New Yuck vid.

Glad to see this new video by PoP faves Yuck. Happily, I got to see the band play 'Milkshake' live earler this year!

PeeP on PoP- The War on Drugs

The War on Drugs- Slave Ambient (Secretly Canadian- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

91_______________________ 

No disrespect meant to Kurt Vile, but if Adam Granduciel and The War on Drugs get remembered as ‘The Band Kurt Vile Used to Play in’, it would be a shame. Like Vile, The War on Drugs trade in easy-going, breathy psych pop, a natural expansion and easy-to-swallow extension of the late 90’s psychedelphia scene, as both KV and TWoD got started in eastern Pennsylvania. Think Bardo Pond, without the patchouli stank, raised on Bob Dylan and Gram Parsons.

Slave Ambient is The War on Drugs second full length, following 2008’s Wagonwheel Blues (also on Secretly Canadian) and it is the band’s best release so far. My initial worry about there being  two cuts on this most recent full length off of last year’s Future Weather EP, and the highpoints at that, ‘Brothers’ and ‘Baby Missiles’, were completely unfounded, as it turns out. TWoD has added a lightly chugging vitality to both songs on Slave Ambient, and, improbably, improves both. More is more, I guess.

The War on Drugs’ Lee Ranaldo meets the The Boss blueprint is in high gear here, as the band cuts back on the (ironically) ambient guitar interludes and reprises, concentrating on their unabashed pop compositions. The swirling guitars, bass, harmonica, and organ mesmerize with the sweetness of a heady, soothing drunken buzz. Slave Ambient is the sound of one of the great contemporary American bands ambling into its prime.  

For Fans of: Sonic Youth, Kurt Vile

PeeP on PoP- Jacob Faurholt

Jacob Faurholt- Dark Hours (Raw Onion- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

71_______________________

Jacob Faurholt is a European singer songwriter whose chilly, bittersweet, plodding, southern gothic death ballads are both simultaneously hefty and ethereal all at once.

Dark Hours treads ground fans of Will Oldham and Joe Pernice’s lonelier, acoustic moments will appreciate. Faurholt, born in Denmark and living in Germany, sounds on the album like a man not only out of place but out of time, leaving the listener with a sense that these songs could have been written in the 1920’s just as much as they are contemoporary. The album is stark and raw, and Faurholt’s subdued accent (the album is all sung in English) adds a strange, alien ether to the proceedings. Faurholt’s melancholy county-ish guitar playing is surprisingly heartfelt, and is both warm and sparse, and when he employs female backing vocals as on ‘Creatures in the Sea’ and ‘Untitled’, the songs, despite remaining simple, resonate that much more. If there is any real complaint about Dark Hours, it is that it never really seems to expand on its purposeful reticence. Admittedly, this is not necessarily a deficit, but the album would likely benefit some sonic diversity. Clearly, Dark Hours is meant to evoke an emotional response, most of those emotions being of the somber variety, but there is no denying Faurholt’s talent. Now please excuse me while I call the suicide hotline.  

For Fans of: The Antlers, Red House Painters

PeeP on PoP- Gold-Bears

Gold-Bears- Are You Falling in Love? (Slumberland- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

60______________________

I want to like this so much more than I do. Early preview listens at Are You.. had me salivating, and that the album was being released on Slumberland made it a no-brainer, that I would be picking it up the day it came out. All the parts are in place to make this an album for me: noisy distorted guitars, bubblegum hooks, and DIY ethos all wrapped up in a ‘twee as fuck’ package. But for some reason, I have not been able to get on board with Gold-Bears, for reasons that STILL are not completely apparent after a solid 20 listens (no lie).

The lyrics are a little too emo, at times, and a certain amount of off putting earnestness and humorlessness comes through at times. But even that is not what completely puts me off Gold-Bears. It can be a fine line between bands taking the torch from their forebears (no pun intended) and another when it comes across as hackneyed and rote. Which is probably too harsh for this obviously talented band, who haven’t gotten the gist of the difference between timeless and timeworn.

