Spiders - New Album "Flash Point" and UK Tour dates

I was over in Gothenburg recently, and everyone was telling me that I had to check out Spiders, a local, female fronted retro rock band, there was a real buzz about them. In fact when I met up with Mattias Hellberg for an interview, the very first thing he did was hand me a copy of the band's "Fraction" 7" vinyl single along with their contact details and a glowing recommendation. Then, yesterday, Friday October 05th, saw the release of the band's debut album entitled "Flashpoint" on Crusher Records, which is available to buy from their on-line store or direct from the Spiders web-site. Intrigued to find out more, I got in touch and met up with vocalist Ann-Sofie Hoyles for coffee and a chat. This interview, which is soundtracked by some storming Spiders tunes, will be released very soon as part of our Retrosonic Podcast special editions about the Gothenburg music scene. Other episodes in the series feature Ian Person from The Soundtrack of Our Lives and Psychedelic rock band, The Movements with a Mattias Hellberg special coming soon. Keep a check on the Retro Man Blog or Retrosonic Podcast site for  news. 

As any regular readers of the Blog will probably guess, I'm not much of a Hard Rock/Heavy Metal fan, so when I saw that some of the Spiders' used to be in bands with names like Graveyard and Witchcraft, I feared the worse. However, thankfully Spiders are what I consider to be a "genre-busting" band and they certainly live up to all the glowing praise. I'm not any great authority about the band's influences, reference points, or how they fit in to the Heavy Rock scene, as it's just not my thing at all. The only "Rock" bands that I have ever really gotten into have been the ballsy groove of early Bon Scott-era AC/DC, the power of Led Zep when they rocked out or channelled their Blues influences, and then the young Punk Rocker in me was smitten by Motorhead...well when I say smitten, I meant to say bludgeoned over the head by Lemmy's awesome bass sound. But thankfully, writing as a music fan and putting aside talk of categories and genres and what-have-you, Spiders have released a truly exceptional debut album in "Flash Point", it's packed full of excellent songs, and after all - that is what it is all about.

Ann-Sofie - Photo by Steve Worrall

The songs are short, sharp, melodic and perfectly formed. There are no overblown histrionics or excessively boring guitar noodlings. Sure, Guitarist John Hoyles does break out with some nifty fret-work, but generally he reigns things in with some superbly raw Garage rock riffing. Added to this the supercharged rhythm section of drummer Ricard Harryson and bassist Matteo Gambacorta and they create a sound that will appeal to any music fan, even those like me, who might have been a bit wary of any Heavy Metal connotations. Of course, a big factor in the band's appeal is Ann-Sofie's vocals, she has a raw, powerful voice that transcends genres, reminding me of "White Rabbit" era Grace Slick with flashes of Patti Smith. In fact overall, the band do have a bit of a retro vibe about them, maybe it's that late 60's rock sound where trippy psychedelia fuzzed into the slightly darker and edgier strains of the MC5, The Stooges and Alice Cooper. The album cover photo probably sums it up nicely, as you can imagine pretty much any Spiders song rubbing leather clad shoulders with Steppenwolf on the "Easy Rider" soundtrack. There are also hints of the Glam of The Runaways and the underrated Girschool, but the album certainly sounds extremely fresh and timeless thanks to Don Ahlsterberg's powerful production.

The band was formed in Gothenburg, Sweden, in early 2010 and a few months later they appeared at one of Sweden’s most successful music festivals, Way Out West. It was around this time the band stepped into the studio with producer (The Soundtrack of Our Lives, International Noise Conspiracy) and started recording. By the end of January 2011 Spiders released their debut record, a 10” vinyl E.P. on Crusher Records containing four tracks. The self-titled release was very well received and noticed in Record Collector as well being played on Sweden’s largest radio channel P3. In March 2011 those four previously released tracks came to be released in the USA as two separate 7” singles, one on Kemado Records the other on Valley King Records, the latter featured cover by the well-known Alan Forbes. Around this time drummer Axel Sjöberg, left Spiders to work full time with fellow Gothenburg band Graveyard and he was replaced by Ricard Harryson who was previously in Fox Machine, and The Maharajas.

Here's a video of "Hang Man", a track taken from the "Flash Point" album:

Spiders play at Strand in Stockholm on October 12th and then travel to Truckstop Alaska in Gothenburg on October 13th before heading off on a European tour supporting Graveyard.

