Swedish Whistler

David DiSanzo at EMI Records NY & Independent Records reviewing Swedish WHISTLER & The Syd Barrett tribs:
 
If you are a fan of solid pop songwriting and a sound that evokes the best of the early 80's new wave pop bands you owe it to yourself to check out Swedish WHISTLER. Bringing to mind Spider (the early 80's band on Dreamland that featured Holly Knight), Scandal (think "Love's Got a Line on You", not "Goodbye to You"), Pearl Harbor and the Explosions, a dash of Quarterflash, and pinch of late 80's Brit-poppers The Parachute Men, S.Whistler stand well on their own by bringing distinctive melodies, a guitar sound steeped in prog essence, and one hellova female lead vocalist together as one.
 
The bands influences, however, are in fact very diverse. They recently recorded a number of early Pink Floyd songs for some tribute compilations. They do a unique version of Vegetable Man, very over the top. Floyd's own version of the song, which has never been released officially (but every major Floyd fan doubtlessly has it anyway, bootlegs be praised) was extreme in and of itself, but SW topple the song with aggressive enthusiasm. They also do a polka version of Wined and Dined from Syd Barrett's second (and last) solo LP! SW have also covered "Footprints in the Snow" by Uriah Heep. They make it the perfect power ballad. Thought-provoking, spellbinding musicianship builds to a rocking, climactic conclusion.
 
SW's new single, Always, is a jangly, catchy pop marvel. You'll be helplessly humming it for weeks. It's peppy, but the rhythm guitar makes it rock out. One of the two b-sides, Smile, is a simple song of love. The lead guitar licks skillfully bounce off the lead vocals throughout the chorus (and they also end the song gracefully and quite tastefully as well). Reasons, the other b-side is another catchy rock tune eloquently mixed and produced with 80's AOR in mind. It sounds like you should know it already.....but you don't. Hopefully reading this will intrigue you enough to rectify that.
 
I received a really bizarre package from Italy recently. It contained three CDs and one 10 inch record. Two of the CDs are "The Vegetable Man Project" (volumes one and two) on which there are 20 tracks each with different bands performing cover versions of the unreleased Syd Barrett / Pink Floyd track Vegetable Man. The 10" disc featured 60 different versions of the same song by 60 different bands on one side of the disc, the other side was blank. These versions fit on the disc because they were all exactly 10 seconds in duration each. I haven't had the pleasure to play this yet but the two CDs are quite fun with versions that expand on, poke fun of, or simply replicate the original recording. Apparently the legend of Syd Barrett has been given new life yet again.
 
Since the release of the book Random Precision a couple of years ago which chronicled all of Syd's studio sessions throughout his short lived career fans have been clamoring to get all of the unreleased material legitimately released (most of it actually has been bootlegged). In the meantime fans are picking up the slack with their own versions of Syd's colourful tunes. Another CD I received the same week was something called The Laughing Madcaps - Let's Try it Another Way. It is yet another Syd tribute! Much like the Imaginary release from the late 80's, Behind the Wildwoods, this contains some top indie talent paying respect to one of their heroes. This CD is something that is just filled with great cover versions of Syd tunes. The artists really put time into it and the results are staggeringly good. You can't buy the record, it is traded freely among Barrett-philes. If you want to find out more about it check out groups.yahoo.com/group/LaughingMadcaps.
 
Swedish WHISTLER take part in all these Syd tributes as well as another forthcoming pre-Dark Side Floyd tribute. Listening to their music you wouldn't immediately guess that the Floyd were an influence. You would hear a tight pop outfit with extraordinary musicianship and ultra-catchy tunes searching for mass appeal. More on them later in this newsletter. Meanwhile if you want to maybe see if you can be part of this Floyd tribute which I believe will also not be for sale, you can contact the mastermind behind it: Mark Zampino (who contributes an amazing harmony soaked Arnold Layne to the Syd trib) at
zamp13@msn.com
By David DiSanzo
Qouted from his latest newsletter
http://www.indierec.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------IndieRec Interview with Swedish WHISTLER
The interview online at
http://srv.ezinedirector.net/?n=415729&s=16956722
 
Upcoming article in Entre and Vegetable Man review also in Groove, 2 swedish music/entertainment newspapers.
 
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
BBC Radio & Sue Marchant have aired Swedish WHISTLERs Always! More later!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/

CUR1350 in Cambridge
Cambridge University Radio.
Swedish WHISTLERs single will be in the New Music rack in the studio soon!
http://new.cur1350.co.uk

209 Radio playing Swedish WHISTLER
209 Radio in Cambridge are playing Swedish WHISTLERs Barrett/Floyd covers. http://www.209radio.co.uk/

SR Halland airing Vegetable Man
Swedish Radio P4 Halland, the radioshow Leva Livet with Pelle Hörmander will be airing 3 tracks from Vegetable Man Project Vol 2. Micke Sviden interviewed tuesday 20/4 in a live direct broadcast.

Karlstad Harborfestival - Karlstad Hamnfestival
This summer the 6th of august Swedish WHISTLER are playing 09.00 pm at the Karlstad harborfestival. /Denna sommar den 6 augusti spelar vi kl 21.00 på Karlstad Hamnfestival. Välkomna!
http://www.hamnfestivalen.se/