Anna Ternheim @ Joe's Pub in 2009 (more by Chris La Putt)

Known for his work with Skunk, Chavez, Zwan, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Neil Diamond, and even now Win Win, Matt Sweeney played guitar on Anna Ternheim's 2009 Björn Yttling-produced album Leaving on a mayday, and he will be playing guitar with Anna when she takes the stage at Rockwood Music Hall tonight (2/9), and at the Living Room on Saturday (2/12). They'll mostly be playing new songs she's been working on, most of them for the first time ever. She has no other tour dates scheduled at the moment. Some videos below...

Continue reading "Anna Ternheim playing shows w/ Matt Sweeney "

DOWNLOAD: Anna Ternheim - You Mean Nothing To Me Anymore (live)(MP3)
DOWNLOAD: El Perro Del Mar - Change of Heart (Rakamonie Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Taken By Trees - Watch The Waves (MP3)

Anna Ternheim @ Bowery Ballroom in October 2009 (more by Toby Tenenbaum)

El Perro del Mar will be joined on her previously-announced February dates by fellow Swede and singer Anna Ternheim and Taken by Trees, who is another one-woman Swede, Victoria Bergsman (formerly of Concretes).

UPDATE: Anna is not on this tour. She was originally, but has been replaced by Taken by Trees.

Taken by Trees released her new album, East Of Eden, via Rough Trade in September. Included on that album is a cover/interpretation of Animal Collective's "My Girls" called "My Boys". Check out the video for that song below. "Watch The Waves" is a free download above. Taken By Trees plays a pre-tour show at Union Hall in Brooklyn on February 13th. Tickets for that are on sale.

All three (Taken/Anna/Del Mar) Both (Taken/Del Mar) then play NYC on February 16th at (Le) Poisson Rouge (tickets on sale) and February 17th at Knitting Factory (tickets on sale).

For New Year's, Anna posted a free live version of her song "You Mean Nothing To Me Anymore" recorded at Södra Teatern in Stockholm, November 27th 2009. MP3 of that above. Video below.

Robyn, another female Swedish artist, recently completed her first remix of another artist. Robyn's remixer alias is Rakamonie (same name as her 2006 EP). Her remix subject is El Perro Del Mar. Grab "Change of Heart" above. All dates and stuff below...

Continue reading "Taken By Trees (Victoria Bergsman), Anna Ternheim & El Perro Del Mar - dates, Robyn remix, Animal Collective cover"

photos by Toby Tenenbaum

DOWNLOAD: Asobi Seksu - Suzanne (Hope Sandoval cover) (MP3)

Loney Dear @ Bowery Ballroom

As the night progressed, lyrics and meaning gradually ceded to pure melody and sound. [Anna] Ternheim's careful precision led to Loney Dear's contrapuntal harmonies, which led to Asobi Seksu's waves of distortion, and voices soared higher as words grew less distinct.

Like Suzanne Vega, Ternheim sings in a vibratoless alto; her cool restraint and clarity contrast with the emotional turmoil coursing through the lyrics.

Drawn mostly from the new album Leaving on a Mayday, her songs told of wrenching partings (of lovers, of kidnapped children) and rainy days. As an end-of-tour treat, Loney Dear leader Emil Svanängen sat in on guitar for part of her set, joining his bandmates, who had backed her throughout the tour, and she returned the favor for his set.

On his Loney Dear albums, Svanängen is basically a one-man band, and his densely layered chamber pop has an appealing remoteness and subtlety. Joined by his four-piece band plus vocalist [Anna] Ternheim, however, the songs become propulsive exercises in textures and voices. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Asobi Seksu's new acoustic album Rewolf (a re-release of their Acoustic at Olympic Studios) includes their cover of Hope Sandoval's "Suzanne." It's re-posted above. The album will be released November 10th through Polyvinyl.

Asobi Seksu, who are playing Purchase tonight (10/19), have another show on October 23rd, though they'll only be DJing. It's the Polyvinyl CMJ showcase, and the bill includes Japandroids, Cale Parks, Headlights, Owen, James Husband, Motel Motel and Common Loon. Tickets are on sale.

Asobi Seksu's new video for "Transparence", and rest of the pictures from Bowery Ballroom, below...

