Meadow Music

Another Nation’s National Anthem, hailing from Stockholm was formed already in 2002 and this spring they released their first official singel, “Save Them From Sorrow”, containing three tracks.

They get their Influences from the nineties alternative grand pop and rock scene, shoegaze and post-rock, and also from contemporary bands like The Arcade Fire, Explosions In the Sky and The National.

You can find Another Nation’s National Anthem on Myspace and on Facebook.

Save Them From Sorrow
Thundercars

Last week Chris Michols Band released their first official album, “Scar Trek”. Two years ago Chris Michols solo released the album “The Long Road”, only digitally, which was downloaded more than 100 000 times on different sites. Parts of that album was later released officially on the EP Fade In in 2009.

The new album continues where the former albums left us, with singer/songwriter with a postgrunge feeling, strong melodies and of course Chris special voice in the foreground. But it contains much more than this. The melodies are there, the hooks, and the postgrunge vibes too, but these vibes have left more and more space for other influences, like folk music, the sixties and indie rock, which is all nicely blended with the rest.

If you’re already a fan you will recognize Chris Michols, but at the same time experience a more varied, strong album. Listen more on Chris Michols Band’s site. Here are two tracks from “Scar Trek”:

Killer
Loser

It’s been a while since the songwriter Pär Enqvist picked the lock and got into that room where all the lyrics and strangely obvious melodies lay in fermenting drifts, but the frenzy with which he is still carrying them out for us never ceases to surprise. We’re not talking about a whippersnapper here, yet there’s a sort of creative sparkle on record after record and “Utanför lagen” (Outside the law) is no exception.

“Maybe as if Springsteen and Steve Earle got into eating falukorv (typical swedish working-class grub), hanging down the pub at Bagarmossen (run-down suburb south of Stockholm), after a hard days work.” This is to be read at the homepage of Pär Enqvist Band and if you never listened to the music you might laugh indulgently at those pretensions but hell if it’s not a wrap-up making the rest of this text rather needless.

Raka rör (straight pipes, or something to that effect…) as the legendary scanian rocker Kal P Dal would have been content to conclude, still pensive as well as anguished at times.

Pär Enqvist doesn’t invent his music but fills it with himself so that after a while it feels like it was for him it was always looking…and what I’m maybe trying to say with this is that no matter how strong and unmistakable the roots we have still never seen this particular plant before. We know precisely what he’s been listening to and grown out of; still while we’re listening it’s as if he’s actually the original.

It’s so strong and coherent, and though the producer Max Lorentz (Ronander, Rickfors, Kim Larsen…) undoubtedly put his mark here we recognize ourselves. It’s a long yet too short journey through sorrow and lust, gloominess and confusion and sudden relieving grins, it’s hard and and relentless, nostalgic and delightful, it contains the whole range from tenderness and respect and honours to a contempt so dense that blood is drawn.

There are tunnel-visioned desperados and jailbirds and battered women and abandoned children and…reluctant pensioners and dogmatists and safety junkies and daredevils, shying dogs and arrogants and lovers gone astray - all of them ultimately of course looking for the same thing - some kind of a home.

The opening “Det här tåget går nu” (This train is leaving now), so bursting with bulldog spirit and never-say-die that you dont get your bearings straight til you’re already aboard, having left the station.

“Längtar efter dej” (Longing for you) is about lacking and wanting, as the title suggests, and “Belos” is a kind of rapidly sailing ballad about swapping one life for another.

“Även hjältar måste dö” (Even heroes must die) about getting stuck in self-sufficient defiance is a personal favourite with its poprocky rolling holding its ever-so slightly lecturing sternness.

“Dom som går” (Those who go) might with its snug rattle of widely disparate people with the very same dreams stand as a conclusion of the entire CD.

“Samma gamla misstag” (The same old mistake) - about running into the same wall over and over again, an almost but only almost resigned song about the impossible (?) togetherness, leading to “Det är för sent” (It’s too late) which supposedly is another variation on the same theme, i.e. a dirge over lost possibility but with an up-tempo beat that is looking ahead, refusing to give in more than temporarily to sentimentality.

During the three minutes and fourteen seconds that are called “Det var inte mitt fel” (It wasn’t my fault) we even have time to be scared; I cant actually recall a song as filled with contempt as this one. Which is of course fascinating as well - it is not often that our songwriters dare to open that door, more than ajar, possibly.

“Svårt att va människa ibland” (Hard to be human at times) is pc-rock or what to call it at its most effective, it`s honest and it bleeds, it’s sad and it’s furious, it’s Magnus Lindberg in the twentyfirst century.