 

29 NOV – Germany, Hamburg, Markthalle

30 NOV – Belgium, Antwerp, Trix

2 DEC – UK, Bristol, Bristol Fleece

4 DEC – UK, Glasgow, 02 ABC

5 DEC – UK, Manchester, The Ruby Lounge

6 DEC – UK, London, London O2 Academy2 Islington

7 DEC – UK, Brighton, The Haunt Brighton

9 DEC – Holland, Amsterdam, Melkweg

11 DEC – Switzerland, Zurich, Mascotte Club

12 DEC – Austria, Dornbirn, Conrad Sohm

13 DEC – Austria, Vienna, Arena

14 DEC – Germany, Munich, Backstage

15 DEC – Germany, Dresden, Strasse E

16 DEC – Germany, Frankfurt, Batschkapp

17 DEC – Holland, Groningen, Vera

18 DEC – Germany, Cologne, Essigfabrik

19 DEC – Germany, Berlin, C-Club

Here's a video of a great acoustic performance that shows the versatility of the band but also highlights Ann-Sofie's stunning vocal talents.

Band photography courtesy Spiders. Ann-Sofie photograph Steve Worrall (copyright 2012).

 With many thanks to Ann-Sofie. 

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.

The Jetsonics - "The Chelsea Drugstore" E.P. out now!

The Jetsonics have just released their third E.P. entitled "The Chelsea Drugstore", it features four songs including the title track, "White Capri", "Debbie Harry" and a long-awaited first release of the old favourite "Murphy's Heroes". The E.P. is produced by Steve Lyon who has previously worked with artists such as The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Creatures and The Wedding Present. You can order the E.P. direct from the band's web-site or download from iTunes.

The band will pay a return visit to The Scream Lounge in Croydon on October 06th and then they will play at the Grey Horse in Kingston-Upon-Thames on October 19th, where they will joined by the fantastic Past Tense. The Jetsonics are already working on new material and here's a free download of an excellent brand new track, "Cruel Lizzie Vickers". It's a song about a rather macabre true story written especially for Paul Slade's "Murder Ballads" compilation.

Retrosonic Podcast Special Edition: Ian Person of The Soundtrack of Our Lives

I am very pleased to announce that our special guest for the latest Retrosonic Podcast is none other than The Soundtrack of Our Lives' guitarist and song-writer, Ian Person. Ian originally played alongside vocalist Ebbot Lundberg in the legendary and influential Swedish Stooges-style punk band Union Carbide Productions and later joined Ebbot in forming The Soundtrack of Our Lives. I spoke to Ian just prior to the band's last ever show at the beautiful Slussens Pensionat on Orust. In this Podcast, we concentrate on Ian's solo, movie and TV soundtrack work and his future once the band sadly call it a day at the end of this year.  The Podcast features some brand new, unreleased solo songs along with a cut from his superb "Diamonds In The Rough" album and soundtrack music from the excellent IFK Gothenburg documentary movie "Fotbollens Sista Proletärer" ("Football's Last Proletarians"). The movie was produced by Kalle Gustafsson Jerneholm, bassist in The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and it will have it's first U.K. screening at The Everyman Cinema Baker Street in London on Monday October 01st. Hopefully one of the stars of the film, ex-IFK and Liverpool defender, Glenn Hysén, will be in attendance together with the film's Director for a Q&A session at the screening. You can read more about the background to the film in our previous Retro Man Blog feature here, which includes a track-by-track Guide by Ian himself, to his music in the movie.
 

Ian Person - Photo by Per Kristiansson

Next up Ian Person will play a solo "unplugged" Acoustic show at Restaurant 2112, which is located at number 5 Magasinsgatan in Gothenburg on this coming Saturday, September 29th. 

Here's the link to the Podcast, I hope you enjoy it and please don't forget to keep a check on the Blog for news on Ian Person's solo album and for information on future solo live shows too.



Thanks to Paul Slattery for the Podcast cover and to Per Kristiansson for the Black & White photo.

Retrosonic Podcast Special Edition: Power Pop with Wayne Lundqvist-Ford of Ice Cream Man Blog

