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I like Sweden, I enjoy indie-pop so it makes sense that I should love Swedish indie pop, right?
Ok, so I’m a big fan of Jens Lekman, Taxi Taxi, Loney Dear and Love Is All, plus there are plenty of others that I’ve heard briefly and enjoyed – Penny Century, Bear Quartet, Air France, Tough Alliance, the list goes on – but despite my passion for all things yellow and blue, I’d never really made an effort to dig around and check out some of the country’s lesser known (internationally at least) acts. Until today.
I’ve spent a good few hours scouring the blogs for all things svenskt and so far my quest for more great indie-pop is proving worthwhile. My favourite find of the day has to be a band called Happydeadmen, who formed in Stockholm way back in 1988. The group’s sound is pretty typical of late 80’s indie-pop – imagine a jangly, upbeat take on Sarah Records stalwarts the Field Mice with a bit of the Smiths thrown in for good measure – but their songs are really vibrant and refreshing, particularly “Silent Sigh City” and “A Lovesong”, both of which you can stream from their MySpace page. If you can find it (Google may be useful in this search, if you know what I mean) it’s well worth getting hold of the band’s “Best Of”, the cheekily titled Classics – A Decade In Pop.
I’ll be sharing more Swedish gems over the coming weeks so keep checking back.
From Rear Window to Rushmore, Citizen Kane to Amélie, obsession is a perennial favourite in modern cinema.
Michel Spinosa’s Anna M. tackles the theme through the eyes of an unhinged female stalker and the result is a chilling psychological drama. Think of it as a better, artier take on Fatal Attraction.
Isabelle Carré stars as Anna, a slightly odd, detached young woman who works at the National Library in Paris and lives with her equally troubled mother. After deliberately walking into the path of a speeding motor vehicle, Anna finds herself in hospital where she develops what at first seems like an innocent crush on the surgeon responsible for fixing her shattered femur, Dr Zanevsky (Gilbert Melki). Of course, Spinosa’s film is about obsession and over the course of the next 90 minutes we see Anna take the art of stalking to a whole new level. It’s an uncomfortable journey, as those containing casual sex, masturbation, late night phone calls, vandalism and reckless endangerment of children tend to be, and by the end I was so unsettled by Carré’s character that I found it genuinely difficult to praise her outstanding performance.
Anna M. is not without its share of flaws – a few stretched plot devices (the slightly cavalier attitude of the locksmith had me scratching my head with frustration) detracted from the tension somewhat and the dream sequence ending seemed like a bit of a cop out – but ultimately I found it to be a rewarding piece of cinema. Spinosa is no Michael Haneke (whose Caché, incidentally, is probably the last great stalker film) but he’s certainly a name to watch. (7)
I promise I’m not going to make a habit out of this – plus I really should get back to reviewing other people’s music – but I thought I’d share the not entirely insignificant fact that the four members (myself included) of Zeitgeist Tapes took to the stage last Wednesday to make our live debut at Sheffield’s legendary Boardwalk venue.
I say legendary because another band you might have heard of called the Clash played their first gig at the venue (when it was called the Black Swan) way back in 1976. It’s nice to follow in such grand footsteps, although it must be noted that we weren’t exactly supporting the Sex Pistols.
The gig went pretty well aside from a few nervous errors in the first two songs and it was a pretty sizeable crowd – at least 100. Where we go from here is anyone’s guess (Barnsley, Rotherham, Wembley?) but I guess the uncertainty is all part of the excitement. My preference would be to write some new songs and record an EP or mini-album but we’ll have to see what happens.
Here are a few photos from the gig. Thanks to Emma for taking them.
Me, midway through “Dangerous Lazarus”.
From L-R: Me, Tom and Bill. Our bassist Ed was skulking around in the shadows to the far right.
In my last post I briefly mentioned that I’ve been listening to Pharoahe Monch’s Desire album quite a lot. This seems to be a continuing trend. I got remarkably giddy about J Dilla’s Ruff Draft EP around this time last year but this one is even better still. I’d call it one of the hip hop albums of the decade if only I was qualified enough to make such a bold claim. Instead, I’d like to point you in the direction of No Ripcord scribe George Booker’s cracking review; he knows much more about hip hop and puts forward a stronger case for this album than I could hope to.
http://www.noripcord.com/?q=node/695
If you haven’t heard Desire – even if you’re sceptical about modern hip hop – please, please check it out.
