Tag Archives: Stockholm

Best New Bands of 2013 HUMMINGBIRD AWARD #7: Holograms

24 Dec
Stockholm mates bring social unrest anthems to your Hummingbird ears. PHOTO BY: Juliette Henrioud

Stockholm mates bring social unrest anthems to your Hummingbird ears. PHOTO BY: Juliette Henrioud

Best New Bands of 2013 HUMMINGBIRD AWARD #7: Holograms

It’s Christmas Eve, so we thought it would be appropriate to give you our rock/punk band of 2013. Holograms burst onto the scene in 2012, with their solidly produced self titled effort that reminded us of the Dead Kennedys if they’d had some solid studio time and better musicians. When I hear Holograms, I hear that same anger that we heard from Bono’s Irish unrest that was delivered in the early 80’s with War and Boy. Their moment is now and I feel a few of their tracks have been captured as anthemic molotovs shower unexpected crowd. Their music is an anthem for social unrest and their timing on the scene is perfect!

Founded: 2010
Hometown: Stockholm, Germany
Members:
Andreas Lagerström, Anton Strandberg, Anton Spetze, Filip Spetze
Sonic Soulmates™: U2 (the early years), Dead Kennedys, Joy Division (but better), Misfits, Savages
Trackables™: Forever is a classic mid-80’s mod-punk classic
Listen to “Flesh and Bone” & “Lay Us Down”

Follow Holograms:
Facebook
Haerts Captured Tracks to purchase Forever on LP Website
Website

Hummingbird Awards – ALL YOUR BEST NEW BANDS FROM 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013:

Hummingbird Awards 2013 RECAP
#13 MS MR
#12 Swim Deep
#11 Holy Milk
#10 Mutual Benefit
#9 Diane Coffee
#8 Haerts

Hummingbird Awards 2012
Hummingbird Awards 2011
Hummingbird Awards 2010

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

UNCORKED™ – Band of the Day (1.12.12) I Break Horses

11 Jan

Is this becoming the year of selfish band names? I Break Horses bring home cooked Swedish dream pop.


Uncorked™ I Break Horses

When we listen to music, we often joke here about how it made you feel. It most cases, we don’t feel anything. In some cases we tap our toes and in the rare case we get that chill up our spine and the hair on our head tingles. I’m not a scientist, so I can’t explain why that happens, but I can say that’s a good thing. I remember the first time I heard all of my favorite bands. I Break Horses isn’t your typical dream gaze XX/XY duo. Fredrik Balck, is the instrumental guy, and Maria Lindén who handles the vocals met in 2008 under unusual circumstances: both self-professed hypochondriacs, visited the same online medical sites, discovered they shared friends as well as a passion the same music. Their tracks aren’t layered in heavy shoe gaze wall of sound, rather, they take the Washed Out route and keep the instrumentals simple. Maybe two-three layered tracks with Maria’s beautiful voice adorning the sound. They use their fear of dying as inspiration for their lyrics, focusing on the fragility of life. I will say that the first time I heard Hearts that chill ran up my spine and NO I wasn’t worried that I had some rare spinal virus…Thank you again to AZ Turk for adding them to his Top Gems of 2011

Vitals:
Hometown: Stockholm, Sweden
Members: Fredrik Balck, Maria Lindén
Sonic Soulmates™: Washed Out, Jesus and Mary Chain, Echo Lake
Trackables™:
“Hearts”

“Pulse”

Follow:
Facebook
I Break Horses Official
Spotify

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Best New Bands of 2010 Hummingbird Award: #3 The Radio Dept.

27 Dec

The Radio Dept. Will be the biggest band from 2010

Best New Bands of 2010 Hummingbird Award: #3 The Radio Dept.

