Pocket Size (Stockholm), Sweden

News: Pocket Size have announced the release of the second installment of their Cleaning the Mirror series, entitled Immortality - Cleaning The Mirror, Volume 2. The CD is due on December 8th.

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Location: Stockholm

Overview: Pocket Size are one of the many new excellent bands emerging from Scandinavia that are recreating the bands of the past, aka retro prog.

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Presto Ballet, USA

News: Presto Ballet will be releasing their 5th album The Days Between on December 14th (Rat Pak Records). This is their first new album in 6 years. I've only heard the debut and thought it was great, so I obviously need to catch up.

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Location: Seattle, Washington

Overview: Presto Ballet are a band who perfectly captured the AOR sound of the late 70s but with the progressive rock spirit still intact.

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Not a Good Sign, Italy

News: Another band I've lost touch with in the last 5 years, Not a Good Sign released their 3rd album Icebound in May of this year.

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Location: Milan

Overview: Though based in Italy, Not a Good Sign recall modern progressive rock bands as often found in Sweden or Norway.

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Baby Grandmothers, Sweden

News: OK, I really wasn't prepared for this. We've seen some crazy reunions, but this one has to take the cake. These guys have to be well into their 70s by now. Well they look great actually. Gives us all hope as we age... Album is scheduled for release on both LP and CD on November 23 (on Subliminal Sounds). "Merkurius is the mind-melting new surprise album from the originators of Swedish psychedelia. The band launches into drones, avant-garde dirges, and fevered hard rockin’ wig-outs heavily overblown with jams rocketing into surreal spheres. All with an urgency of the now. Baby Grandmothers are bona fide psychedelic originators and these extraordinary musicians creations run like a red thread through Swedish psychedelic music history. The three-piece band consisting of Kenny Håkansson, Bengt “Bella” Linnarsson, and Pelle Ekman originally formed in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1967...The originators of Swedish psychedelia: Baby Grandmothers, are now back at their power-trio roots, still consisting of the original band members led by the legendary Swedish psychedelic guitarist Kenny Håkansson. After 50 years in the service of psychedelic music this new album finds the Baby Grandmothers at their peak and as timeless as ever."

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Location: Stockholm

Overview: Essentially the first Swedish psych band that evolved into Mecki Mark Men and later Kebnekaise. And 50 years on from that... they're back!

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