Wedding singer in church – Hawk is doing his debut today
Current mood: contemplative

It is a beautiful morning indeed. 6 AM Saturday morning and the sun is peeking through the clouds and it is all quiet and serene here in my cottage in Pålsboda (a little dump some 30 kilometers east of Örebro...if that says anything to you...he he...)

Today one of my best mates Olle Toren is getting married to his lovely lady Sanna Björling. He is a lawyer and she is a journalist – so both might come in handy at times ;-)

Anyways, this will also be my debut as a wedding singer in church. Lets face it, we are talking big responsibility here ;-)

I have been singing at funerals. Last year I sang Dylans "Its all over now, baby blue" at the funeral of another of my great friends, the great and sadly missed photographer and our fifth family member Hatte Stiwenius. My buddy Lars Cleveman was singing Roy Orbisons "Crying" with me playing the guitar – he helped me out cause I just couldnt sing that song without.....Crying...

That funeral turned out to be a fantastic one with the priest – the jazz trumpet player Lars "Sumpen" Sundborn playing his cornetto, a woman playing the violin and me and Lars Cleveman and Stefan Sundström (for those of you who dont know him, a great Swedish songwriter and singer...) playing guitar and singing – all of us marching out of the church to "Oh when the saints go marchin in...."

I have been singing at christenings, too... Last time was in fact on the christening of Olle and Sannas three daughters in September last year – Billie Holidays "Good bless the child"...

But now...to sing at a church wedding.... Most people – especially women – when going to a wedding are thinking "What should I wear?" I..m thinking about "What should I sing...?" I guess I couldnt do "White wedding" – although it would be cool, dont you think? I certainly couldnt do "Love will tear us apart". Nor could I do Costellos "I want you", or "Alison" for that matter....
Not it has to be a song about happy love – not too silly though, we have had enough of silly love songs, as Sir Paul once put it. But it has to be beutiful with lyrics that makes sense – and a tune that could be appreciated by people of all ages...

So now what song will it be?
Well forgive me Father for I am about to commit a sin....
Although I never was much of an Elton John fan I finally settled for "Your song"
Silly – and perhaps not very cool – as it may seem I sort of have to admit that that tune is a great one...

And Ill be singing it today in a church at Visingsö for Olle and Sanna – from the deepest bottom of my heart...

And with some luck it might just turn up at Youtube soon ;-)

Love/Hawk

9:09 PM - 0 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Song of the week at yoursongs.se
Current mood: artistic

This week – starting Wednesday June 25 – our tune "Shes going back" will be Song of the week at http://www.yoursongs.se

This means that some 60 000 subscribers will get a message with a story on The Plastic Pals and a download link – and The Plastic Pals will be the feature story at the site...

"Melodic magic with a dark side to it", the music director at Yoursongs says about The Plastic Pals..s music. Cheers to that!

Guess this is gonna give a nice swing for the upcoming album...

BTW – just put a couple of snippets and a full version of a tune of the finished master of the album I just got today. Enjoy :D

And if you..re up for it and havent done it alreday – dont forget to get your pre-order for the Good Karma album. Send us a message or an e-mail to soold@theplasticpals.se
for details...

Cheers!

Hawk

3:40 PM - 13 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

The Moment has come
Current mood: adventurous

Yes my friends, ..tis but true...
The Moment has come - in many senses.

We have just taken down all the tunes from the upcoming Good Karma-album from our player.
The reason for this? They are being mastered right now - and we want you to listen to them with fresh ears when the masters are ready.

But rest assured.
We will upload a few of them soon again - but perhaps just snippets, until the album is released i September.

However, we would not dream of leaving you without nothing, just like that.
So we have just uploaded 5 tunes live unplugged from our gig at Moment in Gubbängen a few weeks ago: Hangin in the Louvre, Lets pretend this isnt true, Good Karma Cafe, If love should call, and Shes going back.
Hope you like the versions..... Well I guess most of you have not heard Lets pretend before....It will be the last song on the album...

Downloadable of course...

Yes, the Moment has come - indeed

And rest assured again. We will keep Another girl, another planet for another while. In case you are in need of some electric stuff as well....

