It was bound to happen eventually, but this seals it: Swedish postrock has hit the wall. It's amazing how a genre founded on breaking the rules can turn into something so contrived and predictable, yet here we are. Listen to that tremolo picking soaked in reverb and delay and ask yourself, is this it? What might have sounded fresh and exciting 10+ years ago fails to impress in 2008. Very disappointing.
Pg.lost - Pascal's law
I suspect that most readers don't care/don't remember Kazakstan even though I posted an mp3, did a profile piece and even rated their 2006 self-titled album as an honorable mention on my best of 2006 list. Yes, my enthusiasm defied contagiousness. Well, it's been two years now since I've heard anything new from the band and I have no idea what's going on with them, but I did recently receive a few solo tracks from Joachim Willumsen and I'm happy to report that they pick up right where the band left off. Same folksy vibe, same understated melodicism, same great music. 24 going on 35, I'd say. Shame that the acoustic format doesn't give him the opportunity to show off his talent for clever arrangements, but the clever twists of the lyrics make up for it. It's also a shame that artists like this often go unrecognized. Quirk free ≠ boring.
Hear more: https://www.myspace.com/joachimegnaalster
Joachim Willumsen - Turning 24
I already posted a track from Silverbullit as part of our ongoing Göteborg Spotlight Series, but today I'm happy a present an interview with guitarist Andreas Nilsson, an artist who's also well known for his phenomenal video work. Madrugada, José González and The Knife are just a few of the names of artists he has collaborated with. Andreas may no longer be a Gbg resident, but his contributions to the city's music and art scene are numerous. Read on...
First off, my standard intro question: how long have you lived in Gbg? What brought you there and what keeps you in town?
I moved here at age 17 to go to artschool. Lived here for 17 years, so half my life... I live in another town now, but I miss the sort of underground musicscene that Koloni, Kning Disk and Ideal bring to Gothenburg. It's amazing that a town of Gbg's size has such a big scene for this kind of stuff.
You seem to be working more visually these days as opposed to sonically - which medium would you say is your strong point? How often do the two overlap? If someone asks "so, what do you do?" how do you answer?
The way that I work is a cluster of things that I barely understand the logic of myself. But I try to overlap as much as possible. It's an ok place to be in, the twilight zone.
If someone asks me what I do, I lie and tell them I'm a horsewhisperer or something.
How was Way Out West? Were you satisfied with Silverbullit's set? See anything of note?
Playing with Silverbullit again was great. Always fun to see Simon play keyboardsolo in his patented rapestyle and we were touched by all the people that showed up.
But I didn't have time to see much else at the festival. The Bug had a great stomach-turning bass. My big festival moment this year was My Bloody Valentine at Roskilde. It was so loud that I experienced a physical reaction in my nose that I had never experienced before. It was kind of buzzing and humming the day after, very strange.
I understand you managed to get Freddie Wadling to make a guest appearance - who's idea was that? Was it a matter of mutual appreciation or did it take more wrangling to get it together?
We've been working on a track that Freddie gave us as a demo. The idea of playing together came to us in a DHL-package.
What current projects are you working on? What can we expect to see/hear from you in the next six months or so? What are the chances of a new Silverbullit album?
Just finished a video for a British band called White Lies. The track is called "Death". Today I'm in Gothenburg working at the Stadsteatern. I'm working on a play called "Butterfly Kiss" together with director Malin Stenberg. A dark and surreal text about a dysfunctional family with an urge to kill. It premiered 19th Sep for all you culture vultures out there.
Finally, got a song you would like to share, either from one of your own bands or from a local act you admire? Tell me about it!
I think people should have a listen to the band Kite from Malmö. They have a beautiful song called "My girl and I". I also like Prince of Assyria who is releasing an album on Kning Disk this fall.
Both Kite and Prince of Assyria obliged by sending in tracks for posting, but since Andreas recommended a specific Kite track, that's the one I'm going with today. Stay tuned for more on The Prince- a recommendation from Andreas Nilsson does not go unnoticed!
