Down Is Up discusses music that falls slightly under the radar of our usual coverage: demos and self-releases, as well as output from small or overlooked labels and communities. This week, Jenn Pelly highlights music from Swedish indie-pop band Makthaverskan, a new 7" from Grass Widow side-project Bridge Collapse, and a video from the Courtneys.
01 Makthaverskan - If you asked me about Swedish music in 2013, I'd likely throw my hands up and wail a very out-of-tune "Call Your Girlfriend"... or mention Goat. Pop singer/songwriter Jens Lekman would probably come to mind, as would the Knife's synth-pop manifestos, the balearic sounds of Studio (R.I.P.), and the rest of the Swedish pop tradition outlined in Marc Hogan's recent history of the Sincerely Yours label.
Guitars, and the various strands of scrappy rock and indie pop they allow, would be another story. "In Stockholm, there is no scene," Pitchfork's Jeremy Larson wrote last year in his review of Forever by Holograms, one of the only Swedish post-punk bands to recently cross my radar. And while I'd heard of the punk scene in Malmö, specifically the band Terrible Feelings, this 2013 LP from six-year-old Gothenburg band Makthaverskan has moved me most—a soaring, hard-hitting dream-pop record that's dark in theme but sonically all blue-skies.
I'd heard about Makthaverskan II (thanks to Impose) but didn't really process its raw, visceral urgency until this recent feature on the blog Coco's OCD, in which the band describes its origins setting out to fend off and totally invert the "happy and cute pop music" coming out of Gothenburg around 2008. They played their first gig at a squat with only a few songs and a drum kit made of cardboard boxes and metal lampshades. Their sound has become nearly anthemic since then, but vocalist Maja Milner still shouts her heart out like there's no microphone in sight. "Fuck you for fucking me when I was seventeen," Maja sings on II's height of power, "No Mercy", ill-wishing a lover who stole her youth and sense of self. "You never loved me/ You wanted to own me/ Your time will come, my friend." She wins.
02 Bridge Collapse - In their seven years of existence, the leaderless San Francisco trio Grass Widow have become known for their approach to impressionistic post-punk: Interlocking three-part harmonies and an otherworldly chemistry bind members Hannah Lew, Raven Mahon, and Lillian Maring. Dummer and vocalist Maring released her first solo LP as Ruby Pins last year, while Lew, who is also a filmmaker, began a new label, Crime on the Moon. Her first release was a single from her own side-project Cold Beat. Next up is a new trio that finds Lew regrouping with Mahon to write songs as Bridge Collapse, a more driving and shambolic strand of surf-punk that brings guitar feedback, buried spoken passages, and spiky basslines into the mix. Check out the A-side of their new 7", "Wilderness" here, which also features Jon Shade of primitive SF punk band Rank/Xerox on drums.
Bridge Collapse: "Wilderness" on SoundCloud.
03 The Courtneys "Lost Boys" video - Last year Vancouver trio the Courtneys released a great and somewhat overlooked 12" of smart kiwi-style post-punk, which they're planning to follow up sometime this year with a new full-length record. Check out the video for its first single "Lost Boys" below, directed by Rose Gagnon and shot by Andrew Volk. (The song and video are an homage to the film of the same name.) "Lost Boys" will also be out as a single this month through Burger Records.