Cheers/Hawk

9:10 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Good Karma Cafe ablum - 28 pre-orders so far…
Current mood: ecstatic

Wow!
Just started the first round of pre-orders for The Plastic Pals debut album "Good Karma Café"  - and weve already got 28 pre-orders

The first round of pre-orders will go on until July 15th. The reason for this date is that those who have made a pre-order by then will get:

* Their name in the thank you-notes section of the album cover
(and we will send the album for printing and pressing after July 15th)

Other pros with pre-ordering is that you get:

* A signed copy
* The album before the official release - which will be in the middle of or towards the end of September
* The album cheaper than the official street price
* You supporting The Plastic Pals in the final production of the album ( a sort of Artist&Fans-release...)

The officicial price for the album "Good Karma Café" will be around 120 Swedish Kronor, 13 Euro or 17 USD (plus costs for postage and handling).

Pre-order the album before July 15th and get it for:

* 75 Swedish Kronor (plus 15 Swedish Kronor for postage and handling, unless we arrange that you get it straight from our hands) or...

* 8 Euro (plus 2.50 Euro for postage and handling) or...

* 12 US Dollars (plus 4 US Dollars for postage and handling)

If you are interested and want to make an order, send a message to us here or an e-mail to soold@theplasticpals.se

Peace&Love

Hawk

6:18 AM - 6 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

The Only Ones live in Sweden today at the Hultsfred festival
Current mood: smitten

Yippeee,
At last one of our all time favourites The Only Ones play in Sweden. They will play the Hultsfred festival today.

And I..m not going....

I..m saving up money to go and see them in Norway in August at the Down on the Farm Festival – in Gribsröd/Halden. And this for several reasons. Firstly, it..s a real cool festival. I went there last year to see Danny&Dusty. And on the same bill I got Big Star and Gillian Welch (who had John Paul Jones as a secret guest) – and Flaming Lips. Secondly they have a campfire scene where there are unplugged gigs after music..s over on the main stage – and The Only Ones are playing there too. Last year the Campfire scene hosted by John Paul Jones and Robyn Hitchcock ;-)
And thirdly, another favourite Sid Griffin (The Long Ryders) are playing with his bluegrass band The Coal Porters...

And.... The Saints are coming as well... So if I..m not Stranded in the middle of nowhere in Norway I guess you..ll get a story from the Down on the Farm festival 2008 later on...

In honour of The Only Ones playing Sweden today we have put our cover of "Another girl, another planet" as the first tune in our player...

Hurry up and download it before we take it down.... ;-)

Peace&Love

Hawk

10:29 PM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

No peace for the wicked - the plastic pals on a tribute to the only ones
Current mood: high

Hi  pals!

One of our mates, Gary from Wales has invited The Plastic Pals to do a song for a tribute album for The Only Ones. Since that is one of our favourite bands and since Gary..s such a great guy it..s a right honour for us to be a part of it. 

At first we..d thought we..d take the easy way out, be lazy buggers and do "Another girl, another planet" - since it..s already a part of our live set. But then we thought the better of it and settled for "No peace for the wicked"...The angels told me to ;-)

It..s also great fun that our pals The Autodropouts are gonna be on this album with the wonderful tune "Flaming torch".

You can follow the project at http://www.myspace.com/nottheonlyones  

Peace&love/Hawk

1:33 AM - 8 Comments - 8 Kudos - Add Comment

Shes going back video
Current mood: stoked

Martina – M.E – has made a super-cool really great video of our tune "Shes going back". Storyboard, directing, shooting the scenes and cutting. Hats off our skinny heads ;-)

There are not words enough for thank yous, Martina! A fantastic effort!

The tunes main character is Marie – and we were lucky enough to find our Marie in real life fot the video – Marie "Maje" Schedin, sister of Olle Schedin, who I used to play with in Guds Barn, Dom Dummaste (as well as session work for his band Global Infantilists – with our sadly missed friend Mare Kandre).

The other parts are played by Pebbles and Calle from De Osaligas Kapell. And then there..s a bunch of pals acting as audience and bartender. Thank you all.

And a special thanks to our hero Calle from De Osaligas Kapell who while fighting with Pebbles fell on his back on my fuzz box.

Anyways, here is the video. Hope you like it as much as we do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMtGxqnNI6o


Peace&love/Hawk

12:51 PM - 19 Comments - 16 Kudos - Add Comment

Plastics on the beeb today
Current mood: energetic

Today some time between 1 and 4 PM (GMT) The Plastic Pals..s single "She..s going back" will go on air at 6Music, which is BBC:s digital channel. You..ll find it at http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music

It..s the legendary radio dj Pete Mitchell who..s giving the tune a spin.

