Happy And Deep Inside.
“Poets Dying” video
Bonus
(Deliver Us From this Isolation by Doug Boehm)
The paper of record (NY Times) did a profile of the Stockholm music scene in this weeks Travel Supplement. It’s very basic and chances are you won’t learn anything new and to top it off they even mamage to use the dreaded A@$A reference in the title of the piece (I’m not even Swedish and I’m sick of that. Read the article here (you may have to register but it’s free and painless).
Music Is Art does a nice little Swedish roundup.
Above the Fold does an interview and has two songs by Swedish hip hop pioneers Looptroop Rockers.
You Can Call Me Pelski has everything Yellus.
Get Weird Turn Pro has a new song from electronic duo Minilogue.
The Culture Of Me has the new single from Radio Dept.
Yesterday Tim Schmidt was wedged in between an indie pop band and a lounge crooner on my Swedish video roundup page. He was the one artist that didn’t seem to belong with his soft folk music and unusual delivery which is a mix of Dylan, Buckley and Cohen.
Here’s new songs from Tim that will probably end up on a debut record sometime this summer. Catch Tim Schmidt live in Stockholm on May 24 at Norrport.
Brighton Beach
Crows Cracks Them Skies
“These Days” video (Jackson Browne cover)
Here’s a couple Swedish music videos that have been kicking around the office this week (and by office I mean crappy desk shoved into the corner of my basement).
I Are Droid - “Time On Time” (iPod ready download)
Tim Schmidt - “These Days” (Jackson Browne cover)
Kristoffer Ragnstam - “Breakfast By The Mattress”
What About A Band - “On Your Side”
Lewis - “Tankar i en bil”
Biker Boy “April Song”
Joel Alme - “The Queens Corner”
When I first heard about this band with Cirkus in the band name and theater in their genes I thought it’d be perfect for Swedesplease. See, I must admit to being a big fan of certain Broadway musicals. Plays and their accompanying soundtracks, like Hair, Hedwig, and even Rocky Horror Picture Show informed my musical tastes at a very early age. And the experience of being at the Circus is one of my earliest memories and I continue to attend Ringling Bros every year with my two sons.
Pär Hagström & Cirkus Transmopol have created an album that is meant to be performed live in it’s entirety. So it was hard to pick out just one track to share from this theatrical concept album. But choose I did.
And “Mysterious Grace” lives up to the challenge. It’s a slinky, Nick Cave-ish accordion and jazz guitar number that wouldn’t feel out of place in one of Wim Wender’s dark opuses.
December Rose is out now and can be ordered directly through the Swedish label Strawberry Records here.
“The Night The World Came Down” video
“Stupid Clown” live video
For a while it seemed like male duos of the electronic pop bent was all that Sweden could produce. Perhaps the tides are turning with First Aid Kit. The duo is made up of sisters Klara and Johanna. The girls are young, still teenagers. Demos on their MySpace page drew the attention of Rabid Records (AKA The Knife). And the rest is history.
The debut ep came out in Sweden on April 9th. It’s called Drunken Trees. Buy it here.
(Art by Aristeo Juare)
The trampy little blog The Music Slut has a new song from Peter Von Poehl.
It’s a Trap has the new dance track from Sophie Rimheden.
Zeon’s Music Blog has a collaboration between Kleerup and Lykke Li.
Crash and Burn Girl has Marit Bergman covering Vampire Weekend (also check out her downloadable Swedish “best of” mix here)
Ram Di Dam may be an onomonopeia for the bands rat-a-tat style. One commenter on MySpace compared the group to The Strokes meets Talking Heads. I like the propulsive drumming and the vocals that are just on the edge of breaking up. Here’s a new song “Chances”:
I actually went looking for some electronic music to write about the other day. If I ever hit a dry spell that’s my fall back genre. I found a couple things I thought I could post. But it wasn’t until I heard “The Factory” by Super Multifaros that I was convinced this should be the track. This song (and the bonus track) were recorded on a Gameboy by 16 year old chiptune blippop wunderkin B?rd Ericson.
Hell, I can’t even play these handheld video games let alone compose music on one of them. “The Factory” was release onto the net 5 days ago. Enjoy!
