Retrosonic Podcast Episode 13: "I Know How To Please You..."

Steve from Retro Man Blog, Rock Photographer Paul Slattery and Adam from The Jetsonics with the usual waffle, news and top tunes...This Episode features all the info about our exciting Medway Garage Rock gig on June 6th with Graham Day & The Forefathers, The Len Price 3 and Galileo 7 in conjunction with the new Countdown Publications book "The Kids Are All Square" by Ian Snowball and Bob Collins about the Medway music scene. Sticking with the Medway theme, there's classics from The Prisoners and Thee Mighty Caesars and we are very pleased to have an exclusive track from Galileo 7 from their forthcoming new album. Elsewhere there's groovy Psychedelia from Fogbound, The New Alchemy, The Sonic Jewels and The Chocolate Watchband, a Mod rarity from The Afex and some great Garage Rock from The Uniques and The Movements. We have another exclusive from the fantastic French Ye-Ye Beat group Les Kitschenettes, raw soul from Otis Clay and some classic Trojan Ska from Claudette...All this and news on the new Graham Day & The Forefathers limited edition 7" single on State Records and chat about our other upcoming Retro Man Blog gigs with The Len Price 3, The Jetsonics, The Fallen Leaves, The Transients, The WitchDoktors, King Salami & The Cumberland 3, The Superminx 70, The Past Tense and Les Kitschenettes and reports on recent gigs and happenings...You can listen and download all previous Episodes at our Retrosonic Soundcloud site here...In the meantime here's Episode 13...enjoy!

The Movements "Like Elephants 1" New Album Released on Crusher Records October 25th

One of the Blog's favourite bands, the excellent Gothenburg based The Movements, will be releasing their brand new album "Like Elephants 1" on October 25th on Crusher Records, home to the equally excellent Gothenburg band Spiders. The band are moving away from their rawer sound and have opened the gates to the expansive world of Psychedelic Rock. "Like Elephants 1" is a very exciting project because, as the title suggests, it is only the first disc of two and it's follow-up "Like Elephants 2" is scheduled for release in early 2014. Working out two albums into a unique whole has been innovative, challenging and inspiring for The Movements. What is special about these two albums is that they not only stand strong individually but also create a whole, a kind of continuity, together. The Movements distance themselves from today’s fast-food consumption of songs pulled out of their context and instead dare to demand a greater commitment by the listener who, in return, gets to experience a collection of songs in their intended sequence.

"Like Elephants 1" offers swirling psychedelia in "Great Deceiver", catchy rock riffs with "All The Lost", choral psychedelia through "Like Elephants 1" and folk-rock in "It Takes A Spark". The album consists of ten well-worked songs of high quality and has for the most part been recorded at Music-A-Matic in Gothenburg and was produced by The Movements and Michael Nilsson. Here's a taster from the new album, the video to the new single "The Death of John Hall D.Y."...

The Movements possess great stage and songwriting skills and have over the years toured most European countries. The Movements’ upcoming album, "Like Elephants 1", is being released on October 25th on Crusher Records and will be followed by gigs around Sweden and Europe. Please check out their official web-site for further news on venues and tour dates.

The Movements - Photo by Anders Bergstedt

You can listen to our Retrosonic Podcast special episode with The Movements here - Steve from Retro Man Blog talks to Thomas and David from one of Sweden's best psychedelic-garage-space-rock bands. Thomas and David take us on a trip through the band's story which includes chapters as diverse as writing a theme song for a German football team, to being the first band that legendary Union Carbide and Soundtrack of Our Lives guitarist Björn Olsson produced. From rehearsing songs in a hospital ward while singer David recovered from cancer they ended up being the first band to have their very own Space Rock album taken to Outer Space by Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang! Generously sound-tracked by loads of great Movements songs, you can find out more in this fascinating special edition podcast!

 

With thanks to Thomas and Peter from Crusher Records. Podcast cover photo by Josefine Larsson.

Retrosonic Podcast Swedish Music special with Spiders, Eken, Division of Laura Lee, MUG Music store, The Oholics, Side Effects, Samling and much more...

Continuing our series of Retrosonic Podcasts on Sweden, the latest Episode features a spotlight on Gothenburg's thriving music scene. And what better way to start than to kick off with The Troublemakers' classic anthem and tribute to the City, "Staden Göteborg". There are interviews with Ann-Sofie from the hotly tipped Spiders, where we discuss the release of their excellent debut album "Flash Point" and their upcoming European tour with Graveyard. We also talk to Wayne Lundqvist-Ford from the Ice Cream Man Blog about life in the city, including his thoughts on local bands, venues and the Gothenburg Scooter Club. We play a pick of recommended Swedish bands such as Division of Laura Lee, The Moving Sounds, The Early Days, The Wild Shore, Arvidson and The Movements. Next, it's a quick pop into the legendary MUG Music Store for a brief chat with the equally legendary owner, Bruce Emms. Then there is a feature on local Record Union digital A&R man, Hans Selander, and we play a selection of excellent bands on his roster including Långfinger, Eken, Side Effects, The Sympathy, Headons and The Oholics, who had their latest album reviewed very favourably by respected journalist Andrew Perry in the latest issue of Mojo Magazine. As if that is not enough, there's even more music crammed in, with songs by Samling, Swedish Brilliance and The Wonder Boys.

- Tracklist & Links (please click the highlighted names to visit each band's web-site).

