All the young dudes...

We are just about the take off to the Jaded Heart realease party held at Pub Anchor. It's gonna be great fun to meet the old friends Johan Fahlberg (vocals) and Peter Östros (guitar) and see them play toghere with these german saurkraut-rockers :)

Just wanted to post this lovely photo of Albin, a guy who certainly knows his favourite record label. Hats off for you Albin!

And by the way - we've heard the first new songs from The Last Hours and we are continously amazed by the richness in their sound. I tell you...these guys will deliver the goods on the new album (The Ghost). Stay tuned, folks!

/Nyström & crew

Swedish Metal Expo - day one

Just got back from the first day of SMX (Swedish Metal Expo) held at Fryshuset in Stockholm. Listened to Daniel Johansson and his thoughts about sharing music on the Internet. He's got a lot of knowledge within this area so visit his home on the net if you wanna share his thoughts.(http://www.danieljohansson.se/)

I met a lot of people including the crazy Thomas and Sami from SSG (http://www.ssg.fi/) in Finland (managing Gemie etc), Death metal-Bengt from STIM (http://www.stim.se/), Jens of Carnal Forge (http://www.carnalforge.net/), Bussman of Triada Promotion (http://www.triadapromotion.se/), Peter Östros of Jaded Heart (http://www.jadedheart.de/), Conny & Peter of M.O.B (http://www.mobrockz.com/) to mention but a few...

Sidekick Ulfwaffe managed to be picked up by two girls. Damn he’s hot…I might need to fire him :)

The green, green grass of Ireland...

Ireland was a blast! Lovely people and so many pubs. Unbelievable! More info will come....but first of all I want to contribute with a couple of photos related to the rock God of Ireland, the late Philip Parris Lynott of Thin Lizzy.

Me and Sidekick-Ulfstedt took the Dart to the outskirts of Dublin and visited his grave at St Fintans Cemetary. My heart stood still and it was a sentimental moment for sure.



















The gravestone is actually carved and designed by none less than Jim Fitzpatrick who did a bunch of the most famous Lizzy artworks during the 70's. Lovely piece of art!

Note the Alabama postcard to the right...

Unbelievable....

Four months later....and we are finally able to log in to our blog... No one knows what happened and why the blow was unavailable for us to reach but now we're back in the saddle again...

It's been a hectic spring and summer and things are really moving on for Alabama Records. We've released an album with Mother Misery (All eyes on you) which has recevied fantastic reveiws and comments. Go out and buy it asap!

We went to Sweden Rock Festival and made several of useful new contacts. I also got the opportunity to have a quick chat with Rachel Boland (Skid Row) about Rockets To Ruins (available through Alabama Records...you know) which album he has produced. I also had a very interesting and fun talk to Bryan Young (Beau Nasty, David Lee Roth, Talisman) about skiing. It turned out he's as much a ski-freak as I am :) We had a lot of slopes and freeriding to talk about.... A very nice guy and I wish Bryan all the best if he reads this blog!

Next up for AR is the release of Finnish (thank god he do speak Swedish, though) artist Gemie (aka Jens Smedman) who actually finished (hehe) second place after Lordi in Finlands Eurovision Song Contest qualifications in 2006. As a composer - not artist. But it is still way cool to have him signed to the Alabama roster. The album is entitled "The circus and the monkey" and is scheduled for release first week in October 2007. Gemie will head over to Sweden for a couple of gigs the same week. More info will follow regarding this.

Eventually his new site (www.gemie.fi) will be launched....hopefully :)

Later tonight me and my Alabama-sidekick Ulfstedt (aka Ulfbåge) will go to Ireland for some business and pleasure. We'll hook up with some business associates as well as being plain tourists. We will definetely pay a visit to the late Philip Parris Lynott's grave in Dublin and honour the man responsible for soooo much good music and lyrics. I met his lovely mother Philomena a couple of years a ago and she invited me to her place if I ever would go to Ireland, but I think I'm a bit to shy to call her and say hello. We´ll see... ;)

//Andreas

Ps. Q5 - Steel the light - a must have for every metal head. A hidden treasure - a gem - an album you can't afford not to have!!!

