"Morning Becomes Eclectic", KCRW 1996

A short set recorded on June 18th, 1996 for Los Angeles radio KCRW. Courtesy of Jason, thanks !

1. interview
2. Hey! Get Out Of My Way
3. interview
4. Carnival
5. interview
6. Celia Inside
7. interview
8. Sick And Tired
9. interview

link

A Camp - Philadelphia 2009

Soundboard recording, in one MP3 file, nearly complete (the three missing songs being probably Algebra, Here Are Many Wild Animals and Boys Keep Swinging), of a concert that took place on May 31st, 2009 at Johnny Brenda's tavern in Philadelphia. As far as I know it's probably the only soundboard recording made during the US tour.

Track-listing :
1. The Crowning
2. Love Has Left the Room
3. Frequent Flyer
4. Angel of Sadness
5. Walking the Cow
6. Golden Teeth and Silver Medals (w/Gentleman Reg)
7. I’ve Done It Again
8. Bear on the Beach
9. I Signed the Line
10. I Can Buy You
11. Chinatown
12. My America
13. Stronger than Jesus
14. Song for the Leftovers
15. The Weed Had Got There First

Link

The Cardigans - Last video ?

Here is an edit of the available videos of what seems to be the last Cardigans' concert (well, kind of, as it's "only" Nina & Peter), at the Knitting Factory in New York, on October 31st, 2006.
So here are Don't Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds) and I Need Some Fine Wine... from this concert, trying to make an enjoyable edit with the different (and quite dark) sources, and also using the best sound sources I could find.

Link

A Camp - Stockholm 2009

Here are some highlights of A Camp's concert in Cirkus, Stockholm ! This is an audience recording.

1. Angel Of Sadness
2. Golden Teeth And Silver Medals
3. Here Are Many Wild Animals
4. Walking The Cow
5. Chinatown
6. Algebra (rehearsal)

Link

A Camp live in Stockholm ! (featuring 2 videos and pics)

A Camp's stop in Stockholm took place on April 6th in Cirkus, a very nice old-fashioned hall, and a perfect setting for a touch of Colonia. While we were getting our tickets at the entrance, we could hear the rehearsal going on and we were told by the staff that we could stay around. We happily did, and heard the band going through complete or partial versions of Stronger Than Jesus, Algebra, The Crowning and My America.
Around 9:00 PM, Kristofer Åström opened the show (he also played acoustic guitar with A Camp on several songs during the end of the concert), and he was followed by the Sweptaways, a female choir doing great acappella covers of classic tunes such as Sign Your Name or Time Of The Season.
Then it was time for the three N's to come on stage, along with Emm Gryner and Jens Jansson.
The Crowning was the obvious but perfect opener, during which Nina got the lyrics wrong at some point (she also got lost during Walking The Cow...) I noticed that her voice was very slightly hoarse at the beginning of the concert, but that never prevented her from reaching any high note, and that kind of gave a little extra edge to her singing.
Love Has Left The Room followed, and showed how powerful the whole band is ; the song sounded much rougher than on the album. Nina wished the audience a good evening, and then came three songs from A Camp's first album, Frequent Flyer, Angel Of Sadness and Rock'n'Roll Ghost, with slight differences in the arrangements, compared to the 2001 live versions. The choice of the songs and the general set-list was nearly perfect for my taste, the weaker songs (in my opinion) of the first album being put aside (though Elephant would have been nice), and the whole Colonia album (bar one song) being performed.
The Stockholm audience got the chance to hear Golden Teeth And Silver Medals featuring the original co-singer of the song, Nicolai Dunger, who probably won't be there for the whole tour around Europe and the US ! I wonder who will be singing it for the rest of the tour.
A nice surprise was the addition of I've Done It Again, a Grace Jones song. Nina said a few words about it, but my Swedish being limited, I can't say much more !
The crowd was relatively quiet until I Can Buy You, which was clearly not forgotten and played and sung wonderfully. Then Nina left, to come back after the long intro to Chinatown. The audience is seated in the Cirkus hall, and remained so until Nina, during the beginning of My America ordered everyone to stand up ! (We did, and stayed that way until the end of the show).
Then the Sweptaways came back on stage, as back-up singers for Stronger Than Jesus, giving a great sound to A Camp's first single from Colonia.
The band, along with the Sweptaways, left the stage, but it wasn't the end, of course. They came back for Song For The Leftovers, and the David Bowie cover Boys Keep Swinging. Away they went again, but came back one last time for The Weed Had Got There First, which Nina ended almost accappella, backed only by the audience clapping gently. This made me love the song much more than on the album. A great ending to a fantastic show. I can't see anything to complain about ! :) So if A Camp is playing somewhere in a 500 km-radius around your home, don't miss them ! (Personally speaking, I was 2500 km from home...;) )

Set-list :
1. The Crowning
2. Love Has Left The Room
3. Frequent Flyer
4. Angel Of Sadness
5. Rock'n'Roll Ghost
6. Golden Teeth And Silver Medals
7. Here Are Many Wild Animals
8. Walking The Cow
9. I've Done It Again
10. Bear On The Beach
11. I Signed The Line
12. Algebra
13. I Can Buy You
14. Chinatown
15. My America
16. Stronger Than Jesus
17. Song For The Leftovers
18. Boys Keep Swinging
19. The Weed Had Got There First

Watch two videos from this concert, I Can Buy You and My America :

Stockholm 2006

Soundboard recording of a concert in Nalen Theater in Stockholm, during the Cardigans' last tour to date. The main attraction for collectors is that it features the And Then You Kissed Me "medley" (of the two different songs of the same name, the first one released in 2003 on Long Gone Before Daylight, and "number II" released in 2005 on Super Extra Gravity), and also rare live versions of Good Morning Joan and Holy Love, only performed during part of this tour. You also get the usual My Favourite Game, Erase/Rewind, but no Lovefool, that they bravely chose not to play during this tour !

