News editors: Mikael Kahrle & Johan Carlsson

KMFDM completes Canada tour, takes on USA

KMFDM live in Toronto, 2004.
Photo by: Alex Veronac (Release),
Poster by: Brute

• The veteran Seattle based band celebrates their 20th year of existence with a recently completed tour of Canada. It has been seven years since KMFDM performed here.
KMFDM are currently starting their 25 date USA tour supporting their last release "WWIII Live 2003". Their "84-86" limited edition 2CD release is about to ship. Earlier this summer the video for KMFDM's "Stars & Stripes" was selected for the Independent Music Video Festival in Vancouver, Canada.
KMFDM's name has been synonymous with industrial music. Many of the genre's artists have appeared with them as guests live or on record over the years, such as Chris Connelly and Nivek Ogre. KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko has to be commended for not drastically changing the trademark KMFDM sound and the band has remained edgy sounding keeping their fans loyal. Sascha with members Lucia Cifarelli, Joolz Hodgeson (guitar), Andy Selway (drums) and Steve White (guitar) toured Europe this past summer, their fourth venture ever.
See our earlier KMFDM coverage here. /Alex Veronac

Corgan's now "Blinking with Fists"

• American alt-pop idol Billy Corgan is in the midst of a 14 city promotional book tour for his new collection of poetry. The 96 page "Blinking with Fists" came out earlier this month, being published by Faber & Faber (USA). A book excerpt poem can be read here. The former Smashing Pumpkins frontman is doing signings of his hardcover release throughout the USA and Canada at major book outlets. To complement the signings, Corgan is doing some evening poetry readings with special guest Tibetan vocalist Yungchen Lhamo. Lhamo is signed to Peter Gabriel's Real World Records. Upon departure from his Toronto stop, Corgan commented: "Toronto always shows me a good time, and a warm embrace".
Corgan's last musical project Zwan has disbanded and he has recorded a solo album that's been mixed making it ready for release soon. Corgan also played a live solo show in Chicago earlier this year and attended the July 17 one-off Maven gig in his hometown as support to friend Bon Harris (formerly Nitzer Ebb).
See Release's earlier Corgan news here. /Alex Veronac

Marc Almond no longer in intensive care
• Marc Almond has left intensive care due to the progress he has made so far, but his recovery will be a slow one. Almond is aware of all the messages of love and support from fans and friends. /Mikael Kahrle

John Peel is dead
• Legendary radio man John Peel has suddenly died of a heart attack during a holiday in Peru at the age of 65. /Mikael Kahrle

New electronic music label showcase its music
• A new Swedish record company called Plutonium has just compiled a sampler with new, alternative electronic music ranging from aggressive noise to upbeat synthpop. /Mikael Kahrle

The world awaits BWO and Kamera

Kamera posing for the camera.

• Two Stockholm pop bands, Bodies without Organs' and Kamera's record companies have designed plans for world domination.
Bodies without Organs debut album is called "Prototype" and will be released in 17 countries, to begin with, starting in January. The new single "Conquering America" is doing its job now and the next single from this "laptop band" is called "Sixteen Tons of Hardware" (radio and TV mailings in December). The debut synthpoppy single from this spring, "Living in Fantasy", is the most played song so far this year in Russia and Ukraine.
BWO opened Europe's third largest fashion week, the Russian Fashion Week in Moscow, yesterday. The band members are even expected on the catwalk today and tomorrow.
Kamera have just signed a worldwide deal with Sony Music. They will play at the premier of the new club Déjà Vu next Wednesday in Stockholm. This synth club is a continuation of Johan Kinde's (Lustans Lakejer) and Daniel Jonasson's (Tinitus, Dupont) club Nouveau. /Mikael Kahrle

Marc Almond's condition still stable
• Marc Almond's condition has changed from "critical" to "stable", after his motorcycle crash in London on Sunday. He suffered severe head injuries. The police is investigating the crash.
After the accident, people have expressed their sympathy through flowers, gifts and thousands of e-mails. Marc's family says this: "We would like to thank all Marc's friends and fans for all the cards, flowers and messages of love and support." Nothing should be sent to the Royal London Hospital where Marc needs his privacy. Those who wish to give something can instead make a donation to the underfunded Air Ambulance service in London, that played a vital part in Marc's rescue.
The news of the accident has been covered worldwide. During Soft Cell's heyday, they sold in excess of ten million records and their hits are still played and respected. Of course, the reborn Soft Cell is only one of Marc Almond's projects. /Mikael Kahrle

Beware, Americans

Photo by: Anna Kallberg

• Goth troll Mortiis aims at USA this week with the North American release of the album "The Grudge". Expect release parties and other activities. Mortiis is currently touring Europe. /Mikael Kahrle

