Here’s Rooni with their third single, the catchy “Ambulance”, a song in the same spirit as the earlier ones, with their own mix of indie pop and retro-vibing power pop. The best song so far I think.
Rooni’s site - on Facebook - on Spotify - on Wimp - on Soundcloud
The band The Magnettes started out as an acoustic duo with Sanna Kalla and Rebecka Digervall in Pajala, in the north of Sweden. In 2011 the band expanded to 6 members and they started with the recordings of a debut album. The debut single “Paper Cut” was released in October aiming for an album release in the beginning of 2013. And “Paper Cut” promises a lot with it’s sparkling, energetic, slightly cheeky power pop. Great song. Listen for yourself here below.
The Magnettes on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Soundcloud
During the nineties David Myhr was a member of the power pop band The Merrymakers. Now he’s back with his first solo album “Soundshine”, a very fitting name for the album. Even if the lyrics aren’t that sunny, the music is; the album is filled to the rim with melodies, hooks and refrains we sing a long with all the way to the beach.
To me this IS pop, that is what I grew up with and defined pop as a word to me during the seventies. ELO, 10cc, Gilbert O’Sullivan, George Harrison walks by and the master himself, Paul McCartney, is very much present. From that point of view ”Soundshine” has nothing to be ashamed for. It’s an impressive collection of songs, where I think each and everyone of the tunes would qualify as a gluey pop single.
Here below David treats us with the first two tracks from the album. To listen more, you can go to Spotify or to Wimp. Follow David on his site and on Facebook.
Around New Year The Virtues released the single “Hope”. A really beautiful ballad which you can listen to and download here below.
“Hope” is the finishing song on the band’s latest album “Beautiful Game”, their fourth one since 2003, and was released last year. I haven’t written about it yet, so I took the opportunity to listen to it now. And I like the album, it’s a good rock/pop-album with a lot of vibes from Big Star and Tom Petty and a dose of early New Wave. I love the intimate sound in the songs; retro, airy and full of good-sounding guitars that have plenty of room to ring out their tones. Add then also Per’s nice rock vocals, good melodies and some interesting adventures like in for example the punk vibing “Liquid”.
You can hear the album on Spotify and you’ll find the band on Facebook and on their site.
Take a part of Electric Light Orchestra from the seventies, some of the playfulness of 10cc, a bit of Queens’ drama, something from Squeeze and Madness, and mix this once or twice with disco, a lot of power pop and some indie rock, then you might get a notion of what Nom de Guerre’s new album “Love Thy Neighbour” sounds like.
The vibes from all this comes in different songs in different mixes on this excellent album. When you think you got a clue about where they come from, they surprise you again with a new twist in a new song. From, for example, a wilder Madness-inspired and indie rockish “Murder On Demand” over to a disco pop driven “Drama Queen” with a hint of 80′s synth and a couple of tracks later, the soft “Ballad of Harry” with a close, classic ELO sound.
But it all fit together. With a sound that goes through the entire album, including a characteristic fuzz bass, with the drama and an excellent pop melody songwriting.
I hope you like this, and if you do, you can listen more on Nom de Guerre’s Myspace page.
Here’s two songs from “Love Thy Neighbour”:
I have a cold, and it feels like my head is full of cotton and everything goes slower. Well, it’s time then to listen to The Carnivales. They have enough energy to share to keep you going and more than that. And that they named the band The Carnivales is no mistake, because this is party, rock party. I can’t see any bad faces as they rock on with intensity and joy of playing.
The recordings have very much a live feeling, like an ordered chaos, and if that’s any indication, I’m sure that it’s hard not to let go at a concert with these guys. You can download and listen to a couple of tracks here from their EP “Five of a Kind”.
If you want to see them live , you’ll have the opportunity tomorrow at Teater Accent in Stockholm.
Visit also The Carnivales’ site and their Myspace page.
Lola
Killer Kid
A couple of months ago The Plastic Pals released their debut album “Good Karma Café”. A solid, exciting rock and powerpop album with a collection of strong tracks with The Plastic Pals’ own special sound. It feels like great retro mixture molded into something new. I get so many associations to this that I find it hard to tell them apart into some kind of description.
Sixties pop, psychadelia, Blue Öyster Cult, Television, and yes it feels clean and rough at the same time. I really love the vocals from Håkan Soold, which adds a lot of soul to the music and keeps everything together. A really good album that grows each time I listen to it.
Below you’ll find a couple of tracks from Good Karma Café plus a video. Visit The Plastic Pals on Myspace to listen and read more.
She’s Going Back:
Here Comes the Sun
Long and Lovely
I wrote earlier about Shotgun Crackers here on Meadowmusic, and I have listened a lot to their songs. I get a real feeling of joy when I listen to them.
The band has just completed their new EP “Kpptsch” (is it maybe the sound of the snare and the cymbal?) and they release it here on Meadowmusic first, for everyone to download!
It’s just as playful as before but it sounds more “mature”. And I mean that in a positive sense, the guys in the band are incredibly musical and play well together. That was a fact also before, but now it feels like they really have found eachother and feel more secure with what they do.
In the songs you can listen to here, Shotgun Crackers are not afraid to try new directions and play with the music and the result is so nice and liberating.
The singer, Fredrik, is really good and in the only song in Swedish, he sounds startingly like Håkan Hellström!
Congratulations for being one of the first who can download the new EP from Shotgun Crackers!
Khpptsch:
1. Trevor
2. Happiness of Flowers
3. Runner Runner
4. Allt va vi vill ha
Keep cool,
Jeppe
He likes to ride the bike against the wind, eat meatballs and he likes soft nights at home. And maybe it’s there he finds all inspiration to his songs. Because this mr Fredric is the face of productivity. He releases songs all the time in a high pace.
This guy from Jakobsberg in Stockholm moves smoothly among the hip hop elite in Sweden and delivers romantic themes or philosophical speculations about life and love.
This is how he presents himself in a clip:
And listen to this: Fredric feat. Frida Muranius and Mattias Welin. It’s a little like Me Tarzan and You Jane, and I fully love it. A warm-up party song that should be a hit among the winedrinking mothers of bothersome teenagers. It’s an enigma to me that it’s not constantly played on all the Swedish radio stations, as it’s a smashing superhit bomb according to me:
Fantasi (with Frida and Mattias)
Heres another song from Fredric:
Du kom du gick
Fredric is now working on his new site, where he will upload 19 new songs, all free for download! So keep a look at Fredric’s site.
In the meantime you can visit him on Myspace where you for example can listen to a couple of cool collaborations with Melina and Anthon.
What the Lund based band Brainpool left in the 90′s and the Gothenburg based band Bad Cash Quartet picked up at the beginning of the 21st century is now taken a step further by Shotgun Crackers from Norrtälje, north of Stockholm!
Don’t be fooled by the slightly metal sounding name. Shotgun Crackers offers a fantastic mix of great melodies, marvellous vocals (in that extremely cool childish way), accomplished musicians…..and….hand claps…..(there should definitely be more hand claps in songs!!), combined with pop music that, at times, closes in on the Beatles.
That’s what i think…
…make up your own mind:
Blood Tears and Dreams
The Worst Love
She Wouldn’t Mind
You’ll Find Shotgun Crackers on Myspace
(translated by Clint Hell)
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