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Tuesday 11 September 2012

Scandinavia shows in October and November

A typical Scandinavian crowd
It looks as though we're going to be playing a couple more shows this year, to double the number we played in 2011.

The first is on Saturday 6 October at Cargo, in Shoreditch. We're on from 8-8:30pm, which then leaves us the rest of the night to argue amongst ourselves and hang out with anyone else we know. Cargo is massive, and we've been told by the promoter that there'll be hell to pay if we don't get friends to turn up. So, if you're free that night and fancy a bit of live music, please come down. We'll send out a facebook invite soon.

Cargo is very popular

The second is likely to be on Saturday 17 November at the Banksy Cafe, on Essex Road, which is a ten minute walk from Angel tube station. It's an acoustic show, disguised as a joint birthday party for Tom and I. The Banksy Cafe is so-called because there's a real Banksy (ironically, semi-ruined by graffiti now) on the wall outside. Inside, the decor is great, it's super laid back, they serve booze and stay open until around 1am. They also have a working upright piano, hence the acoustic show. Once again, we'll send out a facebook invite soon.

Banksy Cafe, Essex Road

Finally, please check out Mark McCafferty's photos from the Scandinavia Summer Ball 2012 here. These glamorous shots of men in Moroccan shirts should make you want to attend one of these upcoming shows, especially if you missed the Summer Ball. Hopefully see you at one or both of these shows!

Warrick




Saturday 18 August 2012

I'm not punk, and I'm telling everyone


Pussy Riot
When I was 17, the question 'what is punk?' was as important, and as difficult to answer, as the universal rhetorical question, 'what's the meaning of life?' It was hotly debated in the pages of fanzines like Maximum Rock n Roll and even caused punk rock luminaries like Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys to be physically assaulted for 'selling out'. Of course, it's a trivial issue and was rightfully lampooned by Jawbreaker in the song 'Boxcar'. But it's not entirely meaningless. Reading about the two year prison sentences handed down to the three members of Pussy Riot yesterday for singing an anti-Putin song in Moscow's main cathedral, it struck me that the question 'what is punk?' has been answered. And the answer is 'Pussy Riot are'.

Pussy Riot - unmasked and in court
Why? Because their protest performance was truly about resistance in the face of state and cultural oppression. It was about politics - big, scary politics rather than the local kind particular to one city, region or community. And it was about popular culture - not the industry of pop culture, but the very fabric of Russian society. The target of Pussy Riot's rant was Vladimir Putin who is almost certainly a tyrant (if only with a lower case 't'). But in this case, Putin is the devil simply because he is the ultimate representative of Russia and its people.

The Devil

Singing songs about political leaders you dislike does not make you bold. Jello Biafra was not being particularly punk when he wrote and sang, so imaginatively, about Ronald Reagan, California governor Jerry Brown and Pol Pot. Rather, he was a shrewd businessman (who, like so many shrewd businessmen before and after him, was sued, years later, for ripping off his partners). His business was entertainment. In the early days of his punk career, Biafra was an articulate, humorous and creative critic of corporate America and the Moral Majority. But the Moral Majority, despite their misleading name, were never mainstream American society; rather, they were predecessors of the modern day Tea Party who, however weird, are just as marginal as the hyper-liberal bi-coastal communities that Biafra has, by turns, chided and called his compatriots. And corporate America, despite its poor environmental record, has made life for those living on American soil richer, cheaper and more convenient than in most other parts of the world. Despite his nom de plume, the man his parents named Eric Boucher was an American whose gifts to the world (and they were wonderful rock n roll gifts) were enabled by freedoms of speech, economy and personal movement that are endemic to American life.