For Fans of: Jawbreaker, The Wedding Present

PeeP on PoP- Seabright

Seabright- Feel Good (self released- 2011)
~by Gabe McBride

86___________________________

One of my favorite things about laptop music is that it’s so damned democratic. A guy with a Mac, a dream, and a pirated copy of Garage Band can throw together some samples, slap a beat under ‘em, and have an album available for download before dinner. Well, maybe I exaggerate a little bit, but in the case of San Jose’s Justin Morales, AKA Seabright, democratic creativity is the name of the game, in that there is no musical stone left unturned. Feel Good really does make me, feel, well… good, with its nods to dance, classical, indiepop, hip-hop, experimental electronic, psych, traditional pop, smooth jazz,  shoegaze, dreampop, and pretty much any musical microgenre you could think of.

Feel Good is more than just democratic too, as its liberal use of styles and musical confabulations across the sound spectrum elicits a kind of ‘aw shucks’ populism, in that the album doesn’t have a mean bone in its body. Not to say there’s no edge on Feel Good’s 11 tracks, just that it is so lovingly blended into a dreamy amalgamation of groovy beats and textures that are just… happy. Amazingly, all of Seabright’s music is available for free on his Bandcamp page. It’s a no-brainer here, folks.

For Fans of: Small Black, Ducktails

PeeP on PoP- Chrome Sparks

Chrome Sparks- My <3 (self released-2011)

~by Gabe McBride

85________________________

Weird thing about the internet. A tossed of label like “chillwave”, or even worse, “hypnagogic pop” (barf) becomes so instantly irritating it sends up-to-the-minute music geeks like myself (sniff) into conniptions no sooner than a couple of similar sounding bands release like-minded tracks or albums, and a backlash has begun before a knob twiddling, laptop wielding depressive even knows what had hit him (them? I lost track of subject/verb/object/syntax about 50 characters ago). So, long story short- I had discovered Neon Indian and Washed out when there were maybe two or three taste making bloggers left who hadn’t traded in their cassette only releases by these wet-behind-the-ears-composers-busy-making-the-80’s-mysterious, in for crack money. And, honestly, I think missing out on the retroactive resentment and just letting myself enjoy the music (well, Neon Indian not so much) wound up being a net positive, all said. Which leads me to Chrome Sparks’ new EP, My<3, which on initial listen bears some of the markers associated with the movement of bands playing music that sounds like the stuff their mom was listening to while they were gestating in the womb, exactly as they remember it: pulsing synth wash, programmed hand clap drum beats, and processed, reorganized vocals.

Where My <3 differs from the class of 2009 (2008?) is that it’s a little more up front and demystified. Like Ford and Lopatin, this is mostly unironic electro, with the Reagan/Thatcher era used as a stepping off point. It’s not a reimagining of New Wave so much as it is an update of it, with nods to hip hop and indie, R&B and lo-fi electro. Highly recommended.

Available for ‘name your price’ over at Bandcamp. Which means fork over five bucks, cheapskate! C’mon, starving musicians gotta eat too.

For Fans of: Games, Toro y Moi

PeeP on PoP- Motel Beds

Motel Beds- Sunfried Dreams (Self released- 2011)
~by Gabe McBride

73_______________________

It surprised me not at all to learn that the Motel Beds are from Dayton, Ohio, home of the inimitable Guided by Voices, given the band’s Brit Invasion styled pop chops. While the band’s name and the album’s cover hint at a smoky late 50’s/early 60’s vibe, Sunfried Dreams generally steers clear of the lethargic reverb-drenched sound dominating indie-dom lately, for an in-your-face urgency, somewhere between the mod of the Kinks and the nihilism of the Stones.

Sunfried Dreams  is unabashed in its sense of machismo and swagger, in an unironic way ( a Dayton attribute, I think) which also brings to mind, at times, more recent Brit imports, especially Oasis, if not so much in sound, although that’s there too, but in ‘tude. The band’s music would fit nicely as the soundtrack to a drunken bar fight, and that seems like a good thing to me. A straight-up rock ‘n’ roll fantasy we could use more of these days.

For Fans of: Apples in Stereo, The Zombies 

PoP Live- Yuck and Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Yuck were in Portland on a Sunday night (July 24, I believe) which happened to coincide with bassist Mariko Doi's birthday, and guitarists/singers Daniel Blumberg and Max Bloom decorated the stage  with ballons before the band played their set.

Awesomely, the opening act was Portland-by-way-of-New Zealand (both bands are on Fat Possum) mysterions (who's entire set was played in the dark, hence the 'unknown' thing... and the fact that there are no pictures, as none came out very well), Unknown Mortal Orchestra, who played a tight, energetic batch of debut album  (review to be forthcoming) tunes to a large (hometown) crowd, several of whom left after UMO exited the stage.

