IT'S A TRAP! Scandinavian Music Journal

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:22:39 -0800

Hybris has a brand new Christmas single from TIAC available for free download entitled "It's Christmas (but not for you)": http://hybrism.blogspot.com/2008/12/tiac-christmas-single.html
Full details here: http://iloapp.tiac.se/blog/www?Home&post=13

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:23:51 -0700

Check out the video for the new TIAC single "Management": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TXOiV0rXjo
Download an mp3 of the track here: http://www.tiac.se/songs/TIAC%20-%20Overstaying%20the%20welcome%20-%2002%20-%20Management.mp3

TIAC Overstaying the welcome Hybris

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Balancing itself somewhere between over-accessibility and kitschy electronica, "Overstaying the welcome" is an undeniably fun album, but it's hard to give a general impression of the record overall. "Catalogue of failures" is an overabundance of 80s clichés and synths, wonderfully wound around solid songwriting, but the following track "Piss on you" is rather disappointing, especially the lyrics. Imagine New Order on a drug binge (probably uppers) in Berlin deciding to record an album in a weekend... and you're somewhere in the realm of TIAC's "Overstaying the welcome". It's a lot of fun, like I said, but there's an obvious expiration date to this enjoyment.

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:48:04 -0700

Here's the playlist for this week's radio show:

01. Figurines - The wonder
02. TALK 1
03. CS Nielsen - Happy
04. Superfamily - Teens of the 70s
05. Winter Took His Life - Oh
06. TALK 2
07. Frivolvol - Out come the knives
08. Bogus Blimp - Untitled jazz no. 1
09. Firefox AK - Pushing
10. TALK 3
11. Disfear - Get it off
12. Biker Boy - March song (Kalle J remix)
13. Eskju Divine - Darkness all around
14. TALK 4
15. Dogday - New romance
16. Mew - Am I wry? No
17. Det Är Jag Som Är Döden - Hello!
18. TALK 5
19. Familjen - Huvudet i sanden
20. Darkthrone - Skald av Satans sol
21. Caesars Palace - (I'm gonna) Kick you out
22. TALK 6
23. Lack - Behead
24. Bertine Zetlitz - Fake your beauty
25. Hebosagil - Old prophet
26. TIAC - OTW
27. TALK 7
28. Marybell Katastrophy - Hip
29. Strip Music - Never die
30. The Social Services - Electric brae
31. TALK 8
32. At the Gates - All life ends (live)
33. Fireside - Jupiter
34. Ulver - Funebre
35. Paper - They're gonna keep me
36. TALK 9
37. Convoj - Cultural legacy
38. Maia Hirasawa - Still June
39. Silverbullit - Run
40. TALK 10
41. Massgrav - Vuxenliv

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:59:52 -0800

Upcoming releases on the way from Swedish indie label Hybris:

02/27 - TIAC - Overstaying the welcome
04/03 - Juvelen - tba
04/09 - Vapnet - tba
04/23 - The Kid - tba
May - Like Honey - tba
?? - Montt Mardié - tba (UK release)

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:21:47 -0800

More industry woes from Hybris, including news of the demise of Nimson and Musicbrigade: http://hybrism.blogspot.com/2008/01/world-in-2008.html
Also, read to the end for info on new releases on the way from Biker Boy, TIAC, The Kid, Vapnet and Juvelen.

