Last Saturday Låtsaspoeten, alias Jon Rinneby, released the debut album “På riktigt”. If you have followed the blog you have met him in several disguises before, first of all as a singer and songwriter in Turn Off Your Television, and in the Autumn I made an interview with him about this new project. As Låtsaspoeten he has started writing lyrics in Swedish for the first time, and also tried to find his way back to a simpler and more direct way of creating music. He decided early on to work according to a principle where he gave himself one day to write and record a song and another day to mix and finalize the production.

The thirteen songs on the album form quite a varied journey that balances between simple fun and seriousness, and between the close, personal and his critical eyes on society. The Swedish folk song tradition and the progressive movement from the seventies form a base in many tracks, but he doesn’t stop there and often moves the songs on to indie pop and Americana of today, and I’m sure that Turn Off Your Television-fans will feel at home once in a while. Not least because of all the sticky melodies Jon has a notorious habit of creating. Listen to three of the tracks here below:

Låtsaspoeten on Facebook – on Spotify

Culkin have released a taste of their upcoming album. It’s the song “Hernandez II” with cool grunge-tinged underground rock, and which is available on the label Kollektivet Record’s first mixtape. Listen here:

Culkins site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

Mårten Lärka surprises us by releasing an album in French in the beginning of May. He has named the album “Alouette” and the first taste is called “Je Suis Un Rocker”, a title which even I understand. It sounds folk rock and the sixties, Dylan’s mid-sixties production comes to to mind, and it all gets a wonderful, distinct colour from the french lyrics. The music is composed by Mårten himself, while the lyrics are co-written with Algerian Hamid Khodja. Listen here:

Mårten Lärkas site – on Facebook – on Spotify

Here you’ll get the chance to go to a party with Theo Berndt on their new video to the indie pop single “Stop Pretend”. They describe the song as a continuation of the story that started with the single “Atomic” in the Autumn.

Theo Berndt’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

Peter Emas ungdomsorkester is a Finland-Swedish band who recently released their second single, “Kronovägen X”. It’s an indiepop track tinged by a postpunk melancholy that goes hand in hand with the theme of the song where the singer Peter Ema remembers his youth at Kronovägen in Jakobstad, Finland and his longing to escape from there.

Peter Emas ungdomsorkester on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp