By:Larm 2008 - Hunting for Good Tunes in Oslo

[Above: Benni Hemm Hemm]

[Editor’s note: after posting the entry below, I realized that I mis-identified two of the key bands I talked about. Rather than fire myself as foreign correspondent (which I really don’t want to do—Oslo is too cool), I will now try to shift the blame away from my own idiocy and lack of any sort of fact-checking and onto technology, cultural barriers and bizarre coincidence. My edits are in brackets.]

When we started Paste nearly six years ago, I spent a good portion of my time listening to new music and deciding what got covered. I sifted through stacks of CDs each week, selecting them almost at random. Without the experience to sift out the likely chaff—never an exact science—it was all potential wheat. Each time I popped a new album in, it was with the hope that its contents might surprise and delight me. And it was in those early days I stumbled across albums like Josh Ritter’s Golden Age of Radio and Rosie Thomas’ When We Were Small—albums that made the ridiculously long hours and constant uncertainty of the business worthwhile.

But as the business became more stable, we could afford to hire other editors, tremendously talented individuals who could bring focus to the individual sections of the magazine. The more duties I could unload to Jason, Steve, Kate, Austin, Rachael and Nick, the more detail could go into each section, the more I could focus on the big picture and the better the magazine got. But sadly, it’s much less frequent that I go to the stacks and make random discoveries.

This week I’m in Oslo—my first trip to the region—for by:Larm, Norway’s answer to SXSW. I have the opportunity to do in a live environment what I used to do in my office, discover new artists. I’d heard of exactly one artist, Serena Maneesh, before hopping on the plane yesterday (unless you count the lone American playing here, Ken Stringfellow, who apparently has new Norwegian bandmates in The Disciplines).

My first music conference in 2002 was CMJ’s Music Marathon in New York. Again, with not much besides fate to guide me that first year, I found myself in the basement of the Museum of Television and Radio where a young man from Bergen, Norway, was playing the kind of catchy pop tunes where the melodies went in unexpected places that in hindsight felt like the most obvious arrangements of notes. I was completely disarmed by the young Sondre Lerche who’d only arrived in the U.S. the night before.

Since then, Scandinavian music has held a special place for me with artists like Loney, Dear; Peter, Bjorn & John; Sigur Ros; Mugison; and Annie putting out some of my favorite records in that time period. Loney, Dear played last year’s By:Larm before his debut came out on Sub Pop. So after reading about 128 bands playing the festival, I left with excitement to see what Oslo’s night clubs had to offer [and with no watch, as my stupid Motorola Q has no slot for the chip that would’ve made it work in Norway, and thus, no way to keep track of who exactly is scheduled to perform.]

My first stop was the giant mall in the middle of downtown—I also needed a power converter so I could type up this post tonight. At Platekompaniets, the giant record store inside, I learned that just because a five-piece string band (Ila Auto) sounds like they’re from Kentucky when they sing doesn’t mean the between-song jokes are going to be in English. I also learned that Brandi Carlile and Vampire Weekend are huge in Norway according to Platekompaniets’ top-sellers list. And that Norway is expensive (149.50 NOK—or about $28—for The Story).

My first official showcase was selected with the help of eavesdropping. Twice I heard people talking about Donkey Boy (you notice when the words “Donkey Boy” appear in a sentence of Norwegian), and I figured I’d follow the buzz to John Dee’s. I could see why people showed up—big, bouncy anthemic U2-meets-Big Country songs with an energetic lead singer. It was solid, if not groundbreaking. [And it was indeed Donkey Boy. I poked my head into one of their shows the following night to get positive ID.]

But the next act I saw was certainly original. I’ve always been impressed by how full a sound The White Stripes and The Black Keys can get with just guitars, drums and vocals, but Sweden’s Lykke Li [actually, the Swedish duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums, despite the nice, young man who said the huge line outside was for Lykke Li. Apparently the buzz is so big that the line started early. Fortunately I caught Li the next night (see next post)] dropped the guitars altogether and let her voice fill in the gaps. Backed by primal, toms-heavy drumming, Li channels Björk with just a touch of Nina Simone, covering two octaves while singing lines like “We are all like fishes in the boat.” With her long bangs hiding the tops of her eyes, she a young lady named Mariam Wallentin was a commanding presence, but still, her best songs were the few where she played something akin to an autoharp.

From there, I caught the end of a set from a very different duo of figer-picked guitar and pedal steel. Bergen’s Leiv Reed sounded more like John Denver than Björk, but that’s not a bad thing. I was sad to see the set finish but actually confused that he had started so late].

It wouldn’t be a music festival without a difficult decision, and my biggest one was at 11pm [unfortunately, it was actually 10pm]: Trek across town to see Serena Maneesh, the one band I knew before coming here, or walk next door to check out Benni Hemm Hemm? The fact that Serena already tours the States and the program describes Benni as “if Sufjan Stevens moved to Iceland and joined Sigur Ros” made the decision a bit easier. [But in the end, I saw neither.] Nine people [who are actually in a band called Truls & the Trees] shared the stage, adding instruments like lute, accordian, fiddle and xylophone to the usual mix. It sounded more like Iceland’s answer to The Arcade Fire with shout-sung lyrics and general jubilee on stage. It makes me think that all live bands should have at least eight people—it’s just more fun for everybody. [Apparently, Scandinavia has already taken this to heart. I c’mon… two bands in a row with at least eight people singing quirky indie rock??? It’s like they were trying to mess with me.] And it makes me think that more bands should employ a lute [which Benni Hemm Hemm most decidedly does not. My first tip that something was wrong was reading about BHH’s horn section. I get the Sufjan/Sigur Ros comparison now after listening to them on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/bennihemmhemm). Cool stuff, but I’m glad I stumbled across Truls & the Trees. You can listen to them here - http://www.myspace.com/trulsandthetrees.]

Afterwards, it was to the main tent downtown, where earlier I’d heard that quintessential Norwegian death metal I was expecting. But now it was the reggae-tinged hip-hop of Madcon, where the Norwegian stage banter seemed even stranger coming from a guy who looked like Snoop Dogg. That seemed like as good a time as any to call it a night. [Even though it was only midnight and the band I was trying to see Superfamily would be coming on 30 minutes later. But clearly it was time for me to go… stay tuned for Friday night’s blog.]