Kite - My girl and I
I used to wonder why none of Ted Gärdestad's early records have been remastered and reissued on CD, but now, having purchased copies of the first three ("Undringar", "Ted" and "Upptåg") and listened to them many, many times, I can confidently say that all of his worthwhile early material is readily available on best-of collections. Case in point: "Beat it, girl"; the final track off his 1972 debut. This is bad white-boy funk best left to the dark, forgotten corners of history, but thanks to modern technology, I'm able to resurrect it for your, uh, "enjoyment". Actually, as far as bad white-boy funk goes, it's really not that bad, but I certainly wouldn't go so far as to call it good. Really, how bad can it be when you essentially have Abba as your backing band? Even if the song isn't so hot (it isn't), it's well executed. So with that damnation of faint praise, here's yet another original vinyl rip for you this Friday.
Melpo Mene's gentle guitar plucking doesn't usually move me, though I do appreciate the quiet dreaminess of "Kling klang clock", a song that befits the title. No guitars until the end, just gentle harp-like pedal tones and subtly creepy xylophone, especially on the chorus. There's something in the melody of those ascending chimes that's totally unsettling; it's just the right balance of blue notes and pretty melody, like a pleasant dream about to turn nightmare. The key is that is never really does turn that corner though, it just leaves you with a vague suspicion that all is not well. All tension, no release; so much chromatic movement. A nice standout among the peaceful hippie vibes that permeate the rest of the album.
Melpo Mene - Kling klang clock
To be completely honest, I've always kinda Quagmire (nee QGMR) to be noiserock also-rans. They've had a few good moments, but they've always paled in comparison to the acts of the 1st tier. Until now, that is -- the band's new album "We know we don't know" is far and away the best thing they've done. Less pedantic noodling, more drive ala Drive Like Jehu. "Pre-emptive retaliation" buzzes and hums along, sounding not too unlike Division of Laura Lee, 'cept that Quagmire does better on the chorus by throwing in some excellent dual-guitar melodies that push them closer to Seven Feet Four territory. Above all, I'm just happy there's still bands out there making this kind of music and doing it well. Shame that they're still the same folks doing it as back in the day, but what can you do?
Quagmire - Pre-emptive retaliation
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present to you a brand new netrelease on the IAT.MP3 netlabel from artist Racingpaperplanes aka Gbg-based songwriter Richard Wilson. We've been in touch on and off over the years, talking about all sorts of things such as our mutual appreciation of heavy metal, but don't let that scare you off as Racingpaperplanes is anything but! We both appreciate metal, but we also love country music and this new single "The oars" has got the twang. It's also got some fantastic wordplay - just listen to how he twists the words of the title into words of devotion. It's a beautiful little number, soft, sweet and sombre. Then, on the b-side, Richard gives us something a bit more on the rockier side, but you'll have to head to the download page to grab that one. And don't forget to snag the the sleeve while you're at it! Enjoy and please, feel free to spread the music around!
Racingpaperplanes - The oars
Razzia Records was kind enough to pass along the brand new David Sandström Overdrive single "Lisa, Lisa" and naturally, I'm more than happy to share it with you. Like a lot of folks, I first became aware of David back when he was in Refused and have been following his career ever since, but of all the post-Refused bands, his solo work shines brightest. I have much respect for The (International) Noise Conspiracy, Text, Cobolt and so on, but they can't hold a candle to David's increasingly diverse catalog. From "Om det inte hånder..." aka The Grandfather Album to this, a slow dance number? Perhaps not so surprisingly when you consider that he now as AC4 as an outlet for his more aggressive side, though you gotta connect a lot of dots to span the difference. It doesn't really matter though 'cuz all it all depends on whether the song is good here and now and guess what? It is. I might be surprised somewhat by the content, but definitely not by the quality.
David Sandström Overdrive - Lisa, Lisa
This week's guests in our ongoing Göteborg Spotlight Series: Detektivbyrån.
First, the standard question: how long have you lived in Göteborg, what brought you there and what keeps you hanging around?
Different for all of us but between 3-5 years.
