Norwegians! Madrugada...

Fie! No street teaming here, Chuck!

Also, I am aware of some Norwegian presence on ILM, so I want to know what they think too (I have a slight fear Madrugada might be like the Norwegian Coldplay/Matchbox 20 or something, only from what I've heard they're several streets ahead of both).

Don't EVER accuse me of fuckin' street-teaming, I'm actually offended.

I haven't actually got round to listening to the CD yet, so who knows, I may be eating my words by the end of the weekend.

Am I in any way right re: Madrugada's compatriots' perception of them? Exactly how household-namey are they?

That being said, I haven't heard them since they went all rock'n'roll, but the depressive earlier stuff struck me as ok.
My sister was really unhappy with them becoming popular, as she said they had the greatest moody live show she'd ever been to, but after they became more popular, the concerts got filled with drunk students who'd shout along etc and generally vanquish any of the melancholy.
I don't know, maybe this is why the band changed style too, as they couldn't keep up the same mood in concerts any longer.

Norwegian Coldplay? Nah, we have Coldplay for that :)
I'd say the superpopular band over here has been Motorpsycho for a long time now. They were like the Norwegian Tool or Radiohead or whatever in the mid and late 90s, in that everyone considered them a student's band, and you still can hardly go anywhere without seeing a Motorpsycho shirt or someone with that dumb tribal tattoo on their arm.
Not that I mind too much, I like Motorpsycho, and particularly much after they went all pop with Let Them Eat Cake, as a lot of their "experimental" stuff was stiff-necked and embarassing.

Yay me for rambling about a different band than who the thread is about.
No idea about "The grit" anyways, so obviously I'm tons of help and you should build several granaries in my honor.

When it comes to melodic grownup pop for the 30 plus audience, we've got Morten Abel (although the mood of his music isn't melancholic enough to compare with those other ones). :-)

Another norwegian band I discovered recently was Sister Sonny, which has some similarities with Radiohead. I guess they are very popular as well in Norway, at least that's what my friend Hanne says to me...

http://www.emi.no/madrugada/kilburn.jpg

A horrible reason to revive this thread, but:

http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2773185.ece

Madrugada guitarist Robert Buras has died. He was a nice guy and a great musician who loved music with all his heart, and it's very sad that he's gone.

R.I.P.! Great band (didn't like Grit too much myself though.)

"On 12 July 2007, Burås was found dead in his apartment by a friend. The police have not yet commented on the cause of death." (wikipedia)

I read the sad news yesterday, still no word on what happened? Maybe one of the Norwegian posters knows more?

There's been some talk on the Walkabouts list but nothing more than has been said here, though the Norwegian contingent is v. sad...

R.I.P. Great guitarist and also wrote some great songs.

And I have heard nothing more. May be suicide as Norwegian media have a policy of not writing about suicide.

damn, that is sad sad news.

(and also - May be suicide as Norwegian media have a policy of not writing about suicide - really?? wow. what's their explanation/justification/reasoning?

)

i'd imagine, simply because it's depressing and brings people down, and is a personal thing for the families to deal with in privacy.

i was really profoundly struck, while on the faroe islands last year, that their newspapers had no horrible stories at all - it was quite bizarre but rather pleasant and heartening as well.

the way he puts it it sounds broader than that - like they don't write about suicide AT ALL. which seems bizarre.

there seems to be a tendency in print media of countries with a small population that they don't mention bad news. i remember when i was living in luxembourg where lots of people (many of them working for the european community) jumped from the red bridge down into the valley where they landed on roof tops that these suicides were never mentioned in the luxo papers. you had to read the french républicain lorrain to find out about them.

the way he puts it it sounds broader than that - like they don't write about suicide AT ALL. which seems bizarre.

They surely write about suicide statistics and stuff like that. It's more like single cases of suicide are not written about. If a celebrity takes his own life, the obituary will just say he is dead, without mentioning the reason.

They say they found Buraas with his guitar still in his hands.. Sad story. He still had lot's of good music in him.

(ps: stå på for å bli kvitt råning geir :P)

New album out today in Norway, back to the sound of their first two albums (the first song is, at least) - with guest musicians like Kid Congo Powers

http://www.emi.no/madrugada/

That's the info page btw. Here be samples: http://www.myspace.com/wearemadrugada

So does it all sound like mid-career Nick Cave?

Not really - if you take mid-career Nick Cave and you replace the blues with country influences, then maybe

That sounds good. I've been playing random stuff of theirs on youtube and I dig their Chris Isaak-like twang, but it also seems they had a Coldplay-ish period which I'd rather avoid.

Streaming live @ Paradiso later today:

http://www.fabchannel.com/madrugada_2008

One of my favorite bands (that, being in north america, no one I've ever met IRL has ever heard of.)

They seem to be semi active again? The single they did for a soundtrack last year ("half-light") is pretty nice - the sort of expansive, slick mood music you'd expect.

new album out - "Chimes At Midnight"

https://www.discogs.com/release/21925429-Madrugada-Chimes-At-Midnight