March 28th, 1997 - North Of No South special

NONS Web Site - after months of a lot of thinking and hard work, the NONS web site has opened. Please note that these pages are under constant construction, and that if things you are looking for are missing right now, expect to find them there in the near future. Address: http://www.nons.se.

NONS Picture Jukebox - the label also has a cool picture jukebox on the net. Check it out at: http://www.it-center.se/jetset.

NONS Distribution - the label has a new distribution deal for Sweden with MD (Skandinavisk Musik Distribution) from March 10th. Border will still handle the export and the sub-label DOT's distribution in Sweden.

NONS Booking Agency - a new face at the office is Åsa Isaksson who will handle bookings for Carpet People, Daybehaviour, Honeymoons and Pinko Pinko. Pinko Pinko, among others, was previously handled by Hansi Friberg, but as he has his hands full with his own new label, Starboy Recordings, he had to let go of the whole booking business.

Carpet People - the label's latest signing, has received very good reviews for their debut album "Volley U Make". With short notice, the band was also added to the line-up at the Umeå "Popstad '97" celebrations and played at the Focus scene. The gig was recorded, and will be broadcasted on P3 Live later on. A video for the song "Ad Lib" was made and has been shown pretty often on ZTV.

Cloudberry Jam - went on a short "warm up" tour last week and managed to squeeze in gigs in Uppsala, Gävle and Stockholm. They were joined by Bo Kaspers Orkester in Uppsala and Gävle. Starting April 9th, the band is back on tour in Japan again. Two weeks ago, 80% of the tickets for their gigs had been sold, which should be a surprise to no one. On two occasions, one being at the Blitz in Tokyo, the band is joined by Eggstone who are also touring the country. Here are the tour dates: April 9: Quattro, Nagoya, 10: Quattro, Osaka, 11: Crossing Hall, Fukuoka, 13: Blitz, Tokyo, 14: Quattro, Tokyo and 15: Mythos, Nagano. More info on their homepage: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~jennie/html/cbjhem.htm.

Daybehavior - debut album "Adored" was recently released in the UK by Pinnacle Labels, who also takes care of the European spring release of the same album. Different selections as the first single from the album in different countries mirrors the music state in the respective country pretty well. "Hello" was selected in the UK and "Movie" in Germany for example. Videos for both songs should be ready and available now. About a month ago, the band went to London, UK, where interviews for Melody Maker and NME were on their schedule. A couple of other UK magazines gave their debut album a long listen, among others, Select, Q-Magazine, Vox, The Face, ID, Sky Magazine and The Times. You can read more about the band on their homepage at: http:/www.nons.se/daybehavior, but in case you can't, here are a couple of reviews they have received:

Just Seventeen, UK, Jan 22nd, 1997 - on "Hello": "St Etienne-and-Dubstar-a-likes DayBehavior toss shimmery girly vocals across groovy dancebeats. Listen to it and pretend you're wearing a snoot cocktail dress and feather boa while being interviewed for, appropriately enough, Hello! magazine."

Melody Maker, January, 1997: "1997 will bring more glamour and more gloss to immerse yourself in. Daybehavior's forthcoming single, Hello!, is as cute as a belly-bottom, exquisite in the same way that made St Etienne irresistible. This is Swedish electro-pop with tinselled edges; sublime, refined and springwater-cool. You'll be tickled pink."

Daniel Booth, Melody Maker, March 8th, 1997: "...Adored absorbe the romanticism of that time [1981] and updates it to an age familiar with the melancholy of Portishead, Massive and Tricky. On songs like "Hello!" and "Movie", this works magnificently well because their instinct for slimline pop shines through triumohantlu. It's techno pronounced with a soft "ch"..." "Adored is still more remarkable than waking up with the moon under your pillow".

Prinz, Germany, August 1996: "What an enchanting summer-record. Three Swedes following in the footsteps of St Etienne have found the right mix of sweet and sadness. In here a small masterpiece is hidden. The best pop-album of the month!"