Martin was brought here first, he had a love story in Göteborg and when we wanted to start this band I (Anders) moved here and soon Jon too. After my four years here, the windy weather keeps me a little confused, it's never still, as in Wermland where we come from, there it's quiet and never cold winds like this. I like both. Right now a lot of things are happening with this band and it suits us to be in a city with much going on, musically, also we have both our booking agency and our distribution company right around the corner here in Göteborg; that's nice since we want to have a straight and good contact with everyone we work with.
How do you guys fit into the city's musical landscape? Are you more at home in the folk or indie scene? Or is there another niche that fits you better? Or does that kind of segmentation even affect you at all?
Since we play instrumental music that happens to reach so many different kinds of people from many different places in the world, I would say we don't have much in common with any kind of scene in Göteborg or anywhere else. I think we contribute with something beautiful to the musical landscape of Göteborg. We don't call us indie but other people do, sometimes we call ourselves folk but there's so much we do which is not "folk", I don't know, we never think about this really.
This summer we have played both at Urkult which is very, very folky out in the deep woods of north Sweden, and at Emmaboda which is called Indieboda and that tells about their profile.
To me, we are something new. Someone called us Folktronica. Maybe that's it. But that's just words, in fact we have people listening to us who have never heard about "indie" or "folk" and they don't care, they are not a part of a scene and we don't have a need to be either.
What inspired your interest in traditional Swedish folk music? Was it hard to find eachother/other people who shared similar interests?
We are from Wermland, in those cabins out in the woods of Wermland everyone has an accordion. It's like people in cities have an e-mail. Both my grandmother and grandfather has always played the accordion for me. (My love for accordion though actually started in 1989 with the extremely beautiful song "Lambada" by the group Kaoma, I got a mix tape from my parents which they bought at a gas station when we drove from Karlstad to Stockholm at the higway of E18, I listened to that song every night, rewind, listen, rewind, listen...).
One day in 2004 me and Martin borrowed an accordion from our grandmother and just did a song. Martin pulled the accordion bass side forth and back and I played the buttons, it was too hard to do it by myself at that time. =)
The three of us knew eachtother before the first time we played together in this band. We had a very clear idea of what to do together and it was magical how easy it was do work together from day one.
Would you say that Detektivbyrån inspires listeners to become more interested in Swedish folk tradition or do you find that it works the other way around, inspiring people who are typically only interested in folk to branch out into other modern indie/experimental music?
Sure, both of them, and that's fun!
"Indie kids" come up to me after shows and tell me their parents gave them an accordion as a birthday present, they started to play it since they listened to us, and that's one of the most beautiful things I can hear after a show. Then there's an local radio station which has this accordion special every Thursday and usually there's just old traditional stuff, but they really dig us and play for the old people out there, and these people send cute e-mail to us, they are glad we are taking care of their accordion tradition.
How excited are you to play this year's Nordic Roots fest? Got any other plans for when you're over here?
Hey, none of us has even been to the US so it's pretty huge for us, both as a band and personally. We met a band that had played at that festival and they told us it's one of the most amazing audience you can get, I asked them if there's something special to think about when we are going and they just answered "Have FUN, have so much fun." And we will. We will enjoy every second of it.
I'm scared of the long flight. It is NOT natural to pretend you are a giant bird together with a huge group of people. People get caught and locked in for stuff like that, but in this case it's legal, we even pay money for it...
We are gonna play at Lotus festival in Bloomington, Indiana the week after the Nordic Roots fest. We have people in both LA, NYC and other cities, wanting us to play at their clubs and we really want it to happen but I'm afraid we won't make it out there since the big distances you got. We'll see what happens. It's the first time we come over but hopefully not the last.
Lastly, how about sharing a song from the new album? Tell us about it.
You can download two songs from the new album at detektivbyran.net, please choose one of them whichever you prefer, or use both! "Om du möter varg" was written on Martin's and my grandmother's electric organ, out in her cabin. "Neonland" was written as a lullaby for my little kid.
