Things I've learned today: Peter Dolving will talk politics for hours, Jonas Björler says The Haunted is gay, Those Dancing Days have earned your respect, Tove Styrke's signature dish is pannacotta. Also: Björn Kleinhenz is working on an acoustic album, young panda girls with Broder Daniel patches still exist and Swedish beer is getting much, much better.
Last Days of April and Leaders Off at It's a Trap! Clubnight at Debaser! I'm almost tempted to hop on a train and come down, but I'm already scheduled tight as-is.
Cobblestones, gravel and ice. Making new friends, reconnecting with old ones. Today, the real work begins.
In just a few hours I will on a plane and on my way to Göteborg, Sweden to attend the P3 Guld Awards at the behest of Swedish Radio and Svenska Institutet. I won't be coming entirely empty-handed either: as a cultural ambassador of Olympia, WA, I have been entrusted with a number of copies of the latest Perennial Records sampler cassette featuring new material from HPP, Broken Water, Son Skull and Weird TV as well as a few issues of local zine Nuts! which includes a flexi disc featuring cuts from Milk Music and Carrie Keith of Gun Outfit. No idea what I'm talking about? Maybe you should pick up the latest issue of MRR to check out the massive Oly scene report! Want a copy of either/both? Get in touch and we'll figure out a place to meet up. Did I mention they are free? Yes, free.
New dates are now confirmed for this season's It's a Trap! Clubnights at Debaser Malmö! First, we have the already-confirmed Last Days of April/Leaders Off show on January 22 and now we have also added Kvelertak + InSekt on February 4 and Pascal + Sad Day for Puppets on April 9. Be there!
This will mostly only be of interest to the tech-minded, but just in case anyone at all is curious, here's the latest updates I've done on the site's back-end:
First, I've updated the version of jQuery I'm running (v1.4) and switched over to Google's CDN. Usually I'm pretty adamant about self-hosting all of the site's functionality, but I think it's fairly safe to lean a little on Google at this point and I believe that many users will already have it cached, hopefully giving our loadtime a slight boost. This also means that some of my older scripts might act up due to backwards compatibility issues, so if you see anything funny that isn't solved with a shift-refresh, please let me know.
Secondly, I've added Twitter and Facebook buttons to replace the outdated share links. I'm optimistic that we won't see huge lag times as those widgets load, but if you do see performance issues, again, please do let me know.
And last but not least, I've updated the in-line streaming mp3 widget to be use HTML5 on compatible browsers with a seamless rollback to Flash if not. Unfortunately I don't own an iPod/iPad and can't troubleshoot whether it works properly on those devices, but feel free to browse my mp3 posts to see it in action. Thanks!
It's December so that means it's time once again for our annual top 10 lists! First up: John Roger Olsson of The Grand Opening/Hearts No Static/Will Gambola Sing
There's still a few slots available should any readers, in the music biz or otherwise, care to contribute -- simply get in touch and we'll work out the details.
I am proud to announce that Leaders Off are confirmed as support for January's IAT Clubnight with Last Days of April! Expect details for more gigs in spring to be announced soon!
I mentioned in last week's newsletter that there would be a new episode of Harsh R today, but that is obviously not the case. Turns out I severely overestimated by ability to get things done while simultaneously underestimating my workload. Maybe next week.
Dates are finally confirmed for our upcoming IAT! Clubnights at Debaser Malmö! First up on December 10 we have hard-rockers Graveyard (who I presume will be premiering matering from their forthcoming, much-anticipated album) plus recent -signees Riddarna! Maybe even guest DJs too, who knows? And then in January, Last Days of April who will be playing in support of their new album "Gooey" which just came out on . Look for a support act to be announced soon and see you there! ('cept that I won't)
Continuing where my now-cancelled radio show left off, here is the first episode of my new podcast: http://www.harshr.com/
Halloween-themed to fit the season naturally, but expect it to get far more expansive as time goes on. It's also fully HTML5-compatible, so feel free to stream it on your iPhone/iPad or whatever other fancy gadget you may have. Otherwise, please provide feedback and keep an eye out for new episodes to begin airing on the regular.
In case you didn't notice, I updated the site footer to highlight some of the various filters that people have created. I also cleaned up some of the junk from the search results, so nonsense like "rusian sex" (what?) isn't always at the top of the list.
I'm sad to report that It's a Trap!'s 3.5 year run on Sirius XM Blog Radio has come to an end. I had a feeling it was coming, I just didn't know when. However, all things considered, I have to admit that I had a pretty good run. Thanks to everyone who listened!
Do you like Menfolk? Want a copy of their latest LP "Beast one/man nil"? I'm holding a single copy for resale and will part with it for $20 ppd (in the US, slightly more for foreigners). And as you can see from the pic, it includes a Dropcard for a full album download too. Email mailorder@itsatrap.com to hook it up.
Further enticement below, my current favorite track from the album.
Menfolk - Skeletons
It's a Trap! Clubnights at Debaser Malmö are coming back this fall and our first one on Friday, October 8 is gonna be a big one! Three great Swedish acts (Bad Hands + Alarma Man + Traktor) plus special guest DJs (tba) equals good times. Keep an eye out for more details to be announced soon!