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:24:34 -0700

TIAC's brand new single "Catalogue of failures" b/w "Better days" is now posted for free download: http://www.tiac.se/

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:47:08 -0700

Here's the playlist for this week's radio show:

01. Lars Winnerbäck - Innan mörkret faller
02. TALK 1
03. TIAC - Boredom
04. Brainbombs - Who can you trust
05. Ted Gärdestad - Helena
06. TALK 2
07. Björn Kleinhenz - China Blue
08. Viktor Sjöberg - The sensation of your head on my chest
09. Marvins Revolt - Deliberate deeds
10. TALK 3
11. Abalone Dots - Under the rain
12. The Bear Quartet - The lost kid office
13. Lo-Fi-Fnk - Wake up
14. Watain - Underneath the cenotaph
15. TALK 4
16. The Tiny - Closer
17. Supersilent - 8.4
18. Anna Ternheim - Today is a good day
19. TALK 5
20. The Skull Defekts - The secret
21. Lukestar - White shade
22. Pay TV - Fashion report
23. Wolfpack - Enter the gates
24. TALK 6
25. Tigerbombs - Shaking the tree
26. Familjen - Ivanhoe & Rebecca
27. Giant Robot - Public = shopping
28. Eskju Divine - Hold on
29. TALK 7
30. The Bell - On and on
31. DHG - The snuff dreams are made of
32. Trio Mediaeval - Det lisle bånet
33. TALK 8
34. Peter Bjorn and John - It beats me every time
35. Margaret Berger - Seek I'll hide
36. Kaizers Orchestra - Kontroll på kontinentet
37. TALK 9
38. Darkthrone - F.O.A.D.

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Hybris act TIAC (Three is a Crowd) are back in the studio working on new material.

Lo-Fi-Fnk Boylife La Vida Locash

Sun, 30 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0700

I have to be honest, I wasn't that keen on Lo-Fi-Fnk's debut EP "...and the JFG?" that came out last year. Amid brilliant releases from other Swedish "electro duos", such as The Tough Alliance, Three is a crowd, Cat5, and Le Sport (then known as Eurosport), Lo-Fi-Fnk just didn't cut it. Now, with no new TTA material around, a dissapointing album from TIAC, Cat5's album yet to be released, and an album from Le Sport that's got a lot of great songs although I've heard most of them before - "Boylife" comes as a true saviour. The first half of the album is superior to the second, but that's mainly due to starting off with the two magnificent tracks "City" and "Adore". If you're into any of the bands I mentioned above, you should check this one out as well; it's one of my favourites of the year so far.

Fri, 24 Mar 2006 00:00:00 -0800

Shaktar has a choice remix of Paddington DC's "The sun is down and the sky is grey" as done by TIAC for one of their weekly mp3s: http://www.shaktar.nu/songs.php?id=40

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 00:00:00 -0800

Hybris has posted the latest videos from The Kid and TIAC on their website: http://www.hybrism.com/

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0800

Swedish indie dancepop act TIAC (Three is a Crowd) has posted their new single "It's always the same, anyway" for free download, both the mp3 and the video: http://www.tiacmusic.com/

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:00:00 -0800

TIAC (Three is a Crowd) will be releasing their new single "It's always the same, anyway" as a free mp3 and video download on January 25.

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 -0700

Download the brand new TIAC (Three is a Crowd) single "Illiterate": http://www.hybrism.com/3/index.php

Festival report: Emmaboda Festival 05

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 00:00:00 -0700

The path to get here was long and hard. I hard originally planned to come with a good friend who pulled out. However, his subsequent cancellation made me all the more determined to make it out here. The Emmaboda Festival looked appealing as 90% of the bands on the bill had never played the UK before, plus there was a cheap(ish) hotel within a 20 minute walk of the site.

The first day of the festival opened with Band Of Joy. They're one of those groups that do exactly what it says on the tin. Instrumental gypsy party in this case. All sorts of crazy dancing ensued from stylish characters. These included one guy who wore a matching outfit of an incredibly light shade of pink, and another guy who dressed up in a full suit who danced like Elvis in his prime. After that it was off to the smaller stage to see Gaddan & Braxen. The group makes what Swedes call "Nintendo music." It's fairly inoffensive and there are a lot of bands who do that kind of thing better, notably Slagsmalsklubben who played on Friday. Slagsmalsklubben are lead by a chic geek with a curly afro and huge glasses. He dances incessantly, and the crowd are only too happy to mimmick him. SMK took me back to the early 90s and reminded me of a whole lot of forgotten euro pop bands who used to grace MTV's European Top Twenty.

