Shout Out Louds: Curing Stockholm Syndrome
New To Me
The Shout Out Louds looking very much the style denizens of Stockholm's musical explosion.
There is no doubt that there is something up in Sweden. An embarrassment of musical riches has been pouring out of their shores over the past few years (see Editors' Picks for our faves) and no band has as much talent and promise as Stockholm's Shout Out Louds.
I first discovered Shout out Louds when their debut How Howl Gaff Gaff hit US shores in the summer of 2005 and a friend turned me on to the song The Comeback. It was a big fun guitar-driven power pop song that managed to meld a Strokes- like edginess with an 80s Cure retro feel. And while I listened to that album quite a bit that summer, there was something about it that felt just a tiny bit forced to me;like they were trying to be edgier than they really were and so when Our Ill Wills came out in September of 2007, I didn't jump all over it. In fact, it sat on the shelf until I was doing a bit of prep work for our trip to SXSW and saw that they were playing and decided to give the album a good, solid listen.
If I could take back those 5 months, Our Ill Wills would have made my top 10 list for 2007 and "Tonight I Have To Leave It" just might have been my song of the year. And as much as the band is sick to death of The Cure comparisons, you'll be hard-pressed not to have that pop into your head as a first impression. But I think the comparisons are based on more on how our musical brain remembers The Cure sound as opposed to a literal derivation of it.
I have had the opportunity to see them live twice and can say unequivocally that they are one of the most fun and talented power pop bands in the world today. That's saying quite a lot for a group that only has 2 albums and a handful of EPs under their belt but a few things have happened since their debut album:
1) Bjorn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn & John came on board as sole producer on Our Ill Wills
2) The band signed to Merge Records in the US (nary a mis-step!)
3) Their sound and their song writing seemed to take a big deep breath, allowing for some space in between their insanely catchy melodies
While we wait for their third studio album Work to be released in early 2010, check out what the world is saying about Shout Out Louds!
Vitals:
Band Members:
Adam Olenius - vocals, guitar
Ted Malmros - bass, percussion, backing vocals
Carl von Arbin - guitar, backing vocals
Eric Edman - drums
Bebban Stenborg - keyboards, accordion, glockenspiel, moog, backing vocals
Conceived:
Adam, Ted and Carl were childhood friends who started talking about putting a band together in 2001. Eric and Bebben, also friends, joined when they realized they needed a drummer and someone to play the Moog. They played their first gig to 100 people in Feb of 2002, performing the only 3 songs they had written.
Roots:
Sound & Sounds Like:
Everyone has beaten The Cure comparisons to death, us included, so enough. What I will say about the bands' sound is that it is nothing short of an adrenalin rush. I don't know how else to describe it- it just makes you feel incredibly alive and present, a feeling that comes through in spades when you see them live. With feet firmly planted in the 80's alternative pop sound, they add in cowbells, accordions, glockenspiels and lots of deep percussion; resulting in a thoroughly modern sound.
Many of their songs have an urgency that builds and it's easy to get hooked on the ride. "South America" is a great example of this- a song that manages to capture that kick in the gut feeling of seeing a former love out for the first time...first as excitement and anticipation and then the realization that they are with someone else. "Yes I saw it happen. It happened, calm down, calm down!". As this phrase gets repeated over and over again, the song quietly and seemlessly actually moves us into the calm of the lovely instrumental title track, "Our Ill Wills". And you thought they were just an alternative pop dance band?
In fact, just when you mentally put them into that camp, they will surprise the hell out of you with anything from Bebben Stenborg's haunting vocals on "Blue Headlights" to the ramped up guitar driven extended rides of 7-8 minute long stunners like "Seagulls" and "Hard Rain" ...and I hate to say it, but I don't remember The Cure ever doing anything quite that interesting.
Bar Talk:
The bands' original name was Luca Brasi which they switched when they realized it was already taken by a punk band from Australia, let alone the character from The Godfather. The new name stemmed from Adam's feeling that what they had to say was "a desperate shout" about romance and life.
Bebben Stenborg is to SOL'S what Britta Phillips was to Luna. Voted one of the sexiest indie rockers, men will line up stage right or left to swoon over the swedish stunner.
"Tonight I Have To Leave It" is featured in the just released film "What Happens In Vegas" with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher.
The album title for Our Ill Wills refers to our inherent tendency to keep secrets, often against our better judgement and that theme creeps into several of the albums songs.
There are a few songs that only appear on certain versions of Our Ill Wills, "Bicycle" on the vinyl version and a song called "Don't Get Yourself Involved" on the Australian version. Hunt them down if you can.
Bass player, Ted Malmros, is more famous in Sweden as a video director, most notably for the video for Peter Bjorn and John's mega hit "Young Folks".
Essential:
There's a great cover of The Pogues "Streams of Whiskey" on the Tonight I have to Leave It-EP, a complete but welcome surprise. In fact, there a few nice surprises on their EP's; another one being "December" on the newly released Impossible-EP (also a bonus track on iTunes version of Our Ill Wills)but look closely at the EP's, many are remixes of the songs on the 2 albums.
