01. Gocart System - Always been the same
02. TALK 1
03. [ingenting] - Halleluja
04. The Kid - Transient dance
05. Thåström - Kort biografi med litet testamente
06. TALK 2
07. Small - Sunshine lover
08. Heroin and Your Veins - The trigger
09. Kongh - Tank pa doden
10. Villebråd - Vaknar aldrig
11. TALK 3
12. Anna Leong - Guillotine
13. Ison & Fille - Jag skrattar idag
14. Dyno - Burning blood
15. TALK 4
16. The Bear Quartet - Sweet beef
17. Entombed - State of emergency
18. Skatan - Top of the mountain
19. Familjen - Mine øyne de ska se
20. TALK 5
21. Suzy Thunder - Big

Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.

01. TALK 1
02. Small - Sunshine lover
03. Samtidigt Som - Constant in motion
04. Ironville - Roses
05. Montt Mardié - Dancing shoes
06. TALK 2
07. Samuraj Cities - Spoonful of talk
08. Fronda - Discomusik
09. Billie the Vision & the Dancers - You'd better watch out, 'cause I like you
10. Robert Svensson - I was summer, you were
11. TALK 3
12. Florence Valentin - Spring ricco
13. Lacrosse - We are kids
14. Superfamily - Let's go dancing
15. TALK 4
16. Turboweekend - Trouble is
17. Dyno - Don't speak love
18. Cilihili and DaBook - Orinoco flow
19. TALK 5
20. High Hats - The end
21. Two White Horses - Good times are gone forever
22. Margaret Berger - Robot song
23. TALK 6

Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.

01. TALK 1
02. Small - Highway child
03. Seance - Invocation
04. Halph - New money
05. TALK 2
06. Anna Frank - Directions
07. Kristofer Åström - Me and the snakes
08. The Scrags - Mad passion
09. TALK 3
10. Randy - Who's side are you on?
11. Division of Laura Lee - Violence is timeless
12. Existensminimum - 1993
13. Familjen - Socker
14. TALK 4
15. The Fine Arts Showcase - Lovesick
16. Viola - Cute destroyer
17. Nitad - Nervvrak
18. Penny Century - Just because
19. TALK 5
20. Marions - Another hour
21. BJ Nielsen - Tummen upp
22. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - Facelessness erases every trace of humanity

Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.

01. The Late Call - Put your lights on
02. TALK 1
03. Fever Ray - When I grow up (Håkan Lidbo remix)
04. Maskinen - Alla som inte dansar
05. Isolation Years - Albino child
06. TALK 2
07. Pixie Carnation - When did the lights go out
08. Unleashed - Dead forever
09. Lack - Soot, smoke & ash
10. TALK 3
11. Small - Comic girl
12. Peter Bjorn and John - It don't move me
13. Masquer - I think I'll lose my mind
14. Ironville - Roses
15. TALK 4
16. Parasite - Nightwinds
17. Aerial - Kallisti
18. The Crystal Caravan - Tombstone eyes
19. TALK 5
20. Hello Saferide - Arjeplog

Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.

I suspect the Norwegian air had some strange (positive) effect on me, because on the morning of the third by:Larm day, I managed to get out of bed relatively early, have breakfast, do some work, then watch bands all day, without feeling too bad, which amazed me since I've only had about 2 hours sleep. It snowed even heavier on the Saturday, one of the outdoor tent venues seemed to have problems in the evening with all the snow that had accumulated on its roof (not a common problem at UK festivals). Inside this particular tent I saw the first band of the day – namely Sweden's First Aid Kit who are signed to The Knife's label Rabid Records. FAK are two young sisters who play Americana sounding songs, similar to those of Emmylou Harris. It's simple, great and their lyrics are quite engrossing. They got some attention in the UK for their cover Fleet Foxes' "Tiger mountain peasant song", and in Oslo they also did a cover of Johnny Cash's "Walk the line" (not really the most interesting choice). I prefer their own songs though, "Tangerine" and its lyrics about infidelity especially caught my fancy.

Next up was another young Swedish girl called Hajen. As far as I know she hasn't been around very long, but she's got a phenomenal voice that I'm sure will reach out beyond her native homeland. Unfortunately, her music is very bluesy and Bob Dylan-esque (she sang songs in both Swedish and English, interestingly enough), two flavours that I'm really not that into, but she nevertheless put on a marvellous show. One to keep an eye on!

It was a good slow start to the Saturday, I didn't have to see any hardcore or pumping electro, first FAK's lullabies (maybe that acronym is not preferable?), then Hajen's smooth performance, and after this I saw charming Solver Vermeer play a somewhat lacklustre set that now and then impressed me (when she sounded like Stina Nordenstam) in a room that looked like an University lecture hall.

Sweden's Joel Alme released a magnificent album last year called "Master of ceremonies". Alme has always struck me as a crooner, but his live show was more rock'n'roll and not too dissimilar to Bruce Springsteen (good stuff!). I thought it was fantastic, and standing at the front I could sigh with relief during the show when Alme repeatedly complained about the people standing at the back.