Bonus song
Sure The Magnificent Seven is an outstanding western but it’s also the name of a pretty cool gothic folk group out of Örebro. The group of four play waltzes, sea chanty’s and eastern folk music that is often eerie and spooky but always danceable. This is a good time for this odd mixture of genre’s since Devotchka, The Decemberists and Gogol Bordello have popularized the form and taken it out of the world music ghetto.
The band has released a number of ep’s and lp’s but these two songs are new demo’s from 2008.
Beware Of The Wolves
Death By Water
Bonus song
(Untitled by Tiffany Bozic)
Raven Sings the Blues is loving the new full length from Tape.
Fast Life has the two new tracks and video from Rigas.
Death Rock Star interviews Jonna Lee.
Get Weird Turn Pro has Studio remixed.
Kickin’ the Peanuts profiles Moto Boy.
The single “Sarabande” from Alpha 60’s 2008 release Melting Tracks is a guitar and synth fueled romp. It’s more propulsive and pop/punk radio ready than just about anything I’ve written about lately. But as I listen I’m drawn into the band’s little orb of catchy electronic rock. It’s as light and frothy as indie pop but with a slightly harder edge. I could do without the lead singer’s vocal histrionics however.
Second Band member Fabian Lundmark has directed the first ever video for the group. It’s for the song “The Flood” from the new record Definite Form. You can listen to two new songs from the band below. “The Killer Comeback Line” is soaring melodramatic pop that is a bit morose. While “The Future” is straightforward indie pop with hand claps, trumpets and a sing along chorus.
Buy the new record here through Orange Grammofon.
In anticipation of my trip to Sweden and the Hultsfred Festival I thought I’d talk to some of the bands playing that weekend to help me get a better feeling for the festival and the music scene in Sweden. The all girl group Those Dancing Days were high on my list of people to talk to. So below is my interview with Cissi the drummer. You can see what I’ve written about the group here.
(Swedesplease) I’m interested in the formation of the band. There’s a story that you all met in school or while in school. Were you all friends or was their a tryout? Did you expect the band would travel all over Europe and share a label with Peter Moren and Los Campesinos?
(Cissi) Yes we were all still in school when we started to play together, but it wasn’t how we got to know each other. Now you get the long story. Me and Rebecka became friends when we were only five or six and went to the same child minder and Rebecka and Lisa became best friends when they started school together, but me and Lisa still didn’t knew each other until we were 14 and confirmed us together. We noticed we had the music interest in common and decided we wanted to start a band together with some other friends in the conformation. Rebecka joined and we had a band going. we were not very good but we had very fun.
When we where 16 we split up and during the summer 2005 me lisa and rebecka talked about starting something new. We went to many concerts and festivals and got very inspired by for example Shout Out Louds and Hidden Cameras. We wanted to start something we would like to listen to our self. I knew Mimmi a bit and knew she played the bass so we asked if she wanted to join and she did. We started to rehearse in our youth garden just a few times before Linnea started to play with us. Mimmi had told us she had a girl in her class with a really cool and soulful voice. It was a nice mix.
“Hitten”
(Swedesplease) When you first started you were very young (now you’re only just plain young!). What did your parents think about the band. Did they think it was a lark? Were they concerned?
(Cissi) They saw it just like a hobby, like it was. They didn’t care so much. My mother could be concerned it took to much time from my studies.
(Swedesplease) There’s the perception that the Swedish government helps bands by supporting them financially. While that may not be true anymore, did the band have any help from governmental music agencies?
(Cissi) “Hmm we get contribution from something called studieförbundet vuxenskolan (educational association - the adult school), but i don’t know if it’s govern by the Swedish government. It’s a contribution everyone who starts a study circle. They pay a part of our rehearsal studio cost and drumsticks and strings. I’m not sure how it works. But the youth garden where we have rehearsed until now is run by the state and there we kids can play music and borrow the instruments for a very cheep price. That has been very needful for us.”
“Those Dancing Days”
(Swedesplease) Have you played Hultsfred in the past and if so what was it like? If you haven’t what do you expect it will be like?
(Cissi) last summer we played there, but on the smallest stage. the rookie stage (i think it’s called) it’s just for unsigned bands but we had just got signed so we played there anyway. It was real cool. Me, Rebecka, Lisa and Mimmi were there as visitors two and three years before so it was a very big dream come true. It was our first festival we played at so it was a really cool feeling. Not just the gig. Everything around was so new with the backstage and hanging out with other artists. We had a great time! This year it will be even more fun because we will be so much better live than last year (i hope) and play on a much better stage and commonly be more experienced.
