Ebbot – the fantastic vocals of The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – has done it again. A few days back I browsed through my music library to find some easy listening music for Molly Fake and re-discovered the fantastic album ”Bröderna Lindgren – Vuxen Barnmusik”. The nostalgia for us Swedes that grew up in the 70’s and 80’s is quite intense; just check out the album cover.

Bröderna Lindgren - Vuxen Barnmusik

The guest list on this album is amazing; except for the Lindgren brothers the following stars has joined the line up: Kristofer Åström, Ebbot Lundberg, Swedish Tiger, Nina Ramsby, Martin Hederos, Mattias Alkberg, Vanna Rosenberg, Swing, Caroline Wennergren Asha Ali.

My favorite track is the second song on the album – En flugas väg (eng. The Path of a Fly).

Check out the album on Spotify or visit the band website on MySpace.

I recently re-discovered one of my favorite pop-bands - Stars on Mars. I haven’t listened to them since -95 but the other day I just felt the urge to Spotify them… I have only listened to the album Poster that was released in 1993 and I’m not even sure if they have released any more albums or if the band even exists any more. However, the Poster-album is freakin’ great!!

Stars on Mars - Poster

The story of Stars on Mars seems pretty cool. The rumour says that a three song demo was presented to ten record companies, delivered by a babe without appointment but riding a Harley bike. Six companies were interested… Then Micke Herrström produced their album and that is probably one of the main reasons why the album feels so genuinely cool - Micke has been known to produce excellent albums (e.g. Popsicle, The Wannadies, Ane Brun, Thunder Express and Moneybrother).

The songs all match well together but I most enjoy the tracks Marshall Man and Motorcycle Baby. The singers Sophie Eklöf and Helena Jonsson delivers perfect harmonies which closely resembles vocals from the powerpop genre. The overall feeling of the album is definitely a 4+ (on a scale from 1 to 5).

Stars on Mars - facts
Formation Date: January 20, 1992
Record Label: Polar / Polygram
Label Type: Major Label
Band Members: Sophie Eklöf and Helena Jonsson (vocals), Richard Tersaeus (guitar), Torsten Rundqvist (bass), Mårten Skoog (drums)
Influences: T Rex, Abba, Teenage Fanclub, The 70’s
Country: Sweden
Spotify link: Stars on Mars - Poster

Yesterday we laid down the last vocal tracks on the last song! This means we can focus wholly on mixing from now on. We managed to create a very cool vocal arrangement for the song “If You then I” with different harmonies intertwining in a way we haven’t really done before. Next week we’re presenting a batch of songs to a label and it’s going to be very interesting to hear what they have to say about them.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Yesterday was a good day for vocals. I did the last of the lead vocal tracks for “C’mon Linda”, “Whatever Comes Your Way” and “You Always Come Back Home”. We also laid down the backing vocals on “Linda” and the last of the keyboard tracks. Today I’m going to be sitting at home editing everything, and tomorrow we’re going back into the studio one last time to finish up on the backing vocals for one last song. Then, we’re done with tracking! Wooohooo!
// Joey
Today I lay the final hammond/wurlitzer tracks for our planned full-length album. We completed the songs “Whatever Comes Your Way” and “The Promise” so now we basically only need to record the vocals for one more song called “If You Then I” and then we are finished and that feels gooood!
The Hammond organ is a must if you are Tommy Fake

We have been recording for 2+ years now and it seems that we finally can see the light at the end of the tunnel. After these recording sessions we will have roughly 17 complete songs and 5-6 semi-finished songs that we can put on the next album, how cool is that?!?

The next step will obviously be the mixing of these powerpop hits but that will be executed by someone else (which will be announced later).

Review of “I Don’t Want It” single

Sweden’s best kept secret is easily The Genuine Fakes. They have yet to release an album, but the buzz on this band is deservingly huge! They don’t hide the fact that they are all about power pop, and fans of Weezer, Fountains of Wayne, The Posies and The Merrymakers will welcome The Genuine Fakes with open arms. This band aint kidding around… they are serious of climbing to the top of the power pop charts, and with super high quality music like “I Don’t Want It”, they deserve to get ther. Look for the first full length album in the fall of 2010.

