by Antero Garcia from LALOCALMUSICSCENE (feature article)
Between the well to do and the punk-like true-blooded musicians stands a handful of lads who don't quite fit either of the two contrasting molds present at the festive barbeque. Huddled in boots, jeans, and flatly non-Californian pale white skin, the members of The (International) Noise Conspiracy and The Hives excitedly gabble in rapidly fired Swedish; their native tongue. Apparently, from what their flailing arms and shifty smiles gesture, one of the musicians in the band has discovered the room tucked deep in the heart of Epitaph where the punk label keeps its promotional CDs. The satisfied Sweden proudly displays to his tour mates the booty from his search; nearly a dozen CDs, all brand new, and best of all, free.
As members of the two bands sit down to do interviews outside in the mildly pleasant Los Angeles sun, the rest of the band members would slowly take turns casually working their way to the back of the label headquarters, ravishing the seemingly never ending supply of free shit. After all, isn't that what this whole touring thing from Europe is all about? That and performing in hip clubs to sold out enthusiastic crowds all over the country, revitalizing the punk music scene, enjoying the warm summer of California (it's dark for several weeks in Sweden), and kicking back to some old school country music.
Country music? Unfortunately so, at least according to Howlin' Pelle Almqvist of The Hives. While performing in Texas, the band got the opportunity to see one of their country music favorites: Dale Watson.
"He's the best country singer," he said. "We like old country. New country music like Brooks and Dunn is no good - that type of country music is the most foreign thing in America. Nobody can understand that music outside of the U.S." Another thing that the two bands are enjoying here in America that they are deprived of in Sweden is daylight. Because the bands' home country is so close to the North Pole, it suffers an annual period of time in which there is no complete daylight in the winter. "You better have a girlfriend before winter," Almqvist warned.
Though all of the members of The Hives currently have girlfriends, they are still finding enough entertainment while on tour. With having to travel from one city to the next on a daily basis comes the opportunity to do some damn serious Swedish kick-assing partying. "Everyday is Saturday night," Chris Dangerous, lead singer of The Hives said. "But that's probably because we get beer and liquor everyday at work. Imagine going into work everyday and having beer and Jack Daniels at your desk. We have to do something with it. But we never play drunk - we are too good playing sober." As popular as the band is here in America, they are even bigger sensations in Europe, where they performed at the prestigious Pinkpop music festival. As many audiences as the band has played for Pinkpop was the biggest. However with a large audience comes a couple of hindrances. "That's the most people that you have ever seen looking at you," Dangerous said. "The audience reaction is a lot slower. The more people that you put in a group, the dumber they get."
Despite the fact that the bands have played for audiences of thousands, they are nevertheless appreciative of the positive response they have received in a foreign continent. As Inge Johansson of The (International) Noise Conspiracy explained, he was surprised that even 40 people were willing to show up to see their shows. One reason for his surprise is that fact that the band is political in nature, their songs are filled with messages of socialism.
"We weren't sure how a socialist rock band would do in L.A.," he said. "L.A. is known for being shallow with its palm trees and its expensive cars. But I guess that we are like a novelty."
Yeah, a novelty. Just think of them as a Swedish, less angry version of Rage Against the Machine. Oh, and they don't rap and their guitar player sure as hell didn't go to Harvard. But get one thing straight; The (International) Noise Conspiracy has an agenda.
Perhaps no one spells out the mission of T(I)NC more clearly than Johansson: "Our goal is to sell 1 million records or overthrow capitalism. We want to be a big rock band, but we also want to be considered a threat. We want the PMRC to be picketing outside of our shows."
Meanwhile, as Johansson seems ready to recite ad nauseam, The Communist Manifesto, the rest of his band mates have taken the non-interviewing opportunity to score themselves their free CDs; that's the socialist way.
On a related note, it seems that another aspect of the socialist way - or at least te (I)NC way is having a keen fashion sense. Unfortunately, the socially conscious band felt that the flashy clothing they enjoy wearing would interfere with their political preaching.
"We wanted to wear suits to look sassy and cool," Johansson explained. "We are into fashion and I think that's super-cool. But also we decided that the things that we say are as important as how we say it, so we look to be a collective and to embody collectivity. We are those 'damn commies.'"
And while crowd after crowd is pouring in nightly, shelling out some greenbacks to scalpers to catch the seemingly anti-American band there has been more than a little controversy surrounding T(I)NC. Surprisingly, it seems that people here in the ol' USA get a little uptight when rebelling rock bands start talking about overthrowing the government. "In the U.S. we are more controversial than back home because of the 'American way' and the 'American tradition,'" Johansson said. "By spreading the Bolshevik propaganda people seem to see us rebels and kids seem to like that. But in Sweden there is a long tradition of left-wing rock bands, so it isn't as big of a deal."
As Johansson continues to elaborately spell out his band's mission, damn near all of his other tour mates have filled their shoulder bags and backpacks with free Epitaph merchandise. Further back in the studio, amidst the many cars parked at Epitaph, the members of The Hives laugh in Swedish. It seems that one of the band mates while rummaging amongst Bad Religion and All CDs found a stack of posters of The Hives.
But wait a minute, does anyone else here think it's just a little ironic that these bands are promoting socialism while simultaneously profiting from a capitalist system where teenagers and hip college students spend well-earned money on their CDs.
"There's no way avoiding it," Johansson said. "You can't really live as a socialist in a capitalistic society. We realize that this record label (Epitaph) is going to sell our record as a commodity, but then we get to do interviews and stuff and spread our message. We're sort of parasiting on each other. But I do have to say that it is a bit of a paradox." So T(I)NC may have some discrepancies with working through Epitaph, but hey, at least they along with The Hives can score some free CDs ... that is until they overthrow capitalism.