For those of you not familiar with Pete – he championed indie bands of the Madchester scene in early 90..s on his IQ radio show, bands like Oasis, Inspiral Carpets, James, Badly Drawn Boy, 808 State and Happy Mondays. Later he moved to Virgin Radio. Since 2006 he..s on BBC on 6Music as well as BBC Radio 2. Early this year Pete produced two documenaries on BBC Radio 2: "I..m on my way" - on Northern soul star Dean Parish and I'm On My Way - on Northern soul star Dean Parrish and "Spellbound" on sadly missed guitarist John McGeoch (Magazine, Siouxie & The Banshees, Visage and PiL), one of Hawk..s guitar heroes ;-)

Thanks a lot for the support, Pete!

Hawk

3:17 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

A song for Condoleezza Rice - Suicide bomber
Current mood: pissed off

"We live in a political world,
Wisdom is thrown into jail,
It rots in a cell, is misguided as hell
Leaving no one to pick up a trail."

This great 19 year old tune by Dylan comes to mind on a day like this. A day of huge traffic jams in Stockholm city. A city of barriers, policemen and security guards. All due to USAs minister of foreign affairs Condoleezza Rice..s visit to Sweden. She..s here for a conference on Iraq.

I might hurt a couple of Americans..s feelings - or I might not. I..m not sure - but I..ll take the risk. I just have to speak my mind on this one.

"Sweden has done a great effort by accepting so many refugees from Iraq", Condoleezza Rice said today when meeting Sweden..s prime minister (no I won..t mention his name here, don..t like him...).

Well what the hell. Not that they..re not welcome here, the refugees from Iraq - they are. But we wouldn..t have that many refugees from Iraq in the first place if those stupid leaders of the USA hadn..t started their stupid, terrible and unlawful war on Iraq.

We live in a political world. For sure. But these days politics seem to be nothing but enternainment, a reality show, or something.

During USA..s war on Vietnam Sweden..s prime minister Olof Palme called the USA "Satan..s murderers". Today they get an invite to meet the prime minister, shake hands and whatnot.

Today I am ashamed of being Swedish. And there ain..t much I can do about it but write this blog and put our tune "Suicide bomber" as song number one in our player - today dedicated to Condoleezza Rice, and her stupid boss of course.

Hawk

6:15 AM - 7 Comments - 14 Kudos - Add Comment

Sitting on the porch - on the air (or in the air...well never mind...)
Current mood: smitten

Yeah....sitting on the porch. Well maybe that..s what you guys think, considering it..s been a while since the last blog post here.

And yes - sitting on the porch today we are. Our single "She..s going back" is on the air today at 4 PM (GMT +1) on the radio show "På verandan" (On the porch), a real cool show with focus on americana, roots and alt country at K103, Gothenburg University College Radio - 103, MHz. So if you..re in the Gothenburg area, tune in for the show. If not you..ll find it at http://www.k103.se

And sitting on the porch? Well not really...Thing is we..ve got our hands full, with radio promotion and whatnot. And right now we..re rearranging our tunes and rehearsing them for our unplugged gig at Moment Theater Cafe in Gubbängen (in Southern Stockholm Suburbia) next Friday May 30th. A show where The King..s Professor Jason Shogren, "Wyoming..s Guy Clark" - http://www.myspace.com/jshogren and Hawk also do a set (and Jason will join Plastics on dobro on "Good Karma Cafe"), as well as our dear friend and the one and only Kajsa Grytt with here songs on female prisoners: http://www.myspace.com/kajsagrytt

And as for the Hawk and drummer Olov, we..ve been recording with Lars Cleveman - renowned Swedish opera singer who..s also a legend from the Swedish post punk scene, with his band "Dom Dummaste" (The Dum Dum Boys), a band that Hawk used to play with as well. Lars Cleveman..s album "Voices in my head" is ready for mixing now. And The Plastic Pals play on 4 of the tunes - check them out at http://www.myspace.com/larscleveman - and Hawk and Plastic Pal drummer Olov play on another 3 of the songs.

We look forward to Cleveman..s album - that will be released on The Plastic Pals..s label Polythene Recrods - as much as we look forward to the release of our own album "Good Karma Café.

Speaking of "Good Karma Café". We just reposted in our player. And we also have a new one up - a tune that..s been featured in a live version in our player for a while before - "Here comes the sun". In celebration of the upcoming summer, and the sun shining over Stockholm this weekend.

Enjoy

Now Friday Child Hawk says hi. A lovely week to you all...

Hawk

12:42 AM - 4 Comments - 6 Kudos - Add Comment