The joke was on them, however, as they missed Yuck play all the songs off of their February debut, as well as single b-sides 'Coconut Bible' and the shoegazy 'The Base of the Dream is Empty'. I was able to get a good spot right in front of the stage and was able to take in lead guitarist Bloom shredding his Fender Jaguar for all it was worth. The band seemed to lack a little bit of energy at times, but still played the shit out of thier songs, and I left a happy man, getting to see two bands, with two of the best albums of the year, play back to back, in a small venue.

Overrated!

What band (talking "indie" here folks) does everyone else seem to love, and you aren't on the bandwagon? Please leave your comments at the blog. I'll start, it rhymes with Barfaid Tire. Juvenile? Yes.

Bloated, self-important, no fun having fake Canadians. No sir, I don't like it!

Comment below, please!

Talk on Purpose- Night Manager

I ran across Night Manager over at No Fear of Pop a few weeks back, and it was love at first listen! Caitlin, Ezana, Tim, and Tassy play melodic, noisy pop tunes that seem to be custom built for yours truly. The band is two 7'' singles into their young career, and have another coming down the pike soon (see below). Please be sure and stop by the band's Band Camp page, and toss a few dollars their way! It is money you will not miss for songs you will not stop listening to. I caught up with these New York noiseniks via email and they were gracious and funny....

PoP- So where are you all located, and who are the current members of the band? Did you know each other before you started playing music together?

Tassy- Tim and I live in Brooklyn while Caitlin and Ezana live in the lower eastside. Caitlin is from France, Ezana is from San Fran, Tim is from Upstate New York, and Tassy is from Connecticut. Tim and Ezana were in the music program at school. Through our discomfort and dissatisfaction in the program we started Night Manager. We met Caitlin through the program, and I met Ezana in acting class.

Ezana- FYI: we're prolly gonna tackle this thing individually, each of taking about 2 questions. That was Tassy, our bass player. He likes to take acid and pretend he's writing for federal grants with a Remington noiseless. He used to a court stenographer, he once transcribed the case of peanut butter vs. jelly and I’m sure he was on acid when he wrote this

PoP- Do you guys find that your musical tastes outside the band converge? Are you influenced by bands you listened to growing up or music that’s more contemporary?

Ezana-I grew up listing to a lot of my schoolmates call me a faggot, that and Nirvana are big youth influences. i also like a lot of 60s pop...girl groups and shit. bands like Sweet Bulbs, Reading Rainbow, Tonstartssbandht, Total Slacker etc. are current (semi) local faves. 
 
Tim- Convergence is a good way of putting it. We all have different tastes, or different levels of enthusiasm for any given artist or song, but there is obviously a lot of places where we all agree, and these inevitably influence our sound the most. As far as contemporary versus old stuff is concerned, the sound and effect of the music have more contemporary influences but most music I write, regardless of genre, has a lot of common structural themes, so it probably has more to do with preferences I've formed a long time ago. And the songs Ezana writes are so structurally unique, I can only guess as to where they're coming from.
 
PoP- On that same kinda note- are there any bands people might be surprised to hear you are fans of or that your bandmates might look at you weird for liking? I hate to call them 'guilty pleasure', because that's so, well, lame. But youknowhatimean?

Tim (via Ezana)- I'm really into this dude:

Ezana-Oh man! You can’t fuckin’ rickroll on gmail!

PoP-Nice. My favorite thing about Rick Astley, is he looks like a butch lesbian. With a deep voice. So, is having a female singer in the band a happy accident, or a little more based on your love of 60's girl bands? Was there a plan?

Ezana- Yeah, that and I don’t like it when there's too many dudes on stage. You know?

Tassy- I wanted at least a choir of young males fully nude covered in "fart juice"

PoP- Dang. That was a weird left turn right there. Fart juice. I feel like I know what that is, kind of instinctually, but do please elaborate.

Ezana- Fart juice is kind of a curveball tassy throws out from time to time, it's un-hittable so we should move onto something new.

PoP- If you insist! So, I live down the road from Portland, which, like NY, is one of those places you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a band. Is it a struggle to carve out your own niche when there are so many other bands trying to be successful?