Jello Biafra

PMRC's contribution to pop culture
Biafra's greatest claim to being punk was when, in 1986, his home (and office of Alternative Tentacles, his record label) was raided by the police and he was briefly accused of distributing harmful material to minors. It was a political move, he claims, by the Parents Music Resource Centre (PMRC), to send a message to other musicians that writing and selling obscene music could prove to be prohibitively expensive if you faced the likelihood of being taken to court. Led by Tipper Gore, wife of former Vice President Al Gore, the PMRC were more mainstream and, potentially, more powerful than the Moral Majority could ever have hoped to be. There was a court case, and there were probably a few tears, but in the end common sense prevailed. Funnily enough, in 2005 Biafra and his would-be prosecutor, Michael Guarino, publicly reconciled on a US radio programme, and Guarino talked about his change of opinion. A great example of democratic local politics in action.

The PMRC, with Tipper Gore far-right

When the state, rather than simply an individual in a position of power, is against you and everything you stand for, and when the culture at large stands by that prejudice and allows, or uses, the legal system to punish you, you're an outsider. If you stand by your beliefs, then you might be a brave, or foolish, outsider - and there's a good chance that someone will make a martyr or anti-hero of you. You may also be Charles Manson, a lunatic who deserves to be locked away. In Pussy Riot's case, seemingly few people in Russia admire their protest. It was considered blasphemous and their demands for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, distasteful. They are outsiders, but they should not be. In a democratic country their actions would've been considered a publicity stunt. If only. They are being sent to jail and very few people in Russia, especially those with influence, appear to be speaking up for them. There's no romance in this.

The concept of punk could only have been invented in the West, and could only ever have any real meaning in places that do not have the good fortune to enjoy the freedoms of speech, action and economy that people in democratic countries enjoy. Once, at a work conference, we were asked to talk to the person sitting next to us about an educational experience that had defined our learning when we were at school. I was sitting next to an older Indian man, a CEO, and I told him about playing in a band, writing our own songs and putting on our own shows, and how I learned more from this than I sometimes felt I did at school. He looked at me and said, 'wasn't it just a bit of rebellion?', to which I responded 'not at all, my parents were extremely supportive of it'. And there it is. We thought of it as punk, but it really wasn't. It was a privilege and I get nostalgic at the memory of it. I doubt very much that the members of Pussy Riot will be able to look back upon this period in their lives, and the greater life of Russian society, and say that it was a wonderful time.

Saturday 23 June 2012

How do I download the new Scandinavia album?

Scandinavia 2012, by Mark McCafferty
Hopefully those of you who came to the Scandinavia Summer Ball 2012 last weekend are enjoying our new record, The Gods, courtesy of the download code you were given at the door.

FYI, 'I Don't Do Drugs (I Just Have Fun)' is probably the most popular song so far, and 'San Pellegrino (reprise)' the least popular according to the number of listens they've had.

How to download the album

We've had a few people email us and ask how to redeem the download codes - so here's how.

1) Go to www.scandinavia.bandcamp.com

2) Scroll down the page about halfway, and on right-hand side of the page there is some text that says 'Redeem download codes here':


3) Click 'here', which will take you to this page:


Input the code exactly as written on the card (including the hyphen). It should start downloading.

If, once you've typed in the code, it says 'invalid code', send us an email (scandinaviaband@gmail.com), quoting your interpretation of the code. It's probably Warrick's handwriting that's confusing you. We'll then email you the correct version of the code.

Happy listening!

Listen to 'The Gods' by Scandinavia here.



Sunday 17 June 2012

Door aggro fails to stop Scandinavia party

A scuffle over revelers who tried to gatecrash the launch party for new Scandinavia album 'The Gods' nearly broke out between long-feuding band members Nadim Samman, 29, and Warrick Harniess, 32, last night.

Listen to 'The Gods' by Scandinavia here.

Despite a packed house at the Wilmington Arms, sources claim that the band very nearly didn't make it onto the stage. Samman was reported to have stormed out of the venue after Harniess refused to agree to a concession price for a large group of partygoers. 'It's typical of these two' a source close to the band said confidentially. 'They think the world revolves around each of them, and they very nearly ruined the whole night for everyone.'

