Swedish punk compilation needs your support!

One of the scenes that are closest to my heart is the Swedish punk scene and the sub scenes connected to it. I did collect some punk stuff earlier when I was living home in Sweden. I got in touch with a lot of cool people and when I was living close to Stockholm it was easy to go to concerts as well, good times!

As of late it's been easier to "re-connect" with the Swedish punk scene due to some small labels that have poped up lately.

Recently I heard about a project that Mikael Sörling is running. I know him as a punk writer in the Swedish metal/punk magazine Close-up Magazine, and he has his own blog at sirling.blogspot.com. He's compiled a list of songs from Swedish punk bands that he's looking to release as a double vinyl. He needs some support a head of this release. I've "donated" for two copies, one for The Garden and one for myself. So if you like the Swedish punk scene, please support! I'm really looking forward to this release.

Skraeckoedlan - Äppelträdet

Skraeckoedlan is another one of my new favourite Swedish bands! I've recently got three "new" releases from the band.

This is their debut LP "Äppelträdet" ("The Apple Tree") released by the brilliant new record label Gaphals, last year.

This record shouldn't be good though! Stoner rock is a genre full of clichés, and "Äppelträdet" is full of them! You have your fuzzy riffs, the spaced out lyrics, you even got a fuzzy melodic instrumental song. However this really is a quality stoner record.

Basically there is just one bad ass riff after another and the band play with what seems to be a genuine love of the genre, and some of the lyrics are just brilliant- like the song about Cactus Galaxus... I would describe the sound as a mix of two of the bigger stoner/fuzz rock bands from Sweden, the more straightforward Dozer and the more spaced oout Truckfighters.

I would guess that the guys of Skraeckoedlan are fans are both of them...

A huge plus is also that some of their songs are in Swedish.

Thåström - An expensive record

Every now and then I just go on Ebay or Tradera, or similar sites, and make some random searches for records that I either want or that I have. I like the feature on Tradera where you can search on finished auctions. I did that a few days ago when I searched for Thåström records.

I was browsing through, seeing what I already know that most of his records are sold between 500 and 900 SEK. I couldn't see any copies of the "Kärlek Är För Dom" vinyl on the first page so I continued to browse through the pages when I eventually found one copy that sold about a month ago.

The copy sold was the first pressing on black vinyl. This edition was printed in 500 copies and is also hand numbered.

I thought that the "Mannen Som Blev En Gris" and "Det Är Ni Som E Dom Konstiga..." records were the most valuables, almost always selling for over 1 000 SEK and then "Skebokvarnsv..." right behind them with sells on abou 800-900 SEK. Turns out I was wrong...

The first press of the "Kärlek Är För Dom" record that i found, apparently sold for over 2 000 SEK! That's always satisfying to find when you own the record yourself!

I only got the first edition that is numbered and on black vinyl. It was also released in 500 copies on clear transparent vinyl which I didn't get.

The latest record though, "Beväpna Dig Med Vingar" I've got two editions of (first press on black vinyl and second press on clear on this one as well) and I'll probably get the third one as well on yellow vinyl. Who knows, maybe in four years they have also increased that much in value!? (they already sell for almost 500SEK).

This make my "Kärlek Är För Dom" vinyl one of my most valuable records!

The Ascendant - The Spiritual Death EP

Today I got something nice in the mail:-)

This is the first release from the band The Ascendant. The 7" EP is called "The Spiritual Death EP" and contains two brilliant songs.

This new band consists of members from bands such as Excessum, Marduk and Ad Hominem. I remember hearing some of the first takes of the first song "The Becoming" back in 2007 or 2008 and it was a really interesting piece of music. For me it felt like a really fresh breathe of air in a tired black metal world. It still feels as fresh at the time of its release. Let's hope they can find the inspiration and time to record some more material!

You can hear the EP here on Spotify.

Skogen Brinner - Fasornas Berg EP

It's not often I get a new(!) cassette. I've bought old metal and punk demos on cassette earlier, and still do every now and then. Yesterday I received two new cassettes. One from my new favourite band Skogen Brinner. An EP called "Fasornas Berg", brilliant Sabbathy-riff based rock. A big plus is that they sing in Swedish! The second one is from the punks in Massgrav. Both tapes are numbered and limited to 100 copies. Both sold out the day of the release.

Thåström!

Tomorrow I'll be getting this record!

It's the new Thåström album, for those of you who didn't know that... We got it in stock at the store today but I haven't been there today so I'll go tomorrow and pick up two copies waiting for me. One of each colour:)

Tomorrow there's also a record fair here in Tønsberg. It's a pretty small one so I probably won't buy anything but it's always fun to have a look and talk to some friends.