Stronger than ever!

A full report from the Seventribe release party is yet to be published here but inte the meanwhile I'll let you know the set list from the gig. Seventribe stuck to old songs with the exception of a Prodigy-cover (!) and the brand new heavy-like-shit song "The new pain". It's a killer and a typical old-school-Seventribe-style. Right up my alley!

Seventribe set list, March 27, 2007:

Intro
Dip shit
Fate
Love crap
The deceitful race
Bountykilla
Fire starter (Prodigy cover)
The new pain
I deny
I will never
Stronger than ever
7-souls

Stay tuned for the rest....


Rockets shooting new video
Yesterday we received info from Rob in the Rockets To Ruin-camp telling us that they are close to finish editing their new video for "Take a ride with me (straight to hell)". Great news!


The postman has arrived with:

Apa State Mental - (CD-R promo)
myspace.com/apastatemental
- 18 tracks with Buzzcocks/Ramones influences.

The Mellow Bright Band - (CD-R promo)
myspace.com/themellowbrightband
- 4 tracks taken from their EP "Whatever became of anonymous Steve?"

Strangers in Wonderland - Promo våren 2007 (CD-R promo)
strangers-in-wonderland.blogspot.com
hem.bredband.net/lastho/musik
- 3 brand new tracks from this swedish duo.

Fight for your right to party!

Tonight´s the night when Sigurdsgatan 25 (venue) will host our release party for Aggro Necesse Est - the debut album from madmen Seventribe.

Full report will be posted here tomorrow...


A totally different topic:
Yesterday I read a bunch of articles about confirmed artists to this summers festivals in the US. This one hit me like a hammer. Milwaukee Metalfest announced their entire line-up (circa 40 acts) and among them a band called Anal Blast.... How the hell do you come up with a shitty (sorry...) band name like that? And the main question is why, why, why?

They must at least be semi-good since they are set to play this rather big festival but to be honest - any random-band-name-generator would come up with a better name in a second. But(t) I guess it's not my concern.

Someone, please erase this font!

What ever happened to the good old fashioned handcrafted artwork and logos? There was a time when people actually used a pen to create logos to bands such us Kiss, Iron Maiden, Poison, Anthrax and Def Leppard. And those logos are cool, classy and trademarks of the artists. Nowadays? Download a font from the internet and you're set to go.... Isn't that boring?









But watch your steps because you are not alone out there. Internet is full of amazing free fonts for anyone to download. The bands picks a font that looks cool, suits their bandname or the title of the album. But if you are unlucky, just like these bands featured today, you'll pick a font that a lot of others uses too. Tough luck...









Imaging 20 other bands using the Iron Maiden-font on their CDs. It would be rather dull, wouldn't it? And I doubt that Tim Donahue will call Star Queen and claim that they trespassed into his logo-font-area. The question still remains - who was the first band/artist to use this bloody font? You tell me...









Note - no offense to any of the featured bands, their music or record companies. We just happen to be fed up with this constantly recurring font. Nothing more, nothing less.

Chap-of-the-day!

Chap of the day - Markus Timonen in Sweden for buying tees from our Alabama Collection to himself AND his 3-year old son Albin. All dressed up for kindergarten! That's the way to go!

Not only is he a father of class when it comes to clothing - he is also fighting for survival of endangered species like Warrant (Jani Lane-era), BB Steal and Casanova. Stylish!

Forget Gucci - I wear the Alabama collection exclusively!

Hello kiddies!

Does this image look like a metal band inviting you to a release party? Nope! I told you that this event will be something extra...

