Lykke Li is playing at Scala (in London) tomorrow, and I think I'll go and see her play. Normally I don't like to see the same artist more than once on the same tour, and I've already seen Lykke Li about 3 times this year plugging the same songs all the time (which is fair enough, I don't except any artist to play different shows every night while promoting an album). It was a few months since I saw her play last time though and I think it can be quite pleasant to see her a rainy October night. Last week I saw Glasvegas at Scala, and it was way too packed, hopefully this gig won't be as rammed. I don't really like Scala when it's too full, I like to be able to move at a little bit (no pun intended) at least. I've just listened to her album, which I haven't done for some time (I OD'ed on it) and there are so many great songs on there, and we all know she's great live. Ok, I think I'm definitely going to go. See you there. Here are the other dates she's doing and an MP3 of "Dance Dance Dance":
01 Oct - Scala, London 02 Oct - Concorde 2, Brighton 05 Oct - Glee Club, Birmingham 06 Oct - Thekla, Bristol 08 Oct - Academy 2, Liverpool 09 Oct - Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh 10 Oct - The Duchess, York
Speaking of Those Dancing Days, they feature on a song by a new Swedish artist called Adrian Lux. “Strawberry” came out last month, but I haven’t heard it until now. Apparently Justice are fans! Oh la la! Justice are correct in the approval though, it is a belter, and I’m surprised I haven’t heard it before. Maybe I need to read more MP3 blogs? Adrian is from Stockholm and part of the great La Vida Locash collective (he’s a music producer, dj and a club night promoter). This should be on top of the charts - not Eric Prydz!
New Those Dancing Days single accompanied by a fun video!
Those Dancing Days have a new single out called ”Home Sweet Home” that’s darn catchy, which seems to be the norm with all Those Dancing Days songs. There’s also a very charming and twee video for the song (see below). This should be a big hit for the girls, right? I’ve only listened to it a few times but I’ve already got it stuck on my brain like toffee pudding. If charm sold records Those Dancing Days would be able to buy those golden toilet taps (now there’s a band name!) that MC Hammer had. Guess they need to make a song about lesbian love before that can become a reality – life is tough! I’m looking forward to see them play later this year when they come to the UK (dates below).
21 Oct - KingsCollege, London 22 Oct-The Deaf Institute, Manchester
I know, hilarious me! But I've heard good things about it! No, actually I haven't heard anything about it. In fact, I'm writing this on Friday 12 September 2008. As far as I know the world might have ended in the next few hours, or maybe Familjen's crowd made the brittle floor of The Old Blue last cave in due to all the crazy dancing. Anyway, I hope they come back soon so I can see them for real. Now I might have some breakfast (ie in "real" time not while writing this, I had breakfast 9 hours ago)
I love being on holiday! Here's the final [ingenting] video I'd like you to see!
I love [ingenting]! I hope you've figured out that the people in these videos are not the band members. Yeah, that's right. Crazy stuff. A bit like that Will Oldham / Kanye West video. Kind of. Not exactly. But almost. /S
Theoretically, I shouldn't like Parken (aka Pelle Lindroth) since I'm no fan of the other two bands Lindroth is in - Moder Jords Massiva (an electronic "collective") and The Chrysler (ok, but quite dull). He's also recorded his album with Rigas, another artist who I am no fan of at all. But then Parken sounds a lot like Håkan Hellström, albeit a bit more 80s inspired (there are some The Cure vibes on the album "Länge leve Parken". You can listen to the album on Parken's Myspace page). The first single of the album was "Åt helvete med himlen" which is kind of catchy, and sounds a bit like The Tough Alliance somehow. Second single from the album is "Jag har varit vilsen, Lisa" (you might have figured out by now that Parken sings in Swedish. Parken, by the way, means The Park). Listen to it below. I like it and will probably pre-order the album. Guess I just have to ignore all those other artists that I don't like that Parken is involved with!