In the astonishingly sensitive “Prygelland” (Land of flogging) a woman, for years half beaten to death, finally gets her impossible uncertain revenge, and music and lyrics have never been more symbiotic.

“Allting faller isär” (Everything falls apart) is yet another song about starting over, possibly the mainest of threads on the record.

As for the closing title-song “Utanför lagen” (Outside the law) you will really have to listen for yourselves…

The drums of Richard Ahl and the bass of Jens Åslund drives and urges and the guitars of Sören Dahlgren - I hear them in a slight breeze over Riddarfjärden (Knights Bay of central Stockholm), always exactly the curlicues wanted by the song.

And then: the Voice…

Listen more on Pär Enqvist Band’s site or on Spotify and visit them on on Facebook.

Även hjältar måste dö (Desperado)
Prygelland
Utanför lagen

In 2008 the band Street Fighting Man released their debut singel “Raise It”. And the same summer they entered the studio to record their debut album. And then…nothing.

Until now. The story doesn’t say if they’ve been locked inside the studio since then, but I do know that they have released a new singel from the upcoming album “The Shadow”.

“Learning to Die” is the name of the song, and it’s a great piece. To me it becomes a nice mix of Queen, Supertramp and a big chunk of Bowie in a cool arrangement with beautiful vocals. There is a bonus track also, in quite a different style, so it’ll be very interesting to see later on how the album will sound.

Learning to Die
State of Grace

You can find Street Fighting Man on Myspace or on Facebook (where you also can listen to previews of several songs from the album).

Here’s the video to the debut singel “Raise It”, från 2008:

Chris Laney has quite a list of qualifications as a producer and as a songwriter. He’s also a solo artist and in April he released his second album, “Only Come Out at Night”.

He gets help from a number of guests on the album, among them some well-known names like Bruce Kulick (Kiss), Brian Robertson (Thin Lizzy, Mötörhead), Conny Bloom (Hanoi Rocks, Electric Boys), Ian Haugland (Europe) and Zinny Zan (Shotgun Messiah, Zan Clan), which also gives us a hint to what kind of music it’s about. And of course it’s about hard rock, more precisely the eighties’ hard rock.

It becomes Chris’ own special version of the eighties where he, between sticky rock choruses, glammy choirs and guitar solos, weaves in some metallic darkness and agressive energy. All in all an even and strong album, where Chris shows his strength as a songwriter.

I saw him live at Stockholm Rockout the 1st of May, which was one of the best performances on the festival. Obviously more people agreed with me as he will come back for Stockholm Rockout Festival part 2 on the 10th-11th of September.

You can find Chris Laney on his site, on Facebook and on Myspace. His albums are available on Spotify. Here are two tracks from “Only Come Out at Night”.

Only Come Out at Night
Rockstar

It’s time to start again after a short summer break. And I begin with Shotgun Language, aka Gustav Berry.

This May he released the single “It Leaves Me Worried”, a song that breathes fifties rock, and earlier this year the album “Nerve”, a collection of songs with the same lo-fi sound, caught on his tape recorder at home, and serves us pop gems, country and fifties rock. A little like if Buddy Holly, Neil Young and John Lennon met in someones home and recorded outtakes for their new album.

All tracks can be heard and downloaded on Shotgun Language’s Bandcamp page. You can also meet Shotgun Language on Myspace.

It Leaves Me Worried

Baron Bane are back with their first release since  “Love.Cure.All” last year, the single “Sordid Eyes”. A song where they mix different influences in a cool way. Monster Magnet-guitars that’s interwoven with electronica and it all lifts in a floating pop chorus with some grunge vibes.

Meet Baron Bane on Facebook.

Sordid Eyes

I seldom write about tours in this blog, usually it’s about new releases and new songs. Today, though, I intend to do both.

It’s about Oskar Gyllenhammar and his tour “100 gigs 100 days”, which he started the 17th of May. Just before that he also released a single, a first taste of an upcoming album this fall. You can listen to the song, “Inga roller och manér”, here below.

The tour “100 gigs 100 days” started in the end of May with a number of gigs in Stockholm, and it’s not hard to understand from the name of the tour, that it’s about doing a gig each day until the 24th of August. But it doesn’t stop there; the ambition is to visit each region in Sweden and also visit the neighbouring countries Norway, Denmark and Finland, at least once.

On top of this, Oskar is also engaged to entertain at Café August in Hudiksvall each Thursday during summer. The gigs so far has been quite a variation, from club concerts, to festival gigs, to improvised park concerts.