Ezana- New York is kind of a struggle in general; it's competitive on all fronts. I think if you're smart about where you play and who you play with you can carve a niche and find the right audience. Still the hardest and most important struggle is actually being good.

New York is unique because a bigger band is usually playing the same night you are, but honestly our biggest obstacle has been the weather. We played 7 consecutive rainy gigs last fall. Once it hailed, and once there was a fuckin’ tornado in Brooklyn. So if we had to blame anyone for fucking up our shit it would have to be God. (PS I rickrolled you)

(Left to Right) Tim, Ezana, Caitlin, and Tassy

PoP- You SO rickrolled me! One thing that seems to get overlooked a lot is dumb luck, too. There are bands that seem to have the right sound or even the right "look" at the right time. It almost seems a lot of the time talent falls down to somewhere around 32 on the list of important things a band need to be successful. And god forbid a band be consistent. That seems like the kiss of death, right there. I guess that's not really a question...

Tassy- It took awhile for me to learn personally that sometimes talent isn't all you need. All you need is a pretty face and the right people backing you. The only artist I can think of who has the full package and could enviably succeed in music regardless is Hoku. Shit is pretty rad.

PoP- Hoku? Like ‘Don Ho’ Hoku? So is there an album in the works? Going by the bands you mentioned, I would assume you would want to keep a think layer of noise and scuzz on the songs, or would you guys be more likely to spit shine stuff a little, once it's time to records an LP?

Ezana- Pretty sure Tassy was talking about this:

(Ezana cont.)- Anyway, as of now there is no full length in the works, we're recording single for Big Love Records in Japan and we're going into an actual studio for the first time. The sound will definitely be less dirty--our previous stuff was recorded in the most budget, DIY fashion--this time we'll have more options as to how we want to sound. A lot of bands make the jump to the more polished sound and end up sounding corny, like something gets lost in the transition. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen to us.

PoP- I have to say I put "I Love Night Manager" in the subject header of the email, not only to get you guys' attention, but because it is true! Will the Big Love single be available through your bandcamp page? Any closing words for your fans out there?

Caitlin- Yes, it will be on bandcamp and itunes along with the label's web site. As for the fans, anyone who digs our music, thanks for appreciating us, we love you!

nightmanagerbk.bandcamp.com

facebook.com/nightmanagerbk

myspace.com/night_manager

twitter.com/nightmanagerbk

PeeP on PoP- Ford and Lopatin

Ford and Lopatin- Channel Pressure (Software Records- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

93_______________________

I look at that score, and wonder if I can possibly be serious, but then I listen to the record again, and I know I’m right. It’s hard to hold back my gushing and giddiness over Channel Pressure, the debut full-length from the band formerly known as ‘Games’, comprised of Daniel Lopatin, who also performs as ambient synth/ drone act, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Joel Ford, of new wave disco-pop aficionados Tigercity. So Ford and Lopatin do draw something of a midpoint between the two bandmembers regular gigs, driving an experimental, digitized spike through the heart of early 80’s europop and r&b inflected dance tunes, creating a forward-thinking retro amalgam of keytarism, Apple IIe blips, skanky hairband guitar riffs, and groggy but sharp-cornered atmospherics.

Now, as I’ve said before, I am an electro novice, and I am not going to try and debate whether the album is ironic or whatever, but where Channel Pressure wins me over so easily, is in its seams-bursting pop insistence, that straddles the line between being overwrought and concise. Not that Ford and Lopatin are holding much back here. The tunes have an “everything and the kitchen sink” feel throughout Channel Pressure, without losing focus or feeling sloppy. The record is first and foremost, a rethinking of 80’s pop, taken apart and reconstructed like a Rubik’s Cube that couldn’t be solved, but is then turned into a work of art, no longer corny or anachronistic. It’s music I kinda hated back when it was popular, revamped into something not only digestible, but desirable, and HIGHLY danceable, especially if your hair is properly crimped.

For Fans of: Com Truise, Bobby Brown

PoP Live! Ween...

Went to lovely Bend, Oregon and saw Ween at the beginning of July. The sun was hot, the day was beautiful, and, apparently, Gene Ween is dying. I say this as more a casual fan of the band than many of the hippies, indie kids, frat boys, and Prius driving baby-boomers in attendance: Gene, please see a doctor. The guy looks like he weighs 100 lbs. Gene (Aaron Freeman) Ween's substance abuse issues are not exactly a secret, but just wanna say, Pop on Purpose is praying for you, bro.