Not sure if the people standing at the back were gearing up for The Captain & Me's show that started immediately after Alme's show on the opposite stage, and if they were, they deserved all of Alme's scorn (in my humble, humble opinion). The Captain & Me play the kind of gypsy / Balkan-sounding music that I associate with Emir Kusturica films and red wine drinking high school poets. The Decemberists is as far as I'm willing to stretch when it comes to this kind of music, any further and it makes me nauseous (I'm not even into Beirut). Jovial chaps though.

After The Captain & Me I wasn't sure where to go, so I took a chance and went to check out Small from Denmark – and what a nice little surprise their set was! They play electro reminiscent of The Tough Alliance or Lo-Fi-Fnk but the Small's singer uses a Vocoder on his vocals and they also use a live band which I thought worked very well (the drums, especially, were ace). I will definitely check out their album (I wasn't familiar with them before this show). The sci-fi lighting really helped their set too.

The rest of the night was, unfortunately, not too spectacular. It started when Norma Sass put on a show that was charmingly performed (plastic flowers on the mic stands etc), but I just couldn't hear any good songs in there; it all sounded pretty similar. There was a big crowd there though who all seemed quite pleased.

And now onto "the worst show of by:Larm 2009", I bring you Swedish pop punkers Neverstore who are obviously heavily influenced by such top acts as Blink 182, Green Day and NOFX. No, I'm not ironic here, I love those three bands with all my heart and soul! Neverstore are a terrible offspring (no pun intended) of these bands though, and listening to them peddling their unoriginal songs made me quite depressed. I urge you, stay away from this band (they seem to have lots of teenage fans in Germany at the moment, any German mothers reading this know what to do).

Next up was another artist to fill an empty gap in my schedule. In a dark basement just around the corner Miss Harmonica, who is a Norwegian less raunchy version of Peaches or Uffie, played charming and puerile electropop. Her gig was uplifting, much better than I anticipated. If you're into cute and sexy electropop, I think you should seek Miss Harmonica out.

At by:Larm I spent a lot of time at the Oslo Congress Hall which looked like some kind of government building (it hosted about 4 different stages). On the Saturday I saw five bands there, and the fifth one was My Little Pony who, despite their awful band name, play super charming twee. They're twee nuts though, probably too much for most people. I don't mind this, I think they've managed to write songs that balance on the right side of "twee that makes you smile" and "twee so cute it makes you puke". It was a very jolly gig, this band sure wear their hearts on their sleeves.

Last band for me at by:Larm were The Megaponic Thrift who played a loud set with lots and lots of guitar in it. If I get another chance to see them, without feeling like a zombie I'd jump on it, despite the fact that at times I thought I was watching a Sonic Youth tribute band.

I'm quite surprised that I managed three days non-stop gig action (it always surprises me, even after 15 years of yearly festival visits). by:Larm was such a great festival, I'll try and return every year from now on. Despite a couple of hiccups with the program, I was deeply impressed with how well organized it all was, I don't think I saw a single band being more than 5 minutes late – everything was done with acute Scandinavian punctuality! Some artists seemed a bit stressed by the non-negotiable stage times, but for me who ran around trying to catch as many bands as possible, it was fantastic that no bands started late. I'm also a very big fan of shorter concerts, 30 minutes is in my book a perfect length for a gig. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood as well, all the Norwegians I talked to were very friendly. Who knows, next year I might even try some of that infamous brown cheese (probably not).

Words and pictures by Simon Tagestam

01. Small - Sunshine lover
02. TALK 1
03. Prince of Assyria - What ever you want
04. Necrovation - Putrid evocation
05. Division of Laura Lee - LAX
06. TALK 2
07. Tomas Halberstad - Travel as I wait
08. Sophie Zelmani - Yeah, okey
09. Kite - Ways to dance
10. TALK 3
11. Thomas Denver Jonsson - Light of love
12. The Tapirs - My violet you
13. E.S.T. - Leucocyte (Ad initio)
14. TALK 4
15. Enslaved - Vertebrae
16. Imagine I Had Hands - Hellbent on holding out
17. Melpo Mene - Kling klang clock
18. TALK 5
19. Puffin - A dream it seems

Reminder: My show on Sirius Left of Center (channel 26) airs Sundays at 11pm ET with repeats on Monday at the same time.

01. Jesper Norda - Tommorrow you'll be forgiven but tonight you will have your teeth knocked out
02. TALK 1
03. On Volcano - Out of sight
04. Monday Monkey Riot - Go ape
05. Dmitry Fyodorov - Warcollapse!
06. TALK 2
07. Wired for Mono - Don't look down
08. Small - Come around (vs Hippo remix)
09. September Malevolence - ...accidents happen so fasr
10. TALK 3
11. Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words - Facelessness erase every trace of humanity
12. Napoleon - Send me a woman
13. Rigas Den Andre - I am crane
14. TALK 4
15. Mist - Subjective pop song
16. Ebba Grön - Tyst för fan
17. Neveres - Pause
18. Pascal - Cadillac
19. TALK 5
20. Komeda - Blossom (got to get it out)

Reminder: my show on Sirius Left of Center (channel 26) is now on Sundays at 11pm ET with repeats on Monday.