Wayne from Ice Cream Man Blog - Photo by Steve Worrall

During my recent trip to Sweden I caught up with my good friend and expert on Power Pop, Wayne Lundqvist-Ford, who runs the Ice Cream Man Blog. I chatted to Wayne about his Blog and went through some of the many CD's and albums he gets sent by bands from all over the word who hope to be featured. Wayne certainly knows his stuff about the huge International underground Power Pop scene, and he picks out some of the new bands that have caught his attention in the past year. Wayne has also been a big supporter of Retro Man Blog favourites such as Stanley Road, The Past Tense and The Len Price 3 amongst others - but I was eager to find out more - and I wasn't disappointed.  Wayne chooses a prime selection from all over the Globe, and we kick things off with a great track "If You Love Her" by Californian band  Beyond Veronica. That's followed by a raw and punky "Open Book" from Milan's wonderful The Sensibles, then there's a blistering track, "White Capri", from my Retrosonic Podcast colleague Adam and his West London New Wave trio The Jetsonics, taken from their brand new E.P.  Another British band next, and it's sunny sea-side popsters Phenomenal Cat and the latest in their series of a single-per-month releases "The Volume Police". We zoom over to Madrid for  The Seasongs and a track from their "Out Of The City" album. You can probably get an idea of Budokan's influence in their band name, and the Canadian band offer up "The Queen's English", a powerful Cheap Trick style number. Holland's Marty Graveyard, the ex-Madd band-member, has a solo album out called "Summer Holiday" and here's the super-catchy "Do You Really Wanna Dance?". We stay on the beach for the beautiful shimmering harmonies of Denmark's Surf School Dropouts and their sublime "Run Away".  Lyon's Mr Day provide some "Food For Soul", all fuzzy guitars and Hammond organ. Germany's Monkeeman, are next with the mighty "I'm a Lonely Guy" taken from 2008's "Life In The Backseat", one of a trio of must-have albums from the excellent song-writer Ralf Luebke. To finish off there is a track from one of Retro Man Blog's albums of the year "Things That Shine and Glow" from the fantastic Milwaukee based band, Trolley. So, as I mentioned, it really is an International scene and I hope you enjoy the tunes. You can contact Wayne at Ice Cream Man Blog by email and also check out, listen and download the Podcast totally free of charge at our Soundcloud site here:

Retrosonic Podcast Special Edition: Power Pop with Wayne Lundqvist-Ford by Retrosonic Podcast

Wayne has also started up a new Blog, it's called Power Pop T-Shirt, and it's devoted to the "band" T-Shirt. Contributions are welcome, so drop him an email with a photo of your favourite shirt, along with a short anecdote or back story as to why the shirt is special to you.

Here's the fun promo video to Wayne and his band, Wayne James & The Harry Evlar Experience, and their great cover of Teenage Fanclub's classic Power Pop track "Sparky's Dream".

Thanks to Wayne for his time, he will also appear in a forthcoming Swedish music special episode.

The Soundtrack of Our Lives - The last ever UK show, Heaven London September 13th by Francis Barry-Walsh

It’s coming up to 11 years since I acted on a friend’s recommendation and bought a copy of The Soundtrack of Our Lives "Behind The Music". The album is a spectacular re-imagining of rock music from the previous 50 years, full of great tunes, great riffs and no tortured, dark and edgy nonsense. There it could have all ended for me had it not been for going to see the band live for the first time at London's Cargo Club back in February 2002. The stage seemed barely large enough to accommodate a six piece had they been standing still, yet they threw themselves about and apart from an attempt by Mattias to boot Ebbot up the arse and Ebbot wandering into the crowd during "21st Century Rip-Off", they managed not only to stay on stage but put on a brilliant show. That time seemed like their moment to make it big, yet curiously they have never done so in England, despite a devoted following and critical acclaim.

Still that’s OK, because now on the occasion of their last U.K. show, I’m at Heaven, a small venue underneath the arches in Charing Cross and the good humoured and polite audience are there, not only because they are all fans, but also I think, to thank The Soundtrack of Our Lives for some great music, some great shows and for lifting our spirits over the years. Rather like a Premiership football ground, 10-15 mins before the scheduled start, the venue seemed empty but come the start, the place had packed out and David Quantick came on in a crumpled grey suit to deliver a witty eulogy on the band with messages of thanks from  Noel Gallagher, ‘Bono’, Mani and Tim Burgess. They are indeed a great Rock’n’Roll band as he said and over the next 2 hours, they went on to demonstrate why they are so loved.  The Soundtrack of Our Lives never make big entrances, they don’t really have to when you have Ebbot as a focal point and when the band as a collective unit have such presence. 

They started with "All for Sale" and by the time they moved onto "Believe I’ve Found", Martin was up and about, whilst Mattias and Ian were, by comparison restrained. Maybe Ian was weighed down by his luxuriant beard which, combined with his hat, put me in mind of ZZ Top. By the time they launched into "Confrontation Camp", Mattias and Ian were back on message effecting all their moves, poses and jumps, and the crowd and band were together as one. Their set was a mix of old classics ("Broken Imaginary Time", "Infra Riot", "We’ll Get By") and new ones, and not having heard them play songs from the new album, "Faster Than the Speed of Light" really stood out and it’s taken last night’s show to make me better appreciate "Throw it to the Universe", their last album. Isn’t that always the way? 

Halfway through the set, Ebbot had taken to placing the tambourine on his head and it suited him, though I kept thinking it’s Obelix up there. During all this visual mayhem, it can be easy to forget Fredrik’s brilliance on the drums keeping it all together with smiley Kalle on bass, driving the songs along. "Thrill Me" followed and it’s a great glam rock foot stomper and Ian’s chance to try to steal the stage limelight from Ebbot. This was followed by the soaring "Lost Prophets in Vain" from the "Communion" album and then really just one high after another – "Second Life Replay", "Sister Surround", "The Passover" - a beautiful song, “don’t pass it on if you know it’s wrong”.  I love this song with its elegiac mood which further proves that the band can do slow-ish & wistful as well as rock.