This fun trip and it’s story is told on a special site for this tour, with film clips, photos and stories. If you want him to come and play, you can contact him on this site. (in Swedish though)

Read more about Oskar on his site (in Swedish).

Inga roller och manér

Inga roller och manér (acoustic):

Obliq, which we wrote about a little more than a year ago, have made a series of live studio recordings, from both earlier songs as well as new ones. They filmed the sessions and plan to release a video every month.

Here are “We Come From the Stars”, featuring Annelie, to listen to and download. And below, the latest video, “The Loneliest Figure”. Go to Obliq’s Youtube channel to follow them.

We Come From the Stars

The Loneliest Figure:

Skadade ljud is a new acquaintance. They started the band last summer, but it really took off this april as they released their first creations out into the open, with a three-track EP.

It’s pop/rock in Swedish, where they paint grand, slightly mellow pictures. And all is told by Daniel Månstråles vocals which gives it all that little extra touch of drama.

Here are two songs to listen to:

Ingen förstår oss ändå
Citodon

Visit Skadade ljud on Facebook

My Closest Friend, hailing from Göteborg, released a singel in the end of May, “Air”. They offer two songs with rather different character. “Air” with a heavy post-grunge rock feeling and “Real Time”, lighter with some country vibes in it. I can’t help thinking of  R.E.M. as I listen, maybe to some extent because of the vocals.

It will be interesting to see what My Closest Friend will come up with next. You’ll find the band on Myspace and on Facebook. Here are the songs:

Air
Real Time

In November I wrote about The Open Up and Bleeds. Their debut album is now recorded and ready for launch, but so far there’s no date set for the release.

Of course you get a better view of a band when you can listen to an entire album, but it’s a little hard anyway to catch The Open Up and Bleeds. Makes it even more interesting for me, as I’m served a lot of variation from dirty, messy rock with a heavy drive in high speed, to slower, more tense and dark songs.

It’s The Stooges, Neil Young-rock, a rawer This Perfect Day and maybe some early The Cure too. As I said, it’s not available yet, but I really hope it will be soon. Meanwhile you can visit the band on their Myspace page and on Facebook. Here’s a song and also a video from the album:

This Noise

OK Is Not OK:

Others about The Open Up and Bleeds: Absolut Noise, Buck Theorem’s Hide-out

Grand Roses was, to say the least, an interesting discovery. This spring they released their third EP “Say It to My Fervent Heart”, and it has become a favourite of mine. To make an attempt to describe their music I’d take a part of Glasvegas and mix it with a dose of attitude from Union Carbide Productions and also a sensation of mellow Americana.

Well, it sounds really good with strong tracks and a singer who strikes the right nerve and has a nice darkness in his voice. Listen some more on their Myspace page and on Spotify.

Their second EP, “The Farm”, is also available on Spotify and on their Myspace page. Here are two songs from “Say It to My Fervent Heart”:

A Place to Love
The Astronaut

Riff Knives play music in a genre that’s normally not exactly my thing, but nevertheless I was caught by their music. It’s a mix of hip hop, funk and rock with a lot of attitude and cool hooks. They get their inspiration foremost from N*E*R*D but also also from bands like Looptroop, Jurassic 5 and Infinite Mass.

They have released their debut EP, “Rattle For Fame”, which you can listen to on Spotify or on their Myspace page. Here are a couple of tracks:

Rattle For Fame
Porn Scar

A little more than a year ago I wrote about The Carnivales and their EP “Five of a Kind”. Last month they took another step on their journey by releasing their debut album “While We’re Young”.

With the album they continue with their energetic rock, but widen their scope and add more flesh to the bones. I hear classic rock from the seventies, Hellacopters and also influences from what I’d call melodic rock from the eighties. There’s a lot of ambition and desire in this band and I can really hear that in the music, fronted perfectly by Espen Janson’s vocals.
You can listen to the entire “While We’re Young” on Spotify and can read more about The Carnivales on Myspace.

Here’s the title track and it’s video from the album:

While We’re Young

While We’re Young:

Orange Earth is the name of the next band. Maybe the band name tells us something of the psychadelia ambitions? And it feels a little psychadelic and a little garage and some indie and shoegaze. You can listen more to Orange Earth on their Facebook page or their Myspace page, where you also can download their EP “Lighthouse”.

Airless
From Noah

On today’s schedule is rock, and then with the Malmö band The Marcel Prostitutes. It’s retro, it’s punkish, full speed ahead, sweat and dirty guitars. Maybe like a heavier, punkier, early Blondie. Here below are two songs to listen to. If you want more you should visit The Marcel Prostitutes on Myspace.

