5 posts tagged “swedish”

CACTUS'S myspace.com Cactus's - Where is my Skeleton? Cactus's are a "tropical" punk band from Nashville, Tennessee. I don't know if this is their debut EP called Tropical Terror, but the music playing and singing/screaming suggests they've been doing this for a while. All of their songs are typically punk style, which means they are short songs lasting no more than three minutes, so the whole six songs went by pretty quickly to my ears. The opening song, "Where is my Skeleton?" starts off full of energy and excitement with singer Asher Rogers screaming (what I think) "she was my friend/she was my creation/destroy her! where is my skeleton?". Other songs worth checking out is "Purple Coyote" and "Tiny Teeth", mostly for the guitar-playing on these songs. Like most good punk/metal bands, these guys are really meant to be experience live for their energy. Be sure to check them out on tour (I may check them out at SXSW): 02/28/09 K STREET w/ Born Empty Tullahoma, Tennessee 03/03/09 THE HIDEAWAY w/ Do Not Resuscitate Johnson City, Tennessee 03/04/09 THE RED AND THE BLACK w/ March of Us, Me Monster DC, Washington DC 03/05/09 THE KHYBER w/Parlor Mob, American Buffalo, Heavy Hand, Action Park Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 03/06/09 ALL CALL INN Ewing, New Jersey 03/08/09 THE CHARLESTON w/ Champions of Justice, Backseat Gentlemen, Looking Glass Wars Brooklyn, New York 03/09/09 TBA Albany, New York 03/10/09 LEE’S PALACE - CMW PARTY Toronto, Ontario 03/11/09 HELP! Toronto, Ontario 03/12/09 Bovine Sex Club (Canadian Music Week) Toronto, Ontario 03/13/09 HELP! Toronto, Ontario 03/14/09 THE BELMONT Hamtramck, Michigan 03/15/09 REGGIES ROCK CLUB w/ Asteria Chicago, Illinois 03/16/09 LEMP - MARKS B-DAY PARTY w/ Br’er, Sine Nomine St. Luis, Missouri 03/17/09 HELP!! Little Rock, Arkansas 03/18/09 HELP Dallas, Texas 03/19/09 SPIRO’S SXSW Austin, Texas 03/20/09 SXSW 2009 Austin, Texas 03/21/09 SXSW 2009 Austin, Texas 03/22/09 SXSW 2009 Austin, Texas 03/23/09 HELP Houston, Texas 03/24/09 HELP ????, Louisiana 03/25/09 Meridian Underground Music Meridian, Mississippi		JOSIAH LEMING myspace.com Josiah Leming - To Run 1 comment You may have heard of Josiah Leming via his appearance on American Idol, where the harsh Simon Cowell actually wanted to see Leming advance into the semifinals... but he was out-voted. Still, the brief exposure and endorsement did wonders for Leming, as it got him a record deal with Warner Brothers Music. The first release from Warner is last year's Angels UnderCover, a brief four track EP showcasing some of this very young singer/songer's brand new songs. His singing and music writing reminds me of Coldplay, but with piano. Since these are all original songs, there references to his own life and struggle. For instance on "This Cigar", he sings about his school drop out and straight-edginess: "Cause I'm a man now. I can drive a car, and I'm a drop-out. I'm nobody so far, but I don't mess with cigarettes and alcohol." I thought "To Run" is the best song on this EP. It's not overly produced and really shows off Leming's singing. If Leming is putting out music like this at 17/18 years old, I am interested in seeing what he does when he gets to the prime of his life! I believe Leming's debut album is actually "in the can", as they say, but there seems to be some delay in releasing the album to the world. In the meantime, you can get his EP for $5 with his autograph via WB Store. There's also always iTunes. Hey, also, you can keep track of him via myspace.
KNOX BRONSON knoxbronson.com ♥ myspace.com Knox Bronson - Winter Blue (excerpt) Don't let the four tracks on The Seasons CD by Knox Bronson fool you into thinking this is an EP. I thought it was... Each of the themed four season song titles: "Summer Of '68", "Autumnal Sun", "Winter Blue" and "The Forever Spring" are about fifteen minutes each. From what I've gathered, Knox Bronson is really a collaboration between Andy Crisp and Shoji Kameda. They produce these electronic, relaxing, loungey music. To even break The Seasons into four parts would actually not be fair since I felt that The Seasons is just one long experimental music progression. Yet, at the same time, you can jump into a middle of a song and can still experience it the same way if you start from the beginning. Since, here in Minneapolis, we're undergoing a six-inch snow storm, I thought it would be appropriate to leave you with an excerpt of their Winter song called "Winter Blue"... so if you want to sleep in, these songs would be perfect for your CD player. They are offering some free downloads of their music, and you can pick up The Seasons on iTunes and CD Baby.		SKY PICNIC skypicnicmusic.com ♥ myspace.com Sky Picnic - Tea Break 1 comment Sky Picnic are a trio (Chris Sherman, Leah Cinnamon, and Pete Meriwether), currently based out of New York (who isn't?) and their debut EP Synesthesia is deceptively good. They definitely are influenced by 60s rock with some psychedelia mixed in (particularly Beatles and Birds). The five-track EP, although a few songs, they display some interesting direction. Pop/rock songs like "Half the Queen's Face", features Sherman doing most of the singing with Cinnamon (is that her real name? er, sweet...), harmonizing backup vocals. Songs like "Moons of Jupiter" are mostly showing off Sherman's skilled guitar-playing (and also their mixer who's mixing in some interesting space noise background). The best song on the EP is easily "Tea Break", which Chris Sherman sings on. It's rock music, but what's that sitar doing in the song? Cinnamon also sings on the epic "Sequence IV" which a very long song that takes you on an interesting musical journey. The 60s-sounding Synesthesia EP can be yours for $5 of your earth dollars, more details on the official website.
SUBURBAN KIDS WITH BIBLICAL NAMES labrador.se/skwbn ♥ myspace.com Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - 1999 Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - Rent a Wreck 6 comments I'm not qualify to write this, but I thought I should mention that Suburban Kids With Biblical Names' fourth and latest release is called #4. While the one Swedish-language song "Studenter på flak" is lost on me, the English songs made up for it. The two suburban kids are Peter Gunnarson and Johan Hedberg, but with this EP, they have a guest woman singer on two of the songs ("World Music" and "1999", the latter is available as a free download). I don't know who the guest is, I usually find these things reading liner notes - but this was a digital promo so I have no idea. If you like lo-fi Swedish pop, I reckon you'll like this. Read more about SKWBN on W♥M. Look for a new album (probably called something annoying like #5) sometime this year, according to their record label. Currently I think you can only get the downloads or CD via Labrador Records.		THE NOTEBOOK thenotebookmovie.com ♥ imdb.com Aaron Zigman - Main Title 1 comment The Notebook LIMITED EDITION DVD Giftset With 46 Page Scrapbook, Stationery, Bookmark and Includes B I got this free The Notebook Soundtrack Sampler, featuring five compositions from Aaron Zigman for the movie of the same name. If you haven't seen the movie, it is a "chick flick" based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks, that is guaranteed to make you cry, and cry and cry. The five songs are themes played throughout the movie and will only interest you if you like sweeping orchestras. To be honest, I think they all sound the same to me, with the exception of "Allie Returns" which have different shifts in music directions in the middle. I can't say that I absolutely love the movie, but it's a real tear jerker and I did end up picking up the boxset as I think it's a great deal for what you get: the movie, soundtrack sampler, postcards, pictures, booklets, etc. I'm sure it made loads of money, as it was released just prior to Valentine's to maximize sales.

