God Jul / Merry Christmas / Joyeux Noël !

Here's a little Christmas gift, two old - but so fresh - live recordings, the first being the oldest known recording for a Swedish radio (in Göteborg), from July 4th, 1994, seven songs along with some interviews.

1. In The Afternoon
2. Carnival
3. Over The Water
4. Black Letter Day
5. Sick And Tired
6. Rise And Shine
7. Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Download

Next, we have the Cardigans' first appearance at Roskilde Festival in Denmark, June 29th, 1995 (from a Danish radio broadcast).

1. Carnival
2. Daddy's Car
3. Gordon's Gardenparty
4. Tomorrow
5. In The Afternoon
6. Fine
7. Hey! Get Out Of My Way

Download

Up The Mountain live !

Up The Mountain is a "fake Christian country band" (their own description) featuring the "rhythm section" of the Cardigans : Magnus Sveningsson (bass), Lasse Johansson (guitar/vocals/mandolin), and Bengt Lagerberg (drums). It also features Maria Davidson (vocals/guitar), Lotta Wenglen (vocals/guitar/maracas), Johan Olsén (vocals, banjo), "Dubbel" Johan Bandling Melin - pedal steel guitar and various guests : Titiyo Jah, Anna Maria Espinosa, Daniel Lemma and Sylvester Schlegel.
Formed in 2006, the band mostly plays cover versions of songs by (or made popular by) Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, but also country-ish covers of songs from The Velvet Underground or Beck. And let's not forget their sole original composition, aptly titled Up The Mountain, written by Magnus.

If you hate country music, you probably won't like Up The Mountain very much. But if you have at least a slight interest in the genre and if you enjoyed the Cardigans' country-rock songs of the Long Gone Before Daylight era, you're in for a very enjoyable experience, and their inspired performances are also a good way to discover the works of the great artists mentioned above, if you don't know them already.

The band has released 2 live albums ; you can still buy the second one directly from Magnus, at a bargain price, on his ebay page (he hasn't got any CD directly on sale, click on "Contact member" - you'll need an ebay account).



With his permission (thanks !), I have the pleasure to offer you three songs from the second live album :
1. Up The Mountain/Neverending Song Of Love (sung by Lotta Wenglen & Maria Davidsson)
2. Born In Time (sung by Anna Maria Espinosa)
3. Gotta Get Drunk (sung by Lasse Johansson)

Link

Dun Dun - Malmö, 22.04.2010

Dun Dun is a Swedish band featuring two members of the Cardigans, Magnus Sveningsson (bass, guitar, vocals) and Lasse Johansson-Ståle (guitar, vocals). The rest of the band is : Erika Rosén (vocals, guitar), Christine Owman (vocals, guitar), Tittie Åsberg (drums), Henrik Hoffer (guitar, bass), Sanna Jacobsson (tambourine).
This is their first live performance in Kickstart Club, Malmö, on April 22nd, 2010.
Taken from a live stream, AVI video file, 480x360.

1. Dun Dun
2. This Time I Know For Sure

3. ?
4. Already Gone
5. Magazine Woman

Link

Helsinki, 28.10.2003

A great soundboard recording (with a better mix than the official "Live in Kiev" tracks, for example) of what might be the Cardigans' finest hour and finest tour.


1. Intro
2. And Then You Kissed Me
3. Please Sister
4. For What It's Worth
5. Live And Learn
6. Paralyzed
7. Erase/Rewind
8. Hanging Around
9. If There Is A Chance
10. 03:45 No Sleep
11. Higher
12. Implode
13. You're The Storm
14. A Good Horse
15. Lovefool
16. Feathers And Down
17. Communication
18. My Favourite Game
19. Lead Me Into The Night

Link

A Camp - Hamburg 2009 (video)

Courtesy of Resistent (thanks a lot !), nine songs from A Camp's concert in Hamburg on April 15th, 2009 (WMV video file).

The songs are :

1. The Crowning
2. Walking The Cow
3. I've Done It Again
4. Algebra
5. I Can Buy You
6. My America
7. Stronger Than Jesus
8. Song For The Leftovers
9. The Weed Had Got There First

Link

Göteborg 14.10.2003

From their late 2003 tour, a good audience recording, featuring most of the Long Gone Before Daylight album, but also the fantastic cover of Black Sabbath's Changes, and also the only song from the early days that the Cardigans would play from time to time right until their last tour in 2006 : Rise And Shine.

CD 1
1. And Then You Kissed Me
2. Please Sister
3. For What It's Worth
4. Live And Learn
5. Paralyzed
6. Erase/Rewind
7. Hanging Around
8. If There Is A Chance
9. 03:45 No Sleep
10. Higher

CD 2
1. Explode
2. You're The Storm
3. A Good Horse
4. Lovefool
5. Feathers And Down
6. Communication
7. Rise And Shine
8. My Favourite Game
9. Changes
10. Lead Me Into The Night

Link

In The Beginning

For several years, three demos presumably from 1993 have been available among Cardigans collectors : Simon Says, Celebration and Fine.
But the Holy Grail for collectors was only recently found. First, let's go back to late 1992 (or early 1993), when the just-formed Cardigans recorded two 4-track EPs, to be sent as demos to record labels in Sweden. The two EPs were named The World According To... and In Pursuit of Pooh, and only 300 copies of each were pressed. Some of these copies were sold at extremely high prices by various sellers. In 2009, SmallTalker, a regular on the Cardigans' forum, bought the two EPs and after a few months, generously made them available to everyone.
The sound of the recording was quite strange : unsurprisingly, there was a lot of vinyl static, but most of the songs sounded "thin", with no bass, except for two which were the opposite, very "boomy', with no high end.
What you will find here is, in my opinion, a better-sounding version of these fantastic recordings, carefully re-equalized and denoised. The three other demos were also treated, in particular Fine where a drop-out has been fixed. (Note : The MP3 labelling of the tracks is a bit messy. Feel free to correct that if needed).
I hope you'll enjoy this.

Track-listing :
1. Rise And Shine
2. Happy Here
3. Wrapped
4. Hard
5. Treasure
6. The Rescue Of The Man Next Door
7. Pooh Song
8. Dig My Earth
9. Simon Says
10. Celebration
11. Fine

Link

This blog is back on track !

After several months of inactivity, I've finally decided to update this blog : I've removed all the dead links and replaced most of them by new links. I couldn't bother to re-upload the A Camp DVD and the NerveWrecking film again, because it's simply too huge and takes days.

New stuff coming soon, hopefully !