Plumbers around Europe (VII): musik from Malmö

Per Gessle continues his "European promo tour" and Mom & Dad (Jens Jansson and David Birde, from Brainpool) and Magnus Börjeson (Metro Jets / Junk Musik) are touring with The Cardigans. But there are also some interesting news from Malmö, Sweden.

According to Junk Musik, in March, Mom & Dad (Jens Jansson and David Birde, from Brainpool; watch them in This clip ) would record their first record. At least, they had ten written songs with krautish titles: Was ist mehr pop?; Joe Blogg; Servus Motherfucker; Gutenmorgen Alexanderplatz ... The Austrian singer Florian Horwath will sing on some of the tunes.

Junk Musik wanted to release the record in April, but it seems it is all paused since Florian, backed by Mom & Dad, was chosen by The Cardigans as the supporting act in their European Tour.

The Cardigans + Florian Horwath (backed by Mom & Dad) European Tour

• 11/04 GER Cologne, E-Werk
• 12/04 GER Wiesbaden, Schlachthof
• 13/04 GER Berlin, Postbahnhof
• 15/04 NL Rotterdam, Motel Mozaique Festival
• 16/04 LUX Luxembourg, Den Atelier
• 18/04 BEL Brussels, Ancienne Belgique
• 19/04 FR Paris, Bataclan
• 21/04 UK London, Shepherds Bush Empire
• 23/04 IRL Dublin, Ambassador
• 24/04 UK Glasgow, ABC
• 25/04 UK Manchester, Ritz
• 27/04 AUT/Vienna/Radiokulturhaus
• 28/04 GER Munich, Elserhalle
• 29/04 AUT Vienna, Arena
• 30/04 CZ Praha, Abaton

A big tour for Mom & Dad this April! It is said the Cardigans' bassist Magnus Svenningsson (Righteous Boy) joined Florian, Jens and David in many gigs.

By the way, Junk Musik has released a very interesting digital EP (Echelon) from a new band from Malmö, Punky's Dilemma

Punky's Dilemma was formed in 2001 by Mikael Calner (lead vocals, guitar) and Hanna Calner (backing vocals, percussion, ...) and today includes also Camilla Sjeren (keyboards, piano) plus live-members. They had released two songs at Labradors "Sound of Young Sweden #3". They usually play in Malmö at Inkonst, KB, Glassfabriken etc. They released a home-edited-ten-track CD, 'Scandinavia, that could be found at Rundgång record store, Malmö, and somewhere on the net.

Shelflife Records, from San Francisco, published in the United States an EP with 6 songs, "'Neath The Staring Skies", that, accoridng to the company, "immerses the listener in haunting male-female vocal harmonies echoing through layers of folky acoustic guitar and sparse but well-arranged bass, piano and percussion. To truly appreciate the sum of the parts, you'll want to sit back and let the waves of emotion wash over you. The band's name is taken from a Simon & Garfunkel song and Mikael Calner's songwriting shows some S&G influences, hints of Belle and Sebastian and 60s folk pop. "

In 2006, Punky's Dilemma has been recording in the Aerosol Grey Machine Studio with Christoffer Lundquist and they have published Echolon.

Fight Family (previously known as Colubrids), an interesting band from Lund and Malmö, Sweden, release their first single, Stareyed Dim, in March 2005 in Junk Musik. We can listen to their music read about them in their new Myspace: Fight Family. Colubrids were originally Petter Holmberg (bass), Olof Wallberg, (guitar and vocals), Johan Rasmussen / Joakim Olofsson (drums) and Fredrik Åkerman (vocals) and recorded one album ("Snapped out of fury", 1995).

Olof Wallberg, a man of great speed and also an enthusiastic Televinken imitator and Joakim Olofsson, the slowest man seen on earth, met each other when playing the same basket ball team in Lund, Sweden. Nor Olof or Joakim was the coaches first pick of choice so they decided on quitting the lay-ups for music. Maja Agnas, a dalkulla from Leksand was fed up with scatting and playing in bands containing nobody but her family and relatives. She got down to southern Sweden with her trumpet hidden under her big jacket in search for a band. She met Petter Holmberg, as taken from the novel, Of mice and men, simply a guy too strong for his own good. They hooked up with Olof and Joakim and the band was almost complete. An album was recorded at AGM studio with the fabulous Christoffer Lundquist behind the wheels. But the band was still not happy. After a while of thinking they discovered that they needed a bass player. Johan Ådahl, a neighbour of the bands private hairdresser, turned out to be exactly what they were looking for! And the band was formed. The opposites Olof, and Joakim always had their minor quarrels about tempos of the songs. Therefore the name of the band was quite obvious, Fight Family.

• Olof Wallberg-Guitar,vocal
• Joakim Olofsson-Drums
• Maja Agnas-vocal-trumpet
• Petter Holmberg-Guitar,vocal
• Johan Ådahl-Bass

Stareyed Dim is a nice song with. Olof and Maja sing in it. The song has been played in Sirius Satellite Radio. The band presented their new songs in KB, Malmö this April.

LJdM

Hey you! Dont watch that! Watch this! This is the heavy heavy…No, sorry, this is Brainpool’s video to No Sunny Days & you can watch it over. Nice!

Metro-Magnus (Magnus Börjeson) was sent in a hurry to London to play with The Cardigans last week. We will also redesign Junk Musik page soon I think it will be orange. I just bought an airport express, so now I can listen to music from my computer in my ordinary speakers. This will make my Last FM-page more treu than it has been before. I still love Last FM. Join Junk here.

On May 3th, we will celebrate a party at KB, Malmö. Everyone is welcome to join us, as we celebrate one year of Junk Musik. It starts 18.00 and The Men will play. We'll have a wonderful night but our memories will be as blurred as the pic above. Check out our Flickr page to see the pictures more sharply.

On May 5, we will release Metro Jets’ soundtrack to the brilliant Swedish movie ”Rolling Like a Stone”. Metro Jets’ first single was released the same day we started Junk. So you could say that we continue our 1-year party with this wonderful follow-up. You can listen & buy the Metro Jets EP at CD ON. Release on iTunes will follow soon. For more info on Metro Jets, go here, or check out their page at My Space.

– He’s got a new record coming out on Junk.
– What?
– It’s called Junk.
– Whaaaat?
– Junk!
– I can’t hear you!
– JUNK!

Everyone loves New David. That will stand clear May 8, when he will make a great performance at Mosebacke, Stockholm. Yes, the crowd loves it, and so do I. After a gig you can hear people in every corner asking where they can buy his music. Joined by six musicians, New David will play songs from his upcoming album (only weeks away from release now). We are all stunned. If New David continues to play this great, we’re forced to release a live album. At the moment, the album is being mixed. More info about the release coming up as soon as the mixing is done. In the meantime, check out some pics I took with my mobile on our Flickr page. You find New David’s two earlier releases in Junk Musik.

Anders Mildner

Junk Musik

A seven-year email correspondence culminated in the meeting of Magnus Börjeson and me. I have long been a devoted fan of two of the Swedish musician’s former bands: Beagle and Favorita, and we finally met in Paris where Magnus was mid-tour playing in The Cardigans. By the end of the weekend we were like old friends and I had accepted an invitation to Sweden for the upcoming Midsummer long weekend holiday. These celebrations are going to take place in the countryside outside Malmö at the Aerosol Grey Machine - the stunning all-analogue recording studio of Christoffer Lundquist, producer and multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire, former member of Roxette and founding member of Brainpool, another of my favourite bands.

Luke Jackson - Popsicle