Sometimes my posts take weird twisty turns whilst being written. I had intended to devote this one to acts that have seemingly gone missing in action in terms of releasing new music or even doing anything, yet haven’t actually split up or anything (at least to my knowledge), but it’s ended up a distinctly Swedish-themed post instead.

Mainly, I wanted to inquire if anyone had any information on The Radio Dept, who have been very quiet since releasing the This Past Week EP last January. Well a little digging of my own turned up an unofficial MySpace page run by a fan with no concept of aesthetics or not abusing CSS. It’s quite painful. The same person who maintains that page also runs a message board for the band, and the information there indicates a follow-up to Lesser Matters is indeed en route this Winter, confirmed by Labrador and reported by Hits In The Car as coming out March 29. Credible? I don’t know, but I like the sound of it. The recording is done, and it’s just sorting out international distribution and titles. If that all gets worked out favourably, perhaps we could see some North American touring later this year? Maybe? Oh, and while there’s not much traffic on the aforementioned message board, it may be worth registering because people are posting yousendit links to live stuff and rarities, like this song from some ultra-rare Swedish compilation. It’s called “The Hide Away” and it’s freaking gorgeous.

MP3: The Radio Dept – “The Hide Away”

So while that bit of news doth slake my thirst for Radio Dept info, I can’t find a damn thing about their labelmates Douglas Heart. Their cover of Slowdive’s “Alison” for the Never Lose That Feeling shoegaze tribute last year was the last I heard from them. This habit of Swedish bands not having proper websites is really rather annoying.

NPR chats with Jens Lekman, who appears to have backtracked on his promise last Fall to give up music and get a proper job, which is good news for everyone. I picked up his Oh You’re So Silent Jens compilation over the holidays, and though I usually have to be in the right mood for it, the reviewers are right. It’s great.

And finally, this JAM! piece on the dearth of new music releases in the next few months mentions that the Cardigans’ Super Extra Gravity will get a domestic release on February 14. The rest of the piece is fairly amusing when you compare what they (seem) to be looking forward to and what I am. The News Tribune is a little more optimistic about the upcoming year in music, though I have to say that the She Wants Revenge album is beyond awful. Ugh. Can we please, please PLEASE stop with the Joy Division necrophilia? Goddamn. And on topic, John Sakamoto’s Anti-Hit List also looks ahead to this year’s releases aurally.

Anyway, back to The Cardigans, the band has completed a video for the second single, “Don’t Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds)”. It’s not one of the best tracks on the album – “Good Morning Joan” or as Angels Twenty suggests, “In The Round”, would have been better singles. They’re certainly better songs. But I’m going to use this as a segue – it seems that that Yahoo’s video search index has decided that their video for “I Need Some Fine Wine…”, which I linked in my year-end post, is a suitable search engine match for seemingly EVERY query imaginable. Seriously, you’ve no idea how many hits I’m getting from them for people searches for all manner of random videos. And sometimes, those searches are for some very disturbing things which I won’t repeat here. But if you’re one of the people who got here via one of those searchees – and you know who you are – SHAME SHAME SHAME.

To learn more about Swedish pop music, visit your local library – or just go to Hello Surprise. And I guess I’ll save my “missing in action” post for another day.

2006’s first next big thing, coming courtesy of the UK, natch, is the horribly named Arctic Monkeys. They’re releasing their horribly titled debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, in North America on February 21. They’ll be in Toronto touring said record one month later, on March 21, at the Phoenix. Remember the good old days when every band was “the” something? I miss those days.

np – The Meligrove Band / Planets Conspire