2008 may be well under way but I’ve spend most of it listening to 2007 records. I find this is always the case in January; releases tend to slow down a bit so the time is often better spent trying to catch up on the things you missed in the last twelve months. This means that The National, Pharoahe Monch and a little known Swedish band called Penny Century have been dominating my iPod in 2008. I’m kicking myself for leaving all three off my end of year list.
You probably know all about the first two or those artists – indeed you may well be screaming “WHAT?! How did he miss the National record!!!” and if that’s the case, well, you’ve got me, I have no defence – but I thought I’d write a little bit about Swede-poppers Penny Century simply because they deserve the (limited) exposure I can offer just that little bit more.
Hailing from the isolated northern town of Östersund (I’ve been there, nice place but it’s bloody cold) but now based in Stockholm, this quintet (they just parted ways with their bassist I believe) are signed to a great little record label from my home town called Letterbox Records. Swedish indie-pop music grabbed the headlines in 2007 with records from the likes of Jens Lekman, Tough Alliance, Taxi Taxi!, Air France, Loney, Dear, Studio and many more all generating a great deal of buzz online and in the print media. Those fortunate enough to hear Penny Century’s Between a Hundred Lies got equally excited. It’s a concise collection of classic-sounding melodic indie-pop tunes with trademark duelling girl-boy vocals, jangly guitars, keys and even the odd horn section to flesh out the sound. If you like Belle & Sebastian, Sarah Records or any of the aforementioned Swedes you’re certain to find something worthwhile here. And if you don’t? Well, it might just cheer you up.
You can download the lead single from the album by clicking on the link below. Alternatively you can visit the band’s MySpace page to sample more of their music.
Finally Looking Ahead…
January 31, 2008 in Comment, Music | Tags: Beach House, Evangelicals, Lionheart Brothers, Lupe Fiasco, Vampire Weekend | Leave a comment
As of midnight tonight we’ll be 8.5% of the way through 2008. It’s a scary thought, isn’t it? Scarier still, I’ve only truly immersed myself in three 2008 albums. Not a particularly impressive strike rate for the editor of an online music magazine, I’m sure you’ll agree. I must try harder.
I spent most of last night sorting out my stash of promos. Even in this digital age, I still get between twenty to thirty promotional CDs every week. You might think this is great – actually it is pretty amazing – but it is a genuine nightmare managing these; I must have had about 200 to sort out last night, some of which must have been gathering dust under my desk for the best part of twelve months.
I managed to clear out quite a few – contrary to what a lot of bands write on their press releases, most unsigned artists are without record deals for good reason – and I’ve allocated some of the more interesting ones to various No Ripcord writers. A handful, though, are keepers. I need to get my new music fix as much as the next guy. I figured I may as well share these titles with you – think of this as my musical to do list for February:
1) Evangelicals: “The Evening Descends” (Dead Oceans)
I’m listening to this right now. It’s an interesting left-field indie-rock record with plenty of extravagant lead guitar phrases with even the odd big of finger tapping. Pitchfork loved it and I’m sure that given time it’ll be among my favourites this year. http://www.myspace.com/evangelicals
2) Vampire Weekend: “Vampire Weekend” (XL)
Everyone’s talking about this record and for good reason. I can see these New Yorker’s being one of the year’s success stories. http://www.myspace.com/vampireweekend
3) Lionheart Brothers: “Dizzy Kiss” (Racing Junior)
Proof that there’s more to Scandinavian music than Swede-pop (although it is pretty damn good). Norway’s Lionheart Brothers have already been compared to artists as diverse as the Beach Boys (listen to To Make You Love Me and you’ll immediately see why), Secret Machines and compatriots Serena-Maneesh and surprisingly all of these are valid. One of the best psych-pop bands I’ve heard in a while. http://www.myspace.com/lionheartbrothers
4) Lupe Fiasco: “The Cool” (1st & 15th)
My promo copy hasn’t actually arrived yet but I’m looking forward to the day it finally does (and currently resisting the urge to just go ahead download it). The reviews have been pretty impressive which bodes well. As ever, I feel a burning need to get into more current hip-hop – I feel like I’m forever chasing that particular ball around. http://www.myspace.com/lupefiasco
5) Beach House: “Devotion” (Bella Union)
I’m a new to this dream-pop duo from Baltimore but I love this kind of music and have high hopes for their second LP. http://www.myspace.com/beachhousemusic
There are plenty more I could list but I don’t want to just set myself up to fail.