Bergen is already home to The Whitest Boy Alive, Röyksopp, Ungdomskulen and Datarock.Casiokids continue in the fine tradition of great acts to come out of the Norwegian city.
Having fallen in love with the band’s single from a few years ago ‘Fot I Hose‘ I was really eager to hear some more and ‘Det Haster!‘ (meaning literally “it’s urgent!”) does not disappoint.
Managing to deliver electronica-tinged music whilst playing instruments as a band can be hit and miss at times but the 4-piece succeed gloriously. In addition Of Montreal provide a special remix of the track to mix it
While we await news on a new album Casiokids plan some live dates including a bunch of performances in the UK towards the end of November.
‘Det Haster!‘ is taken from the album ‘Aabenbaringen over aaskammen‘ and is out now on Moshi Moshi.
We caught up with all female Norwegian 4-piece Katzenjammer to discuss TV obsessions, gigs in the North Pole and Genesis covers. Here is how it went:
Cougar Microbes: What time did you wake up today? Was it out of choice or necessity?
Katzenjammer : I got up at 4 am today and it was NOT out of choice, but because we had to catch an early flight to Austria to get to a festival there in time. But we kind of get used to irregular time schedules in this business.
CM: Describe Katzenjammer to the uninitiated? What have you been up to recently?
KJ: Katzenjammer is a illimitable band both musically, visually and mentally. No limitations and a lot of fun. We´re 4 girls twirling around with 15 instruments on stage. The genre is indescribable, but belongs to the folk roots with hints of rock, pop, circus, and impressions from all around the world. Recently we´ve worked on our new album ‘A Kiss Before You Go‘ and we´ve been touring a lot all over Europe and some in Australia and the US as well.
CM: How have you been killing time on the road, hobbies?
KJ: We´ve got different hobbies. Some of us likes to go for a run or do yoga, some likes to work on new songs and some do the hula hoop. But we all love to watch TV-series and I think we´ve seen pretty much everything by now. Right now we´re waiting for the next season of Dexter, Mad Men and True Blood. Can´t wait!!
CM: What have been your favorite venues to play? Any Venues you hated?
KJ: I can´t recall that we´ve been to any venues we´ve hated so far. If we have, I´ve forgotten it by now. But we´ve played on several great ones. The biggest and most spectacular must be the O2 Arena in London where we supported Keane in 2009. With a capacity of over 20.000 people, it was a positive shock to enter the stage.
The most bizarre venue we´ve played at was in Murmansk in Russia. There were cages a few feet above the floor containing naked ladies dancing energetically to our music even though we did ballads or up-tempo tunes.
And the most beautiful venue we´ve played at was outside on the deck on a boat a few miles outside the coast of Spitsbergen. That is way up north, almost the north pole actually. And we were surrounded by snow and ice covered mountains with hundreds of birds flying above our heads and a polar bear in the horizon.
CM: Is there a song you are simply sick of playing?
KJ: Of course you get more tired of some songs in periods, but the good thing is that we´ve got enough songs to be able to skip the ones we sort of dislike. And after a while it´s just fun to put it into the set again. Right now I actually like all the songs in our set. Because the new songs gives life to the old ones.
CM: What is the songwriting process like for Katzenjammer. Are you able to write on the road or do you do this in your off time?
KJ: Most of the songwriting happens on our off time. When we´re out on the road there´s always something going on and it´s a tight schedule. But if we write songs on tour it´s usually for other projects just to focus on something else when we can.
CM: Favorite Katzenjammer track and why?
KJ: Right now I think my favorite Katzenjammer track is from our newest album, and the song is a cover version of Genesis, ‘Land Of Confusion‘. It´s rock´n´roll, a lot of energy and coolness. I´m very satisfied with the result.
CM: If you could record any cover what would it be?
KJ: Difficult to choose only one. But I think if we´re doing another cover again it has to be something that´s musically very different from us. Maybe ‘Master of Puppets‘ by Metallica or something.
CM: Do your songs go through many revisions via demo recordings?
KJ: It depends on the song. Sometimes the arrangements and the melody is just there ready to be played when we write the songs. Other times the songs require more time and work to become perfect. The way we get to this point is to jam with each other and experiment different ideas. If we record any demos, it´s usually just for our own use and nothing nobody ever gets the chance to listen to.
CM: What came first, the lyrics or the melody?
KJ: That depends on the song too. But most of the time the melody comes first. And the lyrics might even come years later. It depends on many things, what kind of song you wanna write, if it´s personal or not.
CM: What are your views on auto tune?
KJ: I think you should be very careful with the usage of too much auto tune. A lot of today’s, especially pop, music use this both as an effect and to «clean» up the vocals. And by doing so you lose a lot of warmth and temperature in the performance. And for me it´s a big NO GO on live performances!
CM: Any other band/bands from your local scene we really should know about?
KJ: Norway´s got a strong musical scene these days. There´s several great female artists like Susanne Sundfør, Rockettothesky, Marit Larsen and Hanne Hukkelberg. We´ve also got some great bands like Team Me, Superfamily, Knudsen & Ludvigsen and many more.
CM: Most flattering thing you’ve read about yourselves?
KJ: After “Next big thing” in London, a reviewer wrote “With A-ha now retired, who better to fly the flag for Norway than these four talented women.” That`s a huge compliment and we´ll carry it with us around the world trying to do so.