The Wilmington Arms
The night started positively, with a smart reggae and 'good vibes' DJ set by Damian. South London rock band Stone Pony took the stage at 8:45 and played a slick set, with songs heavily influenced by Bruce Springsteen and old Motown classics. But as Stone Pony's set was coming to a close, an argument broke out at the door. Samman and Harniess took the argument outside, and a heated exchange was overheard. 'I distinctly remember hearing Warrick say "they have to pay the full price" before he walked off. Nadim then said "he's such a prick" apologetically to one of the people in the group. I remember thinking "who the fuck do these guys think they are?"' says another anonymous source. As Harniess walked off, the girl to whom Samman was speaking asked 'does he really live in a teepee? What a dork'.

Drummer Tibor Beetles, however, dismissed the argument as 'irrelevant'. 'The party was a great success, thanks to everyone who helped make it a reality'. He singled event organiser Miriam out for particular praise, saying 'we couldn't have done it without her'. A partygoer summed it up: 'The £10 entry price was fair - bad ass Scandinavian food and shooters, a bad ass 'Scandinavia' branded totebag, and a free download for what promises to be an awesome second album. But this whole deal between Nadim and Warrick - they should seriously just get a fucking room'.

Bad ass shooters

Totes amazebags
Scandinavia finally took the stage at 10pm to the sultry sounds of Kim Carnes' 'Bette Davis Eyes', after an emotive introduction by A Mean Salmon. Playing a mix of songs from 'Good Living' and 'The Gods', Scandinavia performed for 45 minutes. Frontman Samman then did an impromptu a capella rap, before he was rejoined onstage by the other band members for a blistering encore. In an email exchange this morning, diplomatic bassist Thomas Parkinson, 31, stated: 'aggression has no place in this band. We are positively, and I stress positively, all about our Fandinavians having a great time, in a safe and loving environment. If anyone in the audience was hurt, either physically or figuratively, by Nadim's performance, I apologise sincerely on his behalf. I know he didn't mean it'.

Some audience members saw no reason for an apology. '[Samman] was as charismatic as ever' gushed Kristina, a self-described 'mega-fan'. 'While the rest of the band played it cool, Nads was out front with the audience, totally getting us even more psyched up than we were before they started playing. And he never once stopped singing'.

Listen to 'The Gods' by Scandinavia here.

Controversially, Scandinavia were joined onstage for their entire set by Tim Neville, the self-described musical mercenary whose presence during the recording sessions for the new album caused divisions within the Scandinavia camp just three months ago. However, wayward filmmaker Ted Byron Baybutt, who claimed to have documented on video the alleged band fallout during the recording sessions, was not spotted at the party. Baybutt's tapes have never surfaced.

Paparazzo 'Mark' claimed to have taken the 'photo of the night', capturing Neville looking spaced-out in sunglasses in the darkened bar, playing a troika of maracas. 'He's a drug casualty waiting to happen, and I reckon there's a tidy packet to be made from that story. You heard it here first'.

Keep an eye out for Mark's photos from the night, coming soon to www.scandinavia-goodliving.blogspot.co.uk.

Thursday 7 June 2012

Beijing: Blade Runner without the flying cars


On the set of the old Peking
Geographically, Beijing is in the northeast of China, in a similar position to where New York is in the United States. But my immediate impression of the city was that it is far more similar to Los Angeles than New York. Like LA, Beijing is a sprawling mega-metropolis of 20 million people, with terrible pollution and chaotic traffic (although the pollution is significantly worse in Beijing). The streets are wide-open boulevards and the urban areas are flat, though distant mountains are a defining feature of the landscape. Unscrupulous property developers have destroyed the concept of open-access public space in both cities. But while the sun in Los Angeles is relentless, in Beijing the noise and the appalling air literally invade the senses. The 1982 film Blade Runner is set in a dystopian vision of Los Angeles in 2019 where the pollution is a permanent, thick haze enshrouding the city, and where overcrowding and overbuilding have made the natural world a thing of the past. Director Ridley Scott said that the setting was based partly on ‘Hong Kong on a very bad day’, but the closest I’ve ever come to the set of Blade Runner is not Los Angeles or Hong Kong, but Beijing.

