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Underground > Radio & Music >

So, Swedish music...

20:21 / 21.01.09

This is a call to Swedish Barbeloids, musicophiles with a penchant for the Swedish and well anybody who can suggest some new, forgotten or unknown Swedish bands that might be good to listen to.

I'll start the ball rolling, with some of my favourite Swedish bands (my tastes are quite firmly in the pop side of the spectrum, but I'm open to suggestions).

Those Dancing Days - current darlings of my ears TDD are some barely out of school younglings making some pretty decent pop music, influenced, I think, mostly by 60's girl bands.

Love is All - shouty indie pop band, fun songs, crazy fun live shows are what they are about.

Shout out Louds - melodic indie pop, some very good tunes, especially on "Howl Howl Gaff Gaff".

Refused - pretty legendary (post)punk band, maybe check out their last album "The Shape of Punk to Come" first

So other Swedish bands which are probably familiar in the UK/US:

The Cardigans
Wannadies
The Hives
Peter Bjorn and John
Jens Lekman
Soundtrack of Our Lives
The Knife
Lykke Li
International Noise Conspiracy
I'm From Barcelona
Dungen

So what am I missing out on? Surely there must be a whole world of music that just doesn't get advertised/recognition outside of Sweden?

20:47 / 21.01.09

Bergman Rock had some great tunes on their first album- they're the english language version of scandi superband Bob Hund.

The track Jim was my favourite with a totally bizare video directed by king of swedish cool Johan Renck (previous Swedish 90's band Stakka Bo!).

07:54 / 22.01.09

My favourite swedish band is Therion.

Therion is a symphonic metal band (often using choirs and orchestra) founded over twenty years ago. "Therion's music takes its themes from different mythologies and is based on concepts ranging from occultism, magic and ancient traditions and writings."

I recommend their two double albums Gothic Kabbalah and Lemuria & Sirius B.

Other solid swedish metal bands are Amon Amarth, Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, Opeth and Pain of Salvation.

Closed for Business Time

09:35 / 22.01.09

Dude, if you wanna talk Swedish metal there's loads of classic Death Metal bands out there: Entombed, Carnage, Bathory, Nihilist, At The Gates, Dismember, Unleashed for starters. Meshuggah, if you like things more technical.

Just a word of warning: Bob Hund is a million times better than frakkin Bergman Rock. Even if it is pretty much the same guys.

19:56 / 22.01.09

Whilst talking sweden rock/ johan renck- his business partner is Jonas akerland aka drummer of bathory.... looks like the child catcher from chitty chitty bang bang and directed loads of madonna vids and smack my bitch up video. Check out www.Raf.se for their website Renck is imho the better director despite the international acclaim for akerlund

And whilst bob hund may be better the song Jim is absolute genius...

ps... msut not post drunken again

20:54 / 22.01.09

The Hellacopters always flipped my switch, from their sludgy punk days through to their last few records (*sob*).

There's a whole swathe of great retro rock stuff from there, if that's your bag: Peepshows, Nomads, (some of) The Backyard Babies

Rachel Evil McCall

04:20 / 25.01.09

Weren't Whale from Sweden?

17:26 / 26.01.09

For brilliant camppop/glamrock check out The Ark, and also Army of Lovers.
Highly recommended if potentially irritating for those of your friends not on a 'cool Swedish music' journey.
You'll probably need to watch some of the videos for the full experience.

13:45 / 28.01.09

Hellacopters, yes.

I forgot to mention The Concretes, which are usually quite listenable.

Thanks for the recommendations, I shall check out...

I'll look into the metal side of things, although I always find it a bit hard to get into. About the only metal band I've ever liked is Pelican...(and some people don't even consider them metal).

I do always find myself wondering why there is such a strong following of what I mostly consider *aggressive* music in Sweden. What gives?

Closed for Business Time

14:02 / 28.01.09

Reaction to strong normative social pressure? Sweden is after all, or was at least, a very conformally oriented society. Metal was/is a rebellion against that.

09:01 / 29.01.09

By that thinking shouldn't Japan (which as I understand it has a pretty restrictive/regimented society, perhaps moreso than Sweden) have a larger or at least more apparent Metal or Hardcore scene than Sweden?

Japan's population is over 10 times that of Sweden, and covers less area to boot.

Closed for Business Time

09:11 / 29.01.09

Dude - they do have a pretty large metal scene. Not to mention a huge and thriving noise/psych/avant-garde/crazy-shit scene. Think Ruins, High Rise, Melt Banana, KK Null, Keiji Haino, Merzbow, Boredoms, Zeni Geva etc etc.

10:33 / 29.01.09

Yeah, I know a metal (etc.) scene exists in Japan, but is it over 10 times the size of Sweden's?

Then again, Japan can't really be considered a part of Western culture, so I suppose I can't really compare societal causes, huh?

I just find it interesting that Sweden specifically is so reknown for this specific type of music, but then, like the thread summary says, they are the third largest music exporter in the world...

22:25 / 01.02.09

off the top of my head, i like skitsystem and at the gates. i'm sure there are a lot of other great punk and metal bands that i'm just not thinking of at the moment, or that i'm temporarily having trouble remembering if they're not from finland or norway instead.

22:26 / 01.02.09

swedish d-beat is pretty highly respected, and in the past few years a ton of american bands have been sweating both that style and japanese style d-beat pretty hard. i'm kinda burnt out on it, but i'll probably be able to listen to it again after i haven't heard it for a while.

Closed for Business Time

11:06 / 03.02.09

How could I forget? Roxette. MAN.

21:58 / 05.02.09

A Camp- solo project for Nina Persson from the cardigans and produced by Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse also worth mentioning. While the first album is admittedly patchy it had some great moments- song for the leftovers is amazing- better than anything the cardigans have done for 10 years at least!

Can we mention Neneh Cherry? Isn't she swedish?

Closed for Business Time

11:46 / 06.02.09

Indeed she is.

22:12 / 15.02.09

Candlemass is classic Swedish doom metal.

VonKobra,Scuttling&Slithering

02:14 / 07.06.09

The Bones

The blonde countries produce all the best music don't they? I farkin love the Backyard Babies, In Flames, Dark Tranquillity. Sahara Hotnights are pretty good. Also Arch Enemy. Oh and Bombshell Rocks. And Hardcore Superstar. And Millencolin. And Raised Fist. And The Haunted. And Tiamat.

I want to go to Sweden and immerse myself in Blonde Culture.

21:18 / 18.06.09

Check out Fever Ray. It is Karin Dreijer Andersson's latest project and you may know her from Honey is cool and The Knife. The style of Fever Ray is dark and slow electronica with her distinct vocals strongly defining each track. Have a listen, Fever Ray is quite good.