For all readers, we'll release our new album "Wermland" on our own label Danarkia, 3rd of September. It's financed, composed, played, produced, recorded, mixed and mastered by ourselves and if you want to you can Pre-order it at our website detektivbyran.net
If you do you'll get a signed copy up on the release date.
I flipped a coin and it came up "Neonland", but you really can't go wrong with these guys no matter what you do. If you like what you hear, head to their site for more.
Detektivbyrån - Neonland
More homemade vinyl rips yet again this week -- in case you missed it, I posted an old Bitch Boys track from their New Romantic period last week and if you head back a full month, you'll find a link for the full Viking Truckers album in the comments. Today's selection: Reeperbahn with "Havet ligger blankt" ("The sea is blank"), the first track off their 1979 self-titled debut, easily their finest hour. I do like their later, more postpunk years, but when they first hit the scene as a punky power-pop band, that's when they were at their best. There's definitely a bit of the spirit of '78 in this one too, though it's tempered by jangly guitars and a catchy chorus. No synths in sight and nowhere near as theatrical as The Rezillos, but still kind of the same vibe, especially in the bass playing. Know your history!
If people are interested in hearing more please let me know in the comments.
I wasn't all that impressed by Parken's first single "Åt helvete med himlen", though I understand it was considered to be somewhat of an indie club hit earlier this year. I don't doubt its appeal among that particular social subset, I'm just not feeling it. Parken's new single "Jag har varit vilsen, Lisa" however, is great and totally justifies all hype. It's got bounce! And a far, far catchier refrain. I'd even say it's good enough to forgive a lapfull of beer. It's even more impressive when you consider that this came from someone in The Chrysler. Who knew he had it in him?
Parken - Jag har varit vilsen, Lisa
Brine is a Swedish band that goes for the artsy indierock thing with varying degrees of success. Most often they stick with the tried and true path of Sonic Youth worship, but every so often they let their quirkier side show through such as on "Make it to Berlin". The focus is shifted to vocals and drums; everything else is incidental. Perhaps not quite at the level of "We will rock you", but it's certainly anthemic nonetheless. And riddle me this: what's with all the Swedes moving to Berlin anyway? Is that grass really that much greener? There's gotta be places at home where the bohemian lifestyle is still within reach, right?
Brine - Make it to Berlin
Therese is spot-on in her assessment of Hari and Aino. Comparisons to early Cardigans are unavoidable as they both feature a female-fronted lineup with a similar sweet, cocktail party pop sound and easy-going vibe, though I do disagree about the best song -- "Finland" wins it for me with it's light disco feel and subtle rhythmic intricacy. However, we both agree it's a bit on the restrained side. I understand they're after a very clean, refined sound, but I don't think a little extra excitement would get in the way. As is, it's perfectly pleasant and undemanding. The Cardigans always took more chances, still do in fact. As nice as this is, nice doesn't win.
Hari and Aino - Finland
It might just be that I'm a terrible crank, but Esther's enthusiastic indiepop rings hollow to me. Too formulaic? Maybe that's the issue - they're so good at emulating the standard Göteborg indie sound that they forgot to inject their own personality into the mix. The matching outfits should've been a tip-off. Fit for easy listening, but oh so empty! I almost wish they were worse so I wouldn't have to struggle so much with this write-up. Writing about bad music is easy; writing about boring but competent music is more tedious than listening to it.
Esther - Throw a spanner
Besides Broder Daniel, the one band I really would have wanted to see at Way Out West was Silverbullit. I've actually been fortunate enough to see them twice already, once when opening for The Soundtrack of Our Lives in SF and again at Umeå Open in 2005 when they so obviously blew away every other band. Even today, without a new album to support since 2004's "Arclight", I'd still rank them as one of Sweden's best bands. And now I read that they even got Freddie Wadling (Cortex, Blue for Two, etc.) to make a guest appearance? Gah! I should've been there! YouTube just ain't gonna cut it. Silverbullit's massive wall of sound simply doesn't translate to the small-screen format.
Still no word on whether there will ever be a new album, but at least we can still celebrate their back-catalog. Here is "Only gold" from the aforementioned "Arclight".
Silverbullit - Only gold