Richard Sjunnesson

May The 4^th. What a superior holiday it is, I can sense the force just pouring out, from every pore of my body. There’s a fun Star Wars related coincidence this day! As I was strolling around the internet doing my “thang”´. I came across this remarkable promotional picture from the upcoming album of Ace Frehley (previously from that overrated ploy band, everyone seem to care about... YES, I did just say that, I addressed the white elephant in the room. AND hate is a path to the dark side, so feed me with it, will yah?) As I examined it, I saw similarities (like the "CTRL + C" - "CTRL + V", kind of similarity,) from another well-known star of rock; Vince Neil. In that very picture Ace could basically be the dark haired twin brother of the new sumo version of Vince.

The madness does not end with that however. Previously I’ve always thought another Swedish rock star; Runar Søgaard, was in fact the carbon copy of Vince Neil and to sum it all up Kenny Starfigher could probably be the brother of both. This is quite some clusterfuck we are facing head on here. And it just stinks; “Attack of the clones” all over. Not saying I have anything against either of these fine gentlemen. They are by a landslide more successfully than myself and probably always will be (well save from Runar. I have no idea what he’s up to nowadays. He got his gun license back 1999, so it might actually be clever to know his whereabouts.)

But as I gradually discovered this; a revelation came to mind, and my conclusion is that all of the mentioned above; might actually come from the same planet and be out of the very same species. We have the Spaceman, we have Kenny Starfighter which are both pretty self-explanatory, then Vince Neil is hinting about going to space in Mötley Crüe's; “Don't Go Away Mad” and Runar went on a “Mars Attack”-like rampage in his own garden 1996, targeting every earthly creature he could find. Meaning; these are the lead characters in Disney’s new “Star Wars: Episode VII” motion picture, and it will project their undercover operation here on earth, which have been going on since the hippie 70ies. George Lucas will possibly turn in his grave (read: shrug in a swimming pool of money at Skywalker ranch.) from this fact. Remember where you read it first!

Star Wars: Episode VII - Attack of the clones II

Let’s discuss something less serious. We’ve been covering a few more shows with The Unguided. The gig a couple of weeks ago in Linköping was the end mark of the Swedish leg of Tour De L'mmortalité. We had a great time that weekend, both in Stockholm and Linköping. Overall the seven Swedish shows have been a pleasant experience and we are of course very flattered that you came out and shared the evenings with us! There will be a couple of future endeavors, with the Finnish leg of the tour and also the summer festivals (which we’ll be adding a new one soon enough,) and we’ve also announced the upcoming gig at Gröna Lund in Stockholm this coming summer. To go with this, a couple of pictures from Kafé 44 and L’Orient:

Legendary punk venue; Kafé 44 - Stockholm

Cinnamon bun glued to the wall for the extra punk experience

As well as cinnamon buns to go with the soundcheck

L'Orient in Linköping

Sallad & Chips

Backstage

Electrician needed

Hank & Roger rehearsing whilst Roland is taking his power(chord)nap.

Rille joins in from the left, playing his imaginary drums

Showtime!

On the unguided side of things, we’ve started to think about the third album and the last in the trilogy. We figured; if we think about it hard enough, it might actually materialize itself, but I guess in the end we’ll actually have to enter the studio at some point. We just have some more thinking to do!

TU tattoo on Kai Hauser

As always; I’ve been indulging myself in some live shows. Again; huge thanks goes out to Olof auf Skrikhult, for sneaking me in on the guest list of his glorious events. This time around I got the honor to see two of my childhood hero bands in Gamma Ray and Rhapsody (of Fire,) live! I’ve seen Gamma Ray in Gothenburg back in 2001 and that might actually be the only time I’ve seen them, which is obviously heresy as I own the entire discography. Apparently Olof was the booker for the 2001 gig at Kåren in Gothenburg as well, which was a fun anecdote. Regarding Rhapsody, I do own a couple of albums as well to be fair. Not anything from their later efforts I’m afraid, but everything up to 2004 at least.