CM: What was the first record/tape/cd you ever bought?
KJ: It was a tape of the norwegian singer/songwriter Claudia Scott, ‘Flowers and Thorns‘ when I was around 9 years old.
CM: What was the last song that got stuck in your head?
KJ: A Norwegian song called ‘Vår beste dag’ by Erik Bye and Jon Rosslund.
CM: What was the last show you paid and queued up for?
KJ: I think it has to be AC/DC last summer in Oslo. It was fantastic!
CM: If you had to bring on artist back from the dead in exchange for sending a living artist down ,which artists would it be and why?
KJ: I´m not a fan of name dropping other artists I don´t like, because it´s all just a matter of taste and I don´t want my opinions to affect others. So I don´t want to send any living artists down. But if I could bring a dead artist back to life, it would have to be Jimi Hendrix!
“Did you ever know that you’re my hero? You are the wind beneath my wings.”
Brilliant? Yes. Entirely irrelevant? No. At least not quite. But nearly.
One of my musical heros said that bands and artists nowadays take no risks. One of my other musical heros said that bands and artists have lost their mystery.
The mysterious Norwegian ‘Ungdomskulen‘ have made a bold musical statement and in turn, taken a bold risk with thir playful new 7″ project. 10 Tracks long and a minute long each. They released these songs every Monday and Friday starting back from May 2nd on their website and on Soundcloud. The EP is named ‘Gimme Ten‘.
I’ll start by saying what an exciting and tricky task it must have been to write this material. Or maybe not. Maybe this was as easy and painless as writing can get? Never the less, no other band to my knowledge have successfully tried this before and what a cool sound Ungdonskulen have to work with.
Sometimes during certain songs, there are middle eights and bridges and parts that you really want to go on forever. However isn’t that what makes a song exciting? Making you want to listen to them again even if it is just for that one part that makes you want to go crazy or that tingles your spine?
One example I can think of is the middle eight to ‘Feel Good Inc‘ by the Gorillaz. Or perhaps a cooler example; the outro to ‘Groovy Kind Of Love‘ by Phil Collins. Just kidding….(I bloody love you Collins.)
By creating ten artistic pieces that you barely get a chance to get into you get this very effective feel that you’ve just listened to a full album stacked with melody, rhythm, original ideas and balls. It just turns out ‘Gimme Ten‘ is a solid prog album without the wankerage.
‘Self Made Woman‘ sounds like Battles smothering Pink Floyd but with more an idea of where they are going. The melodies are simple but strong.
‘Tears Of Joy‘ musically sounds like the coolest sega mega drive game soundtrack with hints of eighties vocal play, drowning in the sea of anglular rhythms.
‘Walking The Dog‘ feels like Manu Chau has been round for a beer and messed with your favourite Beatles song, while you were too drunk to notice. It’s mellow but feels like there is a dark undertone to it all.
‘It’s Official‘ is a loaded gun just gone off whilst ‘Elle‘ guitar finger taps it’s way down a loan highway at night (Be it the shortest highway in the world.)
The gem in this EP for me was the Queens Of The Stone Age-like ‘Number One‘. I love the experimental sounds, but I have to say this straight out rocker is a live opener and a hit in it’s own right. Considering it’s only a minute long, it had me wanting to go mental right from the off. It’s like the best ever and shortest quickie in the world. Like when your missus has been away on holiday and just got back. Anyways….
It got me thinking though (Not much does), that is it just my favourite as it is the most accessible? Am I eating the very words my musical heros said by going straight for the song I understand and can relate other music to?
So cheers Ungdomskulen, you gave me an awesome little EP and made me think (for an hour.)
Norwegian band Team Me have been recieving a lot of attention at Cougar HQ lately. Their track ‘Dear Sister‘ is seemingly on on repeat on the office stereo (and that is a lot of on’s).
The band look set to release their debut 5-track EP in early April and will also be performing across the UK in support of The Wombats this month; following on from dates with British Sea Power a few weeks ago.
Cougar Microbes will hopefully catch the band live when they hit London to hear how the track we keep spinning come across from stage.
Five friends from Bergen, Norway, came together as the Real Ones 11 years ago while still in their mid teens, and have played ever since, gaining a reputation on the Northern European indie circuit as one of the more colourful live performers around.
With long blond hair, sprouting tufts of beard, and loud patterned shirts, they wouldn’t be out of place somewhere on the American West Coast during the 70’s. Their folksy sounds fuse psychedelic African rhythms with 3 part harmonies, 60’s pop with funky Indo-Chinese sounds, and Mbaqanga with organic rock. Each band member plays a variety of acoustic instruments, creating a rhythmical orgy of guitars, banjo, Bouzouki, Indian Jaisalmer Violin, Wurlitzer, ukulele, and fiddle, probably washed down with copious amounts of akevitt.
From the nostalgic choruses in ‘Every Dog Has It’s Day’ and ‘Lonesome Town‘, to the retro funkadelic ‘Outlaw’, and the delicate tones throughout, these songs are a bubbly collection of intelligent and adventurous, yet strangely familiar tunes.
If you like Wilco, the Beach Boys, and lazy sunny afternoons, you’ll love the feel-good optimism exuded by the Real Ones.
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