Jason_Els

A friend of mine's been turning me on to the music coming out of Scandinavia and I have to say I'm really impressed. From Sigur Ros to Kent to Mew I'm floored that this stuff is getting NO airplay here in the US.

Mew's CD, Frengers, is the best CD of 2003 no question. I find the songs, particularly "Snow Brigade", get stuck in my head (and make me drive way too fast :b). Here we are complaining about the state of American pop/rock and Europe's got this going on like nobody's business.

Anybody have thoughts on these bands or even heard of them? Why are we so isolated? The UK's got these bands playing on the radio. It's embarassing. If only I could get the indy and college FM stations where I am.... Grrrrrr

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Stefan Pedersen

Cool that you like the music coming out of Scandinavia. If anyone is into metal/hardcore/punk this is really the place to be. Some of the best band of these genres are from here, like..

Immortal (Norway)
Mayhem (Norway)
Dimmu Borgir (Norway)
Emperor (Norway)
Darkthrone (Norway)
Satyricon (Norway)
Dark Funeral (Sweden)
Opeth (Sweden)
Tiamat (Sweden)
At The Gates (Sweden)
The Haunted (Sweden)
Nasum (Sweden)
Refused (Sweden)
Fireside (Sweden)
Cult Of Luna (Sweden)
Dissection (Sweden)
Entombed (Sweden)
Hellacopters (Sweden)
The Hives (Sweden)
No Fun At All (Sweden)
Millencolin (Sweden)
Raised Fist (Sweden)
Darkane (Sweden)
Soilwork (Sweden)


Maybe not your taste but just wanted to point that out anyway. By the way I saw Sigur Ros (Iceland) and Mew (Denmark) last summer at at the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. I love Sigur Ros. They are awesome and even better live. Mew were pretty good too. Kent is from Sweden (same as me) and they suck imo.

Bob Turnbull

Haven't heard Mew, but I do like what I've heard by Sigur Ros.

On another branch of the Scandinavian music tree, try some of the bands and artists from the Northside label. The label is based in Minnesota, but they focus on music steeped in traditional Scandinavian styles. Bands like Hoven Droven (a personal fave - check out Slentbjenn (Real Audio sample) from their album Groove), Den Fule, Garmana and Hedningarna combine more modern instrumentation with folk themes with exciting, fun and truly beautiful results.

Dig through the web site and listen to whatever samples you can find. I also recommend those $5 dollar Nordic Roots samplers. Over an hour worth of music taken from different label releases ("Cheaper Than Food!" they proclaim).

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Mikael Soderholm

You may want to check out Bel Canto from Norway as well, esoteric electronica I guess you could call it .

/Mikael

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Mike Broadman

Swedish bands I like:

Anglagard
Anekdoten
Opeth (my favorite)
Pain of Salvation
The Flower Kings

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MickeS

Kent's music is so much about the lyrics that I don't think it'll be easy for non-Swedish speakers to like them. I believe they recorded 2 albums in english ("Isola" and "Hagnesta Hill" IIRC), but I've only heard the Swedish versions of those albums.

IMO, they are one of the greatest bands of all time.

ThomasC

Thanks for creating this thread, I really really love the instrumental part of Mew's "Comforting Sounds", and "Am I Wry? No" is great as well.

The man I loved - the man who vanished - he never came back at all. But maybe he's still out there, somewhere. Maybe some day, when Gotham no longer needs Batman, I'll see him again.

ThomasC

Mew released a new album last month called and the Glass Handed Kites. I'm not sure what to make of most of it so far, but some of it is breathtaking.

In one of the journal entries on Mew's official site, the guitarist says "invest some time in it", and I definitely will.

There are two versions of and the Glass Handed Kites available on Amazon, and I got the Japanese import, which is more expensive but has two bonus tracks.

The man I loved - the man who vanished - he never came back at all. But maybe he's still out there, somewhere. Maybe some day, when Gotham no longer needs Batman, I'll see him again.

PaulT

Here's a few more to try from Norway:

Dadafon - hard to describe (jazz/rock/fusion/pop), great female lead singer

Lene Marlin - excellent female pop style singer

Marius Muller - wicked blues guitarist, deceased 1999

Reidar Larsen - motorcycle riding blues

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Aaron Silverman

How would y'all describe Mew's music?

BTW, my personal list of favorite Scandinavian bands is exactly the same as Mike Broadman's (except that my favorite would be Pain Of Salvation or The Flower Kings ). Roine Stolt's (from FK) solo material is excellent, too.

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