Instead of Lions consists of Mattias Jones Johansson (guitars) och Rikard Frejgrim (vocals, bass guitars), both former members of the band Naked. They have recently released a single with three songs, which is, from what I can see, their first official release.

Anyhow it’s about three beautifully built songs, with melodies and hooks that stick, all set in a nice rock sound. Rikard Frejgrim’s voice reminds me somewhat of Ric Ocasec’s, also in the way he sings, which gives the songs an extra, special flavour.

Listen more on Spotify or on Myspace.

I Wish It Never Turn Monday

“It started as a small annoyance over the mess in the local supermarket. Speaking on the phone we agreed it was better to write a pop song about the situation rather than burning the shop down. And so we did.”

That’s how Skånske Arne & Jonny Spöge tell us the story about how they started. The influences come from the so called “Klippan-popen” with bands like Torsson, Kommisarie Roy and Noise. They also mention Wilmer X and I feel that there’s also an obvious link to Kal P. Dal.

As you have read in the introduction it’s also about lyrics with social criticism, even if they have promised songs where they don’t complain about anything. In their first official release, “Gula lådan” (“The yellow box”), they tell us about “a serious problem, which in the long run threatens to bring down our entire civilization”, i.e. the lack of yellow boxes nowadays around Sweden. (a note for international readers: yellow box=letter box) As they state: “Important documents run the risk of not arriving to their destination because of the lack of letter boxes!”

Enjoy the song here below, and also a brilliant music video they released recently. You can meet the duo at their site.

Gula lådan

“Loud, quiet, rough, emotional.” it says in the description to OMFS!’ album “Skaka” on their Bandcamp page. And to describe the difference between this new album and the last one “Hemma”, then under the name One Man Freac Show, I’d like to use some of these words: louder, rougher, more emotional.

It feels like the band has left the club scene and is up on the big arena scene, and instead of focusing on catchy tunes they go for the big emotions and gestures. At least on this album. They have already released a single, “Fara”, from an upcoming album and is hinting that they are getting out of the arena.

As usual it’s very interesting to explore some of Fredric Johansson’s and his bandmates’ great creativity and if you’d like to listen to this album and earlier works you can do this on their Bandcamp page and on Spotify. OMFS! also has a site and a Facebook page.

Regardless
Always

1994 Jan Johansen, together with the songwriter, producer and ex-Magnum Bonum-member Mats Hedström started recording a bunch of rock songs. The year after, though, Jan Johansens career took a different turn, as he won the Swedish Melody Festival, and the project was paused.

Then, last year, they revived the rock project, wrote new songs, recorded an album and reformed the band Gavelin. Now the late debut album “Mean Machine” has been released and when I listen my thought is that this must be what Jan Johansen’s voice was really ment for.

If you like classic rock and hard rock from the seventies with the early Whitesnake, Free, The Faces, Rolling Stones and Bad Company you should listen to “Mean Machine”. 12 good tracks of great retro rock, Jan’s voice feels like hand in glove here, and I can only hope that they continue with the band.

The album is available on Spotify, Gavelin’s site and Soundcloud. The band also has a  Facebook page. Here is “Jealousy”, “Cash Is King” and “Baby Like a Rolling Stone”. Two of these songs was recorded in ’94 and the third recently. Can you hear which one is new?

Jealousy
Cash Is King

Well, this is actually my 400th post here on Meadowmusic. That’s quite a few posts isn’t it? and it feels a little like a milestone somehow. If I add the other authors’ posts I estimate that we’ve presented somewhere between 350 and 380 artists and bands, and a majority of these have never been seen in a blog post before.

The band that is given the honour today is Perry and the Travellers. Their guiding star is Lynyrd Skynyrd and the conclusion of course is that it’s about southern rock. And that they deliver for sure, and great southern rock too. At least from what I can judge from the single with two songs they released recently.

The single is a first taste of their new album “The Grand Voyage”, which will be released on the 8th of April, their third album. You can find the band on their site and on Facebook.

Walkin’ On That Line
All My Time

/Pär