Another of the best bands on the Friday were Lovekevins. To my knowledge this Swedish band are still unsigned. They came across like a slightly more shambolic version of the Lucksmiths, with beautiful songwriting at the core of their sound. They were shortly followed by the all female Rough Bunnies who are a modern take on Beat Happening. Apparently, they are also unsigned. After hearing so much it was greatly to finally get a chance to see the Detroit-based Saturday Looks Good To Me, who were a bluesier take on Motown. Interestingly, the band are relatively unknown outside of Scandinavia. I was annoyed to miss Springfactory, who I later found out feature a member of Suburban Kids With Biblical Names.

The final day started with Three Is A Crowd (TIAC). I must say that this band were a bit of a disappointment. They do that indie/dance crossover thing. "We fucked up" is a gem, but the rest of the set didn't live up to this song. Still, full marks for the matching brown tracksuit tops. Mixtapes & Cellmates are like a slightly more lo-fi version of Radio Dept. The drum machine sounded great. Not sure if these guys are signed. If so, surely this can't be the case for much longer? Over on the main stage Frida Hyvönen was a little disappointing. As good as she was, her songs lacked variation. Her lyrics and style are a bit kooky. I guess she's the closest Sweden has to Kate Bush. Jens Lekman gave one of the best performances of the festival. It's quite amusing that his whole band is made up of female members. The selection of songs he played was reasonably obscure, taking in just a handful of the tracks from "When I said I wanted to be your dog", a few songs from his EPs, and a couple I hadn't heard before. It's a mystery to me why he isn't better known in the UK.

The quality of the artists booked at Emmaboda is a testament to the promoters and organisers. Shortly after arriving at the festival, it soon became obvious that most of the crowd had only heard of a handful of the artists playing. For example, take the Pipettes, the only UK artists who played. The band had never played outside of the UK previously, yet the promoters had the foresight to predict that they would go down a storm. They weren't wrong, and in fact The Pipettes gave one of the best received performances of the entire festival. Surely their twee take on Motown and polka dot dresses is now destined to take the rest of Sweden by storm.

One of the reasons I wanted to come out to Emmaboda in the first place is that Sweden is great at predicting musical trends. Whilst it is only in the last year or so that England and America has started to "get" synth pop, the genre has been huge in Sweden for a good few years, with Weeping Willows and Melody Club serving as just two examples. If pushed to predict the next musical trend to emerge from Sweden, I'd suggest indie pop. Whilst this genre is not new at all, it has been out of vogue for quite some time in the UK. However, in Sweden the success of the entire roster of Labrador Records (including the excellent South Ambulance who played on Saturday) suggests that the tide might be about to change. This is given greater weight when you consider that The Boy Least Likely To (a relatively small UK indie pop band with one self-released album to their name) have already been booked to play a handful of club dates in Sweden, whilst the Pipettes are booked to return in November. Roll on next year…
- Nick Levine

Tue, 14 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0700

TIAC's debut album has been confirmed for a September 1 release date via Hybris Records. They say it is "going to have the elements from the single, but it will also show more of our club music influences."

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0700

In other Hybris news, the label will be releasing the debut album from Sibiria this coming summer, probably around August. After that, be on the lookout for new stuff from El Perro Del Mar and TIAC in September.

Fri, 18 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0800

The media section on the new Hybris Records website is finally open and updated with full-length mp3s from a number of their artists such as El Perro Del Mar and TIAC: http://www.hybrism.com/listen.php

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 00:00:00 -0800

Check out an mp3 from Tiac, a new Swedish electropop band featuring an ex-member of CDOASS: http://www.tiacmusic.com/music/TIAC_-_Boredom.mp3
The duo is currently working with producer JJ Fett on their debut release for the Hybris label.