David Sandström (who I briefly mentioned here) used to play the drums in The Refused, then he went solo and started playing music very far away from the hardcore of The Refused. I wasn't too keen on his first album "Om det inte händer nåt snart så kommer jag" (sung in Swedish and very "folky"), but his second album "The dominant need of needy soul is to be needed" was brilliant (a straight up indie rock record with clever lyrics) . His third album "Go down!", recorded under the name David Sandström Overdrive was decent, but not as good as "The dominant...". David has now signed to Razzia Records (Hello Saferide, Niccokick etc) which is probably a good thing. Razzia reports that he will have an album out on 22 October. The first song released from the album is called "Lisa Lisa" and it sounds like David Sandström hasn't lost his songwriting ability - it's a fine song. I'm looking forward to hear his new album, he's in my opinion one of the most underrated artists in Sweden. Hopefully this time around he'll become super mega known and will end up touring the UK to great acclaim.
Ok, Perez Hilton is going crazy about Swedish rapper Adam Tensta at the moment. Adam Tensta is OK, I mean, there are about 2-3 good songs on his album from last year, but if you want a fantastic Swedish rap album you need to go to Afasi & Filthy and their "Fläcken" which I liked a lot in the beginning (read here) but that I now love like crazy. Their last two singles were "Glider" and "Jobb" (the latter is my favourite song of the album), and unfortunately both those videos (check them out here, and here) were better than the Sverigetrotters video (see below). I doubt Afasi & Filthy ever will come to the UK to play, I can't remember ever seeing any Swedish rap artist on a stage in the UK, which isn't any mystery really. Come to think of it, I haven't seen that many bands singing in Swedish over here either, but if it works for Dungen why not for A&F, huh? Whether or not we'll get to see them live, fact remains - they've done the best Swedish hiphop record ever.
The Deer Tracks playing London tomorrow and Wednesday
Hailing from north Sweden (Gävle is the name of the place to be precise - about 70,000 is the number of inhabitans there - so a bit bigger than Hereford but smaller than Lincoln), The Deer Tracks are coming all the way to London this week to play a couple of shows. Good on them for ignoring any possible fears of travelling a long way (21 hours by car according to Google)! The music is electronic, a bit shoegazey, and a bit Stina Nordenstam-like. Unfortunately I'm busy doing some other stuff so I'll miss both of their gigs, but if I could change my plans so I'd be able to go and see them I would, because judging from the songs on their Myspace, it sounds like they're a pretty decent band. It'd also be interesting to see if they manage to play a gig that's not boring - it takes a lot of talent to pull off their kind of music live. The photos of the band make them look like some kind of goth punk band from Camden, but don't let that fool you - it's slow stuff we're dealing with here. Slower than anything you'd ever heard before! No, not that slow, but slow. The gigs details are:
Tuesday 9 September 2008 - CMU Social, 299, London (info) Wednesday 10 September 2008 - Metro, London (info)
Juvelen, the Swedish artist who sounds a lot like Prince but is amazing, is playing London tomorrow! I just found out, and I'm gutted since I have a office outing that I need to attend to. Boo! Maybe if he's on late I can go there after. He's playing a new electro club called Electroqueer (blog/website here), that's in Soho on Archer Street. I've never seen Juvelen live, so I can't vouch for him, but his songs are so damn good that it can't really be anything but great. I wrote about him previously here.
Two weeks ago the record label Licking Fingers announced that Frida Hyvönen will be releasing a new album called "Silence Is Wild" on October 29 (in Scandinavia). It will also be released on Secretly Canadian (in the US) on November 4. I love Frida Hyvönen’s last 1½ albums, and judging by the first song released from the album (download it below) and her performance at the Way Out West festival – we’re in for another treat! Hopefully it will be better than El PerroDel Mar’s latest album, and I think I might even like it more than the Lykke Li album. The album is also produced by Jari Haapalainen (from Bear Quartet) who have turned into one of Sweden’s great indie producers, alongside one of the blokes from Peter, Bjorn and John.
Speaking of Swedish female artists, and Friday Hyvönen. One veteran in the game is Marit Bergman who’s been around for a few years (I wrote about her previously here). Earlier this year Bergman started a web subscription service where she posts a new song once a month (together with blog posts etc). Last week she posted a duet with Frida Hyvönen. I’m paying to download these songs and in the interest of Marit Bergman (and being legal) I won’t make the song available for download, but I found a place where you can listen to the song streaming online. It’s a great little track, all in classic Marit Bergman style. Bergman and Hyvönen’s voices really compliment each other, and I hope they do more duets in the future. Actually, I hope they both decide to come to the UK and play soon! If you like the track you should sign up to Marit Bergman's subscription thingie, it was pretty cheap I think.