Blade Runner Beijing
Up in the smog above Beijing
Big Oil, cars and chaos
If Los Angeles is the Western world's most western city – not just geographically but psychologically – then Beijing may well be the East's most eastern city. Confucianism, big bureaucracy and a tightly regulated 'free' market powers Beijing and China towards the glorious promise of being the 21st century's greatest superpower. Just as the city of Los Angeles, as well as its image to outsiders, has been shaped by Hollywood, the power of illusion is equally important in Beijing. As far as it possibly can, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) shapes the perception of its capital city that it would like the rest of the world to have. If you’ve read any of its celebrated crime fiction, such as James Ellroy and Michael Connelly, or seen the recent Woody Harrelson film 'Rampart', you’ll know that Los Angeles is often imagined as a sub-urban dystopia, controlled by a fascistic police force and a corrupt cabal of businessmen, lawyers and an elite political establishment. It's individualistic and dog eat dog. In reality, LA is as fascist as Beijing is communist, which is to say it depends on your perspective, but the rest is true, and from the many and varied talks we were privileged to attend over the course of the week, it sounds as if Beijing is pretty similar.

Tiananmen Square - Sentry City
Sub-urban Beijing
Expats frequently compare China to the Wild West, where a lot of people are getting very rich, very quickly doing illicit things, and where mild forms of bribery are an everyday part of doing business. Doing a PR campaign? In the UK, you might take them out to lunch but it would be unethical to pay journalists to attend your press conference; in Beijing, journalists will only attend if they're paid. If you're buying, leasing or developing property, strong relationships with the government are essential. Indeed, the success of a business is likely to depend on the strength of a person's 'guanxi', as a network of business connections is known. Perhaps most striking to me was the idea that urban China is not the collective society that socialism seeks to foster. Rather, 35 years of a one-child policy for urban families has created a highly individualistic society, especially amongst those now in their 30s or younger. Differentiating themselves from their peers as well as the ghosts of generations past is a primary aim. And status, or 'face', as the Chinese call it, is very important. In response to a semi-serious question about love in China, the native Chinese rep from the Beijing British Council said 'love does exist in Chinese relationships, but Chinese people are far more practical in their approach than people in the West. To get married, a Chinese man must own an apartment, a car, and have career prospects'.

Navigating the traffic
Playing the Guqin in the hotel lobby
Good hygiene at the 7-Eleven 
The Forbidden City
Tank man
China is the world's oldest civilization, but Beijing's development and growth has been remarkably quick and recent. 100 years ago, Los Angeles was a collection of orange groves in the Mojave Desert; just 30 years ago, Beijing was simply Tiananmen Square and the old, walled Forbidden City surrounded by 'hutongs' - neighbourhoods consisting of narrow alleyways and tiny grey houses (the term is Mongolian for 'water well'). In the 1970s, during and in the immediate aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, China was in turmoil. As late as 1979 there were very few cars on the roads in Beijing, farm workers occupied the highest strata of society, and fashion looked a lot like the green army uniforms and soft military caps we stereotypically associate with communism. Teachers, doctors and other professionals were paraded through the streets as social pariahs, while China's main international trade partner was Romania. Ten years later, in June 1989, hundreds of people were killed in Beijing when Deng Xiaoping’s government ordered the military to put an end to student-led protests demanding economic reform and freedom of the media. It gave the world the unforgettable image of the 'tank man', and made Beijing even more paranoid about controlling information and limiting what its citizens and the rest of the world know about China. 'Tank man' is an image whose legacy is still felt – in the bizarre restrictions on the internet (social media sites like facebook, twitter and blogger are completely inaccessible unless you have a VPN connection), and the controls placed on the media, where foreign firms have to partner with a local publisher if they wish to operate in China and national media outlets such as the China Daily newspaper and the appropriately named Chinese Central Television (CCTV) are blatant propaganda channels for the CCP. But if the Chinese people are fervently apolitical when it comes to big-ticket issues, for fear of government reprisals, they are extremely outspoken about localised matters. A polyphony of opinions are exchanged online, on sites like weibo, China's version of twitter, about regional social problems such as pollution and migrant rights.