Speaking of out-of-the-ordinary - I would like you all to check out the brilliant support act we've chosen for the release party - DICEMBER. A bunch of young, talanted locals guys from Västerås, Sweden.

If you have a minute to spare, visit their myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dicember1

The Question of today

- Why the hell do bands/artists put endless of hours in designing a great promo package/album cover when they don't even print the bands name on the CD? Nil, zip, nada information at all. To tell you the truth...it takes 1,54 seconds for a CD to land on the desk and being mixed up with all the other "unmarked" CDs we receive.

Imaging if we are blown away by the music and want to sign the band/artist on that particular CD. Hmmm...who are these guys? Anyone remembering what promo package this CD came from? No? Ok, too bad...

So, for the very last time.
What ever you do - always write your name, e-mail or telephone number ON THE CD! Use a frikking pen if you don't have a label! We couldn't care less about any fancy bio sheets if we don't know who's playing on the CD!

So, do we agree on this? Good!

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A bunch of new promos has arrived:

7 Sins - Forever Winter Nights (CD promo)
www.7sins.nu
+ Great promo package that made us put the CD on spin immediately! Thumbs up!
+ Factory manufactured CD-R with all necessary info the CD + cover







Shallow Sense - CD-R Promo
- Boring package
- Handprinted band name on CD-R with no contact info on the CD.

Gustav Magnusson - CD Promo
www.gustavmagnusson.com
+ Factory manufactured CD with all necessary info on both CD + cover.

Silent Call - Divided (CD Promo)
www.silentcall.se
+ Average package
Printed label on CD with band name + song titles. No contact info on the CD.

Out of the Cayes - It's that easy (CD Promo)
+ Nice cd-package with contact info in the booklet.
Printed label on CD with band name but no contact info on the CD.

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Did you know that our merchandise actually sell? Surprised? We were :) It seems like our modest collection of logos and skulls seems to be rather popular. So thanks to everyone who actually think it is cool to wear our logo on their belly!

Darren Partridge, thanks for asking but our Tees doesn't come in yellow yet. Buy a black one and I am sure your wife will fancy your new rockier style ;-)

Visit our store if you want to look cool: www.polyshop.se/alabama














Rock on!

Start the fire!

Ok, in the long run we knew we would end up with a blog. It was inevitable. Do we really have the time to write a blog? No! But since we really, really want to communicate with all you wonderful people out there who send us demos, promos and/or questions about our business we decided to go with a blog anyway.

So here it is. Voila!

So what's on the current agenda? Well, two major things are time consuming for the moment. Two hard rocking albums that we are very proud of releasing.

Seventribe - Aggro Necesse Est (March 26)

The upcoming release party for Seventribe will be held in Västerås (March 27) at Sigurdsgatan 25 (fka Village) and mark my words - it will be a blast! Not your ordinary stiff release party arrangements. These boys won't settle with anything less than a Birthday/X-mas/Halloween-party crossover. It will be crazy so make sure you'll be there.

The entire evening will be captured by a four camera film unit and everything taped (do they use digital tape nowadays?) will eventully end up on the first ever Seventribe DVD. Great news, isn't it?

Rockets To Ruin - Love Drugs Rebellion (April 9)

What about Rockets To Ruin then? I would say that RTR are onto something really big. They have been playing the South East of USA together with acts like Nashville Pussy, Kings X, Broken Teeth and Skid Row. But the real break through came in October when they were offered the spot to open for Paul Stanley (KISS) on a couple of dates on his solo tour in the US.

We met up with Rob (drummer) after the Hard Rock Live gig in Orlando, FL, and that turned out to be the first step towards a Scandinavian release of Love Drugs Rebellion.

I forgot to mention - the album is produced by Rachel Bolan of Skid Row.

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Fresh from the mailman:
Carnival Sun - Beggars & Boozehounds
CD-R promo
http://www.carnivalsun.net/

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Keep us posted with your comments and keep sending us your CDs/promos.

Rock on!