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):