 02/27/2009 17:27:39 ♥ vu () ♥weheartmusic.com♥podcast.weheartmusic.com♥news.weheartmusic.com 

 11/20/2008 10:20:34  ♥ written by vu ()

Pelle Carlberg - Nicknames (with Karolina Komstedt) Pelle Carlberg Tour Dates 26 Nov 2008 Landet Stockholm 01 Dec 2008 Blauer Engel KIEL 02 Dec 2008 Admiralspalast BERLIN 03 Dec 2008 Subway KÖLN 04 Dec 2008 Feinkost Lampe HANNOVER 05 Dec 2008 Unikeller OSNABRüCK 06 Dec 2008 Sparte 4 SAARBRüCKEN 08 Dec 2008 tbc KASSEL 09 Dec 2008 Asta Wohnzimmer LüNEBURG Discography [2005] Everything. Now! [2007] In A Nutshell [2008] The Lilac Time Read More Pelle Carlberg http://weheartmus... Searching the blogs for a fix of Belle & Sebastian, I found reference to Pelle Carlberg. I instan...

Pelle Carlberg released The Lilac Time last Tuesday with US distributor Darla Records, although the album's been out in Europe since August. We caught up with Pelle in October to talk to him in his homeland of Sweden and he explained a lot of things, so be sure to listen to our interview! I will have to add that some people are hard to interview since sometimes they don't understand when doing radio interviews that they are the person that needs to talk and tell interesting stories - with Pelle that was not a problem at all. My fifteen minute limit for calling internationally went over in no time because Pelle was just so engaging.