Popbang Radio


Review of “Something New”

HEAVEN CAN BE FOUND WITHIN A POP SONG
When people refer to pop music these days, they mean Britney Spears, Aaron Carter, Ashlee Simpleton, uh- I mean Simpson and all the teeny-twerps on MTV/TRL. Well, when we used to talk about about pop music, this song would have been the very definition. A solitary sweet but stinging electric guitar opens the tune, quickly followed by bass and drums, then finally the whole band. The song is reminiscent of Todd Rundgren/Utopia meets Cheap Trick meets Jellyfish. Great vocals, great melody, great musicianship and great production. The ending is relentless and makes you want to put your fist through the roof. Since I can’t really do that, I’m just gonna yell- yee hah, and play the song again. Congratulations- we have a winner.

Garageband.com


Review of “Irreplaceable”

Proud members of the power-pop fraternity populated by Dwight Twilley, Big Star, Teenage Fanclub and the like, this Swedish trio convincingly transforms the steely Beyoncé ballad [Irreplaceable] into something that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Fountains of Wayne album.

thestar.com


Recension av “I Don’t Want It” (demo)

Det här låter verkligen Popsicle. Sångaren försöker låta Popsicle, låtar försöker låta Popsicle, texterna försöker låta Popsicle. Och de lyckas hur bra som helst. Och jag älskar det. Förbehållslöst. Jag vet inte varför egentligen, kanske “for nostalgic reasons”, för det är verkligen inte nyskapande på något sätt. Men oj va bra det är. Och jag vet, man ska vara så jävulskt nyskapande, man ska förakta allting gammalt, man ska älska det nya helt oreflekterat bara för att det är nytt. Speciellt som skribent (jag hävdar inte att jag är en skribent, mest en allmän iakttagelse). Men vad gör man om man älskar någonting bara för att det är bra, inte för att det är nytt? Äh, jag vet inte, jag tänker inte ljuga för er, jag gillar det grymt mycket. Det låter precis som en treminuters (nästan fyraminuters, faktiskt) poplåt ska låta, och det behövs inte mer, speciellt inte i slutet på mars när snön börjar smälta bort och våren till slut kan kämpa sig upp till ytan. För våren, det är gitarrpopens bästa årstid, och det är då jag lyssnar på The Genuine Fakes. Och Popsicle.

Popochskit.blogspirit.com

TGF Collage - Narrow

The Genuine Fakes are:

  • Joey Fake - lead vocals / guitars
  • Morty Fake - bass / backing vocals
  • Johnny Fake - drumkit / backing vocals
  • Tommy Fake - keyboards / backing vocals

The Genuine Fakes is the new hope of powerpop in Sweden. Their songs are fueled by rock and catchy singalong melodies.

The band was formed in late 2005 in a basement in Södermalm in Stockholm. The guys; that shared a love for melodic pop and moustaches joined up and beautiful music came to be instantaneously. Influences from bands such as 90’s indie legends Popsicle from Sweden, The Posies, The Wildhearts, Fountains of Wayne, Weezer, Jellyfish, Cheap Trick and Pearl Jam, to name a few, were forged in a way that creates a unique sound in this day and age. You’ve got beautiful harmonies on a thick, powerful foundation of distorted guitars, Hammond organ, McCartney-esque bass lines and noisy drums. The instrumentation is raw and the vocals are as slick as The Beatles’ were in their prime. The band delivers three and four part harmonies that you haven’t seen or heard the likeness of live since the last Jellyfish tour in 1993. A concertgoer perhaps described it best: “It’s Popsicle-rock with Beach Boys harmonies!”

The creativity flourished and a whole album’s worth of songs were written over a couple of short months before it was time for the first gig in January of 2006. Since then the band has played most of the Stockholm rock clubs, such as Alcazar, Klubben and Stampen to name a few. The year was topped off with a critically acclaimed performance at the Rookie Festival in Hultsfred, handpicked as one of 30 bands amongst thousands of applicants.

In conjunction with the Rookie Festival the band released its first single, entitled “Star”. It quickly sold out and has been downloaded persistently on MySpace since then. The first full length album is currently in the making, and the band is shopping around for labels to release it at this moment.

The band has also recorded a couple of interesting covers. One is a Posies song called “Somehow Everything” which was released in the US on “Beautiful Escape: The Ultimate Tribute to The Posies” (Burning Sky Records). The other one is an original interpretation of Beyoncé’s smash hit “Irreplaceable”. It has become an instant live favorite, winning over even the most skeptical listener. Thestar.com describes it: “Proud members of the power-pop fraternity populated by Dwight Twilley, Big Star, Teenage Fanclub and the like, this Swedish band convincingly transforms the steely Beyoncé ballad into something that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Fountains of Wayne album.”

As a live act they’re a true force to be reckoned with. There’s a brand new band in town!