Continue reading "Asobi Seksu played Bowery w/ Loney Dear & Anna Ternheim (pics) ++ Purchase tonight & DJ set @ Polyvinyl CMJ"

photos by Toby Tenenbaum

DOWNLOAD: Asobi Seksu - Suzanne (Hope Sandoval cover) (MP3)

Asobi Seksu @ Joe's Pub

"Brooklyn dream-pop outfit Asobi Seksu just released a 10" anchored by "Transparence," a standout from this February's Hush LP. Before the clock strikes '10 they'll have a third release on the year by way of Rewolf, an LP offering acoustic versions of Seksu songs spanning their three albums, including a few b-sides and this cover "Suzanne." As headlined, the source comes not from Leonard Cohen but rather the recently reactivated Mazzy star Hope Sandoval's 2002 album Bavarian Fruit Bread. The warmly narcotic, Velvet-undertoned original is classic Sandoval, but the reverent, acoustic and glockenspiel-tinkled cover is atypical Asobi, a band better known for its shoegaze atmospherics and coruscating waves of James Hanna's guitars." [Stereogum]

Back on September 16th, Asobi Seksu played their own show at Joe's Pub (acoustic). A few more pictures from that set, below...

Continue reading "Loney Dear almost done touring w/ Anna Ternheim & Asobi Seksu who played Joe's Pub (pics), covered Hope Sandoval"

Anna Ternheim @ Joe's Pub (more by Chris La Putt)

Swedish singer Anna Ternheim was just in the U.S. for a string of summer shows that included opening for Kristin Hersh at the Bell House on June 18th and headlining at Joe's Pub on June 22nd. She'll be back this fall to open the North American Loney Dear/Asobi Seksu tour, which makes its way east from the West Coast starting September 30th.

The tour includes NYC-area shows at Maxwell's on October 15th and at the Bowery Ballroom on October 16th. Tickets to the Bowery show are on sale now, as are tickets to Maxwell's.

Ternheim's newest CD, Leaving on a mayday, will get a North American release on August 11th through Verve Forecast. That record is produced by Bjorn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn and John.

A behind-the-scenes video from its recording session, with videos for Ternheim's new album songs, all album info and tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Anna Ternheim added to Asobi Seksu/Loney Dear tour"

words & photos by Chris La Putt

Of all the the other Swedes Anna Ternheim (who actually now lives in the East Village) has accompanied on tour, none sounded just like her, and yet, numerous reviews abound comparing her to them. Much like indie rock cannot be pigeonholed into one neighborhood in Brooklyn, Swedish singers cannot all sing like Abba.

Monday night's sold-out show at the intimate and mostly-seated Joe's Pub marked Ms. Ternheim's last American show for the summer. A few days earlier she opened for Kristin Hersh at the Bell House in Brooklyn. In July she heads out to tour her native country's festivals to promote the release of her upcoming album "Leaving on a Mayday" produced by none other than Björn Yttling (of Peter, Björn, and John). All dates below.

Suffused with dark and disquieting lyrics, Ternheim sings of love lost and death. It seemed apt for a rainy Monday in a rather lonesome city. On stage with Anna and her guitar was a chorus of three girls, and additional male band members playing various instruments. More pictures from the show, along with an official video of Anna accompanied by Björn on piano for her latest single "You Are My Everything", below..

Continue reading "Anna Ternheim played Joe's Pub (pics) + new video w/ Bjorn"

NY Dolls @ the Varvatos Store in May (more by Tim Griffin)

tonight in NYC
* DANCE
* Beyonce @ MSG
* Anna Ternheim @ Joe's Pub
* Signal @ (Le) Poisson Rouge
* The Roots @ Highline Ballroom
* Gabriel Kahane @ Rockwood Music Hall
* Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Titus Andronicus @ Maxwell's
* Miike Snow, The Maccabees, Hatcham Social @ Mercury Lounge
* Jason Anderson, The Wailing Wall, Bleeker, Mountain Man @ Silent Barn
* Goon Squad, The NRG People, Bunnybrains, Moira Scar @ Santos Party House
* New York Dolls, Black Joe Lewis, The Madison Square Gardeners @ MHOW

Eugene Mirman "and more" perform at Leo Allen's Whiplash show at UCB tonight.