What was a PLEASANT surprise was, though, was that the band kicked it OUT for the fans, as the set (no opening act, BTW) was three hours long, and I happily remembered and was easily able to sing along to several of the tunes, and not just the HIV song. Which they did play. A realy, really good time.

PeeP on PoP- Kids on a Crime Spree

Kids on a Crime Spree- We Love You So Bad (Slumberland- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

89_______________________

Somewhere between a longish EP and a mini LP, my initial impression of Kids on a Crime Spree’s  eight song debut was that this is a young band who are mature beyond their years, playing reverb heavy, punked-out updates on late 50’s/early 60’s rock ‘n roll (think Buddy Holly with an effects pedal). As it turned out, I was exactly wrong about the bands’ chronological youth, as KoaCS is the work of a 40’sish guy, Mario Hernandez, maintaining a youthful outlook on We Love You So Bad, and whose work with his previous band, guitar and keyboard pop mavens, From Bubblegum to Sky, I was (quite happily) familiar with. 

With the album’s boyish vocals and unblinking indebtedness to so-big-today-it’s-hard-to-believe-they-were-around-almot-thirty-years-ago, flavor of right now, Jesus and Mary Chain, Hernandez has carved out a feedback swathed, surf-rock mini-masterpiece that begs to be put on looping repeat on your listening device of choice. Word is, Hernandez has almost 100 tracks recorded under the Kids on a Crime Spree moniker. Here’s to a full-length (or two) in 2011!

For Fans of: The Raveonettes, The Queers



PeeP on PoP- Starfucker

Starfucker- Reptilians (Polyvinyl- 2011

~by Gabe McBride

83_______________________

Reptilians, the newest by Portland’s Starfucker, starts off out of the gate with its most disposable moment, a generic guitar chord accompanied by an almost comical turntable scratch, as the intro to album opener ‘Born’; serving as a curveball for what’s an otherwise fairly serious, if still very danceable electropop endeavor. What makes Reptilians such a success is the band’s ability to retain a rich, luxurious sadness at the album’s core, which tends, in my opinion to make for the best pop music.

The songs are interrupted every few tracks by a very British man talking about his thoughts on death, which he seems to view as not only inevitable, but in some ways, desirable or something to look forward to. I can’t say that head ‘fucker Joshua Hodges feels the same way, and damned if I can find any references on the web to who is the owner of these spoken interludes, but I have to assume that the band went into the studio with doom on their minds, not that this is the band’s goth album by any stretch. Known for their energetic, upbeat live shows, the band hasn’t stripped anything down from their two previous albums, heck, if anything, the tunes on Reptilians are even more dense, catchy, complex, and bursting at the seams with ideas than those on Starfucker (2008) and Jupiter (2009, both on Badman Recording Co.).

It took me a couple months to get my brain around Reptilians (hence the relatively late date of this review, considering the album was released in March) but it turns out Reptilians is apparently best listened to at full blast, in an empty office, working late on a Friday night. The sunset was beaming in through the window behind me while I wrote up some court paperwork that would need addressing first thing Monday morning. I was a little sad about not being home with my family, the drawn out, retro-futuristic synth chords of ‘The White of Noon’ played through my head and it fit perfectly. It was a bittersweet note that the album hits over and over.

For Fans of: Passion Pit, Hot Chip, New Order

PeeP on PoP- Moon Duo

Moon Duo- Mazes (Sacred Bones Records- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

87_______________________

All the signifiers are there for this to be the drug album of the year, but it isn’t. Moon Duo’s Krautrock inspired rhythmic miasma of chugging guitars, and bleating organ drone is psychedelic music played by people who seem like they are NOT under the influence of hallucinogenics. Wooden Shjips’ Erik Johnson and cohort Sanae Yamada play dialed in, tightly chiseled, face melting space-rock tunes that offer more than the typical gauzy, loosey-goosey psychotropic mind-tripping music for the pharmacology crowd.

