It is time to head back to Sweden, more precisely to Malmö, aka Crime City, home of the best falafels of Northern Europe, good hardcore bands and Urban Savage, which is today's subject. How can I describe Urban Savage to you ? I would say that they are a Oi!/UK82 sounding band, with obvious hardcore and rock'n'roll-ish/cock-rock influences. They seem themselves not to care much about what they are labeled as (they describe themselves as "hardcorepunkoirocknroll or whatever" according to their facebook page), and that's good, who the fuck needs a label anyway. What's important is that the music is good. And Urban Savage is good music, let me tell you that. No-compromise songs driven by strong bass lines, with powerful vocals backed by good gang choirs is what you will get here. The sound is changing through the songs, for example songs like "When the Day Comes" and "Those Who Go & Those Who Stay" are more rock'n'roll-ish (here you will here that cockrock influences I was talking about), while "Minimum Wage/Maximum Slave" as a more Conflict feeling to it all, and "Fight to Win Fight to Lose" is definitely sounding more Oi! In the end it reminds me, once again, a lot of that whole Boston-Oi! scene (namely Battle Ruins, Hammer and The Nails or Tommy and the Terrors), or bands like Hired Goons and Syndrome 81, mixing musical genres to end up with a great sounding result.
But the most important with Urban Savage is definitely the lyrics. I hope you like songs about drinking beers and being a smartly dressed skinhead. Because that's absolutely NOT what Urban Savage is about. These guys will bring you back straight to reality, reminding you what life really is. And it's dark and hard according to them. And they're right. The lyrics deals with what's wrong with society, how you get fucked up by it and how you should not give up and fight back. For that matter I would definitely associate them with Hammer and the Nails, because they deal with the same kind of subject (and have kind of the same sound influences, to me) : everything that is wrong with the modern world. If I had to choose my favourite song on that 12", it would definitely be "Wolves", the bass line, the dark ambience, the lyrics... Everything is just perfect to me in that song. But once again, every songs are good on that album.
As the band said themselves, this records includes "no download codes - no silkscreened cover - no free lollipops". Everything is straight to the point, DIY insert, plain black vinyl, good "let the thunder roar in Malmö" (I guess the cover is depicting Malmö ?) looking artwork (it's self-released by the band through their own label, Savage Records). You don't need more than this and you will anyway not get anything better than this. Because Urban Savage are just fucking brilliant. If you want to listen to something more than just "Oi! Oi! drink beers wear boots", if you want reality to punch you right back in the face, and if you're into great music, then Urban Savage is made for you. If you don't, you can still continue listening to Evil Conduct. But that's your problem. Anyway, it's always good to see that Sweden is producing some of the best actual punk bands, I mean, between them and Sabotage, both producing great music with clever and socialy aware lyrics, it just doesn't get better than this. I read that these guys were going to have a new song on the upcoming volume (number 8 if I'm not wrong) of Turist i Tillvaron (which is a great swedish punk compilation serie. If you want to know what's going on in Sweden right now, get these records, because they're great and they give a wide perspective of the swedish scene), and I can only be glad with that because I want to hear more from Urban Savage. This is definitely a record you want to have, so make yourself a favor, contact the band and get this 12". I can assure you you won't regret it ! This record is going to be the prefect soundtrack to my winter ! Here you can listen to some of the songs included in the full length.
After a short pause, here I am again. And so is the band we'll be talking about tonight, namely The Clichés, from Norrköping, Sweden (yes, again). Last time I heard from The Clichés was through their 2012 LP Streetrock for the Working Class, which was, as its two older brothers, insanely good. But this 7" is not the same as the band's previous releases. First, correct me if I'm wrong, the singer Dennis is now all alone (though there's a guest vocalist and pianist on this release). Second, the sound as evolved. A lot. In a very good way. Sure, you will recognize the band (assuming that you have listened to them before, if not fix that mistake right now you fool !), but the style is quite different. You will, here, clearly hear glam rock/pub rock influences, they were there before, but now they've been pushed to the max. They have a genre for that in Sweden, which is called gubbrock I think ? Anyway, think Slade, Sweet, or to take more recent bands, the great Giuda, Suede Razors and basically that '77 Chiswick sound. You got it, it can't be wrong (it's anyway never wrong with The Clichés). Excellent vocals and backvocals, rock'n'rollish flaming guitar gimmicks and there's even some piano on the second song, "Riot". You will want to dance to these songs I promise you that. And of course, still a lot of clichés in the lyrics (basically, beat the shit out of everyone with your mates). All that is wrapped in a nice old school cover (great artwork !), which, once again, remind me of some of Giuda's artwork (less old fashioned perhaps). No insert, and so no lyrics (too bad for me). There are 100 copies in orange, the rest is in regular black. I'm kind of happy with the return of that glam-ish/pub-ish sound all over the world. Sweden didn't really had it so far (or maybe with The Manics, also from Norrköping, but they sound more power-pop, not much Oi! influences there, but still, they're really good as well. Excellent comeback by The Clichés, definitely one on of the best releases so far this year. The only bad thing with it is that it's so short ! I hope we'll get more soon !
