Until last year, Sweden's impact on the pop culture consciousness at large was limited to meatballs, hot ski dudes and hotter, bikini-clad shills for Old Milwaukee. But ever since the American A&R corps discovered there a heretofore untapped reservoir of young musicians weaned on T. Rex, The Ramones and The MC5, the country (and Scandinavia in general) has been endlessly touted as the new home of The Rock. (The musical style, not the professional wrestler of questionable thespian skill.)One of the more noteworthy acts carried to our shores by this tsunami of rock-is-back hype is Sahara Hotnights, an all-girl quartet that somehow managed to surf the wave rather than being swept along by it. The band's sinewy, feisty take on fast snotty fun certainly falls within the scope of the current simple 'n' distorted resurgence, but their ability to build on their influences — as opposed to just regurgitating them — has produced some seriously listenable tunes.
Of course, they still can't see their band's name in print more than five or six words removed from that of fellow Swedes The Hives.
"I think our music is pretty far away from what The Hives do," says bassist Johanna Asplund. "But people always say, 'you're from Sweden, oh, Swedish music is the best!' But I think that's cool. People see us for what we really are, and that we play good music."
The group's second full-length, Jennie Bomb, was released in the States last fall in the midst of a peaking garage-rock furor. It's an accomplished collection that splits the difference between three-chord hooks and catchy No Wave angularity. When an act comes to prominence as part of a larger trend, there's always the chance that it will either get lost in the shuffle or written off as a bandwagon-jumper. But for Asplund, the positives that come with Sahara Hotnights' rising profile far outweigh any possible drawbacks.
"You know if it's just the hype, if it's the cool thing, or if it's a good band. I think people can tell what's good and what's bad," she says. "I think in a year or two, when the hype is over, people will still go to see the good bands."
Perhaps her confidence stems from the fact that Sahara Hotnights is far from an overnight success. The four young ladies (Asplund, guitarist/sister Jennie, drummer Josephine Forsman and guitarist/vocalist Maria Andersson) have been playing together since their mid-teens.
Their first full-length, 1999's C'Mon Let's Pretend, was nominated for two Swedish Grammys, and they've been critically acclaimed both in their homeland and the UK basically from the get-go, a 1997 EP titled Suits Anyone Fine.
Southern-fried DeterminationAs countless bands continue to excavate the sounds of 1970s proto-punk, Athens, Ga., outfit Drive-By Truckers are carrying the torch for another of rock 'n' roll's somewhat retro styles — Southern rock. After three albums of smart, snide roots-rock, the outfit's 2001 concept album Southern Rock Opera saw them adopt the genre's classic three-guitar formation and endeavor to unravel the contradictions of what head Trucker Patterson Hood (son of well-known Muscle Shoals session bassist David Hood) calls "the Southern experience."
Loosely based on the mythic/tragic arc of Lynyrd Skynyrd and set in the conflicted Deep South of the Civil Rights movement and infamous Alabama governor George Wallace, the sprawling tale of a young man who tries to escape his environment via rock 'n' roll actually came to life before the Drive-By Truckers did.
"It started out as an outline for a screenplay that never got written," remembers Hood. "(Bassist) Earl (Hicks) started working on that, and I got busy putting together what became this band. Several more years passed, and he ended up joining the band right before we recorded it. It was something we just kind of worked on, on the side, while we were doing other things."
Originally released independently, the two-disc Southern Rock Opera brought Drive-By Truckers their first widespread laudation. Its earnest, unabashed look at the inherently idiosyncratic Southern lifestyle and fiery, swaggering stomp connected with fans of rock, blues and alt-country alike. The disc scored the group a deal with upstart y'allternative label Lost Highway (Ryan Adams, The Jayhawks). The success of the album was made that much sweeter by the fact that it was recorded during what Patterson calls the worst year of his life.
"I got divorced. Another guy in the band got divorced, and another broke up a serious relationship," he says. "I really don't know how we didn't break up. I guess it was just that we were so stubborn, we thought if we broke up before we finished the record, that it would all be for nothing."
The band toured for 14 months behind Southern Rock Opera, logging over 250 shows. While Patterson admits the disc is "definitely the record that got us a lot more attention than we'd ever had," the band refused to rest on their laurels, or be defined by what they saw as just one album of their catalog. They headed back into the studio and recorded Decoration Day, an excellent album that augments their Southern rock vibe with a return to the more eclectic, insurgent-roots styles of their earlier work.
Unfortunately, relations with Lost Highway soured — the band has left the label, and Decoration Day won't see release for another several months. But Drive-By Truckers are already moving on, touring and previewing new material live.
"We really didn't feel any pressure (to top Southern Rock Opera)," says Hood. "I might feel it next time, though, because I think this time we made the record that's going to be hard to top."
Music critic Scott Harrell can be reached at 813-248-8888, ext. 109, or by email at scott.harrell@weeklyplanet.com.
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2003.
