SWEDEN'S CAESARS BACK WITH NEW ALBUM

Strawberry Weed To Be Released On August 19

Astralwerks is pleased to announce the new album from Stockholm, Sweden’s Caesars (Cesar Vidal, Joakim (Jocke) Åhlund, David Lindqvist, and Nino Keller) entitled Strawberry Weed, will be released on August 19.

Strawberry Weed offers the sort of power pop that takes the raw rock and R&B rage of mid-60s The Who, The Kinks, and The Rolling Stones as its starting point and then adds a Red Bull-fuelled edge to create an infectious new brew. Caesars may wear their influences on their sleeves, but their sound is fully clothed in a modern, rebellious edge that turns its back on their idols with the energetic wit and bite of defiant teenage power pop and punk.

The roots of the band dates back to 1993, when Cesar, Jocke and Ahlund inadvertantly formed a band in a noisy house in a middle class suburb full of musicians, skateboarders and 24-hour party people. Both their first album, 1998’s Youth Is Wasted On The Young followed by Cherry Kicks (in 2000) became underground hits in Sweden. But it was 2002’s Love For The Streets that cemented their status as one of the country’s most influential and popular bands, achieving Gold Record status and securing the band a Swedish Grammy award for "Album of the Year.” It was on the back of this success that Astralwerks released 39 Minutes of Bliss in the US, a compilation culled from these early albums. The international release of this album introduced the band all over the world and led to tours in the UK, Europe, US and Japan in 2003. However, it was in early 2005 that the track “Jerk It Out” jumped to international prominence with the iPod Shuffle TV ad. It was even re-released in a remixed version on the Caesars previous album Paper Tiger.

After a long hiatus allowing the Caesars to work on other projects such as The Slaves, Big Bird, Smile, Forest and most notably Jocke Ahlund’s success with Teddybears in the US where their hit “Cobrastyle” and “Punkrocker (with Iggy Pop)” the band reconvened in the studio with Ebbot Lundberg, the vocalist and co-founder of Soundtrack Of Our Lives as producer. The goal was to get back to the roots of raw recording with an early no frills 60's style approach heard on the bands favorite singles of the period.

The result has already garnered two Top 20 Swedish charting singles: the infectiously propulsive “Boo Boo Goo Goo” and the one-two punch of the Farfisa organ and maraca that drives the pop nugget “No Tomorrow.” The album’s sonic map is rich for exploration with tunes as diverse as “Turn It Off”s overcast afternoon fuzz guitar stroll down Brian Jones-era South Kensington, London or the glistening pop of “Strawberry Weed” led by a bass line that could make New Order’s Peter Hook jealous.

After 10 years of recording, Strawberry Weed is Caesars definitive work- a package of instant pop whose flavors grow with repeated plays.