Intro, Germany, July/August 1996: "File under trip-hop once more. However, may also be filed under all sorts of genres. You don't always have to do what the label suggests, right. How about synth-pop for example. With all the kitschy synthesizer-strings and Paulinda Crescentini's sugery vocal-cords you can even, if you want to, send Daybehavior into the New Romantics-corner. And nothing bad about that, this is in fact a good album. Therefore, please don't misunderstand me. Adored holds a lot, and there's nothing `wavy´ about it. Sounds like a successful mix of Visage and Soul II Soul. Thus, file under trip-hop...? Of course you can, but also under..."

Volume, Denmark, October 1996: "Can this be true? Daybehavior have been capable to make a debut-album in the top, with ambient inspired pop put together with italian spices. It is no wonder when Ms Paulinda Crescentini gives you everything with her supreme soulvoice- both in English and in Italian. The rapper Aaron Phiri from Boogaloo participate in one track. It is great, they will climb the hitlists in no time!"

Doktor Kosmos - and his Starlight orchestra have produced another piece. It is the doctor's follower-paper "Starlightjournalen" issue #18. In it, one can find interviews with the speaker voice for the rock opera "Stjärnjerry" - Fredrik, 17 years old, the drummer Henke and guitarist Stålispojken, among other things. If you want to join the association, write to: Doktor Kosmos, c/o Bo Larsson, Åsgårdsv. 818 22 Valbo, SWEDEN.

Fivel - a whole hour with the band playing in Växjö last autumn was broadcasted on P3 Live on February 13th. This month, the band released a five-track EP called "'57".

Honeymoons - release their long sought after second "real" album called "This Coherent Excitation" on April 21st. A single from the album called "Fabrications" is released on April 1st. The band spent last weekend in Stockholm in order to record a video and do a photo shoot with Urban Ström and Johan Markusson.

Komeda - will release their album "The Genius Of Komeda" in Europe this spring. The label taking care of that is Pinnacle, UK. Members Lena and Markus produced the music to the touring childrens theater called "Jonglören" (The Juggler) which opened at Profilteatern in Umeå in February. Jim Powers from their US label Minty Fresh who visited the "Popstad '97" celebrations watched a piece of the play and assured that it did sound a lot like Komeda.

The band visited Newcastle, Manchester, Norwich and London on their UK tour together with Ben Folds Five (March 4-7). Next up is another tour with the same band, only this time in the US and from April 12th to May 3rd. Cities to be visited includes Houston, Dallas, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. All in all, the two bands play 12 gigs together, but Komeda will also play a few gigs on their own. Los Angeles and Atlanta are two cities mentioned so far. After that the band will concentrate on writing new material. The recording of their next album is planned for the summer, and the release of that album (in Sweden) is set for the autumn.

Pinko Pinko - what does Miss Universe from the Starlight orchestra do in the deep forest? Why are the members of the band wearing skirts? What is in the pipe the girl is holding? Why aren't all parts of member P-G (vocals) visible? There are a lot of questions in the band's latest video for the song "Cheekbone", taken from their album "Traffic".

Ray Wonder - a license deal for the band with US label Runt has been signed. The band also played at "Popstad '97" and their gig was broadcasted live on P3. After a couple of songs into their set, the skin on the bass drum broke, and because it was broadcasted live, the band had to improvise, which meant that the band continued without the drummer until a new drum set arrived.

The band recently released the new single "General Hugging Center" together with a video made by American film-maker Matt Mittler. After seeing a video with the band at the Umeå Film Festival 1996, he decided that he wanted to do a video with the band, there and then, when he was still in town. It took three days to get everything together, and the result naturally shows a bit of lo-fi.

Latest news coming in is that Beck, who, as we all know, is a Komeda fan and made his whole band wear white (Komeda's stage clothes were white when they supported Beck in November last year) in order to dedicate a concert to the band, has now placed his ears and eyes on Ray Wonder! His appreciation for the band is so big, that he has offered them to be the opening act at six gigs in the UK between May 7th and 14th. Nothing about this has been decided at this time though, so keep your fingers crossed, and we'll be back with more on this as soon as we have more information. (Source: NONS News / Scandinavian Indie)

(previous latest news: March 20th, 1997)

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Last updated Dec 3, 1997 by Erik Söderström
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