You may have heard Christian Wallin and Mattias Svensson before in this blog as a part ofthe band Killer Clan of F.U.N. They decided, though, to wipe off the punky glamrock makeup, throw out the poses, and start Hothead together with the bass player Tony Håkansson. The debut EP “Ready For Whatever” was released this Autumn and is like a trip back to their roots, without sounding retro. This is right-in-your-face-rock with punk and heavy bluesrock alternating in rather short tracks of 1,5-2,5 minutes length. Wallin often steps up to the microphone with his cool laidback vocals even if the trio’s harmonies sometimes dominate and come out as a highlight of their sound. With Wallin’s effective, attacking guitar riffs and the great groove from the rhytm section they make me want to hear more from the band, it feels a bit like an introduction to something bigger. Here’s a taste from the EP.
Another uncompromising artist is Richard Ahlgren and his danmarck, who is now releasing a new EP. He continues to suprise and experiment and sounds rougher than ever as he has moved further into the garage. When he gets up on stage in Jönköping on the 7th of November he’s in the company of five guitars and a transverse flute. You can hear the flute here below in the Patti Smith-inspired “Manga”. And “pants on pants off leaves on leaves off” was created in a rehearsal jam under the influence of Dead Kennedys and Entombed, he says.
Honeymilk released this pearl of a song in the beginning of this month, “Psychrocker”, a duet with De Montevert. That they can make shaky, squeaking guitars sound this beautiful is an accomplishment in itself. It’s liberating with a band who doesn’t polish their sound as the audience and the ambitions grow. Honeymilk is in fact doing the opposite and doesn’t hesitate to push the boundaries further. Still, they are catchier than ever. With the song they also show that they have sense of humour and self irony:
Honeymilk wanted to write a song about “people with more arrogance than they merit. People with a bigger idea of themselves, than their talent can live up to,” the band says. When they had finished writing the song, they came to the conclusion – to their greatest disappointment – that they actually wrote it about no other than themselves. “Psychrocker is simply a tribute to Honeymilk.”
Here’s an excellent single from the Oakland band Catholic Radio. They fool us a bit with the band name, since the music has very little to do with religion. Recently they released the single “Rain Is Done”, which is taken from the album “The Last Summer, Vol. 2”, launched earlier this year. They start out with a laidback, dreamy indie rock which lands in a “Dark Side of the Moon”-sounding chorus and then opens up in an atmospheric soundscape with shimmering layers of guitars. Beautiful, different and with a quite pleasant sound full of retro vibes. If you like dreamy, melodic indie rock with progressive tendencies I recommend you to check out both of their “The Last Summer”-albums they released this year.
Filip Lundgren is preparing for his upcoming album release with this new single, “Allting är historia”. The song feels like an obvious sing-along favourite on his future gigs and reminds me quite a bit of Broder Daniel in the chorus. With the song he wants to remind us to really se what’s happening around us, here and now, and urges us to act now to prevent history from repeating itself with racism and fascism holding us in its cold grip.
The debut album “Där Inget Annat Finns” will be launched on the 16th of October.
Meadowmusic presents new music from many corners and edges of the world, but with a strong focus on Swedish music. Listen, read, watch, comment and share the music. All songs you find here on this page have been approved for publication by the artists and labels.
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