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One of my absolute favorite Swedish bands, The Ark, is set to release their classic album State of The Ark stateside! It's set for an APRIL 11, 2006 release. This is a momentous occassion for me (and for a lot of Swedish music fans in the States) because it finally means that this group is branching out and looking to impact the U.S. market. They hinted at U.S. esteem by doing a few live acts in New York last year, but news of the U.S. release of "State of the Ark" seals the deal.

If you're unfamiliar with The Ark, the band does rock, but with a flamboyant (at times, kinetically danceable) bent. Think of Queen, Scissor Sisters and the Knack pureed in a blender; and that'll kind of give you an idea of their sound.

Let me tell you firsthand, the songs on this album ARE GEMS. This album has been out for almost 2 years internationally and it rocks from start to finish. It glitters, it's anthemic, it's dramatic -- it's everything you could possibly want from a rock record.

Pop Matters -- a music 'zine that largely focuses on indie acts 99.7% of the time actually posted an article about the coming US release on their site (and believe me, that's rare for a pop act of any kind). Check it out below.

Also, a great site to check out if you want info on the group is www.thearkworld.com

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State of the Ark
(EMI Sweden)

US release date: 11 April 2006

by Justin Cober-Lake
PopMatters Music Interviews and Special Sections Editor

Source: http://www.popmatters.com...s/the_ark/

Over the past few years, the US has almost developed a crush on Sweden. Groups like the Hives, Mando Diao, and Soundtrack of Our Lives have had enough charm to turn Yankee heads, and they even brought plenty of their friends along. It’s a little strange then that the Ark has yet to really land on these shores yet. Their time coming has probably been the musical equivalent of 40 days and 40 nights, but now that they’re here, as with the Noahs, let the drinking begin.

While their fellow citizens are primarily attacking the short daylight with garage band riffs and factory-town strut, the Ark are putting on makeup, playing pop, and going glam. The band descends from Queen and Bowie (and general ‘70s theatrical rock), but they don’t simply replicate the music they listened to. Throwing in their own forms of weirdness, especially on the keyboard parts, the group introduces bubblegum rock to space aliens.

That combination would be exciting enough on its own, but the Ark really succeed by covering their massive music with smart, biting lyrics. Just so you don’t mistake them for softies, the band opens the album with the kiss-off number “This Piece of Poetry Is Meant to Do Harm”, a track that skips the good-bye and goes straight to the “fuck off”. The group’s cleverness prevents the track from leaving you with a bad taste, unless you dislike turns of phrase like “Take your words and take your vows / Take your flake-fuelled Buddhist bows / Let the cool winds roughly shake / Out all darling buds of fake”. You need a special sort of alchemy to combine internal rhyme and external bile.

That bile becomes even more strident on the next track. “Rock City Wankers” indicts the music world and its posturing and mythologizing: “You put a spike into your vein / Oh no! Does it make you think you’ve got / The blood of Thunders in your brain?” (This from a band influenced by the New York Dolls.) Rather than pissing about and claiming that makes you an artist, you can improve your situation, and the Ark tell you how to start: “Try some manners, fuck-face!” It’s juvenile, yes, but it’s that bitter bubblegum again.

For all its wit and quirk, the band keeps the music straightforward, if not always simple. For most tracks, the Ark utilizes heavy bass hits on the downbeats, using a traditional method to dance up a 4/4 number. With the big rock presentation, the dancefloor moments can become anthemic, as on “Deliver Us From Free Will” (with its nice little play on the vowel sounds in evil). We don’t need a Grand Inquisitor for this indictment, merely five hurt dudes whose singer proclaims, “I was a Jabba the Hut Slut / Cut to the next frame do it again”. But it’s a searching song—“Give us a reason to fall to the ground / A miracle!”—that wishes to be free of individual weight even as it looks for a greater glory, mocking faith while desiring it all at once.

The album closes with further yearning and dissatisfaction, as the slow call and questionable honesty of “No End” gives way to “Trust Is Shareware”. This number echoes the Elvis Costello of This Year’s Model, as it attacks the soporific effects of society and announces “My kind of trust is a shareware” in a way that’s utterly absurd and nearly perfect as a close to this album. Ola Salo sings, “My talk is dirty but my boots are clean”, and he describes his band pretty well. It’s not often that we get to rock, think, and dance all at once in the way the Ark helps us to do, throwing a party and showing off, and not feeling like idiots. The current State of the Ark is that of a guilty pleasure with none of the guilt. Or maybe like discovering that once you’re down to your underwear that you’ve actually only been drinking near-beer all night.

But with glass in it.

I´m from Sweden. I´ve seen them once. Not my favorites, but really good live. Great energy!

Oh g*d, I Swedish Music and THE ARK.

We Are The Ark
In Lust We Trust

FANTASTIK ALBUMS.

And they're headlining a gig at Spaceland in Los Angeles on March 21. I'M GOING TO THE SHOW*!

