“It started as a small annoyance over the mess in the local supermarket. Speaking on the phone we agreed it was better to write a pop song about the situation rather than burning the shop down. And so we did.”

That’s how Skånske Arne & Jonny Spöge tell us the story about how they started. The influences come from the so called “Klippan-popen” with bands like Torsson, Kommisarie Roy and Noise. They also mention Wilmer X and I feel that there’s also an obvious link to Kal P. Dal.

As you have read in the introduction it’s also about lyrics with social criticism, even if they have promised songs where they don’t complain about anything. In their first official release, “Gula lådan” (“The yellow box”), they tell us about “a serious problem, which in the long run threatens to bring down our entire civilization”, i.e. the lack of yellow boxes nowadays around Sweden. (a note for international readers: yellow box=letter box) As they state: “Important documents run the risk of not arriving to their destination because of the lack of letter boxes!”

Enjoy the song here below, and also a brilliant music video they released recently. You can meet the duo at their site.

Gula lådan

”Momoism – A playful idea about mixing high and low, the electronic and the organic, sparkling colours and dance rhythms.” That’s how Momofoko explains the title of their new album “Momoism”, to be released tomorrow.

Dance floor rock with funk guitars, a lot of classic disco vibes and a dash of electro will probably get a lot of stiff legs moving on Momofoko’s live shows. Add then some nice pop melodies and Mårten Holst cool voice.

Last summer the band released the EP ““Not now!…Now?”” and now it’s time for the debut album “Momoism”. You can keep track of the band on their site and on their Facebook page. Here are two songs from the album:

What You Want to Hear
Still Need to Dance

“Loud, quiet, rough, emotional.” it says in the description to OMFS!’ album “Skaka” on their Bandcamp page. And to describe the difference between this new album and the last one “Hemma”, then under the name One Man Freac Show, I’d like to use some of these words: louder, rougher, more emotional.

It feels like the band has left the club scene and is up on the big arena scene, and instead of focusing on catchy tunes they go for the big emotions and gestures. At least on this album. They have already released a single, “Fara”, from an upcoming album and is hinting that they are getting out of the arena.

As usual it’s very interesting to explore some of Fredric Johansson’s and his bandmates’ great creativity and if you’d like to listen to this album and earlier works you can do this on their Bandcamp page and on Spotify. OMFS! also has a site and a Facebook page.

Regardless
Always

Today it gets really soft together with the band Norbert med vänner (“Norbert with friends”), hailing from Örebro. Singer/songwriter-pop with american influences comes to my mind and also Damien Rice in the voice and the tasteful arrangements.

The band was formed a little more than a year ago and has released a three-track EP, “12th of May”, produced by Simon Ljungman, and which is available on Spotify and on Myspace. You can also find them on Facebook.

12th of May
Cellmate

1994 Jan Johansen, together with the songwriter, producer and ex-Magnum Bonum-member Mats Hedström started recording a bunch of rock songs. The year after, though, Jan Johansens career took a different turn, as he won the Swedish Melody Festival, and the project was paused.

Then, last year, they revived the rock project, wrote new songs, recorded an album and reformed the band Gavelin. Now the late debut album “Mean Machine” has been released and when I listen my thought is that this must be what Jan Johansen’s voice was really ment for.

If you like classic rock and hard rock from the seventies with the early Whitesnake, Free, The Faces, Rolling Stones and Bad Company you should listen to “Mean Machine”. 12 good tracks of great retro rock, Jan’s voice feels like hand in glove here, and I can only hope that they continue with the band.

The album is available on Spotify, Gavelin’s site and Soundcloud. The band also has a  Facebook page. Here is “Jealousy”, “Cash Is King” and “Baby Like a Rolling Stone”. Two of these songs was recorded in ’94 and the third recently. Can you hear which one is new?

Jealousy
Cash Is King