Swedelife!

Swedelife Albums

We've been thinking about this since the beginning. It always felt odd to just post a song at a time. We know that's the acceptable practice with mp3 blogs. A song a day... but...

But the album as an art form is still important to us. Swedelife was born from a record label that produced and marketed albums. Full-length albums. That label was responsible for the first albums to be distributed online. So it's a natural thing for us to consider.

The original idea for this site was to release a full album from a band with supplemental material and content every month. We want to give that a try. We'll explore various methods for how they will be packaged, and perhaps we'll find a new format for the album as art. Maybe we can breathe new life and bring back significance to the album... in our own small way.

So the next post, in whatever form it takes, will be the first venture into this idea. Look for it very soon.

And thank you for your support. If you have questions please feel free to email: swedelife [at] gmail dot com.

Go Pound Salt - On The Bridge

Download: On The Bridge by Go Pound Salt

I went to the Songbird "nest" yesterday evening. It was awesome seeing the place and catching up with old friends and meeting much of the rest of the team. San Francisco and the SOMA area has a great energy. I probably should have stayed longer and caught the Midlake show at the Great American Music Hall.

Go Pound Salt was one of the founding bands of the SF Noise Pop movement.  Influenced by Husker Du and Bob Mould, they made their own statement with raucous performances, poignant songwriting, and raw energy. This track is a great example of that.

Swede Life

Though there is little evidence that anyone affiliated with this site is the least bit Swedish, we can appreciate and certainly empathise with our adopted countrywomen...

The Sweet Life - Hope You Feel Better

Download: Hope You Feel Better by The Sweet Life

Just because Swedelife and Sweet Life sound similar doesn't mean the name of either was made up in some drunken giggle fest.

Hope You Feel Better is a richly textured track filled with layers of a choir, distortion, and a crunchy finish with a pop sheen. A testament to the super producer.

Elijah Craig - Krieger

Download: Krieger by Elijah Craig

Archive.org messed up a bunch of our files a while back. It really pissed us off. Most of the stuff that was uploaded and stored there by Swedelife has been deleted, so please forgive the repetition...

Elijah Craig is the guy that invented bourbon whiskey. So his is a fitting name for a band that was constantly drunk on the stuff. He was a baptist minister. "God damn you Krieger for coming around, someone should take that fuckin' fool down..."

I'm in the limelight.

The Slowest Train In The World - Pristina, Skitchy and Joan

Download: Pristina, Skitchy, and Joan by The Slowest Train In the World

We're still working on changing the site up a bit, there's going to be a ton more songs, bands,  and videos coming soon. We'll have free full album downloads coming up as well.

This is the first track from the Train's 765 album. It's about three encounters of a nature I know not. It's Mouse's world and we just live in it for the duration of this song.

A Western Front - Hair

Download: Hair by A Western Front

I think I posted this not too long ago, but I just encoded the video, so here we go again. This song and the video exemplify what AWF was all about. Shiny, sparkly, fun, pop for shiny, sparkly, fun people.

Mary by Baby

Download: Mary by Baby

I'm trying a different title style for the post. We'll see how it looks in the feed. I'm thinking about re-releasing Baby's Pourquoi... as a single post and album download. I think it's best heard in its entirety and not cut up into each track. It's an album like few others and should be heard that way... You'll see.

Today is 9/11. Six years ago, Bab was in NYC preparing to die. He didn't know why. He found out that morning but thankfully Les Paul saved his life. It was a weird time for all of us but the first thing I thought of when things went down, was that Bab was down too. He was right. Something huge happened and he predicted it. So weird.

Mary is a song from the album Baby finished just before that day.

The Slowest Train In The World - Tomcat Blues

Download: Tomcat Blues by The Slowest Train In The World

Tomcat Blues is the first track off of the latest Train album... 20 Years to Barstow.

Have you ever driven down the Tehachapi Pass from Bakersfield and across the desert. You pass Borax and Edwards Air Force Base and tons of weird shit; then you round the bend to Barstow. You think you've made it. But you haven't. It's another 20 years to Vegas.

Bandwich - Gonna Have A Good Time

Download: Gonna Have A Good Time by Bandwich

God bless the rock anthem! The kind of song that everyone can sing in a bar and spill their beer and not care.

Continuing with more from the Brøderham brood, here we have Bandwich and their hit Gonna Have A Good Time! It's from their latest album Meet The Folkerths. Clap you hands above your head!