Artist: Viking Truckers
Viewing posts
1-4 out of
4
More homemade vinyl rips yet again this week -- in case you missed it, I posted an old Bitch Boys track from their New Romantic period last week and if you head back a full month, you'll find a link for the full Viking Truckers album in the comments. Today's selection: Reeperbahn with "Havet ligger blankt" ("The sea is blank"), the first track off their 1979 self-titled debut, easily their finest hour. I do like their later, more postpunk years, but when they first hit the scene as a punky power-pop band, that's when they were at their best. There's definitely a bit of the spirit of '78 in this one too, though it's tempered by jangly guitars and a catchy chorus. No synths in sight and nowhere near as theatrical as The Rezillos, but still kind of the same vibe, especially in the bass playing. Know your history!
If people are interested in hearing more please let me know in the comments.
Reeperbahn - Havet ligger blankt
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show:
01. Logh - Saturday nightmares
02. TALK 1
03. Pay TV - Miss Capitalist
04. TST - No teenage future
05. Dmitry Fyodorov - Wolfbrigade
06. TALK 2
07. The Opium Cartel - Flicker girl (ft. Rachel Haden)
08. Bjorn Ulvaeus & Benny Andersson - Någonting är pa väg
09. On Volcano - Out of sight
10. TALK 3
11. Lemonator - Heart burns
12. Loudpipes - Downhill blues
13. The Greencoats - Honey
14. TALK 4
15. Christian and Karla-Therese Kjellvander - Two souls
16. Detektivbyrån - Neonland
17. Knife and Ape - Upset blues
18. TALK 5
19. Cut City - Replacement
20. Culkin - Twin Lakes annual
21. Last Days of April - Playerin
22. TALK 6
23. Viking Truckers - Love on the road
Reminder: my show on Sirius Left of Center (channel 26) airs Sundays at 11pm ET with repeats on Monday.
Okay, so I'm browsing through records in Stockholm and I come across the LP pictured above and hell no, there is no way in hell I'm gonna pass on this. Most of you out there are probably unaware, but besides Scandinavian music, I listen to a heckuva lot of country and a lot of that country also happens to be trucker music. My collection is by no means exhaustive, but I do have at least 7-8 CDs of the stuff and I'm always on the lookout for more. I'm not sure exactly when the trucker country genre came to be, but it sure took the world by storm with "Convoy" in the late 70s and it seems that even Sweden was not immune. Hence, Viking Truckers and their sole (?) full-length album "Love on the road". Just look at that cover! Those shirts! Those beards! Those bandannas! That Volvo bigrig! The band was actually a short-lived sideproject of Bob Lander from The Spotnicks along with Stefan Ericsson as co-conspirator/co-writer, a man whose background I am clueless about.
As for the music, well it's mostly straightforward early 80s country (very countrypolitan, not totally coked-out yet), except it's kinda weird in new, unexpected ways. I mean, I knew it wasn't going to sound like Red Sovine or Red Simpson, but listen to that bagpipe! On the very first song and title track! WTF?! But on the other hand, the pedal steel solo is solid and the lyrics are properly sleazy, just as it should be for the style. This is the sort of record where I can't really tell you that it's "good", but I sure am glad I bought it.
Viking Truckers - Love on the road
Not all of the records I picked up during my Stockholm shopping extravaganza were guaranteed hits. Indeed, quite a few were quite dubious, but I figured what the heck, when else am I gonna come across something like Viking Truckers? How can I pass that up? It's not possible. Don't worry, I'll get scans and mp3s for that one eventually, but the record I want to talk about this week is The Tapirs, which is Swedish postpunks Camouflage singing på Engelska. I figured there was a pretty good chance it was gonna suck as some of the band's later material isn't so hot, but whatever, if I'm gonna pick up the rest of their discography (with some of the old postcards still in the sleeve too! awesome!), I might as well add it to the stack. Luckily, the gamble paid off as the record is actually the same old songs as before, just overdubbed with new vocals. In other words, the songs that were so-so to begin with are still generally so-so, but the best material is just as awesome as ever. Case in point: "My violet you", the new version of "Violetta du" off the band's self-titled debut album. For Swedish-deficient dummies like myself it's great to hear the song in a language I can understand, but what it really comes down to is that it's just a damn good song. I was concerned that vocalist Ola Jörhall's pronunciation might not be up to snuff, but he does the job just fine. I guess the goal of international success never panned out though, or I suppose I would've heard of this record by now. Anyhow, like I said, it's good stuff so check it out.
Note for the audiophiles/collectors: this vinyl rip ran a little hot, so if you're interested in getting more of the album, give me a holler and I'll redo it.
The Tapirs - My violet you