The Road From Madness » Music

Great singer, out of time…

Anders — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:06:29 +0000

I was very sad this evening to learn that Curt Petersen, of Curt & Roland fame, left this world yesterday. I have very fond memories of listening to his music when I was young. Quite a few times Curt & Roland would come to our local church and sing. There’s something about their music that rocks me till this day.

It is very strange, it was just one week ago that I ordered seven CDs from their website. I hadn’t listened to Curt & Roland for many, many years – and it’s only recently that some of their albums have been made available on CD. I got the albums a few days ago and while traveling to Gothenburg this weekend, Elin and I have been listening to the songs in the car.

(In picture, from left: Curt, Anders and Roland – ten years ago or close to that…)

Curt & Roland “Kristen, Ja!”

Curt Petersen was one of the great singers of our time. Now he is out of time, and I for one will forever miss him. God Bless you Curt – and thank you for this amazing heritage.

The Niro feat. Rattlehead

Anders — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:36:10 +0000

This summer my good friend Martin Prahl is getting married. These days he only writes music by himself I think and the stuff I have heard is very good I think, but a few years ago he had a project called The Niro and before I left for the US in 2005 they asked me to try out on vocals so I wrote a song about Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS). The song was called “Pantone Matching System”. Eventually I think Martin wrote some lyrics of his own and recorded vocals for the song.

But today I thought I would share version with you. From their part this was just some random recording from the rehearsal room I think, with Martin playing the bass. The other two guys I never met but as you can hear they were pretty talented.

The Niro “Pantone Matching System” (demo)

While being on subject of the Music Police (I’m sure Martin himself would agree he is just that) I have to say that I was taken by a storm tonight. VH1 have a Top 50 Guitar Riff countdown, playing full videos, and so far they’ve played:

Whitesnake “Here I Go Again” (the original 1982 version)
Van Halen “Why Can’t This Be Love?”
The Cult “Rise” (has this ever been shown on tv?)
Soundgarden “Rusty Cage”
Iron Maiden “Can I Play With Madness”

It takes guts. VH1 obviously has what it takes to broadcast that which does not suck.

The Social Services

Anders — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 05:00:53 +0000

The Social Services played in Stockholm this saturday, I covered the show for a paper which did not end up using one particular picture that I myself liked a lot so I though I might as well post it.

They’re a good indie pop band, recently played live on BBC, from Sweden and Scotland and they put out a praised album a few months ago called “It’s nothing personal, it’s national security”. It’s not really my cup of tea. At least not usually, it’s a bit to merry but I actually enjoy their album a bit. The lyrics are great fun.

Myself I have to go do some important work now.

It’s nothing personal, it’s…

Meshuggah across America

Anders — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 13:57:31 +0000

Today west coast “sister” newspapers Hallands Nyheter and Hallandsposten published my article about Meshuggah and Dick Lövgren along with some three or four pictures. Between the two of them I think they have an average circulation of 62.000 copies/day so this could very well be my biggest newspaper feature so far.

Read the whole thing online. [swedish only]

King’s X @ Biebob in Belgium

Anders — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 11:48:55 +0000

I just realised that I never posted any pictures from the King’s X show in Belgium in january. It so happened to be one of the best (if not the best) shows I ever saw.

When they played the Sweden Rock Festival back in 2000, or whatever year it was, they were crap. I think their bass technician got electricuted the day before the gig and destroyed two bass guitars so they were all out of them; bass guitars and bass technicians. This time around it was simply amazing and the set list was incredibly sharp.

Welcome to America…

Anders — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 07:52:24 +0000

Just saw this awesome clip from last weekend. It hits home with any heavy metal duderino, and we’re all heavy metal duderinos, right? (Or duderinas…)

James Hetfield of Metallica hands a guitar over to the members of Acrassicauda – the band from the documentary “Heavy Metal In Baghdad”. The guys have been granted refugee status and are about to apply for green cards in a year.

Remembering: Sleepwalk (2001)

Anders — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:01:15 +0000

When we both lived in Halmstad on the west coast, me and Martin Prahl founded a band called Pride of Mine that eventually became Sleepwalk. That was in 2001. As I remember he wrote two songs and I wrote two, but probably he did a bit more. Also, without him the recordings would never have been completed at all. I then destroyed the band by moving home to Veddige which I really shouldn’t have done.

So today we remember Sleepwalk as me and Elin get ready to create gingerbread bodyparts and gingerbread metal band logos and gingerbread non-correct political symbols.

Sleepwalk “In My Heart” (demo)

Sleepwalk “Capture Life” (demo)

Out shooting

Anders — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:08:55 +0000

So the annual Frizon took place pretty close to Örebro. I went over to shoot some pics for upcoming interviews. The Blindside show was pretty stale (their last one ever? Who knows…).

I spent a couple of hours with Jani Stefanovic (The Weakening, Miseration, Essence of Sorrow etc) talking about his current and upcoming projects. I think I’ll try and do an article about him this fall. That show was really cool but the sound inside that tent sucked ass.

Also, the awemighty Crimson Moonlight played. A great show and their vocalist Pilgrim Bestiarius is the nicest bloke in the northern realms of the hemisphere. We decided I should come visit him in a couple of weeks and spend some time together in his un-wired cottage with no running water! Should be a blast. That is also an idea for an article that is allready sold.

Now I just need to write it.

Anzient gubblins und waaolouds

Anders — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 09:04:52 +0000

Aaahhaha! Check this out. I found a clip of Rammstein covering a Ramones tune together with some of the Ramones guys and Jerry Only from The Misfits. Listen to the first minute. I would trade my grandmother to be able to sing like that!

I drove all the way to London town where druggies smashed my car window and stole all my stuff and all I got was tired…

Anders — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 18:57:36 +0000

I have been up to quite some mischief since last, I must say. Some costed more than others. Bare with me and I’ll bring you up to date.

First off. The most wonderful thing has happened. For the first time ever (and last, mind you!) I got engaged! That was ten days ago and Elin was the victim of course. We decided to do it on the very spot – close to the castle in Stockholm – where we met the first time about 15 months ago. After that we went to a fancy restaurant up in the air. So yes, now I am one happy bloke.

About three weeks back I went downtown (Stockholm) to catch up with Tim Lambesis of As I Lay Dying. Really nice guy. We sat down for a good hour talking about the band, the album, the tour and the faith.

After that I did a photo shoot with the band, went home for dinner and then took Elin with me to the show. Some other bands played (Himsa, Darkest Hour and Maroon) I think but I saw nothing of them.

The article I wrote about As I Lay Dying was published in the newspaper Dagen last week. It came out allright but as always you think you could’ve done better. About the band, well metalcore isn’t really my thing but lately the band has moved a bit closer to a thrash sound which makes them way more interesting for me. And well, their show was energetic enough.

So what was the whole car crash thing about you wonder? Well, I went to London (via Belgium) with the guys form Animasola for some UK shows to promote the band. It was a really fun eight day trip but during one show in London some dopeheads smashed a car window on the car I borrowed from Jens. Then they took all our clothes. That was in the middle of the night. Needless to say the experience sucked pretty bad. I’ll write more about that and our stay in a London anarchist house the next time. Maybe some of the guys have pictures (though I douit since the on digitial camera got stolen).