Troublemakers "Staden Göteborg"

Division of Laura Lee "Need To Get Some"

The Early Days "Flowers"

The Moving Sounds "Never Follow Through"

The Movements "She Said"

The Wild Shore "Chinese Birds"

Arvidson "I'd Hate To See You Go"

Spiders "High Society", "Rules of The Game", "Fraction"

Spiders at Truckstop Alaska, Gothenburg - Photo by Anders Magnusson

Långfinger "Clap Your Hands For The Troubadour"

The Oholics "Wasted Youth"

The Sympathy "Get Away"

Side Effects "Let's Take a Walk in The Space Between Us"

Eken "Tanto, Min  Gröna  Fru"

Headons "Million Ways"

Samling "Stackars Lilla Värsting"

Swedish Brilliance "Another Day"

The Wonder Boys "Conspiracy Theory"

Bruce Emms of MUG Music Store - Photo by Steve Worrall

With many thanks to:

Bruce Emms at MUG Music Store (Musik Utan GRÄNSER), Kaserntorget 9, Gothenburg SE-411 18

Hans Selander at Record Union A&R and Selander Art

Ann-Sofie from Spiders
Wayne Lundqvist-Ford at Ice Cream Man Blog

Also, thanks to Anders Magnusson.

For all previous Swedish Special Edition Podcasts please check out the Retrosonic Podcast web-site on Soundcloud. All are available to download for free, here's a guide to all the Episodes so far.

Part 1: Ian Person, guitarist with The Soundtrack of Our Lives talks about the decision to call time on the band at the end of 2012. We also discuss his own music and play a selection of tracks from Ian's debut solo album "Diamonds In The Rough" and from the soundtrack to the new IFK Gothenburg movie "Football's Last Proletarians". We are also extremely delighted to include some brand new, as yet unreleased, songs from his forthcoming solo album.



Part 2: Thomas and David from one of Sweden's best psychedelic-garage-space-rock bands, The Movements, take us on a trip through the band's story which includes chapters as diverse as writing a theme song for a German football team, to being the first band that legendary Union Carbide Productions and Soundtrack of Our Lives guitarist Björn Olsson produced. From rehearsing songs in a hospital ward while singer David recovered from cancer, they ended up being the first band to have their very own Space Rock album taken to Outer Space by Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang! Generously sound-tracked by loads of great Movements songs, you can find out more in this fascinating special edition podcast!



Part 3: Movie Directors Martin Jönsson and Carl Pontus Hjorthén tell us all about their stunning new documentary, "Football's Last Proletarians" (Fotbollens Sista Proletärer), a fascinating look back at IFK Gothenburg's 1980's European adventures under the management of Sven-Göran Eriksson. We are also joined by one of the stars of the team, and of course the movie itself, ex-IFK, Liverpool and Fiorentina defender, Glenn Hysén. The Podcast features some examples of The Soundtrack of Our Lives' guitarist, Ian Person's excellent music from the film.
 

Our final Episode in the Swedish Series will be a special feature on Mattias Hellberg where we talk about his fascinating career from his early days in Karlstad to the present day as he prepares to release his latest solo album. Mattias talks about putting on gigs in the college canteen for Union Carbide Productions to forming his own bands such as Ugly Jake and later The Nymphet Noodlers with Martin Hederos, Mattias Bärjed and Jan Martens. We chat about his various collaborations and projects including The Solution, The Hellacopters, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Hederos & Hellberg and more recently, with Nationalteatern. The Episode is generously soundtracked with lots of music from a selection of his many phases, including his solo albums and with The White Moose. We're also honoured to have some superb exclusive, unreleased songs from his forthcoming album. Please keep a check on the Retro Man Blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed @RetroMan65 or Retrosonic Podcast Soundcloud web-site for news of the release date of this great Mattias Hellberg Special Edition.

The Movements Podcast Cover Photo copyright Josefine Larsson 2012.

Ian Person Podcast Cover Photo copyright Paul Slattery 2012.

Spiders live Photo copyright Anders Magnusson 2012.

Retrosonic Podcast Special Edition: The Movements

Photo by Josefine Larsson

I get sent a lot of music and to be fair, a lot of what comes in is pretty good although the majority is just OK, you know, not offensive in any way but it doesn’t make you go “Wow..!”.  Some of it is awful, especially when you get stuff sent through from a band or musician who just hasn’t even bothered to check the Blog or Podcast to find out what we are about. Why should I promote your band if you haven’t even read the Blog or listened to an episode of Retrosonic? However, occasionally you hear something very special that blows you away, and it can be a real treat that makes doing all this worthwhile. This is what happened when Swedish band, The Movements, contacted me; I was immediately struck by their energy and the rawness of their sound, but most importantly it was the quality of the song-writing that impressed me so much.  I was considering playing them in a Retrosonic episode on Swedish music, but it was really difficult to decide which track to play such was the high quota of exceptional songs. 

I was so impressed by The Movements that I really wanted to find out more about the band so I met up with singer David Henriksson and drummer Thomas Widholm in Gothenburg for a chat and a beer. Once I heard their story - which includes such diverse chapters as writing football team theme songs, working with Björn Olsson (Union Carbide Productions and The Soundtrack of Our Lives) to David’s diagnosis with cancer and having their Space Rock concept album actually being taken into Outer Space by Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang - I thought they deserved a Podcast of their own. So put on your spacesuits, settle back and listen in as Thomas and David take you on a trip through their colourful ten year history…

The band's latest release is a great split 10" vinyl E.P. released by the French label Pariah Records. The Movements and The Angry Pirates both contribute two original songs and a cover of one of each others tracks. The E.P. is available from Pariah or The Movements.

The Movements

 With many thanks to Thomas and David from The Movements.

Podcast cover and Photo top-right by Josefine Larsson.