Ella and I arrived a bit late to the gigs, since I was driving and she was reading the map. Unfortunatly she was giving the directions to the venue; “Tyrol”, when we in fact were supposed to go to the venue; “Klubben”, which is in the opposite direction of the petite city of Stockholm. A small hurdle which we overcame eventually when I stopped driving mindlessly after erroneous instructions and started to take own initiatives. Oh well, It might have been myself being unclear on the destination. Anyways, when we arrived; Rhapsody (of Fire) was playing and was just about to fire of the song; “Dawn of Victory”. This being my favorite song, sort of made it really convenient. It sounded alright, not enough songs for us to get into it in particular. But I enjoy Fabio’s voice, a bit different from the usual power metal vocalist.

Rhapsody of Fire

Alex & Fabio

Then Gamma Ray enters the stage! 13 years after my last Gamma Ray live experience it was great to see Kai on stage again. Unfortunately he was suffering from bronchitis and was only to sing a couple of songs before guest vocalists was supposed to finish the show. They started with “Avalon”, “Heaven Can Wait”, “Tribute to the past” and “I Want Out” and Kai really sounded magnificent to be fair. Really powerful, I guess you could hear a slight struggle in “I Want Out”, but nothing that was bothering me at all. I really wished he would have been able to continue with the rest of the songs, but after those four ones, Fabio entered the stage and they made “Future World” with Fabio singing. A bit of a turn down for me to be honest, since Kai does really have the unique voice that makes Gamma Ray special, this being a Helloween song I guess it’s strange to say something like that, but fact is; Gamma Ray’s live “Future World” version is pretty cool with Mr. Hansen as well. After that we got another two songs from the new record sung by Fabio. As said, this wasn’t really doing the trick for me, but the four first songs made up for it. They sounded really great and I could live on that throughout the whole show. It is what it is, I mean vocals is a sensitive matter. If a guitar breaks, you can just swap it out. But with your voice, that’s a complete different story. I do understand the choices that was made by the band, and I'm super glad they did not cancel, it’s just unfortunate that it happened, and especially that it happened in Sweden haha.

Gamma Ray

Kai Hansen

Gamma Ray of Fire

I wish you fast recovery!

When I had another go on the internet, I found this picture (obviously by mistake) decorating the new album of Jennifer Lopez. Looking upon it, I also recognized that person from somewhere. Heading into the living room I found Ella bashing her new iPad in the table and I realized there she is! I actually think that fact, have struck me a couple of times in the past as well. Save from "skin color", Ella and J Lo does have some similarities in their looks. I decided to go all Photoshop on that and possible get some copyright lawsuit dough.

E La

J Lo (Photo by: Kitty-Carol)

As for the life thing, which is why you are here, right? There’s been some massive watching of movies lately hehe. I guess the one that struck me hardest so far is “Prisoners”. I also checked out that Halo 4 movie, “Forward Unto Dawn”, I found it pretty lame, even if I’m a huge Halo 1 - 3 fan (haven’t played 4.) Just too much kids running around doing stupid shit in the movie. The covenants rocked however! “The Conjuring” didn’t really deserve the good reviews either, even If I enjoyed it. “Gravity” was weird, Sandra Bullock ruined it for me, so clumsy! “The Hangover Part III”, was a bad joke, let that die already. Sorry for being negative, we’ll change that now! I’ve discovered “Little Britain” (very late I know,) but I’m having the time of my life with it. Matt Lucas and David Walliams is some ace comedians, if you have any neat tips on what's worth checking out by them, write a comment please. With my PS3 the "BNK3R" in Boarderlands 2 is giving me head/heartache, but that’s possibly just because I suck at it, I’ll get to it later today and nail him to the ground. I also finished the Battlefield 4 campaign, I let the girl live (no I’m not a racist, just utilizing some feminism,) I found that hard as well (not utilizing feminism, but the game,) once again because I suck, sorry for spoiling the end, but if you haven’t finished the game by now you should get back to Tetris. Oh, it’s been Easter as well. No one cares.