The Hellacopters 'Rock & Roll Is Dead' album

International rock superstars The Hellacopters – whose acclaimed new album, Rock & Roll Is Dead, is now available – will soon return to America for their first U.S. tour in four years. The three-week jaunt, which features Liquor and Poker Music labelmates Nebula on all dates and New Zealand’s The Datsuns on a select few, kicks off in Chicago on March 6. It also includes a performance alongside fellow Scandinavian rockers Turbonegro at South By Southwest, an annual music industry event held each spring in Austin, Texas. The Hellacopters – who will find out next week if they’ve earned another Swedish Grammy Award, this time in the category “Best Rock Group Of The Year” – have toured their home continent with the likes of Kiss, The Rolling Stones and The Foo Fighters, and upon the European release of Rock & Roll Is Dead last summer, they immediately embarked on six months’ worth of overseas touring. Released Jan. 24, the American version of the album features two bonus tracks not found on any other version, as well as bonus music video clips for international hit singles “I’m In The Band” and “Everything’s On T.V.”

Nebula, meanwhile, will embark on the first tour in support of new album Apollo (street date: Feb. 21), the L.A. power trio’s fourth full-length. Produced by Daniel Rey (Ramones, Misfits, L7), the album – which sees the addition of new bassist Tom Davies – features a bonus bootleg video of new song “Future Days” recorded during a recent Japanese tour. The group has previously toured with Mastodon, Clutch, Corrosion of Conformity and Mudhoney, among others.

Biography

Having toured Europe with the likes of Kiss, The Rolling Stones and Foo Fighters, The Hellacopters are widely recognized as one of rock elite – not only in their native Sweden, but around the entire world. On their sixth studio release, Rock & Roll Is Dead, the group proves that its reign has only just begun. Don’t be misled by the title, though: Rock & Roll Is Dead is living proof that the genre is alive and well – and that as they begin their second decade of international conquests, The Hellacopters will continue to be its heartbeat.

The Hellacopters formed in 1994 as a side project of Entombed’s Nicke “Royale” Andersson and Backyard Babies co-founder Dregen. With Royale on vocals and guitars and Dregen on lead guitar, bassist Kenny Hakansson and drummer Robert Eriksson (The Sewergooves) completed the rhythm section. The Swedes debut came as a three-track 7” single written and recorded in one day and released on Royale’s Psychout label. The record was well-received – it’s now a collector’s item selling for over $150 on eBay – and the quartet was soon forced to make The Hellacopters a full-time endeavor. Their reputation even reached the ultimate rockers, Kiss, who took the band along on the Scandinavian leg of their 1997 European tour. Preparing a crowd of thousands for Kiss fans was a test of rock ‘n’ roll merit that The Hellacopters passed with flying colors, giving ample ammunition to the band’s budding legend.

The buzz around The Hellacopters and their quickly growing resume translated into a deal with Sweden’s White Jazz Records, who released the band’s debut full-length, Supershitty to the Max, in 1996. Despite being recorded in only 26 hours, the record earned the group a Swedish Grammy and the international attention they deserved after it was released in the United States on Man’s Ruin Records in 1998.

After recruiting keyboardist/guitarist Anders “Boba Fett” Lindstrom, The Hellacopters recorded their highly praised sophomore release, Payin’ The Dues. Again, popular demand forced the band to take it up a notch as they toured throughout Scandinavia and the rest of Europe, expanding their fan base show by show. The whirlwind of European activities left America coveting the Swedish import, but famed indie label Sub Pop soon came to the American consumer’s rescue, releasing Payin’ the Dues along with The Hellacopters’ self-explanatory third full-length Grande Rock in 1999. Regardless of the fanfare surrounding the records, Dregen felt that he needed to focus on the Backyard Babies full-time and officially left the group. After six months with friends Chuck Pounder and Mathias Hellberg filling in for a string of sold-out shows in Australia, Europe, Japan and the U.S., Robert “Strings” Dahlqvist was welcomed to the band as the official replacement.

High Visibility, The Hellacopters’ fourth full-length (and European debut for Universal Records), surfaced in 2001. Released after one successful world tour and just before another, High Visibility was certified as the band’s first Swedish Gold Record, a long-awaited laurel for their musical prowess and relentless hard work. Another American release – this time via Gearhead Records – soon followed, as did a U.S. tour.

By this time, The Hellacopters were widely hailed as Sweden’s best rock outfit, and they would not lose sight of that as they went into the studio to record By the Grace of God. Released in Europe in 2002 and two years later in America, By the Grace of God became The Hellacopters’ second record to go Gold in Sweden. The following two years were again packed with live performances, including tours of Brazil and Australia.

2004 marked the band’s 10-year anniversary, and they celebrated with a blow-out party at Mondo in Sweden, which included live performances from their friends Glucifer and and the Flaming Sideburns, while members of The Hellacopters got to play DJ throughout the night. Although The ’Copters showed that they could party as hard as they rock that night, they’ve always worked even harder, so they soon returned to the studio.

The resulting Rock & Roll Is Dead was recorded in The Hellacopters’ hometown of Stockholm at Atlantis Studios with longtime producer Chips Kiesbye (Millencolin, Sahara Hotnights) and engineers Michael Ilbert (from the Hives and Supergrass to Celine Dion and the Backstreet Boys) and Janne Hansson (from ABBA to Sonic Youth). Guest appearances from The Hives’ Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist and The Soundtrack of our Lives’ Mattias Barjed pepper the record, but as usual, it is The Hellacopters themselves who make the record memorable. International hit singles “Everything’s On T.V.” and “I’m In The Band” respectively poke fun at couch potato culture and rock-star celebrity, proving that even though The Hellacopters are practically a household name in Europe, they haven’t lost their senses of humor along the way. They also haven’t lost their work ethic. The band embarked on six months’ worth of touring upon the European release of Rock & Roll Is Dead this past summer, solidifying their reputation as one of rock’s hardest-touring acts.

Following in the footsteps of By The Grace Of God and b-sides/rarities compilation Cream Of The Crap! Collected Non-Album Works: Volume 2, Liquor and Poker is proud to release its third Hellacopters title in as many years, and even happier to announce that the group will return to America for the first time in four years in 2006. Indeed, Rock & Roll Is Dead is a testament to both the staying power of the genre and one of its most beloved bands.

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The Hellacopters - Rock & Roll Is Dead