Naturally they had to finish with a blinding version of  "Mantra Slider" with Ebbot walking into the crowd and being crowd-surfed back. Oh, and then they came back to really finish off on a high with "Galaxy Gramophone", "Grand Canaria" and "Instant Repeater '99" and then bowed to the audience when it really should have been the other way round. They could have gone on and on, but hey ho, they probably needed a rest, a good drink and Martin probably needed to rinse out his t-shirt. 

Thanks TSOOL...

The Soundtrack of Our Lives wave goodbye to the UK...for good?

Many thanks to Francis Barry-Walsh for the review and Paul Slattery for the photographs.

All material strictly copyright of the contributors and Retro Man Blog 2012.

The Soundtrack of Our Lives - iTunes Festival at The Roundhouse with Noel Gallagher

Fredrik Sandsten & Ian Person of TSOOL

Noel Gallagher has always been extremely supportive of his favourite Swedish band over the years, right back to his days in Oasis, he would often devote valuable column space in his own and Oasis's interviews to praise the band. So, considering The Soundtrack of Our Lives will cease to be by the end of 2012, it was a nice gesture by Noel to invite the band to open for him and the High Flying Birds at their iTunes Festival show at London's Roundhouse. Noel was also to be seen watching the band from the side of the stage as they kicked off a short, eight song set to the cavernous Roundhouse. Of course, iTunes can only be applauded for putting on events like this and supporting live music. However, the problem with these corporate style shows, is that it can be difficult for die-hard fans to get tickets. And so it is tonight, as the band take the stage to be greeted by a strangely bemused, polite, yet pretty unresponsive crowd made up mainly of iTunes competition draw winners.

Mind you as always, singer Ebbot Lundberg seems to revel in the situation, he's never been one to take the easy option. He appears on stage alone with an acoustic guitar and strums away, it takes a while before I recognise the song is a cover of The Damned's twisted side-show oddity, "These Hands" from Machine Gun Etiquette. "These are the hands of a demented circus clown", sings Ebbot, "outside I'm happy but inside I'm really wearing a frown..." Is that a reference to the band splitting up? Maybe he's changed his mind, a pang of regret even? No, I don't think so. Since the band have announced the split, there seems to be a big weight lifted off their shoulders and the gigs have been some of the most joyous I have seen for many years. As guitarist Ian Person told me after their show, "now the pressure is off we can have some fun". The band then take their places on stage and proceed to give it their all, straight into the storming title track of their latest, and last album "Throw It To The Universe". Ebbot intones..."We are the ones who never die..."

Ebbot Lundberg

However, it seems they are facing a bit of an uphill struggle, not just in the face of the rather passive audience but against the acoustics too. It's a poor sound, and the more psychedelic passages seem to waft up and get lost in the huge dome of the Roundhouse. It seems this is occasionally causing timing issues, I'm not sure if it's anything to do with the fact that the shows were being recorded and filmed for a live Internet broadcast, maybe the sound mix is more geared to that? "Firmament Vacation" follows and then the excellent Ian Person song "Still Aging" from the "Behind The Music" album, a track that seems to have found it's way back into set-lists recently. The sound gradually clicks into place and the set builds nicely with the flamenco intro to new song "Where's The Rock?". Fan favourite "Confrontation Camp", a sort of Stooges style take on The Sweet's "Blockbuster", seems to perk up the audience a bit. One of the new album's highlights "Faster Than the Speed of Light" is somewhat interrupted by an extensive section of vocal gymnastics from Ebbot, and the momentum is lost a little bit.

Kalle & Ian of TSOOL

The slow build of "Second Life Replay" is a challenging choice of song to play to an audience mainly consisting of people who hadn't heard the band before. Sure, it's become a bit of a classic TSOOL song with the passing of time since the superb double album "Communion", with it's complex passages and Martin Hederos' beautiful harpsichord break, its not an immediate hit, but it's a stunningly powerful song. This is followed by probably their most well known number, the faultless "Sister Surround" and it all comes together, the familiar driving rhythm laid down by drummer Fredrik Sandsten and bassist Kalle Gustafsson Jerneholm is followed by the call and response duelling guitars of Mattias Bärjed and Ian Person and it gets heads nodding finally. One fan waves a lone Swedish flag in front of Ebbot but I'd like to think they did pull in a few more converts after all, even if it might be too late.

The visually stunning Roundhouse

All photographs Copyright Steve Worrall Retro Man Blog 2012

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