The Poise
One Way Communication - A Desperate Observation

This week I thought I could start with The Broken Assembly and their EP “Emotional”, which was released in the beginning of the year. Lasse Thomasson has visited Meadowmusic before, with the rduo Strangers In Wonderland together with Åsa Girgensohn, and this time it’s also about a duo, now together with Helena Ahlbäck.

There’s a nice span between the songs which could be summarized with “The Broken Assembly makes it’s utmost to create something new and has firmly buried their strong roots in the underworld of the seventies and the eighties; where Patty Smith finally married Tom Petty to some AC/DC licks with Queen’s boy choir humming in the background” And all is glued together in the production and Helena’s colourful vocals.

Listen here to a couple of songs. The rest of the EP you can listen to and downloadon The Broken Assembly’s site.

Come Together
Miles In the Rain

The title of Slowman’s new album “I’m Back” is of course a hint of that he’s back with a new record, but first of all he’s announcing that he’s back to his musical roots. And that’s how the new album feels, an exploration of classic blues, blues rock, some contry rock plus soul and funk. The blues is what feels the most, the dist knob are cranked up a bit more, the edges not too polished and his got his hands deep down in classic, fertile timeless soil. I’d say that he’s standing even more secure with this new album.

Roses and Wine
Me and the blues

Listen and read more on Slowman’s site

Revolve was formed in 2003 in Uppsala by the two brothers Nils and Per Tengvar. They now live in Göteborg and there they recorded, last year, their debut album “Burning Money”, with Henryk Lipp as a producer.

With Henryk Lipp as the producer, you might suspect that this is about rock, and rock it is. The first thing that comes to my mind is classic eighties’ hard rock, but it is more and more mixed with the vibes from rock of a later date, foremost in the spirit of Foo Fighters. All in all it turns out to be a strong and even album so why not listen to a couple of tracks here below?:

In You
Blessed By Less

You can find Revolve on their site and on their Myspace page or on Spotify you can listen to the album.

Pull A Star Trip. Singer/songwriter with a couple of adreneline injections, or hardcore with acoustic guitars? They have been compared with Dashboard Confessional, which I can agree with to some extent, but here’s an extra intensity and energy which seems endless. And even if it’s not at all the same genre, I can’t help thinking about The Proclaimers and foremost their “I’m gonna be (500 Miles)”, in the energy and the interaction. Maybe somewhere around all this you can find Pull A Star Trip’s music.

In 2009 Pull A Star Trip released their first album “E-Vasion Inn”. Here are two tracks from the album:

Countenance vs. Fingerprints
LA Travel Guide

You can find Pull A Star Trip on Myspace and you can listen to “E-Vasion Inn” on Spotify.

The band name Tvivelfront sounds almost like punk rock to me. The music though, which is sung in English, has a little punk in it, but feels more like a raw and rockish variation of The Cure, with a touch of Broder Daniel.

On their EP “Kid Ikarus”, which was released in March, I find three tracks with a basic, distorted sound with a nice live feeling. You can visit Tvivelfront’s site or Spotify to listen to all three songs. Here’s the title track:

Kid Ikarus

This Vision, hailing from Helsingborg, released their first EP in 2007. After that they focused entirely in the production of their first full length album, and finally, in the end of last year, it was released. It’s about electronica inspired by the eighties and to me it lands somewhere between Pet Shop Boys and New Order. Handsome melodies and a nice melancholy interacting.

An interesting fact is that This Vision signed a contract with the biggest label in the Phillipines, and the album was launched there in December. Also hot right now is the fact that the song “Lost and Found” from the album was chosen to be the theme for the TV-show Gabba Gabba in SVT.

Read more about This Vision on their site and on Myspace. On Spotify you can listen to the album. Here are two songs:

Wherever I Run
Young Hearts

Wherever I Run:

The danish-swedish band Black Light White Light went to Göteborg this winter to record three songs with the producer Johan Forsman. These tracks are now available on the debut EP “Director’s Cut”, three tracks with psychadelia-inspired rock.

Listen to “Director’s Cut” on Black Light White Light’s Myspace page. Here is “Higher Than Low”:

Higher Than Low

Today I have Stone Antica to present. Red Hot Chili Peppers-inspired rock I would say, with some Chris Cornell-vibes. The last impression comes a lot from Martin Sommansson’s vocals, which have a nice tone and expression. I don’t know much more about them than that they have released an EP before and are now working on a new album, to be released during 2010.

