Sales Crowd

By Ian Dougherty

 When it comes to indie music, there are many hotbeds of talent but Sweden isn’t normally one you would naturally think of. Unfortunately, the music history of that nation appears to start and end with Abba for many people, but over the past decade or so, there have been a growing number of bands from Sweden impacting on the indie world.

The most noticeable would be The Cardigans who achieved massive worldwide fame with their ‘Lovefool’ single and blend of charming and slightly tween indie-pop. Perhaps as a reaction to their fame, The Cardigans changed their style, their music got harder and Nina Persson went from blonde to brunette. They may not feature on the radio as much today as they used to but the band still draws a fairly large crowd to any festival they perform at.

If that was all that Sweden contributed to indie music, it would be a poor return, but when you consider the following acts, you will realise just how many of your favorite tracks have hailed from Sweden: The Wannadies,

Peter, Bjorn and John, The Hives, The Concretes, Love Is All, The Shout out Louds, I’m From Barcelona, Jose Gonzalez, The Knife.

For such a short space of time that is an impressive list of bands and you may be familiar with some of these songs:

Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn and John

You may not know the title but as soon you hear the whistling section of ‘Young Folks’ you will know exactly what the song is and recall what a phenomenon it was at the time. The track came second in the NME’s list of best songs of 2006 and fifth in the Pitchfork review of tracks from 2006.

Hate To Say I Told You So’ by The Hives

Not many bands could announce themselves as your new favorite band and keep a straight face but The Hives aren’t like many other bands. Filled with a confidence that no other band seems capable of matching this track captured the garage rock revival of the early 2000’s to perfection. The snarling guitar riff and stop-start sections provide the perfect accompaniment to Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist’s trademark yelps and screams.

You Can’t Hurry Love by The Concretes

Starting off with a guitar riff that could almost have come from the Jesus and Mary Chain, it is a shock when the sweet vocals of Victoria Bergsman kicks in and transforms the song into a delightful and melodic upbeat number. The frantic drum build up to the payoff line for the chorus is joyous and although the band has ploughed on since this 2003 release, they have been unable to match its overall quality.

Heartbeats by Jose Gonzalez

Although this song was written by fellow Swedes, The Knife, Jose Gonzalez brought the track to a wider audience. The almost mourning feel of Gonzalez’s downbeat vocals mixed with a quiet acoustic backing ensures this is a song equipped to tug at your heartstrings.

Appearing in a major commercial gave the track worldwide exposure and Jose’s brilliant cover of Kylie Minogue’s ‘Hand on Your Heart’ proved he could take any song and turn it into a downbeat classic.

This is by no means all that Swedish indie has to offer the world but it does offer a fantastic place to start checking this vibrant indie scene in Scandinavia out.

Ian Dougherty is a freelance music writer from the UK. Dougherty has written for well known music magazines, Ezines, and websites for over fifteen years. For the latest in indie bands and indi album reviews, visit MadeLoud.com, where bands keep more from each digital music download.

Your Online Source To Beating The Crowds While Shopping

Piano Chords A Chord Book And Forty Eight Popular Chords For Beginners
By Mike Shaw

 I am sure you have heard of Piano Chords. Well, that can be a little misleading because when you play chords, normally with you left hand, you would play chords on an electronic keyboard or electric organ rather than a piano.

When learning to play the piano you would normally learn, what I call a moving left hand rather than a three note or four-note chord. You can still use chords with a piano but you must put the bass note in first before playing the chord. So if you are playing a C chord you would play the C bass note first with your left hand then the C chord. With an electronic keyboard, you would just play the C chord and the auto-chord feature that most keyboards have will add the bass note for you.

So, for all you keyboard and organ beginners out there all you need to start with is some basic triad and seventh chords. There are hundreds of chords to learn, but guess what; you don’t need to learn them now.

Let me give you an example, if you are playing your favourite song on your keyboard and you come across a chord called C6 or C9 or even C11 what do you do, stop, and learn these chords or carry on playing and learn these chords later, if you want to. Sound confusing, it’s not really, what you do is play a simple C chord instead of the C6, C9 or C11.

When you see a number attached to a chord it means you are adding another note to that chord. So for example C6 means play a C chord and add a sixth to it, and if you don’t know what the sixth is just play the C chord and learn the sixth later.

Now I don’t want to bombard you with theory but there are certain rules when playing ninth and eleventh chords, the rule being you must include the seventh when playing these types of chords. Now, as a beginner you can substitute ninth and eleventh chords with seventh chords. So now, you have a choice, if you see a C9 chord, you can play either a C chord or a C7 chord, both are adequate and both will sound correct.

Here are the chords I recommend beginners learn first.

12 Major Chords

12 Seventh Chords

12 Minor Chords

12 Minor Seventh Chords

The 12 Major Chords are:

C, G, D, A, E, B, F#/Gb, C#/Db, Ab, Eb, Bb, F

The 12 Seventh Chords are:

C7, G7, D7, A7, E7, B7, F#7/Gb7, C#7/Db7, Ab7, Eb7, Bb7, F7

The 12 Minor Chords are:

Cm, Gm, Dm, Am, Em, Bm, F#m/Gbm, C#m/Dbm, Abm, Ebm, Bbm, Fm

The 12 Minor Seventh Chords are:

Cm7, Gm7, Dm7, Am7, Em7, Bm7, F#m7/Gbm7, C#m7/Dbm7, Abm7, Ebm7, Bbm7, Fm7

That’s 48 of the most popular chords used in modern music today. If you learn these chords, you will be able to play hundreds of songs that are widely available in songbooks and sheet music.

You can buy Mikes Chord Book at his website Mikes Music Room. Visit his musical instrument websites to find bargain Pianos and Keyboards.

a face in the crowd

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