Pelle Carlberg - 1983 (Pelle and Sebastian)

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For instance, he went on to explain "1983" as if someone who's never heard it but leaving out the punchline. Of course, since I have already loved the song, I can tell you that despite his to-do-away with the Belle & Sebastian comparison, that the song sounds incredibly like a B&S song...

I was surprised to find out that all his songs are based on true events, which leads me to wonder about his taxi ride in "Tired of Being PC" or his car problems on "Metal to Metal" or his hatred for a certain airline on "Fly Me to the Moon" (you get the impression Pelle travels quite a bit).

My favorite fun song on this album is "51, 3", which tells the story about Pelle taking a facebook quiz that tells him his mental age is 51. Just the opening line is well worth hearing.

Fans of Club 8 should take note of Karolina Komstedt's appearance on "Nicknames." He was apparently touring with Club 8 and had asked her to sing on the song with him. The song is quite upbeat and punchy, about reminiscing in their teenage years - going out to see old friends and drinking.

If you like indiepop and don't already own The Lilac Time, you can get it via Darla Records or Labrador. I will have to mention that I have bought things from Darla, and with the more obscure indie bands they may list it but it doesn't mean they have it in stock. This was very annoying when several packages I have ordered in the past end up missing one or two items. To be fair, they did not charge me for the missing items, but still, don't list CDs that you do not have in stock! I haven't ordered from them recently, so they might have changed the way they display what you can or cannot buy. Also, I'm sure with recent products, such as The Lilac Time, they should have them in stock - not to discourage you from ordering, of course.

As a bonus, here are our previous Pelle Carlberg songs we've used in the past:

Clever Girls Like Clever Boys Much More Than Clever Boys Like Clever Girls 7 comments

Go to Hell, Miss Rydell 3 comments

Pelle Carlberg - Rocket Man

Links: pellecarlberg.se myspace.com/pellecarlberg darla.com labrador.se

September - Satellites September 3 comments Sounds Like Sophie Ellis-Bextor http://weheartmus... Baccara are María Mendiola and Mayte Mateos and they had a massive hit with their debut single, "...

September is not just the month, but the stage name for Swedish singer, Petra Marklund, who finally decided to try and take on the US with her self-titled US debut album last month (February 2008).

I should point out that this album actually does not contain any new material, all the tracks are from her second (In Orbit) and third album (Dancing Shoes). If you don't have either UK albums and are into dance music, it's probably worth your time to check out the domestic release of September.

September - Cry for You (You'll Never See Me Again) (UK Radio Edit)

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As you know, I do have a pretty soft spot in my heart for all-things-Swedish and I've always admire that they take a music genre and kind of interpret it in their own unique way. Although September's music sounds like pretty standard dance pop music, there are some elements of 80s synth (her hit single, "Cry For You") to some great lyrically "sad" songs ("R.I.P.", "Until I Die", and "Sad Song").

By the way, I should also point out that Marklund (like many of her popstar contemporaries) does not write her own music, so any praising of lyrics should fall to either of these music writers: Jonas von der Burg, Anoo Bhagavan, or Niklas von der Burg.

Anyway, if you're a fan of diva dance singers like Sophie Ellis-Bextor, either of the Minogue sisters, Roisin Murphy, and Bertine Zetlitz - you might want to add September to your list. Her album's available in the US from Robbins Entertainment.

 03/30/2008 23:35:38  vu my♥posts myspace.com/septemberinorbit

Robyn - Konichiwa Bitches 2 comments Kleerup feat. Robyn - With Every Heartbeat Robyn - Do You Really Want Me

I have no idea why I like this tune. But it's been stuck in my head all day and I need to share the suffering. If you live in the UK you can't failed to have heard the summer's radio hit "With Every Heartbeat" by some guy called Kleerup but handily packaged with the vocals and physical presence of some girl called Robyn. That last bit was what interested me most, as one of the few tunes I can remember from my younger days along with Sleeper's Sale Of The Century and Peter Andre's Mysterious Girl (though Flava was much better) was a little known tune called Do You Really Want Me that has also stuck in my head since some young blonde school age kid also called Robyn had sung it on a Saturday morning kids show.

Turned out it was the same person. And as much as I'd wish it was Louise Wener topping the music charts 10 years later, you'll have to do with Robyn. But as so often is the case, the UK's deaf music listening public had to be lead to water by Radio 1 as, only weeks before "Heartbeat", Robyn released Konichiwa Bitches and I think it only sold about ten copies 'cos you don't need much more than that to make number 100 and whatever it got to. I mean, it's simple swedish rap with comedic video innuendo; has what little taste and sense of humour the country had left flown permanently south for the winter? Meh. Enjoy the vids: the life and times of some kid called Robyn, 97 to 07. She was much cuter on Fully Booked.

- Christopher ( pepsi_max2k )