The Residents go "Commercial" - again
• American oddballs - or did I mean eyeballs? - The Residents are to reissue their 1980 "Commercial Album" on October 25 (Europe) and November 2 (North America) through their new distribution partner Mute. The Residents' take on pop music, the "Commercial Album" is best known for consisting of 40 tracks in as many minutes. This edition will be presented in a hardbook containing lyrics to all songs as well as images from the "Commercial Album" DVD, to be released simultaneously. The DVD will include four original videos made to accompany the album in 1980, alongside ten new videos made by The Residents themselves as well as contributions from 30 other visual artists, totalling 56 videos. /Kristoffer Noheden

Synthpop in the Swedish Eurovision semi finals
• Alexander Bard's, Martin Rolinski's and Marina Schiptjenko's synthpop project Bodies without Organs are going to compete with the song "Gone" in next year's Swedish semi finals for the Eurovision Song Contest. Håkan Lidbo's girl trio Pay-TV from this year's contest seek revenge with an italo disco piece. /Mikael Kahrle

New EP from Last Rites out now
• "My World Alight" (Dream Catcher) has recently been released and is the first new sign of life from Last Rites. The band features ex-Fields of the Nephilim members Nod and Paul Wright. Release reviewed their debut album "Guided By Light" in 2002. The tracks: "My World Alight", "Full Circle (Cairo Mix)", "Become Immune" and "Swallow the Soul- Intro". The band's second album "The Many Forms" is due out soon. /Peter Marks

Intensive care for Marc Almond after motorcycle crash

• After a motorcycle crash in London around 4 pm on Sunday, Marc Almond is in intensive care.
He was pillion passenger on a bike and both he and the rider were taken to hospital. Almond is in critical condition and the rider has severe injuries, according to a police spokesman. The Suzuki bike crashed with a Vauxhall car at the junction of Cannon Street and New Change. /Mikael Kahrle

Yet another surname for Daniel Myer
• A new project named Destroid has recently completed the debut album "Future Prophecies" (Out of Line) which will be out on November 2. The members apparently are electro profile Daniel Myer and another individual named Yamazaki. The sound is a combination of hardfloor, classic EBM, electro, darkwave and future pop.
Tracks: "Soul Asylum", "Denial of Life", "Broken and Abused", Into the Deepest Dark", "Contamination", Judgement Throne", "Sir William", "Rising Souls, Mr. Lucifer", "Passion", "Existence", "I Sill Continue", "Bullet in Your Head" and "Bonewhite Light". /Peter Marks

Ministry touring US voters and new CD:s

Jourgensen live with Ministry at KoolHaus 2004, Toronto.
Photo by: Alex Veronac (Release)

• Ministry is almost halfway through their North American tour in support of the punkvoter.com initiative and their new "Houses of the Molé" CD.
New tour mascot George Dubya makes an appearance early on the bone-ridden stage set but gets abused by frontman Al Jourgensen and later gets beat up by a stagehand while Jourgensen simulates an anal sex motion. While the current band's live line-up has been reshuffled, only guitarist "Mikey" Scaccia (Rigor Mortis) and keyboarder Darrell James (Pound of Flesh) played on the last tour and are contributors to the new Revolting Cocks sessions. The other live players consist of drummer Mark Baker, Rick "Tricky" Valles (guitar) and Eddy Garcia (bass guitar) both from the group Pissing Razors. Five recent west coast dates had a special guest appearance by punk icon Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) to perform some Lard tracks live.
Jourgensen was noticeably absent from soundcheck in Toronto as his voice was on the mend. Interviews have been put off for the next week or so, partially due to celebrating his birthday recently in Chicago. On this tour there weren't as many older signature Ministry classics played as on the last tour. Close to the end of the main set in Toronto, to the surprise of the audience, Jourgensen rhymed off a few bars of Led Zeppelin's "All My Love". Their current Evil Doer tour continues on until December 14.
Last week saw the re-release the three Revolting Cocks CD:s with bonus material on RykoDisc (US) and two interesting Ministry compilation CD:s: "Early Trax" and "Side Trax". The latter contains the first ever full length version of "Show Me Your Spine" from the RoboCop movie soundtrack by side project PTP with Nivek Ogre. /Alex Veronac

Trans-X live in Sweden
• The legendaryTrans-X will perform at Romo Night sister club Heaven in Gothenburg on November 12, supported by Stockholm synthpop band Bobby. Recent bookings from these clubs include Scotch, Twins, Elegant Machinery and The Human League. /Mikael Kahrle