All we need is Jay-Jay Johanson to come out and it would be music ecstacy!

This news made my day.

hehe...so you are a big fan of swedish music, that´s cool. It´s such a small but good country. But I can´t understand where you have heard these groups, they can´t be big in the US already?

Swefan said:

No, not really. Artists like The Ark, Jay-Jay, The Knife, Darin, Le Sport, Cat5, the light bulb project, West End Girls, etc. are virtually unknown to most people in the U.S. They all have a very small cult following. I'm among that crowd. I've been borderline obsessed with Swedish music for the past four or five years now. I can't get enough. Sweden makes the best pop music IMHO, the artists have a "knack" for making very melodic, infectious pop music.

I'd kill to go to Hultfredsfestivalen*!

I started a thread about The Ark a few months ago and I got 2 or 3 replies only...

It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane is an amazing song and I want to get that since 2001!
Does anybody have it???

there are some great things coming out of Sweden. I love Bold as Love by Whyte Seeds. Listening to it right now, in fact.

I'm also from Sweden, and they are alright. Def. not favourites though.

Cheek said:

Umm, I think I might be able to help you out.

anybody listen to The Motorhomes? They are INCREDIBLE

JANFAN4L said:

NorthernLad said:

Haven't heard of The Motorhomes? What do they sound like?

I have heard Whyte Seeds' "Bold As Love," though. That song really does grow on you -- wistful Scandinavian music -- perfect for this time of year.



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[Edited 2/13/06 23:25pm]

Cheek said:

That's one of my favorite Ark tunes, too!

JANFAN4L said:

I love it since the first time I ever saw it on MTV!!!

Cheek said:

Gah, you're fortunate enough to see their videos on real television where you are! I envy U.

JANFAN4L said:

Well, I must admit that I rarely see them on TV!

JANFAN4L said:

The Motorhomes do beautiful melodic rock - sort of in the Coldplay or Snow Patrol style. They have 2 albums, and both are simply fantastic: "Songs for My and My Baby" and "Long Distance Runner".

Even if I´m not a big fan of the music from here, i feel proud that you guys have recognized swedish music. I wouldn´t be suprised if you knew about ABBA, Roxette, Ace of base or Europe. But jay-jay, motorhomes, and DARIN! hehe....that´s really cool IMO!

If you want some info about new swedish acts, or more unkwnown acts. Just ask me, it would be an honour.

Swefan said:

I love me some DARIN. It's close to impossible for me to find any of his stuff stateside. I have to scour the web for sites that sell his music to US addresses.

And JAY-JAY is love.

NorthernLad said:

Err, I'm not a Coldplay or Snow Patrol admirer, so I don't know about this one...

I will give one MP3 a chance though, if I stumble across one.

Anyone heard of The Tough Alliance?



They got a few cool songs out that I dig...

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[Edited 3/22/06 17:44pm]

THE ARK :: LIVE AT SPACELAND, LOS ANGELES : 3/21/2006

Saw The Ark in concert last night at Spaceland in Los Angeles. I came to the show with high expectations. Lots of people have been telling me that they're a great live act, so I was looking for the Ark to rock the joint ...and thankfully they did not disappoint! Very energetic gig! Ola did a great job pumping up the crowd and commanding the songs. They all looked like glamour rockstars on stage and they really gave it all they had with the performances.

A trip out to the West Coast is rare for a band from Sweden and L.A. definitely gave them a lot of local love. Ola said to us that the track Rock City Wankers was dedicated to the fair citizens of our city. Haha. He was very exuberant and humorous. During Deliver Us From Free Will he climbed on top of the rafters belting out the tune and jumped down into the crowd.



The venue was small and intimate, it was like a low-scale Roxy or Troubador. The vibe of the place definitely blended in with the '70s styled aura of the band's sound.
They performed around 8 to 10 songs (I arrived while they were singing one tune, so they may've done more). But they did It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane, One Of Us Is Gonna Die Young (which we all jumped around to in the crowd) and lots of tracks from their upcoming U.S. album State of the Ark (which finally arrives this April).

Overall, the concert was great, but too quick[!] We screamed out for an encore when they left the stage. After a few minutes of loud, boisterous coaxing, they gleefully came back out and did a few more songs. Ola ended the set by doing a series of backflips and demolishing Sylvester's drum set. Water was thrown across the stage and Ola got on top of a subwoofer and dived on Martin, Jepson and Leari! Great, great show. Can't wait to see them again. If they come to your town, go!

Swefan said:

What about The Sounds?



I have their last two albums, seen them live twice and I'm going to see them live again next month. NYC band Morningwood is the opening act so it should be doubly good.

sextonseven said:

I wanna check them out.

ssshhhhh....

NorthernLad said:

"into the night" is still a fav of mine.

JANFAN4L said:

The new album 'Dying To Say This To You' is okay. The single "Song With A Mission" is killer, but the rest of the album is just blah to me so far. Their first album was better. Hear them on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/thesounds