(Swedesplease) Are the members in the band surprised by the mentions and reviews of the bands on music blogs in the states? Did you ever imagine that music writers all over the world would be writing about the band?
(Cissi) Of course we could never have imagined. all this came like a chock and we still have hard to understand. there are no interviews without the thought “why would anyone want to know anything about us”. I mean i understand people want to listen to our music, but it’s weird that people want to know things about us that has nothing to do with the music. But it’s very funny. I often think it’s hard to understand it’s us they right about on the other side of the world. But i think it’s good to keep a distance to it. Otherwise i think it would be hard to keep the feet on the ground.
(Swedesplease) How have music blogs, myspace, last.fm and other sites helped the band grow?
(Cissi) Very much i think. It was very much through Myspace we got this much attension. especially in the beginning, when we put up our demo we got response very fast. Maybe we would have came in contact with record companies and clubs now or then but i think it would have taken much longer. Now it all went very fast. Now Myspace is a very good and easy place to get in contact with fans all over the world.
(Swedesplease) What are the plans for your debut release? Is there a title, a release date, a single etc?
(Cissi) We’ll release a single in Sweden and england in may. It’s called “Run Run”. The album will probably be released September or October this fall. We are not sure what we’ll call it but we have recorded about ten songs and it will be a so good album!
(Swedesplease) What are some of your/the band’s favorite Swedish artists? What about in general, what are you listening to recently?
(Cissi) It’s hard to talk for all the band because we have a bit different music taste.
I listen to a lot of different bands and artists but some favorites are the Smiths, the Cure, Vampire Weekend, Belle and Sebastian, David Bowie, Mando Diao, the Strokes, Håkan Hellström, Shout Out Louds, Arctic Monkeys and Muse. Rebecka has recently got me into sunset rubdown. They are very good. Also lately I’ve listened much to Lykke Li and Talking Heads. I like much Swedish pop music. Enough of name dropping!
(Swedesplease) Are there any plans to tour the states when the new record comes out?
We haven’t anything decided yet, but we hope to go there soon. That would be very cool.
New song from Tarantula Waltz plus this amazing video of a performance with Nina Ramsby.
Tarantula Waltz is the group based around singer-songwriter Markus Svensson. Each and every song I’ve heard from this band is absolutely sumptuous and “Flyin’ Shoes” is no exception.
(Strange Adventure by Aiko Nakagawa)
The Donnybrook Writing Academy points to the new song from Speedmarket Ave. and wins the “we discovered the next hot band from Sweden” award.
Catbird Seat put the long out of print Hemsted release up for free streaming at Muxtape here.
Idolator links to the Handheld show from Love Is All. Otherwise everyone else was writing about Lykke Li, Sally Shapiro, Peter Moren and El Perro Del Mar and you don’t need to hear anything else about those four, do you?
Friday’s as good a day as any for the Swedish YouTube video roundup. It’s a bit of a cop-out and an easy post but these all appeared on YuoTube this week. Plus the weeks had so many good posts you can’t fault me for slacking off going into the weekend.
Tobias Froberg’s new video for “Slipping Under The Radar”
A chiptune from Ludvig Eloffson
TWIG Gigfi Session w/”Helen Of Troy” and “Close Up”
Gustav and the Seasick Sailors live “Don’t Stop To Let It Die”
Plus the new video from Moto Boy - “Ride My Wild Heart”
I can’t think of a better thing to do as we wait for something new from Detektivbyrån than to listen to the new ep from a band called Symfoniorkestern from Helsingborg. This mostly instrumental EP is a wonder. Its got some of the organic instrumentation of Detektivbyran but at times is a bit heavier on the beats and the sampled found sounds.
Check out the odd voices that start out “Sommardepression” or all the exotic instrumentation that’s layered throughout the track. There’s a degree of experimentation here that is anchored by catchy, nearly hummable, melodies. More songs are available from the new demo Ouvertyr on their Mypace page. I’m excited to have found this, I hope you enjoy.
Bonus mp3:
Vinterförälskelse