What sets the tracks on Mazes apart from the rest of the stoner set is its binary throb and oscillation, which is a more apt description than might be initially apparent, as Moon Duo is just that- a duo- even when they play live, with a  (all computery and whatnot) drum machine. Normally, I could easily consider this a deficit on a band’s behalf, but it comes through on Mazes as a stroke of propulsive genius. Instead of washes of aimless guitar freak out, the songs have a bouncy, joyous lift, injecting a rare energy into an all too often listless genre.

For Fans of: Surf City, Sportsguitar

PeeP on PoP- Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes- Helplessness Blues (Sub Pop- 2011)

~by Gabe McBride

80_______________________

Fleet Foxes' 2008 self-titled debut and Sun Giant EP were bona fide instant classics. The first music by front man Robin Pecknold and crew was a left-field take on wintery hippy folk, injected with icy Brian Wilson styled harmonies and sophisticated instrumentation. Pecknold, who was just a few rotations around the sun removed from his teen years at the time, was a thoughtful songwriter, and the band appeared to value intricacy and exploration, something belied by the youth of those involved. Fleet Foxes proved to be a commercial and especially critical success, landing on the top of several year-end lists, and, admittedly, remains in my current iPod rotation to this day.

So, three years later, we have Helplessness Blues, the much anticipated follow up by this band of less than merry nouveau hippies, and as is often the case, it fails to live up to high standards set by its predecessors. This, I guess, makes things sound more dire than I mean for them to. Singles from Helplessness Blues, released during the lead up to the album-release proper, ‘Grown Ocean’ in particular, showed the band expanding their already ambitious sonic pallet and opening up the doors on their hermetic song structures. And the title of the album is something of a misnomer, as Pecknold engages in a little bit of mid 20’s navel gazing, something I usually have little patience for. Fortunately, the tone of the album is overwhelmingly positive, as Pecknold, once again mature beyond his years, seems to understand that his successes enable him to aspire to more than rock stardom, more than drugs, partying, and women. Which is inspiring in and of itself, even if, as implied in the album’s title, he is not sure what he should do with his ability to influence and offer himself to a bigger purpose. Happily, he steers clear of the tired political and phony baloney spirituality proffered by many of his artistic brethren, even as it is apparent that he is not sure what he should be aspiring to.

Where Helplessness Blues falls somewhat short of the 2008 releases is in its submission to convention. Reportedly, Pecknold recorded and then ditched a whole other album’s worth of material, as he was left unsatisfied with the results. But, again, I wind up qualifying my criticism. The album sags a bit in the middle, with a stretch of primarily acoustic folk tracks, although this isn’t so much a lack of quality songs, (they remain consistently beautiful) as much as it is a sequencing problem. Also, the band has more or less abandoned the guitar and piano interludes that characterized so much of Fleet Foxes. There is a free/jazz saxophone explosion at the end of ‘The Shrine/An Argument’, which hints at the previous works’ adventurousness, but lacks the organic boundary-hopping feel that made Fleet Foxes so endearing. So where does that leave my final assessment? I really am not sure. There are times listening to the album that I am genuinely disappointed and others in which I feel like I really have nothing to complain about. Helplessness Blues is a lush, open work, which hints at future greatness, rather than embodying it.

For Fans of: The Band, Wilco, Lower Dens

Talk on Purpose: The Horror The Horror

So, I've made no bones about my love for Swedish pop impresarios, The Horror The Horror, and, on a lark  I emailed the band on their MySpace requesting an interview. Within a few days, lead singer Joel Lindstrom and  I were chatting it up like tight bros from back in the day. Suffice it to say, Joel is a nice guy, who has no problem offering up a little fan service! Enjoy, kids.

So how did The Horror The Horror get started? Did you guys know each other before becoming a band?

THTH got started out of the boredom and frustration that came of that my old band and at the same time Mattias' old bands kind of vanished, or lost the momentum, or whatever and we still wanted to do stuff and play music and write songs, but mostly just to hang out and we had no real output at that point. So basically me and Mattias started hanging out more and more and then we started to stuff musically together and then we got in touch with some old friends, people that we liked to hang out with and also people that we had played with earlier and also liked musically. Johan and Jacob and I know each other from school and Patrik and I and Mattias and I also got to know each other from some years before we started the band.

So what music did you listen to growing up? Have the bands and music you liked when you were younger changed a lot, or do you still listen to the things you did as a teen? Who would you consider to be your influences?