The CCTV building
China's outsiders
Old man smoking in the hutong
Asleep in the hutong
The 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles transformed the Games forever with the introduction of corporate sponsorship and advertising (coincidentally, 1984 was the first Olympic Games that China participated in since 1932, when the Games were also held in Los Angeles). The transformation of Beijing, which began in the early 1980s, went into overdrive when Beijing won the bid to hold the 2008 Olympics. Beginning in 2003, the modernisation process began in earnest. The scale and cost, monetarily and on the environment, of the development was phenomenal. Over five years, US$180 billion was spent, building the Olympic Park, more than 100 venues, significantly expanding the Beijing subway system and giving the city major road networks. In early 2008, the International Olympic Committee visited Beijing and were disgusted at the level of pollution. In response, all industry within a 100km circumference of the city was stopped dead for two months, to bring the pollution down to an acceptable level, just in time for the Games. However, that was just a temporary reprieve – in late 2010 the level of pollution in Beijing went 'off the charts' on the Air Quality Index. The US embassy in Beijing tweeted that the air quality was 'crazy bad', because they’d run out of adjectives appropriate enough to describe the severity of the pollution.

Water Cube in the Olympic Park
Street food seller in Sunlitun
Snake skin, snake meat
Baby ducks on a skewer
The Bird's Nest stadium
Private industry was invited to help fund the development of stadia like the Bird's Nest, which today is mostly unused and falling into disrepair. But 10 years after the drive to modernise in anticipation of the Olympics began, the hyper capitalism that we associate with the West is alive and well in Beijing. With 1.3 billion people, competition to succeed is intense, and for the first 18 years of their lives, Chinese youth spend a huge amount of their time preparing for the 'Gaokao', the university entry exam. Those who succeed in getting into Beijing's best universities will have to finish in the top percentile of the 500,000 people in their region who are also taking the exam that year. China's best and brightest excel at functional skills like maths and literacy, and in subjects like computer science and engineering, but don't readily develop so-called 'soft' skills like leadership and creative thinking. China today has the world's second largest economy, but only ranks 93rd in real GDP terms. It's still very much a developing country. China's leaders know this, and recognise that the country's future development rests on its ability to innovate if it is to compete with the world's most developed countries. Rather than advertising billboards, Beijing's wide, bustling boulevards are lined with signs bearing slogans of thought leadership from the CCP, encouraging the people of Beijing to be more creative and behave more magnanimously if the country is to prosper further. They reminded me of the freeway signs that gave Steve Martin advice in the film 'LA Story'. Whether it's in the restricted corridors of power or in the freedom of the open road, god is always in the machine.

Embrace the Beijing Spirit
LA Story

Sunday 13 May 2012

The Gods by Scandinavia - a review by A Mean Salmon

Dear Scandinavia,

I have listened to your new album 'The Gods' a number of times now. I have also been reading a book about Don Simpson, the legendary and vice-addled Hollywood producer who is responsible for inventing the 'high-concept' movie (think Top Gun through to Con Air). He pulled no punches, and my comments are inspired by his philosophy.

The Original Don, Simpson
First of all. The title. Excellent. You gotta think big to be big.

In terms of the material, I was immediately taken by a number of real choice cuts. Real powerhouse summer blockbuster soundtrack tunes. Songs you could hear the babysitter next-door singing, songs that could make you a lot of money, songs that could make you a real someone…

At the same, though, there was also a lot of flab, a lot of weak creative shit. In particular, 'Popular Little Street' struck me as a lazy and rambling exercise in sub-Albarn world music holiday guff. I suggest that it be kept back for the true fans to find in horror at a later date, perhaps buried deep in a 'warts and all' retrospective. That shit won’t sell.

