The Good: Casiotone for the Painfully Alone - "Ice Cream Truck"; I'm not sure if this is a new tune from Casiotone but I heard it for the first time today and I'm absolutely loving it. It's quiet and has a pretty, simple melody that I find to be a perfect setting for such a nice pop song. Really good tune. Grade: B Fiasco - "Steve Herman"; The young guys of Fiasco are leaving the vocals out on

Awhile back we featured a small Swedish band by the name of The LK and their single 'Private Life of a Cat.' Seems that Lindefelt and Fredrik have dropped the synthesizers and moved along to more analogue instruments. Along four others, they have formed the Swedish pop orchestra Fredrik . Drawing on traditional european folk influences like The Fairport Convention or Bo Hansson, crooning songwriters as well as a host of eclectic references like Moondog, Steve Reich, Jim O'Rourke, Maja Ratke or Barbara Morgenstern, Fredrik forges a sound that is both eclectic [...]

I am a big supporter of Sweden's electro pop duo The LK, but it was definitely a surprise to know that Fredrik is a side project of the two. Fredrik has lush rhythms and poignant pop vocals much like The LK, but without the heavy use of electronics. Fredrik takes them out of the city and into the woods where big wooden drums, xylophones, and large circles of friends chant and sing these wonderful soul filled tunes found on their debut LP Na Na Ni . The album is due out on October 28th on The Kora Records [...]
Chris got a little tied up with school and asked me to fill in and put together the weekly mix for him. Enjoy! Margot & The Nuclear So and So's - A Children's Crusade On Acid Fredrik - Black Fur State Bird - I Don't Love U Anymore Elsiane - Mend (To Fix, To Repair) A Brief Smile - Bigger Lies (via RCRD LBL) Awesome New Republic - 2k3012 Arsenal - Estupendo Team Genius - Take Me [...]

1. Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream - My first bike with gears was a Huffy called " White Heat ". It's mostly-white frame was flecked with neon glow-in-the-dark paint spatters and it had Mad Max-esque black and neon yellow gnarly guards (their words, not mine) to protect your knuckles in the case of a crash. Alongside my acid-washed jean jacket (which I hated) and the unfortunate rat-tail my parents inflicted on me, that bike was the most '80s thing I've ever been associated with. This song is like that. Except it's 2008. If this [...]
(image from Rumors.it ) Praticamente in quattro fasi, la mia vita assieme ai computer. No, non sto per lasciarvi il solito rant informatico (che a dire la verità non ne scrivo da parecchio tempo..) bensì volevo lasciarvi le solite canzonette trovate qua e là. Cose che sicuramente piacerebbero alla nostra Benedetta Mazza . In più ci aggiungo pure un pezzo dei Daft Punk che è tornato alla ribalta grazie ad uno spot Alfa Romeo . [...]
September can be so depressing. Between the end of summer, the start of school, and the onset of cooler temperatures, the ninth month of the year isn't the most popular. But it's nothing music can't fix and in fact, when you think about, fall usually features some of the best new releases (see: In Rainbows , Graduation , and Magic in 2007). So in an effort to kick the new season off with a bang, how about a brand new edition of our Friday Mixtape? All we ask from you? Enjoy our mix of [...]

I have lots of small little bits of news clogging my email inbox. I'm going to try to free things up a little bit this morning. And as a byproduct share some pretty great Swedish pop with you. 1) Björn Kleinhenz has a new record coming out on Tomt Recordings . In lieu of releasing the album for free like many others are doing Bjorn and his label are releasing two cover versions of his new songs each week. So, while the band Kid Icarius is from Germany, here they are covering one of [...]

Hails From: Malmo, Sweden Influences: Sufjan, Neutral Milk Hotel, Flaming Lips File Under: Experimental indie-folk pop Visit Fredrik on MySpace. The band's first-ever US trek begins in November. MP3: Fredrik - Black Fur
This is pretty close to a non-stop mix with several songs that should get you bopping in your seat or maybe even dancing around the room. It slows down a tad in the middle but then picks back up for the finish. Enjoy. Kristoffer Ragnstam - Sorry For Being The Man Of 1000 Questions [...]
Swedish act Fredrik will release their excellent album "Na na ni" in the US on October 28 via The Kora Records. Look for them to tour the US in support for two weeks starting on November 5 - dates when I get 'em.

Earlier this year we shined a light Swedish pop outfit the LK and their electro lovely, wintry gem " Stop Being Perfect ." Had we known the band had a side project sooner, you probably would have written sooner. Instead, we came upon Fredrik de novo, clicking and listening to a few tracks on a whim, finding songs that have since lodged themselves into steady and heavy rotation. At its inception, Fredrik was a side project for the LK masterminds Fredrik and Lindefelt. The band's a sextet now, more acoustically minded than their parent project, and putting the additional voices [...]
I've been meaning to talk about Fredrik for quite some time now, but it kept getting pushed back for one reason or another. Enough! Good music deserves to be heard! Fredrik the person might be better known as a member of The LK , however I find his eponymous act much more interesting. You get many of the same skittering beats and glitchy electronica, but far more of a low-key folk/pop feeling. "1986" actually has a similar melancholy vibe to the recent Robert Svensson ( Mixtapes & Cellmates ) single [...]
I know I should be writing about the new David And The Citizens ep but after a couple of listens it's just not catching my ear, plus it's probably been sent out to every other small to mid-sized blog and you can probably easily find commentary about it all over the net. Instead, let's check out the new experimental folk record by Fredrik ( Sagomusik ). The band is the brainchild of none other than Fredrik from The LK . I'd classify their music as based in epic European [...]