As you have noticed, we have been away for a week here at Meadowmusic. So I thought that it was an excellent occasion today to start anew by wishing you all a happy new year, with music.

Thanks to everyone who read the blog and thank you for all support, all mail discussions and comments. I am looking forward to a new fantastic year in 2009, with a lot of new music, some of it to be presented here.

As an inspiration for the new year I thought that Icke Lika Med would be a perfect choice. Icke Lika Med, with front man Olle Torpman, is a band I really love; for the music, but also for being who they are. And something that I think we all could learn from Icke Lika Med is that they go their own way. In the middle of all the crisis and among herd-running finance sharks, I think it’s even more important to do that, to go your own way. Not somebody elses way, just your own.

And that is what Icke Lika Med does. By playing grunge in swedish, in their own way, and by trying to make this world a better place.

Besides the great music you can listen to here in this post, you can also visit Icke Lika Med’s site to listen more and download more songs.

Happy new year!

Det var jag (It was I):

Bättre (Better):

Det var jag
Party!
Banding & Shisha
18

For me, December usually feels like a pleasant and calm period, waiting for Christmas. People around me gets a little happier, my children think that everyday has some extra excitement, nice summaries of the year and thoughts about what has been and what is to come pop up every day in the blog reader, in the newspapers and in other media.

That is, until five or six days before Christmas eve. Then it hits me. Ouch, so little time left, so much to do. Buy things, fix things, cook, plan the holidays and so on. And the New Year-holiday is just around the corner. Well, I have of concluded that it’s all my head of course. I mean, what could really happen? Will they ban me from the stores next year because I don’t shop enough, will the family  say “Yuck!” when they taste the Christmas food or will I be less loved because I didn’t have time to send all the Christmas greetings?  A lot of noise in my head, that places me anywhere but here and now.

The question then is how I stop this endless noise going on? One way is to listen to music. But I need music that really makes me stop and listen, music that catches my attention and makes me come back to reality. For me, Mikael Herrström’s music has this effect.  Mikael has an honest and urgent voice. In an atmosphere that sometimes reminds me of Nick Cave, he presents his thoughts, and the noise disappears. And today, the day before Christmas Eve, this voice is really needed.

For many Mikael Herrström is no stranger. He has produced Thåström, Stefan Sundström, Mattias Hellberg and many others, and he has played with a lot of artists. But that he also is a solo artist, is maybe less known, and that his songs are as strong as he shows in the songs below, I really hope more people discover. The tracks come from his album “The Second Waltz”, an album where he gets help from artists like Martin Hederos, Pelle Ossler and Andreas Söderström.
If you haven’t heard it already, you should also listen to his version of Hanoi Rocks’ “Dead By X-mas”, with Martin Hederos on the piano, which I presented a couple of days ago.

Consumer Citizen
Fate & Destiny
The Second Waltz

Visit Mikael Herrström on Myspace

To me, Slow Motion Club from Lund is indie pop when indiepop is at it’s best. Good, catchy, playful melodies, personal vocals and a basic, guitar based nice sound. And first of all, songs that stick in my mind and want to be played over and over again.

When I listen to Slow Motion Club I’m reminded of another favourite band of mine: Manic Street Preachers. If I peel of the grand sound of these, I find a similar songwriting with the same mellow feeling and melodies that find new ways, to be interwoven again in a nice way.

Enjoy three tracks by Slow Motion Club. To listen more you should visit Slow Motion Club on Myspace.

The Gun In God’s Hand
The Salt
Parliament Square

After listening to Best-of Christmas albums too many times, too many Christmases, I thought it would be nice to find some new favourites. And why not start looking among all the artists we have presented here at Meadowmusic?

So, here’s a collection of new christmas songs, and I hope that you too will find some songs that gives you that extra Christmas atmosphere.

Merry Christmas!

ad dios, the masters of ambience have created their own version of an old Christmas carol. On their site you can also download the wav-file of the song and a cover, so that you create your own Christmas gift.
Once In Royal David’s City

The Deer Tracks
Christmas Fire

Twiggy Frostbite
Lanterns & Stars

Mikael Herrström (with his own version of Hanoi Rocks’ song. Mikael will be presented in an upcoming post.)
Dead By X-mas

Maini Sorri, buy her Christmas EP here.
Our River Runs On Christmas Night

Strangers In Wonderland
Flickan i fönstret

Christian Björklund and Chuck Dread
O, helga natt (Chuck Dread remix)

Pär Enqvist Band
Blir det nån jul i år?

SvenStures Poporkester, the children’s pop band, world famous in Skåne, Sweden, also gives away their new album for free download. If you’d like to listen to the songs you can visit their site. (in Swedish)
Nissarnas A-lagskapten

Years ago when I lived in a student room, I had a neighbour down the corridor who always started his partying nights by playing Joy Division. He was always an extremely happy and outgoing person, so I was struck by the contrast as the tones from this mellow music was heard around five pm in the afternoon. As he was very hospitable and generous with all kind of drinks, his closest friends also discovered it was a good idea to start the party in our student corridor. Usually they were around 10 people, and they were called “The ants” by the other neighbours.

When the ants arrived the music was mixed with songs from Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cure, Waterboys and Sisters of Mercy, and the party moved out to the kitchen we had in common. The music listening was solved in the way that the door to the neighbour’s room was kept open with the loudspeakers on full volume. You could call it corridor radio, or streaming corridor audio. The most popular drink was Irish Coffee, which was rather obvious the day after, when around ten abandoned creamish, brownish glasses could be seen in various places in the kitchen, together with the remains of the party food of pickled herring, eggs, chips and cheeze doodles. And considering that my friend partied approximately five times a week during the semester, I never quite felt the need to buy the records of these artists, even if I did like the music. At least I like it nowadays.

Party atmosphere or not, it is in this musical region that I find Icons On Television, at least with the two bands mentioned first. Somewhere between Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen, if you could draw a line between these bands. And they do this really good. Listen for yourself in the songs below.

If you want to listen more on the net you can visit the band on Icons On Television’s Myspace page. If you want to see them live you can visit the club Mental Nights in Solna the 3rd of January.

Disharmony
Simple End