2009 must have been one of the busiest concert years ever. Perhaps in some way due to the decrease in record sales which forces the artists to hit the roads. Regardless of the reason I estimate that I visited about 80 gigs during the year, and here are some of...
You know it's summer when you arrive at Arvikafestivalen, the premier choice for great music. The tropical heat and sun scorched my pale skin while making the black clothes quite hot, and just like last year there were moments of thunder rain inferno. Last year I wore a NIN tshirt...
The onslaught of summer heat has arrived in the city and it's festival time. I missed Marilyn Manson last time he was in Gothenburg, but this time he performed at the Metaltown festival, on a pier so close I would have heard it from my balcony so I just had...
I use Spotify on a daily basis and I think that the premium account without commercials is worth every penny. A few days ago the Spotify team announced that premium users can now increase streaming bitrate up to 320 kbit/s using Ogg Vorbis. This is done under "Preferences", just tick...
This weekend I visited the last Tinitus ever. The lineup was strong and the festival had been extended to two days. We defied the sunny spring weather of Stockholm and descended into the dark fog of Münchenbryggeriet for the 10th year edition of Tinitus. It was the third time I...
I tend to visit a lot of live concerts, since most bands manage to perform something special on stage that make them come alive and ascend from the flat compact discs. I often rediscover a band when I see them in the flesh. My favourite ones during this year were...
I usually never write about politics, but this is an exception. In the song "America is not the world" from 2004, Morrissey sings: "In America, the land of the free, they said And of opportunity In a just and a truthful way But where the president is never black, female...
The time had come to visit the overprized frenzy of Way Out West. It turned out to be just as I thought it would be. It's quite comfy to visit a festival at the heart of your home town. At any time you can walk home to your own bed...
It's been a couple of years since last time, but it felt good to be back in the forest. The first days were scorchingly hot but the last one surprised us all with a lightning storm that came from nowhere and almost swept the festival away. Incredible amounts of water...
Even though I visit a lot of concerts, I very rarely write anything about them. This will be an exception. The British singer-songwriter Tom McRae visited Gothenburg for the first time ever this evening, a welcome exception to the kind of concerts I usually attend. I sat on the first...
Just as last year, it's time to take a look at my favourite albums released in 2007. And the winners are... Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero Skinny Puppy - Mythmaker Combichrist - What The Fuck is Wrong With You People? Air - Pocket Symphony Björk - Volta Emigrate -...
Have you grown tired of Last.fm, Pandora and the rest of the web radio services? Have a look at Musicovery. Apart from the obvious music service, it offers a nice interface for choosing music based upon emotions. Just select a genre, and then select a custom mood based upon four...
I just got back from a Nine Inch Nails concert in Stockholm. It was so great I started to cry. But even more interesting than the concert is the marketing hype surrounding this tour. It all started with letters in concert t-shirts from the current tour, spelling out a domain...
The first SAMA was held in 1998. Ten years later, the time had come to close this chapter of music history and visit the very last SAMA. All in all, it felt like the last night with the gang. Alexander Hofman was conferencier, repeating his job from the first one...
Just like last year, it's time to take a look my favourite albums released in 2006. And the winners are... Suicide Commando - Bind, Torture, Kill Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors The Knife - Silent Shout Muse - Black Holes and Revelations I AM X - The Alternative Frontline...
For every band there is a cover band. A lot of people hate cover versions of their beloved songs, since cover bands often manage to mess up a perfectly good song. However, there are some versions which bring forth new dimensions to a song. Here are some of my favorites:...
You've all heard the stories about the extremely sensitive surface of the iPod nano. It's almost getting scratched by merely looking menacingly at it. Yet somehow, we all seem to like the shiny little carebear while resisting the urge to examine just how fragile it really is in a bare-knuckles...
Saying that you listen to Depeche Mode is like saying that you listen to Beatles. Even though I rarely listen to Depeche these days, they've meant a great deal to me for over 20 years. My first experience of Depeche was the vinyl records of "Speak & Spell" and "Construction...
It has been a very dark autumn with the all-too-early demise of my favourite club Plasticity, as well as the death of Spacelab, Killing Music and Synthbar. However, there's finally a new hope, rising from the ashes with a combined cast from previously mentioned clubs, bearing the somewhat obvious name...
SAMA 2006 (Scandinavian Alternative Music Awards) just got a boost as Das Ich, VNV Nation, Iris, Spetsnaz and Seize has joined the lineup of De/Vision, Strasse and Sturm Café. Last year's edition of SAMA was sadly less than satisfactory so I skipped it, but this lineup is a lot better....
Just as last year, it's time to take a look at the best albums released in 2005. And the winners are... Depeche Mode - Playing the Angel Nine Inch Nails - With Teeth Ladytron - Witching Hours Kent - Du & Jag Döden Røyksopp - The Understanding Mr Jones Machine...
The latest issue of Bon magazine features a homage to Depeche Mode, where 15 of the world's leading creators have been asked to interpret a song by the band, resulting in 50 pages of black fashion. Even though the 200 pages in total mostly consists of commersial advertising it's still...
The release party for the new album "Playing the angel" by Depeche Mode was upon us and the stage was set for the allstar tribute band tentatively called 101, consisting of Robert from Elegant Machinery, Alexander from SPOCK (replacing Jarmo from Mr Jones Machine), Johan from Diskodiktator and Magnus from...
Here we go again. Each time Depeche Mode releases a new album I go on a rant about either the cover art or the first single, both of which can be quite awful. It's been quiet since the release of Exciter five years ago, but as the new album cover...
This year has seen a lot of new records, although I would say it's sort of a middle-year. However, the year is about to get wrapped up so here is my list: Morrissey - You Are The Quarry Rammstein - Reise Reise Skinny Puppy - The Greater Wrong Of The...
The curtain literally falled at midnight, revealing the secret band of Electric Christmas. There had been a lot of buzz for the last month with a secret band hinted to be "one of the greatest Swedish synth bands in history". My initial guesses were Adolphson & Falk (prime suspects since...
Another great night in the dark basement of Plasticity. Pär threw on a perfect triple combo featuring "America" by Rammstein, "Electronaut" by VNV Nation and of course "Xfixiation" by Tactical Sekt. The Hellfire mix of Xfixiation is harsh and industrial EBM at its very finest and about as good as...
it was time for a visit to the Tinitus festival located at Münchenbryggeriet in Stockholm. A lot of people had showed up to see a fairly nice lineup of bands. The futurepop giants VNV Nation entered the main stage a few hours after midnight. They played two songs from their...
Reine Larsson is a web developer located in Gothenburg, Sweden. More about Reine
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