I’ve had this feature with Spielbergs sitting in drafts for literally over a year now.
If anyone in Spielbergs is reading this… I am sorry.
If it is any kind of consolation I still really enjoy your latest release and first full-length This Is Not The End very very much. This Is Not The End is 12 songs of fuzzy 90s inspired indie noise rock stuff. It is great!
Please Spielbergs forgive me, especially Mads Baklien and Stian Brennskag from the band who took time to participate in Favorite Overrated Underrated and then I never posted it. Also, I apologize to Christian Løvhaug who is also in Spielbergs, but didn’t participate in the feature. I wanted to tell you sorry as well just to make sure all my bases are covered.
But! Look it’s posted. You are reading it. It is glorious! Wow!
Does this mean I am forgiven? Probably not. Oh, well.
Anyway, check out Spielbergs. They are dope!
Mads Baklien
Favorite Album: Tragedy – Tragedy (2000)
I really do not have one favorite album. The list of those grows longer every year. But lately I have been coming back to the crust punk D-beat legends Tragedy. Their self-titled album from the year 2000 is a blazing collection of beautifully dark and furious guitars, caveman drumming, angry desperation, and just great tunes. And it’s catchy as hell. There are a lot of great melodies and harmonies in the guitars buried deep in the crust and noise of this band of punk orcs.
Overrated Band: The Doors
I’ve never understood why people like The Doors. I mean, come on! All that acid, and all you can come up with is the blues?
Underrated Artist: Enya
My mom and dad used to listen to Enya when I was a kid. I remember the Sunday afternoons with them sleeping on the couch accompanied by this New age free spirit from Ireland. This definitely made Enya uncool for me and my brother for many, many years, and I didn’t even consider trying to understand her music until a couple of years ago. Now I have come to respect this Irish elf who sits locked up in her castle, smoking her Shire leaf pipe-weed, coughing up one synth arpeggio after another. The three first albums sounds great to me. Is it the big sweeping synths and the beautiful melodies? Absolutely. Is it nostalgia and the background noise of my childhood years? Most definitely. Am I turning into my parents? Inevitably.
Stian Brennskag
Favorite Album: Motorpsycho – Timothy’s Monster
If you’re Norwegian, listening to Motorpsycho while getting through your teens is kind of mandatory I think. Especially if you’re in a band yourself. These guys thought me about music through their records, and still holds a special place in my heart and ears. Timothy’s Monster starts with a quiet guitar, that plays the riff wrong… Kind of a statement I guess, “beauty of imperfection” or something. But from there, the rest of side A is just pure indie-pop perfection. Throw in a banjo here and there, a song about sleeping all through the day and some intense drumming, and you got the perfect record for getting you through the late teens.
But there’s a flipside to Timothy’s, actually the B-side. Four long, explorative songs that show a different side of the band. Meditative, long build-ups, melodies that take minutes to unfold before they burst into blistering climaxes. Also, Grindstone is so noisy that it will ruin the day of everyone around you when you listen to it.
This record re-defined what a record could and should be for me, and it still holds to this day.
Overrated Band: Death Cab For Cutie
Never understood this band, or why it was indie. The songs are boring, the sound is too produced. And they just don’t do it for me. I liked Postal Service though.
Underrated Album: A-ha – Scoundrel Days
Don’t know if it can be called underrated as it sold shitloads of copies, and confirmed their status as superstars, but I think many people see them as just pretty boys with cartoon music videos. This is a really good album, with some of the best pop-songs that I know, and I find myself coming back to it all the time. Could be a Norwegian thing again, I know… But really I think this is just good songwriting, paired with top-notch production and some ridiculously good hooks.
When we recorded This Is Not The End we actually met the bass player from a-ha, who ran a studio upstairs from where we were recording. He was really nice and supportive, so in a way, I guess we’re A-ha-approved!