Opeth - Heritage

No, I can't wait any longer!! It's being released tomorrow but I won't have it on vinyl until earliest Friday I think. When I pre-ordered the album from the official website I was promised a download code of the entire album the day before it's release.

Today I got two e-mails with a download code in each (I ordered two versions so if anyone wants a code just get in touch:)) and I've just added the album to my iPod so now I'll go to bed and listen to Heritage in my headphones for the first time! I'm excited!!

Hidden gems from my dad's old collection.

I owe my huge music interest more or less all to my dad. As a kid I remember looking through his vinyl collection looking for cool records to listen to. So I picked out The Beatles, David Bowie, The Clash, Eagles vinyl etc. etc. from his collection and I've been listening to it for a long time.

Recently I've been going through his collection once again picking out vinyl that I want in my collection and I think I left with about 200 vinyls when I did that. Most recently I took all of his 7" singles as well. There are about 3-400 of them from his collection and I can add about 200 probably that I've bought through the years. I add all of these into two different databases, one is a simple excel form that I simply put in the information of the record: artist, title, record company, year, format, genre. The other one I use is Discogs.

Today I was adding the last batch of singles that I've gotten from my dad, and to my surprise there was one single that is worth quite a lot of money

Mandarines - EP

Mandarines is a Swedish band from the late 70's that I hadn't really heard of until today I listened to this EP and it's actually quite good. Some nice powerpop/punk. The guitarist, Janne Andersson, later came to play with Japop, Ulf Lundell and Gyllene Tider to name a few. 

I searched them on Discogs to add this release to my collection and when I get to the release page I see that there is one copy of this for sale. The price is an unbelievable £115.99! Sometimes the sellers on Discogs can put insane prices on quite random releases so I went to popsike to see what it had sold for on ebay and it's selling for somewhere between 80-150 US dollars! A recent sell on ebay (from february this year) shows an ending price of $142. Insane, to say the least!

Robyn

I don't think anyone can blame me for not having a broad taste in music. More or less any genre is represented in my record collection. There are anything from classical vinyls (Mozart, Wagner etc.) to hip-hop (2pac, Beastie Boys etc.) to pop music (ABBA, A-ha etc.), and pretty much anything in between. Something that I don't have a whole lot of though is what might could be called as dance pop?

I mean in the vein of the brilliant Swedish artist Robyn. Today I received this album in the mail:

It completed my Robyn vinyl collection as I already had the Body Talk compilation. I don't think that there are any other releases from her on vinyl, other than some 12" remix stuff that I'm not that interested in.

Like I said I don't own a lot of records in this genre but after witnessing Robyn live on the Access All Areas conference a few years back I was so impressed by the performance that she instantly got a new fan. I saw her again at the Way Out West festival in 2009 and that was an even better concert! (You can't fail if you have  Dr. Alban performing with you;))

The Haunted - Unseen.

One thing that I really like about a lot of vinyl releases today is that you get a CD of the the album you buy in addition to the vinyl. The car is really a great place to listen to music but it's not very easy to listen to vinyl while driving:)

One of the more recent releases that had a CD as an extra feature was the new album buy the Swedish thrash metallers The Haunted. It has been playing non-stop in the car since i got it.

The Haunted has been one of my favourite metalbands and they have gradually moved away from a pure thrashmetal sound and on this record there are a few songs I wouldn't even call metal, it's great music though! This is a band that 15 years on in their career they still keeps developing in a positive manor. The record is on Spotify and especially the song "Disappear" has really caught my ear.

The Haunted is the band every In Flames fan SHOULD listen to;)

Dungen

One of my favourite bands recently has been the Swedish "ny-progg" band Dungen. A few years ago I started to collect everything about the band and I have a nearly complete collection. Last week I received one record that I've been looking for for a long time.

"Samtidigt" is a 12" EP that was only on sale during a tour the band did after before the release of "4". The EP contains of only one song. The nearly 15 minute freaked out live version of the song "Samtidigt". On "4" the song is split up in two different songs ("Samtidigt 1" and "Samtidigt 2"), I guess it would have been "too much" to have a 15 minute jam on a record:)

This release was limited to 500 copies and is hand numbered and it has sold at nearly $100 recently on eBay and I was lucky to get it at $40. A real bargain, eh?

Now the only vinyl that I really miss from the collection is the first one. To get this I will have to pay at least $150 so I guess I'll have to wait a little longer to have a complete Dungen collection...