When it goes down to doing great music, swedish Oi! is always somewhere near. The swedes know how to do great melodic songs, usually along with good lyrics (in swedish as well as in english). Sabotage, a rather new band from Stockholm (capital of Scandinavia, as the panel says), fits perfectly in that description. Given the musical past of the band members, that's not a big surprise : these guys have been or are still involved in Agent Bulldogg, Antipati, Vindicate This! or Contemptuous, to quote a few. Great bands, to make it short. The first time I heard about Sabotage was last summer, in July I guess. I was immediately struck by how good the band was. Think about an even more melodic version of the Templars (for the whole sound, which would be almost distortionless guitars), with great texts about everyday life (in swedish, which give the band even more charm to me, it's always better -and probably easier- to express your feelings in your own language, at least it is to me). If you happen to have that record, take 10 minutes and translate the lyrics (even with shit Google Translate, at least you'll get the spirit), they worth it. And as I said, great melodies going on as well, especially the light/simple (in the good way) but extremely efficient solo guitar. Nothing fancy there, but I couldn't think of any better lead guitars than these for those songs. They give an extremely melancholic (couldn't think of any other better word to express what I feel) feeling to the whole thing. So we have here 3 songs, "Färdiga Doktriner" which is, if I understood well, a song against PC idiots and moralists, which are for sure a plague of the scene. Who needs the advices of the scene-police anyway ? "Bättre Utsikt" is in some way dealing with the same subject as the song before, saying that you don't have to choose a side, and that it's better to stay away from political bullshiters and idiots. Stay away and watch them run like sheeps, that's pretty much the message. Last song, "Inget Tack", is my favorite song. It's all about working class pride and how even if you work hard for the greater good and give everything you have you will never get anything back, not even a thank, and you will end up a less than nothing, thank neoliberalism for that. That one is extremely well written, that's not your usual "oi! oi! working class drink beer boots and braces" going on here, and that's for the better. I can see what I think is a reference to Ebba Grön here ("Stat och kapital och nyliberalism/I samma båt i en hav av skit och piss"), so this can't be bad. The cover consist of a yellow griffin head on an oxblood background (my guess is that the griffin head is a reference to one of the Stockholm's county emblem, but I can be wrong on that though). Inside you'll get an inner sleeve with lyrics and thanks. Note that the vinyl is a nice oxblood with yellow splatter one, to fit with the global artwork of the cover. Nice object ! All in all, Betraktelser Från Staketet is a strong release by pretty Shitty Town, I was really looking forward to it (from what I understood it was supposed to be out a little sooner) and I'm not disappointed at all. Even if 2014 just started, that's clearly one of this year's best record. I hope we'll get more of that soon ! Don't hesitate to get this record, this is nothing less than a pure blast !
Let's continue with the Templars. Here's their last work, a split with the legendary Stockholm stolthet aka Agent Bulldogg. From what I know (and actually, as explained on the record's back cover), that split 7" should have seen the light almost ten years ago, but fell apart for some reason... Well whatever, now it's out ! So, one song from the Templars and two from Agent Bulldogg. The Templars give us their version of Agent Bulldogg's classic "Livsstil" ("lifestyle", from their first 12" that has the same name), sung in english and recorded in 1994. This version is way softer than the original, pretty different I must say (which makes it a great cover, because there's no point of recording a cover if you're gonna do the exact same as the original one), but as good as the swedish version. As always, that particular melodic sound that makes it all so great, top song for me. Agent Bulldogg's side (with a line up, back then, including 2 original members and 3 guys from their compatriots Antipati, only 2 nowadays) start with a cover from the Templars' "Vision of a Future" ("Framtidsvisioner" in swedish, originally released on Templars' Beauséant 7") with a nice addition of saxophone (the french touch maybe ?), great cover as well. Their other song is a new one called "Storebror" ("Big Brother") about us being watched by cameras every single second of our lives (though I guess the reference to Orwell's 1984 was quite obvious, regarding the song's title). Once again pretty strong and melodic, as often with swedish Oi!. What we have here is a strong come back from the swedish bulldogs ! All that comes with a nice cover (including all pictures of both band members together on a Templar cross/Swedish flag background on the front and, as I said before, a short explanation about that split 7" and how both bands got in touch together back in the days) and includes an insert with the lyrics (for the Agent Bulldogg songs only though) and thanklists from from both bands. Please note that 100 copies of the record come with an orange-colored vinyl, the rest are in regular black. Nice split between two great bands, this is definitely a must have, especially if you're into melodic stuffs (which I am, actually). Only fools and deaf people won't like that one !