As mentioned a few times, Triumph The Insult Comic Dog was at Bonnaroo. You may have caught the segments he filmed for Conan O'Brien. If not, you can watch the hilarious clips below...

"Anna Ternheim's sophomore US release, Leaving on a mayday, will be released this summer! Produced by Bjorn Yttling (of Peter, Bjorn, and John), Leaving on a mayday will be in US stores August 11, 2009." She played the Bell House on June 18th. Tonight she is at Joe's Pub.

Gabriel Kahane continues his June residency at Rockwood.

The Roots keep at their regular Highline Ballroom gigs. This week's show is on Monday, not Tuesday. The group goes back to the regular night next week -- through November.

Miike Snow, The Maccabees and Hatcham Social perform in a repeat lineup of Saturday's show - tonight at the Mercury Lounge.

Tonight is the last night of the Ted Leo & the Pharmacists/Titus Andronicus tour that played the Kearny Irish Ameican Association on Sunday. They play tonight at Maxwell's. Both will be back in NYC soon -- Ted Leo plays Hudson River Rocks on July 23rd and Titus plays the Whitney on July 10th.

Iggy Pop performs with Fatboy Slim (Brighton Port Authority) on Letterman tonight. Sonic Youth is on Fallon tonight. Fatboy and Iggy perform on Fallon tomorrow.

Signal performs early and late sets of Steve Reich's Double Sextet, the piece that won 2009's Pulitzer Prize for Music, and its 1984 counterpart, Sextet, at LPR tonight. A video of Reich's Piano Phase performed at the venue in April, below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday?"

photos by Bao Nguyen

El Perro Del Mar

joined on stage by Lykke Li

Bao told me that...

Lykke Li's affectuous pop paired with her bouncing dance moves were the highlight of the evening. El Perro Del Mar ended the Swedish Invasion night with an inspired, yet less energizing set. It wasn't until Lykke Li came back to join her for a couple of songs that the energy came back to fill the room.

Continue reading "Lykke Li & El Perro Del Mar @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC - pics"

photos by Bao Nguyen

DOWNLOAD: Anna Ternheim - To Be Gone (MP3)

The gloomy Swede, starved for sunlight, is a cliché, she insisted. It takes resolve not to mention that the cover photograph for Ms. Ternheim's American debut, "Halfway to Five Points" (Decca), features the singer-songwriter with her head bowed, standing beneath a sky of blackening clouds. But we've only just met.

"Some part of it is true, of course," she said. "I don't know why, but all Swedish folk music has that melancholy to it. Also, there's a lot of melody to Swedish pop music while not as much rhythm. There's definitely a color to the Nordic music. We don't surprise people. It's like, I'm the Swedish singer-songwriter girl from Sweden in the north, singing sad melancholic songs!" [NY Sun]

Continue reading "Anna Ternheim @ Bowery Ballroom, NYC - pics, MP3"

Lykke Li @ mahiki 20th Feb 2008 (Max Tollworthy)

Although watching the below video made me like Lykke Li a "little bit" less, I still think catching her with El Perro Del Mar and Anna Ternheim in the intimate setting that is Joe's Pub seems like a worthwhile endeavor.

Continue reading "Lykke Li - Joe's Pub show on sale, street corner video"

This May, three of Sweden's most talented women - El Perro Del Mar, Lykke Li, and Anna Ternheim - are embarking on a two week North American tour together.

El Perro Del Mar, known informally as Sarah Assbring, will be releasing From The Valley To The Stars, the follow-up album to her self-titled US debut which won raves from fans and critics alike, on April 22nd. The album is a 16-track opus, chock-full of non-traditional folk songs that explore the world at large.

Lykke Li is one of the most internationally buzzed about Swedish artists at the moment. She just recently released her critically acclaimed debut album Youth Novels (produced by Bjorn Yttling, of Peter, Bjorn, John), in Sweden and will see the single for her incredible song "Little Bit" released by Moshi Moshi in the UK this week. There will soon be US release announcements from Lykke Li.

Anna Ternheim, one of the most appreciated and accomplished Swedish solo female artists, will join the tour as a very special guest. The singer songwriter will make her US album debut with Halfway to Fivepoints, released by Decca on April 22nd.

Continue reading "El Perro Del Mar, Lykke Li, & Anna Ternheim - Tour Dates"