You can find Stone Antica on their site and on Myspace

Here are a couple of songs:

Can’t Get Out
The Grace of a Goddess Kiss

Jon Strider, whom I wrote about last year, is back now with a new album, “Fresh Tracks”, which was released in February. Except from two tracks, he has chosen this time to collaborate with various songwriters, like Jane Getz, David Garriock, Michael Boesen et al. And it shows; there are larger leaps this time between different styles and expressions. The soft country rock is there, but gets accompanied by country, blues and other influences. It’s pleasant, nice melodies and well produced.

Here are two songs to listen to:

Magnolia Tree
Workin’ Is For People That Don’t Know How to Fish

Jon Strider’s site

You can’t ignore The Rumble. When I first heard them a couple of years ago, it was like a jet of energy that shot through everything else. We have written about them before, and now they have released their first full length album.

And there’s nothing wrong with the energy on the new album, it’s full speed ahead from the start, maybe a little less dirty than before but with a heavier and better beat and drive. At the same time the album shows more of the band, as they explore rock music in different corners, where Hank’s rock-bluesy vocals glues it all together. An album that’s perfect both at the warm-up party as well as on the dancefloor.

You can meet The Rumble on Myspace and you can listen to the album on Spotify. Here are a couple of songs:

24 Hours
Madman

The other day I visited the Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean. The great statues were there, like they’ve been for the last thousand years, hiding their secrets, revealing nothing. But suddenly, as we were exploring the area, a strong sound, low and dull, startled us, and it seemed to emerge from the ground beneath the old statues. Was this finally a clue to the mysteries of the Easter Island?

The sound gained in strength, echoing across the hills, and we crouched in awe but with the curiosity lurching beneath. The sound shaped itself into a voice, and the voice said: “Let there be rock!”

Maybe a little boring message after all this time, since the statues are made of that, rock. But there were a few people among us that interpreted the words in their own way: the members of Badmouth. Chris LeMon grabbed hos big axe for a Bass, Mike Hill and Randy Joy armed their guitars, in a frenzy Vinnie Sharpe started hitting the rocks with his drum sticks and Tom Pearson let out a wild cry that boomed within our heads for hours afterwards: “Yeah, we will rock the world!!!”

Today Badmouth are missionairies for rock music and are eagerly delivering their message wherever they go. They are right now finishing their second full length album, an album that is rumoured to penetrate the toughest anti-rock walls mankind has seen so far.

If you’d like to remain sane, continue to live in peace and feel it’s uncomfortable to be in an area where the ground will shake for two days, then you should definitely avoid Stockholm between the 30th of April and the 1st of May.

Why? Because Stockholm Rock Out, a new big rock festival will take place in Stockholm, containing some of the best rock that’s ever been squeezed out of a Marshall stack. Badmouth, Slaughter, Kix, Keel, Great White, Steelheart, Bullet Boys and many other bands plus fans from all over the world will gather and join in Badmouths mission. The high priest of the event is Chris LeMon from Badmouth.

Well, let’s start ahead with a couple of tracks from Badmouth’s last album:

Pedal to the Metal
Cocaine Girl

Listen more to Badmouth on their Myspace page and follow the band on their site.

Happy easter! (well at least within a day or two)

The story about the members of Ioseb’s road trip, how they stopped at an old church, stumbled upon a pile of thrown goods and an old trunk, feels rather appealing. Seems like they was caught in the moment, and in a way started all over right there and then. Ioseb was formed and from the experience emerged something that would later on become the album “The Ghost of 33″.

Most of us probably need to stop moving on sometimes, and try to feel who we are, where we are and what we want. Maybe Ioseb’s own post-rock-version, “The Ghost of 33″ can help. It’s a journey, mostly instrumental, consisting of 8 tracks of quite varying length. It can be powerful, sometimes fragile, beautifully melodic and emotional. The melancholy from cold northern winds is there, but in the end the warmth and the strength is what feels most strongly.

You can read and listen more on Ioseb’s site and you can also find them on Myspace.

The Sea et al

c/o Night:

It’s rather fascinating to listen to Fredrik Jonasson & the Hoarse Horses. Their third EP “Kolme” was released in January this year and contains their own special pop/rock brewage, catchy and melodic, raw edges and a sound where I can hear some New Wave, Pulp, Bowie, Stone Roses and much more. I really like Fredrik’s voice which is very characteristic and fits perfectly with the rather raw sound. On this third EP they have moved away from the electronica background, which was the base before, to a more guitar-based sound.

You can find Fredrik Jonasson & the Hoarse Horses’ headquarters on their site. You can also visit their Bandcamp page to listen to “Kolme” and the earlier releases. Here are two songs from “Kolme”:

Simone
Angels

Angels:

Fredrik Jonasson & The Hoarse Horses - Angels from Fredrik Jonasson on Vimeo.