The Shy Lips, hailing from Göteborg, released their second EP “Nowadays” earlier this year. It’s fun to listen to this music, as it’s unpredictable, happy and with a mix of styles that gives me a sense of recognition, but when I try to catch what it is, it escapes me. There’s an intimate garage-punkish sound, with a laidback, natural attitude, like if they would have entered a stage in Manchester in the eighties as a warm-up for The Happy Mondays. They send out tentacles to the sixties, with The Kinks as the most obvious reference, there’s a dose of  The Smiths, ska-rhytms and then also indie pop vibes. Well, great music in any case.

The Shy Lips on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

Nowadays
Nobody Cares

Sharp turns here in the blog. Now it’s about hard rock with Egonaut, hailing from Borås, who recently released their album “Mount Egonaut”. For friends of Mustasch, Metallica and Hardcore Superstar as they describe it themselves. I haven’t listened to the entire album yet, but it feels promising. Here’s the opening track “Crawl”, which they’ve also made a video to.

Egonaut’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

Besides working with music Knut Svanholm works as a mate on a sailing ship, and that’s also where many of his songs are created; somewhere out on the Mediterranean, on the Atlantic ocean or in the Caribbean sea. Last year he released the solo album “Ergasiophobia” and also the record “The Angry Kid” with his band LOBST, which I wrote about here on the blog. Fleet of Clay is another of his projects which I have also written about as I paid some attention to the excellent album “The Essential Fleet of Clay”.

This year he’s released the solo collection “Acoustrophé”, which is something like his own version of “Rare Tracks”: songs that didn’t fit into the earlier works and that he decided to record now, live tracks and other odd songs, where you’ll find for example a translation to English of  “Vargasången” from Ronia the Robber’s Daughter and an attempt to make a Bond theme song. I like the new recordings the best, the first four tracks, where he’s alone with his guitar (except on one song), it’s personal, naked and inspired by his travelling life. The whole album feels a little like getting to know Knut a little better, and it’s clearly a pleasant acqaintance.

Knut Svanholm on Facebook – on Spotify

Stray Dog
Feels Like Loneliness

Dundertåget with former Hellacopters-guitarist Robert Dahlqvist in the front, released last month the new single “Det tog en lång tid”. I haven’t listened to the earlier two albums, but this naked seventies-sounding blues-progressive ballad sure gave me taste for more. The single also comes with the track “Inte en dag” with lyrics by Bob Hansson. A new album is underway and will be released later this year.

Dundertåget’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

I do have a soft spot for good old rock ‘n roll sung in Skånska (southern Swedish dialect), and that is exactly what Skånska Maffian offers with their latest release, the single “Kom in och hälsa på”. The song is a cover of Dan Tillbergs Swedish interpretation from 1979 (from the album “Gatstenar”, translation by Mats Zetterberg) of Rolling Stones “Get Off of My Cloud”, so you may recognize the song.

Otherwise Skånska Maffian, with the singer, guitarist and songwriter Miko Walldén in the front, mostly play their own songs, which you can listen to on their debut album from 2010. The next album is in the works right now, and hopefully we’ll see a release later this year.

Skånska Maffian’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

Kom in och hälsa på