They were our favorite band of 2010 mid-year. We anointed them perfect because their album was and still is perfect. It is our album of the year, but they were surpassed. It doesn’t mean that they aren’t worthy of our #1. The band was a pure concept in 1995, named after a gas station in Lund, Sweden, they disbanded soon after, then in 2009, they reformed with new members and became pure perfection. With an ode to the synth modern wave rock of the 80’s with bands like The Pet Shop Boys or The Cure, their music is tightly arranged allowing for airy simplicity in the synth. It isn’t sad or morose like the My Bloody Valentines, but relaxing and fun like The Pet Shop Boys. So sad they’re not #1, but there are two bands that just did it better in 2010. We love The Radio Dept. and we know they will be one of the 2010 alums that will be BIG BIG BIG!!!

Vitals:
Hometown: Malmö / Stockholm, SE
Band Members: Daniel Tjäder – Keyboards, Martin Carlberg- Guitar, Johan Duncanson – Guitar and vocals
Sonic Soulmates: The Pet Shop Boys, The Cure, My Bloody Valentine
Tracks of the Year:
“Heavens on Fire” – My favorite new song since 2000.

“Domestic Scene” – Best opening track to an album since “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Their Mid-Year Hummingbird Championship: Best of 2010..So Far

Follow:
MySpace
Facebook
Band Site

2010 Hummingbird Awards
Hummingbird Award #20: Crocodiles
Hummingbird Award #19: Miniature Tigers
Hummingbird Award #18: Gamble House
Hummingbird Award #17: Tame Impala
Hummingbird Award #16: Paper Crows
Hummingbird Award #15: Perfume Genius
Hummingbird Award #14: The Fresh & Onlys
Hummingbird Award #13: Tennis
Hummingbird Award #12: Memoryhouse
Hummingbird Award #11: Karkwa
Hummingbird Award #10: Lord Huron
Hummingbird Award #9: Sleigh Bells
Hummingbird Award #8: Crystal Fighters
Hummingbird Award #7: Efterklang
Hummingbird Award #6: Best Coast
Hummingbird Award #5: Jim Jones Revue
Hummingbird Award #4: Chapel Club
Hummingbird Award #3: The Radio Dept.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Band of the Day (10.11.10) Little Children

12 Oct

BOD (10.11.10) Little Children

Today is a huge day, a day we celebrate because we have a new music excavator. Someone to own The Nordics, digging ever deeper to find us the best new music from the great North. Bristian comes to us from Lund in southern Sweden, he’s a music junkie and he’s been introducing us to new music for sometime now. Please read his bio here

With Little Children, Linus Lutti’s musical alias since early 2009, the tone is the quiet, emotional and sincere. He’s from Stockholm and his voice is soft. The low-key style is his thing, it’s an unmatched tone, but the arrangements of sparse guitar, horns and woodwind instruments could rival that of Bon Iver. Add a jazzy touch like that of John Legend or Jamie Cullum and you have the perfection of Little Children. See Little Children touring London in November…

Hear:
“Hold On” – This song will make our top 25 for the year.

Download now: Little Children – “Hold On”

“Salvation”

Download now: Little Children – “Salvation”

Follow:
MySpace
Facebook

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Band of the Day (8.27.10) Taken By Trees

27 Aug

BOD (8.27.10) TAKEN BY TREES

I recognize that she’s famous for covering probably one of the greatest rock songs of all time. I recognize that her latest album came out in September 2009. I also recognize that the music industry is a bitch to crack, so I want to refresh all of our memories as to why Taken By Trees is so special. Taken by Trees is Swede, Victoria Bergsman, the former lead singer for the Concretes. She’s recruited bandmates from as far as Pakistan, she’s worked with fellow Swedes Bjorn Yttling and John Eriksson (of Peter Bjorn and John), and her soft supple voice carries the mandolin, zither, guitars, strings or all of them together. The complicated world sounds are perfected and simplified with Victoria’s perfect vocals. Buy her record, tell her you love her and truly make her YOUR NEW FAVORITE BAND!

Hear:
“Greyest Love of All” – I think this might be a nominee for my favorite song of the year.

“My Boys” Yep that’s right, it’s the fantastic Animal Collective song sounding even better with a Jamaican island influence and Victoria’s perfect voice.

Follow:
MySpace
Facebook
TakenByTrees.com

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,