1 FM4 Introduction
2 Little Black Cloud
3 Don´t Blame Your Daughter
4 For What It´s Worth
5 Live And Learn
6 A Good Horse
7 And Then You Kissed Me
8 Paralyzed
9 Erase And Rewind
10 Hanging Around
11 Holy Love
12 I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer
13 Good Morning Joan
14 Losing A Friend
15 Godspell
16 My Favourite Game

Many thanks to Coke_B for providing this recording !

Link

Toronto 1996

One of the first shows after the release of First Band On The Moon, this particular soundboard recording had the privilege to be issued as a bootleg CD called Weekend Warriors. Unfortunately this is certainly not the best concert the Cardigans gave, as it includes several bum notes and/or technical problems. Still, in the same way it's good to hear the Beatles butchering Paperback Writer live, it's good to hear than even great musicians are human and therefore can make mistakes... And you get to hear a great live version of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the Cardigans' first Black Sabbath cover, but also Nina's skeptical introduction to Lovefool : "This is what in the industry they call a single, and it's supposed to be a good song, that's what they say", as if she already felt that this song was going to be both a blessing and a curse for them...

1. Iron Man
2. Your New Cuckoo / Sick And Tired
3. Hey ! Get Out Of My Way
4. Step On Me
5. Lovefool
6. Fine
7. Been It
8. Celia Inside
9. Rise And Shine
10. Carnival
11. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Link

A word from Magnus

Here is what Magnus (the Cardigans' bass player, for those who don't know) wrote on the Cardigans forum about this blog :

"Great stuff Yann!
I am flattered and proud that you and other guys want to collect our music.
Thanks for sharing in a brotherly and sisterly fashion. Hope I can contribute in any way."

:)

Roskilde 2003

Roskilde is a huge festival taking place every year in Denmark. This was the biggest crowd the Cardigans ever played to (about 50000). This concert took place a few months after the release of Long Gone Before Daylight and therefore features many songs from this album, plus the big hits from Gran Turismo. The set also includes Changes, in my opinion the greatest of the Black Sabbath covers that the Cardigans did. And in spite of the band's usual reluctance to play their oldest songs, here we get to hear their first single, Rise And Shine.
Soundboard recording.

1. The Road / Explode
2. You're The Storm
3. Live And Learn
4. Paralyzed
5. Erase/Rewind
6. Feathers And Down
7. Lovefool
8. Been It
9. A Good Horse
10. Changes
11. For What It's Worth
12. Hanging Around
13. Communication
14. Rise And Shine
15. My Favourite Game

Link

KCRW Acoustic Session 2004

One of the greatest live (in-studio) recordings of the band, during the promotion of Long Gone Before Daylight in the USA.
They play stripped-down arrangements of songs from LGBD, but also Erase/Rewind and My Favourite Game from Gran Turismo, allowing us to hear these songs without the heavy electronic wizardry (and that's a kind of relief :)). Absolutely essential to your collection.

1. intro
2. And Then You Kissed Me
3. Erase/Rewind
4. You're The Storm
5. interview
6. For What It's Worth
7. Communication
8. My Favourite Game
9. outro

Link

Welcome !

This page is all about the Cardigans, a Swedish band mostly known for two huge hits, Lovefool (1996) and My Favourite Game (1998).
But there is much more to them than these two songs.
Re-inventing their music constantly, you never know what to expect from them. Formed in 1992 by two hard-rock/early Britpop fans, Peter Svensson and Magnus Sveningsson, with Nina Persson as their singer, they first became known for their light indie pop, retro-sounding music (Emmerdale, 1994 and Life, 1995). before turning to harder and colder sounds for their most successful album, Gran Turismo, in 1998. After internal problems and a quasi break-up, they came back in 2003 with what might be their greatest album, Long Gone Before Daylight, a warm, Americana-influenced collection of songs. It was praised by critics but was not a commercial success, unfortunately. Neither was their last album to date, Super Extra Gravity, in 2005. The band was dropped from Universal Music in 2008 after the publication of a best-of CD.

More details about the band : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cardigans

Sick And Tired is the title of the first song on the Cardigans' first album, and the song that instantly got me hooked. Since 1995, I've tried to attend as many Cardigans concerts as I could. and over the years, I've built a quite nice collection of live recordings. Sick And Tired is also the name of an old Cardigans webpage that I ran from 1999 to 2004. And now, in 2009, it's back again as a blog where you will find links to various live performances from the band, from their beginnings from their last tour to date in 2006.

I will try to document all "periods" of the band, and will also include performances by Nina Persson with her band A Camp.

Enjoy, and if you like what you hear, please send comments !