The real problem is a bigger one. YOU HAVE NO STORY! This is the worst mistake you can make…

People want something to follow, guys. They want to hear about a boy who grew up without a father, and then had his life turned around by some tough love from a male authority figure, like a cop or something. What are you selling these people? How are you gonna take them away from their day to day bullshit? There is just such a diversity of themes and styles on the album, and this makes finding a clear narrative arc quite difficult.

Tough love
In order to make this happen, I stayed up all last night taking cocaine and talking into dictaphone. This morning, I threw the dictaphone at my secretary. She has typed up the following memo, which focuses on how the tracks should be sequenced.

I hope you appreciate my feedback. In the meantime, I'll invoice you for my efforts.

Sincerely,

A Mean Salmon
A Mean Salmon



1. TRENDING

A smooth and lively song with a contemporary edge, and this makes it a perfect opener. The DIY vocal effect in the chorus is gonna make you famous.

2. I DON’T DO DRUGS (I JUST HAVE FUN)

A party classic whose upbeat tempo and funky keys continue the vibe of 'Trending' but ratchet things up a notch or two. This will be a hit at all drug parties.

I don't do drugs, I just make cheese
3. THE QUEEN ENTRANCED BY ANCIENT PRAYER BOOK

This is one of the standout tracks on the album, combining a classic 'Good Living' sound with an even sharper use of arrangement. It is the song I'd give the girl who's got it all. I think it follows 'Drugs' well with its fruity backups, but it also introduces a new sombre note, which might serve as an effective bridge into the less overtly happy material to follow.

That said, the outro is too long. It is expertly paced on its own terms, but its length does risk relegating the track to late on in the album, which would be a real pity given how strong the actual songwriting component of the track is. If you wanna do yourself a favour, you’re gonna want to shorten it so that it can be brought forward without disrupting the pace of the album.

4. WHAT CAN YOU GIVE A GIRL WHO'S GOT IT ALL?

With a shorter outro 'The Queen' would flow smoothly into ‘The Girl Who’s Got It All'. The guest vocals immediately help signify a change a gear, and the steady 1980s sound and melody carry the listener through to a plateau that has been prepared for in the preceding tracks. This is where things start to get real.

5. SAN PELLEGRINO

The immediate use of piano and drums here lull the listener into thinking that everything is back to normal, but the first signs of dissonance on the guitar set the scene for the eventual reversal in both lyrical and musical content. You like your holiday and your pesto pasta, but you're coming home...
San Pellegrino
6. BODIES

This is one of the more sensitive songs on the album, and I think it follows well from the admission about holidays and good living that emerges in 'San Pellegrino'.

7. FRACTIONS

My first impression was that this was a stodgy and ugly piece of shit. I also wondered why the vocals were so bellowy. Was it a conceptual experiment? Kill the artist. Anyway, I eventually found myself humming the chorus, so the songwriting is actually good. I have positioned it here because the harmonica gives us a way into the harder material.

8. SHED A FEW LAYERS

A real winner, combining speed, snarl, and smart take on the ritualistic release of rock club revelry. A million bucks. A day.

9. HOW WE USE OUR BRAND

I don't understand this song. The melodies are really good in parts (such as the choruses, where 'it's all a waste of time'), but it doesn't really hang together. It is just too disjointed in every possible way. Again, maybe it is meant to be a high concept thing, but I wouldn't turn this into a movie.

How we use our family brand
10. CROATIAN T-SHIRTS

A weird but good one ... I see splashes of melody and harmony periodically blinding an uneasy and threatening donkey.

11. POPULAR LITTLE STREET

This street will never be popular.

12. SAN PELLEGRINO (REPRISE)

A good movie ends with an image that remains like a splinter in the mind of viewer. You have to stab them in the ear.