As a kid I listened to everything my older sister put in front of me, initially mostly Italo disco and all the standard 80s hits. The first bands that I got really into was the Cure, The Smiths and Depeche Mode and then I got really hooked with the Manchester scene, Stone Roses Charlatans and Happy Mondays and all of that. But at the same time I was exploring all the 60s and 70s stuff that I found in my father’s LP collection. Basically I was all over the place through my teens. I even loved the acid jazz stuff for a while, Galliano, Corduroy that shit. All of this music I still have love for but it's hard to say what's the biggest influence. No doubt, the 90s scene both more electronic stuff and the indie scene had a major impact as it was at that point I started to play in bands. But when we started this band I was basically only listening to the NYC scene, Velvet, Lou Reed's Transformer, Television, Talking Heads, Richard Hell and Jonathan Richman and some punk stuff Sex Pistols and The Saints etc. And at that point came all the new bands from New York: Strokes, Interpol, LCD Soundsystem, Radio 4, !!! that I loved and that surely influenced us too. Lately I've been going back to all the good stuff from the 80s like Talk Talk, Prefab Sprout, Terence Trent D'arby and what not. But also Giorgio Mordoder, Lisa Stansfield and S'Express.

What is it that's so special about Sweden? There seem to be so many great bands there, especially pop bands (The Legends, The Concretes, The Shout Out Louds, and The Horror The Horror, of course!).

We’ve gotten this question a lot over the years and I have two favourite suggested explanations:

1. School system. Back in the 80s and 90s there used to be really good and free government funded music classes that almost everyone took.

2. Boredom: Sweden is cold and dark and in most parts of the country nothing much happens at any point. Ways out of the boredom that this creates are to watch TV a lot, commit suicide or to lock yourself in a room with some friends and rehearse and hope that something fun will come out of it.

The two explanations also might be joined together.

Do you think there is any more to it than those two reasons? Something genetic maybe? Which lesser known Swedish bands should people know about?

Yeah, there are a bunch of popular explanations but I really don't think there is any one real reason. Swedes are pretty tall and I've read somewhere that tall people have bigger success career-wise than short people. Also people say Swedes are good looking and that is, as everyone knows, the most important key to success in the music industry. Another explanation is the strong melodic tradition in Sweden, from the traditional music, through ABBA and so on, but I don't know... I think people should listen to Paper, an awesome kraut/punk-band from Stockholm. They have released two albums so far and those are both brilliant. Another cool band is I Are Droid. They released one album like two or three years ago and they are working on their second one right now. Also I have to promote our own different side projects: My new band is called The Italian String Machine. Johan has his own project called SirVice. Jakob plays the drums in a band called the Majors and Patrik has two bands, The Battle of Santiago and The Worthy. All brilliant stuff of course! Best new track: Wallenberg - legendary feat. Leila K (of which I just did a remix as Italian String Machine)

So maybe Sweden is perhaps genetically engineering a master race, who will dominate the world through good-lookingness and pop tunes? Sounds kind of awesome, scary and awesome. On a completely other note; is song writing for the band collaborative, or is there a primary songwriter?

That analysis came from your mind not mine ;-)

The THTH song writing is always a collaboration. Usually me or Mattias comes up with a rough draft of a song, a guitar phrase or two and then we try out different stuff, arrangement wise, and the rhythm stuff etcetera and everyone tries their own stuff until we are all (kind of) satisfied and I try to come up with the melody and the words almost always last.

Do you play guitar on the records or live, or do you stick to singing?

I mostly stick to singing, but on the latest album I actually play most of the keyboards.

So the big question: when are you guys going to tour the States?

As soon as we get the invitation, we'll be over there for sure!

Well, consider THTH formally invited! I can't actually pay for you guys to get here, but if you play in Oregon, I can offer my basement for everyone to sleep in as well as a nice continental breakfast! Thanks for your time. Any words for your fans?

Alright, we love the continental breakfast! So we just might pick up on that, you never know. Thank you! Yes. To our fans: If you exist, thank you! And be patient, we will try our best to come to you and meanwhile dig into the records/mp3s or whatever. And, this summer we are recording a brand new single, (not from the album) that will be released as download/Vinyl 7" in September or so, if everything goes according to plan that is. It is going to be fantastic, unique and surprisingly fresh sounding. Or, more so than anything we have done before!

All the best!!!

Joel/THTH